OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [George Street. I42
ever heard speak on such topics. The shrewdness
and decision of the man can, however, stand
in need of no testimony beyond what his own
conduct has afforded-above all, in the establishment
of his Aagazine (the conception of which,
I am assured, was entirely his own), and the sub.
sequent energy with which he has supported it
through every variety of good and evil fortune.?
Like other highly successful periodicals, BZackwoodls
Magazine has paid the penalty of its greatness,
for many serial publications have been pro
jected upon its plan and scope, without its in
herent originality and vigour.
William Blackwood published the principal works
of Wilson, Lockhart, Hogg, Galt, Moir, and othei
distinguished contributors to the magazine, as we1
as several productions of Sir Walter Scott. Hc
was twice a magistrate of his native city, and ir
that capacity took a prominent part in its affairs
He died on the 16th of September, 1834, in hi:
fifty-eighth year.
? Four months of suffering, in part intense,? sayr
the Mugazine for October, 1837, ? exhausted bj
slow degrees all his physical energies, but left hi:
temper calm and unruffled, and his intellect entira
and vigorous to the last. He had thus what nc
good man will consider as a slight privilege : thai
of contemplating the approach of death with tha
clearness and full strength of his mind and faculties
and of instructing those around him by the solemr
precefit and memorable example, by what mean:
humanity alone, conscious of its own fnilty, car
sustain that prospect with humble serenity.?
This is evidently from the pen of John Wilson
in whose relations with the magazine this deatk
made no change.
William Blackwood left a widow, seven sons
and two daughters; the former carried on-anc
their grandsons still carry on-the business in tha
old establishment in George Street, which, sincc
Constable passed away, has been the great literarj
centre of Edinburgh.
No. 49, the house of Wilkie of Foulden, i:
now a great music saloon; and No. 75, nog
the County Fire and other public offices, has a pe
culiar interest, as there lived and died the mothei
of Sir Walter Scott-Anne Rutherford, daughter o
Dr. John Rutherford, a woman who, the biographei
of her illustrious son tells us, was possessed o
superior natural talents, with a good taste foi
music and poetry and great conversational powers
In her youth she is said to have been acquainted
with Allan Kamsay, Beattie, Blacklock, and man)
other Scottish men of letters in the last century
and independently of the influence which her own
talents and acquirements may have given her in
training the opening mind of the future novelis4
it is obvious that he must have been much indebted
to her in early life for the select and intellectual
literary society of which her near relations were
the ornaments-for she was the daughter of a
professor and the sister of a professor, both of
the University of Edinburgh.
Her demise, on the 24th of December, 1819, is
simply recorded thus in the obituary :-? At her
house in George Street, Edinburgh, Mrs. Anne
Rutherford, widow of the late Walter Scott, Writer
to the Signet.?
? She seemed to take a very affectionate farewell
of me, which was the day before yesterday,? says
Scott, in a letter to his brother, in the 70th regiment,
dated nand December; ?and, as she was
much agitated Dr. Keith advised I should not see
her again, unless she seemed to desire it, which she
has not hitherto done. She sleeps constantly, and
will probably be so removed. Our family sends
love to yours.
? Yours most affectionately,
? WALTER SCOTT.?
No. 78 was, in 1811, the house of Sir John
Hay of Srnithfield and Hayston, Baronet, banker,
who married Mary, daughter of James, sixteenth
Lord Forbes. He had succeeded to the title in
the preceding year, on the death of his father,
Sir James, and is thus referred to in the scarce
? Memoirs of a Banking House,? by Sir William
Forbe?s of Pitsligo, Bart. :-
?Three years afterwards we made a further
change in the administration by the admission of
my brother-in-law, Mr. John Hay, as a partner.
In the year 1774, at my request, Sir Rebert Hemes
had agreed that he should go to Spain, and serve
an apprenticeship in his house at Barcelona,
where he continued till spring, 1776, when he
returned to London, and was received by Sir
Robert into his house in the City-from which, by
that time, our separation had taken place-and
where, as well as in the banking house in St.
James?s Street, he acted as a clerk till summer,
1778, when he came to Edinburgh, and entered
our country house also, on the footing of a confidential
clerk, during three years. Having thus
had an ample experience of his abilities and merit
as a man of business, on whom we might repose
the most implicit confidence, a new contract ot
co-partnery was formed, to commence from the 1st
of January, 1782, in which Mr. Hay was assumed
as a partner, and the shares stood as follow: Sir
William Forbes, nineteen, Mr. Hunter Blair, nine
