156 THE LIFE OF JAMES D. FORBES. [CHAP. 



winter's labours by a visit to Makerstoun and by a 

 journey thence on foot to Melrose and Peebles. 



On May 18th we find this entry in his diary : ' Wit- 

 nessed disruption of the Church of Scotland at Assembly 

 in St. Andrew's Church. Same day asked Alicia Wau- 

 chope to be my wife.' 



On July 4th his marriage took place with the lady 

 here mentioned the eldest daughter of the late George 

 Wauchope, Esq. 



The last lines of his Travels in the Alps had been 

 written on the immediate eve of his marriage. The 

 dedication to his travelling companion, M. Bernard 

 Studer, is dated 1st July, 1843, and his marriage took 

 place on the 4th. Having therefore completed his work 

 and committed it to the publishers, the critics, and the 

 world, he set off with Mrs. Forbes on his marriage tour 

 to the Continent. 



The following letter, addressed to Mrs. Forbes, from 

 the Astronomer Royal and President of the Royal 

 Society, which, though bearing a recent date, is mainly 

 a retrospect of intercourse with Forbes during these 

 early years, will form a fitting close to this chapter : 



* ROYAL OBSERVATORY, GREENWICH, LONDON, 



' DEAR MADAM, ^t>rU i \th, 1872. 



1 When I wrote last to you, I hoped to have a 

 little time at command for bringing together some notes 

 regarding my late friend, as soon as the short refreshment 

 which I required should be terminated. But I have 

 never had my thoughts free, and now I fear that the very 

 few ideas that 1 can put together may be too late. 



* I cannot certainly say when or how my acquaintance 

 with Mr. Forbes began. I have some obscure idea of 

 having seen him before my marriage, which took place in 

 March 1830. But I certainly saw him at the meeting 

 of the British Association in Oxford in 1832, on terms 

 which implied established acquaintance. In the latter 

 part of that year he was candidate for a professorship 

 I believe the same which he subsequently obtained and 

 I had the pleasure of offering to him my certificate of 



