“I have your letter of May 6th, to which it is
unnecessary to reply very particularly. I would only insinuate to you that the
lawyers and gossips of Edinburgh, whom your military politeness handsomely
classes together in writing to a lawyer, know and care as little about the 18th
as they do about the 19th, 20th, or 21st, or any other regimental number which
does not happen for the time to be at Piershill, or in the Castle. Do not fall
into the error and pedantry of young military men, who, living much together,
are apt to think themselves and their actions the subject of much talk and
rumour among the public at large. I will transcribe Fielding’s account
| LETTERS TO CORNET SCOTT. | 67 |
‘In his conversation it is true there was something military enough, as it consisted chiefly of oaths, and of the great actions and wise sayings of Jack, Will, and Tom of ours, a phrase eternally in his mouth, and he seemed to conclude that it conveyed to all the officers such a degree of public notoriety and importance that it entitled him, like the head of a profession, or a first minister, to be the subject of conversation amongst those who had not the least personal acquaintance with him.’
Avoid this silly narrowness of mind, my dear boy, which only makes men be looked on in the world with ridicule and contempt. Lawyer and gossip as I may be, I suppose you will allow I have seen something of life in most of its varieties; as much at least as if I had been, like you, eighteen months in a cavalry regiment, or, like Beau Jackson, in Roderick Random, had cruized for half-a-year in the chops of the Channel. Now, I have never remarked any one, be he soldier, or divine, or lawyer, that was exclusively attached to the narrow habits of his own profession, but what such person became a great twaddle in good society, besides what is of much more importance, becoming narrow-minded and ignorant of all general information.
“That this letter may not be unacceptable in all its parts, I enclose your allowance without stopping any thing for the hackney. Take notice, however, my dear Walter, that this is to last you till midsummer. We came from Abbotsford yesterday, and left all well, excepting that Mr Laidlaw lost his youngest child, an infant, very unexpectedly. We found Sophia, Lockhart, and their child in good health, and all send love.—I remain your affectionate father,
