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diff --git a/24497-h/24497-h.htm b/24497-h/24497-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..ee74e12 --- /dev/null +++ b/24497-h/24497-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,11067 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN"> +<html lang="en"> +<head> +<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=ISO-8859-1"> +<title>The Project Gutenberg eBook of Memoirs of the Life of Sir Walter Scott, Volume I (of 10), by John Gibson Lockhart</title> +<style type="text/css"> +<!-- + +body {font-size: 1em; text-align: justify; margin-left: 5%; margin-right: 5%;} + +h1 {font-size: 140%; text-align: center; margin-top: 2em; margin-bottom: 2em;} +h1.pg {font-size: 190%; text-align: center; margin-top: 0em; margin-bottom: 0em;} +h2 {font-size: 130%; text-align: center; margin-top: 4em; margin-bottom: 2em;} +h3 {font-size: 130%; text-align: center; margin-top: 4em; margin-bottom: 1em;} +h3.pg {font-size: 110%; text-align: center; margin-top: 0em; margin-bottom: 0em;} + +ul {list-style-type: none;} +ul.roman {list-style-type: upper-roman;} +ul.toc {margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 15%;} +li {margin-top: 1em;} + +div.quote {margin-top: 2em; margin-bottom: 2em;} + +.pagenum {visibility: hidden; position: absolute; right:0; + font-size: 10px; text-align: right; + color: #C0C0C0; background-color: inherit;} + +.p2 {margin-top: 2em; margin-bottom: 1em;} +.p4 {margin-top: 4em; margin-bottom: 1em;} + +.summary {margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; text-align: center; + margin-top: 1em; margin-bottom: 2em; + font-variant: small-caps; font-size: 95%;} +.tn {margin-right: 10%; margin-left: 10%; font-size: 85%;} +.quote {margin-left: 5%; margin-right: 5%; font-size: 95%;} +.poem-center {text-align: center; font-size: 95%;} +.poem {margin-left: 5%; font-size: 95%;} +.poem10 {margin-left: 10%; font-size: 95%;} +.poem20 {margin-left: 20%; font-size: 95%;} +.poem30 {margin-left: 30%; font-size: 95%;} + +.smcap {font-variant: small-caps; font-size: 95%;} +.small {font-size: 75%;} +.italic {font-style: italic;} + +.center {text-align: center;} +.tit-center {text-align: center; margin-top: 2em;} +.figcenter {text-align: center;} +.ralign {position: absolute; right: 5%;} + +.left50 {margin-left: 50%;} +.left60 {margin-left: 60%;} + +.add1em {margin-left: 1em;} +.add2em {margin-left: 2em;} +.add3em {margin-left: 3em;} +.add4em {margin-left: 4em;} +.min2em {margin-left: -2em;} + + hr.full { width: 100%; + height: 5px; } + pre {font-size: 85%; } +--> +</style> +</head> +<body> +<h1 class="pg">The Project Gutenberg eBook, Memoirs of the Life of Sir Walter Scott, +Volume I (of 10), by John Gibson Lockhart</h1> +<pre> +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at <a href = "http://www.gutenberg.org">www.gutenberg.org</a></pre> +<p>Title: Memoirs of the Life of Sir Walter Scott, Volume I (of 10)</p> +<p>Author: John Gibson Lockhart</p> +<p>Release Date: February 2, 2008 [eBook #24497]</p> +<p>Last updated on: November 18, 2008</p> +<p>Language: English</p> +<p>Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1</p> +<p>***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE OF SIR WALTER SCOTT, VOLUME I (OF 10)***</p> +<br><br><center><h3 class="pg">E-text prepared by Thierry Alberto, Henry Craig, Christine P. Travers,<br> + and the Project Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team<br> + (http://www.pgdp.net)</h3></center><br><br> +<p> </p> +<div class="tn"> +<center> +<b>Transcriber's note:</b> +</center> +<p>Obvious printer's errors have been corrected; all other +inconsistencies are as in the original. The author's spelling +has been retained.</p> +<p>The author used group of asterisks (*****) to replace names.</p> +</div> +<p> </p> +<hr class="full" noshade> +<p> </p> +<p> </p> + +<h1>MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE<br> +OF<br> +SIR WALTER SCOTT<br> +BART.</h1> + +<p class="center">BY</p> + +<h2>JOHN GIBSON LOCKHART</h2> + +<p class="center">IN TEN VOLUMES<br> +VOLUME I</p> + +<a id="img000" name="img000"></a> +<div class="figcenter p4"> +<img src="images/img000.jpg" width="150" height="188" alt="Editor's arm." title=""> +</div> + +<p class="center p4 smaller">BOSTON AND NEW YORK<br> +HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN AND COMPANY<br> +The Riverside Press, Cambridge<br> +MCMI</p> + + +<p class="center p4 small">COPYRIGHT, 1901<br> +BY HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN AND COMPANY<br> +ALL RIGHTS RESERVED</p> + + +<p class="center p4 small">Six Hundred Copies Printed<br> +Number,</p> + +<a id="img001" name="img001"></a> +<div class="figcenter p4"> +<img src="images/img001.jpg" width="400" height="490" alt="Walter Scott in 1777" title=""> +<p>Walter Scott in 1777<br> +<span class="smaller">From the miniature by Kay, in the Scottish National Portrait Gallery, Edinburgh.</span></p> +</div> + +<h2>PUBLISHERS' NOTE <span class="pagenum"><a id="pagev" name="pagev"></a>(p. v)</span></h2> + +<p>Lockhart's <span class="italic">Memoirs of the Life of Sir Walter Scott, Bart.</span>, which +divides with Boswell's <span class="italic">Life of Johnson</span> the honor of leading all +lives of English men of letters, was first published in seven volumes +in 1837-1838. A second edition, with some corrections, some slight +revisions, and a few additions, mostly in the form of notes, was +published in 1839, and this has remained ever since the standard +edition. Later, in 1848, Lockhart prepared, at the request of the +publishers of that work, a condensation of his <span class="italic">magnum opus</span>, and took +that occasion to add a few facts bearing upon the <span class="italic">Life</span> which had +occurred since the original publication, and a few comments which it +would not have been in good taste to make in the first instance. +Throughout his original work, Lockhart, with all his openness of +speech, yet refrained from certain personal references, the subjects +of which were too recent for remark, and he concealed many names under +the disguise of initials.</p> + +<p>Since the edition of 1839 there have been many issues of this great +work on both sides of the Atlantic. As late as 1861, Messrs. Ticknor +and Fields, predecessors of the present publishers of the work, issued +an edition in nine volumes, and took occasion to insert some material +from Lockhart's abridgment. They prefaced the edition, which they +dedicated to Nathaniel Hawthorne, with a brief sketch of Lockhart.</p> + +<p>Neither <span class="pagenum"><a id="pagevi" name="pagevi"></a>(p. vi)</span> these publishers nor any others, so far as we know, +have ever done more than reprint the original work, save for the +slight modification just mentioned. Meanwhile for the past sixty +years, and more especially during the past twenty years, a crowd of +books has been published throwing light on Lockhart's great subject. +Memoirs, reminiscences, editions of Scott's writings, literary +studies, articles in reviews and magazines have added materially to +our knowledge not only of Scott, but of many others of the personages +who throng the chapters of Lockhart's work. Lockhart himself has been +made the subject of a generous biography, and it would seem as though, +lasting as is the fame of the <span class="italic">Life</span>, its necessary silences were +becoming every year more conspicuous.</p> + +<p>Accordingly, the present publishers resolved to issue an edition which +should repair the damage which Time had wrought, and they entrusted +the editing to Miss Susan M. Francis, who through her long conversance +with the original work, and her familiarity with the literature which +has grown up about Scott, as well as her knowledge of the more or less +obscure sources of information, was peculiarly competent not only to +do the service of Old Mortality, but to set in order the inscriptions +still to be added to the stones of Scott's associates.</p> + +<p>The principle upon which Lockhart's Scott is now edited may be stated +in very few words. The original work is reprinted without change, +except that initials have been extended to full names in a great many +instances, obvious printers' errors corrected, and Scott's journals +revised to conform with the authoritative edition by Mr. David +Douglas. Then, the text has been annotated by fuller accounts of many +of the persons to whom Scott or Lockhart refer, and very many passages +have been expanded or <span class="pagenum"><a id="pagevii" name="pagevii"></a>(p. vii)</span> illuminated by extracts from Scott's +letters and journals, and from a variety of books and articles bearing +upon the subject. In a number of instances the narrative of persons +who were living when Lockhart wrote has been carried forward to show +their after career. All the editor's work is indicated by its +enclosure in brackets. Lockhart's later notes are indicated by the +years 1839, 1845, and 1848, enclosed in parentheses.</p> + +<p>In making this annotation recourse has been had first of all to the +editions of Scott's <span class="italic">Familiar Letters</span> and <span class="italic">Journal</span>, so thoroughly +and admirably edited by Mr. David Douglas. No one who undertakes to +work at the life of Scott fails to confess a deep obligation to this +gentleman. Not only so, but Mr. Douglas has repeatedly come to the +editor's aid in settling those nice points which arise in any piece of +careful editing. His own notes when used always bear his initials at +the close. Lang's <span class="italic">Life and Letters of Lockhart</span> has also been in +frequent use, and of general works <span class="italic">The Dictionary of National +Biography</span> has been in constant demand. The more one uses it the more +one comes to value the accuracy of its statements, and the thoroughness +with which its subjects have been treated. Of the very large number of +memoirs and reminiscences consulted, mention may be made of +<span class="italic">Selections from the Manuscripts of Lady Louisa Stuart</span>, by permission +of Messrs. Harper and Brothers, the American publishers of the work; +Mrs. Oliphant's <span class="italic">William Blackwood and his Sons</span>, and the other two +works on the great publishing houses, Smiles's <span class="italic">Memoir of John Murray</span> +and <span class="italic">Archibald Constable and his Literary Correspondents</span>; +Carruthers's <span class="italic">Abbotsford Notanda</span> and the <span class="italic">Catalogue of the Scott +Centenary Exhibition</span> have been referred to, and the memoirs and +reminiscences connected with the names of Maria <span class="pagenum"><a id="pageviii" name="pageviii"></a>(p. viii)</span> Edgeworth, +Washington Irving, Leslie, George Ticknor, Haydon, Byron, Moore, +Charles Mayne Young, Wordsworth, Crabbe, Lord Cockburn, Miss Ferrier, +Mrs. Kemble, and others; while for the later history of the Scott +family, the <span class="italic">Life of James Hope-Scott</span> has been serviceable. The +attentive reader will readily understand that the editor has also gone +to numberless books and magazine articles for the proper confirmation +of petty facts and the assurance of accuracy.</p> + +<p>To complete the worth of this edition, the publishers have taken pains +to illustrate it abundantly with portraits and other pictures, and to +obtain these they have gone as far as possible in every case to the +original sources. The result is a great English classic of abiding +value, faithfully reproduced, and so supplemented by editorial and +artistic labor as to be brought up to date in all essential +particulars.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">4 Park Street, Boston.</span><br> +<span class="add2em">Autumn, 1901.</span></p> + + +<a id="toc" name="toc"></a> +<h2>TABLE OF CONTENTS <span class="pagenum"><a id="pageix" name="pageix"></a>(p. ix)</span></h2> + +<ul class="toc"> +<li><span class="smcap">Biographical Sketch of John Gibson Lockhart</span><span class="ralign"><a href="#pagexiii">xiii</a></span></li> +<li><span class="smcap">Lockhart's Preface</span><span class="ralign"><a href="#pagexxxvii">xxxvii</a></span></li> +<li><span class="smcap">Original Dedication</span><span class="ralign"><a href="#pagexli">xli</a></span></li> +</ul> + +<p class="center p2">MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE OF SIR WALTER SCOTT</p> + +<ul> +<li>Chap.</li> +</ul> + +<ul class="roman toc"> +<li>Memoir of the Early Life of Sir Walter Scott, + written by himself.<span class="ralign"><a href="#page001">1</a></span></li> +<li>Illustrations of the Autobiographical + Fragment. — Edinburgh. — Sandy-Knowe. — Bath. — Prestonpans. + 1771-1778.<span class="ralign"><a href="#page051">51</a></span></li> +<li>Illustrations of the Autobiography continued. — High + School of Edinburgh. — Residence at Kelso. + 1778-1783.<span class="ralign"><a href="#page078">78</a></span></li> +<li>Illustrations of the Autobiography continued. — Anecdotes + of Scott's College Life. 1783-1786.<span class="ralign"><a href="#page104">104</a></span></li> +<li>Illustrations continued. — Scott's Apprenticeship + to his Father. — Excursions to the Highlands, etc. — Debating + Societies. — Early Correspondence, + etc. — Williamina Stuart. 1786-1790.<span class="ralign"><a href="#page116">116</a></span></li> +<li>Illustrations continued. — Studies for the Bar. — Excursion + to Northumberland. — Letter on Flodden + Field. — Call to the Bar. 1790-1792.<span class="ralign"><a href="#page149">149</a></span> +<span class="pagenum"><a id="pagex" name="pagex"></a>(p. x)</span></li> +<li>First Expedition into Liddesdale. — Study of + German. — Political Trials, etc. — Specimen of + Law Papers. — Bürger's Lenore translated. — Disappointment + in Love. 1792-1796.<span class="ralign"><a href="#page169">169</a></span></li> +<li>Publication of Ballads after Bürger. — Scott + Quartermaster of the Edinburgh Light Horse. — Excursion + to Cumberland. — Gilsland Wells. — Miss + Carpenter. — Marriage. 1796-1797.<span class="ralign"><a href="#page227">227</a></span></li> +</ul> + + +<h2>LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS <span class="pagenum"><a id="pagexi" name="pagexi"></a>(p. xi)</span></h2> + +<ul class="toc"> +<li><a href="#img001"><span class="smcap min2em">Walter Scott in 1777</span></a><br> + From the miniature by Kay, in the Scottish National Portrait + Gallery, Edinburgh.</li> + +<li><a href="#img005"><span class="smcap min2em">Dr. Alexander Adam</span></a><br> + From the painting by Sir Henry Raeburn, R. A., in the Scottish + National Portrait Gallery, Edinburgh.</li> + +<li><a href="#img003"><span class="smcap min2em">Walter Scott</span> ("Beardie"),</a><br> + Great-grandfather of Sir Walter Scott<br> + After the painting at Abbotsford.</li> + +<li><a href="#img004"><span class="smcap min2em">Walter Scott</span>, W. S.,</a><br> + Father of Sir Walter Scott<br> + After the painting at Abbotsford.</li> + +<li><a href="#img006"><span class="smcap min2em">Williamina Stuart</span></a><br> + From the miniature by Richard Cosway, R. A. By permission + of the Century Co.</li> + +<li><a href="#img007"><span class="smcap min2em">Scott's Father's House, 25 George's Square, Edinburgh</span></a>.<br> + From a photograph.</li> +</ul> + + +<h2>BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH <span class="pagenum"><a id="pagexiii" name="pagexiii"></a>(p. xiii)</span><br> +OF<br> +JOHN GIBSON LOCKHART</h2> + + +<p>John Gibson Lockhart was born in the manse of Cambusnethan, July 14, +1794. His father, the Rev. John Lockhart, was twice married, and of +the children of his first wife only one, William, the laird of +Milton-Lockhart, reached manhood. The second Mrs. Lockhart was +Elizabeth, the daughter of the Rev. John Gibson, minister of St. +Cuthbert's, Edinburgh, and that clergyman's namesake was her eldest +child. "Every Scottishman has his pedigree," says Scott in his +fragment of Autobiography, and there is no lack of interest in the +honorable one of his son-in-law, from the days of Simon Locard of the +Lee, in the county of Lanark, who was knighted by Robert the Bruce, +and after his king's death sailed with the good Lord James Douglas, +who was bearing his master's heart to the Holy Land,—the heart which +Locard rescued from the Moors, when Douglas fell fighting in Spain, +and brought back to Scotland with Lord James's body. Then the Locards +added to their armorial bearings a heart within a fetterlock, and took +the name of Lockhart. From Sir Stephen Lockhart of Cleghorn, a man of +note in the court of James III., was descended Robert Lockhart of +Birkhill, who fought for the Covenant, and led the Lanarkshire Whigs +at the battle of Bothwell Brig.</p> + +<p>William <span class="pagenum"><a id="pagexiv" name="pagexiv"></a>(p. xiv)</span> Lockhart, the Covenanter's grandson, married Violet +Inglis, the heiress of Corehouse. The Rev. John Lockhart was the +younger of their two sons. From his father Lockhart seems to have +inherited his scholarly tastes, while in person he appears to have +resembled his mother; to both he was always the most affectionate and +devoted of sons. His warmth of feeling, even in childhood, as well as +his constitutional reserve, is shown by his intense suffering at the +loss of a younger brother and sister, who died within a few days of +each other. He did not weep like the rest of the children, or show +other sign of emotion, but fell seriously ill, and was long in +recovering from the shock. From the first he was a delicate child, and +the removal of the family from country to town, when he was in his +second year, probably did not tend to strengthen him. Dr. Lockhart +became minister of the College Kirk in Glasgow, and his son in due +time entered the High School there. In after-years his schoolmates +remembered him as a very clever, but hardly a diligent boy. Though +frequently absent from illness (one of these childish maladies caused +the deafness in one ear from which he suffered), he always kept his +place at the head of his class. "He never seemed to learn anything +when the class was sitting down," wrote a fellow-pupil, "and on +returning after one of his illnesses, he of course went to the bottom, +but we had not been five minutes up when he began to take places, and +he invariably succeeded, sometimes before the class was dismissed at +noon, in getting to the top of it again."</p> + +<p>In 1805, when he had but just entered his twelfth year, Lockhart +matriculated at the University of Glasgow. More than fifty years +later, two of his classmates wrote their recollections of the boy +student,—recollections vivid enough to show how strong an impression +he made on his companions. He still was somewhat delicate in health, +and <span class="pagenum"><a id="pagexv" name="pagexv"></a>(p. xv)</span> kept a high position in his studies more from ability +than assiduity. A strong sense of the ludicrous, allied with a turn +for satire, was already one of his marked traits. At the close of the +session of 1805-6 a little incident shows the admiration felt for him +by some of his companions. He had been disappointed in not obtaining a +certain Latin prize, and several of his friends, sharing his feeling, +determined to present to him a testimonial. He was very fond of The +Lay of the Last Minstrel, then a new book, so the lads procured a +splendidly bound copy, and, at their suggestion, the Professor, at the +public distribution of prizes, gave the volume with warm commendations +to Johannes Lockhart, as a prize the students had themselves provided. +It was not till Lockhart joined the logic class (at the age of +thirteen), that he suddenly outstripped all his companions, whom he +later astonished by the amount of Greek which he <span class="italic">professed</span> at the +Blackstone examination. It was thought a <span class="italic">profession</span> of reasonable +amount "when a student intimated his willingness to translate and be +examined critically on Anacreon, two or three of Lucian's dialogues, +extracts from Epictetus, Bion, and Moschus, and perhaps a book or two +of Homer." "But," declares one of his former fellow-students, +"Lockhart professed the whole Iliad and Odyssey and I know not how +much besides." His brilliant success on this occasion led to his being +offered one of the Snell Exhibitions to Oxford,—an offer which was +accepted after some hesitation on account of his youth. He was not yet +fifteen, and still wore the round jacket of a schoolboy when he was +entered at Balliol College.</p> + +<p>One of Lockhart's closest friends at Oxford and ever after, Mr. J. H. +Christie, describes the young student at this time: "Lockhart +immediately made his general talents felt by his tutor and his +companions. His most remarkable characteristic, however, was the +exuberant spirits <span class="pagenum"><a id="pagexvi" name="pagexvi"></a>(p. xvi)</span> which found vent in constant flashes of +merriment brightened and pointed with wit and satire at once droll and +tormenting. Even a lecture-room was not exempt from these +irrepressible sallies; and our tutor, who was formal and wished to be +grave, but had not the gift of gravity, never felt safe in the +presence of his mercurial pupil. Lockhart with great readiness +comprehended the habits and tone of the new society in which he was +placed, and was not for a moment wanting in any of its requirements; +but this adaptive power never interfered with the marked individuality +of his own character and bearing. He was at once a favorite and +formidable. In those days he was an incessant caricaturist; his +papers, his books, and the walls of his rooms were crowded with +portraitures of his friends and himself—so like as to be +unmistakable, with an exaggeration of any peculiarity so droll and so +provoking as to make the picture anything but flattering to the +self-love of its subject. This propensity was so strong in him that I +was surprised when in after-life he repressed it at once and forever. +In the last thirty years of his life I do not think he ever drew a +caricature."<a id="footnotetag1" name="footnotetag1"></a><a href="#footnote1"><span class="small" title="Go to Footnote 1">[1]</span></a></p> + +<p>In these days Lockhart read not only Greek and Latin, but French, +Italian, and Spanish. German interested him later. At Balliol he +formed some friendships which ended only with life; no man was ever +truer to his early friends than he, and few have had friends more +loyal.<a id="footnotetag2" name="footnotetag2"></a><a href="#footnote2"><span class="small" title="Go to Footnote 2">[2]</span></a> He <span class="pagenum"><a id="pagexvii" name="pagexvii"></a>(p. xvii)</span> gained his first class in 1813—he was not yet +nineteen—and returned to his father's house in Glasgow, which he was +to leave two years later for Edinburgh, there to read law and begin +the literary work which was to prove the real business of his life. He +became acquainted with William Blackwood, who, when the young advocate +was about to visit Germany in the vacation of 1817, enabled him to +undertake the then toilsome and expensive journey by paying liberally, +not less than £300, it is said, for a translation to be made later. +Schlegel's Lectures on the History of Literature was the work Lockhart +selected, and of this incident Mr. Gleig says: "Though seldom +communicative on such subjects, he more than once alluded to the +circumstance in after-life, and always in the same terms. 'It was a +generous act on Ebony's part, and a bold one too; for he had only my +word for it that I had any acquaintance at all with the German +language!'" It was a generous act, and also one showing keen +perception on the part of the publisher. At this time began Lockhart's +intimacy with John Wilson, with whom he was so largely to share the +achievements, glorious and inglorious, of Mr. Blackwood's magazine in +its reckless youth. Unfortunately, the older and more experienced +writer was no safe guide for his brilliant but very young co-worker, +still with a boy's fondness for mischief and a dangerous wit, to which +the almost sublime self-complacency of the dominant Whig coteries +would offer abundant opportunities of exercise. Lockhart was not a +sinner above others, but in the end he was made something like the +scapegoat of all the offenders, whose misdeeds, occasionally serious +enough, are sometimes in view of the journalistic and critical +amenities then prevailing in <span class="pagenum"><a id="pagexviii" name="pagexviii"></a>(p. xviii)</span> the organs of both parties +hardly so heinous as to account for the excitement that attended them.</p> + +<p>What Lockhart thought of these youthful literary escapades in his +sober and saddened middle age is shown in a letter written in 1838: "I +was a raw boy who had never before had the least connection with +politics or controversies of any kind, when, arriving in Edinburgh in +October, 1817, I found my friend John Wilson (ten years my senior) +busied in helping Blackwood out of a scrape he had got into with some +editors of his Magazine, and on Wilson's asking me to try my hand at +some squibberies in his aid, I sat down to do so with as little malice +as if the assigned subject had been the Court of Pekin. But the row in +Edinburgh, the lordly Whigs having considered persiflage as their own +fee-simple, was really so extravagant that when I think of it now the +whole story seems wildly incredible. Wilson and I were singled out to +bear the whole burden of sin, though there were abundance of other +criminals in the concern; and by and by, Wilson passing for being a +very eccentric fellow, and I for a cool one, even he was allowed to +get off comparatively scot-free, while I, by far the youngest and +least experienced of the set, and who alone had no personal grudges +against any of Blackwood's victims, remained under such an +accumulation of wrath and contumely as would have crushed me utterly, +unless for the buoyancy of extreme youth. I now think with deep +sadness of the pain my jokes and jibes inflicted on better men than +myself, and I can say that I have omitted in my mature years no +opportunity of trying to make reparation where I really had been the +offender. But I was not the doer of half the deeds set down to my +account, nor can I, in the face of much evidence printed and +unprinted, believe that, after all, our Ebony (as we used to call the +man and his book) had half so much to answer for as the more regular +artillery <span class="pagenum"><a id="pagexix" name="pagexix"></a>(p. xix)</span> which the old Quarterly played incessantly, in +those days, on the same parties.... I believe the only individuals +whom Blackwood ever really and essentially injured were myself and +Wilson."<a id="footnotetag3" name="footnotetag3"></a><a href="#footnote3"><span class="small" title="Go to Footnote 3">[3]</span></a></p> + +<p>In May, 1818, occurred the day, memorable to Lockhart, when he first +met Scott, who later invited him to visit Abbotsford. The meeting and +visit have been described by Lockhart, as he alone could do it; but he +does not tell how speedily he won the regard and confidence of the +elder writer, feelings that were constantly to grow warmer and +stronger as the years went on. Scott heartily welcomed Peter's Letters +to his Kinsfolk the next year, those clever, vivid, and apparently +harmless sketches of the Edinburgh of that day,—literary, artistic, +legal, clerical,—which caused an outcry not now to be understood. In +April, 1820, Lockhart and Sophia Scott were married,—a perfect +marriage in its mutual love and trust. How willingly Sir Walter gave +the daughter, so peculiarly dear to him, to the husband of her choice, +his letters to his intimate correspondents show; and how fortunate the +union was to be for him in its results, he seems almost to have +divined. It gave him not only the most affectionate and devoted of +sons,—such love was already his,—but also the most complete +comprehension and sympathy in his home circle. And all the rare +literary gifts which he so early discerned and so heartily admired in +his young friend, informed by delicate insight, loving knowledge, and +a keen intelligence, were to be employed to make him known to the +world, so that the great author should be loved even above his works.</p> + +<p>In the next few years, spent at Edinburgh and at Chiefswood, years +that Lockhart was to remember as the happiest of his life, he did much +literary work, beside the occasional articles for Blackwood. Valerius +was published in <span class="pagenum"><a id="pagexx" name="pagexx"></a>(p. xx)</span> 1821,—the story of a visitor from Britain +to Rome in the time of the persecution of the Christians under Trajan. +It is admirably well written, and reads exactly like what it professes +to be,—a translation from the Latin. "I am quite delighted with the +reality of your Romans," wrote Scott to the author. But the very +correctness of the studies makes them seem remote and cold to the +ordinary reader.<a id="footnotetag4" name="footnotetag4"></a><a href="#footnote4"><span class="small" title="Go to Footnote 4">[4]</span></a> A little later, appeared by far the best of +Lockhart's novels, Some Passages in the Life of Mr. Adam Blair, +Minister of the Gospel at Cross Meikle. A story of the temptation and +fall of a good man, which his father told one day after dinner, +suggested this tale, which is written with force and feeling, a +passion that is still glowing, and a pathos which can still move, +while there are both strength and delicacy of touch in the +character-drawing. Reginald Dalton was published in 1823, and was at +the time a decided success; but these somewhat exaggerated sketches of +Oxford life are now chiefly interesting for the glimpses of personal +experience to be found in the early chapters. Matthew Wald followed in +1824, and was the last novel written by Lockhart. Scott characterized +it succinctly as "full of power, but disagreeable, and ends vilely +ill," a kind of tale which had not yet become popular. There is power +in the description of an ever growing selfishness and unrestrained +passion ending in madness; but the story is ill constructed, and, +despite some vigorous and graphic passages, has not real vitality.</p> + +<p>Lockhart <span class="pagenum"><a id="pagexxi" name="pagexxi"></a>(p. xxi)</span> edited a new edition of Don Quixote in 1822, and the +next year published his Ancient Spanish Ballads, most of which had +been previously printed in Blackwood's Magazine. This was the first of +his books to bear his name, which the volume, winning wide and +enduring success, made well known. Some competent critics have agreed +with Scott in regarding the translations as "much finer than the +originals," but, however this may be, there is no question whatever as +to the excellence of the ballads in their English form. They have +vigor and swiftness of movement, grace and picturesqueness, simplicity +and spontaneity. And there are exquisite lyrics amongst them, witness +The Wandering Knight's Song. Mr. Lang has made a few selections from +Lockhart's scattered verse in Blackwood as further illustrations of +his poetic gift,—a number of admirable stanzas (in the character of +Wastle) in the <span class="italic">ottava rima</span> of Whistlecraft and Beppo (1819); the +best known of his comic poems, Captain Paton's Lament; and some lines +from a translation in hexameters of the twenty-fourth book of the +Iliad, that appeared as late as 1843, which must have sent more than +one reader to the magazine, and made them echo the biographer's words, +that "Lockhart had precisely the due qualifications for a translator, +in sympathy, poetic feeling, and severe yet genial taste, and could +have left a name for a popular, yet close and spirited version of the +Iliad," had he not, after this single anonymous publication, abandoned +his half-formed project. As one of his friends wrote with great truth, +"Lockhart was guilty of injustice to his own surpassing powers. With +all his passion for letters, with all the ambition for literary fame +which burnt in his youthful mind, there was still his shyness, +fastidiousness, reserve. No doubt he might have taken a higher place +as a poet than by the Spanish Ballads, as a writer of fiction than by +his novels. These seem <span class="pagenum"><a id="pagexxii" name="pagexxii"></a>(p. xxii)</span> to have been thrown off by a sudden +uncontrollable impulse to relieve the mind of its fulness, rather than +as works of finished art or mature study. They were the flashes of a +genius which would not be suppressed; no one esteemed them more humbly +than Lockhart, or, having once cast them on the world, thought less of +their fame."<a id="footnotetag5" name="footnotetag5"></a><a href="#footnote5"><span class="small" title="Go to Footnote 5">[5]</span></a></p> + +<p>The early years of Lockhart's married life were so intimately +connected with the life of Scott as to need no chronicle here. The +young advocate, with many of the qualities essential to the making of +a great lawyer, lacked one most needful to his branch of the +profession, facility as a public speaker; his extreme shyness would +account for this. As he said at the farewell dinner given to him by +his friends in Edinburgh: "You know as well as I, that if I had ever +been able to make a speech, there would have been no cause for our +present meeting." So literature had become more and more his +occupation,—it became entirely so when, in the autumn of 1826, he +accepted the editorship of the Quarterly Review,—a very responsible +and distinguished post for so young a man, when the position of the +Review at that time, in politics, literature, and society, is +considered. Such newspapers as were in a few years to become powerful +in the world of cultivated (and respectable) readers were as yet, +relatively speaking, in an undeveloped state. Editor of the Quarterly, +he was to remain, till hopelessly impaired health brought an end to +his labors, nearly twenty-eight years later. During these years he +contributed more than a hundred articles to the Review, on the +greatest possible variety of topics,—he could write on everything, +from poetry to dry-rot, it was said. He was that rare thing in our +race, a born critic; but he did not use the <span class="pagenum"><a id="pagexxiii" name="pagexxiii"></a>(p. xxiii)</span> work +criticised as a text for a discourse of his own; but of deliberate +choice, it would seem, kept closely to his author. So, many of his +papers are simply admirable reviews written for the day, not essays +for future readers. But, as one turns the pages of the Quarterly, how +alive some of the most transient of these articles seem, in comparison +with the often excellent matter in which they are embedded! The clear, +forcible style, the keen wit, the thorough workmanship, are never +wanting. As would be expected, there is permanent interest in the +biographical studies; of these, one of the most interesting and +impressive was fortunately republished in another form.</p> + +<p>As a biographer this variously accomplished man of letters was to show +a gift that can almost be called unique. His Life of Burns, published +in 1828, was written when the Scotland of the poet was still known to +all his mature countrymen, though it was too early for the +thoroughgoing scrutiny into every detail of his history practised by +later writers; but, setting that consideration aside, the sympathy, +intelligence, good taste, fairness, and above all, the sanity of the +work, to say nothing of its admirable literary quality, have given it +a position by itself, which it is not likely to lose. This memoir is +not an over-large book, but the Life of Theodore Hook—a reprint of a +Quarterly Review article written in 1843—is one of the smallest of +volumes, yet it is written with so fine an art, the presentment of its +subject, if rapidly sketched, is so vivid, that the reader feels no +sense either of crowded incidents or large omissions; with this +biographer the story is of perfect proportion, whether it fills seven +volumes or one, or does not extend beyond the limits of a <span class="italic">brochure</span>. +Nothing Lockhart did was ever in the smallest degree slovenly or +careless, but his admirable workmanship is specially evident in the +Life of Scott. The skill is masterly with which the immense mass of +material has been <span class="pagenum"><a id="pagexxiv" name="pagexxiv"></a>(p. xxiv)</span> handled, making letters, diaries, +extracts, and narrative one harmonious whole, with never an occasional +roughness to cause the ordinary reader fully to realize the smoothness +of the road he is traversing. The absolute modesty and freedom from +self-consciousness of the author—the editor, he calls himself—in +telling a tale of which for a number of years he formed a part, is as +striking as it is rare. He is one of the actors in a great drama; if +it be necessary now and then that he should come to the front, he does +it simply and naturally—that is all. Always and everywhere the hero +is the central figure to whose full presentation all else is +subsidiary. There is no need to speak of the faultlessness of the +style, or of the deep but always manly feeling with which the more +intimate details of the story are told; effusiveness or sentimentality +was as alien to Lockhart as to Scott, and for these reasons no +familiarity or change in literary fashions can make the matchless +closing pages less moving; they are of the things that remain.</p> + +<p>In January, 1837, Lockhart wrote a letter to William Laidlaw, of +singular autobiographic interest. After thanking his friend for a +letter and a present of ptarmigan, "both welcome as remembrances of +Scotland and old days," he says:—</p> + +<p>"The account you give of your situation at present is, considering how +the world wags, not unsatisfactory. Would it were possible to find +myself placed in something of a similar locality, and with the means +of enjoying the country by day and my books at night, without the +necessity of dividing most of my time between labors of the desk—mere +drudge labors mostly—and the harassing turmoil of worldly society, +for which I never had much, and nowadays have rarely indeed any +relish! But my wife and children bind me to the bit, and I am well +pleased with the fetters. Walter is now a tall and very handsome +<span class="pagenum"><a id="pagexxv" name="pagexxv"></a>(p. xxv)</span> boy of nearly eleven years; Charlotte a very winsome gypsy of +nine,—both intelligent in the extreme, and both, notwithstanding all +possible spoiling, as simple, natural and unselfish as if they had +been bred on a hillside and in a family of twelve. Sophia is your old +friend,—fat, fair, and by and by to be forty, which I now am, and +over, God bless the mark! but though I think I am wiser, at least more +sober, neither richer nor more likely to be rich than I was in the +days of Chiefswood and Kaeside,—after all, our best days, I still +believe."</p> + +<p>He goes on to say that he has quite forsworn politics, over which he +and his correspondent used sometimes to dispute, and has satisfied +himself "that the age of Toryism is by forever." He remains "a very +tranquil and indifferent observer."</p> + +<p>"Perhaps, however, much of this equanimity as to passing affairs has +arisen from the call which has been made on me to live in the past, +bestowing for so many months all the time I could command, and all the +care I have really any heart in, upon the manuscript remains of our +dear friend. I am glad that Cadell and the few others who have seen +what I have done with these are pleased, but I assure you none of them +can think more lightly of my own part in the matter than I do myself. +My sole object is to do him justice, or rather to let him do himself +justice, by so contriving it that he shall be as far as possible, from +first to last, his own historiographer; and I have therefore willingly +expended the time that would have sufficed for writing a dozen books +on what will be no more than the compilation of one. A stern sense of +duty—that kind of sense of it which is combined with the feeling of +his actual presence in a serene state of elevation above all +terrestrial and temporary views—will induce me to touch the few +darker points in his life and character as freely as the others which +were so predominant; and my <span class="pagenum"><a id="pagexxvi" name="pagexxvi"></a>(p. xxvi)</span> chief anxiety on the appearance +of the book will be, not to hear what is said by the world, but what +is thought by you and the few others who can really compare the +representation as a whole with the facts of the case. I shall, +therefore, desire Cadell to send you the volumes as they are printed, +though long before publication, in the confidence that they will be +kept sacred, while unpublished, to yourself and your own household; +and if you can give me encouragement on seeing the first and second, +now I think nearly out of the printer's hands, it will be very +serviceable to me in the completion of the others. I have waived all +my own notions as to the manner of publication, and so forth, in +deference to the bookseller, who is still so largely our creditor, +and, I am grieved to add, will probably continue to be so for many +years to come.</p> + +<p>"Your letters of the closing period I wish you would send to me; and +of these I am sure some use, and some good use, may be made, as of +those addressed to myself at the same time, which all, however +melancholy to compare with those of the better day, have traces of the +man. Out of these confused and painful scraps I think I can contrive +to put together a picture that will be highly touching of a great mind +shattered, but never degraded, and always to the last noble, as his +heart continued pure and warm as long as it could beat."<a id="footnotetag6" name="footnotetag6"></a><a href="#footnote6"><span class="small" title="Go to Footnote 6">[6]</span></a></p> + +<p>A few weeks after this letter was written Mrs. Lockhart was seized +with an illness almost hopeless, it would seem, from the first. She +died May 17, and this bereavement overclouded the rest of her +husband's life, though, after a few months' retirement to +Milton-Lockhart, he returned to his usual occupations, more devoted +than ever to his children, their happiness and well-being having +become the object of his life. Of his own rarely expressed feelings, +we get a glimpse in a letter to Milman written <span class="pagenum"><a id="pagexxvii" name="pagexxvii"></a>(p. xxvii)</span> five years +later (October, 1842), after he had attended the funeral of the wife +of a friend. His correspondent at this time was mourning the loss of a +daughter. "I lived over the hour when you stood by me,—but indeed +such an hour is eternally present. After that in every picture of life +the central figure is replaced by a black blot; every train of thought +terminates in the same blank gulf. I see you have been allowing +yourself to dwell too near this dreary region. Escape it while the +wife of your youth is still by you; in her presence no grief should be +other than gentle."<a id="footnotetag7" name="footnotetag7"></a><a href="#footnote7"><span class="small" title="Go to Footnote 7">[7]</span></a></p> + +<p>When the earlier volumes of the Life had been published, Lockhart +wrote to Haydon: "Your approbation of the Life of Scott is valuable, +and might well console me for all the abuse it has called forth, both +on him and me. I trusted to the substantial goodness and greatness of +the character, and thought I should only make it more effective in +portraiture by keeping in the few specks. I despise with my heels the +whole trickery of erecting an alabaster image, and calling that a +<span class="italic">Man</span>.... The work is now done, and I leave it to its fate. I had no +personal object to gratify except, indeed, that I wished and hoped to +please my poor wife." From a letter to Miss Edgeworth we learn that +Mrs. Lockhart, who had been her husband's secretary for years in the +preparation of the Memoirs, only lived to see, not to read, the first +volume.<a id="footnotetag8" name="footnotetag8"></a><a href="#footnote8"><span class="small" title="Go to Footnote 8">[8]</span></a> It should be said here that the work was in every sense a +labor of love on Lockhart's part, as all the profits of the book went +towards the payment of Sir Walter's debt.</p> + +<p>One of the friends of these years was Carlyle, who had first met +Lockhart at a Fraser dinner in 1831, and "rather liked the man, and +shall like to meet him again." Long afterward he was to write of him +as one "whom in the <span class="pagenum"><a id="pagexxviii" name="pagexxviii"></a>(p. xxviii)</span> distance I esteemed more than perhaps +he ever knew. Seldom did I speak to him; but hardly ever without +learning and gaining something." Though the two men did not meet +often, Carlyle became warmly attached to Lockhart, and so much of +their correspondence as has been preserved forms one of the most +interesting chapters in Mr. Lang's biography. Some of the letters show +Carlyle in his best mood, and are peculiarly affectionate in tone. On +one occasion he writes to Lockhart, as though sure of his sympathy, in +a time of sorrow, and the reply, which came quickly, contains a part +of a poem which was written in one of Lockhart's diary books in June, +1841, and cannot be omitted from any sketch of his life:—</p> + +<p class="poem30"> +"When youthful faith has fled,<br> +<span class="add1em">Of loving take thy leave;</span><br> +Be constant to the dead,<br> +<span class="add1em">The dead cannot deceive.</span><br> +"Sweet, modest flowers of spring,<br> +<span class="add1em">How fleet your balmy day!</span><br> +And man's brief year can bring<br> +<span class="add1em">No secondary May.</span><br> +"No earthly burst again<br> +<span class="add1em">Of gladness out of gloom;</span><br> +Fond hope and vision vain,<br> +<span class="add1em">Ungrateful to the tomb!</span><br> +"But 't is an old belief,<br> +<span class="add1em">That on some solemn shore,</span><br> +Beyond the sphere of grief,<br> +<span class="add1em">Dear friends will meet once more.</span><br> +"Beyond the sphere of time,<br> +<span class="add1em">And sin, and fate's control,</span><br> +Serene in changeless prime<br> +<span class="add1em">Of body and of soul.</span><br> +"That creed I fain would keep,<br> +<span class="add1em">That hope I'll not forego;</span><br> +Eternal be the sleep,<br> +<span class="add1em">Unless to waken so."<a id="footnotetag9" name="footnotetag9"></a><a href="#footnote9"><span class="small" title="Go to Footnote 9">[9]</span></a></span></p> + +<p>Carlyle <span class="pagenum"><a id="pagexxix" name="pagexxix"></a>(p. xxix)</span> earnestly urged that Lockhart's memoirs should be +written while his old friends were yet living. Had this been done, not +only would more of his letters have been preserved, to the gain of +readers, but some misapprehensions regarding him might not have +hardened into conventions.<a id="footnotetag10" name="footnotetag10"></a><a href="#footnote10"><span class="small" title="Go to Footnote 10">[10]</span></a> When the Lockharts left Scotland, Sir +Walter wrote with much feeling to his good friend, Mrs. Hughes, soon +to become and to remain their good friend as well, regarding the +painfulness of the separation, adding: "I wish to bespeak your +affection for Lockhart. When you come to know him you will not want to +be solicited, for I know you will love and understand him, but he is +not easy to know or to be appreciated, as he so well deserves, at +first; he shrinks at a first touch, but take a good hard hammer (it +need not be a sledge one), break the shell, and the kernel will repay +you. Under a cold exterior, Lockhart conceals the warmest affections, +and where he once professes regard he never changes."<a id="footnotetag11" name="footnotetag11"></a><a href="#footnote11"><span class="small" title="Go to Footnote 11">[11]</span></a> Long +afterwards, the son-in-law of Lockhart was to speak of the "depth +<span class="pagenum"><a id="pagexxx" name="pagexxx"></a>(p. xxx)</span> and tenderness of feeling which he so often hid under an +almost fierce reserve." This reserve, largely the result of +constitutional shyness, was intensified by the sharp sorrows of his +later life. In truth, as Mr. Leslie Stephen has said: "Lockhart was +one of the men who are predestined to be generally misunderstood. He +was an intellectual aristocrat, fastidious and over-sensitive, with +very fine perceptions, but endowed with rather too hearty a scorn of +fools as well as of folly.... The shyness due to a sensitive nature, +was mistaken, as is so often the case, for supercilious pride, and the +unwillingness to wear his heart on his sleeve, for coldness and want +of sympathy. Such men have to be content with scanty appreciation from +the outside."<a id="footnotetag12" name="footnotetag12"></a><a href="#footnote12"><span class="small" title="Go to Footnote 12">[12]</span></a> Fortunately, there were those, not a few, who did +not remain outside, and when any of these have written of their +friend, there is a singular agreement in their testimony. In every-day +matters, in the performance of his editorial or social duties, he was +unfailingly prompt, exact, and courteous. Never a rich man, nor ever +extravagant in his personal expenditures, he was a most generous +giver, especially to unfortunate members of his own craft. Inclined to +be somewhat silent in large companies, among his friends he was a +brilliant talker, though always a ready and willing listener. He +asserted a power over society, Mr. Gleig has noted, "which is not +generally conceded to men having only their personal merits to rely +upon. He was never the lion of a season, or of two seasons, or of +more. He kept his place to the last." Being a gentleman and a man of +sense, he neither over-valued nor under-valued the attractions of the +great world. Regarding one of his personal attributes, all who saw him +were of the same mind: his quite exceptional and very striking beauty +of face and distinction of bearing never failed to impress those +brought into contact <span class="pagenum"><a id="pagexxxi" name="pagexxxi"></a>(p. xxxi)</span> with him ever so slightly, even in the +sad days when broken health and much sorrow had made him an old man +long before his time. A proud man, he was absolutely without vanity, +and had little tolerance for it in others; undoubtedly, some measure +of this quality would have made him a happier man, and one more +ambitious of literary success. Almost from his boyhood he could +greatly admire great work even while it was yet not only caviare to +the general, but under the condemnation of the critical arbiters of +the day. It was said of him, that as a critic, "high over every other +consideration predominated the love of letters. If any work of genius +appeared, Trojan or Tyrian, it was one to him—his kindred spirit was +kindled at once, his admiration and sympathy threw off all trammel. He +would resist rebuke, remonstrance, to do justice to the works of +political antagonists—that impartial homage was at once freely, +boldly, lavishly paid."</p> + +<p>"The love of children," wrote Mr. Christie, "was stronger in Lockhart +than I have ever known it in any other man. I never saw so happy a +father as he was with his first-born child in his arms. His first +sorrow was the breaking of the health of this child." There is no need +here to tell the pathetic story of that brief life; but the same +devoted love which had watched over it, was given in full measure to +the children who remained. Of the daughter, Mr. Gleig writes: "She was +the brightest, merriest, and most affectionate of creatures; and her +marriage, in 1847, to Mr. James Hope, met her father's entire +approval. He was satisfied that in giving her to Mr. Hope, he +entrusted his chief earthly treasure to a tender guardian, and strove, +in that reflection, to overshadow the thought that he must himself +henceforth be to her an object of secondary interest only. She never +voluntarily caused him one moment's pain. Nevertheless, it must not +be <span class="pagenum"><a id="pagexxxii" name="pagexxxii"></a>(p. xxxii)</span> concealed that the secession of Mr. and Mrs. Hope-Scott +to the Roman Catholic faith greatly distressed Lockhart, although he +did full justice to the conscientious motives by which they were +actuated."<a id="footnotetag13" name="footnotetag13"></a><a href="#footnote13"><span class="small" title="Go to Footnote 13">[13]</span></a> His attitude is best shown in the letter written to Mr. +Hope at this time, in which he says: "I had clung to the hope that you +would not finally quit the Church of England, but am not so +presumptuous as to say a word more on that step as respects yourself, +who have not certainly assumed so heavy a responsibility without much +study and reflection. As concerns others, I am thoroughly aware that +they may count upon any mitigation which the purest intentions and the +most generous and tender feelings on your part can bring. And I trust +that this, the only part of your conduct that has ever given me pain, +need not now, or ever, disturb the confidence in which it has been of +late a principal consolation for me to live with my son-in-law."<a id="footnotetag14" name="footnotetag14"></a><a href="#footnote14"><span class="small" title="Go to Footnote 14">[14]</span></a></p> + +<p>Lockhart's letters show how well pleased he was with his daughter's +marriage, though it left him alone in his home. His diary says of +1847: "A year to me of very indifferent health and great anxieties. +Charlotte's marriage <span class="italic">the only good thing</span>." The beginning of the year +had been saddened by the death of his brother-in-law, Sir Walter +Scott; and the extravagance and waywardness of his son, now the laird +of Abbotsford, had already greatly distressed the father and were to +inflict more torturing anxiety and keener suffering as time went on. +Walter Lockhart, in his happy, healthy boyhood, did not show the +intellectual precocity of his elder brother; but he was a handsome, +intelligent, and winning lad, with no foreshadowing of the +recklessness of his later years. Mr. Lang, who can speak from +knowledge, says: "Could all be known and told, it is not too much to +say that Lockhart's fortitude <span class="pagenum"><a id="pagexxxiii" name="pagexxxiii"></a>(p. xxxiii)</span> during these last years, so +black with affliction, bodily and mental, was not less admirable than +that of Sir Walter Scott himself. Thus, the trials from which we are +tempted to avert our eyes, really brought out the noblest manly +qualities of cheerful endurance, of gentle consideration for all, who, +being sorry for his sorrow, must be prevented from knowing how deep +and incurable were his wounds." And it should be said that in these +years Lockhart had to suffer that sharpest of griefs which happily Sir +Walter never knew.</p> + +<p>Outwardly, Lockhart's life went on much as usual, save that constantly +failing health made editorial labors more fatiguing, and social +relaxations less and less frequent. But in his letters there is little +change; nothing could overcome "a kind of intellectual high spirits +when his pen was in his hand." His ill health is but slightly dwelt +upon, and only to his daughter is the ever present anxiety revealed. +At last came a ray of hope to the father's heart, a reconciliation, +and then Walter's sudden death. Sorely tried as it had been, the +father's love had never weakened; and after those inexpressibly sad +days at Versailles, recorded with such self-restraint in his letters +to his daughter, his health declined rapidly. On July 5, 1853, he +notes that his doctors agree that he must not attempt the next Review, +and a few days later, he writes, "I suppose my last number of the +Quarterly Review." He had never ceased to be an occasional contributor +to Blackwood; the pages in memory of its founder, which appeared in +October, 1834, were from his pen, and in those days he still took +pleasure in sometimes "making a Noctes." The annalist of the +Blackwoods has given the last note to the publisher, written very near +the end:—</p> + +<p>"Dear B.,—If you think the enclosed worth a page, any time, they are +at the service of Maga, from her very old servant, now released from +all service, J. G. L."</p> + +<p>That <span class="pagenum"><a id="pagexxxiv" name="pagexxxiv"></a>(p. xxxiv)</span> service had lasted for more than the length of a +generation.</p> + +<p>Dean Boyle, in his interesting notes on Lockhart in his later life, +recalls his remark: "If I had to write my Life of Scott over again, +now, I should say more about his religious opinions. Some people may +think passages in his novels conventional and commonplace, but he +hated cant, and every word he said came from his heart." Of Lockhart's +own religious opinions, Mr. Gleig writes: "A clergyman, with whom he +had lived in constant intimacy from his Oxford days [probably the +writer himself], was in the frequent habit, between 1851 and 1853, of +calling upon Lockhart in Sussex Place, and taking short walks with +him, especially in the afternoons of Sunday. With whatever topic their +colloquy might begin, it invariably fell off, so to speak, of its own +accord, into discussions upon the character and teachings of the +Saviour; upon the influence exercised by both over the opinions and +habits of mankind; upon the light thrown by them on man's future state +and present destiny; and the points both of similitude and its +opposite between the philosophy of Greece in its best days and the +religion of Christ. Lockhart was never so charming as in these +discussions. It was evident that the subject filled his whole mind, +for the views which he enunciated were large, and broad, and most +reverential—free at once from the bigoted dogmatism which passes +current in certain circles for religion ... and from the loose, +unmeaning jargon which is too often accepted as rational +Christianity."<a id="footnotetag15" name="footnotetag15"></a><a href="#footnote15"><span class="small" title="Go to Footnote 15">[15]</span></a></p> + +<p>Lockhart spent the autumn and winter of 1853-54 in Rome, seeking too +late for such amendment as rest and change might give. He was too ill +to take much pleasure in his sojourn there, but his bodily feebleness +did not dull his mental vigor, and it is characteristic that he at +once <span class="pagenum"><a id="pagexxxv" name="pagexxxv"></a>(p. xxxv)</span> began to read Dante with Dr. Lucentini. He knew the +language well, but wished to master the difficulties of the great +poet, and so turned to the most accomplished of helpers, who naturally +found Lockhart a brilliant and acute pupil, the mention of whom ever +after roused the teacher to enthusiasm. No one, he declared, had ever +put him so on his mettle. The invalid wrote long letters, descriptive +of his Roman life, to his daughter, which show that he exerted himself +much beyond the little strength that remained to him, and in the +spring he gladly turned his face homeward. His resignation of his +editorship was now made absolute, and, with greatly diminished income +(his expenses in consequence of his son's follies had been heavy), he +prepared to leave the house which had been so long his, and seek some +new abiding-place. But his release was at hand. In August, he went to +Milton-Lockhart, to the kind care of his brother's household, always +writing as cheerfully as might be of himself to his daughter. "The +weather is delicious," he says in one of the last letters, "warm, very +warm, but a gentle breeze keeping the leaves in motion all about, and +the sun sheathed, as Wordsworth hath it, with a soft gray layer of +cloud. I am glad to fancy you all enjoying yourselves (I include sweet +M. M.) in this heavenly summer season. If people knew beforehand what +it is to lose health, and all that can't survive health, they would in +youth be what it is easy to preach; do you <span class="italic">try</span>? I fancy it costs +none of you very much effort either to be good or happy." In October +he went to Abbotsford, and it was at once seen that he was a dying +man. He had gone one day in "most heavenly weather," from +Milton-Lockhart to Douglas, where he had spent, in the old time, a +memorable summer day with the stricken Scott, of which he has left us +the record; and he now desired to be driven about to take leave of the +places on Tweedside, which then had been <span class="pagenum"><a id="pagexxxvi" name="pagexxxvi"></a>(p. xxxvi)</span> a part of his +life. His little granddaughter was very dear to him in these last +days. It is still remembered, how, as he lay ill, he loved to hear her +running about the house. "It is life to me," he said. He died November +25, 1854, and was buried, as he had desired, in Dryburgh Abbey, "at +the feet of Sir Walter Scott."<a href="#toc"><span class="small">[Back to Contents]</span></a></p> + + +<h2>PREFACE <span class="pagenum"><a id="pagexxxvii" name="pagexxxvii"></a>(p. xxxvii)</span></h2> + +<p class="left50"><span class="smcap">London</span>, December 20, 1836.</p> + +<p>In obedience to the instructions of Sir Walter Scott's last will, I +had made some progress in a narrative of his personal history, before +there was discovered, in an old cabinet at Abbotsford, an +autobiographical fragment, composed by him in 1808—shortly after the +publication of his Marmion.</p> + +<p>This fortunate accident rendered it necessary that I should altogether +remodel the work which I had commenced. The first chapter of the +following Memoirs consists of the Ashestiel fragment; which gives a +clear outline of his early life down to the period of his call to the +Bar—July, 1792. All the notes appended to this chapter are also by +himself. They are in a handwriting very different from the text, and +seem, from various circumstances, to have been added in 1826.</p> + +<p>It appeared to me, however, that the author's modesty had prevented +him from telling the story of his youth with that fulness of detail +which would now satisfy the public. I have therefore recast my own +collections as to the period in question, and presented the substance +of them, in five succeeding chapters, as <span class="italic">illustrations</span> of his too +brief autobiography. This procedure has been attended with many +obvious disadvantages; but I greatly preferred it to printing the +precious fragment in an Appendix.</p> + +<p>I foresee that some readers may be apt to accuse me of trenching +<span class="pagenum"><a id="pagexxxviii" name="pagexxxviii"></a>(p. xxxviii)</span> upon delicacy in certain details of the sixth and seventh +chapters in this volume. Though the circumstances there treated of had +no trivial influence on Sir Walter Scott's history and character, I +should have been inclined, for many reasons, to omit them; but the +choice was, in fact, not left to me,—for they had been mentioned, and +misrepresented, in various preceding sketches of the Life which I had +undertaken to illustrate. Such being the case, I considered it as my +duty to tell the story truly and intelligibly; but I trust I have +avoided unnecessary disclosures; and, after all, there was nothing to +disclose that could have attached blame to any of the parties +concerned.</p> + +<p>For the copious materials which the friends of Sir Walter have placed +at my disposal I feel just gratitude. Several of them are named in the +course of the present volume; but I must take this opportunity of +expressing my sense of the deep obligations under which I have been +laid by the frank communications, in particular, of William Clerk, +Esq., of Eldin,—John Irving, Esq., W. S.,—Sir Adam Ferguson,—James +Skene, Esq., of Rubislaw,—Patrick Murray, Esq., of Simprim,—J. B. S. +Morritt, Esq., of Rokeby,—William Wordsworth, Esq.,—Robert Southey, +Esq., Poet Laureate,—Samuel Rogers, Esq.,—William Stewart Rose, +Esq.,—Sir Alexander Wood,—the Right Hon. the Lord Chief Commissioner +Adam,—the Right Hon. Sir William Rae, Bart.,—the late Right Hon. Sir +William Knighton, Bart.,—the Right Hon. J. W. Croker,—Lord +Jeffrey,—Sir Henry Halford, Bart., G. C. H.,—the late Major-General +Sir John Malcolm, G. C. B.,—Sir Francis Chantrey, R. A.,—Sir David +Wilkie, R. A.,—Thomas Thomson, Esq., P. C. S.,—Charles Kirkpatrick +Sharpe, Esq.,—William Scott, of Raeburn, Esq.,—John Scott, of Gala, +Esq.,—Alexander Pringle, of Whytbank, Esq., M. P.,—John Swinton, +<span class="pagenum"><a id="pagexxxix" name="pagexxxix"></a>(p. xxxix)</span> of Inverleith-Place, Esq.,—John Richardson, Esq., of +Fludyer Street,—John Murray, Esq., of Albemarle Street,—Robert +Bruce, Esq., Sheriff of Argyle,—Robert Fergusson, Esq., M. D.,—G. P. +R. James, Esq.,—William Laidlaw, Esq.,—Robert Cadell, Esq.,—John +Elliot Shortreed, Esq.,—Allan Cunningham, Esq.,—Claud Russell, +Esq.,—James Clarkson, Esq., of Melrose,—the late James Ballantyne, +Esq.,—Joseph Train, Esq.,—Adolphus Ross, Esq., M. D.,—William +Allan, Esq., R. A.,—Charles Dumergue, Esq.,—Stephen Nicholson +Barber, Esq.,—James Slade, Esq.,—Mrs. Joanna Baillie,—Mrs. George +Ellis,—Mrs. Thomas Scott,—Mrs. Charles Carpenter,—Miss Russell of +Ashestiel,—Mrs. Sarah Nicholson,—Mrs. Duncan, Mertoun-Manse,—the +Right Hon. the Lady Polwarth, and her sons, Henry, Master of Polwarth, +the Hon. and Rev. William, and the Hon. Francis Scott.</p> + +<p>I beg leave to acknowledge with equal thankfulness the courtesy of the +Rev. Dr. Harwood, Thomas White, Esq., Mrs. Thomson, and the Rev. +Richard Garnett, all of Lichfield, and the Rev. Thomas Henry White, of +Glasgow, in forwarding to me Sir Walter Scott's early letters to Miss +Seward: that of the Lord Seaford, in entrusting me with those +addressed to his late cousin, George Ellis, Esq.: and the kind +readiness with which whatever papers in their possession could be +serviceable to my undertaking were supplied by the Duke and Duchess of +Buccleuch, and the Lord Montagu;—the Duchess-Countess of Sutherland, +and the Lord Francis Egerton;—the Lord Viscount Sidmouth,—the Lord +Bishop of Llandaff,—the Right Hon. Sir Robert Peel, Bart.,—the Lady +Louisa Stuart,—the Hon. Mrs. Warrender, and the Hon. Catharine +Arden,—Lady Davy,—Miss Edgeworth,—Mrs. Maclean Clephane, of +Torloisk,—Mrs. Hughes, of Uffington,—Mrs. Terry now +(Richardson),—Mrs. Bartley,—Sir George <span class="pagenum"><a id="pagexl" name="pagexl"></a>(p. xl)</span> Mackenzie of Coul, +Bart.,—the late Sir Francis Freeling, Bart.,—Captain Sir Hugh +Pigott, R. N.,—the late Sir William Gell,—Sir Cuthbert Sharp,—the +Very Rev. Principal Baird,—the Rev. William Steven of Rotterdam,—the +late Rev. James Mitchell, of Wooler—Robert William Hay, Esq., lately +Under Secretary of State for the Colonial Department,—John Borthwick, +of Crookstone, Esq.,—John Cay, Esq., Sheriff of Linlithgow,—Captain +Basil Hall, R. N.,—Thomas Crofton Croker, Esq.,—Edward Cheney, +Esq.,—Alexander Young, Esq., of Harburn,—A. J. Valpy, Esq.,—James +Maidment, Esq., Advocate,—the late Donald Gregory, Esq.,—Robert +Johnston, Esq., of Edinburgh,<a id="footnotetag16" name="footnotetag16"></a><a href="#footnote16"><span class="small" title="Go to Footnote 16">[16]</span></a>—J. J. Masquerier, Esq., of +Brighton,—Owen Rees, Esq., of Paternoster Row,<a id="footnotetag17" name="footnotetag17"></a><a href="#footnote17"><span class="small" title="Go to Footnote 17">[17]</span></a>—William Miller, +Esq., formerly of Albemarle Street,—David Laing, Esq., of +Edinburgh—and John Smith the Youngest, Esq., of Glasgow.</p> + +<p class="left50"><span class="smcap">J. G. Lockhart</span>.<a href="#toc"><span class="small">[Back to Contents]</span></a></p> + +<span class="pagenum"><a id="pagexli" name="pagexli"></a>(p. xli)</span> +<p class="center p4">TO<br> +JOHN BACON SAWREY MORRITT<br> +OF ROKEBY PARK, <span class="smcap">Esq</span>.<br> +THESE MEMOIRS OF HIS FRIEND<br> +ARE RESPECTFULLY AND AFFECTIONATELY<br> +INSCRIBED<br> +BY<br> +THE AUTHOR</p> + + +<h2>MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE<br> +OF<br> +SIR WALTER SCOTT</h2> + + +<h3>CHAPTER I <span class="pagenum"><a id="page001" name="page001"></a>(p. 001)</span></h3> + +<p class="summary">memoir of the early life of sir walter scott,<br> +written by himself</p> + +<p class="left50"><span class="smcap">Ashestiel</span>, April 26, 1808.</p> + +<p>The present age has discovered a desire, or rather a rage, for +literary anecdote and private history, that may be well permitted to +alarm one who has engaged in a certain degree the attention of the +public. That I have had more than my own share of popularity, my +contemporaries will be as ready to admit as I am to confess that its +measure has exceeded not only my hopes, but my merits, and even +wishes. I may be therefore permitted, without an extraordinary degree +of vanity, to take the precaution of recording a few leading +circumstances (they do not merit the name of events) of a very quiet +and uniform life—that, should my literary reputation survive my +temporal existence, the public may know from good authority all that +they are entitled to know of an individual who has contributed to +their amusement.</p> + +<p>From the lives of some poets a most important moral lesson may +doubtless be derived, and few sermons can be read with so much profit +as the Memoirs of Burns, of Chatterton, or of Savage. Were I conscious +of anything peculiar <span class="pagenum"><a id="page002" name="page002"></a>(p. 002)</span> in my own moral character which could +render such development necessary or useful, I would as readily +consent to it as I would bequeath my body to dissection, if the +operation could tend to point out the nature and the means of curing +any peculiar malady. But as my habits of thinking and acting, as well +as my rank in society, were fixed long before I had attained, or even +pretended to, any poetical reputation,<a id="footnotetag18" name="footnotetag18"></a><a href="#footnote18"><span class="small" title="Go to Footnote 18">[18]</span></a> and as it produced, when +acquired, no remarkable change upon either, it is hardly to be +expected that much information can be derived from minutely +investigating frailties, follies, or vices, not very different in +number or degree from those of other men in my situation. As I have +not been blessed with the talents of Burns or Chatterton, I have been +happily exempted from the influence of their violent passions, +exasperated by the struggle of feelings which rose up against the +unjust decrees of fortune. Yet, although I cannot tell of difficulties +vanquished, and distance of rank annihilated by the strength of +genius, those who shall hereafter read this little Memoir may find in +it some hints to be improved, for the regulation of their own minds, +or the training those of others.</p> + +<p>Every Scottishman has a pedigree. It is a national prerogative as +unalienable as his pride and his poverty. My birth was neither +distinguished nor sordid. According to the prejudices of my country, +it was esteemed <span class="italic">gentle</span>, <span class="pagenum"><a id="page003" name="page003"></a>(p. 003)</span> as I was connected, though +remotely, with ancient families both by my father's and mother's side. +My father's grandfather was Walter Scott, well known in Teviotdale by +the surname of <span class="italic">Beardie</span>. He was the second son of Walter Scott, first +Laird of Raeburn, who was third son of Sir William Scott, and the +grandson of Walter Scott, commonly called in tradition <span class="italic">Auld Watt</span>, of +Harden. I am therefore lineally descended from that ancient chieftain, +whose name I have made to ring in many a ditty, and from his fair +dame, the Flower of Yarrow—no bad genealogy for a Border minstrel. +<span class="italic">Beardie</span>, my great-grandfather aforesaid, derived his cognomen from a +venerable beard, which he wore unblemished by razor or scissors, in +token of his regret for the banished dynasty of Stuart. It would have +been well that his zeal had stopped there. But he took arms, and +intrigued in their cause, until he lost all he had in the world, and, +as I have heard, run a narrow risk of being hanged, had it not been +for the interference of Anne, Duchess of Buccleuch and Monmouth. +Beardie's elder brother, William Scott of Raeburn, my +great-grand-uncle, was killed about the age of twenty-one, in a duel +with Pringle of Crichton, grandfather of the present Mark Pringle of +Clifton. They fought with swords, as was the fashion of the time, in a +field near Selkirk, called from the catastrophe the <span class="italic">Raeburn +Meadow-spot</span>. Pringle fled from Scotland to Spain, and was long a +captive and slave in Barbary. <span class="italic">Beardie</span> became, of course, <span class="italic">Tutor of +Raeburn</span>, as the old Scottish phrase called him—that is, guardian to +his infant nephew, father of the present Walter Scott of Raeburn. He +also managed the estates of Makerstoun, being nearly related to that +family by his mother, Isobel MacDougal. I suppose he had some +allowance for his care in either case, and subsisted upon that and the +fortune which he had by his wife, a Miss Campbell of Silvercraigs, in +the west, through which connection my father used to <span class="italic">call cousin</span>, as +they say, with <span class="pagenum"><a id="page004" name="page004"></a>(p. 004)</span> the Campbells of Blythswood. Beardie was a +man of some learning, and a friend of Dr. Pitcairn, to whom his +politics probably made him acceptable. They had a Tory or Jacobite +club in Edinburgh, in which the conversation is said to have been +maintained in Latin. Old Beardie died in a house, still standing, at +the northeast entrance to the Churchyard of Kelso, about ... [November +3, 1729.]</p> + +<p>He left three sons. The eldest, Walter, had a family, of which any +that now remain have been long settled in America:—the male heirs are +long since extinct. The third was William, father of James Scott, well +known in India as one of the original settlers of Prince of Wales +Island:—he had, besides, a numerous family both of sons and +daughters, and died at Lasswade, in Mid-Lothian, about....</p> + +<p>The second, Robert Scott, was my grandfather. He was originally bred +to the sea; but, being shipwrecked near Dundee in his trial voyage, he +took such a sincere dislike to that element, that he could not be +persuaded to a second attempt. This occasioned a quarrel between him +and his father, who left him to shift for himself. Robert was one of +those active spirits to whom this was no misfortune. He turned Whig +upon the spot, and fairly abjured his father's politics and his +learned poverty. His chief and relative, Mr. Scott of Harden, gave him +a lease of the farm of Sandy-Knowe, comprehending the rocks in the +centre of which Smailholm or Sandy-Knowe Tower is situated. He took +for his shepherd an old man called Hogg, who willingly lent him, out +of respect to his family, his whole savings, about £30, to stock the +new farm. With this sum, which it seems was at the time sufficient for +the purpose, the master and servant set off to purchase a stock of +sheep at Whitsun-Tryste, a fair held on a hill near Wooler in +Northumberland. The old shepherd went carefully from drove to drove, +till he found a <span class="italic">hirsel</span> likely to answer their purpose, and <span class="pagenum"><a id="page005" name="page005"></a>(p. 005)</span> +then returned to tell his master to come up and conclude the bargain. +But what was his surprise to see him galloping a mettled hunter about +the racecourse, and to find he had expended the whole stock in this +extraordinary purchase!—Moses's bargain of green spectacles did not +strike more dismay into the Vicar of Wakefield's family than my +grandfather's rashness into the poor old shepherd. The thing, however, +was irretrievable, and they returned without the sheep. In the course +of a few days, however, my grandfather, who was one of the best +horsemen of his time, attended John Scott of Harden's hounds on this +same horse, and displayed him to such advantage that he sold him for +double the original price. The farm was now stocked in earnest; and +the rest of my grandfather's career was that of successful industry. +He was one of the first who were active in the cattle trade, +afterwards carried to such extent between the Highlands of Scotland +and the leading counties in England, and by his droving transactions +acquired a considerable sum of money. He was a man of middle stature, +extremely active, quick, keen, and fiery in his temper, stubbornly +honest, and so distinguished for his skill in country matters that he +was the general referee in all points of dispute which occurred in the +neighborhood. His birth being admitted as <span class="italic">gentle</span> gave him access to +the best society in the county, and his dexterity in country sports, +particularly hunting, made him an acceptable companion in the field as +well as at the table.<a id="footnotetag19" name="footnotetag19"></a><a href="#footnote19"><span class="small" title="Go to Footnote 19">[19]</span></a></p> + +<p>Robert Scott of Sandy-Knowe married, in 1728, Barbara Haliburton, +daughter of Thomas Haliburton of Newmains, an ancient and respectable +family in Berwickshire. Among other patrimonial possessions, they +enjoyed the part of Dryburgh, now the property of the Earl of Buchan, +comprehending the ruins of the Abbey. My <span class="pagenum"><a id="page006" name="page006"></a>(p. 006)</span> grand-uncle, Robert +Haliburton, having no male heirs, this estate, as well as the +representation of the family, would have devolved upon my father, and +indeed old Newmains had settled it upon him; but this was prevented by +the misfortunes of my grand-uncle, a weak, silly man, who engaged in +trade, for which he had neither stock nor talents, and became +bankrupt. The ancient patrimony was sold for a trifle (about £3000), +and my father, who might have purchased it with ease, was dissuaded by +my grandfather, who at that time believed a more advantageous purchase +might have been made of some lands which Raeburn thought of selling. +And thus we have nothing left of Dryburgh, although my father's +maternal inheritance, but the right of stretching our bones where mine +may perhaps be laid ere any eye but my own glances over these pages.</p> + +<p>Walter Scott, my father, was born in 1729, and educated to the +profession of a Writer to the Signet. He was the eldest of a large +family, several of whom I shall have occasion to mention with a +tribute of sincere gratitude. My father was a singular instance of a +man rising to eminence in a profession for which nature had in some +degree unfitted him. He had indeed a turn for labor, and a pleasure in +analyzing the abstruse feudal doctrines connected with conveyancing, +which would probably have rendered him unrivalled in the line of a +special pleader, had there been such a profession in Scotland; but in +the actual business of the profession which he embraced, in that sharp +and intuitive perception which is necessary in driving bargains for +himself and others, in availing himself of the wants, necessities, +caprices, and follies of some, and guarding against the knavery and +malice of others, Uncle Toby himself could not have conducted himself +with more simplicity than my father. Most attorneys have been +suspected, more or less justly, of making their own fortune at the +expense of their clients—my father's fate was to vindicate his +calling from <span class="pagenum"><a id="page007" name="page007"></a>(p. 007)</span> the stain in one instance, for in many cases +his clients contrived to ease him of considerable sums. Many +worshipful and be-knighted names occur to my memory, who did him the +honor to run in his debt to the amount of thousands, and to pay him +with a lawsuit, or a commission of bankruptcy, as the case happened. +But they are gone to a different accounting, and it would be +ungenerous to visit their disgrace upon their descendants. My father +was wont also to give openings, to those who were pleased to take +them, to pick a quarrel with him. He had a zeal for his clients which +was almost ludicrous: far from coldly discharging the duties of his +employment towards them, he thought for them, felt for their honor as +for his own, and rather risked disobliging them than neglecting +anything to which he conceived their duty bound them. If there was an +old mother or aunt to be maintained, he was, I am afraid, too apt to +administer to their necessities from what the young heir had destined +exclusively to his pleasures. This ready discharge of obligations +which the Civilians tell us are only natural and not legal, did not, I +fear, recommend him to his employers. Yet his practice was, at one +period of his life, very extensive. He understood his business +theoretically, and was early introduced to it by a partnership with +George Chalmers, Writer to the Signet, under whom he had served his +apprenticeship.</p> + +<p>His person and face were uncommonly handsome, with an expression of +sweetness of temper, which was not fallacious; his manners were rather +formal, but full of genuine kindness, especially when exercising the +duties of hospitality. His general habits were not only temperate, but +severely abstemious; but upon a festival occasion, there were few whom +a moderate glass of wine exhilarated to such a lively degree. His +religion, in which he was devoutly sincere, was Calvinism of the +strictest kind, and his favorite study related to church history. I +suspect the good old man was often engaged with Knox and +Spottiswoode's <span class="pagenum"><a id="page008" name="page008"></a>(p. 008)</span> folios, when, immured in his solitary room, +he was supposed to be immersed in professional researches. In his +political principles he was a steady friend to freedom, with a bias, +however, to the monarchical part of our constitution, which he +considered as peculiarly exposed to danger during the later years of +his life. He had much of ancient Scottish prejudice respecting the +forms of marriages, funerals, christenings, and so forth, and was +always vexed at any neglect of etiquette upon such occasions. As his +education had not been upon an enlarged plan, it could not be expected +that he should be an enlightened scholar, but he had not passed +through a busy life without observation; and his remarks upon times +and manners often exhibited strong traits of practical though untaught +philosophy. Let me conclude this sketch, which I am unconscious of +having overcharged, with a few lines written by the late Mrs. +Cockburn<a id="footnotetag20" name="footnotetag20"></a><a href="#footnote20"><span class="small" title="Go to Footnote 20">[20]</span></a> upon the subject. They made one among a set of poetical +characters which were given as toasts among a few friends; and we must +hold them to contain a striking likeness, since the original was +recognized so soon as they were read aloud:—</p> + +<p class="poem30"> +"To a thing that's uncommon—<br> + A youth of discretion,<br> + Who, though vastly handsome,<br> + Despises flirtation:<br> + To the friend in affliction,<br> + The heart of affection,<br> + Who may hear the last trump<br> + Without dread of detection."</p> + +<p>In [April, 1758] my father married Anne Rutherford, eldest daughter of +Dr. John Rutherford, professor of medicine in the University of +Edinburgh. He was one of those pupils of Boerhaave, to whom the school +of medicine in our northern metropolis owes its rise, and a man +distinguished <span class="pagenum"><a id="page009" name="page009"></a>(p. 009)</span> for professional talent, for lively wit, and +for literary acquirements. Dr. Rutherford was twice married. His first +wife, of whom my mother is the sole surviving child, was a daughter of +Sir John Swinton of Swinton, a family which produced many +distinguished warriors during the Middle Ages, and which, for +antiquity and honorable alliances, may rank with any in Britain. My +grandfather's second wife was Miss Mackay, by whom he had a second +family, of whom are now (1808) alive, Dr. Daniel Rutherford, professor +of botany in the University of Edinburgh, and Misses Janet and +Christian Rutherford, amiable and accomplished women.</p> + +<p>My father and mother had a very numerous family, no fewer, I believe, +than twelve children, of whom many were highly promising, though only +five survived very early youth. My eldest brother (that is, the eldest +whom I remember to have seen) was Robert Scott, so called after my +uncle, of whom I shall have much to say hereafter. He was bred in the +King's service, under Admiral, then Captain William Dickson, and was +in most of Rodney's battles. His temper was bold and haughty, and to +me was often checkered with what I felt to be capricious tyranny. In +other respects I loved him much, for he had a strong turn for +literature, read poetry with taste and judgment, and composed verses +himself, which had gained him great applause among his messmates. +Witness the following elegy upon the supposed loss of the vessel, +composed the night before Rodney's celebrated battle of April the +12th, 1782. It alludes to the various amusements of his mess:—</p> + +<p class="poem20"> + "No more the geese shall cackle on the poop,<br> +<span class="add1em">No more the bagpipe through the orlop sound,</span><br> + No more the midshipmen, a jovial group,<br> +<span class="add1em">Shall toast the girls, and push the bottle round.