initial commit of ebook 24498HEADmain

16 files changed, 37643 insertions, 0 deletions

diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..6833f05
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.gitattributes
@@ -0,0 +1,3 @@
+* text=auto
+*.txt text
+*.md text
diff --git a/24498-8.txt b/24498-8.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..3b01266
--- /dev/null
+++ b/24498-8.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,12475 @@
+The Project Gutenberg eBook, Memoirs of the Life of Sir Walter Scott,
+Volume V (of 10), by John Gibson Lockhart
+
+
+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 www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+
+
+
+Title: Memoirs of the Life of Sir Walter Scott, Volume V (of 10)
+
+
+Author: John Gibson Lockhart
+
+
+
+Release Date: February 2, 2008  [eBook #24498]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+
+***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE OF SIR WALTER
+SCOTT, VOLUME V (OF 10)***
+
+
+E-text prepared by Thierry Alberto, Henry Craig, Christine P. Travers, and
+the Project Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team
+(http://www.pgdp.net)
+
+
+
+Transcriber's note:
+
+   Obvious printer's errors have been corrected; all other
+   inconsistencies are as in the original. The author's spelling
+   has been retained.
+
+   Page numbers have been retained as {p.xxx}.
+
+   Page 96: The "u" in "Cadil gu lo" has a breve in the original.
+
+   Page 218: The marker for footnote 88 could not be found in the
+             text.
+
+
+
+
+
+MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE
+OF
+SIR WALTER SCOTT
+BART.
+
+by
+
+JOHN GIBSON LOCKHART
+
+In Ten Volumes
+
+VOLUME V
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+Boston and New York
+Houghton, Mifflin and Company
+The Riverside Press, Cambridge
+MCMI
+
+Copyright, 1901
+by Houghton, Mifflin and Company
+All Rights Reserved
+
+Six Hundred Copies Printed
+Number,
+
+
+
+
+{p.v} TABLE OF CONTENTS
+
+
+  Chap.                                                      Page
+
+  XXXIV. Progress of The Lord of the Isles. -- Correspondence
+     with Mr. Joseph Train. -- Rapid completion of The Lord of
+     the Isles. -- "Refreshing the Machine." -- "Six Weeks at a
+     Christmas." -- Publication of the Poem, -- and of Guy
+     Mannering. -- Letters to Morritt, Terry, and John
+     Ballantyne. -- Anecdotes by James Ballantyne. -- Visit to
+     London. -- Meeting with Lord Byron. -- Dinners at Carlton
+     House. 1814-1815.                                          1
+
+  XXXV. Battle of Waterloo -- Letter of Sir Charles Bell. --
+     Visit to the Continent. -- Waterloo. -- Letters from
+     Brussels and Paris. -- Anecdotes of Scott at Paris. -- The
+     Duke of Wellington. -- The Emperor Alexander. -- Blücher. --
+     Platoff -- Party at Ermenonville, etc. -- London. -- Parting
+     with Lord Byron. -- Scott's Sheffield Knife. -- Return to
+     Abbotsford. -- Anecdotes by Mr. Skene and James Ballantyne.
+     1815.                                                     39
+
+  XXXVI. Field of Waterloo published. -- Revision of Paul's
+     Letters, etc. -- Quarrel and Reconciliation with Hogg. --
+     Football Match at Carterhaugh. -- Songs on the Banner of
+     Buccleuch. -- Dinner at Bowhill. -- Design for a Piece of
+     Plate to the Sutors of Selkirk. -- Letters to the Duke of
+     Buccleuch, Joanna Baillie, and Mr. Morritt. 1815.         76
+
+  XXXVII. {p.vi} Publication of Paul's Letters to his
+     Kinsfolk. -- Guy Mannering "Terry-fied." -- Death of Major
+     John Scott. -- Letters to Thomas Scott. -- Publication of
+     The Antiquary. -- History of 1814 for the Edinburgh Annual
+     Register. -- Letters on the History of Scotland projected.
+     -- Publication of the First Tales of my Landlord by Murray
+     and Blackwood. -- Anecdotes by Mr. Train. -- Quarterly
+     Review on the Tales. -- Building at Abbotsford begun. --
+     Letters to Morritt, Terry, Murray, and the Ballantynes.
+     1816.                                                     94
+
+  XXXVIII. Harold the Dauntless published. -- Scott aspires to
+     be a Baron of the Exchequer. -- Letter to the Duke of
+     Buccleuch concerning Poachers, etc. -- First Attack of Cramp
+     in the Stomach. -- Letters to Morritt, Terry, and Mrs.
+     Maclean Clephane. -- Story of The Doom of Devorgoil. -- John
+     Kemble's retirement from the Stage. -- William Laidlaw
+     established at Kaeside. -- Novel of Rob Roy projected. --
+     Letter to Southey on the Relief of the Poor, etc. -- Letter
+     to Lord Montagu on Hogg's Queen's Wake, and on the Death of
+     Frances, Lady Douglas. 1817.                             135
+
+  XXXIX. Excursion to the Lennox, Glasgow, and Drumlanrig. --
+     Purchase of Toftfield. -- Establishment of the Ferguson
+     Family at Huntly Burn. -- Lines written in Illness. --
+     Visits of Washington Irving, Lady Byron, and Sir David
+     Wilkie. -- Progress of the Building at Abbotsford. --
+     Letters to Morritt, Terry, etc. -- Conclusion of Rob Roy.
+     1817.                                                    173
+
+  XL. Rob Boy published. -- Negotiation concerning the Second
+     Series of Tales of my Landlord. -- Commission to search for
+     the {p.vii} Scottish Regalia. -- Letters to the Duke of
+     Buccleuch, Mr. Croker, Mr. Morritt, Mr. Murray, Mr. Maturin,
+     etc. -- Correspondence on Rural Affairs with Mr. Laidlaw,
+     and on the Buildings at Abbotsford with Mr. Terry. -- Death
+     of Mrs. Murray Keith and Mr. George Bullock. 1818.       202
+
+  XLI. Dinner at Mr. Home Drummond's. -- Scott's Edinburgh
+     Den. -- Details of his Domestic Life in Castle Street. --
+     His Sunday Dinners. -- His Evening Drives, etc. -- His
+     Conduct in the General Society of Edinburgh. -- Dinners at
+     John Ballantyne's Villa, and at James Ballantyne's in St.
+     John Street, on the appearance of a new Novel. -- Anecdotes
+     of the Ballantynes, and of Constable. 1818.              236
+
+  XLII. Publication of the Heart of Mid-Lothian. -- Its
+     Reception in Edinburgh and in England. -- Abbotsford in
+     October. -- Melrose Abbey, Dryburgh, etc. -- Lion-Hunters
+     from America. -- Tragedy of the Cherokee Lovers. -- Scott's
+     Dinner to the Selkirkshire Yeomen. 1818.                 266
+
+  Appendix: The Durham Garland.                               295
+
+  Narrative of the Life of James Annesley.                    303
+
+
+
+
+{p.viii} LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
+
+
+  WALTER SCOTT IN 1822                             _Frontispiece_
+  From the painting by Sir Henry Raeburn, R. A., in the possession
+  of the Earl of Home.
+
+  MAIDA, THE SCOTTISH DEERHOUND                                96
+  After the painting by Landseer made in 1824.
+
+  JOHN MURRAY                                                 124
+  From the painting by Henry W. Pickersgill, R. A., in the
+  possession of John Murray, Esq.
+
+  WASHINGTON IRVING                                           180
+  After the painting by Charles Robert Leslie, R. A.
+
+  SCOTT'S HOUSE IN CASTLE STREET                              250
+  After the drawing by J. M. W. Turner, R.A.
+
+  JOHN GIBSON LOCKHART                                        274
+  After the painting by Henry W. Pickersgill, R. A.
+
+
+
+
+{p.001} CHAPTER XXXIV.
+
+     Progress of the Lord of the Isles. -- Correspondence with
+     Mr. Joseph Train. -- Rapid Completion of the Lord of the
+     Isles. -- "Refreshing the Machine." -- "Six Weeks at a
+     Christmas." -- Publication of the Poem, -- And of Guy
+     Mannering. -- Letters to Morritt, Terry, and John
+     Ballantyne. -- Anecdotes by James Ballantyne. -- Visit to
+     London. -- Meeting with Lord Byron. -- Dinners at Carlton
+     House.
+
+1814-1815.
+
+
+By the 11th of November, then, The Lord of the Isles had made great
+progress, and Scott had also authorized Ballantyne to negotiate among
+the booksellers for the publication of a second novel. But before I go
+further into these transactions, I must introduce the circumstances of
+Scott's first connection with an able and amiable man, whose services
+were of high importance to him, at this time and ever after, in the
+prosecution of his literary labors. Calling at Ballantyne's
+printing-office while Waverley was in the press, he happened to take
+up a proof sheet of a volume entitled "Poems, with notes illustrative
+of traditions in Galloway and Ayrshire, by Joseph Train, Supervisor of
+Excise at Newton-Stewart." The sheet contained a ballad on an Ayrshire
+tradition, about a certain "Witch of Carrick," whose skill in the
+black art was, it seems, instrumental in the destruction {p.002} of
+one of the scattered vessels of the Spanish Armada. The ballad
+begins:--
+
+  "Why gallops the palfrey with Lady Dunore?
+   Who drives away Turnberry's kine from the shore?
+   Go tell it in Carrick, and tell it in Kyle--
+   Although the proud Dons are now passing the Moil,[1]
+             On this magic clew,
+             That in fairyland grew,
+   Old Elcine de Aggart has taken in hand
+   To wind up their lives ere they win to our strand."
+
+              [Footnote 1: The Mull of Cantyre.]
+
+Scott immediately wrote to the author, begging to be included in his
+list of subscribers for a dozen copies, and suggesting at the same
+time a verbal alteration in one of the stanzas of this ballad. Mr.
+Train acknowledged his letter with gratitude, and the little book
+reached him just as he was about to embark in the lighthouse yacht. He
+took it with him on his voyage, and, on returning home again, wrote to
+Mr. Train, expressing the gratification he had received from several
+of his metrical pieces, but still more from his notes, and requesting
+him, as he seemed to be enthusiastic about traditions and legends, to
+communicate any matters of that order connected with Galloway which he
+might not himself think of turning to account; "for," said Scott,
+"nothing interests me so much as local anecdotes; and, as the
+applications for charity usually conclude, the smallest donation will
+be thankfully accepted."
+
+Mr. Train, in a little narrative with which he has favored me, says,
+that for some years before this time he had been engaged, in alliance
+with a friend of his, Mr. Denniston, in collecting materials for a
+History of Galloway; they had circulated lists of queries among the
+clergy and parish schoolmasters, and had thus, and by their own
+personal researches, accumulated "a great variety of the most
+excellent materials for that purpose;" but that, from the hour of his
+correspondence with Walter Scott, he "renounced every idea of
+authorship for {p.003} himself," resolving, "that thenceforth his
+chief pursuit should be collecting whatever he thought would be most
+interesting to _him_;" and that Mr. Denniston was easily persuaded to
+acquiesce in the abandonment of their original design. "Upon receiving
+Mr. Scott's letter," says Mr. Train, "I became still more zealous in
+the pursuit of ancient lore, and being the first person who had
+attempted to collect old stories in that quarter with any view to
+publication, I became so noted, that even beggars, in the hope of
+reward, came frequently from afar to Newton-Stewart, to recite old
+ballads and relate old stories to me." Erelong, Mr. Train visited
+Scott both at Edinburgh and at Abbotsford; a true affection continued
+ever afterwards to be maintained between them; and this generous ally
+was, as the prefaces to the Waverley Novels signify, one of the
+earliest confidants of that series of works, and certainly the most
+efficient of all the author's friends in furnishing him with materials
+for their composition. Nor did he confine himself to literary
+services: whatever portable object of antiquarian curiosity met his
+eye, this good man secured and treasured up with the same destination;
+and if ever a catalogue of the museum at Abbotsford shall appear, no
+single contributor, most assuredly, will fill so large a space in it
+as Mr. Train.[2]
+
+              [Footnote 2: [Joseph Train was born in 1779, at
+              Gilminscroft, Sorn, Ayrshire, where his father was
+              grieve and land-steward. The boy was apprenticed at an
+              early age to a weaver in Ayr, but, notwithstanding the
+              narrowness of his circumstances, and a very imperfect
+              education, he even then showed a love of learning and a
+              passion for antiquarian lore. From 1799 to 1802 he
+              served in the Ayrshire militia. While the regiment was
+              stationed at Inverness, he became a subscriber to
+              Currie's edition of Burns, and his colonel, Sir David
+              Hunter-Blair, seeing the volumes at the bookseller's,
+              was surprised to learn that they had been ordered by one
+              of his men. Greatly pleased thereat, Sir David had the
+              books handsomely bound and sent to Train, free of
+              charge; and later obtained for him an appointment in the
+              Excise in the Ayr district. He was a faithful and
+              efficient officer, but owing to the then prevalent
+              custom of giving the higher places in the Excise to
+              Englishmen, all Scott's efforts for the advancement of
+              his friend were unavailing; he remained supervisor till
+              he went on the retired list in 1836. In 1829 Train was
+              admitted a member of the Scottish Society of
+              Antiquaries. Though the death of Scott made a sad blank
+              in his life, his interest in his favorite studies
+              continued to the end. The latter part of his life was
+              spent in a cottage at Castle Douglas, where he was
+              visited shortly before his death by James Hannay, who
+              found him in a little parlor, crowded with antiquities
+              of interest and value,--the antiquary, "a tall old man,
+              with an autumnal red in his face, hale looking, and of
+              simple, quaint manners." (See _Household Words_, July
+              10, 1853.) Train's last extended works were an
+              _Historical and Statistical Account of the Isle of Man,
+              with a view of its peculiar customs and popular
+              superstitions_ (1845); and a study of a local religious
+              sect in _The Buchanites from First to Last_ (1846); but
+              he was an occasional contributor to various periodicals.
+              He died December 1, 1852.]]
+
+{p.004} His first considerable communication, after he had formed the
+unselfish determination above mentioned, consisted of a collection of
+anecdotes concerning the Galloway gypsies, and "a local story of an
+astrologer, who calling at a farmhouse at the moment when the goodwife
+was in travail, had, it was said, predicted the future fortune of the
+child, almost in the words placed in the mouth of John MacKinlay, in
+the Introduction to Guy Mannering." Scott told him, in reply, that the
+story of the astrologer reminded him of "one he had heard in his
+youth;" that is to say, as the Introduction explains, from this
+MacKinlay; but Mr. Train has, since his friend's death, recovered a
+rude _Durham_ ballad, which in fact contains a great deal more of the
+main fable of Guy Mannering than either his own written, or
+MacKinlay's oral edition of the _Gallovidian_ anecdote had conveyed;
+and--possessing, as I do, numberless evidences of the haste with which
+Scott drew up his beautiful Prefaces and Introductions of 1829, 1830,
+and 1831--I am strongly inclined to think that he must in his boyhood
+have read the Durham Broadside or Chapbook itself--as well as heard
+the old serving-man's Scottish version of it.
+
+However this may have been, Scott's answer to Mr. Train proceeded in
+these words:--
+
+     I am now to solicit a favor, which I think your interest
+     {p.005} in Scottish antiquities will induce you readily to
+     comply with. I am very desirous to have some account of the
+     present state of _Turnberry Castle_--whether any vestiges of
+     it remain--what is the appearance of the ground--the names
+     of the neighboring places--and, above all, what are the
+     traditions of the place (if any) concerning its memorable
+     surprise by Bruce, upon his return from the coast of
+     Ireland, in the commencement of the brilliant part of his
+     career. The purpose of this is to furnish some hints for
+     notes to a work in which I am now engaged, and I need not
+     say I will have great pleasure in mentioning the source from
+     which I derive my information. I have only to add, with the
+     modest importunity of a lazy correspondent, that the sooner
+     you oblige me with an answer (if you can assist me on the
+     subject), the greater will the obligation be on me, who am
+     already your obliged humble servant,
+
+                                        W. SCOTT.
+
+The recurrence of the word _Turnberry_, in the ballad of Elcine de
+Aggart, had of course suggested this application, which was dated on
+the 7th of November. "I had often," says Mr. Train, "when a boy,
+climbed the brown hills, and traversed the shores of Carrick, but I
+could not sufficiently remember the exact places and distances as to
+which Mr. Scott inquired; so, immediately on receipt of his letter, I
+made a journey into Ayrshire to collect all the information I possibly
+could, and forwarded it to him on the 18th of the same month." Among
+the particulars thus communicated, was the local superstition, that on
+the anniversary of the night when Bruce landed at Turnberry from
+Arran, the same meteoric gleam which had attended his voyage
+reappeared, unfailingly, in the same quarter of the heavens. With this
+circumstance Scott was much struck. "Your information," he writes on
+the 22d November, "was particularly interesting and acceptable,
+especially that which {p.006} relates to the supposed preternatural
+appearance of the fire, etc., which I hope to make some use of." What
+use he did make of it, if any reader has forgotten, will be seen by
+reference to stanzas 7-17 of the 5th Canto of the Poem; and the notes
+to the same Canto embody, with due acknowledgment, the more authentic
+results of Mr. Train's pilgrimage to Carrick.
+
+I shall recur presently to this communication from Mr. Train; but must
+pause for a moment to introduce two letters, both written in the same
+week with Scott's request as to the localities of Turnberry. They both
+give us amusing sketches of his buoyant spirits at this period of
+gigantic exertion;--and the first of them, which relates chiefly to
+Maturin's Tragedy of Bertram, shows how he could still contrive to
+steal time for attention to the affairs of brother authors less
+energetic than himself.
+
+     TO DANIEL TERRY, ESQ.
+
+                                        ABBOTSFORD, November 10, 1814.
+
+     MY DEAR TERRY,--I should have long since answered your kind
+     letter by our friend Young, but he would tell you of my
+     departure with our trusty and well-beloved Erskine, on a
+     sort of a voyage to Nova Zembla. Since my return, I have
+     fallen under the tyrannical dominion of a certain Lord of
+     the Isles. Those Lords were famous for oppression in the
+     days of yore, and if I can judge by the posthumous despotism
+     exercised over me, they have not improved by their demise.
+     The _peine forte et dure_ is, you know, nothing in
+     comparison to being obliged to grind verses; and so devilish
+     repulsive is my disposition, that I can never put my wheel
+     into constant and regular motion, till Ballantyne's devil
+     claps in his proofs, like the hot cinder which you Bath
+     folks used to clap in beside an unexperienced turnspit, as a
+     hint to be expeditious in his duty. O long life to the old
+     hermit of Prague, who never saw pen and ink!--much happier
+     in {p.007} that negative circumstance than in his alliance
+     with the niece of King Gorboduc.
+
+     To talk upon a blither subject, I wish you saw Abbotsford,
+     which begins this season to look the whimsical, gay, odd
+     cabin, that we had chalked out. I have been obliged to
+     relinquish Stark's plan, which was greatly too expensive. So
+     I have made the old farmhouse my _corps de logis_, with some
+     outlying places for kitchen, laundry, and two spare
+     bedrooms, which run along the east wall of the farm-court,
+     not without some picturesque effect. A perforated cross, the
+     spoils of the old kirk of Galashiels, decorates an advanced
+     door, and looks very well. This little sly bit of sacrilege
+     has given our spare rooms the name of _the chapel_. I
+     earnestly invite you to a _pew_ there, which you will find
+     as commodious for the purpose of a nap as you have ever
+     experienced when, under the guidance of old Mrs. Smollett,
+     you were led to St. George's, Edinburgh.
+
+     I have been recommending to John Kemble (I dare say without
+     any chance of success) to peruse a MS. Tragedy of Maturin's
+     author of Montorio: it is one of those things which will
+     either succeed greatly or be damned gloriously, for its
+     merits are marked, deep, and striking, and its faults of a
+     nature obnoxious to ridicule. He had our old friend Satan
+     (none of your sneaking St. John Street devils, but the
+     arch-fiend himself) brought on the stage bodily. I believe I
+     have exorcised the foul fiend--for, though in reading he was
+     a most terrible fellow, I feared for his reception in
+     public. The last act is ill contrived. He piddles (so to
+     speak) through a cullender, and divides the whole horrors of
+     the catastrophe (though God wot there are enough of them)
+     into a kind of drippity-droppity of four or five scenes,
+     instead of inundating the audience with them at once in the
+     finale, with a grand "_gardez l'eau_." With all this, which
+     I should say had I written the thing myself, it is grand and
+     powerful; the language most animated and poetical; and the
+     characters {p.008} sketched with a masterly enthusiasm.
+     Many thanks for Captain Richard Falconer.[3] To your
+     kindness I owe the two books in the world I most longed to
+     see, not so much for their intrinsic merits, as because they
+     bring back with vivid associations the sentiments of my
+     childhood--I might almost say infancy. Nothing ever
+     disturbed my feelings more than when, sitting by the old oak
+     table, my aunt, Lady Raeburn, used to read the lamentable
+     catastrophe of the ship's departing without Captain
+     Falconer, in consequence of the whole party making free with
+     lime-punch on the eve of its being launched. This and
+     Captain Bingfield,[4] I much wished {p.009} to read once
+     more, and I owe the possession of both to your kindness.
+     Everybody that I see talks highly of your steady interest
+     with the public, wherewith, as I never doubted of it, I am
+     pleased but not surprised. We are just now leaving this for
+     the winter: the children went yesterday. Tom Purdie,
+     Finella, and the greyhounds, all in excellent health; the
+     latter have not been hunted this season!!! Can add nothing
+     more to excite your admiration. Mrs. Scott sends her kind
+     compliments.
+
+                                        W. SCOTT.
+
+              [Footnote 3: "_The Voyages, Dangerous Adventures, and
+              Imminent Escapes of Capt. Rich. Falconer._ Containing
+              the Laws, Customs, and Manners of the Indians in
+              America; his shipwrecks; his marrying an Indian wife;
+              his narrow escape from the Island of Dominico, etc.
+              Intermixed with the Voyages and Adventures of Thomas
+              Randal, of Cork, Pilot; with his Shipwreck in the
+              Baltick, being the only man that escap'd. His being
+              taken by the Indians of Virginia, etc. And an Account of
+              his Death. The Fourth Edition. London. Printed for J.
+              Marshall, at the Bible in Gracechurch Street. 1734."
+
+              On the fly-leaf is the following note, in Scott's
+              handwriting: "This book I read in early youth. I am
+              ignorant whether it is altogether fictitious and written
+              upon De Foe's plan, which it greatly resembles, or
+              whether it is only an exaggerated account of the
+              adventures of a real person. It is very scarce, for,
+              endeavoring to add it to the other favorites of my
+              infancy, I think I looked for it ten years to no
+              purpose, and at last owed it to the active kindness of
+              Mr. Terry. Yet Richard Falconer's adventures seem to
+              have passed through several editions."]
+
+              [Footnote 4: "_The Travels and Adventures of William
+              Bingfield, Esq._, containing, as surprizing a
+              Fluctuation of Circumstances, both by Sea and Land, as
+              ever befel one man. With an Accurate Account of the
+              Shape, Nature, and Properties of that most furious, and
+              amazing Animal, the Dog-Bird. Printed from his own
+              Manuscript. With a beautiful Frontispiece. 2 vols. 12mo.
+              London: Printed for E. Withers, at the Seven Stars, in
+              Fleet Street. 1753." On the fly-leaf of the first volume
+              Scott has written as follows: "I read this scarce little
+              _Voyage Imaginaire_ when I was about ten years old, and
+              long after sought for a copy without being able to find
+              a person who would so much as acknowledge having heard
+              of William Bingfield or his Dog-birds, until the
+              indefatigable kindness of my friend Mr. Terry, of the
+              Haymarket, made me master of this copy. I am therefore
+              induced to think the book is of very rare occurrence."
+              [In consequence of these Notes, both Falconer and
+              Bingfield have been recently reprinted in
+              London.--(1839.)]]
+
+The following, dated a day after, refers to some lines which Mr.
+Morritt had sent him from Worthing.
+
+     TO J. B. S. MORRITT, ESQ., M. P., WORTHING.
+
+                                        ABBOTSFORD, November 11, 1814.
+
+     MY DEAR MORRITT,--I had your kind letter with the beautiful
+     verses. May the Muse meet you often on the verge of the sea
+     or among your own woods of Rokeby! May you have spirits to
+     profit by her visits (and that implies all good wishes for
+     the continuance of Mrs. M.'s convalescence), and may I
+     often, by the fruits of your inspiration, have my share of
+     pleasure! My Muse is a Tyranness, and not a Christian queen,
+     and compels me to attend to longs and shorts, and I know not
+     what, when, God wot, I had rather be planting evergreens by
+     my new old fountain. You must know that, like the complaint
+     of a fine young boy who was complimented by a stranger on
+     his being a smart fellow, "I am sair halded down by _the
+     bubbly jock_." In other words, the turkey cock, at the head
+     of a family of some forty or fifty infidels, lays waste all
+     my shrubs. In vain I remonstrate with Charlotte upon these
+     occasions; she is in league with the hen-wife, the natural
+     protectress of these pirates; and I have only the inhuman
+     consolation that I may one day, like a cannibal, eat up my
+     enemies. This is but dull fun, but what else have I to tell
+     you about? It {p.010} would be worse if, like Justice
+     Shallow's Davy, I should consult you upon sowing down the
+     headland with wheat. My literary tormentor is a certain Lord
+     of the Isles, famed for his tyranny of yore, and not
+     unjustly. I am bothering some tale of him I have had long by
+     me into a sort of romance. I think you will like it: it is
+     Scottified up to the teeth, and somehow I feel myself like
+     the liberated chiefs of the Rolliad, "who boast their native
+     philabeg restored." I believe the frolics one can cut in
+     this loose garb are all set down by you Sassenachs to the
+     real agility of the wearer, and not the brave, free, and
+     independent character of his clothing. It is, in a word, the
+     real Highland fling, and no one is supposed able to dance it
+     but a native. I always thought that epithet of Gallia
+     _Braccata_ implied subjugation, and was never surprised at
+     Cæsar's easy conquests, considering that his Labienus and
+     all his merry men wore, as we say, bottomless breeks.
+
+     Ever yours,
+
+                                        W. S.
+
+Well might he describe himself as being hard at work with his Lord of
+the Isles. The date of Ballantyne's letter to Miss Edgeworth (November
+11), in which he mentions the third Canto as completed; that of the
+communication from Mr. Train (November 18), on which so much of Canto
+Fifth was grounded; and that of a note from Scott to Ballantyne
+(December 16, 1814), announcing that he had sent the last stanza of
+the poem: these dates, taken together, afford conclusive evidence of
+the fiery rapidity with which the three last Cantos of The Lord of the
+Isles were composed.
+
+He writes, on the 25th December, to Constable that he "had corrected
+the last proofs, and was setting out for Abbotsford to refresh the
+machine." And in what did his refreshment of the machine consist?
+Besides having written within this year the greater part (almost, I
+believe, the whole) of the Life of Swift--Waverley--and {p.011} The
+Lord of the Isles--he had given two essays to the Encyclopædia
+Supplement, and published, with an Introduction and notes, one of the
+most curious pieces of family history ever produced to the world, on
+which he labored with more than usual zeal and diligence, from his
+warm affection for the noble representative of its author. This
+inimitable Memorie of the Somervilles came out in October; and it was
+speedily followed by an annotated reprint of the strange old treatise,
+entitled "Rowland's letting off the humours of the blood in the head
+vein, 1611." He had also kept up his private correspondence on a scale
+which I believe never to have been exemplified in the case of any
+other person who wrote continually for the press--except, perhaps,
+Voltaire; and, to say nothing of strictly professional duties, he had,
+as a vast heap of documents now before me proves, superintended from
+day to day, except during his Hebridean voyage, the still perplexed
+concerns of the Ballantynes, with a watchful assiduity that might have
+done credit to the most diligent of tradesmen. The "machine" might
+truly require "refreshment."
+
+It was, as has been seen, on the 7th of November that Scott
+acknowledged the receipt of that communication from Mr. Train which
+included the story of the Galloway astrologer. There can be no doubt
+that this story recalled to his mind, if not the Durham ballad, the
+similar but more detailed corruption of it which he had heard told by
+his father's servant, John MacKinlay, in the days of George's Square
+and Green-breeks, and which he has preserved in the introduction to
+Guy Mannering, as the groundwork of that tale. It has been shown that
+the three last Cantos of The Lord of the Isles were written between
+the 11th of November and the 25th of December; and it is therefore
+scarcely to be supposed that any part of this novel had been penned
+before he thus talked of "refreshing the machine." It is quite certain
+that when James Ballantyne wrote to Miss Edgeworth on the {p.012}
+11th November, he could not have seen one page of Guy Mannering, since
+he in that letter announces that the new novel of his nameless friend
+would depict manners _more ancient_ than those of 1745. And yet it is
+equally certain, that before The Lord of the Isles was _published_,
+which took place on the 18th of January, 1815, two volumes of Guy
+Mannering had been not only written and copied by an amanuensis, but
+printed.
+
+Scott thus writes to Morritt, in sending him his copy of The Lord of
+the Isles:--
+
+     TO J. B. S. MORRITT, ESQ., M. P., WORTHING.
+
+                                        EDINBURGH, 19th January, 1815.
+
+     MY DEAR MORRITT,--I have been very foolishly putting off my
+     writing until I should have time for a good long epistle;
+     and it is astonishing what a number of trifles have
+     interfered to prevent my commencing on a great scale. The
+     last of these has been rather of an extraordinary kind, for
+     your little friend Walter has chose to make himself the town
+     talk, by taking what seemed to be the small-pox, despite of
+     vaccination in infancy, and inoculation with the variolous
+     matter thereafter, which last I resorted to by way of making
+     assurance double sure. The medical gentleman who attended
+     him is of opinion that he _has_ had the real small-pox, but
+     it shall never be averred by me--for the catastrophe of Tom
+     Thumb is enough to deter any thinking person from entering
+     into a feud with the cows. Walter is quite well again, which
+     was the principal matter I was interested in. We had very
+     nearly been in a bad scrape, for I had fixed the Monday on
+     which he sickened, to take him with me for the Christmas
+     vacation to Abbotsford. It is probable that he would not
+     have pleaded headache when there was such a party in view,
+     especially as we were to shoot wild ducks one day together
+     at Cauldshiels Loch; and what the consequence of such a
+     journey might have been, God alone knows.
+
+     {p.013} I am clear of The Lord of the Isles, and I trust you
+     have your copy. It closes my poetic labors upon an extended
+     scale: but I dare say I shall always be dabbling in rhyme
+     until the _solve senescentem_. I have directed the copy to
+     be sent to Portland Place. I want to shake myself free of
+     Waverley, and accordingly have made a considerable exertion
+     to finish an odd little tale within such time as will
+     mystify the public, I trust--unless they suppose me to be
+     Briareus. Two volumes are already printed, and the only
+     persons in my confidence, W. Erskine and Ballantyne, are of
+     opinion that it is much more interesting than Waverley. It
+     is a tale of private life, and only varied by the perilous
+     exploits of smugglers and excisemen. The success of Waverley
+     has given me a spare hundred or two, which I have resolved
+     to spend in London this spring, bringing up Charlotte and
+     Sophia with me. I do not forget my English friends--but I
+     fear they will forget me, unless I show face now and then.
+     My correspondence gradually drops, as must happen when
+     people do not meet; and I long to see Ellis, Heber, Gifford,
+     and one or two more. I do not include Mrs. Morritt and you,
+     because we are much nearer neighbors, and within a whoop and
+     a holla in comparison. I think we should come up by sea, if
+     I were not a little afraid of Charlotte being startled by
+     the March winds--for our vacation begins 12th March.
+
+     You will have heard of poor Caberfae's death? What a pity it
+     is he should have outlived his promising young
+     representative. His state was truly pitiable--all his fine
+     faculties lost in paralytic imbecility, and yet not so
+     entirely so but that he perceived his deprivation as in a
+     glass darkly. Sometimes he was fretful and anxious because
+     he did not see his son; sometimes he expostulated and
+     complained that his boy had been allowed to die without his
+     seeing him; and sometimes, in a less clouded state of
+     intellect, he was sensible of, and lamented his loss in its
+     full extent. These, indeed, are {p.014} the "fears of the
+     brave, and follies of the wise,"[5] which sadden and
+     humiliate the lingering hours of prolonged existence. Our
+     friend Lady Hood will now be Caberfae herself. She has the
+     spirit of a chieftainess in every drop of her blood, but
+     there are few situations in which the cleverest women are so
+     apt to be imposed upon as in the management of landed
+     property, more especially of an Highland estate. I do fear
+     the accomplishment of the prophecy, that when there should
+     be a deaf Caberfae, the house was to fall.[6]
+
+              [Footnote 5: Johnson's _Vanity of Human Wishes_.]
+
+              [Footnote 6: Francis, Lord Seaforth, died 11th January,
+              1815, in his 60th year, having outlived four sons, all
+              of high promise. His title died with him, and he was
+              succeeded in his estates by his daughter, Lady Hood, now
+              the Hon. Mrs. Stewart-Mackenzie of Seaforth.--See some
+              verses on Lord Seaforth's death, in Scott's _Poetical
+              Works_, vol. viii. p. 392 [Cambridge Ed. p. 419]. The
+              Celtic designation of the chief of the clan MacKenzie,
+              _Caberfae_, means _Staghead_, the bearing of the family.
+              The prophecy which Scott alludes to in this letter is
+              also mentioned by Sir Humphry Davy in one of his
+              Journals (see his _Life_, by Dr. Davy, vol. ii. p.
+              72),--and it was, if the account be correct, a most
+              extraordinary one, for it connected the fall of the
+              house of Seaforth not only with the appearance of a deaf
+              _Caberfae_, but with the contemporaneous appearance of
+              various different physical misfortunes in several of the
+              other great Highland chiefs; all of which are said--and
+              were certainly believed both by Scott and Davy--to have
+              actually occurred within the memory of the generation
+              that has not yet passed away. Mr. Morritt can testify
+              thus far--that he "heard the prophecy quoted in the
+              Highlands at a time when Lord Seaforth had two sons both
+              alive and in good health--so that it certainly was not
+              made _après coup_." [Mrs. Stewart-Mackenzie died at
+              Brahan Castle in 1862, in her 79th year. "Her funeral
+              was one of the largest ever witnessed in the North." The
+              Seaforth estates passed to the eldest of her three
+              sons.]]
+
+     I am delighted to find Mrs. Morritt is recovering health and
+     strength--better walking on the beach at Worthing than on
+     the _plainstanes_ of Prince's Street, for the weather is
+     very severe here indeed. I trust Mrs. M. will, in her milder
+     climate, lay in such a stock of health and strength as may
+     enable you to face the north in Autumn. I have got the
+     nicest crib for you possible, just about twelve feet square,
+     and in the harmonious vicinity of a piggery. You never saw
+     so minute an establishment,--but {p.015} it has all that we
+     wish for, and all our friends will care about; and we long
+     to see you there. Charlotte sends the kindest remembrances
+     to Mrs. Morritt.
