Mary Thacher Higginson, Thomas Wentworth Higginson: the story of his life

[339] hardly help laughing and . . . told him every educated American knew every place mentioned in Scott, Burns or the Border Minstrelsy.

July 2. Edinburgh. Had a delightful trip by coach to Roslin. Nobody can be disappointed in Roslin Chapel . . . . I longed for hours of peace there.

July 3. Dined with the Massons—his talk about Edinburgh was very interesting. He came here to the University from Aberdeen and says that three of the professors, Wilson (Chr. North) Chalmers and Sir Wm. Hamilton were the three most striking men in appearance that he ever saw. Wilson's hair was yellow, Chalmers's white and Hamilton's very dark—Wilson was a giant, and his statue does not exaggerate his lion like port; Chalmers's face was large and heavy and seamed—he had but little book knowledge but wonderful originality and power. Hamilton had great hold upon young men collectively though not individually. When Dickens first came here, Wilson said of him “How could that puppy have written such books.” Masson says Dickens' imagination was so active his narratives had very little value . . . . The Massons knew Alexander Smith and Sydney Dobell the two young poets, both of whom have died and both interested me . . . . I praised Dobell's ballad of “Ravelston” so much that Mrs. M. ordered a carriage and drove me there in the dark leaving at 9 and returning at 11 . . . . The house is quaint and old and is the original Tully-Veolan of Waverley—Scott used to go there as a boy . . . . Dobell used to pass the house