"Should you feel any touch of _poetical_ glow, We've a scheme to suggest--Mr. Scott, you must know (Who, we're sorry to say it, now works for the _Row_), Having quitted the Borders to seek new renown, Is coming by long Quarto stages to town, And beginning with Rokeby (the job's sure to pay), Means to do all the gentlemen's seats on the way. Now the scheme is, though none of our hackneys can beat him, To start a new Poet through Highgate to meet him; Who by means of quick proofs--no revises--long coaches-- May do a few Villas before Scott approaches; Indeed if our Pegasus be not curst shabby, He'll reach, without foundering, at least Woburn-Abbey," etc., etc.] [20: See _ante_, vol. i. p. 246.] [21: It is included in the _Border Minstrelsy_, vol. i. p. 270.] [22: This murder, perpetrated in November, 1806, remains a mystery in 1836. The porter's name was Begbie. [See _Familiar Letters_, vol. i. p. 63.]] CHAPTER XXVI AFFAIRS OF JOHN BALLANTYNE AND CO. -- CAUSES OF THEIR DERANGEMENT. --LETTERS OF SCOTT TO HIS PARTNERS. -- NEGOTIATION FOR RELIEF WITH MESSRS. CONSTABLE. -- NEW PURCHASE OF LAND AT ABBOTSFORD. --EMBARRASSMENTS CONTINUED. -- JOHN BALLANTYNE'S EXPRESSES. --DRUMLANRIG, PENRITH, ETC. -- SCOTT'S MEETING WITH THE MARQUIS OF ABERCORN AT LONGTOWN. -- HIS APPLICATION TO THE DUKE OF BUCCLEUCH. --OFFER OF THE POET-LAUREATESHIP, -- CONSIDERED, -- AND DECLINED. --ADDRESS OF THE CITY OF EDINBURGH TO THE PRINCE REGENT. -- ITS RECEPTION. -- CIVIC HONORS CONFERRED ON SCOTT. -- QUESTION OF TAXATION ON LITERARY INCOME. -- LETTERS TO MR. MORRITT, MR. SOUTHEY, MR. RICHARDSON, MR. CRABBE, MISS BAILLIE, AND LORD BYRON 1813 About a month after the publication of The Bridal of Triermain, the affairs of the Messrs. Ballantyne, which had never apparently been in good order since the establishment of the bookselling firm, became so embarrassed as to call for Scott's most anxious efforts to disentangle them. Indeed, it is clear that there had existed some very serious perplexity in the course of the preceding autumn; for Scott writes to John Ballantyne, while Rokeby was in progress (August 11, 1812),--"I have a letter from James, very anxious about your health and state of spirits. If you suffer the present inconveniences to depress you too much, you are wrong; and if you conceal any part of them, are very unjust to us all. I am always ready to make any sacrifices to do justice to engagements, and would rather sell anything, or everything, than be less than true men to the world." [Illustration: ARCHIBALD CONSTABLE _From the painting by Raeburn_]