acquainted with the Author's previous poems suggested by that
celebrated stream.

363. *_Yarrow Revisited_.

I first became acquainted with this great and amiable man (Sir Walter
Scott) in the year 1803, when my sister and I, making a tour in
Scotland, were hospitably received by him in Lasswade, upon the banks of
the Esk, where he was then living. We saw a good deal of him in the
course of the following week. The particulars are given in my sister's
journal of that tour.

(2) *_Ibid._

In the autumn of 1831, my daughter and I set off from Rydal to visit Sir
Walter Scott, before his departure for Italy. This journey had been
delayed, by an inflammation in my eyes, till we found that the time
appointed for his leaving home would be too near for him to receive us
without considerable inconvenience. Nevertheless, we proceeded, and
reached Abbotsford on Monday. I was then scarcely able to lift up my
eyes to the light. How sadly changed did I find him from the man I had
seen so healthy, gay, and hopeful a few years before, when he said at
the inn at Paterdale, in my presence, his daughter Anne also being
there, with Mr. Lockhart, my own wife and daughter, and Mr. Quillinan,
'I mean to live till I am eighty, and shall write as long as I live.'
Though we had none of us the least thought of the cloud of misfortune
which was then going to break upon his head, I was startled, and almost
shocked, at that bold saying, which could scarcely be uttered by such a
man, sanguine as he was, without a momentary forgetfulness of the
instability of human life. But to return to Abbotsford. The inmates and
guests we found there were Sir Walter, Major Scott, Anne Scott, and Mr.
and Mrs. Lockhart; Mr. Liddell, his lady and brother, and Mr. Allan, the
painter, and Mr. Laidlaw, a very old friend of Sir Walter's. One of
Burns's sons, an officer in the Indian service, had left the house a day
or two before, and had kindly expressed his regret that he could not
wait my arrival, a regret that I may truly say was mutual. In the
evening, Mr. and Mrs. Liddell sang, and Mrs. Lockhart chaunted old
ballads to her harp; and Mr. Allan, hanging over the back of a chair,
told and acted odd stories in a humorous way. With this exhibition, and
his daughter's singing, Sir Walter was much amused, and, indeed, were we
all, as far as circumstances would allow. But what is most worthy of
mention is the admirable demeanour of Major Scott during that
evening.[