"P.S. Why don't you take a turn in Italy? You would find yourself as well known and as welcome as in the Highlands among the natives. As for the English, you would be with them as in London; and I need not add, that I should be delighted to see you again, which is far more than I shall ever feel or say for England, or (with a few exceptions 'of kith, kin, and allies') any thing that it contains. But my 'heart warms to the tartan,' or to any thing of Scotland, which reminds me of Aberdeen and other parts, not so far from the Highlands as that town, about Invercauld and Braemar, where I was sent to drink goat's _fey_ in 1795-6, in consequence of a threatened decline after the scarlet fever. But I am gossiping, so, good night--and the gods be with your dreams! "Pray, present my respects to Lady Scott, who may, perhaps, recollect having seen me in town in 1815. "I see that one of your supporters (for like Sir Hildebrand, I am fond of Guillin) is a _mermaid_; it is my _crest_ too, and with precisely the same curl of tail. There's concatenation for you:--I am building a little cutter at Genoa, to go a cruising in the summer. I know _you_ like the sea too." * * * * * LETTER 476. TO ----.[73] "Pisa, February 6. 1822. "'Try back the deep lane,' till we find a publisher for the 'Vision;' and if none such is to be found, print fifty copies at my expense, distribute them amongst my acquaintance, and you will soon see that the booksellers _will_ publish them, even if we opposed them. That they are now afraid is natural, but I do not see that I ought to give way on that account. I know nothing of Rivington's 'Remonstrance' by the 'eminent Churchman;' but I suppose he wants a living. I once heard of a preacher at Kentish Town against 'Cain.' The same outcry was raised against Priestley, Hume, Gibbon, Voltaire, and all the men who dared to put tithes to the question. "I have got S----'s pretended reply, to which I am surprised that you do not allude. What remains to be done is to call him out. The question is, would he come? for, if he would not, the whole thing would appear ridiculous, if I were to take a long and expensive journey to no purpose. "You must be my second, and, as such, I wish to consult you. "I apply to you, as one well versed in the duello, or monomachie. Of course I shall come to England as privately as possible, and leave it (supposing that I was the survivor) in the same manner; having no other object which could bring me to that country except to settle quarrels accumulated during my absence.