LITERARY AND DOMESTIC LIEE. 377 



ing away gradually, but living longer than any of the medical peo 

 pie thought possible. Last Sunday, it was thought he could not 

 live many hours. 



"I enclose £10 for present use, and shall write to your mamma 

 on Monday, so that you will hear from me on Wednesday. 



" This goes by Ebenezer Hogg, and two other letters ; and 

 Nancy, I understand, is sending clothes to Bonjeddard, from which 

 I gather you are going to the ball, which is right. Love to all. 

 Use the gig as you choose, for I shall not want it for some time. 

 Thine affectionately, John Wilson." 



" Gloucester Place, Monday Evening. 



" My dear Jane : — I shall be in Innerleithen on Thursday per 

 coach, so let the gig be there the night before. I have been writ- 

 ing here since Friday, Avith but indifferent success, and am at this 

 hour worn out. Nancy has done what I asked her to do, and I 

 have let the bell ring 10,000 times without minding: it. 



" Billy called, with Captain Craigie, on Sunday, and, after view- 

 ing them from the bedroom window, I let them in. I have seen 

 nobody else, not even Sym, but intend to call to-morrow night. I 

 have slept here, and in utter desolation, as at Blackwood's it was 

 too mournful to go there. 



" What is to become of next Magazine I do not know. If I come 

 here again, I will bring Maggie with me. Five hours of writing 

 give me a headache, and worse, and I become useless. I do not 

 think Blackwood will recover, but Liston speaks still as if he had 

 hopes. Nobody writes for the Magazine, and the lads are in very 

 low spirits, but show much that is amiable. I believe Hogg and 

 his wife and I Avill be in the coach on Thursday morning to Inner- 

 leithen ; so Bob told me. The printers are waiting for MS., and I 

 have none but a few pages to give them ; but on Wednesday night 

 all must be at press. I hope to find you all well and happy. Yours 

 ever affectionately, John Wilson." 



Mr. Blackwood died on the 16th of September, 1834. " Four 

 months of suffering, in part intense, exhausted by slow degrees all 

 his physical energies, but left his temper calm and unruffled, and 

 his intellect entire and vigorous even to the last. He had thus what 

 no good man will consider as a slight privilege, that of contem- 

 16 



