“...  Maggie will not sleep
For that, ere summer."[105]

December 27.—­This morning we took a drive up the Yarrow in great force, and perambulated the Duchess’s Walk with all the force of our company.  The weather was delightful, the season being considered; and Newark Castle, amid its leafless trees, resembled a dear old man who smiles upon the ruins which time has spread around him.  It is looking more venerable than formerly, for the repairs judiciously undertaken have now assumed colouring congenial with the old walls; formerly, they had a raw and patchy appearance.  I have seldom seen the scene look better even when summer smiled upon it.

I have a letter from James Hogg, the Ettrick Shepherd, asking me to intercede with the Duke of Buccleuch about his farm.[106] He took this burthen upon himself without the advice of his best friends, and certainly contrary to mine.  From the badness of the times it would have been a poor speculation in any hands, especially in those of a man of letters, whose occupation, as well as the society in which it involves him, [are so different].  But I hope this great family will be kind to him; if not, cela ne vaudra pas a moi.  But I cannot and ought not to look for having the same interest with this gentleman which I exercised in the days of Duke Charles.

December 28.—­A demand from Cadell to prepare a revised copy of the Tales of my Grandfather for the press.[107] I received it with great pleasure, for I always had private hopes of that work.  If I have a knack for anything it is for selecting the striking and interesting points out of dull details, and hence, I myself receive so much pleasure and instruction from volumes which are generally reputed dull and uninteresting.  Give me facts, I will find fancy for myself.  The first two volumes of these little tales are shorter than the third by seventy or eighty pages.  Cadell proposes to equalise them by adding part of vol. ii. to vol. i., and of vol. iii. to vol. ii.  But then vol. i. ends with the reign of Robert Bruce, vol. ii. with the defeat of Flodden; happy points of pause which I cannot think of disturbing, the first in particular, for surely we ought to close one volume at least of Scottish history at a point which leaves the kingdom triumphant and happy; and, alas! where do her annals present us with such an era excepting after Bannockburn?  So I will set about to fill up the volumes, which are too short, with some additional matter, and so diminish at least, if we cannot altogether remove, their unsightly inequality in size.  The rest of the party went to Dryburgh—­too painful a place of pilgrimage for me.[108] I walked with the Lord Chief Commissioner through our grounds at Huntly Burn, and by taking the carriage now and then I succeeded in giving my excellent old friend enough of exercise without any fatigue.  We made our visit at Huntly Burn.

December 29.—­Lord Chief-Baron, Lord Chief-Commissioner, Miss Adam, Miss Anstruther Thomson, and William Clerk left us.  We read prayers, and afterwards walked round the terrace.