CHAPTER III: RAB'S FRIEND
To say what ought to be said concerning Dr. John Brown, a man should have
known him well and long, and should remember much of that old generation
of Scotchmen to whom the author of "Rab and his Friends" belonged. But
that generation has departed. One by one these wits and scholars of the
North, these _epigoni_ who were not, indeed, of the heroes, but who had
seen and remembered Scott and Wilson, have passed away. Aytoun and
Carlyle and Dr. Burton, and last, Dr. Brown, are gone. Sir Theodore
Martin alone is left. In her memoir of Dr. Burton--the historian of
Scotland, and author of "The Book-hunter"--Mrs. Burton remarks that, in
her husband's later days, only Dr. John Brown and Professor Blackie
remained of all her husband's ancient friends and coevals, of all who
remembered Lockhart, and Hogg, and their times. But many are left who
knew Dr. Brown far better and more intimately than the author of this
notice. I can hardly say when I first became acquainted with him,
probably it was in my childhood. Ever since I was a boy, certainly, I
used to see him at intervals, especially in the Christmas vacations. But
he seldom moved from Edinburgh, except in summer, which he frequently
passed in the country house of certain friends of his, whose affection
made much of the happiness of his latest years, and whose unfailing
kindness attended him in his dying hours.
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