Woodville: Its Pets and Its Pursuits

‘Oh speak the joy! ye whom the sudden tear
Surprises often, while you look around,
And nothing strikes your eye but sights of bliss;
An elegant sufficiency, content,
Retirement, rural quiet, friendship, books,
Ease and alternate labour, useful life,
Progressive virtue, and approving Heaven.”

—Thomson.

“He (Cowper) had at one time five rabbits, three hares, two guineapigs, a magpie, a jay, and a starling; besides two goldfinches, two canarybirds, and two dogs. It is amazing how the three hares can find room to gambol and frolic (as they certainly do) in his small parlour. I forgot to enumerate a squirrel, which used to play with one of the hares continually.” — Lady Hesketh.

Eighteen hundred and twenty-four was the year which changed the imaginary “cousin” of the foregoing correspondence into an actual wife, and commenced the happier half of Mr Wilson’s history.

With a very superior understanding, and with accomplishments of a high order, Mrs Wilson was able to appreciate her husband’s rare endowments. Fond of natural history herself, she entered, with wifely zeal, into his various pursuits — his gardening, his literary labours, his zoological friendships; and there was nothing beautiful in nature or grand in authorship of which her appreciation, so quick and true, did not double the enjoyment. At the same time, as already indicated, her earlier experience of the hopes and consolations conveyed in the gospel made her pre-eminently a help-meet to one whose spirit was now prepared to welcome a joy which the world can neither give nor take away, and whose reserved but keenly observant nature required, rather than sermons or books, the light of a living epistle; and, long before going hence, she

had the happiness of knowing how entire was that unison

H which purifies all other tastes, and survives all other relations.

Soon after their marriage, they took up their abode at Woodville; and it would be difficult to imagine a more charming retreat than, in Mr Wilson’s possession, Woodville became. Within a Sabbath-day’s journey of his place of worship, the New Greyfriars’ Church, it was still nearer to Geoige Square, the dwelling-place of his venerable uncle, and, ere long, of one of his dearest and most valued friends, Dr R. K. Greville, and scarcely a bowshot from the fine old Grange, where Sir T. D. Lauder mi ah fc be found any day, spinning Highland yarns, or overhauling his fishing-tackle. But, whilst half an hour could transport him to the College Museum or the rooms of the Royal Society, within his own inclosure he had all the delights of a sylvan solitude. By good engineering a domain of two acres was made to supply, in respectable proportions, orchard and lawn, flower-garden and shrubbery; and snugly ensconced amidst the groves of Morningside, it caught the whole sunshine of the winter noon, forgetful of biting blasts and easterly fogs. In front the cottage exhibited little more than the windows of its two public rooms; but, internally, it was a commodious habitation, and gave scope to that hospitality dear to the heart of the owner, but for which there is not always space in the “cottage of gentility.” The library was, withal, the dining-room; but, as befitted a philosopher’s sanctuary, its intellectual features predominated Like Sir Walter Scott, who used sometimes to write with sunshine on the paper, Mr Wilson held that “light is pleasant,’’ and betwixt a southern window and the fire stood the writing table at which most of his work was done. At one end of the room was a much-cherished purchase of his youthful ambition, the cabinet which eventually held the entomological spoils of nearly half a century; the remaining wall- space being occupied with the works of Cuvier and Lamarck, Dumeril and Bibron, “The British Birds” of Donovan, “The Ornitholooia Toscana” of Savi, “The German Insects” of Panzer, and all the apparatus of a general zoologist. As the genius of the place, from above the mantel-piece flashed down the animated form and fiery eye of Audubon; and, in his own corner, Wordsworth drooped his heavy brow and sombre face, — surrounded and surmounted by the effigies of Selby, and Cuvier, and Lucien Bonaparte, and other friends and correspondents.

