ossibly can cram in, and let every couplet contain
either a pun or some innuendo upon the passing events of the day. This
in London is considered as the highest species of wit, and seldom fails
to bring down three distinct rounds of applause from the galleries. I
fear you may be trammelled a little by the scantiness of local
allusions. Hungerford Bridge and Trafalgar Square, as I have already
hinted, have kept the Cockneys in roars of laughter for years, and are
dragged forward with unrelenting perseverance, but still undiminished
effect, in each successive extravaganza. I suspect you will find that
the populace of Glasgow are less easy to be tickled, and somewhat
jealous of quips at their familiar haunts. However, don't be
down-hearted. Go boldly at the Gorbals, the Goosedubs, and the great
chimney-stalk of St Rollox; it is impossible to predict how boldly the
municipal pulse may bound beneath the pressure of a dexterous finger.
Next, you must compose some stanzas, as vapid as you please, to be sung
by the leading virgin in pantaloons; or, what is better still, a few
parodies adapted to the most popular airs. I see a fine field for your
ingenuity in the Jacobite relics; they are entwined with our most sacred
national recollections, and therefore may be desecrated at will. Never
lose sight for a moment of the manifold advantages derivable from a free
use of the trap-door and the flying-wires; throw in a transparency, an
Elysian field, a dissolving view, and a miniature Vesuvius, and

"My basnet to a 'prentice cap,
Lord Surrey's o'er the Till,"

you will take all Glasgow by storm, and stand henceforward crowned as
the young Euripides of the West.

You and I, in the course of our early German studies, lighted, as I can
well remember, upon the Phantasus of Ludwig Tieck. I attribute your loss
of the first prize in the Moral Philosophy class to the enthusiasm with
which you threw yourself into his glorious Bluebeard and Fortunatus. In
truth it was like hearing the tales of childhood told anew, only with a
manlier tone, and a clearer and more dignified purpose. How lucidly the
early, half-forgotten images were restored under the touch of that
inimitable artist! What a luxury it was to revel with the first
favourites of our childhood, now developed into full life, and strength,
and stately beauty! With these before us, how could we dare be infidels
and recreants to our earlier faith, or smile in scorn at the fanciful
lo