304: MEMOIR OF JOHN WILSON. 



Yet to get on is, I understand, of great impoi'tance. Here, then, 

 are hours on hours lost, not by me assuredly ; then by whom ? 



" Why the devil does not the devil hasten himself of an August 

 morning ? What right can any devil, red-hot from Tartarus, have 

 to disturb me, who never injured him, for three long hours including 

 midnight, all for no purpose but to make me miserable f 



" I am, my dear sir, very wroth ; therefore, see henceforth, that 



delays of this kind do not occur, for though I am willing to work 



when necessary, I am not willing to sacrifice sleep, and sometimes 



suffer, which is worse, from want of arrangement or idleness in the 



infernal regions. Yours sincerely, 



" John Wilson. 



" Thursday morning. — With two corrected proofs lying before 

 me for several hours needlessly at a time when they are most wanted 

 in the Shades." 



In the month of July of this year, my mother writes to her 

 sister : — 



" We are all quite well, and looking forward to a few weeks' stay 

 on the banks of the Tweed with great pleasure. I forget whether 

 I mentioned when I last wrote to you that Mr. Wilson had taken 

 lodgings at Innerleithen (about six miles from Peebles). We go 

 on the 2d of August, the day after the boys' vacation commences. 



" Mr. and Mrs. Lockhart and their two children are come here 

 this summer, I am sorry to say the latter in search of health. Mr. 

 L. is looking well, and not a bit changed in any respect. 



" Ebony has presented me with the Life of Napoleon, 9 vols. ; 

 everybody is now devouring it, but what is thought of it I have 

 not heard ; it will last me some years to get through it if I live ; 

 at least, if I read at my customary pace." 



The three autumnal months were spent at Innerleithen, the Pro- 

 fessor visiting Edinburgh from time to time, to attend to his literary 

 affairs, finding on his return relaxation in his favorite amusement 

 of fishing, or rambling over the hills to St. Mary's Loch, and not 

 unfrequently spending a clay at Altrive with the Ettrick Shepherd. 

 He had intended, in the following year, to let Elleray ; but not 

 having found a suitable tenant, he spent the autumn there himself 

 with his family. 



From a letter to his friend, the Rev. Mr. Fleming of Ray rig, 



