[486] By Dodsley.

[487] That singular personage, the late M’Nab of that ilk, spent his life almost entirely in a district where a boat was the usual conveyance.—­J.G.L.

[488] Ancient Scottish Ballads, recovered from tradition, with notes, etc., by George R. Kinloch, 8vo, London, 1827.

[489] Issued by the Club, June 4, 1827.

[490] Zanga in The Revenge, Act I. Sc. 1.—­J.G.L.

[491] Nimrod, a staghound.—­J.G.L.

[492] Anecdotes of Cranbourne Chase, etc., by Chafin. 8vo, London, 1818.  Mr. Lockhart says, “I am sorry Sir Walter never redeemed his promise to make it the subject of an article in the Quarterly Review.”—­See Life, vol. vii. pp. 43-44.

[493] The article appeared in the Number for June 1827, and is now included in the Prose Misc.  Works, vol. xix. pp. 283-367.

[494] See Captain John Pringle’s remarks on the campaign of 1815 in App. to Scott’s Napoleon, vol. ix. pp. 115-160.

[495] Lear, Act III.  Sc. 4.

[496] “Pearling Jean,” the name of the ghost of the Spanish Nun at Allanbank, Berwickshire.  See Sharpe’s Letters, vol. i. pp. 303-5, and Ingram’s Haunted Homes, Lond. 1884, vol. i. pp. 1-4.

[497] This quaint saying, arising out of some forgotten joke, has been thought to be Scott’s own, as it was a favourite with him and his intimates, and he introduces it in more than one of his works.[A] But though its origin cannot be traced, Swift uses it in that very curious collection of proverbs and saws, which he strung together under the title of Polite Conversation, and published about 1738.[B] Fielding also introduces it in Amelia,[C] 1752.  See Notes and Queries, first series, vol. i. p. 385; ii. p. 45; iv. p. 450; x. p. 173; sixth series, vol. iii. p. 213; iv. p. 157.

[A] e.g. Redgauntlet, ch. xii.  Pate-in-Peril at Dumfries.

[B] Lord Smart—­“Well, Tom, can you tell me what’s Latin for a candle?”

Neverout—­“O, my Lord, I know that [answer]:  Brandy is Latin for a goose! and Tace is Latin for a candle.”—­SCOTT’S Swift, vol. ix. p. 457.

[C] “Tace, Madam,” added Murphy, “is Latin for a candle.”—­Amelia, Bk. 1. cap. xi.

[498] Sheridan’s Play, Act II.  Sc. 1.

[499] William Simson, R.S.A., landscape painter.  He died in London, 1847.

APRIL.

April 1.—­The proofs are not to be found.  Applications from R.P.  G[illies].  I must do something for him; yet have the melancholy conviction that nothing will do him any good.  Then he writes letters and expects answers.  Then they are bothering me about writing in behalf of the oil-gas light, which is going to the devil very fast.  I cannot be going a-begging for them or anybody.  Please to look down with an eye of pity—­a poor distressed creature!  No, not for the last morsel of bread.  A dry ditch and a speedy death is worth it all.