+
+     As for politics, I have thought little about them lately;
+     the high and exciting interest is so completely subsided,
+     that the wine is upon the lees. As for America, we have so
+     managed as to give her the appearance of triumph, and what
+     is worse, encouragement to resume the war upon a more
+     favorable opportunity. It was our business to have given
+     them a fearful memento that the babe unborn should have
+     remembered; but, having missed this opportunity, I believe
+     that this country would submit with great reluctance to
+     continue a war, for which there is really no specific
+     object. As for the Continental monarchs, there is no
+     guessing what the folly of Kings and Ministers may do; but
+     God knows! would any of them look at home, enough is to be
+     done which might strengthen and improve their dominions in a
+     different manner than by mere extension. I trust Ministers
+     will go out rather than be engaged in war again, upon any
+     account. If France is wise (I have no fear that any
+     superfluous feeling of humanity will stand in the way), she
+     will send 10,000 of her most refractory troops to fight with
+     Christophe and the yellow fever in the Island of St.
+     Domingo, and then I presume they may sit down in quiet at
+     home.
+
+     But my sheet grows to an end, and so does the pleading of
+     the learned counsel, who is thumping the poor bar as I
+     write. He hems twice. Forward, sweet Orator Higgins!--at
+     least till I sign myself, dear Morritt,
+
+     Yours most truly,
+
+                                        Walter SCOTT.
+
+Guy Mannering was published on the 24th of February--that is, exactly
+two months after The Lord of the Isles {p.016} was dismissed from the
+author's desk; and--making but a narrow allowance for the operations
+of the transcriber, printer, bookseller, etc., I think the dates I
+have gathered together confirm the accuracy of what I have often heard
+Scott say, that his second novel "was the work of six weeks at a
+Christmas." Such was his recipe "for refreshing the machine."
+
+I am sorry to have to add, that this severity of labor, like the
+repetition of it which had such deplorable effects at a later period
+of his life, was the result of his anxiety to acquit himself of
+obligations arising out of his connection with the commercial
+speculations of the Ballantynes. The approach of Christmas, 1814,
+brought with it the prospect of such a recurrence of difficulties
+about the discount of John's bills, as to render it absolutely
+necessary that Scott should either apply again for assistance to his
+private friends, or task his literary powers with some such
+extravagant effort as has now been recorded. The great object, which
+was still to get rid of the heavy stock that had been accumulated
+before the storm of May, 1813, at length determined the chief partner
+to break up, as soon as possible, the concern which his own sanguine
+rashness, and the gross irregularities of his mercurial lieutenant,
+had so lamentably perplexed; but Constable, having already enabled the
+firm to avoid public exposure more than once, was not now, any more
+than when he made his contract for The Lord of the Isles, disposed to
+burden himself with an additional load of Weber's Beaumont and
+Fletcher, and other almost as unsalable books. While they were still
+in hopes of overcoming his scruples, it happened that a worthy friend
+of Scott's, the late Mr. Charles Erskine, his sheriff-substitute in
+Selkirkshire, had immediate occasion for a sum of money which he had
+some time before advanced, at Scott's personal request, to the firm of
+John Ballantyne and Company; and on receiving his application, Scott
+wrote as follows:--
+
+     {p.017} TO MR. JOHN BALLANTYNE, BOOKSELLER, EDINBURGH.
+
+                                        ABBOTSFORD, October 14, 1814.
+
+     DEAR JOHN,--Charles Erskine wishes his money, as he has made
+     a purchase of land. This is a new perplexity--for paid he
+     must be forthwith--as his advance was friendly and
+     confidential. I do not at this moment see how it is to be
+     raised, but believe I shall find means. In the mean while,
+     it will be necessary to propitiate the Leviathans of
+     Paternoster Row. My idea is, that you or James should write
+     to them to the following effect: That a novel is offered you
+     by the Author of Waverley; that the author is desirous it
+     should be out before Mr. Scott's poem, or as soon thereafter
+     as possible; and that having resolved, as they are aware, to
+     relinquish publishing, you only wish to avail yourselves of
+     this offer to the extent of helping off some of your stock.
+     I leave it to you to consider whether you should condescend
+     on any particular work to offer them as bread to their
+     butter--or on any particular amount--as £500. One thing must
+     be provided, that Constable shares to the extent of the
+     Scottish sale--they, however, managing. My reason for
+     letting them have this scent of roast meat is, in case it
+     should be necessary for us to apply to them to renew bills
+     in December. Yours,
+
+                                        W. S.
+
+Upon receiving this letter, John Ballantyne suggested to Scott that he
+should be allowed to offer, not only the new novel, but the next
+edition of Waverley, to Longman, Murray, or Blackwood--in the hope
+that the prospect of being let in to the profits of the already
+established favorite, would overcome effectually the hesitation of one
+or other of these houses about venturing on the encumbrance which
+Constable seemed to shrink from with such pertinacity; but upon this
+ingenious proposition Scott at once set his _veto_. He writes (October
+17, 1814):--
+
+     {p.018} DEAR JOHN,--
+
+     Your expedients are all wretched, as far as regards me. I
+     never will give Constable, or any one, room to say I have
+     broken my word with him in the slightest degree. If I lose
+     everything else, I will at least keep my honor unblemished;
+     and I do hold myself bound in honor to offer him a Waverley,
+     while he shall continue to comply with the conditions
+     annexed. I intend the new novel to operate as something more
+     permanent than a mere accommodation; and if I can but be
+     permitted to do so, I will print it before it is sold to any
+     one, and then propose, first to Constable and
+     Longman--second, to Murray and Blackwood--to take the whole
+     at such a rate as will give them one half of the fair
+     profits; granting acceptances which, upon an edition of
+     3000, which we shall be quite authorized to print, will
+     amount to an immediate command of £1500; and to this we may
+     couple the condition, that they must take £500 or £600 of
+     the old stock. I own I am not solicitous to deal with
+     Constable alone, nor am I at all bound to offer him the new
+     novel on any terms; but he, knowing of the intention, may
+     expect to be treated with, at least, although it is possible
+     we may not deal. However, if Murray and Blackwood were to
+     come forward with any handsome proposal as to the stock, I
+     should certainly have no objection to James's giving the
+     pledge of the Author of W. for his next work. You are like
+     the crane in the fable, when you boast of not having got
+     anything from the business; you may thank God that it did
+     not bite your head off. Would to God I were at let-a-be for
+     let-a-be;--but you have done your best, and so must I.
+
+     Yours truly,
+
+                                        W. S.
+
+Both Mr. Murray, and Longman's partner, Mr. Rees, were in Scotland
+about this time; and the former at least paid Scott a visit at
+Abbotsford. Of course, however, whatever propositions they may have
+made were received by one or other of the Ballantynes. The result was,
+{p.019} that the house of Longman undertook Guy Mannering on the
+terms dictated by Scott--namely, granting bills for £1500, and
+relieving John Ballantyne and Company of stock to the extent of £500
+more; and Constable's first information of the transaction was from
+Messrs. Longman themselves, when they, in compliance with Scott's
+wish, as signified in the letter last quoted, offered him a share in
+the edition which they had purchased. With one or two exceptions,
+originating in circumstances nearly similar, the house of Constable
+published all the subsequent series of the Waverley Novels.
+
+I must not, however, forget that The Lord of the Isles was published a
+month before Guy Mannering. The poem was received with an interest
+much heightened by the recent and growing success of the mysterious
+Waverley. Its appearance, so rapidly following that novel, and
+accompanied with the announcement of another prose tale, just about to
+be published, by the same hand, puzzled and confounded the mob of
+dulness.[7] The more sagacious few said to themselves--Scott is making
+one serious effort more in his old line, and by this it will be
+determined whether he does or does not altogether renounce that for
+his new one.
+
+              [Footnote 7: John Ballantyne put forth the following
+              paragraph in the _Scots Magazine_ of December, 1814:--
+
+              "Mr. Scott's poem of _The Lord of the Isles_ will appear
+              early in January. The Author of _Waverley_ is about to
+              amuse the public with a new novel, in three volumes,
+              entitled _Guy Mannering_."]
+
+The Edinburgh Review on The Lord of the Isles begins with,--
+
+     "Here is another genuine Lay of the Great Minstrel, with all
+     his characteristic faults, beauties, and irregularities. The
+     same glow of coloring--the same energy of narration--the
+     same amplitude of description are conspicuous--with the same
+     still more characteristic disdain of puny graces and small
+     originalities--the true poetical hardihood, in the strength
+     of which he urges on his Pegasus fearlessly through dense
+     and rare, and aiming gallantly at the great ends of truth
+     and effect, {p.020} stoops but rarely to study the means by
+     which they are to be attained; avails himself without
+     scruple of common sentiments and common images wherever they
+     seem fitted for his purpose; and is original by the very
+     boldness of his borrowing, and impressive by his disregard
+     of epigram and emphasis."
+
+The conclusion of the contemporaneous article in the Quarterly Review
+is as follows:--
+
+     "The many beautiful passages which we have extracted from
+     the poem, combined with the brief remarks subjoined to each
+     canto, will sufficiently show, that although The Lord of the
+     Isles is not likely to add very much to the reputation of
+     Mr. Scott, yet this must be imputed rather to the greatness
+     of his previous reputation, than to the absolute inferiority
+     of the poem itself. Unfortunately, its merits are merely
+     incidental, while its defects are mixed up with the very
+     elements of the poem. But it is not in the power of Mr.
+     Scott to write with tameness; be the subject what it will
+     (and he could not easily have chosen one more
+     impracticable), he impresses upon whatever scenes he
+     describes so much movement and activity,--he infuses into
+     his narrative such a flow of life, and, if we may so express
+     ourselves, of animal spirits, that without satisfying the
+     judgment, or moving the feelings, or elevating the mind, or
+     even very greatly interesting the curiosity, he is able to
+     seize upon, and, as it were, exhilarate the imagination of
+     his readers, in a manner which is often truly unaccountable.
+     This quality Mr. Scott possesses in an admirable degree; and
+     supposing that he had no other object in view than to
+     convince the world of the great poetical powers with which
+     he is gifted, the poem before us would be quite sufficient
+     for his purpose. But this is of very inferior importance to
+     the public; what they want is a good poem, and, as
+     experience has shown, this can only be constructed upon a
+     solid foundation of taste, and judgment, and meditation."
+
+These passages appear to me to condense the result of deliberate and
+candid reflection, and I have therefore quoted them. The most
+important remarks of either Essayist on the details of the plot and
+execution are annexed to the last edition of the poem; and show such
+an {p.021} exact coincidence of judgment in two masters of their
+calling, as had not hitherto been exemplified in the professional
+criticism of his metrical romances. The defects which both point out
+are, I presume, but too completely explained by the preceding
+statement of the rapidity with which this, the last of those great
+performances, had been thrown off; nor do I see that either Reviewer
+has failed to do sufficient justice to the beauties which redeem the
+imperfections of The Lord of the Isles--except as regards the whole
+character of Bruce, its real hero, and the picture of the battle of
+Bannockburn, which, now that one can compare these works from
+something like the same point of view, does not appear to me in the
+slightest particular inferior to the Flodden of Marmion.
+
+This poem is now, I believe, about as popular as Rokeby; but it has
+never reached the same station in general favor with the Lay, Marmion,
+or The Lady of the Lake. The first edition of 1800 copies in quarto
+was, however, rapidly disposed of, and the separate editions in 8vo,
+which ensued before his poetical works were collected, amounted
+together to 12,250 copies. This, in the case of almost any other
+author, would have been splendid success; but as compared with what he
+had previously experienced, even in his Rokeby, and still more so as
+compared with the enormous circulation at once attained by Lord
+Byron's early tales, which were then following each other in almost
+breathless succession, the falling off was decided. One evening, some
+days after the poem had been published, Scott requested James
+Ballantyne to call on him, and the printer found him alone in his
+library, working at the third volume of Guy Mannering. I give what
+follows from Ballantyne's Memoranda:--
+
+     "'Well, James,' he said, 'I have given you a week--what are
+     people saying about The Lord of the Isles?' I hesitated a
+     little, after the fashion of Gil Blas, but he speedily
+     brought the matter to a point. 'Come,' he said, 'speak out,
+     my good {p.022} fellow; what has put it into your head to
+     be on so much ceremony _with me_ all of a sudden? But, I see
+     how it is, the result is given in one
+     word--_Disappointment_.' My silence admitted his inference
+     to the fullest extent. His countenance certainly did look
+     rather blank for a few seconds; in truth, he had been wholly
+     unprepared for the event; for it is a singular fact, that
+     before the public, or rather the booksellers, had given
+     their decision, he no more knew whether he had written well
+     or ill, than whether a die thrown out of a box was to turn
+     up a size or an ace. However, he instantly resumed his
+     spirits, and expressed his wonder rather that his poetical
+     popularity should have lasted so long, than that it should
+     have now at last given way. At length he said, with perfect
+     cheerfulness, 'Well, well, James, so be it--but you know we
+     must not droop, for we can't afford to give over. Since one
+     line has failed, we must just stick to something else:'--and
+     so he dismissed me and resumed his novel."
+
+Ballantyne concludes the anecdote in these words:--
+
+     "He spoke thus, probably unaware of the undiscovered wonders
+     then slumbering in his mind. Yet still he could not but have
+     felt that the production of a few poems was nothing in
+     comparison of what must be in reserve for him, for he was at
+     this time scarcely more than forty.[8] An evening or two
+     after, I called again on him, and found on the table a copy
+     of The Giaour, which he seemed to have been reading. Having
+     an enthusiastic young lady in my house, I asked him if I
+     might carry the book home with me, but chancing to glance on
+     the autograph blazon, '_To the Monarch of Parnassus from one
+     of his subjects_,' instantly retracted my request, and said
+     I had not observed Lord Byron's inscription before. 'What
+     inscription?' said he; 'oh yes, I had forgot, but
+     inscription or no inscription, you are equally welcome.' I
+     again took it up, and he continued, 'James, Byron hits the
+     mark where I don't even pretend to fledge my arrow.' At this
+     time he had never seen Byron, but I knew he meant soon to be
+     in London, when, no doubt, the mighty consummation of the
+     meeting of the two bards would be accomplished; and I
+     ventured to say that he must be looking forward to it with
+     some interest. His countenance {p.023} became fixed, and he
+     answered impressively, 'Oh, of course.' In a minute or two
+     afterwards he rose from his chair, paced the room at a very
+     rapid rate, which was his practice in certain moods of mind,
+     then made a dead halt, and bursting into an extravaganza of
+     laughter, 'James,' cried he, 'I'll tell you what Byron
+     should say to me when we are about to accost each other,--
+
+              [Footnote 8: He was not forty-four till August, 1815.]
+
+          "Art thou the man whom men famed Grizzle call?"
+
+     And then how germane would be my answer,--
+
+          "Art thou the still more famed Tom Thumb the small?"'
+
+     "This," says the printer, "is a specimen of his peculiar
+     humor; it kept him full of mirth for the rest of the
+     evening."
+
+The whole of the scene strikes me as equally and delightfully
+characteristic; I may add, hardly more so of Scott than of his
+printer; for Ballantyne, with all his profound worship of his friend
+and benefactor, was in truth, even more than he, an undoubting
+acquiescer in "the decision of the public, or rather of the
+booksellers;" and among the many absurdities into which his reverence
+for the popedom of Paternoster Row led him, I never could but consider
+with special astonishment, the facility with which he seemed to have
+adopted the notion that the Byron of 1814 was really entitled to
+supplant Scott as a popular poet. Appreciating, as a man of his
+talents could hardly fail to do, the splendidly original glow and
+depth of Childe Harold, he always appeared to me quite blind to the
+fact, that in The Giaour, in The Bride of Abydos, in Parisina, and
+indeed in all his early serious narratives, Byron owed at least half
+his success to clever, though perhaps unconscious imitation of Scott,
+and no trivial share of the rest to the lavish use of materials which
+Scott never employed, only because his genius was, from the beginning
+to the end of his career, under the guidance of high and chivalrous
+feelings of moral rectitude. All this Lord Byron himself seems to have
+felt most completely--as witness the whole sequence of {p.024} his
+letters and diaries;[9] and I think I see many symptoms that both the
+decision of the million, and its index, "the decision of the
+booksellers," tend the same way at present; but my business is to
+record, as far as my means may permit, the growth and structure of one
+great mind, and the effect which it produced upon the actual witnesses
+of its manifestations, not to obtrude the conjectures of a partial
+individual as to what rank posterity may assign it amongst or above
+contemporary rivals.
+
+              [Footnote 9: _E. G._ "If they want to depose Scott, I
+              only wish they would not set me up as a competitor. I
+              like the man--and admire his works to what Mr. Braham
+              calls _Entusymusy_. All such stuff can only vex him, and
+              do me no good."--Byron (1813), vol. ii. p. 259.
+
+              "Scott is certainly the most wonderful writer of the
+              day. His novels are a new literature in themselves, and
+              his poetry as good as any--if not better (only on an
+              erroneous system), and only ceased to be popular,
+              because the vulgar learned were tired of hearing
+              'Aristides called the Just,' and Scott the Best, and
+              ostracized him."--Byron (1821), vol. v. p. 72.]
+
+The following letter was addressed to Lord Byron on the receipt of
+that copy of The Giaour to which Mr. Ballantyne's Memorandum refers: I
+believe the inscription to Scott first appeared on the ninth edition
+of the poem:
+
+     TO THE RIGHT HON. LORD BYRON, LONDON.
+
+     MY LORD,--I have long owed you my best thanks for the
+     uncommon pleasure I had in perusing your high-spirited
+     Turkish fragment. But I should hardly have ventured to offer
+     them, well knowing how you must be overwhelmed by volunteer
+     intrusions of approbation (which always look as if the
+     writer valued his opinion at fully more than it may be
+     worth) unless I had to-day learned that I have an apology
+     for entering upon the subject, from your having so kindly
+     sent me a copy of the poem. I did not receive it sooner,
+     owing to my absence from Edinburgh, where it had been lying
+     quietly at my house in Castle Street; so that I must have
+     seemed ungrateful, when, in truth, I was only modest. The
+     last offence may be forgiven, as not common in a lawyer
+     {p.025} and poet; the first is said to be equal to the
+     crime of witchcraft, but many an act of my life hath shown
+     that I am no conjurer. If I were, however, ten times more
+     modest than twenty years' attendance at the Bar renders
+     probable, your flattering inscription would cure me of so
+     unfashionable a malady. I might, indeed, lately have had a
+     legal title to as much supremacy on Parnassus as can be
+     conferred by a sign-manual, for I had a very flattering
+     offer of the laurel; but as I felt obliged, for a great many
+     reasons, to decline it, I am altogether unconscious of any
+     other title to sit high upon the forked hill.
+
+     To return to The Giaour; I had lent my first edition, but
+     the whole being imprinted in my memory, I had no difficulty
+     in tracing the additions, which are great improvements, as I
+     should have conjectured aforehand merely from their being
+     additions. I hope your Lordship intends to proceed with this
+     fascinating style of composition. You have access to a
+     stream of sentiments, imagery, and manners, which are so
+     little known to us as to convey all the interest of novelty,
+     yet so endeared to us by the early perusal of Eastern tales,
+     that we are not embarrassed with utter ignorance upon the
+     subject. Vathek, bating some passages, would have made a
+     charming subject for a tale. The conclusion is truly grand.
+     I would give a great deal to know the originals from which
+     it was drawn. Excuse this hasty scrawl, and believe me, my
+     Lord, your Lordship's much obliged, very humble servant,
+
+                                        Walter SCOTT.
+
+If January brought the writer of this letter "disappointment," there
+was abundant consolation in store for February, 1815. Guy Mannering
+was received with eager curiosity, and pronounced by acclamation fully
+worthy to share the honors of Waverley. The easy transparent flow of
+its style; the beautiful simplicity, and here and there the wild
+solemn magnificence of its {p.026} sketches of scenery; the rapid,
+ever heightening interest of the narrative; the unaffected kindliness
+of feeling, the manly purity of thought, everywhere mingled with a
+gentle humor and a homely sagacity; but, above all, the rich variety
+and skilful contrast of characters and manners, at once fresh in
+fiction, and stamped with the unforgeable seal of truth and nature:
+these were charms that spoke to every heart and mind; and the few
+murmurs of pedantic criticism were lost in the voice of general
+delight, which never fails to welcome the invention that introduces to
+the sympathy of imagination a new group of immortal realities.
+
+The earlier chapters of the present narrative have anticipated much of
+what I might, perhaps with better judgment, have reserved for this
+page. Taken together with the author's Introduction and Notes, those
+anecdotes of his days of youthful wandering must, however, have
+enabled the reader to trace almost as minutely as he could wish, the
+sources from which the novelist drew his materials, both of scenery
+and character; and the Durham Garland, which I print in the Appendix
+to this volume, exhausts my information concerning the humble
+groundwork on which fancy reared this delicious romance.[10]
+
+              [Footnote 10: I leave my text as it stood in the former
+              editions; but since the last of these appeared, a writer
+              in _The Gentleman's Magazine_ (July, 1840) has pointed
+              out some very remarkable coincidences between the
+              narrative of _Guy Mannering_ and the very singular
+              history of James Annesley, claimant in 1743 of the
+              honors and estates of the Earls of Anglesey, in Ireland.
+              That Sir Walter must have read the records of this
+              celebrated trial, as well as Smollett's edition of the
+              story in _Peregrine Pickle_, there can be no doubt. How
+              the circumstance had not recurred to his memory when
+              writing the explanatory Introduction to his Novel, I can
+              offer no conjecture. Very possibly the _Garland_ itself
+              may have been framed after the Annesley trial took
+              place.--(1841.) [The paper in _The Gentleman's
+              Magazine_, referred to above, will be found in the
+              Appendix to this volume.]]
+
+The first edition was, like that of Waverley, in three little volumes,
+with a humility of paper and printing which the meanest novelist would
+now disdain to imitate; {p.027} the price a guinea. The 2000 copies
+of which it consisted were sold the day after the publication; and
+within three months came a second and a third impression, making
+together 5000 copies more. The sale, before those novels began to be
+collected, had reached nearly 10,000; and since then (to say nothing
+of foreign reprints of the text, and myriads of translations into
+every tongue of Europe) the domestic sale has amounted to 50,000.
+
+On the rising of the Court of Session in March, Mr. and Mrs. Scott
+went by sea to London with their eldest girl, whom, being yet too
+young for general society, they again deposited with Joanna Baillie at
+Hampstead, while they themselves resumed, for two months, their usual
+quarters at kind Miss Dumergue's in Piccadilly. Six years had elapsed
+since Scott last appeared in the metropolis; and brilliant as his
+reception had then been, it was still more so on the present occasion.
+Scotland had been visited in the interim, chiefly from the interest
+excited by his writings, by crowds of the English nobility, most of
+whom had found introduction to his personal acquaintance--not a few
+had partaken of his hospitality at Ashestiel or Abbotsford. The
+generation among whom, I presume, a genius of this order feels his
+own influence with the proudest and sweetest confidence--on whose
+fresh minds and ears he has himself made the first indelible
+impressions--the generation with whose earliest romance of the heart
+and fancy his idea had been blended, was now grown to the full
+stature; the success of these recent novels, seen on every table, the
+subject of every conversation, had, with those who did not doubt their
+parentage, far more than counterweighed his declination, dubious after
+all, in the poetical balance; while the mystery that hung over them
+quickened the curiosity of the hesitating and conjecturing many--and
+the name on which ever and anon some new circumstance accumulated
+stronger suspicion, loomed larger through the {p.028} haze in which
+he had thought fit to envelop it. Moreover, this was a period of high
+national pride and excitement.
+
+   "O who that shared them ever shall forget
+    The emotions of the spirit-rousing time,
+    When breathless in the mart the couriers met,
+    Early and late, at evening and at prime;
+    When the loud cannon and the merry chime
+    Hail'd news on news, as field on field was won,
+    When Hope, long doubtful, soared at length sublime,
+    And our glad eyes, awake as day begun,
+  Watch'd Joy's broad banner rise, to meet the rising sun?
+
+   "O these were hours, when thrilling joy repaid
+    A long, long course of darkness, doubts, and fears!
+    The heart-sick faintness of the hope delayed,
+    The waste, the woe, the bloodshed, and the tears
+    That tracked with terror twenty rolling years--
+    All was forgot in that blithe jubilee.
+    Her downcast eye even pale Affliction rears,
+    To sigh a thankful prayer amid the glee
+  That hailed the Despot's fall, and peace and liberty!"[11]
+
+              [Footnote 11: _Lord of the Isles_, Canto vi.]
+
+At such a time, Prince and people were well prepared to hail him who,
+more perhaps than any other master of the pen, had contributed to
+sustain the spirit of England throughout the struggle, which was as
+yet supposed to have been terminated on the field of Toulouse. "Thank
+Heaven you are coming at last!" Joanna Baillie had written a month or
+two before. "Make up your mind to be stared at only a little less than
+the Czar of Muscovy, or old Blücher."
+
+And now took place James Ballantyne's "mighty consummation of the
+meeting of the two bards." Scott's own account of it, in a letter to
+Mr. Moore, must have been seen by most of my readers; yet I think it
+ought also to find a place here. He says:--
+
+"It was in the spring of 1815, that, chancing to be in London, I had
+the advantage of a personal introduction {p.029} to Lord Byron.
+Report had prepared me to meet a man of peculiar habits and a quick
+temper, and I had some doubts whether we were likely to suit each
+other in society. I was most agreeably disappointed in this respect. I
+found Lord Byron in the highest degree courteous, and even kind. We
+met for an hour or two almost daily, in Mr. Murray's drawing-room, and
+found a great deal to say to each other.[12] We also met frequently in
+parties and evening society, so that for about two months I had the
+advantage of a considerable intimacy with this distinguished
+individual. Our sentiments agreed a good deal, except upon the
+subjects of religion and politics, upon neither of which I was
+inclined to believe that Lord Byron entertained very fixed opinions. I
+remember saying to him, that I really thought that if he lived a few
+years he would alter his sentiments. He answered, rather sharply, 'I
+suppose you are one of those who prophesy I shall turn Methodist.' I
+replied: 'No, I don't expect your conversion to be of such an ordinary
+kind. I would rather look to see you retreat upon the Catholic faith,
+and distinguish yourself by the austerity of your penances. The
+species of religion to which you must, or may, one day attach
+yourself, must exercise a strong power on the imagination.' He smiled
+gravely, and seemed to allow I might be right.
+
+              [Footnote 12: [John Murray--the third of the name--gives
+              some interesting notes of his recollections of these
+              meetings in Albemarle Street, in the _Memoirs_ of his
+              father (vol. i. p. 267).]]
+
+"On politics, he used sometimes to express a high strain of what is
+now called Liberalism; but it appeared to me that the pleasure it
+afforded him, as a vehicle for displaying his wit and satire against
+individuals in office, was at the bottom of this habit of thinking,
+rather than any real conviction of the political principles on which
+he talked. He was certainly proud of his rank and ancient family, and,
+in that respect, as much an aristocrat {p.030} as was consistent with
+good sense and good breeding. Some disgusts, how adopted I know not,
+seemed to me to have given this peculiar and (as it appeared to me)
+contradictory cast of mind; but, at heart, I would have termed Byron a
+patrician on principle.
+
+"Lord Byron's reading did not seem to me to have been very extensive,
+either in poetry or history. Having the advantage of him in that
+respect, and possessing a good competent share of such reading as is
+little read, I was sometimes able to put under his eye objects which
+had for him the interest of novelty. I remember particularly repeating
+to him the fine poem of Hardyknute, an imitation of the old Scottish
+ballad, with which he was so much affected, that some one who was in
+the same apartment asked me what I could possibly have been telling
+Byron by which he was so much agitated.
+
+"I saw Byron for the last time in 1815, after I returned from France.
+He dined, or lunched, with me at Long's, in Bond Street. I never saw
+him so full of gayety and good-humor, to which the presence of Mr.
+Mathews, the comedian, added not a little. Poor Terry was also
+present. After one of the gayest parties I ever was present at, my
+fellow-traveller, Mr. Scott of Gala, and I set off for Scotland, and I
+never saw Lord Byron again. Several letters passed between us--one
+perhaps every half-year. Like the old heroes in Homer, we exchanged
+gifts. I gave Byron a beautiful dagger mounted with gold, which had
+been the property of the redoubted Elfi Bey. But I was to play the
+part of Diomed in the Iliad, for Byron sent me, some time after, a
+large sepulchral vase of silver. It was full of dead men's bones, and
+had inscriptions on two sides of the base. One ran thus: 'The bones
+contained in this urn were found in certain ancient sepulchres within
+the long walls of Athens, in the month of February, 1811.' The other
+face bears the lines of Juvenal: '_Expende--quot libras in duce summo
+{p.031} invenies?--Mors sola fatetur quantula sint hominum
+corpuscula._'
+
+"To these I have added a third inscription, in these words, 'The gift
+of Lord Byron to Walter Scott.'[13] There was a letter with this vase,
+more valuable to me than the gift itself, from the kindness with which
+the donor expressed himself towards me. I left it naturally in the urn
+with the bones; but it is now missing. As the theft was not of a
+nature to be practised by a mere domestic, I am compelled to suspect
+the inhospitality of some individual of higher station, most
+gratuitously exercised certainly, since, after what I have here said,
+no one will probably choose to boast of possessing this literary
+curiosity.
+
+              [Footnote 13: Mr. Murray had, at the time of giving the
+              vase, suggested to Lord Byron, that it would increase
+              the value of the gift to add some such inscription; but
+              the noble poet answered modestly,--
+
+              "April 9, 1815. DEAR MURRAY,--I have a great objection
+              to your proposition about inscribing the vase--which is,
+              that it would appear _ostentatious_ on my part; and of
+              course I must send it as it is, without any alteration.
+              Yours ever, BYRON."]
+
+"We had a good deal of laughing, I remember, on what the public might
+be supposed to think, or say, concerning the gloomy and ominous nature
+of our mutual gifts.
+
+"I think I can add little more to my recollections of Byron. He was
+often melancholy--almost gloomy. When I observed him in this humor, I
+used either to wait till it went off of its own accord, or till some
+natural and easy mode occurred of leading him into conversation, when
+the shadows almost always left his countenance, like the mist rising
+from a landscape. In conversation he was very animated.
+
+"I met with him very frequently in society; our mutual acquaintances
+doing me the honor to think that he liked to meet with me. Some very
+agreeable parties I can recollect--particularly one at Sir George
+Beaumont's--where the amiable landlord had assembled some persons
+{p.032} distinguished for talent. Of these I need only mention the
+late Sir Humphry Davy, whose talents for literature were as remarkable
+as his empire over science. Mr. Richard Sharpe and Mr. Rogers were
+also present.
+
+"I think I also remarked in Byron's temper starts of suspicion, when
+he seemed to pause and consider whether there had not been a secret,
+and perhaps offensive, meaning in something casually said to him. In
+this case, I also judged it best to let his mind, like a troubled
+spring, work itself clear, which it did in a minute or two. I was
+considerably older, you will recollect, than my noble friend, and had
+no reason to fear his misconstruing my sentiments towards him, nor had
+I ever the slightest reason to doubt that they were kindly returned on
+his part. If I had occasion to be mortified by the display of genius
+which threw into the shade such pretensions as I was then supposed to
+possess, I might console myself that, in my own case, the materials of
+mental happiness had been mingled in a greater proportion.
+
+"I rummage my brains in vain for what often rushes into my head
+unbidden--little traits and sayings which recall his looks, manner,
+tone, and gestures; and I have always continued to think that a crisis
+of life was arrived, in which a new career of fame was opened to him,
+and that had he been permitted to start upon it, he would have
+obliterated the memory of such parts of his life as friends would wish
+to forget."
+
+I have nothing to add to this interesting passage, except that Joanna
+Baillie's tragedy of The Family Legend being performed at one of the
+theatres during Scott's stay in town, Lord Byron accompanied the
+authoress and Mr. and Mrs. Scott to witness the representation; and
+that the vase with the Attic bones appears to have been sent to Scott
+very soon after his arrival in London, not, as Mr. Moore had gathered
+from the hasty diction of his Reminiscences, at some "subsequent
+period of their acquaintance." {p.033} This is sufficiently proved by
+the following note:--
+
+     TO THE RIGHT HONORABLE LORD BYRON, ETC., ETC.
+
+                                        PICCADILLY, MONDAY.
+
+     MY DEAR LORD,--I am not a little ashamed of the value of the
+     shrine in which your Lordship has enclosed the Attic relics;
+     but were it yet more costly, the circumstance could not add
+     value to it in my estimation, when considered as a pledge of
+     your Lordship's regard and friendship. The principal
+     pleasure which I have derived from my connection with
+     literature has been the access which it has given me to
+     those who are distinguished by talents and accomplishments;
+     and, standing so high as your Lordship justly does in that
+     rank, my satisfaction in making your acquaintance has been
+     proportionally great. It is one of those wishes which, after
+     having been long and earnestly entertained, I have found
+     completely gratified upon becoming personally known to you;
+     and I trust you will permit me to profit by it frequently,
+     during my stay in town. I am, my dear Lord, your truly
+     obliged and faithful
+
+                                        Walter SCOTT.
+
+It was also in the spring of 1815 that Scott had, for the first time,
+the honor of being presented to the Prince Regent. His Royal Highness
+had (as has been seen from a letter to Joanna Baillie, already quoted)
+signified, more than a year before this time, his wish that the poet
+should revisit London--and, on reading his Edinburgh Address in
+particular, he said to Mr. Dundas, that "Walter Scott's charming
+behavior about the laureateship had made him doubly desirous of seeing
+him at Carlton House." More lately, on receiving a copy of The Lord of
+the Isles, his Royal Highness's librarian had been commanded to write
+to him in these terms:--
+
+     {p.034} TO WALTER SCOTT, ESQ., EDINBURGH.
+
+                                        CARLTON HOUSE, January 19, 1815.
+
+     MY DEAR SIR,--You are deservedly so great a favorite with
+     the Prince Regent, that his librarian is not only directed
+     to return you the thanks of his Royal Highness for your
+     valuable present, but to inform you that the Prince Regent
+     particularly wishes to see you whenever you come to London;
+     and desires you will always, when you are there, come into
+     his library whenever you please. Believe me always, with
+     sincerity, one of your warmest admirers, and most obliged
+     friends,
+
+                                        J. S. CLARKE.
