of St.Andrews_.
Ad virum venerabilem, optimum, dilectissimum, EDVARDUM B.RAMSAY, S.T.P., Edinburgi Decanum, accepto ejus libro cui titulus _Reminiscences_, etc.; vicesimum jam lautiusque et amplius edito.
Editio accessit vicesima! plaudite quiequid Scotia festivi fert lepidique ferax! Non vixit frustra qui frontem utcunque severam, Noverit innocuis explicuisse jocis: Non frustra vixit qui tot monumenta priorum Salsa pia vetuit sedulitate mori: Non frustra vixit qui quali nos sit amore Vivendum, exemplo praecipiensque docet: Nec merces te indigna manet: juvenesque senesque Gaudebunt nomen concelebrare tuum; Condiet appositum dum fercula nostra salinum, Praebebitque suas mensa secunda nuces; Dum stantis rhedae aurigam tua pagina fallet, Contentum in sella taedia longa pati! Quid, quod et ipsa sibi devinctum Scotia nutrix Te perget gremio grata fovere senem; Officiumque pium simili pietate rependens, Saecula nulla sinet non[11] meminisse Tui.
The TRANSLATION is from the pen of DEAN STANLEY:-- Hail, Twentieth Edition! From Orkney to Tweed, Let the wits of all Scotland come running to read.
Not in vain hath he lived, who by innocent mirth Hath lightened the frowns and the furrows of earth: Not in vain hath he _lived_, who will never let _die_ The humours of good times for ever gone by: Not in vain hath he _lived_, who hath laboured to give In himself the best proof how by love we may _live_.
Rejoice, our dear Dean, thy reward to behold In united rejoicing of young and of old; Remembered, so long as our boards shall not lack A bright grain of salt or a hard nut to crack; So long as the cabman aloft on his seat, Broods deep o'er thy page as he waits in the street! Yea, Scotland herself, with affectionate care, Shall nurse an old age so beloved and so rare; And still gratefully seek in her heart to enshrine One more _Reminiscence_, and that shall be Thine.
From the DEAN of WESTMINSTER.
The Deanery, Westminster, February 3, 1872.
My dear elder (I cannot say eldest so long as the Dean of Winchester lives) Brother--I am very glad that you are pleased with my attempt to render into English the Bishop's beautiful Latinity....
Accept our best wishes for many happy returns of the day just past .-- Yours sincerely, A.P.

STANLEY.
On the publication of the Twentieth Edition of the _Reminiscences_, Professor Blackie addressed to the Dean the following sonnets:-- I.
Hail! wreathed in smiles, thou genial book! and hail Who wove thy web of bright and various hue, The wise old man, who gleaned the social tale And thoughtful jest and roguish whim, that grew Freely on Scotland's soil when Scotland knew To be herself, nor lusted to assume Smooth English ways--that they might live and bloom With freshness, ever old and ever new In human hearts.

Thrice happy he who knows With sportive light the cloudy thought to clear, And round his head the playful halo throws That plucks the terror from the front severe: Such grace was thine, and such thy gracious part, Thou wise old Scottish man of large and loving heart.
II.
The twentieth edition! I have looked Long for my second--but it not appears; Yet not the less I joy that thou hast brooked Rich fruit of fair fame, and of mellow years, Thou wise old man, within whose saintly veins No drop of gall infects life's genial tide, Whose many-chambered human heart contains No room for hatred and no home for pride.
Happy who give with stretch of equal love This hand to Heaven and that to lowly earth, Wise there to worship with great souls above As here to sport with children in their mirth; Who own one God with kindly-reverent eyes In flowers that prink the earth, and stars that gem the skies.
JOHN STUART BLACKIE.
CHARLES DICKENS to DEAN RAMSAY.
Gad's Hill Place, Higham, by Rochester, Kent, Tuesday, 29th May 1866.
My dear Sir--I am but now in the receipt of your kind letter, and its accompanying book.

If I had returned home sooner, I should sooner have thanked you for both.
I cannot adequately express to you the gratification I have derived from your assurance that I have given you pleasure.
In describing yourself as a stranger of whom I know nothing, you do me wrong however.

The book I am now proud to possess as a mark of your goodwill and remembrance has for some time been too well known to me to admit of the possibility of my regarding its writer in any other light than as a friend in the spirit; while the writer of the introductory page marked viii.