Michael Scott, one of the _Blackwood_ group of writers, would be not unworthy to be bracketed with Marryat if a man could be judged by parts of his books without regard to the whole; but unfortunately _Tom Cringle's Log_ (1829-30) and _The Cruise of the Midge_ (1836) are little more than scenes and incidents loosely strung together. Perhaps Scott was influenced by the _genius loci_; at any rate his books resemble the _Noctes Ambrosianæ_ in so far as they are the outlet to every riotous fancy and every lawless freak of the writer's humour. Marryat had several imitators, the best of whom were Glascock and Chamier, the latter still fairly well known by name as the author of _Ben Brace_ and _The Arethusa_. But though they had practical experience of sea life, like Marryat, Glascock and Chamier had not his literary faculty. At a later date, James Hannay, the essayist and critic, essayed the naval tale with more literary skill, but without the practical knowledge possessed by these men. [Sidenote: Samuel Warren (1807-1877).] To a wholly different class belonged the once famous Samuel Warren. He was a barrister and the author of several legal works, but his literary career was determined rather by a short period of medical study in Edinburgh, before he resolved to be a barrister. His acquaintance with Christopher North opened the pages of _Blackwood_ to him, and he utilised his medical training in the _Diary of a Late Physician_, an unpleasantly realistic book which first appeared in that magazine. _Ten Thousand a Year_ (1841), though commonplace in substance, was interesting. Warren lived upon the reputation of this book. His subsequent attempts were failures, and he was known through life as the author of _Ten Thousand a Year_. CHAPTER V. FICTION: THE INTERMEDIATE PERIOD. Where dates so overlap it is impossible to find, and therefore misleading to seek for, absolute divisions. Some of the writers to be treated in this chapter began to publish only a few years after those dealt with in the last, and great part of their career was strictly contemporaneous. The division only means that, on the whole, we can recognise in the earlier writers a closer relationship with the preceding period, a more direct debt to Scott and Byron. In the fourth decade of the century we begin to see the romance of the Middle Ages and of the East giving place to the humours of low life in Dickens, to satire on society in Thackeray, and to the novel of passion in the Brontës. These writers may be said to form ideals of their own, and though they do not constitute a school they are each distinguished by characteristics which we recognise as the growth of the present period. [Sidenote: Charles Dickens (1812-1870).]