t it
should hereafter make Lockhart known as he was. Mr. Lang was
somewhat hampered (though not very seriously so) by an
occasional lack of material, including want of access to the
archives of the houses of Blackwood and Murray; but this is
partly set right by Mrs. Oliphant's admirable history of
_William Blackwood and His Sons_, which gives as graphic a
description of the early days of Maga and of Lockhart's
connection therewith, indeed of all his relations to the
magazine and its publishers, as could be desired.]

[Footnote 11: Scott's _Familiar Letters_, vol. ii. p. 389.]

[Footnote 12: _Studies of a Biographer_, vol. ii. p. 1.]

"The love of children," wrote Mr. Christie, "was stronger in Lockhart
than I have ever known it in any other man. I never saw so happy a
father as he was with his first-born child in his arms. His first
sorrow was the breaking of the health of this child." There is no need
here to tell the pathetic story of that brief life; but the same
devoted love which had watched over it, was given in full measure to
the children who remained. Of the daughter, Mr. Gleig writes: "She was
the brightest, merriest, and most affectionate of creatures; and her
marriage, in 1847, to Mr. James Hope, met her father's entire
approval. He was satisfied that in giving her to Mr. Hope, he
entrusted his chief earthly treasure to a tender guardian, and strove,
in that reflection, to overshadow the thought that he must himself
henceforth be to her an object of secondary interest only. She never
voluntarily caused him one moment's pain. Nevertheless, it must not
be {p.xxxii} concealed that the secession of Mr. and Mrs. Hope-Scott
to the Roman Catholic faith greatly distressed Lockhart, although he
did full justice to the conscientious motives by which they were
actuated."[13] His attitude is best shown in the letter written to Mr.
Hope at this time, in which he says: "I had clung to the hope that you
would not finally quit the Church of England, but am not so
presumptuous as to say a word more on that step as respects yourself,
who have not certainly assumed so heavy a responsibility without much
study and reflection. As concerns others, I am thoroughly aware that
they may count upon any mitigation which the purest intentions and the
most generous and tender feelings on your part can bring. And I trust
that this, the on