</span><br> + In death's dark road at anchor fast they stay,<br> +<span class="add1em">Till Heaven's loud signal shall in thunder roar;</span><br> + Then starting up, all hands shall quick obey,<br> +<span class="add1em">Sheet home the topsail, and with speed unmoor."</span></p> + +<p>Robert <span class="pagenum"><a id="page010" name="page010"></a>(p. 010)</span> sung agreeably—(a virtue which was never seen in +me)—understood the mechanical arts, and when in good humor, could +regale us with many a tale of bold adventure and narrow escapes. When +in bad humor, however, he gave us a practical taste of what was then +man-of-war's discipline, and kicked and cuffed without mercy. I have +often thought how he might have distinguished himself, had he +continued in the navy until the present times, so glorious for +nautical exploit. But the Peace of Paris [Versailles, 1783] cut off +all hopes of promotion for those who had not great interest; and some +disgust which his proud spirit had taken at harsh usage from a +superior officer, combined to throw poor Robert into the East India +Company's service, for which his habits were ill adapted. He made two +voyages to the East, and died a victim to the climate in....</p> + +<p>John Scott, my second brother, is about three years older than me. He +addicted himself to the military service, and is now brevet-major in +the 73rd regiment.<a id="footnotetag21" name="footnotetag21"></a><a href="#footnote21"><span class="small" title="Go to Footnote 21">[21]</span></a></p> + +<p>I had an only sister, Anne Scott, who seemed to be from her cradle the +butt for mischance to shoot arrows at. Her childhood was marked by +perilous escapes from the most extraordinary accidents. Among others, +I remember an iron-railed door leading into the area in the centre of +George's Square being closed by the wind, while her fingers were +betwixt the hasp and staple. Her hand was thus locked in, and must +have been smashed to pieces, had not the bones of her fingers been +remarkably slight and thin. As it was, the hand was cruelly mangled. +On another occasion she was nearly drowned in a pond, or old quarry +hole, in what was then called Brown's Park, on the south side of the +square. But the most unfortunate accident, and which, though it +happened while she <span class="pagenum"><a id="page011" name="page011"></a>(p. 011)</span> was only six years old, proved the remote +cause of her death, was her cap accidentally taking fire. The child +was alone in the room, and before assistance could be obtained, her +head was dreadfully scorched. After a lingering and dangerous illness, +she recovered—but never to enjoy perfect health. The slightest cold +occasioned swellings in her face, and other indications of a delicate +constitution. At length, in [1801], poor Anne was taken ill, and died +after a very short interval. Her temper, like that of her brothers, +was peculiar, and in her, perhaps, it showed more odd, from the habits +of indulgence which her nervous illnesses had formed. But she was at +heart an affectionate and kind girl, neither void of talent nor of +feeling, though living in an ideal world which she had framed to +herself by the force of imagination. Anne was my junior by about a +year.</p> + +<p>A year lower in the list was my brother Thomas Scott, who is still +alive.<a id="footnotetag22" name="footnotetag22"></a><a href="#footnote22"><span class="small" title="Go to Footnote 22">[22]</span></a></p> + +<p>Last, and most unfortunate of our family, was my youngest brother, +Daniel. With the same aversion to labor, or rather, I should say, the +same determined indolence that marked us all, he had neither the +vivacity of intellect which supplies the want of diligence, nor the +pride which renders the most detested labor better than dependence or +contempt. His career was as unfortunate as might be augured from such +an unhappy combination; and after various unsuccessful attempts to +establish himself in life, he died on his return from the West Indies, +in [July, 1806].</p> + +<p>Having <span class="pagenum"><a id="page012" name="page012"></a>(p. 012)</span> premised so much of my family, I return to my own +story. I was born, as I believe, on the 15th August, 1771, in a house +belonging to my father, at the head of the College Wynd. It was pulled +down, with others, to make room for the northern front of the new +College. I was an uncommonly healthy child, but had nearly died in +consequence of my first nurse being ill of a consumption, a +circumstance which she chose to conceal, though to do so was murder to +both herself and me. She went privately to consult Dr. Black, the +celebrated professor of chemistry, who put my father on his guard. The +woman was dismissed, and I was consigned to a healthy peasant, who is +still alive to boast of her <span class="italic">laddie</span> being what she calls <span class="italic">a grand +gentleman</span>.<a id="footnotetag23" name="footnotetag23"></a><a href="#footnote23"><span class="small" title="Go to Footnote 23">[23]</span></a> I showed every sign of health and strength until I was +about eighteen months old. One night, I have been often told, I showed +great reluctance to be caught and put to bed; and, after being chased +about the room, was apprehended, and consigned to my dormitory with +some difficulty. It was the last time I was to show such personal +agility. In the morning I was discovered to be affected with the fever +which often accompanies the cutting of large teeth. It held me three +days. On the fourth, when they went to bathe me as usual, they +discovered that I had lost the power of my right leg. My grandfather, +an excellent anatomist as well as physician, the late worthy Alexander +Wood, and many others of the most respectable of the faculty, were +consulted. There appeared to be no dislocation or sprain; blisters and +other topical remedies were applied in vain.<a id="footnotetag24" name="footnotetag24"></a><a href="#footnote24"><span class="small" title="Go to Footnote 24">[24]</span></a> When the efforts of +regular physicians had been exhausted without the slightest success, +my anxious parents, during the course of many years, eagerly grasped +at every prospect of cure which was held out by the promise of +empirics, or of ancient ladies or gentlemen who <span class="pagenum"><a id="page013" name="page013"></a>(p. 013)</span> conceived +themselves entitled to recommend various remedies, some of which were +of a nature sufficiently singular. But the advice of my grandfather, +Dr. Rutherford, that I should be sent to reside in the country, to +give the chance of natural exertion, excited by free air and liberty, +was first resorted to; and before I have the recollection of the +slightest event, I was, agreeably to this friendly counsel, an inmate +in the farmhouse of Sandy-Knowe.</p> + +<p>An odd incident is worth recording. It seems my mother had sent a maid +to take charge of me, that I might be no inconvenience in the family. +But the damsel sent on that important mission had left her heart +behind her, in the keeping of some wild fellow, it is likely, who had +done and said more to her than he was like to make good. She became +extremely desirous to return to Edinburgh, and as my mother made a +point of her remaining where she was, she contracted a sort of hatred +at poor me, as the cause of her being detained at Sandy-Knowe. This +rose, I suppose, to a sort of delirious affection, for she confessed +to old Alison Wilson, the housekeeper, that she had carried me up to +the Craigs, meaning, under a strong temptation of the Devil, to cut my +throat with her scissors, and bury me in the moss. Alison instantly +took possession of my person, and took care that her confidant should +not be subject to any farther temptation so far as I was concerned. +She was dismissed, of course, and I have heard became afterwards a +lunatic.</p> + +<p>It is here at Sandy-Knowe, in the residence of my paternal +grandfather, already mentioned, that I have the first consciousness of +existence; and I recollect distinctly that my situation and appearance +were a little whimsical. Among the odd remedies recurred to to aid my +lameness, some one had recommended that so often as a sheep was killed +for the use of the family, I should be stripped, and swathed up in the +skin, warm as it was flayed from the carcase <span class="pagenum"><a id="page014" name="page014"></a>(p. 014)</span> of the animal. +In this Tartar-like habiliment I well remember lying upon the floor of +the little parlor in the farmhouse, while my grandfather, a venerable +old man with white hair, used every excitement to make me try to +crawl. I also distinctly remember the late Sir George MacDougal of +Makerstoun, father of the present Sir Henry Hay MacDougal, joining in +this kindly attempt. He was, God knows how,<a id="footnotetag25" name="footnotetag25"></a><a href="#footnote25"><span class="small" title="Go to Footnote 25">[25]</span></a> a relation of ours, +and I still recollect him in his old-fashioned military habit (he had +been colonel of the Greys), with a small cocked hat, deeply laced, an +embroidered scarlet waistcoat, and a light-colored coat, with +milk-white locks tied in a military fashion, kneeling on the ground +before me, and dragging his watch along the carpet to induce me to +follow it. The benevolent old soldier and the infant wrapped in his +sheepskin would have afforded an odd group to uninterested spectators. +This must have happened about my third year, for Sir George MacDougal +and my grandfather both died shortly after that period.</p> + +<p>My grandmother continued for some years to take charge of the farm, +assisted by my father's second brother, Mr. Thomas Scott, who resided +at Crailing, as factor or land steward for Mr. Scott of Danesfield, +then proprietor of that estate.<a id="footnotetag26" name="footnotetag26"></a><a href="#footnote26"><span class="small" title="Go to Footnote 26">[26]</span></a> This was during the heat of the +American war, and I remember being as anxious on my uncle's weekly +visits (for we heard news at no other time) <span class="pagenum"><a id="page015" name="page015"></a>(p. 015)</span> to hear of the +defeat of Washington, as if I had had some deep and personal cause of +antipathy to him. I know not how this was combined with a very strong +prejudice in favor of the Stuart family, which I had originally +imbibed from the songs and tales of the Jacobites. This latter +political propensity was deeply confirmed by the stories told in my +hearing of the cruelties exercised in the executions at Carlisle, and +in the Highlands, after the battle of Culloden. One or two of our own +distant relations had fallen on that occasion, and I remember of +detesting the name of Cumberland with more than infant hatred. Mr. +Curle, farmer at Yetbyre, husband of one of my aunts, had been present +at their execution; and it was probably from him that I first heard +these tragic tales which made so great an impression on me. The local +information, which I conceive had some share in forming my future +taste and pursuits, I derived from the old songs and tales which then +formed the amusement of a retired country family. My grandmother, in +whose youth the old Border depredations were matter of recent +tradition, used to tell me many a tale of Watt of Harden, Wight Willie +of Aikwood, Jamie Telfer of the fair Dodhead, and other heroes—merry +men all, of the persuasion and calling of Robin Hood and Little John. +A more recent hero, but not of less note, was the celebrated <span class="italic">Diel of +Littledean</span>, whom she well remembered, as he had married her mother's +sister. Of this extraordinary person I learned many a story, grave and +gay, comic and warlike. Two or three old books which lay in the window +seat were explored for my amusement in the tedious winter days. +Automathes and Ramsay's Tea-Table Miscellany were my favorites, +although at a later period an odd volume of Josephus's Wars of the +Jews divided my partiality.</p> + +<p>My kind and affectionate aunt, Miss Janet Scott, whose memory will +ever be dear to me, used to read these works to me with admirable +patience, until I could repeat long <span class="pagenum"><a id="page016" name="page016"></a>(p. 016)</span> passages by heart. The +ballad of Hardyknute I was early master of, to the great annoyance of +almost our only visitor, the worthy clergyman of the parish, Dr. +Duncan, who had not patience to have a sober chat interrupted by my +shouting forth this ditty. Methinks I now see his tall, thin, +emaciated figure, his legs cased in clasped gambadoes, and his face of +a length that would have rivalled the Knight of La Mancha's, and hear +him exclaiming, "One may as well speak in the mouth of a cannon as +where that child is." With this little acidity, which was natural to +him, he was a most excellent and benevolent man, a gentleman in every +feeling, and altogether different from those of his order who cringe +at the tables of the gentry, or domineer and riot at those of the +yeomanry. In his youth he had been chaplain in the family of Lord +Marchmont—had seen Pope—and could talk familiarly of many characters +who had survived the Augustan age of Queen Anne. Though valetudinary, +he lived to be nearly ninety, and to welcome to Scotland his son, +Colonel William Duncan, who, with the highest character for military +and civil merit, had made a considerable fortune in India. In [1795], +a few days before his death, I paid him a visit, to inquire after his +health. I found him emaciated to the last degree, wrapped in a tartan +night-gown, and employed with all the activity of health and youth in +correcting a history of the Revolution, which he intended should be +given to the public when he was no more. He read me several passages +with a voice naturally strong, and which the feelings of an author +then raised above the depression of age and declining health. I begged +him to spare this fatigue, which could not but injure his health. His +answer was remarkable. "I know," he said, "that I cannot survive a +fortnight—and what signifies an exertion that can at worst only +accelerate my death a few days?" I marvelled at the composure of this +reply, for his appearance sufficiently vouched the truth of his +prophecy, and rode home <span class="pagenum"><a id="page017" name="page017"></a>(p. 017)</span> to my uncle's (then my abode), +musing what there could be in the spirit of authorship that could +inspire its votaries with the courage of martyrs. He died within less +than the period he assigned—with which event I close my digression.</p> + +<p>I was in my fourth year when my father was advised that the Bath +waters might be of some advantage to my lameness. My affectionate +aunt, although such a journey promised to a person of her retired +habits anything but pleasure or amusement, undertook as readily to +accompany me to the wells of Bladud as if she had expected all the +delight that ever the prospect of a watering-place held out to its +most impatient visitants. My health was by this time a good deal +confirmed by the country air, and the influence of that imperceptible +and unfatiguing exercise to which the good sense of my grandfather had +subjected me; for when the day was fine, I was usually carried out and +laid down beside the old shepherd, among the crags or rocks round +which he fed his sheep. The impatience of a child soon inclined me to +struggle with my infirmity, and I began by degrees to stand, to walk, +and to run. Although the limb affected was much shrunk and contracted, +my general health, which was of more importance, was much strengthened +by being frequently in the open air, and, in a word, I, who in a city +had probably been condemned to hopeless and helpless decrepitude, was +now a healthy, high-spirited, and, my lameness apart, a sturdy +child—<span class="italic">non sine diis animosus infans</span>.</p> + +<p>We went to London by sea, and it may gratify the curiosity of minute +biographers to learn that our voyage was performed in the Duchess of +Buccleuch, Captain Beatson, master. At London we made a short stay, +and saw some of the common shows exhibited to strangers. When, +twenty-five years afterwards, I visited the Tower of London and +Westminster Abbey, I was astonished to find how accurate my +recollections of these celebrated places <span class="pagenum"><a id="page018" name="page018"></a>(p. 018)</span> of visitation +proved to be, and I have ever since trusted more implicitly to my +juvenile reminiscences. At Bath, where I lived about a year, I went +through all the usual discipline of the pump-room and baths, but I +believe without the least advantage to my lameness. During my +residence at Bath, I acquired the rudiments of reading at a +day-school, kept by an old dame near our lodgings, and I had never a +more regular teacher, although I think I did not attend her a quarter +of a year. An occasional lesson from my aunt supplied the rest. +Afterwards, when grown a big boy, I had a few lessons from Mr. Stalker +of Edinburgh, and finally from the Rev. Mr. Cleeve. But I never +acquired a just pronunciation, nor could I read with much propriety.</p> + +<p>In other respects my residence at Bath is marked by very pleasing +recollections. The venerable John Home, author of Douglas, was then at +the watering-place, and paid much attention to my aunt and to me. His +wife, who has survived him, was then an invalid, and used to take the +air in her carriage on the Downs, when I was often invited to +accompany her. But the most delightful recollections of Bath are dated +after the arrival of my uncle, Captain Robert Scott, who introduced me +to all the little amusements which suited my age, and above all, to +the theatre. The play was As You Like It; and the witchery of the +whole scene is alive in my mind at this moment. I made, I believe, +noise more than enough, and remember being so much scandalized at the +quarrel between Orlando and his brother in the first scene, that I +screamed out, "A'n't they brothers?" A few weeks' residence at home +convinced me, who had till then been an only child in the house of my +grandfather, that a quarrel between brothers was a very natural event.</p> + +<p>The other circumstances I recollect of my residence in Bath are but +trifling, yet I never recall them without a feeling of pleasure. The +beauties of the parade (which of them I know not), with the river Avon +winding around it, <span class="pagenum"><a id="page019" name="page019"></a>(p. 019)</span> and the lowing of the cattle from the +opposite hills, are warm in my recollection, and are only rivalled by +the splendors of a toy-shop somewhere near the Orange Grove. I had +acquired, I know not by what means, a kind of superstitious terror for +statuary of all kinds. No ancient Iconoclast or modern Calvinist could +have looked on the outside of the Abbey church (if I mistake not, the +principal church at Bath is so called) with more horror than the image +of Jacob's Ladder, with all its angels, presented to my infant eye. My +uncle effectually combated my terrors, and formally introduced me to a +statue of Neptune, which perhaps still keeps guard at the side of the +Avon, where a pleasure boat crosses to Spring Gardens.</p> + +<p>After being a year at Bath, I returned first to Edinburgh, and +afterwards for a season to Sandy-Knowe;—and thus the time whiled away +till about my eighth year, when it was thought sea bathing might be of +service to my lameness.</p> + +<p>For this purpose, still under my aunt's protection, I remained some +weeks at Prestonpans, a circumstance not worth mentioning, excepting +to record my juvenile intimacy with an old military veteran, Dalgetty +by name, who had pitched his tent in that little village, after all +his campaigns, subsisting upon an ensign's half-pay, though called by +courtesy a Captain. As this old gentleman, who had been in all the +German wars, found very few to listen to his tales of military feats, +he formed a sort of alliance with me, and I used invariably to attend +him for the pleasure of hearing those communications. Sometimes our +conversation turned on the American war, which was then raging. It was +about the time of Burgoyne's unfortunate expedition, to which my +Captain and I augured different conclusions. Somebody had showed me a +map of North America, and, struck with the rugged appearance of the +country, and the quantity of lakes, I expressed some doubts on the +subject of the General's <span class="pagenum"><a id="page020" name="page020"></a>(p. 020)</span> arriving safely at the end of his +journey, which, were very indignantly refuted by the Captain. The news +of the Saratoga disaster, while it gave me a little triumph, rather +shook my intimacy with the veteran.<a id="footnotetag27" name="footnotetag27"></a><a href="#footnote27"><span class="small" title="Go to Footnote 27">[27]</span></a></p> + +<p>From <span class="pagenum"><a id="page021" name="page021"></a>(p. 021)</span> Prestonpans I was transported back to my father's house +in George's Square, which continued to be my most established place of +residence, until my marriage in 1797. I felt the change from being a +single indulged brat, to becoming a member of a large family, very +severely; for under the gentle government of my kind grandmother, who +was meekness itself, and of my aunt, who, though of an higher temper, +was exceedingly attached to me, I had acquired a degree of license +which could not be permitted in a large family. I had sense enough, +however, to bend my temper to my new circumstances; but such was the +agony which I internally experienced, that I have guarded against +nothing more in the education of my own family, than against their +acquiring habits of self-willed caprice and domination. I found much +consolation during this period of mortification in the partiality of +my mother. She joined to a light and happy temper of mind a strong +turn to study poetry and works of imagination. She was sincerely +devout, but her religion was, as became her sex, of a cast less +austere than my father's. Still, the discipline of the Presbyterian +Sabbath was severely strict, and I think injudiciously so. Although +Bunyan's Pilgrim, Gessner's Death of Abel, Rowe's Letters, and one or +two other books, which, for that reason, I still have a favor for, +were admitted to relieve the gloom of one dull sermon succeeding to +another—there was far too much tedium annexed to the duties of the +day; and in the end it did none of us any good.</p> + +<p>My week-day tasks were more agreeable. My lameness and <span class="pagenum"><a id="page022" name="page022"></a>(p. 022)</span> my +solitary habits had made me a tolerable reader, and my hours of +leisure were usually spent in reading aloud to my mother Pope's +translation of Homer, which, excepting a few traditionary ballads, and +the songs in Allan Ramsay's Evergreen, was the first poetry which I +perused. My mother had good natural taste and great feeling: she used +to make me pause upon those passages which expressed generous and +worthy sentiments, and if she could not divert me from those which +were descriptive of battle and tumult, she contrived at least to +divide my attention between them. My own enthusiasm, however, was +chiefly awakened by the wonderful and the terrible—the common taste +of children, but in which I have remained a child even unto this day. +I got by heart, not as a task, but almost without intending it, the +passages with which I was most pleased, and used to recite them aloud, +both when alone and to others—more willingly, however, in my hours of +solitude, for I had observed some auditors smile, and I dreaded +ridicule at that time of life more than I have ever done since.</p> + +<p>In [1778] I was sent to the second class of the Grammar School, or +High School of Edinburgh, then taught by Mr. Luke Fraser, a good Latin +scholar and a very worthy man.<a id="footnotetag28" name="footnotetag28"></a><a href="#footnote28"><span class="small" title="Go to Footnote 28">[28]</span></a> Though I had received, with my +brothers, in private, lessons of Latin from Mr. James French, now a +minister of the Kirk of Scotland, I was nevertheless rather behind the +class in which I was placed both in years and in progress. This was a +real disadvantage, and one to which a boy of lively temper and talents +ought to be as little exposed as one who might be less expected to +make up his leeway, as it is called. The situation has the unfortunate +effect of reconciling a boy of the former <span class="pagenum"><a id="page023" name="page023"></a>(p. 023)</span> character (which +in a posthumous work I may claim for my own) to holding a subordinate +station among his class-fellows—to which he would otherwise affix +disgrace. There is, also, from the constitution of the High School, a +certain danger not sufficiently attended to. The boys take precedence +in their <span class="italic">places</span>, as they are called, according to their merit, and +it requires a long while, in general, before even a clever boy, if he +falls behind the class, or is put into one for which he is not quite +ready, can force his way to the situation which his abilities really +entitle him to hold. But, in the mean while, he is necessarily led to +be the associate and companion of those inferior spirits with whom he +is placed; for the system of precedence, though it does not limit the +general intercourse among the boys, has nevertheless the effect of +throwing them into clubs and coteries, according to the vicinity of +the seats they hold. A boy of good talents, therefore, placed even for +a time among his inferiors, especially if they be also his elders, +learns to participate in their pursuits and objects of ambition, which +are usually very distinct from the acquisition of learning; and it +will be well if he does not also imitate them in that indifference +which is contented with bustling over a lesson so as to avoid +punishment, without affecting superiority or aiming at reward. It was +probably owing to this circumstance that, although at a more advanced +period of life I have enjoyed considerable facility in acquiring +languages, I did not make any great figure at the High School—or, at +least, any exertions which I made were desultory and little to be +depended on.</p> + +<p>Our class contained some very excellent scholars. The first <span class="italic">Dux</span> was +James Buchan, who retained his honored place, almost without a day's +interval, all the while we were at the High School. He was afterwards +at the head of the medical staff in Egypt, and in exposing himself to +the plague infection, by attending the hospitals there, <span class="pagenum"><a id="page024" name="page024"></a>(p. 024)</span> +displayed the same well-regulated and gentle, yet determined, +perseverance which placed him most worthily at the head of his +schoolfellows, while many lads of livelier parts and dispositions held +an inferior station. The next best scholars (<span class="italic">sed longo intervallo</span>) +were my friend David Douglas, the heir and <span class="italic">élève</span> of the celebrated +Adam Smith, and James Hope, now a Writer to the Signet, both since +well known and distinguished in their departments of the law. As for +myself, I glanced like a meteor from one end of the class to the +other, and commonly disgusted my kind master as much by negligence and +frivolity, as I occasionally pleased him by flashes of intellect and +talent. Among my companions my good-nature and a flow of ready +imagination rendered me very popular. Boys are uncommonly just in +their feelings, and at least equally generous. My lameness, and the +efforts which I made to supply that disadvantage, by making up in +address what I wanted in activity, engaged the latter principle in my +favor; and in the winter play hours, when hard exercise was +impossible, my tales used to assemble an admiring audience round Lucky +Brown's fireside, and happy was he that could sit next to the +inexhaustible narrator. I was also, though often negligent of my own +task, always ready to assist my friends, and hence I had a little +party of stanch partisans and adherents, stout of hand and heart, +though somewhat dull of head—the very tools for raising a hero to +eminence. So, on the whole, I made a brighter figure in the <span class="italic">yards</span> +than in the <span class="italic">class</span><a id="footnotetag29" name="footnotetag29"></a><a href="#footnote29"><span class="small" title="Go to Footnote 29">[29]</span></a></p> + +<p>My <span class="pagenum"><a id="page025" name="page025"></a>(p. 025)</span> father did not trust our education solely to our High +School lessons. We had a tutor at home, a young man of an excellent +disposition, and a laborious student. He was bred to the Kirk, but +unfortunately took such a very strong turn to fanaticism, that he +afterwards resigned an excellent living in a seaport town, merely +because he could not persuade the mariners of the guilt of setting +sail of a Sabbath,—in which, by the bye, he was less likely to be +successful, as, <span class="italic">cĉteris paribus</span>, sailors, from an opinion that it is +a fortunate omen, always choose to weigh anchor on that day. The +calibre of this young man's understanding may be judged of by this +anecdote; but in other respects he was a faithful and active +instructor; and from him chiefly I learned writing and arithmetic. I +repeated to him my French lessons, and studied with him my themes in +the classics, but not classically. I also acquired, by disputing with +him (for this he readily permitted), some knowledge of school divinity +and church history, and a great acquaintance in particular with the +old books describing the early history of the Church of Scotland, the +wars and sufferings of the Covenanters, and so forth. I, with a head +on fire for chivalry, was a Cavalier; my friend was a Roundhead: I was +a Tory, and he was a Whig. I hated Presbyterians, and admired Montrose +with his victorious Highlanders; he liked the Presbyterian Ulysses, +the dark and politic Argyle: so that we never wanted subjects of +dispute; but our disputes were always amicable. In all these tenets +there was no real conviction on my part, arising out of acquaintance +with the views or principles of either party; nor had my antagonist +address enough to turn the debate on such topics. I took up my +politics at that period, as King Charles II. did his religion, from an +idea that the Cavalier creed was the more gentlemanlike persuasion of +the two.</p> + +<p>After having been three years under Mr. Fraser, our class was, in the +usual routine of the school, turned over to <span class="pagenum"><a id="page026" name="page026"></a>(p. 026)</span> Dr. Adam, the +Rector. It was from this respectable man that I first learned the +value of the knowledge I had hitherto considered only as a burdensome +task. It was the fashion to remain two years at his class, where we +read Cĉsar, and Livy, and Sallust, in prose; Virgil, Horace, and +Terence, in verse. I had by this time mastered, in some degree, the +difficulties of the language, and began to be sensible of its +beauties. This was really gathering grapes from thistles; nor shall I +soon forget the swelling of my little pride when the Rector +pronounced, that though many of my schoolfellows understood the Latin +better, <span class="italic">Gualterus Scott</span> was behind few in following and enjoying the +author's meaning. Thus encouraged, I distinguished myself by some +attempts at poetical versions from Horace and Virgil. Dr. Adam used to +invite his scholars to such essays, but never made them tasks. I +gained some distinction upon these occasions, and the Rector in future +took much notice of me; and his judicious mixture of censure and +praise went far to counterbalance my habits of indolence and +inattention. I saw I was expected to do well, and I was piqued in +honor to vindicate my master's favorable opinion. I climbed, +therefore, to the first form; and, though I never made a first-rate +Latinist, my schoolfellows, and what was of more consequence, I +myself, considered that I had a character for learning to maintain. +Dr. Adam, to whom I owed so much, never failed to remind me of my +obligations when I had made some figure in the literary world. He was, +indeed, deeply imbued with that fortunate vanity which alone could +induce a man who has arms to pare and burn a muir, to submit to the +yet more toilsome task of cultivating youth. As Catholics confide in +the imputed righteousness of their saints, so did the good old Doctor +plume himself upon the success of his scholars in life, all of which +he never failed (and often justly) to claim as the creation, or at +least the fruits, of his early instructions. He remembered the fate of +every boy <span class="pagenum"><a id="page027" name="page027"></a>(p. 027)</span> at his school during the fifty years he had +superintended it, and always traced their success or misfortunes +entirely to their attention or negligence when under his care. His +"noisy mansion," which to others would have been a melancholy bedlam, +was the pride of his heart; and the only fatigues he felt, amidst din +and tumult, and the necessity of reading themes, hearing lessons, and +maintaining some degree of order at the same time, were relieved by +comparing himself to Cĉsar, who could dictate to three secretaries at +once;—so ready is vanity to lighten the labors of duty.</p> + +<p>It is a pity that a man so learned, so admirably adapted for his +station, so useful, so simple, so easily contented, should have had +other subjects of mortification. But the magistrates of Edinburgh, not +knowing the treasure they possessed in Dr. Adam, encouraged a savage +fellow, called Nicol, one of the undermasters, in insulting his person +and authority. This man was an excellent classical scholar, and an +admirable convivial humorist (which latter quality recommended him to +the friendship of Burns); but worthless, drunken, and inhumanly cruel +to the boys under his charge. He carried his feud against the Rector +within an inch of assassination, for he waylaid and knocked him down +in the dark. The favor which this worthless rival obtained in the town +council led to other consequences, which for some time clouded poor +Adam's happiness and fair fame. When the French Revolution broke out, +and parties ran high in approving or condemning it, the Doctor +incautiously joined the former. This was very natural, for as all his +ideas of existing governments were derived from his experience of the +town council of Edinburgh, it must be admitted they scarce brooked +comparison with the free states of Rome and Greece, from which he +borrowed his opinions concerning republics. His want of caution in +speaking on the political topics of the day lost him the respect of +the boys, most of whom were accustomed to hear <span class="pagenum"><a id="page028" name="page028"></a>(p. 028)</span> very +different opinions on those matters in the bosom of their families. +This, however (which was long after my time), passed away with other +heats of the period, and the Doctor continued his labors till about a +year since, when he was struck with palsy while teaching his class. He +survived a few days, but becoming delirious before his dissolution, +conceived he was still in school, and after some expressions of +applause or censure, he said, "But it grows dark—the boys may +dismiss,"—and instantly expired.<a id="footnotetag30" name="footnotetag30"></a><a href="#footnote30"><span class="small" title="Go to Footnote 30">[30]</span></a></p> + +<a id="img005" name="img005"></a> +<div class="figcenter"> +<img src="images/img005.jpg" width="400" height="512" alt="" title=""> +<p>Dr. ALEXANDER ADAM<br> +<span class="smaller">From the painting by Raeburn.</span></p> +</div> + +<p>From Dr. Adam's class I should, according to the usual routine, have +proceeded immediately to college. But, fortunately, I was not yet to +lose, by a total dismission from constraint, the acquaintance with the +Latin which I had acquired. My health had become rather delicate from +rapid growth, and my father was easily persuaded to allow me to spend +half a year at Kelso with my kind aunt, Miss Janet Scott, whose inmate +I again became. It was hardly worth mentioning that I had frequently +visited her during our short vacations.</p> + +<p>At this time she resided in a small house, situated very pleasantly in +a large garden, to the eastward of the churchyard of Kelso, which +extended down to the Tweed. It was then my father's property, from +whom it was afterwards purchased by my uncle. My grandmother was now +dead, and my aunt's only companion, besides an old maid-servant, was +my cousin, Miss Barbara Scott, now Mrs. Meik. My time was here left +entirely to my own disposal, excepting for about four hours in the +day, when I was expected to attend the Grammar School of the <span class="pagenum"><a id="page029" name="page029"></a>(p. 029)</span> +village. The teacher at that time was Mr. Lancelot Whale, an excellent +classical scholar, a humorist, and a worthy man. He had a supreme +antipathy to the puns which his very uncommon name frequently gave +rise to; insomuch, that he made his son spell the word <span class="italic">Wale</span>, which +only occasioned the young man being nicknamed <span class="italic">the Prince of Wales</span> by +the military mess to which he belonged. As for Whale, senior, the +least allusion to Jonah, or the terming him an odd fish, or any +similar quibble, was sure to put him beside himself. In point of +knowledge and taste he was far too good for the situation he held, +which only required that he should give his scholars a rough +foundation in the Latin language. My time with him, though short, was +spent greatly to my advantage and his gratification. He was glad to +escape to Persius and Tacitus from the eternal Rudiments and Cornelius +Nepos; and as perusing these authors with one who began to understand +them was to him a labor of love, I made considerable progress under +his instructions. I suspect, indeed, that some of the time dedicated +to me was withdrawn from the instruction of his more regular scholars; +but I was as grateful as I could be. I acted as usher, and heard the +inferior classes, and I spouted the speech of Galgacus at the public +examination, which did not make the less impression on the audience +that few of them probably understood one word of it.</p> + +<p>In the mean while my acquaintance with English literature was +gradually extending itself. In the intervals of my school hours I had +always perused with avidity such books of history or poetry or voyages +and travels as chance presented to me—not forgetting the usual, or +rather ten times the usual, quantity of fairy tales, Eastern stories, +romances, etc. These studies were totally unregulated and undirected. +My tutor thought it almost a sin to open a profane play or poem; and +my mother, besides that she might be in some degree trammelled by the +religious scruples which he suggested, had no longer the <span class="pagenum"><a id="page030" name="page030"></a>(p. 030)</span> +opportunity to hear me read poetry as formerly. I found, however, in +her dressing-room (where I slept at one time) some odd volumes of +Shakespeare, nor can I easily forget the rapture with which I sat up +in my shirt reading them by the light of a fire in her apartment, +until the bustle of the family rising from supper warned me it was +time to creep back to my bed, where I was supposed to have been safely +deposited since nine o'clock. Chance, however, threw in my way a +poetical preceptor. This was no other than the excellent and +benevolent Dr. Blacklock, well known at that time as a literary +character. I know not how I attracted his attention, and that of some +of the young men who boarded in his family; but so it was that I +became a frequent and favored guest. The kind old man opened to me the +stores of his library, and through his recommendation I became +intimate with Ossian and Spenser. I was delighted with both, yet I +think chiefly with the latter poet. The tawdry repetitions of the +Ossianic phraseology disgusted me rather sooner than might have been +expected from my age. But Spenser I could have read forever. Too young +to trouble myself about the allegory, I considered all the knights and +ladies and dragons and giants in their outward and exoteric sense, and +God only knows how delighted I was to find myself in such society. As +I had always a wonderful facility in retaining in my memory whatever +verses pleased me, the quantity of Spenser's stanzas which I could +repeat was really marvellous. But this memory of mine was a very +fickle ally, and has through my whole life acted merely upon its own +capricious motion, and might have enabled me to adopt old Beattie of +Meikledale's answer, when complimented by a certain reverend divine on +the strength of the same faculty:—"No, sir," answered the old +Borderer, "I have no command of my memory. It only retains what hits +my fancy; and probably, sir, if you were to preach to me for two +hours, I would not be able when you finished to <span class="pagenum"><a id="page031" name="page031"></a>(p. 031)</span> remember a +word you had been saying." My memory was precisely of the same kind: +it seldom failed to preserve most tenaciously a favorite passage of +poetry, a playhouse ditty, or, above all, a Border-raid ballad; but +names, dates, and the other technicalities of history, escaped me in a +most melancholy degree. The philosophy of history, a much more +important subject, was also a sealed book at this period of my life; +but I gradually assembled much of what was striking and picturesque in +historical narrative; and when, in riper years, I attended more to the +deduction of general principles, I was furnished with a powerful host +of examples in illustration of them. I was, in short, like an ignorant +gamester, who kept a good hand until he knew how to play it.</p> + +<p>I left the High School, therefore, with a great quantity of general +information, ill arranged, indeed, and collected without system, yet +deeply impressed upon my mind; readily assorted by my power of +connection and memory, and gilded, if I may be permitted to say so, by +a vivid and active imagination. If my studies were not under any +direction at Edinburgh, in the country, it may be well imagined, they +were less so. A respectable subscription library, a circulating +library of ancient standing, and some private book-shelves, were open +to my random perusal, and I waded into the stream like a blind man +into a ford, without the power of searching my way, unless by groping +for it. My appetite for books was as ample and indiscriminating as it +was indefatigable, and I since have had too frequently reason to +repent that few ever read so much, and to so little purpose.</p> + +<p>Among the valuable acquisitions I made about this time was an +acquaintance with Tasso's Jerusalem Delivered, through the flat medium +of Mr. Hoole's translation. But above all, I then first became +acquainted with Bishop Percy's Reliques of Ancient Poetry. As I had +been from infancy devoted to legendary lore of this nature, and only +reluctantly withdrew my attention, from the <span class="pagenum"><a id="page032" name="page032"></a>(p. 032)</span> scarcity of +materials and the rudeness of those which I possessed, it may be +imagined, but cannot be described, with what delight I saw pieces of +the same kind which had amused my childhood, and still continued in +secret the Delilahs of my imagination, considered as the subject of +sober research, grave commentary, and apt illustration, by an editor +who showed his poetical genius was capable of emulating the best +qualities of what his pious labor preserved. I remember well the spot +where I read these volumes for the first time. It was beneath a huge +platanus-tree, in the ruins of what had been intended for an +old-fashioned arbor in the <span class="italic">garden</span> I have mentioned. The summer day +sped onward so fast that, notwithstanding the sharp appetite of +thirteen, I forgot the hour of dinner, was sought for with anxiety, +and was still found entranced in my intellectual banquet. To read and +to remember was in this instance the same thing, and henceforth I +overwhelmed my schoolfellows, and all who would hearken to me, with +tragical recitations from the ballads of Bishop Percy. The first time, +too, I could scrape a few shillings together, which were not common +occurrences with me, I bought unto myself a copy of these beloved +volumes; nor do I believe I ever read a book half so frequently, or +with half the enthusiasm. About this period, also, I became acquainted +with the works of Richardson, and those of Mackenzie—(whom in later +years I became entitled to call my friend)—with Fielding, Smollett, +and some others of our best novelists.</p> + +<p>To this period, also, I can trace distinctly the awaking of that +delightful feeling for the beauties of natural objects which has never +since deserted me. The neighborhood of Kelso, the most beautiful, if +not the most romantic village in Scotland, is eminently calculated to +awaken these ideas. It presents objects, not only grand in themselves, +but venerable from their association. The meeting of two superb +rivers, the Tweed and the Teviot, both renowned in song—the ruins of +an ancient abbey—the more <span class="pagenum"><a id="page033" name="page033"></a>(p. 033)</span> distant vestiges of Roxburgh +Castle—the modern mansion of Fleurs, which is so situated as to +combine the ideas of ancient baronial grandeur with those of modern +taste—are in themselves objects of the first class; yet are so mixed, +united, and melted among a thousand other beauties of a less prominent +description, that they harmonize into one general picture, and please +rather by unison than by concord. I believe I have written +unintelligibly upon this subject, but it is fitter for the pencil than +the pen. The romantic feelings which I have described as predominating +in my mind, naturally rested upon and associated themselves with these +grand features of the landscape around me; and the historical +incidents, or traditional legends connected with many of them, gave to +my admiration a sort of intense impression of reverence, which at +times made my heart feel too big for its bosom. From this time the +love of natural beauty, more especially when combined with ancient +ruins, or remains of our fathers' piety or splendor, became with me an +insatiable passion, which, if circumstances had permitted, I would +willingly have gratified by travelling over half the globe.</p> + +<p>I was recalled to Edinburgh about the time when the College meets, and +put at once to the Humanity class, under Mr. Hill, and the first Greek +class, taught by Mr. Dalzell. The former held the reins of discipline +very loosely, and though beloved by his students, for he was a +good-natured man as well as a good scholar, he had not the art of +exciting our attention as well as liking. This was a dangerous +character with whom to trust one who relished labor as little as I +did, and amid the riot of his class I speedily lost much of what I had +learned under Adam and Whale. At the Greek class, I might have made a +better figure, for Professor Dalzell maintained a great deal of +authority, and was not only himself an admirable scholar, but was +always deeply interested in the progress of his students. But here lay +the villainy. Almost <span class="pagenum"><a id="page034" name="page034"></a>(p. 034)</span> all my companions who had left the High +School at the same time with myself had acquired a smattering of Greek +before they came to College. I, alas, had none; and finding myself far +inferior to all my fellow-students, I could hit upon no better mode of +vindicating my equality than by professing my contempt for the +language, and my resolution not to learn it. A youth who died early, +himself an excellent Greek scholar, saw my negligence and folly with +pain, instead of contempt. He came to call on me in George's Square, +and pointed out in the strongest terms the silliness of the conduct I +had adopted, told me I was distinguished by the name of the <span class="italic">Greek +Blockhead</span>, and exhorted me to redeem my reputation while it was +called to-day. My stubborn pride received this advice with sulky +civility; the birth of my Mentor (whose name was Archibald, the son of +an innkeeper) did not, as I thought in my folly, authorize him to +intrude upon me his advice. The other was not sharp-sighted, or his +consciousness of a generous intention overcame his resentment. He +offered me his daily and nightly assistance, and pledged himself to +bring me forward with the foremost of my class. I felt some twinges of +conscience, but they were unable to prevail over my pride and +self-conceit. The poor lad left me more in sorrow than in anger, nor +did we ever meet again. All hopes of my progress in the Greek were now +over; insomuch that when we were required to write essays on the +authors we had studied, I had the audacity to produce a composition in +which I weighed Homer against Ariosto, and pronounced him wanting in +the balance. I supported this heresy by a profusion of bad reading and +flimsy argument. The wrath of the Professor was extreme, while at the +same time he could not suppress his surprise at the quantity of +out-of-the-way knowledge which I displayed. He pronounced upon me the +severe sentence—that dunce I was, and dunce was to remain—which, +however, my excellent and learned friend <span class="pagenum"><a id="page035" name="page035"></a>(p. 035)</span> lived to revoke +over a bottle of Burgundy, at our literary Club at Fortune's, of which +he was a distinguished member.</p> + +<p>Meanwhile, as if to eradicate my slightest tincture of Greek, I fell +ill during the middle of Mr. Dalzell's second class, and migrated a +second time to Kelso—where I again continued a long time reading what +and how I pleased, and of course reading nothing but what afforded me +immediate entertainment. The only thing which saved my mind from utter +dissipation was that turn for historical pursuit, which never +abandoned me even at the idlest period. I had forsworn the Latin +classics for no reason I know of, unless because they were akin to the +Greek; but the occasional perusal of Buchanan's history, that of +Matthew Paris, and other monkish chronicles, kept up a kind of +familiarity with the language even in its rudest state. But I forgot +the very letters of the Greek alphabet; a loss never to be repaired, +considering what that language is, and who they were who employed it +in their compositions.</p> + +<p>About this period—or soon afterwards—my father judged it proper I +should study mathematics, a study upon which I entered with all the +ardor of novelty. My tutor was an aged person, Dr. MacFait, who had in +his time been distinguished as a teacher of this science. Age, +however, and some domestic inconveniences, had diminished his pupils, +and lessened his authority amongst the few who remained. I think that, +had I been more fortunately placed for instruction, or had I had the +spur of emulation, I might have made some progress in this science, of +which, under the circumstances I have mentioned, I only acquired a +very superficial smattering.</p> + +<p>In other studies I was rather more fortunate. I made some progress in +Ethics under Professor John Bruce, and was selected, as one of his +students whose progress he approved, to read an essay before Principal +Robertson. I <span class="pagenum"><a id="page036" name="page036"></a>(p. 036)</span> was farther instructed in Moral Philosophy at +the class of Mr. Dugald Stewart, whose striking and impressive +eloquence riveted the attention even of the most volatile student. To +sum up my academical studies, I attended the class of History, then +taught by the present Lord Woodhouselee, and, as far as I remember, no +others, excepting those of the Civil and Municipal Law. So that, if my +learning be flimsy and inaccurate, the reader must have some +compassion even for an idle workman, who had so narrow a foundation to +build upon. If, however, it should ever fall to the lot of youth to +peruse these pages—let such a reader remember that it is with the +deepest regret that I recollect in my manhood the opportunities of +learning which I neglected in my youth; that through every part of my +literary career I have felt pinched and hampered by my own ignorance; +and that I would at this moment give half the reputation I have had +the good fortune to acquire, if by doing so I could rest the remaining +part upon a sound foundation of learning and science.</p> + +<p>I imagine my father's reason for sending me to so few classes in the +College was a desire that I should apply myself particularly to my +legal studies. He had not determined whether I should fill the +situation of an Advocate or a Writer; but judiciously considering the +technical knowledge of the latter to be useful at least, if not +essential, to a barrister, he resolved I should serve the ordinary +apprenticeship of five years to his own profession. I accordingly +entered into indentures with my father about 1785-86, and entered upon +the dry and barren wilderness of forms and conveyances.</p> + +<p>I cannot reproach myself with being entirely an idle apprentice—far +less, as the reader might reasonably have expected,</p> + +<p class="poem-center"> + "A clerk foredoom'd my father's soul to cross." +</p> + +<p>The drudgery, indeed, of the office I disliked, and the confinement +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page037" name="page037"></a>(p. 037)</span> I altogether detested; but I loved my father, and I felt the +rational pride and pleasure of rendering myself useful to him. I was +ambitious also; and among my companions in labor, the only way to +gratify ambition was to labor hard and well. Other circumstances +reconciled me in some measure to the confinement. The allowance for +copy-money furnished a little fund for the <span class="italic">menus plaisirs</span> of the +circulating library and the theatre; and this was no trifling +incentive to labor. When actually at the oar, no man could pull it +harder than I, and I remember writing upwards of 120 folio pages with +no interval either for food or rest. Again, the hours of attendance on +the office were lightened by the power of choosing my own books, and +reading them in my own way, which often consisted in beginning at the +middle or the end of a volume. A deceased friend, who was a +fellow-apprentice with me, used often to express his surprise that, +after such a hop-step-and-jump perusal, I knew as much of the book as +he had been able to acquire from reading it in the usual manner. My +desk usually contained a store of most miscellaneous volumes, +especially works of fiction of every kind, which were my supreme +delight. I might except novels, unless those of the better and higher +class; for though I read many of them, yet it was with more selection +than might have been expected. The whole Jemmy and Jenny Jessamy tribe +I abhorred, and it required the art of Burney, or the feeling of +Mackenzie, to fix my attention upon a domestic tale. But all that was +adventurous and romantic I devoured without much discrimination, and I +really believe I have read as much nonsense of this class as any man +now living. Everything which touched on knight-errantry was +particularly acceptable to me, and I soon attempted to imitate what I +so greatly admired. My efforts, however, were in the manner of the +tale-teller, not of the bard.</p> + +<p>My greatest intimate, from the days of my school-tide, was <span class="pagenum"><a id="page038" name="page038"></a>(p. 038)</span> +Mr. John Irving, now a Writer to the Signet. We lived near each other, +and by joint agreement were wont, each of us, to compose a romance for +the other's amusement. These legends, in which the martial and the +miraculous always predominated, we rehearsed to each other during our +walks, which were usually directed to the most solitary spots about +Arthur's Seat and Salisbury Crags. We naturally sought seclusion, for +we were conscious no small degree of ridicule would have attended our +amusement, if the nature of it had become known. Whole holidays were +spent in this singular pastime, which continued for two or three +years, and had, I believe, no small effect in directing the turn of my +imagination to the chivalrous and romantic in poetry and prose.</p> + +<p>Meanwhile, the translations of Mr. Hoole having made me acquainted +with Tasso and Ariosto, I learned from his notes on the latter, that +the Italian language contained a fund of romantic lore. A part of my +earnings was dedicated to an Italian class which I attended twice a +week, and rapidly acquired some proficiency. I had previously renewed +and extended my knowledge of the French language, from the same +principle of romantic research. Tressan's romances, the Bibliothèque +Bleue, and Bibliothèque de Romans, were already familiar to me, and I +now acquired similar intimacy with the works of Dante, Boiardo, Pulci, +and other eminent Italian authors. I fastened also, like a tiger, upon +every collection of old songs or romances which chance threw in my +way, or which my scrutiny was able to discover on the dusty shelves of +James Sibbald's circulating library in the Parliament Square. This +collection, now dismantled and dispersed, contained at that time many +rare and curious works, seldom found in such a collection. Mr. Sibbald +himself, a man of rough manners but of some taste and judgment, +cultivated music and poetry, and in his shop I had a distant view of +some literary characters, besides <span class="pagenum"><a id="page039" name="page039"></a>(p. 039)</span> the privilege of +ransacking the stores of old French and Italian books, which were in +little demand among the bulk of his subscribers. Here I saw the +unfortunate Andrew Macdonald, author of Vimonda; and here, too, I saw +at a distance the boast of Scotland, Robert Burns. Of the latter I +shall presently have occasion to speak more fully.</p> + +<p>I am inadvertently led to confound dates while I talk of this remote +period, for, as I have no notes, it is impossible for me to remember +with accuracy the progress of studies, if they deserve the name, so +irregular and miscellaneous. But about the second year of my +apprenticeship my health, which, from rapid growth and other causes, +had been hitherto rather uncertain and delicate, was affected by the +breaking of a blood-vessel. The regimen I had to undergo on this +occasion was far from agreeable. It was spring, and the weather raw +and cold, yet I was confined to bed with a single blanket, and bled +and blistered till I scarcely had a pulse left. I had all the appetite +of a growing boy, but was prohibited any sustenance beyond what was +absolutely necessary for the support of nature, and that in vegetables +alone. Above all, with a considerable disposition to talk, I was not +permitted to open my lips without one or two old ladies who watched my +couch being ready at once to souse upon me,</p> + +<p class="poem-center"> + "imposing silence with a stilly sound."<a id="footnotetag31" name="footnotetag31"></a><a href="#footnote31"><span class="small" title="Go to Footnote 31">[31]</span></a> +</p> + +<p>My only refuge was reading and playing at chess. To the romances and +poetry, which I chiefly delighted in, I had always added the study of +history, especially as connected with military events. I was +encouraged in this latter study by a tolerable acquaintance with +geography, and by the opportunities I had enjoyed while with Mr. +MacFait to learn the meaning of the more ordinary terms of +fortification. While, therefore, I lay in this dreary and silent +solitude, I fell upon the resource of illustrating the <span class="pagenum"><a id="page040" name="page040"></a>(p. 040)</span> +battles I read of by the childish expedient of arranging shells, and +seeds, and pebbles, so as to represent encountering armies. Diminutive +cross-bows were contrived to mimic artillery, and with the assistance +of a friendly carpenter I contrived to model a fortress, which, like +that of Uncle Toby, represented whatever place happened to be +uppermost in my imagination. I fought my way thus through Vertot's +Knights of Malta—a book which, as it hovered between history and +romance, was exceedingly dear to me; and Orme's interesting and +beautiful History of Indostan, whose copious plans, aided by the clear +and luminous explanations of the author, rendered my imitative +amusement peculiarly easy. Other moments of these weary weeks were +spent in looking at the Meadow Walks, by assistance of a combination +of mirrors so arranged that, while lying in bed, I could see the +troops march out to exercise, or any other incident which occurred on +that promenade.</p> + +<p>After one or two relapses, my constitution recovered the injury it had +sustained, though for several months afterwards I was restricted to a +severe vegetable diet. And I must say, in passing, that though I +gained health under this necessary restriction, yet it was far from +being agreeable to me, and I was affected whilst under its influence +with a nervousness which I never felt before or since. A disposition +to start upon slight alarms—a want of decision in feeling and acting, +which has not usually been my failing—an acute sensibility to +trifling inconveniences—and an unnecessary apprehension of contingent +misfortunes, rise to my memory as connected with my vegetable diet, +although they may very possibly have been entirely the result of the +disorder and not of the cure. Be this as it may, with this illness I +bade farewell both to disease and medicine; for since that time, till +the hour I am now writing, I have enjoyed a state of the most robust +health, having only had to complain of occasional headaches or +stomachic affections when I have been long without taking exercise, +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page041" name="page041"></a>(p. 041)</span> or have lived too convivially—the latter having been +occasionally, though, not habitually, the error of my youth, as the +former has been of my advanced life.</p> + +<p>My frame gradually became hardened with my constitution, and being +both tall and muscular, I was rather disfigured than disabled by my +lameness. This personal disadvantage did not prevent me from taking +much exercise on horseback, and making long journeys on foot, in the +course of which I often walked from twenty to thirty miles a day. A +distinct instance occurs to me. I remember walking with poor James +Ramsay, my fellow-apprentice, now no more, and two other friends, to +breakfast at Prestonpans. We spent the forenoon in visiting the ruins +at Seton, and the field of battle at Preston—dined at Prestonpans on +<span class="italic">tiled haddocks</span> very sumptuously—drank half a bottle of port each, +and returned in the evening. This could not be less than thirty miles, +nor do I remember being at all fatigued upon the occasion.</p> + +<p>These excursions on foot or horseback formed by far my most favorite +amusement. I have all my life delighted in travelling, though I have +never enjoyed that pleasure upon a large scale. It was a propensity +which I sometimes indulged so unduly as to alarm and vex my parents. +Wood, water, wilderness itself, had an inexpressible charm for me, and +I had a dreamy way of going much farther than I intended, so that +unconsciously my return was protracted, and my parents had sometimes +serious cause of uneasiness. For example, I once set out with Mr. +George Abercromby<a id="footnotetag32" name="footnotetag32"></a><a href="#footnote32"><span class="small" title="Go to Footnote 32">[32]</span></a> (the son of the immortal General), Mr. William +Clerk, and some others, to fish in the lake above Howgate, and the +stream which descends from it into the Esk. We breakfasted at Howgate, +and fished the whole day; and while we were on our return next +morning, I was easily seduced by William Clerk, then a great intimate, +to visit Pennycuik-house, the seat of his family. Here he and John +Irving, and I for their sake, were <span class="pagenum"><a id="page042" name="page042"></a>(p. 042)</span> overwhelmed with kindness +by the late Sir John Clerk and his lady, the present Dowager Lady +Clerk. The pleasure of looking at fine pictures, the beauty of the +place, and the flattering hospitality of the owners, drowned all +recollection of home for a day or two. Meanwhile our companions, who +had walked on without being aware of our digression, returned to +Edinburgh without us, and excited no small alarm in my father's +household. At length, however, they became accustomed to my escapades. +My father used to protest to me on such occasions that he thought I +was born to be a strolling pedlar; and though the prediction was +intended to mortify my conceit, I am not sure that I altogether +disliked it. I was now familiar with Shakespeare, and thought of +Autolycus's song—</p> + +<p class="poem30"> +"Jog on, jog on, the foot-path way,<br> +<span class="add1em">And merrily hent the stile-a:</span><br> + A merry heart goes all the day,<br> +<span class="add1em">Your sad tires in a mile-a."</span></p> + +<p>My principal object in these excursions was the pleasure of seeing +romantic scenery, or what afforded me at least equal pleasure, the +places which had been distinguished by remarkable historical events. +The delight with which I regarded the former, of course had general +approbation, but I often found it difficult to procure sympathy with +the interest I felt in the latter. Yet to me, the wandering over the +field of Bannockburn was the source of more exquisite pleasure than +gazing upon the celebrated landscape from the battlements of Stirling +castle. I do not by any means infer that I was dead to the feeling of +picturesque scenery; on the contrary, few delighted more in its +general effect. But I was unable with the eye of a painter to dissect +the various parts of the scene, to comprehend how the one bore upon +the other, to estimate the effect which various features of the view +had in producing its leading and general effect. I have never, indeed, +been capable of doing this with precision or <span class="pagenum"><a id="page043" name="page043"></a>(p. 043)</span> nicety, though +my latter studies have led me to amend and arrange my original ideas +upon the subject. Even the humble ambition, which I long cherished, of +making sketches of those places which interested me, from a defect of +eye or of hand was totally ineffectual. After long study and many +efforts, I was unable to apply the elements of perspective or of shade +to the scene before me, and was obliged to relinquish in despair an +art which I was most anxious to practise. But show me an old castle or +a field of battle, and I was at home at once, filled it with its +combatants in their proper costume, and overwhelmed my hearers by the +enthusiasm of my description. In crossing Magus Moor, near St. +Andrews, the spirit moved me to give a picture of the assassination of +the Archbishop of St. Andrews to some fellow-travellers with whom I +was accidentally associated, and one of them, though well acquainted +with the story, protested my narrative had frightened away his night's +sleep. I mention this to show the distinction between a sense of the +picturesque in action and in scenery. If I have since been able in +poetry to trace with some success the principles of the latter, it has +always been with reference to its general and leading features, or +under some alliance with moral feeling; and even this proficiency has +cost me study.—Meanwhile I endeavored to make amends for my ignorance +of drawing, by adopting a sort of technical memory respecting the +scenes I visited: Wherever I went, I cut a piece of a branch from a +tree—these constituted what I called my log-book; and I intended to +have a set of chessmen out of them, each having reference to the place +where it was cut—as the kings from Falkland and Holy-Rood; the queens +from Queen Mary's yew-tree at Crookston; the bishops from abbeys or +episcopal palaces; the knights from baronial residences; the rooks +from royal fortresses; and the pawns generally from places worthy of +historical note. But this whimsical design I never carried into +execution.</p> + +<p>With <span class="pagenum"><a id="page044" name="page044"></a>(p. 044)</span> music it was even worse than with painting. My mother +was anxious we should at least learn Psalmody; but the incurable +defects of my voice and ear soon drove my teacher to despair.<a id="footnotetag33" name="footnotetag33"></a><a href="#footnote33"><span class="small" title="Go to Footnote 33">[33]</span></a> It +is only by long practice that I have acquired the power of selecting +or distinguishing melodies; and although now few things delight or +affect me more than a simple tune sung with feeling, yet I am sensible +that even this pitch of musical taste has only been gained by +attention and habit, and, as it were, by my feeling of the words being +associated with the tune. I have, therefore, been usually unsuccessful +in composing words to a tune, although my friend, Dr. Clarke, and +other musical composers, have sometimes been able to make a happy +union between their music and my poetry.</p> + +<p>In other points, however, I began to make some amends for the +irregularity of my education. It is well known that in Edinburgh one +great spur to emulation among youthful students is in those +associations called <span class="italic">literary societies</span>, formed not only for the +purpose of debate, but of composition. These undoubtedly have some +disadvantages, where a bold, petulant, and disputatious temper happens +to be combined with considerable information and talent. Still, +however, in order to such a person <span class="pagenum"><a id="page045" name="page045"></a>(p. 045)</span> being actually spoiled by +his mixing in such debates, his talents must be of a very rare nature, +or his effrontery must be proof to every species of assault; for there +is generally, in a well-selected society of this nature, talent +sufficient to meet the forwardest, and satire enough to penetrate the +most undaunted. I am particularly obliged to this sort of club for +introducing me about my seventeenth year into the society which at one +time I had entirely dropped; for, from the time of my illness at +college, I had had little or no intercourse with any of my +class-companions, one or two only excepted. Now, however, about 1788, +I began to feel and take my ground in society. A ready wit, a good +deal of enthusiasm, and a perception that soon ripened into tact and +observation of character, rendered me an acceptable companion to many +young men whose acquisitions in philosophy and science were infinitely +superior to anything I could boast.</p> + +<p>In the business of these societies—for I was a member of more than +one successively—I cannot boast of having made any great figure. I +never was a good speaker unless upon some subject which strongly +animated my feelings; and, as I was totally unaccustomed to +composition, as well as to the art of generalizing my ideas upon any +subject, my literary essays were but very poor work. I never attempted +them unless when compelled to do so by the regulations of the society, +and then I was like the Lord of Castle Rackrent, who was obliged to +cut down a tree to get a few fagots to boil the kettle; for the +quantity of ponderous and miscellaneous knowledge, which I really +possessed on many subjects, was not easily condensed, or brought to +bear upon the object I wished particularly to become master of. Yet +there occurred opportunities when this odd lumber of my brain, +especially that which was connected with the recondite parts of +history, did me, as Hamlet says, "yeoman's service." My memory of +events was like one of the large, old-fashioned stone-cannons of the +Turks—very difficult to load well <span class="pagenum"><a id="page046" name="page046"></a>(p. 046)</span> and discharge, but making +a powerful effect when by good chance any object did come within range +of its shot. Such fortunate opportunities of exploding with effect +maintained my literary character among my companions, with whom I soon +met with great indulgence and regard. The persons with whom I chiefly +lived at this period of my youth were William Clerk, already +mentioned; James Edmonstoune, of Newton; George Abercromby; Adam +Ferguson, son of the celebrated Professor Ferguson, and who combined +the lightest and most airy temper with the best and kindest +disposition; John Irving, already mentioned; the Honorable Thomas +Douglas, now Earl of Selkirk; David Boyle,<a id="footnotetag34" name="footnotetag34"></a><a href="#footnote34"><span class="small" title="Go to Footnote 34">[34]</span></a>—and two or three +others, who sometimes plunged deeply into politics and metaphysics, +and not unfrequently "doffed the world aside, and bid it pass."</p> + +<p>Looking back on these times, I cannot applaud in all respects the way +in which our days were spent. There was too much idleness, and +sometimes too much conviviality: but our hearts were warm, our minds +honorably bent on knowledge and literary distinction; and if I, +certainly the least informed of the party, may be permitted to bear +witness, we were not without the fair and creditable means of +attaining the distinction to which we aspired. In this society I was +naturally led to correct my former useless course of reading; +for—feeling myself greatly inferior to my companions in metaphysical +philosophy and other branches of regular study—I labored, not without +some success, to acquire at least such a portion of knowledge as might +enable me to maintain my rank in conversation. In this I succeeded +pretty well; but unfortunately then, as often since through my life, I +incurred the deserved ridicule of my friends from the superficial +nature of my acquisitions, which being, in the mercantile phrase, <span class="italic">got +up</span> for society, very often proved flimsy in the texture; and thus the +gifts of an uncommonly <span class="pagenum"><a id="page047" name="page047"></a>(p. 047)</span> retentive memory and acute powers of +perception were sometimes detrimental to their possessor by +encouraging him to a presumptuous reliance upon them.</p> + +<p>Amidst these studies, and in this society, the time of my +apprenticeship elapsed; and in 1790, or thereabouts, it became +necessary that I should seriously consider to which department of the +law I was to attach myself. My father behaved with the most parental +kindness. He offered, if I preferred his own profession, immediately +to take me into partnership with him, which, though his business was +much diminished, still afforded me an immediate prospect of a handsome +independence. But he did not disguise his wish that I should +relinquish this situation to my younger brother, and embrace the more +ambitious profession of the Bar. I had little hesitation in making my +choice—for I was never very fond of money; and in no other particular +do the professions admit of a comparison. Besides, I knew and felt the +inconveniences attached to that of a Writer; and I thought (like a +young man) many of them were "ingenio non subeunda meo." The +appearance of personal dependence which that profession requires was +disagreeable to me; the sort of connection between the client and the +attorney seemed to render the latter more subservient than was quite +agreeable to my nature; and, besides, I had seen many sad examples, +while overlooking my father's business, that the utmost exertions, and +the best meant services, do not secure the <span class="italic">man of business</span>, as he is +called, from great loss, and most ungracious treatment on the part of +his employers. The Bar, though I was conscious of my deficiencies as a +public speaker, was the line of ambition and liberty; it was that also +for which most of my contemporary friends were destined. And, lastly, +although I would willingly have relieved my father of the labors of +his business, yet I saw plainly we could not have agreed on some +particulars if we had attempted to conduct it together, and that I +should disappoint his expectations <span class="pagenum"><a id="page048" name="page048"></a>(p. 048)</span> if I did not turn to the +Bar. So to that object my studies were directed with great ardor and +perseverance during the years 1789, 1790, 1791, 1792.</p> + +<p>In the usual course of study, the Roman or Civil Law was the first +object of my attention—the second, the Municipal Law of Scotland. In +the course of reading on both subjects, I had the advantage of +studying in conjunction with my friend William Clerk, a man of the +most acute intellects and powerful apprehension, and who, should he +ever shake loose the fetters of indolence by which he has been +hitherto trammelled, cannot fail to be distinguished in the highest +degree. We attended the regular classes of both laws in the University +of Edinburgh. The Civil Law chair, now worthily filled by Mr. +Alexander Irving, might at that time be considered as in <span class="italic">abeyance</span>, +since the person by whom it was occupied had never been fit for the +situation, and was then almost in a state of dotage. But the Scotch +Law lectures were those of Mr. David Hume, who still continues to +occupy that situation with as much honor to himself as advantage to +his country. I copied over his lectures twice with my own hand, from +notes taken in the class; and when I have had occasion to consult +them, I can never sufficiently admire the penetration and clearness of +conception which were necessary to the arrangement of the fabric of +law, formed originally under the strictest influence of feudal +principles, and innovated, altered, and broken in upon by the change +of times, of habits, and of manners, until it resembles some ancient +castle, partly entire, partly ruinous, partly dilapidated, patched and +altered during the succession of ages by a thousand additions and +combinations, yet still exhibiting, with the marks of its antiquity, +symptoms of the skill and wisdom of its founders, and capable of being +analyzed and made the subject of a methodical plan by an architect who +can understand the various styles of the different ages in which it +was subjected to alteration. Such an architect has Mr. Hume <span class="pagenum"><a id="page049" name="page049"></a>(p. 049)</span> +been to the law of Scotland, neither wandering into fanciful and +abstruse disquisitions, which are the more proper subject of the +antiquary, nor satisfied with presenting to his pupils a dry and +undigested detail of the laws in their present state, but combining +the past state of our legal enactments with the present, and tracing +clearly and judiciously the changes which took place, and the causes +which led to them.</p> + +<p>Under these auspices I commenced my legal studies. A little parlor was +assigned me in my father's house, which was spacious and convenient, +and I took the exclusive possession of my new realms with all the +feelings of novelty and liberty. Let me do justice to the only years +of my life in which I applied to learning with stern, steady, and +undeviating industry. The rule of my friend Clerk and myself was that +we should mutually qualify ourselves for undergoing an examination +upon certain points of law every morning in the week, Sundays +excepted. This was at first to have taken place alternately at each +other's houses, but we soon discovered that my friend's resolution was +inadequate to severing him from his couch at the early hour fixed for +this exercitation. Accordingly I agreed to go every morning to his +house, which, being at the extremity of Prince's Street, New Town, was +a walk of two miles. With great punctuality, however, I beat him up to +his task every morning before seven o'clock, and in the course of two +summers, we went, by way of question and answer, through the whole of +Heineccius's Analysis of the Institutes and Pandects, as well as +through the smaller copy of Erskine's Institutes of the Law of +Scotland. This course of study enabled us to pass with credit the +usual trials, which, by the regulations of the Faculty of Advocates, +must be undergone by every candidate for admission into their body. My +friend William Clerk and I passed these ordeals on the same +days—namely, the Civil Law trial on the [30th June, 1791], and the +Scots Law trial on the [6th July, 1792]. <span class="pagenum"><a id="page050" name="page050"></a>(p. 050)</span> On the [11th July, +1792], we both assumed the gown with all its duties and honors.</p> + +<p>My progress in life during these two or three years had been gradually +enlarging my acquaintance, and facilitating my entrance into good +company. My father and mother, already advanced in life, saw little +society at home, excepting that of near relations, or upon particular +occasions, so that I was left to form connections in a great measure +for myself. It is not difficult for a youth with a real desire to +please and be pleased, to make his way into good society in +Edinburgh—or indeed anywhere; and my family connections, if they did +not greatly further, had nothing to embarrass my progress. I was a +gentleman, and so welcome anywhere, if so be I could behave myself, as +Tony Lumpkin says, "in a concatenation accordingly."<a href="#toc"><span class="small">[Back to Contents]</span></a></p> + + +<h3>CHAPTER II <span class="pagenum"><a id="page051" name="page051"></a>(p. 051)</span></h3> + +<p class="summary">illustrations of the autobiographical +fragment. — edinburgh. — sandy-knowe. — bath. — prestonpans</p> + +<p class="center">1771-1778</p> + +<p>Sir Walter Scott opens his brief account of his ancestry with a +playful allusion to a trait of national character, which has, time out +of mind, furnished merriment to the neighbors of the Scotch; but the +zeal of pedigree was deeply rooted in himself, and he would have been +the last to treat it with serious disparagement. It has often been +exhibited under circumstances sufficiently grotesque; but it has lent +strength to many a good impulse, sustained hope and self-respect under +many a difficulty and distress, armed heart and nerve to many a bold +and resolute struggle for independence; and prompted also many a +generous act of assistance, which under its influence alone could have +been accepted without any feeling of degradation.</p> + +<p>He speaks modestly of his own descent; for, while none of his +predecessors had ever sunk below the situation and character of a +gentleman, he had but to go three or four generations back, and +thence, as far as they could be followed, either on the paternal or +maternal side, they were to be found moving in the highest ranks of +our baronage. When he fitted up, in his later years, the beautiful +hall of Abbotsford, he was careful to have the armorial bearings of +his forefathers blazoned in due order on the compartments of its roof; +and there are few in Scotland, under the titled nobility, who could +trace their blood to so many stocks of historical distinction.</p> + +<p>In <span class="pagenum"><a id="page052" name="page052"></a>(p. 052)</span> the Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border, and Notes to The +Lay of the Last Minstrel, the reader will find sundry notices of the +"Bauld Rutherfords that were sae stout," and the Swintons of Swinton +in Berwickshire, the two nearest houses on the maternal side. An +illustrious old warrior of the latter family, Sir John Swinton, +extolled by Froissart, is the hero of the dramatic sketch, Halidon +Hill; and it is not to be omitted, that through the Swintons Sir +Walter Scott could trace himself to William Alexander, Earl of +Stirling, the poet and dramatist.<a id="footnotetag35" name="footnotetag35"></a><a href="#footnote35"><span class="small" title="Go to Footnote 35">[35]</span></a> His respect for the worthy +barons of Newmains and Dryburgh, of whom, in right of his father's +mother, he was the representative, and in whose venerable sepulchre +his remains now rest, was testified by his Memorials of the +Haliburtons, a small volume printed (for private circulation only) in +the year 1820. His own male ancestors of the family of Harden, whose +lineage is traced by Douglas in his Baronage of Scotland back to the +middle of the fourteenth century, when they branched off from the +great blood of Buccleuch, have been so largely celebrated in his +various writings, that I might perhaps content myself with a general +reference to those pages, their only imperishable monument. The +antique splendor of the ducal house itself has been dignified to all +Europe by the pen of its remote descendant; but it may be doubted +whether his genius could have been adequately developed, had he not +attracted, at an early and critical period, the kindly recognition and +support of the Buccleuchs.