s. I shall send at least double that
number; also some hagberries, etc. He thinks he is saving me
money when he is starving my projects; but he is a pearl of
honesty and good intention, and I like him the better for
needing driving where expense is likely. Ever yours,

W. SCOTT.

TO JOHN MURRAY, ESQ., ALBEMARLE STREET, LONDON.

ABBOTSFORD, 23d March, 1818.

DEAR MURRAY,--

"Grieve not for me, my dearest dear,
I am not dead but sleepeth here."--

I have little to plead for myself, but the old and vile
apologies of laziness and indisposition. I think I have been
so unlucky of late as to have always the will to work when
sitting at the desk hurts me, and the irresistible
propensity to be lazy, when I might, like the man whom
Hogarth introduces into Bridewell with his hands strapped up
against the wall, "better work than stand thus." I laid
Kirkton[96] aside half finished, from a desire {p.229} to
get the original edition of the lives of Cameron, etc., by
Patrick Walker, which I had not seen since a boy, and now I
have got it, and find, as I suspected, that some curious
_morceaux_ have been cut out by subsequent editors.[97] I
will, without loss of time, finish the article, which I
think you will like. Blackwood kidnapped an article for his
Magazine on the Frankenstein story,[98] which I intended for
you. A very old friend and school companion of mine, and a
gallant soldier, if ever there was one, Sir Howard Douglas,
has asked me to review his work on Military Bridges. I must
get a friend's assistance for the scientific part, and add
some balaam of mine own (as printers' devils say) to make up
four or five pages. I have no objection to attempt Lord
Orford if I have time, and find I can do it with ease.
Though far from admiring his character, I have always had a
high opinion of his talents, and am well acquainted with his
works. The letters you have published are, I think, his very
best--lively, entertaining, and unaffected.[99] I am greatly
obliged to you for these and other literary treasures which
I owe to your goodness from time to time. Although not
thankfully acknowledged as they should be in course, these
things are never thankless