TO MR. JAMES BALLANTYNE, ST. JOHN STREET.
Dear James,—
With great joy
I send you Roy.
'T was a tough job,
But we're done with Rob.
I forget if I mentioned Terry in my list of Friends. Pray send me two or three copies as soon as you can. It were pity to make the Grinder[84] pay carriage.
Yours ever,
W. S.
The novel had indeed been "a tough job"—for lightly and airily as it reads, the author had struggled almost throughout with the pains of cramp or the lassitude of opium. Calling on him one day to dun him for copy, James Ballantyne found him with a clean pen and a blank sheet before him, and uttered some rather solemn exclamation of surprise. "Ay, ay, Jemmy," said he, "'tis easy for you to bid me get on, but how the deuce can I make Rob Roy's wife speak, with such a curmurring in my guts?"[Back to Contents]
CHAPTER XL.
rob roy published. — negotiation concerning the second series of tales of my landlord. — commission to search for the scottish regalia. — letters to the duke of buccleuch, mr. croker, mr. morritt, mr. murray, mr. maturin, etc. — correspondence on rural affairs with mr. laidlaw, and on the buildings at abbotsford with mr. terry. — death of mrs. murray keith and mr. george bullock.
1818.
Rob Roy and his wife, Bailie Nicol Jarvie and his housekeeper, Die Vernon and Rashleigh Osbaldistone—these boldly drawn and happily contrasted personages—were welcomed as warmly as the most fortunate of their predecessors.[85] Constable's resolution to begin with an edition of 10,000 proved to have been as sagacious as brave; for within a fortnight a second impression of 3000 was called for; and the subsequent sale of this novel has considerably exceeded 40,000 more.