[ Sr Walter Scott, 'The Wizard of the North'. ] Autograph Letter Signed ('W Scott') to his publisher James Ballantyne ('Dear James')

1p., 16mo. In fair condition, on lightly aged paper, laid down on card backing removed from an album. He writes that he only received Ballantyne's letter on his return from Melville Castle (seat of Robert Dundas, 2nd Viscount Melville), where he was 'obliged to go for a day'. He is now returning 'sheets P. & Q to press and will soon send copy'. He has been 'pleased with a note from Cadell that we had a Pisgah peep of <?>'. The letter ends with the Latin tag: 'post tot discrimina rerum' ('after many dangers'). The letter almost certainly dates from Scott's return from Melville Castle in September 1826, when - under pressure of his enormous debts - he was hard at work on the Life of Napoleon. Ballantyne - embroiled in the same debts as Scott - came to Abbotsford on 30 September 1826, when the novelist was pleased to see him 'bear up against misfortune like a man' (Journal, ed. Anderson, p.205).?>