English-which you know is not her native language to one who is as much distinguished by her command of it as by the purposes she adapts it to. I wish we had the command of what my old friend Pitscottie calls a blink of the sun or a whip of the whirlwind,' to transport you to this solitude before the frost has stript it of its leaves. It is not, indeed (even I must confess), equal in picturesque beauty to the banks of Clyde and Evan ;* but it is so sequestered, so simple, and so solitary, that it seems just to have beauty enough to delight its inhabitants, without a single attraction for any visitor, except those who come for its inhabitants' sake. And in good sooth, whenever I was tempted to envy the splendid scenery of the lakes of Westmoreland, I always endeavoured to cure my fit of spleen by recollecting that they attract as many idle, insipid, and indolent gazers, as any celebrated beauty in the land, and that our scene of pastoral hills and pure streams is like Touchstone's mistress, a poor thing, but mine own.' I regret, however, that these celebrated beauties should have frowned, wept, or pouted upon you, when you honoured them by your visit in summer. Did Miss Agnes Baillie and you meet with any of the poetical inhabitants of that district Wordsworth, Southey, or Coleridge? The two

* Miss Faillie was born at Long-Calderwood, near Hamilton, in Lanarkshire.

former would, I am sure, have been happy in paying their respects to you; with the habits and tastes of the latter I am less acquainted.

"Time has lingered with me from day to day in expectation of being called southward; I now begin to think my journey will hardly take place till winter, or early in spring. One of the most pleasant circumstances attending it will be the opportunity to pay my homage to you, and to claim withal a certain promise concerning a certain play, of which you were so kind as to promise me a reading. I hope you do not permit indolence to lay the paring of her little finger upon you; we cannot afford the interruption to your labours which even that might occasion. And what are you doing?' your politeness will perhaps lead you to say: in answer,- Why, I am very like a certain ancient king, distinguished in the Edda, who, when Lok paid him a visit, —

Was twisting of collars his dogs to hold,
And combing the mane of his courser bold.'

If this idle man's employment required any apology, we must seek it in the difficulty of seeking food to make savoury messes for our English guests; for we are eight miles from market, and must call in all the country sports to aid the larder. We had here, two days ago, a very pleasant English family, the Morritts of Rokeby Park, in Yorkshire. The gentle

VOL. III.

H

man wandered over all Greece, and visited the Troad, to aid in confuting the hypothesis of old Bryant, who contended that Troy town was not taken by the Greeks. His erudition is, however, not of an overbearing kind, which was lucky for me, who am but a slender classical scholar. Charlotte's kindest and best wishes attend Miss Agnes Baillie, in which I heartily and respectfully join;-to you she offers her best apology for not writing, and hopes for your kind forgiveness. I ought perhaps to make one for taking the task off her hands, but we are both at your mercy; and I am ever your most faithful, obedient, and admiring servant,

WALTER SCOTT.

"P. S.-I have had a visit from the author of the Poor Man's Sabbath, whose affairs with Constable are, I hope, settled to his satisfaction. I got him a few books more than were originally stipulated, and have endeavoured to interest Lord Leven,* and through him Mr Wilberforce, and through them both, the saints in general, in the success of this modest and apparently worthy man. Lord Leven has promised his exertions; and the interest of the party,

* Alexander, tenth Earl of Leven, had married a lady of the English family of Thornton, whose munificent charities are familiar to the readers of Cowper's Life and Letters; hence, probably, his Lordship's influence with the party alluded to in the text.

if exerted, would save a work tenfold inferior in real merit. What think you of Spain? The days of William Wallace and the Cid Ruy Diaz de Bivar seem to be reviving there."

CHAPTER XVIII.

Quarrel with Messrs Constable and Hunter-John Ballantyne established as a Bookseller in Edinburgh Scott's Literary Projects - The Edinburgh Annual Register, &c.-Meeting of James Ballantyne and John Murray — Murray's visit to Ashestiel. Politics The Peninsular War -Project of the Quarterly Review- Correspondence with Ellis, Gifford, Morritt, Southey, Sharpe, &c.

1808-1809.

THE reader does not need to be reminded that Scott at this time had business enough on his hand, besides combing the mane of Brown Adam, and twisting couples for Douglas and Percy. He was deep in Swift; and the Ballantyne press was groaning under a multitude of works, some of them already mentioned, with almost all of which his hand as well as