re it not for
the necessity of using Scriptural language, which is
essential to the character, but improper for the stage, it
would be very dramatic. But of all this you will judge by
and by. To give the go-by to the public, I have doubled and
leaped into my form, like a hare in snow: that is, I have
changed my publisher, and come forth like a maiden knight's
white shield (there is a conceit!) without any adhesion to
fame gained in former adventures (another!) or, in other
words, with a virgin title-page (another!)--I should not be
so light-hearted about all this, but that it is very nearly
finished and out, which is always a blithe moment for Mr.
Author. And now to other matters. The books came safe, and
were unpacked two days since, on our coming to town--most
ingeniously were they stowed in the legs of the very
handsome stand for Lord Byron's vase, with which our
{p.122} friend George Bullock has equipped me. I was made
very happy to receive him at Abbotsford, though only for a
start; and no less so to see Mr. Blore, from whom I received
your last letter. He is a very fine young man, modest,
simple, and unaffected in his manners, as well as a most
capital artist. I have had the assistance of both these
gentlemen in arranging an addition to the cottage at
Abbotsford, intended to connect the present farmhouse with
the line of low buildings to the right of it. Mr. Bullock
will show you the plan, which I think is very ingenious. He
has promised to give it his consideration with respect to
the interior; and Mr. Blore has drawn me a very handsome
elevation, both to the road and to the river. I expect to
get some decorations from the old Tolbooth of Edinburgh,
particularly the cope-stones of the doorway, or lintels, as
we call them, and a _niche_ or two--one very handsome
indeed! Better get a niche _from_ the Tolbooth than a niche
_in_ it, to which such building operations are apt to bring
the projectors. This addition will give me: first, a
handsome boudoir, in which I intend to place Mr. Bullock's
Shakespeare,[43] with his superb cabinet, which serves as a
pedestal. This opens into the little drawing-room, to which
it serves as a chapel of ease; and on the other side, to a
handsome dining-parlor of 27 feet by 18, with three wind