Memoir of John Murray
Walter Scott to John Murray, 4 January 1809
Castle St., Jan. 4th, 1809.
My dear Sir,
I trouble you with a few lines to say that I will have my
articles ready to send off to Mr.
Gifford early next week. I have been strangely interrupted,
first by my duty as Clerk to a Commission now sitting for reform of our Courts,
and since by a very bad cold. Mrs. Scott
sends you her kindest thanks for ‘Marmion Pocket
Book.’
Ballantyne, who takes charge of this
note, sets off to-day to meet you. We talked over a great number of plans or
hints of plans together, and I am positively certain enough may be done in
various ways to make him hold up his character with any Edinburgh publisher.
Constable and I are quite broken,
owing to Mr. Hunter’s extreme
incivility, to which I will certainly never subject myself more. It seems
uncertain whether even the ‘Swift’ proceeds, but this I will bring to a point. I shall be
most anxious to see the Review. It is publicly talked of here, though by some
confounded with Cumberland’s attempt. Constable mentioned the report to me
and asked me if it was to be an Edinburgh publication. I told him report said
“no.”
I fear this snow will render your journey rather unpleasant,
but hope Ballantyne will get through
notwithstanding. Believe me, my dear Sir,
Yours truly,
James Ballantyne (1772-1833)
Edinburgh printer in partnership with his younger brother John; the company failed in the
financial collapse of 1826.
Archibald Constable (1774-1827)
Edinburgh bookseller who published the
Edinburgh Review and works
of Sir Walter Scott; he went bankrupt in 1826.
Richard Cumberland (1732-1811)
English playwright and man of letters caricatured by Sheridan as “Sir Fretful Plagiary.”
Memoirs of Richard Cumberland, written by himself was published
in two volumes (1806-07).
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).
Alexander Gibson Hunter (1771-1812)
The eldest son of David Hunter, of Blackness; he was a Writer to the Signet (1797) who in
1804 became a partner of the Edinburgh bookseller Archibald Constable.
London Review. (1809). Edited by Richard Cumberland; only two numbers appeared; in a departure from usual
practice the reviews were signed.
The Quarterly Review. (1809-1967). Published by John Murray, the
Quarterly was instigated by Walter
Scott as a Tory rival to the
Edinburgh Review. It was edited by
William Gifford to 1824, and by John Gibson Lockhart from 1826 to 1853.