</p> + +<p>The race had been celebrated, however, long before his <span class="pagenum"><a id="page053" name="page053"></a>(p. 053)</span> day, +by a minstrel of its own; nor did he conceal his belief that he owed +much to the influence exerted over his juvenile mind by the rude but +enthusiastic clan-poetry of old <span class="italic">Satchells</span> who describes himself <span class="italic">on +his title-page</span> as</p> + +<p class="poem10">"Captain Walter Scot, an old Souldier and no Scholler,<br> +<span class="add4em">And one that can write nane,</span><br> +<span class="add4em">But just the Letters of his Name."</span> +</p> + +<p>His True History of several honourable Families of the Right +Honourable Name of Scot, in the Shires of Roxburgh and Selkirk, and +others adjacent, gathered out of Ancient Chronicles, Histories, and +Traditions of our Fathers, includes, among other things, a string of +complimentary rhymes addressed to the first Laird of Raeburn; and the +copy which had belonged to that gentleman was in all likelihood about +the first book of verses that fell into the poet's hand.<a id="footnotetag36" name="footnotetag36"></a><a href="#footnote36"><span class="small" title="Go to Footnote 36">[36]</span></a> How +continually its wild <span class="pagenum"><a id="page054" name="page054"></a>(p. 054)</span> and uncouth doggerel was on his lips to +his latest day all his familiars can testify; and the passages which +he quoted with the greatest zest were those commemorative of two +ancient worthies, both of whom had had to contend against physical +misfortune similar to his own. The former of these, according to +Satchells, was the immediate founder of the branch originally designed +of Sinton, afterwards of Harden:—</p> + +<p class="poem20"> +"It is four hundred winters past in order<br> + Since that Buccleuch was Warden in the Border;<br> + A son he had at that same tide,<br> + Which was so lame could neither run nor ride.<br> + John, this lame son, if my author speaks true,<br> + He sent him to St. Mungo's in Glasgu,<br> + Where he remained a scholar's time,<br> + Then married a wife according to his mind....<br> + And betwixt them twa was procreat<br> + Headshaw, Askirk, <span class="smcap">Sinton</span>, and Glack."</p> + +<p>But, if the scholarship of <span class="italic">John the Lamiter</span> furnished his descendant +with many a mirthful allusion, a far greater favorite was the memory +of <span class="italic">William the Boltfoot</span>, who followed him in the sixth generation:—</p> + +<p class="poem30">"The Laird and Lady of Harden<br> + Betwixt them procreat was a son<br> + Called William Boltfoot of Harden."</p> + +<p>The emphasis with which this next line was quoted I can never +forget:—</p> + +<p class="poem-center"> + "<span class="italic">He did survive to be</span> <span class="smcap">A MAN</span>." +</p> + +<p>He was, in fact, one of the "prowest knights" of the whole +genealogy—a fearless horseman and expert spearman, renowned and +dreaded; and I suppose I have heard Sir Walter repeat a dozen times, +as he was dashing into the Tweed or Ettrick, "rolling red from brae to +brae," a stanza from what he called an old ballad, though it was most +likely one of his own early imitations:—</p> + +<p class="poem30">"To tak the foord he aye was first,<br> +<span class="add1em">Unless the English loons were near;</span><br> + Plunge vassal than, plunge horse and man,<br> +<span class="add1em">Auld Boltfoot rides into the rear."</span></p> + +<p>"From <span class="pagenum"><a id="page055" name="page055"></a>(p. 055)</span> childhood's earliest hour," says the poet in one of his +last Journals, "I have rebelled against external circumstances." How +largely the traditional famousness of the stalwart <span class="italic">Boltfoot</span> may have +helped to develop this element of his character, I do not pretend to +say; but I cannot avoid regretting that Lord Byron had not discovered +such another "Deformed Transformed" among his own chivalrous +progenitors.</p> + +<p>So long as Sir Walter retained his vigorous habits, he used to make an +autumnal excursion, with whatever friend happened to be his guest at +the time, to the tower of Harden, the <span class="italic">incunabula</span> of his race. A more +picturesque scene for the fastness of a lineage of Border marauders +could not be conceived; and so much did he delight in it, remote and +inaccessible as its situation is, that, in the earlier part of his +life, he had nearly availed himself of his kinsman's permission to fit +up the dilapidated <span class="italic">peel</span> for his summer residence. Harden (the ravine +of hares) is a deep, dark, and narrow glen, along which a little +mountain brook flows to join the river Borthwick, itself a tributary +of the Teviot. The castle is perched on the brink of the precipitous +bank, and from the ruinous windows you look down into the crows' nests +on the summits of the old mouldering elms, that have their roots on +the margin of the stream far below:—</p> + +<p class="poem20">"Where Bortha hoarse, that loads the meads with sand,<br> + Rolls her red tide to Teviot's western strand,<br> + Through slaty hills, whose sides are shagged with thorn,<br> + Where springs in scattered tufts the dark-green corn,<br> + Towers wood-girt Harden far above the vale,<br> + And clouds of ravens o'er the turrets sail.<br> + A hardy race who never shrunk from war,<br> + The Scott, to rival realms a mighty bar,<br> + Here fixed his mountain home;—a wide domain,<br> + And rich the soil, had purple heath been grain;<br> + But what the niggard ground of wealth denied,<br> + From fields more bless'd his fearless arm supplied."<a id="footnotetag37" name="footnotetag37"></a><a href="#footnote37"><span class="small" title="Go to Footnote 37">[37]</span></a></p> + +<p>It <span class="pagenum"><a id="page056" name="page056"></a>(p. 056)</span> was to this wild retreat that the Harden of The Lay of the +Last Minstrel, the Auld Wat of a hundred Border ditties, brought home, +in 1567, his beautiful bride, Mary Scott, "the Flower of Yarrow," +whose grace and gentleness have lived in song along with the stern +virtues of her lord. She is said to have chiefly owed her celebrity to +the gratitude of an English captive, a beautiful child, whom she +rescued from the tender mercies of Wat's moss-troopers, on their +return from a foray into Cumberland. The youth grew up under her +protection, and is believed to have been the composer both of the +words and the music of many of the best old songs of the Border. As +Leyden says,</p> + +<p class="poem20">"His are the strains whose wandering echoes thrill<br> + The shepherd lingering on the twilight hill,<br> + When evening brings the merry folding hours,<br> + And sun-eyed daisies close their winking flowers.<br> + He lived o'er Yarrow's Flower to shed the tear,<br> + To strew the holly leaves o'er Harden's bier;<br> + But none was found above the minstrel's tomb,<br> + Emblem of peace, to bid the daisy bloom.<br> + He, nameless as the race from which he sprung,<br> + Saved other names, and left his own unsung."</p> + +<p>We are told that when the last bullock which Auld Wat had provided +from the English pastures was consumed, the Flower of Yarrow placed on +her table a dish containing a pair of clean spurs; a hint to the +company that they must bestir themselves for their next dinner. Sir +Walter adds, in a note to the Minstrelsy, "Upon one occasion when the +village herd was driving out the cattle to pasture, the old laird +heard him call loudly to drive out Harden's cow. 'Harden's <span class="italic">cow</span>!' +echoed the affronted chief; 'is it come to that pass? By my faith they +shall soon say Harden's <span class="italic">kye</span>' (cows). Accordingly, he sounded his +bugle, set out with his followers, and next day returned with <span class="italic">a bow +of kye, and a bassen'd</span> (brindled) <span class="italic">bull</span>. On his return with this +gallant prey, he passed a very large haystack. It occurred to the +provident laird <span class="pagenum"><a id="page057" name="page057"></a>(p. 057)</span> that this would be extremely convenient to +fodder his new stock of cattle; but as no means of transporting it +were obvious, he was fain to take leave of it with the apostrophe, now +become proverbial—'<span class="italic">By my saul, had ye but four feet, ye should not +stand lang there.</span>' In short, as Froissart says of a similar class of +feudal robbers, nothing came amiss to them that was not <span class="italic">too heavy or +too hot</span>."</p> + +<p>Another striking chapter in the genealogical history belongs to the +marriage of Auld Wat's son and heir, afterwards Sir William Scott of +Harden, distinguished by the early favor of James VI., and severely +fined for his loyalty under the usurpation of Cromwell. The period of +this gentleman's youth was a very wild one in that district. The +Border clans still made war on each other occasionally, much in the +fashion of their forefathers; and the young and handsome heir of +Harden, engaging in a foray upon the lands of Sir Gideon Murray of +Elibank, treasurer-depute of Scotland, was overpowered by that baron's +retainers, and carried in shackles to his castle, now a heap of ruins, +on the banks of the Tweed. Elibank's "doomtree" extended its broad +arms close to the gates of his fortress, and the indignant laird was +on the point of desiring his prisoner to say a last prayer, when his +more considerate dame interposed milder counsels, suggesting that the +culprit was born to a good estate, and that they had three unmarried +daughters. Young Harden, not, it is said, without hesitation, agreed +to save his life by taking the plainest of the three off their hands, +and the contract of marriage, executed instantly on the parchment of a +drum, is still in the charter-chest of his noble representative.</p> + +<p>Walter Scott, the third son of this couple, was the first Laird of +Raeburn, already alluded to as one of the patrons of Satchells. He +married Isabel Macdougal, daughter of Macdougal of Makerstoun—a +family of great antiquity and distinction in Roxburghshire, of whose +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page058" name="page058"></a>(p. 058)</span> blood, through various alliances, the poet had a large share +in his veins. Raeburn, though the son and brother of two steady +Cavaliers, and married into a family of the same political creed, +became a Whig, and at last a Quaker; and the reader will find, in one +of the notes to The Heart of Mid-Lothian, a singular account of the +persecution to which this backsliding exposed him at the hands of both +his own and his wife's relations. He was incarcerated (<span class="smcap">A. D.</span> 1665), +first at Edinburgh and then at Jedburgh, by order of the Privy +Council—his children were forcibly taken from him, and a heavy sum +was levied on his estate yearly, for the purposes of their education +beyond the reach of his perilous influence. "It appears," says Sir +Walter, in a MS. memorandum now before me, "that the Laird of +Makerstoun, his brother-in-law, joined with Raeburn's own elder +brother, Harden, in this singular persecution, as it will now be +termed by Christians of all persuasions. It was observed by the people +that the male line of the second Sir William of Harden became extinct +in 1710, and that the representation of Makerstoun soon passed into +the female line. They assigned as a cause, that when the wife of +Raeburn found herself deprived of her husband, and refused permission +even to see her children, she pronounced a malediction on her +husband's brother as well as on her own, and prayed that a male of +their body might not inherit their property."</p> + +<p>The MS. adds, "of the first Raeburn's two sons it may be observed +that, thanks to the discipline of the Privy Council, they were both +good scholars." Of these sons, Walter, the second, was the poet's +great-grandfather, the enthusiastic Jacobite of the autobiographical +fragment,—who is introduced,</p> + +<p class="poem30">"With amber beard and flaxen hair,<br> + And reverend apostolic air,"</p> + +<p>in the epistle prefixed to the sixth canto of Marmion. A good +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page059" name="page059"></a>(p. 059)</span> portrait of Bearded Wat, painted for his friend Pitcairn, was +presented by the Doctor's grandson, the Earl of Kellie, to the father +of Sir Walter. It is now at Abbotsford; and shows a considerable +resemblance to the poet. Some verses addressed to the original by his +kinsman Walter Scott of Harden are given in one of the Notes to +Marmion. The old gentleman himself is said to have written verses +occasionally, both English and Latin; but I never heard more than the +burden of a drinking-song—</p> + +<p class="poem30">"Barba crescat, barba crescat,<br> + Donec carduus revirescat."<a id="footnotetag38" name="footnotetag38"></a><a href="#footnote38"><span class="small" title="Go to Footnote 38">[38]</span></a></p> + +<p>Scantily as the worthy Jacobite seems to have been provided with this +world's goods, he married the daughter of a gentleman of good +condition, "through whom," says the MS. memorandum already quoted, +"his descendants have inherited a connection with some honorable +branches of the <span class="italic">Slioch nan Diarmid</span>, or Clan of Campbell." To this +connection Sir Walter owed, as we shall see hereafter, many of those +early opportunities for studying the manners of the Highlanders, to +which the world are indebted for Waverley, Rob Roy, and The Lady of +the Lake.</p> + +<a id="img003" name="img003"></a> +<div class="figcenter"> +<img src="images/img003.jpg" width="400" height="474" alt="Walter Scott ("Beardie")" title=""> +<p>Walter Scott ("Beardie"),<br> +Great-grandfather of Sir Walter Scott<br> +<span class="smaller">After the painting at Abbotsford.</span></p> +</div> + +<p>Robert Scott, the son of Beardie, formed also an honorable alliance. +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page060" name="page060"></a>(p. 060)</span> His father-in-law, Thomas Haliburton,<a id="footnotetag39" name="footnotetag39"></a><a href="#footnote39"><span class="small" title="Go to Footnote 39">[39]</span></a> the last but one of +the "good lairds of Newmains," entered his marriage as follows in the +domestic record, which Sir Walter's pious respect induced him to have +printed nearly a century afterwards:—"My second daughter Barbara is +married to Robert Scott, son to Walter Scott, uncle to Raeburn, upon +this sixteen day of July, 1728, at my house of Dryburgh, by Mr. James +Innes, minister of Mertoun, their mothers being cousings; may the +blessing of the Lord rest upon them, and make them comforts to each +other and to all their relations;" to which the editor of the +Memorials adds this note—"May God grant that the prayers of the +excellent persons who have passed away may avail for the benefit of +those who succeed them!—<span class="italic">Abbotsford</span>, Nov., 1824."</p> + +<p>I need scarcely remind the reader of the exquisite description of the +poet's grandfather, in the Introduction to the third canto of +Marmion—</p> + +<p class="poem30"> +——"the thatched mansion's gray-hair'd sire,<br> + Wise without learning, plain and good,<br> + And sprang of Scotland's gentler blood;<br> + Whose <span class="pagenum"><a id="page061" name="page061"></a>(p. 061)</span> eye, in age quick, clear, and keen,<br> + Showed what in youth its glance had been;<br> + Whose doom discording neighbors sought,<br> + Content with equity unbought."</p> + +<p>In the Preface to Guy Mannering, we have an anecdote of Robert Scott +in his earlier days: "My grandfather, while riding over Charterhouse +Moor, then a very extensive common, fell suddenly among a large band +of gypsies, who were carousing in a hollow surrounded by bushes. They +instantly seized on his bridle with shouts of welcome, exclaiming that +they had often dined at his expense, and he must now stay and share +their cheer. My ancestor was a little alarmed, for he had more money +about his person than he cared to risk in such society. However, being +naturally a bold, lively spirited man, he entered into the humor of +the thing, and sat down to the feast, which consisted of all the +varieties of game, poultry, pigs, and so forth, that could be +collected by a wide and indiscriminate system of plunder. The dinner +was a very merry one, but my relative got a hint from some of the +older gypsies, just when 'the mirth and fun grew fast and furious,' +and mounting his horse accordingly, he took a French leave of his +entertainers." His grandson might have reported more than one scene of +the like sort in which he was himself engaged, while hunting the same +district, not in quest of foxes or of cattle sales, like the Goodman +of Sandy-Knowe, but of ballads for the Minstrelsy. Gypsy stories, as +we are told in the same Preface, were frequently in the mouth of the +old man when his face "brightened at the evening fire," in the days of +the poet's childhood. And he adds that, "as Dr. Johnson had a shadowy +recollection of Queen Anne as a stately lady in black, adorned with +diamonds," so his own memory was haunted with "a solemn remembrance of +a woman of more than female height, dressed in a long red cloak, who +once made her appearance beneath the thatched roof of Sandy-Knowe, +commenced acquaintance by <span class="pagenum"><a id="page062" name="page062"></a>(p. 062)</span> giving him an apple, and whom he +looked on, nevertheless, with as much awe as the future doctor, High +Church and Tory as he was doomed to be, could look upon the Queen." +This was Madge Gordon, granddaughter of Jean Gordon, the prototype of +Meg Merrilies.</p> + +<p>Of Robert of Sandy-Knowe, also, there is a very tolerable portrait at +Abbotsford, and the likeness of the poet to his grandfather must have +forcibly struck every one who has seen it. Indeed, but for its wanting +some inches in elevation of forehead—(a considerable want, it must be +allowed)—the picture might be mistaken for one of Sir Walter Scott. +The keen, shrewd expression of the eye, and the remarkable length and +compression of the upper lip, bring him exactly before me as he +appeared when entering with all the zeal of a professional +agriculturist into the merits of a pit of marle discovered at +Abbotsford. Had the old man been represented with his cap on his head, +the resemblance to one particular phasis of the most changeful of +countenances would have been perfect.</p> + +<p>Robert Scott had a numerous progeny, and Sir Walter has intimated his +intention of recording several of them "with a sincere tribute of +gratitude" in the contemplated prosecution of his autobiography. Two +of the younger sons were bred to the naval service of the East India +Company; one of whom died early and unmarried; the other was the +excellent Captain Robert Scott, of whose kindness to his nephew some +particulars are given in the Ashestiel fragment, and more will occur +hereafter. Another son, Thomas, followed the profession of his father +with ability, and retired in old age upon a handsome independence, +acquired by his industrious exertions. He was twice married,—first to +his near relation, a daughter of Raeburn; and secondly to Miss +Rutherford of Know-South, the estate of which respectable family is +now possessed by his son Charles Scott, an amiable and high-spirited +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page063" name="page063"></a>(p. 063)</span> gentleman, who was always a special favorite with his eminent +kinsman. The death of Thomas Scott is thus recorded in one of the MS. +notes on his nephew's own copy of the Haliburton Memorials:—"The said +Thomas Scott died at Monklaw, near Jedburgh, at two of the clock, 27th +January, 1823, in the 90th year of his life, and fully possessed of +all his faculties. He read till nearly the year before his death; and +being a great musician on the Scotch pipes, had, when on his deathbed, +a favorite tune played over to him by his son James, that he might be +sure he left him in full possession of it. After hearing it, he hummed +it over himself, and corrected it in several of the notes. The air was +that called Sour Plums in Galashiels. When barks and other tonics were +given him during his last illness, he privately spat them into his +handkerchief, saying, as he had lived all his life without taking +doctor's drugs, he wished to die without doing so."</p> + +<p>I visited this old man two years before his death, in company with Sir +Walter, and thought him about the most venerable figure I had ever set +my eyes on—tall and erect, with long flowing tresses of the most +silvery whiteness, and stockings rolled up over his knees, after the +fashion of three generations back. He sat reading his Bible without +spectacles, and did not, for a moment, perceive that any one had +entered his room, but on recognizing his nephew he rose, with cordial +alacrity, kissing him on both cheeks, and exclaiming, "God bless thee, +Walter, my man! thou hast risen to be great, but thou wast always +good." His remarks were lively and sagacious, and delivered with a +touch of that humor which seems to have been shared by most of the +family. He had the air and manner of an ancient gentleman, and must in +his day have been eminently handsome. I saw more than once, about the +same period, this respectable man's sister, who had married her cousin +Walter, Laird of Raeburn—thus adding a new link to the closeness of +the <span class="pagenum"><a id="page064" name="page064"></a>(p. 064)</span> family connection. She also must have been, in her +youth, remarkable for personal attractions; as it was, she dwells on +my memory as the perfect picture of an old Scotch lady, with a great +deal of simple dignity in her bearing, but with the softest eye, and +the sweetest voice, and a charm of meekness and gentleness about every +look and expression; all which contrasted strikingly enough with the +stern dry aspect and manners of her husband, a right descendant of the +moss-troopers of Harden, who never seemed at his ease but on +horseback, and continued to be the boldest fox-hunter of the district, +even to the verge of eighty. The poet's aunt spoke her native language +pure and undiluted, but without the slightest tincture of that +vulgarity which now seems almost unavoidable in the oral use of a +dialect so long banished from courts, and which has not been avoided +by any modern writer who has ventured to introduce it, with the +exception of Scott, and I may add, speaking generally, of Burns. Lady +Raeburn, as she was universally styled, may be numbered with those +friends of early days whom her nephew has alluded to in one of his +prefaces, as preserving what we may fancy to have been the old Scotch +of Holyrood.</p> + +<p>The particulars which I have been setting down may help English +readers to form some notion of the structure of society in those +southern districts of Scotland. When Satchells wrote, he boasted that +Buccleuch could summon to his banner one hundred lairds, all of his +own name, with ten thousand more—landless men, but still of the same +blood. The younger sons of these various lairds were, through many +successive generations, portioned off with fragments of the +inheritance, until such subdivision could be carried no farther, and +then the cadet, of necessity, either adopted the profession of arms, +in some foreign service very frequently, or became a cultivator on the +estate of his own elder brother, of the chieftain of his branch, or of +the great chief and patriarchal protector of the whole clan. Until the +commerce of England and, <span class="pagenum"><a id="page065" name="page065"></a>(p. 065)</span> above all, the military and civil +services of the English colonies were thrown open to the enterprise of +the Scotch, this system of things continued entire. It still remained +in force to a considerable extent at the time when the Goodman of +Sandy-Knowe was establishing his children in the world—and I am happy +to say, that it is far from being abolished even at the present day. +It was a system which bound together the various classes of the rural +population in bonds of mutual love and confidence: the original +community of lineage was equally remembered on all sides; the landlord +could count for more than his rent on the tenant, who regarded him +rather as a father or an elder brother, than as one who owed his +superiority to mere wealth; and the farmer who, on fit occasions, +partook on equal terms of the chase and the hospitality of his +landlord, went back with content and satisfaction to the daily labors +of a vocation which he found no one disposed to consider as derogating +from his gentle blood. Such delusions, if delusions they were, held +the natural arrogance of riches in check, taught the poor man to +believe that in virtuous poverty he had nothing to blush for, and +spread over the whole being of the community the gracious spirit of a +primitive humanity.</p> + +<p>Walter Scott, the eldest son of Robert of Sandy-Knowe, appears to have +been the first of the family that ever adopted a town life, or +anything claiming to be classed among the learned professions. His +branch of the law, however, could not in those days be advantageously +prosecuted without extensive connections in the country; his own were +too respectable not to be of much service to him in his calling, and +they were cultivated accordingly. His professional visits to +Roxburghshire and Ettrick Forest were, in his vigorous life, very +frequent; and though he was never supposed to have any tincture either +of romance or poetry in his composition, he retained to the last a +warm affection for his native district, with <span class="pagenum"><a id="page066" name="page066"></a>(p. 066)</span> a certain +reluctant flavor of the old feelings and prejudices of the Borderer. I +have little to add to Sir Walter's short and respectful notice of his +father, except that I have heard it confirmed by the testimony of many +less partial observers. According to every account, he was a most +just, honorable, conscientious man; only too high of spirit for some +parts of his business. "He passed from the cradle to the grave," says +a surviving relation, "without making an enemy or losing a friend. He +was a most affectionate parent, and if he discouraged, rather than +otherwise, his son's early devotion to the pursuits which led him to +the height of literary eminence, it was only because he did not +understand what such things meant, and considered it his duty to keep +his young man to that path in which good sense and industry might, +humanly speaking, be thought sure of success."</p> + +<a id="img004" name="img004"></a> +<div class="figcenter"> +<img src="images/img004.jpg" width="400" height="469" alt="Walter Scott, W. S." title=""> +<p>Walter Scott, W. S.,<br> +Father of Sir Walter Scott<br> +<span class="smaller">After the painting at Abbotsford.</span></p> +</div> + +<p>Sir Walter's mother was short of stature, and by no means comely, at +least after the days of her early youth. She had received, as became +the daughter of an eminently learned physician, the best sort of +education then bestowed on young gentlewomen in Scotland. The poet, +speaking of Mrs. Euphemia Sinclair, the mistress of the school at +which his mother was reared, to the ingenious local antiquary, Mr. +Robert Chambers, said that "she must have been possessed of uncommon +talents for education, as all her young ladies were, in after-life, +fond of reading, wrote and spelled admirably, were well acquainted +with history and the belles-lettres, without neglecting the more +homely duties of the needle and accompt book; and perfectly well-bred +in society." Mr. Chambers adds: "Sir W. further communicated that his +mother, and many others of Mrs. Sinclair's pupils, were sent +afterwards <span class="italic">to be finished off</span> by the Honorable Mrs. Ogilvie, a lady +who trained her young friends to a style of manners which would now be +considered intolerably stiff. Such was the effect of this early +training upon the mind <span class="pagenum"><a id="page067" name="page067"></a>(p. 067)</span> of Mrs. Scott, that even when she +approached her eightieth year, she took as much care to avoid touching +her chair with her back as if she had still been under the stern eye +of Mrs. Ogilvie."<a id="footnotetag40" name="footnotetag40"></a><a href="#footnote40"><span class="small" title="Go to Footnote 40">[40]</span></a> The physiognomy of the poet bore, if their +portraits may be trusted, no resemblance to either of his parents.</p> + +<p>Mr. Scott was nearly thirty years of age when he married, and six +children, born to him between 1759 and 1766, all perished in +infancy.<a id="footnotetag41" name="footnotetag41"></a><a href="#footnote41"><span class="small" title="Go to Footnote 41">[41]</span></a> A suspicion that the close situation of the College Wynd +had been unfavorable to the health of his family was the motive that +induced him to remove to the house which he ever afterwards occupied +in George's Square.<a id="footnotetag42" name="footnotetag42"></a><a href="#footnote42"><span class="small" title="Go to Footnote 42">[42]</span></a> This removal took place shortly after the +poet's birth; and the children born subsequently were in general +healthy. Of a family of twelve, of whom six lived to maturity, not one +now survives; nor have any of them left descendants, except Sir Walter +himself, and his next and dearest brother, Thomas Scott.</p> + +<p>He says that his consciousness of existence dated from Sandy-Knowe; +and how deep and indelible was the impression which its romantic +localities had left on his imagination, I need not remind the readers +of Marmion and The Eve of St. John. On the summit of the Crags which +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page068" name="page068"></a>(p. 068)</span> overhang the farmhouse stands the ruined tower of Smailholme, +the scene of that fine ballad; and the view from thence takes in a +wide expanse of the district in which, as has been truly said, every +field has its battle, and every rivulet its song:—</p> + +<p class="poem30"> +"That lady sat in mournful mood,<br> +<span class="add1em">Looked over hill and vale,</span><br> + O'er Tweed's fair flood, and Mertoun's wood,<br> +<span class="add1em">And all down Teviotdale."—</span></p> + +<p>Mertoun, the principal seat of the Harden family, with its noble +groves; nearly in front of it, across the Tweed, Lessudden, the +comparatively small but still venerable and stately abode of the +Lairds of Raeburn; and the hoary Abbey of Dryburgh, surrounded with +yew-trees as ancient as itself, seem to lie almost below the feet of +the spectator. Opposite him rise the purple peaks of Eildon, the +traditional scene of Thomas the Rhymer's interview with the Queen of +Faerie; behind are the blasted peel which the seer of Ercildoune +himself inhabited, "the Broom of the Cowdenknowes," the pastoral +valley of the Leader, and the bleak wilderness of Lammermoor. To the +eastward, the desolate grandeur of Hume Castle breaks the horizon, as +the eye travels towards the range of the Cheviot. A few miles +westward, Melrose, "like some tall rock with lichens grey," appears +clasped amidst the windings of the Tweed; and the distance presents +the serrated mountains of the Gala, the Ettrick, and the Yarrow, all +famous in song. Such were the objects that had painted the earliest +images on the eye of the last and greatest of the Border Minstrels.</p> + +<p>As his memory reached to an earlier period of childhood than that of +almost any other person, so assuredly no poet has given to the world a +picture of the dawning feelings of life and genius, at once so simple, +so beautiful, and so complete, as that of his epistle to William +Erskine, the chief literary confidant and counsellor of his prime of +manhood.</p> + +<p class="poem30"> +"Whether <span class="pagenum"><a id="page069" name="page069"></a>(p. 069)</span> an impulse that has birth<br> + Soon as the infant wakes on earth,<br> + One with our feelings and our powers,<br> + And rather part of us than ours;<br> + Or whether fitlier term'd the sway<br> + Of habit, formed in early day,<br> + Howe'er derived, its force confest<br> + Rules with despotic sway the breast.<br> + And drags us on by viewless chain,<br> + While taste and reason plead in vain....<br> + Thus, while I ape the measure wild<br> + Of tales that charm'd me yet a child,<br> + Rude though they be, still with the chime<br> + Return the thoughts of early time,<br> + And feelings rous'd in life's first day,<br> + Glow in the line and prompt the lay.<br> + Then rise those crags, that mountain tower<br> + Which charm'd my fancy's wakening hour.<br> + It was a barren scene and wild<br> + Where naked cliffs were rudely piled;<br> + But ever and anon between<br> + Lay velvet tufts of loveliest green;<br> + And well the lonely infant knew<br> + Recesses where the wall-flower grew,<br> + And honey-suckle loved to crawl<br> + Up the low crag and ruin'd wall.<br> + I deem'd such nooks the sweetest shade<br> + The sun in all its round surveyed;<br> + And still I thought that shattered tower<br> + The mightiest work of human power,<br> + And marvelled as the aged hind,<br> + With some strange tale bewitch'd my mind,<br> + Of forayers who, with headlong force,<br> + Down from that strength had spurr'd their horse,<br> + Their southern rapine to renew,<br> + Far in the distant Cheviots blue,<br> + And home returning, fill'd the hall<br> + With revel, wassail-rout, and brawl.<br> + Methought that still with trump and clang<br> + The gateway's broken arches rang;<br> + Methought grim features, seam'd with scars,<br> + Glared through the windows' rusty bars;<br> + And ever, by the winter hearth,<br> + Old tales I heard of woe or mirth,<br> + Of lovers' slights, of ladies' charms,<br> + Of witches' spells, of warriors' arms—<br> + Of patriot battles won of old<br> + By Wallace Wight and Bruce the Bold—<br> + Of <span class="pagenum"><a id="page070" name="page070"></a>(p. 070)</span> later fields of feud and fight,<br> + When, pouring from their Highland height,<br> + The Scottish clans, in headlong sway,<br> + Had swept the scarlet ranks away.<br> + While stretched at length upon the floor,<br> + Again I fought each combat o'er,<br> + Pebbles and shells, in order laid,<br> + The mimic ranks of war displayed,<br> + And onward still the Scottish Lion bore,<br> + And still the scattered Southron fled before."<a id="footnotetag43" name="footnotetag43"></a><a href="#footnote43"><span class="small" title="Go to Footnote 43">[43]</span></a></p> + +<p>There are still living in that neighborhood two old women who were in +the domestic service of Sandy-Knowe when the lame child was brought +thither in the third year of his age. One of them, Tibby Hunter, +remembers his coming well; and that "he was a sweet-tempered bairn, a +darling with all about the house." The young ewe-milkers delighted, +she says, to carry him about on their backs among the crags; and he +was "very gleg (quick) at the uptake, and soon kenned every sheep and +lamb by headmark as well as any of them." His great pleasure, however, +was in the society of the "aged hind," recorded in the epistle to +Erskine. "Auld Sandy Ormistoun," called, from the most dignified part +of his function, "the Cow-bailie," had the chief superintendence of +the flocks that browsed upon "the velvet tufts of loveliest green." If +the child saw him in the morning, he could not be satisfied unless the +old man would set him astride on his shoulder, and take him to keep +him company as he lay watching his charge.</p> + +<p class="poem30">"Here was poetic impulse given<br> + By the green hill and clear blue heaven."</p> + +<p>The Cow-bailie blew a particular note on his whistle, which signified +to the maid-servants in the house below when the little boy wished to +be carried home again. He told his friend, Mr. Skene of Rubislaw, when +spending a summer day in his old age among these well-remembered +crags, that he delighted to roll about on the grass all day long in +the midst of the flock, and that "the sort of <span class="pagenum"><a id="page071" name="page071"></a>(p. 071)</span> fellowship he +thus formed with the sheep and lambs had impressed his mind with a +degree of affectionate feeling towards them which had lasted +throughout life." There is a story of his having been forgotten one +day among the knolls when a thunderstorm came on; and his aunt, +suddenly recollecting his situation, and running out to bring him +home, is said to have found him lying on his back, clapping his hands +at the lightning, and crying out, "Bonny! bonny!" at every flash.</p> + +<p>I find the following marginal note on his copy of Allan Ramsay's +Tea-Table Miscellany (edition 1724): "This book belonged to my +grandfather, Robert Scott, and out of it I was taught Hardiknute by +heart before I could read the ballad myself. It was the first poem I +ever learnt—the last I shall ever forget." According to Tibby Hunter, +he was not particularly fond of his book, embracing every pretext for +joining his friend the Cow-bailie out of doors; but "Miss Jenny was a +grand hand at keeping him to the bit, and by degrees he came to read +brawly."<a id="footnotetag44" name="footnotetag44"></a><a href="#footnote44"><span class="small" title="Go to Footnote 44">[44]</span></a> An early acquaintance of a higher class, Mrs. Duncan, the +wife of the present excellent minister of Mertoun, informs me, that +though she was younger than Sir Walter, she has a dim remembrance of +the interior of Sandy-Knowe—"Old Mrs. Scott sitting, with her +spinning-wheel, at one side of the fire, in a <span class="italic">clean clean</span> parlor; +the grandfather, a good deal failed, in his elbow-chair opposite; and +the little boy lying on the carpet, at the old man's feet, listening +to the Bible, or whatever good book Miss Jenny was reading to +them."<a id="footnotetag45" name="footnotetag45"></a><a href="#footnote45"><span class="small" title="Go to Footnote 45">[45]</span></a></p> + +<p>Robert <span class="pagenum"><a id="page072" name="page072"></a>(p. 072)</span> Scott died before his grandson was four years of age; +and I heard him mention when he was an old man that he distinctly +remembered the writing and sealing of the funeral letters, and all the +ceremonial of the melancholy procession as it left Sandy-Knowe. I +shall conclude my notices of the residence at Sandy-Knowe with +observing that in Sir Walter's account of the friendly clergyman who +so often sat at his grandfather's fireside, we cannot fail to trace +many features of the secluded divine in the novel of St. Ronan's Well.</p> + +<p>I have nothing to add to what he has told us of that excursion to +England which interrupted his residence at Sandy-Knowe for about a +twelvemonth, except that I had often been astonished, long before I +read his autobiographic fragment, with the minute recollection he +seemed to possess of all the striking features of the city of Bath, +which he had never seen again since he quitted it before he was six +years of age. He has himself alluded, in his Memoir, to the lively +recollection he retained of his first visit to the theatre, to which +his Uncle Robert carried him to witness a representation of As You +Like It. In his reviewal of the Life of John Kemble, written in 1826, +he has recorded that impression more fully, and in terms so striking, +that I must copy them in this place:—</p> + +<p class="quote"> + "There are few things which those gifted with any degree of + imagination recollect with a sense of more anxious and mysterious + delight than the first dramatic representation which they have + witnessed. The unusual form of the house, filled with such + groups <span class="pagenum"><a id="page073" name="page073"></a>(p. 073)</span> of crowded spectators, themselves forming an + extraordinary spectacle to the eye which has never witnessed it + before, yet all intent upon that wide and mystic curtain, whose + dusky undulations permit us now and then to discern the momentary + glitter of some gaudy form, or the spangles of some sandalled + foot, which trips lightly within: Then the light, brilliant as + that of day; then the music, which, in itself a treat sufficient + in every other situation, our inexperience mistakes for the very + play we came to witness; then the slow rise of the shadowy + curtain, disclosing, as if by actual magic, a new land, with + woods, and mountains, and lakes, lighted, it seems to us, by + another sun, and inhabited by a race of beings different from + ourselves, whose language is poetry,—whose dress, demeanor, and + sentiments seem something supernatural,—and whose whole actions + and discourse are calculated not for the ordinary tone of + every-day life, but to excite the stronger and more powerful + faculties—to melt with sorrow, overpower with terror, astonish + with the marvellous, or convulse with irresistible laughter:—all + these wonders stamp indelible impressions on the memory. Those + mixed feelings, also, which perplex us between a sense that the + scene is but a plaything, and an interest which ever and anon + surprises us into a transient belief that that which so strongly + affects us cannot be fictitious; those mixed and puzzling + feelings, also, are exciting in the highest degree. Then there + are the bursts of applause, like distant thunder, and the + permission afforded to clap our little hands, and add our own + scream of delight to a sound so commanding. All this, and much, + much more, is fresh in our memory, although, when we felt these + sensations, we looked on the stage which Garrick had not yet + left. It is now a long while since; yet we have not passed many + hours of such unmixed delight, and we still remember the sinking + lights, the dispersing crowd, with the vain longings which we + felt that the music would again sound, the magic curtain once + more arise, and the enchanting dream recommence; and the + astonishment with which we looked upon the apathy of the elder + part of our company, who, having the means, did not spend every + evening in the theatre."<a id="footnotetag46" name="footnotetag46"></a><a href="#footnote46"><span class="small" title="Go to Footnote 46">[46]</span></a></p> + +<p>Probably it was this performance that first tempted him <span class="pagenum"><a id="page074" name="page074"></a>(p. 074)</span> to +open the page of Shakespeare. Before he returned to Sandy-Knowe, +assuredly, notwithstanding the modest language of his autobiography, +the progress which had been made in his intellectual education was +extraordinary; and it is impossible to doubt that his hitherto almost +sole tutoress, Miss Jenny Scott, must have been a woman of tastes and +acquirements very far above what could have been often found among +Scotch ladies, of any but the highest class at least, in that day. In +the winter of 1777, she and her charge spent some few weeks—not happy +weeks, the Memoir hints them to have been—in George's Square, +Edinburgh; and it so happened, that during this little interval, Mr. +and Mrs. Scott received in their domestic circle a guest capable of +appreciating, and, fortunately for us, of recording in a very striking +manner the remarkable development of young Walter's faculties. Mrs. +Cockburn, mentioned by him in his Memoir as the authoress of the +modern Flowers of the Forest, born a Rutherford, of Fairnalie, in +Selkirkshire, was distantly related to the poet's mother, with whom +she had through life been in habits of intimate friendship. This +accomplished woman was staying at Ravelston, in the vicinity of +Edinburgh, a seat of the Keiths of Dunnottar, nearly related to Mrs. +Scott, and to herself. With some of that family she spent an evening +in George's Square. She chanced to be writing next day to Dr. Douglas, +the well-known and much respected minister of her native parish, +Galashiels; and her letter, of which the Doctor's son has kindly given +me a copy, contains the following passage:—</p> + +<div class="quote"> + +<p class="center">"Edinburgh, Saturday night, 15th of 'the gloomy month when the + people of England hang and drown themselves.'</p> + +<p>... "I last night supped in Mr. Walter Scott's. He has the most + extraordinary genius of a boy I ever saw. He was reading a poem + to his mother when I went in. I made him read on; it was the + description of a shipwreck. His passion rose with the storm. He + lifted his eyes and hands. 'There's the <span class="pagenum"><a id="page075" name="page075"></a>(p. 075)</span> mast gone,' + says he; 'crash it goes!—they will all perish!' After his + agitation, he turns to me. 'That is too melancholy,' says he; 'I + had better read you something more amusing.' I preferred a little + chat, and asked his opinion of Milton and other books he was + reading, which he gave me wonderfully. One of his observations + was, 'How strange it is that Adam, just new come into the world, + should know everything—that must be the poet's fancy,' says he. + But when he was told he was created perfect by God, he instantly + yielded. When taken to bed last night, he told his aunt he liked + that lady. 'What lady?' says she. 'Why, Mrs. Cockburn; for I + think she is a virtuoso like myself.' 'Dear Walter,' says Aunt + Jenny, 'what is a virtuoso?' 'Don't ye know? Why, it's one who + wishes and will know everything.'<a id="footnotetag47" name="footnotetag47"></a><a href="#footnote47"><span class="small" title="Go to Footnote 47">[47]</span></a>—Now, sir, you will think + this a very silly story. Pray, what age do you suppose this boy + to be? Name it now, before I tell you. Why, twelve or fourteen. + No such thing; he is not quite six years old.<a id="footnotetag48" name="footnotetag48"></a><a href="#footnote48"><span class="small" title="Go to Footnote 48">[48]</span></a> He has a lame + leg, for which he was a year at Bath, and has acquired the + perfect English accent, which he has not lost since he came, and + he reads like a Garrick. You will allow this an uncommon exotic."</p> +</div> + +<p>Some particulars in Mrs. Cockburn's account appear considerably at +variance with what Sir Walter has told us respecting his own boyish +proficiency—especially in the article of pronunciation. On that last +head, however, Mrs. Cockburn was not, probably, a very accurate judge; +all that can be said is, that if at this early period he had acquired +anything which could be justly described as <span class="pagenum"><a id="page076" name="page076"></a>(p. 076)</span> an English +accent, he soon lost, and never again recovered, what he had thus +gained from his short residence at Bath. In after-life his +pronunciation of words, considered separately, was seldom much +different from that of a well-educated Englishman of his time; but he +used many words in a sense which belonged to Scotland, not to England, +and the tone and accent remained broadly Scotch, though, unless in the +<span class="italic">burr</span>, which no doubt smacked of the country bordering on +Northumberland, there was no <span class="italic">provincial</span> peculiarity about his +utterance. He had strong powers of mimicry—could talk with a peasant +quite in his own style, and frequently in general society introduced +rustic <span class="italic">patois</span>, northern, southern, or midland, with great truth and +effect; but these things were inlaid dramatically, or playfully, upon +his narrative. His exquisite taste in this matter was not less +remarkable in his conversation than in the prose of his Scotch novels.</p> + +<p>Another lady, nearly connected with the Keiths of Ravelston, has a +lively recollection of young Walter, when paying a visit much about +the same period to his kind relation,<a id="footnotetag49" name="footnotetag49"></a><a href="#footnote49"><span class="small" title="Go to Footnote 49">[49]</span></a> the mistress of that +picturesque old mansion, which furnished him in after-days with many +of the features of his Tully-Veolan, and whose venerable gardens, with +their massive hedges of yew and holly, he always considered as the +ideal of the art. The lady, whose letter I have now before me, says +she distinctly remembers the sickly boy sitting at the gate of the +house with his attendant, when a poor mendicant approached, old and +woe-begone, to claim the charity which none asked for in vain at +Ravelston. When the man was retiring, the servant remarked to Walter +that he ought to be thankful to Providence for having placed him above +the want and misery he had been contemplating. The child looked up +with a half-wistful, half-incredulous expression, <span class="pagenum"><a id="page077" name="page077"></a>(p. 077)</span> and said, +"<span class="italic">Homer was a beggar</span>!" "How do you know that?" said the other. "Why, +don't you remember," answered the little virtuoso, "that</p> + +<p class="poem20">'Seven <span class="italic">Roman</span> cities strove for Homer dead,<br> + Through which the living Homer begged his bread?'"</p> + +<p>The lady smiled at the "<span class="italic">Roman</span> cities,"—but already</p> + +<p class="poem30">"Each blank in faithless memory void<br> + The poet's glowing thought supplied."</p> + +<p>It was in this same year, 1777, that he spent some time at +Prestonpans; made his first acquaintance with George Constable, the +original of his Monkbarns; explored the field where Colonel Gardiner +received his death-wound, under the learned guidance of Dalgetty; and +marked the spot "where the grass long grew rank and green, +distinguishing it from the rest of the field,"<a id="footnotetag50" name="footnotetag50"></a><a href="#footnote50"><span class="small" title="Go to Footnote 50">[50]</span></a> above the grave of +poor Balmawhapple.</p> + +<p>His Uncle Thomas, whom I have described as I saw him in extreme old +age at Monklaw, had the management of the farm affairs at Sandy-Knowe, +when Walter returned thither from Prestonpans; he was a kind-hearted +man, and very fond of the child. Appearing on his return somewhat +strengthened, his uncle promoted him from the Cow-bailie's shoulder to +a dwarf of the Shetland race, not so large as many a Newfoundland dog. +This creature walked freely into the house, and was regularly fed from +the boy's hand. He soon learned to sit her well, and often alarmed +Aunt Jenny, by cantering over the rough places about the tower. In the +evening of his life, when he had a grandchild afflicted with an +infirmity akin to his own, he provided him with a little mare of the +same breed, and gave her the name of <span class="italic">Marion</span>, in memory of this early +favorite.<a href="#toc"><span class="small">[Back to Contents]</span></a></p> + + + + +<h3>CHAPTER III <span class="pagenum"><a id="page078" name="page078"></a>(p. 078)</span></h3> + +<p class="summary">illustrations of the autobiography continued. — high school of +edinburgh. — residence at kelso</p> + +<p class="center">1778-1783</p> + + +<p>The report of Walter's progress in horsemanship probably reminded his +father that it was time he should be learning other things beyond the +department either of Aunt Jenny or Uncle Thomas, and after a few +months he was recalled to Edinburgh. But extraordinary as was the +progress he had by this time made in that self-education which alone +is of primary consequence to spirits of his order, he was found too +deficient in lesser matters to be at once entered in the High School. +Probably his mother dreaded, and deferred as long as she could, the +day when he should be exposed to the rude collision of a crowd of +boys. At all events he was placed first in a little private school +kept by one Leechman in Bristo Port; and then, that experiment not +answering expectation, under the domestic tutorage of Mr. James +French, afterwards minister of East Kilbride in Lanarkshire. This +respectable man considered him fit to join Luke Fraser's class in +October, 1778.</p> + +<p>His own account of his progress at this excellent seminary is, on the +whole, very similar to what I have received from some of his surviving +schoolfellows. His quick apprehension and powerful memory enabled him, +at little cost of labor, to perform the usual routine of tasks, in +such a manner as to keep him generally "in a decent place" (so he once +expressed it to Mr. Skene) "about the middle of the class; with +which," he continued, "I <span class="pagenum"><a id="page079" name="page079"></a>(p. 079)</span> was the better contented, that it +chanced to be near the fire."<a id="footnotetag51" name="footnotetag51"></a><a href="#footnote51"><span class="small" title="Go to Footnote 51">[51]</span></a> Mr. Fraser was, I believe, more +zealous in enforcing attention to the technicalities of grammar, than +to excite curiosity about historical facts, or imagination to strain +after the flights of a poet. There is no evidence that Scott, though +he speaks of him as his "kind master," in remembrance probably of +sympathy for his physical infirmities, ever attracted his special +notice with reference to scholarship; but Adam, the Rector, into whose +class he passed in October, 1782, was, as his situation demanded, a +teacher of a more liberal caste; and though never, even under his +guidance, did Walter fix and concentrate his ambition so as to +maintain an eminent place, still the vivacity of his talents was +observed, and the readiness of his memory in particular was so often +displayed, that (as Mr. Irving, his chosen friend of that day, informs +me) the Doctor "would constantly refer to him for dates, the +particulars of battles, and other remarkable events alluded to in +Horace, or whatever author the boys were reading, and used to call him +the historian of the class." No one who has read, as few have not, Dr. +Adam's interesting work on Roman Antiquities will doubt the author's +capacity for stimulating such a mind as young Scott's.</p> + +<p>He speaks of himself as occasionally "glancing like a meteor from the +bottom to the top of the form." His schoolfellow, Mr. Claud Russell, +remembers that he once made a great leap in consequence of the +stupidity of some laggard on what is called the <span class="italic">dult's</span> (dolt's) +bench, who being asked, on boggling at <span class="italic">cum</span>, "what part of speech is +<span class="italic">with</span>?" answered, "<span class="italic">a substantive</span>." The Rector, after a moment's +pause, thought it worth while to ask his <span class="italic">dux</span>—"Is <span class="italic">with</span> ever a +substantive?" but all were silent <span class="pagenum"><a id="page080" name="page080"></a>(p. 080)</span> until the query reached +Scott, then near the bottom of the class, who instantly responded by +quoting a verse of the book of Judges:—"And Samson said unto Delilah, +If they bind me with seven green <span class="italic">withs</span> that were never dried, then +shall I be weak, and as another man."<a id="footnotetag52" name="footnotetag52"></a><a href="#footnote52"><span class="small" title="Go to Footnote 52">[52]</span></a> Another upward movement, +accomplished in a less laudable manner, but still one strikingly +illustrative of his ingenious resources, I am enabled to preserve +through the kindness of a brother poet and esteemed friend, to whom +Sir Walter himself communicated it in the melancholy twilight of his +bright day.</p> + +<p>Mr. Rogers says—"Sitting one day alone with him in your house, in the +Regent's Park—(it was the day but one before he left it to embark at +Portsmouth for Malta)—I led him, among other things, to tell me once +again a story of himself, which he had formerly told me, and which I +had often wished to recover. When I returned home, I wrote it down, as +nearly as I could, in his own words; and here they are. The subject is +an achievement worthy of Ulysses himself, and such as many of his +schoolfellows could, no doubt, have related of him; but I fear I have +done it no justice, though the story is so very characteristic that it +should not be lost. The inimitable manner in which he told it—the +glance of the eye, the turn of the head, and the light that played +over his faded features, as, one by one, the circumstances came back +to him, accompanied by a thousand boyish feelings, that had slept +perhaps for years—there is no language, not even his own, could +convey to you; but you can supply them. Would that others could do so, +who had not the good fortune to know him!—The memorandum (Friday, +October 21, 1831) is as follows:—</p> + +<p>"There was a boy in my class at school, who stood always at the +top,<a id="footnotetag53" name="footnotetag53"></a><a href="#footnote53"><span class="small" title="Go to Footnote 53">[53]</span></a> nor could I with all my efforts supplant him. <span class="pagenum"><a id="page081" name="page081"></a>(p. 081)</span> Day +came after day, and still he kept his place, do what I would; till at +length I observed that, when a question was asked him, he always +fumbled with his fingers at a particular button in the lower part of +his waistcoat. To remove it, therefore, became expedient in my eyes; +and in an evil moment it was removed with a knife. Great was my +anxiety to know the success of my measure; and it succeeded too well. +When the boy was again questioned, his fingers sought again for the +button, but it was not to be found. In his distress he looked down for +it; it was to be seen no more than to be felt. He stood confounded, +and I took possession of his place; nor did he ever recover it, or +ever, I believe, suspect who was the author of his wrong. Often in +after-life has the sight of him smote me as I passed by him; and often +have I resolved to make him some reparation; but it ended in good +resolutions. Though I never renewed my acquaintance with him, I often +saw him, for he filled some inferior office in one of the courts of +law at Edinburgh. Poor fellow! I believe he is dead; he took early to +drinking."</p> + +<p>The autobiography tells us that his translations in verse from Horace +and Virgil were often approved by Dr. Adam. One of these little +pieces, written in a weak boyish scrawl, within pencilled marks still +visible, had been carefully preserved by his mother; it was found +folded up in a cover inscribed by the old lady—"<span class="italic">My Walter's first +lines</span>, 1782."</p> + +<p class="poem20">"In awful ruins Ĉtna thunders nigh,<br> + And sends in pitchy whirlwinds to the sky<br> + Black clouds of smoke, which, still as they aspire,<br> + From their dark sides there bursts the glowing fire;<br> + At other times huge balls of fire are toss'd,<br> + That lick the stars, and in the smoke are lost:<br> + Sometimes the mount, with vast convulsions torn,<br> + Emits huge rocks, which instantly are borne<br> + With loud explosions to the starry skies,<br> + The stones made liquid as the huge mass flies,<br> + Then back again with greater weight recoils,<br> + While Ĉtna thundering from the bottom boils."</p> + +<p>I <span class="pagenum"><a id="page082" name="page082"></a>(p. 082)</span> gather from Mr. Irving that these lines were considered as +the second best set of those produced on the occasion—Colin Mackenzie +of Portmore, through life Scott's dear friend, carrying off the +premium.</p> + +<p>In his Introduction to the Lay, he alludes to an original effusion of +these "schoolboy days," prompted by a thunderstorm, which he says "was +much approved of, until a malevolent critic sprung up in the shape of +an apothecary's blue-buskined wife, who affirmed that my most sweet +poetry was copied from an old magazine. I never" (he continues) +"forgave the imputation, and even now I acknowledge some resentment +against the poor woman's memory. She indeed accused me unjustly when +she said I had stolen my poem ready made; but as I had, like most +premature poets, copied all the words and ideas of which my verses +consisted, she was so far right. I made one or two faint attempts at +verse after I had undergone this sort of daw-plucking at the hands of +the apothecary's wife, but some friend or other always advised me to +put my verses into the fire; and, like Dorax in the play, I submitted, +thought with a swelling heart." These lines, and another short piece +"On the Setting Sun," were lately found wrapped up in a cover, +inscribed by Dr. Adam, "Walter Scott, July, 1783," and have been +kindly transmitted to me by the gentleman who discovered them.</p> + +<div class="poem20"> +<p class="poem10">ON A THUNDERSTORM.</p> +<p>"Loud o'er my head though awful thunders roll,<br> + And vivid lightnings flash from pole to pole,<br> + Yet 't is thy voice, my God, that bids them fly,<br> + Thy arm directs those lightnings through the sky.<br> + Then let the good thy mighty name revere,<br> + And hardened sinners thy just vengeance fear."</p> +</div> + +<div class="poem20 p2"> +<p class="poem10">ON THE SETTING SUN.</p> +<p>"Those evening clouds, that setting ray<br> + And beauteous tints, serve to display<br> +<span class="add1em">Their great Creator's praise;</span><br> + Then let the short-lived thing call'd man,<br> + Whose <span class="pagenum"><a id="page083" name="page083"></a>(p. 083)</span> life's comprised within a span,<br> +<span class="add1em">To Him his homage raise.</span></p> +<p>"We often praise the evening clouds,<br> +<span class="add1em">And tints so gay and bold,</span><br> + But seldom think upon our God,<br> +<span class="add1em">Who tinged these clouds with gold!"<a id="footnotetag54" name="footnotetag54"></a><a href="#footnote54"><span class="small" title="Go to Footnote 54">[54]</span></a></span></p> +</div> + +<p>It must, I think, be allowed that these lines, though of the class to +which the poet himself modestly ascribes them, and not to be compared +with the efforts of Pope, still less of Cowley at the same period, +show, nevertheless, praiseworthy dexterity for a boy of twelve.</p> + +<p>The fragment tells us that on the whole he was "more distinguished in +<span class="italic">the yards</span> (as the High School playground was called) than in <span class="italic">the +class</span>;" and this, not less than the intellectual advancement which +years before had excited the admiration of Mrs. Cockburn, was the +natural result of his lifelong "rebellion against external +circumstances." He might now with very slender exertion have been the +<span class="italic">dux</span> of his form; but if there was more difficulty, there was also +more to whet his ambition, in the attempt to overcome the +disadvantages of his physical misfortune, and in spite of them assert +equality with the best of his compeers on the ground which they +considered as the true arena of honor. He told me, in walking through +these same <span class="italic">yards</span> forty years afterwards, that he had scarcely made +his first appearance there, before some dispute arising, his opponent +remarked that "there was no use to hargle-bargle with a cripple;" upon +which he replied, that if he might fight <span class="italic">mounted</span>, he would try his +hand with any one of his inches. "An elder boy," said he, "who had +perhaps been chuckling over our friend Roderick <span class="pagenum"><a id="page084" name="page084"></a>(p. 084)</span> Random when +his mother supposed him to be in full cry after Pyrrhus or Porus, +suggested that the two little tinklers might be lashed front to front +upon a deal board—and—'O gran bonta de' cavalier antichi'—the +proposal being forthwith agreed to, I received my first bloody nose in +an attitude which would have entitled me, in the blessed days of +personal cognizances, to assume that of a <span class="italic">lioncel seiant gules</span>. My +pugilistic trophies here," he continued, "were all the results of such +<span class="italic">sittings in banco</span>." Considering his utter ignorance of fear, the +strength of his chest and upper limbs, and that the scientific part of +pugilism never flourished in Scotland, I dare say these trophies were +not few.</p> + +<p>The mettle of the High School boys, however, was principally displayed +elsewhere than in their own <span class="italic">yards</span>; and Sir Walter has furnished us +with ample indications of the delight with which he found himself at +length capable of rivalling others in such achievements as required +the exertion of active locomotive powers. Speaking of some scene of +his infancy in one of his latest tales, he says—"Every step of the +way after I have passed through the green already mentioned" (probably +the <span class="italic">Meadows</span> behind George's Square) "has for me something of an +early remembrance. There is the stile at which I can recollect a cross +child's-maid upbraiding me with my infirmity as she lifted me coarsely +and carelessly over the flinty steps which my brothers traversed with +shout and bound. I remember the <span class="italic">suppressed bitterness</span> of the moment, +and, conscious of my own infirmity, the envy with which I regarded the +easy movements and elastic steps of my more happily formed brethren. +Alas!" he adds, "these goodly barks have all perished in life's wide +ocean, and only that which seemed, as the naval phrase goes, so little +seaworthy, has reached the port when the tempest is over." How +touching to compare with this passage that in which he records his +pride in being found before he left the High School one of the +boldest <span class="pagenum"><a id="page085" name="page085"></a>(p. 085)</span> and nimblest climbers of "the kittle nine stanes," a +passage of difficulty which might puzzle a chamois-hunter of the Alps, +its steps, "few and far between," projected high in air from the +precipitous black granite of the Castle rock. But climbing and +fighting could sometimes be combined, and he has in almost the same +page dwelt upon perhaps the most favorite of all these juvenile +exploits—namely, "the manning of the Cowgate Port,"—in the season +when snowballs could be employed by the young scorners of discipline +for the annoyance of the Town-guard. To understand fully the feelings +of a High School boy of that day with regard to those ancient +Highlanders, who then formed the only police of the city of Edinburgh, +the reader must consult the poetry of the scapegrace Fergusson. It was +in defiance of their Lochaber axes that the Cowgate Port was +manned—and many were the occasions on which its defence presented a +formidable mimicry of warfare. "The gateway," Sir Walter adds, "is now +demolished, and probably most of its garrison lie as low as the +fortress! To recollect that I, however naturally disqualified, was one +of these juvenile dreadnoughts, is a sad reflection for one who cannot +now step over a brook without assistance."</p> + +<p>I am unwilling to swell this narrative by extracts from Scott's +published works, but there is one juvenile exploit told in the General +Preface to the Waverley Novels, which I must crave leave to introduce +here in his own language, because it is essentially necessary to +complete our notion of his schoolboy life and character. "It is well +known," he says, "that there is little boxing at the Scottish schools. +About forty or fifty years ago, however, a far more dangerous mode of +fighting, in parties or factions, was permitted in the streets of +Edinburgh, to the great disgrace of the police, and danger of the +parties concerned. These parties were generally formed from the +quarters of the town in which the combatants resided, <span class="pagenum"><a id="page086" name="page086"></a>(p. 086)</span> those +of a particular square or district fighting against those of an +adjoining one. Hence it happened that the children of the higher +classes were often pitted against those of the lower, each taking +their side according to the residence of their friends. So far as I +recollect, however, it was unmingled either with feelings of democracy +or aristocracy, or indeed with malice or ill-will of any kind towards +the opposite party. In fact, it was only a rough mode of play. Such +contests were, however, maintained with great vigor with stones, and +sticks, and fisticuffs, when one party dared to charge, and the other +stood their ground. Of course, mischief sometimes happened; boys are +said to have been killed at these <span class="italic">bickers</span>, as they were called, and +serious accidents certainly took place, as many contemporaries can +bear witness.</p> + +<p>"The author's father residing in George's Square, in the southern side +of Edinburgh, the boys belonging to that family, with others in the +square, were arranged into a sort of company, to which a lady of +distinction presented a handsome set of colors.<a id="footnotetag55" name="footnotetag55"></a><a href="#footnote55"><span class="small" title="Go to Footnote 55">[55]</span></a> Now, this company +or regiment, as a matter of course, was engaged in weekly warfare with +the boys inhabiting the Cross-causeway, Bristo-Street, the +Potterrow—in short, the neighboring suburbs. These last were chiefly +of the lower rank, but hardy loons, who threw stones to a +hair's-breadth, and were very rugged antagonists at close quarters. +The skirmish sometimes lasted for a whole evening, until one party or +the other was victorious, when, if ours were successful, we drove the +enemy to their quarters, and were usually chased back by the +reinforcement of bigger lads who came to their assistance. If, on the +contrary, we were pursued, as was often the case, into the precincts +of our square, we were in our turn supported by our elder brothers, +domestic servants, and similar auxiliaries. It followed, from our +frequent opposition to each other, that, <span class="pagenum"><a id="page087" name="page087"></a>(p. 087)</span> though not knowing +the names of our enemies, we were yet well acquainted with their +appearance, and had nicknames for the most remarkable of them. One +very active and spirited boy might be considered as the principal +leader in the cohort of the suburbs. He was, I suppose, thirteen or +fourteen years old, finely made, tall, blue-eyed, with long fair hair, +the very picture of a youthful Goth. This lad was always first in the +charge, and last in the retreat—the Achilles at once and Ajax of the +Cross-causeway. He was too formidable to us not to have a cognomen, +and, like that of a knight of old, it was taken from the most +remarkable part of his dress, being a pair of old green livery +breeches, which was the principal part of his clothing; for, like +Pentapolin, according to Don Quixote's account, Green-breeks, as we +called him, always entered the battle with bare arms, legs, and feet.</p> + +<p>"It fell, that once upon a time when the combat was at its thickest, +this plebeian champion headed a charge so rapid and furious, that all +fled before him. He was several paces before his comrades, and had +actually laid his hands upon the patrician standard, when one of our +party, whom some misjudging friend had entrusted with a <span class="italic">couteau de +chasse</span>, or hanger, inspired with a zeal for the honor of the corps, +worthy of Major Sturgeon himself, struck poor Green-breeks over the +head, with strength sufficient to cut him down. When this was seen, +the casualty was so far beyond what had ever taken place before, that +both parties fled different ways, leaving poor Green-breeks, with his +bright hair plentifully dabbled in blood, to the care of the watchman, +who (honest man) took care not to know who had done the mischief. The +bloody hanger was thrown into one of the Meadow ditches, and solemn +secrecy was sworn on all hands; but the remorse and terror of the +actor were beyond all bounds, and his apprehensions of the most +dreadful character. The wounded hero was for a few days in the +Infirmary, <span class="pagenum"><a id="page088" name="page088"></a>(p. 088)</span> the case being only a trifling one. But though +inquiry was strongly pressed on him, no argument could make him +indicate the person from whom he had received the wound, though he +must have been perfectly well known to him. When he recovered and was +dismissed, the author and his brothers opened a communication with +him, through the medium of a popular gingerbread baker, of whom both +parties were customers, in order to tender a subsidy in the name of +smart-money. The sum would excite ridicule were I to name it; but sure +I am that the pockets of the noted Green-breeks never held as much +money of his own. He declined the remittance, saying that he would not +sell his blood; but at the same time reprobated the idea of being an +informer, which he said was <span class="italic">clam</span>, that is, base or mean. With much +urgency, he accepted a pound of snuff for the use of some old +woman—aunt, grandmother, or the like—with whom he lived. We did not +become friends, for the <span class="italic">bickers</span> were more agreeable to both parties +than any more pacific amusement; but we conducted them ever after +under mutual assurances of the highest consideration for each other." +Sir Walter adds—"Of five brothers, all healthy and promising in a +degree far beyond one whose infancy was visited by personal infirmity, +and whose health after this period seemed long very precarious, I am, +nevertheless, the only survivor. The best loved, and the best +deserving to be loved, who had destined this incident to be the +foundation of a literary composition, died 'before his day,' in a +distant and foreign land; and trifles assume an importance not their +own when connected with those who have been loved and lost."</p> + +<p>During some part of his attendance on the High School, young Walter +spent one hour daily at a small separate seminary of writing and +arithmetic, kept by one Morton, where, as was, and I suppose continues +to be, the custom of Edinburgh, young girls came for instruction as +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page089" name="page089"></a>(p. 089)</span> well as boys; and one of Mr. Morton's female pupils has been +kind enough to set down some little reminiscences of Scott, who +happened to sit at the same desk with herself. They appear to me the +more interesting, because the lady had no acquaintance with him in the +course of his subsequent life. Her nephew, Mr. James (the accomplished +author of Richelieu), to whose friendship I owe her communication, +assures me, too, that he had constantly heard her tell the same things +in the very same way, as far back as his own memory reaches, many +years before he had ever seen Sir Walter, or his aunt could have +dreamt of surviving to assist in the biography of his early days.</p> + +<p>"He attracted," Mrs. Churnside says, "the regard and fondness of all +his companions, for he was ever rational, fanciful, lively, and +possessed of that urbane gentleness of manner which makes its way to +the heart. His imagination was constantly at work, and he often so +engrossed the attention of those who learnt with him, that little +could be done—Mr. Morton himself being forced to laugh as much as the +little scholars at the odd turns and devices he fell upon; for he did +nothing in the ordinary way, but, for example, even when he wanted ink +to his pen, would get up some ludicrous story about sending his doggie +to the mill again. He used also to interest us in a more serious way, +by telling us the <span class="italic">visions</span>, as he called them, which he had lying +alone on the floor or sofa, when kept from going to church on a Sunday +by ill health. Child as I was, I could not help being highly delighted +with his description of the glories he had seen—his misty and sublime +sketches of the regions above, which he had visited in his trance. +Recollecting these descriptions, radiant and not gloomy as they were, +I have often thought since that there must have been a bias in his +mind to superstition—the marvellous seemed to have such power over +him, though the mere offspring of his own imagination, that the +expression of his face, habitually that of genuine <span class="pagenum"><a id="page090" name="page090"></a>(p. 090)</span> +benevolence, mingled with a shrewd innocent humor, changed greatly +while he was speaking of these things, and showed a deep intenseness +of feeling, as if he were awed even by his own recital.... I may add, +that in walking he used always to keep his eyes turned downwards as if +thinking, but with a pleasing expression of countenance, as if +enjoying his thoughts. Having once known him, it was impossible ever +to forget him. In this manner, after all the changes of a long life, +he constantly appears as fresh as yesterday to my mind's eye."</p> + +<p>This beautiful extract needs no commentary. I may as well, however, +bear witness, that exactly as the schoolboy still walks before her +"mind's eye," his image rises familiarly to mine, who never saw him +until he was past the middle of life: that I trace in every feature of +her delineation the same gentleness of aspect and demeanor which the +presence of the female sex, whether in silk or in russet, ever +commanded in the man; and that her description of the change on his +countenance when passing from the "doggie of the mill" to the dream of +Paradise is a perfect picture of what no one that has heard him recite +a fragment of high poetry, in the course of table talk, can ever +forget. Strangers may catch some notion of what fondly dwells on the +memory of every friend, by glancing from the conversational bust of +Chantrey to the first portrait by Raeburn, which represents the Last +Minstrel as musing in his prime within sight of Hermitage.</p> + +<p>I believe it was about this time that, as he expresses it in one of +his latest works, "the first images of horror from the scenes of real +life were stamped upon his mind," by the tragical death of his +great-aunt, Mrs. Margaret Swinton. This old lady, whose extraordinary +nerve of character he illustrates largely in the introduction to the +story of Aunt Margaret's Mirror, was now living with one female +attendant, in a small house not far from Mr. Scott's residence in +George's Square. The maid-servant, in <span class="pagenum"><a id="page091" name="page091"></a>(p. 091)</span> a sudden access of +insanity, struck her mistress to death with a coal-axe, and then +rushed furiously into the street with the bloody weapon in her hand, +proclaiming aloud the horror she had perpetrated. I need not dwell on +the effects which must have been produced in a virtuous and +affectionate circle by this shocking incident. The old lady had been +tenderly attached to her nephew, "She was," he says, "our constant +resource in sickness, or when we tired of noisy play, and closed round +her to listen to her tales."</p> + +<p>It was at this same period that Mr. and Mrs. Scott received into their +house, as tutor for their children, Mr. James Mitchell, of whom the +Ashestiel Memoir gives us a description, such as I could not have +presented had he been still alive. Mr. Mitchell was living, however, +at the time of his pupil's death, and I am now not only at liberty to +present Scott's unmutilated account of their intercourse, but enabled +to give also the most simple and characteristic narrative of the other +party. I am sure no one, however nearly related to Mr. Mitchell, will +now complain of seeing his keen-sighted pupil's sketch placed by the +side, as it were, of the fuller portraiture drawn by the unconscious +hand of the amiable and worthy man himself. The following is an +extract from Mr. Mitchell's MS., entitled "Memorials of the most +remarkable occurrences and transactions of my life, drawn up in the +hope that, when I shall be no more, they may be read with profit and +pleasure by my children." The good man was so kind as to copy out one +chapter for my use, as soon as he heard of Sir Walter Scott's death. +He was then, and had for many years been, minister of a Presbyterian +chapel at Wooler, in Northumberland, to which situation he had retired +on losing his benefice at Montrose, in consequence of the Sabbatarian +scruples alluded to in Scott's Autobiography.</p> + +<div class="quote"> +<p>"In 1782," says Mr. Mitchell, "I became a tutor in Mr. Walter + Scott's family. He was a Writer to the Signet in George's + <span class="pagenum"><a id="page092" name="page092"></a>(p. 092)</span> Square, Edinburgh. Mr. Scott was a fine-looking man, + then a little past the meridian of life, of dignified, yet + agreeable manners. His business was extensive. He was a man of + tried integrity, of strict morals, and had a respect for religion + and its ordinances. The church the family attended was the Old + Greyfriars, of which the celebrated Doctors Robertson and Erskine + were the ministers. Thither went Mr. and Mrs. Scott every + Sabbath, when well and at home, attended by their fine young + family of children, and their domestic servants—a sight so + amiable and exemplary as often to excite in my breast a glow of + heartfelt satisfaction. According to an established and laudable + practice in the family, the heads of it, the children, and + servants, were assembled on Sunday evenings in the drawing-room, + and examined on the Church Catechism and sermons they had heard + delivered during the course of the day; on which occasions I had + to perform the part of chaplain, and conclude with prayer. From + Mrs. Scott I learned that Mr. Scott was one that had not been + seduced from the paths of virtue; but had been enabled to + venerate good morals from his youth. When he first came to + Edinburgh to follow out his profession, some of his + schoolfellows, who, like him, had come to reside in Edinburgh, + attempted to unhinge his principles, and corrupt his morals; but + when they found him resolute, and unshaken in his virtuous + dispositions, they gave up the attempt; but, instead of + abandoning him altogether, they thought the more of him, and + honored him with their confidence and patronage; which is + certainly a great inducement to young men in the outset of life + to act a similar part.</p> + +<p>"After having heard of his inflexible adherence to the cause of + virtue in his youth, and his regular attendance on the ordinances + of religion in after-life, we will not be surprised to be told + that he bore a sacred regard for the Sabbath, nor at the + following anecdote illustrative of it. An opulent farmer of East + Lothian had employed Mr. Scott as his agent, in a cause depending + before the Court of Session. Having a curiosity to see something + in the papers relative to the process, which were deposited in + Mr. Scott's hands, this worldly man came into Edinburgh on a + Sunday to have an inspection of them. As there was no immediate + necessity for this measure, Mr. Scott asked the farmer if an + ordinary week-day would not answer equally well. <span class="pagenum"><a id="page093" name="page093"></a>(p. 093)</span> The + farmer was not willing to take this advice, but insisted on the + production of his papers. Mr. Scott then delivered them to him, + saying, it was not his practice to engage in secular business on + the Sabbath, and that he would have no difficulty in Edinburgh to + find some of his profession who would have none of his scruples. + No wonder such a man was confided in, and greatly honored in his + professional line.—All the poor services I did to his family + were more than repaid by the comfort and honor I had by being in + the family, the pecuniary remuneration I received, and + particularly by his recommendation of me, some time afterwards, + to the Magistrates and Town Council of Montrose, when there was a + vacancy, and this brought me on the carpet, which, as he said, + was all he could do, as the settlement would ultimately hinge on + a popular election.</p> + +<p>"Mrs. Scott was a wife in every respect worthy of such a + husband. Like her partner, she was then a little past the + meridian of life, of a prepossessing appearance, amiable manners, + of a cultivated understanding, affectionate disposition, and fine + taste. She was both able and disposed to soothe her husband's + mind under the asperities of business, and to be a rich blessing + to her numerous progeny. But what constituted her distinguishing + ornament was that she was sincerely religious. Some years + previous to my entrance into the family, I understood from one of + the servants she had been under deep religious concern about her + soul's salvation, which had ultimately issued in a conviction of + the truth of Christianity, and in the enjoyment of its divine + consolations. She liked Dr. Erskine's sermons; but was not fond + of the Principal's, however rational, eloquent, and well + composed, and would, if other things had answered, have gone, + when he preached, to have heard Dr. Davidson. Mrs. Scott was a + descendant of Dr. Daniel Rutherford, a professor in the Medical + School of Edinburgh, and one of those eminent men, who, by + learning and professional skill, brought it to the high pitch of + celebrity to which it has attained. He was an excellent linguist, + and, according to the custom of the times, delivered his + prelections to the students in Latin. Mrs. Scott told me, that, + when prescribing to his patients, it was his custom to offer up + at the same time a prayer for the accompanying blessing of + heaven; a laudable practice, in which, I fear, he has not been + generally imitated by those of his profession.