The Book-Hunter
quite a penny a glass. I wonder all your friends at Brown
Brothers' do not swarm to such a land....
"I have no doubt everything is beautiful, I hope also fruitful,
about Morton. I feel sure of one thing, that mamma has abundance of
her favourite flowers.--Love to all from your affectionate papa,
J.H. BURTON."
* * * * *
"REGENSBERG, _21st June 1879_.
"MY DEAR LOVE,--I have but a scrap of paper available....
"Fine weather at last. Eating cherries. Last night I got a
comfortable sleep for nothing. For reasons good no doubt, but
unknown, the train stopped from 9 P.M. to 5 A.M., at a country
station. I lay on a bench, with my head on my small bag, and never
had a sounder sleep.--Your affectionate
J.H. BURTON."
* * * * *
"DONAUWOeRTH, _27th June 1879_.
"MY DEAR COS,--This afternoon I expect to be at Blenheim, and so at
the farthest limits of my battle-fields. I spoke of not going to
the Alps, in consideration of the depressing of our neighbours the
Pentlands; but being so close to them, I can't resist a step
farther, and then the Pentlands are not so very ill used, for they
are put much on a level with the Grampians. At the beginning of
next week I expect to be moving homewards, and I still think, as I
wrote to mamma, the last place to catch me at, before taking to the
water, is Antwerp.
"This is a very fishy place, not of the Danube rolling majestically
not many yards from where I am writing, but of the sea. The inn I
am in is called the Krebs or Crab, round the corner is the
Crawfish, and somewhere else the Shrimps.
"I wonder what you are now all doing in the Belvidere,[20] and what
projects you are all making for the summer, and whether you have
ripe strawberries, and there is good promise of cherries and
apples; and so, with kind love to all, adieu from your affectionate
papa, J.H. BURTON."
[Footnote 20: A tower within the grounds of Morton, used by his
sons as a workshop.]
* * * * *
"DEGGENDORF, BAYERISCHER WALD,
_1st July 1879_.
"MY DEAR LOVE,--I had a misgiving that I had given a false prospect
of reaching me at Regensburg, so I came round that way again, and
was rewarded by yours of the 24th, and Willy's of what he calls the
_22d July_.
"I did not pursue the plan I spoke of to Cos, of getting a peep of
the Alps, my investigations cutting off the time assigned to it.
But I have gone into a siding here to see the much-boasted, and, it
would seem, newly discovered touring ground of the Wald.
"I have got through my work now, but I can still find some in the
neighbourhood of Antwerp,--so that is my point, and there I shall
hope for letters.
When I last went to Blenheim, some five years ago, the railway only
reached a point some fifteen miles from it, and I could not get
back to my inn until its opening at five o'clock. Now there is
train all the way. It must be supported by agricultural produce.
Such wealth of fertility I never saw. I think, standing at any
point in the great haugh of the Danube, I could see as much grain
as all Scotland could produce. This had a curious social influence,
causing me some hardships.
"The towns are all conglomerates of farm-steadings. The country was
of old so cursed by war, that a steading in the fields was a lost
affair. The old habit still rules, and in a town the size, say, of
Linlithgow, there is not a shop or an inn except the store, whence
the farmers draw their oceans of beer in great jugs, or sometimes
meet to quaff it on the premises. I had to bribe the owner of such
an establishment to give me brown bread and cheese; hard living of
this kind, however, suits my constitution. Luckily, in
consideration, I suppose, of there being no refuge for belated
travellers, the station-master had a nice clean bedroom, which he
was entitled to let.
"I propose remaining here till to-morrow, that I may have a glimpse
of the much-lauded Wald.--Love to all from your affectionate
goodman, J.H. BURTON."
* * * * *
"EGER, _4th July 1879_.
"MY DEAR LOVE,--The best account I can give you of where I am is,
that I expect to reach Leipzic this evening. But it will still be
some time ere I reach Antwerp, and you may as well write me
somewhat. If any letters I get there prompt me to return with the
least possible delay, I shall do so, but otherwise I shall wait,
occupying myself in the Netherlands for the Antwerp steamer on
Saturday, the 12th I think it is, to-morrow week.
"In going into the Bayerischer Wald I went where it was not easy to
get speedily out, though I found a railway right through just
opened. The night before last I slept, I suppose, some 4000 or 5000
feet above the sea, in a huge garret with some twenty beds in it.
Somebody was sound asleep in one, but disappeared before I awoke. I
supposed the house to have been temporary, for accommodating the
workers making the railway, but I found it to be the _hospice_ of
the old road across the mountains. It has been a sort of
pilgrimage, I think--_gasthaus zur Landes Grenze_.
"The scenery is naught in comparison with the Scots Highlands, or
even our Pentlands. It is only in Scotland and the Lakes that hills
of humble height look Alpine. The Wald is something like your Harz,
but higher; so adieu.--Love to all from J.H. BURTON."
* * * * *
"THALE, _Monday, 5th July 1879_.