Within these quiet precincts, and in the society of one whom every day made dearer, the mornings came welcome and the hours passed swiftly. The garden was itself an endless occupation; and the time not required for literary or scientific labour was absorbed in books. Amidst influences so friendly the heart of our invalid speedily revived. Although he was never to become a Hercules.

and although it is too likely that, from this period, seeds of mischief continued latent in his chest, his light, tall figure learned again to climb the hills and achieve long pedestrian journeys; and, dispelled by domestic happiness, and the growing clearness of a blessed hope, the shadows which had frequently hovered over his spirit fled away; occasional griefs notwithstanding. Nothing could be more enviable than the habitual serenity of his remaining years. Of the softness and tenderness acquired in the school of affliction, there remained enough to make him a son of consolation, with delicate perception of others’ pain, and happy skill in comforting; at the same time, there was that habitual sunny-heartedness which, rejoicing with the joyful, brought new gladness into the midst of mirth, inspiring with added glee the children’s sports and irradiating with its cordial suffusion the fireside circle.

Nor amongst the inhabitants of Woodville must Ave forget the owner’s mute companions. Our own first acquaintance with himself was in 1838, when the apparition of a coati mondi and other curious creatures in the yard of the adjoining house in George Square convinced us that the Mr Wilson who had come to dwell next door must be “Mr Wilson the naturalist,” As the reader will have perceived, by the affectionate inquiries regarding a redbreast and chaffinch in one of the foregoing letters, it was a strong attachment which he formed for such favourites, whether furred or feathered; and to the store of his enjoyments they made a material contribution. But, like all favourites, they exercised a corresponding- despotism. Not only had he to carry with him the coati mondi in his migrations from the country to the town, but he had often to surrender his own convenience to the whims of canine humourists or prima donnas sulking in their cages; and so devoted was he to a glow-worm, which he had fostered through many months, that he carried it with him during a long tour in 1853, and was greatly mortified when at last he lost it. He used to feed it at breakfast-time by placing it in an egg-shell on the table, and most likely the wrong shell had been put into the box, and the poor lampyris left to waste its brightness on the desert air of Skye. Of the robin above mentioned, some traits have been preserved in Mr Syme’s beautiful volume on “British Song-Birds:” —

“We know a gentleman who last summer (1822) caught a young redbreast, one of a brood just flown, in his garden. A short time after, the bird was lost, several days elapsed and robin did not appear; when the gentleman, walking in the garden with a friend, saw a bird of this species, which he thought very like his, hopping among four or five others, that seemed to be all of the same age. He requested his friend not to move, and returned to the house for a few crumbs, which he held in his hand, and calling ‘Robbie! ’ the bird appeared to recognise the name it had been accustomed to, perched upon his ringer, and was instantly secured. The bird is now, May 1823, in full plumage and singing delightfully; he ranges at liberty through the room, for though he has a large, light, and airy cage, the door of which stands open, he seldom enters it. In the same room is a chaffinch, still more tame than the redbreast; also a titmouse and a mule bird; but the moment they are out of their cages, the redbreast pursues, attacks, and drives them from place to place, so that he remains cock of the room. If his master takes a seed of hemp, and calls ‘Robbie,’ he instantly flies at it, picks it from between the finger and thumb, darts off, and this so rapidly that one cannot detect how he extracts the seed He is very inquisitive, and it is amusing to observe him when anything is brought into the apartment, such as books, paper, &c. At first he advances with great caution; but finding the object motionless, he ventures nearer, hops round it, but never appears content till he has got upon it, and never quits it, unless disturbed, until he has examined it with the eye of a curious inquirer. One morning, a roll of paper, more than two feet long, being laid on the table, Bobbie instantly saw it was a new object, flew to it, hopped round and round it several times, and at last, finding it impossible to satisfy himself without a narrower inspection, he hopped in at the one end and out of the other.”

