"My dear Sir,--The acccompanying billet from my daughter, short at any rate under the pressure of instant engagements, has been cut shorter by a sudden and very distressing headache; I, therefore, who (from a peculiar nervousness connected with the act of writing) so rarely attempt to discharge my own debts in the letter-writing department of life, find myself unaccountably, I might say mysteriously, engaged in the knight-errantry of undertaking for other people's. Wretched bankrupt that I am, with an absolute refusal on the part of the Commissioner to grant me a certificate of the lowest class, suddenly, and by a necessity not to be evaded, I am affecting the large bounties of supererogation. I appear to be vaporing in a spirit of vainglory; and yet it is under the mere coercion of '_salva necessitas_' that I am surprised into this unparalleled instance of activity. Do you walk? That is, do you like walking for four hours '_on end_'--(which is our archaic expression for _continuously_)? If I knew _that_, I would arrange accordingly for meeting you. The case as to distance is this. The Dalkeith railway, from the Waverley station, brings you to Esk Bank. That is its nearest approach,--its _perihelion_, in relation to ourselves; and it is precisely two and three-quarters miles distant from _Mavis Bush_,--the name of our cottage. Close to us, and the most noticeable object for guiding your inquiries, is _Mr. Annandale's Paper-Mills_. "Now, then, accordingly as you direct my motions, I will--rain being supposed absent--join you at your hotel in Edinburgh any time after 11 A.M. and walk out the whole distance, (seven miles from the Scott monument,) or else I will meet you at Esk Bank; or, if you prefer coming out in a carriage, I will await your coming here in that state of motionless repose which best befits a philosopher. Excuse my levity; and believe that with sincere pleasure we shall receive your obliging visit. "Ever your faithful servant, "THOMAS DE QUINCEY."