me turn Turk or Infidel. Believe me, in great grief of spirit, dear Southey, ever yours,

WALTER SCOTT.

Mrs. Scott begs kind remembrance to Mrs. Southey. The bed in the said chamber in the wall is a double one.

TO THE SAME.

EDINBURGH, 31st January, 1809. MY DEAR SOUTHEY, - Yesterday I received your letter, and to-day I despatched Gomella and the third volume of Ramuzio. The other two volumes can also be sent, if you should find it necessary to consult them. The parcel is addressed to the paternal charge of your Keswick carrier. There is no hurry in returning these volumes, so don't derange your operations by hurrying your extracts, only keep them from any profane eye. I dipped into Gomella while I was waiting for intelligence from you, and was much edified by the bonhomie with which the miracles of the Jesuits are introduced.

The news from Spain gave me such a mingled feeling, that I never suffered so much in my whole life from the disorder of spirits occasioned by affecting intelligence. My mind has naturally a strong military bent, though my path in life has been so very different. I love a drum and a soldier as heartily as ever Uncle Toby did, and between the pride arising from our gallant bearing, and the deep regret that so much bravery should run to waste, I spent a most disordered and agitated night, never closing my eyes but what I was harassed with visions of broken ranks, bleeding soldiers, dying horses"and all the currents of a heady fight." I agree with you that we want energy in our cabinet – or rather their opinions are so different, that they come to wretched compositions between them, which are worse than the worst course decidedly followed out. Canning is most anxious to support the Spaniards, and would have had a 1 1st King Henry IV. Act II. Scene 2.

second army at Corunna, but for the positive demand of poor General Moore that empty transports should be sent thither. So the reinforcements were disembarked. I fear it will be found that Moore was rather an excellent officer, than a general of those comprehensive and daring views necessary in his dangerous situation. Had Wellesley been there, the battle of Corunna would have been fought and won at Somosierra, and the ranks of the victors would have been reinforced by the population of Madrid. Would to God we had yet 100,000 men in Spain. I fear not Buonaparte's tactics. The art of fence may do a great deal, but "alla stoccata," as Mercutio says, cannot carry it away from national valor and personal strength. The Opposition have sold or bartered every feeling of patriotism for the most greedy and selfish égoisme.

I hope by the time it

Ballantyne's brother is setting up here as a bookseller, chiefly for publishing. I will recommend Coleridge's paper to him as strongly as I can. is commenced he will be enabled to send him a handsome order. From my great regard for his brother, I shall give this young publisher what assistance I can. He is understood to start against Constable and the Reviewers, and publishes the Quarterly. Indeed he is in strict alliance, offensive and defensive, with John Murray of Fleet Street. I have also been laboring a little for the said Quarterly, which I believe you will detect. I hear very high things from Gifford of your article. About your visit to Edinburgh, I hope it will be a month later than you now propose, because my present prospects lead me to think I must be in London the whole month of April. Early in May I must return, and will willingly take the lakes in my way in hopes you will accompany me to Edinburgh, which you positively must not think of visiting in my absence.

Lord Advocate, who is sitting behind me, says the Ministers have resolved not to abandon the Spaniards

coute que coute. It is a spirited determination - but they must find a general who has, as the Turks say, le Diable au corps, and who, instead of standing staring to see what they mean to do, will teach them to dread those surprises and desperate enterprises by which they have been so often successful. Believe me, dear Southey,

Yours affectionately,

WALTER SCOTT.

Mrs. Scott joins me in best compliments to Mrs. Southey. I hope she will have a happy hour. Pray, write me word when the books come safe. What is Wordsworth doing, and where the devil is his Doe?1 I am not sure if he will thank me for proving that all the Nortons escaped to Flanders, one excepted. I never knew a popular tradition so totally groundless as that respecting their execution at York.

1 The White Doe of Rylestone was published by Longman and Co. in 1819.

DESCRIPTION OF HIM AS "A LION' IN TOWN. DINNER AT MR. SOTHEBY'S. COLERIDGE'S FIRE,

FAMINE, AND SLAUGHTER.

VIEW STARTED.

THE QUARTERLY RE

FIRST VISIT TO ROKEBY.

THE EXCURSION TO THE

RON'S ENGLISH BARDS AND SCOTCH REVIEWERS. DEATH OF DANIEL SCOTT. - CORRESPONDENCE ABOUT MR. CANNING'S DUEL WITH LORD CASTLEREAGH. MISS BAILLIE'S FAMILY LEGEND ACTED AT EDINTHEATRICAL ANECDOTES. KEMBLE.

BURGH.

LETTER ON THE DEATH OF

1809-1810

In the end of 1808, a young man, by name Andrew Stewart, who had figured for some years before as a poetical contributor to the Scots Magazine, and inserted there, among other things, a set of stanzas in honor of the Last Minstrel,1 was tried, and capitally convicted, on a charge of burglary. He addressed, some weeks after his sentence had been pronounced, the following letters:

1 One verse of this production will suffice:

"Sweetest Minstrel that e'er sung

Of valorous deeds by Scotia done,
Whose wild notes warbled in the win',
Delightful strain !

O'er hills aud dales, and vales amang,
We've heard again," etc.

TO WALTER SCOTT, ESQ., CASTLE STREET.

EDINBURGH TOLBOOTH, 20th January, 1809. SIR, Although I am a stranger to you, yet I am not to your works, which I have read and admired, and which will continue to be read and admired as long as there remains a taste for true excellence. Previous to committing the crime for which I am now convicted, I composed several poems in the Scottish dialect, which I herewith send for your perusal, and humbly hope you will listen to my tale of misery. I have been a truly unfortunate follower of the Muses. I was born in Edinburgh, of poor, but honest parents. My father is by trade a bookbinder, and my mother dying in 1798, he was left a widower, with five small children, who have all been brought up by his own industry. As soon as I was fit for a trade, he bound me apprentice to a tailor in Edinburgh, but owing to his using me badly, I went to law. The consequence was, I got up my indentures after being only two years in his service. To my father's trade I have to ascribe my first attachment to the Muses. I perused with delight the books that came in the way; and the effusions of the poets of my country I read with rapture. I now formed the resolution of not binding myself to a trade again, as by that means I might get my propensity for reading followed. I acted as clerk to different people, and my character was irreproachable. I determined to settle in life, and for that purpose I married a young woman I formed a strong attachment to. Being out of employment these last nine months, I suffered all the hardships of want, and saw

"Poverty, with empty hand

And eager look, half-naked stand.” — Fergusson.

Reduced to this miserable situation, with my wife almost starving, and having no friends to render me the smallest assistance, I resided in a furnished room till I was unable to pay the rent, and then I was literally turned out of doors, like poor Dermody, in poverty and rags. Having no kind hand stretched out to help me, I associated with company of very loose manners, till then strangers to me, and by them I was led to commit the crime I am condemned to suffer for. But my mind is so agitated, I can scarce narrate my tale of misery. My age is only