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 CONTENTS

Preface

1 Introduction to the Intel Galileo

Hardware Summary
Gen 1 and Gen 2 Comparison
On-Board Linux
Power
Buttons
Memory
Input and Output
Communication
Programming
Summary

2 Getting Connected
Power the Board
Communicating with Your Board
Setting Up the Development Environment
Setting Up the Galileo on Windows
Setting Up the Galileo on OSX
Setting Up the Galileo on Linux
Hello World: Uploading Your First Code
Summary

3 Arduino-Style C Programming
What Is Programming?
 Setup and Loop
Variables
Floats
Boolean
Char
Commands
If Statement
For Loops
While Loops
Arrays
Strings
Coding Best Practices
Indentation
Commenting Your Code
Whitespaces
Summary

4 Programming Outputs
Experiment 1: Understanding Digital Outputs
Experiment 2: Flashing an LED
Experiment 3: LCD
Experiment 4: Switching High-Voltage Appliances Using a Relay
Experiment 5: Controlling a Servo Motor
Summary

5 Inputs
Digital Inputs
Experiment 6: Reading a Switch
digitalRead ()
Local and Global Variables
Debouncing
Analog Inputs
 Experiment 7: Reading a Potentiometer
analogRead
Const
map()
Variable Resistors
Experiment 8: Voltage Divider Circuits
Experiment 9: Reading Temperature
Summary

6 Networking: Getting Connected

Connecting to the Ethernet
Dynamic and Static IP Address
Connecting to Wi-Fi
Setting Up the Wi-Fi Mini-PCIe Card
Getting Started with Intel XDK IoT Edition
Download and Install Intel XDK IoT Edition
Download and Install Bonjour Print Services (Windows OS)
Creating a New Project
Summary

7 Internet-Connected Hardware
Experiment 10: Analyzing Sensor Data on the Cloud
Creating a Visual Dashboard
Experiment 11: Creating a Simple Web Server
Experiment 12: Creating a Web Server Using Express
Experiment 13: Reading GPIO Pins on the Web Server
Experiment 14: Controlling Digital Pins Using the Web
Experiment 15: Home Automation
Summary

8 Tools and Tips

Breadboards and Prototyping Boards
 Multimeter
Soldering
Analog versus Digital
Suppliers

A Components and Hardware

Resistors
Switches
Diodes
Hardware and Miscellaneous

Index
About the Author
Christopher Rush has a degree in computer science and has spent the last 10 years working
for an electronics distribution company as a product manager for single-board computing. He
is the author of 30 BeagleBone Black Projects for the Evil Genius™ and Programming the
Photon: Getting Started with the Internet of Things, both also published by McGraw-Hill
Education.
 PREFACE

This book is the perfect introduction to programming the Intel® Galileo development
board. The Galileo was Intel’s first development board aimed for the maker market and based
around their own Intel Quark SoC. With built-in Internet of Things capabilities, this board
unleashes the powerful hardware expanding its capabilities to Internet-connected hardware.
The Intel Galileo is fully compatible with the Arduino™-style programming language
while also introducing its own libraries and features for connectivity. The board itself comes
with the Arduino footprint for connecting Arduino-compatible hardware such as shields. On
its own the board doesn’t really do much, but once you learn how to connect hardware it is
fully capable of acting as the brain of your projects, controlling things and sending data to
cloud services using the on-board Linux.
This book presents you examples using the popular Grove system by Seeed-Studio, which
allows you to interconnect hardware without the worries and frustration of dealing with
circuits and soldering. Most of the examples use the parts commonly found in the Intel
Galileo Grove Starter Kit.
The purpose of this book is to get you started with creating your own hardware projects
with the Intel Galileo. You do not need any previous experience with circuits or
programming, but general computer skills would be highly advantageous. Programming the
Intel® Galileo is written to give you a wide variety of experience and a basic understanding
of the capabilities of the Intel Galileo board. This book only covers the basics of how to
program the board, the assumption being that you will then expand those skills to create your
own exciting projects.
I would love to hear your thoughts and comments regarding this book, so I encourage you
to contact me through www.rushmakes.com or on Twitter @rushmakes. You can download all
the example code from the McGraw-Hill website www.mhprofessional.com/intelgalileo or
through my GitHub, https://github.com/ChristopherRush/Programming-the-Intel-Galileo.
Christopher Rush
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 1
Introduction to the Intel Galileo

The Intel ® Galileo Gen 2 is a board based on the Intel Quark System-on-Chip (SoC)
X1000, a 32-bit Intel Pentium processor system, operating at speeds up to 400 MHz. This
Quark system is capable of supporting the Yocto 1.4 Linux distribution that opens up further
capabilities to the Intel Galileo board.
The board itself has a built-in Ethernet socket with additional support for Power over
Ethernet (PoE), a Universal Serial Bus (USB) 2.0 host port for adding USB devices, a micro-
SD slot for memory expansion, a mini PCI express (mPCIe) card slot, 20 digital input/output
pins (six PWM outputs with 8/12-bit resolution and six analog inputs with 12-bit resolution), a
micro-USB connection for USB client programming, an ICSP header, a JTag header, and two
reset tactile buttons, all of which you can see in Figure 1.1.

Figure 1.1 Intel Galileo Gen 2 hardware features.

The Intel Galileo Gen 2 board also features an integrated real-time clock (RTC), with an
optional 3-V coin cell battery for operation between turn-on cycles of the board.
The Intel Galileo board also supports the use of Arduino™-compatible shields and can
operate at either 3.3 or 5 V using a jumper pin header on the board. The board has been
specifically designed to be hardware and software pin-compatible, with the Arduino shields
based around the standard Uno R3 Arduino board. The shield headers have digital pins 0 to
13, analog inputs 0 to 5, an ICSP header, and universal asynchronous receiver/transmitter
(UART) port pins that are all in the same location as those on the Arduino Uno R3.

Hardware Summary

Gen 1 and Gen 2 Comparison

Currently, two versions of the Intel Galileo are available: Generation 1 and Generation 2. The
two boards that have been developed are considerably different:

The Gen 1 Intel Galileo board does not have an on-board regulator, so the power supply
has to be exactly 5 V. In contrast to this, the Gen 2 board has an on-board regulator, so it
may be powered with any suitable power supply providing between 7 and 15 V direct
current (DC). Some other properties of Gen 2 are as follows:
12 GPIOs fully native for greater speed and improved drive strength.
12-bit PWM for more precise control of servos and smoother response times.
12-V PoE capability.
Serial console UART header is compatible with FTDI USB convertors.
Console UART1 can be redirected to Arduino headers in sketches, which can eliminate
the need for soft-serial.
On-Board Linux
The Yocto 1.4 Linux distribution is installed on the Intel Galileo, and you can easily access the
various Linux functions with the system() call in the Arduino integrated development
environment (IDE) program.

Power
The Intel Galileo Gen 2 can be powered only via an external power supply. The power
adaptor can be connected by plugging a 2.1-mm center-positive plug into the board power
jack. The board can operate on an external supply between 7 and 15 V DC. The power pins for
the Intel board are as follows:

VIN: The input voltage to the Intel board. You can access the voltage supplied via the
power jack through this pin.
5 V: This pin outputs a regulated 5 V from the regulator board.
3.3 V: A 3.3-V supply is generated by the on-board regulator, which also provides the
power supply to the Quark microcontroller.
GND: Ground pins.
IOREF: This pin on the Arduino board provides the voltage reference with which the
microcontroller operates. This can be either 3.3 or 5 V, depending on the IOREF jumper
position.
12-V PoE capability.

