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Indiana University Studies 



Mr. Marshall and I arrived at Altrive about 4 o'clock. This was the 

 last time your father fished, so that I was the last who had the honour 

 of fishing with him. 



''Sitting togetlier on the sofa he played several fine old Scotch airs 

 on the violin, and regretted much that when he should be no more, a 

 good many of the old Scotch tunes w^ould be lost, because no one could 

 play them now but himself. 



"You may recollect", wi'ites the poet's only son, "that he was for 

 ten years a shepherd at Blackhouse, and I think he always looked back 

 on these ten years as the happiest of his life. In the month of July 

 before his death, he asked me to accompany him, one fine day on horse- 

 back, up the iieights that separate Douglas Burn from Traquair. I 

 was surprised to see him mount on horseback, for he had not done so 

 for some years previously, but I guessed as we wended our way up 

 Douglas Burn, past the old tower and the farmhouse of Blackhouse, 

 where he had spent so many happy days, that he was taking his last 

 look of them. We rode up to the stones that mark the graves of the 

 seven brethren, alluded to in the old ballad, at the top of Glen Burn; 

 and he took a long look at all the scenery that had been so familiar to 

 him in days gone by. We then returned home, and I was right in my 

 surmise, for he never saw Blackhouse again. 



"The following August he felt pretty well, and he and I went up to 

 Birkhill on the twelfth, he having permission as usual from the Earl 

 of Weymss to shoot over his property there. My father was stronger 

 and able to take more exercise than I expected on that occasion, and I 

 almost hoped that his life might be spared longer than he anticipated. 



"On our return journey to Altrive we came down between the Lochs 

 and Ettrick, On our way we came to an opening where we got a 

 glimpse of the valley of Ettrick, and that spot where used to stand the 

 house in which he was born, and the church. He sat down and re- 

 mained without saying a word for about half an hour. I did not speak 

 to him, for I, felt that the thoughts that were passing through his mind, 

 were probably too solemn to be disturbed. He rose, and, without saying 

 a word we proceeded on our way home." 



"r visited him on the 22nd of October, and almost daily till the 19th 

 November. After this I was in the room in which he died, never took 

 off my clothes, but rested occasionally on a sofa — never got home till 

 the Saturday after the funeral. 



"Mr. Hogg went to the moors with his dog and gun as usual about 

 the latter end of August, but this seems to have been a kind of a last 

 effort to bear up under the progress of his malady. He gradually sank 

 under languor and debility, and by the 20th of October was confined 

 to bed. From this time he was only once out of the room in w^hich he 

 died. About this time he was attacked by severe hiccup, which scarcely 

 left him when awake, till sensation was almost gone. This distressing 

 symptom so harrowed him that he seldom after this could speak freely; 

 but he complained of nothing else, and said if it were not the hiccup 

 he would be quite well, and said 'it was a reproach to the faculty that 

 they could not cure the hiccup.' 



^ Alexander Laidlaw. 



