Volume 1 - Electric Scotland

Wilson's knapsack. 263
and this would be perfectly ruinous to me. I have now posi-
tively determined to go on with a Magazine, were it on no
other account than that these fellows, the Crafty and his new
and most honourable allies, are triumphing over my sinking
before them. But laying this wholly out of the question, I
am now urged to go on by all my friends, and promised every
kind of support. I would give anything almost to have you
here just now to consult with, and to tell you a number of
things which I have casually learnt lately with regard to the
manner in which P. and Cleghorn have behaved in the busi-
ness. ... I have no doubt they will be besieging you for
your assistance. I need not say how much I would regret
your going over to the enemy's camp. I will not attempt to
urge you to favour me with your support. All I shall say
is, that I feel indebted to you for what you have already done
more than I can express, and that I flatter myself you will
find my publication to the full as respectable as the other.
I hope, when you come to know, you will be fully satisfied
of this.
This letter found Wilson about the trout -streams
in his holiday, tramping in the wet over moss and
heather, carrying at one time, apparently in his knap-
sack, on his Herculean shoulders, " about a dozen
heavy books." This was in preparation for the first
number of the new issue. It gives a curious glimpse
into the manner in which articles could be composed
in these robust days :
—
John Wilson to W. Blackwood.
I received the packet addressed to me at Captain Harden's
on my arrival at Braemar, and found much amusement there-
from on two rainy days which I was obliged to pass there. It
contained Coleridge's Life and poems, Frere's poem, and the
' Lament of Tasso.' I carried them and my other books with
me to Grantown on the Spey, where a calamity, if I may use
such a word, befell me. I had written an account of Coleridge's