Buttons
There are two buttons on the Intel Galileo board with different functions:

Reboot: It resets the Quark X1000 processor.

Reset: It resets the Arduino sketch and also any additional attached shield.

Memory
The Quark X1000 microcontroller has 512 kB of embedded SRAM available. The board also
has an additional 256 MB of DDR3 RAM and 8 MB of flash to store the firmware and any
Arduino sketches. The on-board uSD slot supports uSD cards up to 32 G and can be used to
provide the complete Yocto 1.4 Linux image.

Input and Output

The Intel Galileo has a number of input and output features, such as

Serial: 0 (Rx) and 1 (Tx) pins, which are used to receive and transmit time to live (TTL)
serial data to the Galileo board.
Digital I/O: Digital pins 0 to 13 and analog pins A0 to A5 can all be used as a digital
input or output, using the pinMode(), digitalWrite(), and digitalRead() functions in
the Arduino IDE. All of these pins can operate at both 3.3- and 5-V logic.

Note Each pin can provide or receive a current of 16 mA at 5 V or a current of 8 mA at

3.3 V.

PWM: Pins 3, 5, 6, 9, 10, and 11 provide 8/12-bit PWM output with the anlogWrite()
function in the Arduino IDE. The resolution of the PWM signal can easily be changed
with the function analogWriteResolution().
SPI: SPI header or ICSP header on other Arduino boards has three pins that support SPI
communication using the SPI Arduino library.
Analog inputs: Pins A0 to A5 each have analog input that can provide 10/12 bits of
resolution, which also can be changed using the analogReadResolution() function
within the Arduino IDE.
SDA and SCL: These support TWI communication using the wire library.

Communication
The Intel Galileo has a number of hardware features for communicating with a computer,
another Galileo board, Arduino, or any other microcontroller board while also being able to
communicate to devices such as phones and tablets. The board provides two UART
controllers: UART 0 to Galileo headers 0 and 1, and UART 1 to 6-pin 3.3-V USB TTL FTDI
header, optionally directed to Galileo headers 2 and 3.
The native USB port can also act as a USB host for connecting peripheral devices such as
mice, keyboards, or smart phones. The on-board uSD card reader slot is accessible through
the SD library functions. The communication between the Galileo and the SD card is provided
by an integrated SD controller and does not require the use of the SPI interface like on other
Arduino boards.
The on-board Ethernet interface is fully supported using the Ethernet library in the Arduino
IDE. Like other Arduino devices and shields, it does not require the use of the SPI interface
and library.
The Arduino software for the Intel Galileo includes a wire library to simplify the use of
TWI/I2C bus.
The board provides an mPCIe slot that allows the full-size and half-size (with adaptor)
mPCIe modules to be connected to the board and also provides an additional USB host port
via the slot. Any standard mPCIe module can be connected and used to provide applications
such as Wi-Fi or Bluetooth connectivity.

Programming
The Intel Galileo can be programmed with a special version of the Arduino software that has
been written specifically for the Intel board. It is possible to make certain requests to the Linux
Kernel with the system() calls within the IDE. This gives your Arduino sketches access to
powerful utilities like Python, Node js, OpenCV, and all sorts of other applications.

Note The Intel Galileo forgets the sketch after powering down or when the board has
rebooted. It is possible to boot the Galileo from the uSD card so as to restore the sketch
from the same card.

The default image of the Intel Galileo board comes flashed with Linux with libraries in the
user space for integrating the Arduino wiring platform. Arduino on the Intel Galileo runs a
little different from the usual Arduino microcontrollers. Arduino runs in the Linux Kernel
user space and is fully integrated with the IDE, which runs on your computer. The major
benefit of using this method on the Galileo board is that developers can build native
applications, install device drivers, change the Linux Kernel configuration, or even change
the whole Linux distribution altogether.
At this stage you might be wondering why you decided to purchase the Intel Galileo board
as opposed to other Arduino microcontrollers. With the Intel Galileo board, the Linux OS is
responsible for handling all the digital and analog Arduino headers, which means that it
avoids additional bridges that would normally need to be put in place and the Quark CPU does
all the processing rather than a microcontroller. The seamless integration allows the Arduino
APIs and Linux APIs to coherently exist and work together. This also means that in theory you
can run multiple Arduino sketches from the command line in Linux using the SD card to store
the sketches.
Summary
Looking at the hardware specification of the Intel Galileo, you see why it is a powerful board.
This is one of the first maker ’s boards Intel brought to market and they have done a great job
of putting the hardware together. The eradication of the need for a microcontroller is quite
unique and offers something different to the market. In the next chapter, we will look at how
to get connected to your board.
 2
Getting Connected

In this chapter, we will look at the many ways in which you can connect your Intel Galileo
board and get started straightaway creating Internet-connected hardware projects. Blinking a
light-emitting diode (LED) is more commonly the first thing you will do when using a new
hardware development board, and it is confirmation that everything has been set up correctly
and is in perfect working order. For those of you who have programmed before, you will
know that your first step is to print “Hello World.” Getting an LED to blink on and off is our
way of saying “Hello World.” At the end of this chapter, you will learn the different hardware
features of the Intel Galileo board and what you will need to work with it, and how to install
the custom Arduino integrated development environment (IDE) program to upload the code
to the board.

Power the Board

You can power up your Intel Galileo board in a number of ways, but by far the best way is
using the standard direct current (DC) barrel jack providing 5 V DC. Alternatively, you can
power up your board through Universal Serial Bus (USB), but this is not recommended due to
the power limitations of USB, which cannot power both the board and power-hungry
connected hardware. It is also important to note that you cannot power the board from
anything other than 5 V; otherwise, you risk damaging the board and any hardware that is also
connected to it.

Note If you are using an Intel Galileo Gen 1 board, make sure you power the board first
before connecting the USB data cable.

Connect the 5-V-DC power adaptor to the DC socket on the Intel Galileo board as shown in
Figure 2.1. Once plugged in and switched on at the main socket, the power LED should light
up green.
Figure 2.1 Powering up the Intel Galileo board.

Communicating with Your Board

The Intel Galileo has a number of ways to communicate with your computer, Arduino, or
another microcontroller board. First and foremost, the Intel Galileo board supports universal
asynchronous receiver/transmitter (UART) time to live (TTL) serial communication, which is
available on digital pin 0 (Rx) and pin 1 (Tx). In addition to these pins, a second UART header
provides RS-232 support and can be connected through a six-pin header as shown in Figure
2.2.
Figure 2.2 Connecting through UART pin headers.

The USB client port allows for serial communication to a computer through USB. This
provides a serial connection to the serial monitor or other application on your computer, and
it is also used to upload sketches to the board through the Arduino IDE. This will be our
preferred method of programming the Intel Galileo board and the one that we will show you
later on in this book.
The USB host port should not be confused with the USB client port. The USB host port
allows the Intel Galileo to act as a host for connected devices such as mice, keyboards, smart
phones, and many more devices. You can connect a USB hub to this USB port to expand the
number of ports up to 128 devices, if necessary.
One of the more advanced ways of communicating with your Intel Galileo is to use the on-
board mini PCI express (mPCIe) adaptor, which is a first for an Arduino device. This slot on
the board allows both full-size and half-size (with adaptor) mPCIe modules to be connected
easily to the Intel board and also can provide an additional USB host port. Any standard
mPCIe module can be connected to provide application features such as Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, or
cellular. Initially, the board provides support only for Wi-Fi using the mPCIe modules.
Getting connected to the Internet is important for projects involving the Internet of Things
(IoT); that is why the Intel Galileo board comes with an RJ45 Ethernet adaptor built onto the
board for fully wired networks. This is by far the easiest way to connect to your network and
the Internet, and also the quickest. Unlike standard Arduino shields, the Ethernet adaptor is
fully supported hardware and therefore does not require any SPI interface.
The on-board micro-SD card reader can be accessible through using the SD library, which
we will cover later on in this book. The communication between the Intel Galileo and the SD
card is provided by an integrated SD controller and does not require the use of SPI, unlike
other SD Arduino shields and boards. The native SD interface runs at up to 50 MHz depending
on the class of SD card being used.

