Untitled - Electric Scotland

1827-33] BALLIOL SCHOLARSHIP 41
Mr. A. C. Tait to Mr. Archibald Sivinton.
" RENISHAW
HALL, 19 Dec. 1830.
"MY DEAR SWINTON,- ... These satirical hints and in
sinuations of yours were rather an agreeable variety. For, to
tell the truth, I am sick of letters of congratulation, written in
as high-flown style as if I had been appointed Archbishop of
Canterbury at once, or been invited by the Poles on account of
my extraordinary merits to accept the sovereignty of their king
dom. I am sure when these letters are published in my Memoirs
they will be found a thousand times more bombastical than those
which I receive when promoted to the first named of these dig
nities. But I shall take good care that they are not published
in these Memoirs, for what a picture of Scotland would be pre
sented if it were known what a row Scotchmen made about one
of their number obtaining that which Englishmen are in the
habit of receiving every year. . . . Had
it not been for the voice
of satire which pervades your epistle, I should have sworn that
you too were turned Whig with the new Ministry. ... I have
nothing to do here but vegetate, and regret extremely that my
brother-in-law has given up his hounds, with which I might have
had excellent fun this Christmas. . . . You need not fear for
me ; I am ashamed when I think how little I have done in the
way of reading this last term. I could do nothing else while I
was preparing for the scholarship, though I only worked what
we should have called hard at Glasgow for five or six days be
fore the examination. And after the examination was over I felt
as idly disposed as ever I did after a long essay for Buchanan.
I am doing nothing but reading English while here. . . .-
Your affect, friend, A. C. TAIT."
Strange to say, the above is far from being the only
allusion in these early days to the Archbishopric of Can
terbury. It is, of course, a mere congratulatory common
place, when the rawest of youths takes Holy Orders, or
eats his dinners in the Temple, to remind him, as the
case may be, of Lambeth Palace or the Woolsack. But
in the case of Archibald Tait the allusion is so persistent
as to acquire an interest of its own. At least a score of
such references might be culled from the correspondence