XL] FAILURE OF HEALTH. 365 



Dr. Irvine, in whose advice he could trust. Here, too, 

 as at Clifton, the confidence of physician and patient 

 soon passed into sincere friendship. The first summer 

 spent in a hired house passed so pleasantly, and suited 

 Forbes and his family so well, that he determined if 

 possible to find there a permanent abode. On the ap- 

 proach of the next summer he obtained from Mr. Butter 

 of Faskally a lease of Dysart Cottage, beautifully situated 

 on the Faskally estate, on a bank, scattered over with 

 birch trees, and looking down on the deep vale of the 

 Tumnu-l. The village of Pitlochrie and the vale of 

 A thole lie immediately to the south. On the north the 

 i <je commands a romantic view of the wooded braes 



^^ O 



of Faskally, and of the gorge whence comes the river 

 formed by the combined Garry and Tummel. This 

 became the summer home of Forbes and his family for 

 the rest of his life. 



The following letters to Dr. Symonds show how largely 

 Forbes confided in him : 



To DR. SYMONDS. 



1 EDINBURGH, May $tk, 1856. 



' ... It was a touching proof of your kind fellow- 

 feeling, the purchase of those octavo volumes of De 

 -sure! I am afraid you will distrust Mr. Kerslakc's 

 use of my name again. Yet I do own a strong feeling 

 urds the respectable old Genevese. So steady ;md 

 persevering, so acutely observing, so precisely yet often 

 picturesquely describing ; and amidst all his lithology 

 and topography, such a glow of honest enthusiasm at 

 times reveals itself through his occasional, but innocent 

 pedantry. The ascent of Mont Blanc and of the Col <lc 

 nt in the latter portion of the book arc the most 

 readable. I have lately had to vindicate De Saussmv 

 and the Swiss geologists, as well as myself, from the im- 

 pertinences of Mr. Danid Sliarpe, an English geol 

 of some little not.]i i\ likely, I am told, to be ili< 

 next pre^.L-nt <f tin- ( ;,!, /\<-n\ Society, \\li< ma<l.- a 

 scampering tour through Savoy, and denounces all his 



