It happened also that Hughes, Ballantyne’s chief workman, had been trained in one of the foremost printing-houses of the time, and was capable of using his materials to the best advantage; and this, joined to James Ballantyne’s excellent taste in the selection of type, contributed to the production of the ballads in a style of typographical perfection worthy of the most eminent printers before him. [Illustration] In the beginning of 1894 a copy of this very limited edition of the “Apology” was advertised at a moderate price by a bookseller in London. It was immediately purchased by an Edinburgh bookseller, who had a higher opinion of its value than his London brother. This copy bore an inscription in James Ballantyne’s handwriting, of which the following is a slightly reduced facsimile— [Illustration] Evidently, however, John Murray had given it away some time after, as it shows the further enrichment of the poet Campbell’s book-plate pasted on the title-page. The book is rare, and, till this copy was discovered, the only one known to exist was that at Abbotsford. It consists of seventy-six pages and a title, and from a printer’s point of view deserves the high praise bestowed upon it—having meadows of margin, wide leading, good spacing and colour. [Illustration] In chronological order another Kelso book falls to be noticed here, before we come to the important time of the association of Scott and Ballantyne with the “Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border.” The reproduced title shows it to be the life of Count Boruwlaski, a celebrated dwarf, who died in 1837 at Durham, in the ninety-ninth year of his age.[4] The book, a copy of which is at Paul’s Work, bears the date of 1801, and must of course have been issued during the dwarf’s lifetime. In a letter to Mr. Morritt, soon after the publication of “Waverley,” Scott has the following humorous reference to the Count:—“I am heartily glad you continued to like ‘Waverley’ to the end. The hero is a sneaking piece of imbecility; and if he had married Flora, she would have set him up upon the chimney-piece, as Count Boruwlaski’s wife used to do with him.” [Illustration] In connection with this chapter on Kelso work, it is gratifying to be able to print here, besides the facsimile of the first page of No. 1 of the _Kelso Mail_, a reduced facsimile of a playbill for the “New Theatre” at Kelso for Monday, November 16, 1801.[5] CHAPTER II REMOVAL TO EDINBURGH