Page:A biographical dictionary of eminent Scotsmen, vol 7.djvu/105

Rh and it is to be fenred that he resumed it more frequently than he ought to have done. "Dr Abercromby," says he, in a letter dated March 7, "threatens me with death if I write so much; and die, I suppose, I must, if I give it up suddenly. I must assist Lockhart a little, for you are aware of our connexion, and he has always showed me the duties of a son; but, except that, and my own necessary work at the edition of the Waverley Novels, as they call them, I can hardly pretend to put pen to paper; for after all this same dying is a ceremony one would put off as long as possible."

In the autumn, his physicians recommended a residence in Italy, as a means of delaying the approaches of his illness. To this scheme he felt the strongest repugnance, as he feared he should die on a foreign soil, far from the mountain-land which was so endeared to himself, and which he had done so much to endear to others; but by the intervention of some friends, whose advice he had been accustomed to respect from his earliest years, he was prevailed upon to comply. By the kind offices of captain Basil Hall, liberty was obtained for him to sail in his majesty's ship the Barham, which was then fitting out for Malta.

He sailed in this vessel from Portsmouth, on the 27th of October, and on the 27th of December landed at Naples, where he was received by the king and his court with a feeling approaching to homage. In April, he proceeded to Rome, and was there received in the same manner. He inspected the remains of Roman grandeur with some show of interest, but was observed to mark with a keener feeling, and more minute care, the relics of the more barbarous middle ages; a circumstance, in our opinion, to have been predicated from the whole strain of his writings. He paid visits to Tivoli, Albani, and Frescati. If any thing could have been effectual in re-illuming that lamp, which was now beginning to pale its mighty lustres, it might have been expected that this would have been the ground on which the miracle was to take place. But he was himself conscious, even amidst the flatteries of his friends, that all hopes of this kind were at an end. Feeling that his strength was rapidly decaying, he determined upon returning with all possible speed to his native country, in order that his bones might not be laid (to use the language of his own favourite minstrelsy) "far from the Tweed." His journey was performed too rapidly for his strength. For six days he travelled seventeen hours a-day. The consequence was, that in passing down the Rhine he experienced a severe attack of his malady, which produced complete insensibility, and would have inevitably carried him off, but for the presence of mind of his servant, who bled him profusely. On his arrival in London, he was conveyed to the St James's Hotel, Jermyn Street, and immediately attended by Sir Henry Halford and Dr Holland, as well as by his son-in-law and daughter. All help was now, however, useless. The disease had reached nearly its most virulent stage, producing a total insensibility to the presence of even his most beloved relatives—

After residing for some weeks in London, in the receipt of every attention which filial piety and medical skill could bestow, the expiring poet desired that, if possible, he might be removed to his native land to his own home. As the case was reckoned quite desperate, it was resolved to gratify him in his dying wish, even at the hazard of accelerating his dissolution by the voyage. He accordingly left London on the 7th of July, and, arriving at Newhaven on the evening of the 9th, was conveyed with all possible care to a hotel in his na-