MEMOIR OF DR WRIGHT. 2.) 



seems to have been a constant interchange of mutual 

 good offices. His sister-in-law had been a school- 

 companion of his own, hut her marriage had not taken 

 place until after he had left the country. In his early 

 letters, however, he had probably anticipated the con- 

 nection, as he seems desirous, on all occasions, of in- 

 troducing some allusion to his favourite Efty Mac- 

 vkan, whom he describes as equally distinguished for 

 good sense and beauty, and for perfect good temper, 

 an every-day quality perhaps more valuable than either. 

 While his parents yet survived, their comfort and 

 happiness was the pivot on which all his homeward 

 views were turned. For some time after his settle- 

 ment at Hampden, he was unable to make pecuniary 

 remittances, but when he sent home a consignment of 

 cotton, to exercise his sister's industry, or a puncheon 

 of rum for his brother's table, it was always accompa- 

 nied with some grateful acknowledgment to the daugh- 

 ter-in-law, for her attention to his parents, and with 

 the most ardent commendation of the filial piety of 

 his brother. 



The fears of the two partners lest they should lose 

 the valuable business of Hampden estate, on a sale of 

 the property, were happily disappointed. Their sepa- 

 rate practice proceeded prosperously, and progressively 

 increased ; and, in November 1 768, their success is 

 described as beyond their expectation. It was in the 

 midst of this scene of activity that Dr Wright re- 

 ceived an application from the University of Edin- 

 burgh, which appears to have given a fresh impulse at 

 least, if not a new direction, to his literary and scien- 



