girls give us great
satisfaction. Ever affectionately yours,

Walter SCOTT.

[Footnote 83: Thomas Scott had sent his brother the
horns and feet of a gigantic stag, shot by him in
Canada. The feet were ultimately suspended to bell-cords
in the armory at Abbotsford; and the horns mounted as
drinking-cups.]

{p.201} The following note is without date. It accompanied, no doubt,
the last proof sheet of Rob Roy, and was therefore in all probability
written about ten days before the 31st of December, 1817--on which day
the novel was published.

TO MR. JAMES BALLANTYNE, ST. JOHN STREET.

DEAR JAMES,--

With great joy
I send you Roy.
'T was a tough job,
But we're done with Rob.

I forget if I mentioned Terry in my list of Friends. Pray
send me two or three copies as soon as you can. It were pity
to make the Grinder[84] pay carriage.

Yours ever,

W. S.

[Footnote 84: They called Daniel Terry among themselves
"The Grinder," in double allusion to the song of _Terry
the Grinder_, and to some harsh under-notes of their
friend's voice.]

The novel had indeed been "a tough job"--for lightly and airily as it
reads, the author had struggled almost throughout with the pains of
cramp or the lassitude of opium. Calling on him one day to dun him for
copy, James Ballantyne found him with a clean pen and a blank sheet
before him, and uttered some rather solemn exclamation of surprise.
"Ay, ay, Jemmy," said he, "'tis easy for you to bid me get on, but how
the deuce can I make Rob Roy's wife speak, with such a _curmurring_ in
my guts?"

{p.202} CHAPTER XL.

Rob Roy Published. -- Negotiation Concerning the Second
Series of Tales of my Landlord. -- Commission to Search for
the Scottish Regalia. -- Letters to the Duke of Buccleuch,
Mr. Croker, Mr. Morritt, Mr. Murray, Mr. Maturin, etc. --
Correspondence on Rural Affairs with Mr. Laidlaw, and on the
Buildings at Abbotsford with Mr. Terry. -- Death Of Mrs.
Murray Keith and Mr. George Bullock.

1818.

Rob Roy and his wife, Bailie Nicol Jarvie and his housekeeper, Die
Vernon and Rashleigh Osbaldistone--these boldly drawn and happily
contrasted personages--wer