Volume 1 - Electric Scotland

JAMES SCOTT. 211
the Whig gang at hi.s back tried for years to blast and ruin me,
and every one they supposed connected with me, that I object
to the butter you have given him, but it is because I hate all
appearance of hunting liberality and praising of opponents,
which is so much the cant of the day. There is not a man
who knows anything at all, about these matters, who would not
laugh and sneer at such a piece of gratuitous blarney. Crafty
himself would most likely consider it a sort of quiz, or if he
did take it as serious, his vanity is so monstrous that he would
not think it came within 100 miles of his splendid merits. It
might perhaps please Sir Walter and James Ballantyne, who
must feel such a deep interest in C.'s concerns, but James would
think that he too ought to have had a mite. I fear you will
not be pleased at the view I have taken of this matter, but I
am sure if you will consider this matter coolly you will not
blame me. Your friend Mr Cay read it, and it struck him
exactly as it did me.
He seems, however, to have taken with perfect
good - humour a broad sketch of himself, asking a
contribution from every new interlocutor, in a sub-
sequent number. One of Lockhart's most persistent
jests was the creation of an absurd but amusing
individual, under the name of the Odontist, in the
very accurately depicted person of a well - known
dentist in Glasgow, Mr James Scott, whose rotund
figure lent itself to ridicule. Into his mouth some
of the merriest sets of verses, songs sung by the
imaginary travellers in the Tent, and best jokes were
put. To judge from what Mrs Gordon says in her
life of her father. Professor Wilson, the Odontist
took his reputation in very good part, and was not
disinclined to pose as one of the contributors to
' Blackwood,' and to accept the dinners and fame
thrust upon him in this understanding. I have,
however, found a couple of letters from this ill-used