RT, MARION, ELIZABETH. IV. ALAN, West India
merchant, married
Jean Lillie.
||
V. ROBERT, married
Jean Smith.
|
-------
|
VI. ALAN.--Margaret Jones.
|
VII. R. A. M. S.

NOTE.--Between 1730-1766 flourished in Glasgow Alan the Coppersmith,
who acts as a kind of a pin to the whole Stevenson system there. He
was caution to Robert the Second's will, and to William's will, and to
the will of a John, another maltman.

So much, though all inchoate, I trouble you with, knowing that you, at
least, must take an interest in it. So much is certain of that strange
Celtic descent, that the past has an interest for it apparently
gratuitous, but fiercely strong. I wish to trace my ancestors a thousand
years, if I trace them by gallowses. It is not love, not pride, not
admiration; it is an expansion of the identity, intimately pleasing, and
wholly uncritical; I can expend myself in the person of an inglorious
ancestor with perfect comfort; or a disgraced, if I could find one. I
suppose, perhaps, it is more to me who am childless, and refrain with a
certain shock from looking forwards. But, I am sure, in the solid
grounds of race, that you have it also in some degree.

Enough genealogy. I do not know if you will be able to read my hand.
Unhappily, Belle, who is my amanuensis, is out of the way on other
affairs, and I have to make the unwelcome effort. (O this is beautiful,
I am quite pleased with myself.) Graham has just arrived last night (my
mother is coming by the other steamer in three days), and has told me of
your meeting, and he said you looked a little older than I did; so that
I suppose we keep step fairly on the downward side of the hill. He
thought you looked harassed, and I could imagine that too. I sometimes
feel harassed. I have a great family here about me, a great anxiety. The
loss (to use my grand