How sadly changed did I find him from the man I had seen so healthy, gay, and hopeful a few years before, when he said at the inn at Paterdale, in my presence, his daughter Anne also being there, with Mr.Lockhart, my own wife and daughter, and Mr.Quillinan, 'I mean to live till I am eighty, and shall write as long as I live.' Though we had none of us the least thought of the cloud of misfortune which was then going to break upon his head, I was startled, and almost shocked, at that bold saying, which could scarcely be uttered by such a man, sanguine as he was, without a momentary forgetfulness of the instability of human life.

But to return to Abbotsford.

The inmates and guests we found there were Sir Walter, Major Scott, Anne Scott, and Mr.
and Mrs.Lockhart; Mr.Liddell, his lady and brother, and Mr.Allan, the painter, and Mr.Laidlaw, a very old friend of Sir Walter's.

One of Burns's sons, an officer in the Indian service, had left the house a day or two before, and had kindly expressed his regret that he could not wait my arrival, a regret that I may truly say was mutual.

In the evening, Mr.and Mrs.Liddell sang, and Mrs.Lockhart chaunted old ballads to her harp; and Mr.Allan, hanging over the back of a chair, told and acted odd stories in a humorous way.