CHAPTER 7 



RELATIONS WITH BLACKWOOD 



Tho Hogg's relations with Mr. Blackwood extended over 

 many years, it is thought advisable to give the narrative in 

 connected form in one place. It has already been said that 

 Hogg's acquaintance with his future publisher began when he 

 met the latter in the capacity of one of Goldie's executors. 

 Hogg writes as follows in the Autobiography: 



From the time I gave up The Spy I had been planning with my 

 friends to commence the publication of a magazine on a new plan, but 

 for several years we only conversed about the utility of such a work 

 without doing anything farther. At length, among others, I chanced to 

 mention it to Mr. Thomas Pringle, when I found that he and his friends 

 had a plan in contemplation of the same kind. We agreed to join our 

 efforts and try to set it agoing; but, as I declined the editorship on account 

 of residing mostly on my farm at a distance from town, it became a 

 puzzling question who was the best qualified among our friends for that 

 undertaking. We at length fixed on Mr. Gray as the fittest person for 

 the principal department, and I mentioned the plan to Mr. Blaclrwood, 

 who, to my astonishment, I found had likewise long been cherishing a 

 plan of the same kind. He said he knew nothing about Pringle, and 

 always had his eye on me as a principal assistant, but he would not begin 

 the undertaking until he saw he could do it with effect. Finding him, 

 however, disposed to encourage such a work, Pringle, at my suggestion, 

 made out a plan in writing, with a list of his supporters, and sent it in 

 a letter to me. I enclosed it in another and sent it to Mr. Blackwood, and 

 not long after that period Pringle and he came to an arrangement about 

 commencing the w^ork while I was in the country. Thus I had the honour 

 of being the beginner, and almost sole instigator of that celebrated work, 

 Blackwood's Magazine; but from the time I heard that Pringle had taken 

 in Cleghorn as a partner I declined all connection with it, farther than as 

 an occasional contributor. I told him the connection would not likely last 

 for a year, and insisted that he should break it at once, but to this pro- 

 posal he would in nowise listen. As I had predicted, so it fell out, and 

 much sooner than might have been expected. In the fourth month after 

 the commencement of that work, I received a letter from Mr. Blackwood, 

 soliciting my return to Edinburgh, and when I arrived there I found that 

 he and his two redoubted editors had gone to loggerheads, and instead of 

 arguing the matter face to face they were corresponding together at the 

 rate of about a sheet an hour. Viewing this as a ridiculous mode of pro- 

 ceeding, I brought about two meetings between Mr. Blackwood and Mr. 

 Pringle, and endeavored all that I could to bring them to a right under- 

 standing about the matter. A reconciliation was effected at that time 

 and I returned again to the country. Soon, however, I heard that the 

 flames of controversy, and proud opposition, had broken out between the 



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