mie's
adventure diverted me much. I read it to my uncle, who being long
in the India service, was affronted. Remember me to James when
you write, and to all your family, and friends in general. I send
this to Kelso--you may address as usual; my letters will be
forwarded--adieu--au revoir,

WALTER SCOTT.

[Footnote 87: Pies.]

[Footnote 88: Sir A. Ferguson.]

With the exception of this little excursion, Scott appears to have
been nailed to Edinburgh during this autumn, by that course of legal
study, in company with Clerk, on which he dwells in his Memoir with
more satisfaction than on any other passage in his early life. He
copied out _twice_, as the fragment tells us, his notes of those
lectures of the eminent Scots Law professor (Mr. Hume), which he
speaks of in such a high strain of eulogy; and Mr. Irving adds that
the second copy, being fairly finished and bound into volumes, was
presented to {p.166} his father. The old gentleman was highly
gratified with this performance, not only as a satisfactory proof of
his son's assiduous attention to the law professor, but inasmuch as
the lectures afforded himself "very pleasant reading for leisure
hours."

Mr. Clerk assures me that nothing could be more exact (excepting as to
a few petty circumstances introduced for obvious reasons) than the
resemblance of the Mr. Saunders Fairford of Redgauntlet to his
friend's father:--"He was a man of business of the old school,
moderate in his charges, economical, and even niggardly in his
expenditure; strictly honest in conducting his own affairs and those
of his clients; but taught by long experience to be wary and
suspicious in observing the motions of others. Punctual as the clock
of St. Giles tolled nine" (the hour at which the Court of Session
meets), "the dapper form of the hale old gentleman was seen at the
threshold of the court hall, or, at farthest, at the head of the Back
Stairs" (the most convenient access to the Parliament House from
George's Square), "trimly dressed in a complete suit of snuff-colored
brown, with stockings of silk or woollen, as suited the weather; a bob
wig and a small cocked hat; shoes blacked as Warren would have blacked
them; silver shoe-buckles, and a gold stock-buckle. His manners
corresponded with his attire, for they were scrupulously civil, and
not a little formal.... On the whole, he was a man much liked and