"One may gaze upon its beams Till he is starved with cold." No matter, it will serve as well as another day to finish _Woodstock_. Walked out to the lake, and coquetted with this disagreeable weather, whereby I catch chilblains in my fingers and cold in my head. Fed the swans. Finished _Woodstock_, however, _cum tota sequela_ of title-page, introduction, etc., and so, as Dame Fortune says in _Quevedo_, "Go wheel, and may the devil drive thee."[231] _March_ 27.--Another bright cold day. I answered two modest requests from widow ladies. One, whom I had already assisted in some law business, on the footing of her having visited my mother, requested me to write to Mr. Peel, saying, on her authority, that her second son, a youth of infinite merit and accomplishment, was fit for any situation in a public office, and that I requested he might be provided accordingly. Another widowed dame, whose claim is having read _Marmion_ and the _Lady of the Lake_, besides a promise to read all my other works--Gad, it is a rash engagement!--demands that I shall either pay £200 to get her cub into some place or other, or settle him in a seminary of education. Really this is very much after the fashion of the husbandman of Miguel Turra's requests of Sancho when Governor.[232] "Have you anything else to ask, honest man?" quoth Sancho. But what are the demands of an honest man to those of an honest woman, and she a widow to boot? I do believe your destitute widow, especially if she hath a charge of children, and one or two fit for patronage, is one of the most impudent animals living. Went to Galashiels and settled the dispute about Sandie's wall.