408 MEMOIR OF JOHN WILSON. 



artist's fancy, yet all undeniably like. So was it his humor, nearly to 

 the end, to look upon men and things with the chilling eye of the 

 satirist. 



" 25th March, 1844. 



" My dear Wilson : — I have spelt out your letter with labor,* 

 but great ultimate contentment. 



" Alexander Blackwood had given me, by yesterday's post, my 



first information touching that enormous absurdity of in re 



Kemp deceased, and I answered him, expressing my deep thankful- 

 ness for the result of your interference ; but I had not quite under- 

 stood with how much difficulty you contended, and how nearly you 

 were alone in the fight against eternal desecration. If Kemp had 



been put there, must in due time have polluted the same site d 



fazculentiore. Of the other suggestion nipt in the bud, never shall 

 I breathe a whisper to any human being. For some time I have 

 fancied Scotland must be all mad ; I never see a Scotch paper with- 

 out being strengthened in that conviction, but this is the ne plus 

 zdtra ! 



"I have not read any novel lately, far less written one. I do not 

 even guess to what new book you allude in your last page. You 

 address me by the name of some hero, I suppose, but that is unde- 

 cipherable by my optics. No bamming here. Do name the book. 

 Is this your sly way of announcing to me some new escapade of the 

 long-haired and longish-headed ? 



" By the by, Swinton has depicted both hair and head with very 

 admirable skill. I had no notion that there was such stuff in the 

 lad. He will, I am confident, soon be on a par here with Frank 

 Grant, who is clearing £5,000 or £0,000 per annum. I like the C. N". 

 a thousandfold better than Lauder's, and hope to have an engraving 

 of it, same size, very speedily. 



" I showed the ' Poemata'f some weeks ago to John Blackwood, 

 and bade him send you a copy. Perhaps to me you owe your 

 knowledge, therefore, of the novel epithet. Horace, however, has 

 ' teterrima belli causa' and I rather suspect teterrima carries a deli- 

 cate double entendre in that classical loc. void. cit. 



" You have not read the title-page correctly. First, the book is 



* This difficulty arose from the circumstance of his correspondent suffering, as has been told, 

 from the weakness in his hand. 



+ Poemata Lyrica. Versa Latina lUmante Scripta. By H. D. Ryder. Simpkin, Marshall, 

 and Co. 



