bliged and grateful

Walter SCOTT.

Given from my Castle of Grawacky,
this second day of the month called
October, One Thousand Eight Hundred
and Seventeen Years.

There is a date nearly as long as the letter.

I hope we shall attack the foxes at Bowhill. I will hazard
Maida.

We have some allusions to this Bowhill party in another letter; the
first of several which I shall now insert according to their dates,
leaving them, with a few marginal notes, to tell out the story of
1817:--

TO DANIEL TERRY, ESQ., LONDON.

ABBOTSFORD, October 24, 1817.

DEAR TERRY,--Bullock has not gone to Skye, and I am very
glad he has not, for to me who knew the Hebrides well, the
attempt seemed very perilous at this season. I have
considerably enlarged my domains since I wrote to you, by
the purchase of a beautiful farm adjacent. The farmhouse,
which is new and excellent, I have let to Adam Ferguson and
his sisters. We will be within a pleasant walk of each
other, and hope to end our lives, as they began, in each
other's society. There is a beautiful brook, with remnants
of natural wood, which would make Toftfield rival
Abbotsford, but for the majestic Tweed. I am in treaty for a
field or two more; one of which contains the only specimen
of a Peel-house, or defensive residence of a small
proprietor, which remains in this neighborhood. It is an
orchard, in the hamlet of Darnick, to which it gives a most
picturesque effect. Blore admires it very much. We are all
well here, but crowded with company. I have been junketing
{p.195} this week past at Bowhill. Mr. Magrath has been
with us these two or three days, and has seen his ward,
Hamlet, behave most _princelike_ on Newark Hill and
elsewhere. He promises to be a real treasure.[79]
Notwithstanding, Mr. Magrath went to Bowhill with me one
day, where his vocal talents gave great pleasure, and I hope
will procure him the notice and protection of the Buccleuch
family. The Duke says my building engrosses, as a common
centre, the thoughts of Mr. Atkinson and Mr. Bullock, and
wishes he could make them equally anxious in his own behalf.
You may believe this flatters me not a little.

[Footnote 79: This fine gre