in 1804, came back to Edinburgh and opened an old-book shop, in South Bridge Street. For several years he almost confined his attention to the sale of rare and curious books, more especially those relating to the antiquities and early history of Scotland. His shop, like that of Constable, soon became a regular literary haunt, and he speedily acquired a reputation second to none of his own line in Edinburgh, and in the matter of catalogues, he rivalled Cuthell, his master; that one published in 1812 being the first in which the books were regularly classified, and “continues,” says Mr. Chambers, “to be an authority to the present day.” The old-book trade was at that time in its most flourishing condition, Dibdin was firing the minds of curiosity-seekers with a love for rare quartos and folios; Heber, and many more after his kind, were spending the main portion of their time, and the vast bulk of their fortunes, in the acquisition of immense libraries; and the old-booksellers of the day were making large incomes. Blackwood’s success by no means satisfied his ambition, but enabled him to enter the field of publishing as a rival to Constable, who was now at the height of his glory. As early as 1811, we find him bringing out “Kerr’s Voyages,” a work of considerable importance and expense, and which was shortly succeeded by Macrie’s “Life of Knox.” Blackwood’s sojourn in London, and the credit attracted by his enterprising book-catalogues, led the way to his being appointed agent to several of the London booksellers, among others, to John Murray, and to them, conjointly, the tale of the “Black Dwarf” was offered when Scott considered it desirable to bring it out in other hands, and with a title-page apparently by another author. Blackwood wrote to say that, in his opinion, the unravelling of the end of the story might be improved, and offered to pay for cancelling the proofs. Gifford, too, to whom Murray had shown it, was of a like opinion. Scott differed most essentially; witness his letter to Ballantyne:-- “DEAR JAMES, “I have received Blackwood’s impudent letter. G---- d---- his soul, tell him and his coadjutor that I belong to the Black Hussars of Literature, who neither give nor receive criticism. I’ll be cursed but this is the most impudent proposal that ever was made.” This, of course, brought the proposal to a close for the time, though, as Lockhart says, “Scott did both know and appreciate Blackwood better in after times.”