Volume 1 - Electric Scotland

THE OPINIONS OF "JOHN." 189
we are accustomed to. It is sad to think that the
man to whom he offered so many openings — from
Burns to the Welsh Seminary, which it is interesting
to hear was thought of so long ago—from philosophy,
classics, and the state of religion, down to an account
of Colonel Johnes' library—does not make any con-
tinuous appearance in the records of Blackwood
neither he nor " John," who was the future Archdeacon
himself, responding as appears to this large and liberal
call. The second letter of the series proves that his
correspondent did something in this earlier period of
' Maga's ' career :
—
/. G. Lockhart to Mr Williams.
25 Maitland Street, Edinburgh,
July 8, 1818.
Your letter and the packet to Mr Blackwood arrived to-day.
How long they have been on their travels God onljy knows, for
you have affixed no date to either of them. Although the
history of the Minstrel of Bruges is very amusing, I think your
Triads are more so, and look better at the beginning of a series
so they appear this month under the title of " Horae Cambricse,"
No. 1. Next month follows the life of your hero as No. 2, and
I hope there is no fear of the series being a short one. I regret
extremely that Ebony's vile sloth has caused the delay of the
Magazine, but I trust it will reach you as soon as this letter,
and henceforth every letter shall pass regularly to you by a few
days after the 1st of each month. May none arrive to which
you can say, Te fioi koX (toi.
I had some days ago a very good and pretty long letter from
John, in which he favoured me with a narrative of the row in
Winchester College, and with some bitter epithets against the
propriety of attacking such a character as Mr Examiner Hunt.
Even my high opinion of my friend's sagacity is insufficient to
make me enter into or sympathise with any feelings of respect
for such a conceited, coxcombical incendiary. But danger-
ous ground.
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