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portance at the time, in consequence of, a severe disappointment, he had met with that day himself. While, of the same date, I am reminded by the following short extract from the letter of that kind friend, who had already expressed so much solicitude and anxiety on that account, that I had still, in addition to my other troubles, the little member to vex me, "I am wearying much to have a bulletin of your TOE."

This information, my friend, I dare say, was not long without, for I appear to have written him at a very early period of the ensuing year, as will be seen in my next chapter.

CHAPTER XXVI.-1819.

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Probable subject of my NEW YEAR'S DAY thoughts.-My walk on that occasion, now become very limited.Early answer to my friend's letter.-More secret griefs that a stranger may not intermeddle with -Affecting extracts. Sorrowful parting with 1818.-Kind wish and signification, of a kind in. tention. Annually progressing from bad to worse.-Appalling motto to my new retrospect. An allusion made to certain poetical lines.-Other matters, of which I am reminded by a perusal of the above retrospect.-Had been then confined for nearly eleven weeks, with my sore TOE !-My partner indisposed, -My sheet anchor in the auctioneering department, in consequence, kept at home.-My efforts encrease with my difficulties.-Labourers in the vineyard, and when, and where employed.-Auction routes.Contrive to keep the publication business moving.-Remittances from the north, &c.-All will not do to avert the coming storm.-Shipwreck of, and loss by the Marchioness of Huntly. Again had too much leisure to look into matters.-How I, at last, got quit of a troublesome tenant.-An auld wife's cure, successfully applied. -Get at the root of the decease.-Directions for the management of the nails, so as to prevent such sore toes.-Time when my liberation from this painful thraldom, took place. Taking down the old kirk -See a new friend for the first time, who has never to this day, assumed the semblance of a new face My relief came too late, to be of much use, in the arduous task in which I was engaged.-Lost opportunities and lost time, now, alas! never to return. Discouraging events and distressing considerations —The die is cast,-Give up the contest.-Write my Circular of the 5th of April.-Am able to attend the meeting in Edinburgh, on the 14th, contrary to my expectations at the time I issued my Circular.

As the letter of my friend, in which, he signifies his anxiety to have a bulletin of my TOE, was dated the 30th, it must have

reached me, just in time to become the subject of my thoughts on the New Year's Day. Not in my solitary ramble along the sea shore-not in my long "accustomed walk," at such returning seasons, by the sea side-this was a luxury I see, that in addition to other privations, I was now forced to relinquish, and to deny myself;-for, if I was reminded by the levelling operations then going on at the church-hill, two years before this, that I was then, unable to extend my walk beyond that contracted limit,-if it was brought to my recollection, by a certain expression in the letter from my northern agent a twelvemonth ago, that I was at that time confined in my operations "within the walls of a house,"-so, on the present occasion, I am put in remembrance, by the expression in my friend's letter, that the limits of my new year's day walk, at this period, must have been reduced to still smaller compass, being most likely confined to that small extent of space intervening betwixt my bed and the sofa in an adjoining parlour, and from that sofa, back again to my bed.

A small extent of chain, indeed, for one who had been accustomed to range so largely through the fields of active life, and who had, but so recently, before this tantalizing accident had befallen him, given such a proof of his being fitted for active exertion, IN HIS JOURNEY OF A WEEK!

To return, however, to the subject of my friend's letter,—] find that I had not indeed been long in sending him the desired bulletin, and from the complexion of his answer, my letter, dated the 2d of January, must have contained information respecting other matters, some of them, I doubt not, relating to that description of griefs, that may be communicated to a friend in order to obtain a share of his consolation and sympathy, but which a stranger may not intermeddle with !— for it must never be lost sight of, although I have said, and mean to say little on that subject, that during the whole period embraced in these LATTER STRUGGLES, I have had a very fertile source of secret grief bearing hard, and operating at this time, with a peculiarly depressing effect, upon me.

The extract from my friend's letter, which, I see, is dated on the 7th of January, is to the following purport :-" Yours of the 2d inst. has filled me with much anxious concern about

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you, you have indeed had a sorrowful parting with 1818, I find, in more respects than one; your patience has been put to a severe trial; I trust you have still an ample stock for the time to come.”—And again, "Your affliction is very great-may He who does not willingly afflict, or grieve the children of men, support your mind."-And "Did circumstances permit, I would come instantly and see you ;" concluding, however, by signifying his intention, to do this still, at no distant period, if all was well.

To him that is afflicted, pity should be shewn from his friend, and the manner in which I have preserved and treasured up this extract, fully evidences the estimation in which I received it at the time, and have since regarded, such a kind and affecting mark of friendly and sympathetic feeling, in the breast of an affectionate

From the different positions in which I found myself placed, at the three last returns of the season, as it is styled, I could not but be sensible, that I had, been annually progressing from bad to worse in more respects than one ;—and that I was fully alive to a sense of my situation at this particular period, I think, cannot be better evidenced, than from, quoting the words of the motto of my next retrospect, which I see like the last, was written on the 17th of the month, (January.)

