ne then lived in St. John Street, a row of good,
old-fashioned, and spacious houses, adjoining the Canongate and
Holyrood, and at no great distance from his printing establishment. He
had married a few {p.256} years before the daughter of a wealthy
farmer in Berwickshire--a quiet, amiable woman, of simple manners, and
perfectly domestic habits: a group of fine young children were growing
up about him; and he usually, if not constantly, had under his roof
his aged mother, his and his wife's tender care of whom it was most
pleasing to witness. As far as a stranger might judge, there could not
be a more exemplary household, or a happier one; and I have
occasionally met the poet in St. John Street when there were no other
guests but Erskine, Terry, George Hogarth,[110] and another intimate
friend or two, and when James Ballantyne was content to appear in his
own true and best colors, the kind head of his family, the respectful
but honest schoolfellow of Scott, the easy landlord of a plain,
comfortable table. But when any great event was about to take place in
the business, especially on the eve of a new novel, there were doings
of a higher strain in St. John Street; and to be present at one of
those scenes was truly a rich treat, even--if not especially--for
persons who, like myself, had no more _knowledge_ than the rest of the
world as to the authorship of Waverley. Then were congregated about
the printer all his own literary allies, of whom a considerable number
were by no means personally familiar with "THE GREAT UNKNOWN:"--who,
by the way, owed to him that widely adopted title;--and He
appeared among the rest with his usual open aspect of buoyant
good-humor--although it was not difficult to trace, in the occasional
play of his features, the diversion it afforded him to watch all the
procedure of his swelling confidant, and the curious neophytes that
surrounded the well-spread board.

[Footnote 110: George Hogarth, Esq., W. S., brother of
Mrs. James Ballantyne. This gentleman is now well known
in the literary world; especially by a History of Music,
of which all who understand that science speak highly.
[He was the father-in-law of Charles Dickens, and for
many years a musical and dramatic critic in London.]]

The feast was, to use one of James's own favorite epithets, {p.257}
_gorgeous_; an aldermanic display of turtle and venison, with