Volume 1 - Electric Scotland

450 WILLIAM BLACKWOOD.
good sense and good feeling; and it was an abom-
inable slander on the part of Mr Croker to say that
the Scotch was unintelligible. It was usually (except
when a peasant of the rudest order was speaking) fine
old-fashioned Scotch, the Scotch of the old ministers
and the old ladies, full of idiom and curious construc-
tion, not dialect at all.
Mr Blackwood's opinion of these early works was
expressed with his usual warm and genial enthusiasm,
accompanied by many advices and encouragements
to go on, in working the vein of pure metal which
had thus been struck, for ' Maga's ' advantage and
Gait's own :
—
W. Blackwood to John Gait.
23 May 1820.
Our friend Christopher desires me to express his great regret
at being obliged to defer your admirable article " The Pringle
Family " ^ till next month. This month was pretty early made
up, and your packet did not reach me, unfortunately, till the
12th, which in ordinary cases would have been early enough
but the whole of what precedes the "Luctus Donelly" was
printed off, and the " Luctus " extended further than was ex-
pected, which with Wordsworth's new volume (the interest of
which would have been lost by anticipation in other journals)
completely filled the Magazine. Your article was all in type,
ready to have been inserted had there been room for it. I now
send you the slips, which you will be so good as return corrected
by Messrs Cadell & Davies' parcel, which is despatched on the
31st. I hope along with these you will be able to send the
continuation, which I am most anxious to see. It is, I think,
a most happy subject you have taken in hand, and you have
executed it with wonderful spirited interest. The characters
are quite graphic, and you have a glorious field to act upon.
In fact, I hope you will continue the series for such a length
^ Ayrshire Legatees.
;