The Book-Hunter | Page 8

to bear out the writer's
conception of the unsympathising character of the intercourse between
Mrs Burton and her family. No stronger incentive to exertion could
have been offered to a man of Dr Burton's character, than the desire to
falsify the implied prediction of such a missive. With a view to its
effect in this way it had probably been given him by his mother. It is an
entire letter, and the whole is here printed.
"GRANDHOLM, June 6th.
"DEAR ELIZA,--I have this day received a letter from my father, part
of which I think it necessary to transcribe to you, as the best mode of
giving you his meaning.
"'The account of John Burton's being in such an idle unemployed way
displeases me much. I wish you, Mary, would speak to his mother on
the subject; tell her I would have acquainted her with my displeasure
before now, only, on account of her misfortune in her family [this must
refer to the death of her son David], I deferred what I ought to have
done. Why was he taken away from his attendance at Mr Winchester's

office? Doctor Dauney said he could not be better than with him, as
there was plenty of business, such as was going. Tell her that as I have
neither funds nor inclination to support idle gentlemen, or rather
vagabonds, I have given directions to Mr Alcock not to pay up her next
half-year's annuity, till he hears from me on the subject, and until she
gives you satisfactory accounts concerning her son's return to Mr
Winchester's office or otherwise. Tell her not to write to me, but to act
as is her duty.'"
The sister here continues, "I hope Mary [Dr Burton's only sister, the
youngest child of his mother] continues well, and that you will not fail
to give me an answer to this, as you see it will be absolutely necessary
to give attention to the subject. Barbara continues very unwell.--I
remain yours sincerely, M. PATON."
Whether the threat conveyed in this letter was executed, the writer has
now no means of knowing. The expression of it alone was cruel
enough--the threat to starve a poor mother into forcing a son to
continue a business utterly repugnant to him. Mrs Burton, however, did
not protect herself by the sacrifice of her son. She believed in her son's
powers, and acted on her belief in spite of all opposition; and she had
her reward. She lived to see her son gaining fame in letters, and to find
in him the utmost devotion a son can show to a mother. He never forgot
or failed to acknowledge his obligations to her. These were
undoubtedly great. She not only gave him, in part personally, his
education, but when that was finished, and she hoped to find peace for
her declining years in the little home she had prepared for herself, she
sacrificed that also to her hope of her son's advancement--her faith in
his talents and perseverance.
With the death of her husband, perhaps also on account of that of her
father, and the loss of her two little sons, Mrs Burton's pecuniary
position seems to have become somewhat easier. Whilst her son John
was destined for business in Aberdeen, she had built a small house for
her own occupation in the neighbourhood. When he set his mind on the
higher walk of his profession, and desired to come to the Scotch Bar,
the necessary expense could only be compassed by the devoted mother

selling her newly built house, and casting in her lot with her son. She,
her young daughter, and an Aberdeenshire maiden (so primitive in her
ideas, that she conceived the only way of reaching Edinburgh from
Warriston must be by wading the Water of Leith), followed John to
Edinburgh, and took up their abode in a very small house on the north
side of Warriston Crescent in the year 1831.
Dr Burton was no great letter-writer. After he began, as he said, to
write for print, he considered it waste of time to write anything which
was not to be printed, except in briefest form. His letters to his wife and
family during absences on the Continent or elsewhere, seldom
contained more than a bare itinerary, past and future, often referring
them for particulars to the article in 'Blackwood,' which was to grow
out of his travels.
His mother was naturally the recipient of the writing which came
before the days of print,--before the days of penny postage also. Almost
every letter contains a history of how his mother's last reached him, as
well as how he hoped to have that which he is writing conveyed to her
without paying the awful tax of postage.
The next letters here offered belong to