Note 508 — JANUARY.

This is the last notice in the Journal by Sir Walter of his dear friend. James Skene of Rubislaw died at Frewen Hall, Oxford, in 1864, in his ninetieth year. His faculties remained unimpaired throughout his serene and beautiful old age, until the end was very near—then, one evening his daughter found him with a look of inexpressible delight on his face, when he said to her "I have had such a great pleasure! Scott has been here—he came from a long distance to see me, he has been sitting with me at the fireside talking over our happy recollections of the past...." Two or three days later he followed his well loved friend into the unseen world—gently and calmly like a child falling asleep he passed away in perfect peace.