Setting Up the Development Environment

Note Do not use the same power supply for Galileo Gen 1 and Gen 2. The Gen 1 board is
rated at 3.3 and 5 V, whereas the Gen 2 is rated at 7 to 15 V.

Now you should have a good understanding of both the Galileo boards and their hardware
features; let us go ahead and set up the development environment. You will need to perform
the following steps in order to get started:

1. First, connect the Intel Galileo board to your selected DC power supply through the
barrel jack. Later on in the book you will learn how to connect the board through a
standard PP3 battery connector, but for a stable power source and reliable results use a
regulated power supply. When the board is plugged in and powered on at the main
socket, you should see the LEDs on the board light up. Once the board is powered on,
you can connect the USB client port to the USB port on your desktop or laptop
computer as shown in Figure 2.3.

Figure 2.3 Intel Galileo Gen 2 board connected to the USB and power ports.

2. Now that you have your Intel Galileo board powered up, it is important to make sure
that you have the latest firmware installed and up to date. Open up the Internet browser
on your computer and go to the following URL:
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Exploring the Variety of Random
Documents with Different Content
his prior works. Some zealous friends, however, thought this too
small a sum, and opened negotiations with another firm, but the
other firm offered considerably less; and Crabbe, fearing that Murray
might consider the bargain as out of his hands entirely now, went
straightway to Albemarle Street with Rogers and Moore as mediators.
Murray, however, assured them that he had from the first considered
the matter as entirely settled.
Lord Byron’s personal connection with the Albemarle Street
clique was of comparatively short existence, for, in 1816, he left
England for the last time; but to the time of his death he kept up a
regular correspondence with Murray of the frankest and most cordial
kind. Now, Murray hearing that Lord Byron was in difficulties, sends
him a draft for £1500, promising another for the same amount in the
course of a few months, and offering to sell the copyright of his
works for his use, if that were not sufficient. Then, again, in a freak,
Byron presents Murray with “Parisina” and the “Siege of Corinth,” and
returns the cheque for £1000 which the publisher had forwarded.
“Your offer is liberal in the extreme, and much more than the two
poems can possibly be worth; but I cannot accept it, nor will not.
You are most welcome to them as an addition to the collected
volumes, without any demand or expectation on my part whatever.
“P.S.—I have enclosed your draft, torn, for fear of accidents by
the way. I wish you would not throw temptation in mine; it is not
from a disdain of the universal idol, nor from a present superfluity of
his treasures, I can assure you, that I refuse to worship him; but
what is right is right, and must not yield to circumstances.”
The following is in a somewhat different tone:—
“You offer 1500 guineas for the new canto of (”Don Juan“). I
won’t take it. I ask 2500 guineas for it, which you will either give or
not, as you think proper. If Mr. Moore is to have 3000 for “Lalla,” &c.,
if Mr. Crabbe is to have 3000 for his prose or poetry, I ask the
aforesaid price for mine.” (“Beppo” was eventually thrown into the
bargain.) “You are an excellent fellow, mio caro Murray, but there is
still a little leaven of Fleet Street about you now and then—a crumb
of the old loaf.... I have a great respect for your good and
gentlemanly qualities, and return your friendship towards me; and
although I think you are a little spoiled by ‘villanous company,’ with
persons of honour about town, authors, and fashionables, together
with your ‘I am just going to call at Carlton House, are you walking
that way?’—I say, notwithstanding ‘pictures, taste, Shakespeare, and
the musical glasses,’ you deserve the esteem of those whose esteem
is worth having.”
Now, like a spoiled child, Byron wishes back all his copyrights,
and intends to suppress all that he has ever written, and Murray has
to chide him and coax him, with much disinterestedness, urging him
to labour steadily for a few years upon some work worthy of his
talents, and fit to be a true monument of his fame.
Some of Byron’s letters are in an earnest, many in a playful,
mood, most in prose, but sometimes the poet breaks into a charming
doggerel of delicious “chaff.” Here is one specimen:—

“TO MR. MURRAY.

 “Strahan, Tonson, Lintot of the times,
Patron and publisher of rhymes,
For thee the bard of Pindus climbs,
My Murray.

“To thee, with hope and terror dumb,

The unfledged MS. authors come;
Thou printest all—and sellest some—
My Murray.

“Upon thy tables’ baize so green,

The last new Quarterly is seen,—
But where is thy new magazine,
My Murray?

“Along thy sprucest bookshelves shine

The works thou deemest most divine,—
The ‘Art of Cookery,’ and mine,
My Murray.

“Tours, Travels, Essays, too, I wist,

And Sermons to thy mill bring grist;
And then thou hast the ‘Army List,’
My Murray.

“And Heaven forbid I should conclude

Without the ‘Board of Longitude,’
Although this narrow paper would,
My Murray!”
Venice, March 25, 1818.

There was no end to Byron’s wit and playfulness. Sometimes

Murray would act as a mentor and adviser in more serious matters,
but his advice would be pleasantly turned off with a jest. At the time
when Byron was most calumniated, when there were cruel stories
afloat about the life he led and the opinions he held (though none so
cruel as have since been promulgated by a well-known American
authoress), Murray’s soul was comforted by the present of a Bible—a
gift from the illustrious poet. “Could this man,” he asked, “be a deist,
an atheist, or worse, when he sent Bibles about to his publishers?”
Turning it over in wonderment, however, some inquisitive member of
his four-o’clock clique found a marginal correction—“Now Barabbas
was a robber,” altered into “Now Barabbas was a publisher.” A cruel
stab, a “palpable hit,” maybe, at some publishers, but, as regards
Murray, an uproarious joke to be gleefully repeated to every comer.
As a refutation of this playful libel, and as the clearest and most
succinct way of showing what amounts of money Byron really did
receive, we append the following account:—

£
1807 Hours of Idleness
1809 English Bards and Scotch Reviewers
1812 Childe Harold, I. II.[A] 600
1813 The Gaiour 525
” Bride of Abydos 525
1814 Corsair
15
525
” Lara 700
1815 Hebrew Melodies16
1816 Childe Harold, III. 1,575
” Siege of Corinth 525
” Parisina 525
” Prisoner of Chillon 525
1817 Manfred 315
” Lament of Tasso 315
1818 Beppo 525
” Childe Harold, IV. 2,100
1819 Mazeppa 525
” Don Juan, I. II. 1,525
 1820 Don Juan, III. IV. V. 1,525
” Marino Faliero
” Doge of Venice 1,050
1821 Sardanapalus, Cain, and Foscari 1,100
17
” Vision of Judgment
1822 Werner; Deformed Transformed;
Heaven and Earth,
to which were added Hours of
Idleness,
English Bards, Hints from Horace,
&c. 3,885
Sundries 450
1822 Don Juan, VI. VII. VIII. IX. X. XI.
1823 Age of Bronze, The Island, and more
cantos of
Don Juan
Total £19,340
Life, by Thomas Moore 4,200
£23,540

