DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.34827#0368
3$2 cn. xvnr.
city, and all set forth with the wufve^ of " The Annals of the
Parish." Buonaparte, Oliver Cromwell, and Louis XI. were only
separate fragments of his character, and yet all comes out as
natural and harmonious as the autobiography of a German
professor.
' Yours most sincerely,
'M. ELPHIXSTONE.'
At the beginning of the following year I find him in Lon-
don, busily occupied with the continuation of the work, but
under difficulties arising from the state of his health which
rendered him almost hopeless of completing it.
Other causes besides illness now contributed to interfere with
its completion. In the course of the year he experienced a
series of losses of his nearest relatives. In August he had to
record the death of one of his nieces, and this was followed by
that of her father, Admiral Fleming, in the following October.
The year was not to close without the loss of a sister, whose
state had been for some time precarious ; and the only survivor,
who was married to Mr. Erskine of Cardross, was in a critical
state, and died in the following August, and he remained the
only survivor of the family.
' 8.—We have lost poor Kate, the last of my seven
brothers and sisters. She expired on the 3rd. Erskine bears
his many distresses like a man/
Much of his time was now taken up with legal business
consequent on these successive bereavements, and his sister-in-
law having decided to go to Italy with her family, he offered to
accompany her to Naples, where she desired to reside. ' My
journey/ he writes, ' will put a stop for a time, perhaps for ever,
to my " History ;" otherwise, after studying Mill and writing out
particular passages for trial, I thought I could make as short a
history as Mill, more full in facts, and more Lee from disputes
and dissertations/
He had not got further than Rome when he was attacked
by a severe and prolonged illness, under which be quite broke
down; and he returned, with a shattered constitution, to Eng-
city, and all set forth with the wufve^ of " The Annals of the
Parish." Buonaparte, Oliver Cromwell, and Louis XI. were only
separate fragments of his character, and yet all comes out as
natural and harmonious as the autobiography of a German
professor.
' Yours most sincerely,
'M. ELPHIXSTONE.'
At the beginning of the following year I find him in Lon-
don, busily occupied with the continuation of the work, but
under difficulties arising from the state of his health which
rendered him almost hopeless of completing it.
Other causes besides illness now contributed to interfere with
its completion. In the course of the year he experienced a
series of losses of his nearest relatives. In August he had to
record the death of one of his nieces, and this was followed by
that of her father, Admiral Fleming, in the following October.
The year was not to close without the loss of a sister, whose
state had been for some time precarious ; and the only survivor,
who was married to Mr. Erskine of Cardross, was in a critical
state, and died in the following August, and he remained the
only survivor of the family.
' 8.—We have lost poor Kate, the last of my seven
brothers and sisters. She expired on the 3rd. Erskine bears
his many distresses like a man/
Much of his time was now taken up with legal business
consequent on these successive bereavements, and his sister-in-
law having decided to go to Italy with her family, he offered to
accompany her to Naples, where she desired to reside. ' My
journey/ he writes, ' will put a stop for a time, perhaps for ever,
to my " History ;" otherwise, after studying Mill and writing out
particular passages for trial, I thought I could make as short a
history as Mill, more full in facts, and more Lee from disputes
and dissertations/
He had not got further than Rome when he was attacked
by a severe and prolonged illness, under which be quite broke
down; and he returned, with a shattered constitution, to Eng-