Robbie came to an untimely end, having fallen the victim of a cat, which, in a ruthless moment, extinguished all his airs, and avenged the manes of many a worm. His less pugnacious contemporary, the chaffinch, survived for fifteen years, and “Shilly,” as this old favourite was called, was very tame, and much attached to his master. When Mr Wilson spoke to him or approached his cage, he always crested up the feathers of his head, and warbled a peculiar song — a compliment which he never paid to any stranger, except to that man all-loving and by all beloved, the Rev. Daniel Wilkie. After becoming minister of the New Greyfriars’, when Mr Wilkie paid his first visit to Woodville, he was shewn into a room where there was no one to receive him save Shilly; but on entering, the master of the house was delighted to find the intimacy which had already sprung up between his shy bird and his new pastor, — a love at first sight, in which the tiny physiognomist confessed the same spell which often subdued West Port savages, and which still makes his saintly name a sound of endearment in the cottages of Yester and Stonehouse. One morning, coming down to breakfast, Mr Wilson said, “I thought I saw Shilly among some other shilfias in the garden,” and sure enough the cage was empty; but going out to the garden his master called him by name, and instantly quitting a flock of his congeners, he returned to the hand of his owner, and resumed his life in the parlour. Such a captivity could not sour his spirit, and Shilly was a benevolent old bachelor. He would sometimes carry about his food in his bill, evidently desirous of sharing his morsel with others; and, probably unaware of the distinction between spiders and insects, he more than once brought his insect-loving patron choice specimens of the former, and pressed on his acceptance the dainty dish. To gratify this desire of feeding others was not difficult at Woodville. There was seldom a summer which did not leave upon the hands of its inhabitants orphan nestlings, or little “featherless” foundlings; and Shilly found scope for his kind assiduities in rearing one or other of these foster children.

Nothing came wrong. Hedgehogs and ichneumons, dogs and rabbits, pigeons and jackdaws, cockatoos and parrakeets, were equally welcome, and under a Noachian patriarchate, all lived in surprising harmony. To these must be added a host of occasional pensioners. Whenever he took “Ms walks abroad,” the lord of the manor was sure to be followed by some of these humble retainers, — sparrows, finches, and redbreasts, — for whom he had pocketed a supply of bread at the breakfast-table, and who, in process of time, would bring to his feet and commend to his guardianship their rising families.

We confess that it was with such emotions as the sight of dumb creatures seldom awakens, that, in January last, we saw the few survivors of this gentle dominion — an owl from Borrowdale, suggestive of Coleridge and “Christabel,” and a raven, the legacy of Dr Patrick NeilL Surely if the creation did not cease to groan, the lords of that creation would possess some joys to which they at present are strangers, if they moved about so benign in their bearing that the beasts of the field felt assured in their presence, and so bountiful in their alms-giving as to attach the very fowls of the firmament. As in the case of the poet Cowper — whom Mr Wilson in his playfulness and gentleness, as well as in his pensive and poetic attributes, so remarkably resembled — this love of the lower animals was only the outer zone of a comprehensive kindliness of nature, which, giving the loaf to the fellow-man, had crumbs for the fellow-creatures; and, as in the case of the Olney bard, the bread cast on the winds and the waters was found again. It was repaid in the friendly look of every season, and in the recognising responsive aspect of the whole creation. It came flying back on the wings of swifts and swallows; hints and reminiscences of it were warbled in Alpine solitudes, and in the glens of Arran; and the storms of December brought it home again to Woodville, tapping at the window, or twittering with a summery sound amidst the falling snow.

122 “VYOODVILLE: ITS PETS AND ITS PUKSTJITS.

