Volume 1 - Electric Scotland

190 WILLIAM BLACKWOOD.
Should you visit the North in the summer, I fear you would
not find much to amuse you in the way of society here ; but in
the winter I imagine few places can be more abundant in good
society—the best I have ever seen, because it is so thoroughly
mingled
—
i.e., there are not enough of different sorts of people
to make different circles as in London, and they all move to-
gether very amicably and agreeably—Peers, Lairds, Advocates,
Eeviewers, Poets, &c. It is very amusing certainly, and worth
coming to taste, at all events for once. "With the high men of
letters here I have very slight acquaintance ; indeed I do not
admire any of them much except Scott, and he is an exception
to what I have said, for he has been very kind to me often, and
I spend many hours every week in his house. I shall mention
to you what I do not to any one here : that he has asked me
to write for him the history of the ' Edinburgh Annual Regis-
ter,' the allowance for which is £500 per annum, and I have
accepted his offer. This is done sub rosa, the booksellers know-
ing nothing of it. I fancy his novels occupy him so much that
he really could not proceed with it any longer. The years '16
and '17 are both to be done, so I have work enough on hand
but I mean to finish both within a year, which will be £1000
in my pocket, and afterwards I think the business may be
managed without very much labour.
Blackwood, I rejoice to say, flourishes mightily; his sale
increases vastly every month, and he is praised everywhere.
The third of these letters, in some respects the
most interesting of the three, throws a curious new
light upon the circumstances, and discloses the shortlived
arrangement which existed through a few num-
bers only :
—
J. G. Lockhart to Mr Williams.
If you have seen No. 7 of ' Blackwood's Magazine ' you
will have perceived that he has now got a partner in the con-
cern who, it is supposed, may have it in his power vastly to
improve it. Murray had a scheme, you recollect, of setting up
a Magazine of his own some time ago. He printed 12,000 of
the first number, but lost heart and never published. Barrow
;