100 THE BANK A CCO UNTANT. 



on a rather unpromising subject, the Herring Fishery, 

 to one of the Inverness newspapers. They were more 

 fortunate, however, than the poems, and attracted so 

 much notice that the proprietors of the paper published 

 them in a pamphlet, which has had an extensive circula- 

 tion. I send it you with the volume. Every mind, 

 large or small, is, you know, fitted for its predestined 

 work some to make epic poems, and others to write 

 letters on the Herring Fishery. 



' I continued to divide my time between the mallet 

 and the pen till about two years ago, when I was 

 nominated accountant to a branch of the Commer- 

 cial Bank, recently established in Cromarty. I owe 

 the appointment to the kindness of the banker, Mr 

 Robert Ross, whom I dare say you will remember as 

 an old neighbour, and who, when you left Cromarty, was 

 extensively engaged as a provision merchant and ship- 

 owner. I published my last, and I believe best, work, 

 Scenes and Legends of the North of Scotland, shortly 

 after. Some minds, like winter pears, ripen late ; and 

 some minds, like exotics in a northern climate, don't 

 ripen at all, and mine seems to belong to an intermediate 

 class. Sure I am it is still woefully green, somewhat 

 like our present late crops ; but it is now twenty per 

 cent, more mature than when I published my former 

 volume, and I flatter myself with the hope that, if winter 

 doesn't come on too rapidly, it may get better still. 

 Read, dear Finlay, my Scenes and Legends first ; you 

 may afterwards, if you feel inclined, peep into the other 

 two as curiosities, and for the sake of lang syne ; but I 

 wish to be introduced to you as I am at present, not as 

 I was ten years ago. The critics have been all exceed- 

 ingly good-natured, and I would fain send you some of 

 the reviews with which they have favoured me (these 