The graver pursuits of Wooclville were different branches of natural history. To his entomological cabinet he continued to add till it became one of the largest private collections in Scotland; and in the cognate departments, his attainments were such as to leave him few equals in general zoological knowledge. For such employments the time was propitious. In popular taste there is a rotation of the sciences; and just as the century closed with Herschel and astronomy, and as the discoveries of Davy next gave eclat to chemistry, so, thirty years ago, and most likely as a consequence of the beautiful generalisations of Cuvier, animated nature began to attract the attention which had hitherto oscillated betwixt suns on the one side and atoms on the other. Splendid folios introduced to the drawing-rooms of peers and princes the creatures of other lands, in all their forms of beauty, grotesqueness, or magnificence; and whilst the pages of Jesse, Waterton, and Kirby amused the general reader, the “Library of Entertaining Knowledge,” and other clever compilations, brought the subject within the reach of the humblest resources; to which we must not forget to add the new spirit which began to pervade collections like the National Museum, and the gathering together of great animal assemblages in beautiful parks and gardens, of which the crowning specimen is now exhibited by the Zoological Society, in its magnificent menagerie.

It was at this time that Mr Wilson began to publish his “Illustrations of Zoology.” It was a series of elaborate plates, of a large size, and accompanied by descriptive letterpress, and was designed to be a receptacle for new or remarkable species in the various classes of the animal kingdom. He was himself a good draughtsman, and in this work he had the assistance of an admirable artist, Mr P. Syme. One handsome volume was completed, but before he could proceed further, he had become committed to a more arduous undertaking.

The following letters throw some light on these pursuits, and they also shew the unselfishness and mutual helpfulness by which it were devoutly to be desired that all fe /low-labourers in the fields of science were equally distinguished

TO SIR WILLIAM JARDINE, BART.

“Woodville, Canaan, Edinburgh,
9th February 1827.

“Dear Sir William, — I this day had the pleasure to procure a copy of your work, and promised myself a high treat by my cottage fireside this evening; but having a meeting with Mr Lizars at Mr Blackwood’s about my own concerns, I found, when half-way home, that 1 had put a wrong book under my arm, and left yours on Mr B/s table. However, I shall send for it to-morrow morning. I have, some time ago, finished my text for my first number, and hope to get on quickly with the printing and other preliminaries. I am so anxious to represent my miscellaneous articles at full length as often as possible, that I have chosen a very large form, a sort of quarto, a good deal higher than broad, approaching to the folio form. The chief disadvantage of this is the great price of the paper, which, I am afraid, will make the work dearer than I had myself calculated upon. As I am only to have four plates, I hoped they might have been got up, letterpress and all, for at most ten or twelve shillings a number; but they talk of fifteen or sixteen as the lowest; which I am sorry for, as the public, however friendly, don’t like such taxes. I think your own work very reasonable.

“I am anxious to have in an early number, if not the first, that long-tailed fellow, the quezal, from Vera Paez, to whose magnificent train, from my large paper, I could do ample justice. Mr Schenley, who brought the bird home, has kindly offered to procure me access to the specimen in London, which he presented to Mr Canning — that in the College Museum being incomplete in the plumage of the tail. But I would almost rather try my hand at the latter specimen than be at the trouble and expense of ordering a drawing to be made by some one whose skill I have not proved, and with whose performance I might not be satisfied. I was told, however, some time ago, either by John Wilson or his wife, that a drawing had been made of Mr Schenley’s specimen by Mr Syme, and, as he or she believed, for you. Now, perhaps you will be so good as let me know, before I fix upon either getting some one in London to draw Mr Canning’s, or doing one here myself, whether Mr Synie’s drawing is your private property or not. In the former case, I would not, of course, make any inquiries at Mr Synie’s; in the latter, I might be tempted to enter into some negotiation about it.

“P.S. — There is a New Holland gull in the Edinburgh Museum, with a deep-red bill, which I should like you to look at. It seems to agree with a bird described, if I remember right, in the ‘Wernerian Memoirs,’ by Dr Traill, under the name of Larus Scoresbii. I don’t know whether it has yet been figured.”

TO P. S. SELBY, ESQ.

