LETTER FROM FINLAY. 195 



nier Castle. I also saw Lord Normanby. I hope some- 

 thing may be done for our unfortunate Colonies. I was 

 in the House of Lords when Lord Lyndhurst, the Duke, 

 and your friend Lord Brougham gave the wretched min- 

 istry such a thrashing at the close of the session. I have 

 not read your Letter to Lord Brougham, but suppose you 

 take part with the Assembly, in which case I fear you 



are on the wrong side 



And now here I am within a few yards of the spot where 

 Shakspeare breathed existence and not far from where 

 he expired. I have walked over his grave. I have just 

 returned from the churchyard (10 P. M.), and the wish 

 was ever uppermost in my mind that you had been with 

 me to enjoy the half-superstitious awe with which I eyed 

 the tombstones and the abutments of the handsome old 

 church as they glimmered in the imperfect light ; and so I 

 have been constrained to write to you. I do not know 

 why, but I only half enjoy the pleasure of a scene unless 

 I have some one I love along with me to show it to. . . 



This is a beautiful rural village ; some parts 



very like what they were in Shakspeare's time. I passed 

 a few miles off an old house which has the reputation of 

 being the scene of the poet's high jinks. Adieu, my dear 

 Hugh, till I visit Scotland. I do not feel at home al- 

 though all my family are in England, nor will I till my 

 eye is blessed by the sight of the mountains of dear old 

 Scotland, and my hand is grasped by thine/ 



When this letter was put into Miller's hand, he was 

 in the act of repelling one of those pieces of insolent 

 annoyance with which the Radical and semi-Radical 

 section of Cromarty politicians loved to tease him. Be- 

 longing as he did to the extreme right of the Whig party, 

 and seeing, in its half-Radical left, 'the plague-spots 



