must have been perceived, by all who had any share of discrimination, to flow from the same pen.
Mr. Terry produced in the spring of 1816 a dramatic piece, entitled "Guy Mannering," which met with great success on the London boards, and still continues to be a favorite with the theatrical public; what share the novelist himself had in this first specimen of what he used to call "the art of Terry-fying," I cannot exactly say; but his correspondence shows that the pretty song of the Lullaby* was not his only contribution to it; and I infer that he had taken the trouble to modify the plot, and rearrange, for stage purposes, a considerable part of the original dialogue. The casual risk of discovery, through the introduction of the song, which had, in the mean time, been communicated to one of his humble dependants, the late Alexander Campbell, editor of Albyn's Anthology, (commonly known at Abbotsford as, by way of excellence, "The Dunniewassail,") and Scott's suggestions on that difficulty, will amuse the reader of the following letter:
"To D. Terry, Esq., Alfred Place, Bloomsbury, London.
"Abbotsford, 18th April, 1816.
"I give you joy of your promotion to the dignity of an householder, and heartily wish you all the success you so well deserve, to answer the approaching enlargement of your domestic establishment. You will find a house a very devouring monster, and that the purveying for it requires a little exertion, and a great deal of self-denial and arrangement. But when there is domestic peace and contentment, all that would otherwise be disagreeable, as restraining our taste and occupying our time, becomes easy. I trust Mrs. Terry will get her business easily over, and that you will soon 'dandle Dickie on your knee.' I have been at the spring circuit, which made me late in receiving your letter, and there I was introduced to a man whom I never saw in my life before, namely, the proprietor of all the Pepper and Mustard family, in other words, the genuine Dandie Dinmont. Dandie is himself modest, and says, 'he b'lives it's only the dougs that is in the buik, and no himsel.' As the surveyor of taxes was going his ominous rounds past Hyndlea, which is the abode of Dandie, his whole pack rushed out upon the man of execution, and Dandie followed them, (conscious that their number greatly exceeded his return,) exclaiming, 'The
* See Scott's Poetical Works, (Edit. 1834,) vol. xi. p. 317.