Volume 1 - Electric Scotland

238 WILLIAM BLACKWOOD.
correct editor of the stately ' Quarterly ' stealing off
with delight to " make a ' Noctes.' " It suggests
a weariness with the new circumstances, in which
there is an almost tragic touch :
J. G. Lockhart to W. Blackwood.
—
Bkighton, Augt. 8, '26.
Dr Maginn paid me a visit here about four weeks ago, and
promised to come back soon for the purpose principally of
making a ' Noctes.' But since then I have neither seen nor
heard anything of him, nor indeed do I know where he is or
what he is doing at this moment, though I think I can still
trace his pen occasionally in 'The New Times and Eip,' and
thence conclude he has made some partnership with Mudford.
I am writing him to-day, and as soon as we can meet depend
upon a packet. His account of the Westmoreland election is
most rich, and I am on many accounts sorry the Professor was
not there to help in and enjoy the triumph. Lord Lowther is
rather displeased about his non-appearance, which, no doubt
through some blunder, he thought he was to depend upon. I
hope Lord L. tipped the Doctor decently ; but he said nothing
to me on that delicate topic, except, indeed, that there had been
a discovery of some seventy years' old Eum, of which he (the
Doctor) had been invited to take away some dozens for London
consumption. Wordsworth and Maginn (!) wrote, verse about,
a song of Betty Martin, &c., which I thought no great shakes for
all the illustrious copartnery. I wish some of you would tell me
what old Crafty is doing. When one sees the firm on title-pages,
just as of yore, one begins to doubt the fact of a failure after all.
My little boy improves so much here that we shall scarcely
leave the place while he can bathe in the sea. To us it has no
other recommendation, as we know nobody here except poor
William Eose, who is in a very invalid and unconversable
condition. The Tiger, as you have perhaps heard, is going
shortly to Canada to hunt bears and other fellow - creatures.
This will be a reUef to the Professor's imagination, though to
me, I assure you, it is a sorrow.
What a contrast this melancholy seclusion at the