“Woodyille, 5th February 1S2S. Deae Sir, — I had some thoughts of figuring ere long Brunnich’s Guillemot (which you will find described in Temminck’s ‘Manuel,’ p. 924), as the distinctions between it and Uria troile have not been sufficiently illustrated. I find, however, that it occurs in the Orkney Islands, and have no doubt it will also be found along our own shores. Do you consider it as a British bird? If so, and if you

1 26 W00DV1LLE: ITS PETS AND ITS PURSUITS.

propose figuring it in your own work, I shall either not meddle with it, or shall reserve my drawing for your use, in the event of your not being able to get a better elsewhere. I intend to lay it down as a rule not to meddle with the British birds, to which at all times you do such ample justice; and, that I may adhere the more strictly to this intention, I shall be obliged by your letting me know at your leisure whether you propose to publish the capercailzie (cock and hen), as Professor Jameson lately expressed a wish that 1 should figure those in the Museum. As the species was not included in your first part — ‘Land Birds ’ — he probably thought you did not intend having anything to do with them. However, as I would rather see them in your work than in my own, I shall be guided by what you say.

“I lately received a beautiful drawing of a live ocelot from Liverpool, and an extraordinary fish (of the genus Syngnathus) from New Holland.”

TO SIR WILLIAM JARDINE, BART.

“Elleray, Bowness, Kendal,
2d December 1828.

“Dear Sir William, — .... When I came through Penrith I made inquiries for an old collector of the name of Graham, from whom I thought it likely I might have procured you a well-conditioned specimen of honey-buzzard, as I happened to know that he had several times shot that bird in Lord Lonsdale’s grounds; but, ’ alas, poor Yorick! ‘I found that, about two years ago, he had gone the way of all flesh, and that his collection was entirely dispersed. His place was not occupied by any one in the same line; so my mission, quoad F. [Pernis] apivorus, failed.

“I hear of nothing interesting here at present. The fall of the leaf enables one to watch the habits of the smaller forest-birds, such as tit-mice, &c. Both the cole and long-tailed tit-mice are in great abundance, and very active. I also see the golden-crested wren, the creeper, and, more rarely, the nut-hatch. There is also, not far from this, a large flock of cross-bills, now considerably reduced by amateurs and country sportsmen. At first there appeared to be about sixty of them, now between thirty and forty. The char-fishing has commenced, but with little success as yet.

“In regard to the entomological duplicates which you specify, the only one I can promise for certain is Artaxerxes. I have one spare specimen of Blandina; but, if I part with it, I think it is bespoke. A single specimen was taken for the first time near Edinburgh the summer before last. I have no duplicates at present of the others you mention, but shall keep them for you if they occur.”

TO SIE W. JARDINE, BART.

“Woodville, 2Sth April 1829.

“Dear Sir William, — I bad yesterday afternoon the pleasure to receive your letter of the 24th, accompanied by a small box of insects, for both of which I am much obliged. Since I saw you I have twice been laid up with a bad sore throat and cold, and have not ventured from home except on one occasion, when I joined the Scottish Academicians at their late feed in Waterloo Place. I was not much the better of that excursion, though I had the satisfaction to meet Mr Selby and others, whom I don’t incline to miss.

“In regard to Lophophorus Nigelli, I have never even seen it since it was stuffed, having scarcely been in the Museum this year. Indeed, it is certainly not there; but I shall find it out the very first day that I have it in my power to leave home, and shall immediately make up some notes upon it, which you will be so good as alter and amend, or put into any form you think proper. I had the subject in view some months ago, and went into town to see what could be picked uj) concerning the genus in general, in one of the Dictionaries of Natural History; but all I got for my pains was the followinguseful information: ‘Lophophore — Voyez Monaul; ’ and then, ‘Monaul — Voyez Lophophore, which is not particularly explicit

“If you wish to draw one or two of the females of the new grouse you saw with me, arrange your plans so as to pass some days here in the course of the summer, and whatever accommodation this humble roof affords, will be at your service. I suppose 1 ought to write to Mr Sabine in the first place, to ask his leave before altering their destination. I have a good deal on hand of other kind of matters, and I don’t think I will have time or patience to draw the females of such as greatly resemble their males.

