It is very odd that the common people at Minto and the neighbourhood will not believe to this hour that the first Earl is dead. They think he had done something in India which he could not answer for--that the house was rebuilt on a scale unusually large to give him a suite of secret apartments, and that he often walks about the woods and crags of Minto at night, with a white nightcap, and long white beard. The circumstance of his having died on the road down to Scotland is the sole foundation of this absurd legend, which shows how willing the vulgar are to gull themselves when they can find no one else to take the trouble. I have seen people who could read, write, and cipher, shrug their shoulders and look mysterious when this subject was mentioned. One very absurd addition was made on occasion of a great ball at Minto House, which it was said was given to draw all people away from the grounds, that the concealed Earl might have leisure for his exercise. This was on the principle in the German play,[94] where, to hide their conspiracy, the associates join in a chorus song. We dined at home; Mr. Davidoff and his tutor kept an engagement with us to dinner notwithstanding the death of the Emperor Alexander. They went to the play with the womankind; I stayed at home to write. _December_ 24.--Wrote Walter and Jane, and gave the former an account of how things had been in the money market, and the loan of £10,000. Constable has a scheme of publishing the works of the Author of W[averley] in a superior style, at £1, 1s. volume. He says he will answer for making £20,000 of this, and liberally offered me any share of the profit. I have no great claim to any, as I have only to contribute the notes, which are light work; yet a few thousands coming in will be a good thing--besides the P[rinting] Office. Constable, though valetudinary, and cross with his partner, is certainly as good a pilot in these rough seas as ever man put faith in. His rally has put me in mind of the old song:-- "The tailor raise and shook his duds, He gar'd the BILLS flee aff in cluds, And they that stayed gat fearfu' thuds-- The tailor proved a man, O."[95] We are for Abbotsford to-day, with a light heart. _Abbotsford, December_ 25.--Arrived here last night at seven. Our halls are silent compared to last year, but let us be thankful--when we think how near the chance appeared but a week since that these halls would have been ours no longer. _Barbarus has segetes? Nullum numen abest, si sit prudentia_. There shall be no lack of wisdom. But come--_il faut cultiver notre jardin_.[96] Let us see: I will write out the "Bonnets of Bonnie Dundee"; I will sketch a preface to _La Rochejacquelin_ for _Constable's Miscellany,_ and try about a specimen of notes for the W[averley Novels]. Together with letters and by-business, it will be a good day's work. "I make a vow, And keep it true."