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their best ! Thackeray, up in Edinburgh lecturing on 

 ' The Georges ' (when Aytoun bid him ' stick to the 

 Jeamses'), came and was not even cynical ; James 

 Hannay, clever and conceited, would tell his most 

 piquant stories and prove his claims to a dormant 

 peerage (which his host remarked 'it would be more 

 to the point if he could prove a dormant half-crown ') 

 and then roll off with more than his usual sailor's gait 

 to the ' Courant ' office to write a spiteful article on the 

 editor of * The Scotsman ' ; Mr. Grant Duff would come, 

 fresh from some Elgin oration, and with some fresh 

 schemes on European policy ; Dr. Robert Lee, of Old 

 Grey Friars, cleverest of ecclesiastics, most liberal of 

 Churchmen, ablest of debaters, would often turn up, 

 his fine intellectual face looking so sharp as he uttered 

 his iced sarcasms at his ' pre-posterous ' brethren in 

 the Church, or as he delicately cut up some 'pious 

 goose' of a minister who was stirring charges against 

 him of heresy ; Captain Burton even appeared in the 

 course of going to and fro on the earth, and would 

 tell some risky tales and utter some wild opinions on 

 polygamy, and leave the impression, as ladies hurriedly 

 left him, that he had, on emergency, fed on and rather 

 enjoyed a fellow creature ; Fitzjames Stephen would 

 appear, not the least fatigued by his defeat at Dundee, 

 having proved too good for the place, and very thankful 

 for his new friend's powerful support ; George Combe 

 and Hill Burton of course were old frequent guests ; 

 and Lord Neaves, too, although of a different political 

 faith, who would send upstairs for the presentation copy 

 of his ' Songs,' which he knew was in the house, and 