+
+On hearing from Mr. Croker (then Secretary to the Admiralty) that
+Scott was to be in town by the middle of March, the Prince said, "Let
+me know when he comes, and I'll get up a snug little dinner that will
+suit him;" and, after he had been presented and graciously received at
+the levee, he was invited to dinner accordingly, through his excellent
+friend Mr. Adam (now Lord Chief Commissioner of the Jury Court in
+Scotland),[14] who at that time held a confidential office in the
+royal household. The Regent had consulted with Mr. Adam also as to the
+composition of the party. "Let us have," said he, "just a few friends
+of his own--and the more Scotch the better;" and both the Chief
+Commissioner and Mr. Croker assure me that the party was the most
+interesting and agreeable one in their recollection. It comprised, I
+believe, the Duke of York--the late Duke of Gordon (then Marquis of
+Huntly)--the Marquis of Hertford (then Lord Yarmouth)--the Earl of
+Fife--and {p.035} Scott's early friend Lord Melville. "The Prince and
+Scott," says Mr. Croker, "were the two most brilliant story-tellers in
+their several ways, that I have ever happened to meet; they were both
+aware of their _forte_, and both exerted themselves that evening with
+delightful effect. On going home, I really could not decide which of
+them had shone the most. The Regent was enchanted with Scott, as Scott
+with him; and on all his subsequent visits to London, he was a
+frequent guest at the royal table." The Lord Chief Commissioner
+remembers that the Prince was particularly delighted with the poet's
+anecdotes of the old Scotch judges and lawyers, which his Royal
+Highness sometimes _capped_ by ludicrous traits of certain ermined
+sages of his own acquaintance. Scott told, among others, a story,
+which he was fond of telling; and the commentary of his Royal Highness
+on hearing it amused Scott, who often mentioned it afterwards. The
+anecdote is this: A certain Judge, whenever he went on a particular
+circuit, was in the habit of visiting a gentleman of good fortune in
+the neighborhood of one of the assize towns, and staying at least one
+night, which, being both of them ardent chess-players, they usually
+concluded with their favorite game. One Spring circuit the battle was
+not decided at daybreak, so the Judge said, "Weel, Donald, I must e'en
+come back this gate in the harvest, and let the game lie ower for the
+present;" and back he came in October, but not to his old friend's
+hospitable house; for that gentleman had, in the interim, been
+apprehended on a capital charge (of forgery), and his name stood on
+the _Porteous Roll_, or list of those who were about to be tried under
+his former guest's auspices. The laird was indicted and tried
+accordingly, and the jury returned a verdict of _guilty_. The Judge
+forthwith put on his cocked hat (which answers to the black cap in
+England), and pronounced the sentence of the law in the usual terms:
+"To be hanged by the neck until you be dead; and may the Lord have
+{p.036} mercy upon your unhappy soul!" Having concluded this awful
+formula in his most sonorous cadence, the Judge, dismounting his
+formidable beaver, gave a familiar nod to his unfortunate
+acquaintance, and said to him in a sort of chuckling whisper, "And
+now, Donald, my man, I think I've checkmated you for ance." The Regent
+laughed heartily at this specimen of judicial humor; and "I' faith,
+Walter," said he, "this old big-wig seems to have taken things as
+coolly as my tyrannical self. Don't you remember Tom Moore's
+description of me at breakfast,--
+
+  'The table spread with tea and toast,
+   Death-warrants and the Morning Post?'"
+
+              [Footnote 14: This most amiable and venerable gentleman,
+              my dear and kind friend, died at Edinburgh on the 17th
+              February, 1839, in the 80th year of his age. He retained
+              his strong mental faculties in their perfect vigor to
+              the last days of this long life, and with them all the
+              warmth of social feelings which had endeared him to all
+              who were so happy as to have any opportunity of knowing
+              him. The reader will find an affectionate tribute to his
+              worth, from Sir Walter Scott's Diary, in a subsequent
+              volume of these Memoirs.--(March, 1839.)]
+
+Towards midnight, the Prince called for "a bumper, with all the
+honors, to the Author of Waverley," and looked significantly, as he
+was charging his own glass, to Scott. Scott seemed somewhat puzzled
+for a moment, but instantly recovering himself, and filling his glass
+to the brim, said, "Your Royal Highness looks as if you thought I had
+some claim to the honors of this toast. I have no such pretensions,
+but shall take good care that the real Simon Pure hears of the high
+compliment that has now been paid him." He then drank off his claret,
+and joined in the cheering, which the Prince himself timed. But before
+the company could resume their seats, his Royal Highness exclaimed,
+"Another of the same, if you please, to the Author of Marmion--and
+now, Walter, my man, I have checkmated you for _ance_." The second
+bumper was followed by cheers still more prolonged: and Scott then
+rose and returned thanks in a short address, which struck the Lord
+Chief Commissioner as "alike grave and graceful." This story has been
+circulated in a very perverted shape. I now give it on the authority
+of my venerated friend. He adds, that having occasion, the day after,
+to call on the Duke of York, his Royal Highness said to him: "Upon my
+word, Adam, my brother went rather too near the wind about
+Waverley--but {p.037} nobody could have turned the thing more
+prettily than Walter Scott did--and upon the whole I never had better
+fun."[15]
+
+              [Footnote 15: Since this narrative was first published,
+              I have been told by two gentlemen who were at this
+              dinner, that, according to their recollection, the
+              Prince _did not_ on that occasion run so "near the wind"
+              as my text represents; and I am inclined to believe that
+              a scene at Dalkeith, in 1822, may have been
+              unconsciously blended with a gentler rehearsal of
+              Carlton House, 1815. The Chief Commissioner had promised
+              to revise my sheets for the present edition; but alas,
+              he never did so--and I must now leave the matter as it
+              stands.--(1839.)]
+
+The Regent, as was his custom with those he most delighted to honor,
+uniformly addressed the poet, even at their first dinner, by his
+Christian name, "Walter."
+
+Before he left town, he again dined at Carlton House, when the party
+was a still smaller one than before, and the merriment, if possible,
+still more free. That nothing might be wanting, the Prince sung
+several capital songs in the course of that evening--as witness the
+lines in Sultan Serendib:[16]--
+
+  "I love a Prince will bid the bottle pass,
+  Exchanging with his subjects glance and glass,
+  In fitting time can, gayest of the gay,
+  Keep up the jest and mingle in the lay.
+  Such Monarchs best our freeborn humor suit,
+  But despots must be stately, stern, and mute."[17]
+
+              [Footnote 16: [_The Search after Happiness._]]
+
+              [Footnote 17: Scott's _Poetical Works_, vol. xi. p. 353
+              [Cambridge Ed. p. 431].]
+
+Before he returned to Edinburgh, on the 22d of May, the Regent sent
+him a gold snuff-box, set in brilliants, with a medallion of his Royal
+Highness's head on the lid, "as a testimony" (writes Mr. Adam, in
+transmitting it) "of the high opinion his Royal Highness entertains of
+your genius and merit."
+
+I transcribe what follows from James Ballantyne's _Memoranda_:--
+
+     "After Mr. Scott's first interview with his Sovereign, one
+     or two intimate friends took the liberty of inquiring, what
+     judgment he had formed of the Regent's talents? He declined
+     {p.038} giving any definite answer--but repeated that 'he
+     was the first gentleman he had seen--certainly the first
+     _English_ gentleman of his day;--there was something about
+     him which, independently of the _prestige_, the "divinity,
+     which hedges a King," marked him as standing entirely by
+     himself; but as to his abilities, spoken of as distinct from
+     his charming manners, how could any one form a fair judgment
+     of that man who introduced whatever subject he chose,
+     discussed it just as long as he chose, and dismissed it when
+     he chose?'"
+
+Ballantyne adds:--
+
+     "What I have now to say is more important, not only in
+     itself, but as it will enable you to give a final
+     contradiction to an injurious report which has been in
+     circulation; namely, that the Regent asked him as to the
+     authorship of Waverley, and received a distinct and solemn
+     denial. I took the bold freedom of requesting to know _from
+     him_ whether his Royal Highness had questioned him on that
+     subject, and what had been his answer. He glanced at me with
+     a look of mild surprise, and said, 'What answer I might have
+     made to such a question, put to me by my Sovereign, perhaps
+     I do not, or rather perhaps I do know; but I was never put
+     to the test. He is far too well-bred a man ever to put so
+     ill-bred a question.'"
+
+The account I have already given of the convivial scene alluded to
+would probably have been sufficient; but it can do no harm to place
+Ballantyne's, or rather Scott's own testimony, also on record.
+
+I ought not to have omitted, that during Scott's residence in London,
+in April, 1815, he lost one of the English friends, to a meeting with
+whom he had looked forward with the highest pleasure. Mr. George Ellis
+died on the 15th of that month, at his seat of Sunning Hill. This
+threw a cloud over what would otherwise have been a period of unmixed
+enjoyment. Mr. Canning penned the epitaph for that dearest of his
+friends, but he submitted it to Scott's consideration before it was
+engraved.
+
+
+
+
+{p.039} CHAPTER XXXV.
+
+     Battle of Waterloo. -- Letter of Sir Charles Bell. -- Visit
+     to the Continent. -- Waterloo. -- Letters from Brussels and
+     Paris. -- Anecdotes of Scott at Paris. -- The Duke of
+     Wellington. -- The Emperor Alexander. -- Blücher. --
+     Platoff. -- Party at Ermenonville, etc. -- London. --
+     Parting with Lord Byron. -- Scott's Sheffield Knife. --
+     Return to Abbotsford. -- Anecdotes by Mr. Skene and James
+     Ballantyne.
+
+1815.
+
+
+Goethe expressed, I fancy, a very general sentiment, when he said,
+that to him the great charm and value of my friend's Life of
+Buonaparte seemed quite independent of the question of its accuracy as
+to small details; that he turned eagerly to the book, not to find
+dates sifted, and countermarches analyzed, but to contemplate what
+could not but be a true record of the broad impressions made on the
+mind of Scott by the marvellous revolutions of his own time in their
+progress. Feeling how justly in the main that work has preserved those
+impressions, though gracefully softened and sobered in the retrospect
+of peaceful and more advanced years, I the less regret that I have it
+not in my power to quote any letters of his touching the reappearance
+of Napoleon on the soil of France--the immortal march from Cannes--the
+reign of the Hundred Days, and the preparations for another struggle,
+which fixed the gaze of Europe in May, 1815.
+
+That he should have been among the first civilians {p.040} who
+hurried over to see the field of Waterloo, and hear English bugles
+sound about the walls of Paris, could have surprised none who knew the
+lively concern he had always taken in the military efforts of his
+countrymen, and the career of the illustrious captain, who had taught
+them to reëstablish the renown of Agincourt and Blenheim,--
+
+  "Victor of Assaye's Eastern plain,
+   Victor of all the fields of Spain."
+
+I had often heard him say, however, that his determination was, if not
+fixed, much quickened by a letter of an old acquaintance of his, who
+had, on the arrival of the news of the 18th of June, instantly
+repaired to Brussels, to tender his professional skill in aid of the
+overburdened medical staff of the conqueror's army. When, therefore, I
+found the letter in question preserved among Scott's papers, I perused
+it with a peculiar interest; and I now venture, with the writer's
+permission, to present it to the reader. It was addressed by Sir
+Charles Bell to his brother, an eminent barrister in Edinburgh, who
+transmitted it to Scott. "When I read it," said he, "it set me on
+fire." The marriage of Miss Maclean Clephane of Torloisk with the Earl
+Compton (now Marquis of Northampton), which took place on the 24th of
+July, was in fact the only cause why he did not leave Scotland
+instantly; for that dear young friend had chosen Scott for her
+guardian, and on him accordingly devolved the chief care of the
+arrangements on this occasion. The extract sent to him by Mr. George
+Joseph Bell is as follows:--
+
+                                        "BRUSSELS, 2d July, 1815.
+
+     "This country, the finest in the world, has been of late
+     quite out of our minds. I did not, in any degree, anticipate
+     the pleasure I should enjoy, the admiration forced from me,
+     on coming into one of these antique towns, or in journeying
+     through the rich garden. Can you recollect the time when
+     there were gentlemen meeting at the Cross of Edinburgh, or
+     those whom we thought such? They are all collected here.
+     {p.041} You see the very men, with their scraggy necks
+     sticking out of the collars of their old-fashioned
+     square-skirted coats--their canes--their cocked-hats; and,
+     when they meet, the formal bow, the hat off to the ground,
+     and the powder flying in the wind. I could divert you with
+     the odd resemblances of the Scottish faces among the
+     peasants, too--but I noted _them_ at the time with my
+     pencil, and I write to you only of things that you won't
+     find in my pocket-book.
+
+     "I have just returned from seeing the French wounded
+     received in their hospital; and could you see them laid out
+     naked, or almost so--100 in a row of low beds on the
+     ground--though wounded, exhausted, beaten, you would still
+     conclude with me that these were men capable of marching
+     unopposed from the west of Europe to the east of Asia.
+     Strong, thickset, hardy veterans, brave spirits and
+     unsubdued, as they cast their wild glance upon you,--their
+     black eyes and brown cheeks finely contrasted with the fresh
+     sheets,--you would much admire their capacity of adaptation.
+     These fellows are brought from the field after lying many
+     days on the ground; many dying--many in the agony--many
+     miserably racked with pain and spasms; and the next mimics
+     his fellow, and gives it a tune,--_Aha, vous chantez bien!_
+     How they are wounded you will see in my notes. But I must
+     not have you to lose the present impression on me of the
+     formidable nature of these fellows as exemplars of the breed
+     in France. It is a forced praise; for from all I have seen,
+     and all I have heard of their fierceness, cruelty, and
+     bloodthirstiness, I cannot convey to you my detestation of
+     this race of trained banditti. By what means they are to be
+     kept in subjection until other habits come upon them, I know
+     not; but I am convinced that these men cannot be left to the
+     bent of their propensities.
+
+     "This superb city is now ornamented with the finest groups
+     of armed men that the most romantic fancy could dream of. I
+     was struck with the words of a friend--E. 'I saw,' said he,
+     '_that_ man returning from the field on the 16th.' (This was
+     a Brunswicker, of the Black or Death Hussars.) 'He was
+     wounded, and had had his arm amputated on the field. He was
+     among the first that came in. He rode straight and stark
+     upon his horse--the bloody clouts about his stump--pale as
+     death, but upright, with a stern, fixed expression of
+     {p.042} feature, as if loath to lose his revenge.' These
+     troops are very remarkable in their fine military
+     appearance; their dark and ominous dress sets off to
+     advantage their strong, manly, northern features and white
+     mustachios; and there is something more than commonly
+     impressive about the whole effect.
+
+     "This is the second Sunday after the battle, and many are
+     not yet dressed. There are 20,000 wounded in this town,
+     besides those in the hospitals, and the many in the other
+     towns;--only 3000 prisoners; 80,000, they say, killed and
+     wounded on both sides."
+
+I think it not wonderful that this extract should have set Scott's
+imagination effectually on fire; that he should have grasped at the
+idea of seeing probably the last shadows of real warfare that his own
+age would afford; or that some parts of the great surgeon's simple
+phraseology are reproduced, almost verbatim, in the first of Paul's
+Letters to his Kinsfolk. No sooner was Scott's purpose known, than
+some of his young neighbors in the country proposed to join his
+excursion; and, in company with three of them, namely, his kinsman,
+John Scott of Gala, Alexander Pringle, the younger, of Whytbank (now
+M. P. for Selkirkshire), and Robert Bruce, advocate (now Sheriff of
+Argyle), he left Edinburgh for the south, at 5. A. M. on the 27th of
+July.
+
+They travelled by the stage-coach, and took the route of Hull and
+Lincoln to Cambridge; for Gala and Whytbank, being both members of
+that university, were anxious to seize this opportunity of revisiting
+it themselves, and showing its beautiful architecture to their friend.
+After this wish had been gratified, they proceeded to Harwich, and
+thence, on the 3d of August, took ship for Helvoetsluys.
+
+     "The weather was beautiful," says Gala, "so we all went
+     outside the coach from Cambridge to Harwich. At starting,
+     there was a general complaint of thirst, the consequence of
+     some experiments overnight on the celebrated _bishop_ of my
+     _Alma Mater_; our friend, however, was in great glee, and
+     {p.043} never was a merrier _basket_ than he made it all
+     the morning. He had cautioned us, on leaving Edinburgh,
+     never to _name names_ in such situations, and our adherence
+     to this rule was rewarded by some amusing incidents. For
+     example, as we entered the town where we were to dine, a
+     heavy-looking man, who was to stop there, took occasion to
+     thank Scott for the pleasure his anecdotes had afforded him:
+     'You have a good memory, sir,' said he; 'mayhap, now, you
+     sometimes write down what you hear or be a-reading about?'
+     He answered, very gravely, that he did occasionally put down
+     a _few_ notes, if anything struck him particularly. In the
+     afternoon, it happened that he sat on the box, while the
+     rest of us were behind him. Here, by degrees, he became
+     quite absorbed in his own reflections. He frequently
+     repeated to himself, or _composed_ perhaps, for a good
+     while, and often smiled or raised his hand, seeming
+     completely occupied and amused. His neighbor, a vastly
+     scientific and rather grave professor, in a smooth drab
+     Benjamin and broad-brimmed beaver, cast many a curious
+     sidelong glance at him, evidently suspecting that all was
+     not right with the upper story, but preserved perfect
+     politeness. The poet was, however, discovered by the captain
+     of the vessel in which we crossed the Channel;--and a
+     perilous passage it was, chiefly in consequence of the
+     unceasing tumblers in which this worthy kept drinking his
+     health."
+
+Before leaving Edinburgh, Scott had settled in his mind the plan of
+Paul's Letters; for on that same day, his agent, John Ballantyne,
+addressed the following letter, from his marine villa near Newhaven:--
+
+     TO MESSRS. CONSTABLE & CO.
+
+                                        TRINITY, 27th July, 1815.
+
+     DEAR SIRS,--Mr. Scott left town to-day for the Continent. He
+     proposes writing from thence a series of letters on a
+     peculiar plan, varied in matter and style, and to different
+     supposititious correspondents.
+
+     The work is to form a demy 8vo volume of twenty-two sheets,
+     to sell at 12s. It is to be begun immediately on his arrival
+     in France, and to be published, if possible, the second week
+     of September, when he proposes to return.
+
+     {p.044} We print 3000 of this, and I am empowered to offer
+     you one third of the edition, Messrs. Longman & Co. and Mr.
+     Murray having each the same share: the terms, twelve months'
+     acceptance for paper and print, and half profits at six
+     months, granted now as under. The over copies will pay the
+     charge for advertising, I am, etc.,
+
+                                        John BALLANTYNE.
+
+           _Charge_--
+        22 sheets printing,--£3 15 0        £82 10 0
+       145 reams demy,     -- 1 10 0        217 10 0
+                                           ---------
+                                            £300 0 0
+
+       3000 at 8s. £1200 0 0
+              Cost,  300 0 0
+                   ----------
+                    £900 0 0 profit--One half is £450.
+
+Before Scott reached Harwich, he knew that this offer had been
+accepted without hesitation; and thenceforth, accordingly, he threw
+his daily letters to his wife into the form of communications meant
+for an imaginary group, consisting of a spinster sister, a statistical
+laird, a rural clergyman of the Presbyterian Kirk, and a brother, a
+veteran officer on half-pay. The rank of this last personage
+corresponded, however, exactly with that of his own elder brother,
+John Scott, who also, like the Major of the book, had served in the
+Duke of York's unfortunate campaign of 1797; the sister is only a
+slender disguise for his aunt Christian Rutherford, already often
+mentioned; Lord Somerville, long President of the Board of
+Agriculture, was Paul's laird; and the shrewd and unbigoted Dr.
+Douglas of Galashiels was his "minister of the gospel." These
+epistles, after having been devoured by the little circle at
+Abbotsford, were transmitted to Major John Scott, his mother, and Miss
+Rutherford, in Edinburgh; from their hands they passed to those of
+James Ballantyne and Mr. Erskine, both of whom assured me that the
+copy ultimately sent to the press consisted, in great part, of the
+identical sheets that {p.045} had successively reached Melrose
+through the post. The rest had of course been, as Ballantyne expresses
+it, "somewhat cobbled;" but, on the whole, Paul's Letters are to be
+considered as a true and faithful journal of this expedition;
+insomuch, that I might perhaps content myself, in this place, with a
+simple reference to that delightful volume. He found time, however, to
+write letters during his absence from Britain, to some others of his
+friends; and a specimen or two of these may interest the reader. I
+have also gathered, from the companions of the journey, a few more
+particulars, which Scott's modesty withheld him from recording; and
+some trivial circumstances which occur to me, from recollection of his
+own conversation, may also be acceptable.
+
+But I hope that, if the reader has not perused Paul's Letters
+recently, he will refresh his memory, before he proceeds further, by
+bestowing an hour on that genuine fragment of the author's
+autobiography. He is now, unless he had the advantage of Scott's
+personal familiarity, much better acquainted with the man than he
+could have been before he took up this compilation of his private
+correspondence--and especially before he perused the full diary of the
+lighthouse yacht in 1814; and a thousand little turns and
+circumstances which may have, when he originally read the book, passed
+lightly before his eye, will now, I venture to say, possess a warm and
+vivid interest, as inimitably characteristic of a departed friend. The
+kindest of husbands and fathers never portrayed himself with more
+unaffected truth than in this vain effort, if such he really fancied
+he was making, to sustain the character of "a cross old bachelor." The
+whole man, just as he was, breathes in every line, with all his
+compassionate and benevolent sympathy of heart, all his sharpness of
+observation, and sober shrewdness of reflection; all his enthusiasm
+for nature, for country life, for simple manners and simple pleasures,
+mixed up with an equally glowing enthusiasm, at which many may
+{p.046} smile, for the tiniest relics of feudal antiquity--and last,
+not least, a pulse of physical rapture for the "circumstance of war,"
+which bears witness to the blood of _Boltfoot_ and _Fire-the-Braes_.
+
+At Brussels, Scott found the small English garrison left there in
+command of Major-General Sir Frederick Adam, the son of his highly
+valued friend, the Lord Chief Commissioner. Sir Frederick had been
+wounded at Waterloo, and could not as yet mount on horseback; but one
+of his aides-de-camp, Captain Campbell, escorted Scott and his party
+to the field of battle, on which occasion they were also accompanied
+by another old acquaintance of his, Major Pryse Gordon, who being then
+on half-pay, happened to be domesticated with his family at Brussels.
+Major Gordon has since published two lively volumes of Personal
+Memoirs; and Gala bears witness to the fidelity of certain
+reminiscences of Scott at Brussels and Waterloo, which occupy one of
+the chapters of this work. I shall, therefore, extract the passage:--
+
+     "Sir Walter Scott accepted my services to conduct him to
+     Waterloo: the General's aide-de-camp was also of the party.
+     He made no secret of his having undertaken to write
+     something on the battle; and perhaps he took the greater
+     interest on this account in everything that he saw. Besides,
+     he had never seen the field of such a conflict; and never
+     having been before on the Continent, it was all new to his
+     comprehensive mind. The day was beautiful; and I had the
+     precaution to send out a couple of saddle-horses, that he
+     might not be fatigued in walking over the fields, which had
+     been recently ploughed up. In our rounds we fell in with
+     Monsieur de Costar, with whom he got into conversation. This
+     man had attracted so much notice by his pretended story of
+     being about the person of Napoleon, that he was of too much
+     importance to be passed by: I did not, indeed, know as much
+     of this fellow's charlatanism at that time as afterwards,
+     when I saw him confronted with a blacksmith of La Belle
+     Alliance, who had been his companion in a hiding-place ten
+     miles from the field during the whole day; a {p.047} fact
+     which he could not deny. But he had got up a tale so
+     plausible and so profitable, that he could afford to bestow
+     hush-money on the companion of his flight, so that the
+     imposition was but little known; and strangers continued to
+     be gulled. He had picked up a good deal of information about
+     the positions and details of the battle; and, being
+     naturally a sagacious Walloon, and speaking French pretty
+     fluently, he became the favorite cicerone, and every lie he
+     told was taken for gospel. Year after year, until his death
+     in 1824, he continued his popularity, and raised the price
+     of his rounds from a couple of francs to five; besides as
+     much for the hire of a horse, his own property; for he
+     pretended that the fatigue of walking so many hours was
+     beyond his powers. It has been said that in this way he
+     realized every summer a couple of hundred Napoleons.
+
+     "When Sir Walter had examined every point of defence and
+     attack, we adjourned to the 'Original Duke of Wellington' at
+     Waterloo, to lunch after the fatigues of the ride. Here he
+     had a crowded levee of peasants, and collected a great many
+     trophies, from cuirasses down to buttons and bullets. He
+     picked up himself many little relics, and was fortunate in
+     purchasing a grand cross of the Legion of Honor. But the
+     most precious memorial was presented to him by my wife--a
+     French soldier's book, well stained with blood, and
+     containing some songs popular in the French army, which he
+     found so interesting that he introduced versions of them in
+     his Paul's Letters; of which, he did me the honor to send me
+     a copy, with a letter, saying, 'that he considered my wife's
+     gift as the most valuable of all his Waterloo relics.'
+
+     "On our return from the field, he kindly passed the evening
+     with us, and a few friends whom we invited to meet him. He
+     charmed us with his delightful conversation, and was in
+     great spirits from the agreeable day he had passed; and with
+     great good-humor promised to write a stanza in my wife's
+     album. On the following morning he fulfilled his promise by
+     contributing some beautiful verses on Hougomont. I put him
+     into my little library to prevent interruption, as a great
+     many persons had paraded in the _Parc_ opposite my window to
+     get a peep of the celebrated man, many having dogged him
+     from his hotel.
+
+     {p.048} "Brussels affords but little worthy of the notice of
+     such a traveller as the Author of Waverley; but he greatly
+     admired the splendid tower of the Maison de Ville, and the
+     ancient sculpture and style of architecture of the buildings
+     which surround the Grand Place.
+
+     "He told us, with great humor, a laughable incident which
+     had occurred to him at Antwerp. The morning after his
+     arrival at that city from Holland, he started at an early
+     hour to visit the tomb of Rubens in the church of St.
+     Jacques, before his party were up. After wandering about for
+     some time, without finding the object he had in view, he
+     determined to make inquiry, and observing a person stalking
+     about, he addressed him in his best French; but the
+     stranger, pulling off his hat, very respectfully replied in
+     the pure Highland accent, 'I'm vary sorry, sir, but I canna
+     speak onything besides English.'--'This is very unlucky
+     indeed, Donald,' said Sir Walter, 'but we must help one
+     another; for, to tell you the truth, I'm not good at any
+     other tongue but the English, or rather, the Scotch.'--'Oh,
+     sir, maybe,' replied the Highlander, 'you are a countryman,
+     and ken my maister Captain Cameron of the 79th, and could
+     tell me whare he lodges. I'm just cum in, sir, frae a place
+     they ca' _Machlin_,[18] and ha' forgotten the name of the
+     captain's quarters; it was something like the
+     _Laaborer_.'--'I can, I think, help you with this, my
+     friend,' rejoined Sir Walter. 'There is an inn just opposite
+     to you' (pointing to the _Hôtel du Grand Laboureur_): 'I
+     dare say that will be the captain's quarters;' and it was
+     so. I cannot do justice to the humor with which Sir Walter
+     recounted this dialogue."[19]
+
+              [Footnote 18: Mechlin--the Highlander gave it the
+              familiar pronunciation of a Scotch village, Mauchline,
+              celebrated in many of Burns's poems.]
+
+              [Footnote 19: See Major Gordon's _Personal Memoirs_
+              (1830), vol. ii. pp. 325-338.]
+
+The following is the letter which Scott addressed to the Duke of
+Buccleuch immediately after seeing the field of Waterloo; and it may
+amuse the reader to compare it with Major Gordon's chapter, and with
+the writer's own fuller, and, of course, "cobbled" detail, in the
+pages of Paul:--
+
+     {p.049} TO HIS GRACE THE DUKE OF BUCCLEUCH, ETC.
+
+     MY DEAR LORD DUKE,--I promised to let you hear of my
+     wanderings, however unimportant; and have now the pleasure
+     of informing your Grace that I am at this present time an
+     inhabitant of the Premier Hôtel de Cambrai, after having
+     been about a week upon the Continent. We landed at Helvoet,
+     and proceeded to Brussels, by Bergen-op-Zoom and Antwerp,
+     both of which are very strongly fortified. The ravages of
+     war are little remarked in a country so rich by nature; but
+     everything seems at present stationary, or rather
+     retrograde, where capital is required. The châteaux are
+     deserted, and going to decay; no new houses are built, and
+     those of older date are passing rapidly into the possession
+     of a class inferior to those for whom we must suppose them
+     to have been built. Even the old gentlewoman of Babylon has
+     lost much of her splendor, and her robes and pomp are of a
+     description far subordinate to the costume of her more
+     magnificent days. The dresses of the priests were worn and
+     shabby, both at Antwerp and Brussels, and reminded me of the
+     decayed wardrobe of a bankrupt theatre: yet, though the
+     gentry and priesthood have suffered, the eternal bounty of
+     nature has protected the lower ranks against much distress.
+     The unexampled fertility of the soil gives them all, and
+     more than they want; and could they but sell the grain which
+     they raise in the Netherlands, nothing else would be wanting
+     to render them the richest people (common people, that is to
+     say) in the world.
+
+     On Wednesday last, I rode over the field of Waterloo, now
+     forever consecrated to immortality. The more ghastly tokens
+     of the carnage are now removed, the bodies both of men and
+     horses being either burned or buried; but all the ground is
+     still torn with the shot and shells, and covered with
+     cartridges, old hats, and shoes, and various relics of the
+     fray which the peasants have not {p.050} thought worth
+     removing. Besides, at Waterloo and all the hamlets in the
+     vicinage, there is a mart established for cuirasses; for the
+     eagles worn by the imperial guard on their caps; for
+     casques, swords, carabines, and similar articles. I have
+     bought two handsome cuirasses, and intend them, one for
+     Bowhill, and one for Abbotsford, if I can get them safe
+     over, which Major Pryse Gordon has promised to manage for
+     me. I have also, for your Grace, one of the little
+     memorandum-books, which I picked up on the field, in which
+     every French soldier was obliged to enter his receipts and
+     expenditure, his services, and even his punishments. The
+     field was covered with fragments of these records. I also
+     got a good MS. collection of French songs, probably the work
+     of some young officer, and a croix of the Legion of Honor. I
+     enclose, under another cover, a sketch of the battle, made
+     at Brussels. It is not, I understand, strictly accurate; but
+     sufficiently so to give a good notion of what took place. In
+     fact, it would require twenty separate plans to give an idea
+     of the battle at its various stages. The front, upon which
+     the armies engaged, does not exceed a long mile. Our line,
+     indeed, originally extended half a mile farther towards the
+     village of Brain-la-Leude; but as the French indicated no
+     disposition to attack in that direction, the troops which
+     occupied this space were gradually concentrated by Lord
+     Wellington, and made to advance till they had reached
+     Hougomont--a sort of château, with a garden and wood
+     attached to it, which was powerfully and effectually
+     maintained by the Guards during the action. This place was
+     particularly interesting. It was a quiet-looking gentleman's
+     house, which had been burnt by the French shells. The
+     defenders, burnt out of the house itself, betook themselves
+     to the little garden, where, breaking loopholes through the
+     brick walls, they kept up a most destructive fire on the
+     assailants, who had possessed themselves of a little wood
+     which surrounds the villa on one side. In this spot vast
+     numbers {p.051} had fallen; and, being hastily buried, the
+     smell is most offensive at this moment. Indeed, I felt the
+     same annoyance in many parts of the field; and, did I live
+     near the spot, I should be anxious about the diseases which
+     this steaming carnage might occasion. The rest of the
+     ground, excepting this château, and a farmhouse called La
+     Hay Sainte, early taken, and long held, by the French,
+     because it was too close under the brow of the descent on
+     which our artillery was placed to admit of the pieces being
+     depressed so as to play into it,--the rest of the ground, I
+     say, is quite open, and lies between two ridges, one of
+     which (Mont St. Jean) was constantly occupied by the
+     English; the other, upon which is the farm of La Belle
+     Alliance, was the position of the French. The slopes between
+     are gentle and varied; the ground everywhere practicable for
+     cavalry, as was well experienced on that memorable day. The
+     cuirassiers, despite their arms of proof, were quite
+     inferior to our heavy dragoons. The meeting of the two
+     bodies occasioned a noise, not unaptly compared to the
+     tinkering and hammering of a smith's shop. Generally the
+     cuirassiers came on stooping their heads very low, and
+     giving point; the British frequently struck away their
+     casques while they were in this position, and then laid at
+     the bare head. Officers and soldiers all fought hand to hand
+     without distinction; and many of the former owed their life
+     to dexterity at their weapon, and personal strength of body.
+     Shaw, the milling Life-Guardsman, whom your Grace may
+     remember among the champions of The Fancy, maintained the
+     honor of the fist, and killed or disabled upwards of twenty
+     Frenchmen with his single arm, until he was killed by the
+     assault of numbers.[20] At one place, where there is a
+     precipitous sand or gravel pit, the heavy English cavalry
+     drove many of the cuirassiers over pell-mell, and followed
+     over themselves, like fox-hunters. The conduct of the
+     infantry and artillery was equally, {p.052} or, if
+     possible, more distinguished, and it was all fully
+     necessary; for, besides that our army was much outnumbered,
+     a great part of the sum-total were foreigners. Of these, the
+     Brunswickers and Hanoverians behaved very well; the Belgians
+     but sorrily enough. On one occasion, when a Belgic regiment
+     fairly ran off, Lord Wellington rode up to them, and said,
+     "My lads, you must be a little blown; come, do take your
+     breath for a moment, and then we'll go back, and try if we
+     can do a little better;" and he actually carried them back
+     to the charge. He was, indeed, upon that day, everywhere,
+     and the soul of everything; nor could less than his personal
+     endeavors have supported the spirits of the men through a
+     contest so long, so desperate, and so unequal. At his last
+     attack, Buonaparte brought up 15,000 of his Guard, who had
+     never drawn trigger during the day. It was upon their
+     failure that his hopes abandoned him.
+
+              [Footnote 20: The skull of Shaw is now in the Museum at
+              Abbotsford.]
+
+     I spoke long with a shrewd Flemish peasant, called John de
+     Costar, whom he had seized upon as his guide, and who
+     remained beside him the whole day, and afterwards
+     accompanied him in his flight as far as Charleroi. Your
+     Grace may be sure that I interrogated Mynheer very closely
+     about what he heard and saw. He guided me to the spot where
+     Buonaparte remained during the latter part of the action. It
+     was in the highway from Brussels to Charleroi, where it runs
+     between two high banks, on each of which was a French
+     battery. He was pretty well sheltered from the English fire;
+     and, though many bullets flew over his head, neither he nor
+     any of his suite were touched. His other stations, during
+     that day, were still more remote from all danger. The story
+     of his having an observatory erected for him is a mistake.
