[53: Entertaining one night a small party of friends, Erskine read the proof sheets of this volume after supper, and was confirmed in his opinion by the enthusiastic interest they excited in his highly intelligent circle. Mr. James Simpson and Mr. Norman Hill, advocates, were of this party, and from the way in which their host spoke, they both inferred that they were listening to the first effort of some unknown aspirant. They all pronounced the work one of the highest classical merit. The sitting was protracted till daybreak.--(1839.)] [54: Mr. Morritt had, in the spring of this year, been present at the first levee held at the Tuileries by Monsieur (afterwards Charles X.), as representative of his brother Louis XVIII. Mr. M. had not been in Paris till that time since 1789.] [55: [The old writing-desk, in which, while searching for some fishing-tackle for a guest, Scott found the long-lost manuscript, was given by him to William Laidlaw, who till his death cherished with religious care all his memorials of Abbotsford. The desk is now a treasured possession of his grandson, Mr. W. L. Carruthers, of Inverness.]] [56: _Count Borowlaski_ was a Polish dwarf, who, after realizing some money as an itinerant object of exhibition, settled, married, and died (September 5, 1837) at Durham. He was a well-bred creature, and much noticed by the clergy and other gentry of that city. Indeed, even when travelling the country as a show, he had always maintained a sort of dignity. I remember him as going from house to house, when I was a child, in a sedan chair, with a servant in livery following him, who took the fee--_M. le Comte_ himself (dressed in a scarlet coat and bag wig) being ushered into the room like any ordinary visitor. The Count died in his 99th year-- "A SPIRIT brave, yet gentle, has dwelt, as it appears, Within three feet of flesh for near one hundred years; Which causes wonder, like his constitution, strong, That one _so short alive_ should be _alive so long_!" _Bentley's Miscellany_ for November, 1837.] [57: _Othello_, Act III. Scene 3.] [58: Burns--lines _On my early days_.] CHAPTER XXVIII VOYAGE TO THE SHETLAND ISLES, ETC. -- SCOTT'S DIARY KEPT ON BOARD THE LIGHTHOUSE YACHT 1814