Murray’s ambition however was not to be satisfied with the sop of a successful cookery book. His marriage may be supposed to have strengthened his interests in the Scotch metropolis, for in the following year we find Constable offering him a fourth share in Scott’s forthcoming poem of “Marmion.” “I am,” writes Murray on the 6th Feb., 1807, “truly sensible of the kind remembrance of me in your liberal purchase. You have rendered Mr. Miller no less happy by your admission of him; and we both view it as honourable, profitable, and glorious to be concerned in the publication of a new poem by Walter Scott.” For an account of the success of “Marmion” we must refer the reader to the life of Archibald Constable; it is enough for our present purpose to know that Murray afterwards said that this fourth share, for which he paid £250, brought him in a return of fifty-fold. The publication of “Marmion” was followed by a connection with Scott, who in the succeeding year edited for him Strutt’s “Queen Hoo Hall.” Scott had before this been concerned with Campbell in a projected series of “Biographies of the Poets,” which had however come to nothing. Murray now thought that Scott’s talents, and more especially perhaps his name, would bestow certain success upon the project; and we find Campbell, who had just made a “poet’s marriage”--with love enough in his heart and genius enough in his brain, but “with only fifty pounds in his writing desk”--inditing to Scott as follows:-- “MY DEAR SCOTT,--A very excellent and gentlemanly man--albeit a bookseller--Murray of Fleet Street, is willing to give for our joint ‘Lives of the Poets,’ on the plan we proposed to the trade a twelvemonth ago, a thousand pounds.... Murray is the only gentleman in the trade except Constable.... I may perhaps also except Hood. I have seldom seen a pleasanter man to deal with. Our names are what he principally wants, especially _yours_.... I do not wish even in confidence to say anything ill of the London booksellers beyond their deserts; but I can assure you that to compare this offer of Murray’s with their usual offers is magnanimous indeed. Longman and Rees and a few of the great booksellers have literally monopolized the trade, and the business of literature is getting a dreadful one indeed. The Row folks have done nothing for me yet; I know not what they intend. The fallen prices of literature--which is getting worse by the horrible complexion of the times--make me often rather gloomy at the life I am likely to lead. You may guess, therefore, my anxiety to close with this proposal; and you may think me charitable indeed to retain myself from wishing that you were as poor as myself, that you might have motives to lend your aid.”