</p> + +<p>"Mr. <span class="pagenum"><a id="page094" name="page094"></a>(p. 094)</span> Scott's family consisted of six children, all of + which were at home except the eldest, who was an officer in the + army; and as they were of an age fit for instruction, they were + all committed to my superintendence, which, in dependence on God, + I exercised with an earnest and faithful regard to their temporal + and spiritual good. As the most of them were under public + teachers, the duty assigned me was mainly to assist them in the + prosecution of their studies. In all the excellencies, whether as + to temper, conduct, talents natural or acquired, which any of the + children individually possessed, to Master Walter, since the + celebrated Sir Walter, must a decided preference be ascribed. + Though, like the rest of the children, placed under my tuition, + the conducting of his education comparatively cost me but little + trouble, being, by the quickness of his intellect, tenacity of + memory, and diligent application to his studies, generally equal + of himself to the acquisition of those tasks I or others + prescribed to him. So that Master Walter might be regarded not so + much as a pupil of mine, but as a friend and companion, and, I + may add, as an assistant also; for, by his example and + admonitions, he greatly strengthened my hands, and stimulated my + other pupils to industry and good behavior. I seldom had occasion + all the time I was in the family to find fault with him even for + trifles, and only once to threaten serious castigation, of which + he was no sooner aware than he suddenly sprung up, threw his arms + about my neck, and kissed me. It is hardly needful to state, that + now the intended castigation was no longer thought of. By such + generous and noble conduct, my displeasure was in a moment + converted into esteem and admiration; my soul melted into + tenderness, and I was ready to mingle my tears with his. Some + incidents in reference to him in that early period, and some + interesting and useful conversations I had with him, then deeply + impressed on my mind, and which the lapse of near half a century + has not yet obliterated, afforded no doubtful presage of his + future greatness and celebrity. On my going into the family, as + far as I can judge, he might be in his twelfth or thirteenth + year, a boy in the rector's class. However elevated above the + other boys in genius, though generally in the list of the duxes, + he was seldom, as far as I recollect, the leader of the school: + nor need this be deemed surprising, as it has often been observed + that boys of original genius have been <span class="pagenum"><a id="page095" name="page095"></a>(p. 095)</span> outstripped, by + those that were far inferior to themselves, in the acquisition of + the dead languages. Dr. Adam, the rector, celebrated for his + knowledge of the Latin language, was deservedly held by Mr. + Walter in high admiration and regard; of which the following + anecdote may be adduced as a proof. In the High School, as is + well known, there are four masters and a rector. The classes of + those masters the rector in rotation inspects, and in the mean + time the master, whose school is examined, goes in to take care + of the rector's. One of the masters, on account of some grudge, + had rudely assaulted and injured the venerable rector one night + in the High School Wynd. The rector's scholars, exasperated at + the outrage, at the instigation of Master Walter, determined on + revenge, and which was to be executed when this obnoxious master + should again come to teach the class. When this occurred, the + task the class had prescribed to them was that passage in the + Ĉneid of Virgil, where the Queen of Carthage interrogates the + court as to the stranger that had come to her habitation—</p> + +<p class="poem-center"> + 'Quis novus hic hospes successit sedibus nostris?'<a id="footnotetag56" name="footnotetag56"></a><a href="#footnote56"><span class="small" title="Go to Footnote 56">[56]</span></a> +</p> + +<p>Master Walter, having taken a piece of paper, inscribed upon it + these words, substituting <span class="italic">vanus</span> for <span class="italic">novus</span>, and pinned it to + the tail of the master's coat, and turned him into ridicule by + raising the laugh of the whole school against him. Though this + juvenile action could not be justified on the footing of + Christian principles, yet certainly it was so far honorable that + it was not a dictate of personal revenge, but that it originated + in respect for a worthy and injured man, and detestation of one + whom he looked upon as a bad character.</p> + +<p>"One forenoon, on coming from the High School, he said he wished + to know my opinion as to his conduct in a matter he should state + to me. When passing through the High School Yards, he found a + half-guinea piece on the ground. Instead of appropriating this to + his own use, a sense of honesty led him to look around, and on + doing so he espied a countryman, whom he suspected to be the + proprietor. Having asked the man if he had <span class="pagenum"><a id="page096" name="page096"></a>(p. 096)</span> lost + anything, he searched his pockets, and then replied that he had + lost half-a-guinea. Master Walter with pleasure presented him + with his lost treasure. In this transaction, his ingenuity in + finding out the proper owner, and his integrity in restoring the + property, met my most cordial approbation.</p> + +<p>"When in church, Master Walter had more of a soporific tendency + than the rest of my young charge. This seemed to be + constitutional. He needed one or other of the family to arouse + him, and from this it might be inferred that he would cut a poor + figure on the Sabbath evening when examined about the sermons. + But what excited the admiration of the family was, that none of + the children, however wakeful, could answer as he did. The only + way that I could account for this was, that when he heard the + text, and divisions of the subject, his good sense, memory, and + genius, supplied the thoughts which would occur to the preacher.</p> + +<p>"On one occasion, in the dining-room, when, according to custom, + he was reading some author in the time of relaxation from study, + I asked him how he accounted for the superiority of knowledge he + possessed above the rest of the family. His reply was:—Some + years ago he had been attacked by a swelling in one of his + ankles, which confined him to the house, and prevented him taking + amusement and exercise, and which was the cause of his lameness. + As under this ailment he could not romp with his brothers and the + other young people in the green in George's Square, he found + himself compelled to have recourse to some substitute for the + juvenile amusements of his comrades, and this was reading. So + that, to what he no doubt accounted a painful dispensation of + Providence, he probably stood indebted for his future celebrity. + When it was understood I was to leave the family, Master Walter + told me that he had a small present to give me, to be kept as a + memorandum of his friendship, and that it was of little value: + 'But you know, Mr. Mitchell,' said he, 'that presents are not to + be estimated according to their intrinsic value, but according to + the intention of the donor.' This was his Adam's Grammar, which + had seen hard service in its day, and had many animals and + inscriptions on its margins. This, to my regret, is no longer to + be found in my collection of books, nor do I know what has become + of it.</p> + +<p>"Since leaving the family, although no stranger to the widely + spreading <span class="pagenum"><a id="page097" name="page097"></a>(p. 097)</span> fame of Sir Walter, I have had few + opportunities of personal intercourse with him. When minister in + the second charge of the Established Church at Montrose, he paid + me a visit, and spent a night with me—few visits have been more + gratifying. He was then on his return from Aberdeen, where he, as + an advocate, had attended the Court of Justiciary in its northern + circuit. Nor was his attendance in this court his sole object: + another, and perhaps the principal, was, as he stated to me, to + collect in his excursion ancient ballads and traditional stories + about fairies, witches, and ghosts. Such intelligence proved to + me as an electrical shock; and as I then sincerely regretted, so + do I still, that Sir Walter's precious time was so much devoted + to the <span class="italic">dulce</span>, rather than the <span class="italic">utile</span> of composition, and that + his great talent should have been wasted on such subjects. At the + same time I feel happy to qualify this censure, as I am generally + given to understand that his Novels are of a more pure and + unexceptionable nature than characterizes writings of a similar + description; while at the same time his pen has been occupied in + the production of works of a better and nobler order. Impressed + with the conviction that he would one day arrive at honor and + influence in his native country, I endeavored to improve the + occasion of his visit to secure his patronage in behalf of the + strict and evangelical party in the Church of Scotland, in + exerting himself to induce patrons to grant to the Christian + people liberty to elect their own pastors in cases of vacancy. + His answer struck me much: it was—"Nay, nay, Mr. Mitchell, I'll + not do that; for if that were to be done, I and the like of me + would have no life with such as you;" from which I inferred he + thought that, were the evangelical clergy to obtain the + superiority, they would introduce such strictness of discipline + as would not quadrate with the ideas of that party called <span class="italic">the + moderate</span> in the Church of Scotland, whose views, I presume, Sir + Walter had now adopted. Some, however, to whom I have mentioned + Sir Walter's reply, have suggested that I had misunderstood his + meaning, and that what he said was not in earnest, but in + jocularity and good-humor. This may be true, and certainly is a + candid interpretation. As to the ideal beings already mentioned + as the subject of his inquiries, my materials were too scanty to + afford him much information."</p> +</div> + +<p>Notwithstanding <span class="pagenum"><a id="page098" name="page098"></a>(p. 098)</span> the rigidly Presbyterian habits which this +chronicle describes with so much more satisfaction than the +corresponding page in the Ashestiel Memoir, I am reminded, by a +communication already quoted from a lady of the Ravelston family, that +Mrs. Scott, who had, she says, "a turn for literature quite uncommon +among the ladies of the time," encouraged her son in his passion for +Shakespeare; that his plays, and the Arabian Nights, were often read +aloud in the family circle by Walter, "and served to spend many a +happy evening hour;" nay, that, however good Mitchell may have frowned +at such a suggestion, even Mr. Scott made little objection to his +children, and some of their young friends, getting up private +theatricals occasionally in the dining-room after the lessons of the +day were over. The lady adds, that Walter was always the manager, and +had the whole charge of the affair, and that the favorite piece used +to be Jane Shore, in which he was the Hastings, his sister the Alicia. +I have heard from another friend of the family that Richard III. also +was attempted, and that Walter took the part of the Duke of +Gloucester, observing that "the limp would do well enough to represent +the hump."</p> + +<p>A story which I have seen in print, about his partaking in the dancing +lessons of his brothers, I do not believe. But it was during Mr. +Mitchell's residence in the family that they all made their +unsuccessful attempts in the art of music, under the auspices of poor +<span class="italic">Allister</span> Campbell—the Editor of Albyn's Anthology.</p> + +<p>Mr. Mitchell appears to have terminated his superintendence +before Walter left Dr. Adam, and in the interval +between this and his entrance at College, he spent +some time with his aunt, who now inhabited a cottage at +Kelso; but the Memoir, I suspect, gives too much extension +to that residence—which may be accounted for by +his blending with it a similar visit which he paid to the +same place during his College vacation of the next year.</p> + +<p>Some <span class="pagenum"><a id="page099" name="page099"></a>(p. 099)</span> of the features of Miss Jenny's abode at Kelso are +alluded to in the Memoir, but the fullest description of it occurs in +his Essay on Landscape Gardening (1828), where, talking of grounds +laid out in the <span class="italic">Dutch taste</span>, he says:—"Their rarity <span class="italic">now</span> entitles +them to some care as a species of antiques, and unquestionably they +give character to some snug, quiet, and sequestered situations, which +would otherwise have no marked feature of any kind. I retain an early +and pleasing recollection of the seclusion of such a scene. A small +cottage, adjacent to a beautiful village, the habitation of an ancient +maiden lady, was for some time my abode. It was situated in a garden +of seven or eight acres, planted about the beginning of the eighteenth +century by one of the Millars, related to the author of the Gardeners' +Dictionary, or, for aught I know, by himself. It was full of long, +straight walks, between hedges of yew and hornbeam, which rose tall +and close on every side. There were thickets of flowery shrubs, a +bower, and an arbor, to which access was obtained through a little +maze of contorted walks calling itself a labyrinth. In the centre of +the bower was a splendid Platanus, or Oriental plane—a huge hill of +leaves—one of the noblest specimens of that regularly beautiful tree +which I remember to have seen. In different parts of the garden were +fine ornamental trees, which had attained great size, and the orchard +was filled with fruit-trees of the best description. There were seats, +and hilly walks, and a banqueting house. I visited this scene lately, +after an absence of many years. Its air of retreat, the seclusion +which its alleys afforded, was entirely gone; the huge Platanus had +died, like most of its kind, in the beginning of this century; the +hedges were cut down, the trees stubbed up, and the whole character of +the place so destroyed that I was glad when I could leave it." It was +under this Platanus that Scott first devoured Percy's Reliques. I +remember well being with him, in 1820 or 1821, when he <span class="pagenum"><a id="page100" name="page100"></a>(p. 100)</span> +revisited the favorite scene, and the sadness of his looks when he +discovered that the "huge hill of leaves" was no more.</p> + +<p>To keep up his scholarship while inhabiting <span class="italic">the garden</span>, he attended +daily, as he informs us, the public school of Kelso, and here he made +his first acquaintance with a family, two members of which were +intimately connected with the most important literary transactions of +his after-life—James Ballantyne, the printer of almost all his works, +and his brother John, who had a share in the publication of many of +them. Their father was a respectable tradesman in this pretty town. +The elder of the brothers, who did not long survive his illustrious +friend, was kind enough to make an exertion on behalf of this work, +while stretched on the bed from which he never rose, and dictated a +valuable paper of <span class="italic">memoranda</span> from which I shall here introduce my +first extract:—</p> + +<p class="quote"> + "I think," says James Ballantyne, "it was in the year 1783 that I + first became acquainted with Sir Walter Scott, then a boy about + my own age, at the Grammar School of Kelso, of which Mr. Lancelot + Whale was the Rector. The impression left by his manners was, + even at that early period, calculated to be deep, and I cannot + recall any other instance in which the man and the boy continued + to resemble each other so much and so long. Walter Scott was not + a constant schoolfellow at this seminary; he only attended it for + a few weeks during the vacation of the Edinburgh High School. He + was then, as he continued during all his after-life to be, + devoted to antiquarian lore, and was certainly the best + story-teller I had ever heard, either then or since. He soon + discovered that I was as fond of listening as he himself was of + relating; and I remember it was a thing of daily occurrence, that + after he had made himself master of his own lesson, I, alas, + being still sadly to seek in mine, he used to whisper to me, + 'Come, slink over beside me, Jamie, and I'll tell you a story.' I + well recollect that he had a form, or seat, appropriated to + himself, the particular reason of which I cannot tell, but he was + always treated with a peculiar degree <span class="pagenum"><a id="page101" name="page101"></a>(p. 101)</span> of respect, not + by the boys of the different classes merely, but by the venerable + Master Lancelot himself, who, an absent, grotesque being, betwixt + six and seven feet high, was nevertheless an admirable scholar, + and sure to be delighted to find any one so well qualified to + sympathize with him as young Walter Scott; and the affectionate + gratitude of the young pupil was never intermitted, so long as + his venerable master continued to live. I may mention, in + passing, that old Whale bore, in many particulars, a strong + resemblance to Dominie Sampson, though, it must be admitted, + combining more gentlemanly manners with equal classical lore, + and, on the whole, being a much superior sort of person. In the + intervals of school hours, it was our constant practice to walk + together by the banks of the Tweed, our employment continuing + exactly the same, for his stories seemed to be quite + inexhaustible. This intercourse continued during the summers of + the years 1783—84, but was broken off in 1785-86, when I went + into Edinburgh to College."</p> + +<p>Perhaps the separate seat assigned to Walter Scott by the Kelso +schoolmaster was considered due to him as a temporary visitor from the +great Edinburgh seminary. Very possibly, however, the worthy Mr. Whale +thought of nothing but protecting his solitary student of Persius and +Tacitus from the chances of being jostled among the adherents of +Ruddiman and Cornelius Nepos.</p> + +<p>Another of his Kelso schoolfellows was Robert Waldie (son of Mr. +Waldie of Henderside), and to this connection he owed, both while +quartered in the garden, and afterwards at Rosebank, many kind +attentions, of which he ever preserved a grateful recollection, and +which have left strong traces on every page of his works in which he +has occasion to introduce the Society of Friends. This young +companion's mother, though always called in the neighborhood "Lady +Waldie," belonged to that community; and the style of life and manners +depicted in the household of Joshua Geddes of Mount Sharon and his +amiable sister, in some of the sweetest chapters of Redgauntlet, is a +slightly decorated edition of what he witnessed under <span class="pagenum"><a id="page102" name="page102"></a>(p. 102)</span> her +hospitable roof. He records, in a note to the novel, the "liberality +and benevolence" of this "kind old lady" in allowing him to "rummage +at pleasure, and carry home any volumes he chose of her small but +valuable library;" annexing only the condition that he should "take at +the same time some of the tracts printed for encouraging and extending +the doctrines of her own sect. She did not," he adds, "even exact any +assurance that I would read these performances, being too justly +afraid of involving me in a breach of promise, but was merely desirous +that I should have the chance of instruction within my reach, in case +whim, curiosity, or accident, might induce me to have recourse to it." +I remember the pleasure with which he read, late in life, Rome in the +Nineteenth Century, an ingenious work produced by one of Mrs. Waldie's +granddaughters, and how comically he pictured the alarm with which his +ancient friend would have perused some of its delineations of the high +places of Popery.</p> + +<p>I shall be pardoned for adding a marginal note written, apparently +late in Scott's life, on his copy of a little forgotten volume, +entitled Trifles in Verse, by a Young Soldier. "In 1783," he says, "or +about that time, I remember John Marjoribanks, a smart recruiting +officer in the village of Kelso, the Weekly Chronicle of which he +filled with his love verses. His Delia was a Miss Dickson, daughter of +a shopkeeper in the same village—his Gloriana a certain prudish old +maiden lady, benempt Miss Goldie; I think I see her still, with her +thin arms sheathed in scarlet gloves, and crossed like two lobsters in +a fishmonger's stand. Poor Delia was a very beautiful girl, and not +more conceited than a be-rhymed miss ought to be. Many years +afterwards I found the Kelso <span class="italic">belle</span>, thin and pale, her good looks +gone, and her smart dress neglected, governess to the brats of a +Paisley manufacturer. I ought to say there was not an atom of scandal +in her flirtation with the young military poet. The bard's <span class="pagenum"><a id="page103" name="page103"></a>(p. 103)</span> +fate was not much better; after some service in India and elsewhere, +he led a half-pay life about Edinburgh, and died there. There is a +tenuity of thought in what he has written, but his verses are usually +easy, and I like them because they recall my schoolboy days, when I +thought him a Horace, and his Delia a goddess."<a href="#toc"><span class="small">[Back to Contents]</span></a></p> + + + + +<h3>CHAPTER IV <span class="pagenum"><a id="page104" name="page104"></a>(p. 104)</span></h3> + +<p class="summary">illustrations of the autobiography continued. — anecdotes of scott's +college life</p> + +<p class="center">1783-1786</p> + + +<p>On returning to Edinburgh, and entering the College, in November, +1783, Scott found himself once more in the fellowship of all his +intimates of the High School; of whom, besides those mentioned in the +autobiographical fragment, he speaks in his diaries with particular +affection of Sir William Rae, Bart., David Monypenny (afterwards Lord +Pitmilly), Thomas Tod, W. S., Sir Archibald Campbell of Succoth, +Bart., all familiar friends of his through manhood,—and the Earl of +Dalhousie,<a id="footnotetag57" name="footnotetag57"></a><a href="#footnote57"><span class="small" title="Go to Footnote 57">[57]</span></a> whom, on meeting with him after a long separation in +the evening of life, he records as still being, and having always +been, "the same manly and generous character that all about him loved +as the <span class="italic">Lordie Ramsay</span> of the Yards." The chosen companion, however, +continued to be for some time Mr. John Irving—his suburban walks with +whom have been recollected so tenderly, both in the Memoir of 1808, +and in the Preface to Waverley of 1829. It will interest the reader to +compare with those beautiful descriptions the following extract from a +letter with which Mr. Irving has favored me:—</p> + +<p class="quote"> + "Every Saturday, and more frequently during the vacations, we + used to retire, with three or four books from the circulating + library, to Salisbury Crags, Arthur's Seat, or Blackford Hill, + and read them together. He read <span class="pagenum"><a id="page105" name="page105"></a>(p. 105)</span> faster than I, and had, + on this account, to wait a little at finishing every two pages, + before turning the leaf. The books we most delighted in were + romances of knight-errantry; the Castle of Otranto, Spenser, + Ariosto, and Boiardo were great favorites. We used to climb up + the rocks in search of places where we might sit sheltered from + the wind; and the more inaccessible they were, the better we + liked them. He was very expert at climbing. Sometimes we got into + places where we found it difficult to move either up or down, and + I recollect it being proposed, on several occasions, that I + should go for a ladder to see and extricate him; but I never had + any need really to do so, for he always managed somehow either to + get down or ascend to the top. The number of books we thus + devoured was very great. I forgot great part of what I read; but + my friend, notwithstanding he read with such rapidity, remained, + to my surprise, master of it all, and could even weeks or months + afterwards repeat a whole page in which anything had particularly + struck him at the moment. After we had continued this practice of + reading for two years or more together, he proposed that we + should recite to each other alternately such adventures of + knight-errants as we could ourselves contrive; and we continued + to do so a long while. He found no difficulty in it, and used to + recite for half an hour or more at a time, while I seldom + continued half that space. The stories we told were, as Sir + Walter has said, interminable—for we were unwilling to have any + of our favorite knights killed. Our passion for romance led us to + learn Italian together; after a time we could both read it with + fluency, and we then copied such tales as we had met with in that + language, being a continued succession of battles and + enchantments. He began early to collect old ballads, and as my + mother could repeat a great many, he used to come and learn those + she could recite to him. He used to get all the copies of these + ballads he could, and select the best."</p> + +<p>These, <span class="pagenum"><a id="page106" name="page106"></a>(p. 106)</span> no doubt, were among the germs of the collection of +ballads in six little volumes, which, from the handwriting, had been +begun at this early period, and which is still preserved at +Abbotsford. And it appears that at least as early a date must be +ascribed to another collection of little humorous stories in prose, +the <span class="italic">Penny Chap-books</span>, as they are called, still in high favor among +the lower classes in Scotland, which stands on the same shelf. In a +letter of 1830<a id="footnotetag58" name="footnotetag58"></a><a href="#footnote58"><span class="small" title="Go to Footnote 58">[58]</span></a> he states that he had bound up things of this kind +to the extent of several volumes, before he was ten years old.</p> + +<p>Although the Ashestiel Memoir mentions so very lightly his boyish +addiction to verse, and the rebuke which his vein received from the +apothecary's blue-buskined wife as having been followed by similar +treatment on the part of others, I am inclined to believe that while +thus devouring, along with his young friend, the stories of Italian +romance, he essayed, from time to time, to weave some of their +materials into rhyme;—nay, that he must have made at least one rather +serious effort of this kind, as early as the date of these rambles to +the Salisbury Crags. I have found among his mother's papers a copy of +verses, headed, "<span class="italic">Lines to Mr. Walter Scott—on reading his poem of +Guiscard and Matilda, inscribed to Miss Keith of Ravelston</span>." There is +no date; but I conceive the lines bear internal evidence of having +been written when he was very young—not, I should suppose, above +fourteen or fifteen at most. I think it also certain that the writer +was a woman; and have almost as little doubt that they came from the +pen of his old admirer, Mrs. Cockburn. They are as follows:—</p> + +<div class="poem20"> +<p>"If such the accents of thy early youth<br> + When playful fancy holds the place of truth;<br> + If so divinely sweet thy numbers flow,<br> + And thy young heart melts with such tender woe;<br> + What <span class="pagenum"><a id="page107" name="page107"></a>(p. 107)</span> praise, what admiration shall be thine,<br> + When sense mature with science shall combine<br> + To raise thy genius, and thy taste refine!</p> +<p>"Go on, dear youth, the glorious path pursue<br> + Which bounteous Nature kindly smooths for you;<br> + Go, bid the seeds her hand hath sown arise,<br> + By timely culture, to their native skies;<br> + Go, and employ the poet's heavenly art,<br> + Not merely to delight, but mend the heart.<br> + Than other poets happier mayst thou prove,<br> + More blest in friendship, fortunate in love,<br> + Whilst Fame, who longs to make true merit known,<br> + Impatient waits, to claim, thee as her own.</p> +<p>"Scorning the yoke of prejudice and pride,<br> + Thy tender mind let truth and reason guide;<br> + Let meek humility thy steps attend,<br> + And firm integrity, youth's surest friend.<br> + So peace and honor all thy hours shall bless,<br> + And conscious rectitude each joy increase;<br> + A nobler meed be thine than empty praise—<br> + Heaven shall approve thy life, and Keith thy lays."<a id="footnotetag59" name="footnotetag59"></a><a href="#footnote59"><span class="small" title="Go to Footnote 59">[59]</span></a></p> +</div> + +<p>At the period to which I refer these verses, Scott's parents still +continued to have some expectations of curing his lameness, and Mr. +Irving remembers to have often assisted in applying the electrical +apparatus, on which for a considerable time they principally rested +their hopes. There is an allusion to these experiments in Scott's +autobiographical fragment, but I have found a fuller notice on the +margin of his copy of the Guide to Health, Beauty, Riches, and +Longevity, as Captain Grose chose to entitle an amusing collection of +quack advertisements.</p> + +<p>"The celebrated Dr. Graham," says the annotator, "was an empiric of +some genius and great assurance. In fact, <span class="pagenum"><a id="page108" name="page108"></a>(p. 108)</span> he had a dash of +madness in his composition. He had a fine electrical apparatus, and +used it with skill. I myself, amongst others, was subjected to a +course of electricity under his charge. I remember seeing the old Earl +of Hopetoun seated in a large armchair, and hung round with a collar, +and a belt of magnets, like an Indian chief. After this, growing quite +wild, Graham set up his <span class="italic">Temple of Health</span>, and lectured on <span class="italic">the +Celestial Bed</span>. He attempted a course of these lectures at Edinburgh, +and as the Magistrates refused to let him do so, he libelled them in a +series of advertisements, the flights of which were infinitely more +absurd and exalted than those which Grose has collected. In one tirade +(long in my possession), he declared that 'he looked down upon them' +(the Magistrates) 'as the sun in his meridian glory looks down on the +poor, feeble, stinking glimmer of an expiring farthing candle, or as +G—himself, in the plenitude of his omnipotence, may regard the +insolent bouncings of a few refractory maggots in a rotten cheese.' +Graham was a good-looking man; he used to come to the Greyfriars' +Church in a suit of white and silver, with a chapeau-bras, and his +hair marvellously dressed into a sort of double toupee, which divided +upon his head like the two tops of Parnassus. Mrs. Macaulay, the +historianess, married his brother. Lady Hamilton is said to have first +enacted his Goddess of Health, being at this time a <span class="italic">fille de joie</span> of +great celebrity.<a id="footnotetag60" name="footnotetag60"></a><a href="#footnote60"><span class="small" title="Go to Footnote 60">[60]</span></a> The Temple of Health dwindled into a sort of +obscene <span class="italic">hell</span>, or gambling house. In a quarrel which took place +there, a poor young man was run into the bowels with a red-hot poker, +of which injury he died. The mob vented their fury on the house, and +the Magistrates, somewhat of the latest, shut up the exhibition. A +quantity of glass and crystal trumpery, the remains of the splendid +apparatus, was sold on the South Bridge for next to nothing. Graham's +next <span class="pagenum"><a id="page109" name="page109"></a>(p. 109)</span> receipt was the <span class="italic">earth-bath</span>, with which he wrought +some cures; but that also failing, he was, I believe, literally +starved to death."</p> + +<p>Graham's earth-bath, too, was, I understand, tried upon Scott, but his +was not one of the cases, if any such there were, in which it worked a +cure. He, however, improved about this time greatly in his general +health and strength, and Mr. Irving, in accordance with the statement +in the Memoir, assures me that while attending the early classes at +the College the young friends extended their walks, so as to visit in +succession all the old castles within eight or ten miles of Edinburgh. +"Sir Walter," he says, "was specially fond of Rosslyn. We frequently +walked thither before breakfast—after breakfasting there, walked all +down the river side to Lasswade—and thence home to town before +dinner. He used generally to rest one hand upon my shoulder when we +walked together, and leaned with the other on a stout stick."</p> + +<p>The love of picturesque scenery, and especially of feudal castles, +with which the vicinity of Edinburgh is plentifully garnished, awoke, +as the Memoir tells us, the desire of being able to use the pencil. +Mr. Irving says—"I attended one summer a class of drawing along with +him, but although both fond of it, we found it took up so much time +that we gave this up before we had made much progress." In one of his +later diaries, Scott himself gives the following more particular +account of this matter:—</p> + +<p>"I took lessons of oil-painting in youth from a little Jew +animalcule—a smouch called Burrell—a clever, sensible creature +though. But I could make no progress either in painting or drawing. +Nature denied me the correctness of eye and neatness of hand. Yet I +was very desirous to be a draughtsman at least—and labored harder to +attain that point than at any other in my recollection to which I did +not make some approaches. Burrell was <span class="pagenum"><a id="page110" name="page110"></a>(p. 110)</span> not useless to me +altogether neither. He was a Prussian, and I got from him many a long +story of the battles of Frederick, in whose armies his father had been +a commissary, or perhaps a spy. I remember his picturesque account of +seeing a party of the <span class="italic">black hussars</span> bringing in some forage carts +which they had taken from a body of the Cossacks, whom he described as +lying on the top of the carts of hay mortally wounded, and, like the +dying gladiator, eyeing their own blood as it ran down through the +straw."</p> + +<p>A year or two later Scott renewed his attempt. "I afterwards," he +says, "took lessons from Walker, whom we used to call <span class="italic">Blue Beard</span>. He +was one of the most conceited persons in the world, but a good +teacher; one of the ugliest countenances he had that need be +exhibited—enough, as we say, to <span class="italic">spean weans</span>. The man was always +extremely precise in the quality of everything about him; his dress, +accommodations, and everything else. He became insolvent, poor man, +and, for some reason or other, I attended the meeting of those +concerned in his affairs. Instead of ordinary accommodations for +writing, each of the persons present was equipped with a large sheet +of drawing-paper and a swan's quill. It was mournfully ridiculous +enough. Skirving made an admirable likeness of Walker; not a single +scar or mark of the small-pox, which seamed his countenance, but the +too accurate brother of the brush had faithfully laid it down in +longitude and latitude. Poor Walker destroyed it (being in crayons) +rather than let the caricature of his ugliness appear at the sale of +his effects. I did learn myself to take some vile views from nature. +When Will Clerk and I lived very much together, I used sometimes to +make them under his instruction. He to whom, as to all his family, art +is a familiar attribute, wondered at me as a Newfoundland dog would at +a greyhound which showed fear of the water."<a id="footnotetag61" name="footnotetag61"></a><a href="#footnote61"><span class="small" title="Go to Footnote 61">[61]</span></a></p> + +<p>Notwithstanding <span class="pagenum"><a id="page111" name="page111"></a>(p. 111)</span> all that Scott says about the total failure +of his attempts in the art of the pencil, I presume few will doubt +that they proved very useful to him afterwards; from them it is +natural to suppose he caught the habit of analyzing, with some +approach at least to accuracy, the scenes over which his eye might +have continued to wander with the vague sense of delight. I may add +that a longer and more successful practice of the crayon might, I +cannot but think, have proved the reverse of serviceable to him as a +future painter with the pen. He might have contracted the habit of +copying from pictures rather than from nature itself; and we should +thus have lost that which constitutes the very highest charm in his +delineations of scenery, namely, that the effect is produced by the +selection of a few striking features, arranged with a light, +unconscious grace, neither too much nor too little—equally remote +from the barren generalizations of a former age, and the dull, servile +fidelity with which so many inferior writers of our time fill in both +background and foreground, having no more notion of the perspective of +genius than Chinese paper-stainers have of that of the atmosphere, and +producing in fact not descriptions but inventories.</p> + +<p>The illness which he alludes to in his Memoir, as interrupting for a +considerable period his attendance on the Latin and Greek classes in +Edinburgh College, is spoken of more largely in one of his +prefaces.<a id="footnotetag62" name="footnotetag62"></a><a href="#footnote62"><span class="small" title="Go to Footnote 62">[62]</span></a> It arose from the bursting of a blood-vessel in the +lower bowels; and I have heard him say that his uncle, Dr. Rutherford, +considered his recovery from it as little less than miraculous. His +sweet temper and calm courage were no doubt important elements of +safety. He submitted without a murmur to the severe discipline +prescribed by his affectionate physician, and found consolation in +poetry, romance, and the enthusiasm of young friendship. Day after day +John Irving relieved his mother and sister in their <span class="pagenum"><a id="page112" name="page112"></a>(p. 112)</span> +attendance upon him. The bed on which he lay was piled with a constant +succession of works of imagination, and sad realities were forgotten +amidst the brilliant day-dreams of genius drinking unwearied from the +eternal fountains of Spenser and Shakespeare. Chess was recommended as +a relief to these unintermitted, though desultory studies; and he +engaged eagerly in the game which had found favor with so many of his +Paladins. Mr. Irving remembers playing it with him hour after hour, in +very cold weather, when, the windows being kept open as a part of the +medical treatment, nothing but youthful nerves and spirit could have +persevered. But Scott did not pursue the science of chess after his +boyhood. He used to say that it was a shame to throw away upon +mastering a mere game, however ingenious, the time which would suffice +for the acquisition of a new language. "Surely," he said, +"chess-playing is a sad waste of brains."</p> + +<p>His recovery was completed by another visit to Roxburghshire. Captain +Robert Scott, who had been so kind to the sickly infant at Bath, +finally retired about this time from his profession, and purchased the +elegant villa of Rosebank, on the Tweed, a little below Kelso. Here +Walter now took up his quarters, and here, during all the rest of his +youth, he found, whenever he chose, a second home, in many respects +more agreeable than his own. His uncle, as letters to be subsequently +quoted will show, had nothing of his father's coldness for polite +letters, but entered into all his favorite pursuits with keen +sympathy, and was consulted, from this time forth, upon all his +juvenile essays, both in prose and verse.</p> + +<p>He does not seem to have resumed attendance at College during the +session of 1785-86; so that the Latin and Greek classes, with that of +Logic, were the only ones he had passed through previous to the +signing of his indentures as an apprentice to his father. The Memoir +mentions the ethical course of Dugald Stewart, as if he had <span class="pagenum"><a id="page113" name="page113"></a>(p. 113)</span> +gone immediately from the logical professor (Mr. Bruce) to that +eminent lecturer; but he, in fact, attended Mr. Stewart four years +afterwards, when beginning to consider himself as finally destined for +the Bar.</p> + +<p>I shall only add to what he sets down on the subject of his early +academical studies, that in this, as in almost every case, he appears +to have underrated his own attainments. He had, indeed, no pretensions +to the name of an extensive, far less of an accurate, Latin scholar; +but he could read, I believe, any Latin author, of any age, so as to +catch without difficulty his meaning; and although his favorite Latin +poet, as well as historian, in later days, was Buchanan, he had +preserved, or subsequently acquired, a strong relish for some others +of more ancient date. I may mention, in particular, Lucan and +Claudian. Of Greek, he does not exaggerate in saying that he had +forgotten even the alphabet; for he was puzzled with the words ἀοιδος +and ποιητης, which he had occasion to introduce, from +some authority on his table, into his Introduction to Popular Poetry, +written in April, 1830; and happening to be in the house with him at +the time, he sent for me to insert them for him in his MS. Mr. Irving +has informed us of the early period at which he enjoyed the real Tasso +and Ariosto. I presume he had at least as soon as this enabled himself +to read Gil Blas in the original; and, in all probability, we may +refer to the same time of his life, or one not much later, his +acquisition of as much Spanish as served for the Guerras Civiles de +Granada, Lazarillo de Tormes, and, above all, Don Quixote. He read all +these languages in after-life with about the same facility. I never +but once heard him attempt to speak any of them, and that was when +some of the courtiers of Charles X. came to Abbotsford, soon after +that unfortunate prince took up his residence for the second time at +Holyrood-house. Finding that one or two of these gentlemen could speak +no English at all, he made some efforts to amuse them in their own +language after <span class="pagenum"><a id="page114" name="page114"></a>(p. 114)</span> the champagne had been passing briskly round +the table; and I was amused next morning with the expression of one of +the party, who, alluding to the sort of reading in which Sir Walter +seemed to have chiefly occupied himself, said, "Mon Dieu! comme il +estropiait, entre deux vins, le Français du bon sire de Joinville!" Of +all these tongues, as of German somewhat later, he acquired as much as +was needful for his own purposes, of which a critical study of any +foreign language made at no time any part. In them he sought for +incidents, and he found images; but for the treasures of diction he +was content to dig on British soil. He had all he wanted in the old +wells of "English undefiled," and the still living, though fast +shrinking, waters of that sister idiom which had not always, as he +flattered himself, deserved the name of a dialect.</p> + +<p>As may be said, I believe, with perfect truth of every really great +man, Scott was self-educated in every branch of knowledge which he +ever turned to account in the works of his genius—and he has himself +told us that his real studies were those lonely and desultory ones of +which he has given a copy in the third chapter of Waverley, where the +hero is represented as "driving through the sea of books, like a +vessel without pilot or rudder;" that is to say, obeying nothing but +the strong breath of native inclination:—"He had read, and stored in +a memory of uncommon tenacity, much curious, though ill-arranged and +miscellaneous information. In English literature, he was master of +Shakespeare and Milton, of our earlier dramatic authors, of many +picturesque and interesting passages from our old historical +chronicles, and was particularly well acquainted with Spenser, +Drayton, and other poets, who have exercised themselves on romantic +fiction,—<span class="italic">of all themes the most fascinating to a youthful +imagination, before the passions have roused themselves, and demand +poetry of a more sentimental description</span>." I need not repeat his +enumeration of other favorites, Pulci, the <span class="pagenum"><a id="page115" name="page115"></a>(p. 115)</span> Decameron, +Froissart, Brantôme, Delanoue, and the chivalrous and romantic lore of +Spain. I have quoted a passage so well known, only for the sake of the +striking circumstance by which it marks the very early date of these +multifarious studies.<a href="#toc"><span class="small">[Back to Contents]</span></a></p> + + + + +<h3>CHAPTER V <span class="pagenum"><a id="page116" name="page116"></a>(p. 116)</span></h3> + +<p class="summary">illustrations continued. — scott's apprenticeship to his +father. — excursions to the highlands, etc. — debating societies. — early +correspondence, etc. — williamina stuart</p> + +<p class="center">1786-1790</p> + + +<p>In the Minute-books of the Society of Writers to the Signet appears +the following entry: "Edinburgh, 15th May, 1786. Compeared Walter +Scott, and presented an indenture, dated 31st March last, entered into +between him and Walter Scott, his son, for five years from the date +thereof, under a mutual penalty of £40 sterling."</p> + +<p>An inauspicious step this might at first sight appear in the early +history of one so strongly predisposed for pursuits wide as the +antipodes asunder from the dry technicalities of conveyancing; but he +himself, I believe, was never heard, in his mature age, to express any +regret that it should have been taken; and I am convinced for my part +that it was a fortunate one. It prevented him, indeed, from passing +with the usual regularity through a long course of Scotch metaphysics; +but I extremely doubt whether any discipline could ever have led him +to derive either pleasure or profit from studies of that order. His +apprenticeship left him time enough, as we shall find, for continuing +his application to the stores of poetry and romance, and those old +chroniclers, who to the end were his darling historians. Indeed, if he +had wanted any new stimulus, the necessity of devoting certain hours +of every day to a routine of drudgery, however it might have operated +on a spirit more prone to earth, must have tended <span class="pagenum"><a id="page117" name="page117"></a>(p. 117)</span> to quicken +his appetite for "the sweet bread eaten in secret." But the duties +which he had now to fulfil were, in various ways, directly and +positively beneficial to the development both of his genius and his +character. It was in the discharge of his functions as a Writer's +Apprentice that he first penetrated into the Highlands, and formed +those friendships among the surviving heroes of 1745, which laid the +foundation for one great class of his works. Even the less attractive +parts of his new vocation were calculated to give him a more complete +insight into the smaller workings of poor human nature than can ever +perhaps be gathered from the experience of the legal profession in its +higher walk;—the etiquette of the bar in Scotland, as in England, +being averse to personal intercourse between the advocate and his +client. But finally, and I will say chiefly, it was to this prosaic +discipline that he owed those habits of steady, sober diligence, which +few imaginative authors had ever before exemplified—and which, unless +thus beaten into his composition at a ductile stage, even he, in all +probability, could never have carried into the almost professional +exercise of some of the highest and most delicate faculties of the +human mind. He speaks, in not the least remarkable passage of the +preceding Memoir, as if constitutional indolence had been his portion +in common with all the members of his father's family. When Gifford, +in a dispute with Jacob Bryant, quoted Doctor Johnson's own confession +that he knew little Greek, Bryant answered, "Yes, young man; but how +shall we know what Johnson would have called much Greek?" and Gifford +has recorded the deep impression which this hint left on his own mind. +What Scott would have called constitutional diligence, I know not; but +surely, if indolence of any kind had been inherent in his nature, even +the triumph of Socrates was not more signal than his.</p> + +<p>It will be, by some of my friends, considered as trivial to remark on +such a circumstance—but the reader who is <span class="pagenum"><a id="page118" name="page118"></a>(p. 118)</span> unacquainted with +the professional habits of the Scotch lawyers may as well be told that +the Writer's Apprentice receives a certain allowance in money for +every page he transcribes; and that, as in those days the greater part +of the business, even of the supreme courts, was carried on by means +of written papers, a ready penman, in a well-employed chamber, could +earn in this way enough, at all events, to make a handsome addition to +the pocket-money which was likely to be thought suitable for a youth +of fifteen by such a man as the elder Scott. The allowance being, I +believe, threepence for every page containing a certain fixed number +of words, when Walter had finished, as he tells us he occasionally +did, 120 pages within twenty-four hours, his fee would amount to +thirty shillings; and in his early letters I find him more than once +congratulating himself on having been, by some such exertion, enabled +to purchase a book, or a coin, otherwise beyond his reach. A +schoolfellow, who was now, like himself, a Writer's Apprentice, +recollects the eagerness with which he thus made himself master of +Evans's Ballads, shortly after their publication; and another of them, +already often referred to, remembers, in particular, his rapture with +Mickle's Cumnor Hall, which first appeared in that collection. "After +the labors of the day were over," says Mr. Irving, "we often walked in +<span class="italic">the Meadows</span>"—(a large field intersected by formal alleys of old +trees, adjoining George's Square)—"especially in the moonlight +nights; and he seemed never weary of repeating the first stanza—</p> + +<p class="poem30">'The dews of summer night did fall—<br> +<span class="add1em">The Moon, sweet regent of the sky,</span><br> + Silvered the walls of Cumnor Hall,<br> +<span class="add1em">And many an oak that grew thereby.'"</span></p> + +<p>I have thought it worth while to preserve these reminiscences of his +companions at the time, though he has himself stated the circumstance +in his Preface to Kenilworth. "There is a period in youth," he there +says, "when <span class="pagenum"><a id="page119" name="page119"></a>(p. 119)</span> the mere power of numbers has a more strong +effect on ear and imagination than in after-life. At this season of +immature taste, the author was greatly delighted with the poems of +Mickle and Langhorne. The first stanza of Cumnor Hall especially had a +peculiar enchantment for his youthful ear—the force of which is not +yet (1829) entirely spent." Thus that favorite elegy, after having +dwelt on his memory and imagination for forty years, suggested the +subject of one of his noblest romances.</p> + +<p>It is affirmed by a preceding biographer, on the authority of one of +these brother-apprentices, that about this period Scott showed him a +MS. poem on the Conquest of Granada, in four books, each amounting to +about 400 lines, which, soon after it was finished, he committed to +the flames.<a id="footnotetag63" name="footnotetag63"></a><a href="#footnote63"><span class="small" title="Go to Footnote 63">[63]</span></a> As he states in his Essay on the Imitation of Popular +Poetry, that, for ten years previous to 1796, when his first +translation from the German was executed, he had written no verses +"except an occasional sonnet to his mistress's eyebrow," I presume +this Conquest of Granada, the fruit of his study of the Guerras +Civiles, must be assigned to the summer of 1786—or, making allowance +for trivial inaccuracy, to the next year at latest. It was probably +composed in imitation of Mickle's Lusiad:—at all events, we have a +very distinct statement, that he made no attempts in the manner of the +old minstrels, early as his admiration for them had been, until the +period of his acquaintance with Bürger. Thus with him, as with most +others, genius had hazarded many a random effort ere it discovered the +true keynote. Long had</p> + +<p class="poem30">"Amid the strings his fingers stray'd,<br> + And an uncertain warbling made,"</p> + +<p>before "the measure wild" was caught, and</p> + +<p class="poem30">"In varying cadence, soft or strong,<br> + He swept the sounding chords along."</p> + +<p>His <span class="pagenum"><a id="page120" name="page120"></a>(p. 120)</span> youthful admiration of Langhorne has been rendered +memorable by his own record of his first and only interview with his +great predecessor, Robert Burns. Although the letter in which he +narrates this incident, addressed to myself in 1827, when I was +writing a short biography of that poet, has been often reprinted, it +is too important for my present purpose to be omitted here.</p> + +<p>"As for Burns," he writes, "I may truly say, <span class="italic">Virgilium vidi tantum</span>. +I was a lad of fifteen in 1786-87, when he came first to Edinburgh, +but had sense and feeling enough to be much interested in his poetry, +and would have given the world to know him; but I had very little +acquaintance with any literary people, and still less with the gentry +of the west country, the two sets that he most frequented. Mr. Thomas +Grierson was at that time a clerk of my father's. He knew Burns, and +promised to ask him to his lodgings to dinner, but had no opportunity +to keep his word, otherwise I might have seen more of this +distinguished man. As it was, I saw him one day at the late venerable +Professor Ferguson's, where there were several gentlemen of literary +reputation, among whom I remember the celebrated Mr. Dugald Stewart. +Of course we youngsters sat silent, looked, and listened. The only +thing I remember which was remarkable in Burns's manner was the effect +produced upon him by a print of Bunbury's, representing a soldier +lying dead on the snow, his dog sitting in misery on the one side, on +the other his widow, with a child in her arms. These lines were +written beneath,—</p> + +<p class="poem20">'Cold on Canadian hills, or Minden's plain,<br> + Perhaps that parent wept her soldier slain;<br> + Bent o'er her babe, her eye dissolved in dew,<br> + The big drops, mingling with the milk he drew,<br> + Gave the sad presage of his future years,<br> + The child of misery baptized in tears.'</p> + +<p>Burns seemed much affected by the print, or rather the ideas which it +suggested to his mind. He actually shed tears. He asked whose the +lines were, and it chanced that <span class="pagenum"><a id="page121" name="page121"></a>(p. 121)</span> nobody but myself remembered +that they occur in a half-forgotten poem of Langhorne's, called by the +unpromising title of The Justice of the Peace. I whispered my +information to a friend present, who mentioned it to Burns, who +rewarded me with a look and a word, which, though of mere civility, I +then received, and still recollect, with very great pleasure.</p> + +<p>"His person was strong and robust: his manners rustic, not clownish; a +sort of dignified plainness and simplicity, which received part of its +effect perhaps from one's knowledge of his extraordinary talents. His +features are represented in Mr. Nasmyth's picture, but to me it +conveys the idea that they are diminished as if seen in perspective. I +think his countenance was more massive than it looks in any of the +portraits. I would have taken the poet, had I not known what he was, +for a very sagacious country farmer of the old Scotch school—<span class="italic">i. e.</span>, +none of your modern agriculturists, who keep laborers for their +drudgery, but the <span class="italic">douce gudeman</span> who held his own plough. There was a +strong expression of sense and shrewdness in all his lineaments; the +eye alone, I think, indicated the poetical character and temperament. +It was large, and of a dark cast, and glowed (I say literally +<span class="italic">glowed</span>) when he spoke with feeling or interest. I never saw such +another eye in a human head, though I have seen the most distinguished +men in my time. His conversation expressed perfect self-confidence, +without the slightest presumption. Among the men who were the most +learned of their time and country he expressed himself with perfect +firmness, but without the least intrusive forwardness; and when he +differed in opinion, he did not hesitate to express it firmly, yet at +the same time with modesty. I do not remember any part of his +conversation distinctly enough to be quoted, nor did I ever see him +again, except in the street, where he did not recognize me, as I could +not expect he should. He was much caressed in Edinburgh, but +(considering what literary emoluments <span class="pagenum"><a id="page122" name="page122"></a>(p. 122)</span> have been since his +day) the efforts made for his relief were extremely trifling.</p> + +<p>"I remember on this occasion I mention, I thought Burns's acquaintance +with English poetry was rather limited, and also, that having twenty +times the abilities of Allan Ramsay and of Fergusson, he talked of +them with too much humility as his models; there was doubtless +national predilection in his estimate."</p> + +<p>I need not remark on the extent of knowledge and justness of taste +exemplified in this early measurement of Burns, both as a student of +English literature and as a Scottish poet. The print, over which Scott +saw Burns shed tears, is still in the possession of Dr. Ferguson's +family, and I had often heard him tell the story, in the room where +the precious relic hangs, before I requested him to set it down in +writing—how little anticipating the use to which I should ultimately +apply it!<a id="footnotetag64" name="footnotetag64"></a><a href="#footnote64"><span class="small" title="Go to Footnote 64">[64]</span></a></p> + +<p>His intimacy with Adam (now Sir Adam) Ferguson was thus his first +means of introduction to the higher literary society of Edinburgh; and +it was very probably to that connection that he owed, among the rest, +his acquaintance with the blind poet Blacklock, whom Johnson, twelve +years earlier, "beheld with reverence." We have seen, however, that +the venerable author of Douglas was a friend of his own parents, and +had noticed him even in his infancy at Bath. John Home now inhabited a +villa at no great distance from Edinburgh, and there, all through his +young days, Scott was a frequent guest. Nor must it be forgotten that +his uncle, Dr. Rutherford, inherited much of the general +accomplishments, as well as the professional reputation of his +father—and that it was beneath that roof he saw, several years before +this, Dr. Cartwright, then in the enjoyment of some fame as a poet. In +this family, indeed, he had more than one kind <span class="pagenum"><a id="page123" name="page123"></a>(p. 123)</span> and strenuous +encourager of his early literary tastes, as will be shown abundantly +when we reach certain relics of his correspondence with his mother's +sister. Dr. Rutherford's good-natured remonstrances with him, as a +boy, for reading at breakfast, are well remembered, and will remind my +reader of a similar trait in the juvenile manners both of Burns and +Byron; nor was this habit entirely laid aside even in Scott's advanced +age.</p> + +<p>If he is quite accurate in referring his first acquaintance with the +Highlands to his fifteenth year, this incident also belongs to the +first season of his apprenticeship. His father had, among a rather +numerous list of Highland clients, Alexander Stewart of Invernahyle, +an enthusiastic Jacobite, who had survived to recount, in secure and +vigorous old age, his active experiences in the insurrections both of +1715 and 1745. He had, it appears, attracted Walter's attention and +admiration at a very early date; for he speaks of having "seen him in +arms" and heard him "exult in the prospect of drawing his claymore +once more before he died," when Paul Jones threatened a descent on +Edinburgh; which transaction occurred in September, 1779. Invernahyle, +as Scott adds, was the only person who seemed to have retained +possession of his cool senses at the period of that disgraceful alarm, +and offered the magistrates to collect as many Highlanders as would +suffice for cutting off any part of the pirate's crew that might +venture, in quest of plunder, into a city full of high houses and +narrow lanes, and every way well calculated for defence. The eager +delight with which the young apprentice now listened to the tales of +this fine old man's early days produced an invitation to his residence +among the mountains; and to this excursion he probably devoted the few +weeks of an autumnal vacation—whether in 1786 or 1787 it is of no +great consequence to ascertain.</p> + +<p>In the Introduction to one of his Novels he has preserved a vivid +picture of his sensations when the vale of Perth <span class="pagenum"><a id="page124" name="page124"></a>(p. 124)</span> first burst +on his view, in the course of his progress to Invernahyle, and the +description has made classical ground of the <span class="italic">Wicks of Baiglie</span>, the +spot from which that beautiful landscape was surveyed. "Childish +wonder, indeed," he says, "was an ingredient in my delight, for I was +not above fifteen years old, and as this had been the first excursion +which I was permitted to make on a pony of my own, I also experienced +the glow of independence, mingled with that degree of anxiety which +the most conceited boy feels when he is first abandoned to his own +undirected counsels. I recollect pulling up the reins without meaning +to do so, and gazing on the scene before me as if I had been afraid it +would shift, like those in a theatre, before I could distinctly +observe its different parts, or convince myself that what I saw was +real. Since that hour the recollection of that inimitable landscape +has possessed the strongest influence over my mind, and retained its +place as a memorable thing, while much that was influential on my own +fortunes has fled from my recollection." So speaks the poet; and who +will not recognize his habitual modesty in thus undervaluing, as +uninfluential in comparison with some affair of worldly business, the +ineffaceable impression thus stamped on the glowing imagination of his +boyhood?</p> + +<p>I need not quote the numerous passages scattered over his writings, +both early and late, in which he dwells with, fond affection on the +chivalrous character of Invernahyle—the delight with which he heard +the veteran describe his broadsword duel with Rob Roy—his campaigns +with Mar and Charles Edward—and his long seclusion (as pictured in +the story of Bradwardine) within a rocky cave situated not far from +his own house, while it was garrisoned by a party of English soldiers, +after the battle of Culloden. Here, too, still survived the trusty +henchman who had attended the chieftain in many a bloody field and +perilous escape, the same "grim-looking old Highlander" who was in the +act of cutting down Colonel Whitefoord <span class="pagenum"><a id="page125" name="page125"></a>(p. 125)</span> with his Lochaber axe +at Prestonpans when his master arrested the blow—an incident to which +Invernahyle owed his life, and we are indebted for another of the most +striking pages in Waverley.</p> + +<p>I have often heard Scott mention some curious particulars of his first +visit to the remote fastness of one of these Highland friends; but +whether he told the story of Invernahyle, or of one of his own +relations of the Clan Campbell, I do not recollect; I rather think the +latter was the case. On reaching the brow of a bleak eminence +overhanging the primitive tower and its tiny patch of cultivated +ground, he found his host and three sons, and perhaps half-a-dozen +attendant <span class="italic">gillies</span>, all stretched half asleep in their tartans upon +the heath, with guns and dogs, and a profusion of game about them; +while in the courtyard, far below, appeared a company of women +actively engaged in loading a cart with manure. The stranger was not a +little astonished when he discovered, on descending from the height, +that among these industrious females were the laird's own lady, and +two or three of her daughters; but they seemed quite unconscious of +having been detected in an occupation unsuitable to their +rank—retired presently to their "bowers," and when they reappeared in +other dresses, retained no traces of their morning's work, except +complexions glowing with a radiant freshness, for one evening of which +many a high-bred beauty would have bartered half her diamonds. He +found the young ladies not ill informed, and exceedingly agreeable; +and the song and the dance seemed to form the invariable termination +of their busy days. I must not forget his admiration at the principal +article of this laird's first course; namely, a gigantic <span class="italic">haggis</span>, +borne into the hall in a wicker basket by two half-naked Celts, while +the piper strutted fiercely behind them, blowing a tempest of +dissonance.</p> + +<p>These Highland visits were repeated almost every summer for several +successive years, and perhaps even the <span class="pagenum"><a id="page126" name="page126"></a>(p. 126)</span> first of them was in +some degree connected with his professional business. At all events, +it was to his allotted task of enforcing the execution of a legal +instrument against some Maclarens, refractory tenants of Stewart of +Appin, brother-in-law to Invernahyle, that Scott owed his introduction +to the scenery of The Lady of the Lake. "An escort of a sergeant and +six men," he says, "was obtained from a Highland regiment lying in +Stirling, and the author, then a Writer's Apprentice, equivalent to +the honorable situation of an attorney's clerk, was invested with the +superintendence of the expedition, with directions to see that the +messenger discharged his duty fully, and that the gallant sergeant did +not exceed his part by committing violence or plunder. And thus it +happened, oddly enough, that the author first entered the romantic +scenery of Loch Katrine, of which he may perhaps say he has somewhat +extended the reputation, riding in all the dignity of danger, with a +front and rear guard, and loaded arms. The sergeant was absolutely a +Highland Sergeant Kite, full of stories of Rob Roy and of himself, and +a very good companion. We experienced no interruption whatever, and +when we came to Invernenty, found the house deserted. We took up our +quarters for the night, and used some of the victuals which we found +there. The Maclarens, who probably had never thought of any serious +opposition, went to America, where, having had some slight share in +removing them from their <span class="italic">paupera regna</span>, I sincerely hope they +prospered."<a id="footnotetag65" name="footnotetag65"></a><a href="#footnote65"><span class="small" title="Go to Footnote 65">[65]</span></a></p> + +<p>That he entered with ready zeal into such professional business as +inferred Highland expeditions with comrades who had known Rob Roy, no +one will think strange; but more than one of his biographers allege +that in the ordinary indoor fagging of the chamber in George's Square, +he was always an unwilling, and rarely an efficient assistant. Their +addition, that he often played chess with one of his companions in the +office, and had to conceal the <span class="pagenum"><a id="page127" name="page127"></a>(p. 127)</span> board with precipitation when +the old gentleman's footsteps were heard on the staircase, is, I do +not doubt, true; and we may remember along with it his own insinuation +that his father was sometimes poring in his secret nook over +Spottiswoode or Wodrow, when his apprentices supposed him to be deep +in Dirleton's Doubts, or Stair's decisions. But the Memoir of 1808, so +candid—indeed more than candid—as to many juvenile irregularities, +contains no confession that supports the broad assertion to which I +have alluded; nor can I easily believe, that with his affection for +his father, and that sense of duty which seems to have been inherent +in his character, and, lastly, with the evidence of a most severe +training in industry which the habits of his after-life presented, it +is at all deserving of serious acceptation. His mere handwriting, +indeed, continued, during the whole of his prime, to afford most +striking and irresistible proof how completely he must have submitted +himself for some very considerable period to the mechanical discipline +of his father's office. It spoke to months after months of this humble +toil, as distinctly as the illegible scrawl of Lord Byron did to his +self-mastership from the hour that he left Harrow. There are some +little technical tricks, such as no gentleman who has not been +subjected to a similar regimen ever can fall into, which he practised +invariably while composing his poetry, which appear not unfrequently +on the MSS. of his best novels, and which now and then dropt +instinctively from his pen, even in the private letters and diaries of +his closing years. I allude particularly to a sort of flourish at the +bottom of the page, originally, I presume, adopted in engrossing as a +safeguard against the intrusion of a forged line between the +legitimate text and the attesting signature. He was quite sensible +that this ornament might as well be dispensed with; and his family +often heard him mutter, after involuntarily performing it, "There goes +the old shop again!"</p> + +<p>I <span class="pagenum"><a id="page128" name="page128"></a>(p. 128)</span> dwell on this matter because it was always his favorite +tenet, in contradiction to what he called the cant of sonneteers, that +there is no necessary connection between genius and an aversion or +contempt for any of the common duties of life; he thought, on the +contrary, that to spend some fair portion of every day in any matter +of fact occupation is good for the higher faculties themselves in the +upshot. In a word, from beginning to end, he piqued himself on being +<span class="italic">a man of business</span>; and did—with one sad and memorable +exception—whatever the ordinary course of things threw in his way, in +exactly the businesslike fashion which might have been expected from +the son of a thoroughbred old Clerk to the Signet, who had never +deserted his father's profession.</p> + +<p>In the winter of 1788, however, his apprentice habits were exposed to +a new danger; and from that date I believe them to have undergone a +considerable change. He was then sent to attend the lectures of the +Professor of Civil Law in the University, this course forming part of +the usual professional education of Writers to the Signet, as well as +of Advocates. For some time his companions, when in Edinburgh, had +been chiefly, almost solely, his brother-apprentices and the clerks in +his father's office. He had latterly seen comparatively little even of +the better of his old High School friends, such as Ferguson and +Irving—for though both of these also were writer's apprentices, they +had been indentured to other masters, and each had naturally formed +new intimacies within his own chamber. The Civil Law class brought him +again into daily contact with both Irving and Ferguson, as well as +others of his earlier acquaintance of the higher ranks; but it also +led him into the society of some young gentlemen previously unknown to +him, who had from the outset been destined for the Bar, and whose +conversation, tinctured with certain prejudices natural to scions of +what he calls in Redgauntlet <span class="italic">the Scottish noblesse de la robe</span>, soon +banished from his mind every <span class="pagenum"><a id="page129" name="page129"></a>(p. 129)</span> thought of ultimately adhering +to the secondary branch of the law. He found these future barristers +cultivating general literature, without the least apprehension that +such elegant pursuits could be regarded by any one as interfering with +the proper studies of their professional career; justly believing, on +the contrary, that for the higher class of forensic exertion some +acquaintance with almost every branch of science and letters is a +necessary preparative. He contrasted their liberal aspirations, and +the encouragement which these received in their domestic circles, with +the narrower views which predominated in his own home; and resolved to +gratify his ambition by adopting a most precarious walk in life, +instead of adhering to that in which he might have counted with +perfect security on the early attainment of pecuniary independence. +This resolution appears to have been foreseen by his father, long +before it was announced in terms; and the handsome manner in which the +old gentleman conducted himself upon the occasion is remembered with +dutiful gratitude in the preceding Autobiography.</p> + +<p>The most important of these new alliances was the intimate friendship +which he now formed with Mr. John Irving's near relation, William +Clerk of Eldin, of whose powerful talents and extensive +accomplishments we shall hereafter meet with many enthusiastic +notices. It was in company with this gentleman that he entered the +debating societies described in his Memoir; through him he soon became +linked in the closest intimacy with George Cranstoun (now Lord +Corehouse), George Abercromby (now Lord Abercromby), John James +Edmonstone<a id="footnotetag66" name="footnotetag66"></a><a href="#footnote66"><span class="small" title="Go to Footnote 66">[66]</span></a> of Newton (whose mother was sister of Sir Ralph +Abercromby), Patrick Murray of Simprim, Sir Patrick Murray of +Ochtertyre, and a group of other young men, all high in birth and +connection, and all remarkable in early life for the qualities which +afterwards led them to eminent station, <span class="pagenum"><a id="page130" name="page130"></a>(p. 130)</span> or adorned it. The +introduction to their several families is alluded to by Scott as +having opened to him abundantly certain advantages, which no one could +have been more qualified to improve, but from which he had hitherto +been in great measure debarred in consequence of the retired habits of +his parents.</p> + +<p>Mr. Clerk says that he had been struck from the first day he entered +the Civil Law class-room with something odd and remarkable in Scott's +appearance; what this something was he cannot now recall, but he +remembers telling his companion some time afterwards that he thought +he looked like a <span class="italic">hautboy player</span>. Scott was amused with this notion, +as he had never touched a musical instrument of any kind; but I fancy +his friend had been watching a certain noticeable but altogether +indescribable play of the upper lip when in an abstracted mood. He +rallied Walter, he says, during one of their first evening walks +together, on the slovenliness of his dress: he wore a pair of corduroy +breeches, much glazed by the rubbing of his staff, which he +immediately flourished—and said, "They be good enough for drinking +in—let us go and have some oysters in the Covenant Close."</p> + +<p>Convivial habits were then indulged among the young men of Edinburgh, +whether students of law, solicitors, or barristers, to an extent now +happily unknown; and this anecdote recalls some striking hints on that +subject which occur in Scott's brief Autobiography. That he partook +profusely in the juvenile bacchanalia of that day, and continued to +take a plentiful share in such jollities down to the time of his +marriage, are facts worthy of being distinctly stated; for no man in +mature life was more habitually averse to every sort of intemperance. +He could, when I first knew him, swallow a great quantity of wine +without being at all visibly disordered by it; but nothing short of +some very particular occasion could ever induce him to put this +strength of head to a trial; and <span class="pagenum"><a id="page131" name="page131"></a>(p. 131)</span> I have heard him many times +utter words which no one in the days of his youthful temptation can be +the worse for remembering:—"Depend upon it, of all vices, drinking is +the most incompatible with greatness."</p> + +<p>The liveliness of his conversation—the strange variety of his +knowledge—and above all, perhaps, the portentous tenacity of his +memory—riveted more and more Clerk's attention, and commanded the +wonder of all his new allies; but of these extraordinary gifts Scott +himself appeared to be little conscious; or at least he impressed them +all as attaching infinitely greater consequence—(exactly as had been +the case with him in the days of the Cowgate Port and the kittle nine +steps)—to feats of personal agility and prowess. William Clerk's +brother, James, a midshipman in the navy, happened to come home from a +cruise in the Mediterranean shortly after this acquaintance began, and +Scott and the sailor became almost at sight "sworn brothers." In order +to complete his time under the late Sir Alexander Cochrane, who was +then on the Leith station, James Clerk obtained the command of a +lugger, and the young friends often made little excursions to sea with +him. "The first time Scott dined on board," says William Clerk, "we +met before embarking at a tavern in Leith—it was a large party, +mostly midshipmen, and strangers to him, and our host introducing his +landsmen guests said, 'My brother you know, gentlemen; as for Mr. +Scott, mayhap you may take him for a poor lamiter, but he is the first +to begin a row, and the last to end it;' which eulogium he confirmed +with some of the expletives of Tom Pipes."<a id="footnotetag67" name="footnotetag67"></a><a href="#footnote67"><span class="small" title="Go to Footnote 67">[67]</span></a> When, many years +afterwards, Clerk read The Pirate, he was startled by the resurrection +of a hundred traits of the table-talk of this lugger; but the author +has since traced <span class="pagenum"><a id="page132" name="page132"></a>(p. 132)</span> some of the most striking passages in that +novel to his recollection of the almost childish period when he hung +on his own brother Robert's stories about Rodney's battles and the +haunted <span class="italic">keys</span> of the West Indies.</p> + +<p>One morning Scott called on Clerk, and, exhibiting his stick all cut +and marked, told him he had been attacked in the streets the night +before by three fellows, against whom he had defended himself for an +hour. "By Shrewsbury clock?" said his friend. "No," said Scott, +smiling, "by the Tron." But thenceforth, adds Mr. Clerk, and for +twenty years after, he called his walking stick by the name of +"Shrewsbury."</p> + +<p>With these comrades Scott now resumed, and pushed to a much greater +extent, his early habits of wandering over the country in quest of +castles and other remains of antiquity, his passion for which derived +a new impulse from the conversation of the celebrated John Clerk of +Eldin,<a id="footnotetag68" name="footnotetag68"></a><a href="#footnote68"><span class="small" title="Go to Footnote 68">[68]</span></a> the father of his friend. William Clerk well remembers his +father telling a story which was introduced in due time in The +Antiquary. While he was visiting his grandfather, Sir John Clerk, at +Dumcrieff, in Dumfriesshire, many years before this time, the old +Baronet carried some English virtuosos to see a supposed Roman camp; +and on his exclaiming at a particular spot, "This I take to have been +the Prĉtorium," a herdsman who stood by answered, "Prĉtorium here +Prĉtorium there, I made it wi' a slaughter spade."<a id="footnotetag69" name="footnotetag69"></a><a href="#footnote69"><span class="small" title="Go to Footnote 69">[69]</span></a> Many traits of +the elder Clerk were, his son has no doubt, embroidered on the +character of George Constable in the composition of Jonathan Oldbuck. +The old gentleman's enthusiasm, for antiquities was often played on by +these young friends, but more effectually by his eldest son, John +Clerk (Lord Eldin), who, having a great genius for art, used to amuse +himself with manufacturing mutilated heads, which, after being buried +for a convenient time in the <span class="pagenum"><a id="page133" name="page133"></a>(p. 133)</span> ground, were accidentally +discovered in some fortunate hour, and received by the laird with +great honor as valuable accessions to his museum.<a id="footnotetag70" name="footnotetag70"></a><a href="#footnote70"><span class="small" title="Go to Footnote 70">[70]</span></a></p> + +<p>On a fishing excursion to a loch near Howgate, among the Moorfoot +Hills, Scott, Clerk, Irving, and Abercromby spent the night at a +little public-house kept by one Mrs. Margaret Dods. When St. Ronan's +Well was published, Clerk, meeting Scott in the street, observed, +"That's an odd name; surely I have met with it somewhere before." +Scott smiled, said, "Don't you remember Howgate?" and passed on. The +name alone, however, was taken from the Howgate hostess.</p> + +<p>At one of their drinking bouts of those days William Clerk, Sir P. +Murray, Edmonstone, and Abercromby, being of the party, the sitting +was prolonged to a very late hour, and Scott fell asleep. When he +awoke, his friends succeeded in convincing him that he had sung a song +in the course of the evening, and sung it extremely well. How must +these gentlemen have chuckled when they read Frank Osbaldistone's +account of his revels in the old hall! "It has even been reported by +maligners that I sung a song while under this vinous influence; but as +I remember nothing of it, and never attempted to turn a tune in all my +life, either before or since, I would willingly hope there is no +actual foundation for the calumny."<a id="footnotetag71" name="footnotetag71"></a><a href="#footnote71"><span class="small" title="Go to Footnote 71">[71]</span></a></p> + +<p>On one of his first long walks with Clerk and others of the same set, +their pace, being about four miles an hour, was found rather too much +for Scott, and he offered to contract for three, which measure was +thenceforth considered as the legal one. At this rate they often +continued to wander from five in the morning till eight in the +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page134" name="page134"></a>(p. 134)</span> evening, halting for such refreshment at mid-day as any +village alehouse might afford. On many occasions, however, they had +stretched so far into the country, that they were obliged to be absent +from home all night; and though great was the alarm which the first +occurrence of this sort created in George's Square, the family soon +got accustomed to such things, and little notice was taken, even +though Walter remained away for the better part of a week. I have +heard him laugh heartily over the recollections of one protracted +excursion, towards the close of which the party found themselves a +long day's walk—thirty miles, I think—from Edinburgh, without a +single sixpence left among them. "We were put to our shifts," said he; +"but we asked every now and then at a cottage door for a drink of +water; and one or two of the good-wives, observing our worn-out looks, +brought forth milk in place of water—so with that, and hips and haws, +we came in little the worse." His father met him with some impatient +questions as to what he had been living on so long, for the old man +well knew how scantily his pocket was supplied. "Pretty much like the +young ravens," answered he; "I only wished I had been as good a player +on the flute as poor George Primrose in The Vicar of Wakefield. If I +had his art I should like nothing better than to tramp like him from +cottage to cottage over the world."—"I doubt," said the grave Clerk +to the Signet, "I greatly doubt, sir, you were born for nae better +than a <span class="italic">gangrel scrape gut</span>." Some allusions to reproaches of this +kind occur in the Memoir; and we shall find others in letters +subsequent to his admission at the Bar.