“I wish it were ‘fifty years since’ you had heard of me, as, perhaps, I should find myself by and by celebrated, like the Baron of Bradwardine and some other friends of ‘sixty years since.’
“I have not seen our Dean since his Scotch tour. I am sorry he was with you in such a period of bustle, as I should have liked to hear his sober observations on the usual style of Edinburgh society.
“I had the honour of receiving his Majesty on his return, when he, after the first three words, began most graciously to tell me ‘all about our friend Scott.’ Some silly or malicious person, his Majesty said, had reported that there had been some coolness between you, but, he added, that it was utterly false, and that he was, in every respect, highly pleased and gratified, and, he said, grate-
218 | LIFE OF SIR WALTER SCOTT. |
“Peel has sung your praises to the same tune; and I have been flattered to find that both the King and Peel thought me so much your friend that they, as it were, reported to me the merit of ‘my friend Scott.’—Yours ever,