Murray’s kindness to Byron may be said to have displayed itself

even after his death. In 1821, Byron had given his friend Moore his
autobiography, partly as a means of justifying his character, partly to
enrich his friend. Moore, pressed as usual for money, made over the
MS. to Murray for the sum of 2000 guineas, undertaking to edit it in
case of survivorship. He subsequently intended to modify the
transaction by a clause to be inserted in the deed, by which he,
Moore, should have the option of redeeming it within three months
after Byron’s death. When Byron did die, in 1824, the MS. was given
to Gifford to read, and found to be far too gross for publication, and,
spite of Moore’s wish to modify it, Sir John Hobhouse and Mrs. Leigh
insisted upon its being destroyed. Murray offered to give it up upon
repayment of the 2000 guineas; and after an unpleasant scene in
Murray’s shop, the MS. was destroyed by Wilmot Horton and Colonel
Doyle, with the full consent of Moore, who repaid Murray the sum
advanced by a draft on Rogers.
No sooner had it been burnt than it was found that, through the
want of the clause above named, Moore’s interest in the MS. had
entirely ceased at Byron’s death; and though Moore, nobly and
firmly, refused to receive the money back from Byron’s friends, he
chose to consider for a time that Murray had wronged him.
He took a proposal to Longman of a “Life of Byron,” and the
matter was partially arranged, when Moore, urged on both by his
feelings and his friends, seeing Murray in the street, started after
him. “Mr. Murray, some friends of yours and mine seem to think that
we should no longer continue on these terms. I therefore proffer you
my hand, and most heartily forgive and forget all that has passed.”
Murray’s face brightened into smiles, and on parting he said, “God
bless you, sir, God bless you!” Longman agreed, upon this, that
Murray was the publisher to whom a life of Byron most properly
belonged, and Murray eventually gave £4200 for one of the most
delightful and entertaining biographies in our literature—a companion
volume, in every way, to Boswell’s “Johnson” and Lockhart’s “Scott.”
Murray, in this transaction, seems to have behaved with generous
firmness. Now that Byron was dead, the autobiography would
certainly have proved the most remunerative of all his works; and
Moore himself, in his Diary, ultimately confessed that “Murray’s
conduct” had been admirable throughout.
In this year, 1824, not only did Murray lose the services and the
friendship of his best client, Lord Byron, who died at Missolonghi on
the 19th of April, but Gifford, the able editor of the Quarterly, was
incapacitated for further work, and resigned his post. Mr. John
Coleridge, then a young barrister, succeeded, but though
accomplished, clever, and able, he was “scarcely strong enough for
the place;” Southey found out his incapacity for saying “no,” and
under his auspicious reign began to make the Review a quarterly
issue of his own miscellaneous works. Strangely enough in the
mourning coach that followed Gifford to his grave Murray drove with
the man who was destined as an editor to rival the powers of the
upbuilder of the Quarterly’s reputation—this of course was John
Gibson Lockhart, a young Edinburgh advocate, the son-in-law of
Scott, and more than that, the author of “Peter’s Letters,” of
“Valerius,” of “Reginald Dalton,” the translator of “Frederick Schlegel,”
and the “Ancient Spanish Ballads,” and the noted contributor to
Blackwood. Moore first heard of the arrangement down at
Abbotsford, when Scott, after dinner, hopeful of his daughter’s
interests, and proud, may be, of his son-in-law, grew confidential.
“Lockhart was about to undertake the Quarterly, has agreed for five
years; salary £1200 a year, and if he writes a certain number of
articles it will be £1500 a year.” In this year, though the prospects of
the Quarterly were ably secured, Murray met with the only really
adverse turn of fortune, to which through a long career, and a bold
one, he was ever subject. The terrible commercial crisis which had
been so long overhanging, burst at last into a deluge of ruin—
Constable’s house was swept away, the Ballantynes were for the
moment overthrown, and Scott had to give up his lordly estates of
Abbotsford, and generously work his life out to redeem a name on
which he deemed a commercial slur had been cast. Murray, though
he suffered by the panic, as all must suffer in the time of a general
epidemic, was not severely hurt. Still, looking back now with the
wisdom of wiseacres, who think we could have prophesied easily the
actual events that did occur, the time does seem a strange one in
which to start a new venture. This was nothing less than the
establishment of a new Conservative journal, which was to rival the
Times as the Quarterly rivalled the Edinburgh. According to the
current rumour, it was young Disraeli (now the wily and veteran
leader of the Conservative party) who first proposed the scheme;
and, according to current rumour still, it was under his editorship,
and with Dr. Maginn as chief foreign correspondent, that the
Representative (price sevenpence daily) was started on the 26th of
January, 1826. The journal was able, well-informed, and well-written,
but the Times had a monopoly, and the Conservative party were not
strong enough to support a first-rate organ of their own, and after a
brief existence of six months, the Representative gave up the
struggle. Murray was wont in future days, when rash young
speculators urged the necessity of embracing some opening for a
new daily paper, to point to a ledger on his book-shelves and say
grimly, “Twenty thousand pounds lie buried there!”
The question as to who was the actual editor of the
Representative has never been definitely settled. Mr. Disraeli, until
the last year, never disclaimed the supposed connection, and silence
was considered as proverbially affirmative. Lockhart, too, has been
put forward as a claimant. The nearest approach to any opinion that
might have been final was given by the late James Hannay in the
pages of the Edinburgh Courant. “We had the best authority for what
we said—nay, the only authority—since even to Mr. Murray the
question of the Representative’s editorship is not a personal one. We
now add that Mr. Disraeli’s long silence in the matter admits of an
explanation which will gratify his admirers of all parties. He hesitated
to come forward with any eagerness to make a denial, which might
have been interpreted as springing from a wish to disclaim
newspaper association, but when the story was passing into
literature in such a book as the biography of an eminent British
writer, it was time to protest against any further propagation of the
story, once and for all.” But this “best and only authority” did nothing
to render the question less intricate, for when Mr. Grant published
the first instalment of his “History of the Newspaper Press,” he
thoroughly outdid Hannay, and with that ingenuous facility of
arbitrating over moot points, and that mysterious power of catching
rumours, as boys catch moths, and pinning them down in his
collection under the general label of “facts,” gave full details of Mr.
Disraeli’s connection with the Representative, the amount of his
salary, together with a luxurious description of the splendours of his
editorial offices! Mr. Disraeli roused at last, replied curtly that the
whole narrative was entirely imaginary, and utterly devoid of fact or
foundation in any one point. He has since then in a letter, upon a
similar question, written by his solicitor to the Leisure Hour, declared
that:—
 “Mr. Disraeli never in his life required or received any
remuneration for anything he ever wrote, except for books bearing
his name.
“Mr. Disraeli never was editor of the Star Chamber, or any other
newspaper, journal, review, or magazine, or anything else.”
To return, however, to legitimate book-publishing. About this time
Campbell’s old scheme of “Biographies of the Poets” was revived, re-
appearing under the title of “Specimens of the British Poets;” and
Murray was so pleased with the work that he made the stipulated
sum of £500 into double that amount. To Allen Cunningham, too, he
gave £50 per volume additional for his “Lives of the British Artists,”
and made the payment retrospective.
We could repeat five hundred anecdotes of his liberal and kindly
generosity, but our space only permits us to record another, which it
is very pleasant to read about.
It was twenty-two years since the obscure Fleet Street bookseller
had embraced the “glorious and profitable” opportunity of taking a
fourth share in “Marmion,” and since then Sir Walter Scott had
achieved an unparalleled position in the world of English letters, had
written innumerable works, and had earned unheard-of sums—and
had been completely ruined. With the aid of his creditors, Scott was
now seeking to recover all his copyrights for a final edition of his
collected works. All had been bought back save this fourth share of
“Marmion.” Lockhart was commissioned by his father-in-law to
inquire on what terms the share might be re-purchased, and this was
Murray’s immediate reply:—

“Albemarle Street, June 8th, 1829.

