Volume 1 - Electric Scotland

202 WILLIAM BLACKWOOD.
jest, in which the tempers of some of the interlocutors
were naturally roused, and free speaking was the
rule : while, on the other hand, the number of subjects
which had to be touched upon in a monthly commen-
tary upon the doings of the world was very great.
We are made to leap over a considerable number of
early and agitated years, which, however, have already
found a brief place in the record in following this in-
teresting portion of the early productions of ' Maga.'
The special series entitled ' Noctes,' after two or
three preliminary series, as above indicated, began
in 1822.
I give the following illustrations of the system, if
system it can be called, in extracts from many letters,
all short, and written with a flying pen. They are
addressed to Mr Blackwood, sometimes with books, as
we have said, and by the " Blucher," the coach from
Melrose to Edinburgh, sometimes by the familiar hand
of the printer's devil, sometimes scrawled in " the
shop." The following scrap may possibly refer to the
beginning of these famous papers, and would seem
to prove that it was from Blackwood's brain that the
conception came :
—
Your idea of the 'Noctes' is most capital; but the thing
must be done at leisure, and I rather think when Wilson and
I are together. Meantime trust it to the Doctor, and let me
have his hints. This would be the far best vehicle for discuss-
ing the Periodical Press. Never having seen Gifford, I could
not do him very well. I think I could do " John Bull " and
Jeffrey. Get hold of Theodore's old farces, that I may steal
his own puns. Hogg told me he had been writing a ' Noctes.'
Let me see it when it is in type, that I may put in a few cuts
at himself. This lad Came, who is he? I can't understand
who or what he is. You should make him write a little book