[91] William Erskine of Kinnedder was Scott's senior by two years at the bar, having passed Advocate in 1790. He became Sheriff of Orkney in 1809, and took his seat on the Bench as Lord Kinnedder, 29 January 1822; he died on the 14th of August following. Scott and he met first in 1792, and, as is well known, he afterwards "became the nearest and most confidential of all his Edinburgh associates." In 1796 he arranged with the publishers for Scott's earliest literary venture, a thin 4to of some 48 pages entitled _The Chase_, etc. See _Life_ throughout, more particularly vol. i. pp. 279-80, 333-4, 338-9; ii. pp. 103-4; iv. pp. 12, 166, 369; v. p. 174; vi. p. 393; vii. pp. 1, 5, 6, 70-74. See Appendix for Mr. Skene's account of the destruction of the letters from Scott to Erskine. [92] Patrick Brydone, author of _A Tour through Sicily and Malta_, 2 vols. 8vo, 1773. [93] Gilbert, Earl of Minto, died in June 1814.--J.G.L. [94] See Canning's _German Play_, in the _Anti-Jacobin_.--J.G.L. [95] See Johnson's _Musical Museum_, No. 490, slightly altered. [96] See _Candide_.--J.G.L. [97] James Clarkson, Esq., surgeon, Melrose, son to Scott's old friend, Dr. Clarkson of Selkirk.--J.G.L. [98] See _Constable's Miscellany_, vol. v.--J.G.L. [99] See the _Quarterly Review_ for January 1820--or Scott's _Miscellaneous Prose Works_.--J.G.L. [100] _As You Like it_, Act IV. Sc. 3.--J.G.L. [101] Formerly tutor at Abbotsford. Mr. Lockhart says: "I observe, as the sheet is passing through the press, the death of the Rev. George Thomson--the happy 'Dominie Thomson' of the happy days of Abbotsford: he died at Edinburgh on the 8th of January 1838." [102] Burns's "O poortith cauld and restless love." [103] John Rutty, M.D., a physician of some eminence in Dublin, died in 1775, and his executors published his very curious and absurd "Spiritual Diary and Soliloquies." Boswell describes Johnson as being much amused with the Quaker doctor's minute confessions. See the Life of Johnson _sub anno_ 1777.--J.G.L. [104] _Woodstock_--contracted for in 1823. [105] _A Midsummer Night's Dream_, Act III. Sc. 1. [106] George Huntly Gordon, amanuensis to Scott. 1826 1826.--JANUARY. _January_ 1.--A year has passed--another has commenced. These solemn divisions of time influence our feelings as they recur. Yet there is nothing in it; for every day in the year closes a twelvemonth as well as the 31st December. The latter is only the solemn pause, as when a guide, showing a wild and mountainous road, calls on a party to pause and look back at the scenes which they have just passed. To me this new year opens sadly. There are these troublesome pecuniary difficulties, which however, I think, this week should end. There is the absence of all my children, Anne excepted, from our little family festival. There is, besides, that ugly report of the 15th Hussars going to India. Walter, I suppose, will have some step in view, and will go, and I fear Jane will not dissuade him.