<a id="footnotetag72" name="footnotetag72"></a><a href="#footnote72"><span class="small" title="Go to Footnote 72">[72]</span></a></p> + +<p>The debating club formed among these young friends at <span class="pagenum"><a id="page135" name="page135"></a>(p. 135)</span> this +era of their studies was called <span class="italic">The Literary Society</span>; and is not to +be confounded with the more celebrated Speculative Society, which +Scott did not join for two years later. At <span class="italic">The Literary</span> he spoke +frequently, and very amusingly and sensibly, but was not at all +numbered among the most brilliant members. He had a world of knowledge +to produce; but he had not acquired the art of arranging it to the +best advantage in a continued address; nor, indeed, did he ever, I +think, except under the influence of strong personal feeling, even +when years and fame had given him full confidence in himself, exhibit +upon any occasion the powers of oral eloquence. His antiquarian +information, however, supplied many an interesting feature in these +evenings of discussion. He had already dabbled in Anglo-Saxon and the +Norse Sagas: in his Essay on Imitations of Popular Poetry, he alludes +to these studies as having facilitated his acquisition of German:—But +he was deep especially in Fordun and Wyntoun, and all the Scotch +chronicles; and his friends rewarded him by the honorable title of +<span class="italic">Duns Scotus</span>.</p> + +<p>A smaller society, formed with less ambitious views, originated in a +ride to Pennycuik, the seat of the head of Mr. Clerk's family, whose +elegant hospitalities are recorded in the Memoir. This was called, by +way of excellence, <span class="italic">The Club</span>, and I believe it is continued under the +same name to this day. Here, too, Walter had his sobriquet; and—his +corduroy breeches, I presume, not being as yet worn out—it was +<span class="italic">Colonel Grogg</span>.<a id="footnotetag73" name="footnotetag73"></a><a href="#footnote73"><span class="small" title="Go to Footnote 73">[73]</span></a></p> + +<p>Meantime <span class="pagenum"><a id="page136" name="page136"></a>(p. 136)</span> he had not broken up his connection with Rosebank; +he appears to have spent several weeks in the autumn, both of 1788 and +1789, under his uncle's roof; and it was, I think, of his journey +thither, in the last named year, that he used to tell an anecdote, +which I shall here set down—how shorn, alas, of all the accessories +that gave it life when he recited it. Calling, before he set out, on +one of the ancient spinsters of his family, to inquire if she had any +message for Kelso, she retired, and presently placed in his hands a +packet of some bulk and weight, which required, she said, very +particular attention. He took it without examining the address, and +carried it in his pocket next day, not at all to the lightening of a +forty miles' ride in August. On his arrival, it turned out to contain +one of the old lady's pattens, sealed up for a particular cobbler in +Kelso, and accompanied with fourpence to pay for mending it, and +special directions that it might be brought back to her by the same +economical conveyance.</p> + +<p>It will be seen from the following letter, the earliest of Scott's +writing that has fallen into my hands, that professional business had +some share in this excursion to Kelso; but I consider with more +interest the brief allusion to a day at Sandy-Knowe:—</p> + +<div class="quote"> + +<p class="tit-center">TO <span class="pagenum"><a id="page137" name="page137"></a>(p. 137)</span> MRS. SCOTT, GEORGE'S SQUARE, EDINBURGH.<br> +(<span class="italic">With a parcel</span>.)</p> + +<p class="left50"><span class="smcap">Rosebank</span>, 5th September, 1788.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Dear Mother</span>,—I was favored with your letter, and send you Anne's + stockings along with this: I would have sent them last week, but + had some expectations of a private opportunity. I have been very + happy for this fortnight; we have some plan or other for every + day. Last week my uncle, my cousin William,<a id="footnotetag74" name="footnotetag74"></a><a href="#footnote74"><span class="small" title="Go to Footnote 74">[74]</span></a> and I, rode to + Smailholm, and from thence walked to Sandy-Knowe Craigs, where we + spent the whole day, and made a very hearty dinner by the side of + the Orderlaw Well, on some cold beef and bread and cheese: we had + also a small case-bottle of rum to make grog with, which we drank + to the Sandy-Knowe bairns, and all their connections. This jaunt + gave me much pleasure, and had I time, I would give you a more + full account of it.</p> + +<p>The fishing has been hitherto but indifferent, and I fear I shall + not be able to accomplish my promise with regard to the wild + ducks. I was out on Friday, and only saw three. I may probably, + however, send you a hare, as my uncle has got a present of two + greyhounds from Sir H. MacDougall, and as he has a license, only + waits till the corn is off the ground to commence coursing. Be it + known to you, however, I am not altogether employed in + amusements, for I have got two or three clients besides my uncle, + and am busy drawing tacks and contracts,—not, however, of + marriage. I am in a fair way of making money, if I stay here + long.</p> + +<p>Here I have written a pretty long letter, and nothing in it; but + you know writing to one's friends is the next thing to seeing + them. My love to my father and the boys, from, Dear Mother, your + dutiful and affectionate son,</p> + +<p class="left50"><span class="smcap">Walter Scott</span>.</p> +</div> + +<p>It <span class="pagenum"><a id="page138" name="page138"></a>(p. 138)</span> appears from James Ballantyne's <span class="italic">memoranda</span>, that having +been very early bound apprentice to a solicitor in Kelso, he had no +intercourse with Scott during the three or four years that followed +their companionship at the school of Lancelot Whale; but Ballantyne +was now sent to spend a winter in Edinburgh, for the completion of his +professional education, and in the course of his attendance on the +Scots Law class, became a member of a young Teviotdale club, where +Walter Scott seldom failed to make his appearance. They supped +together, it seems, once a month; and here, as in the associations +above mentioned, good fellowship was often pushed beyond the limits of +modern indulgence. The strict intimacy between Scott and Ballantyne +was not at this time renewed,—their avocations prevented it,—but the +latter was no uninterested observer of his old comrade's bearing on +this new scene. "Upon all these occasions," he says, "one of the +principal features of his character was displayed as conspicuously as +I believe it ever was at any later period. This was the remarkable +ascendency he never failed to exhibit among his young companions, and +which appeared to arise from their involuntary and unconscious +submission to the same firmness of understanding, and gentle exercise +of it, which produced the same effects throughout his after-life. +Where there was always a good deal of drinking, there was of course +now and then a good deal of quarrelling. But three words from Walter +Scott never failed to put all such propensities to quietness."</p> + +<p>Mr. Ballantyne's account of his friend's peace-making exertions at +this club may seem a little at variance with some preceding details. +There is a difference, however, between encouraging quarrels in the +bosom of a convivial party, and taking a fair part in a <span class="italic">row</span> between +one's own party and another. But Ballantyne adds, that at <span class="italic">The +Teviotdale</span>, Scott was always remarkable for being the most temperate +of the set; and if the club consisted chiefly <span class="pagenum"><a id="page139" name="page139"></a>(p. 139)</span> of persons, +like Ballantyne himself, somewhat inferior to Scott in birth and +station, his carefulness both of sobriety and decorum at their +meetings was but another feature of his unchanged and unchangeable +character—<span class="italic">qualis ab incepto</span>.</p> + +<p>At one of the many merry suppers of this time Walter Scott had said +something, of which, on recollecting himself next morning, he was +sensible that his friend Clerk might have reason to complain. He sent +him accordingly a note apologetical, which has by some accident been +preserved, and which I am sure every reader will agree with me in +considering well worthy of preservation. In it Scott contrives to make +use of <span class="italic">both</span> his own club designations, and addresses his friend by +another of the same order, which Clerk had received in consequence of +comparing himself on some forgotten occasion to Sir John Brute in the +play. This characteristic document is as follows:—</p> + +<div class="quote"> +<p class="tit-center"><span class="smcap">TO WILLIAM CLERK, ESQ.</span></p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Dear Baronet</span>,—I am sorry to find that our friend Colonel Grogg + has behaved with a very undue degree of vehemence in a dispute + with you last night, occasioned by what I am convinced was a + gross misconception of your expressions. As the Colonel, though a + military man, is not too haughty to acknowledge an error, he has + commissioned me to make his apology as a mutual friend, which I + am convinced you will accept from yours ever,</p> + +<p class="left50"><span class="smcap">DUNS SCOTUS</span>.</p> + +<p>Given at Castle Duns,<br> +<span class="add2em">Monday.</span></p> +</div> + +<p>I should perhaps have mentioned sooner that when first <span class="italic">Duns Scotus</span> +became <span class="italic">the Baronet's</span> daily companion, this new alliance was observed +with considerable jealousy by some of his former inseparables of the +writing office. At the next annual supper of the clerks and +apprentices, the <span class="italic">gaudy</span> of the chamber, this feeling showed itself +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page140" name="page140"></a>(p. 140)</span> in various ways, and when the cloth was drawn, Walter rose +and asked what was meant. "Well," said one of the lads, "since you +will have it out, you are <span class="italic">cutting</span> your old friends for the sake of +Clerk and some more of these dons that look down on the like of us." +"Gentlemen," answered Scott, "I will never <span class="italic">cut</span> any man unless I +detect him in scoundrelism; but I know not what right any of you have +to interfere with my choice of my company. If any one thought I had +injured him, he would have done well to ask an explanation in a more +private manner. As it is, I fairly own, that though I like many of you +very much, and have long done so, I think William Clerk well worth you +all put together." The senior in the chair was wise enough to laugh, +and the evening passed off without further disturbance.</p> + +<p>As one effect of his office education, Scott soon began to preserve in +regular files the letters addressed to him; and from the style and +tone of such letters, as Mr. Southey observes in his Life of Cowper, a +man's character may often be gathered even more surely than from those +written by himself. The first series of any considerable extent in his +collection includes letters dated as far back as 1786, and proceeds, +with not many interruptions, down beyond the period when his fame had +been established. I regret, that from the delicate nature of the +transactions chiefly dwelt upon in the earlier of these +communications, I dare not make a free use of them; but I feel it my +duty to record the strong impression they have left on my own mind of +high generosity of affection, coupled with calm judgment, and +perseverance in well-doing, on the part of the stripling Scott. To +these indeed every line in the collection bears pregnant testimony. A +young gentleman, born of good family, and heir to a tolerable fortune, +is sent to Edinburgh College, and is seen partaking, along with Scott, +through several apparently happy and careless years, of the studies +and amusements <span class="pagenum"><a id="page141" name="page141"></a>(p. 141)</span> of which the reader may by this time have +formed an adequate notion. By degrees, from the usual license of his +equal comrades, he sinks into habits of a looser description—becomes +reckless, contracts debts, irritates his own family almost beyond hope +of reconciliation, is virtually cast off by them, runs away from +Scotland, forms a marriage far below his condition in a remote part of +the sister kingdom—and, when the poor girl has made him a father, +then first begins to open his eyes to the full consequences of his mad +career. He appeals to Scott, by this time in his eighteenth year, "as +the truest and noblest of friends," who had given him "the earliest +and the strongest warnings," had assisted him "the most generously +throughout all his wanderings and distresses," and will not now +abandon him in his "penitent lowliness of misery," the result of his +seeing "virtue and innocence involved in the punishment of his +errors." I find Scott obtaining the slow and reluctant assistance of +his own careful father—who had long before observed this youth's +wayward disposition, and often cautioned his son against the +connection—to intercede with the unfortunate wanderer's family, and +procure, if possible, some mitigation of their sentence. The result is +that he is furnished with the scanty means of removing himself to a +distant colony, where he spends several years in the drudgery of a +very humble occupation, but by degrees establishes for himself a new +character, which commands the anxious interest of strangers;—and I +find these strangers, particularly a benevolent and venerable +clergyman, addressing, on his behalf, without his privacy, the young +person, as yet unknown to the world, whom the object of their concern +had painted to them as "uniting the warm feelings of youth with the +sense of years"—whose hair he had, "from the day he left England, +worn next his heart." Just at the time when this appeal reached Scott, +he hears that his exiled friend's father has died suddenly, and, after +all, intestate; he has actually been <span class="pagenum"><a id="page142" name="page142"></a>(p. 142)</span> taking steps to +ascertain the truth of the case at the moment when the American +despatch is laid on his table. I leave the reader to guess with what +pleasure Scott has to communicate the intelligence that his repentant +and reformed friend may return to take possession of his inheritance. +The letters before me contain touching pictures of their meeting—of +Walter's first visit to the ancient hall, where a happy family are now +assembled—and of the affectionately respectful sense which his friend +retained ever afterwards of all that he had done for him in the season +of his struggles. But what a grievous loss is Scott's part of this +correspondence! I find the comrade over and over again expressing his +admiration of the letters in which Scott described to him his early +tours both in the Highlands and the Border dales: I find him +prophesying from them, as early as 1789, "one day your pen will make +you famous,"—and already, in 1790, urging him to concentrate his +ambition on a "history of the clans."<a id="footnotetag75" name="footnotetag75"></a><a href="#footnote75"><span class="small" title="Go to Footnote 75">[75]</span></a></p> + +<p>This young gentleman appears to have had a decided turn for +literature; and, though in his earlier epistles he makes no allusion +to Scott as ever dabbling in rhyme, he often inserts verses of his +own, some of which are not without merit. There is a long letter in +doggerel, dated 1788, descriptive of a ramble from Edinburgh to +Carlisle—of which I may quote the opening lines, as a sample of the +simple habits of these young people:—</p> + +<p class="poem20">"At four in the morning, I won't be too sure,<br> + Yet, if right I remember me, that was the hour,<br> + When with Fergusson, Ramsay, and Jones, sir, and you,<br> + From Auld Reekie I southward my route did pursue.<br> + But two of the dogs (yet God bless them, I said)<br> + Grew tired, and but set me half way to Lasswade,<br> + While Jones, you, and I, Wat, went on without flutter,<br> + And at Symonds's feasted on good bread and butter;<br> + Where I, wanting a sixpence, you lugged out a shilling,<br> + And paid for me too, though I was most unwilling.<br> + We <span class="pagenum"><a id="page143" name="page143"></a>(p. 143)</span> parted—be sure I was ready to snivel—<br> + Jones and you to go home—I to go to the devil."</p> + +<p>In a letter of later date, describing the adventurer's captivation +with the cottage maiden whom he afterwards married, there are some +lines of a very different stamp. This couplet at least seems to me +exquisite:—</p> + +<p class="poem20">"Lowly beauty, dear friend, beams with primitive grace,<br> + And 't is innocence' self plays the rogue in her face."</p> + +<p>I find in another letter of this collection—and it is among the first +of the series—the following passage:—"Your Quixotism, dear Walter, +was highly characteristic. From the description of the blooming fair, +as she appeared when she lowered her <span class="italic">manteau vert</span>, I am hopeful you +have not dropt the acquaintance. At least I am certain some of our +more rakish friends would have been glad enough of such an +introduction." This hint I cannot help connecting with the first scene +of <span class="italic">The Lady Green Mantle</span> in Redgauntlet; but indeed I could easily +trace many more coincidences between these letters and that novel, +though at the same time I have no sort of doubt that William Clerk +was, in the main, <span class="italic">Darsie Latimer</span>, while Scott himself unquestionably +sat for his own picture in young <span class="italic">Alan Fairford</span>.</p> + +<p>The allusion to "our more rakish friends" is in keeping with the whole +strain of this juvenile correspondence. Throughout there occurs no +coarse or even jocular suggestion as to the conduct of <span class="italic">Scott</span> in that +particular, as to which most youths of his then age are so apt to lay +up stores of self-reproach. In this season of hot and impetuous blood +he may not have escaped quite blameless, but I have the concurrent +testimony of all the most intimate among his surviving associates, +that he was remarkably free from such indiscretions; that while his +high sense of honor shielded him from the remotest dream of tampering +with female innocence, he had an instinctive delicacy about him which +made him recoil with utter disgust from low and vulgar debaucheries. +His <span class="pagenum"><a id="page144" name="page144"></a>(p. 144)</span> friends, I have heard more than one of them confess, +used often to rally him on the coldness of his nature. By degrees they +discovered that he had, from almost the dawn of the passions, +cherished a secret attachment, which continued, through all the most +perilous stage of life, to act as a romantic charm in safeguard of +virtue. This—(however he may have disguised the story by mixing it up +with the Quixotic adventure of the damsel in the Green Mantle)—this +was the early and innocent affection to which we owe the tenderest +pages, not only of Redgauntlet, but of The Lay of the Last Minstrel, +and of Rokeby. In all of these works the heroine has certain +distinctive features, drawn from one and the same haunting dream of +his manly adolescence.</p> + +<p>It was about 1790, according to Mr. William Clerk, that Scott was +observed to lay aside that carelessness, not to say slovenliness, as +to dress, which used to furnish matter for joking at the beginning of +their acquaintance. He now did himself more justice in these little +matters, became fond of mixing in general female society, and, as his +friend expresses it, "began to set up for a squire of dames."</p> + +<p>His personal appearance at this time was not unengaging. A lady of +high rank,<a id="footnotetag76" name="footnotetag76"></a><a href="#footnote76"><span class="small" title="Go to Footnote 76">[76]</span></a> who well remembers him in the Old Assembly Rooms, says, +"Young Walter Scott was a comely creature." He had outgrown the +sallowness of early ill health, and had a fresh, brilliant complexion. +His eyes were clear, open, and well set, with a changeful radiance, to +which teeth of the most perfect regularity and whiteness lent their +assistance, while the noble expanse and elevation of the brow gave to +the whole aspect a dignity far above the charm of mere features. His +smile was always delightful; and I can easily fancy the peculiar +intermixture of tenderness and gravity, with playful innocent hilarity +and humor in the expression, as being well calculated to fix a fair +lady's eye. His figure, <span class="pagenum"><a id="page145" name="page145"></a>(p. 145)</span> excepting the blemish in one limb, +must in those days have been eminently handsome; tall, much above the +usual standard, it was cast in the very mould of a young Hercules; the +head set on with singular grace, the throat and chest after the truest +model of the antique, the hands delicately finished; the whole outline +that of extraordinary vigor, without as yet a touch of clumsiness. +When he had acquired a little facility of manner, his conversation +must have been such as could have dispensed with any exterior +advantages, and certainly brought swift forgiveness for the one +unkindness of nature. I have heard him, in talking of this part of his +life, say, with an arch simplicity of look and tone which those who +were familiar with him can fill in for themselves—"It was a proud +night with me when I first found that a pretty young woman could think +it worth her while to sit and talk with me, hour after hour, in a +corner of the ballroom, while all the world were capering in our +view."</p> + +<p>I believe, however, that the "pretty young woman" here specially +alluded to had occupied his attention long before he ever appeared in +the Edinburgh Assembly Rooms, or any of his friends took note of him +as "setting up for a squire of dames." I have been told that their +acquaintance began in the Greyfriars' Churchyard, where rain beginning +to fall one Sunday as the congregation were dispersing, Scott happened +to offer his umbrella, and the tender being accepted, so escorted her +to her residence, which proved to be at no great distance from his +own.<a id="footnotetag77" name="footnotetag77"></a><a href="#footnote77"><span class="small" title="Go to Footnote 77">[77]</span></a> To return from church together had, it seems, grown into +something like a custom, before they met in society, Mrs. Scott being +of the party. It then appeared that she and the lady's mother had been +companions in their youth, though, both living secludedly, they +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page146" name="page146"></a>(p. 146)</span> had scarcely seen each other for many years; and the two +matrons now renewed their former intercourse. But no acquaintance +appears to have existed between the fathers of the young people, until +things had advanced in appearance farther than met the approbation of +the good Clerk to the Signet.</p> + +<a id="img006" name="img006"></a> +<div class="figcenter"> +<img src="images/img006.jpg" width="400" height="531" alt="" title=""> +<p>WILLIAMINA STUART<br> +<span class="smaller">From the miniature by Cosway.</span></p> +</div> + +<p>Being aware that the young lady, who was very highly connected, had +prospects of fortune far above his son's, the upright and honorable +man conceived it his duty to give her parents warning that he observed +a degree of intimacy which, if allowed to go on, might involve the +parties in future pain and disappointment. He had heard his son talk +of a contemplated excursion to the part of the country in which his +neighbor's estates lay, and not doubting that Walter's real object was +different from that which he announced, introduced himself with a +frank statement that he wished no such affair to proceed without the +express sanction of those most interested in the happiness of persons +as yet too young to calculate consequences for themselves. The +northern Baronet had heard nothing of the young apprentice's intended +excursion, and appeared to treat the whole business very lightly. He +thanked Mr. Scott for his scrupulous attention—but added that he +believed he was mistaken; and this paternal interference, which Walter +did not hear of till long afterwards, produced no change in his +relations with the object of his growing attachment.</p> + +<p>I have neither the power nor the wish to give in detail the sequel of +this story. It is sufficient to say, that after he had through several +long years nourished the dream of an ultimate union with this lady, +his hopes terminated in her being married to a gentleman of the +highest character, to whom some affectionate allusions occur in one of +the greatest of his works, and who lived to act the part of a most +generous friend to his early rival throughout the anxieties and +distresses of 1826 and 1827. I have said enough for my purpose—which +was only to render <span class="pagenum"><a id="page147" name="page147"></a>(p. 147)</span> intelligible a few allusions in the +letters which I shall by and by have to introduce; but I may add that +I have no doubt this unfortunate passion, besides one good effect +already adverted to, had a powerful influence in nerving Scott's mind +for the sedulous diligence with which he pursued his proper legal +studies, as described in his Memoir, during the two or three years +that preceded his call to the Bar.<a id="footnotetag78" name="footnotetag78"></a><a href="#footnote78"><span class="small" title="Go to Footnote 78">[78]</span></a><a href="#toc"><span class="small">[Back to Contents]</span></a></p> + + +<h3>CHAPTER VI <span class="pagenum"><a id="page149" name="page149"></a>(p. 149)</span></h3> + +<p class="summary">illustrations continued. — studies for the bar. — excursion to +northumberland. — letter on flodden field. — call to the bar</p> + +<p class="center">1790-1792</p> + + +<p>The two following letters may sufficiently illustrate the writer's +every-day existence in the autumn of 1790. The first, addressed to his +<span class="italic">fidus Achates</span>, has not a few indications of the vein of humor from +which he afterwards drew so largely in his novels; and indeed, even in +his last days, he delighted to tell the story of the Jedburgh bailies' +<span class="italic">boots</span>.</p> + +<div class="quote"> + +<p class="tit-center"> + TO WILLIAM CLERK, ESQ., AT JOHN CLERK'S, ESQ., OF ELDIN, + PRINCE'S STREET, EDINBURGH.</p> + +<p class="left50"><span class="smcap">Rosebank</span>, 6th August, 1790.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Dear William</span>,—Here am I, the weather, according to your phrase, + most bitchiferous; the Tweed, within twenty yards of the window + at which I am writing, swelled from bank to brae, and roaring + like thunder. It is paying you but a poor compliment to tell you + I waited for such a day to perform my promise of writing, but you + must consider that it is the point here to reserve such + within-doors employment as we think most agreeable for bad + weather, which in the country always wants something to help it + away. In fair weather we are far from wanting amusement, which at + present is my business; on the contrary, every fair day has some + plan of pleasure annexed to it, in so much that I can hardly + believe I have been here above two days, so swiftly does the time + pass <span class="pagenum"><a id="page150" name="page150"></a>(p. 150)</span> away. You will ask how it is employed? Why, + negatively, I read <span class="italic">no</span> civil law. Heineccius and his + fellow-worthies have ample time to gather a venerable coat of + dust, which they merit by their dulness. As to my positive + amusements, besides riding, fishing, and the other usual sports + of the country, I often spend an hour or two in the evening in + shooting herons, which are numerous on this part of the river. To + do this I have no farther to go than the bottom of our garden, + which literally hangs over the river. When you fire at a bird, + she always crosses the river, and when again shot at with ball, + usually returns to your side, and will cross in this way several + times before she takes wing. This furnishes fine sport; nor are + they easily shot, as you never can get very near them. The + intervals between their appearing are spent very agreeably in + eating gooseberries.</p> + +<p>Yesterday was St. James's Fair, a day of great business. There + was a great show of black cattle—I mean of ministers; the + narrowness of their stipends here obliges many of them to enlarge + their incomes by taking farms and grazing cattle. This, in my + opinion, diminishes their respectability, nor can the farmer be + supposed to entertain any great reverence for the ghostly advice + of a <span class="italic">pastor</span> (they literally deserve the epithet) who perhaps + the day before overreached him in a bargain. I would not have you + to suppose there are no exceptions to this character, but it + would serve most of them. I had been fishing with my uncle, + Captain Scott, on the Teviot, and returned through the ground + where the Fair is kept. The servant was waiting there with our + horses, as we were to ride the water. Lucky it was that it was + so; for just about that time the magistrates of Jedburgh, who + preside there, began their solemn procession through the Fair. + For the greater dignity upon this occasion they had a pair of + boots among three men—<span class="italic">i. e.</span>, as they ride three in a rank, the + <span class="italic">outer</span> legs of those personages who formed the outside, as it + may be called, of the procession, were <span class="pagenum"><a id="page151" name="page151"></a>(p. 151)</span> each clothed in + a boot. This and several other incongruous appearances were + thrown in the teeth of those cavaliers by the Kelso populace, + and, by the assistance of whiskey, parties were soon inflamed to + a very tight battle, one of that kind which, for distinction + sake, is called royal. It was not without great difficulty that + we extricated ourselves from the confusion; and had we been on + foot, we might have been trampled down by these fierce + Jedburghians, who charged like so many troopers. We were + spectators of the combat from an eminence, but peace was soon + after restored, which made the older warriors regret the + effeminacy of the age, as, regularly, it ought to have lasted + till night. Two lives were lost, I mean of horses; indeed, had + you seen them, you would rather have wondered that they were able + to bear their masters to the scene of action, than that they + could not carry them off.<a id="footnotetag79" name="footnotetag79"></a><a href="#footnote79"><span class="small" title="Go to Footnote 79">[79]</span></a></p> + +<p>I am ashamed to read over this sheet of nonsense, so excuse + inaccuracies. Remember me to the lads of the Literary, those of + <span class="italic">the club</span> in particular. I wrote Irving. Remember my most + respectful compliments to Mr. and Mrs. Clerk and family, + particularly James; when you write, let me know how he did when + you heard of him. Imitate me in writing a long letter, but not in + being long in writing it. Direct to me at Miss Scott's, Garden, + Kelso. My letters lie there for me, as it saves their being sent + down to Rosebank. The carrier puts up at the Grassmarket, and + goes away on Wednesday forenoon. Yours,</p> + +<p class="left50"><span class="smcap">Walter Scott</span>.</p> +</div> + +<p>The <span class="pagenum"><a id="page152" name="page152"></a>(p. 152)</span> next letter is dated from a house at which I have often +seen the writer in his latter days. Kippilaw, situated about five or +six miles behind Abbotsford, on the high ground between the Tweed and +the Water of Ayle, is the seat of an ancient laird of the clan Kerr, +but was at this time tenanted by the family of Walter's +brother-apprentice, James Ramsay, who afterwards realized a fortune in +the civil service of Ceylon.</p> + +<div class="quote"> +<p class="tit-center">TO WILLIAM CLERK, ESQ.</p> + +<p class="left50"><span class="smcap">Kippilaw</span>, September 3, 1790.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Dear Clerk</span>,—I am now writing from the country habitation of our + friend Ramsay, where I have been spending a week as pleasantly as + ever I spent one in my life. Imagine a commodious old house, + pleasantly situated amongst a knot of venerable elms, in a fine + sporting, open country, and only two miles from an excellent + water for trouts, inhabited by two of the best old ladies + (Ramsay's aunts), and three as pleasant young ones (his sisters) + as any person could wish to converse with—and you will have some + idea of Kippilaw. James and I wander about, fish, or look for + hares, the whole day, and at night laugh, chat, and play round + games at cards. Such is the fatherland in which I have been + living for some days past, and which I leave to-night or + to-morrow. This day is very bad; notwithstanding which, James has + sallied out to make some calls, as he soon leaves the country. I + have a great mind to trouble him with the care of this.</p> + +<p>And now for your letter, the receipt of which I have not, I + think, yet acknowledged, though I am much obliged to you for it. + I dare say you would relish your jaunt to Pennycuik very much, + especially considering the solitary desert of Edinburgh, from + which it relieved you. By the bye, know, O thou devourer of + grapes, who contemnest the vulgar gooseberry, that thou art not + singular in thy devouring—<span class="italic">nec tam aversus equos sol jungit + <span class="pagenum"><a id="page153" name="page153"></a>(p. 153)</span> ab urbe (Kelsonianâ scilicet</span>)—my uncle being the + lawful possessor of a vinery measuring no less than twenty-four + feet by twelve, the contents of which come often in my way; and, + according to the proverb, that enough is as good as a feast, are + equally acceptable as if they came out of the most extensive + vineyard in France. I cannot, however, equal your boast of + breakfasting, dining, and supping on them. As for the + civilians<a id="footnotetag80" name="footnotetag80"></a><a href="#footnote80"><span class="small" title="Go to Footnote 80">[80]</span></a>—peace be with them, and may the dust lie light + upon their heads—they deserve this prayer in return for those + sweet slumbers which their benign influence infuses into their + readers. I fear I shall too soon be forced to disturb them, for + some of our family being now at Kelso, I am under the agonies + lest I be obliged to escort them into town. The only pleasure I + shall reap by this is that of asking you how you do, and, + perhaps, the solid advantage of completing our studies before the + College sits down. Employ, therefore, your mornings in slumber + while you can, for soon it will be chased from your eyes. I plume + myself on my sagacity with regard to C. J. Fox.<a id="footnotetag81" name="footnotetag81"></a><a href="#footnote81"><span class="small" title="Go to Footnote 81">[81]</span></a> I always + foretold you would tire of him—a vile brute. I have not yet + forgot the narrow escape of my fingers. I rejoice at James's<a id="footnotetag82" name="footnotetag82"></a><a href="#footnote82"><span class="small" title="Go to Footnote 82">[82]</span></a> + intimacy with Miss Menzies. She promised to turn out a fine girl, + has a fine fortune, and could James get her, he might sing, "I'll + go no more to sea, to sea." Give my love to him when you + write.—"God preserve us, what a scrawl!" says one of the ladies + just now, in admiration at the expedition with which I scribble. + Well—I was never able in my life to do anything with what is + called gravity and deliberation.</p> + +<p>I dined two days ago <span class="italic">tête-à-tête</span> with Lord Buchan. Heard a + history of all his ancestors whom he has hung round his + chimney-piece. From counting of pedigrees, good <span class="pagenum"><a id="page154" name="page154"></a>(p. 154)</span> Lord + deliver us! He is thinking of erecting a monument to Thomson. He + frequented Dryburgh much in my grandfather's time. It will be a + handsome thing. As to your scamp of a boy, I saw nothing of him; + but the face is enough to condemn there. I have seen a man + flogged for stealing spirits on the sole information of his nose. + Remember me respectfully to your family.</p> + +<p><span class="add2em">Believe me yours affectionately,</span><br> +<span class="left50 smcap">Walter Scott</span>.</p> +</div> + +<p>After his return from the scene of these merry doings, he writes as +follows to his kind uncle. The reader will see that, in the course of +the preceding year, he had announced his early views of the origin of +what is called the feudal system, in a paper read before the <span class="italic">Literary +Society</span>. He, in the succeeding winter, chose the same subject for an +essay, submitted to Mr. Dugald Stewart, whose prelections on ethics he +was then attending. Some time later he again illustrated the same +opinions more at length in a disquisition before the Speculative +Society; and, indeed, he always adhered to them. One of the last +historical books he read, before leaving Abbotsford for Malta in 1831, +was Colonel Tod's interesting account of Rajasthan; and I well +remember the delight he expressed on finding his views confirmed, as +they certainly are in a very striking manner, by the philosophical +soldier's details of the structure of society in that remote region of +the East.</p> + +<div class="quote"> +<p class="tit-center">TO CAPTAIN ROBERT SCOTT, ROSEBANK, KELSO.</p> + +<p class="left50"><span class="smcap">Edinburgh</span>, September 30, 1790.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Dear Uncle</span>,—We arrived here without any accident about five + o'clock on Monday evening. The good weather made our journey + pleasant. I have been attending to your commissions here, and + find that the last volume of Dodsley's Annual Register published + is that for 1787, which I was about to send you; but the + bookseller I <span class="pagenum"><a id="page155" name="page155"></a>(p. 155)</span> frequent had not one in boards, though he + expects to procure one for me. There is a new work of the same + title and size, on the same plan, which, being published every + year regularly, has almost cut out Dodsley's, so that this last + is expected to stop altogether. You will let me know if you would + wish to have the new work, which is a good one, will join very + well with those volumes of Dodsley's which you already have, and + is published up to the present year. Byron's Narrative is not yet + published, but you shall have it whenever it comes out.</p> + +<p>Agreeable to your permission, I send you the scroll copy of an + essay on the origin of the feudal system, written for the + Literary Society last year. As you are kind enough to interest + yourself in my style and manner of writing, I thought you might + like better to see it in its original state, than one on the + polishing of which more time had been bestowed. You will see that + the intention and attempt of the essay is principally to + controvert two propositions laid down by the writers on the + subject:—1st, That the system was invented by the Lombards; and, + 2dly, that its foundation depended on the king's being + acknowledged the sole lord of all the lands in the country, which + he afterwards distributed to be held by military tenures. I have + endeavored to assign it a more general origin, and to prove that + it proceeds upon principles common to all nations when placed in + a certain situation. I am afraid the matter will but poorly + reward the trouble you will find in reading some parts. I hope, + however, you will make out enough to enable you to favor me with + your sentiments upon its faults. There is none whose advice I + prize so high, for there is none in whose judgment I can so much + confide, or who has shown me so much kindness.</p> + +<p>I also send, as amusement for an idle half hour, a copy of the + regulations of our Society, some of which will, I think, be + favored with your approbation.</p> + +<p>My <span class="pagenum"><a id="page156" name="page156"></a>(p. 156)</span> mother and sister join in compliments to aunt and + you, and also in thanks for the attentions and hospitality which + they experienced at Rosebank. And I am ever your affectionate + nephew,</p> + +<p class="left50"><span class="smcap">Walter Scott</span>.</p> + +<p>P. S.—If you continue to want a mastiff, I think I can procure + you one of a good breed, and send him by the carrier.</p> +</div> + +<p>While attending Mr. Dugald Stewart's class, in the winter of 1790-91, +Scott produced, in compliance with the usual custom of ethical +students, several essays besides that to which I have already made an +allusion, and which was, I believe, entitled, On the Manners and +Customs of the Northern Nations. But this essay it was that first +attracted, in any particular manner, his Professor's attention. Mr. +Robert Ainslie,<a id="footnotetag83" name="footnotetag83"></a><a href="#footnote83"><span class="small" title="Go to Footnote 83">[83]</span></a> well known as the friend and fellow-traveller of +Burns, happened to attend Stewart the same session, and remembers his +saying, <span class="italic">ex cathedra</span>, "The author of this paper shows much knowledge +of his subject, and a great taste for such researches." Scott became, +before the close of the session, a frequent visitor in Mr. Stewart's +family, and an affectionate intercourse was maintained between them +through their after-lives.</p> + +<p>Let me here set down a little story which most of his friends must +have heard him tell of the same period. While attending Dugald +Stewart's lectures on moral philosophy, Scott happened to sit +frequently beside a modest and diligent youth, considerably his +senior, and obviously of very humble condition. Their acquaintance +soon became rather intimate, and he occasionally made this new friend +the companion of his country walks, but as to his parentage and place +of residence he always preserved total silence. One day towards the +end of the session, as Scott was returning to Edinburgh from a +solitary ramble, <span class="pagenum"><a id="page157" name="page157"></a>(p. 157)</span> his eye was arrested by a singularly +venerable <span class="italic">Bluegown</span>, a beggar of the Edie Ochiltree order, who stood +propped on his stick, with his hat in his hand, but silent and +motionless, at one of the outskirts of the city. Scott gave the old +man what trifle he had in his pocket, and passed on his way. Two or +three times afterwards the same thing happened, and he had begun to +consider the Bluegown as one who had established a claim on his +bounty: when one day he fell in with him as he was walking with his +humble student. Observing some confusion in his companion's manner as +he saluted his pensioner, and bestowed the usual benefaction, he could +not help saying, after they had proceeded a few yards further, "Do you +know anything to the old man's discredit?" Upon which the youth burst +into tears, and cried, "Oh no, sir, God forbid!—but I am a poor +wretch to be ashamed to speak to him—he is my own father. He has +enough laid by to serve for his own old days, but he stands bleaching +his head in the wind, that he may get the means of paying for my +education." Compassionating the young man's situation, Scott soothed +his weakness, and kept his secret, but by no means broke off the +acquaintance. Some months had elapsed before he again met the +Bluegown—it was in a retired place, and the old man begged to speak a +word with him. "I find, sir," he said, "that you have been very kind +to my Willie. He had often spoke of it before I saw you together. Will +you pardon such a liberty, and give me the honor and pleasure of +seeing you under my poor roof? Tomorrow is Saturday; will you come at +two o'clock? Willie has not been very well, and it would do him meikle +good to see your face." His curiosity, besides better feelings, was +touched, and he accepted this strange invitation. The appointed hour +found him within sight of a sequestered little cottage, near St. +Leonard's—the hamlet where he has placed the residence of his David +Deans. His fellow-student, pale and emaciated from recent <span class="pagenum"><a id="page158" name="page158"></a>(p. 158)</span> +sickness, was seated on a stone bench by the door, looking out for his +coming, and introduced him into a not untidy cabin, where the old man, +divested of his professional garb, was directing the last vibrations +of a leg of mutton that hung by a hempen cord before the fire. The +mutton was excellent—so were the potatoes and whiskey; and Scott +returned home from an entertaining conversation, in which, besides +telling many queer stories of his own life—and he had seen service in +his youth—the old man more than once used an expression, which was +long afterwards put into the mouth of Dominie Sampson's +mother:—"Please God, I may live to see my bairn wag his head in a +pulpit yet."</p> + +<p>Walter could not help telling all this the same night to his mother, +and added, that he would fain see his poor friend obtain a tutor's +place in some gentleman's family. "Dinna speak to your father about +it," said the good lady; "if it had been <span class="italic">a shoulder</span> he might have +thought less, but he will say <span class="italic">the jigot</span> was a sin. I'll see what I +can do." Mrs. Scott made her inquiries in her own way among the +Professors, and having satisfied herself as to the young man's +character, applied to her favorite minister, Dr. Erskine, whose +influence soon procured such a situation as had been suggested for +him, in the north of Scotland. "And thenceforth," said Sir Walter, "I +lost sight of my friend—but let us hope he made out his <span class="italic">curriculum</span> +at Aberdeen, and is now wagging his head where the fine old carle +wished to see him."<a id="footnotetag84" name="footnotetag84"></a><a href="#footnote84"><span class="small" title="Go to Footnote 84">[84]</span></a></p> + +<p>On the 4th January, 1791, Scott was admitted a member of <span class="italic">The +Speculative Society</span>, where it had, long before, been the custom of +those about to be called to the Bar, <span class="pagenum"><a id="page159" name="page159"></a>(p. 159)</span> and those who after +assuming the gown were left in possession of leisure by the +solicitors, to train or exercise themselves in the arts of elocution +and debate. From time to time each member produces an essay, and his +treatment of his subject is then discussed by the conclave. Scott's +essays were, for November, 1791, On the Origin of the Feudal System; +for the 14th February, 1792, On the Authenticity of Ossian's Poems; +and on the 11th December of the same year, he read one, On the Origin +of the Scandinavian Mythology. The selection of these subjects shows +the course of his private studies and predilections; but he appears, +from the minutes, to have taken his fair share in the ordinary debates +of the Society,—and spoke, in the spring of 1791, on these questions, +which all belong to the established text-book for juvenile speculation +in Edinburgh:—"Ought any permanent support to be provided for the +poor?" "Ought there to be an established religion?" "Is attainder and +corruption of blood ever a proper punishment?" "Ought the public +expenses to be defrayed by levying the amount directly upon the +people, or is it expedient to contract national debt for that +purpose?" "Was the execution of Charles I. justifiable?" "Should the +slave-trade be abolished?" In the next session, previous to his call +to the Bar, he spoke in the debates of which these were the +theses:—"Has the belief in a future state been of advantage to +mankind, or is it ever likely to be so?" "Is it for the interest of +Britain to maintain what is called the balance of Europe?" and again +on the eternal question as to the fate of King Charles I., which, by +the way, was thus set up for re-discussion on a motion by Walter +Scott.</p> + +<p>He took, for several winters, an ardent interest in this society. Very +soon after his admission (18th January, 1791), he was elected their +librarian; and in the November following he became also their +secretary and treasurer; all which appointments indicate the reliance +placed on <span class="pagenum"><a id="page160" name="page160"></a>(p. 160)</span> his careful habits of business, the fruit of his +chamber education. The minutes kept in his handwriting attest the +strict regularity of his attention to the small affairs, literary and +financial, of the club; but they show also, as do all his early +letters, a strange carelessness in spelling. His constant good temper +softened the asperities of debate; while his multifarious lore, and +the quaint humor with which he enlivened its display, made him more a +favorite as a speaker than some whose powers of rhetoric were far +above his.</p> + +<a id="img007" name="img007"></a> +<div class="figcenter"> +<img src="images/img007.jpg" width="400" height="632" alt="" title=""> +<p>SCOTT'S FATHER'S HOUSE, 25 GEORGE'S SQUARE, EDINBURGH.</p> +</div> + +<p>Lord Jeffrey remembers being struck, the first night he spent at the +Speculative, with the singular appearance of the secretary, who sat +gravely at the bottom of the table in a huge woollen nightcap; and +when the president took the chair, pleaded a bad toothache as his +apology for coming into that worshipful assembly in such a "portentous +machine." He read that night an essay on ballads, which so much +interested the new member that he requested to be introduced to him. +Mr. Jeffrey called on him next evening, and found him "in a small den, +on the sunk floor of his father's house in George's Square, surrounded +with dingy books," from which they adjourned to a tavern, and supped +together. Such was the commencement of an acquaintance, which by +degrees ripened into friendship, between the two most distinguished +men of letters whom Edinburgh produced in their time. I may add here +the description of that early <span class="italic">den</span>, with which I am favored by a lady +of Scott's family:—"Walter had soon begun to collect out-of-the-way +things of all sorts. He had more books than shelves; a small painted +cabinet, with Scotch and Roman coins in it, and so forth. A claymore +and Lochaber axe, given him by old Invernahyle, mounted guard on a +little print of Prince Charlie; and <span class="italic">Broughton's Saucer</span> was hooked up +against the wall below it." Such was the germ of the magnificent +library and museum of Abbotsford; and such were the "new realms" in +which he, on taking possession, had <span class="pagenum"><a id="page161" name="page161"></a>(p. 161)</span> arranged his little +paraphernalia about him "with all the feelings of novelty and +liberty." Since those days, the habits of life in Edinburgh, as +elsewhere, have undergone many changes: and the "convenient parlor," +in which Scott first showed Jeffrey his collections of minstrelsy, is +now, in all probability, thought hardly good enough for a menial's +sleeping-room.</p> + +<p>But I have forgotten to explain <span class="italic">Broughton's Saucer</span>. We read of Mr. +Saunders Fairford, that though "an elder of the kirk, and of course +zealous for King George and the Government," yet, having "many clients +and connections of business among families of opposite political +tenets, he was particularly cautious to use all the conventional +phrases which the civility of the time had devised as an admissible +mode of language betwixt the two parties: Thus he spoke sometimes of +the Chevalier, but never either of the <span class="italic">Prince</span>, which would have been +sacrificing his own principles, or of <span class="italic">the Pretender</span>, which would +have been offensive to those of others: Again, he usually designated +the Rebellion as the <span class="italic">affair</span> of 1745, and spoke of any one engaged in +it as a person who had been <span class="italic">out</span> at a certain period—so that, on the +whole, he was much liked and respected on all sides."<a id="footnotetag85" name="footnotetag85"></a><a href="#footnote85"><span class="small" title="Go to Footnote 85">[85]</span></a> All this was +true of Mr. Walter Scott, W. S.; but I have often heard his son tell +an anecdote of him, which he dwelt on with particular satisfaction, as +illustrative of the man, and of the difficult time through which he +had lived.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Scott's curiosity was strongly excited one autumn by the regular +appearance, at a certain hour every evening, of a sedan chair, to +deposit a person carefully muffled up in a mantle, who was immediately +ushered into her husband's private room, and commonly remained with +him there until long after the usual bedtime of this orderly family. +Mr. Scott answered her repeated inquiries with a vagueness which +irritated the lady's feelings more and more; until, at last, she could +bear the thing <span class="pagenum"><a id="page162" name="page162"></a>(p. 162)</span> no longer; but one evening, just as she heard +the bell ring as for the stranger's chair to carry him off, she made +her appearance within the forbidden parlor with a salver in her hand, +observing that she thought the gentlemen had sat so long, they would +be the better of a dish of tea, and had ventured accordingly to bring +some for their acceptance. The stranger, a person of distinguished +appearance, and richly dressed, bowed to the lady, and accepted a cup; +but her husband knit his brows, and refused very coldly to partake the +refreshment. A moment afterwards the visitor withdrew—and Mr. Scott, +lifting up the window-sash, took the cup which he had left empty on +the table, and tossed it out upon the pavement. The lady exclaimed for +her china, but was put to silence by her husband's saying, "I can +forgive your little curiosity, madam, but you must pay the penalty. I +may admit into my house, on a piece of business, persons wholly +unworthy to be treated as guests by my wife. Neither lip of me nor of +mine comes after Mr. Murray of Broughton's."</p> + +<p>This was the unhappy man who, after attending Prince Charles Stuart as +his secretary throughout the greater part of his expedition, +condescended to redeem his own life and fortune by bearing evidence +against the noblest of his late master's adherents, when</p> + +<p class="poem20">"Pitied by gentle hearts Kilmarnock died—<br> + The brave, Balmerino, were on thy side."</p> + +<p>When confronted with Sir John Douglas of Kelhead (ancestor of the +Marquess of Queensberry), before the Privy Council in St. James's, the +prisoner was asked, "Do you know this witness?" "Not I," answered +Douglas; "I once knew a person who bore the designation of Murray of +Broughton—but that was a gentleman and a man of honor, and one that +could hold up his head!"</p> + +<p>The saucer belonging to Broughton's teacup had been preserved; and +Walter, at a very early period, made prize <span class="pagenum"><a id="page163" name="page163"></a>(p. 163)</span> of it. One can +fancy young Alan Fairford pointing significantly to the relic, when +Mr. Saunders was vouchsafing him one of his customary lectures about +listening with, unseemly sympathy to "the blawing, bleezing stories +which the Hieland gentlemen told of those troublous times."<a id="footnotetag86" name="footnotetag86"></a><a href="#footnote86"><span class="small" title="Go to Footnote 86">[86]</span></a></p> + +<p>The following letter is the only one of the autumn of 1791 that has +reached my hands. It must be read with particular interest for its +account of Scott's first visit to Flodden field, destined to be +celebrated seventeen years afterwards in the very noblest specimen of +his numbers:—</p> + +<div class="quote"> +<p class="tit-center">TO WILLIAM CLERK, ESQ., PRINCE'S STREET, EDINBURGH.</p> + +<p class="left50"><span class="smcap">Northumberland</span>, 26th August, 1791.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Dear Clerk</span>,—Behold a letter from the mountains; for I am very + snugly settled here, in a farmer's house, about six miles from + Wooler, in the very centre of the Cheviot hills, in one of the + wildest and most romantic situations which your imagination, + fertile upon the subject of cottages, ever suggested. And what + the deuce are you about there? methinks I hear you say. Why, sir, + of all things in the world—drinking goat's whey—not that I + stand in the least need of it, but my uncle having a slight cold, + and being a little tired of home, asked me last Sunday evening if + I would like to go with him to Wooler, and I answering in the + affirmative, next morning's sun beheld us on our journey, through + a pass in the Cheviots, upon the back of two special nags, and + man Thomas behind with a portmanteau, and two fishing-rods + fastened across his back, much in the style of St. Andrew's + Cross. Upon reaching Wooler we found the accommodations so bad + that we were forced to use some interest to get lodgings here, + where we are most delightfully appointed indeed. To add to my + satisfaction, we are amidst places renowned by the feats of + former days; each <span class="pagenum"><a id="page164" name="page164"></a>(p. 164)</span> hill is crowned with a tower, or + camp, or cairn, and in no situation can you be near more fields + of battle: Flodden, Otterburn, Chevy Chase, Ford Castle, + Chillingham Castle, Copland Castle, and many another scene of + blood, are within the compass of a forenoon's ride. Out of the + brooks, with which these hills are intersected, we pull trouts of + half a yard in length, as fast as we did the perches from the + pond at Pennycuik, and we are in the very country of muirfowl.</p> + +<p>Often as I have wished for your company, I never did it more + earnestly than when I rode over Flodden Edge. I know your taste + for these things, and could have undertaken to demonstrate that + never was an affair more completely bungled than that day's work + was. Suppose one army posted upon the face of a hill, and secured + by high grounds projecting on each flank, with the river Till in + front, a deep and still river, winding through a very extensive + valley called Milfield Plain, and the only passage over it by a + narrow bridge, which the Scots artillery, from the hill, could in + a moment have demolished. Add, that the English must have + hazarded a battle while their troops, which were tumultuously + levied, remained together; and that the Scots, behind whom the + country was open to Scotland, had nothing to do but to wait for + the attack as they were posted. Yet did two thirds of the army, + actuated by the <span class="italic">perfervidum ingenium Scotorum</span>, rush down and + give an opportunity to Stanley to occupy the ground they had + quitted, by coming over the shoulder of the hill, while the other + third, under Lord Home, kept their ground, and having seen their + king and about 10,000 of their countrymen cut to pieces, retired + into Scotland without loss. For the reason of the bridge not + being destroyed while the English passed, I refer you to + Pitscottie, who narrates at large, and to whom I give credit for + a most accurate and clear description, agreeing perfectly with + the ground.</p> + +<p>My uncle drinks the whey here, as I do ever since I understood + <span class="pagenum"><a id="page165" name="page165"></a>(p. 165)</span> it was brought to his bedside every morning at six, by a + very pretty dairy-maid. So much for my residence: all the day we + shoot, fish, walk, and ride; dine and sup upon fish struggling + from the stream, and the most delicious heath-fed mutton, + barn-door fowls, poys,<a id="footnotetag87" name="footnotetag87"></a><a href="#footnote87"><span class="small" title="Go to Footnote 87">[87]</span></a> milk-cheese, etc., all in perfection; + and so much simplicity resides among these hills, that a pen, + which could write at least, was not to be found about the house, + though belonging to a considerable farmer, till I shot the crow + with whose quill I write this epistle. I wrote to Irving before + leaving Kelso. Poor fellow, I am sure his sister's death must + have hurt him much; though he makes no noise about feelings, yet + still streams always run deepest. I sent a message by him to + Edie,<a id="footnotetag88" name="footnotetag88"></a><a href="#footnote88"><span class="small" title="Go to Footnote 88">[88]</span></a> poor devil, adding my mite of consolation to him in his + affliction. I pity poor ******, who is more deserving of + compassion, being his first offence. Write soon, and as long as + the last; you will have Perthshire news, I suppose, soon. Jamie's + adventure diverted me much. I read it to my uncle, who being long + in the India service, was affronted. Remember me to James when + you write, and to all your family, and friends in general. I send + this to Kelso—you may address as usual; my letters will be + forwarded—adieu—au revoir,</p> + +<p class="left50"><span class="smcap">Walter Scott</span>.</p> +</div> + +<p>With the exception of this little excursion, Scott appears to have +been nailed to Edinburgh during this autumn, by that course of legal +study, in company with Clerk, on which he dwells in his Memoir with +more satisfaction than on any other passage in his early life. He +copied out <span class="italic">twice</span>, as the fragment tells us, his notes of those +lectures of the eminent Scots Law professor (Mr. Hume), which he +speaks of in such a high strain of eulogy; and Mr. Irving adds that +the second copy, being fairly finished and bound into volumes, was +presented to <span class="pagenum"><a id="page166" name="page166"></a>(p. 166)</span> his father. The old gentleman was highly +gratified with this performance, not only as a satisfactory proof of +his son's assiduous attention to the law professor, but inasmuch as +the lectures afforded himself "very pleasant reading for leisure +hours."</p> + +<p>Mr. Clerk assures me that nothing could be more exact (excepting as to +a few petty circumstances introduced for obvious reasons) than the +resemblance of the Mr. Saunders Fairford of Redgauntlet to his +friend's father:—"He was a man of business of the old school, +moderate in his charges, economical, and even niggardly in his +expenditure; strictly honest in conducting his own affairs and those +of his clients; but taught by long experience to be wary and +suspicious in observing the motions of others. Punctual as the clock +of St. Giles tolled nine" (the hour at which the Court of Session +meets), "the dapper form of the hale old gentleman was seen at the +threshold of the court hall, or, at farthest, at the head of the Back +Stairs" (the most convenient access to the Parliament House from +George's Square), "trimly dressed in a complete suit of snuff-colored +brown, with stockings of silk or woollen, as suited the weather; a bob +wig and a small cocked hat; shoes blacked as Warren would have blacked +them; silver shoe-buckles, and a gold stock-buckle. His manners +corresponded with his attire, for they were scrupulously civil, and +not a little formal.... On the whole, he was a man much liked and +respected, though his friends would not have been sorry if he had +given a dinner more frequently, as his little cellar contained some +choice old wine, of which, on such rare occasions, he was no niggard. +The whole pleasure of this good old-fashioned man of method, besides +that which he really felt in the discharge of his own daily business, +was the hope to see his son attain what in the father's eyes was the +proudest of all distinctions—the rank and fame of a well-employed +lawyer. Every profession has its peculiar honors, and his mind was +constructed upon <span class="pagenum"><a id="page167" name="page167"></a>(p. 167)</span> so limited and exclusive a plan, that he +valued nothing save the objects of ambition which his own presented. +He would have shuddered at his son's acquiring the renown of a hero, +and laughed with scorn at the equally barren laurels of literature; it +was by the path of the law alone that he was desirous to see him rise +to eminence; and the probabilities of success or disappointment were +the thoughts of his father by day, and his dream by night."<a id="footnotetag89" name="footnotetag89"></a><a href="#footnote89"><span class="small" title="Go to Footnote 89">[89]</span></a></p> + +<p>It is easy to imagine the original of this portrait, writing to one of +his friends, about the end of June, 1792—"I have the pleasure to tell +you that my son has passed his private Scots Law examinations with +good approbation—a great relief to my mind, especially as worthy Mr. +Pest<a id="footnotetag90" name="footnotetag90"></a><a href="#footnote90"><span class="small" title="Go to Footnote 90">[90]</span></a> told me in my ear, there was no fear of the 'callant,' as he +familiarly called him, which gives me great heart. His public trials, +which are nothing in comparison, save a mere form, are to take place, +by order of the Honorable Dean of Faculty,<a id="footnotetag91" name="footnotetag91"></a><a href="#footnote91"><span class="small" title="Go to Footnote 91">[91]</span></a> on Wednesday first, and +on Friday he puts on the gown, and gives a bit chack of dinner to his +friends and acquaintances, as is the custom. Your company will be +wished for there by more than him.—<span class="italic">P. S</span>. His thesis is on the +title, <span class="italic">De periculo et commodo rei venditĉ</span>, and is a very pretty +piece of Latinity."<a id="footnotetag92" name="footnotetag92"></a><a href="#footnote92"><span class="small" title="Go to Footnote 92">[92]</span></a></p> + +<p>And all things passed in due order, even as they are figured. The real +<span class="italic">Darsie</span> was present at the real Alan Fairford's "bit chack of +dinner," and the old Clerk of the Signet was very joyous on the +occasion. Scott's <span class="italic">thesis</span> was, in fact, on the Title of the Pandects, +<span class="italic">Concerning the disposal of the dead bodies of Criminals</span>. It was +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page168" name="page168"></a>(p. 168)</span> dedicated, I doubt not by the careful father's advice, to his +friend and neighbor in George's Square, the coarsely humorous, but +acute and able, and still well-remembered, Macqueen of Braxfield, then +Lord Justice-Clerk (or President of the Supreme Criminal Court) of +Scotland.<a id="footnotetag93" name="footnotetag93"></a><a href="#footnote93"><span class="small" title="Go to Footnote 93">[93]</span></a></p> + +<p>I have often heard both <span class="italic">Alan</span> and <span class="italic">Darsie</span> laugh over their +reminiscences of the important day when they "put on the gown." After +the ceremony was completed, and they had mingled for some time with +the crowd of barristers in the Outer Court, Scott said to his comrade, +mimicking the air and tone of a Highland lass waiting at the Cross of +Edinburgh to be hired for the harvest work—"We've stood here an hour +by the Tron, hinny, and de'il a ane has speered our price." Some +friendly solicitor, however, gave him a guinea fee before the Court +rose; and as they walked down the High Street together, he said to Mr. +Clerk, in passing a hosier's shop—"This is a sort of a wedding-day, +Willie; I think I must go in and buy me a new nightcap," He did so +accordingly; perhaps this was Lord Jeffrey's "portentous machine." His +first fee of any consequence, however, was expended on a silver +taper-stand for his mother, which the old lady used to point to with +great satisfaction, as it stood on her chimney-piece five-and-twenty +years afterwards.<a href="#toc"><span class="small">[Back to Contents]</span></a></p> + + + +<h3>CHAPTER VII <span class="pagenum"><a id="page169" name="page169"></a>(p. 169)</span></h3> + +<p class="summary">first expedition into liddesdale. — study of german. — political trials, +etc. — specimen of law papers. — bürger's lenore +translated. — disappointment in love</p> + +<p class="center">1792-1796</p> + + +<p>Scott was called to the Bar only the day before the closing of the +session, and he appears to have almost immediately escaped to the +country. On the 2d of August I find his father writing,—"I have sent +the copies of your <span class="italic">thesis</span> as desired;" and on the 15th he addressed +to him at Rosebank a letter, in which there is this paragraph, an +undoubted autograph of Mr. Saunders Fairford, <span class="italic">anno ĉtatis</span> +sixty-three:—</p> + +<p class="quote"> + "<span class="smcap">Dear Walter</span>,—... I am glad that your expedition to the west + proved agreeable. You do well to warn your mother against + Ashestiel. Although I said little, yet I never thought that road + could be agreeable; besides, it is taking too wide a circle. Lord + Justice-Clerk is in town attending the Bills.<a id="footnotetag94" name="footnotetag94"></a><a href="#footnote94"><span class="small" title="Go to Footnote 94">[94]</span></a> He called here + yesterday, and inquired very particularly for you. I told him + where you was, and he expects to see you at Jedburgh upon the + 21st. He is to be at Mellerstain<a id="footnotetag95" name="footnotetag95"></a><a href="#footnote95"><span class="small" title="Go to Footnote 95">[95]</span></a> on the 20th, and will be + there all night. His Lordship said, in a very pleasant manner, + that something might cast up at Jedburgh to give you an + opportunity of appearing, and that he would insist upon it, + <span class="pagenum"><a id="page170" name="page170"></a>(p. 170)</span> and that in future he meant to give you a share of the + criminal business in this Court,—all which is very kind. I told + his Lordship that I had dissuaded you from appearing at Jedburgh, + but he said I was wrong in doing so, and I therefore leave the + matter to you and him. <span class="italic">I think it is probable he will breakfast + with Sir H. H. MacDougall on the 21st, on his way to + Jedburgh</span>."...</p> + +<p>This last quiet hint, that the young lawyer might as well be at +Makerstoun (the seat of a relation) when <span class="italic">His Lordship</span> breakfasted +there, and of course swell the train of His Lordship's little +procession into the county town, seems delightfully characteristic. I +think I hear Sir Walter himself lecturing <span class="italic">me</span>, when in the same sort +of situation, thirty years afterwards. He declined, as one of the +following letters will show, the opportunity of making his first +appearance on this occasion at Jedburgh. He was present, indeed, at +the Court during the assizes, but "durst not venture." His accounts to +William Clerk of his vacation amusements, and more particularly of his +second excursion to Northumberland, will, I am sure, interest every +reader:—</p> + +<div class="quote"> +<p class="tit-center">TO WILLIAM CLERK, ESQ., ADVOCATE, PRINCE'S STREET, + EDINBURGH.</p> + +<p class="left50"><span class="smcap">Rosebank</span>, 10th September, 1792.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Dear William</span>,—Taking the advantage of a very indifferent day, + which is likely to float away a good deal of corn, and of my + father's leaving this place, who will take charge of this scroll, + I sit down to answer your favor. I find you have been, like + myself, taking advantage of the good weather to look around you a + little, and congratulate you upon the pleasure you must have + received from your jaunt with Mr. Russell<a id="footnotetag96" name="footnotetag96"></a><a href="#footnote96"><span class="small" title="Go to Footnote 96">[96]</span></a> I apprehend, though + you are silent on the subject, that your conversation was + enlivened by many curious disquisitions of the nature <span class="pagenum"><a id="page171" name="page171"></a>(p. 171)</span> + of <span class="italic">undulating exhalations</span>. I should have bowed before the + venerable grove of oaks at Hamilton with as much respect as if I + had been a Druid about to gather the sacred mistletoe. I should + hardly have suspected your host Sir William<a id="footnotetag97" name="footnotetag97"></a><a href="#footnote97"><span class="small" title="Go to Footnote 97">[97]</span></a> of having been + the occasion of the scandal brought upon the library and Mr. + Gibb<a id="footnotetag98" name="footnotetag98"></a><a href="#footnote98"><span class="small" title="Go to Footnote 98">[98]</span></a> by the introduction of the Cabinet des Fées, of which I + have a volume or two here. I am happy to think there is an + admirer of <span class="italic">snug things</span> in the administration of the library. + Poor Linton's<a id="footnotetag99" name="footnotetag99"></a><a href="#footnote99"><span class="small" title="Go to Footnote 99">[99]</span></a> misfortune, though I cannot say it surprises, + yet heartily grieves me. I have no doubt he will have many + advisers and animadverters upon the naughtiness of his ways, + whose admonitions will be forgot upon the next opportunity.</p> + +<p>I am lounging about the country here, to speak sincerely, as idle + as the day is long. Two old companions of mine, brothers of Mr. + Walker of Wooden, having come to this country, we have renewed a + great intimacy. As they live directly upon the opposite bank of + the river, we have signals agreed upon by which we concert a plan + of operations for the day. They are both officers, and very + intelligent young fellows, and what is of some consequence, have + a brace of fine greyhounds. Yesterday forenoon we killed seven + hares, so you may see how plenty the game is with us. I have + turned a keen duck-shooter, though my success is not very great; + and when wading through the mosses upon this errand, accoutred + with the long gun, a jacket, mosquito trousers, and a rough cap, + I might well pass for one of my redoubted moss-trooper <span class="pagenum"><a id="page172" name="page172"></a>(p. 172)</span> + progenitors, Walter Fire-the-Braes,<a id="footnotetag100" name="footnotetag100"></a><a href="#footnote100"><span class="small" title="Go to Footnote 100">[100]</span></a> or rather Willie wi' the + Bolt-Foot.</p> + +<p>For about-doors' amusement, I have constructed a seat in a large + tree which spreads its branches horizontally over the Tweed. This + is a favorite situation of mine for reading, especially in a day + like this, when the west wind rocks the branches on which I am + perched, and the river rolls its waves below me of a turbid blood + color. I have, moreover, cut an embrasure, through which I can + fire upon the gulls, herons, and cormorants, as they fly + screaming past my nest. To crown the whole, I have carved an + inscription upon it in the ancient Roman taste. I believe I shall + hardly return into town, barring accidents, sooner than the + middle of next month, perhaps not till November. Next week, + weather permitting, is destined for a Northumberland expedition, + in which I shall visit some parts of that country which I have + not yet seen, particularly about Hexham. Some days ago I had + nearly met with a worse accident than the tramp I took at + Moorfoot;<a id="footnotetag101" name="footnotetag101"></a><a href="#footnote101"><span class="small" title="Go to Footnote 101">[101]</span></a> for having bewildered myself among the Cheviot + hills, it was nearly nightfall before I got to the village of + Hownam, and the passes with which I was acquainted. You do not + speak of being in Perthshire this season, though I suppose you + intend it. I suppose we, that is, <span class="italic">nous autres</span>,<a id="footnotetag102" name="footnotetag102"></a><a href="#footnote102"><span class="small" title="Go to Footnote 102">[102]</span></a> are at + present completely dispersed.</p> + +<p>Compliments to all who are in town, and best respects to your own + family, both in Prince's Street and at Eldin.—Believe me ever + most sincerely yours,</p> + +<p class="left50"><span class="smcap">Walter Scott</span>.</p> +</div> + + +<div class="quote"> +<p class="tit-center">TO <span class="pagenum"><a id="page173" name="page173"></a>(p. 173)</span> WILLIAM CLERK, ESQ.</p> +<p class="left50"><span class="smcap">Rosebank</span>, 30th September, 1792.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Dear William</span>,—I suppose this will find you flourishing like a + green bay-tree on the mountains of Perthshire, and in full + enjoyment of all the pleasures of the country. All that I envy + you is the <span class="italic">noctes cĉnĉque deum</span>, which, I take it for granted, + you three merry men will be spending together, while I am poring + over Bartholine in the long evenings, solitary enough; for, as + for the lobsters, as you call them, I am separated from them by + the Tweed, which precludes evening meetings, unless in fine + weather and full moons. I have had an expedition through Hexham + and the higher parts of Northumberland, which would have + delighted the very cockles of your heart, not so much on account + of the beautiful romantic appearance of the country, though that + would have charmed you also, as because you would have seen more + Roman inscriptions built into gate-posts, barns, etc., than + perhaps are to be found in any other part of Britain. These have + been all dug up from the neighboring Roman wall, which is still + in many places very entire, and gives a stupendous idea of the + perseverance of its founders, who carried such an erection from + sea to sea, over rocks, mountains, rivers, and morasses. There + are several lakes among the mountains above Hexham, well worth + going many miles to see, though their fame is eclipsed by their + neighborhood to those of Cumberland. They are surrounded by old + towers and castles, in situations the most savagely romantic; + what would I have given to have been able to take effect-pieces + from some of them! Upon the Tyne, about Hexham, the country has a + different aspect, presenting much of the beautiful, though less + of the sublime. I was particularly charmed with the situation of + Beaufront, a house belonging to a mad sort of genius, whom, I am + sure, I have told you some stories about. He used to call himself + the Noble Errington, <span class="pagenum"><a id="page174" name="page174"></a>(p. 174)</span> but of late has assumed the title + of Duke of Hexham. Hard by the town is the field of battle where + the forces of Queen Margaret were defeated by those of the House + of York, a blow which the Red Rose never recovered during the + civil wars. The spot where the Duke of Somerset and the northern + nobility of the Lancastrian faction were executed after the + battle is still called Dukesfield. The inhabitants of this + country speak an odd dialect of the Saxon, approaching nearly + that of Chaucer, and have retained some customs peculiar to + themselves. They are the descendants of the ancient Danes, chased + into the fastnesses of Northumberland by the severity of William + the Conqueror. Their ignorance is surprising to a Scotchman. It + is common for the traders in cattle, which business is carried on + to a great extent, to carry all letters received in course of + trade to the parish church, where the clerk reads them aloud + after service, and answers them according to circumstances.</p> + +<p>We intended to visit the lakes in Cumberland, but our jaunt was + cut short by the bad weather. I went to the circuit at Jedburgh, + to make my bow to Lord J. Clerk, and might have had employment, + but durst not venture. Nine of the Dunse rioters were condemned + to banishment, but the ferment continues violent in the Merse. + Kelso races afforded little sport—Wishaw<a id="footnotetag103" name="footnotetag103"></a><a href="#footnote103"><span class="small" title="Go to Footnote 103">[103]</span></a> lost a horse which + cost him £500, and foundered irrecoverably on the course. At + another time I shall quote George Buchanan's adage of "a fool and + his money," but at present labor under a similar misfortune; my + Galloway having yesterday thought proper (N. B., without a rider) + to leap over a gate, and being lamed for the present. This is not + his first <span class="italic">faux-pas</span>, for he jumped into a water with me on his + back when in Northumberland, to the imminent danger of my life. + He is, therefore, to be sold (when recovered), and another + purchased. This accident has occasioned <span class="pagenum"><a id="page175" name="page175"></a>(p. 175)</span> you the trouble + of reading so long an epistle, the day being Sunday, and my + uncle, the captain, busily engaged with your father's naval + tactics, is too seriously employed to be an agreeable companion. + Apropos (des bottes)—I am sincerely sorry to hear that James is + still unemployed, but have no doubt a time will come round when + his talents will have an opportunity of being displayed to his + advantage. I have no prospect of seeing my <span class="italic">chère adorable</span> till + winter, if then. As for you, I pity you not, seeing as how you + have so good a succedaneum in M. G.; and, on the contrary, hope, + not only that Edmonstone may <span class="italic">roast</span> you, but that Cupid may + again (as erst) <span class="italic">fry</span> you on the gridiron of jealousy for your + infidelity. Compliments to our right trusty and well-beloved + Linton and Jean Jacques.<a id="footnotetag104" name="footnotetag104"></a><a href="#footnote104"><span class="small" title="Go to Footnote 104">[104]</span></a> If you write, which, by the way, I + hardly have the conscience to expect, direct to my father's care, + who will forward your letter. I have quite given up duck-shooting + for the season, the birds being too old, and the mosses too deep + and cold. I have no reason to boast of my experience or success + in the sport, and for my own part, should fire at any distance + under eighty or even ninety paces, though above forty-five I + would reckon it a <span class="italic">coup désespéré</span>, and as the bird is beyond + measure shy, you may be sure I was not very bloody. Believe me, + deferring, <span class="italic">as usual</span>, our dispute till another opportunity, + always sincerely yours,</p> + +<p class="left50"><span class="smcap">Walter Scott</span>.</p> + +<p>P. S.—I believe, if my pony does not soon recover, that + misfortune, with the bad weather, may send me soon to town.</p> +</div> + +<p>It was within a few days after Scott's return from his excursion to +Hexham, that, while attending the Michaelmas head-court, as an annual +county-meeting is called, at Jedburgh, he was introduced, by an old +companion, Charles Kerr of Abbotrule, to Mr. Robert Shortreed, that +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page176" name="page176"></a>(p. 176)</span> gentleman's near relation, who spent the greater part of his +life in the enjoyment of much respect as Sheriff-substitute of +Roxburghshire. Scott had been expressing his wish to visit the then +wild and inaccessible district of Liddesdale, particularly with a view +to examine the ruins of the famous castle of Hermitage, and to pick up +some of the ancient <span class="italic">riding ballads</span>, said to be still preserved among +the descendants of the moss-troopers, who had followed the banner of +the Douglases, when lords of that grim and remote fastness. Mr. +Shortreed had many connections in Liddesdale, and knew its passes +well, and he was pointed out as the very guide the young advocate +wanted. They started, accordingly, in a day or two afterwards, from +Abbotrule; and the laird meant to have been of the party; but "it was +well for him," said Shortreed, "that he changed his mind—for he could +never have done as we did."<a id="footnotetag105" name="footnotetag105"></a><a href="#footnote105"><span class="small" title="Go to Footnote 105">[105]</span></a></p> + +<p>During seven successive years Scott made a <span class="italic">raid</span>, as he called it, +into Liddesdale, with Mr. Shortreed for his guide; exploring every +rivulet to its source, and every ruined <span class="italic">peel</span> from foundation to +battlement. At this time no wheeled carriage had ever been seen in the +district—the first, indeed, that ever appeared there was a gig, +driven by Scott himself for a part of his way, when on the last of +these seven excursions. There was no inn or public-house of any kind +in the whole valley; the travellers passed from the shepherd's hut to +the minister's manse, and again from the cheerful hospitality of the +manse to the rough and jolly welcome of the homestead; gathering, +wherever they went, songs and tunes, and occasionally more tangible +relics of antiquity—even such "a <span class="pagenum"><a id="page177" name="page177"></a>(p. 177)</span> rowth of auld nicknackets" +as Burns ascribes to Captain Grose. To these rambles Scott owed much +of the materials of his Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border; and not +less of that intimate acquaintance with the living manners of these +unsophisticated regions, which constitutes the chief charm of one of +the most charming of his prose works. But how soon he had any definite +object before him in his researches seems very doubtful. "He was +<span class="italic">makin' himsel'</span> a' the time," said Mr. Shortreed; "but he didna ken +maybe what he was about till years had passed: at first he thought o' +little, I dare say, but the queerness and the fun."