‘: I wish you would furnish me with the names of any of the recent works on natural history, systematic or otherwise, which you think would aid me in the formation of the encychyppedia articles which I have undertaken to contribute to the new edition of the ‘Britannica.’ If you have any notes of species which you would like to see entered in that work, I shall be glad to receive them, and acknowledge publicly the source from which they are derived. The manaoement and control of the whole zoological department have been offered to me, and upon very liberal terms; and although there are many departments which I am quite incompetent to work at, yet I have nearly agreed to engage for the whole, with the view of receiving assistance from others, whom I shall remu-WOODVILLE: ITS PETS AND ITS PUKSUITS.

nerate according to the terms which I myself receive. I have not matured my plans, but I think it likely that I shall myself attempt ‘Mammalia,” Ornithology,” Reptilia,’ ‘Arachnides, and ‘Entomology, leaving ‘Ichthyology,’ ‘Mollusca,’ ‘Vermes, ‘Crustacea, and ‘Zoophytes’ for further consideration. Under these ten great heads may, I think, be presented a compendious view of the animal kingdom, commonly so called. I shall greatly value any assistance or advice you may be pleased to give me in these matters.”

The labour involved in this enterprise was immense; but it was spread over many years, and the subject was to his heart’s content. Taking the articles in their final form, and as they have appeared in the edition of the ‘Encyclopaedia Britannica ’ now in progress,* the following is their extent as nearly as we can estimate: —

Angling,.
Animal Kingdom,
Animalcula,
Bee,

Entomology,

Fisheries,

Helininthology,

Of course including Ichthyology,
pages
jp
and the other articles, which he

did not live to revise for the new edition.

Ichthyology,

90 pages.

Mammalia,

. 121 „

Ornithology,

95 „

Reptiles and Serpents,

73 „

Nine hundred pages of such close quarto letterpress are nearly equal to nine ordinary octavo volumes; and when it is remembered what myriads of facts these contributions contain, many of them only ascertainable by consulting a variety of conflicting authorities, the reader will have some conception of the varied knowledge and diligent research of which these pages are the durable record. But seldom have the results of research been brought out in a style so agreeable. Before Mr Wilson’s time it had been usual to reduce encyclopaedia articles to a certain respectable uniformity of style, and, like the mixed multitude of steeds and donkeys in an old-fashioned diligence, the contributors were not only expected to pull together, but were required to maintain the self-same pace. Mr Wilson asserted his individuality. Although writing for a dictionary, he was not haunted by the fear of prigs and pedants, but allowed his bright and genial nature to come freely forth, and in the pleasure with which his articles were read, he found the justification of so wise a frankness. The severely scientific might be jealous of so much poetry, and more jealous still of so much plain English; but he knew what he was doing, and as he held along his path, for the sake of the like-minded he still scattered pearls, well wotting that in the same track the rasorial searchers after grubs and grains would also find their food convenient.

His bold experiment succeeded. Encyclopaedias are no longer the monojDoly of literary dustmen and museumcinder-sifters, but are repositories in which true and able men may be glad to treasure up their thoughts as well as to expound their great discoveries. And much as Dr Dryasdust mourns over it, a new volume is welcomed like a new quarterly, and Macaulay is as eloquent, and Doran as entertaining, and Goldwin Smith as masterly as if he had no dull or hum-drum neighbours. All honour to James Wilson for having the courage to wear his own attire and speak his own idiom, in what till then had been the Quaker-town of English literature.

