"_Lay of the Last Minstrel_" (Vol. iii., p. 367.).--The BORDERER, with
whom, I fancy, every one will fully agree, has himself been guilty of
_incuria_ in charging it upon Walter Scott. The great festival at which
Michael Scott marches off with the Goblin Page, was to celebrate, not
the _nuptials_, but the _betrothal_, of the hero and heroine. I do not
think I have read the _Lay_ since I was a boy; but yet I will bet five
nothings to one, that the following lines are spoken by the Lady, when
she gives way, as she says, to Fate:--
"For this is your betrothing day,
And all these noble lords shall stay
And grace it with their company."
It would be an excellent thing if some of your correspondents would
furnish you with materials for a corner, to be entitled, "The Prophecy
of Criticism." It should give, by short extract, those presages in which
criticism abounds, taken from the Reviews of twenty years or more
preceding the current year. Thus, in this year of 1851, the corner
should be open to any prophecy uttered in or before 1831, and palpably
either fulfilled or falsified. In a little while, when the subject
begins to cool, the admission should be restricted to prophecy of
precisely twenty years of previous date. Such a corner would be useful
warning to critics, and useful knowledge to their readers.