In the beginning of December, the Town Council of Edinburgh resolved to send a deputation to congratulate the Prince Regent on the prosperous course of public events, and they invited Scott to draw up their address, which, on its being transmitted for previous inspection to Mr. William Dundas, then Member for the City, and through him shown privately to the Regent, was acknowledged to the penman, by his Royal Highness's command, as "the most elegant congratulation a sovereign ever received, or a subject offered."[44] The Lord Provost of Edinburgh presented it accordingly at the levee of the 10th, and it was received most graciously. On returning to the north, the Magistrates expressed their sense of Scott's services on this occasion by presenting him with the freedom of his native city, and also with a piece of plate,--which the reader will find alluded to, among other matters of more consequence, in a letter to be quoted presently. At this time Scott further expressed his patriotic exultation in the rescue of Europe, by two songs for the anniversary of the death of Pitt; one of which has ever since, I believe, been chanted at that celebration:-- "O dread was the time and more dreadful the omen, When the brave on Marengo lay slaughter'd in vain," etc.[45] Footnotes of the Chapter XXVI. [23: Mr. Hunter died in March, 1812.] [24: "These and after purchases of books from the stock of J. Ballantyne and Co. were resold to the trade by Constable's firm, at less than one half and one third of the prices at which they were thus obtained."--_Note from Mr. R. Cadell._] [25: Dr. Brewster's edition of Ferguson's _Astronomy_, 2 vols. 8vo, with plates, 4to, Edin. 1811. 36_s_.] [26: Dr. Singers's _General View of the County of Dumfries_, 8vo, Edin. 1812. 18_s_.] [27: A trade sale of Messrs. Cadell and Davies in the Strand.] [28: Since this work was first published, I have been compelled to examine very minutely the details of Scott's connection with the Ballantynes, and one result is, that both James and John had trespassed so largely, for their private purposes, on the funds of the Companies, that, Scott being, as their letters distinctly state, the only "monied partner," and his over-advances of capital having been very extensive, any inquiry on their part as to his uncommercial expenditure must have been entirely out of the question. To avoid misrepresentation, however, I leave my text as it was.--(1839.)] [29: _Merchant of Venice_, Act II. Scene 2.] [30: The court of offices, built on the haugh at Abbotsford in 1812, included a house for the faithful coachman, Peter Mathieson. One of Scott's Cantabrigian friends, Mr. W. S. Rose, gave the whole pile soon afterwards the name, which it retained to the end, of _Peter-House_. The loft at Peter-House continued to be occupied by occasional bachelor guests until the existing mansion was completed.]