"_Sunday, 1st August_.--Went-to the U.P. church, and heard
excellent sermons. Was colder this time than on my former
visit to Scotland.
"_2d August_.--Reached Hamilton. Mother did not know me at
first. Anna Mary, a nice sprightly child, told me that she
preferred Garibaldi buttons on her dress, as I walked down to
Dr. Loudon to thank him for his kindness to my mother.
"_3d August_.--Agnes, Oswell, and Thomas came. I did not
recognize Tom, he has grown so much. Has been poorly a long
while; congestion of the kidney, it is said. Agnes quite
tall, and Anna Mary a nice little girl."
The next few days were spent with his family, and in visits to the
neighborhood. He had a consultation with Professor Syme as to a surgical
operation recommended for an ailment that had troubled him ever since
his first great journey; he was strongly urged to have the operation
performed, and probably it would have been better if he had; but he
finally declined, partly because an old medical friend was against it,
but chiefly, as he told Sir* Roderick, because the matter would get into
the newspapers, and he did not like the public to be speaking of his
infirmities.
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