December 30.—­Spent at home and in labour—­with the weight of unpleasant news from Edinburgh.  J.B. is like to be pinched next week unless the loan can be brought forward.  I must and have endeavoured to supply him.  At present the result of my attempts is uncertain.  I am even more anxious about C[onstable] & Co., unless they can get assistance from their London friends to whom they gave much.  All is in God’s hands.  The worst can only be what I have before anticipated.  But I must, I think, renounce the cigars.  They brought back (using two this evening) the irritation of which I had no feelings while abstaining from them.  Dined alone with Gordon,[106] Lady S., and Anne.  James Curle, Melrose, has handsomely lent me L600; he has done kindly.  I have served him before and will again if in my power.

December 31.—­Took a good sharp walk the first time since my illness, and found myself the better in health and spirits.  Being Hogmanay, there dined with us Colonel Russell and his sisters, Sir Adam Ferguson and Lady, Colonel Ferguson, with Mary and Margaret; an auld-warld party, who made themselves happy in the auld fashion.  I felt so tired about eleven that I was forced to steal to bed.

FOOTNOTES: 

[52] See ante, p. 12.  Mr. James Ballantyne and Mr. Cadell concurred with Mr. Constable and Sir Walter in the propriety of assisting Robinson.

[53] Robert Pierce Gillies, once proprietor of a good estate in Kincardineshire, and member of the Scotch Bar.  It is pleasant to find Mr. Gillies expressing his gratitude for what Sir Walter had done for him more than twenty-five years after this paragraph was written.  “He was,” says R.P.G., “not only among the earliest but most persevering of my friends—­persevering in spite of my waywardness.”—­Memoirs of a Literary Veteran, including Sketches and Anecdotes of the most distinguished Literary Characters from 1794 to 1849 (3 vols., London, 1851), vol. i. p. 321.  Mr. Gillies died in 1861.

[54] Mr. Gillies was, however, warmly welcomed by another publisher in Edinburgh, who paid him L100 for his bulky MSS., and issued the book in 1825 under the title of The Magic Ring, 3 vols.  Its failure with the public prevented a repetition of the experiment!

[55] King Richard III., Act III.  Sc. 7.—­J.G.L.

[56] Of the many Edinburgh suppers of this period, commemorated by Lord Cockburn, not the least pleasant were the friendly gatherings in 30 Abercromby Place, the town house of Dr. James Russell, Professor of Clinical Surgery.  They were given fortnightly after the meetings of the Royal Society during the Session, and are occasionally mentioned in the Journal.  Dr. Russell died in 1836.

[57] Mr. Mackenzie had been consulting Sir Walter about collecting his own juvenile poetry.—­J.G.L.  Though the venerable author of The Man of Feeling did not die till 1831, he does not appear to have carried out his intention.