Page:The Poetical Works of William Motherwell, 1849.djvu/64

, the 31st day of October, 1835, he dined and spent the evening at the house of a gentleman in the suburbs of Glasgow. There was dancing, and it was observed that he bled freely at the nose, which was attributed to the heated state of the apartments. On going into the open air for a short time the bleeding stopped, and at half-past ten he left his friend's house in the company of the late Mr Robert M'Nish (better known as the Modern Pythagorean), and the late Air Philip Ramsay, and from these gentlemen he parted about 11 o'clock. At 4 o'clock on the morning of the 1st of November he was suddenly struck while in bed with a violent shock of apoplexy, which almost instantly deprived him of consciousness. He had simply time to exclaim, 'Aly head! Aly head!' when he fell back on the pillow and never spoke more. I saw him in my professional capacity about half-past six, having been sent for by the medical man who was first called in, but the case was then hopeless and had been obviously so from the first; knowing, however, that a deep interest was felt in his fate, and anxious that he should have the benefit of the advice of a senior practitioner, I sent for my late friend, Dr William Young, but before he arrived he was dead. He expired quietly and without suffering at 8 o'clock, thus closing a life of incessant labour, and of some anxiety not unmixed with enjoyment, at the early age of 37.

He was buried in the Necropolis, a new cemetery, situated over-against the Cathedral, on Thursday, the 5th of November; and his remains were followed to the grave