THE LEASOWES. 401 



on the turn ; " I have been rallying slowly but not de- 

 cisively; and until I feel the flood-stream of health 

 setting fairly in, I hold it would scarce be justice to 

 you, myself, or the bairns, to return to Archibald Place, 

 and commence my labours with but the prospect of 

 sinking under them. 



'I walked yesterday considerably more than ten 

 miles along very uneven ways, and some six or eight 

 miles to-day. It would have been interesting could we 

 have traced together in the Leasowes the marks which 

 still remain of the artistic skill of Shenstone. I never 

 yet saw any place in which a few steps so completely 

 alter a scene ; in the space of half a mile one might fill 

 a whole portfolio with sketches, all fine and all differing 

 from each other. There is not in all Shenstone's works 

 a finer poem than the Leasowes. 



' It grieves me to hear that there is still something 

 radically wrong with your constitution. You must lose 

 no time in getting out to Gifford ; if you have this 

 bracing weather in Scotland, and if it continue for but 

 a fortnight, it may do you a world of good. Mrs 

 Eraser describes the country in her neighbourhood as 

 fine, the house as comfortable, and the society as good. 

 I suppose you will take Harriet with you ; is she still 

 looking about her as when she first set out on her 

 travels, and exhausted her mamma's knowledge of the 

 plants and grasses ? 



' My present mode of life is not very suggestive of 

 topics for discussing in the Witness, and I am afraid 

 my last two articles will betray the fact. My evenings 

 in London hung heavy on my hands ; I bought a cheap 

 two-shilling edition of Eugene Sue's last work, " The 

 Wandering Jew;' to while away the time in my lodg- 

 ings, and the perusal suggested an article on the State 



VOL. ii. 26 



