Mr Blackwood married, as has been seen, at the age of twenty-eight, in the year 1805, and shortly after settled in the comfortable roomy house in Salisbury Road, Newington, where all his children, nine in number, were born. Seven of them were sons—a fact which gave much reality to Mrs Blackwood's remark upon Hogg's prodigality in giving two Christian names to his newly born child. The Shepherd would feel the inappropriateness of such extravagance, she said, if, like herself, he “ran out of laddies' names.” In those days the fancy names which are so popular nowadays, bestowed for euphony's sake, or the sentiment of a youthful mother in favour of a romantic name, were unknown, and the argument “none of your kindred are called by this name” applied as strongly in Scottish families as in those of India. The young Blackwoods were Alexander, Robert, William, James, Thomas, John, and Archibald, in strictest adherence to these natural lines; while the two girls—the one the favoured and admired elder daughter, whose movements are chronicled in all the early domestic letters, a sort of princess among her brethren, the other the pet and amusement of the household—were Isabella and Janet. The last of the family, survivor of all these sturdy boys and of all the happiness of the large and genial family circle, still lives in old age, kindling yet at the recollections of the past, so full of famous names and exciting memories, with the unfailing sense of the humorous which belonged to all her family, and many a vivid remembrance of scenes and bon-mots long faded from other minds.