girl who was her husband’s relative. Almost every year, Grant took a few weeks' holiday to visit her family and acquaintances in different parts of the Strathmore, including her parents, and her favourite friends at Glasgow. She acquainted herself with the Gaelic language, and was able not only to speak it with the people, and to understand the religious services which her husband performed in it, but to translate the compositions both of ancient and modern bards. Her travels through the Highlands of Scotland during this time would come to greatly impact her future literary work, which draws heavily on the imagery of the region. The first great trouble she ever felt was the death of her second son, age four. A year or two afterwards, she also lost twin daughters. Her elder children, usually two or three at a time, generally resided with her parents, who, in 1794, left Fort George, and took a house in the city of Glasgow. There the grandchildren enjoyed many educational advantages. On the death of a favourite companion of her girlhood, Grant took one of the small children into her own home. When Charlotte Grant, who had lived with her since early in her marriage, married early but also died young, Grant took in her child. When the family estate was absorbed into the new State of Vermont, Grant's financial expectations were severely altered; yet the loss affected her only slightly. The death of her eldest son, John-Lauchlan, at the age of fifteen, was dreadful to her. Its effect was somewhat softened to both parents by the birth of a fourth son a fortnight afterwards, and for eighteen months, although depressed in health and spirits, their domestic happiness was so perfect that Grant subsequently declared that, if she were permitted to select six months out of her whole former life to live over again, she would choose the last six of that period. However, it came to a fearful close: Rev. Grant was attacked by inflammation of the chest, and after three days' illness, he died in 1801. They had been married twenty-two years and of their twelve children, eight survived, six daughters and two sons. Woodend near Stirling In June 1803, she reluctantly left Laggan with her children, and took up residence at Woodend near Stirling, having garden-ground attached to her dwelling and a few acres of pasture-land. Her father died in