A Present from Shetland. 271 



that he is now quite recovered. If he is back at 

 Edinburgh, could he not take a race through and see 

 us some Saturday evening and stay till Monday ? 

 There are trains at all hours, late and soon. By the 

 end of this month we are removing to another house, 

 1 08, Woodlands Road, to be nearer our sons' place 

 of business. Where we are it is so far to come out 

 at night. Besides, they have always to take dinner 

 in town. 



" Now, my dear Mr. Gatherer, I have come to the 

 most difficult part of my letter, that is, what to say 

 to you for your great kindness, trouble, and expense. 

 Had you even allowed me to have paid the carriage, 

 you would so far have mitigated the difficulty. As 

 I am thus confined to thanks, accept them in their 

 warmest sense, in which Mrs. Robertson and my sons 

 heartily join." 



For the benefit of readers who may be inclined 

 maliciously to recall an incident in the " Noctes 

 Ambrosianae," it may be proper here to record that 

 Mr. Gatherer's well-appreciated present was the 

 domestic bird, associated with memories of Queen 

 Elizabeth and Michaelmas Day, not its fishy-tasting 

 relative, the Solan goose. 



Undeterred by the mixed fortune of their boating 

 experience in 1865, the Robertson family more than 

 once returned to Campbelton Loch. They were 

 there in 1872, when Mr. Robertson was studying the 

 geology of Tangy burn, in the neighbourhood of which 

 Mr. Pettigrew resided, and where the clay deposit is 

 only a few hundred yards distant from the sea. 