"Dreadful post of observation
Darker every hour !”.

A motto, which, like its predecessor, was sufficiently appalling, but no less true, on that account.

I see, that an allusion is not only made in that retrospect, to the few lines formerly briefly alluded to, as written on the 23d of October,-which are, there referred to, as "a poetical effusion written at the impulse of the moment," and conveying some idea of what I felt at the time; but that, there are several other affecting considerations and circumstances stated, which might otherwise have escaped my memory;―among these, I see, I took occasion to mention, that, at that period, the time of my writing,-I had been "now confined nearly eleven weeks to the house, under the doctor's hands, with my SORE TOE,"-that "my BEST HELP-MATE, who has always proven herself born for the day of adversity, is also very un

fit by indisposition, for the fatigues of the shop ;"-and that . my son WILLIAM, my great sheet anchor in the auctioneering department," principally, on that account, was under the necessity, when he should have been elsewhere employed, of remaining at home.

There are a number of other considerations of lamentable import, sufficiently stated or hinted at in that retrospect, but upon which I have no room to dwell. Nor does it much signify, as apart from all these considerations, my situation at this unhappy period, must have been peculiarly pitiable otherwise.

For it is to this day, to me, a dreadful consideration to think, that in addition to all my other troubles, and as an aggravation to my already complicated distresses, I had then the mortification of finding that, by that time, I had been confined to the house, by means of so small a member, for nearly eleven weeks!-to witness the indisposition of my beloved partner, who had never shrunk from her part of the task in these cheerless and gloomy days of adversity, while health and strength remained to perform it-and to see, in consequence of that indisposition, the useful services of my son put an end to, in the auctioneering line, when, in consequence of some recent discoveries we had made, it appears they were still very much wanted.

But all these, and a number of other distressing matters, I had to endure, and must have been enduring at the time, that my kind and sympathizing friend paid us his proposed visit, which I have no doubt he did, (as where there is a will, there never remains long a want of the means) on or about the 21st, the time he had mentioned.

I by no means would be understood to say, that my friend found me in exactly the situation in which Job found himself, at that painful and humiliating period, when "he took a potsherd to scrape himself withal," and "sat down among the ashes;" but it is extremely probable, that he would find me reclined on the sofa, either attempting to alleviate the pain which I felt by the application of the caustic, or perhaps to draw off my attention from its excruciating pangs, and prevent me for a while from brooding over my now

greatly accumulated sorrows, by the perusal of some of the Waverley Novels, or other light reading of the day, which want of leisure, when I could be otherwise employed, had prevented me from paying much attention to, for some time previously.*

It was, at any rate, I think, in some such situation, I was found by my new friend, Mr, when he called and delivered, some time after, his introductory letter from my old friends, Messrs O. & B. of Edinburgh.

It is not to be inferred, that upon finding the winter almost gone, and the Spring approaching with so little prospect of my being able to avail myself of it to advantage, that I gave myself up to despair. No! My efforts, on the contrary, seem to have increased with my difficulties, and during the early part of the year, and spring months, if I was laid off myself, and my son had lost part of his time, I seem to have endeavoured to make both up, as far as possible, by keeping the wheels of business a-going, as follows: See below,† No. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5.

This may surprise some of my readers, considering the rising reputation at that period, of these multifarious performances, and the noise they have since made in the world, but it must appear to all who know any thing of my his tory, that I must have had in general too much to engage my attention otherwise, without novel reading, but at this time, I had recourse to it occasionally, as a temporary relief from my pain. Is it not rather curious, however, that under the painful circumstances, in which I was situated at this time, I should have observed a flaw, in Roв Roy, then I think, just come from press, which I see is now cor. rected in the edition recently published by Messrs R. Cadell and Co. but which had, through I suppose, all the editions previously published, continued to elude the notice of the publishers, as well as of reviewers of all descriptions; if we except the Statistical Magazine, in which, the blunder was pointed out many years ago, but long after I had discovered it. The passage is that, in which the fast day, of the forenoon, is so carelessly converted into a Sunday, after the interview had taken place at the Bridge, in the evening, at Glasgow.

+(1) P. C.'s route after leaving Glasgow, where he continued his operations, from the time formerly mentioned, the 2d of January to the 20th, was, by Port Glasgow, 26th to the 1st of February ;-Greenock, from the 4th to the 24th ditto; -Lochwinnoch, 26th and 27th-Beith, 1st to 3d of March ;-Dalry, 4th to 6th; -Ayr, 9th to 20th ;-Maybole, 24th to 27th ;-Girvan, 29th to 31st ;-Kilmar nock, 2d and 3d April

(2) Messrs W. S. & Co. I see, had sales for me in EDINBURGH, on the 4th, 5th, 6th, 22d, 25th, and 28th of January; and again on the 15th and 16th of February.

(3) P. C. of that place, had a sale in the same city, on the week beginning 11th, and ending the 16th of January.

(4) We had a sale conducted by Messrs B. & Son, in Aberdeen, in February and March:-and

(5) I observe that my son, so soon as we could conveniently spare him, and

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