 of your
illimitable correspondents, whose manuscript overflows the folds of their large
post paper, and leaves no room for the seal; but they were kind and
affectionate, and seldom concluded without some allusion to our hero's stud,
some question about the state of his purse, and a special inquiry after such of
his recruits as had preceded him from Waverley-Honour. Aunt Rachel charged him
to remember his principles of religion, to take care of his health, to beware of
Scotch mists, which, she had heard, would wet an Englishman through and through;
never to go out at night without his great-coat; and, above all, to wear flannel
next to his skin.
    Mr. Pembroke only wrote to our hero one letter, but it was of the bulk of
six epistles of these degenerate days, containing, in the moderate compass of
ten folio pages, closely written, a précis of a supplementary quarto manuscript
of addenda, delenda, et corrigenda, in reference to the two tracts with which he
had presented Waverley. This he considered as a mere sop in the pan to stay the
appetite of Edward's curiosity, until he should find an opportunity of sending
down the volume itself, which was much too heavy for the post, and which he
proposed to accompany with certain interesting pamphlets, lately published by
his friend in Little Britain, with whom he had kept up a sort of literary
correspondence, in virtue of which the library shelves of Waverley- were loaded
with much trash, and a good round bill, seldom summed in fewer than three
figures, was yearly transmitted, in which Sir Everard Waverley, of
Waverley-Honour, Bart. was marked Dr. to Jonathan Grubbet, bookseller and
stationer, Little Britain. Such had hitherto been the style of the letters which
Edward had received from England; but the packet delivered to him at
Glennaquoich was of a different and more interesting complexion. It would be
impossible for the reader, even were I to insert the letters at full length, to
comprehend the real cause of their being written, without a glance into the
interior of the British Cabinet at the period in question.
    The Ministers of the day happened (no very singular event) to be divided
into two parties; the weakest of which, making up by assiduity of intrigue their
inferiority in real consequence, had of late acquired some new proselytes, and
with them the hope of superseding their rivals in the favour of their sovereign,
and overpowering them in the House of Commons. Amongst others, they had thought
it worth while to practise upon Richard Waverley. This
