vii.] MARRIED LIFE. 169 



petual door-bells, as in Ainslie Place. The dear little one 

 is well, and now wears Mrs. Batten's pretty socks.' 



That illness at Bonn had given the first rude shock 

 to his strength ; and though he recovered so far as 

 to be able to return to his work as zealously as before, 

 and twice again to revisit for a brief season his 

 well-loved Alps, yet he never again was entirely his 

 old self, and the inroads of illness, kept at bay for a 

 time, gradually closed in upon him. Though his mus- 

 cular frame had been lithe and vigorous beyond that of 

 most men, there was an internal weakness which the 

 severe strain of his life had at length brought out. 

 Ever since he had entered college as a student, it had been 

 with him one long unremitting effort, unbroken by few, 

 if any, seasons of entire repose. Professors who have 

 been long-lived have generally compensated the strain 

 of the winter session by some periods of entire idleness 

 in summer. But Forbes had thrown aside his labours 

 in the class room only for still severer among the Alpine 

 snows. If there were any weak place in a man, such 

 a life would be too much for him. Unfortunately there 

 was in Forbes, for all his vigour, such latent weakness, 

 and too surely his glacier bivouacs had found it out. 



In the December of 1844 he removed from his house 

 in Ainslie Place to one nearer to the College, and 3 Park 

 Place continued to be his permanent home till he finally 

 I'klinburgh. 



1 1 is eldest daughter was born in Ainslie Place ; the 

 rest of his children, except the youngest, were born in 

 this new and more lasting home in Park Place. These 

 details are necessary to throw li^-lit on the two foregoing, 

 as well as on some of the following letters. 



The summer of 1845, from the middle of April to the 

 first week of June, was spent with Mrs. Forbes in the 

 West Highlands, in a tour ranging from Bute to Sk} 



In that latter island he explored the Coolin mountains 



with M. NVrk<-r, who was then living at Portn ; ami 



/amiiUt tin- s|l-inlil hyperethene formation, found 



