54 EARLY LIFE. 



the land. This is the story as nearly as I can re- 

 member it; but if there is anything materially incor- 

 rect in it, I daresay Lord Brougham could tell you 

 the exact way of it, if he or you think it of any con- 

 sequence. 



" There is a curious little anecdote which I heard 

 from Mary Eobertson at the time Lord Brougham 

 was made Lord Chancellor. She told me that when 

 she and the Broughams were all children they were 

 invited to a little ball at her uncle Mr Abercromby's. 

 We had a house somewhere about Coltbridge or Cor- 

 storphine (I do not know which), where the ball was 

 to take place ; and all the children, Kobertson's and 

 Brougham's together, were packed into a hackney- 

 coach to go ; but when they came to the toll-bar, not 

 one of the party was found possessed of a sixpence to 

 pay it; on which, after some consultation among them- 

 selves, Henry Brougham jumped up and said to the 

 tollman, ' Oh, you surely will let us pass, for / am 

 the Lord Chancellor/ Mary Eobertson could not 

 tell me whether he had at that time any idea of be- 

 longing to the law, but if it was a mere dash, it was 

 a curious coincidence." 



If it was not owing to chance that at Edinburgh 

 I received the care and counsels of the great historian, 

 it was not to mere accident that I was indebted for 

 my intimacy with the great advocate and orator, 

 Erskine, and his brother Henry, only inferior to him 

 in fame from his provincial position. The house in 

 which we lived on the north side of St Andrew's 