To go over these nine hundred pages we have found anything but a drudgery — the surest sign that to the author there was no sense of drudgery in compiling thorn. Not only did he love the subject, but in the business of composition he had enviable facility and great enjoyment. Of course, there was a large amount of toil involved in bringing his materials together, but as soon as he had mastered the topic and collected his authorities, the pen ran fast and the thought flowed free. So eminently social was his turn, that he preferred to study in the midst of his family. Their talking did not interrupt him; and as Mrs Wilson liked to listen to reading whilst going on with her work, it was not unusual for one of the party to be reading aloud one book whilst he himself was busy writing another. In this way it is remembered that he wrote the whole of his work on Angling, whilst, owing to the accession of a lively visitor, a brisk current of conversation was circulating around him day by day, into which, without any absolute pause in his employment, he dipped occasionally — thus encouraging that cheerfulness in others, which to his own kind spirit was the most quickening music.

Simultaneously with his encyclopedia articles, Mr Wilson was engaged in a lighter but kindred task. Amongst the various undertakings to which Constable’s ‘•Miscellany” gave rise, and which brought a large supply of sound information within the reach of every reader, no one was more judiciously planned or more conscientiously carried out than “The Edinburgh Cabinet Library.” Its object was to give a geographical and historical panorama of the world, taking its chief races and regions one by one. By a wise distribution of labour, superior treatment was secured for every subject; and the zoology of Africa, India, China, and North America, was contributed by Mr Wilson.

This chapter on the early days at “Canaan” may be fitly concluded by an extract from a letter to a near and mucli-loved relative: —

“Woodville, 26th May 1831.

“You will be delighted to hear that Isabella has been in prodigious good case for some time back. We have commenced our cuddy-ass excursions, and intend to continue them steadily. The beast is much improved in its paces, and, with a great deal of the grace and dignity of the higher quadrupeds, exhibits nothing of that perverse obstinacy to which so many asses, both human and brute, are entitled to lay claim, and of which the claims are admitted by a considerate and cuddy-consoling, though sometimes inconsistent world.

“In regard to ornithology, you will be glad to hear that our corner green-lintie’s (linnet’s) nest was more fortunate in escaping the eyes and fingers of bakers’ and butchers’ boys than we could have looked for, considering its exposed situation. I think when you left us they had scarcely ceased to be, in the words of the late Dr Andrew Thomson, ’ a small family of featherless children;’ but the Woodville air agreed so well with them that their heads and tails hung over the sides of the nest, as if they had been intended for a larger domicile. We looked daily for their taking flight of their own accord, when one morning two of the young Adies called, and expressed a

THE linnets’ nests. 1 35

great wish for a pair of greenies. So I went to the nest, and was in the act of stretching out my hand to help myself, when out sprung two of the strongest and uppermost, and spouted across the avenue. The youngest of the family, however, who had all along been much tyrannised over by his brothers and sisters, remained in the forsaken dwelling, swelled out his wings, and stretched his hind legs in such a manner as to say very clearly that their absence was good company. But the hands of the Philistines were soon upon him, and he was hauled, nolens volens, from his mossy bed, and handed over to fair Haidee. As, however, a pair were required, I made an excursion to the evergreen where yours were born and bred last year, and there I succeeded in securing another, although his elder brother also took it into his head to spout out of his nest when he saw me coming. Indeed, the whole of our troops are prepared for revolt, and won’t even eat their dinners unless they get ’ the Mil, the whole bill, and nothing but the bill’ In the same bush with the last-named nest there is also a delightful group of young blackbirds; and throughout the garden various other nests are in different states and stages. The one in the porch is still in safety; but the mother seems to suffer greatly from heat, and sits with her neb generally open. I suppose she wishes it to pass for a reform-bill. We have got Mr Adie’s sea-maw, which is already quite at

136 WOODVILLE: ITS PETS AND ITS PUESTTrs.

home. All our other pets are well, both the feathered, and the bombazined and ginghamed. I dined one day, a while ago, with Dr Greville; but the family were still at Lasswade. We had Dr Scott of Corstorphine. I preached and presided, but Dr S. said grace: nobody

returned thanks. Old is still alive, but not kicking.

He rang his bell t’other morning, but had, very sensibly, first bolted the door in the inside, which only made his daughter wring her hands on the outside. At last, I

believe, Dr crept in through the key whole, and

found all as usual”