, which takes place to-morrow, for
three weeks, will give me ample time to complete this job,
and also the second volume of Triermain, which is nearly
finished,--a strange rude story, founded partly on the
ancient northern traditions respecting the Berserkers, whose
peculiar habits and fits of martial frenzy make such a
figure in the Sagas. I shall then set myself seriously to
The Antiquary, of which I have only a very general sketch at
present; but when once I get my pen to the paper it will
walk fast enough. I am sometimes tempted to leave it alone,
and try whether it will not write as well without the
assistance of my head as with it. A hopeful prospect for the
reader. In the mean while, the snow, which is now falling so
fast as to make it dubious when this letter may reach
Rokeby, is likely to forward these important avocations, by
keeping me a constant resident in Edinburgh, in lieu of my
plan of going to Abbotsford, where I had a number of schemes
in hand, in the way of planting and improving. I believe I
told you I have made a considerable addition to my little
farm, and extended my domains towards a wild lake, which I
have a good prospect of acquiring also. It has a sort of
legendary fame; for the persuasion of the solitary shepherds
who approach its banks is, that it is tenanted by a very
large amphibious animal called by them a water-bull, and
which several of them pretend to have seen. As his
dimensions greatly exceed those of an otter, I am tempted to
think with Trinculo, "This is the devil, and no monster."
But, after all, is it not strange, that as to almost all the
lakes in Scotland, both Lowland and Highland, such a belief
should prevail? and that the description popularly given
{p.092} uniformly corresponds with that of the
hippopotamus? Is it possible, that at some remote period,
that remarkable animal, like some others which have now
disappeared, may have been an inhabitant of our large lakes?
Certainly the vanishing of the mammoth and other animals
from the face of the creation renders such a conjecture less
wild than I would otherwise esteem it. It is certain we have
lost the beaver, whose bones have been more than once found
in our Selkirkshire bogs and marlmosses. The remains of the
wild bull are very fr