Volume 1 - Electric Scotland

156 WILLIAM BLACKWOOD.
rural affairs ; but I see that he has decidedly taken part with
you, so far as the Magazine goes, at least. I was sorry I had
nothing in such a finished state as to give him, but I will try
and send him something before next No.
The connection with Laidlaw thus continued, in
spite of what he himself calls "the imperfect Scotch "
of his foreign intelligence : and the fact that Hogg's
" spirited paper on the management of sheep " was
not received, while Laidlaw's agricultural notes were
always palatable, was very clearly due to the desire
to retain Scott's help and friendship by benefiting his
retainer— a motive reasonable enough even without
the help, the "clubbing of information," the revisal
and correction of honest Laidlaw's manuscript, to
which the great man pledged himself The contract
was quite open on both sides. Laidlaw got his
steady remuneration — not fluctuating, as Scott reminds
him, but to be calculated upon ; and Blackwood
got the invaluable name, and not a few effective lines
and paragraphs quickly divined by the public. "A
little touch from him tells far," says Laidlaw in one
of his letters. Turning over one of those faded
Magazines— the most excellent reading, and indeed
vibrating still with life and energy — we suddenly
came on an account of a wonderful feat on the part
of a sheep - dog, in which the hand of Scott is
plainly visible. The picture is as beautiful and the
story as thrilling as if it had involved the loftiest
passion or the most complex thoughts.
It may amuse the reader if we remind him that
Scott was lending this kind and friendly aid just
a year after the author of ' Waverley ' had d d
Blackwood for a criticism to which he was all