“We were equally gratified and surprised by the arrival of the superb time-piece, with which you have ornamented our halls. There are grand discussions where it is to be put, and we are only agreed upon one point, that it is one of the handsomest things of the kind we ever saw, and that we are under great obligations to the kind donor. On my part, I shall never look on it without recollecting that the employment of my time is a matter of consequence to you, as well as myself.*
“I send you two letters, of which copies will be requisite for the magnum opus. They must be copied separately. I wish you would learn from Mr Walter Dickson, with my best respects, the maiden name of Mrs Goldie, and the proper way in which she ought to be designated. Another point of information I wish to have is, concerning the establishment of the King’s beadsmen or blue-gowns. Such should occur in any account of the Chapel-Royal, to which they were an appendage, but I have looked into Arnott and Maitland, without being able to find any thing. My friend, Dr Lee, will know at once where this is to be sought for.
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* The allusion is to a clock in the style of Louis Quatorze, now in the drawing-room at Abbotsford. |
| OCTOBER—1828. | 149 |
“Here is a question. Burns in his poetry repeatedly states the idea of his becoming a beggar—these passages I have. But there is a remarkable one in some of his prose, stating with much spirit the qualifications he possessed for the character. I have looked till I am sick, through all the letters of his which I have seen, and cannot find this. Do you know any amateur of the Ayrshire Bard who can point it out? It will save time, which is precious with me.*
“J. B. has given me such a dash of criticism, that I have laid by the Maid of the Mist for a few days, but I am working hard, mean-while, at the illustrations, so no time is lost.—Yours very truly,
