James Hogg to John Murray.
EDINBURGH, February 20, 1819.
MY DEAR SIR,
I arrived here the day before yesterday for my spring campaign in literature, drinking whiskey, etc., and as I have not heard a word of you or from you since we parted on the top of the hill above Abbotsford, I dedicate my first letter from the metropolis to you. And first of all, I was rather disappointed in getting so little cracking with you at that time. Scott and you had so much and so many people to converse about, whom nobody knew anything of but yourselves, that you two got all to say, and some of us great men, who deem we know everything at home, found that we knew nothing. You did not even tell me what conditions you were going to give me for my "Jacobite Relics of Scotland," the first part of which will make its appearance this spring, and I think bids fair to be popular….
Believe me, yours very faithfully,
JAMES HOGG.
After the discontinuance of Murray's business connection with Blackwood, described in the preceding chapter, James Hogg wrote in great consternation:
Mr. James Hogg to John Murray,
ELTRIVE, by SELKIRK, December 9, 1829.