[373] Moore, on hearing of Scott’s arrival, hastened to London from Sloperton, and had several pleasant meetings, particulars of which are given in his Diary (vol. v. pp. 121 to 126).  He would, as Scott says on the 23d, have gone to Paris with them—­“seemed disposed to go”; but between that date and 25th fancied that he saw something in Scott’s manner that made him hesitate, and then finally give up the idea.  He adds that Scott’s friends had thrown out hints as to the impropriety of such a political reprobate forming one of the party.  This suspicion on Moore’s part shows how he had misunderstood Scott’s real character.  If Scott thought it right to ask the Bard of Ireland to be his companion, no hints from Mr. Wilmot Horton, or any members of the Court party, would have influenced him, even though they had urged that “this political reprobate” was author of The Fudge Family in Paris and the Twopenny Post-Bag.

[374] Sir George died in 1853.  His journal does not appear to have been published.

[375] Dr. Hughes, who died Jan. 6, 1833, aged seventy-seven, was one of the Canons-residentiary of St. Paul’s, London.  He and Mrs. Hughes were old friends of Sir Walter, who had been godfather to one of their grandchildren.—­See Life, vol. vii. pp. 259-260.  Their son was John Hughes, Esq., of Oriel College, whose “Itinerary of the Rhone” is mentioned with praise in the introduction to Quentin Durward.—­See letter to Charles Scott, in Life, vol. vii. p. 275.

[376] Mr. Pringle was a Roxburghshire farmer’s son who in youth attracted Sir Walter’s notice by his poem called The Autumnal Excursion; or, Sketches in Teviotdale.  He was for a short time Editor of Blackwood’s Magazine, but the publisher and he had different politics, quarrelled, and parted.  Sir Walter then gave Pringle strong recommendations to the late Lord Charles Somerset, Governor of the Cape of Good Hope in which colony he settled, and for some years throve under the Governor’s protection; but the newspaper alluded to in the text ruined his prospects at the Cape; he returned to England, became Secretary to the Anti-Slavery Society, published a charming little volume entitled African Sketches, and died in December 1834.  He was a man of amiable feelings and elegant genius.

[377] An esteemed friend of Sir Walter’s, who attended on him during his illness in October 1831, and in June 1832.

[378] Afterwards Sir Francis Palgrave, Deputy-Keeper of the public records, and author of the History of Normandy and England, 4 vols. 8vo, 1851-1864, and other works.

[379] William Wilson of Wandsworth Common, formerly of Wilsontown, in Lanarkshire.—­J.G.L.

[380] E.H.  Locker, then Secretary of Greenwich Hospital.—­See ante, Oct. 7.

[381] King John, Act I. Sc. 1.