The drab dresses and pure white
bonnets of many Friends were conspicuous among the dense moving crowd,
as white doves seen against a dark cloud. Mr. S. and myself, and our
future hostess, Mrs. Wigham, entered the carriage with the lord
provost, and away we drove, the crowd following with their shouts and
cheers. I was inexpressibly touched and affected by this. While we
were passing the monument of Scott, I felt an oppressive melancholy.
What a moment life seems in the presence of the noble dead! What a
momentary thing is art, in all its beauty! Where are all those great
souls that have created such an atmosphere of light about Edinburgh?
and how little a space was given them to live and enjoy!
We drove all over Edinburgh, up to the castle, to the university, to
Holyrood, to the hospitals, and through many of the principal streets,
amid shouts, and smiles, and greetings. Some boys amused me very much
by their pertinacious attempts to keep up with the carriage.
"Heck," says one of them, "that's her; see the _courls_!"
The various engravers who have amused themselves by diversifying my
face for the public having all, with great unanimity, agreed in giving
prominence to this point, I suppose the urchins thought they were on
safe ground there. I certainly think I answered one good purpose that
day, and that is of giving the much-oppressed and calumniated class
called boys an opportunity to develop all the noise that was in them,
--a thing for which I think they must bless me in their remembrances.
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