le to expect, and that
I am perfectly contented and grateful for what I have
received. Ever your Grace's faithful and truly obliged
servant,

Walter SCOTT.

[Footnote 57: The late Right Honorable Robert Dundas of
Arniston, Chief Baron of the Scotch Exchequer; one of
Scott's earliest and kindest friends in that
distinguished family.]

The following letter, to the same noble friend, contains a slight
allusion to this affair of the Barony; but I insert it for a better
reason. The Duke had, it seems, been much annoyed by some depredations
on his game in the district of Ettrick Water; and more so by the ill
use which some boys from Selkirk made of his liberality in allowing
the people of that town free access to his beautiful walks on the
banks of the Yarrow, adjoining Newark and Bowhill. The Duke's
forester, by name Thomas Hudson, had recommended rigorous measures
with reference to both these classes of offenders, and the Sheriff was
of course called into council:--

TO HIS GRACE THE DUKE OF BUCCLEUCH, ETC., ETC., ETC.

ABBOTSFORD, January 11, 1817.

MY DEAR LORD DUKE,--I have been thinking anxiously about the
disagreeable affair of Tom Hudson, {p.144} and the impudent
ingratitude of the Selkirk rising generation, and I will
take the usual liberty your friendship permits me, of saying
what occurs to me on each subject. Respecting the shooting,
the crime is highly punishable, and we will omit no
inquiries to discover the individuals guilty. Charles
Erskine, who is a good police-officer, will be sufficiently
active. I know my friend and kinsman, Mr. Scott of Harden,
feels very anxious to oblige your Grace, and I have little
doubt that if you will have the goodness to mention to him
this unpleasant circumstance, he would be anxious to put his
game under such regulations as should be agreeable to you.
But I believe the pride and pleasure he would feel in
obliging your Grace, as heading one of the most ancient and
most respectable branches of your name (if I may be pardoned
for saying so much in our favor), would be certainly much
more gratified by a compliance with your personal request,
than if it came through any other channel. Your Grace knows
there are many instan