“My dear Sir,—Mr. Lockhart has this moment
communicated your letter respecting my fourth share of the
copyright of ‘Marmion.’ I have already been applied to by
Messrs. Constable and Messrs. Longman to know what sum I
would sell this share for; but so highly do I estimate the
honour of being, even in so small a degree, the publisher of
 the author of this poem, that no pecuniary consideration
whatever can induce me to part with it.
“But there is a consideration of another kind, which until
now I was not aware of, which would make it painful to me if
I were to retain it longer. I mean the knowledge of its being
required by the author, into whose hands it was
spontaneously resigned in the same instant that I read his
request.
“The share has been profitable to me fifty-fold beyond
what either publisher or author could have anticipated, and,
therefore, my returning it on such an occasion, you will, I
trust, do me the favour to consider in no other light than as a
mere act of grateful acknowledgment, for benefits already
received by
“My dear Sir,
“Your obliged and faithful Servant,
“John Murray.”

This noble act, we must remember, was performed at a time

when the future was anything but bright, or at all events when the
present was dismally gloomy. “Lydia Whyte,” writes Tom Moore, “told
me that Murray was very unsuccessful of late. Besides the failure of
his Representative, the Quarterly did not look very promising, and he
was about to give up the fine house he had taken in Whitehall, and
return to live in Albemarle-street.”
Constable had, some years previous, hit upon the idea of
appealing to a public that should be numbered, not by tens of
thousands, but by hundreds of thousands, ay, and by millions! and
had just commenced his “Miscellany.” Murray, quick to receive a good
idea, started at once into competition with his “Family Library,”
Lockhart commencing the series with a “Life of Napoleon” and the
“Court and Camp of Bonaparte.” Cunningham followed with his “Lives
of the British Painters,” and Southey revised his “Life of Nelson,” and
expanded another review article into a “Life of Wellington,” on terms
equally munificent with the other.
Cheap editions of Byron were multiplied by the score; Landor
received a thousand guineas for his “Journals of African Travel,” and
Napier another thousand for his first volume of the “History of the
Peninsular War.” If Murray neglected opportunities, he generally
managed to retrieve them. He might have had the “Bridgewater
Treatises;” and he says, “The ‘Rejected Addresses’ were offered me
for ten pounds, and I let them go by as the kite of the moment. See
the result! I was determined to pay for my neglect, and I bought the
remainder of the copyright for 150 guineas.” Murray might have
added that he generously gave the Smiths a handsome share in the
ultimate profits.
Sometimes, too, he had the sagacity to buy the failures as well
as the successes of other publishers. Constable produced a little
“History of England,” in one small volume, which fell still-born from
the press. Murray purchased it for a trifle, re-christened it with his
usual happiness, and as “Mrs. Markham’s History of England” the
work has been an annual source of revenue to the house, as the
present Mr. Murray’s last trade sale list would tell us.
Murray was never dazzled by the fame of his Byrons, his Moores,
his Campbells, and his Crabbes, but always recollected that “taste” is
flitting, while works that only aid the necessities of mankind are
always saleable. The “Army and Navy List” and the “Nautical
Almanack” are every whit as profitable to-day as in the first year of
their publication. Moore tells a story that shows he could still occupy
his mind as well as fill his purse with “Mrs. Rundell’s Cookery Book.”
“Called at Murray’s,” he writes in his “Diary,” for 1831: “mentioned to
him Lady Morgan’s wish to contribute something to his ‘Family
Library,’ and that she has materials ready for the lives of five or six
Dutch painters. ‘Pray, isn’t Lady Morgan a very good cook?’ I
answered I didn’t know; but why did he ask? ‘Because,’ said he, ‘if
she would do something in that line—’ ‘Why, you don’t mean,’ said I,
‘that she should write a cookery book for you?’ ‘No,’ answered John,
coolly, ‘not so much as that; but that she should re-edit mine’ (Mrs.
Rundell’s, by which he had made heaps of money). Oh, that she
could have heard this with her own ears! Here ended my
negotiations for her Ladyship.”
It was not merely to Englishmen that Murray extended a helping
and a generous hand. When the first volume of the “Sketch Book,”
originally published in America, made its appearance in London, it
was declined by Murray, and Irving was about to publish it on his
own account; but after all arrangements had been made the printer
failed. Lockhart had praised the book in Blackwood; and Scott,
seeing at once its sterling worth, with his usual kindliness, pressed its
merits upon Murray, who gave Irving £200 for it, afterwards more
than doubling the amount. Murray’s transactions with Irving exhibit a
singular phase of the international copyright law. This is how their
account stands—

£
“Sketch Book” 467
“Bracebridge Hall” 1050
“Tales of a Traveller” 1575
“Life of Columbus” 3150
“Companions of Columbus” 525
“Conquest of Grenada” 2100
“Tour on the Prairies” 400
“Abbotsford and Newstead” 400
“Legends of Spain” 100
Total £9767

