Marriage | Page 6

there can
be any uncertainty as to the work being completed. Not to mention his
own deep disappointment, Mr. B. would almost consider it a crime if a
work possessing so much interest and useful instruction were not given
to the world. The author is the only critic of whom Mr. B. is afraid, and
after what he has said, he anxiously hopes that this censor of the press
will very speedily affix the imprimatur."
In allusion to Sir Walter's eulogium on the novel above quoted, Mr.
Blackwood writes to the author:--
"I have the pleasure of enclosing you this concluding sentence of the
new Tales of my Landlord, which are to be published to-morrow. After
this call, surely you will be no longer silent. If the great magician does
not conjure you I shall give up all hopes."
But Miss Ferrier seems to have been proof against the great magician
even. Marriage became deservedly popular, and was translated into
French, as appears from the annexed:--
"We perceive by the French papers that a translation of Miss Ferrier's
clever novel Marriage has been very successful in France."-New Times,
6 Oct. '25.
For Marriage she received the sum of £150. Her second venture was
more successful in a pecuniary sense. Space, however, prohibits me
from dwelling any longer on Marriage, so we come next to The
Inheritance. This novel appeared six years after, in 1824, and is a work
of very great merit. To her sister (Mrs. Kinloch, in London) Miss
Ferrier writes:--

"John (her brother) has now completed a bargain with Mr. Blackwood,
by which I am to have £1000 for a novel now in hand, but which is not
nearly finished, and possibly never may be. Nevertheless he is desirous
of announcing it in his magazine, and therefore I wish to prepare you
for the shock. I can say nothing more than I have already said on the
subject of vigilence, if not of secrecy. I never will avow myself, and
nothing can hurt and offend me so much as any of my friends doing it
for me; this is not faron de parler, but my real and unalterable feeling; I
could not bear the fuss of authorism!"
Secrecy as to her authorship seems to have been the great desire of her
heart, and much of The Inheritance was written in privacy at
Morningside House, old Mr. Ferrier's summer retreat near Edinburgh,
and she says, "This house is so small, it is very ill-calculated for
concealment."
It was not till 1851 that she publicly avowed herself by authorising her
name to be prefixed to a revised and corrected edition of her works. [1]
Sir Walter Scott was delighted with this second novel, a proof of which
was conveyed to Miss Ferrier by Mr. Blackwood:--
[1] Published by the late Mr. Richard Bentley, to whom she sold her
copyrights in 1841. A previous edition was published by him in 1841.
"On Wednesday I dined in company with Sir Walter Scott, and he
spoke of the work in the very highest terms. I do not always set the
highest value on the baronet's favourable opinion of a book, because he
has so much kindness of feeling towards everyone, but in this case he
spoke so much con amore, and entered so completely, and at such a
length, to me, into the spirit of the book and of the characters, that
showed me at once the impression it had made on him. Everyone I have
seen who has seen the book gives the some praise of it. Two or three
days ago I had a note from a friend, which I copy: 'I have nearly
finished a volume of The Inheritance. It is unquestionably the best
novel of the class of the present day, in so far as I can yet judge. Lord
Rossville, Adam Ramsay, Bell Black and the Major, Miss Pratt and
Anthony Whyte are capital, and a fine contrast to each other. It is, I
think, a more elaborate work than Marriage, better told, with greater

variety, and displaying improved powers. I congratulate you, and have
no doubt the book will make a prodigious sough'." [1]
[1] Sensation.
Mr. Blackwood adds: "I do not know a better judge nor a more frank
and honest one than the writer of this note."
Again he writes:--
"On Saturday I lent in confidence to a very clever friend, on whose
discretion I can rely, the two volumes of The Inheritance. This morning
I got them back with the following note: 'My dear Sir-I am truly
delighted with The Inheritance. I do not find as yet anyone character
quite equal to Dr. Redgill, [1] except, perhaps, the good-natured,
old-tumbled (or troubled, I can't make out which) maiden, [2] but as a
novel it is a