Edinburgh Aug:6/[18]90.
My dear young Lion. I received your letter yesterday, & am glad to hear that you have caught some bigger fish you do not say of what kind they are. We are seeing a great many sights here Edinburgh Castle, & Holyrood Palace & many places mentioned in Sir Walter Scott's tales, Novels, & Poems. Yesterday we went to see Melrose Abbey, about 30 miles South of Edinburgh- I wonder whether you remember anything of Lay of the Last Minstrel, which I think we once read together. Melrose Abbey is quite a ruin but a very beautiful one, & there is a stone which they may marks the place where the wizard Michael Scott was buried, & there are other graves of celebrated Scotch chiefs of whom you have read in "Tales of a Grandfather" specially Dougl At Holyrood you see the rooms in which Queen Mary lived, & the little one in which [Rizzio] was murdered. A long time ago when I visited Holyrood, they showed dark stains on a stone floor which they said was [Rizzio's] blood, but they de not show them now, & I could not find them so I suppose the floor has ben scrubbed. The place where Darnley was blown up middle of the city & occupied by the College buildings. From Melrose we went 3 miles to see Abbotsford, which is the house which Sir Walter Scott built. It is full of old Scottish Armour & Memorials of the Pretender & earlier incidents of Scotch History,

There is also a portrait of Oliver Cromwell as a young man but I did not see the wart on his cheek, so perhaps the artist left it out. A portrait of Mary, Queen of Scot's head after being cut off. Also a portrait of James IV & of Claverhouse & of Charles Edwards. A pocket book of Flora Macdonald & various reliques of Wellington Nelson, & Napoleon. Best love to Granny & Hugh from Mama & Grace & kindest regards to Mr: Metcalfe Ever your affectionate Old Lion.