Page:A history of booksellers, the old and the new.djvu/254

218 2 1 8 WILLIAM BLA CKWOOD. a work upon such principles must have been more wanted, and, at the same time, more difficult than in any other with which I am acquainted." On leaving the shop, Dr. Peter is taken to dine at " a house in the immediate neighbourhood, frequently alluded to in the magazine as the great haunt of his wits." This was Ambrose's, mentioned in the "Caldee MS." " as thou lookest to the road of Gabriel and the land of Ambrose!' At this favourite tavern, at the nodes ccenceqne deum, was foreshadowed what was destined to be by far the most interesting portion of the earlier series of Blackiuood. The first trace we can find in the magazine of these famous reunions is in the number for August, 1819, where a work on military matter is reviewed by two different critics while enjoying their evening glasses at Ambrose's. This was followed up next month by a paper which occupied the whole of the number, entitled " Christopher in the Tent " a sketch, sup- positious, of course, of a country expedition of the whole staff full of rollicking humour and uproarious fun, with etchings by Lockhart and jokes by all. In the following year, 1820, the first of Blackwood's really classic novels appeared in the magazine. This was the "Ayrshire Legatees," by John Gait ; and the editor, quick to perceive talent and eager to retain it, published in rapid succession a series of tales and sketches by the modern Smollet. This year, too, was an important one for both of the chief contributors. Lockhart, whose rising merits had long since attracted the attention of Scott, married the " Great Magician's favourite daughter ;" and Wil- son, to the terror of half Edinburgh, became a candi- date for the chair of Moral Philosophy at the