it your aid to
their work, either in verse or prose, and they will
consider themselves pledged to pay for any
contributions with which you may honour them at the
same rate as _Blackwood_. May I hope, my dear sir, that
you will, at all events, stretch a point to send them
something for their first number, which is to appear in
the beginning of June....

"I always read your '_Noctes_,' and have had many a
hearty laugh with them in the interior of Southern
Africa; for though I detest _Blackwood's_ politics, and
regret to see often such fine talents so sadly
misapplied (as I see the matter), yet I have never
permitted my own political predilections, far less any
reminiscences of old magazine squabbles, to blind me to
the exuberant flow of genius which pervades and
beautifies so many delightful articles in that
magazine.... Believe me always, dear Hogg, yours very
truly,

"Tho. Pringle."

A similar request for contributions was made the year following by
William Howitt. His letter is interesting, as exhibiting the epistolary
style of a popular writer. Howitt, it will be perceived, is a member of
the Society of Friends.

"Nottingham, _12th mo., 20th, 1828._

"Respected Friend,--Herewith I forward, for thy
acceptance, two small volumes, as a trifling testimony
of the high estimation in which we have long held thy
writings. So great was our desire to see thee when my
wife and I were, a few springs ago, making a ramble on
foot through some parts of your beautiful country, that
nothing but the most contrary winds of circumstance
prevented us.

"I am now preparing for the press 'The Book of the
Seasons,' a volume of prose and poetry, intended to
furnish the lover of nature with a remembrancer, to put
him in mind, on the opening of each month, of what he
may look for in his garden, or his country walks; a
notice of all remarkable in the round of the seasons,
and the beautiful in scenery,--of all that is pleasant
in rural sights, sounds, customs, and occupations. I
hope to make it, if I am favoured with health, in a
little time, both a pleasant and original volume, and
one which may do its mite towards strengthening and
diffusing that healthful love of nature which is so
desirable in a great commercial coun