Memoir of John Murray
John Murray to Walter Scott, 8 November 1815
I trust it will not be necessary to give yourself any thought
again of what will be agreeable to me with regard to any publication of yours,
for what you desire will be completely satisfactory to me. As to the
enlargement of the edition of ‘Paul’s Letters’ to 6000, I can only assure you that, in
my opinion, such an impression will be sold in a fortnight.
I sent you also a copy of a valuable work by Mountstuart Elphinstone on the ‘Kingdom of Cabul,’ which will, I
think, interest you; and to-day I have enclosed in a mail packet to Blackwood a copy of Helen Maria Williams’s account of the
‘Events in
France,” which is to be published here to-morrow, and which
you will be curious, at any rate, to see. I have added the addenda to
‘Park,’ and
sent with it the ‘Travels,’ complete in 2 vols., 8vo., which I shall not
publish till the end of the year, and which, therefore, I do not wish to be
much seen.
Southey arrived last week from his
travels, in great health and spirits. He would not go near Paris. He says that
if Paris is not burnt to the ground, then the two cities that we read of in
Scripture have been very ill used. He was very sorry that he missed seeing you
in London. Lord Byron is perfectly well, and
is in better dancing spirits than I ever knew him, expecting every day a son
and heir. Mr. Hammond continues the
same, and all talk of you repeatedly. Southey is sitting
to Phillips for me, and I now want
Crabbe, to whom I would beg the
favour of a line at your leisure. Mr. Ward
has just returned from Italy, and Rogers
from a recent trip, to take a farewell view of the statues. Sotheby is recovering from the loss of his son
in the bustle attending the preparation for ‘Ivan,’ which is to be performed at
Drury Lane early in the year. Sir H. Davy
read his Paper to-day at the Royal Society, on ![]()
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his most valuable discovery of the
means of preventing the fatal accidents in collieries from inflammable air.
Canova is in London. Sir James Mackintosh has given up his house in
town, and retired to Buckinghamshire to complete his ‘History.’ Campbell is carrying fast through the press
his ‘Selections of
Poetry,’ with original lives and criticisms, which are written
with great simplicity and interest. Mr.
Gifford is very well, and will be even better if you can find
time to think of him. However, we both are aware that you are not idle; and we
hope, if you have a spare moment, that you will dash us out something. I have a
great many interesting works in the press. I will take care to remember you to
your friends; and if I can be in any way useful to you in London, I hope you
will not fail to command my services.
I remain, dear Sir,
Yours very sincerely,
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.
Thomas Campbell (1777-1844)
Scottish poet and man of letters; author of
The Pleasures of Hope
(1799),
Gertrude of Wyoming (1808) and lyric odes. He edited the
New Monthly Magazine (1821-30).
Antonio Canova (1757-1822)
Italian neoclassical sculptor who worked at Rome.
George Crabbe (1754-1832)
English poet renowned for his couplet verse and gloomy depictions of country persons and
places; author of the
The Village (1783),
The
Parish Register (1807),
The Borough (1810), and
Tales of the Hall (1819).
Sir Humphry Davy, baronet (1778-1829)
English chemist and physicist, inventor of the safety lamp; in Bristol he knew Cottle,
Wordsworth, Coleridge, and Southey; he was president of the Royal Society (1820).
Mountstuart Elphinstone (1779-1859)
After education in the Edinburgh High School he was in the Bengal civil service (1796);
he was ambassador at Kabul (1808) and governor of Bombay (1819-27).
William Gifford (1756-1826)
Poet, scholar, and editor who began as a shoemaker's apprentice; after Oxford he
published
The Baviad (1794),
The Maeviad
(1795), and
The Satires of Juvenal translated (1802) before becoming
the founding editor of the
Quarterly Review (1809-24).
George Hammond (1763-1853)
Friend of George Canning and one of the editors of
The
Anti-Jacobin; he was under-secretary for foreign affairs (1795-1806). The
Quarterly Review was first proposed by Canning at a dinner party at
Hammond's house.
Sir James Mackintosh (1765-1832)
Scottish philosopher and man of letters who defended the French Revolution in
Vindiciae Gallicae (1791); he was Recorder of Bombay (1803-1812) and
MP for Knaresborough (1819-32).
John Murray II (1778-1843)
The second John Murray began the
Quarterly Review in 1809 and
published works by Scott, Byron, Austen, Crabbe, and other literary notables.
Thomas Phillips (1770-1845)
English painter who assisted Benjamin West, exhibited at the Royal Academy, and painted
portraits of English poets including Byron, Crabbe, Scott, Southey, and Coleridge.
Samuel Rogers (1763-1855)
English poet, banker, and aesthete, author of the ever-popular
Pleasures of Memory (1792),
Columbus (1810),
Jaqueline (1814), and
Italy (1822-28).
William Sotheby (1757-1833)
English man of letters; after Harrow he joined the dragoons, married well, and published
Poems (1790) and became a prolific poet and translator,
prominent in literary society.
Robert Southey (1774-1843)
Poet laureate and man of letters whose contemporary reputation depended upon his prose
works, among them the
Life of Nelson, 2 vols (1813),
History of the Peninsular War, 3 vols (1823-32) and
The Doctor, 7 vols (1834-47).
John William Ward, earl of Dudley (1781-1833)
The son of William Ward, third Viscount Dudley (d. 1823); educated at Edinburgh and
Oxford, he was an English MP, sometimes a Foxite Whig and sometimes Canningite Tory, who
suffered from insanity in his latter years.
Helen Maria Williams (1761-1827)
English poet, novelist, and miscellaneous writer who resided in France after 1788; she
published
Letters from France (1790-96).
Sir James Mackintosh (1765-1832)
The History of England. 10 vols (London: Longman, Rees, Orme, Brown & Green and J. Taylor, 1830-1840). Published as part of the Cabinet Cyclopaedia.
