it similar respect.]

{p.090} P. S.--Under another cover, which I have just
received, I send the two drawings of the front and reverse
of the lid of the proposed cup. Your Grace will be so good
as understand that the thistle--the top of which is
garnished with the bristle--is entirely detached, in
working, from the figure, and slips into a socket. The
following lines are humbly suggested for a motto, being
taken from an ancient Scottish canzonetta,--unless the
Yarrow committee can find any better:--

"The sutor ga'e the sow a kiss:
Grumph! quo' the sow, it's a' for my birss."

Some weeks before the year 1815 closed, Mr. Morritt sustained the
heaviest of domestic afflictions; and several letters on that sad
subject had passed between Rokeby and Abbotsford,[29] before the date
of the following:--

[Footnote 29: [A touching letter from Morritt, written
shortly before his wife's death, and one of Scott's,
written after that event, will be found in _Familiar
Letters_, vol. i. pp. 352-354.]]

TO J. B. S. MORRITT, ESQ., M. P., ROKEBY PARK.

EDINBURGH, 22d December, 1815.

MY DEAR MORRITT,--While you know what satisfaction it would
have given me to have seen you here, I am very sensible of
the more weighty reasons which you urge for preferring to
stay at Rokeby for some time. I only hope you will remember
that Scotland has claims on you, whenever you shall find
your own mind so far at ease as to permit you to look abroad
for consolation; and if it should happen that you thought of
being here about our time of vacation, I have my time then
entirely at my own command, and I need not say, that as much
of it as could in any manner of way contribute to your
amusement, is most heartily at yours. I have myself at
present the melancholy task of watching the declining health
of my elder brother, Major Scott, whom, I think, you have
seen.

{p.091} My literary occupation is getting through the press
the Letters of Paul, of whose lucubrations I trust soon to
send you a copy. As the observations of a bystander, perhaps
you will find some amusement in them, especially as I had
some channels of information not accessible to every one.
The recess of our courts