The Life and Letters of John Gibson Lockhart
Chapter 4: 1815-17
John Gibson Lockhart to Jonathan Christie, 17 April 1816
“Edinburgh, 9 George Street,
April 17, 1816.
“My dear Christie,—Your expressions are very vague, touching
everything that regards yourself. I think you intend me to conclude that you
are leaving Connor, and yet neither the date of your ![]()
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letter, nor the way in which you talk of returning to
Oxford, looks exactly that way. Pray let me know what your plans are. If you
have no engagement during the summer, I would fain flatter myself with the
hopes of your paying us a visit in Scotland, in which case you will know that
few can be more anxious for the pleasure of housing you than myself. I am not
to be in Oxford this spring. Old John
gave me leave of absence very graciously, and I had reasons for preferring to
pay my last official visit next year rather than now.
Traill also, as his sister told me
the other night, got leave from John; but as he is at
present at Newcastle acting as supercargo to a ship of kelp, she hinted that,
should the sale be favourable, he might still make a run to Oxon, where I have
no doubt he may easily find a way to dispose of all his seaweed riches.
“We go on here pretty much in the old way. Innes has been made elder, and serves in this
General Assembly as representative of the borough of Kintore. Hamilton also was made an elder last Sunday at
a village near this town—at least, the ceremony of his taking the vows
was performed, for the legality of the process is still doubtful, a protest having been given in against his nomination by
an old farmer in the eldership there, on three grounds: 1st, Hamilton having no
domiceal within the bounds; 2nd, His being suspected
of Episcopalianism; and 3rd, His having no certificate of moral ![]()
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character, &c. The process of
Presbytery, wherein the value of these objections is to be discussed, I shall
certainly attend. Hamilton desires to be most
affectionately remembered to you. He will write to you soon by his cousin the
Freshman, and in the meantime earnestly begs you would write him. By-the-bye,
do you not think he might have some chance for a Fellowship? and in God’s
name, why don’t you stand yourself? There is no open fama clamosa against your
character—electing you would not be considered as a sort of premium on
idleness, blasphemy, and contempt (as electing some friends of yours might too
justly be); and on the whole, as you can lose no character, either by
competition with the three idiots you mention, or by any decision of those who
have already lost all pretensions to justice in those matters—and as you
may gain so much, Hamilton and I both agree that you will
act very wrong if, being on the spot, you do not try. Taffy, I presume, will no more trouble them
with his fat face and his Greek, both of which are too good for them. I met
yesterday at dinner with a Cambridge man, Foster, a
craniologist, whom I remember your mentioning last summer. He seems totally
cracked, but cleverish withal. He is a professed infidel, but certainly has a
well-made forehead above his ugly face. He is cousin to Dicky
Meade, as he says—and I believe him. I will send you a
copy, by the first private hand, of my Essay on the ‘art
noble,’—which is now in the ![]()
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press. If you wish
to have any sarcasm against anybody inserted in a note, you are still in
time.—Yours, my dear Christie,
“P.S.—As Hamilton is not without some thoughts of
standing for a Fellowship you must not whisper to the wind that he is an
elder—observe this, and consider the passage as not existing.”
Jonathan Henry Christie (1793-1876)
Educated at Marischal College, Baliol College, Oxford, and Lincoln's Inn; after slaying
John Scott in the famous duel at Chalk Farm he was acquitted of murder and afterwards
practiced law as a conveyancer in London. He was the lifelong friend of John Gibson
Lockhart and an acquaintance of John Keats.
Cosmo Nelson Innes (1798-1874)
Scottish historian educated at Aberdeen and Glasgow Universities, and at Balliol College,
Oxford; he was Professor of Constitutional Law and History in the University of Edinburgh
(1846) and edited volumes for the Bannatyne Club.
John Gibson Lockhart (1794-1854)
Editor of the
Quarterly Review (1825-1853); son-in-law of Walter
Scott and author of the
Life of Scott 5 vols (1838).
John Parsons, bishop of Peterborough (1761-1819)
Educated at Wadham College, Oxford, he was the reforming master of Balliol (from 1793),
dean of Bristol (1810) and bishop of Peterborough (1813).
James Traill (1794-1873)
Of Hobbister, Orkney; educated at Balliol College (Snell Exhibitioner) and the Middle
Temple, he was a police magistrate in London. Traill was John Christie's second in the duel
with John Scott.
John Williams (1792-1858)
Classical scholar educated at Balliol College, Oxford; he was a classmate of John Gibson
Lockhart and friend of Sir Walter Scott, whose son he tutored, and rector of the Edinburgh
Academy (1824-27, 1829-47).
