Volume 1 - Electric Scotland

488 WILLIAM BLACKWOOD.
the new edition to him was the immediate suggestion,
which the writer embraced eagerly. The response was
as follows :
— —
G. B. Gleig to W. Blackwood.
Ash, Nov. 10, 1826.
Though I wrote you only the other day, I again put you to
the expense of post for the purpose of forwarding the preceding
dedication to the Duke. I received from him this morning a
letter, the most gratifying that can be imagined. He there
states that he has been obliged to make a rule not to give a
formal sanction to any dedication, and says that it gives him
particular pain to adhere to it on the present occasion. He
pays the highest compliment to the book, and ends with this :
" If, however, you think proper to dedicate the second edition
to me, you are perfectly at liberty to do so, and you cannot ex-
press in too high terms my approbation and admiration of your
interesting work. I have the honour to be, dear sir, yours most
faithfully."
I have struck the hot iron and opened a correspondence forth-
with touching the life. Of the result of that you shall hear as
soon as may be. In the meanwhile tell me how you mean to
bind his Grace's copy, that I may direct the Duke of Albemarle
Street to put a copy of the * Campaigns ' in a similar jacket.
Let me know your intentions respecting the novel, because
Mr Murray is anxious to have the first ofifer. The first for-
sooth ! forgetting how handsome your conduct to me has been,
and how shy his own—of anything which I may write.
A little later (I presume :
—
there is not a hint of
a date) there is again a letter from the great man to
be recorded :
I have received another letter from the Duke, the result of
which is to determine me not to publish his life till after he is
dead. He enters at length into his reasons for declining to
furnish the materials for any immediate publication of the
kind, and they are unanswerable. This is one of his expres-
sions. After pointing out that the history of his life would be