262 MEMOIR OF JOHN WILSON. 



volume affair. In a new magazine (Knight's) set up by the 

 'Etonians,' there is an article on Lights and Shadows, Adam 

 Blair, etc., in which you are larded tolerably, and but tolerably, 

 and the poor Scorpion still more scurvily treated. It is their open- 

 ing article and their best. The choice exhibits weakness, and con- 

 scious weakness. No other news. Rich and Poor* is a clever 

 book, but very methodistical. I have read about half of it. I wil? 

 write you a long letter, if you will write me any thing at all." 



A fragment of a letter from Mr. Lockhart, written about the 

 same time, contains, like all his effusions, something racy and 

 characteristic. His expressions of interest with regard to Mrs. 

 Wilson's health are more than friendly. The first few lines of this 

 fragment refer to a paper in Blackioood' 's Magazine for July, 1823, 

 "On the Gormandizing School of Eloquence," "No. I. Mr. D. 

 Abercromby." In such scraps as this we find the salt which fla- 

 vored his letters, and without which he could not have written : — 



" Who is Mr. D. Abercromby ? You have little sympathy for 

 a brother glutton. What would you think of the Gormandizing 

 School, No. II. ' Professor John Wilson ?' I could easily toss off 

 such an article if you are anxious for it, taking one of the dilettante 

 dinners, perhaps, and a speech about Michael Angelo by David 

 Bridges,! for the materials. No. III. ' Peter Robertson ;' No. IV. 

 ' WuhV Miss Edge worth is at Abbotsford, and has been for some 

 time;! a little, dark, bearded, sharp, withered, active, laughing, 

 talking, impudent, fearless, outspoken, honest, Whiggish, unchris- 

 tian, good-tempered, kindly, ultra-Irish body. I like her one day, 

 and damn her to perdition the next. She is a very queer character ; 

 particulars some other time. She, Sir Adam,§ and the Great 



* Etch and Poor, and Common Events, a continuation of the former, anonymous novels, which 

 were ascribed to Miss Annie Walker. 



t Mr. David Bridges, dubbed by the Blackwood wits, " Director-General of the Fine Arts." 

 For a description of his shop, which was much resorted to by artists, see Peter's Letters, vol 

 ii., p. 230. 



$ Miss Edgeworth's visit was in August, 182:3. "Never did I see a brighter day at Abbotsforo. 

 than that on which Miss Edgeworth first arrived there ; never can I forget her look and accent 

 when she was received by him at his archway, and exclaimed, 'Every thing about you is ex- 

 actly what one ought to have had wit enough to dream.'' "— Scott's Life. 



§ Sir Adam Fergnsson, the schoolfellow of Scott, died on Christmas day, 1S54. Mr. Chambers 

 remarks, in a biographical sketch of the good old knight, published shortly after his death, that 

 "many interesting and pleasant memories hovered around the name of this flue old man, and 



