| Description | Letter to Alexander Macdonald of Kepplestone from Dr. John Brown, 23, Rutland Street, Edinburgh, thanking for his 'plump and pleasant-hearted letter', hoping that Mrs. Macdonald will go to Brixton to cheer George Barclay who is going there with Syme of the British Linen [Bank] and John Chiene the surgeon, Macdonald's Hook picture must be good and Macdonald must be right about Hook and Alma Tadema, he hopes never to forget Hook's 'cordial face and voice', the Dean Ramsay business is a 'pitiful bit of prigism', hoping that Macdonald enjoys his Peterhead visit, he told Jane Brown the 'bright sparkle' joke, Alex is working hard and is going to Dresden next week and the Saxon Switzerland, they are to bring home Edith Tait, her niece, asking if Pettie is to do a particular portrait, Sir John Watson Gordon's best portrait was a Peterhead Provost's, Robertson Smith is to go in for the Glasgow Chair of Mathematics, 'though he could still carry on the war with the bigots', it would probably pay more than £12,000 a year, thoughts of Kepplestone, July 1879 |