low them; and on her arrival, they set out at once for the
south.

The intimacy which existed between Mr. Murray and Mr. D'Israeli will be
observed from the fact that the latter was selected as one of the
marriage trustees. A few days after the arrival of the married pair in
London, they were invited to dine with Mr. D'Israeli and his friends.
Mr. Alexander Hunter, whom Mr. Murray had invited to stay with him
during his visit to London, thus describes the event:

"Dressed, and went along with the Clan Murray to dine at Mr.
D'Israeli's, where we had a most sumptuous banquet, and a very large
party, in honour of the newly married folks. There was a very beautiful
woman there, Mrs. Turner, wife of Sharon Turner, the Anglo-Saxon
historian, who, I am told, was one of the Godwin school! If they be all
as beautiful, accomplished, and agreeable as this lady, they must be a
deuced dangerous set indeed, and I should not choose to trust myself
amongst them.

"Our male part of the company consisted mostly of literary
men--Cumberland, Turner, D'Israeli, Basevi, Prince Hoare, and Cervetto,
the truly celebrated violoncello player. Turner was the most able and
agreeable of the whole by far; Cumberland, the most talkative and
eccentric perhaps, has a good sprinkling of learning and humour in his
conversation and anecdote, from having lived so long amongst the eminent
men of his day, such as Johnson, Foote, Garrick, and such like. But his
conversation is sadly disgusting, from his tone of irony and detraction
conveyed in a cunning sort of way and directed constantly against the
_Edinburgh Review_, Walter Scott (who is a 'poor ignorant boy, and no
poet,' and never wrote a five-feet line in his life), and such other
d----d stuff."

CHAPTER IV

"MARMION"--CONSTABLES AND BALLANTYNES--THE "EDINBURGH REVIEW"

Mr. Murray was twenty-nine years old at the time of his marriage. That
he was full of contentment as well as hope at this time may be inferred
from his letter to Constable three weeks after his marriage:

_John Murray to Mr. Constable_.

_March 27, 1807_.

"I declare to you that I am every day more content with my lot. Neither
my wife nor I have any disposition for company or going out; and you may
rest assured that I shall devote all my attention to business, and that
your concerns will not be less the object of my regard merely because
you have raised mine so high. Every moment, my dear Constable, I feel
more gratefu