Perthshire in bygone days

sir wALTBB hcott. 547
Courier, only substituting Edinburgh for Glasgow, and
"The Heart of Midlothian," for "Rob Hoy." Glasgow
resented this by saying : " No doubt the oarly portion of
1 The Heart of Midlothian ' refers principally to scenes in
and around Edinburgh, but the author cannot finish it
without coining back to his native west (1), and winding up
his story amidst the Dumbartonshire hills, describing
scones and characters which are only to bo found where
Clyde runs westward to the sea."
Amongst tho anti-Scott theorists of tho West, Mr. David
Prentice, of the (Hasijow Chnutir.lr, was tho most persever-
ing. He literally forced on Mrs. Grant tho authorship of
" Waverley," and when she wrote to him denying it, he
replied in the most provoking way, applauding her modesty
and self-denial, and, without flinching an inch of tho ground
he had taken up, coolly remarked that any lady ought to be
proud of the authorship instead of being ashamed of it.
This sent tho worthy lady into tears, and forced on her
friends the disagreeablo alternative of putting an effectual
stop to Mr. Prentice's repeated averments.
All this must have been both gratifying and amusing to
Scott, but he held fast his integrity. His name was on
every lip, and he heard his praises sounded at second hand
where personally lie was utterly unknown, Douglas Kin-
naird applied to him for an epilogue, but ho declined ; and
Elliston, the lessee of Drury Lane, urged him to write a
live-act comedy, but he paid no heed to tho demand. His
hands were full. " Ivanhoe " had just appeared, and
" Kenil worth " was in the press, besides a second and
third edition of some of the earlier tales. To keep all the
ships already afloat in sailing trim required a skilful hand ;
and while new keels were being laid and new launches
announced, little attention could be paid to the salutations
of strange sail. In addition to all this, he felt that he had
conjured up an existence that was threatening to over-
whelm him. He saw humble pedestrians following on his
trail — gay equipages dashing through labyrinths of wood
and water, in search of spots that receded before them like
the congenial ignis fatuus. He heard people quarrelling
about the site of Davio Deans' Cottago, and the precise
locale of tho Castle of Tullyveolan ; and on one occasion he
sat inside the mail coach from Peebles to Kdinburgh with a
cockney who was on his way to explore the Hole of
Uainvar. History is silent as to whether he found it !
NN 2