LORD WOODHOUSELEE. 557 



returned willingly to another occupation, with which he had 

 always intended to close his literary career. This was the re- 

 vision of his lectures upon history. In the composition of 

 these lectures, the best years of his life had been employed, 

 and at the distance of time that had intervened, he was now- 

 able to review them with the eye of impartial criticism, and to 

 make such additions or alterations as might better fit them for 

 that general usefulness for which they were .originally intend- 

 ed. To this pleasing occupation all his remaining seasons of 

 leisure were devoted ; and with the usual chearfulness of his 

 temper, he flattered himself, that he might be able to accom- 

 plish a revision of the whole of the lectures that composed 

 his Academical Course. As the first great subject of these 

 lectures related to Grecian History, he now began anew the 

 study of the Greek historians ; and as his views included the 

 history of science, of literature and of the fine arts, he was 

 led insensibly to the study of the moralists, the orators and the 

 poets, of that interesting period. So fascinating to his mind 

 was the occupation, that, in the course of a few vacations, he 

 was able to compose anew the whole of his lectures upon 

 Grecian History, and to be rewarded by that peculiar delight, 

 (which has been so often observed in the later years of literary 

 men,) the delight of returning again to the studies of their 

 youth, and of feeling, under the snows of age, the chearful me- 

 mories of their spring. 



In the year 1812, the death of his friend and relation Gene- 

 ral Sir James Craig, (the late Governor of Canada,) and the 

 property to which he succeeded by his will, rendered it neces- 

 sary for Lord Woodhouselee to undertake a journey to Lon- 

 don. As Sir James Craig had been distinguished by the Order 

 of the Bath, it became the duty of Lord Woodhouselee, as his 

 nearest relation, to return to the Prince Regent the ensigns of 



4 A 2 the 



