“I hope that long ere this you
have received the Ballads,
and that they have afforded you some amusement. I hope, also, that the threatened third volume will be more interesting to
Mrs Ellis than the dry antiquarian
detail of the two first could prove. I hope, moreover, that I shall have the
pleasure of seeing you soon, as some circumstances seem not so much to call me
to London, as to furnish me with a decent apology for coming up sometime this
spring; and I long particularly to say, that I know my friend Mr Ellis
by sight as well as intimately. I
am glad you have seen the Marquess of Lorn,
whom I have met frequently at the house of his charming sister, Lady Charlotte Campbell, whom, I am sure, if
you are acquainted with her, you must admire as much as I do. Her Grace of Gordon, a great admirer of yours,
spent some days here lately, and, like Lord Lorn, was
highly entertained with an account of our friendship à la distance. I do not, nor did I ever, intend to
fob you off with twenty or thirty
| 340 | LIFE OF SIR WALTER SCOTT. |
