Extract from a Contemporary Letter, 10th May, 1832 - We saw Sir Walter Scott often during the first week of his being here. The first time of meeting a shock was caused, as I was not prepared for his difficulty in speaking ; but, though his animation is gone, his conversation is much of the same sort as formerly, therefore most interesting and original, and his expression of goodness and benevolence truly venerable, in the midst of physical decay. He one day dined with us, with his daughter, Sir William Gell and Miss Mackenzie being the rest of the party. Bunsen had taken into consideration what subject would be interesting to Sir Walter Scott, and knowing that popular poetry had always attracted him, he sought out the German ballads so enthusiastically sung during the ' War of Liberation ' in 1813, and after giving him an idea of the sense, made Henry and Ernest sing them. Sir Walter was evidently pleased, and observed of that noble struggle, quoting a verse of the 'Requiem,' ' Tantus labor non sit cassus ! ' << less