following account of what the printer said when Hogg reported that Sir
Walter was to correct some proofs for him: "He correct them for you!
Lord help you and him both! I assure you if he had nobody to correct
after him, there would be a bonny song through the country. He is the
most careless and incorrect writer that ever was born, for a
voluminous and popular writer, and as for sending a proof sheet to
him, we may as well keep it in the office. He never heeds it.... He
will never look at either your proofs or his own, unless it be for a
few minutes amusement" (pp. 242-3). When he wrote to Miss Baillie that
he had read the proofs of a play of hers which was being published in
Edinburgh, he added, "but this will not ensure their being altogether
correct, for in despite of great practice, Ballantyne insists I have a
bad eye." (_Familiar Letters_, Vol. I, p. 173.)]

[Footnote 369: _Journal_, Vol. II, p. 79; also 234 and 239;
_Lockhart_, Vol. V, pp. 116 and 240.]

[Footnote 370: _Journal_, Vol. I, p. 117; _Lockhart_, Vol. IV, p.
448.]

[Footnote 371: _Lockhart_, Vol. IV, pp. 2 and 391.]

[Footnote 372: _Familiar Letters_, Vol. I, p. 72.]

[Footnote 373: _Ibid._, Vol. I, p. 101.]

[Footnote 374: _Ibid._, Vol. I, p. 113.]

[Footnote 375: Essay on _Imitations of the Ancient Ballad_.]

[Footnote 376: A friend of Scott's once wrote to him, "You are the
only author I ever yet knew to whom one might speak plain about the
faults found with his works." (_Familiar Letters_, Vol. I, p. 282.) He
took great pains, contrary to his usual custom, in revising and
correcting the _Malachi Malagrowther_ papers, but these were
argumentative and in an altogether different class from his poems and
novels; and besides he felt a special responsibility in writing upon a
public matter "far more important than anything referring to [his]
fame or fortune alone." (_Lockhart_, Vol. IV, p. 460.)]

[Footnote 377: _Lockhart_, Vol. III, p. 379.]

[Footnote 378: Introduction to the _Pirate_.]

[Footnote 379: _Journal_, Vol. II, p. 250.]

[Footnote 380: This was, of course, an effect of overwork and disease.
Irving quotes Scott as saying: "It is all nonsense to tell a man that
his mind is not affected, when his body is in this state." (_Irving's
Life_, Vol. II, p. 459.)]

[Footnote 381: _Journal_, Vol. I, p. 181.]

[Footnote 382: See _Lockhart_, Vol. II, pp. 265-6.]