greatly accumulated sorrows, by the perusal of some of the Waverley Novels, or other light reading of the day, which want of leisure, when I could be otherwise employed, had prevented me from paying much attention to, for some time previously.*

It was, at any rate, I think, in some such situation, I was found by my new friend, Mr, when he called and delivered, some time after, his introductory letter from my old friends, Messrs O. & B. of Edinburgh.

It is not to be inferred, that upon finding the winter almost gone, and the Spring approaching with so little prospect of my being able to avail myself of it to advantage, that I gave myself up to despair. No! My efforts, on the contrary, seem to have increased with my difficulties, and during the early part of the year, and spring months, if I was laid off myself, and my son had lost part of his time, I seem to have endeavoured to make both up, as far as possible, by keeping the wheels of business a-going, as follows:See below,† No. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5.

This may surprise some of my readers, considering the rising reputation at that period, of these multifarious performances, and the noise they have since made in the world, but it must appear to all who know any thing of my his tory, that I must have had in general too much to engage my attention other. wise, without novel reading, but at this time, I had recourse to it occasionally, as a temporary relief from my pain. Is it not rather curious, however, that under the painful circumstances, in which I was situated at this time, I should have observed a flaw, in ROB ROY, then I think, just come from press, which I see is now cor. rected in the edition recently published by Messrs R. Cadell and Co. but which had, through I suppose, all the editions previously published, continued to elude the notice of the publishers, as well as of reviewers of all descriptions; if we except the Statistical Magazine, in which, the blunder was pointed out many years ago, but long after I had discovered it. The passage is that, in which the fast day, of the forenoon, is so carelessly converted into a Sunday, after the interview had taken place at the Bridge, in the evening, at Glasgow.

+(1) P. C.'s route after leaving Glasgow, where he continued his operations, from the time formerly mentioned, the 2d of January to the 20th, was, by Port Glasgow, 26th to the 1st of February ;-Greenock, from the 4th to the 24th ditto; -Lochwinnoch, 26th and 27th-Beith, 1st to 3d of March;-Dalry, 4th to 6th; -Ayr, 9th to 20th ;-Maybole, 24th to 27th ;-Girvan, 29th to 31st ;-Kilmar nock, 2d and 3d April

(2) Messrs W. S. & Co. I see, had sales for me in EDINBURGH, on the 4th, 5th, 6th, 22d, 25th, and 28th of January; and again on the 15th and 16th of February.

(3) P. C. of that place, had a sale in the same city, on the week beginning 11th, and ending the 16th of January.

(4) We had a sale conducted by Messrs B. & Son, in Aberdeen, in February and March-and

(5) I observe that my son, so soon as we could conveniently spare him, and

While the auctions were going on, I contrived, in midst of all my afflictions and discouragements, to keep the publication business moving in the best manner possible. I had remittances monthly, such as they were, from the Inverness, and Orkney, and Caithness districts, and continued to pick up, by one assistant, the scanty gleanings which the home circuit could still afford.

But all would not do to avert the coming storm, which was preceded by the shipwreck of the Marchioness of Huntly, in which I had books to a considerable amount going to my new auctioneer at Aberdeen; and was perhaps rather hastened by a circumstance that I will not even here glance at, being more anxious to heal, than to rip up old sores; for I now plainly saw, that my returns of late, were, or were likely, to turn out to be quite inadequate to meet my demands on the 4th of April, as I had too much leisure to look into matters, when once more set free from the excruciating pain I had so long been accustomed to endure," within the walls of a house," for I must now mention, what I should perhaps have mentioned sooner, that the pain in my TоE, at last, became so exceedingly excruciating, that it could no longer be borne with; and being so long tormented and tantalized to so little purpose, by following the prescriptions of the doctor, (who indeed seems never to have understood the nature of the complaint) and seeing not the smallest prospect of relief, while the swelling continued to baffle every attempt, by the usual method of poulticing, &c. to subdue or reduce it, I was induced to try at last, what I believe I had stubbornly ob

he was able to resume travelling, otherwise, had a pretty extensive tour; begin. ning at Dirleton, in OUR OWN COUNTY, on the 15th February, and finishing at Allanton, in BERWICKSHIRE, on the 3d of April; and which may be delineated as follows,-Dirleton, 15th and 16th February ;-Athelstaneford, 17th and 18th ;-Linton, 19th, 20th ;-Whittingham, 24th, 25th;-Tynningham, 26th 27th ;-Garvald, 1st, 2d March;-Gifford, 3d, 4th ;-Pencaitland, 5th, 6th ;-Ormiston, 8th, 9th ;-West Salton, 10th ;-East Salton, 11th, 12th ;— Linton, 13th ;-Innerwick, 17th, 18th ;-Cockburnspath, 19th, 20th ;-East Barns, 22d;-Chirnside, 24th, 25th ;-Hutton, 26th, 27th ;-Paxton, 29th, 30th ;-Whitsome, 31st and 1st April ;-Allanton, April, 2d and 3d.

