"حياة ومراسلات اللواء السير جون مالكوم، قائد فرسان وسام الطُهر، المبعوث السابق إلى بلاد فارس وحاكم بومباي؛ من رسائل ومذكرات غير منشورة. في مجلّدين. المجلد II." [‎٧‎٤] (٦٥٤/٩١)

74
AN INTERVAL OF REST.
his wife's relatives. In the grounds of Dalkeith Castle
he met Walter Scott. ** هذه التواريخ تقريبية " I agreed," he wrote on the
10th of October, " to drive him home; and we have
been together till now (twelve o clock on the 11th). A
volume would not contain what has passed between us.
I am delighted with him, and he says that his feelings
are not opposed to mine." His face was now turned
towards the South—towards home. After exploring
Melrose and visiting Minto, where he was delighted
with all he saw of the good old lady, the wife of his
friend the Governor-General, of whom he had heard so
much, Malcolm spent a day or two at Burnfoot, and
then prosecuted his homeward journey. Taking the
western route, he paid a short visit to his brother Gil
bert, who had obtained, through the instrumentality of
Lord Wellesley, the living of Todenham, near Moreton-
on-the-Marsh, and reached home in the course of October.
On his return to the neighbourhood of the metropolis,
after his pleasant country tour, the first subject which
engaged his attention was the controversy respecting the
mutiny of the Madras army. The pamphlet which he
had sent home from Bombay had, according to his in-
* Scott has given the following ac
count of this meeting in a letter to
Mr. Morritt, published in Lockhart's
Life of the poet: " I am delighted
with your Cumberland admirer, and
give him credit for his visit to the vin
dicator of Homer; but you missed one
of another description, who passed
llokeby with great regret—I mean Ge
neral John Malcolm, the Persian En
voy, the Delhi Resident, the poet, the
wanderer, the polite man, and the
Borderer. He is really a fine fellow,
i met him at Dalkeith, and we re-
turned together. He has just left me,
after drinking coffee. A fine time we
had of it, talking of Troy town, and
Babel, and Persepolis, and Delhi, and
Langholm, and Burnfoot; with all
manner of episodes about Iskendiar,
lloostum, and Johnnie Armstrong. Do
you know, that poem of Ferdusi's must
be beautiful. He read me some verj
splendid extracts, which he had him
self translated. Should you meet Mm
in London, I have given him in charge
to be acquainted with you, for I am
sure you will like each other. To be
sure, I know him little—but I lite
his frankness and his sound ideas of
morality and policy." Mr. Lockhart
adds a note respecting Bumfoot, in
which he says that Malcolm's grand
father "found refuge there after for
feiting a good estate and a baronetcy;'
—a fact of which I need hardly say
the Malcolm family are profoundly
ignorant!