[D] See long and interesting letter of June 5, 1872, from Sir Francis to Sir W.S.  Maxwell.—­Laing’s Catalogue, pp. 72-81.

APRIL.

April 2.—­Mr. Henry Liddell, eldest son of Lord Ravensworth, arrived here.  I like him and his brother Tom very much.  They are what may be termed fine men.  Young Mackenzie of Cromarty came with him, who is a fine lad and sings very beautifully.  I knew his father and mother, and was very glad to see him.  They had been at Mertoun fishing salmon, with little sport.

April 3.—­A letter from the Lord Chief Commissioner, reporting Lord Palmerston and Sir Herbert Taylor’s letters in Charles’s favour.  Wrote a grateful answer, and resolved, that as I have made my opinion public at every place where I could be called on or expected to appear, I will not throw myself forward when I have nothing to say.  May the Lord have mercy upon us and incline our hearts to keep this vow!

April 4.—­Mr. Liddell and Hay Mackenzie left us this morning.  Liddell showed me yesterday a very good poem, worthy of Pope or Churchill, in old-fashioned hexameters, called the [illegible].  He has promised me a copy, for it is still being printed.  There are some characters very well drawn.  The force of it belies the character of a Dandie, too hastily ascribed to the author.  He is accomplished as an artist and musician, and certainly has a fine taste for poetry, though he may never cultivate it.[445] He promises to bring his lady—­who is very clever, but pretty high, they say, in the temper—­to spend a day or two with us after leaving Edinburgh.

April 5.—­This fifth day of April is the March fair at Selkirk.  Almost every one of the family goes there, Mr. Laidlaw among others.  I have a hideous paralytic custom of stuttering with my pen, and cannot write without strange blunders; yet I cannot find any failure in my intellect.  Being unable to write to purpose with my own hand, this forenoon was a sort of holiday to me.  The third volume of Count Robert is fairly begun, but I fear I shall want stuff to fill it, for I would not willingly bombast it with things inappropriate.  If I could fix my mind to the task to-day, my temper, notwithstanding my oath, sets strong towards politics, where I would be sure of making a figure, and feel I could carry with me a great part of the middle-class, who wait for a shot between wind and water—­half comic, half serious, which is a better argument than most which are going.  The regard of my health is what chiefly keeps me in check.  The provoking odium I should mind much less; for there will always be as many for as against me, but it would be a foolish thing to take flight to the next world in a political gale of wind.  If Cadell gave me the least encouragement I would give way to the temptation.  Meantime I am tugging at the chain for very eagerness.  I have done enough to incense people against me, without, perhaps, doing so much as I could, would, or should have done.