</p> + +<p>"In those days," says the Memorandum before me, "advocates were not so +plenty—at least about Liddesdale;" and the worthy Sheriff-substitute +goes on to describe the sort of bustle, not unmixed with alarm, +produced at the first farmhouse they visited (Willie Elliot's at +Millburnholm), when the honest man was informed of the quality of one +of his guests. When they dismounted, accordingly, he received Mr. +Scott with great ceremony, and insisted upon himself leading his horse +to the stable. Shortreed accompanied Willie, however, and the latter, +after taking a deliberate peep at Scott, "out-by the edge of the +door-cheek," whispered, "Weel, Robin, I say, de'il hae me if I's be a +bit feared for him now; he's just a chield like ourselves, I think." +Half-a-dozen dogs of all degrees had already gathered round "the +advocate," and his way of returning their compliments had set Willie +Elliot at once at his ease.</p> + +<p>According to Mr. Shortreed, this goodman of Millburnholm was the great +original of Dandie Dinmont. As he seems to have been the first of +these upland sheep-farmers that Scott ever visited, there can be +little doubt that he sat for some parts of that inimitable +portraiture; and it is certain that the James Davidson, who carried +the name of Dandie to his grave with him, and whose thoroughbred +deathbed scene is told in the Notes to Guy Mannering, <span class="pagenum"><a id="page178" name="page178"></a>(p. 178)</span> was +first pointed out to Scott by Mr. Shortreed himself, several years +after the novel had established the man's celebrity all over the +Border; some accidental report about his terriers, and their odd +names, having alone been turned to account in the original composition +of the tale. But I have the best reason to believe that the kind and +manly character of Dandie, the gentle and delicious one of his wife, +and some at least of the most picturesque peculiarities of the +<span class="italic">ménage</span> at Charlieshope, were filled up from Scott's observation, +years after this period, of a family, with one of whose members he +had, through the best part of his life, a close and affectionate +connection. To those who were familiar with him, I have perhaps +already sufficiently indicated the early home of his dear friend, +William Laidlaw, among "the braes of Yarrow."</p> + +<p>They dined at Millburnholm, and after having lingered over Willie +Elliot's punch-bowl, until, in Mr. Shortreed's phrase, they were +"half-glowrin," mounted their steeds again, and proceeded to Dr. +Elliot's at Cleughhead, where ("for," says my Memorandum, "folk were +na very nice in those days") the two travellers slept in one and the +same bed—as, indeed, seems to have been the case with them throughout +most of their excursions in this primitive district. This Dr. Elliot +had already a large MS. collection of the ballads Scott was in quest +of; and finding how much his guest admired his acquisitions, +thenceforth exerted himself, for several years, with redoubled +diligence, in seeking out the living depositaries of such lore among +the darker recesses of the mountains. "The Doctor," says Mr. +Shortreed, "would have gane through fire and water for Sir Walter, +when he ance kenned him."</p> + +<p>Next morning they seem to have ridden a long way, for the express +purpose of visiting one "auld Thomas o' Twizzlehope," another Elliot, +I suppose, who was celebrated for his skill on the Border pipe, and in +particular for <span class="pagenum"><a id="page179" name="page179"></a>(p. 179)</span> being in possession of the real <span class="italic">lilt</span> of +<span class="italic">Dick o' the Cow</span>. Before starting, that is, at six o'clock, the +ballad-hunters had, "just to lay the stomach, a devilled duck or twae, +and some <span class="italic">London</span> porter." Auld Thomas found them, nevertheless, well +disposed for "breakfast" on their arrival at Twizzlehope; and this +being over, he delighted them with one of the most hideous and +unearthly of all the specimens of "riding music," and, moreover, with +considerable libations of whiskey-punch, manufactured in a certain +wooden vessel, resembling a very small milk-pail, which he called +"Wisdom," because it "made" only a few spoonfuls of spirits—though he +had the art of replenishing it so adroitly, that it had been +celebrated for fifty years as more fatal to sobriety than any bowl in +the parish. Having done due honor to "Wisdom," they again mounted, and +proceeded over moss and moor to some other equally hospitable master +of the pipe. "Eh me," says Shortreed, "sic an endless fund o' humor +and drollery as he then had wi' him! Never ten yards but we were +either laughing or roaring and singing. Wherever we stopped, how +brawlie he suited himsel' to everybody! He aye did as the lave did; +never made himsel' the great man, or took ony airs in the company. +I've seen him in a' moods in these jaunts, grave and gay, daft and +serious, sober and drunk—(this, however, even in our wildest rambles, +was but rare)—but, drunk or sober, he was aye the gentleman. He +looked excessively heavy and stupid when he was <span class="italic">fou</span>, but he was +never out o' gude-humor."</p> + +<p>On reaching, one evening, some <span class="italic">Charlieshope</span> or other (I forget the +name) among those wildernesses, they found a kindly reception as +usual; but to their agreeable surprise, after some days of hard +living, a measured and orderly hospitality as respected liquor. Soon +after supper, at which a bottle of elderberry wine alone had been +produced, a young student of divinity, who happened to be in the +house, was called upon to take the "big ha' Bible," <span class="pagenum"><a id="page180" name="page180"></a>(p. 180)</span> in the +good old fashion of Burns's Saturday Night; and some progress had been +already made in the service, when the goodman of the farm, whose +"tendency," as Mr. Mitchell says, "was soporific," scandalized his +wife and the dominie by starting suddenly from his knees, and rubbing +his eyes, with a stentorian exclamation of "By ——, here 's the keg at +last!" and in tumbled, as he spake the word, a couple of sturdy +herdsmen, whom, on hearing a day before of the advocate's approaching +visit, he had despatched to a certain smuggler's haunt, at some +considerable distance, in quest of a supply of <span class="italic">run</span> brandy from the +Solway Frith. The pious "exercise" of the household was hopelessly +interrupted. With a thousand apologies for his hitherto shabby +entertainment, this jolly Elliot, or Armstrong, had the welcome <span class="italic">keg</span> +mounted on the table without a moment's delay, and gentle and simple, +not forgetting the dominie, continued carousing about it until +daylight streamed in upon the party. Sir Walter Scott seldom failed, +when I saw him in company with his Liddesdale companion, to mimic with +infinite humor the sudden outburst of his old host, on hearing the +clatter of horses' feet, which he knew to indicate the arrival of the +keg—the consternation of the dame—and the rueful despair with which +the young clergyman closed the book.</p> + +<div class="quote"> +<p>"It was in that same season, I think," says Mr. Shortreed, "that + Sir Walter got from Dr. Elliot the large old border war-horn, + which ye may still see hanging in the armory at Abbotsford. How + <span class="italic">great</span> he was when he was made master o' <span class="italic">that</span>! I believe it + had been found in Hermitage Castle—and one of the Doctor's + servants had used it many a day as a grease-horn for his scythe, + before they discovered its history. When cleaned out, it was + never a hair the worse—the original chain, hoop, and mouth-piece + of steel, were all entire, just as you now see them. Sir Walter + carried it home all the way from Liddesdale to Jedburgh, slung + about his neck like Johnny Gilpin's bottle, while I was entrusted + with an ancient bridle-bit, which we had likewise picked up.</p> + +<p class="poem20">'The <span class="pagenum"><a id="page181" name="page181"></a>(p. 181)</span> feint o' pride—na pride had he...<br> + A lang kail-gully hung down by his side,<br> + And a great meikle nowt-horn to rout on had he,'</p> + +<p>and meikle and sair we routed on 't and 'hotched and blew, wi' + micht and main.' O what pleasant days! And then a' the nonsense + we had cost us naething. We never put hand in pocket for a week + on end. Toll-bars there were none—and indeed I think our haill + charges were a feed o' corn to our horses in the gangin' and + comin' at Riccartoun mill."</p> +</div> + +<p>It is a pity that we have no letters of Scott's describing this first +<span class="italic">raid</span> into Liddesdale; but as he must have left Kelso for Edinburgh +very soon after its conclusion, he probably chose to be the bearer of +his own tidings. At any rate, the wonder perhaps is, not that we +should have so few letters of this period, as that any have been +recovered. "I ascribe the preservation of my little handful," says Mr. +Clerk, "to a sort of instinctive prophetic sense of his future +greatness."</p> + +<p>I have found, however, two note-books, inscribed "Walter Scott, 1792," +containing a variety of scraps and hints which may help us to fill up +our notion of his private studies during that year. He appears to have +used them indiscriminately. We have now an extract from the author he +happened to be reading; now a memorandum of something that had struck +him in conversation; a fragment of an essay; transcripts of favorite +poems; remarks on curious cases in the old records of the Justiciary +Court; in short, a most miscellaneous collection, in which there is +whatever might have been looked for, with perhaps the single exception +of original verse. One of the books opens with: "<span class="italic">Vegtam's Kvitha</span>, or +The Descent of Odin, with the Latin of Thomas Bartholine, and the +English poetical version of Mr. Gray; with some account of the death +of Balder, both as narrated in the Edda, and as handed down to us by +the Northern historians—<span class="italic">Auctore Gualtero Scott</span>." The Norse original +and the two versions are then transcribed; and <span class="pagenum"><a id="page182" name="page182"></a>(p. 182)</span> the +historical account appended, extending to seven closely written quarto +pages, was, I doubt not, read before one or other of his debating +societies. Next comes a page, headed "Pecuniary Distress of Charles +the First," and containing a transcript of a receipt for some plate +lent to the King in 1643. He then copies Langhorne's Owen of Carron; +the verses of Canute, on passing Ely; the lines to a cuckoo, given by +Warton as the oldest specimen of English verse; a translation "by a +gentleman in Devonshire," of the death-song of Regner Lodbrog; and the +beautiful quatrain omitted in Gray's Elegy,—</p> + +<p class="poem-center"> + "There scattered oft, the earliest of the year," etc. +</p> + +<p>After this we have an Italian canzonet, on the praises of blue eyes +(which were much in favor at this time); several pages of etymologies +from Ducange; some more of notes on the Morte Arthur; extracts from +the books of Adjournal, about Dame Janet Beaton, the Lady of Branksome +of The Lay of the Last Minstrel, and her husband, "Sir Walter Scott of +Buccleuch, called <span class="italic">Wicked Wat</span>;" other extracts about witches and +fairies; various couplets from Hall's Satires; a passage from Albania; +notes on the Second Sight, with extracts from Aubrey and Glanville; a +"List of Ballads to be discovered or recovered;" extracts from Guerin +de Montglave; and after many more similar entries, a table of the +Mĉso-Gothic, Anglo-Saxon and Runic alphabets—with a fourth section, +headed <span class="italic">German</span>, but left blank. But enough perhaps of this record.</p> + +<p>In November, 1792, Scott and Clerk began their regular attendance at +the Parliament House, and Scott, to use Mr. Clerk's words, "by and by +crept into a tolerable share of such business as may be expected from +a writer's connection." By this we are to understand that he was +employed from time to time by his father, and probably a few other +solicitors, in that dreary every-day taskwork, chiefly of long written +<span class="italic">informations</span>, and other papers <span class="pagenum"><a id="page183" name="page183"></a>(p. 183)</span> for the Court, on which +young counsellors of the Scotch Bar were then expected to bestow a +great deal of trouble for very scanty pecuniary remuneration, and with +scarcely a chance of finding reserved for their hands any matter that +could elicit the display of superior knowledge of understanding. He +had also his part in the cases of persons suing <span class="italic">in forma pauperis</span>; +but how little important those that came to his share were, and how +slender was the impression they had left on his mind, we may gather +from a note on Redgauntlet, wherein he signifies his doubts whether he +really had ever been engaged in what he has certainly made the <span class="italic">cause +célèbre</span> of <span class="italic">Poor Peter Peebles</span>.</p> + +<p>But he soon became as famous for his powers of storytelling among the +lawyers of the Outer-House, as he had been among the companions of his +High School days. The place where these idlers mostly congregated was +called, it seems, by a name which sufficiently marks the date—it was +<span class="italic">the Mountain</span>. Here, as Roger North says of the Court of King's Bench +in his early day, "there was more news than law;"—here hour after +hour passed away, week after week, month after month, and year after +year, in the interchange of light-hearted merriment among a circle of +young men, more than one of whom, in after-times, attained the highest +honors of the profession. Among the most intimate of Scott's daily +associates from this time, and during all his subsequent attendance at +the Bar, were, besides various since-eminent persons that have been +already named, the first legal antiquary of our time in Scotland, Mr. +Thomas Thomson, and William Erskine, afterwards Lord Kinnedder. Mr. +Clerk remembers complaining one morning on finding the group convulsed +with laughter, that <span class="italic">Duns Scotus</span> had been forestalling him in a good +story, which he had communicated privately the day before—adding, +moreover, that his friend had not only stolen, but disguised it. +"Why," answered he, skilfully waiving the main charge, "this <span class="pagenum"><a id="page184" name="page184"></a>(p. 184)</span> +is always the way with <span class="italic">the Baronet</span>. He is continually saying that I +change his stories, whereas in fact I only put a cocked hat on their +heads, and stick a cane into their hands—to make them fit for going +into company."</p> + +<p>The German class, of which we have an account in one of the Prefaces +of 1830, was formed before the Christmas of 1792, and it included +almost all these loungers of <span class="italic">the Mountain</span>. In the essay now referred +to Scott traces the interest excited in Scotland on the subject of +German literature to a paper read before the Royal Society of +Edinburgh, on the 21st of April, 1788, by the author of The Man of +Feeling. "The literary persons of Edinburgh," he says, "were then +first made aware of the existence of works of genius in a language +cognate with the English, and possessed of the same manly force of +expression; they learned at the same time that the taste which +dictated the German compositions was of a kind as nearly allied to the +English as their language: those who were from their youth accustomed +to admire Shakespeare and Milton, became acquainted for the first time +with a race of poets, who had the same lofty ambition to spurn the +flaming boundaries of the universe, and investigate the realms of +Chaos and Old Night; and of dramatists, who, disclaiming the pedantry +of the unities, sought, at the expense of occasional improbabilities +and extravagance, to present life on the stage in its scenes of +wildest contrast, and in all its boundless variety of character.... +Their fictitious narratives, their ballad poetry, and other branches +of their literature, which are particularly apt to bear the stamp of +the extravagant and the supernatural, began also to occupy the +attention of the British literati. In Edinburgh, where the remarkable +coincidence between the German language and the Lowland Scottish +encouraged young men to approach this newly discovered spring of +literature, a class was formed of six or seven intimate friends, who +proposed to make themselves acquainted <span class="pagenum"><a id="page185" name="page185"></a>(p. 185)</span> with the German +language. They were in the habit of being much together, and the time +they spent in this new study was felt as a period of great amusement. +One source of this diversion was the laziness of one of their number, +the present author, who, averse to the necessary toil of grammar, and +the rules, was in the practice of fighting his way to the knowledge of +the German by his acquaintance with the Scottish and Anglo-Saxon +dialects, and of course frequently committed blunders which were not +lost on his more accurate and more studious companions." The teacher, +Dr. Willich, a medical man, is then described as striving with little +success to make his pupils sympathize in his own passion for the +"sickly monotony" and "affected ecstasies" of Gessner's Death of Abel; +and the young students, having at length acquired enough of the +language for their respective purposes, as selecting for their private +pursuits, some the philosophical treatises of Kant, others the dramas +of Schiller and Goethe. The chief, if not the only <span class="italic">Kantist</span> of the +party, was, I believe, John Macfarlan of Kirkton; among those who +turned zealously to the popular belles-lettres of Germany were, with +Scott, his most intimate friends of the period, William Clerk, William +Erskine, and Thomas Thomson.</p> + +<p>These studies were much encouraged by the example, and assisted by the +advice, of an accomplished person, considerably Scott's superior in +standing, Alexander Fraser Tytler, afterwards a Judge of the Court of +Session by the title of Lord Woodhouselee. His version of Schiller's +Robbers was one of the earliest from the German theatre, and no doubt +stimulated his young friend to his first experiments in the same walk.</p> + +<p>The contemporary familiars of those days almost all survive; but one, +and afterwards the most intimate of them all, went before him; and I +may therefore hazard in this place a few words on the influence which +he exercised at this critical period on Scott's literary tastes and +studies. <span class="pagenum"><a id="page186" name="page186"></a>(p. 186)</span> William Erskine was the son of an Episcopalian +clergyman in Perthshire, of a good family, but far from wealthy. He +had received his early education at Glasgow, where, while attending +the college lectures, he was boarded under the roof of Andrew +Macdonald, the author of Vimonda, who then officiated as minister to a +small congregation of Episcopalian nonconformists. From this +unfortunate but very ingenious man, Erskine had derived, in boyhood, a +strong passion for old English literature, more especially the +Elizabethan dramatists; which, however, he combined with a far +livelier relish for the classics of antiquity than either Scott or his +master ever possessed. From the beginning, accordingly, Scott had in +Erskine a monitor who—entering most warmly into his taste for +national lore—the life of the past—and the bold and picturesque +style of the original English school—was constantly urging the +advantages to be derived from combining with its varied and masculine +breadth of delineation such attention to the minor graces of +arrangement and diction as might conciliate the fastidiousness of +modern taste. Deferring what I may have to say as to Erskine's general +character and manners, until I shall have approached the period when I +myself had the pleasure of sharing his acquaintance, I introduce the +general bearing of his literary opinions thus early, because I +conceive there is no doubt that his companionship was, even in those +days, highly serviceable to Scott as a student of the German drama and +romance. Directed, as he mainly was in the ultimate determination of +his literary ambition, by the example of their great founders, he +appears to have run at first no trivial hazard of adopting the +extravagances, both of thought and language, which he found blended in +their works with such a captivating display of genius, and genius +employed on subjects so much in unison with the deepest of his own +juvenile predilections. His friendly critic was just, as well as +delicate; and unmerciful severity as to the mingled absurdities +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page187" name="page187"></a>(p. 187)</span> and vulgarities of German detail commanded deliberate +attention from one who admired not less enthusiastically than himself +the genuine sublimity and pathos of his new favorites. I could, I +believe, name one other at least among Scott's fellow-students of the +same time, whose influence was combined in this matter with Erskine's; +but his was that which continued to be exerted the longest, and always +in the same direction. That it was not accompanied with entire +success, the readers of The Doom of Devorgoil, to say nothing of minor +blemishes in far better works, must acknowledge.</p> + +<p>These German studies divided Scott's attention with the business of +the courts of law, on which he was at least a regular attendant during +the winter of 1792-93.</p> + +<p>In March, when the Court rose, he proceeded into Galloway, where he +had not before been, in order to make himself acquainted with the +persons and localities mixed up with the case of a certain Rev. Mr. +M'Naught, minister of Girthon, whose trial, on charges of habitual +drunkenness, singing of lewd and profane songs, dancing and toying at +a penny-wedding with a "sweetie wife" (that is, an itinerant vender of +gingerbread, etc.), and moreover of promoting irregular marriages as a +justice of the peace, was about to take place before the General +Assembly of the Kirk.</p> + +<p>As his "Case for M'Naught," dated May, 1793, is the first of his legal +papers that I have discovered, and contains several characteristic +enough turns, I make no apology for introducing a few extracts:—</p> + +<div class="quote"> +<p>At the head of the first class of offences stands the + extraordinary assertion, that, being a Minister of the Gospel, + the respondent had illegally undertaken the office of a justice + of peace. It is, the respondent believes, the first time that + ever the undertaking an office of such extensive utility was + stated as a crime; for he humbly apprehends, that by conferring + the office of a justice of the peace upon clergymen, their + influence may, in the general case, be rendered more extensive + among their parishioners, and <span class="pagenum"><a id="page188" name="page188"></a>(p. 188)</span> many trifling causes be + settled by them, which might lead the litigants to enormous + expenses, and become the subject of much contention before other + courts. The duty being only occasional, and not daily, cannot be + said to interfere with those of their function; and their + education, and presumed character, render them most proper for + the office. It is indeed alleged that the Act 1584, chap. 133, + excludes clergymen from acting under a commission of the peace. + This Act, however, was passed at a time when it was of the + highest importance to the Crown to wrench from the hands of the + clergy the power of administering justice in civil cases, which + had, from the ignorance of the laity, been enjoyed by them almost + exclusively. During the whole reign of James VI., as is well + known to the Reverend Court, such a jealousy subsisted betwixt + the Church and the State, that those who were at the head of the + latter endeavored, by every means in their power, to diminish the + influence of the former. At present, when these dissensions + happily no longer subsist, the law, as far as regards the office + of justice of the peace, appears to have fallen into disuse, and + the respondent conceives that any minister is capable of acting + in that, or any other judicial capacity, provided it is of such a + nature as not to withdraw much of his time from what the statute + calls the comfort and edification of the flock committed to him. + Further, the Act 1584 is virtually repealed by the statute 6th + Anne, <span class="italic">c.</span> 6, sect. 2, which makes the Scots Law on the subject + of justices of the peace the same with that of England, where the + office is publicly exercised by the clergy of all descriptions.</p> + +<p>... Another branch of the accusation against the defender as a + justice of peace, is the ratification of irregular marriages. The + defender must here also call the attention of his reverend + brethren and judges to the expediency of his conduct. The girls + were usually with child at the time the application was made to + the defender. In this situation, the children born out of + matrimony, though begot under promise of marriage, must have been + thrown upon the parish, or perhaps murdered in infancy, had not + the men been persuaded to consent to a solemn declaration of + betrothment, or private marriage, emitted before the defender as + a justice of peace. The defender himself, commiserating the + situation of such women, often endeavored to persuade their + seducers to do them justice; and men frequently acquiesced + <span class="pagenum"><a id="page189" name="page189"></a>(p. 189)</span> in this sort of marriage, when they could by no means + have been prevailed upon to go through the ceremonies of + proclamation of banns, or the expense and trouble of a public + wedding. The declaration of a previous marriage was sometimes + literally true; sometimes a fiction voluntarily emitted by the + parties themselves, under the belief that it was the most safe + way of constituting a private marriage <span class="italic">de presenti</span>. The + defender had been induced, from the practice of other justices, + to consider the receiving these declarations, whether true or + false, as a part of his duty, which he could not decline, even + had he been willing to do so. Finally, the defender must remind + the Venerable Assembly that he acted upon these occasions as a + justice of peace, which brings him back to the point from which + he set out, namely, that the Reverend Court are utterly + incompetent to take cognizance of his conduct in that character, + which no sentence that they can pronounce could give or take + away.</p> + +<p>The second grand division of the libel against the defender + refers to his conduct as a clergyman and a Christian. He was + charged in the libel with the most gross and vulgar behavior, + with drunkenness, blasphemy, and impiety; yet all the evidence + which the appellants have been able to bring forward tends only + to convict him of three acts of drunkenness during the course of + fourteen years: for even the Presbytery, severe as they have + been, acquit him <span class="italic">quoad ultra</span>. But the attention of the Reverend + Court is earnestly entreated to the situation of the defender at + the time, the circumstances which conduced to his imprudence, and + the share which some of those had in occasioning his guilt, who + have since been most active in persecuting and distressing him on + account of it.</p> + +<p>The defender must premise, by observing, that the crime of + drunkenness consists not in a man's having been in that situation + twice or thrice in his life, but in the constant and habitual + practice of the vice; the distinction between <span class="italic">ebrius</span> and + <span class="italic">ebriosus</span> being founded in common sense, and recognized by law. + A thousand cases may be supposed, in which a man, without being + aware of what he is about, may be insensibly led on to + intoxication, especially in a country where the vice is + unfortunately so common, that upon some occasions a man may go to + excess from a false sense of modesty, or a fear of disobliging + his entertainer. <span class="pagenum"><a id="page190" name="page190"></a>(p. 190)</span> The defender will not deny, that after + losing his senses upon the occasions, and in the manner to be + afterwards stated, he may have committed improprieties which fill + him with sorrow and regret: but he hopes, that in case he shall + be able to show circumstances which abridge and palliate the + guilt of his imprudent excess, the Venerable Court will consider + these improprieties as the effects of that excess only, and not + as arising from any radical vice in his temper or disposition. + When a man is bereft of his judgment by the influence of wine, + and commits any crime, he can only be said to be morally + culpable, in proportion to the impropriety of the excess he has + committed, and not in proportion to the magnitude of its evil + consequences. In a legal view, indeed, a man must be held as + answerable and punishable for such a crime, precisely as if he + had been in a state of sobriety; but his crime is, in a moral + light, comprised in the <span class="italic">origo mali</span>, the drunkenness only. His + senses being once gone, he is no more than a human machine, as + insensible of misconduct, in speech and action, as a parrot or an + automaton. This is more particularly the case with respect to + indecorums, such as the defender is accused of; for a man can no + more be held a common swearer, or a habitual talker of obscenity, + because he has been guilty of using such expressions when + intoxicated, than he can be termed an idiot, because, when + intoxicated, he has spoken nonsense. If, therefore, the defender + can extenuate the guilt of his intoxication, he hopes that its + consequences will be numbered rather among his misfortunes than + faults; and that his Reverend Brethren will consider him, while + in that state, as acting from a mechanical impulse, and as + incapable of distinguishing between right and wrong. For the + scandal which his behavior may have occasioned, he feels the most + heartfelt sorrow, and will submit with penitence and contrition + to the severe rebuke which the Presbytery have decreed against + him. But he cannot think that his unfortunate misdemeanor, + circumstanced as he was, merits a severer punishment. He can show + that pains were at these times taken to lead him on, when bereft + of his senses, to subjects which were likely to call forth + improper or indecent expressions. The defender must further urge, + that not being originally educated for the church, he may, before + he assumed the sacred character, have occasionally permitted + himself freedoms of expression which are reckoned less culpable + <span class="pagenum"><a id="page191" name="page191"></a>(p. 191)</span> among the laity. Thus he may, during that time, have + learned the songs which he is accused of singing, though rather + inconsistent with his clerical character. What, then, was more + natural, than that, when thrown off his guard by the assumed + conviviality and artful solicitations of those about him, former + improper habits, though renounced during his thinking moments, + might assume the reins of his imagination, when his situation + rendered him utterly insensible of their impropriety?</p> + +<p>... The Venerable Court will now consider how far three instances + of ebriety, and their consequences, should ruin at once the + character and the peace of mind of the unfortunate defender, and + reduce him, at his advanced time of life, about sixty years, + together with his aged parent, to a state of beggary. He hopes + his severe sufferings may be considered as some atonement for the + improprieties of which he may have been guilty; and that the + Venerable Court will, in their judgment, remember mercy.</p> + +<p><span class="add2em">In respect whereof, etc.</span><br> + <span class="left50 smcap">Walter Scott</span>.</p> +</div> + +<p>This argument (for which he received five guineas) was sustained by +Scott in a speech of considerable length at the Bar of the Assembly. +It was far the most important business in which any solicitor had as +yet employed him, and <span class="italic">The Club</span> mustered strong in the gallery. He +began in a low voice, but by degrees gathered more confidence; and +when it became necessary for him to analyze the evidence touching a +certain penny-wedding, repeated some very coarse specimens of his +client's alleged conversation, in a tone so bold and free, that he was +called to order with great austerity by one of the leading members of +the Venerable Court. This seemed to confuse him not a little; so when, +by and by, he had to recite a stanza of one of M'Naught's convivial +ditties, he breathed it out in a faint and hesitating style; +whereupon, thinking he needed encouragement, the allies in the gallery +astounded the Assembly by cordial shouts of <span class="italic">hear! hear!—encore! +encore!</span> They were immediately turned out, and Scott got through the +rest of his harangue very little to his own satisfaction.</p> + +<p>He <span class="pagenum"><a id="page192" name="page192"></a>(p. 192)</span> believed, in a word, that he had made a complete failure, +and issued from the Court in a melancholy mood. At the door he found +Adam Ferguson waiting to inform him that the brethren so +unceremoniously extruded from the gallery had sought shelter in a +neighboring tavern, where they hoped he would join them. He complied +with the invitation, but seemed for a long while incapable of enjoying +the merriment of his friends. "Come, <span class="italic">Duns</span>," cried <span class="italic">the +Baronet</span>,—"cheer up, man, and fill another tumbler; here's ****** +going to give us <span class="italic">The Tailor</span>."—"Ah!" he answered, with a groan, "the +tailor was a better man than me, sirs; for he didna venture <span class="italic">ben</span> +until he <span class="italic">kenned the way</span>." A certain comical old song, which had, +perhaps, been a favorite with the minister of Girthon—</p> + +<p class="poem20">"The tailor he came here to sew,<br> + And weel he kenn'd the way o't," etc.</p> + +<p>was, however, sung and chorused; and the evening ended in the full +jollity of <span class="italic">High Jinks</span>.</p> + +<p>Mr. M'Naught was deposed from the ministry, and his young advocate has +written out at the end of the printed papers on the case two of the +<span class="italic">songs</span> which had been alleged in the evidence. They are both grossly +indecent. It is to be observed, that the research he had made with a +view to pleading this man's cause carried him, for the first, and I +believe for the last time, into the scenery of his Guy Mannering; and +I may add that several of the names of the minor characters of the +novel (that of <span class="italic">M'Guffog</span>, for example) appear in the list of +witnesses for and against his client.</p> + +<p>If the preceding autumn forms a remarkable point in Scott's history, +as first introducing him to the manners of the wilder Border country, +the summer which followed left traces of equal importance. He gave the +greater part of it to an excursion which much extended his knowledge +of Highland scenery and character; and in particular furnished him +with the richest stores, which he afterwards turned <span class="pagenum"><a id="page193" name="page193"></a>(p. 193)</span> to +account in one of the most beautiful of his great poems, and in +several, including the first, of his prose romances.</p> + +<p>Accompanied by Adam Ferguson, he visited on this occasion some of the +finest districts of Stirlingshire and Perthshire; and not in the +percursory manner of his more boyish expeditions, but taking up his +residence for a week or ten days in succession at the family +residences of several of his young allies of <span class="italic">the Mountain</span>, and from +thence familiarizing himself at leisure with the country and the +people round about. In this way he lingered some time at Tullibody, +the seat of the father of Sir Ralph Abercromby, and grandfather of his +friend Mr. George Abercromby (now Lord Abercromby); and heard from the +old gentleman's own lips his narrative of a journey which he had been +obliged to make, shortly after he first settled in Stirlingshire, to +the wild retreat of Rob Roy. The venerable laird told how he was +received by the cateran "with much courtesy," in a cavern exactly such +as that of <span class="italic">Bean Lean</span>; dined on collops cut from some of his own +cattle, which he recognized hanging by their heels from the rocky roof +beyond; and returned in all safety, after concluding a bargain of +<span class="italic">blackmail</span>—in virtue of which annual payment Rob Roy guaranteed the +future security of his herds against, not his own followers merely, +but all freebooters whatever. Scott next visited his friend +Edmonstone, at Newton, a beautiful seat close to the ruins of the once +magnificent Castle of Doune, and heard another aged gentleman's vivid +recollections of all that happened there when John Home, the author of +Douglas, and other Hanoverian prisoners, escaped from the Highland +garrison in 1745.<a id="footnotetag106" name="footnotetag106"></a><a href="#footnote106"><span class="small" title="Go to Footnote 106">[106]</span></a> Proceeding towards the sources of the Teith, he +was received for the first time under a roof which, in subsequent +years, he regularly revisited, that of another of his associates, +Buchanan, the young Laird of Cambusmore. It was thus that <span class="pagenum"><a id="page194" name="page194"></a>(p. 194)</span> +the scenery of Loch Katrine came to be so associated with "the +recollection of many a dear friend and merry expedition of former +days," that to compose The Lady of the Lake was "a labor of love, and +no less so to recall the manners and incidents introduced."<a id="footnotetag107" name="footnotetag107"></a><a href="#footnote107"><span class="small" title="Go to Footnote 107">[107]</span></a> It +was starting from the same house, when the poem itself had made some +progress, that he put to the test the practicability of riding from +the banks of Loch Vennachar to the Castle of Stirling within the brief +space which he had assigned to Fitz-James's Grey Bayard, after the +duel with Roderick Dim; and the principal landmarks in the description +of that fiery progress are so many hospitable mansions, all familiar +to him at the same period—Blairdrummond, the residence of Lord +Kaimes; Ochtertyre, that of John Ramsay, the scholar and antiquary +(now best remembered for his kind and sagacious advice to Burns); and +"the lofty brow of ancient Kier," the splendid seat of the chief +family of the name of Stirling; from which, to say nothing of remoter +objects, the prospect has, on one hand, the rock of "Snowdon," and in +front the field of Bannockburn.</p> + +<p>Another resting-place was Craighall, in Perthshire, the seat of the +Rattrays, a family related to Mr. Clerk, who accompanied him. From the +position of this striking place, as Mr. Clerk at once perceived, and +as the author afterwards confessed to him, that of the <span class="italic">Tully-Veolan</span> +was very faithfully copied; though in the description of the house +itself, and its gardens, many features were adopted from Bruntsfield +and Ravelston.<a id="footnotetag108" name="footnotetag108"></a><a href="#footnote108"><span class="small" title="Go to Footnote 108">[108]</span></a> Mr. Clerk has told me that he went through the +first chapters of Waverley without more than a vague suspicion of the +new novelist; but that when he read the arrival at Tully-Veolan, his +suspicion was at once converted into certainty, and he handed the book +to a common friend of his and the author's, saying, "This is +Scott's—and I'll lay <span class="pagenum"><a id="page195" name="page195"></a>(p. 195)</span> a bet you'll find such and such things +in the next chapter." I hope Mr. Clerk will forgive me for mentioning +<span class="italic">the</span> particular circumstance that first flashed the conviction on his +mind. In the course of a ride from Craighall they had both become +considerably fagged and heated, and Clerk, seeing the smoke of a +<span class="italic">clachan</span> a little way before them, ejaculated—"How agreeable if we +should here fall in with one of those signposts where a red lion +predominates over a punch-bowl!" The phrase happened to tickle Scott's +fancy—he often introduced it on similar occasions afterwards—and at +the distance of twenty years Mr. Clerk was at no loss to recognize an +old acquaintance in the "huge bear" which "predominates" over the +stone basin in the courtyard of Baron Bradwardine.</p> + +<p>I believe the longest stay he made this autumn was at Meigle in +Forfarshire, the seat of Patrick Murray of Simprim, a gentleman whose +enthusiastic passion for antiquities, and especially military +antiquities, had peculiarly endeared him both to Scott and Clerk. Here +Adam Ferguson, too, was of the party; and I have often heard them each +and all dwell on the thousand scenes of adventure and merriment which +diversified that visit. In the village churchyard, close beneath Mr. +Murray's gardens, tradition still points out the tomb of Queen +Guenever; and the whole district abounds in objects of historical +interest. Amidst them they spent their wandering days, while their +evenings passed in the joyous festivity of a wealthy young bachelor's +establishment, or sometimes under the roofs of neighbors less refined +than their host, the <span class="italic">Balmawhapples</span> of the Braes of Angus. From +Meigle they made a trip to Dunnottar Castle, the ruins of the huge old +fortress of the Earls Marischall, and it was in the churchyard of that +place that Scott then saw for the first and last time Robert Paterson, +the living <span class="italic">Old Mortality</span>. He and Mr. Walker, the minister of the +parish, found the poor man refreshing the epitaphs on <span class="pagenum"><a id="page196" name="page196"></a>(p. 196)</span> the +tombs of certain Cameronians who had fallen under the oppressions of +James the Second's brief insanity. Being invited into the manse after +dinner to take a glass of whiskey-punch, "to which he was supposed to +have no objections," he joined the minister's party accordingly; but +"he was in bad humor," says Scott, "and, to use his own phrase, had no +freedom for conversation. His spirit had been sorely vexed by hearing, +in a certain Aberdonian kirk, the psalmody directed by a pitch-pipe or +some similar instrument, which was to Old Mortality the abomination of +abominations."</p> + +<p>It was also while he had his headquarters at Meigle at this time that +Scott visited for the first time <span class="italic">Glammis</span>, the residence of the Earls +of Strathmore, by far the noblest specimen of the real feudal castle, +entire and perfect, that had as yet come under his inspection. What +its aspect was when he first saw it, and how grievously he lamented +the change it had undergone when he revisited it some years +afterwards, he has recorded in one of the most striking passages that +I think ever came from his pen. Commenting, in his Essay on Landscape +Gardening (1828), on the proper domestic ornaments of the Castle +<span class="italic">Pleasaunce</span>, he has this beautiful burst of lamentation over the +barbarous innovations of <span class="italic">the Capability men</span>:—"Down went many a +trophy of old magnificence, courtyard, ornamented enclosure, fosse, +avenue, barbican, and every external muniment of battled wall and +flanking tower, out of the midst of which the ancient dome, rising +high above all its characteristic accompaniments, and seemingly girt +round by its appropriate defences, which again circled each other in +their different gradations, looked, as it should, the queen and +mistress of the surrounding country. It was thus that the huge old +tower of Glammis, 'whose birth tradition notes not,' once showed its +lordly head above seven circles (if I remember aright) of defensive +boundaries, through which the friendly guest was admitted, and at each +of which a suspicious <span class="pagenum"><a id="page197" name="page197"></a>(p. 197)</span> person was unquestionably put to his +answer. A disciple of Kent had the cruelty to render this splendid old +mansion (the more modern part of which was the work of Inigo Jones) +more <span class="italic">parkish</span>, as he was pleased to call it; to raze all those +exterior defences, and bring his mean and paltry gravel-walk up to the +very door from which, deluded by the name, one might have imagined +Lady Macbeth (with the form and features of Siddons) issuing forth to +receive King Duncan. It is thirty years and upwards since I have seen +Glammis, but I have not yet forgotten or forgiven the atrocity which, +under pretence of improvement, deprived that lordly place of its +appropriate accompaniments,</p> + +<p class="poem20">'Leaving an ancient dome and towers like these<br> + Beggar'd and outraged.'"<a id="footnotetag109" name="footnotetag109"></a><a href="#footnote109"><span class="small" title="Go to Footnote 109">[109]</span></a></p> + +<p>The night he spent at the yet unprofaned Glammis in 1793 was, as he +elsewhere says, one of the "<span class="italic">two</span> periods distant from each other" at +which he could recollect experiencing "that degree of superstitious +awe which his countrymen call <span class="italic">eerie</span>."</p> + +<p class="quote"> + "The heavy pile," he writes, "contains much in its appearance, + and in the traditions connected with it, impressive to the + imagination. It was the scene of the murder of a Scottish King of + great antiquity—not indeed the gracious Duncan, with whom the + name naturally associates itself, but Malcolm II. It contains + also a curious monument of the peril of feudal times, being a + secret chamber, the entrance of which, by the law or custom of + the family, must only be known to three persons at once, namely, + the Earl of Strathmore, his heir-apparent, and any third person + whom they may take into their confidence. The extreme antiquity + of the building is vouched by the thickness of the walls, and the + wild straggling arrangement of the accommodation within doors. As + the late Earl seldom resided at Glammis, it was when I was there + but half furnished, and that with movables of great antiquity, + which, with the pieces of chivalric armor hanging on the walls, + greatly contributed to the general effect of the whole. After a + very hospitable reception from <span class="pagenum"><a id="page198" name="page198"></a>(p. 198)</span> the late Peter Proctor, + seneschal of the castle, I was conducted to my apartment in a + distant part of the building. I must own, that when I heard door + after door shut, after my conductor had retired, I began to + consider myself as too far from the living, and somewhat too near + the dead. We had passed through what is called <span class="italic">the King's Room</span>, + a vaulted apartment, garnished with stags' antlers and other + trophies of the chase, and said by tradition to be the spot of + Malcolm's murder, and I had an idea of the vicinity of the castle + chapel. In spite of the truth of history, the whole night scene + in Macbeth's Castle rushed at once upon me, and struck my mind + more forcibly than even when I have seen its terrors represented + by John Kemble and his inimitable sister. In a word, I + experienced sensations which, though not remarkable for timidity + or superstition, did not fail to affect me to the point of being + disagreeable, while they were mingled at the same time with a + strange and indescribable sort of pleasure, the recollection of + which affords me gratification at this moment."<a id="footnotetag110" name="footnotetag110"></a><a href="#footnote110"><span class="small" title="Go to Footnote 110">[110]</span></a> +</p> + +<p>He alludes here to the hospitable reception which had preceded the +mingled sensations of this <span class="italic">eerie</span> night; but one of his notes on +Waverley touches this not unimportant part of the story more +distinctly; for we are there informed that the <span class="italic">silver bear</span> of +Tully-Veolan, "<span class="italic">the poculum potatorium</span> of the valiant baron," had its +prototype at Glammis—a massive beaker of silver, double gilt, moulded +into the form of a <span class="italic">lion</span>, the name and bearing of the Earls of +Strathmore, and containing about an English pint of wine. "The +author," he says, "ought perhaps to be ashamed of recording that he +had the honor of swallowing the contents of <span class="italic">the lion</span>; and the +recollection of the feat suggested the story of the Bear of +Bradwardine."</p> + +<p>From this pleasant tour, so rich in its results, Scott returned in +time to attend the autumnal assizes at Jedburgh, on which occasion he +made his first appearance as counsel in a criminal court; and had the +satisfaction of helping a veteran poacher and sheep-stealer to escape +through some of the meshes of the law. "You're a lucky <span class="pagenum"><a id="page199" name="page199"></a>(p. 199)</span> +scoundrel," Scott whispered to his client, when the verdict was +pronounced. "I'm just o' your mind," quoth the desperado, "and I'll +send ye a maukin<a id="footnotetag111" name="footnotetag111"></a><a href="#footnote111"><span class="small" title="Go to Footnote 111">[111]</span></a> the morn, man." I am not sure whether it was at +these assizes or the next in the same town, that he had less success +in the case of a certain notorious housebreaker. The man, however, was +well aware that no skill could have baffled the clear evidence against +him, and was, after his fashion, grateful for such exertions as had +been made in his behalf. He requested the young advocate to visit him +once more before he left the place. Scott's curiosity induced him to +accept this invitation, and his friend, as soon as they were alone +together in the <span class="italic">condemned cell</span>, said—"I am very sorry, sir, that I +have no fee to offer you—so let me beg your acceptance of two bits of +advice which may be useful perhaps when you come to have a house of +your own. I am done with practice, you see, and here is my legacy. +Never keep a large watchdog out of doors—we can always silence them +cheaply—indeed if it be a <span class="italic">dog</span>, 'tis easier than whistling—but tie +a little tight yelping terrier within; and secondly, put no trust in +nice, clever, gimcrack locks—the only thing that bothers us is a huge +old heavy one, no matter how simple the construction,—and the ruder +and rustier the key, so much the better for the housekeeper." I +remember hearing him tell this story some thirty years after at a +Judges' dinner at Jedburgh, and he summed it up with a rhyme—"Ay, ay, +my lord," (I think he addressed his friend Lord Meadowbank)—</p> + +<p class="poem30">"Yelping terrier, rusty key,<br> + Was Walter Scott's best Jeddart fee."</p> + +<p>At these, or perhaps the next assizes, he was also counsel in an +appeal case touching a cow which his client had sold as sound, but +which the court below (the sheriff) had pronounced to have what is +called <span class="italic">the cliers</span>—a disease analogous to glanders in a horse. In +opening his case <span class="pagenum"><a id="page200" name="page200"></a>(p. 200)</span> before Sir David Rae, Lord Eskgrove, Scott +stoutly maintained the healthiness of the cow, who, as he said, had +merely a cough. "Stop there," quoth the judge; "I have had plenty of +healthy kye in my time, but I never heard of are of them coughing. A +coughin' cow!—that will never do. Sustain the sheriff's judgment, and +decern."</p> + +<p>A day or two after this, Scott and his old companion were again on +their way into Liddesdale, and "just," says the Shortreed Memorandum, +"as we were passing by Singdon, we saw a grand herd o' cattle a' +feeding by the roadside, and a fine young bullock, the best in the +whole lot, was in the midst of them, coughing lustily. 'Ah,' said +Scott, 'what a pity for my client that old Eskgrove had not taken +Singdon on his way to the town. That bonny creature would have saved +us—</p> + +<p class="poem20">"A Daniel come to judgment, yea a Daniel;<br> + O wise young judge, how I do honor thee!"'"</p> + +<div class="quote"> +<p class="tit-center">TO PATRICK MURRAY OF SIMPRIM, ESQ., MEIGLE.</p> +<p class="left50"><span class="smcap">Rosebank</span>, near Kelso, September 13, 1793.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Dear Murray</span>,—I would have let fly an epistle at you long ere + this, had I not known I should have some difficulty in hitting so + active a traveller, who may in that respect be likened unto a + bird of passage. Were you to follow the simile throughout, I + might soon expect to see you winging your way to the southern + climes, instead of remaining to wait the approach of winter in + the colder regions of the north. Seriously, I have been in weekly + hopes of hearing of your arrival in the Merse, and have been + qualifying myself by constant excursions to be your Border + <span class="italic">Cicerone</span>.</p> + +<p>As the facetious Linton will no doubt make one of your party, I + have got by heart for his amusement a reasonable number of Border + ballads, most of them a little longer than Chevy Chase, which I + intend to throw in at intervals, just by way of securing my share + in the conversation. <span class="pagenum"><a id="page201" name="page201"></a>(p. 201)</span> As for <span class="italic">you</span>, as I know your + picturesque turn, I can be in this country at no loss how to + cater for your entertainment, especially if you would think of + moving before the fall of the leaf. I believe with respect to the + real <span class="italic">To Kalon</span>, few villages can surpass that near which I am + now writing; and as to your rivers, it is part of my creed that + the Tweed and Teviot yield to none in the world, nor do I fear + that even in your eyes, which have been feasted on classic + ground, they will greatly sink in comparison with the Tiber or + Po. Then for antiquities, it is true we have got no temples or + heathenish fanes to show; but if substantial old castles and + ruined abbeys will serve in their stead, they are to be found in + abundance. So much for Linton and you. As for Mr. Robertson,<a id="footnotetag112" name="footnotetag112"></a><a href="#footnote112"><span class="small" title="Go to Footnote 112">[112]</span></a> + I don't know quite so well how to bribe him. We had indeed lately + a party of strollers here, who might in some degree have + entertained him, <span class="italic">i. e.</span>, in case he felt no compassion for the + horrid and tragical murders which they nightly committed,—but + now, <span class="italic">Alas, Sir! the players be gone</span>.</p> + +<p>I am at present very uncertain as to my own motions, but I still + hope to be northwards again before the commencement of the + session, which (d—n it) is beginning to draw nigher than I could + wish. I would esteem myself greatly favored by a few lines + informing me of your motions when they are settled; since + visiting you, should I go north, or attending you if you come + this way, are my two grand plans of amusement.</p> + +<p>What think you of our politics now? Had I been within reach of + you, or any of the chosen, I suspect the taking of Valenciennes + would have been sustained as a reason for examining the contents + of t'other bottle, which has too often suffered for slighter + pretences. I have little <span class="pagenum"><a id="page202" name="page202"></a>(p. 202)</span> doubt, however, that by the + time we meet in glory (terrestrial glory, I mean) Dunkirk will be + an equally good apology. Adieu, my good friend; remember me + kindly to Mr. Robertson, to Linton, and to the Baronet. I + understand both these last intend seeing you soon. I am very + sincerely yours,</p> + +<p class="left50"><span class="smcap">Walter Scott</span>.</p> +</div> + +<p>The winter of 1793-94 appears to have been passed like the preceding +one: the German class resumed their sittings; Scott spoke in his +debating club on the questions of Parliamentary Reform and the +Inviolability of the Person of the First Magistrate, which the +circumstances of the time had invested with extraordinary interest, +and in both of which he no doubt took the side adverse to the +principles of the English, and the practice of the French Liberals. +His love-affair continued on exactly the same footing as before;—and +for the rest, like the young heroes in Redgauntlet, he "swept the +boards of the Parliament House with the skirts of his gown; laughed, +and made others laugh; drank claret at Bayle's, Fortune's, and +Walker's, and eat oysters in the Covenant Close." On his desk "the +new novel most in repute lay snugly intrenched beneath Stair's +Institute, or an open volume of Decisions;" and his dressing-table was +littered with "old play-bills, letters respecting a meeting of the +Faculty, Rules of the Speculative, Syllabus of Lectures—all the +miscellaneous contents of a young advocate's pocket, which contains +everything but briefs and bank-notes." His professional occupation was +still very slender; but he took a lively interest in the proceedings +of the criminal court, and more especially in those arising out of the +troubled state of the public feeling as to politics.</p> + +<p>In the spring of 1794 I find him writing to his friends in +Roxburghshire with great exultation about the "good spirit" +manifesting itself among the upper classes of the citizens of +Edinburgh, and, above all, the organization of a <span class="pagenum"><a id="page203" name="page203"></a>(p. 203)</span> regiment of +volunteers, in which his brother Thomas, now a fine active young man, +equally handsome and high-spirited, was enrolled as a grenadier, +while, as he remarks, his own "unfortunate infirmity" condemned him to +be "a mere spectator of the drills." In the course of the same year, +the plan of a corps of volunteer light horse was started; and, if the +recollection of Mr. Skene be accurate, the suggestion originally +proceeded from Scott himself, who certainly had a principal share in +its subsequent success. He writes to his uncle at Rosebank, requesting +him to be on the lookout for a "strong gelding, such as would suit a +stalwart dragoon;" and intimating his intention to part with his +collection of Scottish coins, rather than not be mounted to his mind. +The corps, however, was not organized for some time; and in the mean +while he had an opportunity of displaying his zeal in a manner which +Captain Scott by no means considered as so respectable.</p> + +<p>A party of Irish medical students began, towards the end of April, to +make themselves remarkable in the Edinburgh Theatre, where they +mustered in a particular corner of the pit, and lost no opportunity of +insulting the Loyalists of the boxes, by calling for revolutionary +tunes, applauding every speech that could bear a seditious meaning, +and drowning the national anthem in howls and hootings. The young +Tories of the Parliament House resented this license warmly, and after +a succession of minor disturbances, the quarrel was, put to the issue +of a regular trial by combat. Scott was conspicuous among the juvenile +advocates and solicitors who on this grand night assembled in front of +the pit, armed with stout cudgels, and determined to have God save the +King not only played without interruption, but sung in full chorus by +both company and audience. The Irishmen were ready at the first note +of the anthem. They rose, clapped on their hats, and brandished their +shillelahs; a stern battle ensued, and after many a head had been +cracked, the <span class="pagenum"><a id="page204" name="page204"></a>(p. 204)</span> Loyalists at length found themselves in +possession of the field. In writing to Simprim a few days afterwards, +Scott says—"You will be glad to hear that the <span class="italic">affair</span> of Saturday +passed over without any worse consequence to the Loyalists than that +five, including your friend and humble servant Colonel Grogg, have +been bound over to the peace, and obliged to give bail for their good +behavior, which, you may believe, was easily found. The said Colonel +had no less than three broken heads laid to his charge by as many of +the Democrats." Alluding to Simprim's then recent appointment as +Captain in the Perthshire Fencibles (Cavalry), he adds—"Among my own +military (I mean mock-military) achievements, let me not fail to +congratulate you and the country on the real character you have agreed +to accept. Remember; in case of real action, I shall beg the honor of +admission to your troop as a volunteer."</p> + +<p>One of the theatrical party, Sir Alexander Wood, whose notes lie +before me, says—"Walter was certainly our Coryphĉus, and signalized +himself splendidly in this desperate fray; and nothing used afterwards +to afford him more delight than dramatizing its incidents. Some of the +most efficient of our allies were persons previously unknown to him, +and of several of these whom he had particularly observed, he never +lost sight afterwards. There were, I believe, cases in which they owed +most valuable assistance in life to his recollection of <span class="italic">the playhouse +row</span>." To this last part of Sir Alexander's testimony I can also add +mine; and I am sure my worthy friend, Mr. Donald M'Lean, W. S., will +gratefully confirm it. When that gentleman became candidate for some +office in the Exchequer, about 1822 or 1823, and Sir Walter's interest +was requested on his behalf,—"To be sure!" said he; "did not he sound +the charge upon Paddy? Can I ever forget Donald's <span class="italic">Sticks by +G——t</span>?"<a id="footnotetag113" name="footnotetag113"></a><a href="#footnote113"><span class="small" title="Go to Footnote 113">[113]</span></a></p> + +<p>On <span class="pagenum"><a id="page205" name="page205"></a>(p. 205)</span> the 9th May, 1794, Charles Kerr of Abbotrule writes to +him—"I was last night at Rosebank, and your uncle told me he had been +giving you a very long and very sage lecture upon the occasion of +these Edinburgh squabbles; I am happy to hear they are now at an end. +They were rather of the serious cast, and though you encountered them +with spirit and commendable resolution, I, with your uncle, should +wish to see your abilities conspicuous on another theatre." The same +gentleman, in his next letter (June 3), congratulates Scott on having +"seen <span class="italic">his name in the newspaper</span>," namely, as counsel for another +Roxburghshire laird, by designation <span class="italic">Bedrule</span>. Such, no doubt, was +Abbotrule's "other theatre."</p> + +<p>Scott spent the long vacation of this year chiefly in Roxburghshire, +but again visited Keir, Cambusmore, and others of his friends in +Perthshire, and came to Edinburgh, early in September, to be present +at the trials of Watt and Downie, on a charge of high treason. Watt +seems to have tendered his services to Government as a spy upon the +Society of the Friends of the People in Edinburgh, but ultimately, +considering himself as underpaid, to have embraced, to their wildest +extent, the schemes he had become acquainted with in the course of +this worthy occupation; and he, and one Downie, a mechanic, were now +arraigned as having taken a prominent part in the organizing of a plot +for a general rising in Edinburgh, to seize the Castle, the Bank, the +persons of the Judges, and proclaim a Provisional Republican +Government; all which was supposed to have been arranged in concert +with the Hardies, Thelwalls, Holcrofts, and so forth, who were a few +weeks later brought to trial in London for an alleged conspiracy to +"summon delegates to a National Convention, with a view to subvert the +Government, and levy war upon the King." The English prisoners were +acquitted, but Watt and Downie were not so fortunate. Scott writes as +follows to his aunt, Miss Christian Rutherford, then at Ashestiel, in +Selkirkshire:—</p> + +<div class="quote"> +<p class="left50"><span class="smcap">Advocates' <span class="pagenum"><a id="page206" name="page206"></a>(p. 206)</span> Library</span>, 5th September, 1794.</p> + +<p>My dear Miss Christy will perceive, from the date of this + epistle, that I have accomplished my purpose of coming to town to + be present at the trial of the Edinburgh traitors. I arrived here + on Monday evening from Kelso, and was present at Watt's trial on + Wednesday, which displayed to the public the most atrocious and + deliberate plan of villainy which has occurred, perhaps, in the + annals of Great Britain. I refer you for particulars to the + papers, and shall only add, that the equivocations and perjury of + the witnesses (most of them being accomplices in what they called + the <span class="italic">great plan</span>) set the abilities of Mr. Anstruther, the King's + counsel, in the most striking point of view. The patience and + temper with which he tried them on every side, and screwed out of + them the evidence they were so anxious to conceal, showed much + knowledge of human nature; and the art with which he arranged the + information he received, made the trial, upon the whole, the most + interesting I ever was present at. Downie's trial is just now + going forwards over my head; but as the evidence is just the same + as formerly brought against Watt, is not so interesting. You will + easily believe that on Wednesday my curiosity was too much + excited to retire at an early hour, and, indeed, I sat in the + Court from seven in the morning till two the next morning; but as + I had provided myself with some cold meat and a bottle of wine, I + contrived to support the fatigue pretty well. It strikes me, upon + the whole, that the plan of these miscreants might, from its very + desperate and improbable nature, have had no small chance of + succeeding, at least as far as concerned cutting off the + soldiers, and obtaining possession of the banks, besides shedding + the blood of the most distinguished inhabitants. There, I think, + the evil must have stopped, unless they had further support than + has yet appeared. Stooks was the prime mover of the whole, and + the person who supplied the money; and our theatrical + disturbances are found to have <span class="pagenum"><a id="page207" name="page207"></a>(p. 207)</span> formed one link of the + chain. So, I have no doubt, Messrs. Stooks, Burk, etc., would + have found out a new way of paying old debts. The <span class="italic">people</span> are + perfectly quiescent upon this grand occasion, and seem to + interest themselves very little in the fate of their <span class="italic">soi-disant + friends</span>. The Edinburgh volunteers make a respectable and + formidable appearance already. They are exercised four hours + almost every day, with all the rigor of military discipline. The + grenadier company consists entirely of men above six feet. So + much for public news.</p> + +<p>As to home intelligence—you know that my mother and Anne had + projected a <span class="italic">jaunt</span> to Inverleithen; fate, however, had destined + otherwise. The intended day of departure was ushered in by a most + complete deluge, to which, and the consequent disappointment, our + proposed travellers did not submit with that Christian meekness + which might have beseemed. In short, both within and without + doors, it was a <span class="italic">devil</span> of a day. The second was like unto it. + The third day came a post, a killing post,<a id="footnotetag114" name="footnotetag114"></a><a href="#footnote114"><span class="small" title="Go to Footnote 114">[114]</span></a> and in the shape + of a letter from this fountain of health, informed us no lodgings + were to be had there; so, whatever be its virtues, or the + grandeur attending a journey to its streams, we might as well + have proposed to visit the river Jordan, or the walls of Jericho. + Not so our heroic John; he has been arrived here for some time + (much the same as when he went away), and has formed the + desperate resolution of riding out with me to Kelso to-morrow + morning. I have stayed a day longer, waiting for the arrival of a + pair of new boots and buckskin etcs., in which the soldier is to + be equipt. I ventured to hint the convenience of a roll of + diaculum plaister, and a box of the most approved horseman-salve, + in which recommendation our doctor<a id="footnotetag115" name="footnotetag115"></a><a href="#footnote115"><span class="small" title="Go to Footnote 115">[115]</span></a> warmly joined. His + impatience for the journey has been somewhat cooled by some + inclination yesterday <span class="pagenum"><a id="page208" name="page208"></a>(p. 208)</span> displayed by his charger (a pony + belonging to Anne) to lay his warlike rider in the dust—a + purpose he had nearly effected. He next mounted Queen Mab, who + treated him with little more complaisance, and, in carters' + phrase, would neither <span class="italic">hap</span> nor <span class="italic">wynd</span> till she got rid of him. + Seriously, however, if Jack has not returned covered with + laurels, a crop which the Rock<a id="footnotetag116" name="footnotetag116"></a><a href="#footnote116"><span class="small" title="Go to Footnote 116">[116]</span></a> no longer produces, he has + brought back all his own good-nature, and a manner considerably + improved, so that he is at times very agreeable company. Best + love to Miss R., Jean, and Anne (I hope they are improved at the + battledore), and the boys, not forgetting my friend Archy, though + least not last in my remembrance. Best compliments to the + Colonel.<a id="footnotetag117" name="footnotetag117"></a><a href="#footnote117"><span class="small" title="Go to Footnote 117">[117]</span></a> I shall remember with pleasure Ashestiel + hospitality, and not without a desire to put it to the proof next + year. Adieu, ma chère amie. When you write, direct to Rosebank, + and I shall be a good boy, and write you another sheet of + nonsense soon. All friends here well. Ever yours affectionately,</p> + +<p class="left50"><span class="smcap">Walter Scott</span>.</p> +</div> + +<p>The letter, of which the following is an extract, must have been +written in October or November—Scott having been in Liddesdale, and +again in Perthshire, during the interval. It is worth quoting for the +little domestic allusions with which it concludes, and which every one +who has witnessed the discipline of a Presbyterian family of the old +school, at the time of preparation for <span class="italic">the Communion</span>, will perfectly +understand. Scott's father, though on particular occasions he could +permit himself, like Saunders Fairford, to play the part of a good +Amphitryon, was habitually ascetic in his habits. I have heard his son +tell, that it was common with him, if any one observed that the soup +was good, to taste it again, and say,—"Yes, <span class="pagenum"><a id="page209" name="page209"></a>(p. 209)</span> it is too good, +bairns," and dash a tumbler of cold water into his plate. It is easy, +therefore, to imagine with what rigidity he must have enforced the +ultra-Catholic severities which marked, in those days, the yearly or +half-yearly <span class="italic">retreat</span> of the descendants of John Knox.</p> + +<div class="quote"> +<p class="tit-center">TO MISS CHRISTIAN RUTHERFORD, ASHESTIEL.</p> + +<p>Previous to my ramble, I stayed a single day in town, to witness + the exit of the <span class="italic">ci-devant</span> Jacobin, Mr. Watt. It was a very + solemn scene, but the pusillanimity of the unfortunate victim was + astonishing, considering the boldness of his nefarious plans. It + is matter of general regret that his associate Downie should have + received a reprieve, which, I understand, is now prolonged for a + second month, I suppose to wait the issue of the London trials. + Our volunteers are now completely embodied, and, notwithstanding + the heaviness of their dress, have a martial and striking + appearance. Their accuracy in firing and manœvring excites the + surprise of military gentlemen, who are the best judges of their + merit in that way. Tom is very proud of the grenadier company, to + which he belongs, which has indisputably carried off the palm + upon all public occasions. And now, give me leave to ask you + whether the approaching <span class="italic">winter</span> does not remind you of your snug + parlor in George's Street? Do you not feel a little uncomfortable + when you see</p> + +<p class="poem30"><span class="add3em">"how bleak and bare</span><br> + He wanders o'er the heights of <span class="italic">Yair</span>?"</p> + +<p>Amidst all this regard for your accommodation, don't suppose I am + devoid of a little self-interest when I press your speedy return + to Auld Reekie, for I am really tiring excessively to see the + said parlor again inhabited, Besides that, I want the assistance + of your eloquence to convince my honored father that Nature did + not mean me either for a vagabond or <span class="italic">travelling merchant</span>, when + she honored <span class="pagenum"><a id="page210" name="page210"></a>(p. 210)</span> me with the wandering propensity lately so + conspicuously displayed. I saw Dr. yesterday, who is well. I did + not choose to intrude upon the little lady, this being sermon + week; for the same reason we are looking very religious and very + sour at home. However, it is with <span class="italic">some folk</span> selon les règles, + that in proportion as they are pure themselves, they are entitled + to render uncomfortable those whom they consider as less perfect. + Best love to Miss R., cousins and friends in general, and believe + me ever most sincerely yours,</p> + +<p class="left50"><span class="smcap">Walter Scott</span>.</p> +</div> + +<p>In July, 1795, a young lad, James Niven by name, who had served for +some time with excellent character on board a ship of war, and been +discharged in consequence of a wound which disabled one of his hands, +had the misfortune, in firing off a toy cannon in one of the narrow +wynds of Edinburgh, to kill on the spot David Knox, one of the +attendants of the Court of Session; a button, or some other hard +substance, having been accidentally inserted with his cartridge. Scott +was one of his counsel when he was arraigned for murder, and had +occasion to draw up a written argument or <span class="italic">information</span> for the +prisoner, from which I shall make a short quotation. Considered as a +whole, the production seems both crude and clumsy, but the following +passages have, I think, several traces of the style of thought and +language which he afterwards made familiar to the world:—</p> + +<div class="quote"> +<p>"Murder," he writes, "or the premeditated slaughter of a citizen, + is a crime of so deep and scarlet a dye, that there is scarce a + nation to be found in which it has not, from the earliest period, + been deemed worthy of a capital punishment. 'He who sheddeth + man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed,' is a general maxim + which has received the assent of all times and countries. But it + is equally certain that even the rude legislators of former days + soon perceived that the death of one man may be occasioned by + another, without the slayer himself being the proper object of + the <span class="italic">lex talionis</span>. Such an accident may happen <span class="pagenum"><a id="page211" name="page211"></a>(p. 211)</span> either + by the carelessness of the killer, or through that excess and + vehemence of passion to which humanity is incident. In either + case, though blamable, he ought not to be confounded with the + cool and deliberate assassin, and the species of criminality + attaching itself to those acts has been distinguished by the term + <span class="italic">dolus</span>, in opposition to the milder term <span class="italic">culpa</span>. Again, there + may be a third species of homicide, in which the perpetrator + being the innocent and unfortunate cause of casual misfortune, + becomes rather an object of compassion than punishment.</p> + +<p>"Admitting there may have been a certain degree of culpability in + the panel's conduct, still there is one circumstance which pleads + strongly in his favor, so as to preclude all presumption of + <span class="italic">dole</span>. This is the frequent practice, whether proper or + improper, of using this amusement in the streets. It is a matter + of public notoriety, that boys of all ages and descriptions are, + or at least till the late very proper proclamation of the + magistrates were, to be seen every evening in almost every corner + of this city, amusing themselves with fire-arms and small + cannons, and that without being checked or interfered with. When + the panel, a poor ignorant raw lad, lately discharged from a ship + of war—certainly not the most proper school to learn a prudent + aversion to unlucky or mischievous practices—observed the sons + of gentlemen of the first respectability engaged in such + amusements, unchecked by their parents or by the magistrates, + surely it can hardly be expected that he should discover that in + imitating them in so common a practice, he was constituting + himself <span class="italic">hostis humani generis</span>, a wretch the pest and scourge of + mankind.</p> + +<p>"There is, no doubt, attached to every even the most innocent of + casual slaughter, a certain degree of blame, inasmuch as almost + everything of the kind might have been avoided had the slayer + exhibited the strictest degree of diligence. A well-known and + authentic story will illustrate the proposition. A young + gentleman, just married to a young lady of whom he was + passionately fond, in affectionate trifling presented at her a + pistol, of which he had drawn the charge some days before. The + lady, entering into the joke, desired him to fire: he did so, and + shot her dead; the pistol having been again charged by his + servant without his knowledge. Can any one read this story, and + feel <span class="pagenum"><a id="page212" name="page212"></a>(p. 212)</span> any emotion but that of sympathy towards the + unhappy husband? Can they ever connect the case with an idea of + punishment? Yet, divesting it of these interesting circumstances + which act upon the imagination, it is precisely that of the panel + at your Lordships' Bar; and though no one will pretend to say + that such a homicide is other than casual, yet there is not the + slightest question but it might have been avoided had the killer + taken the precaution of examining his piece. But this is not the + degree of <span class="italic">culpa</span> which can raise a misfortune to the pitch of a + crime. It is only an instance that no accident can take place + without its afterwards being discovered that the chief actor + might have avoided committing it, had he been gifted with the + spirit of prophecy, or with such an extreme degree of prudence as + is almost equally rare.</p> + +<p>"In the instance of shooting at butts, or at a bird, the person + killed must have been somewhat in the line previous to the + discharge of the shot, otherways it could never have come near + him. The shooter must therefore have been guilty <span class="italic">culpĉ levis seu + levissimĉ</span> in firing while the deceased was in such a situation. + In like manner, it is difficult to conceive how death should + happen in consequence of a boxing or wrestling match, without + some excess upon the part of the killer. Nay, in the exercise of + the martial amusements of our forefathers, even by royal + commission, should a champion be slain in running his barriers, + or performing his tournament, it could scarcely happen without + some <span class="italic">culpa seu levis seu levissima</span>, on the part of his + antagonist. Yet all these are enumerated in the English law-books + as instances of casual homicide only; and we may therefore safely + conclude, that by the law of the sister country a slight degree + of blame will not subject the slayer <span class="italic">per infortunium</span> to the + penalties of culpable homicide.</p> + +<p>"Guilt, as an object of punishment, has its origin in the mind + and intention of the actor; and therefore, where that is wanting, + there is no proper object of chastisement. A madman, for example, + can no more properly be said to be guilty of murder than the + sword with which he commits it, both being equally incapable of + intending injury. In the present case, in like manner, although + it ought no doubt to be matter of deep sorrow and contrition to + the panel that his folly should have occasioned the loss of life + to a fellow-creature; yet as that folly can neither be <span class="pagenum"><a id="page213" name="page213"></a>(p. 213)</span> + termed malice, nor yet doth amount to a gross negligence, he + ought rather to be pitied than condemned. The fact done can never + be recalled, and it rests with your Lordships to consider the + case of this unfortunate young man, who has served his country in + an humble though useful station,—deserved such a character as is + given him in the letter of his officers,—and been disabled in + that service. You will best judge how (considering he has + suffered a confinement of six months) he can in humanity be the + object of further or severer punishment, for a deed of which his + mind at least, if not his hand, is guiltless. When a case is + attended with some nicety, your Lordships will allow mercy to + incline the balance of justice, well considering with the + legislator of the East, 'It is better ten guilty should escape + than that one innocent man should perish in his innocence.'"</p> +</div> + +<p>The young sailor was acquitted.</p> + +<p>To return for a moment to Scott's love-affair. I find him writing as +follows, in March, 1795, to his cousin, William Scott, now Laird of +Raeburn, who was then in the East Indies:—"The lady you allude to has +been in town all this winter, and going a good deal into public, which +has not in the least altered the meekness of her manners. Matters, you +see, stand just as they did."</p> + +<p>To another friend he writes thus, from Rosebank, on the 23d of August, +1795:—</p> + +<div class="quote"> +<p>It gave me the highest satisfaction to find, by the receipt of + your letter of the 14th current, that you have formed precisely + the same opinion with me, both with regard to the interpretation + of [Miss Stuart's] letter as highly flattering and favorable, and + to the mode of conduct I ought to pursue—for, after all, what + she has pointed out is the most prudent line of conduct for us + both, at least till better days, which, I think myself now + entitled to suppose, she, as well as I myself, will look forward + to with pleasure. If you were surprised at reading the <span class="pagenum"><a id="page214" name="page214"></a>(p. 214)</span> + important billet, you may guess how agreeably I was so at + receiving it; for I had, to anticipate disappointment, struggled + to suppress every rising gleam of hope; and it would be very + difficult to describe the mixed feelings her letter occasioned, + which, <span class="italic">entre nous</span>, terminated in a very hearty fit of crying. I + read over her epistle about ten times a day, and always with new + admiration of her generosity and candor—and as often take shame + to myself for the mean suspicions, which, after knowing her so + long, I could listen to, while endeavoring to guess how she would + conduct herself. To tell you the truth, I cannot but confess that + my <span class="italic">amour propre</span>, which one would expect should have been + exalted, has suffered not a little upon this occasion, through a + sense of my own <span class="italic">unworthiness</span>, pretty similar to that which + afflicted Linton upon sitting down at Keir's table. I ought + perhaps to tell you, what indeed you will perceive from her + letter, that I was always attentive, while consulting with you + upon the subject of my declaration, rather to under-than + over-rate the extent of our intimacy. By the way, I must not omit + mentioning the respect in which I hold your knowledge of the fair + sex, and your capacity of advising in these matters, since it + certainly is to your encouragement that I owe the present + situation of my affairs. I wish to God, that, since you have + acted as so useful an auxiliary during my attack, which has + succeeded in bringing the enemy to terms, you would next sit down + before some fortress yourself, and were it as impregnable as the + rock of Gibraltar, I should, notwithstanding, have the highest + expectations of your final success. Not a line from poor + Jack—What can he be doing? Moping, I suppose, about some + watering-place, and deluging his guts with specifics of every + kind—or lowering and snorting in one corner of a post-chaise, + with Kennedy, as upright and cold as a poker, stuck into the + other. As for Linton, and Crab, I anticipate with pleasure their + marvellous adventures, in the course of which Dr. <span class="pagenum"><a id="page215" name="page215"></a>(p. 215)</span> + Black's <span class="italic">self-denying ordinance</span> will run a shrewd chance of + being neglected.