+     There is such a thing, and he repaired to it during the
+     action; but it was built or erected some months before, for
+     the purpose of a trigonometrical survey of the country, by
+     the King of the Netherlands. Bony's last position was nearly
+     fronting a tree where the Duke of Wellington {p.053} was
+     stationed; there was not more than a quarter of a mile
+     between them; but Bony was well sheltered, and the Duke so
+     much exposed, that the tree is barked in several places by
+     the cannon-balls levelled at him. As for Bony, De Costar
+     says he was very cool during the whole day, and even gay. As
+     the cannon-balls flew over them, De Costar ducked; at which
+     the Emperor laughed, and told him they would hit him all the
+     same. At length, about the time he made his grand and last
+     effort, the fire of the Prussian artillery was heard upon
+     his right, and the heads of their columns became visible
+     pressing out of the woods. Aide-de-camp after aide-de-camp
+     came with the tidings of their advance, to which Bony only
+     replied, _Attendez, attendez un instant_, until he saw his
+     troops, _fantassins et cavaliers_, return in disorder from
+     the attack. He then observed hastily to a general beside
+     him, _Je crois qu'ils sont mêlés_. The person to whom he
+     spoke hastily raised the spyglass to his eye; but Bony, whom
+     the first glance had satisfied of their total discomfiture,
+     bent his face to the ground, and shook his head twice, his
+     complexion being then as pale as death. The general then
+     said something, to which Buonaparte answered, _C'est trop
+     tard--sauvons nous_. Just at that moment, the allied troops,
+     cavalry and infantry, appeared in full advance on all hands;
+     and the Prussians, operating upon the right flank of the
+     French, were rapidly gaining their rear. Bony, therefore,
+     was compelled to abandon the high-road, which, besides, was
+     choked with dead, with baggage, and with cannon; and,
+     gaining the open country, kept at full gallop, until he
+     gained, like Johnnie Cope, the van of the flying army. The
+     marshals followed his example; and it was the most complete
+     _sauve qui peut_ that can well be imagined. Nevertheless,
+     the prisoners who were brought into Brussels maintained
+     their national impudence, and boldly avowed their intention
+     of sacking the city with every sort of severity. At the same
+     time they had friends there. {p.054} One man of rank and
+     wealth went over to Bony during the action, and I saw his
+     hotel converted into an hospital for wounded soldiers. It
+     occupied one half of one of the sides of the Place Royale, a
+     noble square, which your Grace has probably seen. But, in
+     general, the inhabitants of Brussels were very differently
+     disposed; and their benevolence to our poor wounded fellows
+     was unbounded. The difficulty was to prevent them from
+     killing their guests with kindness, by giving them butcher's
+     meat and wine during their fever. As I cannot put my letter
+     into post until we get to Paris, I shall continue it as we
+     get along.
+
+     _12th August, Roye, in Picardy._--I imagine your Grace about
+     this time to be tolerably well fagged with a hard day on the
+     moors. If the weather has been as propitious as with us, it
+     must be delightful. The country through which we have
+     travelled is most uncommonly fertile, and skirted with
+     beautiful woods; but its present political situation is so
+     very uncommon, that I would give the world your Grace had
+     come over for a fortnight. France may be considered as
+     neither at peace nor war. Valenciennes, for example, is in a
+     state of blockade; we passed through the posts of the
+     allies, all in the utmost state of vigilance, with patrols
+     of cavalry and vedettes of infantry, up to the very gates,
+     and two or three batteries were manned and mounted. The
+     French troops were equally vigilant at the gates, yet made
+     no objections to our passing through the town. Most of them
+     had the white cockade, but looked very sulky, and were in
+     obvious disorder and confusion. They had not yet made their
+     terms with the King, nor accepted a commander appointed by
+     him; but as they obviously feel their party desperate, the
+     soldiers are running from the officers, and the officers
+     from the soldiers. In fact, the multiplied hosts which pour
+     into this country, exhibiting all the various dresses and
+     forms of war which can be imagined, must necessarily render
+     resistance impracticable. Yet, {p.055} like Satan, these
+     fellows retain the unconquered propensity to defiance, even
+     in the midst of defeat and despair. This morning we passed a
+     great number of the disbanded garrison of Condé, and they
+     were the most horrid-looking cut-throats I ever saw,
+     extremely disposed to be very insolent, and only repressed
+     by the consciousness that all the villages and towns around
+     are occupied by the allies. They began by crying to us in an
+     ironical tone, _Vive le Roi_; then followed, _sotto voce,
+     Sacre B----, Mille diables_, and other graces of French
+     eloquence. I felt very well pleased that we were armed, and
+     four in number; and still more so that it was daylight, for
+     they seemed most mischievous ruffians. As for the appearance
+     of the country, it is, notwithstanding a fine harvest, most
+     melancholy. The windows of all the detached houses on the
+     road are uniformly shut up; and you see few people,
+     excepting the peasants who are employed in driving the
+     contributions to maintain the armies. The towns are little
+     better, having for the most part been partially injured by
+     shells or by storm, as was the case both of Cambrai and
+     Peronne. The men look very sulky; and if you speak three
+     words to a woman, she is sure to fall a-crying. In short,
+     the _politesse_ and good-humor of this people have fled with
+     the annihilation of their self-conceit; and they look on you
+     as if they thought you were laughing at them, or come to
+     enjoy the triumph of our arms over theirs. Postmasters and
+     landlords are all the same, and hardly to be propitiated
+     even by English money, although they charge us about three
+     times as much as they durst do to their countryfolks. As for
+     the Prussians, a party of cavalry dined at our hotel at
+     Mons, eat and drank of the best the poor devils had left to
+     give, called for their horses, and laughed in the face of
+     the landlord when he offered his bill, telling him they
+     should pay as they came back. The English, they say, have
+     always paid honorably, and upon these they indemnify
+     themselves. It is impossible to _marchander_, for if
+     {p.056} you object, the poor landlady begins to cry, and
+     tells you she will accept whatever _your lordship_ pleases,
+     but that she is almost ruined and bankrupt, etc., etc., etc.
+
+     This is a long stupid letter, but I will endeavor to send a
+     better from Paris. Ever your Grace's truly obliged,
+
+                                        Walter SCOTT.
+
+The only letter which Scott addressed to Joanna Baillie, while in
+Paris, goes over partly the same ground: I transcribe the rest.
+
+                                        PARIS, 6th September, 1815.
+
+     MY DEAR FRIEND,--I owe you a long letter, but my late
+     travels and the date of this epistle will be a tolerable
+     plea for your indulgence. The truth is, I became very
+     restless after the battle of Waterloo, and was only detained
+     by the necessity of attending a friend's marriage, from
+     setting off instantly for the Continent. At length, however,
+     I got away to Brussels, and was on the memorable field of
+     battle about five weeks after it had been fought....
+
+     If our army had been all British, the day would have been
+     soon decided; but the Duke, or, as they call him here, from
+     his detestation of all manner of foppery, the _Beau_, had
+     not above 35,000 British. All this was to be supplied by
+     treble exertion on the part of our troops. The Duke was
+     everywhere during the battle; and it was the mercy of Heaven
+     that protected him, when all his staff had been killed or
+     wounded round him. I asked him, among many other questions,
+     if he had seen Buonaparte; he said, "No; but at one time,
+     from the repeated shouts of _Vive l'Empereur_, I thought he
+     must be near." This was when John de Costar placed him in
+     the hollow way. I think, so near as I can judge, there may
+     at that time have been a quarter of a mile between these two
+     great generals.
+
+     The fate of the French, after this day of decisive appeal,
+     has been severe enough. There were never people {p.057}
+     more mortified, more subdued, and apparently more broken in
+     spirit. They submit with sad civility to the extortions of
+     the Prussians and the Russians, and avenge themselves at the
+     expense of the English, whom they charge three prices for
+     everything, because they are the only people who pay at all.
+     They are in the right, however, to enforce discipline and
+     good order, which not only maintains the national character
+     in the mean time, but will prevent the army from suffering
+     by habits of indulgence. I question if the Prussians will
+     soon regain their discipline and habits of hardihood. At
+     present their powers of eating and drinking, which are
+     really something preternatural, are exerted to the very
+     utmost. A thin Prussian boy, whom I sometimes see, eats in
+     one day as much as three English ploughmen. At daybreak he
+     roars for chocolate and eggs; about nine he breakfasts more
+     solemnly, _à la fourchette_, when, besides all the usual
+     apparatus of an English _déjeuner_, he eats a world of
+     cutlets, oysters, fruit, etc., and drinks a glass of brandy
+     and a bottle of champagne. His dinner might serve Gargantua,
+     at which he gets himself about three parts drunk--a
+     circumstance which does not prevent the charge upon cold
+     meat, with tea and chocolate, about six o'clock; and
+     concluding the whole with an immense supper. Positively the
+     appetite of this lad reminds one of the Eastern tale of a
+     man taken out of the sea by a ship's crew, who, in return,
+     ate up all the provisions of the vessel. He was, I think,
+     flown away with by a roc; but from what quarter of the
+     heavens the French are to look for deliverance from these
+     devourers, I cannot presume to guess.
+
+     The needless wreck and ruin which they make in the houses
+     adds much to the inconvenience of their presence. Most of
+     the châteaux, where the Prussians are quartered, are what is
+     technically called _rumped_, that is to say, plundered out
+     and out. In the fine château of Montmorency, for instance,
+     the most splendid apartments, {p.058} highly ornamented
+     with gilding and carving, were converted into barracks for
+     the dirtiest and most savage-looking hussars I have yet
+     seen. Imagine the work these fellows make with velvet
+     hangings and embroidery. I saw one hag boiling her
+     camp-kettle with part of a picture frame; the picture itself
+     has probably gone to Prussia. With all this greediness and
+     love of mischief, the Prussians are not bloodthirsty; and
+     their utmost violence seldom exceeds a blow or two with the
+     flat of the sabre. They are also very civil to the women,
+     and in both respects behave much better than the French did
+     in their country; but they follow the bad example quite
+     close enough for the sake of humanity and of discipline. As
+     for our people, they live in a most orderly and regular
+     manner. All the young men pique themselves on imitating the
+     Duke of Wellington in _nonchalance_ and coolness of manner;
+     so they wander about everywhere, with their hands in the
+     pockets of their long waistcoats, or cantering upon Cossack
+     ponies, staring and whistling, and trotting to and fro, as
+     if all Paris was theirs. The French hate them sufficiently
+     for the _hauteur_ of their manner and pretensions, but the
+     grounds of dislike against us are drowned in the actual
+     detestation afforded by the other powers.
+
+     This morning I saw a grand military spectacle--about 20,000
+     Russians pass in review before all the Kings and Dominations
+     who are now resident at Paris. The Emperor, King of Prussia,
+     Duke of Wellington, with their numerous and brilliant
+     attendance of generals, staff-officers, etc., were in the
+     centre of what is called the Place Louis Quinze, almost on
+     the very spot where Louis XVI. was beheaded. A very long
+     avenue, which faces the station where they were placed, was
+     like a glowing furnace, so fiercely were the sunbeams
+     reflected from the arms of the host by which it was filled.
+     A body of Cossacks kept the ground with their pikes, and, by
+     their wild appearance, added to the singularity of the
+     scene. On one {p.059} hand was the extended line of the
+     Tuileries, seen through the gardens and the rows of
+     orange-trees; on the other, the long column of troops
+     advancing to the music. Behind was a long colonnade, forming
+     the front to the palace, where the Chamber of
+     Representatives are to hold their sittings; and in front of
+     the monarchs was a superb row of buildings, on which you
+     distinguish the bronze pillar erected by Napoleon to
+     commemorate his victories over Russia, Prussia, and Austria,
+     whose princes were now reviewing their victorious armies in
+     what was so lately his capital. Your fancy, my dear friend,
+     will anticipate, better than I can express, the thousand
+     sentiments which arose in my mind from witnessing such a
+     splendid scene, in a spot connected with such various
+     associations. It may give you some idea of the feelings of
+     the French--once so fond of _spectacles_--to know that, I
+     think, there were not a hundred of that nation looking on.
+     Yet this country will soon recover the actual losses she has
+     sustained, for never was there a soil so blessed by nature,
+     or so rich in corn, wine, and oil, and in the animated
+     industry of its inhabitants. France is at present the fabled
+     giant, struggling, or rather lying supine, under the load of
+     mountains which have been precipitated on her; but she is
+     not, and cannot be crushed. Remove the incumbent weight of
+     600,000 or 700,000 foreigners, and she will soon stand
+     upright--happy, if experience shall have taught her to be
+     contented to exert her natural strength only for her own
+     protection, and not for the annoyance of her neighbors. I am
+     cut short in my lucubrations by an opportunity to send this
+     letter with Lord Castlereagh's despatches, which is of less
+     consequence, as I will endeavor to see you in passing
+     through London. I leave this city for Dieppe on Saturday,
+     but I intend to go round by Harfleur, if possible.
+
+     Ever your truly obliged and affectionate
+
+                                        Walter SCOTT.
+
+{p.060} "Paul" modestly acknowledges, in his last letter, the
+personal attentions which he received, while in Paris, from Lords
+Cathcart, Aberdeen, and Castlereagh; and hints that, through their
+intervention, he had witnessed several of the splendid _fêtes_ given
+by the Duke of Wellington, where he saw half the crowned heads of
+Europe grouped among the gallant soldiers who had cut a way for them
+to the guilty capital of France. Scott's reception, however, had been
+distinguished to a degree of which Paul's language gives no notion.
+The Noble Lords above named welcomed him with cordial satisfaction;
+and the Duke of Wellington, to whom he was first presented by Sir John
+Malcolm, treated him then, and ever afterwards, with a kindness and
+confidence, which, I have often heard him say, he considered as "the
+highest distinction of his life." He used to tell, with great effect,
+the circumstances of his introduction to the Emperor Alexander, at a
+dinner given by the Earl of Cathcart. Scott appeared, on that
+occasion, in the blue and red dress of the Selkirkshire Lieutenancy;
+and the Czar's first question, glancing at his lameness, was, "In what
+affair were you wounded?" Scott signified that he suffered from a
+natural infirmity; upon which the Emperor said, "I thought Lord
+Cathcart mentioned that you had served." Scott observed that the Earl
+looked a little embarrassed at this, and promptly answered, "Oh yes;
+in a certain sense I have served--that is, in the yeomanry cavalry; a
+home force resembling the Landwehr, or Landsturm."--"Under what
+commander?"--"Sous M. le Chevalier Rae."--"Were you ever
+engaged?"--"In some slight actions--such as the battle of the Cross
+Causeway and the affair of Moredun-Mill."--"This," says Mr. Pringle of
+Whytbank, "was, as he saw in Lord Cathcart's face, quite sufficient,
+so he managed to turn the conversation to some other subject." It was
+at the same dinner that he first met Platoff,[21] who {p.061} seemed
+to take a great fancy to him, though, adds my friend, "I really don't
+think they had any common language to converse in." Next day, however,
+when Pringle and Scott were walking together in the Rue de la Paix,
+the Hetman happened to come up, cantering with some of his Cossacks;
+as soon as he saw Scott, he jumped off his horse, leaving it to the
+Pulk, and, running up to him, kissed him on each side of the cheek
+with extraordinary demonstrations of affection--and then made him
+understand, through an aide-de-camp, that he wished him to join his
+staff at the next great review, when he would take care to mount him
+on the gentlest of his Ukraine horses.
+
+              [Footnote 21: Scott acknowledges, in a note to _St.
+              Ronan's Well_ (chap. xv.), that he took from Platoff
+              this portrait of Mr. Touchwood: "His face, which at the
+              distance of a yard or two seemed hale and smooth,
+              appeared, when closely examined, to be seamed with a
+              million of wrinkles, crossing each other in every
+              direction possible, but as fine as if drawn by the point
+              of a very small needle." Thus did every little
+              peculiarity remain treasured in his memory, to be used
+              in due time for giving the air of minute reality to some
+              imaginary personage.]
+
+It will seem less surprising that Scott should have been honored with
+much attention by the leading soldiers and statesmen of Germany then
+in Paris. The fame of his poetry had already been established for some
+years in that country. Yet it may be doubted whether Blücher had heard
+of Marmion any more than Platoff; and old Blücher struck Scott's
+fellow-travellers as taking more interest in him than any foreign
+general, except only the Hetman.
+
+A striking passage in Paul's 10th letter indicates the high notion
+which Scott had formed of the personal qualities of the Prince of
+Orange. After depicting, with almost prophetic accuracy, the dangers
+to which the then recent union of Holland and Belgium must be exposed,
+he concludes with expressing his hope that the firmness and sagacity
+of the King of the Netherlands, and the admiration which his heir's
+character and bearing had already excited among all, even Belgian
+observers, might {p.062} ultimately prove effective in redeeming this
+difficult experiment from the usual failure of "_arrondissements_,
+indemnities, and all the other terms of modern date, under sanction of
+which cities and districts, and even kingdoms, have been passed from
+one government to another, as the property of lands or stock is
+transferred by a bargain between private parties."
+
+It is not less curious to compare, with the subsequent course of
+affairs in France, the following brief hint in Paul's 16th letter:
+"The general rallying point of the _Libéralistes_ is an avowed dislike
+to the present monarch and his immediate connections. They will
+sacrifice, they pretend, so much to the general inclinations of
+Europe, as to select a king from the Bourbon race; but he must be one
+of their own choosing, and the Duke of Orleans is most familiar in
+their mouths." Thus, in its very bud, had his eye detected the
+_conjuration de quinze ans!_
+
+Among the gay parties of this festive period, Scott mentioned with
+special pleasure one fine day given to an excursion to Ermenonville,
+under the auspices of Lady Castlereagh. The company was a large one,
+including most of the distinguished personages whom I have been
+naming, and they dined _al fresco_ among the scenes of Rousseau's
+retirement, but in a fashion less accordant with the spirit of his
+_rêveries d'un promeneur solitaire_, than with the song which
+commemorates some earlier tenants of that delicious valley,--
+
+  "La belle Gabrielle
+     Étoit dans ces lieux--
+  Et le souvenir d'elle
+     Nous rend heureux," etc.
+
+At some stage of this merry day's proceedings, the ladies got tired of
+walking, and one of Lord Castlereagh's young diplomatists was
+despatched into a village in quest of donkeys for their accommodation.
+The _attaché_ returned by and by with a face of disappointment,
+complaining that the charge the people made was so extravagant,
+{p.063} he could not think of yielding to the extortion. "_Marshal
+Forwards_" said nothing, but nodded to an aide-de-camp. They had
+passed a Prussian picket a little while before;--three times the
+requisite number of donkeys appeared presently, driven before
+half-a-dozen hussars, who were followed by the screaming population of
+the refractory hamlet; and "an angry man was Blücher," said Scott,
+"when Lord Castlereagh condescended to go among them, all smiles, and
+sent them back with more Napoleons than perhaps the fee-simple of the
+whole stud was worth."
+
+Another evening of more peaceful enjoyment has left a better record.
+But I need not quote here the lines on Saint Cloud.[22] They were
+sent, on the 16th of August, to the late Lady Alvanley, with whom and
+her daughters he spent much of his time while in Paris.
+
+              [Footnote 22: See _Poetical Works_ (Edin. Ed.), vol. xi.
+              p. 295 [Cambridge Ed. p. 420].]
+
+As yet, the literary reputation of Scott had made but little way among
+the French nation; but some few of their eminent men vied even with
+the enthusiastic Germans in their courteous and unwearied attentions
+to him. The venerable _Chevalier_, in particular, seemed anxious to
+embrace every opportunity of acting as his cicerone; and many mornings
+were spent in exploring, under his guidance, the most remarkable
+scenes and objects of historical and antiquarian interest both in
+Paris and its neighborhood. He several times also entertained Scott
+and his young companions at dinner; but the last of those dinners was
+thoroughly poisoned by a preliminary circumstance. The poet, on
+entering the saloon, was presented to a stranger, whose physiognomy
+struck him as the most hideous he had ever seen; nor was his disgust
+lessened, when he found, a few minutes afterwards, that he had
+undergone the _accolade_ of David "of the blood-stained brush."
+
+From Paris, Mr. Bruce and Mr. Pringle went on to {p.064} Switzerland,
+leaving the poet and Gala to return home together, which they did by
+way of Dieppe, Brighton, and London. It was here, on the 14th of
+September, that Scott had that last meeting with Lord Byron, alluded
+to in his communication to Mr. Moore, already quoted. He carried his
+young friend in the morning to call on Lord Byron, who agreed to dine
+with them at their hotel, where he met also Charles Mathews and Daniel
+Terry. The only survivor of the party[23] has recorded it in his
+note-book as the most interesting day he ever spent. "How I did
+stare," he says, "at Byron's beautiful pale face, like a
+spirit's--good or evil. But he was _bitter_--what a contrast to Scott!
+Among other anecdotes of British prowess and spirit, Scott mentioned
+that a young gentleman ---- ---- ---- had been awfully shot in the
+head while conveying an order from the Duke, and yet staggered on, and
+delivered his message when at the point of death. 'Ha!' said Byron, 'I
+dare say he could do as well as most people without his head--it was
+never of much use to him.' Waterloo did not delight him, probably--and
+Scott could talk or think of scarcely anything else."
+
+              [Footnote 23: John Scott, Esq., of Gala, died at
+              Edinburgh, 19th April, 1840.--(1842.)]
+
+Mathews accompanied them as far as Warwick and Kenilworth, both of
+which castles the poet had seen before, but now reëxamined with
+particular curiosity. They spent a night at Sheffield; and early next
+morning Scott sallied forth to provide himself with a planter's knife
+of the most complex contrivance and finished workmanship. Having
+secured one to his mind, and which for many years after was his
+constant pocket-companion, he wrote his name on a card, "Walter Scott,
+Abbotsford," and directed it to be engraved on the handle. On his
+mentioning this acquisition at breakfast, young Gala expressed his
+desire to equip himself in like fashion, and was directed to the shop
+accordingly. When he had {p.065} purchased a similar knife, and
+produced his name in turn for the engraver, the master cutler eyed the
+signature for a moment, and exclaimed, "John Scott of Gala! Well, I
+hope your ticket may serve me in as good stead as another Mr. Scott's
+has just done. Upon my word, one of my best men, an honest fellow from
+the North, went out of his senses when he saw it--he offered me a
+week's work if I would let him keep it to himself--and I took
+_Saunders_ at his word." Scott used to talk of this as one of the most
+gratifying compliments he ever received in his literary capacity.
+
+Their next halt was at Rokeby; but since Scott had heard from thence,
+Mrs. Morritt's illness had made such alarming progress, that the
+travellers regretted having obtruded themselves on the scene of
+affliction, and resumed their journey early next morning.
+
+Reaching Abbotsford, Scott found with his family his old friend Mr.
+Skene of Rubislaw, who had expected him to come home sooner, and James
+Ballantyne, who had arrived with a copious budget of bills, calendars,
+booksellers' letters, and proof sheets. From each of these visitors'
+_memoranda_ I now extract an anecdote. Mr. Skene's is of a small
+enough matter, but still it places the man so completely before
+myself, that I am glad he thought it worth setting down.
+
+     "During Scott's absence," says his friend, "his wife had had
+     the tiny drawing-room of the cottage fitted up with new
+     chintz furniture,--everything had been set out in the best
+     style,--and she and her girls had been looking forward to
+     the pleasure which they supposed the little surprise of the
+     arrangements would give him. He was received in the spruce
+     fresh room, set himself comfortably down in the chair
+     prepared for him, and remained in the full enjoyment of his
+     own fireside, and a return to his family circle, without the
+     least consciousness that any change had taken place--until,
+     at length, Mrs. Scott's patience could hold out no longer,
+     and his attention was expressly called to it. The vexation
+     he showed at having caused {p.066} such a disappointment,
+     struck me as amiably characteristic--and in the course of
+     the evening he every now and then threw out some word of
+     admiration to reconsole _mamma_."
+
+Ballantyne's note of their next morning's conference is in these
+terms:--
+
+     "He had just been reviewing a pageant of emperors and kings,
+     which seemed, like another Field of the Cloth of Gold, to
+     have been got up to realize before his eyes some of his own
+     splendid descriptions. I begged him to tell me what was the
+     general impression left on his mind. He answered, that he
+     might now say he had seen and conversed with all classes of
+     society, from the palace to the cottage, and including every
+     conceivable shade of science and ignorance--but that he had
+     never felt awed or abashed except in the presence of one
+     man--the Duke of Wellington. I expressed some surprise. He
+     said I ought not, for that the Duke of Wellington possessed
+     every one mighty quality of the mind in a higher degree than
+     any other man did, or had ever done. He said he beheld in
+     him a great soldier and a great statesman--the greatest of
+     each. When it was suggested that the Duke, on his part, saw
+     before him a great poet and novelist, he smiled, and said,
+     'What would the Duke of Wellington think of a few _bits of
+     novels_, which perhaps he had never read, and for which the
+     strong probability is that he would not care a sixpence if
+     he had?' You are not" (adds Ballantyne) "to suppose that he
+     looked either sheepish or embarrassed in the presence of the
+     Duke--indeed you well know that he did not, and could not do
+     so; but the feeling, qualified and modified as I have
+     described it, unquestionably did exist to a certain extent.
+     Its origin forms a curious moral problem; and may probably
+     be traced to a secret consciousness, which he might not
+     himself advert to, that the Duke, however great as a soldier
+     and statesman, was so defective in imagination as to be
+     incapable of appreciating that which had formed the charm of
+     his own life, as well as of his works."
+
+It is proper to add to Mr. Ballantyne's solution of his "curious moral
+problem," that he was in his latter days a strenuous opponent of the
+Duke of Wellington's politics; {p.067} to which circumstance he
+ascribes, in these same _memoranda_, the only coolness that ever
+occurred between him and Scott. I need hardly repeat, what has been
+already distinctly stated more than once, that Scott never considered
+any amount of literary distinction as entitled to be spoken of in the
+same breath with mastery in the higher departments of practical
+life--least of all, with the glory of a first-rate captain. To have
+done things worthy to be written was in his eyes a dignity to which no
+man made any approach, who had only written things worthy to be read.
+He on two occasions, which I can never forget, betrayed painful
+uneasiness when his works were alluded to as reflecting honor on the
+age that had produced Watt's improvement of the steam-engine, and the
+safety-lamp of Sir Humphry Davy. Such was his modest creed--but from
+all I ever saw or heard of his intercourse with the Duke of
+Wellington, I am not disposed to believe that he partook it with the
+only man in whose presence he ever felt awe and abashment.[24]
+
+              [Footnote 24: I think it very probable that Scott had
+              his own first interview with the Duke of Wellington in
+              his mind when he described the introduction of Roland
+              Græme to the Regent Murray, in the novel of _The Abbot_,
+              chap. xviii.:--"Such was the personage before whom
+              Roland Græme now presented himself with a feeling of
+              breathless awe, very different from the usual boldness
+              and vivacity of his temper. In fact, he was, from
+              education and nature, ... much more easily controlled by
+              the moral superiority arising from the elevated talents
+              and renown of those with whom he conversed, than by
+              pretensions founded only on rank or external show. He
+              might have braved with indifference the presence of an
+              Earl merely distinguished by his belt and coronet; but
+              he felt overawed in that of the eminent soldier and
+              statesman, the wielder of a nation's power, and the
+              leader of her armies."]
+
+A charming page in Mr. Washington Irving's Abbotsford and Newstead
+affords us another anecdote connected with this return from Paris. Two
+years after this time, when the amiable American visited Scott, he
+walked with him to a quarry, where his people were at work.
+
+     "The face of the humblest dependent," he says, "brightened
+     at his approach--all paused from their labor to have a
+     pleasant {p.068} 'crack wi' the laird.' Among the rest was
+     a tall straight old fellow, with a healthful complexion and
+     silver hairs, and a small round-crowned white hat. He had
+     been about to shoulder a hod, but paused, and stood looking
+     at Scott with a slight sparkling of his blue eye as if
+     waiting his turn; for the old fellow knew he was a favorite.
+     Scott accosted him in an affable tone, and asked for a pinch
+     of snuff. The old man drew forth a horn snuff-box. 'Hoot
+     man,' said Scott, 'not that old mull. Where's the bonnie
+     French one that I brought you from Paris?'--'Troth, your
+     honor,' replied the old fellow, 'sic a mull as that is nae
+     for week-days.' On leaving the quarry, Scott informed me,
+     that, when absent at Paris, he had purchased several
+     trifling articles as presents for his dependents, and, among
+     others, the gay snuff-box in question, which was so
+     carefully reserved for Sundays by the veteran. 'It was not
+     so much the value of the gifts,' said he, 'that pleased
+     them, as the idea that the laird should think of them when
+     so far away.'"
+
+One more incident of this return--it was told to me by himself, some
+years afterwards, with gravity, and even sadness. "The last of my
+chargers," he said, "was a high-spirited and very handsome one, by
+name Daisy, all over white, without a speck, and with such a mane as
+Rubens delighted to paint. He had, among other good qualities, one
+always particularly valuable in my case, that of standing like a rock
+to be mounted. When he was brought to the door, after I came home from
+the Continent, instead of signifying, by the usual tokens, that he was
+pleased to see his master, he looked askant at me like a devil; and
+when I put my foot in the stirrup, he reared bolt upright, and I fell
+to the ground rather awkwardly. The experiment was repeated twice or
+thrice, always with the same result. It occurred to me that he might
+have taken some capricious dislike to my dress; and Tom Purdie, who
+always falls heir to the white hat and green jacket, and so forth,
+when Mrs. Scott has made me discard a set of garments, was sent for,
+to try whether these habiliments would produce him a similar reception
+from his old friend Daisy: but Daisy {p.069} allowed Tom to back him
+with all manner of gentleness. The thing was inexplicable--but he had
+certainly taken some part of my conduct in high dudgeon and disgust;
+and after trying him again, at the interval of a week, I was obliged
+to part with Daisy--and wars and rumors of wars being over, I resolved
+thenceforth to have done with such dainty blood. I now stick to a good
+sober cob." Somebody suggested that Daisy might have considered
+himself as ill-used, by being left at home when _the laird_ went on
+his journey. "Ay," said he, "these creatures have many thoughts of
+their own, no doubt, that we can never penetrate." Then, laughing,
+"Troth," said he, "maybe some bird had whispered Daisy that I had been
+to see the grand reviews at Paris on a little scrag of a Cossack,
+while my own gallant trooper was left behind bearing Peter and the
+post-bag to Melrose."
+
+A few letters, written shortly after this return to Abbotsford, will,
+among other things, show with what zeal he at once resumed his
+literary industry, if indeed that can be said to have been at all
+interrupted by a journey, in the course of which a great part of
+Paul's narrative, and also of the poem of The Field of Waterloo, must
+have been composed.
+
+     TO J. B. S. MORRITT, ESQ., M. P., ROKEBY PARK.
+
+                                        ABBOTSFORD, 2d October, 1815.
+
+     MY DEAR MORRITT,--Few things could have given me more real
+     pain, than to see Mrs. Morritt under such severe suffering,
+     and the misery you sustain in witnessing it. Yet let us
+     trust in the goodness of Providence, which restored the
+     health so deservedly dear to you, from as great a state of
+     depression upon a former occasion. Our visit was indeed a
+     melancholy one, and, I fear, added to your distress, when,
+     God knows, it required no addition.--The contrast of this
+     quiet bird's-nest of a place, with the late scene of
+     confusion and military splendor which I have witnessed, is
+     something of a stunning {p.070} nature--and, for the first
+     five or six days, I have been content to fold my hands, and
+     saunter up and down in a sort of indolent and stupefied
+     tranquillity, my only attempt at occupation having gone no
+     farther than pruning a young tree now and then. Yesterday,
+     however, and to-day, I began, from necessity, to prune
+     verses, and have been correcting proofs of my little attempt
+     at a poem on Waterloo. It will be out this week, and you
+     shall have a copy by the Carlisle coach, which pray judge
+     favorably, and remember it is not always the grandest
+     actions which are best adapted for the arts of poetry and
+     painting. I believe I shall give offence to my old friends
+     the Whigs, by not condoling with Buonaparte. Since his
+     sentence of transportation, he has begun to look wonderfully
+     comely in their eyes. I would they had hanged him, that he
+     might have died a perfect Adonis. Every reasonable creature
+     must think the Ministers would have deserved the cord
+     themselves, if they had left him in a condition again to
+     cost us the loss of 10,000 of our best and bravest, besides
+     thirty millions of good money. The very threats and frights
+     which he has given the well-meaning people of this realm
+     (myself included), deserved no less a punishment than
+     banishment, since the "putting in bodily fear" makes so
+     material a part of every criminal indictment. But, no doubt,
+     we shall see Ministers attacked for their want of generosity
+     to a fallen enemy, by the same party who last year, with
+     better grounds, assailed them for having left him in a
+     situation again to disturb the tranquillity of Europe.--My
+     young friend Gala has left me, after a short visit to
+     Abbotsford. He is my nearest (conversible) neighbor, and I
+     promise myself much comfort in him, as he has a turn both
+     for the sciences and for the arts, rather uncommon among our
+     young Scotch lairds. He was delighted with Rokeby and its
+     lord, though he saw both at so melancholy a period, and
+     endured, not only with good-humor but with sympathy, the
+     stupidity of his fellow-traveller, who was not by {p.071}
+     any means _dans son brillant_ for some time after leaving
+     you.
+
+     We visited Corby Castle on our return to Scotland, which
+     remains, in point of situation, as beautiful as when its
+     walks were celebrated by David Hume, in the only rhymes he
+     was ever known to be guilty of. Here they are, from a pane
+     of glass in an inn at Carlisle:--
+
+       "Here chicks in eggs for breakfast sprawl,
+        Here godless boys God's glories squall,
+        Here Scotchmen's heads do guard the wall,
+        But Corby's walks atone for all."
+
+     Would it not be a good quiz to advertise _The Poetical Works
+     of David Hume_, with notes, critical, historical, and so
+     forth--with an historical inquiry into the use of eggs for
+     breakfast, a physical discussion on the causes of their
+     being addled; a history of the English Church music, and of
+     the choir of Carlisle in particular; a full account of the
+     affair of 1745, with the trials, last speeches, and so
+     forth, of the poor _plaids_ who were strapped up at
+     Carlisle; and, lastly, a full and particular description of
+     Corby, with the genealogy of every family who ever possessed
+     it? I think, even without more than the usual waste of
+     margin, the Poems of David would make a decent
+     twelve-shilling touch. I shall think about it when I have
+     exhausted mine own _century of inventions_.
+
+     I do not know whether it is perverseness of state, or old
+     associations, but an excellent and very handsome modern
+     house, which Mr. Howard has lately built at Corby, does not,
+     in my mind, assimilate so well with the scenery as the old
+     irregular monastic hall, with its weather-beaten and antique
+     appearance, which I remember there some years ago.
+
+     Out of my Field of Waterloo has sprung an odd wild sort of
+     thing, which I intend to finish separately, and call it The
+     Dance of Death.[25] These matters take up my {p.072} time
+     so much, that I must bid you adieu for the present. Besides,
+     I am summoned to attend a grand _chasse_, and I see the
+     children are all mounted upon the ponies. By the way, Walter
+     promises to be a gallant horseman. Ever most truly yours,
+
+                                        Walter SCOTT.
+
+              [Footnote 25: This was published in the _Edinburgh
+              Annual Register_ in 1815.--See _Poetical Works_ (Ed.
+              1834), vol. xi. p. 297 [Cambridge Ed. p. 421].]
+
+I shall close this chapter with a transcript of some _Notes_ on the
+proof sheets of The Field of Waterloo. John Ballantyne being at
+Abbotsford on the 3d of October, his brother the printer addressed the
+packet containing the sheets to him. John appears to have considered
+James's observations on the margin before Scott saw them; and the
+record of the style in which the Poet repelled, or yielded to, his
+critics, will at all events illustrate his habitual good-nature.
+
+John Ballantyne writes on the fly-leaf of the proofs, to his
+confidential clerk: "Mr. Hodgson, I beg these sheets and all the MS.
+may be carefully preserved just as they stand, and put in my father's
+desk. J. B."
+
+James prefaces his animadversions with this quotation:--
+
+     "Cut deep and spare not.--_Penruddock._"
+
+The _Notes_ are these:--
+
+  STANZA I.--"Fair Brussels, thou art far behind."
+
+
+  _James Ballantyne._--I do not like this line. It is tame, and the
+  phrase "far behind," has, to my feeling, some associated vulgarity.
+
+  _Scott._--Stet.
+
+
+  STANZA II.--"Let not _the_ stranger with disdain
+              _The_ architecture view."
