ELLEKAT. 135 



" De Quincey will accompany me to Scotland ; but I will write 

 about his rooms in a day or two. 



" I have not yet been in the new house. The little detestable bit 

 of avenue looks tolerable. Of Robert and Eliza I know nothing. 

 Kiss everybody you meet for me up-stairs. Write to me, care of 

 Mrs. Ullock, immediately. Thine with eternal affection, 



" John "Wilson." 



Of what happened in the interval between this date and January 

 following there is no record. No doubt he was busy with the 

 proof-sheets of the City of the Plague. In January, 1816, he was 

 again at Elleray, and thus relates his adventures to Mrs. Wilson : — 



"Bowxess, Sunday, January, 1816. 



" Dearest Czarina : — I hope that you received my scroll from 

 Carlisle, which I committed to the custody of Richard, and there- 

 fore doubt not that he would fulfil his trust. 



" I supped at the Pearsons', and was very kindly received there ; 

 Miss Alms being in love with me, which I think I told you before. 

 Going down to their house I fell upon a slide, and was most severely 

 bruised, so much so that I had to be carried into a shop, and drink 

 wine which the people very kindly gave me. This was an infernal 

 fall, my rump and head suffering a dire concussion against one of 

 the most fashionable streets. I however made out my visit, though 

 still rather sick and headachy all night. Indeed my journey seemed 

 to consist wholly of disasters. In the morning (no coach going 

 sooner) I pursued my journey to Penrith — day cold and snowy — 

 outside for cheapness. I then got tired of the coach, and, after 

 drinking a glass of wine and water, started on foot for Coleridge's 

 at Pooley Bridge ; there I dined, and, at half-past seven in the even- 

 ing, feeling myself bold and chivalrous, I started again for Patter- 

 dale, against the ineffectual remonstrances of the whole family who 

 all prophesied immediate death. The night was not dark, and in 

 two hours I was seated in the kitchen of Mr. Dobson at a good fire. 

 I then proposed crossing Kirkstone, when shrieks arose from every 

 quarter, and I then found a young man had just been brought in 

 dead, having been lost on Sunday evening coming from Ambleside, 

 and only found that day. Of course, the melancholy accident made 

 me give up all thoughts of pursuing my journey till daylight, so 



