292 MEMOIR OF JOHN WILSON. 



to warrant the risk of a second trial. As the publisher dealt lib- 

 erally with the authors, we may infer that the book did not pay so 

 well as it might have done with poorer matter and a lower price. 

 There was, in fact, too much good writing in this now little-known 

 volume : such a crop could not be " annual," and so it came up but 

 once. Its name suggests the character of the subjects contained in 

 its pages, which vary in range between the seriousness of philoso- 

 phy and the facetiousness of genuine humor ; as free from dulness 

 in the one kind as from flippancy in the other. Among the shorter 

 and lighter papers, there is one from the French, but not a transla- 

 tion, that gives the history of a dog, " Moustache," whose charac- 

 teristic individuality is as skilfully portrayed as if it had come from 

 the hand of a literary "Landseer."* From the list of contents it 

 will be seen that nearly the whole was produced by the editors. 

 Of the few contributions by other hands, are Miss Edgeworth's 

 witty " Thoughts on Bores," and one or two pleasant sketches by 

 Delta. 



Mr. Lockhart left Chiefs wood for London in December, 1825, to 

 assume the editorship of the Quarterly licvltio. The following let- 

 ter appears to have been written the day after he had taken posses- 

 sion of the editorial chair : — 



"25 Pall Mall, 23d December, 1825. 



" My dear Wilson : — It was only yesterday that we got our- 

 selves at length established under a roof of our own, otherwise 

 you should have heard from me, and, as it is, I must entreat that 

 whatever you do as to the rest of my letter, you will write imme- 

 diately, to say how Mrs. Wilson is. I have often thought with 

 pain of the state in which we left her, and, through her, you, and I 

 shall not think pleasantly of any thing connected with you, until I 

 hear better tidings. 



" Murray, from what he said to me, would answer Boyd's letter 

 in the affirmative. I did not choose to press him, but said what I 

 could with decency, f 



" As I feared and hinted, you are rather in a scrape about the 



* Of such is Dr. John Brown, who, in Our Dogs, has unravelled the instinctive beauties and 

 touching sagacity of the canine race, with a delicacy of perception and cunning workmanship of 

 thought truly admirable. " Eab" and "Moustache," in their devotion of purpose, would per- 

 fectly have appreciated each other; but, alas! the faithful companion of " Ailie," and the bravo 

 " Moustache." must remain- for ever the heroes of their own tales. These are not dogs to be met 

 with every day; they come, like epic poems, after a lapse of ages, aud like them are immortal, 

 t Probably refers to Murray becoming the London publisher of Janua. 



