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CHAPTER II. 



HIS FIRST PROSE BOOK CORRESPONDENCE ON THE SUBJECT 



LETTERS FROM MR CARRUTHERS AND MR R. CHAMBERS 



RECEPTION AND CHARACTER OF THE BOOK DONALD MILLER. 



WHILE initiating himself, not without irksomeness, 

 into the routine of bank business, and astonishing 

 Mr Turpie by the extent of his reading, Miller occupied 

 his spare moments in Linlithgow in correcting the proof- 

 sheets of the ' Scenes and Legends in the North of Scot- 

 land/ It was his first grand effort in prose, his first 

 clear preference of a claim to have his name inscribed 

 in the list of English authors. The Poems by a Jour- 

 neyman Mason had been printed, at his own expense, 

 in Inverness. The Letters on the Herring Fishery 

 had filled but a moderately-sized pamphlet. Here, at 

 last, was an unmistakeable book, introduced to the read- 

 ing world by publishing firms of the highest eminence 

 in Edinburgh and London. We have had a glimpse of 

 the difficulties encountered in bringing it this length, 

 but what we have seen will not by any means represent 

 to us their full extent, or the amount of exertion to 

 which Miller submitted in the furtherance of his pro- 

 ject. Erom his correspondence on the subject we shall 

 take two or three additional passages, recollecting, while 

 we read, that for at least two years he was engaged in 



