monly keep half-a-dozen of the ragged regiment of Parnassus in tolerable case." I said he must have felt something like what a locomotive engine on a railway might be supposed to do, when a score of coal waggons are seen linking themselves to it the moment it gets the steam up, and it rushes on its course regardless of the burden. "Yes," said he, laughing, and making a crashing cut with his axe (for we were felling larches); " but there was a cursed lot of dung carts too." He was seldom, in fact, without some of these appendages; and I admired nothing more in him than the patient courtesy, the unwearied gentle kindness with which he always treated them, in spite of their delays and blunders, to say nothing of the almost incredible vanity and presumption which more than one of them often exhibited in the midst of their fawning; and I believe, with all their faults, the worst and weakest of them repaid him by a canine fidelity of affection. This part of Scott's character recalls by far the most pleasing trait in that of his last predecessor in the plentitude of literary authority — Dr Johnson. There was perhaps nothing (except the one great blunder) that had a

worse effect on the course of his pecuniary fortunes, than the readiness with which he exerted his interest with the booksellers on behalf of inferior writers. Even from the commencement of his connexion with Constable in particular, I can trace a continual series

of such applications. They stimulated the already too sanguine publisher to numberless risks; and when these failed, the result was, in one shape or another, some corresponding deduction from the fair profits of his own literary labour. "I like well,"

Constable was often heard to say in the sequel, " I like well Scott's ain bairns-but heaven preserve me from those of his fathering!"

Every now and then, however, he had the rich compensation of finding that his interference had really promoted the worldly interests of some me. ritorious obscure. Early in 1808 he tasted this pleasure, in the case of a poetical shoemaker of Glasgow, Mr John Struthers, a man of rare worth and very considerable genius, whose "Poor Man's Sabbath" was recommended to his notice by Joanna Baillie, and shortly after published, at his desire, by Mr Constable. He thus writes to Miss Baillie from Ashestiel, on the 9th of May 1808 :

"Your letter found me in this quiet corner, and while it always gives me pride and pleasure to hear from you, I am truly concerned at Constable's unaccountable delays. I suppose that, in the hurry of his departure for London, his promise to write Mr Struthers had escaped; as for any desire to quit his bargain, it is out of the question. If Mr Struthers will send to my house in Castle Street, the manu

6

script designed for the press, I will get him a short
bill for the copy-money the moment Constable re-
turns, or perhaps before he comes down.
He may
rely on the bargain being definitively settled, and the
printing will, I suppose, be begun immediately on
the great bibliopolist's return; on which occasion I
shall have, according to good old phrase, a crow
to pluck with him, and a pock to put the feathers
in.' I heartily wish we could have had the ho-
nour to see Miss Agnes and you at our little farm,
which is now in its glory-all the twigs bursting
into leaf, and all the lambs skipping on the hills. I
have been fishing almost from morning till night;
and Mrs Scott, and two ladies our guests, are wan-
dering about on the banks in the most Arcadian
fashion in the world. We are just on the point of
setting out on a pilgrimage to the bonny bush
aboon Traquhair,' which I believe will occupy us all
the morning. Adieu, my dear Miss Baillie. Nothing
will give me more pleasure than to hear that you
have found the northern breezes fraught with inspi-
ration. You are not entitled to spare yourself, and
none is so deeply interested in your labours as your
truly respectful friend and admirer,

WALTER SCOTT.

"P. S. We quit our quiet pastures to return to Edinburgh on the 10th. So Mr Struthers' parcel

will find me there, if he is pleased to intrust me with the care of it."

Mr Struthers' volume was unfortunate in bearing a title so very like that of James Grahame's Sabbath, which, though not written sooner, had been published a year or two before. This much interfered with its success, yet it was not on the whole unsuccessful: it put some £30 or £40 into the pocket of a good man, to whom this was a considerable supply; but it made his name and character known, and thus served him far more essentially; for he wisely continued to cultivate his poetical talents without neglecting the opportunity, thus afforded him through them, of pursuing his original calling under better advantages. It is said that the solitary and meditative generation of cobblers have produced a larger list of murders and other domestic crimes than any other mechanical trade except the butchers; but the sons of Crispin have, to balance their account, a not less disproportionate catalogue of poets; and foremost among these stands the pious author of the Poor Man's Sabbath; one of the very few that have had sense and fortitude to resist the innumerable temptations to which any measure of celebrity exposes persons of their class. I believe Mr Struthers still survives to enjoy the retrospect of a long and virtuous life. His letters to Scott are equally credi

table to his taste and his feelings, and sometime after we shall find him making a pilgrimage of gratitude to Ashestiel.*

James Hogg was by this time beginning to be generally known and appreciated in Scotland; and the popularity of his "Mountain Bard" encouraged Scott to more strenuous intercession in his behalf. I have before me a long array of letters on this subject, which passed between Scott and the Earl of Dalkeith and his brother Lord Montagu, in 1808. Hogg's prime ambition at this period was to procure an ensigncy in a militia regiment, and he seems to have set little by Scott's representations that the pay of such a situation was very small, and that, if he obtained it, he would probably find his relations with his brother officers far from agreeable. There was, however, another objection which Scott could not hint to the aspirant himself, but which seems to have been duly considered by those who were anxious to promote his views. Militia officers of that day were by no means unlikely to see their nerves put to the test; and the Shepherd's-though he wrote

* I am happy to learn, as this page passes through the press, from my friend Mr John Kerr of Glasgow, that about three years ago Mr Struthers was appointed keeper of Stirling's Library, a collection of some consequence in that city. The selection of him for this respectable situation reflects honour on the directors of the institution.-(December, 1836.)