Towards the close of 1830, Sir Walter retired from his office,
retaining a portion of his salary, but declining a pension which had
been offered to him by the present administration. He was now in his
60th year; his health broke apace; it was evident that the task of
writing to pay off debts, which were not of his own contracting, was
alike too severe for his mental and physical powers; and in the
succeeding winter they became gradually paralyzed. He somewhat rallied
in the spring, and, unfortunately for his health, embroiled himself in
the angry politics of the day, at a county meeting at Jedburgh, upon
the Reform question. He was then very feeble, but spoke with such
vehemence as to draw upon him the hisses of some of his auditors: this
ebullition of feeling is said to have much affected him; and he is
stated (we know not how truly) to have been observed on his way home
in tears.

In the autumn of last year Sir Walter, at the recommendation of his
physicians, resolved to winter in the more congenial climate of Italy;
though it required the most earnest entreaties of his friends to
induce him to consent to the change, so strong was his love of country
and apprehension of dying in a foreign land. He accordingly set sail
in H.M.S. the Barham for Malta, on the 27th of October; previous to
which he appended to the Fourth and Last Series of _Tales of my
Landlord_ the following affecting, and, as we lately observed, almost
prophetic, passage:

"The gentle reader is acquainted that these are, in all probability,
the last tales which it will be the lot of the author to submit to the
public. He is now on the eve of visiting foreign parts; a ship of war