September 22.—­Captain and Colonel Ferguson, the last returned from Ireland, dined here.  Prayer of the minister of the Cumbrays, two miserable islands in the mouth of the Clyde:  “O Lord, bless and be gracious to the Greater and the Lesser Cumbrays, and in thy mercy do not forget the adjacent islands of Great Britain and Ireland.”

September 23.—­Worked in the morning; then drove over to Huntly Burn, chiefly to get from the good-humoured Colonel the accurate spelling of certain Hindu words which I have been using under his instructions.  By the way, the sketches he gave me of Indian manners are highly picturesque.  I have made up my Journal, which was three days in arrear.  Also I wrought a little, so that the second volume of Grandfather’s Tales is nearly half finished.

September 24.—­Worked in the morning as usual, and sent off the proofs and copy.  Something of the black dog still hanging about me; but I will shake him off.  I generally affect good spirits in company of my family, whether I am enjoying them or not.  It is too severe to sadden the harmless mirth of others by suffering your own causeless melancholy to be seen; and this species of exertion is, like virtue, its own reward; for the good spirits, which are at first simulated, become at length real.[42]

September 25, [Edinburgh],—­Got into town by one o’clock, the purpose being to give my deposition before Lord Newton in a case betwixt me and Constable’s creditors.  My oath seemed satisfactory; but new reasons were alleged for additional discussion, which is, I trust, to end this wearisome matter.  I dined with Mr. Gibson, and slept there.  J.B. dined with us, and we had thoughts how to save our copyright by a bargain with Cadell.  I hope it will turn to good, as I could add notes to a future edition, and give them some value.

September 26, [Abbotsford].—­Set off in mail coach, and my horses met me at Yair Bridge.  I travelled with rather a pleasant man, an agent, I found, on Lord Seaford’s[43] West Indian Estates.  Got home by twelve o’clock, and might have been here earlier if the Tweed had not been too large for fording.  I must note down my cash lest it gets out of my head; “may the foul fa’ the gear, and the blathrie o’t,"[44] and yet there’s no doing either with it or without it.

September 27.—­The morning was damp, dripping, and unpleasant; so I even made a work of necessity, and set to the Tales like a dragon.  I murdered M’Lellan of Bomby at Thrieve Castle; stabbed the Black Douglas in the town of Stirling; astonished King James before Roxburgh; and stifled the Earl of Mar in his bath in the Canongate.  A wild world, my masters, this Scotland of ours must have been.  No fear of want of interest; no lassitude in those days for want of work,

    “For treason, d’ ye see,
    Was to them a dish of tea,
        And murther bread and butter.”