The correspondence between Murray and Blackwood is our chief guide through the obscurity of these early years. Not long after the Edinburgh bookseller became the agent of the important house in London, he extended his business at home in the following manner—a step which he immediately communicates to his correspondent:—

W. Blackwood to J. Murray.

Edin., 10th March 1813.

John Ballantyne has transferred to me all his retail customers, and makes me his retail publisher here. This will be of very great use to me, as it interests Walter Scott deeply in all my concerns. I have of course a stock of all their books, and will therefore be able to supply you with any new book of theirs 5 per cent below sale. If you want any 8vo ‘Rokeby’ when ready, please write me. They have just published a very pretty poem, ‘Triermain,’ which Jeffrey talks of in the highest terms, and is to review in the next number of the ‘Edinburgh.’ I have sent you 20 copies by yesterday's smack, and enclosed 12 ‘Widow's Lodgings,’ a novel which they have also just published. I have not been able to hear who he [the author] is, nor yet who is the author of ‘Triermain.’ … ‘Triermain,’ you may be sure, is not written by Mr Terry.

The occasional item of news which occurs from time to time in these letters sometimes throws a curious contemporary light upon a well-known event. Here is the first intimation of the battle of Waterloo.