Walter Scott to John Wilson Croker, 30 January 1829: 'I [...] rejoice to learn from yourself that you are seriously set about adding [as editor] to the charms of the most entertaining book in the world [Boswell's Life of Johnson]. I doubt my acquaintance with the most part of the book is too slight to furnish annotations. I was, when it was published, a raw young fellow, engrossing with the one hand, and thumbing the Institutes and Pandects of old Justinian with the other; little in the way of hearing any literary conversations or anecdotes.'