xii.] LIFE IN ST. ANDREWS. 425 



To E. C. BATTEN, ESQ. 



* ST. ANDREWS, Easter Day, 1865. 



* ... I cannot resist writing you a line to tell you 

 how happy I felt to-day in kneeling at the altar with my 

 dear boy beside me. How vividly it recalled the like 

 anniversary of 1838. To think that nearly a generation 

 of men have passed since that ! We are indeed shadows, 

 and have no abiding stay/ 



To Dr. SYMONDS. 



' FETTKRCAIRN HOUSE, April 23rd, 1865. 



' I am afraid it is a very long time since I have 

 written to you, but I sincerely hope you will never mis- 

 interpret my silence, for I shall never cease to value 

 your friendship, and to feel grateful for your great and 

 steady kindness. I have chosen the tranquil oppor- 

 tunity of writing to you from my brother's house and 

 one of my old homes, where, in this quiet country scene, 

 which you recollect, and removed for a time from daily 

 cares and anxieties, one loves to recall the past and the 

 absent. Indeed, as I have not now the power to visit 

 the real home of my childhood, Colinton, near Edinburgh, 

 no place can bring back to me the scenes and the friends 

 of early years so much as this, where I spent two or three 

 months most years, from the age of fourteen to twenty- 

 four. It is a district which has been altered singularly 

 little by violent or obtrusive changes. The houses all 

 tin- principal ones are the same, only their tenants are a 

 new generation, or new comers. The woods and gardens 

 and fences and roads are the same, only the trees and 

 shrubs, which I well remember being planted, have 

 grown to a startling height, and seem to reflect visibly 

 my own age ; the rivers and hills are absolutely unaltered, 

 and with the help of an old pony I can get to places 

 where I used to take my solitary walks. Though 

 sad, it is indescribably pleasing, and brings, beyond 

 :liing I know, a tranquillizing influence and refresh- 

 ment 



