In several long articles which appeared in _Tait’s Magazine_ in 1843, entitled “Random Recollections of Scott and the Ettrick Shepherd,” by Mr. John Morrison, a land-surveyor, there are several notices of James and John Ballantyne. The following is one of those relating to John: “On a day appointed,” says Mr. Morrison, “we all set out on a hare-hunting expedition. Miss Scott rode Queen Mab, a little pony; John Ballantyne was mounted on Old Mortality, an old gaunt white horse. He was dressed in a green coat, the buttons of mother-of-pearl, silver and gold—with, if I remember well, a precious stone in the centre, and altogether a most harlequin and piebald figure. Sir Walter appeared to laugh and amuse himself with his grotesque appearance. I admired the buttons. ‘And well you may,’ said Sir Walter. ‘These buttons, sir, belonged to the Great Montrose, and were cut, by our friend John, from an old coat belonging to the Marquis, which he purchased from an unworthy descendant of the family, Graham of Gartmore, with many other nick-nackets too tedious to enumerate.’ On the same day,” Mr. Morrison continues, “at and after dinner, although he looked very kindly on Johnny Ballantyne, Scott made himself merry at his expense, and Ballantyne seemed awed in his presence; although, when addressed, he turned a bold front to any one else. I ventured to joke him a little on the quality of his coat, and said it was the best at table. ‘Yes,’ said John, ‘and it belonged to a better man.’ You will find some difficulty in convincing Mr. Morrison of that,’ said Sir Walter”—the latter well knowing that Morrison’s sentiments regarding the character of Montrose were at variance with his own. After some years of failing health, John Ballantyne retired to a villa which he had built near Kelso, and here he was frequently visited by Sir Walter. On one of these occasions, the latter revived a long-forgotten project of their early connection in business, and offered his gratuitous services as editor of a Novelists’ Library, to be printed and published for the benefit of his friend. The offer was eagerly embraced, and the first volume of “Ballantyne’s Novelists’ Library” appeared in February 1821, though the collection, notwithstanding the Biographies and Introductions which Scott wrote for it,[24] did not prove a fortunate speculation.