in.] COLLEGE COURSE, 1829. 45 



at not seeing Sir Walter, as I knew from his own authority 

 he would have treated any of the family with more than 

 usual kindness. And Dr. Brewster wrote me that, having 

 met Sir Walter at dinner, he expressed his regret at not 

 being able to see me, as during my stay at Allerly he was 

 continually occupied with company/ 



On turning to the Life of Sir Walter, we find that it 

 was during this same month that he received a visit from 

 the historian Hallam with his son Arthur, who not long 

 afterwards was cut off in the bloom of opening genius, 

 and whose memory is embalmed for ever in Tennyson's 

 ' In Memoriam/ Sir Walter had, during the preceding 

 June, suffered from the first symptoms of that disease 

 which at last proved fatal. Yet in August he was able 

 to accompany the Hallams to see the sights of his neigh- 

 bourhood. Of their visit together to Melrose an affecting 

 memorial remains in the fine lines by young Hallam, 

 beginning, 



' I lived an hour in fair Melrose.' 



Probably this was the company with which Sir Walter 

 was engaged that day when young Forbes called at 

 Abbotsford and did not find the poet. 



The following letter contains some notice of this visit 

 to Brewster : 



'ALLERLY, MELROSE, September 1st, 1830. 



'DEAR SISTER, The day I arrived, Dr. Brewster took 

 me to Chiefswood, Mr. Lockhart's cottage, which is really a 

 little paradise, and would, I am sure, hit your fancy. Mrs. 

 Lockhart was not at home, for we had met her driving 

 her own drosky. As we were going up the approach Dr. 

 \vster said, " We shall find him smoking ; " and to be 

 sure the first symptoms we saw of the great man were 

 certain puffs rising above the bushes. He was walking 

 backward and forward on his little lawn, with a little tal>l<- 

 standing upon it, with parliamentary j a j ers, proof sheets, 

 &c. lying upon it, and a glass of something or other. I 

 was very much surprised and unexpectedly pleas* <1 with 

 him. He was a much younger and finer-looking man 



