breeches, and jockey-boots in Meltonian order. Yet he affected in the
pulpit rather a grave address; and was really one of the most
plausible and imposing of the Puff tribe. Probably Scott's presence
overawed his ludicrous propensities; for the poet was, when sales were
going on, almost a daily attendant in Hanover Street, and himself not
the least energetic of the numerous competitors for Johnny's uncut
_fifteeners_, Venetian lamps, Milanese cuirasses, and old Dutch
cabinets. Maida, by the way, was so well aware of his master's
{p.261} habits, that about the time when the Court of Session was
likely to break up for the day, he might usually be seen couched in
expectation among Johnny's own _tail_ of greyhounds at the threshold
of the mart.

It was at one of those Trinity dinners this summer that I first saw
Constable. Being struck with his appearance, I asked Scott who he was,
and he told me--expressing some surprise that anybody should have
lived a winter or two in Edinburgh without knowing, by sight at least,
a citizen whose name was so familiar to the world. I happened to say
that I had not been prepared to find the great bookseller a man of
such gentlemanlike and even distinguished bearing. Scott smiled, and
answered, "Ay, Constable is indeed a grand-looking chield. He puts me
in mind of Fielding's apology for Lady Booby--to wit, that Joseph
Andrews had an air which, to those who had not seen many noblemen,
would give an idea of nobility." I had not in those days been much
initiated in the private jokes of what is called, by way of
excellence, _the trade_, and was puzzled when Scott, in the course of
the dinner, said to Constable, "Will your Czarish Majesty do me the
honor to take a glass of champagne?" I asked the master of the feast
for an explanation. "Oh!" said he, "are you so green as not to know
that Constable long since dubbed himself _The Czar of Muscovy_, John
Murray, _The Emperor of the West_, and Longman and his string of
partners _The Divan_?" "And what title," I asked, "has Mr. John
Ballantyne himself found in this new _almanach imperial_?"--"Let that
flee stick to the wa'," quoth Johnny: "When I set up for a bookseller,
The Crafty christened me _The Dey of Alljeers_--but he now considers
me as next thing to dethroned." He added, "His Majesty the autocrat is
too fond of these nicknames. One day a partner of the house of Longman
was dining with him in the country, to settle an important piece of
busi