+
+
+  _James._--These two words are cacophonous. Would not _its_ do?
+
+  _Scott._--Th. is a bad sound. Ts. a much worse. Read _their_.
+
+
+  STANZA IV.--"A stranger might reply."
+
+
+  _James._--My objection to this is probably fantastical, and I state
+  it only because, from the first moment to the last, it has always
+  made me boggle. I don't like a _stranger_--Query, "The
+  questioned"--The "spectator"--"gazer," etc.
+
+  _Scott._--_Stranger_ is appropriate--it means stranger to the
+  circumstances.
+
+
+  {p.073} STANZA VI.--_James._--You had changed "garner-house
+  profound," which I think quite admirable, to "garner under ground,"
+  which I think quite otherways. I have presumed not to make the
+  change--must I?
+
+
+  _Scott._--I acquiesce, but with doubts; _profound_ sounds affected.
+
+
+  STANZA VIII.--"The deadly tug of war at length
+                 Must limits find in human strength,
+                 And _cease_ when these are passed.
+                 Vain hope!" etc.
+
+
+  _James._--I must needs repeat, that the deadly tug _did_ cease in
+  the case supposed. It lasted long--very long; but, when the limits
+  of resistance, of human strength, were past--that is, after they had
+  fought for ten hours, then the deadly tug _did_ cease. Therefore the
+  "hope" was not "vain."
+
+  _Scott._--I answer, it did _not_,--because the observation relates
+  to the strength of those actually engaged, and when _their_ strength
+  was exhausted, other squadrons were brought up. Suppose you saw two
+  lawyers scolding at the bar, you might say this must have an
+  end--human lungs cannot hold out--but, if the debate were continued
+  by the senior counsel, your well-grounded expectations would be
+  disappointed--"Cousin, thou wert not wont to be so dull!"--
+
+          IBID.--"Nor ceased the _intermitted_ shot."
+
+  _James._--Mr. Erskine contends that "intermitted" is redundant.
+
+  _Scott._--"Nor ceased the _storm of shell and shot_."
+
+
+  STANZA X.--"---- Never shall our country say
+              We gave one inch of ground away,
+             _When battling_ for her right."
+
+
+  _James._--_In conflict?_
+
+  _John B._--_Warring?_ I am afraid _battling_ must stand.
+
+  _Scott._--All worse than the text.
+
+
+  STANZA XI.--"Peal'd wildly the imperial name."
+
+
+  _James._--I submit with diffidence whether this be not a somewhat
+  tame conclusion to so very animated a stanza? And, at any rate, you
+  will observe, that as it stands, you have no rhyme whatever to "The
+  Cohort eagles _fly_."--You have no rhyme to _fly_. _Flew_ and _fly_,
+  also, are perhaps too near, considering that each word closes a line
+  of the same sort. I don't well like "_Thus_ in a torrent," either.
+  If it were, "In one broad torrent," etc., it strikes me that it
+  would be more spirited.
+
+  _Scott._--Granted as to most of these observations--Read, "in one
+  _dark_ torrent broad and strong," etc.--The "imperial name" is
+  _true_, therefore must stand.
+
+
+  STANZA XII.--"Nor was one forward footstep _stopped_."
+
+
+  _James._--This staggering word was intended, I presume, but I don't
+  like it.
+
+  {p.074} _Scott._--Granted. Read _staid_, etc.
+
+          IBID.--"Down were the eagle banners sent,
+                  Down, down the horse and horsemen went."
+
+  _James._--This is very spirited and very fine; but it is
+  unquestionably liable to the charge of being very nearly a direct
+  repetition of yourself. See _Lord of the Isles_, Canto vi. Stanza
+  24:--
+
+          "_Down! down!_ in headlong overthrow,
+           _Horseman and horse_, the foremost go," etc.
+
+This passage is at once so striking and so recent, that its close
+similarity to the present, if not indeed its identity, must strike
+every reader; and really, to borrow from one's self is hardly much
+better than to borrow from one's neighbors. And yet again, a few lines
+lower--
+
+          "As hammers on the _anvils_ reel,
+           Against the cuirass _clangs_ the steel."
+
+See _Lady of the Lake_, Canto vi. Stanza 18:--
+
+          "I heard the broadswords' deadly _clang_,
+           As if an hundred _anvils_ rang."
+
+Here is precisely the same image, in very nearly the same words.
+
+  _Scott._--I have altered the expression, but made a note, which, I
+  think, will vindicate my retaining the simile.
+
+
+  STANZA XIII.--"As their own Ocean-rocks hold _stance_."
+
+
+  _John._--I do not know such an English word as _stance_.
+
+  _Scott._--Then we'll make it one for the _nance_.
+
+          IBID.--"And _newer_ standards fly."
+
+  _James._--I don't like _newer_.
+
+  _Scott._--"And _other_ standards fly."
+
+          IBID.--"Or can thy memory fail to _quote_,
+                  Heard to thy cost the vengeful note."
+
+  _James._--Would to God you would alter this _quote_!
+
+  _John._--Would to God _I_ could!--I certainly should.--
+
+  _Scott._--"Or can thy memory fail to know,
+             Heard oft before in hour of woe."
+
+     Or--
+
+            "Or dwells not in thy memory still,
+             Heard frequent in thine hour of ill."
+
+
+  STANZA XV.--"Wrung forth by pride, _regret_, and shame."
+
+
+  _James._--I have ventured to submit to your choice--
+
+          "Wrung forth by pride, _and rage_, and shame."
+
+  _Regret_ appearing a faint epithet amidst such a combination of
+  bitter feelings.
+
+  _Scott._--Granted.
+
+          {p.075} IBID.--"So mingle banner, wain, and gun,
+                          Where in one tide of horror run
+                          The warriors," etc.
+
+  _James._--In the first place, warriors _running_ in a tide is a
+  clashing metaphor; in the second, the warriors _running_ at all is a
+  little homely. It is true, no doubt; but really running is little
+  better than scampering. For these causes, one or both, I think the
+  lines should be altered.
+
+  _Scott._--You are wrong in one respect. A tide is always said to
+  _run_,--but I thought of the tide without attending to the
+  equivoque, which must be altered. Read,--
+
+          "Where the tumultuous flight rolls on."
+
+
+  STANZA XVI.--"---- found _gallant_ grave."
+
+
+  _James._--This is surely a singular epithet to a grave. I think the
+  whole of this stanza eminently fine; and, in particular, the
+  conclusion.
+
+  _Scott._--"---- found _soldier's_ grave." ----
+
+
+  STANZA XXI.--"_Redoubted_ Picton's soul of fire."
+
+
+  _James._--From long association, this epithet strikes me as
+  conveying a semi-ludicrous idea.
+
+  _Scott._--It is here appropriate, and your objection seems merely
+  personal to your own association.
+
+          IBID.--"Through his friends' heart to _wound_ his own."
+
+  _James._--Quære--_Pierce_, or rather _stab_--_wound_ is faint.
+
+  _Scott._--"Pierce."
+
+
+  STANZA XXII.--"Forgive, _brave fallen_, the imperfect lay."
+
+
+  _James._--Don't like "brave fallen" at all; nor "appropriate
+  praise," three lines after. The latter in particular is prosaic.
+
+  _Scott._--"Forgive, _brave dead_,"
+             ---- "_The dear-earned praise._"
+
+
+
+
+{p.076} CHAPTER XXXVI.
+
+     Field of Waterloo Published. -- Revision of Paul's Letters,
+     etc. -- Quarrel and Reconciliation with Hogg. -- Football
+     Match at Carterhaugh. -- Songs on the Banner of Buccleuch.
+     -- Dinner at Bowhill. -- Design for a Piece of Plate to the
+     Sutors of Selkirk. -- Letters to the Duke of Buccleuch,
+     Joanna Baillie, and Mr. Morritt.
+
+1815.
+
+
+The poem of The Field of Waterloo was published before the end of
+October; the profits of the first edition being the author's
+contribution to the fund raised for the relief of the widows and
+children of the soldiers slain in the battle. This piece appears to
+have disappointed those most disposed to sympathize with the author's
+views and feelings. The descent is indeed heavy from his Bannockburn
+to his Waterloo: the presence, or all but visible reality of what his
+dreams cherished, seems to have overawed his imagination, and tamed it
+into a weak pomposity of movement. The burst of pure native enthusiasm
+upon the _Scottish_ heroes that fell around the Duke of Wellington's
+person bears, however, the broadest marks of the "Mighty Minstrel:"--
+
+        "Saw gallant Miller's fading eye
+  Still bent where Albyn's standards fly,
+  And Cameron, in the shock of steel,
+  Die like the offspring of Lochiel," etc.;--
+
+and this is far from being the only redeeming passage. There is one,
+indeed, in which he illustrates what he then thought Buonaparte's
+poorness of spirit in adversity, {p.077} which always struck me as
+preëminently characteristic of Scott's manner of interweaving, both in
+prose and verse, the moral energies with analogous natural
+description, and combining thought with imagery,--
+
+   "Or is thy soul like mountain tide,
+  That, swelled by winter storm and shower,
+  Rolls down in turbulence of power,
+    A torrent fierce and wide;
+  Reft of these aids, a rill obscure,
+  Shrinking unnoticed, mean and poor,
+    Whose channel shows displayed
+  The wrecks of its impetuous course,
+  But not one symptom of the force
+    By which these wrecks were made!"
+
+The poem was the first upon a subject likely to be sufficiently
+hackneyed; and, having the advantage of coming out in a small cheap
+form--(prudently imitated from Murray's innovation with the tales of
+Byron, which was the death-blow to the system of verse in quarto)--it
+attained rapidly a measure of circulation above what had been reached
+either by Rokeby or The Lord of the Isles.
+
+Meanwhile the revision of Paul's Letters was proceeding; and Scott had
+almost immediately on his return to Abbotsford concluded his bargain
+for the first edition of a third novel--The Antiquary--to be published
+also in the approaching winter. Harold the Dauntless, too, was from
+time to time taken up as the amusement of _horæ subsecivæ_. As for
+Scott's out-of-doors occupations of that autumn, sufficient light will
+be thrown on them by the following letter; from which it is seen that
+he had now completed a rather tedious negotiation with another
+bonnet-laird, and definitively added the lands of _Kaeside_ to the
+original estate of Abbotsford.
+
+     TO MISS JOANNA BAILLIE, HAMPSTEAD.
+
+                                        ABBOTSFORD, November 12, 1815.
+
+     I have been long in acknowledging your letter, my dear
+     friend, and yet you have not only been frequent in my
+     thoughts, as must always be the case, but your name {p.078}
+     has been of late familiar in my mouth as a household word.
+     You must know that the pinasters you had the goodness to
+     send me some time since, which are now fit to be set out of
+     the nursery, have occupied my mind as to the mode of
+     disposing of them. Now, mark the event: there is in the
+     middle of what will soon be a bank of fine young wood, a
+     certain old gravel-pit, which is the present scene of my
+     operations. I have caused it to be covered with better
+     earth, and gently altered with the spade, so as, if
+     possible, to give it the air of one of those accidental
+     hollows which the surface of a hill frequently presents.
+     Having arranged my ground, I intend to plant it all round
+     with the pinasters, and other varieties of the pine species,
+     and in the interior I will have a rustic seat, surrounded by
+     all kinds of evergreen shrubs (laurels in particular), and
+     all varieties of the holly and cedar, and so forth, and this
+     is to be called and entitled _Joanna's Bower_. We are
+     determined in the choice of our ornaments by necessity, for
+     our ground fronts (in poetic phrase) the rising sun, or, in
+     common language, looks to the east; and being also on the
+     north side of the hill--(don't you shiver at the
+     thought?)--why, to say truth, George Wynnos and I are both
+     of opinion that nothing but evergreens will flourish there;
+     but I trust I shall convert a present deformity into a very
+     pretty little hobby-horsical sort of thing. It will not bear
+     looking at for years, and that is a pity; but it will so far
+     resemble the person from whom it takes name, that it is
+     planted, as she has written, for the benefit as well of
+     posterity as for the passing generation. Time and I, says
+     the Spaniard, against any two; and fully confiding in the
+     proverb, I have just undertaken another grand task. You must
+     know, I have purchased a large lump of wild land, lying
+     adjoining to this little property, which greatly more than
+     doubles my domains. The land is said to be reasonably
+     bought, and I am almost certain I can turn it to advantage
+     by a little judicious expenditure; for this {p.079} place
+     is already allowed to be worth twice what it cost me; and
+     our people here think so little of planting, and do it so
+     carelessly, that they stare with astonishment at the
+     alteration which well-planted woods make on the face of a
+     country. There is, besides, a very great temptation, from
+     the land running to within a quarter of a mile of a very
+     sweet wild sheet of water, of which (that is, one side of
+     it) I have every chance to become proprietor: this is a
+     poetical circumstance not to be lost sight of, and
+     accordingly I keep it full in my view. Amid these various
+     avocations, past, present, and to come, I have not thought
+     much about Waterloo, only that I am truly glad you like it.
+     I might, no doubt, have added many curious anecdotes, but I
+     think the pamphlet long enough as it stands, and never had
+     any design of writing copious notes.
+
+     I do most devoutly hope Lord Byron will succeed in his
+     proposal of bringing out one of your dramas; that he is your
+     sincere admirer is only synonymous with his being a man of
+     genius; and he has, I am convinced, both the power and
+     inclination to serve the public, by availing himself of the
+     treasures you have laid before them. Yet I long for "some
+     yet untasted spring," and heartily wish you would take Lord
+     B. into your counsels, and adjust, from your yet unpublished
+     materials, some drama for the public. In such a case, I
+     would, in your place, conceal my name till the issue of the
+     adventure. It is a sickening thing to think how many angry
+     and evil passions the mere name of admitted excellence
+     brings into full activity. I wish you would consider this
+     hint, and I am sure the result would be great gratification
+     to the public, and to yourself that sort of satisfaction
+     which arises from receiving proofs of having attained the
+     mark at which you aimed. Of this last, indeed, you cannot
+     doubt, if you consult only the voices of the intelligent and
+     the accomplished; but the object of the dramatist is
+     professedly to delight the public at large, and therefore I
+     think you should make the experiment fairly.
+
+     {p.080} Little Sophia is much obliged by your kind and
+     continued recollection: she is an excellent good child,
+     sufficiently sensible, very affectionate, not without
+     perception of character; but the gods have not made her
+     poetical, and I hope she will never attempt to act a part
+     which nature has not called her to. I am myself a poet,
+     writing to a poetess, and therefore cannot be suspected of a
+     wish to degrade a talent, to which, in whatever degree I may
+     have possessed it, I am indebted for much happiness: but
+     this depends only on the rare coincidence of some talent
+     falling in with a novelty in style and diction and conduct
+     of story, which suited the popular taste; and were my
+     children to be better poets than me, they would not be such
+     in general estimation, simply because the second cannot be
+     the first, and the first (I mean in point of date) is
+     everything, while others are nothing, even with more
+     intrinsic merit. I am therefore particularly anxious to
+     store the heads of my young damsels with something better
+     than the tags of rhymes; and I hope Sophia is old enough
+     (young though she be) to view her little incidents of
+     celebrity, such as they are, in the right point of view.
+     Mrs. Scott and she are at present in Edinburgh; the rest of
+     the children are with me in this place; my eldest boy is
+     already a bold horseman and a fine shot, though only about
+     fourteen years old. I assure you I was prouder of the first
+     blackcock he killed, than I have been of anything whatever
+     since I first killed one myself, and that is twenty years
+     ago. This is all stupid gossip; but, as Master Corporal Nym
+     says, "things must be as they may:" you cannot expect grapes
+     from thorns, or much amusement from a brain bewildered with
+     thorn hedges at Kaeside, for such is the sonorous title of
+     my new possession, in virtue of which I subscribe myself,
+
+                                        ABBOTSFORD & KAESIDE.
+
+There is now to be mentioned a little pageant of {p.081} December,
+1815, which perhaps interested _Abbotsford and Kaeside_ not very much
+less than the "Field of the Cloth of Gold," as James Ballantyne calls
+it, of the preceding autumn. This was no other than a football match,
+got up under the auspices of the Duke of Buccleuch, between the men of
+the Vale of Yarrow and the Burghers of Selkirk, the particulars of
+which will be sufficiently explained by an extract from Ballantyne's
+newspaper, written, I can have no doubt, by the Sheriff of the Forest.
+But the part taken in this solemnity by the Ettrick Shepherd reminds
+me of an extraordinary epistle which Scott had received from him some
+months before this time, and of the account given by Hogg himself, in
+one of his autobiographies, of the manner in which Scott's kindness
+terminated the alienation it refers to.
+
+The Shepherd, being as usual in pecuniary straits, had projected a
+work, to be called The Poetic Mirror, in which should appear some
+piece by each popular poet of the time, the whole to be edited by
+himself, and published for his benefit; and he addressed, accordingly,
+to his brother bards a circular petition for their best assistance.
+Scott--like Byron and most of the other persons thus applied
+to--declined the proposition. The letter in which he signified his
+refusal has not been preserved;--indeed it is sufficiently remarkable,
+that of all the many letters which Hogg must have received from his
+distinguished contemporaries, he appears to have kept not one; but
+Scott's decided aversion to joint-stock adventures in authorship must
+have been well known ere now to Hogg--and, at all events, nobody can
+suspect that his note of refusal was meant to be an unfriendly
+communication. The Shepherd, however, took some phrase in high
+dudgeon, and penned an answer virulently insolent in spirit and in
+language, accusing him of base jealousy of his own superior natural
+genius. I am not sure whether it was on this or another occasion of
+the like sort, that James varied the usual formulas of {p.082}
+epistolary composition, by beginning with "Damned Sir," and ending,
+"Believe me, Sir, yours with disgust, etc.;" but certainly the
+performance was such that no intercourse took place between the
+parties for some weeks, or perhaps months, afterwards. The letter in
+which Hogg at length solicits a renewal of kindliness says nothing, it
+may be observed, of the circumstance which, according to his
+autobiography, confirmed by the recollection of two friends, whom he
+names in the letter itself (Mr. John Grieve and Mr. William Laidlaw),
+had really caused him to repent of his suspicions, and their
+outrageous expression. The fact was, that hearing, shortly after the
+receipt of the offensive epistle, that Hogg was confined to his
+lodgings, in an obscure alley of Edinburgh, called Gabriel's Road, by
+a dangerous illness, Scott called on Mr. Grieve to make inquiries
+about him, and to offer to take on himself the expenses of the best
+medical attendance. He had, however, cautioned the worthy hatter that
+no hint of this offer must reach Hogg; and, in consequence, it might
+perhaps be the Shepherd's feeling at the time that he should not, in
+addressing his lifelong benefactor, betray any acquaintance with this
+recent interference on his behalf. There can be no doubt, however,
+that he obeyed the genuine dictates of his better nature when he
+penned this apologetic effusion:--
+
+     TO WALTER SCOTT, ESQ., CASTLE STREET.
+
+                                   GABRIEL'S ROAD, February 28, 1815.
+
+     Mr. SCOTT,--I think it is great nonsense for two men who are
+     friends at heart, and who ever must be so,--indeed it is not
+     in the nature of things that they can be otherwise,--should
+     be professed enemies.
+
+     Mr. Grieve and Mr. Laidlaw, who were very severe on me, and
+     to whom I was obliged to show your letter, have long ago
+     convinced me that I mistook part of it, and that it was not
+     me you held in such contempt, but the opinion of the public.
+     The {p.083} idea that you might mean that (though I still
+     think the reading will bear either construction) has given
+     me much pain; for I know I answered yours intemperately, and
+     in a mortal rage. I meant to have enclosed yours, and begged
+     of you to return mine, but I cannot find it, and am sure
+     that some one to whom I have been induced to show it, has
+     taken it away. However, as my troubles on that subject were
+     never like to wear to an end, I could no longer resist
+     telling you that I am extremely vexed about it. I desire not
+     a renewal of our former intimacy, for haply, after what I
+     have written, your family would not suffer it; but I wish it
+     to be understood that, when we meet _by chance_, we might
+     shake hands, and speak to one another as old acquaintances,
+     and likewise that we may exchange a letter occasionally, for
+     I find there are many things which I yearn to communicate to
+     you, and the tears rush to my eyes when I consider that I
+     may not.
+
+     If you allow of this, pray let me know, and if you do not,
+     let me know. Indeed, I am anxious to hear from you, for "as
+     the day of trouble is with me, so shall my strength be." To
+     be friends _from the teeth forwards_ is common enough; but
+     it strikes me that there is something still more ludicrous
+     in the reverse of the picture, and so to be enemies--and why
+     should I be, _from the teeth forwards_, yours sincerely,
+
+                                        James HOGG?
+
+Scott's reply was, as Hogg says, "a brief note, telling him to think
+no more of the business, and come to breakfast next morning." The
+misunderstanding being thus closed, they appear to have counselled and
+cooperated together in the most cordial fashion, in disciplining their
+rural allies for the muster of Carterhaugh--the Duke of Buccleuch's
+brother-in-law, the Earl of Home, having appointed the Shepherd his
+Lieutenant over the Yarrow Band, while the Sheriff took under his
+special cognizance the _Sutors_, i.e., _shoemakers_, of Selkirk--for
+so the burgesses of that town have for ages styled themselves, and
+under that denomination their warlike prowess in days of yore has been
+celebrated in many an old ballad, besides the well-known one which
+begins with
+
+  {p.084} "'Tis up wi' the Sutors o' Selkirk,
+           And 'tis down wi' the Earl of Home!"
+
+In order to understand all the allusions in the newspaper record of
+this important day, one must be familiar with the notes to the
+Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border; but I shall not burden it with
+further comment here.
+
+     FOOTBALL MATCH.
+
+     "On Monday, 4th December, there was played, upon the
+     extensive plain of Carterhaugh, near the junction of the
+     Ettrick and Yarrow, the greatest match at the ball which has
+     taken place for many years. It was held by the people of the
+     Dale of Yarrow, against those of the parish of Selkirk; the
+     former being brought to the field by the Right Hon. the Earl
+     of Home, and the Gallant Sutors by their Chief Magistrate,
+     Ebenezer Clarkson, Esq. Both sides were joined by many
+     volunteers from other parishes; and the appearance of the
+     various parties marching from their different glens to the
+     place of rendezvous, with pipes playing and loud
+     acclamations, carried back the coldest imagination to the
+     old times when the Foresters assembled with the less
+     peaceable purpose of invading the English territory, or
+     defending their own. The romantic character of the scenery
+     aided the illusion, as well as the performance of a feudal
+     ceremony previous to commencing the games.
+
+     "His Grace the Duke of Buccleuch and Queensberry came upon
+     the ground about eleven o'clock, attended by his sons, the
+     young Earl of Dalkeith and Lord John Scott; the Countess of
+     Home; the Ladies Anne, Charlotte, and Isabella Scott; Lord
+     and Lady Montagu and family; the Hon. General Sir Edward
+     Stopford, K. B.; Sir John Riddell of Riddell; Sir Alexander
+     Don of Newton; Mr. Elliot Lockhart, member for the county;
+     Mr. Pringle of Whytbank, younger; Mr. Pringle of Torwoodlee;
+     Captain Pringle, Royal Navy; Mr. Boyd of Broadmeadows and
+     family; Mr. Chisholm of Chisholm; Major Pott of Todrig; Mr.
+     Walter Scott, Sheriff of Selkirkshire, and family,--and many
+     other gentlemen and ladies.--The ancient banner of the
+     Buccleuch family, a curious and venerable relique,
+     emblazoned with armorial bearings, and with the word
+     '_Bellendaine_,' the ancient war-cry of the clan of Scott,
+     was then displayed, {p.085} as on former occasions when the
+     Chief took the field in person, whether for the purpose of
+     war or sport. The banner was delivered by Lady Anne Scott to
+     Master Walter Scott, younger of Abbotsford, who attended
+     suitably mounted and armed, and riding over the field
+     displayed it to the sound of the war-pipes, and amid the
+     acclamations of the assembled spectators, who could not be
+     fewer than 2000 in number. That this singular renewal of an
+     ancient military custom might not want poetical celebrity,
+     verses were distributed among the spectators, composed for
+     the occasion by Mr. Walter Scott and the Ettrick
+     Shepherd.--Mr. James Hogg acted as aide-de-camp to the Earl
+     of Home in the command of the Yarrow men, and Mr. Robert
+     Henderson of Selkirk to Mr. Clarkson, both of whom
+     contributed not a little to the good order of the day.
+
+     "The ball was thrown up between the parties by the Duke of
+     Buccleuch, and the first game was gained, after a severe
+     conflict of an hour and a half duration, by the Selkirk men.
+     The second game was still more severely contested, and after
+     a close and stubborn struggle of more than three hours, with
+     various fortune, and much display of strength and agility on
+     both sides, was at length carried by the Yarrow men. The
+     ball should then have been thrown up a third time, but
+     considerable difficulty occurred in arranging the voluntary
+     auxiliaries from other parishes, so as to make the match
+     equal; and, as the day began to close, it was found
+     impossible to bring the strife to an issue, by playing a
+     decisive game.
+
+     "Both parties, therefore, parted with equal honors, but,
+     before they left the ground, the Sheriff threw up his hat,
+     and in Lord Dalkeith's name and his own, challenged the
+     Yarrow men, on the part of the Sutors, to a match to be
+     played upon the first convenient opportunity, with 100
+     picked men only on each side. The challenge was mutually
+     accepted by Lord Home, on his own part, and for Lord John
+     Scott, and was received with acclamation by the players on
+     both sides. The principal gentlemen present took part with
+     one side or other, except the Duke of Buccleuch, who remains
+     neutral. Great play is expected, and all bets are to be paid
+     by the losers to the poor of the winning parish. We cannot
+     dismiss the subject without giving our highest commendation
+     to the Earl of Home, {p.086} and to Mr. Clarkson, for the
+     attention which they showed in promoting the spirit and good
+     order of the day. For the players themselves, it was
+     impossible to see a finer set of active and athletic young
+     fellows than appeared on the field. But what we chiefly
+     admired in their conduct was, that though several hundreds
+     in number, exceedingly keen for their respective parties,
+     and engaged in so rough and animated a contest, they
+     maintained the most perfect good-humor, and showed how
+     unnecessary it is to discourage manly and athletic exercises
+     among the common people, under pretext of maintaining
+     subordination and good order. We have only to regret that
+     the great concourse of spectators rendered it difficult to
+     mention the names of the several players who distinguished
+     themselves by feats of strength or agility; but we must not
+     omit to record that the first ball was _hailed_ by Robert
+     Hall, mason in _Selkirk_, and the second by George Brodie,
+     from _Greatlaws_, upon _Aillwater_.
+
+     "The Selkirk party wore slips of fir as their mark of
+     distinction--the Yarrow men, sprigs of heath.
+
+     "Refreshments were distributed to the players by the Duke of
+     Buccleuch's domestics, in a booth erected for the purpose;
+     and no persons were allowed to sell ale or spirits on the
+     field.
+
+     "In the evening there was a dance at the Duke's hunting-seat
+     at Bowhill, attended by the nobility and gentry who had
+     witnessed the sport of the day; and the fascination of Gow's
+     violin and band detained them in the dancing-room till the
+     dawn of the winter morning."
+
+The newspaper then gives the songs above alluded to--namely, Scott's
+Lifting of the Banner:--
+
+  "From the brown crest of Newark its summons extending,
+     Our signal is waving in smoke and in flame,
+   And each Forester blithe, from his mountain descending,
+     Bounds light o'er the heather to join in the game;
+   Then up with the Banner! let forest winds fan her!
+     She has blazed over Ettrick eight ages and more;
+   In sport we'll attend her, in battle defend her,
+     With heart and with hand, like our Fathers before," etc.[26]
+
+              [Footnote 26: See _Poetical Works_ (Ed. 1834), vol. xi.
+              p. 312 [Cambridge Ed. p. 424].]
+
+--and that excellent ditty by Hogg, entitled The Ettrick {p.087}
+Garland, to the Ancient Banner of the House of Buccleuch:--
+
+  "And hast thou here, like hermit gray,
+     Thy mystic characters unroll'd,
+   O'er peaceful revellers to play,
+     Thou emblem of the days of old?
+   All hail! memorial of the brave,
+     The liegeman's pride, the Border's awe!
+   May thy gray pennon never wave
+     On sterner field than Carterhaugh!" etc.
+
+I have no doubt the Sheriff of the Forest was a prouder man, when he
+saw his boy ride about Carterhaugh with the pennon of Bellenden, than
+when Platoff mounted himself for the imperial review of the _Champ de
+Mars_. It is a pity that I should have occasion to allude, before I
+quit a scene so characteristic of Scott, to another outbreak of Hogg's
+jealous humor. His Autobiography informs us, that when the more
+distinguished part of the company assembled on the conclusion of the
+sport to dine at Bowhill, he was proceeding to place himself at a
+particular table--but the Sheriff seized his arm, told him _that_ was
+reserved for the nobility, and seated him at an inferior
+board--"between himself and the Laird of Harden"--the first gentleman
+of the clan Scott. "The fact is," says Hogg, "I am convinced he was
+sore afraid of my getting to be too great a favorite among the young
+ladies of Buccleuch!" Who can read this, and not be reminded of Sancho
+Panza and the Duchess? And, after all, he quite mistook what Scott had
+said to him; for certainly there was, neither on this, nor on any
+similar occasion at Bowhill, any _high table for the nobility_, though
+there was a _side-table for the children_, at which, when the Shepherd
+of Ettrick was about to seat himself, his friend probably whispered
+that it was reserved for the "_little_ lords and ladies, and their
+playmates." This blunder may seem undeserving of any explanation; but
+it is often in small matters that the strongest feelings are most
+strikingly betrayed--and this story is, in exact {p.088} proportion
+to its silliness, indicative of the jealous feeling which mars and
+distorts so many of Hogg's representations of Scott's conduct and
+demeanor.
+
+It appears from the account of this football match in the Edinburgh
+Journal, that Scott took a lead in proposing a renewal of the contest.
+This, however, never occurred; and that it ought not to do so had
+probably occurred from the first to the Duke of Buccleuch, who is
+mentioned as having alone abstained from laying any bets on the final
+issue.
+
+When Mr. Washington Irving visited Scott two years afterwards at
+Abbotsford, he told his American friend that "the old feuds and local
+interests, and rivalries and animosities of the Scotch, still slept in
+their ashes, and might easily be roused; their hereditary feeling for
+names was still great; it was not always safe to have even the game of
+football between villages;--the old clannish spirit was too apt to
+break out."[27]
+
+              [Footnote 27: Irving's _Abbotsford and Newstead_, 1835,
+              p. 40.]
+
+The good Duke of Buccleuch's solitary exemption from these heats of
+Carterhaugh might read a significant lesson to minor politicians of
+all parties on more important scenes. In pursuance of the same
+peace-making spirit, he appears to have been desirous of doing
+something gratifying to the men of the town of Selkirk, who had on
+this occasion taken the field against his Yarrow tenantry. His Grace
+consulted Scott about the design of a piece of plate to be presented
+to their community; and his letter on this weighty subject must not be
+omitted in the memoirs of a Sheriff of Selkirk:--
+
+     TO HIS GRACE THE DUKE OF BUCCLEUCH, ETC., BOWHILL.
+
+                                        EDINBURGH, Thursday.
+
+     MY DEAR LORD,--I have proceeded in my commission about the
+     cup. It will be a very handsome one. But I am still puzzled
+     to dispose of the birse[28] in a {p.089} becoming manner.
+     It is a most unmanageable decoration. I tried it upright on
+     the top of the cup; it looked like a shaving-brush, and the
+     goblet might be intended to make the lather. Then I thought
+     I had a brilliant idea. The arms of Selkirk are a female
+     seated on a sarcophagus, decorated with the arms of
+     Scotland, which will make a beautiful top to the cup. So I
+     thought of putting the birse into the lady's other hand;
+     but, alas, it looked so precisely like the rod of
+     chastisement uplifted over the poor child, that I laughed at
+     the drawing for half an hour. Next I tried to take off the
+     castigatory appearance, by inserting the bristles in a kind
+     of handle; but then it looked as if the poor woman had been
+     engaged in the capacities of housemaid and child-keeper at
+     once, and, fatigued with her double duty, had sat down on
+     the wine-cooler, with the broom in one hand, and the bairn
+     in the other. At length, after some conference with Charles
+     Sharpe, I have hit on a plan, which, I think, will look very
+     well, if tolerably executed,--namely, to have the lady
+     seated in due form on the top of the lid (which will look
+     handsome, and will be well taken), and to have a thistle
+     wreathed around the sarcophagus and rising above her head,
+     and from the top of the thistle shall proceed the birse. I
+     will bring a drawing with me, and they shall get the cup
+     ready in the mean time. I hope to be at Abbotsford on Monday
+     night, to stay for a week. My cat has eat two or three
+     birds, while regaling on the crumbs that were thrown for
+     them. This was a breach of hospitality; but _oportet
+     vivere_--and _micat inter omnes_--with which stolen pun, and
+     my respectful compliments to Lord Montagu and the ladies, I
+     am, very truly, your Grace's most faithful and obliged
+     servant,
+
+                                        Walter SCOTT.
+
+              [Footnote 28: A _birse_, or bunch of hog's _bristles_,
+              forms the cognizance of the Sutors. When a new burgess
+              is admitted into their community, _the birse_ passes
+              round with the cup of welcome, and every elder brother
+              dips it into the wine, and draws it through his mouth,
+              before it reaches the happy neophyte, who of course pays
+              it similar respect.]
+
+     {p.090} P. S.--Under another cover, which I have just
+     received, I send the two drawings of the front and reverse
+     of the lid of the proposed cup. Your Grace will be so good
+     as understand that the thistle--the top of which is
+     garnished with the bristle--is entirely detached, in
+     working, from the figure, and slips into a socket. The
+     following lines are humbly suggested for a motto, being
+     taken from an ancient Scottish canzonetta,--unless the
+     Yarrow committee can find any better:--
+
+          "The sutor ga'e the sow a kiss:
+           Grumph! quo' the sow, it's a' for my birss."
+
+Some weeks before the year 1815 closed, Mr. Morritt sustained the
+heaviest of domestic afflictions; and several letters on that sad
+subject had passed between Rokeby and Abbotsford,[29] before the date
+of the following:--
+
+              [Footnote 29: [A touching letter from Morritt, written
+              shortly before his wife's death, and one of Scott's,
+              written after that event, will be found in _Familiar
+              Letters_, vol. i. pp. 352-354.]]
+
+     TO J. B. S. MORRITT, ESQ., M. P., ROKEBY PARK.
+
+                                        EDINBURGH, 22d December, 1815.
+
+     MY DEAR MORRITT,--While you know what satisfaction it would
+     have given me to have seen you here, I am very sensible of
+     the more weighty reasons which you urge for preferring to
+     stay at Rokeby for some time. I only hope you will remember
+     that Scotland has claims on you, whenever you shall find
+     your own mind so far at ease as to permit you to look abroad
+     for consolation; and if it should happen that you thought of
+     being here about our time of vacation, I have my time then
+     entirely at my own command, and I need not say, that as much
+     of it as could in any manner of way contribute to your
+     amusement, is most heartily at yours. I have myself at
+     present the melancholy task of watching the declining health
+     of my elder brother, Major Scott, whom, I think, you have
+     seen.