These sums of money having been paid, Mr. Bohn reprinted the
volumes in a cheap edition. A law suit was of course the result, in
which Murray’s expenses ran up to £850, and Mr. Bohn’s were
probably as heavy. The question, however, was settled amicably,
without being fought to the bitter end, and Irving received no more
money from this side the Atlantic.
 Most of the famous men with whom Murray had been connected
had by this time disappeared, many of them having shed their rays
meteor-like, and having done the duty unto which they were created
in a momentary flash. The seething excitement called into being by
the throes of the first French Revolution had subsided, and there
were neither readers left to appreciate true poetry, nor true poets
remaining, with strength of voice left in them to bring back memories
in passion-laden melodies of the troublous times they sprung from.
All, on the contrary, was quiet and easeful—a happy time for
commerce, but a barren hour for art.
Murray, skilled as any pilot in watching the direction of the wind,
turned his attention to the publication of travels and expeditions—the
very books for a fireside afternoon, when the wind is howling
outside, and the snow-storm beating on the windows—and very soon
Albemarle Street was as famous for its “Travels” as it had previously
been for its “Belles-Lettres.” Among the most valuable and successful
of these were the expeditions of Mungo Park, Belzoni, Parry, Franklin,
Denham, and Clapperton.
Murray had just launched his “Classical Handbooks,” under the
editorship of his son—had just made, in trade parlance, “another
great hit” in Lady Sale’s “Journal in Afghanistan”—when an attack of
general debility and exhaustion compelled him to leave business and
success alone—and for ever. He rallied so often that no serious
results were anticipated by his family or physician; but after a very
short illness he died suddenly on the 27th June, 1843, in the fifty-
sixth year of his age, leaving three daughters and one only son. To
his widow, in a will dated only seven days before his death, he
bequeathed the whole of his estate.
A gentleman by manners and education; generous and open-
handed, not for purposes of display, often not from mere trade
motives, but from a true desire to return to genius and industry
something of what he derived from them; an excellent man of
business, with more powers of work than most men, understanding
better than any how to measure the calibre of an author’s genius,
and to gauge the duration of his popularity; skilful in timing a
publication, so as to ensure a favourable reception, and yet honestly
abhorring any recourse to the low art of puffing—such was John
Murray as a publisher; the best representative of an honourable
calling, and one who by his own influence tended not a little to make
the years of his own working life the best representative period of
English literature.
Mr. John Murray, who succeeded at once to his father’s business,
was born in the year 1808, and was consequently, in 1843, admirably
fitted, by years and professional training, to take the management of
so important a concern. He was educated at the Charterhouse and at
Edinburgh University, and had had, moreover, all the advantages that
foreign travel could bestow. As early as 1831, we hear of “Mr. John
Murray, Jun.,” at Weimar, presenting Goethe with the dedication of
Byron’s “Marino Faliero,” and being received, together with that
mocking and yet reverent tribute, in a gracious, kindly manner.
Mr. Murray thoroughly followed his father’s idea, that the age had
now come for the cheap publication of useful and practical books,
and in the first year of his accession, issued the prospectus of his
“Home and Colonial Library,” which, being published at half the price
of the “Family Library,” was at least twice as successful, and was
continued for upwards of six years. During these early years Mr.
Murray made one mistake, and achieved one great success. The
mistake was, however, in common with every publisher in London,
for “Eöthen” went the rounds of the metropolitan book market, and
was eventually published by a personal friend of Mr. Kinglake’s.
Mindful of his father’s precedents, Murray soon secured the
copyright. The success, on the contrary, consisted in accepting what
other publishers had refused, and issued from Albemarle Street,
Campbell’s “Lives of the Lord Chancellors” has proved one of the
most successful biographical works of the time. In travel, biography,
history, and science, the present Mr. Murray has fully sustained the
name of the old house, and it is sufficient here to mention only the
names of Hallam, Barrow, Wilkinson, Lyell, Gordon Cumming, Layard,
Murchison, and Sir Robert Peel, to see how much we owe him.
 On Lockhart’s death, in 1854, the Reverend Whitwell Elwin was
selected to fill the editorial chair of the Quarterly, and since that date
the political opinions of the periodical have been considerably
modified; at any rate, men of all parties have been allowed to write
conscientiously in its pages, and it is even rumoured, that before
this, its old opponent, Lord Brougham, contributed at least one
article (that on Chesterfield, in vol. lxxvi.).
Among the most successful library books that Mr. Murray has
recently published, we must instance those by Mr. Smiles and Dr.
Livingstone, and, more especially, those by Mr. Darwin.
Mr. Murray’s name is, however, most familiar to us now as the
publisher of the famous Handbooks for travellers, the series now
extending, not only through the outer world, but embracing our
English counties; these latter, it is said, owing much to Mr. Murray’s
personal editorship.
In closing our short sketch of the “House of Murray,” we cannot
refrain from re-echoing a wish that has been often uttered before,
that the present representative may find time amidst his professional
labours, to edit the letters and to write a worthy life of the great
John Murray. No book that has ever been issued from Albemarle
Street could be more popular or more welcome.
 WILLIAM BLACKWOOD:
“BLACKWOOD’S EDINBURGH MAGAZINE.”

W E have already, in our account of Archibald Constable,

shown how deeply the brilliant writers—who for a while
gave a bold literary supremacy to the northern capital—
were indebted to the daring spirit and the generous purse of one
Scottish publisher; we have here to follow the narrative of a rival’s
life—a life at outset very similar, but soon diverging widely, and
which, actuated by very different principles, and aiming at very
different results, was destined to open the arena of literary struggle
to those whom honest political feeling had for a moment rendered
dumb and inactive.

William Blackwood was born at Edinburgh, on the 20th Nov.,

1776, of parents in an humble position in life, who, however, with
the honest endeavour of most of their class in the north, contrived
to give him a very excellent elementary education. From his earliest
days, William had exhibited a strong love for books, and at the age
of fourteen he was apprenticed to Bell and Bradfute, of his native
city; nor, indeed, did his education suffer from this premature
removal from school; there is much leisure in a bookseller’s shop,
even for an industrious boy, and opportunity of more various reading
than comes within the reach of many sixth-form scholars and
university undergraduates. “It was here,” says an obituary notice,
“that he had so largely stored his mind with reading of all sorts, but
more especially with Scottish history and antiquities, that on
establishing himself in business, his accomplishments attracted the
notice of persons whose good opinion was distinction.” Before the
expiry of his time, in 1797, he must also have displayed a talent for
business life, for we find that he was immediately engaged by
Messrs. Mundell & Co., then largely employed in the book trade at
Edinburgh, to take the sole management of a branch house at
Glasgow; and being thus, at the early age of twenty years, thrown
almost entirely upon his own resources, and with his own judgment
for his only guidance, he acquired that decision of character which
distinguished him throughout after-life, and which was so
instrumental in the fortunes of his house. In spite, however, of all his
efforts, the firm of Mundell & Co. did not prosper at Glasgow—it was
they, the reader may, perhaps, remember, who purchased the
“Pleasures of Hope,” for only fifty printed copies of the work, from
Campbell—and after his year’s service was over, he returned to
Edinburgh, and re-entered the employment of Bell and Bradfute,
with whom he remained for another year. In 1800, he entered into
partnership with Mr. Ross, bookseller and bookseller’s auctioneer;
but the auctioneering part of the business proved distasteful to him,
and the old book trade presented a much more suitable field for his
talents. With the energy of youth he started for London, and was
initiated into the mysteries of bibliography by Mr. Cuthell, “famous,”
as Nichols says, “for his catalogues.” Here he stayed for three years,
and then, in 1804, came back to Edinburgh and opened an old-book
shop, in South Bridge Street. For several years he almost confined
his attention to the sale of rare and curious books, more especially
those relating to the antiquities and early history of Scotland. His
shop, like that of Constable, soon became a regular literary haunt,
and he speedily acquired a reputation second to none of his own line
in Edinburgh, and in the matter of catalogues, he rivalled Cuthell, his
master; that one published in 1812 being the first in which the
books were regularly classified, and “continues,” says Mr. Chambers,
“to be an authority to the present day.” The old-book trade was at
that time in its most flourishing condition, Dibdin was firing the
minds of curiosity-seekers with a love for rare quartos and folios;
Heber, and many more after his kind, were spending the main
portion of their time, and the vast bulk of their fortunes, in the
acquisition of immense libraries; and the old-booksellers of the day
were making large incomes. Blackwood’s success by no means
satisfied his ambition, but enabled him to enter the field of
publishing as a rival to Constable, who was now at the height of his
glory. As early as 1811, we find him bringing out “Kerr’s Voyages,” a
work of considerable importance and expense, and which was
shortly succeeded by Macrie’s “Life of Knox.”
Blackwood’s sojourn in London, and the credit attracted by his
enterprising book-catalogues, led the way to his being appointed
agent to several of the London booksellers, among others, to John
Murray, and to them, conjointly, the tale of the “Black Dwarf” was
offered when Scott considered it desirable to bring it out in other
hands, and with a title-page apparently by another author.
Blackwood wrote to say that, in his opinion, the unravelling of the
end of the story might be improved, and offered to pay for
cancelling the proofs. Gifford, too, to whom Murray had shown it,
was of a like opinion. Scott differed most essentially; witness his
letter to Ballantyne:—

“Dear James,
“I have received Blackwood’s impudent letter. G—— d——
his soul, tell him and his coadjutor that I belong to the Black
Hussars of Literature, who neither give nor receive criticism.
I’ll be cursed but this is the most impudent proposal that ever
was made.”