<a id="footnotetag118" name="footnotetag118"></a><a href="#footnote118"><span class="small" title="Go to Footnote 118">[118]</span></a> They will be a source of fun for the winter + evening conversations. Methinks I see the pair upon the mountains + of Tipperary—John with a beard of three inches, united and + blended with his shaggy black locks, an ellwand-looking cane with + a gilt head in his hand, and a bundle in a handkerchief over his + shoulder, exciting the cupidity of every Irish raparee who passes + him, by his resemblance to a Jew pedlar who has sent forward his + pack—Linton, tired of trailing his long legs, exalted in state + upon an Irish garron, without stirrups, and a halter on its head, + tempting every one to ask—</p> + +<p class="poem30">"Who is that upon the pony,<br> + So long, so lean, so raw, so bony?"<a id="footnotetag119" name="footnotetag119"></a><a href="#footnote119"><span class="small" title="Go to Footnote 119">[119]</span></a></p> + +<p>—calculating, as he moves along, the expenses of the salt + horse—and grinning a ghastly smile, when the hollow voice of his + fellow-traveller observes—"God! Adam, if ye gang on at this + rate, the eight shillings and seven-pence halfpenny will never + carry us forward to my uncle's at Lisburn." Enough of a thorough + Irish expedition.</p> + +<p>We have a great marriage towards here—Scott of Harden, and a + daughter of Count Brühl, the famous chess-player, a lady of + sixteen quarters, half-sister to the Wyndhams. I wish they may + come down soon, as we shall have fine racketing, of which I will, + probably, get my share. I think of being in town some time next + month, but whether for good and all, or only for a visit, I + <span class="pagenum"><a id="page216" name="page216"></a>(p. 216)</span> am not certain. Oh, for November! Our meeting will be a + little embarrassing one. How will she look, etc., etc., etc., are + the important subjects of my present conjectures—how different + from what they were three weeks ago! I give you leave to laugh + when I tell you seriously, I had begun to "dwindle, peak, and + pine," upon the subject—but now, after the charge I have + received, it were a shame to resemble Pharaoh's lean kine. If + good living and plenty of exercise can avert that calamity, I am + in little danger of disobedience, and so, to conclude + classically,</p> + +<p><span class="add2em">Dicite Io pœan, et Io bis dicite pœan!—</span><br> +<span class="add4em">Jubeo te bene valere,</span><br> +<span class="left50 smcap">Gualterus Scott</span>.</p> +</div> + +<p>I have had much hesitation about inserting the preceding letter, but +could not make up my mind to omit what seems to me a most exquisite +revelation of the whole character of Scott at this critical period of +his history, both literary and personal;—more especially of his +habitual effort to suppress, as far as words were concerned, the more +tender feelings, which were in no heart deeper than in his.</p> + +<p>It must, I think, have been, while he was indulging his <span class="italic">vagabond</span> +vein, during the autumn of 1795, that Mrs. Barbauld paid her visit to +Edinburgh, and entertained a party at Mr. Dugald Stewart's, by reading +Mr. William Taylor's then unpublished version of Bürger's Lenore. In +the essay on Imitation of Popular Poetry, the reader has a full +account of the interest with which Scott heard, some weeks afterwards, +a friend's imperfect recollections of this performance; the anxiety +with which he sought after a copy of the original German; the delight +with which he at length perused it; and how, having just been reading +the specimens of ballad poetry introduced into Lewis's romance of The +Monk, he called to mind the early facility of versification which had +lain so long in abeyance, <span class="pagenum"><a id="page217" name="page217"></a>(p. 217)</span> and ventured to promise his friend +a rhymed translation of Lenore from his own pen. The friend in +question was Miss Cranstoun, afterwards Countess of Purgstall, the +sister of his friend George Cranstoun, now Lord Corehouse. He began +the task, he tells us, after supper, and did not retire to bed until +he had finished it, having by that time worked himself into a state of +excitement which set sleep at defiance.</p> + +<p>Next morning, before breakfast, he carried his MS. to Miss Cranstoun, +who was not only delighted but astonished at it; for I have seen a +letter of hers to a common friend in the country, in which she +says—"Upon my word, Walter Scott is going to turn out a +poet—something of a cross, I think, between Burns and Gray." The same +day he read it also to his friend Sir Alexander Wood, who retains a +vivid recollection of the high strain of enthusiasm into which he had +been exalted by dwelling on the wild unearthly imagery of the German +bard. "He read it over to me," says Sir Alexander, "in a very slow and +solemn tone, and after we had said a few words about its merits, +continued to look at the fire silent and musing for some minutes, +until he at length burst out with 'I wish to Heaven I could get a +skull and two cross-bones.'" Wood said that if Scott would accompany +him to the house of John Bell, the celebrated surgeon, he had no doubt +this wish might be easily gratified. They went thither accordingly on +the instant;—Mr. Bell smiled on hearing the object of their visit, +and pointing to a closet, at the corner of his library, bade Walter +enter and choose. From a well-furnished museum of mortality, he +selected forthwith what seemed to him the handsomest skull and pair of +cross-bones it contained, and wrapping them in his handkerchief, +carried the formidable bundle home to George's Square. The trophies +were immediately mounted on the top of his little bookcase; and when +Wood visited him, after many years of absence from this country, he +found them in possession of <span class="pagenum"><a id="page218" name="page218"></a>(p. 218)</span> a similar position in his +dressing-room at Abbotsford.<a id="footnotetag120" name="footnotetag120"></a><a href="#footnote120"><span class="small" title="Go to Footnote 120">[120]</span></a></p> + +<p>All this occurred in the beginning of April, 1796. A few days +afterwards, Scott went to pay a visit at a country house, where he +expected to meet the "lady of his love." Jane Anne Cranstoun was in +the secret of his attachment, and knew, that however doubtful might be +Miss [Stuart's] feeling on that subject, she had a high admiration of +Scott's abilities, and often corresponded with him on literary +matters; so, after he had left Edinburgh, it occurred to her that she +might perhaps forward his views in this quarter, by presenting him in +the character of a printed author. William Erskine being called into +her councils, a few copies of the ballad were forthwith thrown off in +the most elegant style, and one, richly bound and blazoned, followed +Scott in the course of a few days to the country. The verses were read +and approved of, and Miss Cranstoun at least flattered herself that he +had not made his first appearance in types to no purpose.<a id="footnotetag121" name="footnotetag121"></a><a href="#footnote121"><span class="small" title="Go to Footnote 121">[121]</span></a></p> + +<p>I ought to have mentioned before, that in June, 1795, he was appointed +one of the curators of the Advocates' Library, an office always +reserved for those members of the Faculty who have the reputation of +superior zeal in literary affairs. He had for colleagues David Hume, +the Professor of Scots Law, and Malcolm Laing, the historian; and his +discharge of his functions must have given satisfaction, for I find +him further nominated, in March, 1796, together with Mr. Robert +Hodgson Cay—an accomplished gentleman, afterwards Judge of the +Admiralty Court in Scotland—to "put the Faculty's cabinet of medals +in proper arrangement."</p> + +<p>On <span class="pagenum"><a id="page219" name="page219"></a>(p. 219)</span> the 4th of June, 1796 (the birthday of George III.), there +seems to have been a formidable riot in Edinburgh, and Scott is found +again in the front. On the 5th, he writes as follows to his aunt, +Christian Rutherford, who was then in the north of Scotland, and had +meant to visit, among other places, the residence of the "chère +adorable."</p> + +<div class="quote"> +<p class="left50"><span class="smcap">Edinburgh</span>, 5th June, 1796.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">My Chère Amie</span>,—Nothing doubting that your curiosity will be upon + the tenters to hear the wonderful events of the long-expected 4th + of June, I take the pen to inform you that not one worth + mentioning has taken place. Were I inclined to prolixity, I + might, indeed, narrate at length <span class="italic">how</span> near a thousand gentlemen + (myself among the number) offered their services to the + magistrates to act as <span class="italic">constables</span> for the preservation of the + peace—how their services were accepted—what fine speeches were + made upon the occasion—<span class="italic">how</span> they were furnished with pretty + painted brown <span class="italic">batons</span>—<span class="italic">how</span> they were assembled in the aisle of + the New Church, and treated with claret and sweetmeats—<span class="italic">how</span> Sir + John Whiteford was chased by the mob, and <span class="italic">how</span> Tom, Sandy Wood, + and I rescued him, and dispersed his tormentors <span class="italic">à beaux coups de + batons</span>—<span class="italic">how</span> the Justice-Clerk's windows were broke by a few + boys, and <span class="italic">how</span> a large body of constables and a press-gang of + near two hundred men arrived, and were much disappointed at + finding the coast entirely clear; with many other matters of + equal importance, but of which you must be contented to remain in + ignorance till you return to your castle. Seriously, everything, + with the exception of the very trifling circumstances above + mentioned, was perfectly quiet—much more so than during any + King's birthday I can recollect. That very stillness, however, + shows that something is brewing among our friends the Democrats, + which they will take their own time of bringing forward. By the + wise precautions of the magistrates, or rather of the provost, + and <span class="pagenum"><a id="page220" name="page220"></a>(p. 220)</span> the spirited conduct of the gentlemen, I hope their + designs will be frustrated. Our association meets to-night, when + we are to be divided into districts according to the place of our + abode, places of rendezvous and captains named; so that, upon the + hoisting of a flag on the Tron-steeple, and ringing out all the + large bells, we can be on duty in less than five minutes. I am + sorry to say that the complexion of the town seems to justify all + precautions of this kind. I hope we shall demean ourselves as + <span class="italic">quiet</span> and <span class="italic">peaceable</span> magistrates; and intend, for the purpose + of learning the duties of my new office, to con diligently the + instructions delivered to the watch by our brother Dogberry, of + facetious memory. So much for information. By way of inquiry, + pray let me know—that is, when you find a very idle hour—how + you accomplished the perilous passage of her Majestie's Ferry + without the assistance and escort of your preux-chevalier, and + whether you will receive them on your return—how Miss R. and you + are spending your time, whether stationary or otherwise—above + all, whether you have been at [Invermay] and all the etcs., + etcs., which the question involves. Having made out a pretty long + scratch, which, as Win Jenkins says, will take you some time to + decipher, I shall only inform you farther, that I shall tire + excessively till you return to your shop. I beg to be remembered + to Miss Kerr, and in particular to La Belle Jeanne. Best love to + Miss Rutherford; and believe me ever, my dear Miss Christy, + sincerely and affectionately your</p> + +<p class="left50"><span class="smcap">Walter Scott</span></p> +</div> + +<p>During the autumn of 1796 he visited again his favorite haunts in +Perthshire and Forfarshire. It was in the course of this tour that he +spent a day or two at Montrose with his old tutor Mitchell, and +astonished and grieved that worthy Presbyterian by his zeal about +witches and fairies.<a id="footnotetag122" name="footnotetag122"></a><a href="#footnote122"><span class="small" title="Go to Footnote 122">[122]</span></a> The only letter of his, written during this +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page221" name="page221"></a>(p. 221)</span> expedition, that I have recovered, was addressed to another +of his clerical friends—one by no means of Mitchell's stamp—Mr. +Walker, the minister of Dunnottar, and it is chiefly occupied with an +account of his researches at a vitrified fort, in Kincardineshire, +commonly called Lady Fenella's Castle, and, according to tradition, +the scene of the murder of Kenneth III. While in the north, he visited +also the residence of the lady who had now for so many years been the +object of his attachment; and that his reception was not adequate to +his expectations, may be gathered pretty clearly from some expressions +in a letter addressed to him when at Montrose by his friend and +confidante, Miss Cranstoun:—</p> + +<div class="quote"> +<p class="tit-center">TO WALTER SCOTT, ESQ., POST-OFFICE, MONTROSE.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Dear Scott</span>,—Far be it from me to affirm that there are no + diviners in the land. The voice of the people and the voice of + God are loud in their testimony. Two years ago, when I was in the + neighborhood of Montrose, we had recourse for amusement one + evening to chiromancy, or, as the vulgar say, having our fortunes + read; and read mine were in such a sort, that either my letters + must have been inspected, or the devil was by in his own proper + person. I never mentioned the circumstance since, for obvious + reasons; but now that you are on the spot, I feel it my bounden + duty to conjure you not to put your shoes rashly from off your + feet, for you are not standing on holy ground.</p> + +<p>I bless the gods for conducting your poor dear soul safely to + Perth. When I consider the wilds, the forests, the lakes, the + rocks—and the spirits in which you must have whispered to their + startled echoes, it amazeth me how you escaped. Had you but + dismissed your little squire and Earwig,<a id="footnotetag123" name="footnotetag123"></a><a href="#footnote123"><span class="small" title="Go to Footnote 123">[123]</span></a> and spent a few + days as Orlando would have done, all posterity might have + profited by it; but to trot quietly away, without so much as one + stanza to despair—never talk to me of love again—never, never, + never! I am dying for your collection of exploits. When <span class="pagenum"><a id="page222" name="page222"></a>(p. 222)</span> + will you return? In the mean time, Heaven speed you! Be sober, + and hope to the end.</p> + +<p>William Taylor's translation of your ballad is published, and so + inferior, that I wonder we could tolerate it. Dugald Stewart read + yours to **** the other day. When he came to the fetter + dance,<a id="footnotetag124" name="footnotetag124"></a><a href="#footnote124"><span class="small" title="Go to Footnote 124">[124]</span></a> he looked up, and poor ***** was sitting with his hands + nailed to his knees, and the big tears rolling down his innocent + nose in so piteous a manner, that Mr. Stewart could not help + bursting out a-laughing. An angry man was *****. have seen another + edition, too, but it is below contempt. So many copies make the + ballad famous, so that every day adds to your renown.</p> + +<p>This here place is very, very dull. Erskine is in London; my dear + Thomson at Daily; Macfarlan hatching Kant—and George<a id="footnotetag125" name="footnotetag125"></a><a href="#footnote125"><span class="small" title="Go to Footnote 125">[125]</span></a> + Fountainhall.<a id="footnotetag126" name="footnotetag126"></a><a href="#footnote126"><span class="small" title="Go to Footnote 126">[126]</span></a> I have nothing more to tell you, but that I am + most affectionately yours. Many an anxious thought I have about + you. Farewell.—J. A. C.</p> +</div> + +<p>The <span class="pagenum"><a id="page223" name="page223"></a>(p. 223)</span> affair in which this romantic creature took so lively an +interest was now approaching its end. It was known, before this autumn +closed, that the lady of his vows had finally promised her hand to his +amiable rival; and, when the fact was announced, some of those who +knew Scott the best appear to have entertained very serious +apprehensions as to the effect which the disappointment might have +upon his feelings. For example, one of those brothers of <span class="italic">the +Mountain</span> wrote as follows to another of them, on the 12th October, +1796: "Mr. [Forbes] marries Miss [Stuart]. This is not good news. I +always dreaded there was some self-deception on the part of our +romantic friend, and I now shudder at the violence of his most +irritable and ungovernable mind. Who is it that says, 'Men have died, +and worms have eaten them, but not for <span class="smcap">LOVE</span>'? I hope sincerely it may +be verified on this occasion."</p> + +<p>Scott had, however, in all likelihood, digested his agony during the +solitary ride in the Highlands to which Miss Cranstoun's last letter +alludes.</p> + +<p>Talking of this story with Lord Kinnedder, I once asked him whether +Scott never made it the subject of verses at the period. His own +confession, that, even during the time when he had laid aside the +habit of versification, he did sometimes commit "a sonnet on a +mistress's eyebrow," had not then appeared. Lord Kinnedder answered, +"Oh yes, he made many little stanzas about the lady, and he sometimes +showed them to Cranstoun, Clerk, and myself—but we really thought +them in general very poor. Two things of the kind, however, have been +preserved—and one of them was done just after the conclusion of the +business." He then took down a volume of the English Minstrelsy, and +pointed out to me some lines On a Violet, which had not at that time +been included in Scott's collected works. Lord Kinnedder read them +over in his usual impressive, though not quite unaffected, manner, and +said, "I remember well, that when I first saw <span class="pagenum"><a id="page224" name="page224"></a>(p. 224)</span> these, I told +him they were his best, but he had touched them up afterwards."</p> + +<div class="poem20"> +<p>"The violet in her greenwood bower,<br> +<span class="add1em">Where birchen boughs with hazels mingle,</span><br> + May boast itself the fairest flower<br> +<span class="add1em">In glen or copse or forest dingle.</span></p> +<p>"Though fair her gems of azure hue<br> +<span class="add1em">Beneath the dewdrop's weight reclining,</span><br> + I've seen an eye of lovelier blue<br> +<span class="add1em">More sweet through watery lustre shining.</span></p> +<p>"The summer sun that dew shall dry,<br> +<span class="add1em">Ere yet the sun be past its morrow,</span><br> + Nor longer in my false love's eye<br> +<span class="add1em">Remained the tear of parting sorrow!"</span></p> +</div> + +<p>In turning over a volume of MS. papers, I have found a copy of verses, +which, from the hand, Scott had evidently written down within the last +ten years of his life. They are headed "To Time—by a Lady;" but +certain <span class="italic">initials</span> on the back satisfy me that the authoress was no +other than the object of his first passion.<a id="footnotetag127" name="footnotetag127"></a><a href="#footnote127"><span class="small" title="Go to Footnote 127">[127]</span></a> I think I must be +pardoned for transcribing the lines which had dwelt so long on his +memory—leaving it to the reader's fancy to picture the mood of mind +in which the fingers of a gray-haired man may have traced such a relic +of his youthful dreams:—</p> + +<div class="poem20"> +<p>"Friend of the wretch oppress'd with grief,<br> +<span class="add1em">Whose lenient hand, though slow, supplies</span><br> + The balm that lends to care relief,<br> +<span class="add1em">That wipes her tears—that checks her sighs!</span></p> +<p>"'Tis thine the wounded soul to heal<br> +<span class="add1em">That hopeless bleeds from sorrow's smart,</span><br> + From stern misfortune's shaft to steal<br> +<span class="add1em">The barb that rankles in the heart.</span></p> +<p>"What <span class="pagenum"><a id="page225" name="page225"></a>(p. 225)</span> though with thee the roses fly,<br> +<span class="add1em">And jocund youth's gay reign is o'er;</span><br> + Though dimm'd the lustre of the eye,<br> +<span class="add1em">And hope's vain dreams enchant no more?</span></p> +<p>"Yet in thy train come dove-eyed peace,<br> +<span class="add1em">Indifference with her heart of snow;</span><br> + At her cold couch, lo! sorrows cease,<br> +<span class="add1em">No thorns beneath her roses grow.</span></p> +<p>"O haste to grant thy suppliant's prayer,<br> +<span class="add1em">To me thy torpid calm impart;</span><br> + Rend from my brow youth's garland fair,<br> +<span class="add1em">But take the thorn that's in my heart.</span></p> +<p>"Ah! why do fabling poets tell<br> +<span class="add1em">That thy fleet wings outstrip the wind?</span><br> + Why feign thy course of joy the knell,<br> +<span class="add1em">And call thy slowest pace unkind?</span></p> +<p>"To me thy tedious feeble pace<br> +<span class="add1em">Comes laden with the weight of years;</span><br> + With sighs I view morn's blushing face,<br> +<span class="add1em">And hail mild evening with my tears."</span></p> +</div> + +<p>I venture to recall here to the reader's memory the opening of the +twelfth chapter of Peveril of the Peak, written twenty-six years after +the date of this youthful disappointment.</p> + +<p class="poem20">"Ah me! for aught that ever I could read,<br> + Could ever hear by tale or history,<br> + The course of true love never did run smooth!"<br> +<span class="left60"><span class="italic">Midsummer Night's Dream.</span></span></p> + +<p>"The celebrated passage which we have prefixed to this chapter has, +like most observations of the same author, its foundation in real +experience. The period at which love is formed for the first time, and +felt most strongly, is seldom that at which there is much prospect of +its being brought to a happy issue. The state of artificial society +opposes many complicated obstructions to early marriages; and the +chance is very great, that such obstacles prove insurmountable. In +fine, there are few men who do not look back in secret to some period +of their <span class="pagenum"><a id="page226" name="page226"></a>(p. 226)</span> youth, at which a sincere and early affection was +repulsed or betrayed, or became abortive from opposing circumstances. +It is these little passages of secret history, which leave a tinge of +romance in every bosom, scarce permitting us, even in the most busy or +the most advanced period of life, to listen with total indifference to +a tale of true love."<a href="#toc"><span class="small">[Back to Contents]</span></a></p> + + + + +<h3>CHAPTER VIII. <span class="pagenum"><a id="page227" name="page227"></a>(p. 227)</span></h3> + +<p class="summary">publication of ballads after bürger. — scott quartermaster of the +edinburgh light horse. — excursion to cumberland. — gilsland +wells. — miss carpenter. — marriage</p> + +<p class="center">1796-1797</p> + + +<p>Rebelling, as usual, against circumstances, Scott seems to have turned +with renewed ardor to his literary pursuits; and in that same October, +1796, he was "prevailed on," as he playfully expresses it, "by the +<span class="italic">request of friends</span>, to indulge his own vanity, by publishing the +translation of Lenore, with that of The Wild Huntsman, also from +Bürger, in a thin quarto." The little volume, which has no author's +name on the title-page, was printed for Manners and Miller of +Edinburgh. The first named of these respectable publishers had been a +fellow-student in the German class of Dr. Willich; and this +circumstance probably suggested the negotiation. It was conducted by +William Erskine, as appears from his postscript to a letter addressed +to Scott by his sister, who, before it reached its destination, had +become the wife of Mr. Campbell Colquhoun of Clathick and +Killermont—in after-days Lord Advocate of Scotland. This was another +of Scott's dearest female friends. The humble home which she shared +with her brother during his early struggles at the Bar had been the +scene of many of his happiest hours; and her letter affords such a +pleasing idea of the warm affectionateness of the little circle that I +cannot forbear inserting it:—</p> + +<div class="quote"> +<p class="tit-center">TO <span class="pagenum"><a id="page228" name="page228"></a>(p. 228)</span> WALTER SCOTT, ESQ., ROSEBANK, KELSO.</p> +<p class="left50">Monday evening.</p> + +<p>If it were not that etiquette and I were constantly at war, I + should think myself very blamable in thus trespassing against one + of its laws; but as it is long since I forswore its dominion, I + have acquired a prescriptive right to act as I will—and I shall + accordingly anticipate the station of a <span class="italic">matron</span> in addressing <span class="italic">a + young man</span>.</p> + +<p>I can express but a very, very little of what I feel, and shall + ever feel, for your unintermitting friendship and attention. I + have ever considered you as a brother, and shall <span class="italic">now</span> think + myself entitled to make even larger claims on your confidence. + Well do I remember the <span class="italic">dark</span> conference we lately held together! + The intention of unfolding <span class="italic">my own</span> future fate was often at my + lips.</p> + +<p>I cannot tell you my distress at leaving this house, wherein I + have enjoyed so much real happiness, and giving up the service of + so gentle a master, whose yoke was indeed easy. I will therefore + only commend him to your care as the last bequest of Mary Anne + Erskine, and conjure you to continue to each other through all + your pilgrimage as you have commenced it. May every happiness + attend you! Adieu!</p> + +<p><span class="add4em">Your most sincere friend and sister,</span><br> +<span class="left50">M. A. E.</span></p> +</div> + +<p>Mr. Erskine writes on the other page, "The poems are gorgeous, but I +have made no bargain with any bookseller. I have told M. and M. that I +won't be satisfied with indemnity, but an offer must be made. They +will be out before the end of the week." On what terms the publication +really took place, I know not.</p> + +<p>It has already been mentioned that Scott owed his copy of Bürger's +works to the young lady of Harden, whose marriage occurred in the +autumn of 1795. She was daughter of Count Brühl of Martkirchen, long +Saxon ambassador at the Court of St. James's, by his wife Almeria, +Countess-Dowager of Egremont. The young kinsman was introduced to her +soon after her arrival <span class="pagenum"><a id="page229" name="page229"></a>(p. 229)</span> at Mertoun, and his attachment to +German studies excited her attention and interest. Mrs. Scott supplied +him with many standard German books, besides Bürger; and the gift of +an Adelung's dictionary from his old ally, George Constable (Jonathan +Oldbuck), enabled him to master their contents sufficiently for the +purposes of translation. The ballad of The Wild Huntsman appears to +have been executed during the month that preceded his first +publication; and he was thenceforth engaged in a succession of +versions from the dramas of Meier and Iffland, several of which are +still extant in his MS., marked 1796 and 1797. These are all in prose +like their originals; but he also versified at the same time some +lyrical fragments of Goethe, as, for example, the Morlachian Ballad,</p> + +<p class="poem-center"> +"What yonder glimmers so white on the mountain," +</p> + +<p>and the song from Claudina von Villa Bella. He consulted his friend at +Mertoun on all these essays; and I have often heard him say, that, +among those many "obligations of a distant date which remained +impressed on his memory, after a life spent in a constant interchange +of friendship and kindness," he counted not as the least, the lady's +frankness in correcting his Scotticisms, and more especially his +Scottish <span class="italic">rhymes</span>.</p> + +<p>His obligations to this lady were indeed various; but I doubt, after +all, whether these were the most important. He used to say that she +was the first <span class="italic">woman of real fashion</span> that <span class="italic">took him</span> up; that she +used the privileges of her sex and station in the truest spirit of +kindness; set him right as to a thousand little trifles, which no one +else would have ventured to notice; and, in short, did for him what no +one but an elegant woman can do for a young man, whose early days have +been spent in narrow and provincial circles. "When I first saw Sir +Walter," she writes to me, "he was about four-or five-and-twenty, but +looked much younger. He seemed bashful and <span class="pagenum"><a id="page230" name="page230"></a>(p. 230)</span> awkward; but +there were from the first such gleams of superior sense and spirit in +his conversation, that I was hardly surprised when, after our +acquaintance had ripened a little, I felt myself to be talking with a +man of genius. He was most modest about himself, and showed his little +pieces apparently without any consciousness that they could possess +any claim on particular attention. Nothing so easy and good-humored as +the way in which he received any hints I might offer, when he seemed +to be tampering with the King's English. I remember particularly how +he laughed at himself, when I made him take notice that 'the little +two dogs,' in some of his lines, did not please an English ear +accustomed to 'the two little dogs.'"</p> + +<p>Nor was this the only person at Mertoun who took a lively interest in +his pursuits. Harden entered into all the feelings of his beautiful +bride on this subject; and his mother, the Lady Diana Scott, daughter +of the last Earl of Marchmont, did so no less. She had conversed, in +her early days, with the brightest ornaments of the cycle of Queen +Anne, and preserved rich stores of anecdote, well calculated to +gratify the curiosity and excite the ambition of a young enthusiast in +literature. Lady Diana soon appreciated the minstrel of the clan; and, +surviving to a remarkable age, she had the satisfaction of seeing him +at the height of his eminence—the solitary person who could give the +author of Marmion personal reminiscences of Pope.<a id="footnotetag128" name="footnotetag128"></a><a href="#footnote128"><span class="small" title="Go to Footnote 128">[128]</span></a></p> + +<p>On turning to James Ballantyne's Memorandum (already quoted), I find +an account of Scott's journey from Rosebank to Edinburgh, in the +November after the Ballads from Bürger were published, which gives an +interesting notion of his literary zeal and opening ambition at this +remarkable epoch of his life. Mr. Ballantyne had settled <span class="pagenum"><a id="page231" name="page231"></a>(p. 231)</span> in +Kelso as a solicitor in 1795; but, not immediately obtaining much +professional practice, time hung heavy on his hands, and he willingly +listened, in the summer of 1796, to a proposal of some of the +neighboring nobility and gentry respecting the establishment of a +weekly newspaper,<a id="footnotetag129" name="footnotetag129"></a><a href="#footnote129"><span class="small" title="Go to Footnote 129">[129]</span></a> in opposition to one of a democratic tendency, +then widely circulated in Roxburghshire and the other Border counties. +He undertook the printing and editing of this new journal, and +proceeded to London, in order to engage correspondents and make other +necessary preparations. While thus for the first time in the +metropolis, he happened to meet with two authors, whose reputations +were then in full bloom,—namely, Thomas Holcroft and William +Godwin,—the former, a popular dramatist and novelist; the latter, a +novelist of far greater merit, but "still more importantly +distinguished," says the Memorandum before me, "by those moral, legal, +political, and religious heterodoxies, which his talents enabled him +to present to the world in a very captivating manner. His Caleb +Williams had then just come out, and occupied as much public attention +as any work has done before or since." "Both these eminent persons," +Ballantyne continues, "I saw pretty frequently; and being anxious to +hear whatever I could tell about the literary men in Scotland, they +both treated me with remarkable freedom of communication. They were +both distinguished by the clearness of their elocution, and very full +of triumphant confidence in the truth of their systems. They were as +willing to speak, therefore, as I could be to hear; and as I put my +questions with all the fearlessness of a very young man, the result +was, that I carried away copious and interesting stores of thought and +information: that the greater part of what I heard was full of error, +never entered into my contemplation. Holcroft at this time was a +fine-looking, lively man, of green old age, somewhere about sixty. +Godwin, some twenty <span class="pagenum"><a id="page232" name="page232"></a>(p. 232)</span> years younger, was more shy and +reserved. As to me, my delight and enthusiasm were boundless."</p> + +<p>After returning home, Ballantyne made another journey to Glasgow for +the purchase of types; and on entering the Kelso coach for this +purpose, "It would not be easy," says he, "to express my joy on +finding that Mr. Scott was to be one of my partners in the carriage, +the only other passenger being a fine, stout, muscular, old Quaker. A +very few miles reëstablished us on our ancient footing. Travelling not +being half so speedy then as it is now, there was plenty of leisure +for talk, and Mr. Scott was exactly what is called <span class="italic">the old man</span>. He +abounded, as in the days of boyhood, in legendary lore, and had now +added to the stock, as his recitations showed, many of those fine +ballads which afterwards composed the Minstrelsy. Indeed, I was more +delighted with him than ever; and, by way of reprisal, I opened on him +my London budget, collected from Holcroft and Godwin. I doubt if +Boswell ever showed himself a more skilful <span class="italic">Reporter</span> than I did on +this occasion. Hour after hour passed away, and found my borrowed +eloquence still flowing, and my companion still hanging on my lips +with unwearied interest. It was customary in those days to break the +journey (only forty miles) by dining on the road, the consequence of +which was, that we both became rather oblivious; and after we had +reëntered the coach, the worthy Quaker felt quite vexed and +disconcerted with the silence which had succeeded so much +conversation. 'I wish,' said he, 'my young friends, that you would +cheer up, and go on with your pleasant songs and tales as before: they +entertained me much.' And so," says Ballantyne, "it went on again +until the evening found us in Edinburgh; and from that day, until +within a very short time of his death—a period of not less than +five-and-thirty years—I may venture to say that our intercourse never +flagged."</p> + +<p>The reception of the two ballads had, in the mean time, <span class="pagenum"><a id="page233" name="page233"></a>(p. 233)</span> been +favorable, in his own circle at least. The many inaccuracies and +awkwardnesses of rhyme and diction, to which he alludes in +republishing them towards the close of his life, did not prevent real +lovers of poetry from seeing that no one but a poet could have +transfused the daring imagery of the German in a style so free, bold, +masculine, and full of life; but, wearied as all such readers had been +with that succession of feeble, flimsy, lackadaisical trash which +followed the appearance of the Reliques by Bishop Percy, the opening +of such a new vein of popular poetry as these verses revealed would +have been enough to produce lenient critics for far inferior +translations. Many, as we have seen, sent forth copies of the Lenore +about the same time; and some of these might be thought better than +Scott's in particular passages; but, on the whole, it seems to have +been felt and acknowledged by those best entitled to judge, that he +deserved the palm. Meantime, we must not forget that Scotland had lost +that very year the great poet Burns,—her glory and her shame. It is +at least to be hoped that a general sentiment of self-reproach, as +well as of sorrow, had been excited by the premature extinction of +such a light; and, at all events, it is agreeable to know that they +who had watched his career with the most affectionate concern were +among the first to hail the promise of a more fortunate successor. +Scott found on his table, when he reached Edinburgh, the following +letters from two of Burns's kindest and wisest friends:—</p> + +<div class="quote"> +<p class="tit-center">TO WALTER SCOTT, ESQ., ADVOCATE, GEORGE'S SQUARE.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">My dear Sir</span>,—I beg you will accept of my best thanks for the + favor you have done me by sending me four copies of your + beautiful translations. I shall retain two of them, as Mrs. + Stewart and I both set a high value on them as gifts from the + author. The other two I shall take the earliest opportunity of + transmitting to a friend in England, who, I hope, may be + instrumental in making their merits more generally known at the + time <span class="pagenum"><a id="page234" name="page234"></a>(p. 234)</span> of their first appearance. In a few weeks, I am + fully persuaded they will engage public attention to the utmost + extent of your wishes, without the aid of any recommendation + whatever. I ever am, Dear Sir, yours most truly,</p> + +<p><span class="left50 smcap">Dugald Stewart</span>.<br> +<span class="smcap">Canongate</span>, Wednesday evening.</p> +</div> + +<div class="quote"> +<p class="tit-center">TO THE SAME.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Dear Sir</span>,—On my return from Cardross, where I had been for a + week, I found yours of the 14th, which had surely loitered by the + way. I thank you most cordially for your present. I meet with + little poetry nowadays that touches my heart; but your + translations excite mingled emotions of pity and terror, + insomuch, that I would not wish any person of weaker nerves to + read William and Helen before going to bed. Great must be the + original, if it equals the translation in energy and pathos. One + would almost suspect you have used as much liberty with Bürger as + Macpherson was suspected of doing with Ossian. It is, however, + easier to <span class="italic">backspeir</span> you. Sober reason rejects the machinery as + unnatural; it reminds me, however, of the magic of Shakespeare. + Nothing has a finer effect than the repetition of certain words, + that are echoes to the sense, as much as the celebrated lines in + Homer about the rolling up and falling down of the stone: <span class="italic">Tramp, + tramp! splash, splash!</span> is to me perfectly new; and much of the + imagery is nature. I should consider this muse of yours (if you + carry the intrigue far) more likely to steal your heart from the + law than even a wife. I am, Dear Sir, your most obedient, humble + servant,</p> + +<p><span class="left50 smcap">Jo. Ramsay</span>.<br> + <span class="smcap">Ochtertyre</span>, 30th November, 1796.</p> +</div> + +<p>Among other literary persons at a distance, I may mention George +Chalmers, the celebrated antiquary, with whom he had been in +correspondence from the beginning of this year, supplying him with +Border ballads for the illustration of his researches into Scotch +history. This gentleman had been made acquainted with Scott's large +collections in that way by a common friend, Dr. Somerville, minister +of Jedburgh, author of the History of Queen <span class="pagenum"><a id="page235" name="page235"></a>(p. 235)</span> Anne;<a id="footnotetag130" name="footnotetag130"></a><a href="#footnote130"><span class="small" title="Go to Footnote 130">[130]</span></a> and +the numerous MS. copies communicated to him in consequence were +recalled in the course of 1799, when the plan of the Minstrelsy began +to take shape. Chalmers writes in great transports about Scott's +versions; but weightier encouragement came from Mr. Taylor of Norwich, +himself the first translator of the Lenore.</p> + +<div class="quote"> +<p>I need not tell you, sir [he writes], with how much eagerness I + opened your volume—with how much glow I followed The Chase—or + with how much alarm I came to William and Helen. Of the latter I + will say nothing; praise might seem hypocrisy—criticism envy. + The ghost nowhere makes his appearance so well as with you, or + his exit so well as with Mr. Spenser. I like very much the + recurrence of</p> + +<p class="poem20">"The scourge is red, the spur drops blood,<br> + The flashing pebbles flee;"</p> + +<p>but of William and Helen I had resolved to say nothing. Let me + return to The Chase, of which the metric stanza style pleases me + entirely; yet I think a few passages written in too elevated a + strain for the general spirit of the poem. This age leans too + much to the Darwin style. Mr. Percy's Lenore owes its coldness to + the adoption of this; and it seems peculiarly incongruous in the + ballad—where habit has taught us to expect simplicity. Among the + passages too stately and pompous, I should reckon—</p> + +<p class="poem20">"The mountain echoes startling wake—<br> + And for devotion's choral swell<br> + Exchange the rude discordant noise—<br> + Fell Famine marks the maddening throng<br> + With cold Despair's averted eye,"—</p> + +<p>and perhaps one or two more. In the twenty-first stanza, I + prefer <span class="pagenum"><a id="page236" name="page236"></a>(p. 236)</span> Bürger's <span class="italic">trampling the corn into chaff and + dust</span>, to your more metaphorical, and therefore less picturesque, + "destructive sweep the field along." In the thirtieth, "On + whirlwind's pinions swiftly borne," to me seems less striking + than the still disapparition of the tumult and bustle—the earth + has opened, and he is sinking with his evil genius to the nether + world—as he approaches, <span class="italic">dumpf rauscht es wie ein fernes + Meer</span>—it should be rendered, therefore, not by "Save what a + distant torrent gave," but by some sounds which shall necessarily + excite the idea of being <span class="italic">hell-sprung</span>—the sound of simmering + seas of fire—pinings of goblins damned—or some analogous noise. + The forty-seventh stanza is a very great improvement of the + original. The profanest blasphemous speeches need not have been + softened down, as, in proportion to the impiety of the + provocation, increases the poetical probability of the final + punishment. I should not have ventured upon these criticisms, if + I did not think it required a microscopic eye to make any, and if + I did not on the whole consider The Chase as a most spirited and + beautiful translation. I remain (to borrow in another sense a + concluding phrase from the Spectator), your constant admirer,</p> + +<p><span class="left50 smcap">W. Taylor, Jun.</span><br> +<span class="smcap">Norwich</span>, 14th December, 1796.</p> +</div> + +<p>The anticipations of these gentlemen, that Scott's versions would +attract general attention in the south, were not fulfilled. He himself +attributes this to the contemporaneous appearance of so many other +translations from Lenore. "In a word," he says, "my adventure, where +so many pushed off to sea, proved a dead loss, and a great part of the +edition was condemned to the service of the trunkmaker. This failure +did not operate in any unpleasant degree either on my feelings or +spirits. I was coldly received by strangers, but my reputation began +rather to increase among my own friends, and on the whole I was more +bent to show the world that it had neglected something worth notice, +than to be affronted by its indifference; or rather, to speak +candidly, I found pleasure in the literary labors in which I had +almost by accident become engaged, and labored less in the hope of +pleasing <span class="pagenum"><a id="page237" name="page237"></a>(p. 237)</span> others, though certainly without despair of doing +so, than in a pursuit of a new and agreeable amusement to +myself."<a id="footnotetag131" name="footnotetag131"></a><a href="#footnote131"><span class="small" title="Go to Footnote 131">[131]</span></a></p> + +<p>On the 12th of December Scott had the curiosity to witness the trial +of one James Mackean, a shoemaker, for the murder of Buchanan, a +carrier, employed to convey money weekly from the Glasgow bank to a +manufacturing establishment at Lanark. Mackean invited the carrier to +spend the evening in his house; conducted family worship in a style of +much seeming fervor; and then, while his friend was occupied, came +behind him, and almost severed his head from his body by one stroke of +a razor. I have heard Scott describe the sanctimonious air which the +murderer maintained during his trial—preserving throughout the aspect +of a devout person, who believed himself to have been hurried into his +accumulation of crime by an uncontrollable exertion of diabolical +influence; and on his copy of the "Life of James Mackean, executed +25th January, 1797," I find the following marginal note:—</p> + +<p>"I went to see this wretched man when under sentence of death, along +with my friend, Mr. William Clerk, advocate. His great anxiety was to +convince us that his diabolical murder was committed from a sudden +impulse of revengeful and violent passion, not from deliberate design +of plunder. But the contrary was manifest from the accurate +preparation of the deadly instrument—a razor strongly lashed to an +iron bolt—and also from the evidence on the trial, from which it +seems he had invited his victim to drink tea with him on the day he +perpetrated the murder, and that this was a reiterated invitation. +Mackean was a good-looking elderly man, having a thin face and clear +gray eye; such a man as may be ordinarily seen beside a +collection-plate at a seceding meeting-house, a post which the said +Mackean had occupied in his day. All Mackean's account of the murder +is <span class="pagenum"><a id="page238" name="page238"></a>(p. 238)</span> apocryphal. Buchanan was a powerful man, and Mackean +slender. It appeared that the latter had engaged Buchanan in writing, +then suddenly clapped one hand on his eyes, and struck the fatal blow +with the other. The throat of the deceased was cut through his +handkerchief to the back bone of the neck, against which the razor was +hacked in several places."</p> + +<p>In his pursuit of his German studies, Scott acquired, about this time, +a very important assistant in Mr. Skene of Rubislaw, in +Aberdeenshire—a gentleman considerably his junior,<a id="footnotetag132" name="footnotetag132"></a><a href="#footnote132"><span class="small" title="Go to Footnote 132">[132]</span></a> who had just +returned to Scotland from a residence of several years in Saxony, +where he had obtained a thorough knowledge of the language, and +accumulated a better collection of German books than any to which +Scott had, as yet, found access. Shortly after Mr. Skene's arrival in +Edinburgh, Scott requested to be introduced to him by a mutual friend, +Mr. Edmonstone of Newton; and their fondness for the same literature, +with Scott's eagerness to profit by his new acquaintance's superior +attainment in it, thus opened an intercourse which general similarity +of tastes, and I venture to add, in many of the most important +features of character, soon ripened into the familiarity of a tender +friendship—"An intimacy," Mr. Skene says, in a paper before me, "of +which I shall ever think with so much pride—a friendship so pure and +cordial as to have been able to withstand all the vicissitudes of +nearly forty years, without ever having sustained even a casual chill +from unkind thought or word." Mr. Skene adds, "During the whole +progress of his varied life, to that eminent station which he could +not but feel he at length held in the estimation, not of his +countrymen alone, but of the whole world, I never could perceive the +slightest shade of variance from that simplicity of character with +which he impressed me on the first hour of our meeting."<a id="footnotetag133" name="footnotetag133"></a><a href="#footnote133"><span class="small" title="Go to Footnote 133">[133]</span></a></p> + +<p>Among <span class="pagenum"><a id="page239" name="page239"></a>(p. 239)</span> the common tastes which served to knit these friends +together was their love of horsemanship, in which, as in all other +manly exercises, Skene highly excelled; and the fears of a French +Invasion becoming every day more serious, their thoughts were turned +with corresponding zeal to the project of organising a force of +mounted volunteers in Scotland. "The London Light Horse had set the +example," says Mr. Skene; "but in truth it was to Scott's ardor that +this force in the North owed its origin. Unable, by reason of his +lameness, to serve amongst his friends on foot, he had nothing for it +but to rouse the spirit of the moss-trooper, with which he readily +inspired all who possessed the means of substituting the sabre for the +musket."</p> + +<p>On the 14th February, 1797, these friends and many more met and drew +up an offer to serve as a body of volunteer cavalry in Scotland; which +offer being transmitted through the Duke of Buccleuch, Lord-Lieutenant +of Mid-Lothian, was accepted by Government. The organization of the +corps proceeded rapidly; they extended their offer to serve in any +part of the island in case of invasion; and this also being accepted, +the whole arrangement was shortly completed; when Charles Maitland of +Rankeillor was elected Major-Commandant; (Sir) William Rae of St. +Catharine's Captain; James Gordon of Craig, and George Robinson of +Clermiston, Lieutenants; (Sir) William Forbes of Pitsligo, and James +Skene of Rubislaw, Cornets; Walter Scott, Paymaster, Quartermaster, +and Secretary; John Adams, Adjutant. But the treble duties thus +devolved on Scott were found to interfere too severely with his other +avocations, and Colin Mackenzie of Portmore relieved him soon +afterwards from those of paymaster.</p> + +<p>"The <span class="pagenum"><a id="page240" name="page240"></a>(p. 240)</span> part of quartermaster," says Mr. Skene, "was purposely +selected for him, that he might be spared the rough usage of the +ranks; but, notwithstanding his infirmity, he had a remarkably firm +seat on horseback, and in all situations a fearless one: no fatigue +ever seemed too much for him, and his zeal and animation served to +sustain the enthusiasm of the whole corps, while his ready 'mot à +rire' kept up, in all, a degree of good-humor and relish for the +service, without which the toil and privations of long <span class="italic">daily</span> drills +would not easily have been submitted to by such a body of gentlemen. +At every interval of exercise, the order, <span class="italic">sit at ease</span>, was the +signal for the quartermaster to lead the squadron to merriment; every +eye was intuitively turned on 'Earl Walter,' as he was familiarly +called by his associates of that date, and his ready joke seldom +failed to raise the ready laugh. He took his full share in all the +labors and duties of the corps, had the highest pride in its progress +and proficiency, and was such a trooper himself as only a very +powerful frame of body and the warmest zeal in the cause could have +enabled any one to be. But his habitual good-humor was the great +charm, and at the daily mess (for we all dined together when in +quarters) that reigned supreme."</p> + +<p><span class="italic">Earl Walter's</span> first charger, by the way, was a tall and powerful +animal, named Lenore. These daily drills appear to have been persisted +in during the spring and summer of 1797; the corps spending moreover +some weeks in quarters at Musselburgh. The majority of the troop +having professional duties to attend to, the ordinary hour for drill +was five in the morning; and when we reflect, that after some hours of +hard work in this way, Scott had to produce himself regularly in the +Parliament House with gown and wig, for the space of four or five +hours at least, while his chamber practice, though still humble, was +on the increase—and that he had found a plentiful source of new +social engagements in his troop <span class="pagenum"><a id="page241" name="page241"></a>(p. 241)</span> connections—it certainly +could have excited no surprise had his literary studies been found +suffering total intermission during this busy period. That such was +not the case, however, his correspondence and note-books afford ample +evidence.</p> + +<p>He had no turn, at this time of his life, for early rising; so that +the regular attendance at the morning drills was of itself a strong +evidence of his military zeal; but he must have, in spite of them, and +of all other circumstances, persisted in what was the usual custom of +all his earlier life, namely, the devotion of the best hours of the +night to solitary study. In general, both as a young man, and in more +advanced age, his constitution required a good allowance of sleep, and +he, on principle, indulged in it, saying, "He was but half a man if he +had not full seven hours of utter unconsciousness;" but his whole mind +and temperament were, at this period, in a state of most fervent +exaltation, and spirit triumphed over matter. His translation of +Steinberg's Otho of Wittelsbach is marked "1796-7;" from which, I +conclude, it was finished in the latter year. The volume containing +that of Meier's Wolfred of Dromberg, a drama of Chivalry, is dated +1797; and, I think, the reader will presently see cause to suspect, +that though not alluded to in his imperfect note-book, these tasks +must have been accomplished in the very season of the daily drills.</p> + +<p>The letters addressed to him in March, April, and June, by Kerr of +Abbotrule, George Chalmers, and his uncle at Rosebank, indicate his +unabated interest in the collection of coins and ballads; and I shall +now make a few extracts from his private note-book, some of which will +at all events amuse the survivors of the Edinburgh Light Horse;—</p> + +<div class="quote"> +<p>"<span class="italic">March 15, 1797.</span>—Read Stanfield's trial, and the conviction + appears very doubtful indeed. Surely no one could seriously + believe, in 1688, that the body of the murdered <span class="pagenum"><a id="page242" name="page242"></a>(p. 242)</span> bleeds + at the touch of the murderer, and I see little else that directly + touches Philip Stanfield. He was a very bad character, however; + and tradition says, that having insulted Welsh, the wild + preacher, one day in his early life, the saint called from the + pulpit that God had revealed to him that this blasphemous youth + would die in the sight of as many as were then assembled. It was + believed at the time that Lady Stanfield had a hand in the + assassination, or was at least privy to her son's plans; but I + see nothing inconsistent with the old gentleman's having + committed suicide.<a id="footnotetag134" name="footnotetag134"></a><a href="#footnote134"><span class="small" title="Go to Footnote 134">[134]</span></a> The ordeal of touching the corpse was + observed in Germany. They call it <span class="italic">barrecht</span>.</p> + +<p>"<span class="italic">March 27.</span>—</p> + +<p class="poem30"><span class="add4em">'The friers of Fail</span><br> + Gat never owre hard eggs, or owre thin kale;<br> + For they made their eggs thin wi' butter,<br> + And their kale thick wi' bread.<br> + And the friers of Fail they made gude kale<br> + On Fridays when they fasted;<br> + They never wanted gear enough<br> + As lang as their neighbours' lasted.'</p> + +<p>"Fairy-rings.—<span class="italic">N. B.</span> Delrius says the same appearance occurs + wherever the witches have held their Sabbath.</p> + +<p>"For the ballad of 'Willie's lady,' compare Apuleius, lib. i. p. + 33....</p> + +<p>"<span class="italic">April 20.</span>—The portmanteau to contain the following articles: + 2 shirts; 1 black handkerchief; 1 nightcap, woollen; 1 pair + pantaloons, blue; 1 flannel shirt with sleeves; 1 pair flannel + drawers; 1 waistcoat; 1 pair worsted stockings or socks.</p> + +<p>"In the slip, in cover of portmanteau, a case with + shaving-things, combs, and a knife, fork, and spoon; a German + pipe and tobacco-bag, flint, and steel; pipe-clay and <span class="pagenum"><a id="page243" name="page243"></a>(p. 243)</span> + oil, with brush for laying it on; a shoe-brush; a pair of shoes + or hussar-boots; a horse-picker, and other loose articles.</p> + +<p>"Belt with the flap and portmanteau, currycomb, brush, and + mane-comb, with sponge.</p> + +<p>"Over the portmanteau, the blue overalls, and a spare jacket for + stable; a small horse-sheet, to cover the horse's back with, and + a spare girth or two.</p> + +<p>"In the cartouche-box, screw-driver and picker for pistol, with + three or four spare flints.</p> + +<p>"The horse-sheet may be conveniently folded below the saddle, and + will save the back in a long march or bad weather. Beside the + holster, two forefeet shoes.<a id="footnotetag135" name="footnotetag135"></a><a href="#footnote135"><span class="small" title="Go to Footnote 135">[135]</span></a></p> + +<p>"<span class="italic">May 22.</span>—Apuleius, lib. ii.... Anthony-a-Wood.... Mr. + Jenkinson's name (now Lord Liverpool) being proposed as a + difficult one to rhyme to, a lady present hit off this verse + extempore.—<span class="italic">N. B.</span> Both father and son (Lord Hawkesbury) have a + peculiarity of vision:—</p> + +<p class="poem30">'Happy Mr. Jenkinson,<br> + Happy Mr. Jenkinson,<br> +<span class="add1em">I'm sure to you</span><br> +<span class="add1em">Your lady's true,</span><br> + For you have got a winking son.'</p> + +<p>"23.—Delrius....</p> + +<p>"24—'I, John Bell of Brackenbrig, lies under this stane;</p> + +<p class="poem20">Four <span class="pagenum"><a id="page244" name="page244"></a>(p. 244)</span> of my sons laid it on my wame.<br> + I was man of my meat, and master of my wife,<br> + And lived in mine ain house without meikle strife.<br> + Gif thou be'st a "better man in thy time than I was in mine,<br> + Tak this stane off my wame, and lay it upon thine.'</p> + +<p>"25.—Meric Casaubon on Spirits....</p> + +<p>"26.—'There saw we learned Maroe's golden tombe;<br> + The way he cut an English mile in length<br> + Thorow a rock of stone in one night's space.'</p> + +<p>"Christopher Marlowe's Tragicall History of Dr. Faustus—a very + remarkable thing. Grand subject—end grand.... Copied Prophecy of + Merlin from Mr. Clerk's MS.</p> + +<p>"27.—Read Everybody's Business is Nobody's Business, by Andrew + Moreton. This was one of Defoe's many <span class="italic">aliases</span>—like his pen, in + parts....</p> + +<p class="poem10">'To Cuthbert, Car, and Collingwood, to Shafto and to Hall;<br> + To every gallant generous heart that for King James did fall.'</p> + +<p>"28.—... Anthony-a-Wood.... Plain Proof of the True Father and + Mother of the Pretended Prince of Wales, by W. Fuller. This + fellow was pilloried for a forgery some years later.... Began + <span class="italic">Nathan der Weise</span>.</p> + +<p>"<span class="italic">June 29.</span>—Read Introduction to a Compendium on Brief + Examination, by W. S.—viz., William Stafford—though it was for + a time given to no less a W. S. than William Shakespeare. A + curious treatise—the Political Economy of the Elizabethan + Day—worth reprinting....</p> + +<p>"<span class="italic">July 1.</span>—Read Discourse of Military Discipline, by Captain + Barry—a very curious account of the famous Low Countries + armies—full of military hints worth note.... <span class="italic">Anthony Wood</span> + again.</p> + +<p>"3.—<span class="italic">Nathan der Weise.</span> ... <span class="italic">Delrius.</span>...</p> + +<p>"5.—Geutenberg's <span class="italic">Braut</span> begun.</p> + +<p>"6.—The Bride again. <span class="italic">Delrius.</span>"</p> +</div> + +<p>The note-book from which I have been copying is chiefly filled with +extracts from Apuleius and Anthony-a-Wood—most of <span class="pagenum"><a id="page245" name="page245"></a>(p. 245)</span> them +bearing, in some way, on the subject of popular superstitions. It is a +pity that many leaves have been torn out; for if unmutilated, the +record would probably have enabled one to guess whether he had already +planned his Essay on Fairies.</p> + +<p>I have mentioned his business at the Bar as increasing at the same +time. His <span class="italic">fee-book</span> is now before me, and it shows that he made by +his first year's practice £24 3s.; by the second, £57 15s.; by the +third, £84 4s.; by the fourth, £90; and in his fifth year at the +Bar—that is, from November, 1796 to July, 1797—£144 10s.; of which +£50 were fees from his father's chamber.</p> + +<p>His friend, Charles Kerr of Abbotrule, had been residing a good deal +about this time in Cumberland: indeed, he was so enraptured with the +scenery of the lakes, as to take a house in Keswick with the intention +of spending half of all future years there. His letters to Scott +(March, April, 1797) abound in expressions of wonder that he should +continue to devote so much of his vacations to the Highlands of +Scotland, "with every crag and precipice of which," says he, "I should +imagine you would be familiar by this time; nay, that the goats +themselves might almost claim you for an acquaintance;" while another +district lay so near him, at least as well qualified "to give a swell +to the fancy."</p> + +<p>After the rising of the Court of Session in July, Scott accordingly +set out on a tour to the English lakes, accompanied by his brother +John, and Adam Ferguson. Their first stage was Halyards in Tweeddale, +then inhabited by his friend's father, the philosopher and historian; +and they stayed there for a day or two, in the course of which Scott +had his first and only interview with David Ritchie, the original of +his Black Dwarf.<a id="footnotetag136" name="footnotetag136"></a><a href="#footnote136"><span class="small" title="Go to Footnote 136">[136]</span></a> Proceeding southwards, the tourists visited +Carlisle, Penrith,—the vale of the Eamont, including Mayburgh and +Brougham Castle,—Ullswater and Windermere; and at length fixed +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page246" name="page246"></a>(p. 246)</span> their headquarters at the then peaceful and sequestered +little watering-place of Gilsland, making excursions from thence to +the various scenes of romantic interest which are commemorated in The +Bridal of Triermain, and otherwise leading very much the sort of life +depicted among the loungers of St. Ronan's Well. Scott was, on his +first arrival in Gilsland, not a little engaged with the beauty of one +of the young ladies lodged under the same roof with him; and it was on +occasion of a visit in her company to some part of the Roman Wall that +he indited his lines—</p> + +<p class="poem20">"Take these flowers, which, purple waving,<br> + On the ruined rampart grew," etc.<a id="footnotetag137" name="footnotetag137"></a><a href="#footnote137"><span class="small" title="Go to Footnote 137">[137]</span></a></p> + +<p>But this was only a passing glimpse of flirtation. A week or so +afterwards commenced a more serious affair.</p> + +<p>Riding one day with Ferguson, they met, some miles from Gilsland, a +young lady taking the air on horseback, whom neither of them had +previously remarked, and whose appearance instantly struck both so +much that they kept her in view until they had satisfied themselves +that she also was one of the party at Gilsland. The same evening there +was a ball, at which Captain Scott produced himself in his +regimentals, and Ferguson also thought proper to be equipped in the +uniform of the Edinburgh Volunteers. There was no little rivalry among +the young travellers as to who should first get presented to the +unknown beauty of the morning's ride; but though both the gentlemen in +scarlet had the advantage of being dancing partners, their friend +succeeded in handing the fair stranger to supper—and such was his +first introduction to Charlotte Margaret Carpenter.</p> + +<p>Without the features of a regular beauty, she was rich in personal +attractions; "a form that was fashioned as light as a fay's;" a +complexion of the clearest and lightest olive; <span class="pagenum"><a id="page247" name="page247"></a>(p. 247)</span> eyes large, +deep-set and dazzling, of the finest Italian brown; and a profusion of +silken tresses, black as the raven's wing; her address hovering +between the reserve of a pretty young Englishwoman who has not mingled +largely in general society, and a certain natural archness and gayety +that suited well with the accompaniment of a French accent. A lovelier +vision, as all who remember her in the bloom of her days have assured +me, could hardly have been imagined; and from that hour the fate of +the young poet was fixed.<a id="footnotetag138" name="footnotetag138"></a><a href="#footnote138"><span class="small" title="Go to Footnote 138">[138]</span></a></p> + +<p>She was the daughter of Jean Charpentier, of Lyons, a devoted +royalist, who held an office under Government,<a id="footnotetag139" name="footnotetag139"></a><a href="#footnote139"><span class="small" title="Go to Footnote 139">[139]</span></a> and Charlotte +Volere, his wife. She and her only brother, Charles Charpentier, had +been educated in the Protestant religion of their mother; and when +their father died, which occurred in the beginning of the Revolution, +Madame Charpentier made her escape with her children, first to Paris, +and then to England, where they found a warm friend and protector in +the late Marquis of Downshire, who had, in the course of his travels +in France, formed an intimate acquaintance with the family, and, +indeed, spent some time under their roof. M. Charpentier had, in his +first alarm as to the coming Revolution, invested £4000 in English +securities—part in a mortgage upon Lord Downshire's estates. On the +mother's death, which occurred soon after her arrival in London, this +nobleman took on himself the character of sole guardian to her +children; and Charles Charpentier received in due time, through his +interest, an appointment in <span class="pagenum"><a id="page248" name="page248"></a>(p. 248)</span> the service of the East India +Company, in which he had by this time risen to the lucrative situation +of Commercial Resident at Salem. His sister was now making a little +excursion, under the care of the lady who had superintended her +education, Miss Jane Nicolson, a daughter of Dr. Nicolson, Dean of +Exeter, and granddaughter of William Nicolson, Bishop of Carlisle, +well known as the editor of The English Historical Library. To some +connections which the learned prelate's family had ever since his time +kept up in the diocese of Carlisle, Miss Carpenter owed the direction +of her summer tour.</p> + +<p>Scott's father was now in a very feeble state of health, which +accounts for his first announcement of this affair being made in a +letter to his mother; it is undated;—but by this time the young lady +had left Gilsland for Carlisle, where she remained until her destiny +was settled,</p> + +<div class="quote"> +<p class="tit-center">TO MRS. SCOTT, GEORGE'S SQUARE, EDINBURGH.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">My dear Mother</span>,—I should very ill deserve the care and affection + with which you have ever regarded me, were I to neglect my duty + so far as to omit consulting my father and you in the most + important step which I can possibly take in life, and upon the + success of which my future happiness must depend. It is with + pleasure I think that I can avail myself of your advice and + instructions in an affair of so great importance as that which I + have at present on my hands. You will probably guess from this + preamble that I am engaged in a matrimonial plan, which is really + the case. Though my acquaintance with the young lady has not been + of long standing, this circumstance is in some degree + counterbalanced by the intimacy in which we have lived, and by + the opportunities which that intimacy has afforded me of + remarking her conduct and sentiments on many different occasions, + some of which were rather of a delicate nature, so that in fact I + have seen more of her during the few weeks we have <span class="pagenum"><a id="page249" name="page249"></a>(p. 249)</span> been + together than I could have done after a much longer acquaintance, + shackled by the common forms of ordinary life. You will not + expect from me a description of her person—for which I refer you + to my brother, as also for a fuller account of all the + circumstances attending the business than can be comprised in the + compass of a letter. Without flying into raptures, for I must + assure you that my judgment as well as my affections are + consulted upon this occasion—without flying into raptures, then, + I may safely assure you that her temper is sweet and cheerful, + her understanding good, and, what I know will give you pleasure, + her principles of religion very serious. I have been very + explicit with her upon the nature of my expectations, and she + thinks she can accommodate herself to the situation which I + should wish her to hold in society as my wife, which, you will + easily comprehend, I mean should neither be extravagant nor + degrading. Her fortune, though partly dependent upon her brother, + who is high in office at Madras, is very considerable—at present + £500 a year. This, however, we must, in some degree, regard as + precarious—I mean to the full extent; and indeed, when you know + her, you will not be surprised that I regard this circumstance + chiefly because it removes those prudential considerations which + would otherwise render our union impossible for the present. + Betwixt her income and my own professional exertions, I have + little doubt we will be enabled to hold the rank in society which + my family and situation entitle me to fill.</p> + +<p>My dear mother, I cannot express to you the anxiety I have that + you will not think me flighty nor inconsiderate in this business. + Believe me, that experience, in one instance—you cannot fail to + know to what I allude—is too recent to permit my being so hasty + in my conclusions as the warmth of my temper might have otherwise + prompted. I am also most anxious that you should be prepared to + show her kindness, which I know the goodness <span class="pagenum"><a id="page250" name="page250"></a>(p. 250)</span> of your + own heart will prompt, more especially when I tell you that she + is an orphan, without relations, and almost without friends. Her + guardian is—I should say <span class="italic">was</span>, for she is of age—Lord + Downshire, to whom I must write for his consent,—a piece of + respect to which he is entitled for his care of her,—and there + the matter rests at present. I think I need not tell you that if + I assume the new character which I threaten, I shall be happy to + find that in that capacity I may make myself more useful to my + brothers, and especially to Anne, than I could in any other. On + the other hand, I shall certainly expect that my friends will + endeavor to show every attention in their power to a woman who + forsakes for me prospects much more splendid than what I can + offer, and who comes into Scotland without a single friend but + myself. I find I could write a great deal more upon this subject, + but as it is late, and as I must write to my father, I shall + restrain myself. I think (but you are best judge) that in the + circumstances in which I stand, you should write to her, Miss + Carpenter, under cover to me at Carlisle.</p> + +<p>Write to me very fully upon this important subject—send me your + opinion, your advice, and, above all, your blessing; you will see + the necessity of not delaying a minute in doing so, and in + keeping this business <span class="italic">strictly private</span>, till you hear farther + from me, since you are not ignorant that even at this advanced + period an objection on the part of Lord Downshire, or many other + accidents, may intervene; in which case, I should little wish my + disappointment to be public.</p> + +<p><span class="add2em">Believe me, my dear Mother,</span><br> +<span class="add4em">Ever your dutiful and affectionate son,</span><br> + <span class="left50 smcap">Walter Scott</span>.</p> +</div> + +<p>Scott remained in Cumberland until the Jedburgh assizes recalled him +to his legal duties. On arriving in that town, he immediately sent for +his friend Shortreed, whose <span class="pagenum"><a id="page251" name="page251"></a>(p. 251)</span> <span class="italic">memorandum</span> records that the +evening of the 30th September, 1797 was one of the most joyous he ever +spent. "Scott," he says, "was <span class="italic">sair</span> beside himself about Miss +Carpenter;—we toasted her twenty times over—and sat together, he +raving about her, until it was one in the morning." He soon returned +to Cumberland; and the following letters will throw light on the +character and conduct of the parties, and on the nature of the +difficulties which were presented by the prudence and prejudices of +the young advocate's family connections. It appears, that at one stage +of the business, Scott had seriously contemplated leaving the Bar at +Edinburgh, and establishing himself with his bride (I know not in what +capacity) in one of the colonies.</p> + +<div class="quote"> +<p class="tit-center">TO WALTER SCOTT, ESQ., ADVOCATE, EDINBURGH.</p> +<p class="left50"><span class="smcap">Carlisle</span>, October 4, 1797.</p> + +<p>It is only an hour since I received Lord Downshire's letter. You + will say, I hope, that I am indeed very good to write so soon, + but I almost fear that all my goodness can never carry me through + all this plaguy writing. Lord Downshire will be happy to hear + from you. He is the very best man on earth—his letter is kind + and affectionate, and full of advice, much in the style of <span class="italic">your + last</span>. I am to consult <span class="italic">most carefully my heart</span>. Do you believe + I did not do it when I gave you my consent? It is true, I don't + like to reflect on that subject. I am afraid. It is very awful to + think it is for life. How can I ever laugh after such tremendous + thoughts? I believe never more. I am hurt to find that your + friends don't think the match a prudent one. If it is not + agreeable to them all, you must then forget me, for I have too + much pride to think of connecting myself in a family were I not + equal to them. Pray, my dear sir, write to Lord D. + immediately—explain yourself to him as you would to me, and he + will, I am sure, do all he can to serve us. If you <span class="pagenum"><a id="page252" name="page252"></a>(p. 252)</span> + really love me, you must love him, and write to him as you would + to a friend.</p> + +<p>Adieu,—au plaisir de vous revoir bientôt.</p> + +<p class="left50">C. C.</p> +</div> + +<div class="quote"> +<p class="tit-center">TO ROBERT SHORTREED, ESQ., SHERIFF-SUBSTITUTE, JEDBURGH.</p> +<p class="left50"><span class="smcap">Selkirk</span>, 8th October, 1797.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Dear Bob</span>,—This day a long train of anxieties was put an end to + by a letter from Lord Downshire, couched in the most flattering + terms, giving his consent to my marriage with his ward. I am thus + far on my way to Carlisle—only for a visit—because, betwixt her + reluctance to an immediate marriage and the imminent approach of + the session, I am afraid I shall be thrown back to the Christmas + holidays. I shall be home in about eight days.</p> + +<p><span class="add2em">Ever yours sincerely,</span><br> + <span class="left50 smcap">W. Scott</span>.</p> +</div> + +<div class="quote"> +<p class="tit-center">TO MISS CHRISTIAN RUTHERFORD, ASHESTIEL, BY SELKIRK.</p> + +<p>Has it never happened to you, my dear Miss Christy, in the course + of your domestic economy, to meet with a drawer stuffed so very, + so <span class="italic">extremely</span> full, that it was very difficult to pull it open, + however desirous you might be to exhibit its contents? In case + this miraculous event has ever taken place, you may somewhat + conceive from thence the cause of my silence, which has really + proceeded from my having a very great deal to communicate; so + much so, that I really hardly know how to begin. As for my + affection and friendship for you, believe me sincerely, they + neither slumber nor sleep, and it is only your suspicions of + their drowsiness which incline me to write at this period of a + business highly interesting to me, rather than when I could have + done so with something like certainty—Hem! Hem! It must come out + at once—I am in a very fair way of being married to a very + amiable <span class="pagenum"><a id="page253" name="page253"></a>(p. 253)</span> young woman, with whom I formed an attachment + in the course of my tour. She was born in France—her parents + were of English extraction—the name Carpenter. She was left an + orphan early in life, and educated in England, and is at present + under the care of a Miss Nicolson, a daughter of the late Dean of + Exeter, who was on a visit to her relations in Cumberland. Miss + Carpenter is of age, but as she lies under great obligations to + the Marquis of Downshire, who was her guardian, she cannot take a + step of such importance without his consent—and I daily expect + his final answer upon the subject. Her fortune is dependent, in a + great measure, upon an only and very affectionate brother. He is + Commercial Resident at Salem in India, and has settled upon her + an annuity of £500. Of her personal accomplishments I shall only + say that she possesses very good sense, with uncommon good + temper, which I have seen put to most severe trials. I must + bespeak your kindness and friendship for her. You may easily + believe I shall rest very much both upon Miss R. and you for + giving her the <span class="italic">carte de pays</span>, when she comes to Edinburgh. I + may give you a hint that there is no <span class="italic">romance</span> in her + composition—and that, though born in France, she has the + sentiments and manners of an Englishwoman, and does not like to + be thought otherwise. A very slight tinge in her pronunciation is + all which marks the foreigner. She is at present at Carlisle, + where I shall join her as soon as our arrangements are finally + made. Some difficulties have occurred in settling matters with my + father, owing to certain prepossessions which you can easily + conceive his adopting. One main article was the uncertainty of + her provision, which has been in part removed by the safe arrival + of her remittances for this year, with assurances of their being + regular and even larger in future, her brother's situation being + extremely lucrative. Another objection was her birth: "Can any + good thing come out of Nazareth?" but as it was <span class="italic">birth merely + and</span> <span class="italic">solely</span>, <span class="pagenum"><a id="page254" name="page254"></a>(p. 254)</span> this has been abandoned. <span class="italic">You</span> will be + more interested about other points regarding her, and I can only + say that—though our acquaintance was shorter than ever I could + have thought of forming such a connection upon—it was + exceedingly close, and gave me full opportunities for + observation—and if I had parted with her, it must have been + forever, which both parties began to think would be a + disagreeable thing. She has conducted herself through the whole + business with so much propriety as to make a strong impression in + her favor upon the minds of my father and mother, prejudiced as + they were against her, from the circumstances I have mentioned. + We shall be your neighbors in the New Town, and intend to live + very quietly; Charlotte will need many lessons from Miss R. in + housewifery. Pray show this letter to Miss R. with my very best + compliments. Nothing can now stand in the way except Lord + Downshire, who may not think the match a prudent one for Miss C.; + but he will surely think her entitled to judge for herself at her + age, in what she would wish to place her happiness. She is not a + beauty, by any means, but her person and face are very engaging. + She is a brunette; her manners are lively, but when necessary she + can be very serious. She was baptized and educated a Protestant + of the Church of England. I think I have now said enough upon + this subject. Do not write till you hear from me again, which + will be when all is settled. I wish this important event may + hasten your return to town. I send a goblin story, with best + compliments to the misses, and ever am, yours affectionately,</p> + +<p class="left50"><span class="smcap">Walter Scott</span>.</p> + +<div class="poem20"> +<p class="poem20">THE ERL-KING.<a id="footnotetag140" name="footnotetag140"></a><a href="#footnote140"><span class="small" title="Go to Footnote 140">[140]</span></a></p> +<p class="center">(<span class="italic">The Erl-King is a goblin that haunts the Black Forest in + Thuringia.—To be read by a candle particularly long in the + snuff.</span>)</p> +<p>O, who rides by night thro' the woodland so wild?<br> + It is the fond father embracing his child;<br> + And <span class="pagenum"><a id="page255" name="page255"></a>(p. 255)</span> close the boy nestles within his loved arm,<br> + To hold himself fast, and to keep himself warm.</p> +<p>"O father, see yonder! see yonder!" he says.<br> + "My boy, upon what doest thou fearfully gaze?"—<br> + "O, 't is the Erl-King with his crown and his shroud."—<br> + "No, my son, it is but a dark wreath of the cloud."</p> +<p class="center">(<span class="italic">The Erl-King speaks.</span>)</p> +<p>"O, come and go with me, thou loveliest child;<br> + By many a gay sport shall thy time be beguiled;<br> + My mother keeps for thee full many a fair toy,<br> + And many a fine flower shall she pluck for my boy."</p> +<p>"O father, my father, and did you not hear<br> + The Erl-King whisper so low in my ear?"<br> + "Be still, my heart's darling—my child, be at ease;<br> + It was but the wild blast as it sung thro' the trees."</p> +<p class="center"><span class="italic">Erl-King.</span></p> +<p>"O wilt thou go with me, thou loveliest boy?<br> + My daughter shall tend thee with care and with joy;<br> + She shall bear thee so lightly thro' wet and thro' wild,<br> + And press thee, and kiss thee, and sing to my child."</p> +<p>"O father, my father, and saw you not plain<br> + The Erl-King's pale daughter glide past thro' the rain?"—<br> + "O yes, my loved treasure, I knew it full soon;<br> + It was the gray willow that danced to the moon."</p> +<p class="center"><span class="italic">Erl-King.</span></p> +<p>"O, come and go with me, no longer delay,<br> + Or else, silly child, I will drag thee away."—<br> + "O Father! O father! now, now keep your hold,<br> + The Erl-King has seized me—his grasp is so cold!"</p> +<p>Sore trembled the father; he spurr'd thro' the wild,<br> + Clasping close to his bosom his shuddering child;<br> + He reaches his dwelling in doubt and in dread,<br> + But, clasp'd to his bosom, the infant was <span class="italic">dead</span>!