+
+     {p.091} My literary occupation is getting through the press
+     the Letters of Paul, of whose lucubrations I trust soon to
+     send you a copy. As the observations of a bystander, perhaps
+     you will find some amusement in them, especially as I had
+     some channels of information not accessible to every one.
+     The recess of our courts, which takes place to-morrow, for
+     three weeks, will give me ample time to complete this job,
+     and also the second volume of Triermain, which is nearly
+     finished,--a strange rude story, founded partly on the
+     ancient northern traditions respecting the Berserkers, whose
+     peculiar habits and fits of martial frenzy make such a
+     figure in the Sagas. I shall then set myself seriously to
+     The Antiquary, of which I have only a very general sketch at
+     present; but when once I get my pen to the paper it will
+     walk fast enough. I am sometimes tempted to leave it alone,
+     and try whether it will not write as well without the
+     assistance of my head as with it. A hopeful prospect for the
+     reader. In the mean while, the snow, which is now falling so
+     fast as to make it dubious when this letter may reach
+     Rokeby, is likely to forward these important avocations, by
+     keeping me a constant resident in Edinburgh, in lieu of my
+     plan of going to Abbotsford, where I had a number of schemes
+     in hand, in the way of planting and improving. I believe I
+     told you I have made a considerable addition to my little
+     farm, and extended my domains towards a wild lake, which I
+     have a good prospect of acquiring also. It has a sort of
+     legendary fame; for the persuasion of the solitary shepherds
+     who approach its banks is, that it is tenanted by a very
+     large amphibious animal called by them a water-bull, and
+     which several of them pretend to have seen. As his
+     dimensions greatly exceed those of an otter, I am tempted to
+     think with Trinculo, "This is the devil, and no monster."
+     But, after all, is it not strange, that as to almost all the
+     lakes in Scotland, both Lowland and Highland, such a belief
+     should prevail? and that the description popularly given
+     {p.092} uniformly corresponds with that of the
+     hippopotamus? Is it possible, that at some remote period,
+     that remarkable animal, like some others which have now
+     disappeared, may have been an inhabitant of our large lakes?
+     Certainly the vanishing of the mammoth and other animals
+     from the face of the creation renders such a conjecture less
+     wild than I would otherwise esteem it. It is certain we have
+     lost the beaver, whose bones have been more than once found
+     in our Selkirkshire bogs and marlmosses. The remains of the
+     wild bull are very frequently found; and I have more than
+     one skull with horns of most formidable dimensions.
+
+     About a fortnight ago we had a great football match in
+     Selkirkshire, when the Duke of Buccleuch raised his banner
+     (a very curious and ancient pennon) in great form. Your
+     friend Walter was banner-bearer, dressed, like a forester of
+     old, in green, with a green bonnet, and an eagle feather in
+     it; and, as he was well mounted, and rode handsomely over
+     the field, he was much admired by all his clansmen.
+
+     I have thrown these trifles together, without much hope that
+     they will afford you amusement; but I know you will wish to
+     know what I am about, and I have but trifles to send to
+     those friends who interest themselves about a trifler. My
+     present employment is watching, from time to time, the
+     progress of a stupid cause, in order to be ready to reduce
+     the sentence into writing, when the Court shall have decided
+     whether Gordon of Kenmore or MacMichan of Meikleforthhead be
+     the superior of the lands of Tarschrechan and Dalbrattie,
+     and entitled to the feudal casualties payable forth thereof,
+     which may amount to twopence sterling, once in half a dozen
+     of years. Marry, sir, they make part of a freehold
+     qualification, and the decision may wing a voter. I did not
+     send the book you received by the Selkirk coach. I wish I
+     could have had sense enough to send anything which could
+     afford you consolation. I think our friend {p.093} Lady
+     Louisa was likely to have had this attention; she has, God
+     knows, been herself tried with affliction, and is well
+     acquainted with the sources from which comfort can be drawn.
+     My wife joins in kindest remembrances, as do Sophia and
+     Walter. Ever yours affectionately,
+
+                                         Walter SCOTT.
+
+This letter is dated the 22d of December. On the 26th, John
+Ballantyne, being then at Abbotsford, writes to Messrs. Constable:
+"Paul is _all_ in hand;" and an envelope, addressed to James
+Ballantyne on the 29th, has preserved another little fragment of
+Scott's playful doggerel:--
+
+  "Dear James--I'm done, thank God, with the long yarns
+   Of the most prosy of Apostles--Paul;
+   And now advance, sweet Heathen of Monkbarns,
+   Step out, old quizz, as fast as I can scrawl."
+
+
+
+
+{p.094} CHAPTER XXXVII.
+
+     Publication of Paul's Letters to his Kinsfolk. -- Guy
+     Mannering "Terry-fied." -- Death of Major John Scott. --
+     Letters to Thomas Scott. -- Publication of the Antiquary. --
+     History of 1814 for the Edinburgh Annual Register. --
+     Letters on the History of Scotland Projected. -- Publication
+     of the First Tales of My Landlord by Murray and Blackwood.
+     -- Anecdotes by Mr. Train. -- Quarterly Review on the Tales.
+     -- Building at Abbotsford Begun. -- Letters to Morritt,
+     Terry, Murray, and the Ballantynes.
+
+1816.
+
+
+The year 1815 may be considered as, for Scott's peaceful tenor of
+life, an eventful one. That which followed has left almost its only
+traces in the successive appearance of nine volumes, which attest the
+prodigal genius, and hardly less astonishing industry of the man.
+Early in January were published Paul's Letters to his Kinsfolk, of
+which I need not now say more than that they were received with lively
+curiosity, and general, though not vociferous applause. The first
+edition was an octavo, of 6000 copies; and it was followed, in the
+course of the next two or three years, by a second and a third,
+amounting together to 3000 more. The popularity of the novelist was at
+its height; and this admitted, if not avowed, specimen of Scott's
+prose must have been perceived, by all who had any share of
+discrimination, to flow from the same pen.
+
+Mr. Terry produced, in the spring of 1816, a dramatic {p.095} piece,
+entitled Guy Mannering, which met with great success on the London
+boards, and still continues to be a favorite with the theatrical
+public. What share the novelist himself had in this first specimen of
+what he used to call "the art of _Terryfying_," I cannot exactly say;
+but his correspondence shows that the pretty song of the Lullaby[30]
+was not his only contribution to it; and I infer that he had taken the
+trouble to modify the plot, and rearrange, for stage purposes, a
+considerable part of the original dialogue. The casual risk of
+discovery, through the introduction of the song which had, in the mean
+time, been communicated to one of his humble friends, the late Mr.
+Alexander Campbell,[31] editor of Albyn's Anthology--(commonly known
+at Abbotsford as, by way of excellence, _The Dunniewassal_,)--and
+Scott's suggestions on that difficulty will amuse the reader of the
+following letter:--
+
+              [Footnote 30: See Scott's _Poetical Works_ (Ed. 1834),
+              vol. xi. p. 317 (Cambridge Ed. p. 425).]
+
+              [Footnote 31: This Mr. Campbell was the same whom the
+              poet's mother employed to teach her boys to sing, as
+              recorded in the Autobiographical Fragment--_ante_, vol.
+              i. p. 44. I believe he was also the "litigious
+              Highlander" of a story told in Irving's _Abbotsford and
+              Newstead_, p. 57.
+
+              (In the November of this year, Scott writes to Lady
+              Abercorn: "The only thing I have been doing of late is
+              to write two or three songs for a poor man called
+              Campbell.... He has made an immense collection of
+              Highland airs, and I have given him words for some of
+              them. One of them is the only good song I ever wrote--it
+              is a fine Highland Gathering tune called _Pibroch an
+              Donuil Dhu_, that is, the Pibroch of Donald the
+              Black."--_Familiar Letters_, vol. i. p. 374.)]
+
+     TO D. TERRY, ESQ., ALFRED PLACE, BLOOMSBURY, LONDON.
+
+                                        ABBOTSFORD, 18th April, 1816.
+
+     MY DEAR TERRY,--I give you joy of your promotion to the
+     dignity of an householder, and heartily wish you all the
+     success you so well deserve, to answer the approaching
+     enlargement of your domestic establishment. You will find a
+     house a very devouring monster, and that the purveying for
+     it requires a little exertion, and a great {p.096} deal of
+     self-denial and arrangement. But when there is domestic
+     peace and contentment, all that would otherwise be
+     disagreeable, as restraining our taste and occupying our
+     time, becomes easy. I trust Mrs. Terry will get her business
+     easily over, and that you will soon "dandle Dickie on your
+     knee."--I have been at the spring circuit, which made me
+     late in receiving your letter, and there I was introduced to
+     a man whom I never saw in my life before, namely, the
+     proprietor of all the Pepper and Mustard family,--in other
+     words, the genuine Dandie Dinmont. Dandie is himself modest,
+     and says, "he b'lives it's only the dougs that is in the
+     buik, and no himsel'." As the surveyor of taxes was going
+     his ominous rounds past Hyndlea, which is the abode of
+     Dandie, his whole pack rushed out upon the man of execution,
+     and Dandie followed them (conscious that their number
+     greatly exceeded his return), exclaiming, "The tae hauf o'
+     them is but whalps, man." In truth, I knew nothing of the
+     man, except his odd humor of having only two names for
+     twenty dogs. But there are lines of general resemblance
+     among all these hill-men, which there is no missing; and
+     Jamie Davidson of Hyndlea certainly looks Dandie Dinmont
+     remarkably well. He is much flattered with the compliment,
+     and goes uniformly by the name among his comrades, but has
+     never read the book. Ailie used to read it to him, but it
+     set him to sleep. All this you will think funny enough. I am
+     afraid I am in a scrape about the song, and that of my own
+     making; for as it never occurred to me that there was
+     anything odd in my writing two or three verses for you,
+     which have no connection with the novel, I was at no pains
+     to disown them; and Campbell is just that sort of crazy
+     creature, with whom there is no confidence, not from want of
+     honor and disposition to oblige, but from his flighty
+     temper. The music of _Cadil gu lo_ is already printed in his
+     publication, and nothing can be done with him, for fear of
+     setting his tongue a-going. Erskine and {p.097} you may
+     consider whether you should barely acknowledge an obligation
+     to an unknown friend, or pass the matter altogether in
+     silence. In my opinion, my _first_ idea was preferable to
+     both, because I cannot see what earthly connection there is
+     between the song and the novel, or how acknowledging the one
+     is fathering the other. On the contrary, it seems to me that
+     acknowledgment tends to exclude the idea of farther
+     obligation than to the extent specified. I forgot also that
+     I had given a copy of the lines to Mrs. Macleod of Macleod,
+     from whom I had the air. But I remit the matter entirely to
+     you and Erskine, for there must be many points in it which I
+     cannot be supposed a good judge of. At any rate, don't let
+     it delay your publication, and believe I shall be quite
+     satisfied with what you think proper.
+
+     I have got from my friend Glengarry the noblest dog ever
+     seen on the Border since Johnnie Armstrong's time. He is
+     between the wolf and deer greyhound, about six feet long
+     from the tip of the nose to the tail, and high and strong in
+     proportion: he is quite gentle, and a great favorite: tell
+     Will Erskine he will eat off his plate without being at the
+     trouble to put a paw on the table or chair.[32] I showed him
+     to Mathews, who dined one day in Castle Street before I came
+     here, where, except for Mrs. S., I am like unto
+
+       {p.098} "The spirit who bideth by himself,
+                In the land of mist and snow"--[33]
+
+     for it is snowing and hailing eternally, and will kill all
+     the lambs to a certainty, unless it changes in a few hours.
+     At any rate, it will cure us of the embarrassments arising
+     from plenty and low markets. Much good luck to your dramatic
+     exertions: when I can be of use, command me. Mrs. Scott
+     joins me in regards to Mrs. Terry, and considers the house
+     as the greatest possible bargain: the situation is all you
+     can wish. Adieu! yours truly,
+
+                                        Walter SCOTT.
+
+              [Footnote 32: [In the letter accompanying his gift,
+              Glengarry says: "His name is Maida, out of respect for
+              that action in which my brother had the honor to lead
+              the 78th Highlanders to victory." Writing to Joanna
+              Baillie, April 12, Scott describes his new friend as
+              "the finest dog of the kind in Scotland.... He is
+              between the deer greyhound and mastiff, with a shaggy
+              mane like a lion; he always sits beside me at dinner,
+              his head as high as the back of my chair; yet it will
+              gratify you to know that a favorite cat keeps him in the
+              greatest possible order, and insists upon all rights of
+              precedence, and scratches with impunity the nose of an
+              animal who would make no bones of a wolf, and pulls down
+              a red deer without fear or difficulty. I heard my friend
+              set up some most piteous howls, and I assure you the
+              noise was no joke, all occasioned by his fear of passing
+              puss, who had stationed himself on the
+              stairs."--_Familiar Letters_, vol. i. p. 358.]]
+
+              [Footnote 33: Coleridge--_Ancient Mariner_.]
+
+     P. S.--On consideration, and comparing difficulties, I think
+     I will settle with Campbell to take my name from the verses,
+     as they stand in his collection. The verses themselves I
+     cannot take away without imprudent explanations; and as they
+     go to other music, and stand without any name, they will
+     probably not be noticed, so you need give yourself no
+     farther trouble on the score. I should like to see my copy:
+     pray send it to the post-office, under cover to Mr.
+     Freeling, whose unlimited privilege is at my service on all
+     occasions.
+
+Early in May appeared the novel of The Antiquary, which seems to have
+been begun a little before the close of 1815. It came out at a moment
+of domestic distress.
+
+Throughout the year 1815, Major John Scott had been drooping. He died
+on the 8th of May, 1816; and I extract the letter in which this event
+was announced to Mr. Thomas Scott by his only surviving brother.
+
+     TO THOMAS SCOTT, ESQ., PAYMASTER OF THE 70TH REGIMENT, CANADA.
+
+                                        EDINBURGH, 15th May, 1816.
+
+     MY DEAR TOM,--This brings you the melancholy news of our
+     brother John's concluding his long and lingering illness by
+     death, upon Thursday last. We had {p.099} thought it
+     impossible he should survive the winter, but, as the weather
+     became milder, he gathered strength, and went out several
+     times. In the beginning of the week he became worse, and on
+     Wednesday kept his bed. On Thursday, about two o'clock, they
+     sent me an express to Abbotsford--the man reached me at
+     nine. I immediately set out, and travelled all night--but
+     had not the satisfaction to see my brother alive. He had
+     died about four o'clock, without much pain, being completely
+     exhausted. You will naturally feel most anxious about my
+     mother's state of health and spirits. I am happy to say she
+     has borne this severe shock with great firmness and
+     resignation, is perfectly well in her health, and as strong
+     in her mind as ever you knew her. She feels her loss, but is
+     also sensible that protracted existence, with a constitution
+     so irretrievably broken up, could have been no blessing.
+     Indeed I must say, that, in many respects, her situation
+     will be more comfortable on account of this removal, when
+     the first shock is over; for to watch an invalid, and to
+     undergo all the changes of a temper fretted by suffering,
+     suited ill with her age and habits. The funeral, which took
+     place yesterday, was decent and private, becoming our
+     father's eldest son, and the head of a quiet family. After
+     it, I asked Hay Donaldson and Mr. Macculloch[34] to look
+     over his papers, in case there should be any testamentary
+     provision, but none such was found; nor do I think he had
+     any intention of altering the destination which divides his
+     effects between his surviving brothers.--Your affectionate
+
+                                        W. S.
+
+              [Footnote 34: The late Mr. Hay Donaldson, W. S.,--an
+              intimate friend of both Thomas and Walter Scott,--and
+              Mr. Macculloch of Ardwell, the brother of Mrs. Thomas
+              Scott.]
+
+A few days afterwards, he hands to Mr. Thomas Scott a formal statement
+of pecuniary affairs; the result of which was, that the Major had left
+something not much under £6000. Major Scott, from all I have heard,
+was {p.100} a sober, sedate bachelor, of dull mind and frugal tastes,
+who, after his retirement from the army, divided his time between his
+mother's primitive fireside, and the society of a few whist-playing
+brother officers, that met for an evening rubber at Fortune's tavern.
+But, making every allowance for his retired and thrifty habits, I
+infer that the payments made to each of the three brothers out of
+their father's estate must have, prior to 1816, amounted to £5000.
+From the letter conveying this statement (29th May), I extract a few
+sentences:--
+
+     DEAR TOM,--... Should the possession of this sum, and the
+     certainty that you must, according to the course of nature,
+     in a short space of years succeed to a similar sum of £3000
+     belonging to our mother, induce you to turn your thoughts to
+     Scotland, I shall be most happy to forward your views with
+     any influence I may possess; and I have little doubt that,
+     sooner or later, something may be done. But, unfortunately,
+     every avenue is now choked with applicants, whose claims are
+     very strong; for the number of disbanded officers, and
+     public servants dismissed in consequence of Parliament
+     turning restive and refusing the income-tax, is great and
+     increasing. Economy is the order of the day, and I assure
+     you they are shaving properly close. It would, no doubt, be
+     comparatively easy to get you a better situation where you
+     are, but then it is bidding farewell to your country, at
+     least for a long time, and separating your children from all
+     knowledge of those with whom they are naturally connected. I
+     shall anxiously expect to hear from you on your views and
+     wishes. I think, at all events, you ought to get rid of the
+     drudgery of the paymastership--but not without trying to
+     exchange it for something else. I do not know how it is with
+     you--but I do not feel myself quite so _young_ as I was when
+     we met last, and I should like well to see my only brother
+     return to his own country and settle, without thoughts
+     {p.101} of leaving it, till it is exchanged for one that is
+     dark and distant.... I left all Jack's personal trifles at
+     my mother's disposal. There was nothing of the slightest
+     value, excepting his gold watch, which was my sister's, and
+     a good one. My mother says he had wished my son Walter
+     should have it, as his male representative--which I can only
+     accept on condition _your_ little Walter will accept a
+     similar token of regard from his remaining uncle.--Yours
+     affectionately,
+
+                                        W. S.
+
+The letter in which Scott communicated his brother's death to Mr.
+Morritt gives us his own original opinion of The Antiquary. It has
+also some remarks on the separation of Lord and Lady Byron--and the
+"domestic verses" of the noble poet.
+
+     TO J. B. S. MORRITT, ESQ., M. P., LONDON.
+
+                                        EDINBURGH, May 16, 1816.
+
+     MY DEAR MORRITT,--I have been occupied of late with scenes
+     of domestic distress, my poor brother, Major John Scott,
+     having last week closed a life which wasting disease had
+     long rendered burthensome. His death, under all the
+     circumstances, cannot be termed a subject of deep
+     affliction; and though we were always on fraternal terms of
+     mutual kindness and good-will, yet our habits of life, our
+     taste for society and circles of friends, were so totally
+     different, that there was less frequent intercourse between
+     us than our connection and real liking to each other might
+     have occasioned. Yet it is a heavy consideration to have
+     lost the last but one who was interested in our early
+     domestic life, our habits of boyhood, and our first friends
+     and connections. It makes one look about and see how the
+     scene has changed around him, and how he himself has been
+     changed with it. My only remaining brother is in Canada, and
+     seems to have an intention of remaining there; so that my
+     mother, now upwards of eighty, has now only one child left
+     to her {p.102} out of thirteen whom she has borne. She is a
+     most excellent woman, possessed, even at her advanced age,
+     of all the force of mind and sense of duty which have
+     carried her through so many domestic griefs, as the
+     successive deaths of eleven children, some of them come to
+     men and women's estate, naturally infers. She is the
+     principal subject of my attention at present, and is, I am
+     glad to say, perfectly well in body and composed in mind.
+
+     Nothing can give me more pleasure than the prospect of
+     seeing you in September, which will suit our motions
+     perfectly well. I trust I shall have an opportunity to
+     introduce you to some of our glens which you have not yet
+     seen. But I hope we shall have some mild weather before that
+     time, for we are now in the seventh month of winter, which
+     almost leads me to suppose that we shall see no summer this
+     season. As for spring, that is past praying for. In the
+     month of November last, people were skating in the
+     neighborhood of Edinburgh; and now, in the middle of May,
+     the snow is lying white on Arthur's Seat, and on the range
+     of the Pentlands. It is really fearful, and the sheep are
+     perishing by scores. _Jam satis terræ nivis_, etc., may well
+     be taken up as the song of eighteen hundred and sixteen.
+
+     So Lord Byron's romance seems to be concluded for one
+     while--and it is surely time, after he has announced, or
+     rather they themselves have announced, half-a-dozen
+     blackguard newspaper editors, to have been his confidants on
+     the occasion. Surely it is a strange thirst of public fame
+     that seeks such a road to it. But Lord Byron, with high
+     genius and many points of a noble and generous feeling, has
+     Childe Harolded himself, and outlawed himself, into too
+     great a resemblance with the pictures of his imagination. He
+     has one excuse, however, and it is a sad one. I have been
+     reckoned to make a good hit enough at a pirate, or an
+     outlaw, or a smuggling bandit; but I cannot say I was ever
+     so much enchanted with my {p.103} work as to think of
+     carrying off a _drift_ of my neighbor's sheep, or half a
+     dozen of his milk cows. Only I remember, in the rough times,
+     having a scheme with the Duke of Buccleuch, that when the
+     worst came to the worst, we should repair Hermitage Castle,
+     and live, like Robin Hood and his merry men, at the expense
+     of all round us. But this presupposed a grand
+     _bouleversement_ of society. In the mean while, I think my
+     noble friend is something like my old peacock, who chooses
+     to bivouac apart from his lady, and sit below my bedroom
+     window, to keep me awake with his screeching lamentation.
+     Only I own he is not equal in melody to Lord Byron, for
+     _Fare-thee-well--and if for ever_, etc., is a very sweet
+     dirge indeed. After all, _C'est génie mal logé_, and that's
+     all that can be said about it.
+
+     I am quite reconciled to your opinions on the income-tax,
+     and am not at all in despair at the prospect of keeping £200
+     a year in my pocket, since the ministers can fadge without
+     it. But their throwing the helve after the hatchet, and
+     giving up the malt-duty because they had lost the other, was
+     droll enough. After all, our fat friend[35] must learn to
+     live within compass, and fire off no more crackers in the
+     Park, for John Bull is getting dreadfully sore on all sides
+     when money is concerned.
+
+              [Footnote 35: Shortly after Beau Brummell (immortalized
+              in _Don Juan_) fell into disgrace with the Prince
+              Regent, and was dismissed from the society of Carlton
+              House, he was riding with another gentleman in the Park,
+              when the Prince met them. His Royal Highness stopt to
+              speak to Brummell's companion--the Beau continued to jog
+              on--and when the other dandy rejoined him, asked with an
+              air of sovereign indifference, "Who is your fat friend?"
+              Such, at least, was the story that went the round of the
+              newspapers at the time, and highly tickled Scott's
+              fancy. I have heard that nobody enjoyed so much as the
+              Prince of Wales himself an earlier specimen of the
+              Beau's assurance. Taking offence at some part of His
+              Royal Highness's conduct or demeanor, "Upon my word,"
+              observed Mr. Brummell, "if this kind of thing goes on, I
+              shall be obliged to cut Wales, and bring the old King
+              into fashion."]
+
+     I sent you, some time since, The Antiquary. It is not so
+     interesting as its predecessors--the period did not {p.104}
+     admit of so much romantic situation. But it has been more
+     fortunate than any of them in the sale, for 6000 went off in
+     the first six days, and it is now at press again; which is
+     very flattering to the unknown author. Another incognito
+     proposes immediately to resume the second volume of
+     Triermain, which is at present in the state of the Bear and
+     Fiddle.[36] Adieu, dear Morritt.
+
+     Ever yours,
+
+                                        Walter SCOTT.
+
+              [Footnote 36: See _Hudibras_.]
+
+Speaking of his third novel in a letter of the same date to Terry,
+Scott says: "It wants the romance of Waverley and the adventure of Guy
+Mannering; and yet there is some salvation about it, for if a man will
+paint from nature, he will be likely to amuse those who are daily
+looking at it."
+
+After a little pause of hesitation, The Antiquary attained popularity
+not inferior to Guy Mannering; and though the author appears for a
+moment to have shared the doubts which he read in the countenance of
+James Ballantyne, it certainly was, in the sequel, his chief favorite
+among all his novels. Nor is it difficult to account for this
+preference, without laying any stress on the fact, that, during a few
+short weeks, it was pretty commonly talked of as a falling off from
+its immediate predecessors--and that some minor critics reëchoed this
+stupid whisper in print. In that view, there were many of its
+successors that had much stronger claims on the parental instinct of
+protection. But the truth is, that although Scott's Introduction of
+1830 represents him as pleased with fancying that, in the principal
+personage, he had embalmed a worthy friend of his boyish days, his own
+antiquarian propensities, originating perhaps in the kind attentions
+of George Constable of Wallace-Craigie, and fostered not a little, at
+about as ductile a period, by those of old Clerk of Eldin, and John
+Ramsay of Ochtertyre, had by degrees so developed themselves, that he
+{p.105} could hardly, even when The Antiquary was published, have
+scrupled about recognizing a quaint caricature of the founder of
+Abbotsford Museum, in the inimitable portraiture of the Laird of
+Monkbarns. The Descriptive Catalogue of that collection, which he
+began towards the close of his life, but, alas, never finished, is
+entitled "Reliquiæ Trottcosianæ--or the Gabions of the late Jonathan
+Oldbuck, Esq."
+
+But laying this, which might have been little more than a good-humored
+pleasantry, out of the question, there is assuredly no one of all his
+works on which more of his own early associations have left their
+image. Of those early associations, as his full-grown tastes were all
+the progeny, so his genius, in all its happiest efforts, was the
+"Recording Angel;" and when George Constable first expounded his
+"Gabions" to the child that was to immortalize his name, they were
+either wandering hand in hand over the field where the grass still
+grew rank upon the grave of _Balmawhapple_, or sauntering on the beach
+where the _Mucklebackets_ of Prestonpans dried their nets, singing,--
+
+  "Weel may the boatie row, and better may she speed,
+   O weel may the boatie row that wins the bairns' bread"--
+
+or telling wild stories about cliff-escapes and the funerals of
+shipwrecked fishermen.
+
+Considered by itself, without reference to these sources of personal
+interest, this novel seems to me to possess, almost throughout, in
+common with its two predecessors, a kind of simple unsought charm,
+which the subsequent works of the series hardly reached, save in
+occasional snatches: like them it is, in all its humbler and softer
+scenes, the transcript of actual Scottish life, as observed by the man
+himself. And I think it must also be allowed that he has nowhere
+displayed his highest art, that of skilful contrast, in greater
+perfection. Even the tragic romance of Waverley does not set off its
+Macwheebles and Callum Begs better than the oddities of {p.106}
+Jonathan Oldbuck and his circle are relieved, on the one hand, by the
+stately gloom of the Glenallans, on the other, by the stern affliction
+of the poor fisherman, who, when discovered repairing the "auld black
+bitch o' a boat" in which his boy had been lost, and congratulated by
+his visitor on being capable of the exertion, makes answer,--"And what
+would you have me to do, unless I wanted to see four children starve,
+because one is drowned? _It's weel wi' you gentles, that can sit in
+the house wi' handkerchers at your een, when ye lose a friend; but the
+like o' us maun to our wark again, if our hearts were beating as hard
+as my hammer._"
+
+It may be worth noting, that it was in correcting the proof sheets of
+this novel that Scott first took to equipping his chapters with
+mottoes of his own fabrication. On one occasion he happened to ask
+John Ballantyne, who was sitting by him, to hunt for a particular
+passage in Beaumont and Fletcher. John did as he was bid, but did not
+succeed in discovering the lines. "Hang it, Johnnie," cried Scott, "I
+believe I can make a motto sooner than you will find one." He did so
+accordingly; and from that hour, whenever memory failed to suggest an
+appropriate epigraph, he had recourse to the inexhaustible mines of
+"_old play_" or "_old ballad_," to which we owe some of the most
+exquisite verses that ever flowed from his pen.
+
+Unlike, I believe, most men, whenever Scott neared the end of one
+composition, his spirits seem to have caught a new spring of buoyancy,
+and before the last sheet was sent from his desk, he had crowded his
+brain with the imagination of another fiction. The Antiquary was
+published, as we have seen, in May, but by the beginning of April he
+had already opened to the Ballantynes the plan of the first Tales of
+my Landlord; and--to say nothing of Harold the Dauntless, which he
+began shortly after The Bridal of Triermain was finished, and which he
+seems to have kept before him for two years {p.107} as a congenial
+plaything, to be taken up whenever the coach brought no proof sheets
+to jog him as to serious matters--he had also, before this time,
+undertaken to write the historical department of the Register for
+1814. Mr. Southey had, for reasons upon which I do not enter,
+discontinued his services to that work: and it was now doubly
+necessary, after trying for one year a less eminent hand, that if the
+work were not to be dropped altogether, some strenuous exertion should
+be made to sustain its character. Scott had not yet collected the
+materials requisite for his historical sketch of a year distinguished
+for the importance and complexity of its events; but these, he doubted
+not, would soon reach him, and he felt no hesitation about pledging
+himself to complete, not only that sketch, but four new volumes of
+prose romances--and his Harold the Dauntless also, if Ballantyne could
+make any suitable arrangement on that score--between the April and the
+Christmas of 1816.
+
+The Antiquary had been published by Constable, but I presume that, in
+addition to the usual stipulations, he had been again, on that
+occasion, solicited to relieve John Ballantyne and Co.'s stock to an
+extent which he did not find quite convenient; and at all events he
+had of late shown a considerable reluctance to employ James Ballantyne
+and Co. as printers. One or other of these impediments is alluded to
+in a note of Scott's, which, though undated, has been pasted into John
+Ballantyne's private letter-book among the documents of the period in
+question. It is in these words:--
+
+     DEAR JOHN,--I have seen the great swab, who is supple as a
+     glove, and will do ALL, which some interpret NOTHING.
+     However, we shall do well enough.
+
+                                        W. S.
+
+Constable had been admitted, almost from the beginning, into the
+_secret_ of the Novels--and for that, among {p.108} other reasons, it
+would have been desirable for the Novelist to have him continue the
+publisher without interruption; but Scott was led to suspect, that if
+he were called upon to conclude a bargain for a fourth novel before
+the third had made its appearance, his scruples as to the matter of
+_printing_ might at least protract the treaty; and why Scott should
+have been urgently desirous of seeing the transaction settled before
+the expiration of the half-yearly term of Whitsunday is sufficiently
+explained by the fact, that though so much of the old unfortunate
+stock of John Ballantyne and Co. still remained on hand--and with it
+some occasional recurrence of commercial difficulty as to floating
+bills was to be expected--while James Ballantyne's management of the
+pecuniary affairs of the printing-house had continued to be highly
+negligent and irregular[37]--nevertheless, the sanguine author had
+gone on purchasing one patch of land after another, until his estate
+at Abbotsford had already grown from 150 to nearly 1000 acres. The
+property all about his original farm had been in the hands of various
+small holders (Scotticè _cock-lairds_;) these persons were sharp
+enough to understand, erelong, that their neighbor could with
+difficulty resist any temptation that might present itself in the
+shape of an offer of more acres; and thus he proceeded buying up lot
+after lot of unimproved ground, at extravagant prices,--his "appetite
+increasing by what it fed on," while the ejected yeomen set themselves
+down elsewhere, to fatten at their leisure upon the profits--most
+commonly the anticipated profits--of "The Scotch Novels."
+
+              [Footnote 37: In February, 1816, when James Ballantyne
+              married, it is clearly proved by letters in his
+              handwriting, that he owed to Scott more than £3000 of
+              personal debt.--(1839.)]
+
+He was ever and anon pulled up with a momentary misgiving,--and
+resolved that the latest acquisition should be the last, until he
+could get rid entirely of "John Ballantyne and Co." But John
+Ballantyne was, {p.109} from the utter lightness of his mind, his
+incapacity to look a day before him, and his eager impatience to enjoy
+the passing hour, the very last man in the world who could, under such
+circumstances, have been a serviceable agent. Moreover, John, too, had
+his professional ambition: he was naturally proud of his connection,
+however secondary, with the publication of these works--and this
+connection, though subordinate, was still very profitable; he must
+have suspected, that should his name disappear altogether from the
+list of booksellers, it would be a very difficult matter for him to
+retain any concern in them; and I cannot, on the whole, but consider
+it as certain that, the first and more serious embarrassments being
+overcome, he was far from continuing to hold by his patron's anxiety
+for the total abolition of their unhappy copartnership. He, at all
+events, unless when some sudden emergency arose, flattered Scott's own
+gay imagination, by uniformly representing everything in the most
+smiling colors; and though Scott, in his replies, seldom failed to
+introduce some passing hint of caution--such as "_Nullum numen abest
+si sit prudentia_"--he more and more took home to himself the
+agreeable cast of his _Rigdum's_ anticipations, and wrote to him in a
+vein as merry as his own;--_e. g._--"As for our stock,
+
+  "'T will be wearing awa', John,
+   Like snaw-wreaths when it's thaw, John," etc., etc., etc.
+
+I am very sorry, in a word, to confess my conviction that John
+Ballantyne, however volatile and light-headed, acted at this period
+with cunning selfishness, both by Scott and by Constable. He well knew
+that it was to Constable alone that his firm had more than once owed
+its escape from utter ruin and dishonor; and he must also have known,
+that had a fair straightforward effort been made for that purpose,
+after the triumphant career of the Waverley series had once commenced,
+nothing could have been more easy than to bring all the affairs of his
+"back-stock," etc., to a complete close, by entering {p.110} into a
+distinct and candid treaty on that subject, in connection with the
+future works of the great Novelist, either with Constable or with any
+other first-rate house in the trade. But John, foreseeing that, were
+that unhappy concern quite out of the field, he must himself subside
+into a mere clerk of the printing company, seems to have parried the
+blow by the only arts of any consequence in which he ever was an
+adept. He appears to have systematically disguised from Scott the
+extent to which the whole Ballantyne concern had been sustained by
+Constable--especially during his Hebridean tour of 1814, and his
+Continental one of 1815--and prompted and enforced the idea of trying
+other booksellers from time to time, instead of adhering to Constable,
+merely for the selfish purposes,--first, of facilitating the immediate
+discount of bills;--secondly, of further perplexing Scott's affairs,
+the entire disentanglement of which would have been, as he fancied,
+prejudicial to his own personal importance.
+
+It was resolved, accordingly, to offer the risk and half profits of
+the first edition of another new novel--or rather collection of
+novels--not to Messrs. Constable, but to Mr. Murray of Albemarle
+Street, and Mr. Blackwood, who was then Murray's agent in Scotland;
+but it was at the same time resolved, partly because Scott wished to
+try another experiment on the public sagacity, but partly also, no
+question, from the wish to spare Constable's feelings, that the
+title-page of the Tales of my Landlord should not bear the magical
+words "By the Author of Waverley." The facility with which both Murray
+and Blackwood embraced such a proposal, as no untried novelist, being
+sane, could have dreamt of hazarding, shows that neither of them had
+any doubt as to the identity of the author. They both considered the
+withholding of the avowal on the forthcoming title-page as likely to
+check very much the first success of the book; but they were both
+eager to prevent Constable's acquiring {p.111} a sort of prescriptive
+right to publish for the unrivalled novelist, and willing to disturb
+his tenure at this additional, and, as they thought it, wholly
+unnecessary risk.
