“You will have heard of Nelson’s most glorious death. The feeling it occasioned is highly honourable to the country. He leaves a name above all former admirals, with, perhaps, the single exception of Blake, a man who possessed the same genius upon great occasions. We ought to name the two best ships in the navy from these men.
| 354 | LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE | Ætat. 30. |
“My trip to Edinburgh was pleasant. I went to accompany Elmsley. We staid three days with Walter Scott, at Ashestiel, the name of his house on the banks of the Tweed. I saw all the scenery of his Lay of the Last Minstrel, a poem which you will read with great pleasure when you come to England. And I went salmon-spearing on the Tweed, in which, though I struck at no fish, I bore my part, and managed one end of the boat with a long spear. Having had neither new coat nor hat since the Edithling was born, you may suppose I was in want of both—so at Edinburgh I was to rig myself, and, moreover, lay in new boots and pantaloons. Howbeit, on considering the really respectable appearance which my old ones made for a traveller,—and considering, moreover, that as learning was better than house or land, it certainly must be much better than fine clothes,—I laid out my money in books, and came home to wear out my old wardrobe in the winter. My library has had many additions since you left me, and many gentlemen in parchment remain with anonymous backs till you come and bedeck them.
“From your last letter, I am not without hopes that you may have taken some steps towards getting to Europe, and in that case it is not absolutely impossible that you may yet reach this place before we quit it,—and that you may make the circumnavigation of the Lakes in my company. I am an experienced boatman, and, what is better, recline in the boat sometimes, like a bashaw, while the women row me. Edith is an excellent hand at the oar.—Her love. God bless you!
