FROM HIS FATHER.

                                                                Edinburgh, 21st February 1853.

The Halo and accompaniment of the 15th had been very curious. I never saw the appearance of Mock Suns.

Lord Cockburn went in plain dress to the fancy ball. When the crowd hissed him, he said he was the minister that    was to marry them all!!

FROM HIS FATHER.

                                                                  Edinburgh, 13th March 1853.

Ask Gedge to get you instructions to Brummagem workshops. View, if you can, armourers, gunmaking and   gunproving—swordmaking and proving—Papier-maché and japanning—silver-plating by cementation and   rolling,—ditto, electrotype—Elkington's Works—Brazier's works, by founding and by striking up in   dies—turning—spinning teapot bodies in white metal, etc.—making buttons of sorts, steel pens, needles, pins, and  any sorts of small articles which are curiously done by subdivision of labour and by ingenious tools—glass of sorts   is among the works of the place, and all kinds of foundry work—engine-making—tools and instruments (optical   and philosophical) both coarse and fine. If you have had enough of the town lots of Birmingham, you could vary   the recreation by viewing Kenilworth, Warwick, Leamington, Stratford-on-Avon, or suchlike.

 
 

                                                                     Glenlair, 29th April 1853.

You write (from King Edward's School, Birmingham) about plans and visits, Freshman Tayler and two others   innominate.

                                                                      Glenlair, 12th May 1853

What do you know of Henry Mackenzie? Do you find Frank to be clever, good, agreeable, and wise, which you   state to be the desiderata for a friend?

Here is a Prop. anent fuel. What would be the amount of heat evolved in the combustion of a given weight of dry   wood compared with the same weight of coal?
 

                                                          Glenlair, The Day after the Wedding,(36)
                                                                              1st June (1853).

I have yours of the day of the Restoration. . . . She (Maria Clerk) also wrote about the new phase of animal   magnetism called table-Turning. Do you know about that?

Photography is also in the ascendant. You will, no doubt, be at Ipswich, I believe an ancient city, and hath old  kirks and sundries worthy of notice. Is Otley towards the sea? Douking, etc.?
 

FROM HIS FATHER.

                                                                      Glenlair, 24th June 1858.

I have just received your letter and Mr. Tayler's. You may be sure I am thankful to hear of your recovering,  although not previously made anxious about the illness. I cannot but think of the fever fit you had in Edinburgh after  an Academy exam., when we had settled to go to Melrose—that was in 1846(37). Nothing can exceed the  kindness of Mr. and Mrs. Tayler, and I hope you will not need long nursing. If you are well and not much  hindered, you can let me know more fully how you are getting on. Neither you nor Mr. Tayler mention the day  you were taken ill. Mr. T.'s letter is dated 22d.

 
 

                                                                      Glenlair, 28th June 1853.

I am most thankful and happy to hear of your convalescence through Mr. Tayler's most kind and daily bulletins. I  know not how sufficiently to thank Mr. and Mrs. Tayler for their very great kindness. I think you may be best to   come home, when fit to travel, for further recreation.

                                                                       Glenlair, 1st July 1853.

Mr. Tayler says, both truly and kindly, "You must be his guest till you are fit to travel." . . .

With yours I have Mr. Tayler's letter of 28th. I do not write to him to-day. My only subject is thanks, and these   are not to be measured in words—the strongest that can use; so at present give my respects and highest regards. 

FROM HIS FATHER.

                                                                   Glenlair, 10th October 1853.

1 have set up the rain-gauge in the middle of the garden at the crossing of the gooseberry bushes at the Camomile.   I think it will do.

As to changing your rooms—I suppose from that, you have settled to continue for a time at Cambridge and to  look out for a fellowship.
 

                                                                   Glenlair, 28th October 1853.

Be sure to keep a long way within your powers of working, and then you may do well whatever you undertake.
 

                                                                  Glenlair, 13th November 1853.

Your letter was chiefly a dissertation on the election of Examinators; the names were all strange to me, except our  old friend Charles Mackenzie.

FROM HIS FATHER.

                                                                 Glenlair, 16th December 1853.

I knew Thomas Erskine of Linlathen very well long ago. He and his mother and sisters lived in No. 30 Heriot   Row. He came to the Bar in Edinburgh the year before me. He is related to George Dundas, and Stirlings, and   Erskines, and many families we visited. For long he has lived at Linlathen, near Dundee, and is author of various   religious books.

Your dissertation on the parties in the Church of England goes far beyond any knowledge. I would need an   explanatory lecture first, and before I can follow the High, Broad, and Low, through their ramifications. 

 

                                                                  Penicuik, 30th December /53.

You will need to get muffetees for the Senate-Room. Take your plaid or rug to wrap round your feet and legs.