Volume 1 - Electric Scotland

336 WILLIAM BLACKWOOD.
their bills, which were the same, I dashed on, and
mixed up with what might have been one of the best
historical tales our country ever produced such a mass
of diablerie as retarded the main story, and rendered
the whole perfectly ludicrous." Blackwood, it is clear,
was well out of the undertaking, but it was not wholly
unprofitable to the Shepherd, who received " one hun-
dred and fifty pounds for the edition of one thousand
copies as soon as it was put to the press." Another
work, entitled ' The Three Perils of Woman,' seems to
have had a similar measure of success.
All this press and eagerness of publication was
intended to install Hogg in the new and larger farm
of Mount Benger, which eventually ruined him, so
far as a man in his position, with so little need for
keeping up appearances, and so buoyant a spirit,
could be ruined. He had the same object in his
volume of Jacobite Kelics, which was undertaken by
Messrs Blackwood and Murray, and about which he
writes a great many letters. Here is another char-
acteristic grumble. It is evidently written on the
occasion of one of Mr Murray's visits to Scotland,
when he was at Abbotsford, and engaged with a
greater than Hogg. The Shepherd never was able
to see any reason why he himself and his concerns
should not be always interesting :
Jaraes Hogg to W. Blackwood.
I was vexed that I got so little cracking with Murray. Scott
and he had so many people to crack about, whom nobody knows
ought about but themselves, that they monopolised the whole
conversation. Tell me seriously, is the sale of my Tales really
sticked, that neither of you will mention them, either by writing
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