[Footnote 42:  An engraving by Agar from Phillips’s portrait of him.]

* * * * *

LETTER 190.  TO MR. MURRAY.

     “July 24. 1814.

“The minority must, in this case, carry it, so pray let it be so, for I don’t care sixpence for any of the opinions you mention, on such a subject:  and P * * must be a dunce to agree with them.  For my own part, I have no objection at all; but Mrs. Leigh and my cousin must be better judges of the likeness than others; and they hate it; and so I won’t have it at all.

     “Mr. Hobhouse is right as for his conclusion:  but I deny the
     premises.  The name only is Spanish[43]; the country is not Spain,
     but the Morea.

“Waverley is the best and most interesting novel I have redde since—­I don’t know when.  I like it as much as I hate * *, and * *, and * *, and all the feminine trash of the last four months.  Besides, it is all easy to me, I have been in Scotland so much (though then young enough too), and feel at home with the people, Lowland and Gael.

     “A note will correct what Mr. Hobhouse thinks an error (about the
     feudal system in Spain);—­it is not Spain.  If he puts a few words
     of prose any where, it will set all right.

     “I have been ordered to town to vote.  I shall disobey.  There is no
     good in so much prating, since ’certain issues strokes should
     arbitrate.’  If you have any thing to say, let me hear from you.

     “Yours,” &c.

[Footnote 43:  Alluding to Lara.]

* * * * *

LETTER 191.  TO MR. MURRAY.

     “August 3. 1814.

“It is certainly a little extraordinary that you have not sent the Edinburgh Review, as I requested, and hoped it would not require a note a day to remind you.  I see advertisements of Lara and Jacqueline; pray, why? when I requested you to postpone publication till my return to town.

“I have a most amusing epistle from the Ettrick bard—­Hogg; in which, speaking of his bookseller, whom he denominates the ‘shabbiest’ of the trade for not ‘lifting his bills,’ he adds, in so many words, ‘G——­d d——­n him and them both.’  This is a pretty prelude to asking you to adopt him (the said Hogg); but this he wishes; and if you please, you and I will talk it over.  He has a poem ready for the press (and your bills too, if ’liftable’), and bestows some benedictions on Mr. Moore for his abduction of Lara from the forthcoming Miscellany.[44]

“P.S.  Sincerely, I think Mr. Hogg would suit you very well; and surely he is a man of great powers, and deserving of encouragement.  I must knock out a Tale for him, and you should