Page:Biographical and critical studies by James Thomson ("B.V.").djvu/445

 JAMES HOGG 429 by accident, and, vehement in penitence as in wrath, wrote to his outraged patron and friend : " I desire not a renewal of our former intimacy, for haply, after what I have written, your family would not suffer it ; but I wish it to be understood that, when we meet by chance, we might shake hands and speak to one another as old acquaintances, and likewise that we may exchange a letter occasionally, for I find there are many things which I yearn to communicate to you, and the tears rush to my eyes when I consider that I may not." Scott's answer was a brief note telling him to think no more of the affair, and to come to breakfast the next morning. Hogg went, and more than once tried to come to a full expla- nation, but Scott always parried and evaded and baffled him, and was his best friend to the last. Hogg tells us further : " Mr. Wilson once drove me also into an ungovernable rage by turning a long and elaborate poem of mine on ' Field of Waterloo ' into ridicule, on learning which I sent him a letter which I thought was a tickler. There was scarcely an abusive epithet in our language that I did not call him by. My letter, however, had not the desired effect ; the opprobrious names proved only a source of amusement to Wilson, and he sent me a letter of explanation and apology, which knit my heart closer to him than ever." Hogg claimed " the honour of being the beginner, and almost sole instigator of BlacMvood's Magazine" admitting that when he first mentioned the plan to Old Ebony, that enterprising publisher said that he had been for some time revolving a similar scheme. Hogg undoubtedly originated the "Chaldee Manu-