Records of the clan and name of Fergusson, Ferguson and Fergus

154 CLAN FERGUSSON
without being addressed in letter after letter in the spirit of
' the young man's counsellor.' But this was evidently not the
father's opinion, and one can imagine the unfortunate son
wincing and groaning as he read letters which, in the midst
of all the strong affection which evidently appeared in them,
told him to be ' tractable, faithfull, and diligent,' that his
father ' expects ' that he will remain contented with his present
situation till his own good behaviour points out a further
line of promotion for him — that he ought to save half his
income — that ' it is my wish that you would rather depend
on your own integrity and diligence than on anything which
can be done for you by letters ' — that it is rather too early in
life for him to be talking about competency and independ-
ence, and that his ' business ' is to be ' patient and diligent ' in
his present station — that he must be more cautious in future
in putting his money ' into the hands of idle youngsters,' and
finally that his father trusts in God he will never be guilty of
the crime of forgery.
Nor was stout old Robert quite the man to appeal to for
soft sympathy on the subject of aches and pains. Bob has
evidently become rather sorry for himself, and has written an
account of his sufferings to his father, with the result that he
is told (July 1788), 'you should not alarm yourself too much
about the pain in your breast. I have been afflicted with the
same almost all my life and am now in my sixty-ninth year.'
Bob tries again in 1795, and is told (March 1796) ' I am sorry
to find that you still labour under a troublesome pain in
your breast. All the consolation that I can give you on that
head is that from my infancy I have had the same complaint,
with a frequent spitting of blood which alarmed me much in
my younger days, but now that I have outlived almost all
my former acquaintances I think very little about it,' and
then the worthy old fellow gives Bob, who has probably been
suffering many things at the hands of physicians, a practical
hint, the value of which will be appreciated by every one who
reads this and has tried it. ' I always find more relief from
moderate journeys on horseback than from any prescription
of the Faculty.'
Short as these letters are, and few in number, the pictures