+
+How sharply the unseen parent watched this first negotiation of his
+_Jedediah Cleishbotham_ will appear from one of his letters:--
+
+     TO MR. JOHN BALLANTYNE, HANOVER STREET, EDINBURGH.
+
+                                        ABBOTSFORD, April 29, 1816.
+
+     DEAR JOHN,--James has made one or two important mistakes in
+     the bargain with Murray and Blackwood. Briefly as follows:--
+
+     1stly, Having only authority from me to promise 6000 copies,
+     he proposes they shall have the copyright _forever_. I will
+     see their noses cheese first.
+
+     2dly, He proposes I shall have twelve months' bills--I have
+     always got six. However, I would not stand on that.
+
+     3dly, He talks of volumes being put into the publisher's
+     hands to consider and decide on. No such thing; a bare
+     perusal at St. John Street[38] only.
+
+              [Footnote 38: James Ballantyne's dwelling-house was then
+              in this street, adjoining the Canongate of Edinburgh.]
+
+     Then for omissions--It is NOT stipulated that we supply the
+     paper and print of successive editions. This must be nailed,
+     and not left to understanding.--Secondly, I will have London
+     bills as well as Blackwood's.
+
+     If they agree to these conditions, good and well. If they
+     demur, Constable must be instantly tried; giving half to the
+     Longmans, and _we_ drawing on _them_ for that moiety, or
+     Constable lodging their bill in our hands. You will
+     understand it is a four-volume touch--a work totally
+     different in style and structure from the others; a new
+     cast, in short, of the net which has hitherto made
+     miraculous draughts. I do not limit you to terms, because I
+     think you will make them better than I can do. {p.112} But
+     he must do more than others, since he will not or cannot
+     print with us. For every point but that, I would rather deal
+     with Constable than any one; he has always shown himself
+     spirited, judicious, and liberal. Blackwood must be brought
+     to the point _instantly_; and _whenever_ he demurs,
+     Constable must be treated with; for there is no use in
+     suffering the thing to be blown on. At the same time, you
+     need not conceal from him that there were some proposals
+     elsewhere, but you may add, with truth, I would rather close
+     with him. Yours truly,
+
+                                        W. S.
+
+     P. S.--I think Constable should jump at this affair; for I
+     believe the work will be very popular.
+
+Messrs. Murray and Blackwood agreed to all the author's conditions
+here expressed. They also relieved John Ballantyne and Co. of stock to
+the value of £500; and at least Mr. Murray must, moreover, have
+subsequently consented to anticipate the period of his payments. At
+all events, I find, in a letter of Scott's, dated in the subsequent
+August, this new echo of the old advice:--
+
+     TO MR. JOHN BALLANTYNE.
+
+     DEAR JOHN,--I have the pleasure to enclose Murray's
+     acceptances. I earnestly recommend to you to push, realizing
+     as much as you can.
+
+          "Consider weel, gude man,
+           We hae but borrowed gear;
+           The horse that I ride on,
+           It is John Murray's mear."
+
+     Yours truly,
+
+                                        W. SCOTT.
+
+I know not how much of the tale of The Black Dwarf had been seen by
+Blackwood, in St. John Street, before he concluded this bargain for
+himself and his friend Murray; but when the closing sheets of that
+novel {p.113} reached him, he considered them as by no means
+sustaining the delightful promise of the opening ones. He was a man of
+strong talents, and, though without anything that could be called
+learning, of very respectable information--greatly superior to what
+has, in this age, been common in his profession; acute, earnest,
+eminently zealous in whatever he put his hand to; upright, honest,
+sincere, and courageous. But as Constable owed his first introduction
+to the upper world of literature and of society in general to his
+Edinburgh Review, so did Blackwood his to the Magazine, which has now
+made his name familiar to the world--and at the period of which I
+write, that miscellany was unborn; he was known only as a diligent
+antiquarian bookseller of the old town of Edinburgh, and the Scotch
+agent of the great London publisher, Murray. The abilities, in short,
+which he lived to develop, were as yet unsuspected--unless, perhaps,
+among a small circle; and the knowledge of the world, which so few men
+gather from anything but painful collision with various conflicting
+orders of their fellow-men, was not his. He was to the last plain and
+blunt; at this time I can easily believe him to have been so to a
+degree which Scott might look upon as "ungracious"--I take the epithet
+from one of his letters to James Ballantyne. Mr. Blackwood, therefore,
+upon reading what seemed to him the lame and impotent conclusion of a
+well-begun story, did not search about for any glossy periphrase, but
+at once requested James Ballantyne to inform the unknown author that
+such was his opinion. This might possibly have been endured; but
+Blackwood, feeling, I have no doubt, a genuine enthusiasm for the
+author's fame, as well as a just tradesman's anxiety as to his own
+adventure, proceeded to suggest the outline of what would, in his
+judgment, be a better upwinding of the plot of The Black Dwarf, and
+concluded with announcing his willingness, in case the proposed
+alteration were agreed to, that the whole expense of cancelling
+{p.114} and reprinting a certain number of sheets should be charged
+to his own account. He appears to have further indicated that he had
+taken counsel with some literary person, on whose taste he placed
+great reliance, and who, if he had not originated, at least approved
+of the proposed process of recasting. Had Scott never possessed any
+such system of inter-agency as the Ballantynes supplied, he would,
+among other and perhaps greater inconveniences, have escaped that of
+the want of personal familiarity with several persons, with whose
+confidence,--and why should I not add?--with the innocent
+gratification of whose little vanities--his own pecuniary interests
+were often deeply connected. A very little personal contact would have
+introduced such a character as Blackwood's to the respect, nay, to the
+affectionate respect, of Scott, who, above all others, was ready to
+sympathize cordially with honest and able men, in whatever condition
+of life he discovered them. He did both know and appreciate Blackwood
+better in after-times; but in 1816, when this communication reached
+him, the name was little more than a name, and his answer to the most
+solemn of go-betweens was in these terms, which I sincerely wish I
+could tell how Signior Aldiborontiphoscophornio translated into any
+dialect submissible to Blackwood's apprehension:--
+
+     DEAR JAMES,--
+
+     I have received Blackwood's impudent proposal. G---- d----
+     his soul! Tell him and his coadjutor that I belong to the
+     Black Hussars of Literature, who neither give nor receive
+     criticism. I'll be cursed but this is the most impudent
+     proposal that ever was made.
+
+                                        W. S.[39]
+
+              [Footnote 39: _May_, 1839. Since this book was first
+              published, I have received from the representatives of
+              Mr. Blackwood several documents which throw light on the
+              transaction here mentioned. It will be apparent from one
+              of those I am about to quote, that Blackwood, before he
+              sent his message to Jedediah Cleishbotham, had
+              ascertained that no less a person than Mr. Gifford
+              concurred in his opinion--nay, that James Ballantyne
+              himself took the same view of the matter. But the reader
+              will be not less amused in comparing the "Black
+              Hussar's" missive in the text, with the edition of it
+              which actually reached Blackwood--and which certainly
+              justifies the conjecture I had ventured to express.
+
+     TO WILLIAM BLACKWOOD, ESQ.
+
+                                        EDINBURGH, 4th October, 1816.
+
+     MY DEAR SIR,--Our application to the author of _Tales of my
+     Landlord_ has been anything but successful; and in order to
+     explain to you the reason why I must decline to address him
+     in this way in future, I shall copy his answer _verbatim_:--
+
+     "My respects to our friends the Booksellers. I belong to the
+     Death-head Hussars of Literature, who neither _take_ nor
+     _give_ criticism. I am extremely sorry they showed my work
+     to Gifford, nor would I cancel a leaf to please all the
+     critics of Edinburgh and London; and so let that be as it
+     is: They are mistaken if they think I don't know when I am
+     writing ill, as well as Gifford can tell me. I beg there may
+     be no more communications with critics."
+
+     Observe--that I shall at all times be ready to convey
+     anything from you to the author in a written form, but I do
+     not feel warranted to interfere farther.
+
+     Yours very truly,
+
+                                        J. BALLANTYNE.
+
+
+     TO JAMES BALLANTYNE, ESQ.
+
+                                        EDINBURGH, 5th October, 1816.
+
+     MY DEAR SIR,--I am not a little vexed at having ventured to
+     suggest anything to the author of the _Tales of my
+     Landlord_, since I find he considers it in the light of
+     _sutor ultra crepidam_. I never had for one moment the
+     vanity to think, that from any poor remark of mine, or
+     indeed of any human being, he would be induced to blot one
+     line or alter a single incident, unless the same idea
+     occurred to his own powerful mind. On stating to you what
+     struck me, and finding that your opinion coincided with
+     mine, I was induced to request of you to state it to the
+     author, in order that he might be aware that the expense of
+     cancelling the sheets was no object to me. I was the more
+     anxious to do this, in case the author should have given you
+     the MS. of this portion of the work sooner than he intended,
+     in order to satisfy the clamoring for it which I teased you
+     with. I trust the author will do me the justice to believe
+     that it is quite impossible for any one to have a higher
+     admiration of his most extraordinary talents; and speaking
+     merely as a bookseller, it would be quite unnecessary to be
+     at the expense of altering even one line, although the
+     author himself (who alone can be the proper judge) should
+     wish it, as the success of the work must be rapid, great,
+     and certain.
+
+     With regard to the first volume having been shown to Mr.
+     Gifford, I must state in justification of Mr. Murray, that
+     Mr. G. is the only friend whom he consults on all occasions,
+     and to whom his most secret transactions are laid open. He
+     gave him the work, not for the purpose of criticism, but
+     that as a friend he might partake of the enjoyment he had in
+     such an extraordinary performance. No language could be
+     stronger than Mr. Gifford's, as I mentioned to you; and as
+     the same thing had occurred to Mr. G. as to you and me, you
+     thought there would be no harm in stating this to the
+     author.
+
+     I have only again to express my regret at what has taken
+     place, and to beg you will communicate this to the author in
+     any way you may think proper.
+
+     Yours, etc.,
+
+                                        W. BLACKWOOD.
+
+              (A much fuller and more accurate knowledge of this whole
+              transaction, than that possessed by Lockhart, can be
+              gathered from the annals of the two great publishing
+              houses concerned in it;--Smiles's _Memoir of John
+              Murray_ (vol. i. chap. xviii.), and Mrs. Oliphant's
+              _William Blackwood and his Sons_ (vol. i. pp. 56-92),
+              especially from the latter work, in which the whole
+              incident is set in its proper light. Notwithstanding the
+              heavy preliminary tax for unsalable books from the
+              Ballantynes' "wretched stock," neither publisher seems
+              to have had a moment's doubt as to the acceptance of the
+              offer of the ostensibly anonymous Work of Fiction,
+              though they were much fretted by the delays,
+              uncertainties, and mysteries attending the matter. "One
+              in business must submit to many things, and swallow many
+              a bitter pill, when such a man as Walter Scott is the
+              object in view," writes Blackwood to Murray,--the
+              bitterness being largely the dealing with James
+              Ballantyne. "John I always considered as no better than
+              a swindler, but James I put some trust and confidence
+              in. You judged him more accurately." ... And on another
+              occasion,--"Except my wife, there is not a friend whom I
+              dare advise with. I have not ventured to mention the
+              business to my brother on account of the cursed
+              mysteries and injunctions of secrecy connected with it.
+              I know he would blame me for engaging in it, for he has
+              a very small opinion of the Ballantynes." Apart from the
+              vexations attending their office as intermediaries, for
+              which the Ballantynes were only partially responsible,
+              this shrewd, if irritated, observer appears to have
+              formed opinions of the brothers as business men, in some
+              respects not differing greatly from those held by
+              Lockhart in later days.
+
+              The delight of the two publishers in at last receiving
+              the MS. of _The Black Dwarf_ and the manner in which it
+              passed into the hands of Constable, even before the
+              stipulated 6000 copies were disposed of,--it must be
+              owned he treated his rivals somewhat unhandsomely,
+              finally severing them from Scott's literary career,--are
+              fully set forth by the historian of the House of
+              Blackwood. With her "one cannot but feel that this was
+              one of those tragically insignificant circumstances
+              which so often shape life apart from any consciousness
+              of ours. Probably ruin would never have overtaken Sir
+              Walter had he been in the steady and careful hands of
+              Murray and Blackwood, for it is unlikely that even the
+              glamour of the great Magician would have turned heads so
+              reasonable and sober.")]
+
+{p.115} While these volumes were in progress, Scott found time to make
+an excursion into Perthshire and Dumbartonshire, {p.116} for the sake
+of showing the scenery, made famous in The Lady of the Lake and
+Waverley, to his {p.117} wife's old friends, Miss Dumergue and Mrs.
+Sarah Nicolson,[40] who had never before been in Scotland. The account
+which he gives of these ladies' visit at Abbotsford, and this little
+tour, in a letter to Mr. Morritt, shows the "Black Hussar of
+Literature" in his gentler and more habitual mood.
+
+              [Footnote 40: The sister of Miss Jane Nicolson.--See
+              _ante_, vol. i. p. 248. Vol. ii. p. 82.]
+
+     TO J. B. S. MORRITT, ESQ., M. P., ROKEBY PARK.
+
+                                        ABBOTSFORD, 21st August, 1816.
+
+     MY DEAR MORRITT,--I have not had a moment's kindly leisure
+     to answer your kind letter, and to tell how delighted I
+     shall be to see you in this least of all possible dwellings,
+     but where we, nevertheless, can contrive a pilgrim's
+     quarters and the warmest welcome for you and any friend of
+     your journey;--if young Stanley, so much the better. Now, as
+     to the important business with the which I have been
+     occupied: You are to know we have had our kind hostesses of
+     Piccadilly upon a two months' visit to us. We owed them so
+     much hospitality, that we were particularly anxious to make
+     Scotland agreeable to the good girls. But, alas, the wind
+     has blown, and the rain has fallen, in a style which beats
+     all that ever I remembered. We accomplished, with some
+     difficulty, a visit to Loch Katrine and Loch Lomond, and, by
+     dint of the hospitality of Cambusmore and the Ross, we
+     defied bad weather, wet roads, and long walks. But the
+     weather settled into regular tempest, when we settled at
+     Abbotsford; and, though the natives, accustomed to bad
+     weather (though not at such a time of year), contrived to
+     brave the extremities of the season, it only served to
+     increase the dismay of our unlucky visitors, who, accustomed
+     only to Paris and London, expected _fiacres_ at the
+     Milestane Cross, and a pair of oars at the Deadman's Haugh.
+     Add to this a strong disposition to _commérage_, when there
+     was no possibility of gratifying it, and a {p.118} total
+     indisposition to scenery or rural amusements, which were all
+     we had to offer--and you will pity both hosts and guests. I
+     have the gratification to think I fully supported the
+     hospitality of my country. I walked them to death, I talked
+     them to death, I showed them landscapes which the driving
+     rain hardly permitted them to see, and told them of feuds
+     about which they cared as little as I do about their
+     next-door news in Piccadilly. Yea, I even played at cards,
+     and as I had Charlotte for a partner, so ran no risk of
+     being scolded, I got on pretty well. Still the weather was
+     so execrable, that, as the old drunken landlord used to say
+     at Arroquhar, "I was perfectly ashamed of it;" and, to this
+     moment, I wonder how my two friends fought it out so
+     patiently as they did. But the young people and the cottages
+     formed considerable resources. Yesterday they left us,
+     deeply impressed with the conviction, which I can hardly
+     blame, that the sun never shone in Scotland,--which that
+     noble luminary seems disposed to confirm, by making this the
+     first fair day we have seen this month--so that his beams
+     will greet them at Longtown, as if he were determined to put
+     Scotland to utter shame.
+
+     In you I expect a guest of a different calibre; and I think
+     (barring downright rain) I can promise you some sport of one
+     kind or other. We have a good deal of game about us; and
+     Walter, to whom I have resigned my gun and license, will be
+     an excellent attendant. He brought in six brace of moor-fowl
+     on the 12th, which had (_si fas est diceri_) its own effect
+     in softening the minds of our guests towards this unhappy
+     climate. In other respects things look melancholy enough
+     here. Corn is, however, rising, and the poor have plenty of
+     work, and wages which, though greatly inferior to what they
+     had when hands were scarce, assort perfectly well with the
+     present state of the markets. Most folks try to live as much
+     on their own produce as they can, by way of fighting off
+     distress; and though speculating {p.119} farmers and
+     landlords must suffer, I think the temporary ague-fit will,
+     on the whole, be advantageous to the country. It will check
+     that inordinate and unbecoming spirit of expense, or rather
+     extravagance, which was poisoning all classes, and bring us
+     back to the sober virtues of our ancestors. It will also
+     have the effect of teaching the landed interest, that their
+     connection with their farmers should be of a nature more
+     intimate than that of mere payment and receipt of rent, and
+     that the largest offerer for a lease is often the person
+     least entitled to be preferred as a tenant. Above all, it
+     will complete the destruction of those execrable quacks,
+     terming themselves land-doctors, who professed, from a two
+     days' scamper over your estate, to tell you its
+     constitution,--in other words its value,--acre by acre.
+     These men, paid according to the golden hopes they held out,
+     afforded by their reports one principal means of deceiving
+     both landlord and tenant, by setting an ideal and
+     extravagant value upon land, which seemed to entitle the one
+     to expect, and the other to offer, rent far beyond what any
+     expectation formed by either, upon their own acquaintance
+     with the property, could rationally have warranted. More
+     than one landed gentleman has cursed, in my presence, the
+     day he ever consulted one of those empirics, whose
+     prognostications induced him to reject the offers of
+     substantial men, practically acquainted with the _locale_.
+
+     Ever, my dear Morritt, most truly yours,
+
+                                        Walter SCOTT.
+
+In October, 1816, appeared the Edinburgh Annual Register, containing
+Scott's historical sketch of the year 1814--a composition which would
+occupy at least four such volumes as the reader has now in his
+hand.[41] Though executed with extraordinary rapidity, the sketch is
+as clear as spirited; but I need say no more of it here, as the author
+travels mostly over the same ground again in his Life of Napoleon.
+
+              [Footnote 41: [Referring to the edition of 1839, in ten
+              volumes.]]
+
+{p.120} Scott's correspondence proves, that during this autumn he had
+received many English guests besides the good spinsters of Piccadilly
+and Mr. Morritt. I regret to add, it also proves that he had continued
+all the while to be annoyed with calls for money from John Ballantyne;
+yet before the 12th of November called him to Edinburgh, he appears to
+have nearly finished the first Tales of my Landlord. He had, moreover,
+concluded a negotiation with Constable and Longman for a series of
+Letters on the History of Scotland: of which, however, if he ever
+wrote any part, the MS. has not been discovered. It is probable that
+he may have worked some detached fragments into his long-subsequent
+Tales of a Grandfather.[42] The following letter shows likewise that
+he was now busy with plans of building at Abbotsford, and deep in
+consultation on that subject with an artist eminent for his skill in
+Gothic architecture,--Mr. Edward Blore:--
+
+              [Footnote 42: [Scott says in a letter to John Murray,
+              written October 20, 1814: "In casting about how I might
+              show you some mark of my sense of former kindness, a
+              certain MS. History of Scotland in _Letters to my
+              Children_ has occurred to me, which I consider as a
+              desideratum; it is upon the plan of _Lord Lyttelton's
+              Letters_, as they are called." Nearly a year later he
+              returns to the subject, and says: "I intend to revise my
+              letters on Scottish History for you, but I will not get
+              to press till November, for the country affords no
+              facilities for consulting the necessary authorities. I
+              hope it may turn out a thing of some interest, though I
+              rather intend to keep to its original purpose as a book
+              of instruction to children." These references seem to
+              show that the work may have been further advanced than
+              Lockhart supposed. The announcement of the proposed book
+              by Constable and Longman naturally excited the
+              indignation of Blackwood and Murray, as is shown in a
+              vigorous letter from the Edinburgh to the London
+              publisher, blaming equally the Ballantynes and
+              Constable.--See _Memoirs of John Murray_, vol. i. pp.
+              245, 246, 462.]]
+
+     TO DANIEL TERRY, ESQ.
+
+                                        November 12, 1816.
+
+     MY DEAR TERRY,--I have been shockingly negligent in
+     acknowledging your repeated favors; but it so happened, that
+     I have had very little to _say_, with a great {p.121} deal
+     to _do_; so that I trusted to your kindness to forgive my
+     apparent want of kindness, and indisputable lack of
+     punctuality. You will readily suppose that I have heard with
+     great satisfaction of the prosperity of your household,
+     particularly of the good health of my little namesake and
+     his mother. Godmothers of yore used to be fairies; and
+     though only a godfather, I think of sending you, one day, a
+     _fairy_ gift--a little drama, namely, which, if the audience
+     be indulgent, may be of use to him. Of course, you will
+     stand godfather to it yourself: it is yet only in embryo--a
+     sort of poetical Hans in Kelder--nor am I sure when I can
+     bring him forth; not for this season, at any rate. You will
+     receive, in the course of a few days, my late _whereabouts_
+     in four volumes: there are two tales--the last of which I
+     really prefer to any fictitious narrative I have yet been
+     able to produce--the first is wish-washy enough. The subject
+     of the second tale lies among the old Scottish
+     Cameronians--nay, I'll tickle ye off a Covenanter as readily
+     as old Jack could do a young Prince; and a rare fellow he
+     is, when brought forth in his true colors. Were it not for
+     the necessity of using Scriptural language, which is
+     essential to the character, but improper for the stage, it
+     would be very dramatic. But of all this you will judge by
+     and by. To give the go-by to the public, I have doubled and
+     leaped into my form, like a hare in snow: that is, I have
+     changed my publisher, and come forth like a maiden knight's
+     white shield (there is a conceit!) without any adhesion to
+     fame gained in former adventures (another!) or, in other
+     words, with a virgin title-page (another!)--I should not be
+     so light-hearted about all this, but that it is very nearly
+     finished and out, which is always a blithe moment for Mr.
+     Author. And now to other matters. The books came safe, and
+     were unpacked two days since, on our coming to town--most
+     ingeniously were they stowed in the legs of the very
+     handsome stand for Lord Byron's vase, with which our
+     {p.122} friend George Bullock has equipped me. I was made
+     very happy to receive him at Abbotsford, though only for a
+     start; and no less so to see Mr. Blore, from whom I received
+     your last letter. He is a very fine young man, modest,
+     simple, and unaffected in his manners, as well as a most
+     capital artist. I have had the assistance of both these
+     gentlemen in arranging an addition to the cottage at
+     Abbotsford, intended to connect the present farmhouse with
+     the line of low buildings to the right of it. Mr. Bullock
+     will show you the plan, which I think is very ingenious. He
+     has promised to give it his consideration with respect to
+     the interior; and Mr. Blore has drawn me a very handsome
+     elevation, both to the road and to the river. I expect to
+     get some decorations from the old Tolbooth of Edinburgh,
+     particularly the cope-stones of the doorway, or lintels, as
+     we call them, and a _niche_ or two--one very handsome
+     indeed! Better get a niche _from_ the Tolbooth than a niche
+     _in_ it, to which such building operations are apt to bring
+     the projectors. This addition will give me: first, a
+     handsome boudoir, in which I intend to place Mr. Bullock's
+     Shakespeare,[43] with his superb cabinet, which serves as a
+     pedestal. This opens into the little drawing-room, to which
+     it serves as a chapel of ease; and on the other side, to a
+     handsome dining-parlor of 27 feet by 18, with three windows
+     to the north, and one to the south,--the last to be Gothic,
+     and filled with stained glass. Besides these commodities,
+     there is a small conservatory or greenhouse; and a study for
+     myself, which we design to fit up with ornaments from
+     Melrose Abbey. Bullock made several casts with his own
+     hands--masks, and so forth, delightful for cornices, etc.
+
+              [Footnote 43: A cast from the monumental effigy at
+              Stratford-upon-Avon--now in the library at
+              Abbotsford--was the gift of Mr. George Bullock, long
+              distinguished in London as a collector of curiosities.
+              This ingenious man was, as the reader will see in the
+              sequel, a great favorite with Scott.]
+
+     Do not let Mrs. Terry think of the windows till little
+     {p.123} Wat is duly cared after.[44] I am informed by Mr.
+     Blore that he is a fine thriving fellow, very like papa.
+     About my armorial bearings: I will send you a correct
+     drawing as I can get hold of Blore; namely--of the
+     scutcheons of my grandsires on each side, and my own. I
+     could detail them in the jargon of heraldry, but it is
+     better to speak to your eyes by translating them into
+     colored drawings, as the sublime science of armory has
+     fallen into some neglect of late years, with all its
+     mascles, buckles, crescents, and boars of the first, second,
+     third, and fourth.
+
+              [Footnote 44: Mrs. Terry had offered the services of her
+              elegant pencil in designing some windows of painted
+              glass for Scott's armory, etc.]
+
+     I was very sorry I had no opportunity of showing attention
+     to your friend Mr. Abbot, not being in town at the time. I
+     grieve to say that neither the genius of Kean nor the charms
+     of Miss O'Neill could bring me from the hillside and the
+     sweet society of Tom Purdie. All our family are very
+     well--Walter as tall nearly as I am, fishing salmon and
+     shooting moor-fowl and blackcock, in good style; the girls
+     growing up, and, as yet, not losing their simplicity of
+     character; little Charles excellent at play, and not
+     deficient at learning, when the young dog will take pains.
+     Abbotsford is looking pretty at last, and the planting is
+     making some show. I have now several hundred acres thereof,
+     running out as far as beyond the lake. We observe with great
+     pleasure the steady rise which you make in public opinion,
+     and expect, one day, to hail you stage-manager. Believe me,
+     my dear Terry, always very much yours,
+
+                                        W. SCOTT.
+
+     P. S.--The Counsellor and both the Ballantynes are well and
+     hearty.
+
+On the first of December, the first series of the Tales of my Landlord
+appeared, and notwithstanding the silence of the title-page, and the
+change of publishers, and {p.124} the attempt which had certainly
+been made to vary the style both of delineation and of language, all
+doubts whether they were or were not from the same hand with Waverley
+had worn themselves out before the lapse of a week.--The enthusiasm of
+their reception among the highest literary circles of London may be
+gathered from the following letter:--
+
+     TO WALTER SCOTT, ESQ., EDINBURGH.
+
+                                   ALBEMARLE STREET, 14th December, 1816.
+
+     DEAR SIR,--Although I dare not address you as the author of
+     certain "Tales" (which, however, must be written either by
+     Walter Scott or the Devil), yet nothing can restrain me from
+     thinking it is to your influence with the author that I am
+     indebted for the essential honor of being one of their
+     publishers, and I must intrude upon you to offer my most
+     hearty thanks--not divided, but doubled--alike for my
+     worldly gain therein, and for the great acquisition of
+     professional reputation which their publication has already
+     procured me. I believe I might, under any oath that could be
+     proposed, swear that I never experienced such unmixed
+     pleasure as the reading of this exquisite work has afforded
+     me; and if you could see me, as the author's literary
+     chamberlain, receiving the unanimous and vehement praises of
+     every one who has read it, and the curses of those whose
+     needs my scanty supply could not satisfy, you might judge of
+     the sincerity with which I now entreat you to assure him of
+     the most complete success. Lord Holland said, when I asked
+     his opinion--"Opinion! We did not one of us go to bed last
+     night--nothing slept but my gout." Frere, Hallam,
+     Boswell,[45] Lord Glenbervie, William Lamb,[46] all agree
+     that it surpasses all the other novels. Gifford's estimate
+     is increased at every reperusal. Heber says there are only
+     two men in the world--Walter Scott and Lord Byron. Between
+     you, you have given existence to a third--Ever your faithful
+     servant,
+
+                                        John MURRAY.
+
+              [Footnote 45: The late James Boswell, Esq., of the
+              Temple--second son of _Bozzy_.]
+
+              [Footnote 46: The Honorable William Lamb--now Lord
+              Melbourne.]
+
+To this cordial effusion Scott returned the following answer. It was
+necessary, since he had fairly resolved {p.125} against compromising
+his incognito, that he should be prepared not only to repel the
+impertinent curiosity of strangers, but to evade the proffered
+congratulations of overflowing kindness. He contrived, however, to do
+so, on this and all similar occasions, in a style of equivoque which
+could never be seriously misunderstood:[47]--
+
+              [Footnote 47: [Even such keen observers as Murray and
+              Blackwood had their intervals of doubt regarding the
+              authorship of the Novels. In June, 1816, Blackwood
+              writes: "There have been various rumors with regard to
+              Greenfield being the author, but I never paid much
+              attention to it; the thing appeared to me so very
+              improbable.... But from what I have heard lately, and
+              from what you state, I now begin to think that
+              Greenfield may probably be the author." And only a month
+              after the date of his letter to Scott, here given,
+              Murray writes to Blackwood:--
+
+              "I can assure you, but _in the greatest confidence_,
+              that I have discovered the author of all these Novels to
+              be Thomas Scott, Walter Scott's brother. He is now in
+              Canada. I have no doubt but that Mr. Walter Scott did a
+              great deal to the first Waverley Novel, because of his
+              anxiety to save his brother, and his doubt about the
+              success of the work. This accounts for the many stories
+              about it. Many persons had previously heard from Mr.
+              Scott, but you may rely upon the certainty of what I
+              have told you." By this time Blackwood is firm in the
+              faith of Scott's authorship; but Bernard Barton writes
+              to Murray that he has heard that James Hogg is the
+              author of _Tales of my Landlord_, and that he has had
+              intimation from himself to that effect; while Lady
+              Mackintosh is informed on excellent authority that the
+              writer is Mrs. Thomas Scott. Writing to Blackwood in
+              February, 1817, Murray avers,--"I will believe, till
+              within an inch of my life, that the author of _Tales of
+              my Landlord_ is Thomas Scott."--See Smiles's _Memoir of
+              John Murray_, vol. i. pp. 461, 473, 474.]]
+
+     TO JOHN MURRAY, ESQ., ALBEMARLE STREET, LONDON.
+
+                                        EDINBURGH, 18th December, 1816.
+
+     MY DEAR SIR,--I give you heartily joy of the success of the
+     Tales, although I do not claim that paternal interest in
+     them which my friends do me the credit to assign me. I
+     assure you I have never read a volume of them until they
+     were printed, and can only join with the rest of the world
+     in applauding the true and striking portraits which they
+     present of old Scottish manners. I do not expect implicit
+     reliance to be placed on my disavowal, because I know very
+     well that he who is disposed not to own a work must
+     necessarily deny it, and that otherwise {p.126} his secret
+     would be at the mercy of all who choose to ask the question,
+     since silence in such a case must always pass for consent,
+     or rather assent. But I have a mode of convincing you that I
+     am perfectly serious in my denial--pretty similar to that by
+     which Solomon distinguished the fictitious from the real
+     mother--and that is, by reviewing the work, which I take to
+     be an operation equal to that of quartering the child. But
+     this is only on condition I can have Mr. Erskine's
+     assistance, who admires the work greatly more than I do,
+     though I think the painting of the second Tale both true and
+     powerful. I knew Old Mortality very well; his name was
+     Paterson, but few knew him otherwise than by his nickname.
+     The first Tale is not very original in its concoction, and
+     lame and impotent in its conclusion. My love to Gifford. I
+     have been over head and ears in work this summer, or I would
+     have sent the Gypsies; indeed I was partly stopped by
+     finding it impossible to procure a few words of their
+     language.
+
+     Constable wrote to me about two months since, desirous of
+     having a new edition of Paul; but not hearing from you, I
+     conclude you are still on hand. Longman's people had then
+     only sixty copies.
+
+     Kind compliments to Heber, whom I expected at Abbotsford
+     this summer; also to Mr. Croker and all your four o'clock
+     visitors. I am just going to Abbotsford to make a small
+     addition to my premises there. I have now about 700 acres,
+     thanks to the booksellers and the discerning public. Yours
+     truly,
+
+                                        Walter SCOTT.
+
+     P. S.--I have much to ask about Lord Byron if I had time.
+     The third canto of the Childe is inimitable. Of the last
+     poems, there are one or two which indicate rather an
+     irregular play of imagination.[48] What a pity that a man of
+     such exquisite genius will not be contented {p.127} to be
+     happy on the ordinary terms![49] I declare my heart bleeds
+     when I think of him, self-banished from the country to which
+     he is an honor.[50]
+
+              [Footnote 48: _Parisina_--_The Dream_--and the "Domestic
+              Pieces," had been recently published.]
+
+              [Footnote 49: (On November 27 Scott had written to
+              Joanna Baillie, who had just returned from a tour on the
+              Continent:--
+
+              "All I ever longed for on the Continent was their light
+              wines, which you do not care about, and their fine
+              climate, which we should both value equally; and to say
+              truth, I never saw scene or palace which shook my
+              allegiance to Tweedside and Abbotsford, though so
+              inferior in every respect, and though the hills, or
+              rather braes, are just high enough 'to lift us to the
+              storm' when the storms are not so condescending as to
+              sweep both crest and base, which, to do them justice, is
+              seldom the case. What have I got to send you?... Alas,
+              nothing but the history of petty employments and a
+              calendar of increasing bad weather. The latter was much
+              mitigated by enjoying for a good portion of the summer
+              the society of John Morritt, of Rokeby, who has so much
+              of that which is delightful, both in his grave and gay
+              moods, that he can make us forget the hillside while
+              sitting by the fireside. His late loss has cast a
+              general shade of melancholy over him, which renders him
+              yet dearer to his friends, by the gentle and unaffected
+              manner in which his natural gayety of temper gleams
+              through it and renders it still more interesting....
+
+              "A far different object of interest, yet still of
+              interest, checkered with pity and disapprobation, is
+              Lord Byron, whose present situation seems to rival all
+              that ever has been said and sung of the misfortunes of a
+              too irritable imagination. The last part of _Childe
+              Harold_ intimates a terrible state of mind, and with all
+              the power and genius which characterized his former
+              productions, the present seems to indicate a more
+              serious and desperate degree of misanthropy. I own I was
+              not much moved by the scorn of the world which his first
+              poems implied, because I know it is a humor of mind
+              which those whom fortune has spoilt by indulgence, or
+              irritated by reverses, are apt to assume, because it
+              looks melancholy and gentlemanlike, and becomes a bard
+              as well as being desperately in love, or very fond of
+              the sunrise, though he lies in bed till noon, or anxious
+              in recommending to others to catch cold by visiting old
+              abbeys by moonlight, which he never happened to see
+              under the chaste moonbeam himself; but this strange poem
+              goes much deeper, and either the Demon of Misanthropy is
+              in full possession of him, or he has already invited ten
+              guests, equally desperate, to the swept and garnished
+              mansion of Harold's understanding."--_Familiar Letters_,
+              vol. i. p. 369.)]
