Volume 1 - Electric Scotland

MAGINN IN PRINCES STREET. 383
you consider that this county contains more than a third of the
population of all Scotland. It will certainly put down this silly
Jacquerie. Plunkett has been here, but did not display his
usual eloquence, and seemed rather out of place as Attorney-
— ; :
General. The Marquis of Wellesley is puffed—and detested
by all parties, and I understand is not a little tired
his place. ...
already of
As for me, you may tell any Coek man anyihmg you like,
true or untrue, about me ;
for I am known by everybody gentle
and simple in the city, and they are ready to believe anything
good or bad about my affairs. So if you think fit, write to
Croker informing him that his guess was right. But to people
un-Corcagian I have no desire to be notorious at all.
It was in the summer of 1821, and no doubt in
answer to Blackwood's desire that he should present
himself in person, that Maginn appeared in Edin-
burgh, casting aside all the fictions of anonymity.
Mrs Gordon, in her life of Professor Wilson,
quotes from the ' Dublin University Magazine ' an
account said to have been written by D. M. Moir
of the characteristic manner in which Maginn first
appeared in Princes Street, which he did in the
character of an angry Irishman, offended by stric-
tures in the Magazine, and demanding the name of
the writer. Blackwood, alas ! not unaccustomed to
such a demand, replied in his usual way, and finally
declined to give any information on the subject.
" If you don't know him, then," cried the visitor,
" perhaps you know your own handwriting," at the
same time producing a packet of letters. "You need
not deny your correspondence with that gentleman
I am that gentleman." It was very like Maginn
to make his entrance upon the scene in this way
and he was received with acclamation into the very