t
lovely sister of hers is married, though matrimony in that world is
not always the securest haven for a woman's virtue or happiness; it
is sometimes in that society the reverse of an "honorable estate."

The poor king's death gave me a holiday on Monday, Tuesday, and
Wednesday, and we eagerly embraced the opportunity its respite
afforded us of visiting Loch Lomond and the entrance to Loch Long.
As almost my first thought when we reached the lake was, "How can
people attempt to describe such places?" I shall not terminate my
letter with "smooth expanses of sapphire-tinted waves," or "purple
screens of heath-clad hills rising one above another into the
cloudless sky." A volume might be written on the mere color of the
water, and give no idea of it, though you are the very person whose
imagination, aided by all that you've seen, would best realize such
a scene from description. It was heavenly, and we had such a
perfect day! I prefer, however, the glimpse we had of Loch Long to
what we saw of Loch Lomond. I brought away an appropriate nosegay
from my trip, a white rose from Dumbarton, in memory of Mary
Stuart, an oak branch from Loch Lomond, and a handful of heather,
for which I fought with the bees on the rocky shore of Loch Long.

I like my Glasgow audience better than my Edinburgh one; they are
not so cold. I look for a pleasant audience in your country, for
which we set out to-morrow, I believe. My aunt desires to be
remembered to you, and so does my father, and bids me add, in
answer to your modest doubt, that you are a person to be always
remembered with pleasure and esteem. I am glad you did not like my
Bath miniature; indeed, it was not likely that you would.

Believe me always yours affectionately,
F. A. K.

During our summer tour my mother, who had remained in London,
superintended the preparation of a new house, to which we removed on our
return to town. My brother Henry's schooling at Westminster was over,
which had been the reason for our taking the house at Buckingham Gate,
and, though it had proved a satisfactory residence in many respects, we
were glad to exchange it for the one to which we now went, which had
many associations that made it agreeable to my father, having been my
uncle John's home fo