art, Esq., was published before the end of the year in Murray's
_Family Library_.

[403] _School for Scandal_.

SEPTEMBER

_September_ 5.--In spite of resolution I have left my Diary for some
weeks, I cannot tell why. We have had the usual number of travelling
Counts and Countesses, Yankees male and female, and a
Yankee-Doodle-Dandy into the bargain, a smart young Virginia man. We
have had friends of our own also, the Miss Ardens, young Mrs. Morritt
and Anne Morritt, most agreeable visitors.[404] Cadell came out here
yesterday with his horn filled with good news. This will in effect put
an end to the trust; only the sales and produce must be pledged to
insure the last L15,000 and the annuity interest of L600. In this way
Mr. Cadell will become half-partner in the remaining volumes of the
books following _St. Ronan's_; with all my heart, but he must pay well
for it, for it is good property. Neither is any value stated for
literary profits; yet, four years should have four novels betwixt
1830-4. This at L2500 per volume might be L8000, which would diminish
Mr. Cadell's advance considerably. All this seems feasible enough, so my
fits of sullen alarm are ill placed. It makes me care less about the
terms I retire upon. The efforts by which we have advanced thus far are
new in literature, and what is gained is secure.

[_No entry between September 5 and December 20_.]

FOOTNOTES:

[404] Sir Walter had written to Morritt on his retirement from the Court
of Session, and his old friend responded in the following cordial
letter:--

"_November, 1830_.

"MY DEAR SCOTT,--... I am sorry to read what you tell me of your
lameness, but legs are not so obedient to many of us at our age as they
were twenty years ago, _non immunes ab illis malis sumus_, as the
learned Partridge and Lilly's Grammar tells us. I find mine swell, and
am forced to bandage, and should not exert them with impunity in walking
as I used to do, either in long walks or in rough ground. I am glad,
however, you have escaped from the Court of Session, even at the risk of
sometimes feeling the want you allude to of winter society. You think
you shall tire of solitude in these months: and in spite of books and
the love of them, I have discovered by experience the possibility of
such a feeling; but can we not in some degree remedy this? Why should we
both be within two days' march of each other and not sometimes together,
as of old? How I have enj