xiv JOURNAL OF JOHN LAUDER

right in my conjecture. To this I receivcd a very polite answer
in course of post, in which you express great pleasure in comply-
ing with my request, and are so obliging as to conclude with the
assurance that at any time you will be happy to elucidate my
researcbes into my ancestors' curious and mo~t valuable Manuscripts
with such hints as your local knowledge may supply.

Since the period to 'which I have just alluded, I have con-
tinued to prosecute the work, but only at intervals, having met
with frequent interruptions, among which I may mention an
excursion to Italy; and after having finished about two-thirds of
it in, my own handwriting, it is only now that I have been able
to complete it, by the aid of an amanuensis. 1 do not much
wonder that, employed as you are in administering fresh draughts
of enjoyment from the exhaustless spring of your genius to the
ever-increasing thirst of a delighted public, you should have for-
gotten my humble labours. But whilst I regret that they should
have been so forgotten, inastnu-eh as they might have contributed
to aid or lessen yours, I beg to assure you, that every other
feeling is absorbed in that of the satisfaction 1 am now impressed
with in leâming that you have taken Lord Fountainhall under
your fostering care, as I am well aware that, independent of the
honor done him and his family by his name being coupled with
that of Sir Walter Scott, there does not now, and perhaps there
never will, exist any individual who could elucidate him so happily
as your high talents and your deep research in the historical
anecdote of y our country must enable you to do. I am naturally
very desirous to see your publication, of which I cannot procure a
copy from the booksellers here. 1 should not othenvise have
intruded on you until I had seen the book, as 1 am at present
ignorant how far it clashes or agrees with the plan of the work 1
have prepared. As business calls me to Edinburgh, 1 can now
have no opportunity of perusing it before iny departure, as 1 leave
this on Tuesday the 28th instant. I observe, however, with great
gratification, from a quotation in the l~fagasine from your preface,
that you hold out hopes of a farther publication, and 1 am con-
seqnently anxious to avail myself of being in Edinburgh to have
the honor of an interview with you, that I may avoid any injudi-
cious interference with your undertaking, and rather go hand in
hand witli you in promoting it. As 1 shall be detained on the
road, I shall not be in Edinburgh until the evening of Friday the
31st, and my present intention is to remain in tOWI1 only Saturday
and Sundy·, unless unavoidable circumstances occur to prevent