guests. She dwelt mournfully upon his kind farewell at her door, when he left for his continental tour, and the sad change in his appearance after his return. We were the more pleased to listen to her tales, and see her honest sympathy, from having just been annoyed by a different demeanor in the person appointed to show the apartments at Abbotsford. We had been forewarned of this by Johnny Bower, who told us that we should be waited upon by an English woman, who felt little interest in Sir Walter, whom she had never seen, and who would try to hurry us through our researches. "But ne'er ye mind thaut," said he, "staund firm." Yet we did not find it quite so easy to "staund firm," almost forcibly hastened as we were from room to room, our questions answered in a most laconic style, and the explanations that we desired denied. The cause of this singular want of attention seemed to be, in some measure, to be ready for another party who appeared upon the grounds, and whose expected fee she was probably impatient to add to our own. Yet it is desirable that a spot like Abbotsford, one of the "Mecca- shrines" of Scotland, should be exhibited to pilgrims, either by a native of its clime, or at least by one not deficient in the common courtesy of a guide.
A picture of Tom Purdie, the faithful servant, hangs in the dining-room at Abbotsford, in the vicinity of dukes and princes. And near the Abbey of Melrose is his grave, and monument, with this inscription from the pen of his beloved master.
