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is completely extinguished. Peter went, according to orders, to the riding school at 2 in the morning, but Colonel Cockburn ordered him to return and go immediately to bed. The rest of the Troop remained to watch over the furniture in the streets. A subscription should be set on foot immediately for the sufferers, before the impression made by such a scene has time to be weakened.

"Friday night, 19th Nov.--At 4 in the morning, Peter was sent for again by the Solicitor General. The poor people who were working the engines were so completely worn out, it was with difficulty they could be prevailed upon to continue their labours. The Solicitor sent down to Leith, and ordered up the sailors belonging to his brother's ship, and both the Solicitor himself and Peter assisted them in working the engines till 8 in the morning. He told us that at one time he found himself clasped in the arms of one of those sailors, who exclaimed, 'Well done, my hearty! your name will be in the newspapers tomorrow morning.' Colonel Cockburn said that all along he had done the work of any four of the other men. He was so cool, and his head so clear, his advice was of the greatest use. It was he who suggested that the roof of the Advocates' Library, should be covered with wet blankets. He assisted in having it done, and his efforts in saving the Library proved perfectly successful.

"24th November. Basil Hall, Jack Stewart, and Archy were with us yesterday evening. The fire was still the principal subject of discussion. Basil Hall told us, that while they were all rushing to and fro in the midst of the flames, his brother James was quietly seated taking sketches of the ruins; and that eight drawings done on the spot were to be published to day, for the benefit of the sufferers.

"This is so characteristic of James, and reminded us of a sketch he had shewn us of Spanish bandits. While travelling

1824.]

CAMPBELL, THE SCULPTOR.

171

in the diligence, it was stopped and plundered; and while the robbers were busy with the other unfortunate sufferers who were sprawling on the ground alongside of him, he employed himself in a hasty sketch of their picturesque appearance.

success.

"To day, the models are to be given in for Lord Hopetoun's monument. We are all very anxious for Campbell's If he fails, it will be as great a disappointment to Peter as to Campbell,-he has taken so deep an interest in it. He has written all the letters for him to the different gentlemen of the committee, and has been constantly beside him while modelling, cheering him, and giving him advice. We have asked Campbell to dine with us, in hopes of drinking his health.-4 o'clock.-We have just had the following note sent us by Peter:

Oman's Hotel.

'Dear Mother, Campbell has been victorious. All has gone right. The horse is chosen. P. F. TYTLER.'

"I was dressing when the door bell rang, but I immediately heard the shout. How delightful is the voice of joy! I am most truly glad for Campbell's sake and for Peter's, both will be so very happy. The price to be given for the statue is 6,000/.

"My brother's young friends were often with us in the evenings, and we saw a great deal of Basil Hall, whose lively and varied powers of conversation made those hours pass most pleasantly. If my brother had been absent on any little expedition or visit, it was Basil's delight to draw him out on the subject, as he seldom returned to us without something to tell, which in his humorous way of relating it was most amusing; but unfortunately those little anecdotes have now too much faded from memory to be repeated, while one of Basil's, which had become a sort of family joke, is still fresh in my memory.

"Travelling in an old fashioned stage-coach, he found himself opposite to a good humoured jolly Dandie Dinmont looking person, with whom he entered into conversation, and found him most intelligent. Dandie, who was a stanch loyalist as well as a stout yeoman, seemed equally pleased with his companion. Troth, Sir,' he said, 'I am weel content to meet wi' a discreet civil spoken gentleman wi' whom I can have a rational conversation, for I hae been sairly put out. You see, Sir, a Radical fellow came into the coach. It was the only time I ever saw a Radical: an' he began abusing everything, saying that this was na a kintra fit to live in. And first he abused the King. Sir, I stood that. And then he abused the constitution. Sir, I stood that. And then, he abused the farmers. Well, Sir, I stood it all. But then he took to abusing the yeomanry. Now, Sir, you ken I could na stand that, for I am a yeoman mysel; so I was under the necessity of being a wee rude like till him. So I seized him by the cuff of the neck: 'Do you see that window, Sir? Apologeeze, apologeeze this very minute, or I'll just put your head through the window.' Wi' that he apologeezed. 'Now, Sir,' I said, 'you'll gang out o' the coach.' And wi' that, I opened the door, and shot him out intil the road and that's all I ever saw o' the Radical.'

:

"My brother was so amused with this anecdote, that it was wonderful with what ingenuity he frequently brought round the conversation, so as to induce Basil to relate it if any fresh person was in company."

1823.]

WRITING FOR PERIODICALS.

173

CHAPTER VIII.

(1823-1832.)

Tytler at Abbotsford-His History of Scotland undertaken-His marriageLetters to his wife-Settles in Edinburgh-His History begins to appearHis literary pursuits, and domestic happiness-A visit to London.

THE time had arrived when Mr. Tytler was to exemplify what was with him in after years a favourite literary precept namely, that an author, instead of frittering away his energies on a multitude of subjects of minor interest, should, as soon as practicable, take up some large inquiry, and then make it the business of his literary life to prosecute that inquiry with exclusive attention; making his other studies subsidiary to his one great master study, and reading every book with a constant reference to this one ruling object of his ambition. To periodical literature especially he had a rooted dislike. The systematic contribution to such publications he not only thought derogatory to the dignity of an author, but he regarded it as a most injurious practice. It is fatal, he would say, to the habit of sustained investigation; and diminishes the sense of responsibility. It induces carelessness of statement and a slip-shod style of writing. What is worst of all, if a man has a great pursuit before him, the task of writing on any other subject for one of our great periodicals, (he spoke from experience,) entails a degree of labour to which the proposed remuneration must be wholly disproportionate, while it carries a man

into fields of inquiry alike irrelevant and distracting. If a man is without such a great and engrossing subject, he is confirming himself in those desultory habits which my friend discouraged in others as well as avoided himself. From this time forward, he steadily resisted the many applications which were made to him to contribute papers to literary journals. I am aware of only one article in the Quarterly,and another in the Foreign Quarterly Review,-which were from his pen. The advantage of recognizing one great object of study, to which other pursuits may be made subsidiary, I have since experienced so sensibly, that it is but right to bear testimony to the value of advice which he so often and so affectionately urged upon me. He told me that he had himself received the precept from the late Sir James Mackintosh.

Tytler's Law studies had unavoidably introduced him to the history of his country under one of its most instructive, if not one of its most attractive aspects. His biographical works had already accustomed him to patient application and research, as well as given him those habits of minute inquiry which are of paramount importance to the historian. He was ripe for some greater effort, as well as inclined by literary ambition and probably by a deepening conviction that at the Bar he could scarcely any longer hope to attain that eminence, which in some department of enterprize he was yet conscious that he had a right to command. An evening at Abbotsford decided what was to become the great business of his literary life. "I forget the exact year in which the occurrence took place," (writes his old friend Mr. Alexander Pringle of Whytbank, in 1854, on being requested by Mr. James Tytler to state the circumstances of that memorable visit;) "but it must have been not long before Sir Walter Scott first published his Tales of a Grandfather. It was in the month of July, soon after the rising of

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