[449] Written by Mrs. J. Johnstone, in after years editor of Tait’s Magazine, well known also as the author of Meg Dods’ Cookery Book, which Sir Walter refers to in St. Ronan’s Well.  Her sense of humour and power of delineating character are shown in her stories and sketches in Tait, and a good example of her ready wit has been told by Mr. Alexander Russel, editor of the Scotsman.  On a visit to Altrive Mrs. Johnstone and her party were kindly received by the Ettrick Shepherd, who did the honours of the district, and among other places took them to a Fairy Well, from which he drew a glass of sparkling water.  Handing it to the lady the bard of Kilmeny said, “Hae, Mrs. Johnstone, ony merrit wumman wha drinks a tumbler of this will hae twuns in a twalmont’!” “In that case, Mr. Hogg,” replied the lady, “I shall only take half a tumbler.”

Mrs. Johnstone died in Edinburgh in 1857.

[450] Slightly varied from the lines in Ruth,—­Poems, vol. ii. p. 112, Edinburgh, 1836.

[451] John Russell (a grandson of Principal Robertson), long Chief Clerk in the Jury Court, and Treasurer to the Royal Society and the Edinburgh Academy.  He took a keen interest in education, and published in October 1855 some curious Statistics of a Class [Christison’s] in the High School [of Edinburgh] from 1787 to 1791, of which he had been a member.  Mr. Russell died on January 30, 1862.

[452] Leonard Horner, editor in after years of the Memoirs of his brother Francis (2 vols. 8vo, London, 1843).  He died in 1864.

[453] See Report by the Directors to the Proprietors of the Edinburgh Academy on the Pronunciation of Latin, Edin. 1827.  Sir Walter always took a warm interest in the school.  His speech as Chairman at the opening ceremony, on the 1st October 1824, is quoted in the Life, vol. vii. p. 268.

[454] Burnt at Edinburgh in 1670.—­See Arnot’s Crim.  Trials. 4to, Edin. 1785.

[455] Afterwards Sir John Rennie, knighted on the completion of the Bridge.

[456] See ante, p. 307, and post, p. 359.

[457] Dr. Marshman died in 1837.  See Marshman’s Lives of Carey, Marshman, and Ward.  London, 2 vols. 8vo, 1859.

[458] John Menzies of Pitfoddels, the last of an old Aberdeenshire family, of whom it was said that for thirty-seven years he never became aware of distress or difficulty without exerting himself to relieve it.  In 1828 he gave the estate of Blairs, near Aberdeen, for the foundation of the Roman Catholic College established there, and was also a munificent benefactor to the Convent of St. Margaret, Edinburgh, opened in 1835.  Mr. Menzies died in 1843.

FEBRUARY.

February 1.—­I feel a return of the cursed rheumatism.  How could it miss, with my wetting?  Also feverish, and a slight headache.  So much for claret and champagne.  I begin to be quite unfit for a good fellow.  Like Mother Cole in the Minor, a thimbleful upsets me,[459]—­I mean, annoys my stomach, for my brains do not suffer.  Well, I have had my time of these merry doings.