LITERARY AND DOMESTIC LIFE. 277 



turned while ascending a steep hill. No very bad consequences to 

 any of the party ensued at the time. Mrs. Wilson, however, felt 

 the shock to her nervous system, which affected her health so as to 

 cause her husband much auxiety. 



"29 Ann Street, March 2, 1825. 



" My dearest Robert : — Much did I regret not being at home 

 when you called upon us lately. Both Mrs. Wilson and myself felt 

 sincerely for your wife and yourself on your late affliction. I had 

 heard from Miss Sym that there were few hopes, but also that the 

 poor soul was comfortable and happy, and now no doubt she is in 

 heaven. 



" I am sure that you too would feel for all of us when you heard 

 of my mother's death ; she was, you know, one of the best of 

 women, and although old, seventy-two, yet in all things so young 

 that we never feared to lose her till within a few days of her de- 

 parture ; she led a happy and a useful life, and now must be enjoy- 

 ing her reward. I have suffered great anxiety about Mrs. Wilson ; 

 that accident* was a bad one, and during summer she was most 

 alarmingly ill. She is still very weak, and her constitution has got 

 a shake, but I trust in God it is not such as may not be got over, 

 and that the summer will restore her to her former health. She 



* The following letter from Principal Baird alludes to the same accident : — 



" University Chambers, July 23d, 1S24. 



"My dear Sir: — In the first place, to begin methodically, I beg to congratulate you on the 

 hair-breadth escape which the newspapers told us you so happily made when your horse was 

 restive and your gig on the brink of a precipice; and, in the second place, I beg to remind you 

 that the best expression of your gratitude for the deliverance, will be to — to compose some para- 

 phrases and translations for the use of the Church. I shall be glad to learn, and to see proof 

 that you are thus employed. 



"I have got several excellent pieces from Mrs. Hemans and Mrs. Grant, of Laggan, lately, in 

 addition to those which I had formerly from Miss Joanna Baillie, &c. 



" I am at present busy in the transmission of papers through the Church in respect to the Gen- 

 eral Assembly's plan for increasing the means of education, of religious instruction chiefly, in 

 the Highlands and Islands. In three contiguous parishes there is a population of about 20,000, 

 and above 1S,000 of these poor people have never been taught to read. In another district about 

 47,000 out of 50,000 have not been taught. Ought these things so to be ? 



" I am particularly interested in the state of Iona, Ill supplied with a single school, it has no 

 place of worship. The minister is bound to preach to them only four times in the year, lie 

 preaches on a hill-side, and from that neighboring coast of the mainland ; he has an audience on 

 that hill-side of never less than 1,000 persons. This is the state of Iona, from which came at a 

 remote day to our mainland the light of literature and religion. I wish you would write a pe- 

 tition by Iona for consideration and help. St. Kilda"s privations have been supplied by public 

 sympathy and bounty. Let us not neglect Iona, amid the 'ruins of which whose plaids would 

 not grow warmer V 



" I am, w T ith great regard, yours most faithfully, 



"George Bated." 