This, of course, brought the proposal to a close for the time,

though, as Lockhart says, “Scott did both know and appreciate
Blackwood better in after times.”
Blackwood was now, from the profits of the old-book trade and
the success of his own publishing ventures, in a fair way to success,
and in 1816 he took the bold step of selling off all his old stock and
migrating to Prince’s Street. “He took possession,” says Lockhart, in
“Peter’s Letters,” “of a large and airy suite of rooms in Prince’s
Street, which had formerly been occupied by a notable confectioner,
and whose threshold was, therefore, familiar enough to all the
frequenters of this superb promenade.... Stimulated, I suppose, by
the example and success of John Murray, whose agent he is, he
determined to make, if possible, Prince’s Street to the High Street,
what the other had made Albemarle Street to the Row.” It was not
without much forethought, we may be sure, that this step was
undertaken, and the speedy establishment of the famous magazine
clearly shows us what was the chief motive to such a venturous
change.
The magazine literature of the day was wofully weak. The vitality
with which Cave had endowed the Gentleman’s Magazine, had long
since died away. No more such “hack-writers” as Johnson and
Goldsmith came forward to enliven its pages, at the meagre
payment of four guineas a sheet, and now it only—
“Hopped its pleasant way from church to church,
And nursed its little bald biography.”

Such was the type of English periodical literature, and the Scotch
were certainly no better off. The Scots Magazine stood Constable, it
is true, in good stead, but only as a nursery ground, from which
writers might be trained for transplantation to a stronger soil. Vastly
different was the condition of the rival quarterlies; but still, in
Scotland at all events, the Edinburgh carried everything after its own
desire. Wit the writers had in plenty—learning, too, and the gift of
open-speaking; but to fairness, biassed as they were by party ties,
they never laid the least claim, and yet all Edinburgh was enthralled
by the opinions of the Edinburgh Review, for intellectual attainments
at that time commanded for their possessors the leading place in the
society of the Modern Athens, and, as the principles advocated in its
pages were decidedly opposed to those of the existing
administration, the success it indubitably had attained, the vast
following it was gathering, not only irritated but alarmed the Scotch
Tory party.
Of course, the actual inventorship of the new project is a
disputed point, but the evidence seems to tell us that, however the
idea of a new Conservative organ had been talked over in literary
coteries (and what scheme has not been planned a thousand times
before execution whenever literary men meet together?), the plan
had long been entertained and spoken of by Blackwood; and, as he
proceeded to carry it into execution, the scheme may to all intents
and purposes be regarded as his own.
Two gentlemen were engaged—Pringle and Cleghorn—who had
received their training in the enemy’s camp, as editors in chief, and
with the assistance of Hogg, and the promised support of Scott and
many other men of talent, the first number of the Edinburgh Monthly
Magazine was issued on All-Fools’ Day, 1817—an ominous day for
Blackwood, for he soon discovered that the prophets he had
summoned to curse, heaped blessings on the heads of his
opponents. This first number differed but little from other periodicals
of its class. Only half the space was devoted to original matter, and
the very opening pages contained a panegyric upon Horner, then
lately deceased, an Edinburgh Reviewer—a Whig, and not much
else. “You can’t say too much about Sydney Smith and Brougham,”
said Scott to Jeffrey; “but I will not admire your Horner. He always
puts me in mind of Obadiah’s bull, who, although, as Father Shandy
observed, he never produced a calf, went through his business with
such a grave demeanour that he always maintained his credit in the
parish.” Nor was this the worst. In No. 3 a violent defence of the
Edinburgh was undertaken warmly. This was too much for
Blackwood; he gave his editors notice of a coming change, and after
much chaffering he was glad to pay £125 down, and get rid at once
of them and the magazine; and—somewhat, doubtless, to his
chagrin—they immediately returned to Constable and took charge of
the Scots Magazine, which, under the title of Constable’s Edinburgh
Magazine, made a futile effort to re-juvenate itself.
With the sixth number of the Edinburgh Monthly Magazine had
appeared a notice stating that “this work is now discontinued, this
being the last number of it;” but in the following month, with an
alteration in the title, it arose, Phœnix-like, from the ashes, and, as
Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine, No. 7, created a sensation which
has never perhaps been equalled. There was, to commence with, a
monstrous list of all possible and impossible articles, chiefly
threatened attacks upon the Edinburgh, then a violent attack upon
their former defence of the Edinburgh Reviewer’s onslaught upon
Burns and Wordsworth; but the great feature in No. 7 (No. 1 in
reality of Blackwood) was the “Translation from an Ancient Caldee
Manuscript,” in which the circumstances of the late feud, and
Constable’s endeavours to repair the fortunes of his old magazine,
and the resuscitation of “Maga”—the birth, that is, of the genuine
“Maga”—are thrown into an allegorical burlesque.
“The two beasts (the two late editors), the lamb and the bear,
came unto the man who was clothed in plain apparel, and stood in
the door of his house; and his name was as if it had been the colour
of ebony (Blackwood), and his number was the number of a maiden
when the days of her virginity have expired (No. 17, Prince’s Street),
... and they said unto him, Give us of thy wealth, that we may eat
and live, and thou shalt enjoy the fruits of our labour for a time,
times or half a time.
“And he answered and said unto them, What will ye unto me
whereunto I may employ you?
“And they proffered unto him a Book, and they said unto him,
Take thou this, and give us a piece of money, that we may eat and
drink and our souls may live.
“And we will put words into thy Book that shall astonish the
children of thy people. And it shall be a light unto thy feet and a
lamp unto thy path; it shall also bring bread to thy household, and a
portion to thy maidens.
“And the man hearkened unto their voice, and he took their
Book, and he gave them a piece of money, and they went away
rejoicing in heart. And I heard a great noise, as if it had been the
noise of many chariots, and of horsemen prancing upon their horses.
“But after many days they put no words in the Book, and the
man was astonied, and waxed wroth, and said unto them, What is
this that ye have done unto me, and how shall I answer those to
whom I am engaged? And they said, What is that to us? see thou to
that.
“And the man wist not what for to do; and he called together the
friends of his youth, and all those whose heart was as his heart, and
he entreated them, and they put words into the Book; and it went
abroad, and all the world wondered after the Book, and after the
two beasts that had put such amazing words into the Book.
“Then the man who was crafty in counsel and cunning in all
manner of work (Constable), when this man saw the Book, and
beheld the things which were in the Book, he was troubled in spirit
and much cast down.
“And he hated the Book and the two beasts that put words into
the Book, for he judged according to the reports of men;
nevertheless, the man was crafty in counsel, and more cunning than
his fellows.
“And he said unto the two beasts, Come ye and put your trust
under the shadow of my wings, and we will destroy the man whose
name is as ebony and his Book.
“And the two beasts gave ear unto him, and they came over to
him, and bowed down before him with their faces to the earth....
“Then was the man whose name is as ebony ‘sore dismayed,’
and appealed to the great magician who dwelleth by the old fastness
hard by the river Jordan which is by the Border (to Walter Scott),
and the magician opened his mouth and said, Lo! my heart wisheth
thy good, and let the thing prosper which is in thy hands to do it.
“But thou seest that my hands are full of working, and my labour
is great. For, lo! I have to feed all the people of my land, and none
