E.B.  RAMSAY.

I am preparing a twenty-second edition of Reminiscences.  Who would have thought it?  No man.

I have not hitherto made any mention of the Dean’s most popular book, the Reminiscences.  I cannot write but with respect of a work in which he was very much interested, and where he showed his knowledge of his countrymen so well.  As a critic, I must say that his style is peculiarly unepigrammatic; and yet what collector of epigrams or epigrammatic stories has ever done what the Dean has done for Scotland?  It seems as if the wilful excluding of point was acceptable, otherwise how to explain the popularity of that book?  All over the world, wherever Scotch men and Scotch language have made their way—­and that embraces wide regions—­the stories of the Reminiscences, and Dean Ramsay’s name as its author, are known and loved as much as the most popular author of this generation.  In accounting for the marvellous success of the little book, it should not be forgotten that the anecdotes are not only true to nature, but actually true, and that the author loved enthusiastically Scotland, and everything Scotch.  But while there were so many things to endear it to the peasantry of Scotland, it was not admired by them alone.  I insert a few letters to show what impression it made on those whom one would expect to find critical, if not jealous.  Dickens, the king of story-tellers; Dr. Guthrie, the most picturesque of preachers; Bishop Wordsworth, Dean Stanley, themselves masters of style—­how eagerly they received the simple stories of Scotland told without ornament.

     BISHOP WORDSWORTH to DEAN RAMSAY.

     The Feu House, Perth, January 12, 1872.

My dear Dean—­Your kind, welcome and most elegant present reached me yesterday—­in bed; to which, and to my sofa, I have been confined for some days by a severe attack of brow ague; and being thus disabled for more serious employment, I allowed my thoughts to run upon the lines which you will find over leaf.  Please to accept them as being well intended; though (like many other good intentions) I am afraid they give only too true evidence of the source from which they come—­viz., disordered head.—­Yours very sincerely,

     C. WORDSWORTH,

     Bp. of St. Andrews.

Ad virum venerabilem, optimum, dilectissimum, EDVARDUM B. RAMSAY, S.T.P., Edinburgi Decanum, accepto ejus libro cui titulus Reminiscences, etc.; vicesimum jam lautiusque et amplius edito.

Editio accessit vicesima! plaudite quiequid
  Scotia festivi fert lepidique ferax! 
Non vixit frustra qui frontem utcunque severam,
  Noverit innocuis explicuisse jocis: 
Non frustra vixit qui tot monumenta priorum
  Salsa pia vetuit sedulitate mori: 
Non frustra vixit qui quali nos sit amore
  Vivendum, exemplo praecipiensque docet: 
Nec merces te indigna manet:  juvenesque senesque