"MY DEAR LOVE,--I think you know this place. I found that if
anything out of the direct line to Antwerp, it was only so to the
extent of its short side line, some ten miles or so. When scenery
is good, I enjoy a second visit to it more than the first, and this
was specially so in the present instance; for in my visit from
Grund, I took the most difficult and least profitable course, by
climbing laterally to the level of the Ross Treppe, instead of
going along the stream, and seeing the variety of cleft granite,
unexampled, I think, elsewhere in that class of rock....
"I am longing to see your beautiful gardens, and all--but have
nothing to grumble at--health never better.--Affectionate
remembrances to the rest, from your affectionate gudeman, J.H.
BURTON."
* * * * *
"ANTWERP, _11th July 1879_.
"MY DEAR LOVE,--To my great contentment I received here this
morning your three letters, the latest dated on the 9th. I expect
to-morrow, at 8 p.m., to sail by the steamer Windsor.
"I have had a grand time of it--everything going right with me, and
yet I have a longing for home.
"From sultry, the weather has drifted into cold and rain. Yesterday
the rain poured powerfully all morning, and having some arrears of
sleep to make up, I slumbered as long as it continued. Adieu, my
dear.--Yours,
"J.H. BURTON."
During this summer, Dr Burton and his eldest son walked from Morton to
North Berwick and back in the same day, a walk of at least fifty miles.
In former years sixty was an ordinary day's work. Once during Captain
Speke's stay at Craighouse, Dr Burton traversed a distance within
twenty-four hours, which Captain Speke computed at seventy miles.
CHAPTER VII.
THE END.
_Sale of library--Letters from Shetland and Aberdeen--Winter
illness--Charities--Recovery--Magazine articles again--Literary
executorship of late Mr Edward Ellice--Rev. James White of
Methlick--Last illness and death--Concluding remarks--Burial at
Dalmeny._
Would that in biography, as in romance, the story might end at its
brightest point! But the true tale must follow its subject through the
valley of the shadow of death, and on to his grave.
The remainder of '79 and beginning of '80 were spent at Morton in
finishing the 'History of the Reign of Queen Anne;' but the work did not
go on with the ease and pleasure of former works, and on its conclusion,
Dr Burton formed the resolution to sell his library. This determination
was combated by his family and friends, as well as by his friendly
publisher, with all the arguments in their power, but in vain. Dr Burton
never would allow that parting with his treasured volumes, the
collection of which had been the pride of his life, cost him a pang. He
had done with his books, he said. They were no book-hunter's library,
but a collection made for use, and, that use over, had better be again
turned into money. Dr Burton did not contemplate undertaking any other
great work; and the possession of so extensive a library forced him to
live in a larger house than was convenient, and rendered leaving it very
troublesome. In the proceeds of its sale Dr Burton was again
disappointed. But before it could be brought to sale, while he was
engaged in the laborious task of cataloguing his books for sale, he
refreshed himself by a summer trip to Shetland, taking Aberdeen on his
return journey, where he had the gratification of being present at the
baptism of his little grandchild, the daughter of Dr and Mrs Rodger.
He wrote from Lerwick, 8th July 1880:--
"MY DEAR LOVE,--I am not in what might be called an interesting
country--low hills, rocky, stony, heathery, and peaty--but a new
country has always something of interest to pass the time with. I
saw a valuable archaeological phenomenon to-day. The Roman roads
were all paved, and went straight over hill and across
valley--never troubled about levels. In the parts of Britain where
the Romans are historically known to have been, such roads have
been fully identified. But there, as well as in other places, where
it has been questioned if the Romans ever were--any road strewn or
surfaced with stones that have been laid down in the paving of the
road, is adopted as a Roman road. I have often supposed that this
conclusion was too readily adopted. And to-day I walked for some
distance on a road that has all the requisites--yet no one is wild
enough to say that the Romans were in Shetland. The weather to-day
was warmer than I have yet known it, the sun, such as he is, having
nearly the whole twenty-four hours to do his work in. The next
stage will be Kirkwall, then Wick.
"I shall intimate my motions as I find them coming up for
consideration. I feel very elastic. There is nothing in my mind
demanding either hard work or anxious adjustment. The 'Queen Anne'
pressed very hard on me before I had done; and the press has rather
too justly noticed a slovenliness about the conclusion. Then came
immediately various cares and troubles, accompanied by the not very
severe, but tedious, drudgery of the index; but I am not going to
grumble more, since I am at present in comparative freedom and
idleness.--Yours, my dear love, J.H. BURTON."
The next is dated merely _Sunday_.
"MY DEAR LOVE,-- ... The weather here has been divine, with
daylight, one may say, for twenty-four hours. The people are kind
and cleanly, and all the necessaries of life are abundant. I do not
know when I have enjoyed better health. There is nothing abnormal
about me, except the extent of my appetite. Walking thirty miles
here, is less fatiguing than from Morton to Edinburgh.