[16: [See _Familiar Letters_, vol. ii. p. 16.]]
"My noontide, India may declare; Like her fierce sun, I fired the air! Like him, to wood and cave bid fly Her natives, from mine angry eye. And now, my race of terror ran, Mine be the eye of tropic sun! No pale gradations quench his ray, No twilight dews his wrath allay; With disk like battle-target red, He rushes to his burning bed. Dyes the wide wave with bloody light, Then sinks at once--and all is night."--_Canto_ vi. 21.]
[18: "Scott found peculiar favor and imitation among the fair sex. There was Miss Holford, and Miss Mitford, and Miss Francis; but, with the greatest respect be it spoken, none of his imitators did much honor to the original except Hogg, the Ettrick Shepherd, until the appearance of _The Bridal of Triermain_ and _Harold the Dauntless_, which, in the opinion of some, equalled if not surpassed him; and, lo! after three or four years, they turned out to be the master's own compositions."--Byron, vol. xv. p. 96.]
[19: See, for instance, the Epistle of Lady Corke--or that of Messrs. Lackington, booksellers, to one of their dandy authors,--
"Should you feel any touch of _poetical_ glow, We've a scheme to suggest--Mr. Scott, you must know (Who, we're sorry to say it, now works for the _Row_), Having quitted the Borders to seek new renown, Is coming by long Quarto stages to town, And beginning with Rokeby (the job's sure to pay), Means to do all the gentlemen's seats on the way. Now the scheme is, though none of our hackneys can beat him, To start a new Poet through Highgate to meet him; Who by means of quick proofs--no revises--long coaches-- May do a few Villas before Scott approaches; Indeed if our Pegasus be not curst shabby, He'll reach, without foundering, at least Woburn-Abbey," etc., etc.]
[21: It is included in the _Border Minstrelsy_, vol. i. p. 270.]
[22: This murder, perpetrated in November, 1806, remains a mystery in 1836. The porter's name was Begbie. [See _Familiar Letters_, vol. i. p. 63.]]
AFFAIRS OF JOHN BALLANTYNE AND CO. -- CAUSES OF THEIR DERANGEMENT. --LETTERS OF SCOTT TO HIS PARTNERS. -- NEGOTIATION FOR RELIEF WITH MESSRS. CONSTABLE. -- NEW PURCHASE OF LAND AT ABBOTSFORD. --EMBARRASSMENTS CONTINUED. -- JOHN BALLANTYNE'S EXPRESSES. --DRUMLANRIG, PENRITH, ETC. -- SCOTT'S MEETING WITH THE MARQUIS OF ABERCORN AT LONGTOWN. -- HIS APPLICATION TO THE DUKE OF BUCCLEUCH. --OFFER OF THE POET-LAUREATESHIP, -- CONSIDERED, -- AND DECLINED. --ADDRESS OF THE CITY OF EDINBURGH TO THE PRINCE REGENT. -- ITS RECEPTION. -- CIVIC HONORS CONFERRED ON SCOTT. -- QUESTION OF TAXATION ON LITERARY INCOME. -- LETTERS TO MR. MORRITT, MR. SOUTHEY, MR. RICHARDSON, MR. CRABBE, MISS BAILLIE, AND LORD BYRON