Worthy Bishop Skinner would have been glad to have Ramsay a
fellow-labourer in his city upon whatever conditions. Yet he could not
contradict his younger friend's honest and temperate adherence to his
principles and to Episcopacy. The correspondence all round, which I have
before me, is quite decorous; but after Ramsay had stated his objection,
and that it was insuperable, the managers wrote to him, 1st October
1822, that "a unanimous election would follow if he accepted the
situation under the present establishment." It would have been easy to
divide the congregation, but this did not suit Ramsay's feelings or
nature, and he courteously bowed to the decision of the managers, and
returned to Frome, where his income from both curacies was £100 a
year,--a poverty the more irksome to a man of culture and
refined tastes.

Not long after (still, I think in 1823), the Journal records--"Mrs.
Forbes, my aunt, had just come into her accession of fortune, and
presented me with £5000. A man may live many days in this world, and not
meet the like gift in a like kindly spirit[5]."

Of the year 1823 the Journal remarks very severe winter. "Marmaduke and
Edwin with me at the Pear-tree[6]; a delightful tour in South Wales with
the Sheppards and other friends most agreeable and
good-humoured,--botany, sketching, talk, and fun. Life has few things to
offer more enjoyable than such tours. I have found in them the happiest
hours in my life." And then follows the wail for so "many of them
departed; so many dear good friends; all different, but all excellent!"

Marmaduke having gone as tutor to Lord Lansdowne's eldest son, Edward
was more free to consider an offer from Edinburgh, and ultimately
accepted the curacy of St. George's in York Place, under Mr. Shannon. He