A playful yet earnest petition, showing Sir Walter's continued
solicitude for the welfare of the good 'Dominie Sampson,' was also
written at this time to the Duke of Buccleuch:--

"ABBOTSFORD, _20th August_.

"The minister of ------ having fallen among other black cocks of
the season, emboldens me once more to prefer my humble request in
favour of George Thomson, long tutor in this family. His case is so
well known to your Grace that I would be greatly to blame if I
enlarged upon it. His morals are irreproachable, his talents very
respectable. He has some oddity of manner, but it is far from
attaching to either the head or the heart....

"It would be felt by me among one of the deepest obligations of the
many which I owe to the house of Buccleuch. I daresay your Grace
has shot a score of black game to-day. Pray let your namesake bag a
parson."

FOOTNOTES:

[390] An amusing illustration of the difficulty of seeing ourselves as
others see us may be found written twenty-five years later by Nathaniel
Hawthorne, where the author of the _Scarlet Letter_ expresses in like
manner his surprise at the want of refinement in Englishmen:--"I had
been struck by the very rough aspect of these John Bulls in their
morning garb, their coarse frock-coats, grey hats, check trousers, and
stout shoes; at dinner-table it was not at first easy to recognise the
same individuals.... But after a while, 'you see the same rough figure
through all the finery, and become sensible that John Bull cannot make
himself fine, whatever he may put on. He is a rough animal, and his
female is well adapted to him.'"--_Hawthorne and His Wife_, vol. ii. p.
70. 2 vols. 8vo. Cambridge, U.S.A., 1884.

[391] Architects style it Elizabethan, but Sir Walter's term is not
inappropriate.

[392] An amanuensis who was employed by Scott at this time.

[393] British Hotel, 70 Queen St.

[394] See _Winter's Tale_, Act IV. Sc. 2.

[395] See _ante_, January 15, 1828, p. 111. Mr. Mackenzie of Portmore
died in September 1830, when Sir Walter wrote Mr. Skene the following
letter:--

"DEAR SKENE,--I observe from the papers that our invaluable friend is no
more. I have reason to think, that as I surmised when I saw him last,
the interval has been a melancholy one, at least to those who had to
watch the progress. I never expected to see his kind face more, after I
took leave of him in Charlotte