[451] John Russell (a grandson of Principal Robertson), long Chief Clerk in the Jury Court, and Treasurer to the Royal Society and the Edinburgh Academy. He took a keen interest in education, and published in October 1855 some curious _Statistics of a Class_ [Christison's] _in the High School_ [of Edinburgh] from 1787 to 1791, of which he had been a member. Mr. Russell died on January 30, 1862. [452] Leonard Horner, editor in after years of the Memoirs of his brother Francis (2 vols. 8vo, London, 1843). He died in 1864. [453] See _Report by the Directors to the Proprietors of the Edinburgh Academy on the Pronunciation of Latin_, Edin. 1827. Sir Walter always took a warm interest in the school. His speech as Chairman at the opening ceremony, on the 1st October 1824, is quoted in the _Life_, vol. vii. p. 268. [454] Burnt at Edinburgh in 1670.--See Arnot's _Crim. Trials_. 4to, Edin. 1785. [455] Afterwards Sir John Rennie, knighted on the completion of the Bridge. [456] See _ante_, p. 307, and _post_, p. 359. [457] Dr. Marshman died in 1837. See Marshman's _Lives of Carey, Marshman, and Ward_. London, 2 vols. 8vo, 1859. [458] John Menzies of Pitfoddels, the last of an old Aberdeenshire family, of whom it was said that for thirty-seven years he never became aware of distress or difficulty without exerting himself to relieve it. In 1828 he gave the estate of Blairs, near Aberdeen, for the foundation of the Roman Catholic College established there, and was also a munificent benefactor to the Convent of St. Margaret, Edinburgh, opened in 1835. Mr. Menzies died in 1843. FEBRUARY. _February_ 1.--I feel a return of the cursed rheumatism. How could it miss, with my wetting? Also feverish, and a slight headache. So much for claret and champagne. I begin to be quite unfit for a good fellow. Like Mother Cole in the _Minor_, a thimbleful upsets me,[459]--I mean, annoys my stomach, for my brains do not suffer. Well, I have had my time of these merry doings. "The haunch of the deer, and the wine's red dye, Never bard loved them better than I." But it was for the sake of sociality; never either for the flask or the venison. That must end--is ended. The evening sky of life does not reflect those brilliant flashes of light that shot across its morning and noon. Yet I thank God it is neither gloomy nor disconsolately lowering; a sober twilight--that is all. I am in great hopes that the Bannatyne Club, by the assistance of Thomson's wisdom, industry, and accuracy, will be something far superior to the Dilettanti model on which it started. The _Historie of K. James VI._, _Melville's Memoirs_, and other works, executed or in hand, are decided boons to Scottish history and literature. _February_ 2.--In confirmation of that which is above stated, I see in Thorpe's sale-catalogue a set of the Bannatyne books, lacking five, priced £25. Had a dry walk from the Court by way of dainty, and made it a long one. Anne went at night to Lady Minto's.