LETTER I.
“My Dearest,
I cannot omitt writting every post tho’ I have but little to say, except tell you thatt I begin now to be mighty impatient to have you home. All the members of Parlyment that I know I think is come already, and yett there is no word of your leaveing London. Doe nott think I blame you in saying so for I make no doubt of your coming as soon as ye can. Ye had need of a good coachman if ye travell with four horse wanting a postilion. Your folks are busy att the walks, butt since I came home, I find itt convenient to have seven carts going and eighteen men, and will continue that number if possible till itt’s ended. There is such a deepness of earth thatt itt is no easy work.
I told you in my last I was going to Stirling. Your uncle looks very well. He is surprised at your stay and longs to see you. I presst Lady Jean and Lordy Areskine to come to Alva some days, and the Colonel, butt they seemed to be so uncertain of their setting out for London, they could not leave Stirling. You desire to know what the Col. says about Meg’s marriage. He told me he wisht her all happyness, and he thought Sir Wm. had been very lucky, and he wondered my lord did not ask better terms. Sir Wm. said to me he was sure you wold not goe close by his door, and not come in, and they design to intercept you at Gosford if they can. Butt if I am to meet you at Edinr. if ye please so to order itt, I will do itt att Gosford, but if ye can come straight to Alva, I do not incline to stir from itt. Your sons are perfectly well and are my only comrads now. Dearest life, adieu.”
Alva, June 13.
In the next letter, as you will see, there is a veiled allusion to the project on which all our thoughts were fixed, and the uncertainty of which had already caused its partisans much uneasiness. It is impossible now to imagine what little breath of dissension had blown between my lady and her kind brother, Mr. Charles Erskine, but sure I am that the words set down in some mood of passing vexation were never meant to be preserved or remembered. How often and how eagerly my lady turned to Mr. Erskine for help and advice in the sad days when she was “so unhappy as to want” her husband, and how willingly and kindly he spent himself in service for her and hers, you will see presently in her later letters.