404 MEMOIR OF JOHN WILSON. 



house for his son John, who had just entered upon the pleasant, 

 though anxious, toil of a fanner's life. 



As the summer advanced I was to join him there. Meanwhile 

 he writes a description of the locale, so beautifully minute in char- 

 acter that it may stand as a daguerreotype of the scene. I offer the 

 letter as one of the best specimens of his domestic correspond- 

 ence : — 



"Billholm, Langholm, 

 Friday Forenoon, May 27, 1842. 



" My dear Mary : — We left Linhope on Wednesday, dined at 

 the fanner's ordinary in Langholm, and came to Billholm in the 

 evening. Yesterday we were all occupied all day taking stock on 

 the hills — sixty score ; twelve gentlemen dined, thirty -four shep- 

 herds and herdsmen, ten horses, and twenty-five dogs. The scene 

 surpassed description, but it is over. This morning the party (with 

 Billholm and Menzion at their head) went off for a similar purpose 

 to Craighope, distant some ten miles ; and Billholm, I believe, will 

 return with Mr. Scott (the outgoing tenant) in the evening. Mean- 

 while I am left alone, and shall send this and some other letters to 

 Langholm by a lad, as there is no post. That is inconvenient — 

 very. 



"In a day or two we shall be more quiet, but you can have no 

 idea of the bustle and imjiortance of all at this juncture, nor has 

 John an hour to spare for any purpose out of his own individual 

 concerns. 



" This place is, beyond doubt, in all respects sweet and serene, 

 being the uppermost farm in the valley of the Esk before it becomes 

 bare. It is not so rich or wooded as a few miles farther down, but 

 is not treeless ; the holms or haughs are cultivated and cheerful ; 

 the Esk about the size of the Tweed at the Crook, and the hills not 

 so high as the highest about Innerleithen, but elegantly shaped, 

 and in the best style of pastoral. 



" The house ' shines well where it stands,' on a bank sloping 

 down to the river, which is not above twenty yards from the door, 

 so Goliah* has nothing to do but walk in and float down to Lane- 

 holm. But after Port Bannatyne he is safe against water. It fronts 

 the river ; many pleasant holms in the middle distance, and the 

 aforesaid hills about a mile off, surrounding the horizon. Sufficient 



* One of his grandchildren. 



