of which I believe I have more than once got the memorandum.  All I can say is that in this respect you are not singular.  This makes me no better; but really I have been driven about beyond all example in my past experience, and have been essentially obliged to neglect my own urgent affairs.’  No servant of the Northern Lights came to Edinburgh but he was entertained at Baxter’s Place to breakfast.  There, at his own table, my grandfather sat down delightedly with his broad-spoken, homespun officers.  His whole relation to the service was, in fact, patriarchal; and I believe I may say that throughout its ranks he was adored.  I have spoken with many who knew him; I was his grandson, and their words may have very well been words of flattery; but there was one thing that could not be affected, and that was the look and light that came into their faces at the name of Robert Stevenson.

In the early part of the century the foreman builder was a young man of the name of George Peebles, a native of Anstruther.  My grandfather had placed in him a very high degree of confidence, and he was already designated to be foreman at the Bell Rock, when, on Christmas-day 1806, on his way home from Orkney, he was lost in the schooner Traveller.  The tale of the loss of the Traveller is almost a replica of that of the Elizabeth of Stromness; like the Elizabeth she came as far as Kinnaird Head, was then surprised by a storm, driven back to Orkney, and bilged and sank on the island of Flotta.  It seems it was about the dusk of the day when the ship struck, and many of the crew and passengers were drowned.  About the same hour, my grandfather was in his office at the writing-table; and the room beginning to darken, he laid down his pen and fell asleep.  In a dream he saw the door open and George Peebles come in, ‘reeling to and fro, and staggering like a drunken man,’ with water streaming from his head and body to the floor.  There it gathered into a wave which, sweeping forward, submerged my grandfather.  Well, no matter how deep; versions vary; and at last he awoke, and behold it was a dream!  But it may be conceived how profoundly the impression was written even on the mind of a man averse from such ideas, when the news came of the wreck on Flotta and the death of George.

George’s vouchers and accounts had perished with himself; and it appeared he was in debt to the Commissioners.  But my grandfather wrote to Orkney twice, collected evidence of his disbursements, and proved him to be seventy pounds ahead.  With this sum, he applied to George’s brothers, and had it apportioned between their mother and themselves.  He approached the Board and got an annuity of 5 pounds bestowed on the widow Peebles; and we find him writing her a long letter of explanation and advice, and pressing on her the duty of making a will.  That he should thus act executor was no singular instance.  But besides this we are able to assist at some of the