emphasized by my father having been an unlucky speculator in foreign
wheat, tempted thereto by the sliding scale, which varied from 33/ a
quarter, when wheat was as cheap as it was in 1837, to 1/ a quarter,
when it was 70/ in 1839. It was supposed that my father had made his
fortune when he took his wheat out of bond but losses and deterioration
during seven years, and interest on borrowed money--credit having been
strained to the utmost--brought ruin and insolvency, and he had to go
to South Australia, followed by his wife and family soon after. It
seems strange that this disaster should be the culmination of the
peace, after the long Napoleonic war. When my father married in 1815 he
showed he was making 600 pounds a year, with 2,000 pounds book debts, as a
writer or attorney and as agent for a bank. But the business fell off, the
book debts could not be collected; the bank called up the advances; and
for 24 years there was a struggle. My mother would not have her dowry of
1,500 pounds and other money left by an aunt settled on herself--neither
her father nor herself approved of it--the wife's fortune should come
and go with her husband's. My father first speculated in hops and lost
heavily. He took up unlucky people, whom other business men had
drained. I suppose he caught at straws. He had the gentlest of
manners--"the politest man in Melrose," the old shoemaker called him. My
paternal grandfather was Dr. William Spence, of Melrose. His father was
minister of the Established Church at Cockburn's Path, Berwickshire.
His grandfather was a small landed proprietor, but he had to sell
Spence's mains, and the name was changed to Chirnside. So (as my father
used to say) he was sprung from the tail of the gentry; while my mother
was descended from the head of the commonalty. The Brodies had been
tenant farmers in East Lothian for six or seven generations, though
they originally came from the north. My grandfather Brodie thought
abrogation of the Corn Laws meant ruin for the farmers, who had taken
19 years' leases at war prices. But during the war times both landlords