A terrific hurricane swept over England the night he died, and it is worthy of record that a similar convulsion of the elements took place at the deaths of Napoleon Bonaparte, Pitt, George IV., and other men of note. _Note_ B, _vol._ i, _p._ 10.--WEIRD OF THE WENTWORTHS. _Weird_, derived from the Saxon, means _fated_; it is here used as a substantive; more frequently it is found adjectively, _e.g._:-- "The _weird_ sisters, hand in hand."--_Macbeth._ "To the _weird_ lady of the woods."--_Old Ballad._ Sir Walter Scott uses it as a substantive throughout his novels. _Vide_ Guy Mannering, chap. xlvi. "The Weird's Dreed." The original _weird_, _curse_, or _fate_, is to be found in the archives of a good English family; I forget where I read it, but it made a great impression on my mind. The name _Wentworth_ is selected merely as one connected with the author's family, and has no historic reference to the Straffords, or any other title in our peerage. _Note_ C, _vol._ i, _p._ 55.--QUEEN'S DRIVE. The road _probably_ did not exist, _certainly_ not as the "Queen's Drive," at the time of our tale. If any critic catches up the anachronism, I can only defend myself with Cowper's lines:-- "No matter when, a poet's muse is To make them grow just where she chooses." _Note_ D, _vol._ i, _chapter_ xi.--SWITZERLAND. The descriptions are drawn from nature, and the impressions those which a tour, in the loveliest weather, through the romantic country created in the author's mind. He, however, believes he has crowned Rigi with an hotel before due time. _Note_ E, _vol._ i, _p._ 140.--DEVIL'S BRIDGE. _Le Pont du Diable_ is a thread-like bridge spanning a tremendous gap made by the Reuss through the rocks near Fluellen. The author, with some friends, saw it under the circumstances here described, and the little incident narrated actually took place among the party. _Note_ F, _vol._ i, _p._ 148.--THE TOWERS. Though the main topics of the scenery are true to nature, it is almost needless to say no such castles as the Towers ever existed near the Lammermoors save in imagination. The same may be said of the scenery in the next few chapters. Individually each spot is as faithful a picture of _some_ place as the author could draw, but _en masse_ they are grouped without any attention to topography beyond the general resemblance one spot has to another in Scotland's romantic land. _Note_ G, _vol._ i, _p._ 237.--JUSTIFIABLE SUICIDE.