xii.J LIFE IN ST, ANDREWS. 417 



a bad cough, and our friend - - had told him to 

 pass the winter in a bracing climate, and mentioned 

 two places to choose between, Pitlochrie and some 

 place in Westmoreland. As he has eight children 

 and heaps of servants, they found Westmoreland out 

 of the question, and Pitlochrie not much better. So 

 much for Pitlochrie. You ask where my popular 

 les on Glaciers appeared. It was in Good Words, 

 tlic editor of which, Dr. Macleod, is an old friend of 

 mine, and asked it with an urgency I could not well 

 refuse, and his publisher remunerated me in a way 

 which seems almost extravagant. But I do not intend 

 to allow myself to be led into the snare of much 

 popular writing, the effects of which on the quality 

 of the product are too lamentably apparent in all 

 the magazines, even those of most name. You have 

 seen, I daresay, in the Times that our poor friend 

 Auguste Balmat is dead ! It was to me almost like 

 a family bereavement, and has removed one of the 

 lifelong hopes to which I clung of revisiting Chamouni 

 in his company, with his sympathy and help. He was 

 devotedly nursed by his friend and mine, Mr. Wills, in 

 the very chalet at Sixt in Savoy, which he had con- 

 uted to construct and embellish for Mr. Wills. I 

 trust that you are now quite relieved about your son's 

 IK -a 1th, though your last mention of him seems not abso- 

 lutely free from anxiety. I hope you will induce him 

 to let his fellowship alone for a year or two, and to 

 put hiin^ If to grass. . . . But I must wind up. Our 

 ('Urge Hall is quite a success overflowing. Though 

 we have added four rooms, at least two pupils, pro- 

 bably more, have been refused already/ 



To the RIGHT HON. W. COWPEK. 



'ST. ANDREWS, February 9th, 1863. 



* 1 feel much obliged by the attention you were so 



good as to give to my suggestions relative to the excava- 



of the moat of the Castle of St. Andrews, where it 



is bound Mr. Hop, s< ..it's ground. Mr. Scott has 



