TO WILLIAM CLAYFIELD, ESQ.
Dunrobin, near Golspie, August 28, 1812.
DEAR CLAYFIELD,
I am much obliged to you for two very kind letters, and for a box containing specimens from St. Vincent.[100] I beg you will thank the gentleman who was so good as to cause them to be collected for me. The box followed me to Inverness.
The ashes, I think, are likely to fertilize Barbadoes. There is a parallel case of materials having been carried so far in the eruption in Iceland in 1783.
I have been with my wife making a tour through the North since the beginning of July. We have arrived at our extreme point, and shall slowly proceed South in about a fortnight.
I wish you could be of our party here; we are in a delightful house, that of Lord Stafford, in a country abounding with fish and game. I have caught about thirty salmon since I have been here, and killed grouse, wild ducks, teal, &c. I have not yet shot a stag, but I hope to do so this next week.
I have just published a volume of the Elements of Chemistry, and I hope to publish another in the course of the Spring.
Having given up lecturing, I shall be able to devote my whole time to the pursuit of discovery.
I have not sent you a copy of my book, for I have thought that the best mode of avoiding giving offence to some, was by not making presents at all. Had I not so determined, one of the first copies would have been sent to you, as a mark of the warm esteem and regard of