ere was much talk between the Sheriff and Mr. Pringle about the
Selkirkshire Yeomanry Cavalry, of which the latter had been the
original commandant. Young Walter Scott had been for a year or more
Cornet in the corps, and his father was consulting Torwoodlee about an
entertainment which he meant to give them on his son's approaching
birthday. It was then that the new dining-room was to be first
_heated_ in good earnest; and Scott very kindly pressed Wilson and
myself, at parting, to return for the occasion--which, however, we
found it impossible to do. The reader must therefore be satisfied with
what is said about it in one of the following letters:--

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

ABBOTSFORD, 5th November, 1818.

MY DEAR MORRITT,--Many thanks for your kind letter of 29th
October. The matter of the colts being as {p.292} you
state, I shall let it lie over until next year, and then
avail myself of your being in the neighborhood to get a good
pair of four-year-olds, since it would be unnecessary to buy
them a year younger, and incur all the risks of disease and
accident, unless they could have been had at a proportional
under-value.

* * * * * * leaves us this morning after a visit of about a
week. He improves on acquaintance, and especially seems so
pleased with everything, that it would be very hard to
quarrel with him. Certainly, as the Frenchman said, _il a un
grand talent pour le silence_. I take the opportunity of his
servant going direct to Rokeby to charge him with this
letter, and a plaid which my daughters entreat you to accept
of as a token of their _warm_ good wishes. Seriously you
will find it a good bosom friend in an easterly wind, a
black frost, or when your country avocations lead you to
face a _dry wap of snow_. I find it by far the lightest and
most comfortable integument which I can use upon such
occasions.

We had a grand jollification here last week;--the whole
troop of Forest Yeomanry dining with us. I assure you the
scene was gay and even grand, with glittering sabres, waving
standards, and screaming bagpipes; and that it might not
lack spectators of taste, who should arrive in the midst of
the hurricane, but Lord and Lady Compton, whose presence
gave a great zest to the whole affair. Everything we