'the subject, which is, that I think that you, and Jef'frey, and Leigh Hunt were the only literary men, of numbers whom I know (and some of whom I had 'served), who dared venture even an anonymous word in my favour just then; and that, of those three, I ' had never seen one at all-of the second much less 'than I desired-and that the third was under no kind ' of obligation to me, whatever; while the other two ' had been actually attacked by me on a former occa'sion; one, indeed, with some provocation, but the 'other wantonly enough. So you see you have been heaping "coals of fire, &c." in the true gospel 'manner, and I can assure you that they have burnt down to my very heart.

'I am glad that you accepted the Inscription. I meant to have inscribed" the Foscarini" to you in'stead; but first, I heard that "Cain" was thought the least bad of the two as a composition; and, 2dly, I have abused S** like a pickpocket, in a 'note to the Foscarini, and I recollected that he is a 'friend of yours (though not of mine), and that it would not be the handsome thing to dedicate to one 'friend any thing containing such matters about ' another. However, I'll work the Laureate before I 'have done with him, as soon as I can muster Billingsgate therefor. I like a row, and always did 'from a boy, in the course of which propensity, I 'must needs say, that I have found it the most easy ' of all to be gratified, personally and poetically. You 'disclaim "jealousies;" but I would ask, as Boswell 'did of Johnson, "of whom could you be jealous,"— ' of none of the living, certainly, and (taking all and all into consideration) of which of the dead? I don't 'like to bore you about the Scotch novels (as they

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'call them, though two of them are wholly English, ' and the rest half so), but nothing can or could ever persuade me, since I was the first ten minutes in your company, that you are not the man. To me those novels have so much of "Auld lang syne" (I was bred a canny Scot till ten years old) that I never 'move without them; and when I removed from Ravenna to Pisa the other day, and sent on my library 'before, they were the only books that I kept by me, although I already have them by heart.

'January 27th, 1822. 'I delayed till now concluding, in the hope that I should have got" the Pirate," who is under way for 'me, but has not yet hove in sight. I hear that your ' daughter is married, and I suppose by this time you are half a grandfather—a young one, by the way. I 'have heard great things of Mrs. Lockhart's personal ' and mental charms, and much good of her lord: 'that you may live to see as many novel Scotts as 'there are Scots' novels, is the very bad pun, but sin'cere wish of

Yours ever most affectionately, &c. 'P.S. Why don't you take a turn in Italy? You 'would find yourself as well known and as wel'come as in the Highlands among the natives. As 'for the English, you would be with them as in Lon'don; and I need not add, that I should be delighted to see you again, which is far more than I shall ever 'feel or say for England, or (with a few exceptions "“of kith, kin, and allies") any thing that it contains. • But my "heart warms to the tartan," or to any thing of Scotland, which reminds me of Aberdeen ' and other parts, not so far from the Highlands as 'that town, about Invercauld and Braemar, where I

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'was sent to drink goat's fey in 1795-6, in consequence of a threatened decline after the scarlet 'fever. But I am gossiping, so, good night-and 'the gods be with your dreams!

'Pray, present my respects to Lady Scott, who may perhaps, recollect having seen me in town in '1815.

I see that one of your supporters (for like Sir Hil'debrand, I am fond of Guillin) is a mermaid; it is 'my crest too, and with precisely the same curl of tail. 'There's concatenation for you!-I am building a ' little cutter at Genoa, to go a cruising in the sumI know you like the sea too.'

'mer.

LETTER 476.

To

'Pisa, February 6th, 1822.

"Try back the deep lane," till we find a publisher for "the Vision;" and if none such is to be found, print fifty copies at my expense, distribute them amongst my acquaintance, and you will soon see that the booksellers will publish them, even if we opposed them. That they are now afraid is natural; but I do not see that I ought to give way on that account. I know nothing of Rivington's "Remon'strance" by the "eminent Churchman;" but I suppose he wants a living. I once heard of a preacher ' at Kentish Town against " Cain." The same outcry was raised against Priestley, Hume, Gibbon, Vol'taire, and all the men who dared to put tithes to the question.

I have got S's pretended reply, to which I

* This letter has been already published, with a few others, in a periodical work, and is known to have been addressed to the late Mr. Douglas Kinnaird.