xi.] FAILURE OF HEALTH. 303 



half the population being Komanists. ... St. S within 

 has been a great deal more gracious than we ventured to 

 expect. Both Alicia and I have been trying to revive 

 our dormant sketching powers, though as yet without any 

 great success. I should have mentioned that Braemar is 

 said to be 1,100 feet above the sea, and within a short 

 distance of the house we can see Ben-na-muic-dhui, Cairn- 

 gorm, and Lochnagar, the first, as you know, nearly the 

 highest mountain in Britain ; and many of the hills have 

 still patches of snow, which, though hardly picturesque, 

 have a certain charm for people as crazy about the Alps 

 as myself.' 



After that sojourn was over, it was thus he looked back 

 on it : 



To the EEV. H. COBBAN. 



' EDINBURGH, September 22nd, 1855. 



' ... In looking back to the time I spent at Braemar, 

 notwithstanding some anxieties, I do so with a keen 

 sense of pleasure. Since I have been incapacitated from 

 active exercise, I do not know that I ever felt the ex- 

 quisite enjoyment of natural scenery, and the fresh air of 

 the mountains more than during our drives about Brae- 

 inar. I do not except my last visit to Switzerland in 

 1853. I have also formed a very favourable opinion of 

 the climate of Braemar, which is surely one of the best 

 in this country during summer/ 



The close of the year 1855 found him doing, with little 

 terruption from illness, the same amount of work, and 

 with the same assistance, as in the previous year. He 

 thus expressed the feelings that rose within him on the 

 last day of that year : 



To E. C. BATTEN, ESQ. 



4 3, PARK PLACE, Dec. 31, 1855, 9 P.M. 



all write you my last letter of 1855, and wish you 



most cordially many returns of the new year many 



blessings for yourself and your family, and much health to 



