an face from
his vicinity. By the bye, could we not manage to have a
piper among the colonists?

We are delighted to hear that your little folks like the
dells. Pray, in your walks try to ascertain the locality of
St. John's Well, which cures the botts, and which John Moss
claims for Kaeside; also the true history of the Carline's
Hole. Ever most truly yours,

W. SCOTT.

{p.218} I hope Mrs. Laidlaw does not want for anything that she can
get from the garden or elsewhere.

TO DANIEL TERRY, ESQ.

8th February, 1818.

MY DEAR TERRY,--Yours arrived, unluckily, just half an hour
after my packet was in the post-office, so this will cost
you 9_d._, for which I grieve. To answer your principal
question first,--the drama is

"Yours, Terry, yours in every thought."

I should never have dreamed of making such an attempt in my
own proper person; and if I had such a vision, I should have
been anxious to have made it something of a legitimate
drama, such as a literary man, uncalled upon by any
circumstance to connect himself with the stage, might have
been expected to produce. Now this is just what any
gentleman in your situation might run off, to give a little
novelty to the entertainment of the year, and as such will
meet a mitigated degree of criticism, and have a better
chance of that _productive_ success, which is my principal
object in my godson's behalf. If any time should come when
you might wish to disclose the secret, it will be in your
power, and our correspondence will always serve to show that
it was only at my earnest request, annexed as the condition
of bringing the play forward, that you gave it your name--a
circumstance which, with all the attending particulars, will
prove plainly that there was no assumption on your part.

A beautiful drama might be made on the concealment of the
Scotch Regalia during the troubles. But it would interfere
with the democratic spirit of the times, and would probably

---- "By party rage,
Or right or wrong, be hooted from the stage."

{p.219} I will never forgive you if you let any false idea
of my authorial feelings prevent your acting in this affair
as if you were the real par