Stephenson: The Ettrick Shephf.rd 



88 



If you never made any accusation of the kind I mentioned against 

 Mr. Blackwood, then am I ignorant of the merits of the case altogether, 

 and my interference is only an additional instance of the danger of volun- 

 tary counsel, with erroneous impressions of the relative situations of the 

 parties. I proposed a plan of reconciliation, which seemed to me to make 

 no unpleasant demand on either party, and which was extremely simple; 

 but it would seem that I took for granted certain accusations or insinua- 

 tions against Mr. Blackwood's character as a man of business that you 

 never made. 



The following extracts are from a letter to Mr. Grieve : 



If Mr. Hogg puts his return as a writer to Maga on the ground that 

 Maga suffers greatly from his absence from her pages, and that Mr. 

 B. must be very desirous of his assistance, that will at once be a stum- 

 bling block in the way of settlement; for Mr. B., whether rightly or 

 wrongly, will not make the admission. . . . 



I wrote the Nodes to benefit and do honor to Mr. Hogg, much more 

 than to benefit myself, and but for them he, with all his extraordinary 

 powers, would not have been universally known as he now is ; for poetical 

 fame, as you well know, is fleeting: and precarious. After more than a 

 dozen years' acquaintance and delight in the Nodes the Shepherd, be- 

 cause he quarreled with Mr. Blackwood on other grovnds, puts an end to 

 them, which, by the by, he had no right to do. . . . 



There are various other points to be attended to. The magazine now 

 is the least perso7ial periodical existing, and it will continue so. Now Mr. 

 Hogg may wish to insert articles about London and so on that may be 

 extremely personal. Mr. Blackwood could not take such articles. He 

 has hhnself reason to be offended with Mr. Hogg's writing about himself, 

 and could not consistently in like manner offend others. . . 



With respect to past quarrels, they should be at once forgotten by 

 both parties and not a word said about them, except if Mr. Hogg has 

 published anything reflecting on Mr. Blackwood's integrity. I think he 

 has. That, therefore, must be done away with by the Shepherd in the 

 magazine itself, but not in the way of apology, but in a manly manner, 

 such as would do honor to himself and at once put down all the calumnies 

 of others to which Mr. Blackwood has been unjustly exposed, especially 

 in Fraser's Magazine. All abuse of Mr. Blackwood in that work, as 

 founded on his behavior to Mr. Hogg, must, by Mr. Hogg, be put a stop 

 to ; for if he continues to write in Fraser and to allow those people to put 

 into his mouth whatever they choose (and they hold him up to ridicule 

 every month after a dift'erent manner from the Nodes!), their abuse of 

 Mr. Blackwood will seem to be sanctioned by Mr. Hogg, and neutralize 

 whatever he may say in Maga. 



Mrs. Garden adds: 



The result of these friendly negotiations may be gathered from the 

 Nodes of May, 1834, in which there is a lively and most amusing descrip- 

 tion of the Shepherd's return to the bosom of his friends in the tent at 

 the Fairy's Cleugh. 



