190 MEMOIR OF GEOKGE WILSON. CHAP. IV. 



" I shall never succeed in telling you all I wish to do, even 

 though a huge folio of paper lies before me. But I shall run the 

 best chance of interesting you by beginning at the beginning. 



" A right famous and rapid bowl we had along the railway, 

 in most comfortable carriages. You remember, I daresay, the 

 young Irishwoman intrusted to my care by her weeping mother. 

 Poor thing, a first child, and it only five months old, so dis- 

 tressed her with maternal fears, that I strove to alleviate her 

 unnecessary alarm, and soon succeeded by a few little atten- 

 tions, such as holding Fanny's bonnet, and getting its mamma 

 a drink of porter, halfway ; but above all, by devising an 

 arrangement of my handkerchief so as to shade the baby's eyes 

 from the carriage lamp, I won for myself all of her heart she 

 could spare from her baby and its father, that quantity, how- 

 ever, not being measurable even by our chemical scales. It 

 would have pleased you it did me to see the warm-hearted 

 young mother gaze on the little baby's face, and then kiss its 

 cheek, to gaze again, and try, as I imagined, to trace its father's 

 lineaments in its tiny features. This was my notion. I don't 

 know what Mrs. G - would say to it. I did not rest till I 

 saw her fairly accommodated in an inn, and then with a thou- 

 sand thanks, I reached the boat destined for me. 



" I may pass over the weary town of Liverpool, a most dull, 

 stupid place, and the voyage to Glasgow, which was enlivened 

 by a sight at once (like many scenes in real life) sad and mirth- 

 ful, of an Ayrshire carpet- weaver, who, having been drinking, 

 went through the whole phases of intoxication in so charac- 

 teristic a way, that I shut the book I was reading (Campbell's 

 ' Life of Siddons'), and sat watching the real actor with a feeling 

 of amazement, and I must say pleasure, which does my heart 

 no credit ; but it proved Shakspere's characters to be so truly 

 drawn, that I think I did right to read the lesson which a 

 foolish fellow-mortal afforded me. I got into Glasgow about 

 six o'clock on Wednesday evening, and received, as usual, a 

 most kind hearty welcome. 



" Catherine was little altered ; a little more emaciated than 

 when I left her, but serene and beautiful. I thought her very 

 like her mother, as I remember her. I kissed the cold, blue 