</p> +</div> + +<p>You see I have not altogether lost the faculty of rhyming. I + assure you, there is no small impudence in attempting a version + of that ballad, as it has been translated by <span class="italic">Lewis</span>.—All good + things be with you.</p> + +<p class="left50">W. S.</p> +</div> + +<div class="quote"> +<p class="tit-center">TO <span class="pagenum"><a id="page256" name="page256"></a>(p. 256)</span> WALTER SCOTT, ESQ., ADVOCATE, EDINBURGH.</p> +<p class="left50"><span class="smcap">London</span>, October 15, 1797.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Sir</span>,—I received your letter with pleasure, instead of + considering it as an intrusion. One thing more being fully stated + would have made it perfectly satisfactory,—namely, the sort of + income you immediately possess, and the sort of maintenance Miss + Carpenter, in case of your demise, might reasonably expect. + Though she is of an age to judge for herself in the choice of an + object that she would like to run the race of life with, she has + referred the subject to me. As her friend and guardian, I in duty + must try to secure her happiness, by endeavoring to keep her + comfortable immediately, and to prevent her being left destitute, + in case of any unhappy contingency. Her good sense and good + education are her chief fortune; therefore, in the worldly way of + talking, she is not entitled to much. Her brother, who was also + left under my care at an early period, is excessively fond of + her; he has no person to think of but her as yet; and will + certainly be enabled to make her very handsome presents, as he is + doing very well in India, where I sent him some years ago, and + where he bears a very high character, I am happy to say. I do not + throw out this to induce you to make any proposal beyond what + prudence and discretion recommend; but I hope I shall hear from + you by return of post, as I may be shortly called out of town to + some distance. As children are in general the consequence of an + happy union, I should wish to know what may be your thoughts or + wishes upon that subject. I trust you will not think me too + particular; indeed I am sure you will not, when you consider that + I am endeavoring to secure the happiness and welfare of an + estimable young woman whom you admire and profess to be partial + and attached to, and for whom I have the highest regard, esteem, + and respect.</p> + +<p>I am, Sir, your obedient humble servant,</p> + +<p class="left50"><span class="smcap">Downshire</span>.</p> +</div> + +<div class="quote"> +<p class="tit-center">TO <span class="pagenum"><a id="page257" name="page257"></a>(p. 257)</span> THE SAME.</p> +<p class="left50"><span class="smcap">Carlisle</span>, October 22.</p> + +<p>Your last letter, my dear sir, contains a very fine train of + <span class="italic">perhaps</span>, and of so many pretty conjectures, that it is not + flattering you to say you excel in the art of tormenting + yourself. As it happens, you are quite wrong in all your + suppositions. I have been waiting for Lord D.'s answer to your + letter, to give a full answer to your very proper inquiries about + my family. Miss Nicolson says, that when she did offer to give + you some information, you refused it—and advises me <span class="italic">now</span> to + wait for Lord D.'s letter. Don't believe I have been idle; I have + been writing very long letters to him, and all about you. How can + you think that I will give an answer about the house until I hear + from London?—that is quite impossible; and I believe you are a + little out of your senses to imagine I can be in Edinburgh before + the twelfth of next month. O, my dear sir, no—you must not think + of it this <span class="italic">great while</span>. I am much flattered by your mother's + remembrance; present my respectful compliments to her. You don't + mention your father in your last <span class="italic">anxious</span> letter—I hope he is + better. I am expecting every day to hear from my brother. You may + tell your uncle he is Commercial Resident at Salem. He will find + the name of Charles C. in his India list. My compliments to + Captain Scott. <span class="italic">Sans adieu</span>,</p> + +<p class="left50">C. C.</p> +</div> + +<div class="quote"> +<p class="tit-center">TO THE SAME.</p> +<p class="left50"><span class="smcap">Carlisle</span>, October 25.</p> + +<p>Indeed, Mr. Scott, I am by no means pleased with all this + writing. I have told you how much I dislike it, and yet you still + persist in asking me to write, and that by return of post. O, you + really are quite out of your senses. I should not have indulged + you in that whim of yours, had you not given me that hint that my + silence gives an air of mystery. I have no reason that can + detain <span class="pagenum"><a id="page258" name="page258"></a>(p. 258)</span> me in acquainting you that my father and mother + were French, of the name of Charpentier; he had a place under + government; their residence was at Lyons, where you would find on + inquiries that they lived in good repute and in <span class="italic">very good + style</span>. I had the misfortune of losing my father before I could + know the value of such a parent. At his death we were left to the + care of Lord D., who was his very great friend; and very soon + after I had the affliction of losing my mother. Our taking the + name of Carpenter was on my brother's going to India, to prevent + any little difficulties that might have occurred. I hope now you + are pleased. Lord D. could have given you every information, as + he has been acquainted with all my family. You say you almost + love <span class="italic">him</span>; but until your <span class="italic">almost</span> comes to a <span class="italic">quite</span>, I cannot + love <span class="italic">you</span>. Before I conclude this famous epistle, I will give + you a little hint—that is, not to put so many <span class="italic">musts</span> in your + letters—it is beginning <span class="italic">rather too soon</span>; and another thing is, + that I take the liberty not to mind them much, but I expect you + mind me. You <span class="italic">must</span> take care of yourself; you <span class="italic">must</span> think of + me, and believe me yours sincerely,</p> + +<p class="left50">C. C.</p> +</div> + +<div class="quote"> +<p class="tit-center">TO THE SAME.</p> +<p class="left50"><span class="smcap">Carlisle</span>, October 26.</p> + +<p>I have only a minute before the post goes, to assure you, my dear + sir, of the welcome reception of the stranger.<a id="footnotetag141" name="footnotetag141"></a><a href="#footnote141"><span class="small" title="Go to Footnote 141">[141]</span></a> The very + great likeness to a friend of mine will endear him to me; he + shall be my constant companion, but I wish he could give me an + answer to a thousand questions I have to make—one in particular, + what reason have you for so many fears you express? Have your + friends changed? Pray let me know the truth—they perhaps don't + like me <span class="italic">being French</span>. Do write immediately—let it be in better + spirits. Et croyez-moi toujours votre sincère</p> + +<p class="left50">C. C.</p> +</div> + +<div class="quote"> +<p class="tit-center">TO <span class="pagenum"><a id="page259" name="page259"></a>(p. 259)</span> THE SAME.</p> +<p class="left50">October 31.</p> + +<p>... All your apprehensions about your friends make me very + uneasy. At your father's age, prejudices are not easily + overcome—old people have, you know, so much more wisdom and + experience, that we must be guided by them. If he has an + objection on my being <span class="italic">French</span>, I excuse him with all my heart, + as I don't love them myself. O how all these things plague + me!—when will it end? And to complete the matter, you talk of + going to the West Indies. I am certain your father and uncle say + you are a hot <span class="italic">heady</span> young man, quite mad, and I assure you I + join with them; and I must believe, that when you have such an + idea, you have then determined to think no more of me. I begin to + repent of having accepted your picture. I will send it <span class="italic">back + again</span>, if you ever think again about the West Indies. Your + family then would <span class="italic">love me</span> very much—to forsake them for a + <span class="italic">stranger</span>, a person who does not possess half the charms and + good qualities that you <span class="italic">imagine</span>. I think I hear your uncle + calling you a hot heady young man. I am certain of it, and I am + <span class="italic">generally right</span> in my conjectures. What does your sister say + about it? I suspect that she thinks on the matter as I should do, + with fears and anxieties for the happiness of her brother. If it + be proper, and you think it would be <span class="italic">acceptable</span>, present my + best compliments to your mother; and to my old acquaintance + Captain Scott I beg to be remembered. This evening is the first + ball—don't you wish to be of our party? I guess your answer—it + would give me infinite pleasure. En attendant le plaisir de vous + revoir, je suis toujours votre constante</p> + +<p class="left50"><span class="smcap">Charlotte</span>.</p> +</div> + +<div class="quote"> +<p class="tit-center">TO THE SAME.</p> +<p class="left50"><span class="smcap">The Castle, Hartford</span>, October 29, 1797.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Sir</span>,—I received the favor of your letter. It was so manly, + honorable, candid, and so full of good sense, that I <span class="pagenum"><a id="page260" name="page260"></a>(p. 260)</span> + think Miss Carpenter's friends cannot in any way object to the + union you propose. Its taking place, when or where, will depend + upon herself, as I shall write to her by this night's post. Any + provision that may be given to her by her brother, you will have + settled upon her and her children; and I hope, with all my heart, + that every earthly happiness may attend you both. I shall be + always happy to hear it, and to subscribe myself your faithful + friend and obedient humble servant,</p> + +<p class="left50"><span class="smcap">Downshire</span>.</p> +</div> + +<div class="quote"> +<p class="tit-center">(ON THE SAME SHEET.)</p> +<p class="left50"><span class="smcap">Carlisle</span>, November 4.</p> + +<p>Last night I received the enclosed for you from Lord Downshire. + If it has your approbation, I shall be very glad to see you as + soon as will be convenient. I have a thousand things to tell you; + but let me beg of you not to think for some time of a house. I am + sure I can convince you of the propriety and prudence of waiting + until your father will settle things more to your satisfaction, + and until I have heard from my brother. You <span class="italic">must</span> be of my way + of thinking.—Adieu.</p> + +<p class="left50">C. C.</p> +</div> + +<p>Scott obeyed this summons, and I suppose remained in Carlisle until +the Court of Session met, which is always on the 12th of November.</p> + +<div class="quote"> +<p class="tit-center">TO W. SCOTT, ESQ., ADVOCATE, EDINBURGH.</p> +<p class="left50"><span class="smcap">Carlisle</span>, November 14.</p> + +<p>Your letter never could have come in a more favorable moment. + Anything you could have said would have been well received. You + surprise me much at the regret you express you had of leaving + Carlisle. Indeed, I can't believe it was on my account, I was so + uncommonly stupid. I don't know what could be the matter with me, + I was so very low, and felt really ill: it was even a trouble to + speak. The settling of our little plans—all looked <span class="pagenum"><a id="page261" name="page261"></a>(p. 261)</span> so + much in earnest—that I began reflecting more seriously than I + generally do, or <span class="italic">approve of</span>. I don't think that very thoughtful + people ever can be happy. As this is my maxim, adieu to all + thoughts. I have made a determination of being pleased with + everything, and with everybody in Edinburgh; a wise system for + happiness, is it not? I enclose the lock. I have had almost all + my hair cut off. Miss Nicolson has taken some, which she sends to + London to be made to something, but this you are not to know of, + as she intends to present it to you.... I am happy to hear of + your father's being better pleased as to money matters; it will + come at last; don't let that trifle disturb you. Adieu, Monsieur. + J'ai l'honneur d'être votre très humble et très</p> + +<p class="left50">Obéissante +<span class="add3em">C. C.</span></p> +</div> + +<div class="quote"> +<p class="left50"><span class="smcap">Carlisle</span>, November 27.</p> + +<p>You have made me very <span class="italic">triste</span> all day. Pray never more complain + of being poor. Are you not ten times richer than I am? Depend on + yourself and your profession. I have no doubt you will rise very + high, and be a <span class="italic">great rich man</span>, but we should look down to be + contented with our lot, and banish all disagreeable thoughts. We + shall do very well. I am very sorry to hear you have such a <span class="italic">bad + head</span>. I hope I shall nurse away all your aches. I think you + write too much. When I am <span class="italic">mistress</span> I shall not allow it. How + very angry I should be with you if you were to part with Lenore. + Do you really believe I should think it an <span class="italic">unnecessary expense</span> + where your health and pleasure can be concerned? I have a better + opinion of you, and I am very glad you don't give up the cavalry, + as I love anything that is <span class="italic">stylish</span>. Don't forget to find a + stand for the old carriage, as I shall like to keep it, in case + we should have to go any journey; it is so much more convenient + than the post-chaises, and will do very well till we can keep + <span class="italic">our carriage</span>. What an idea of yours was that to mention where + <span class="pagenum"><a id="page262" name="page262"></a>(p. 262)</span> you wish to have your <span class="italic">bones laid</span>!<a id="footnotetag142" name="footnotetag142"></a><a href="#footnote142"><span class="small" title="Go to Footnote 142">[142]</span></a> If you were + married, I should think you were tired of me. A very pretty + compliment <span class="italic">before marriage</span>. I hope sincerely that I shall not + live to see that day. If you always have those cheerful thoughts, + how very pleasant and gay you must be.</p> + +<p>Adieu, my dearest friend. Take care of yourself if you love me, + as I have <span class="italic">no wish</span> that you should <span class="italic">visit</span> that <span class="italic">beautiful</span> and + <span class="italic">romantic</span> scene, the burying-place. Adieu, once more, and + believe that you are loved very sincerely by</p> + +<p class="left50">C. C.</p> +</div> + + +<div class="quote"> +<p class="left50">December 10.</p> + +<p>If I could but really believe that my letter gave you only half + the pleasure you express, I should almost think, my dearest + Scott, that I should get very fond of writing merely for the + pleasure to <span class="italic">indulge</span> you—that is saying a great deal. I hope + you are sensible of the compliment I pay you, and don't expect I + shall <span class="italic">always</span> be so pretty behaved. You may depend on me, my + dearest friend, for fixing as <span class="italic">early</span> a day as I possibly can; + and if it happens to be not quite so soon as you wish, you must + not be angry with me. It is very unlucky you are such a bad + housekeeper—as I am no better. I shall try. I hope to have very + soon the pleasure of seeing you, and to tell you how much I love + you; but I wish the first fortnight was over. With all my love, + and those sort of pretty things—adieu.</p> + +<p class="left50"><span class="smcap">Charlotte</span></p> + +<p>P.S.—<span class="italic">Étudiez <span class="pagenum"><a id="page263" name="page263"></a>(p. 263)</span> votre Français.</span> Remember you are to + teach me Italian in return, but I shall be but a stupid scholar. + <span class="italic">Aimez Charlotte.</span></p> +</div> + +<div class="quote"> +<p class="left50"><span class="smcap">Carlisle</span>, December 14.</p> + +<p>... I heard last night from my friends in London, and I shall + certainly have the deed this week. I will send it to you + directly; but not to lose so much time, as you have been + reckoning, I will prevent any little delay that might happen by + the post, by fixing already next Wednesday for your coming here, + and on Thursday the 21st—Oh, my dear Scott, on that day I shall + be yours forever.</p> + +<p class="left50">C. C.</p> + +<p><span class="italic">P.S.</span>—Arrange it so that we shall see none of your family the + night of our arrival. I shall be so tired, and such a fright, I + should not be seen to advantage.</p> +</div> + +<p>To these extracts I may add the following from the first leaf of an +old black-letter Bible at Abbotsford:—</p> + +<div class="quote"> +<p>"<span class="italic">Secundum morem majorum hĉc de familiâ Gualteri Scott, + Jurisconsulti Edinensis, in librum hunc sacrum manu suâ + conscripta sunt.</span></p> + +<p>"<span class="italic">Gualterus Scott, filius Gualteri Scott et Annĉ Rutherford, + natus erat apud Edinam 15mo die Augusti, <span class="smcap">A. D.</span> 1771.</span></p> + +<p>"<span class="italic">Socius Facultatis Juridicĉ Edinensis receptus erat 11mo die + Julii, <span class="smcap">A. D.</span> 1792.</span></p> + +<p>"<span class="italic">In ecclesiam Sanctĉ Mariĉ apud Carlisle, uxorem duxit + Margaretam Charlottam Carpenter, filiam quondam Joannis + Charpentier et Charlottĉ Volere, Lugdunensem, 24to die Decembris, + 1797.</span>"<a id="footnotetag143" name="footnotetag143"></a><a href="#footnote143"><span class="small" title="Go to Footnote 143">[143]</span></a><a href="#toc"><span class="small">[Back to Contents]</span></a> +</p> +</div> + + +<h3>END OF VOLUME ONE</h3> + +<p class="p4"><a id="footnote1" name="footnote1"></a> +<b>Footnote 1:</b> <span class="italic">Quarterly Review</span>, vol. cxvi. +p. 447.<a href="#footnotetag1"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p> + +<p><a id="footnote2" name="footnote2"></a> +<b>Footnote 2:</b> To one of these friends, the Rev. George Robert Gleig, +Chaplain General of the Forces, we owe the only authoritative account +of Lockhart's early life. This is to be found in the interesting +article, the <span class="italic">Life of Lockhart</span>, in the Quarterly Review for October, +1864. Like his friend, Mr. Gleig was educated at Glasgow University, +was a Snell Scholar, and was an early contributor to <span class="italic">Blackwood</span> and +to <span class="italic">Fraser</span>. Later he wrote for both the great Reviews. He was long +the last survivor of the early <span class="italic">Blackwood</span> and <span class="italic">Fraser</span> groups. He +died in 1888, in his ninety-third year. The name which stood next to +Lockhart in the alphabetical arrangement of the first class was that +of Henry Hart Milman, his dear friend in later life, and one of his +most constant and valued allies in the <span class="italic">Quarterly</span>. His correspondence +with Milman forms an interesting feature of Lang's +<span class="italic">Life</span>.<a href="#footnotetag2"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p> + +<p><a id="footnote3" name="footnote3"></a> +<b>Footnote 3:</b> Lang's <span class="italic">Life of Lockhart</span>, vol. i. pp. +128-130.<a href="#footnotetag3"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p> + +<p><a id="footnote4" name="footnote4"></a> +<b>Footnote 4:</b> It has been said of <span class="italic">Valerius</span>, that it "contains as much +knowledge of its period, and that knowledge as accurate, as would +furnish out a long and elaborate German treatise on a martyr and his +time;" so that, whether the report that reached its author, that the +novel had been used in Harvard College as a handbook, was correct or +no, it would scarcely have been a misuse of the book. It is certain +that it was speedily appropriated by an American publisher, and we +have a traditional knowledge of its having been much read and admired +in certain New England circles.<a href="#footnotetag4"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p> + +<p><a id="footnote5" name="footnote5"></a> +<b>Footnote 5:</b> From the interesting obituary notice in the <span class="italic">London +Times</span> for December 9, 1854, supposed to have been written by Dean +Milman and Lady Eastlake.<a href="#footnotetag5"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p> + +<p><a id="footnote6" name="footnote6"></a> +<b>Footnote 6:</b> <span class="italic">Abbotsford Notanda</span>, pp. +190-193.<a href="#footnotetag6"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p> + +<p><a id="footnote7" name="footnote7"></a> +<b>Footnote 7:</b> Lang's <span class="italic">Life of Lockhart</span>, vol. ii. +p. 214.<a href="#footnotetag7"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p> + +<p><a id="footnote8" name="footnote8"></a> +<b>Footnote 8:</b> <span class="italic">Ibid.</span> pp. 181, +182.<a href="#footnotetag8"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p> + +<p><a id="footnote9" name="footnote9"></a> +<b>Footnote 9:</b> "A few lines sent to him by a friend whom he rarely saw, +who is seldom mentioned in connection with his history, yet who then +and always was exceptionally dear to him. The lines themselves were +often on his lips to the end of his own life, and will not be easily +forgotten by any one who reads them." Froude's <span class="italic">Thomas Carlyle</span>, vol. +i. p. 249.<a href="#footnotetag9"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p> + +<p><a id="footnote10" name="footnote10"></a> +<b>Footnote 10:</b> There were untruths as well; some of them so grotesquely +false as now to cause amusement rather than anger. An article on +Lockhart in <span class="italic">Temple Bar</span> for June, 1895 (vol. cv. p. 175), touches on +some of these legends, and pleads for a memoir. Gratitude is due to +the anonymous writer, for he was, says Mr. Andrew Lang, "the onlie +begetter" of that gentleman's biography of Lockhart, which gives so +interesting a portrait of its subject, whom, it is plain, the author +has learned to love. It is a book written with such sympathetic +insight and genuine feeling, that it should hereafter make Lockhart +known as he was. Mr. Lang was somewhat hampered (though not very +seriously so) by an occasional lack of material, including want of +access to the archives of the houses of Blackwood and Murray; but this +is partly set right by Mrs. Oliphant's admirable history of <span class="italic">William +Blackwood and His Sons</span>, which gives as graphic a description of the +early days of Maga and of Lockhart's connection therewith, indeed of +all his relations to the magazine and its publishers, as could be +desired.<a href="#footnotetag10"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p> + +<p><a id="footnote11" name="footnote11"></a> +<b>Footnote 11:</b> Scott's <span class="italic">Familiar Letters</span>, vol. ii. +p. 389.<a href="#footnotetag11"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p> + +<p><a id="footnote12" name="footnote12"></a> +<b>Footnote 12:</b> <span class="italic">Studies of a Biographer</span>, vol. ii. +p. 1.<a href="#footnotetag12"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p> + +<p><a id="footnote13" name="footnote13"></a> +<b>Footnote 13:</b> <span class="italic">Quarterly Review</span>, vol. cxvi. +p. 475.<a href="#footnotetag13"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p> + +<p><a id="footnote14" name="footnote14"></a> +<b>Footnote 14:</b> Ornsby's <span class="italic">Memoirs of J. R. Hope-Scott</span>, vol. ii +p. 138.<a href="#footnotetag14"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p> + +<p><a id="footnote15" name="footnote15"></a> +<b>Footnote 15:</b> <span class="italic">Quarterly Review</span>, vol. cxvi. +p. 475.<a href="#footnotetag15"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p> + +<p><a id="footnote16" name="footnote16"></a> +<b>Footnote 16:</b> Bailie Johnston died 4th April, 1838, in his 73d +year.<a href="#footnotetag16"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p> + +<p><a id="footnote17" name="footnote17"></a> +<b>Footnote 17:</b> Mr. Rees retired from the house of Longman and Co. at +Midsummer, 1837, and died 5th September following, in his 67th +year.<a href="#footnotetag17"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p> + +<p><a id="footnote18" name="footnote18"></a> +<b>Footnote 18:</b> I do not mean to say that my success in literature has +not led me to mix familiarly in society much above my birth and +original pretensions, since I have been readily received in the first +circles in Britain. But there is a certain intuitive knowledge of the +world, to which most well-educated Scotchmen are early trained, that +prevents them from being much dazzled by this species of elevation. A +man who to good nature adds the general rudiments of good breeding, +provided he rest contented with a simple and unaffected manner of +behaving and expressing himself, will never be ridiculous in the best +society, and so far as his talents and information permit, may be an +agreeable part of the company. I have therefore never felt much +elevated, nor did I experience any violent change in situation, by the +passport which my poetical character afforded me into higher company +than my birth warranted.—(1826).<a href="#footnotetag18"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p> + +<p><a id="footnote19" name="footnote19"></a> +<b>Footnote 19:</b> The present Lord Haddington, and other gentlemen +conversant with the south country, remember my grandfather well. He +was a fine, alert figure, and wore a jockey cap over his gray +hair.—(1826.)<a href="#footnotetag19"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p> + +<div> +<p><a id="footnote20" name="footnote20"></a> +<b>Footnote 20:</b> Mrs. Cockburn (born Miss Rutherford of Fairnalie) was +the authoress of the beautiful song—</p> + +<p class="poem"> +"I have seen the smiling Of fortune beguiling."—(1826.)<a href="#footnotetag20"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p> +</div> + +<p><a id="footnote21" name="footnote21"></a> +<b>Footnote 21:</b> He was this year made major of the second battalion, by +the kind intercession of Mr. Canning at the War Office—1809. He +retired from the army, and kept house with my mother. His health was +totally broken, and he died, yet a young man, on 8th May, +1816.—(1826.)<a href="#footnotetag21"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p> + +<p><a id="footnote22" name="footnote22"></a> +<b>Footnote 22:</b> Poor Tom, a man of infinite humor and excellent parts, +pursued for some time my father's profession; but he was unfortunate, +from engaging in speculations respecting farms and matters out of the +line of his proper business. He afterwards became paymaster of the +70th regiment, and died in Canada. Tom married Elizabeth, a daughter +of the family of M'Culloch of Ardwell, an ancient Galwegian stock, by +whom he left a son, Walter Scott, now second lieutenant of engineers +in the East India Company's service, Bombay—and three daughters; +Jessie, married to Lieutenant-Colonel Huxley; 2. Anne; 3. Eliza—the +two last still unmarried.—(1826.)<a href="#footnotetag22"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p> + +<p><a id="footnote23" name="footnote23"></a> +<b>Footnote 23:</b> She died in 1810.—(1826.)<a href="#footnotetag23"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p> + +<p><a id="footnote24" name="footnote24"></a> +<b>Footnote 24:</b> [Regarding this illness, see a medical note by Dr. +Creighton to the article, "Scott," in the <span class="italic">Encyclopĉdia +Britannica</span>.]<a href="#footnotetag24"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p> + +<p><a id="footnote25" name="footnote25"></a> +<b>Footnote 25:</b> He was a second cousin of my grandfather's. Isobel +MacDougal, wife of Walter, the first Laird of Raeburn, and mother of +Walter Scott, called Beardie, was grand-aunt, I take it, to the late +Sir George MacDougal. There was always great friendship between us and +the Makerstoun family. It singularly happened, that at the burial of +the late Sir Henry MacDougal, my cousin William Scott younger of +Raeburn, and I myself, were the nearest blood relations present, +although our connection was of so old a date, and ranked as +pall-bearers accordingly.—(1826.)<a href="#footnotetag25"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p> + +<p><a id="footnote26" name="footnote26"></a> +<b>Footnote 26:</b> My uncle afterwards resided at Elliston, and then took +from Mr. Cornelius Elliot the estate of Woollee. Finally he retired to +Monklaw in the neighborhood of Jedburgh, where he died, 1823, at the +advanced age of ninety years, and in full possession of his faculties. +It was a fine thing to hear him talk over the change of the country +which he had witnessed.—(1826.)<a href="#footnotetag26"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p> + +<div> +<p><a id="footnote27" name="footnote27"></a> +<b>Footnote 27:</b> Besides this veteran, I found another ally at +Prestonpans, in the person of George Constable, an old friend of my +father's, educated to the law, but retired upon his independent +property, and generally residing near Dundee. He had many of those +peculiarities of temper which long afterwards I tried to develop in +the character of Jonathan Oldbuck. It is very odd, that though I am +unconscious of anything in which I strictly copied the <span class="italic">manners</span> of my +old friend, the resemblance was nevertheless detected by George +Chalmers, Esq., solicitor, London, an old friend, both of my father +and Mr. Constable, and who affirmed to my late friend, Lord Kinedder, +that I must needs be the author of <span class="italic">The Antiquary</span>, since he +recognized the portrait of George Constable. But my friend George was +not so decided an enemy to womankind as his representative Monkbarns. +On the contrary, I rather suspect that he had a <span class="italic">tendresse</span> for my +Aunt Jenny, who even then was a most beautiful woman, though somewhat +advanced in life. To the close of her life, she had the finest eyes +and teeth I ever saw, and though she could be sufficiently sharp when +she had a mind, her general behavior was genteel and ladylike. However +this might be, I derived a great deal of curious information from +George Constable, both at this early period, and afterwards. He was +constantly philandering about my aunt, and of course very kind to me. +He was the first person who told me about Falstaff and Hotspur, and +other characters in Shakespeare. What idea I annexed to them I know +not; but I must have annexed some, for I remember quite well being +interested on the subject. Indeed, I rather suspect that children +derive impulses of a powerful and important kind in hearing things +which they cannot entirely comprehend; and therefore, that to write +<span class="italic">down</span> to children's understanding is a mistake: set them on the +scent, and let them puzzle it out. To return to George Constable, I +knew him well at a much later period. He used always to dine at my +father's house of a Sunday, and was authorized to turn the +conversation out of the austere and Calvinistic tone, which it usually +maintained on that day, upon subjects of history or auld langsyne. He +remembered the forty-five, and told many excellent stories, all with a +strong dash of a peculiar caustic humor.</p> + +<p>George's sworn ally as a brother antiquary was John Davidson, then +Keeper of the Signet; and I remember his flattering and compelling me +to go to dine there. A writer's apprentice with the Keeper of the +Signet, whose least officer kept us in order!—It was an awful event. +Thither, however, I went with some secret expectation of a scantling +of good claret. Mr. D. had a son whose taste inclined him to the army, +to which his father, who had designed him for the Bar, gave a most +unwilling consent. He was at this time a young officer, and he and I, +leaving the two seniors to proceed in their chat as they pleased, +never once opened our mouths either to them or each other. The +Pragmatic Sanction happened unfortunately to become the theme of their +conversation, when Constable said in jest, "Now, John, I'll wad you a +plack that neither of these two lads ever heard of the Pragmatic +Sanction."—"Not heard of the Pragmatic Sanction!" said John Davidson; +"I would like to see that;" and with a voice of thunder he asked his +son the fatal question. As young D. modestly allowed he knew nothing +about it, his father drove him from the table in a rage, and I +absconded during the confusion; nor could Constable ever bring me back +again to his friend Davidson's.—(1826.)<a href="#footnotetag27"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p> +</div> + +<p><a id="footnote28" name="footnote28"></a> +<b>Footnote 28:</b> [Lord Cockburn, in his <span class="italic">Life of Jeffrey</span>, quotes with +approval Scott's commendation of Mr. Fraser, and adds, that this +teacher had the singular good fortune to turn out from three +successive classes Walter Scott, Francis Jeffrey, and Henry +Brougham.]<a href="#footnotetag28"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p> + +<p><a id="footnote29" name="footnote29"></a> +<b>Footnote 29:</b> I read not long since, in that authentic record called +the <span class="italic">Percy Anecdotes</span>, that I had been educated at Musselburgh school, +where I had been distinguished as an absolute dunce; only Dr. Blair, +seeing farther into the millstone, had pronounced there was fire in +it. I never was at Musselburgh school in my life, and though I have +met Dr. Blair at my father's and elsewhere, I never had the good +fortune to attract his notice, to my knowledge. Lastly, I was never a +dunce, nor thought to be so, but an incorrigibly idle imp, who was +always longing to do something else than what was enjoined +him.—(1826.)<a href="#footnotetag29"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p> + +<p><a id="footnote30" name="footnote30"></a> +<b>Footnote 30:</b> [On December 27, 1809, a few days after Dr. Adam's +death, Scott writes to Mrs. Thomas Scott: "Poor old Dr. Adam died last +week after a very short illness, which first affected him in school. +He was light-headed, and continued to speak as in the class until the +very last, when, having been silent for many hours, he said, 'That +Horace was very well said; <span class="italic">you</span> did not do it so well;' then added +faintly, 'But it grows dark, very dark, the boys may dismiss,' and +with these striking words he expired."—<span class="italic">Familiar Letters</span>, vol. i. p. +154.]<a href="#footnotetag30"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p> + +<p><a id="footnote31" name="footnote31"></a> +<b>Footnote 31:</b> [Home's <span class="italic">Douglas</span>.]<a href="#footnotetag31"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p> + +<p><a id="footnote32" name="footnote32"></a> +<b>Footnote 32:</b> Now Lord Abercromby.—(1826.)<a href="#footnotetag32"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p> + +<p><a id="footnote33" name="footnote33"></a> +<b>Footnote 33:</b> The late Alexander Campbell, a warm-hearted man, and an +enthusiast in Scottish music, which he sang most beautifully, had this +ungrateful task imposed on him. He was a man of many accomplishments, +but dashed with a <span class="italic">bizarrerie</span> of temper which made them useless to +their proprietor. He wrote several books—as a <span class="italic">Tour in Scotland</span>, +etc.;—and he made an advantageous marriage, but fell nevertheless +into distressed circumstances, which I had the pleasure of relieving, +if I could not remove. His sense of gratitude was very strong, and +showed itself oddly in one respect. He would never allow that I had a +bad ear; but contended, that if I did not understand music, it was +because I did not choose to learn it. But when he attended us in +George's Square, our neighbor, Lady Cumming, sent to beg the boys +might not be all flogged precisely at the same hour, as, though she +had no doubt the punishment was deserved, the noise of the concord was +really dreadful. Robert was the only one of our family who could sing, +though my father was musical, and a performer on the violoncello at +the <span class="italic">gentlemen's concerts</span>.—(1826.)<a href="#footnotetag33"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p> + +<p><a id="footnote34" name="footnote34"></a> +<b>Footnote 34:</b> Now Lord Justice-Clerk.—(1826.)<a href="#footnotetag34"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p> + +<p><a id="footnote35" name="footnote35"></a> +<b>Footnote 35:</b> On Sir Walter's copy of <span class="italic">Recreations with the Muses, by +William, Earl of Stirling</span>, 1637, there is the following MS. +note:—"Sir William Alexander, sixth Baron of Menstrie, and first Earl +of Stirling, the friend of Drummond of Hawthornden and Ben Jonson, +died in 1640. His eldest son, William, Viscount Canada, died before +his father, leaving one son and three daughters by his wife, Lady +Margaret Douglas, eldest daughter of William, first Marquis of +Douglas. Margaret, the second of these daughters, married Sir Robert +Sinclair of Longformacus in the Merse, to whom she bore two daughters, +Anne and Jean. Jean Sinclair, the younger daughter, married Sir John +Swinton of Swinton; and Jean Swinton, her eldest daughter, was the +grandmother of the proprietor of this volume."<a href="#footnotetag35"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p> + +<div> +<p><a id="footnote36" name="footnote36"></a> +<b>Footnote 36:</b> His family well remember the delight which he expressed +on receiving, in 1818, a copy of this first edition, a small dark +quarto of 1688, from his friend Constable. He was breakfasting when +the present was delivered, and said, "This is indeed the resurrection +of an old ally—I mind <span class="italic">spelling</span> these lines." He read aloud the +jingling epistle to his own great-great-grandfather, which, like the +rest, concludes with a broad hint, that as the author had neither +lands nor flocks—"no estate left except his designation"—the more +fortunate kinsman who enjoyed, like Jason of old, a fair share of +<span class="italic">fleeces</span>, might do worse than bestow on him some of King James's +<span class="italic">broad pieces</span>. On rising from table, Sir Walter immediately wrote as +follows on the blank leaf opposite to poor Satchells' honest +title-page—</p> + +<p class="poem"> + "I, Walter Scott of Abbotsford, a poor scholar, no soldier, but a soldier's lover,<br> + In the style of my namesake and kinsman do hereby discover,<br> + That I have written the twenty-four letters twenty-four million times over;<br> + And to every true-born Scott I do wish as many golden pieces<br> + As ever were hairs in Jason's and Medea's golden fleeces."</p> + +<p>The rarity of the original edition of Satchells is such, that the copy +now at Abbotsford was the only one Mr. Constable had ever seen—and no +wonder, for the author's envoy is in these words:—</p> + +<p class="poem"> + "Begone, my book, stretch forth thy wings and fly<br> + Amongst the nobles and gentility;<br> + Thou'rt not to sell to scavengers and clowns,<br> + But given to worthy persons of renown.<br> + The number's few I've printed, in regard<br> + My charges have been great, and I hope reward;<br> + I caus'd not print many above twelve score,<br> + And the printers are engaged that they shall print no more."<a href="#footnotetag36"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p> +</div> + +<div> +<p><a id="footnote37" name="footnote37"></a> +<b>Footnote 37:</b> Leyden, the author of these beautiful lines, has +borrowed, as <span class="italic">The Lay of the Last Minstrel</span> did also, from one of +Satchells's primitive couplets—</p> + +<p class="poem"> + "If heather-tops had been corn of the best,<br> + Then Buccleugh mill had gotten a noble grist."<a href="#footnotetag37"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p> +</div> + +<div> +<p><a id="footnote38" name="footnote38"></a> +<b>Footnote 38:</b> Since this book was first published, I have seen in +print <span class="italic">A Poem on the Death of Master Walter Scott, who died at Kelso, +November 3, 1729</span>, written, it is said, by Sir William Scott of +Thirlestane, Bart., the male ancestor of Lord Napier. It has these +lines:—</p> + +<p class="poem"> + "His converse breathed the Christian. On his tongue<br> + The praises of religion ever hung;<br> + Whence it appeared he did on solid ground<br> + Commend the pleasures which himself had found....<br> + His venerable mien and goodly air<br> + Fix on our hearts impressions strong and fair.<br> + Full seventy years had shed their silvery glow<br> + Around his locks, and made his beard to grow;<br> + That decent beard, which in becoming grace<br> + Did spread a reverend honor on his face," etc.—(1838.)<a href="#footnotetag38"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p> +</div> + +<p><a id="footnote39" name="footnote39"></a> +<b>Footnote 39:</b> "From the genealogical deduction in the Memorials, it +appears that the Haliburtons of Newmains were descended from and +represented the ancient and once powerful family of Haliburton of +Mertoun, which became extinct in the beginning of the eighteenth +century. The first of this latter family possessed the lands and +barony of Mertoun by a charter granted by Archibald, Earl of Douglas +and Lord of Galloway (one of those tremendous lords whose coronets +counterpoised the Scottish crown), to Henry de Haliburton, whom he +designates as his standard-bearer, on account of his service to the +earl in England. On this account the Haliburtons of Mertoun and those +of Newmains, in addition to the arms borne by the Haliburtons of +Dirleton (the ancient chiefs of that once great and powerful, but now +almost extinguished name)—viz. <span class="italic">or</span>, on a bend <span class="italic">azure</span>, three mascles +of the first—gave the distinctive bearing of a buckle of the second +in the sinister canton. These arms still appear on various old tombs +in the abbeys of Melrose and Dryburgh, as well as on their house at +Dryburgh, which was built in 1572."—<span class="italic">MS. Memorandum</span>, 1820. Sir +Walter was served heir to these Haliburtons soon after the date of +this Memorandum, and thenceforth quartered the arms above described +with those of his paternal family.<a href="#footnotetag39"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p> + +<p><a id="footnote40" name="footnote40"></a> +<b>Footnote 40:</b> See Chambers's <span class="italic">Traditions of Edinburgh</span>, vol. ii. pp. +127-131. The functions here ascribed to Mrs. Ogilvie may appear to +modern readers little consistent with her rank. Such things, however, +were not uncommon in those days in poor old Scotland. Ladies with whom +I have conversed in my youth well remembered an <span class="italic">Honorable Mrs. +Maitland</span> who practised the obstetric art in the Cowgate.<a href="#footnotetag40"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p> + +<div> +<p><a id="footnote41" name="footnote41"></a> +<b>Footnote 41:</b> In Sir Walter Scott's desk, after his death, there was +found a little packet containing six locks of hair, with this +inscription in the handwriting of his mother:—</p> + +<ul> +<li>"1. Anne Scott, born March 10, 1759.</li> +<li>2. Robert Scott, born August 22, 1760.</li> +<li>3. John Scott, born November 28, 1761.</li> +<li>4. Robert Scott, born June 7, 1763.</li> +<li>5. Jean Scott, born March 27, 1765.</li> +<li>6. Walter Scott, born August 30, 1766.</li></ul> + +<p>"All these are dead, and none of my present family was born till some +time afterwards."<a href="#footnotetag41"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p> +</div> + +<p><a id="footnote42" name="footnote42"></a> +<b>Footnote 42:</b> [No. 25.]<a href="#footnotetag42"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p> + +<p><a id="footnote43" name="footnote43"></a> +<b>Footnote 43:</b> [<span class="italic">Poetical Works</span>, Cambridge Edition, +p. 108.]<a href="#footnotetag43"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p> + +<p><a id="footnote44" name="footnote44"></a> +<b>Footnote 44:</b> This old woman still possesses "the <span class="italic">banes</span>" +(bones)—that is to say, the boards—of a Psalm-book, which Master +Walter gave her at Sandy-Knowe. "He chose it," she says, "of a very +large print, that I might be able to read it when I was <span class="italic">very +auld—forty year auld</span>; but the bairns pulled the leaves out +langsyne."<a href="#footnotetag44"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p> + +<div> +<p><a id="footnote45" name="footnote45"></a> +<b>Footnote 45:</b> [In writing of his little grandson's earliest lessons, +Scott recalls these days in a letter to Lockhart (March 3, 1826):—</p> + +<p>"I rejoice to hear of Johnnie's grand flip towards instruction. I hope +Mrs. Mactavish, whom I like not the worse, you may be sure, for her +name, will be mild in her rule, and let him listen to reading a good +deal without cramming the alphabet and grammar down the poor child's +throat. I cannot at this moment tell how or when I learned to read, +but it was by fits and snatches, as one aunt or another in the old +rumble-tumble farmhouses could give me a lesson, and I am sure it +increased my love and habit of reading more than the austerities of a +school could have done. I gave trouble, I believe, in wishing to be +taught, and in self-defence gradually acquired the mystery myself. +Johnnie is infirm a little, though not so much so as I was, and often +he has brought back to my recollection the days of my own childhood. I +hope he will be twice any good that was in me, with less +carelessness."—Lang's <span class="italic">Life of Lockhart</span>, vol. i. +p. 397.]<a href="#footnotetag45"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p> +</div> + +<p><a id="footnote46" name="footnote46"></a> +<b>Footnote 46:</b> <span class="italic">Miscellaneous Prose Works</span>, vol. xx. +p. 154.<a href="#footnotetag46"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p> + +<div> +<p><a id="footnote47" name="footnote47"></a> +<b>Footnote 47:</b> It may amuse my reader to recall, by the side of Scott's +early definition of "a virtuoso," the lines in which Akenside has +painted that character—lines which might have been written for a +description of the Author of <span class="italic">Waverley</span>:—</p> + +<p class="poem"> + "He knew the various modes of ancient times,<br> + Their arts and fashions of each various guise;<br> + Their weddings, funerals, punishments of crimes;<br> + Their strength, their learning eke, and rarities.<br> + Of old habiliment, each sort and size,<br> + Male, female, high and low, to him were known;<br> + Each gladiator's dress, and stage disguise,<br> + With learned clerkly phrase he could have shown."<a href="#footnotetag47"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p> +</div> + +<p><a id="footnote48" name="footnote48"></a> +<b>Footnote 48:</b> He was, in fact, six years and three months old before +this letter was written.<a href="#footnotetag48"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p> + +<p><a id="footnote49" name="footnote49"></a> +<b>Footnote 49:</b> Mrs. Keith of Ravelston was born a Swinton of Swinton, +and sister to Sir Walter's maternal grandmother.<a href="#footnotetag49"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p> + +<p><a id="footnote50" name="footnote50"></a> +<b>Footnote 50:</b> <span class="italic">Waverley</span>, chap, xlvii. +note.<a href="#footnotetag50"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p> + +<p><a id="footnote51" name="footnote51"></a> +<b>Footnote 51:</b> According to Mr. Irving's recollections, Scott's place, +after the first winter, was usually between the 7th and the 15th from +the top of the class. He adds, "Dr. James Buchan was always the <span class="italic">dux</span>; +David Douglas (Lord Reston) <span class="italic">second</span>; and the present Lord Melville +<span class="italic">third</span>."<a href="#footnotetag51"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p> + +<p><a id="footnote52" name="footnote52"></a> +<b>Footnote 52:</b> Chap. xvi. verse 7.<a href="#footnotetag52"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p> + +<p><a id="footnote53" name="footnote53"></a> +<b>Footnote 53:</b> Mr. Irving inclines to think that this incident must +have occurred during Scott's attendance on Luke Fraser, not after he +went to Dr. Adam; and he also suspects that the boy referred to sat at +the top, not of the <span class="italic">class</span>, but of Scott's own bench or division of +the class.<a href="#footnotetag53"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p> + +<p><a id="footnote54" name="footnote54"></a> +<b>Footnote 54:</b> I am obliged for these little memorials to the Rev. W. +Steven of Rotterdam, author of an interesting book on the history of +the branch of the Scotch Church long established in Holland, and still +flourishing under the protection of the enlightened government of that +country. Mr. Steven found them in the course of his recent researches, +undertaken with a view to some memoirs of the High School of +Edinburgh, at which he had received his own early +education.<a href="#footnotetag54"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p> + +<p><a id="footnote55" name="footnote55"></a> +<b>Footnote 55:</b> This young patroness was the Duchess-Countess of +Sutherland.<a href="#footnotetag55"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p> + +<div> +<p><a id="footnote56" name="footnote56"></a> +<b>Footnote 56:</b> This transposition of <span class="italic">hospes</span> and <span class="italic">nostris</span> +sufficiently confirms his pupil's statement that Mr. Mitchell +"superintended his classical themes, but not classically." The +"obnoxious master" alluded to was Burns's friend Nicoll, the hero of +the song—</p> + +<p class="poem"> + "Willie brewed a peck O' maut,<br> + And Rob and Allan cam' to see," etc.<a href="#footnotetag56"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p> +</div> + +<p><a id="footnote57" name="footnote57"></a> +<b>Footnote 57:</b> George, ninth Earl of Dalhousie, highly distinguished in +the military annals of his time, died on the 21st March, 1838, in his +68th year.<a href="#footnotetag57"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p> + +<p><a id="footnote58" name="footnote58"></a> +<b>Footnote 58:</b> See Strang's <span class="italic">Germany in 1831</span>, vol. i. +p. 265.<a href="#footnotetag58"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p> + +<p><a id="footnote59" name="footnote59"></a> +<b>Footnote 59:</b> [Miss Fleming, in her contribution to Dr. John Brown's +memorial of her sister Marjorie, says that these verses were written +by her aunt, Mrs. Keir, after meeting the boy poet at Ravelston. +Another aunt was the wife of Scott's kinsman, Mr. William Keith of +Corstorphine Hill, and it was at her house, 1, North Charlotte Street, +that Sir Walter came to know familiarly her delightful little niece, +during her long visits to Edinburgh. These ladies and Mrs. Fleming +were the daughters of Dr. James Rae.—See <span class="italic">Marjorie +Fleming</span>.]<a href="#footnotetag59"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p> + +<p><a id="footnote60" name="footnote60"></a> +<b>Footnote 60:</b> Lord Nelson's connection with this lady will preserve +her celebrity. In Kay's <span class="italic">Edinburgh Portraits</span> the reader will find +more about Dr. Graham.<a href="#footnotetag60"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p> + +<p><a id="footnote61" name="footnote61"></a> +<b>Footnote 61:</b> [See <span class="italic">Journal</span>, vol. i. pp. +137-139.]<a href="#footnotetag61"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p> + +<p><a id="footnote62" name="footnote62"></a> +<b>Footnote 62:</b> See Preface to <span class="italic">Waverley</span>, +1829.<a href="#footnotetag62"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p> + +<p><a id="footnote63" name="footnote63"></a> +<b>Footnote 63:</b> <span class="italic">Life of Scott</span>, by Mr. Allan, +p. 53.<a href="#footnotetag63"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p> + +<p><a id="footnote64" name="footnote64"></a> +<b>Footnote 64:</b> ["Long life to thy fame and peace to thy soul, Rob +Burns! When I want to express a sentiment which I feel strongly, I +find the phrase in Shakespeare—or thee."—<span class="italic">Journal</span>, December 11, +1826.]<a href="#footnotetag64"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p> + +<p><a id="footnote65" name="footnote65"></a> +<b>Footnote 65:</b> Introduction to <span class="italic">Rob +Roy</span>.<a href="#footnotetag65"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p> + +<p><a id="footnote66" name="footnote66"></a> +<b>Footnote 66:</b> Mr. Edmonstone died 19th April, +1840.—(1848.)<a href="#footnotetag66"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p> + +<p><a id="footnote67" name="footnote67"></a> +<b>Footnote 67:</b> "Dinna steer him," says Hobbie Elliot; "ye may think +Elshie's but a lamiter, but I warrant ye, grippie for grippie, he'll +gar the blue blood spin frae your nails—his hand's like a smith's +vice."—<span class="italic">Black Dwarf</span>, chap. xvii.<a href="#footnotetag67"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p> + +<p><a id="footnote68" name="footnote68"></a> +<b>Footnote 68:</b> Author of the famous Essay on dividing the Line in +Sea-fights.<a href="#footnotetag68"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p> + +<p><a id="footnote69" name="footnote69"></a> +<b>Footnote 69:</b> Compare <span class="italic">The Antiquary</span>, +chap. iv.<a href="#footnotetag69"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p> + +<p><a id="footnote70" name="footnote70"></a> +<b>Footnote 70:</b> The most remarkable of these <span class="italic">antique heads</span> was so +highly appreciated by another distinguished connoisseur, the late Earl +of Buchan, that he carried it off from Mr. Clerk's museum, and +presented it to the Scottish Society of Antiquaries—in whose +collection, no doubt, it may still be admired.<a href="#footnotetag70"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p> + +<p><a id="footnote71" name="footnote71"></a> +<b>Footnote 71:</b> <span class="italic">Rob Roy</span>, chap. xii.<a href="#footnotetag71"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p> + +<p><a id="footnote72" name="footnote72"></a> +<b>Footnote 72:</b> After the cautious father had had further opportunity of +observing his son's proceedings, his wife happened one night to +express some anxiety on the protracted absence of Walter and his +brother Thomas. "My dear Annie," said the old man, "Tom is with Walter +this time; and have you not yet perceived that wherever Walter goes, +he is pretty sure to find his bread buttered on both sides?"—<span class="italic">From +Mrs. Thomas Scott.</span>—(1839.)<a href="#footnotetag72"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p> + +<p><a id="footnote73" name="footnote73"></a> +<b>Footnote 73:</b> "The members of <span class="italic">The Club</span> used to meet on Friday +evenings in a room in Carrubber's Close, from which some of them +usually adjourned to sup at an oyster tavern in the same neighborhood. +In after-life, those of them who chanced to be in Edinburgh dined +together twice every year, at the close of the winter and summer +sessions of the Law Courts; and during thirty years, Sir Walter was +very rarely absent on these occasions. It was also a rule, that when +any member received an appointment or promotion, he should give a +dinner to his old associates; and they had accordingly two such +dinners from him—one when he became Sheriff of Selkirkshire, and +another when he was named Clerk of Session. The original members were, +in number, nineteen—viz., <span class="italic">Sir Walter Scott</span>, Mr. William Clerk, Sir +A. Ferguson, Mr. James Edmonstone, Mr. George Abercromby (Lord +Abercromby), Mr. D. Boyle (now Lord Justice-Clerk), Mr. James +Glassford (Advocate), Mr. James Ferguson (Clerk of Session), Mr. David +Monypenny (Lord Pitmilly), Mr. Robert Davidson (Professor of Law at +Glasgow), Sir William Rae, Bart., Sir Patrick Murray, Bart., <span class="italic">David +Douglas</span> (Lord Reston), Mr. Murray of Simprim, Mr. Monteith of +Closeburn, <span class="italic">Mr. Archibald Miller</span> (son of Professor Miller), <span class="italic">Baron +Reden</span>, a Hanoverian; the Honorable <span class="italic">Thomas Douglas</span>, afterwards Earl +of Selkirk,—and John Irving. Except the five whose names are +<span class="italic">underlined</span>, these original members are all still alive."—<span class="italic">Letter +from Mr. Irving</span>, dated 29th September, 1836.<a href="#footnotetag73"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p> + +<p><a id="footnote74" name="footnote74"></a> +<b>Footnote 74:</b> The present Laird of Raeburn.<a href="#footnotetag74"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p> + +<p><a id="footnote75" name="footnote75"></a> +<b>Footnote 75:</b> All Scott's letters to the friend here alluded to are +said to have perished in an accidental fire.<a href="#footnotetag75"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p> + +<p><a id="footnote76" name="footnote76"></a> +<b>Footnote 76:</b> The late Countess-Duchess of +Sutherland.—(1848.)<a href="#footnotetag76"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p> + +<p><a id="footnote77" name="footnote77"></a> +<b>Footnote 77:</b> In one of his latest articles for the <span class="italic">Quarterly +Review</span>, Scott observes, "There have been instances of love tales +being favorably received in England, when told under an umbrella, and +in the middle of a shower."—<span class="italic">Miscellaneous Prose Works</span>, +vol. xviii.<a href="#footnotetag77"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p> + +<div> +<p><a id="footnote78" name="footnote78"></a> +<b>Footnote 78:</b> [The object of the strongest, or perhaps it should be +said the single, passion of Scott's life was Williamina, the only +child of Sir John Wishart Belsches Stuart of Fettercairn, and his +wife, the Lady Jane Leslie, daughter of David, Earl of Leven and +Melville. Beside beauty of person, sweetness of disposition, a quick +intelligence, and cultivated tastes, Miss Stuart seems to have +possessed in large measure that indefinable but potent gift, which is +called charm. Through some misapprehension, Lockhart appears to have +antedated the beginning of her influence over Scott, as in 1790 she +was hardly more than a child, and she was not sixteen when he was +called to the Bar, though the meeting in the Greyfriars' Churchyard +had probably already taken place. The "three years of dreaming" were +ended, as the biographer narrates, in the autumn of 1796. On January +19, 1797, Miss Stuart was married to William Forbes, son and heir of +Sir William Forbes of Pitsligo, an eminent banker, and the author of a +Life of his friend Beattie. Scott's affectionate allusions to his +early rival will be found in the Introduction to the Fourth Canto of +<span class="italic">Marmion</span>:—</p> + +<p class="poem"> + "And one whose name I may not say,—<br> + For not mimosa's tender tree<br> + Shrinks sooner from the touch than he,"—</p> + +<p>an Introduction inscribed to James Skene of Rubislaw, whose marriage +to a daughter of Sir William had been speedily followed by the +father's death. Mr. Forbes succeeded to the baronetcy in 1806, and his +wife, on the death of Sir John Stuart, inherited Fettercairn. She died +December 5, 1810, after thirteen years of unclouded happiness. Dean +Boyle has recorded that Lockhart once read to him the letter "full of +beauty," which Scott wrote to the bereaved husband at this time. Lady +Stuart-Forbes left six children, four sons and two daughters. The +three sons who survived to maturity all were men of unusual ability.</p> + +<p>The story of Williamina Stuart's brief life was told for the first +time with any fulness by Miss F. M. F. Skene in the <span class="italic">Century Magazine</span> +for July, 1899. As the daughter of one of Scott's earliest and dearest +friends and the niece of Sir William Forbes, she could write with +knowledge. She says that from the day of his wife's death, "so far as +society and the outer world were concerned, Sir William Forbes may be +said to have died with her. He retired into the most complete +seclusion, maintaining the heart-stricken silence of a grief too deep +for words, and scarcely seeing even his own nearest relatives. Only at +the call of duty did he ever emerge from his [retirement," as when he +proved so stanch a friend to Scott in the darkest days of 1826 and +1827.</p> + +<p>A charming portrait, after a miniature by Cosway, accompanies Miss +Skene's sketch of Lady Stuart-Forbes,—a pleasing contrast to the +picture, without merit, either as a work of art or as a likeness, +which was engraved for the Memoir of her youngest son, James David +Forbes.]<a href="#footnotetag78"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p> +</div> + +<div> +<p><a id="footnote79" name="footnote79"></a> +<b>Footnote 79:</b> Mr. Andrew Shortreed (one of a family often mentioned in +these Memoirs) says, in a letter of November, 1838: "The joke of the +<span class="italic">one pair</span> of boots to <span class="italic">three pair</span> of legs was so unpalatable to the +honest burghers of Jedburgh, that they have suffered the ancient +privilege of 'riding the Fair,' as it was called (during which +ceremony the inhabitants of Kelso were compelled to shut up their +shops as on a holiday), to fall into disuse. Huoy, the runaway forger, +a native of Kelso, availed himself of the calumny in a clever squib on +the subject:—</p> + +<p class="poem"> + 'The outside man had each a boot,<br> + The three had but a pair.'"<a href="#footnotetag79"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p> +</div> + +<p><a id="footnote80" name="footnote80"></a> +<b>Footnote 80:</b> Books on Civil Law.<a href="#footnotetag80"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p> + +<p><a id="footnote81" name="footnote81"></a> +<b>Footnote 81:</b> A tame fox of Mr. Clerk's, which he soon +dismissed.<a href="#footnotetag81"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p> + +<p><a id="footnote82" name="footnote82"></a> +<b>Footnote 82:</b> Mr. James Clerk, +R. N.<a href="#footnotetag82"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p> + +<p><a id="footnote83" name="footnote83"></a> +<b>Footnote 83:</b> Mr. Ainslie died at Edinburgh, 11th April, 1838, in his +73d year.<a href="#footnotetag83"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p> + +<p><a id="footnote84" name="footnote84"></a> +<b>Footnote 84:</b> The reader will find a story not unlike this in the +Introduction to <span class="italic">The Antiquary</span>, 1830. When I first read that note, I +asked him why he had altered so many circumstances from the usual oral +edition of his anecdote. "Nay," said he, "both stories may be true, +and why should I be always lugging in myself, when what happened to +another of our class would serve equally well for the purpose I had in +view?" I regretted the <span class="italic">leg of mutton</span>.<a href="#footnotetag84"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p> + +<p><a id="footnote85" name="footnote85"></a> +<b>Footnote 85:</b> <span class="italic">Redgauntlet</span>, chap. i.<a href="#footnotetag85"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p> + +<p><a id="footnote86" name="footnote86"></a> +<b>Footnote 86:</b> <span class="italic">Redgauntlet</span>, letter ix.<a href="#footnotetag86"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p> + +<p><a id="footnote87" name="footnote87"></a> +<b>Footnote 87:</b> Pies.<a href="#footnotetag87"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p> + +<p><a id="footnote88" name="footnote88"></a> +<b>Footnote 88:</b> Sir A. Ferguson.<a href="#footnotetag88"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p> + +<p><a id="footnote89" name="footnote89"></a> +<b>Footnote 89:</b> <span class="italic">Redgauntlet</span>, chap. i.<a href="#footnotetag89"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p> + +<p><a id="footnote90" name="footnote90"></a> +<b>Footnote 90:</b> It has been suggested that <span class="italic">Pest</span> is a misprint for +<span class="italic">Peat</span>. There was an elderly practitioner of the latter name, with +whom Mr. Fairford must have been well +acquainted.—(1839.)<a href="#footnotetag90"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p> + +<p><a id="footnote91" name="footnote91"></a> +<b>Footnote 91:</b> The situation of Dean of Faculty was filled in 1792 by +the Honorable Henry Erskine, of witty and benevolent +memory.<a href="#footnotetag91"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p> + +<p><a id="footnote92" name="footnote92"></a> +<b>Footnote 92:</b> <span class="italic">Redgauntlet</span>, +letter ix.<a href="#footnotetag92"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p> + +<p><a id="footnote93" name="footnote93"></a> +<b>Footnote 93:</b> An eminent annotator observes on this passage:—"The +praise of Lord Braxfield's capacity and acquirement is perhaps rather +too slight. He was a very good lawyer, and a man of extraordinary +sagacity, and in quickness and sureness of apprehension resembled Lord +Kenyon, as well as in his ready use of his profound knowledge of +law."—(1839.)<a href="#footnotetag93"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p> + +<p><a id="footnote94" name="footnote94"></a> +<b>Footnote 94:</b> The Judges then attended in Edinburgh in rotation during +the intervals of term, to take care of various sorts of business which +could not brook delay, bills of injunction, +etc.<a href="#footnotetag94"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p> + +<p><a id="footnote95" name="footnote95"></a> +<b>Footnote 95:</b> The beautiful seat of the Baillies of Jerviswood, in +Berwickshire, a few miles below Dryburgh.<a href="#footnotetag95"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p> + +<p><a id="footnote96" name="footnote96"></a> +<b>Footnote 96:</b> Mr. Russell, surgeon, afterwards Professor of Clinical +Surgery at Edinburgh.<a href="#footnotetag96"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p> + +<p><a id="footnote97" name="footnote97"></a> +<b>Footnote 97:</b> Sir William Miller (Lord Glenlee).<a href="#footnotetag97"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p> + +<p><a id="footnote98" name="footnote98"></a> +<b>Footnote 98:</b> Mr. Gibb was the Librarian of the Faculty of +Advocates.<a href="#footnotetag98"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p> + +<p><a id="footnote99" name="footnote99"></a> +<b>Footnote 99:</b> Clerk, Abercromby, Scott, Ferguson, and others, had +occasional boating excursions from Leith to Inchcolm, Inchkeith, etc. +On one of these their boat was neared by a Newhaven one—Ferguson, at +the moment, was standing up talking; one of the Newhaven fishermen, +taking him for a brother of his own craft, bawled out, "Linton, you +lang bitch, is that you?" From that day Adam Ferguson's cognomen among +his friends of <span class="italic">The Club</span> was Linton.<a href="#footnotetag99"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p> + +<p><a id="footnote100" name="footnote100"></a> +<b>Footnote 100:</b> Walter Scott of Synton (elder brother of <span class="italic">Bolt-Foot</span>, +the first Baron of Harden) was thus designated. He greatly +distinguished himself in the battle of Melrose, <span class="smcap">A. D.</span> +1526.<a href="#footnotetag100"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p> + +<p><a id="footnote101" name="footnote101"></a> +<b>Footnote 101:</b> This alludes to being lost in a fishing +excursion.<a href="#footnotetag101"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p> + +<p><a id="footnote102" name="footnote102"></a> +<b>Footnote 102:</b> The companions of <span class="italic">The Club</span>.<a href="#footnotetag102"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p> + +<p><a id="footnote103" name="footnote103"></a> +<b>Footnote 103:</b> William Hamilton of Wishaw,—who afterwards established +his claim to the peerage of Belhaven.<a href="#footnotetag103"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p> + +<p><a id="footnote104" name="footnote104"></a> +<b>Footnote 104:</b> John James Edmonstone.<a href="#footnotetag104"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p> + +<p><a id="footnote105" name="footnote105"></a> +<b>Footnote 105:</b> I am obliged to Mr. John Elliot Shortreed, a son of +Scott's early friend, for some <span class="italic">memoranda</span> of his father's +conversations on this subject. These notes were written in 1824; and I +shall make several quotations from them. I had, however, many +opportunities of hearing Mr. Shortreed's stories from his own lips, +having often been under his hospitable roof in company with Sir +Walter, who to the last always was his old friend's guest when +business took him to Jedburgh.<a href="#footnotetag105"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p> + +<p><a id="footnote106" name="footnote106"></a> +<b>Footnote 106:</b> <span class="italic">Waverley</span>, chap, xxxviii. +note.<a href="#footnotetag106"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p> + +<p><a id="footnote107" name="footnote107"></a> +<b>Footnote 107:</b> Introduction to <span class="italic">The Lady of the Lake</span>, +1830.<a href="#footnotetag107"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p> + +<p><a id="footnote108" name="footnote108"></a> +<b>Footnote 108:</b> <span class="italic">Waverley</span>, chap. +viii.<a href="#footnotetag108"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p> + +<p><a id="footnote109" name="footnote109"></a> +<b>Footnote 109:</b> Wordsworth's Sonnet on Neidpath +Castle.<a href="#footnotetag109"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p> + +<p><a id="footnote110" name="footnote110"></a> +<b>Footnote 110:</b> <span class="italic">Letters on Demonology and Witchcraft</span>, +p. 398.<a href="#footnotetag110"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p> + +<p><a id="footnote111" name="footnote111"></a> +<b>Footnote 111:</b> A hare.<a href="#footnotetag111"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p> + +<p><a id="footnote112" name="footnote112"></a> +<b>Footnote 112:</b> Dr. Robertson was tutor to the Laird of Simprim, and +afterwards minister of Meigle—a man of great worth, and an excellent +scholar. In his younger days he was fond of the theatre, and +encouraged and directed <span class="italic">Simprim, Grogg, Linton & Co.</span> in their +histrionic diversions.—(1839.)<a href="#footnotetag112"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p> + +<p><a id="footnote113" name="footnote113"></a> +<b>Footnote 113:</b> According to a friendly critic, one of the Liberals +exclaimed, as the <span class="italic">row</span> was thickening, "No Blows!"—and Donald, +suiting the action to the word, responded, +"Plows by ——!"—(1839.)<a href="#footnotetag113"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p> + +<div> +<p><a id="footnote114" name="footnote114"></a> +<b>Footnote 114:</b></p> + +<p class="poem"> + "The third day comes a frost, a killing frost."<br> + <span class="italic">King Henry VIII</span>.<a href="#footnotetag114"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p> +</div> + +<p><a id="footnote115" name="footnote115"></a> +<b>Footnote 115:</b> Dr. Rutherford.<a href="#footnotetag115"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p> + +<p><a id="footnote116" name="footnote116"></a> +<b>Footnote 116:</b> Captain John Scott had been for some time with his +regiment at Gibraltar.<a href="#footnotetag116"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p> + +<p><a id="footnote117" name="footnote117"></a> +<b>Footnote 117:</b> Colonel Russell of Ashestiel, married to a sister of +Scott's mother.<a href="#footnotetag117"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p> + +<p><a id="footnote118" name="footnote118"></a> +<b>Footnote 118:</b> <span class="italic">Crab</span> was the nickname of a friend who had accompanied +Ferguson this summer on an Irish tour. Dr. Black, celebrated for his +discoveries in chemistry, was Adam Ferguson's uncle; and had, it +seems, given the young travellers a strong admonition touching the +dangers of Irish hospitality.<a href="#footnotetag118"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p> + +<p><a id="footnote119" name="footnote119"></a> +<b>Footnote 119:</b> These lines are part of a song on <span class="italic">Little-tony</span>—<span class="italic">i. +e.</span>, the Parliamentary orator Littleton. They are quoted in Boswell's +<span class="italic">Life of Johnson</span>, originally published in +1791.<a href="#footnotetag119"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p> + +<p><a id="footnote120" name="footnote120"></a> +<b>Footnote 120:</b> Sir A. Wood was himself the son of a distinguished +surgeon in Edinburgh. He married one of the daughters of Sir William +Forbes—rose in the diplomatic service—and died in +1846.—(1848.)<a href="#footnotetag120"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p> + +<p><a id="footnote121" name="footnote121"></a> +<b>Footnote 121:</b> This story was told by the Countess of Purgstall on her +deathbed to Captain Basil Hall. See his <span class="italic">Schloss Hainfeld</span>, +p. 333.<a href="#footnotetag121"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p> + +<p><a id="footnote122" name="footnote122"></a> +<b>Footnote 122:</b> See <span class="italic">ante</span>, +p. 97.<a href="#footnotetag122"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p> + +<p><a id="footnote123" name="footnote123"></a> +<b>Footnote 123:</b> A servant-boy and +pony.<a href="#footnotetag123"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p> + +<p><a id="footnote124" name="footnote124"></a> +<b>Footnote 124:</b></p> + +<div class="poem"> +<p>"'Dost fear? dost fear?—The moon shines clear;—<br> +<span class="add1em">Dost fear to ride with, me?</span><br> + Hurrah! hurrah! the dead can ride!'—<br> +<span class="add1em">Oh, William, let them be!'</span></p> + +<p>"'See there! see there! What yonder swings<br> +<span class="add1em">And creaks 'mid whistling rain?'—</span><br> + Gibbet and steel, the accursed wheel,<br> +<span class="add1em">A murderer in his chain.</span></p> + +<p>"'Hollo! thou felon, follow here,<br> +<span class="add1em">To bridal bed we ride;</span><br> + And thou shalt prance a fetter dance<br> +<span class="add1em">Before me and my bride.'</span></p> + +<p>"And hurry, hurry! clash, clash, clash!<br> +<span class="add1em">The wasted form descends;</span><br> + And fleet as wind, through hazel bush,<br> +<span class="add1em">The wild career attends.</span></p> + +<p>"Tramp, tramp! along the land they rode;<br> +<span class="add1em">Splash, splash! along the sea;</span><br> + The scourge is red, the spur drops blood.<br> +<span class="add1em">The flashing pebbles flee."<a href="#footnotetag124"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></span></p> +</div> + +<p><a id="footnote125" name="footnote125"></a> +<b>Footnote 125:</b> George Cranstoun, Lord Corehouse.<a href="#footnotetag125"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p> + +<p><a id="footnote126" name="footnote126"></a> +<b>Footnote 126:</b> Decisions by Lord Fountainhall.<a href="#footnotetag126"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p> + +<p><a id="footnote127" name="footnote127"></a> +<b>Footnote 127:</b> A very intimate friend both of Scott and of the lady +tells me that these verses were great favorites of hers—she gave +himself a copy of them, and no doubt her recitation had made them +known to Scott—but that he believes them to have been composed by +Mrs. Hunter of Norwich.—(1839.)<a href="#footnotetag127"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p> + +<p><a id="footnote128" name="footnote128"></a> +<b>Footnote 128:</b> Mr. Scott of Harden's right to the peerage of Polwarth, +as representing, through his mother, the line of Marchmont, was +allowed by the House of Lords in 1835.<a href="#footnotetag128"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p> + +<p><a id="footnote129" name="footnote129"></a> +<b>Footnote 129:</b> <span class="italic">The Kelso Mail.</span><a href="#footnotetag129"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p> + +<p><a id="footnote130" name="footnote130"></a> +<b>Footnote 130:</b> Some extracts from this venerable person's unpublished +Memoirs of his own Life have been kindly sent to me by his son, the +well-known physician of Chelsea College, from which it appears that +the reverend doctor, and, more particularly still, his wife, a lady of +remarkable talent and humor, had formed a high notion of Scott's +future eminence at a very early period of his life. Dr. S. survived to +a great old age, preserving his faculties quite entire, and I have +spent many pleasant hours under his hospitable roof in company with +Sir Walter Scott. We heard him preach an excellent circuit sermon when +he was upwards of eighty-two, and at the Judges' dinner afterwards he +was among the gayest of the company.<a href="#footnotetag130"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p> + +<p><a id="footnote131" name="footnote131"></a> +<b>Footnote 131:</b> <span class="italic">Remarks on Popular Poetry.</span> +1830.<a href="#footnotetag131"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p> + +<p><a id="footnote132" name="footnote132"></a> +<b>Footnote 132:</b> [James Skene, son of George Skene of Rubislaw, was born +in 1775.]<a href="#footnotetag132"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p> + +<p><a id="footnote133" name="footnote133"></a> +<b>Footnote 133:</b> [Beside the memoranda placed by Mr. Skene in Lockhart's +hands and used by him in various portions of the <span class="italic">Life</span>, the friend's +unpublished <span class="italic">Reminiscences</span>, from which Mr. Douglas has fortunately +been enabled to draw largely in annotating the <span class="italic">Journal</span>, contains +recollections of peculiar interest.]<a href="#footnotetag133"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p> + +<p><a id="footnote134" name="footnote134"></a> +<b>Footnote 134:</b> See particulars of Stanfield's case in Lord +Fountainhall's <span class="italic">Chronological Notes of Scottish Affairs</span>, 1680-1701, +edited by Sir Walter Scott. 4to, Edinburgh, 1822. Pp. +233-236.<a href="#footnotetag134"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p> + +<p><a id="footnote135" name="footnote135"></a> +<b>Footnote 135:</b> Some of Scott's most intimate friends at the Bar, +partly, no doubt, from entertaining political opinions of another +caste, were by no means disposed to sympathize with the demonstrations +of his military enthusiasm at this period. For example, one of these +gentlemen thus writes to another in April, 1797: "By the way, Scott is +become the merest trooper that ever was begotten by a drunken dragoon +on his trull in a hayloft. Not an idea crosses his mind, or a word his +lips, that has not an allusion to some d——d instrument or evolution +of the Cavalry—'Draw your swords—by single files to the right of +front—to the left wheel—charge!' After all, he knows little more +about wheels and charges than I do about the wheels of Ezekiel, or the +King of Pelew about charges of horning on six days' date. I saw them +charge on Leith Walk a few days ago, and I can assure you it was by no +means orderly proceeded. Clerk and I are continually obliged to open a +six-pounder upon him in self-defence, but in spite of a temporary +confusion, he soon rallies and returns to the +attack."<a href="#footnotetag135"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p> + +<p><a id="footnote136" name="footnote136"></a> +<b>Footnote 136:</b> See the Introduction to this novel in the edition of +1830.<a href="#footnotetag136"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p> + +<p><a id="footnote137" name="footnote137"></a> +<b>Footnote 137:</b> I owe this circumstance to the recollection of Mr. +Claud Russell, accountant in Edinburgh, who was one of the party. +Previously I had always supposed these verses to have been inspired by +Miss Carpenter.<a href="#footnotetag137"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p> + +<p><a id="footnote138" name="footnote138"></a> +<b>Footnote 138:</b> ["You may perhaps have remarked Miss Carpenter at a +Carlisle ball, but more likely not, as her figure is not very +<span class="italic">frappant</span>. A smart-looking little girl with dark brown hair would +probably be her portrait if drawn by an indifferent hand. But I, you +may believe, should make a piece of work of my sketch, as little like +the original as Hercules to me."—Scott to P. Murray, December, +1797.—<span class="italic">Familiar Letters</span>, vol. i. p. 10.]<a href="#footnotetag138"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p> + +<p><a id="footnote139" name="footnote139"></a> +<b>Footnote 139:</b> In several deeds which I have seen, M. Charpentier is +designed "Écuyer du Roi;" one of those purchasable ranks peculiar to +the latter stages of the old French Monarchy. What the post he held +was, I never heard.<a href="#footnotetag139"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p> + +<p><a id="footnote140" name="footnote140"></a> +<b>Footnote 140:</b> From the German of +Goethe.<a href="#footnotetag140"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p> + +<p><a id="footnote141" name="footnote141"></a> +<b>Footnote 141:</b> A miniature of Scott.<a href="#footnotetag141"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p> + +<p><a id="footnote142" name="footnote142"></a> +<b>Footnote 142:</b> ["I had a visit from Mr. Haliburton to-day, and asked +him all about your brother, who was two years in his house. My father +is Mr. Haliburton's relation and chief, as he represents a very old +family of that name. When you go to the south of Scotland with me, you +will see their burying-place, now all that remains with my father of a +very handsome property. It is one of the most beautiful and romantic +scenes you ever saw, among the ruins of an old abbey. When I die, +Charlotte, you must cause my bones to be laid there; but we shall have +many happy days before that, I hope."—Scott to Miss Carpenter, +November 22, 1797.—<span class="italic">Familiar Letters</span>, vol. i. +p. 8.]<a href="#footnotetag142"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p> + +<p><a id="footnote143" name="footnote143"></a> +<b>Footnote 143:</b> The account in the text of Miss Carpenter's origin has +been, I am aware, both spoken and written of as an uncandid one: it +had been expected that even in 1837 I would not pass in silence a +rumor of early prevalence, which represented her and her brother as +children of Lord Downshire by Madame Charpentier. I did not think it +necessary to allude to this story while any of Sir Walter's own +children were living; and I presume it will be sufficient for me to +say now, that neither I, nor, I firmly believe, any one of them, ever +heard either from Sir Walter, or from his wife, or from Miss Nicolson +(who survived them both) the slightest hint as to the rumor in +question. There is not an expression in the preserved correspondence +between Scott, the young lady, and the Marquis, that gives it a shadow +of countenance. Lastly, Lady Scott always kept hanging by her bedside, +and repeatedly kissed in her dying moments, a miniature of her father +which is now in my hands; and it is the well-painted likeness of a +handsome gentleman—but I am assured the features have no resemblance +to Lord Downshire or any of the Hill +family.—(1848.)<a href="#footnotetag143"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p> + +<p> </p> +<p> </p> +<hr class="full" noshade> +<p>***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE OF SIR WALTER SCOTT, VOLUME I (OF 10)***</p> +<p>******* This file should be named 24497-h.txt or 24497-h.zip *******</p> +<p>This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:<br> +<a href="http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/2/4/4/9/24497">http://www.gutenberg.org/2/4/4/9/24497</a></p> +<p>Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed.</p> + +<p>Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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