y remembered to Mrs. Terry and
Monsieur Walter. Ever most truly yours,

Walter SCOTT.

TO THE SAME.

EDINBURGH, 16th May, 1818.

MY DEAR TERRY,--Mr. Nasmyth[104] has obligingly given me an
opportunity of writing to you a few lines, as he is setting
out for London. I cannot tell you how much I continue to be
grieved for our kind-hearted and enthusiastic friend
Bullock. I trust he has left his family comfortably settled,
though, with so many plans which required his active and
intelligent mind to carry them through, one has natural
apprehensions upon that score. When you can with propriety
make inquiry how my matters stand, I should be glad to know.
Hector Macdonald tells me that my doors and windows were
ready packed, in which case, perhaps, the sooner they are
embarked the better, not only for safety, but because they
can only be in the way, and the money will now be the more
acceptable. Poor Bullock had also the measures for my
chimney-pieces, for grates of different kinds, and orders
for beds, dining-room tables and chairs. But how far these
are in progress of being executed, or whether they can now
be executed, I must leave to your judgment and inquiry. Your
good sense and delicacy will understand the _facon de faire_
better than I can point it out. I shall never have the
pleasure in these things that I expected.

[Footnote 104: Mr. Alexander Nasmyth, an eminent
landscape painter of Edinburgh--the father of Mrs.
Terry.]

I have just left Abbotsford to attend the Summer
session--left it when the leaves were coming out--the most
delightful season for a worshipper of the country like me.
The Home-bank, which we saw at first green with turnips,
will now hide a man somewhat taller than Johnny Ballantyne
in its shades. In fact, the trees {p.235} cover the ground,
and have a very pretty bosky effect; from six years to ten
or twelve, I think wood is as beautiful as ever it is
afterwards until it figures as aged and magnificent. Your
hobbledehoy tree of twenty-five years' standing is neither
so beautiful as in its infancy, nor so respectable as in its
age.

Counsellor Erskine is returned, much pleased with your