nd, was, as we learn
from the composer's letters, a brother-in-law of Miss Stirling and Mrs.
Erskine. Johnstone Castle (twelve miles from Glasgow), where Chopin was
also received as a guest, belonged to the Houston family, friends of the
Erskines and Stirlings, but, I think, no relations. The death of
Ludovic Houston, Esq., in 1862, is alluded to in one of Thomas Erskine's
letters.

But Chopin, while in Scotland, was not always staying in manors and
castles, now and then he was housed less aristocratically, though
perhaps not less, nay, probably more, comfortably. Such humbler quarters
he found at the house (10, Warriston Crescent) of Dr. Lyschinski, a
Pole by birth, and a refugee, who after studying medicine in Edinburgh
practised it there until a few years ago when he removed to London.
For the information which I am now going to give I am indebted to Mrs.
Lyschinski. Among those who received Chopin at the Edinburgh railway
station was Dr. Lyschinski who addressed him in Polish. The composer put
up at an hotel (perhaps the London Hotel, in St. Andrew's Square). Next
day--Miss Paterson, a neighbour, having placed her carriage at Chopin's
disposal--Mrs. Lyschinski took him out for a drive. He soon got tired
of the hotel, in fact, felt it quite unbearable, and told the doctor,
to whom he had at once taken a fancy, that he could not do without him.
Whereupon the latter said: "Well, then you must come to my house; and
as it is rather small, you must be satisfied with the nursery." So the
children were sent to a friend's house, and the nursery was made into a
bedroom for the illustrious guest, an adjoining bedroom being prepared
for his servant Daniel, an Irish-Frenchman. Unless the above refers to
Chopin's return to Scotland in September, after his visit to Manchester,
Mrs. Lyschinski confuses her reminiscences a little, for, as the
last-quoted letter proves, he tarried, on his first arrival, only one
day in Edinburgh. But the facts, even if not exactly grouped, are, no
doubt, otherwise correctly remembered. Chopin rose very late in the day,
and in the morning had soup in his room. His hair was curled daily
by the servant, and his shirts, boots, and other things were of the
neatest--in fact, he was a petit-maitre, more vain in dress than any
woman. The maid-servants found themselves strictly excluded from his
room, however indispensable their presence might seem to them in the
interests of neatness and cleanliness. Chopin