Ossian Collection > Journal of a tour in Scotland in

EDINBURGH 9
tensions. In the near view I should like
the building better without it, but it appears
well in the distance. The arches which
seem to support it within are only plaister
work, and the real support is said to depend
in part upon certain beams, which is surely
trusting far too much to wood.
Wednesday, August 18. — Breakfasted at
Mrs Grant's, and there met Mr James Wilson,
brother to Wilson the poet. I was beginning
to speak with indignation of Peter's Letters,
and the wretched state of society which
such a book indicated, with its gossip, its
personalities, and its flattery laid on thick
and rank as train oil, when it was whispered
to me that James Wilson was brother to
one of the reputed authors. I had not
before known who he was, but Blackwood
had implied as much as the other part of
the hint was intended to convey, when he
told me that I knew the author. Mrs G.
saw the signs of the times as I did, and
liked them as little. I was glad of an
opportunity to tell her how much I valued
her Memoirs of an Ame7ican Lady, as a
genuine picture of society in one of its
happiest stages — a peculiar and transitory