Volume 1 - Electric Scotland

378 WILLIAM BLACKWOOD.
sans on both sides may fly ofif, but in the end truth and talent
will prevail.
You will see that our friend Christopher has addressed
Oehlenschlaeger's ^ letter to Mr David Laing. He is a young
bibliopole here who was in Denmark last year with Mr James
"Wilson (a brother of the Professor's), and saw a number of
the Copenhagen libraries. And what makes the thing more
complete, there happens to be just now a Mr Feldborg whom
he got very intimate with at Copenhagen : his name, therefore,
is inserted, as he is a very particular friend of Oehlenschlaeger's.
This, however, was not thought of till nearly 1000 copies were
thrown off. However, the joke of it was equally good, as Feld-
borg is quite delighted with it. Christopher, you will also see,
has made some alterations of names which, from local circumstances,
were necessary : I hope you will approve of them. The
article is one of the most effective and amusing we have ever
had in the Magazine. Christopher says it is quite astonishing
how you enter so completely into the very spirit and essence
of ' Maga,' just as if you had all along been seated with us at
Ambrose's, where the highest of our fun was concocted.
W. Blackwood to B. T. S.
Edin., \8th Oct. 1820.
I know "Washington Irving well, and when he was here two
or three years ago, he promised to me to contribute regularly.
The last time I saw him in London he repeated his promises
but he said, when he looked at our " audaciously original Maga-
zine," he did not think he could give anything that could appear
to advantage in it. These, of course, were mere phrases ; but
I do think he has perhaps been rather overestimated. He is a
man of an amiable elegant mind, and what he does do is well
conceived and finely polished, but I rather think he is not a
person of great originality or strength.
^ This refers to the elaborate mystification already noted, the imaginary
translation of a play to which the name of the Danish dramatist was
appended in pure wantonness, as it seems, and the equally imaginary correspondence
which followed,— all to be found in the pages of the Magazine,
but unnecessary to record here.
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