luence with the Royal Family, had, on the present
occasion, the additional motive of warm and hereditary personal regard
for Ferguson.

I have placed together such letters as referred principally to the
episode of the Regalia; but shall now give, in the order of time, a
few which will sufficiently illustrate the usual course of his
existence, while The Heart of Mid-Lothian was in progress. It appears
that he resumed, in the beginning of this year, his drama of
Devorgoil. His letters to Terry are of course full of that subject,
but they contain, at the same time, many curious indications of his
views and feelings as to theatrical affairs in general--and mixed up
with these a most characteristic record of the earnestness with which
he now watched the interior fitting up, as he had in the season before
the outward architecture, of the new edifice at Abbotsford. Meanwhile
it will be seen that he found leisure hours for various contributions
to periodical works,--among others, an article on Kirkton's Church
History, and another on (of all subjects in the world) _military
bridges_, for the Quarterly Review; a spirited version of the old
German ballad on the Battle of Sempach, and a generous criticism on
Mrs. Shelley's romance of Frankenstein, for Blackwood's Magazine. This
being the first winter and spring of Laidlaw's establishment at
Kaeside, communications as to the affairs of the farm were exchanged
weekly whenever Scott was in Edinburgh, and they afford delightful
evidence of that paternal solicitude for the well-being of his rural
dependents, which all along kept pace with Scott's zeal as to the
economical {p.215} improvement, and the picturesque adornment of his
territories.

TO D. TERRY, ESQ., LONDON.

EDINBURGH, 23d January, 1818.

MY DEAR TERRY,--You have by this time the continuation of
the drama, down to the commencement of the third act, as I
have your letter on the subject of the first. You will
understand that I only mean them as sketches; for the first
and second acts are too short, and both want much to combine
them with the third. I can easily add music to Miss
Devorgoil's part. As to Braham, he is a beast of an actor,
though an angel of a singer, and truly I do not see what he
could personify. Let me know, however, your thoughts and
wishes, and all shall be moulded to the best of my power to
meet them: