Fifty Years’ Recollections, Literary and Personal
Edinburgh, 22nd March.
“Sir,
“By the number which I have the pleasure of sending you
herewith, you will see that your beautiful translation is inserted. This is not,
however, from Christopher’s
preferring elegant verse to good prose, but that he wanted to show you he was
not insensible of the favour you have done him. He is quite overwhelmed with
poetical contributions, and it is on no slight grounds that he ever admits a
line of verse.
“I am, Sir, your obedient servant,
William Blackwood (1776-1834)
Edinburgh bookseller; he began business 1804 and for a time was John Murray's Scottish
agent. He launched
Blackwood's Magazine in 1817.
John Wilson [Christopher North] (1785-1854)
Scottish poet and Tory essayist, the chief writer for the “Noctes Ambrosianae” in
Blackwood's Magazine and professor of moral philosophy at Edinburgh
University (1820).