Edin^h Tuesday May 14^th

My Dear Constance

I have been putting off doing several things till the weather should be finer such as a walk in the Dene <sic> Cemetery &c. but alas today is worse than ever, the rain falls in torrents and everything looks disconsolate. I hope you got the letter I sent yesterday.

D^r Moir was very glad to see me, he has got an Aquarium with a rare Kind of water lily flowering in it, and little fishes of different kinds swimming about among the flowers

I met M^r Fraser in the street and he took me to his house in Castle S^t and showed me his Antiquarian Collections which are very interesting – He has just finished a new book handsomely got up, being the Cartulary of Cambus Kenneth Abbey – You know the Earl of Mar pulled down the abbey, and with the stones built himself a house at Stirling called Mar House. If the weather at Bath is like this, I hope you wont return to Lacock tomorrow.

Here we absolutely require good fires in the drawing rooms to keep out the damp and cold I see the Queen has just selected this unpropitious moment to return to Balmoral.

Yours aff^ly