Volume 1 - Electric Scotland

72 WILLIAM BLACKWOOD.
times very wisely. But this is all the truth there is
in it, as the reader will see by the following letters.
For one thing, Scott knew Blackwood very well, and
had shown him every sign of respect and friendly
appreciation. But this was a sharp provocation, and
no doubt the above very hasty and very profane note
was dashed off in the first moment of exasperation, as
I daresay all of us would have been well enough in-
clined to do. I recollect, for my own part, to have
received letters from Mr John Blackwood which would
have made the use of strong language very consola-
tory ; though after a little consideration they were
generally found to be worthy of much more serious
thought. But there was more in it than this. We
resume the correspondence at the point where we
broke off. On the 1st September James Ballantyne
wrote from Kelso, during a temporary absence :
J. Ballantyne to W. Blackwood.
Our friend Jedediah highly approves of your management in
respect to the ' Tales,^ and thinks your setting up a rival author
an excellent thought. He leaves you at perfect liberty to present
a copy of vol. i. to Mr Murray as a matter of course, and
to Lord Dalhousie according to your own discretion : not doubt-
ing, however, that they will be managed with a due regard to
inviolable secrecy. I have, therefore, written to Edinburgh
ordering two copies to be sent to you immediately.
These copies were of course of the printed sheets,
the book being not yet ready for publication. It is at
this point in the correspondence that Mr Blackwood's
startling criticism and suggestion should come in : but
no copy seems to have been preserved of it, and we
are, therefore, unable to tell except from Lockhart's
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