knoweth whence his food cometh, but each man openeth his mouth
and my hand filleth it with pleasant things. (This is more than a
shrewd guess of the authorship of the Waverley Novels.)
 “Moreover, thine adversary also is of my familiars (Constable, his
publisher).
“Yet be thou silent, peradventure will I help thee some little.”
Chapter II. shows us Blackwood gazing despondently from his
inner chamber, when a veiled figure appears, who
“Gave unto the man in plain apparel a tablet containing the
names of those upon whom he should call; and when he called they
came, and whomsoever he asked he came....
“And the first which came was after the likeness of the beautiful
leopard, from the valley of the palm-trees, whose going forth was
comely as the greyhound, and his eyes like the lightning of fiery
flame (Professor Wilson, author of the ‘Isle of Palms.’)...
“There came also from a far country, the scorpion which
delighteth to sting the faces of men, that he might sting sorely the
countenance of the man which is crafty, and of the two beasts
(Lockhart).
“Also the great wild boar from the forest of Lebanon, and he
roused up his spirit; and I saw him whetting his dreadful tusks for
the battle” (James Hogg).
Then come Dr. Macrie, Sir William Hamilton, Arthur Mower, “and
the hyæna that escheweth the light, and cometh forth at eventide to
raise up and gnaw the bones of the dead, and it is as a riddle unto a
vain man (Riddell, the legal antiquarian).
“And the beagle and the slowhound after their kind, and all the
beasts of the field, more than could be numbered, they were so
many.”
In Chapter III., Constable finds that the “bear” and the “lamb”
are unprofitable servants, and he, too, calls for aid, but Jeffrey—“the
familiar spirit unto whom he had sold himself”—Leslie, and Playfair—
contributors to the Edinburgh—refuse to come. In Chapter IV.,
Constable does get aid from Macney Napier, and others.
 “And when I saw them all gathered together, I said unto myself,
Of a truth the man which is crafty hath many in his host, yet, think I,
that scarcely will these be found sufficient against them which are in
the gates of the man who is clothed in plain apparel....
“Verily the man which is crafty shall be defeated, and there shall
not escape one to tell of his overthrow.
“And while I was yet speaking, the hosts drew near, and the city
was moved; and my spirit failed within me, and I was sore afraid,
and I turned to escape away.
“And he that was like unto the messenger of a king, said unto
me, Cry: and I said, What shall I cry? for the day of vengeance is
come upon all those that ruled the nation with a rod of iron.
“And I fled into an inner chamber to hide myself, and I heard a
great tumult, but I wist not what it was.”
It is very hard for us now to duly appreciate the crushing effect
of this Caldee manuscript.
It is certainly humorous, after a fashion now so prevalent in
America, and undoubtedly witty.
Among the Edinburgh people of that time, when every man
knew his neighbour, the effect was absolutely prodigious. A yell of
despairing pain arose from one portion of the Whig party, who, if
they had no administrative power in their hands, had hitherto held a
patent of all literary ability; and from the other portion came an
equally discordant cry, which eventually culminated in a fierce
accusation of blasphemy and irreligion. Perhaps, however, the
strongest test we can apply to the power of this galling squib is the
fact that every title bestowed in its pages has “stuck” to the
individual against whom it was directed.
Blackwood was alarmed at the commotion he had caused,
withdrew the obnoxious article from the second edition, suppressed
it in what he could of the first, and in the second number inserted
the following announcement:—“The editor has learnt with regret
that an article in the first edition of last number, which was intended
merely as a jeu d’esprit, has been construed so as to give offence to
individuals justly entitled to respect and regard; he has, on that
account, withdrawn it in the second edition, and can only add that, if
what has happened could have been anticipated, the article in
question certainly never would have appeared.” It was, however, too
late, war had been declared to the knife, and Blackwood was
nothing loath to continue the struggle.
“The conception of the Caldee MS.,” says Wilson’s son-in-law,
Professor Ferrier, “and the first thirty-seven verses of Chapter I., are
to be ascribed to the Ettrick Shepherd; the rest of the composition
falls to be divided between Professor Wilson and Mr. Lockhart, in
proportions which cannot now be determined.” Again, Mrs. Gordon
tells us that this audacious squib was composed in her
grandmother’s house, 23, Queen Street, where Wilson lived, “amid
such shouts of laughter as made the ladies in the room above send
to inquire and wonder what the gentlemen below were about;” and
yet she adds, as if to protect her father from suspicion of a share in
it, that she “cannot trace to her father’s hand any instance of
unmanly attack, or one shade of real malignity.” Very probably not;
but at the same time the fun of the squib is decidedly in Wilson’s
favourite manner. “An old contributor to Blackwood,” who, in 1860,
furnished a most interesting and full account of Maga and
Blackwoodiana to the columns of the Bookseller, asserts, in
reference to Hogg’s claim, “on the best authority (that of the man
who did write it), that there is no foundation whatever for any such
pretext. The hare was started by Wilson at one of those symposia
which preceded and perhaps suggested the Noctes. The idea was
caught up with avidity by Hogg, and some half-dozen verses were
suggested by him on the ensuing day; but we are, we believe,
correct in affirming that no part of his ébauche appeared in the
original or any other draft of the article.” It is to be wished that this
writer, whose article evidently exhibits personal knowledge, and,
apart from a running attack upon Hogg, due impartiality, had, in
putting forward a new version of the story, in contradiction to those
already given, been enabled to give us the name of the writer,
apparently, from the wording of the context, a new claimant.
Not only were Blackwood’s “enemies” discomforted, but even his
friends were sore dismayed. The first number of Blackwood bore the
imprint of John Murray, but the “Caldee MS.” caused him to withdraw
his name, but after passing through the hands of three different
London agents, the sixth again appeared under his countenance.
This number, however, contained some unpalatable strictures on
Gifford and the Quarterly Reviewers, and the Albemarle Street
patronage was again withdrawn, only to be renewed in the eleventh
number; but by the time it reached the seventeenth he washed his
hands of it entirely, and in future it appeared without the ornamental
appendage of any London bookseller’s name; the agency, distinctly
one of sale only, was given to Cadell and Davies, who found it
profitable enough to occupy the greater part of their attention.
Cadell, naturally as nervous as Murray of giving, or being in any way
instrumental in giving, offence, kept a stereotyped reply in readiness
for any angry victim who rushed into his shop for redress—“I know
nothing of the contents of the magazine; I am merely the carrier of
a certain portion of its circulation to its English readers.”
From the commencement of the new series—from the
foundation that is of Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine—Blackwood’s
fortunes and even the story of his life are inextricably bound up in
the progress of the periodical; for he did not again, once he had got
rid of Pringle and Cleghorne, entrust its charge and conduct to the
care of any editor. For a long time Wilson was supposed to occupy
the editorial chair. This supposition is treated in a letter, printed by
his daughter: “Of Blackwood I am not the editor, although I believe I
very generally got both the credit and discredit of being Christopher
North. I am one of the chief writers, perhaps the chief writer, but
never received one shilling from the proprietor, except for my own
compositions. Being generally on the spot, I am always willing to
give him my advice, and to supply such articles as are most wanted,
when I have leisure.” “From an early period of its progress,” says
Lockhart, speaking of Blackwood and the magazine, “it engrossed a
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