Certainly he was at times capable of considerable heaviness of hand,--of the Scotch "wut" which has been so irreverently treated by English critics.

His rather elaborate jocular introductions, under the name of Jedediah Cleishbotham, are clearly laborious at times.

And even his own letters to his daughter-in-law, which Mr.Lockhart seems to regard as models of tender playfulness and pleasantry, seem to me decidedly elephantine.

Not unfrequently, too, his stereotyped jokes weary.

Dalgetty bores you almost as much as he would do in real life,--which is a great fault in art.