'I have read the "Parish Register" with great attention. It is rather lifeless and wants character and point but I like it for its simplicity and extraordinary resemblance to truth in my estimation the first properties that any work of the same stamp can possess. It will not however sell extensively for the matter was much better calculated for a periodical work. If it had appeared piecemeal among other things it would have taken very well but as the old proverb runs "ower muckle o' ae' thing's gude for naething".'