I see that, independently of my son's having been obliged to remain at home, in so busy a period, by the distressing cause formerly mentioned, he had been disabled from travelling, by a severe cold and hoarseness, for some time after his return from Aberdeen, which fully accounts for his being so long, in again, taking the field.

jected to, as "AN AULD WIFE'S CURE;"but such a change!-such a miracle of begun recovery, it soon manifested on my long tormented toe!-that I cannot advance one step further, without appending the recipe, by way of a note, for the use of those it may afterwards concern.*

The herb poultice, so made, was applied to the toe, and in a very short time, the swelling was so much reduced, as to let us see at once the root of the disease, which was neither more nor less, than the nail, not merely, as the saying is, growing into the flesh, but actually taking, a circling direction round the bone and through the toe.

As the poultice, besides laying the swelling, had also considerably deadened the pain, or this might have been perhaps owing to some recent application of the caustic; for the pain without it, was now past endurance. I set to work myself with a pair of scissars, and had actually by applying them in the manner of tweezers or nippers, twisted the nail so much out of its convolutions, as to lay the point bare,—but unfortunately, there were not another pair at hand to cut off the offending substance, and before such could be procured, the pain became so great, that I was obliged to quit my hold, and the snail like form, flew back to its too long established position, with the velocity of a watch spring.

I could proceed no farther at the time, but a fresh application of the herb poultice, soon brought the little member into a condition to be operated upon again, and in a few days afterwards, I succeeded in extracting the nail, by the same method of procedure while another stood by, to embrace the opportunity of cutting it off at the proper time, which effectually relieved me from a long, a far too long, so troublesome a tenant.+

• Take" a handful of Rue; a handful of Maws; and a handful of Chamomile washed very clean and well boiled, then mash them with a little Fresh Butter and Barley Meal, finely searched."-This is an exact transcript of the recipe, which, although it is my wish that it may be seldom needed, I certainly do consider of more value in the article of laying swellings, than the price of my whole Book.

To prevent the nail from again taking a wrong direction and getting into the flesh, I was taught by a book that I procured "on the management of the nails and the feet,"to scrape the upper part or upmost bend of the nail with a piece of window glass-which, weakening, as it were, the key stone of the arch, made the nail less apt to turn in at the sides; and this alone, with the cutting the nails

The exact time when this took place, I do not perfectly recollect, but from the circumstance of my being able to walk so far as the church yard in course of the month of February, at the time when the operations of taking down the old kirk were going on; for it was then, I recollect, that I first saw a new friend, who to this day has never assumed the semblance of a new face,—the nail must have been extracted before that time.

The relief, however, come when it might, came too late to be of much use to me, in the arduous task in which I was yet engaged. The season for activity was now too far gone, and by the time of my perfect recovery, it must have been altogether so, while circumstances, imperious circumstances, did not permit me to wait for another, in which I might attempt to retrieve my fortunes, and make up for lost opportunities—and I may add, for lost time-now alas! never

to return.

The loss of the Marchioness of Huntly, with the very goods on board, which I was hurrying to their destination, in order to help my deficiencies,—and the poor account of which, I had only ascertained within these few days,-must have been very discouraging, and joined to so many other distressing considerations, could not fail, to shake any resolution I might have formed, or been trying to form, as to farther perseverance in a contest, in which, I had so long fought and bled so profusely, and to so little purpose.

In short, by the beginning of April, the die may be said to have been cast, for on the 5th of that month, I see that I issued my circular, calling, once more, a meeting of my creditors, in the Royal Exchange Coffee House, Edinburgh, on Wednesday the 14th at 12 o'clock:-at which, contrary to my expectations at the time, in consequence of being afflicted with another ailment, I was able to attend personally, and to submit to the gentlemen assembled, the painful document, of which the following abstract, will serve to throw sufficient light on the

in a square form, or rather a little indented in the middle, something in the form of a heart-is the sum and substance of what may be said, in regard to a matter, so interesting to all, to know.

subject;-although, I have not room for inserting the several statements to which it refers, and by which it was accompanied at the time.

CHAPTER XXVII.—1819 (CONTINUED.)

Affecting representation.-Being an abstract of my address, to the meeting at Edinburgh, on the 14th April, 1819, and, including references to the several particular, comprehensive, and minute statements, by which it was accompanied. General statement of my affairs at that time, as per Inventory, Abstracts, and other documents.

ABSTRACT OF ADDRESS, &c.

"WHEN I was obliged by a series of unlooked for reverses, to lay a state of my affairs before my creditors, in the month of September, 1816, my circumstances otherwise, were such, and my future prospects so flattering, that TIME, to me, seemed all that was wanting to enable me to get the better of misfortune.

"And, on looking back to my situation and prospects at that time;—in the possession of a flourishing retail business,an almost unlimited credit,—and the promising aspect of my publication concern,-I do not hesitate here to repeat, what perhaps some of the gentlemen present, may have heard me already express, that it had been better for me, if I had bound myself down, to pay 24s. per pound, with TIME of my own selecting, (and I would not have been unreasonable,) than to make up 16s. within a period, that has since turned out, so replete with disaster,—and has consequently, obliged me to make such sacrifices of my stock.

"I have, therefore, no reflections to make gentlemen, on the magnitude of the composition then offered.-It was what I considered my stock at the time well able to bear, and therefore did, what I should have conceived it the duty of every honest man to have done in my situation. But, it must be confessed, that I THEN wished, and indeed from a conversa, tion that passed with some of the gentlemen concerned in