The period between 1842 and 1845 was a very busy one, but without the publication of any very remarkable book, or advent of any particularly distinguished author. The visits of the elder brothers to London were frequent, and the letters of young John still more so. A stream of constant communication flowed between Pall Mall and George Street; the younger brother reporting all his movements—those of pleasure as well as those of business—and the elders replying, if not quite so largely, yet with much confidence, and with all the gossip or news of Edinburgh likely to interest him. Edinburgh was the centre of all things not less to the young man, who always felt himself more or less an exile—though a merry one—in London, than to his brothers at home. But John's youthful advices, always shrewd and clear-sighted, his business reports, his genial management, for which, though a partner, he always seems to have felt himself responsible to his seniors, are on the whole more full of interest than the steady-going records of business in Edinburgh. Nothing could well be more living or lively than the movements of the energetic young man, who, whatever might have been the festivities overnight, was always fresh and busy at his work next morning, shirking nothing. Literature and business come in together without an interval, and there is perhaps greater relish in reporting the going off of a book than the literary consultations which took place concerning it.