+
+              [Footnote 50: [This is probably the "expression of
+              kindness" which encouraged Murray to beg Scott to review
+              in the _Quarterly_ Byron's recently published volumes,
+              _Childe Harold, Canto III._, and _The Prisoner of
+              Chillon, a Dream, and Other Poems_. The request was
+              promptly complied with, and the article appeared in the
+              next number issued (_dated_ October, 1816),--a review
+              full of generous, and also judicious, appreciation. For
+              some reason, hard now to discover, unless it were the
+              kindliness of the writer's tone towards the younger
+              poet, some of Lady Byron's friends, among whom was
+              Joanna Baillie, seem to have taken strong exception to
+              the paper, and Miss Baillie wrote to Scott at some
+              length on the matter, even animadverting upon the purely
+              literary criticism of the reviewer. Much of the
+              correspondence which ensued, including a characteristic
+              letter from Lady Byron, can be found in the _Familiar
+              Letters_ (vol. i. pp. 413-422).
+
+              Of the review, Byron writes to Murray (March 3, 1817):--
+
+              ... "It seems to me (as far as the subject of it may be
+              permitted to judge) to be _very well_ written as a
+              composition, and ... even those who may condemn its
+              partiality, must praise its generosity. The temptations
+              to take another and less favorable view of the question
+              have been so great and numerous, that, what with public
+              opinion, politics, etc., he must be a gallant as well as
+              a good man, who has ventured in that place and at this
+              time to write such an article even anonymously. Such
+              things, however, are their own reward; and I even
+              flatter myself that the writer, whoever he may be (and I
+              have no guess), will not regret that the perusal of this
+              has given me as much gratification as any composition of
+              that nature could give, and more than any other has ever
+              given,--and I have had a good many in my time of one
+              kind or the other. It is not the mere praise, but there
+              is a tact and a delicacy throughout, not only with
+              regard to me, but to others, which, as it has not been
+              observed elsewhere, I had till now doubted, whether it
+              could be observed anywhere." He writes a few weeks
+              later, on learning that Scott wrote the article: ... "It
+              cannot add to my good opinion of him, but it adds to
+              that of myself."--_Letters and Journals of Lord Byron_
+              (1900), vol. iv. pp. 63, 85.]]
+
+{p.128} Mr. Murray, gladly embracing this offer of an article for his
+journal on the Tales of my Landlord, begged Scott to take a wider
+scope, and dropping all respect for the idea of a divided parentage,
+to place together any materials he might have for the illustration of
+the Waverley Novels in general; he suggested in particular, that,
+instead of drawing up a long-promised disquisition on the Gypsies in a
+separate shape, whatever he had to say concerning that picturesque
+generation might be introduced by way of comment on the character of
+Meg Merrilies. What Scott's original conception had been I know not;
+he certainly gave his reviewal all the breadth which Murray could have
+wished, and, _inter alia_, diversified it with a few anecdotes of the
+Scottish Gypsies. But the late excellent biographer of John Knox, Dr.
+Thomas M'Crie, had, in the mean time, considered the representation of
+the Covenanters, in the story of Old Mortality, as so unfair as to
+demand at his {p.129} hands a very serious rebuke. The Doctor
+forthwith published, in a magazine called the Edinburgh Christian
+Instructor, a set of papers, in which the historical foundations of
+that tale were attacked with indignant warmth; and though Scott, when
+he first heard of these invectives, expressed his resolution never
+even to read them, he found the impression they were producing so
+strong, that he soon changed his purpose, and finally devoted a very
+large part of his article for the Quarterly Review to an elaborate
+defence of his own picture of the Covenanters.[51]
+
+              [Footnote 51: Since I have mentioned this reviewal, I
+              may as well, to avoid recurrence to it, express here my
+              conviction, that Erskine, not Scott, was the author of
+              the critical estimate of the Waverley Novels which it
+              embraces--although, for the purpose of mystification,
+              Scott had taken the trouble to transcribe the paragraphs
+              in which that estimate is contained. At the same time I
+              cannot but add that, had Scott really been the sole
+              author of this reviewal, he need not have incurred the
+              severe censure which has been applied to his supposed
+              conduct in the matter. After all, his judgment of his
+              own works must have been allowed to be not above, but
+              very far under the mark; and the whole affair would, I
+              think, have been considered by every candid person
+              exactly as the letter about Solomon and the rival
+              mothers was by Murray, Gifford, and the "four o'clock
+              visitors" of Albemarle Street--as a good joke. A better
+              joke, certainly, than the allusion to the report of
+              Thomas Scott being the real author of Waverley, at the
+              close of the article, was never penned; and I think it
+              includes a confession over which a misanthrope might
+              have chuckled: "We intended here to conclude this long
+              article, when a strong report reached us of certain
+              Transatlantic confessions, which, if genuine (though of
+              this we know nothing), assign a different author to
+              these volumes than the party suspected by our Scottish
+              correspondents. Yet a critic may be excused seizing upon
+              the nearest suspicious person, on the principle happily
+              expressed by Claverhouse, in a letter to the Earl of
+              Linlithgow. He had been, it seems, in search of a gifted
+              weaver, who used to hold forth at conventicles: 'I sent
+              for the webster (weaver), they brought in his _brother_
+              for him: though he, maybe, cannot preach like his
+              brother, I doubt not but he is as well-principled as he,
+              wherefore I thought it would be no great fault to give
+              him the trouble to go to jail with the
+              rest!'"--_Miscellaneous Prose Works_, vol. xix. pp. 85,
+              86.]
+
+Before the first Tales of my Landlord were six weeks old, two editions
+of 2000 copies disappeared, and a third of 2000 was put to press; but
+notwithstanding this rapid success, which was still further continued,
+and the friendly relations which always subsisted between the {p.130}
+author and Mr. Murray, circumstances erelong occurred which carried
+the publication of the work into the hands of Messrs. Constable.
+
+The author's answer to Dr. M'Crie, and his Introduction of 1830, have
+exhausted the historical materials on which he constructed his Old
+Mortality; and the origin of The Black Dwarf--as to the conclusion of
+which story he appears on reflection to have completely adopted the
+opinion of honest Blackwood--has already been sufficiently illustrated
+by an anecdote of his early wanderings in Tweeddale. The latter tale,
+however imperfect, and unworthy as a work of art to be placed high in
+the catalogue of his productions, derives a singular interest from its
+delineation of the dark feelings so often connected with physical
+deformity; feelings which appear to have diffused their shadow over
+the whole genius of Byron--and which, but for this single picture, we
+should hardly have conceived ever to have passed through Scott's
+happier mind.[52] All the bitter blasphemy of spirit which, from
+infancy to the tomb, swelled up in Byron against the unkindness of
+nature; which sometimes perverted even his filial love into a
+sentiment of diabolical malignity; all this black and desolate train
+of reflections must have been encountered and deliberately subdued by
+the manly parent of The Black Dwarf. Old Mortality, on the other hand,
+is remarkable as the _novelist's_ first attempt to repeople the past
+by the power of imagination working on materials furnished by books.
+In Waverley he revived the fervid dreams of his boyhood, and drew, not
+from printed records, but from the artless oral narratives of his
+_Invernahyles_. In Guy Mannering and The Antiquary he embodied
+characters and manners familiar {p.131} to his own wandering youth.
+But whenever his letters mention Old Mortality in its progress, they
+represent him as strong in the confidence that the industry with which
+he had pored over a library of forgotten tracts would enable him to
+identify himself with the time in which they had birth, as completely
+as if he had listened with his own ears to the dismal sermons of
+Peden, ridden with Claverhouse and Dalzell in the rout of Bothwell,
+and been an advocate at the bar of the Privy Council, when Lauderdale
+catechised and tortured the assassins of Archbishop Sharp. To
+reproduce a departed age with such minute and lifelike accuracy as
+this tale exhibits, demanded a far more energetic sympathy of
+imagination than had been called for in any effort of his serious
+verse. It is indeed most curiously instructive for any student of art
+to compare the Roundheads of Rokeby with the Bluebonnets of Old
+Mortality. For the rest--the story is framed with a deeper skill than
+any of the preceding novels: the canvas is a broader one; the
+characters are contrasted and projected with a power and felicity
+which neither he nor any other master ever surpassed; and,
+notwithstanding all that has been urged against him as a disparager of
+the Covenanters, it is to me very doubtful whether the inspiration of
+romantic chivalry ever prompted him to nobler emotions than he has
+lavished on the re-animation of their stern and solemn enthusiasm.
+This work has always appeared to me the Marmion of his novels.[53]
+
+              [Footnote 52: [On reading _The Black Dwarf_, Mrs. Leigh
+              believed her brother to be the author, and wrote to him
+              to that effect. Byron had not yet seen the book, and
+              says in his reply: "I am not P. P. [Peter Pattieson], I
+              assure you on my honor, and do not understand to what
+              book you allude, so that all your compliments are quite
+              thrown away."--Byron's _Letters and Journals_ (1900),
+              vol. iv. p. 56.]]
+
+              [Footnote 53: [Lady Louisa Stuart, whose approbation
+              Scott writes he values "beyond a whole wilderness of
+              critics," says in a letter of December 5, 1816:
+
+              "[Old Mortality] is super-excellent in all its points;
+              it breaks up fresh ground, and has all the raciness of
+              originality. I cannot help thinking it will bear down
+              the world before it triumphantly. As usual it makes its
+              personages our intimate acquaintance, and its scenes so
+              present to the eye, that, last night, after sitting up
+              unreasonably late over it, I got no sleep, from a kind
+              of fever of mind it had occasioned. It seemed as if I
+              had been an eye and ear witness of all the passages, and
+              I could not lull the agitation into calmness. Mause and
+              Cuddie hurried my spirits in another way; they forced me
+              to laugh out aloud, which one seldom does alone. On a
+              second slower reading I expect to be still better
+              pleased, and then also I suppose I shall find out the
+              faults. At present it has, in the Scotch phrase, 'taken
+              me off my feet,' and I do not criticise, though I think
+              you will believe me when I say I do not and will not
+              flatter. One thing I regret, that like the author of
+              _The Antiquary_, Jedediah did not add a glossary;
+              because even I, a mongrel, occasionally paying long
+              visits to Scotland, and hearing Girsy at Bothwell gate
+              and Peggy Macgowan hold forth in the village,--even I,
+              thus qualified, have found a great many words absolute
+              Hebrew to me, and I fear the altogether English will
+              find many more beyond their comprehension or conjecture.
+              But this may be remedied in another edition. I have as
+              yet only one great attack to make, and that upon a
+              single word; but such a word! such an anachronism!
+              Claverhouse says he has no time to hear _sentimental_
+              speeches. My dear sir! tell Jedediah that Claverhouse
+              never heard the sound of those four syllables in his
+              life. We are used to them; but _sentiment_ and
+              _sentimental_ were, I believe, first introduced into the
+              language by Sterne, and are hardly as old as I am. Let
+              alone the Covenanters' days, I am persuaded you would
+              look in vain for them in the works of Richardson and
+              Fielding. Nay, the French, from whom they were borrowed,
+              did not talk of _le sentiment_ in that sense till long
+              after Louis XIV.'s reign. No such thing is to be found
+              in Madame de Sévigné, la Bruyère, etc., etc., etc. At
+              home or abroad I defy Lord Dundee ever to have met with
+              the expression. Mr. Peter Pattieson had been reading the
+              _Man of Feeling_, and it was a slip of his tongue, which
+              I am less inclined to excuse than Mause's abstruse
+              Scotch, which I duly reverence, as she did
+              Kettledrummle's sermons, because I do not understand it.
+              Once more I shall be much disappointed if this work does
+              not quickly acquire a very great reputation. I fancy Mr.
+              Morritt is in the secret; yet, as I am not certain, I
+              will keep on the secure side and not mention it when I
+              write to him, however one may long to _intercommune_ on
+              such subjects with those likely to hold the same faith."
+
+              At the close of his reply, Scott says: "I must not
+              forget to thank your Ladyship for your acute and
+              indisputable criticism on the application of the word
+              _sentimental_. How it escaped my pen I know not, unless
+              that the word owed me a grudge for the ill will I have
+              uniformly borne it, and was resolved to slip itself in
+              for the express purpose of disgracing me. I will
+              certainly turn it out the first opportunity." This was
+              done in the second edition.--_Familiar Letters_, vol. i.
+              pp. 394, 400.]]
+
+{p.132} I have disclaimed the power of farther illustrating its
+historical groundworks, but I am enabled by Mr. Train's kindness to
+give some interesting additions to Scott's own account of this novel
+as a composition. The generous Supervisor visited him in Edinburgh in
+May, 1816, a few days after the publication of The Antiquary, carrying
+with him several relics which he wished to present to his collection;
+among others a purse that had belonged {p.133} to Rob Roy, and also a
+fresh heap of traditionary gleanings, which he had gathered among the
+tale-tellers of his district. One of these last was in the shape of a
+letter to Mr. Train from a Mr. Broadfoot, "schoolmaster at the clachan
+of Penningham, and author of the _celebrated song_ of the Hills of
+Galloway"--with which I confess myself unacquainted. Broadfoot had
+facetiously signed his communication _Clashbottom_,--"a professional
+appellation derived," says Mr. Train, "from the use of the birch, and
+by which he was usually addressed among his companions,--who
+assembled, not at the Wallace Inn of Gandercleuch, but at the sign of
+the Shoulder of Mutton in Newton-Stewart." Scott received these gifts
+with benignity, and invited the friendly donor to breakfast next
+morning. He found him at work in his library, and surveyed with
+enthusiastic curiosity the furniture of the room, especially its only
+picture, a portrait of Graham of Claverhouse. Train expressed the
+surprise with which every one, who had known Dundee only in the pages
+of the Presbyterian Annalists, must see for the first time that
+beautiful and melancholy visage, worthy of the most pathetic dreams of
+romance. Scott replied, "that no character had been so foully traduced
+as the Viscount of Dundee; that, thanks to Wodrow, Cruickshanks, and
+such chroniclers, he, who was every inch a soldier and a gentleman,
+still passed among the Scottish vulgar for a ruffian desperado, who
+rode a goblin horse, was proof against shot, and in league with the
+Devil." "Might he not," said Mr. Train, "be made, in good hands, the
+hero of a national romance as interesting as any about either Wallace
+or Prince Charlie?" "He might," said Scott, "but your western zealots
+would require to be faithfully portrayed in order to bring him out
+with the right effect."[54] "And what," resumed {p.134} Train, "if
+the story were to be delivered as if from the mouth of _Old
+Mortality_? Would _he_ not do as well as _the Minstrel_ did in the
+Lay?" "Old Mortality!" said Scott--"who was he?" Mr. Train then told
+what he could remember of old Paterson, and seeing how much his story
+interested the hearer, offered to inquire farther about that
+enthusiast on his return to Galloway. "Do so by all means," said
+Scott; "I assure you I shall look with anxiety for your
+communication." He said nothing at this time of his own meeting with
+Old Mortality in the churchyard of Dunnottar--and I think there can be
+no doubt that that meeting was thus recalled to his recollection; or
+that to this intercourse with Mr. Train we owe the whole machinery of
+the Tales of my Landlord, as well as the adoption of Claverhouse's
+period for the scene of one of its first fictions. I think it highly
+probable that we owe a further obligation to the worthy Supervisor's
+presentation of Rob Roy's _spleuchan_.
+
+              [Footnote 54: [Scott's old friend, John Richardson, who
+              was from the first in the secret of the Waverley Novels,
+              was a stanch Whig, as beseemed the descendant of an old
+              Covenanting family. Some of his ancestral traditions
+              suggested certain passages in _Old Mortality_, and he
+              has recorded that during a visit to Abbotsford Scott
+              gave him the proof sheets of the first volume to read,
+              and how he lost a night's sleep in doing it. Twelve
+              years later, in writing to Scott regarding _The Tales of
+              a Grandfather_, he says that in this work,--"You have
+              paid a debt which you owed to the manes of the
+              Covenanters for the flattering picture which you drew of
+              Claverhouse in _Old Mortality_."
+
+              Scott says in his reply (December, 1828): "As to
+              Covenanters and Malignants, they were both a set of
+              cruel and bloody bigots, and had, notwithstanding, those
+              virtues with which bigotry is sometimes allied. Their
+              characters were of a kind much more picturesque than
+              beautiful; neither had the least idea either of
+              toleration or humanity, so that it happens that, so far
+              as they can be distinguished from each other, one is
+              tempted to hate most the party which chances to be
+              uppermost for the time."--See _Journal_, note, vol. ii.
+              p. 404.]]
+
+The original design for the First Series of Jedediah Cleishbotham was,
+as Scott told me, to include four separate tales illustrative of four
+districts of the country, in the like number of volumes; but, his
+imagination once kindled upon any theme, he could not but pour himself
+out freely--so that notion was soon abandoned.
+
+
+
+
+{p.135} CHAPTER XXXVIII.
+
+     Harold the Dauntless Published. -- Scott Aspires to Be a
+     Baron of the Exchequer. -- Letter to the Duke of Buccleuch
+     Concerning Poachers, etc. -- First Attack of Cramp in the
+     Stomach. -- Letters to Morritt, Terry, and Mrs. Maclean
+     Clephane. -- Story of the Doom of Devorgoil. -- John
+     Kemble's Retirement from the Stage. -- William Laidlaw
+     Established at Kaeside. -- Novel of Rob Roy Projected. --
+     Letter to Southey on the Relief of the Poor, etc. -- Letter
+     to Lord Montagu on Hogg's Queen's Wake, and on the Death of
+     Frances, Lady Douglas.
+
+1817.
+
+
+Within less than a month, The Black Dwarf and Old Mortality were
+followed by "Harold the Dauntless, by the author of The Bridal of
+Triermain." This poem had been, it appears, begun several years back;
+nay, part of it had been actually printed before the appearance of
+Childe Harold, though that circumstance had escaped the author's
+remembrance when he penned, in 1830, his Introduction to The Lord of
+the Isles; for he there says, "I am still astonished at my having
+committed the gross error of selecting the very name which Lord Byron
+had made so famous." The volume was published by Messrs. Constable,
+and had, in those booksellers' phrase, "considerable success." It has
+never, however, been placed on a level with Triermain; and though it
+contains many vigorous pictures, and splendid verses, and here and
+there some happy humor, the confusion and harsh transitions {p.136}
+of the fable, and the dim rudeness of character and manners, seem
+sufficient to account for this inferiority in public favor. It is not
+surprising that the author should have redoubled his aversion to the
+notion of any more serious performances in verse. He had seized on an
+instrument of wider compass, and which, handled with whatever
+rapidity, seemed to reveal at every touch treasures that had hitherto
+slept unconsciously within him. He had thrown off his fetters, and
+might well go forth rejoicing in the native elasticity of his
+strength.
+
+It is at least a curious coincidence in literary history, that, as
+Cervantes, driven from the stage of Madrid by the success of Lope de
+Vega, threw himself into prose romance, and produced, at the moment
+when the world considered him as silenced forever, the Don Quixote
+which has outlived Lope's two thousand triumphant dramas--so Scott,
+abandoning verse to Byron, should have rebounded from his fall by the
+only prose romances, which seem to be classed with the masterpiece of
+Spanish genius, by the general judgment of Europe.
+
+I shall insert two letters, in which he announces the publication of
+Harold the Dauntless. In the first of them he also mentions the light
+and humorous little piece entitled The Sultan of Serendib, or the
+Search after Happiness, originally published in a weekly paper, after
+the fashion of the old Essayists, which about this time issued from
+John Ballantyne's premises, under the appropriate name of "The
+SALE-ROOM." The paper had slender success; and though Scott wrote
+several things for it, none of them, except this metrical essay,
+attracted any notice. The Sale-Room was, in fact, a dull and hopeless
+concern; and I should scarcely have thought it worth mentioning, but
+for the confirmation it lends to my suspicion that Mr. John Ballantyne
+was very unwilling, after all his warnings, to retire completely from
+the field of publishing.
+
+     {p.137} TO J. B. S. MORRITT, ESQ., M. P., ROKEBY PARK.
+
+                                        EDINBURGH, January 30, 1817.
+
+     MY DEAR MORRITT,--I hope to send you in a couple of days
+     Harold the Dauntless, which has not turned out so good as I
+     thought it would have done. I begin to get too old and
+     stupid, I think, for poetry, and will certainly never again
+     adventure on a grand scale. For amusement, and to help a
+     little publication that is going on here, I have spun a
+     doggerel tale called The Search after Happiness, of which I
+     shall send you a copy by post, if it is of a frankable size;
+     if not, I can put it up with the Dauntless. Among other
+     misfortunes of Harold is his name, but the thing was partly
+     printed before Childe Harold was in question.
+
+     My great and good news at present is, that the bog (that
+     perpetual hobby-horse) has produced a commodity of most
+     excellent marle, and promises to be of the very last
+     consequence to my wild ground in the neighborhood; for
+     nothing can equal the effect of marle as a top-dressing.
+     Methinks (in my mind's eye, Horatio) I see all the
+     blue-bank, the hinny-lee, and the other provinces of my poor
+     kingdom, waving with deep rye-grass and clover, like the
+     meadows at Rokeby. In honest truth, it will do me yeoman's
+     service.
+
+     My next good tidings are, that Jedediah carries the world
+     before him. Six thousand have been disposed of, and three
+     thousand more are pressing onward, which will be worth £2500
+     to the worthy pedagogue of Gandercleuch. Some of the Scotch
+     Whigs, of the right old fanatical leaven, have waxed wroth
+     with Jedediah,--
+
+          "But shall we go mourn for that, my dear?
+             The cold moon shines by night,
+           And when we wander here and there,
+             We then do go most right."[55]
+
+              [Footnote 55: Joanna Baillie's _Orra_.]
+
+     After all, these honest gentlemen are like Queen Elizabeth
+     {p.138} in their ideas of portrait-painting. They require
+     the pictures of their predecessors to be likenesses, and at
+     the same time demand that they shall be painted without
+     shade, being probably of opinion, with the virgin majesty of
+     England, that there is no such thing in nature.
+
+     I presume you will be going almost immediately to London--at
+     least all our Scotch members are requested to be at their
+     posts, the meaning of which I cannot pretend to guess. The
+     finances are the only ticklish matter, but there is, after
+     all, plenty of money in the country, now that our fever-fit
+     is a little over. In Britain, when there is the least damp
+     upon the spirits of the public, they are exactly like people
+     in a crowd, who take the alarm, and shoulder each other to
+     and fro till some dozen or two of the weakest are borne down
+     and trodden to death; whereas, if they would but have
+     patience and remain quiet, there would be a safe and speedy
+     end to their embarrassment. How we want Billie Pitt now to
+     get up and give the tone to our feelings and opinions!
+
+     As I take up this letter to finish the same, I hear the
+     Prince Regent has been attacked and fired at. Since he was
+     not hurt (for I should be sincerely sorry for my fat
+     friend), I see nothing but good luck to result from this
+     assault. It will make him a good manageable boy, and, I
+     think, secure you a quiet session of Parliament.--Adieu, my
+     dear Morritt, God bless you. Let me know if the gimcracks
+     come safe--I mean the book, etc.
+
+     Ever yours,
+
+                                        Walter SCOTT.
+
+
+     TO THE LADY LOUISA STUART, GLOUCESTER PLACE, LONDON.
+
+                                        EDINBURGH, January 31, 1817.
+
+     MY DEAR LADY LOUISA,--This accompanies Harold the Dauntless.
+     I thought once I should have made it something clever, but
+     it turned vapid upon my imagination; and I finished it at
+     last with hurry and impatience. Nobody knows, that has not
+     tried the feverish trade of poetry, how much it depends upon
+     mood and whim. I {p.139} don't wonder, that, in dismissing
+     all the other deities of Paganism, the Muse should have been
+     retained by common consent; for, in sober reality, writing
+     good verses seems to depend upon something separate from the
+     volition of the author. I sometimes think my fingers set up
+     for themselves, independent of my head; for twenty times I
+     have begun a thing on a certain plan, and never in my life
+     adhered to it (in a work of imagination, that is) for half
+     an hour together. I would hardly write this sort of
+     egotistical trash to any one but yourself, yet it is very
+     true for all that. What my kind correspondent had
+     anticipated on account of Jedediah's effusions has actually
+     taken place; and the author of a very good Life of Knox has,
+     I understand, made a most energetic attack, upon the score
+     that the old Covenanters are not treated with decorum. I
+     have not read it, and certainly never shall. I really think
+     there is nothing in the book that is not very fair and
+     legitimate subject of raillery; and I own I have my
+     suspicions of that very susceptible devotion which so
+     readily takes offence: such men should not read books of
+     amusement; but do they suppose, because they are virtuous,
+     and choose to be thought outrageously so, "there shall be no
+     cakes and ale"?--"Ay, by our lady, and ginger shall be hot
+     in the mouth too."[56] As for the consequences to the
+     author, they can only affect his fortune or his temper--the
+     former, such as it is, has been long fixed beyond shot of
+     these sort of fowlers; and for my temper, I considered
+     always, that by subjecting myself to the irritability which
+     much greater authors have felt on occasions of literary
+     dispute, I should be laying in a plentiful stock of
+     unhappiness for the rest of my life. I therefore make it a
+     rule never to read the attacks made upon me. I remember
+     being capable of something like this sort of self-denial at
+     a very early period of life, for I could not be six years
+     old. I had been put into my bed in the nursery, and two
+     servant {p.140} girls sat down by the embers of the fire,
+     to have their own quiet chat, and the one began to tell a
+     most dismal ghost story, of which I remember the
+     commencement distinctly at this moment; but perceiving which
+     way the tale was tending, and though necessarily curious,
+     being at the same time conscious that, if I listened on, I
+     should be frightened out of my wits for the rest of the
+     night, I had the force to cover up my head in the
+     bed-clothes, so that I could not hear another word that was
+     said. The only inconvenience attending a similar prudential
+     line of conduct in the present case is, that it may seem
+     like a deficiency of spirit; but I am not much afraid of
+     that being laid to my charge--my fault in early life (I hope
+     long since corrected) having lain rather the other way. And
+     so I say, with mine honest Prior,--
+
+        "Sleep, Philo, untouch'd, on my peaceable shelf,
+         Nor take it amiss that so little I heed thee;
+         I've no malice at thee, and some love for myself--
+         Then why should I answer, since first I must read thee?"
+
+              [Footnote 56: _Twelfth Night_, Act II. Scene 3.]
+
+     So you are getting finely on in London. I own I am very glad
+     of it. I am glad the banditti act like banditti, because it
+     will make men of property look round them in time. This
+     country is very like the toys which folks buy for children,
+     and which, tumble them about in any way the urchins will,
+     are always brought to their feet again, by the lead
+     deposited in their extremities. The mass of property has the
+     same effect on our Constitution, and is a sort of ballast
+     which will always _right_ the vessel, to use a sailor's
+     phrase, and bring it to its due equipoise.
+
+     Ministers have acted most sillily in breaking up the burgher
+     volunteers in large towns. On the contrary, the service
+     should have been made coercive. Such men have a moral effect
+     upon the minds of the populace, besides their actual force,
+     and are so much interested in keeping good order, that you
+     may always rely on them, especially as a corps in which
+     there is necessarily a common {p.141} spirit of union and
+     confidence. But all this is nonsense again, quoth my Uncle
+     Toby to himself. Adieu, my dear Lady Louisa; my sincere good
+     wishes always attend you.
+
+                                        W. S.
+
+Not to disturb the narrative of his literary proceedings, I have
+deferred until now the mention of an attempt which Scott made during
+the winter of 1816-1817, to exchange his seat at the Clerk's table for
+one on the Bench of the Scotch Court of Exchequer. It had often
+occurred to me, in the most prosperous years of his life, that such a
+situation would have suited him better in every respect than that
+which he held, and that his never attaining a promotion, which the
+Scottish public would have considered so naturally due to his
+character and services, reflected little honor on his political
+allies. But at the period when I was entitled to hint this to him, he
+appeared to have made up his mind that the rank of Clerk of Session
+was more compatible than that of a Supreme Judge with the habits of a
+literary man, who was perpetually publishing, and whose writings were
+generally of the imaginative order. I had also witnessed the zeal with
+which he seconded the views of more than one of his own friends, when
+their ambition was directed to the Exchequer Bench. I remained, in
+short, ignorant that he ever had seriously thought of it for himself,
+until the ruin of his worldly fortunes in 1826; nor had I any
+information that his wish to obtain it had ever been distinctly
+stated, until certain letters, one of which I shall introduce, were
+placed in my hands after his death, by the present Duke of Buccleuch.
+The late Duke's answers to these letters are also before me; but of
+them it is sufficient to say, that while they show the warmest anxiety
+to serve Scott, they refer to private matters, which rendered it
+inconsistent with his Grace's feelings to interfere at the time in
+question with the distribution of Crown patronage. I incline to think,
+on the whole, {p.142} that the death of this nobleman, which soon
+after left the influence of his house in abeyance, must have, far more
+than any other circumstance, determined Scott to renounce all notions
+of altering his professional position.
+
+     TO THE DUKE OF BUCCLEUCH, ETC., ETC.
+
+                                        EDINBURGH, 11th December, 1816.
+
+     MY DEAR LORD DUKE,--Your Grace has been so much my constant
+     and kind friend and patron through the course of my life,
+     that I trust I need no apology for thrusting upon your
+     consideration some ulterior views, which have been suggested
+     to me by my friends, and which I will either endeavor to
+     prosecute, time and place serving, or lay aside all thoughts
+     of, as they appear to your Grace feasible, and likely to be
+     forwarded by your patronage. It has been suggested to me, in
+     a word, that there would be no impropriety in my being put
+     in nomination as a candidate for the situation of a Baron of
+     Exchequer, when a vacancy shall take place. The difference
+     of the emolument between that situation and those which I
+     now hold, is just £400 a year, so that, in that point of
+     view, it is not a very great object. But there is a
+     difference in the rank, and also in the leisure afforded by
+     a Baron's situation; and a man may, without condemnation,
+     endeavor, at my period of life, to obtain as much honor and
+     ease as he can handsomely come by. My pretensions to such an
+     honor (next to your Grace's countenancing my wishes) would
+     rest very much on the circumstance that my nomination would
+     vacate two good offices (Clerk of Session and Sheriff of
+     Selkirkshire) to the amount of £1000 and £300 a year; and,
+     besides, would extinguish a pension of £300 which I have for
+     life, over and above my salary as Clerk of Session, as
+     having been in office at the time when the Judicature Act
+     deprived us of a part of our vested fees and emoluments. The
+     extinction of this pension would be just so much saved to
+     the public. I am pretty confident also that I should
+     {p.143} be personally acceptable to our friend the Chief
+     Baron.[57] But whether all or any of these circumstances
+     will weigh much in my favor, must solely and entirely rest
+     with your Grace, without whose countenance it would be folly
+     in me to give the matter a second thought. _With_ your
+     patronage, both my situation and habits of society may place
+     my hopes as far as any who are likely to apply; and your
+     interest would be strengthened by the opportunity of placing
+     some good friend in Selkirkshire, besides converting the
+     Minstrel of the Clan into a Baron,--a transmutation worthy
+     of so powerful and kind a chief. But if your Grace thinks I
+     ought to drop thoughts of this preferment, I am bound to
+     say, that I think myself as well provided for by my friends
+     and the public as I have the least title to expect, and that
+     I am perfectly contented and grateful for what I have
+     received. Ever your Grace's faithful and truly obliged
+     servant,
+
+                                        Walter SCOTT.
+
+              [Footnote 57: The late Right Honorable Robert Dundas of
+              Arniston, Chief Baron of the Scotch Exchequer; one of
+              Scott's earliest and kindest friends in that
+              distinguished family.]
+
+The following letter, to the same noble friend, contains a slight
+allusion to this affair of the Barony; but I insert it for a better
+reason. The Duke had, it seems, been much annoyed by some depredations
+on his game in the district of Ettrick Water; and more so by the ill
+use which some boys from Selkirk made of his liberality in allowing
+the people of that town free access to his beautiful walks on the
+banks of the Yarrow, adjoining Newark and Bowhill. The Duke's
+forester, by name Thomas Hudson, had recommended rigorous measures
+with reference to both these classes of offenders, and the Sheriff was
+of course called into council:--
+
+     TO HIS GRACE THE DUKE OF BUCCLEUCH, ETC., ETC., ETC.
+
+                                        ABBOTSFORD, January 11, 1817.
+
+     MY DEAR LORD DUKE,--I have been thinking anxiously about the
+     disagreeable affair of Tom Hudson, {p.144} and the impudent
+     ingratitude of the Selkirk rising generation, and I will
+     take the usual liberty your friendship permits me, of saying
+     what occurs to me on each subject. Respecting the shooting,
+     the crime is highly punishable, and we will omit no
+     inquiries to discover the individuals guilty. Charles
+     Erskine, who is a good police-officer, will be sufficiently
+     active. I know my friend and kinsman, Mr. Scott of Harden,
+     feels very anxious to oblige your Grace, and I have little
+     doubt that if you will have the goodness to mention to him
+     this unpleasant circumstance, he would be anxious to put his
+     game under such regulations as should be agreeable to you.
+     But I believe the pride and pleasure he would feel in
+     obliging your Grace, as heading one of the most ancient and
+     most respectable branches of your name (if I may be pardoned
+     for saying so much in our favor), would be certainly much
+     more gratified by a compliance with your personal request,
+     than if it came through any other channel. Your Grace knows
+     there are many instances in life in which the most effectual
+     way of conferring a favor is condescending to accept one. I
+     have known Harden long and most intimately--a more
+     respectable man, either for feeling, or talent, or knowledge
+     of human life, is rarely to be met with. But he is rather
+     indecisive--requiring some instant stimulus in order to make
+     him resolve to do, not only what he knows to be right, but
+     what he really wishes to do, and means to do one time or
+     other. He is exactly Prior's Earl of Oxford:--
+
+          "Let that be done which Mat doth say."
+          "Yea," quoth the Earl, "_but not to-day_."
+
+     And so exit Harden, and enter Selkirk.
+
+     I know hardly anything more exasperating than the conduct of
+     the little blackguards, and it will be easy to discover and
+     make an example of the biggest and most insolent. In the
+     mean while, my dear Lord, pardon my requesting you will take
+     no general or sweeping resolution as to the Selkirk folks.
+     Your Grace lives near {p.145} them--your residence, both
+     from your direct beneficence, and the indirect advantages
+     which they derive from that residence, is of the utmost
+     consequence; and they must be made sensible that all these
+     advantages are endangered by the very violent and brutal
+     conduct of their children. But I think your Grace will be
+     inclined to follow this up only for the purpose of
+     correction, not for that of requital. They are so much
+     beneath you, and so much in your power, that this would be
+     unworthy of you--especially as all the inhabitants of the
+     little country town must necessarily be included in the
+     punishment. Were your Grace really angry with them, and
+     acting accordingly, you might ultimately feel the regret of
+     my old schoolmaster, who, when he had knocked me down,
+     apologized by saying he did not know his own strength. After
+     all, those who look for anything better than ingratitude
+     from the uneducated and unreflecting mass of a corrupted
+     population, must always be deceived; and the better the
+     heart is that has been expanded towards them, their wants
+     and their wishes, the deeper is the natural feeling of
+     disappointment. But it is our duty to fight on, doing what
+     good we can (and surely the disposition and the means were
+     never more happily united than in your Grace), and trusting
+     to God Almighty, whose grace ripens the seeds we commit to
+     the earth, that our benefactions shall bear fruit. And now,
+     my Lord, asking your pardon for this discharge of my
+     conscience, and assuring your Grace I have no wish to
+     exchange my worsted gown, or the remote _Pisgah_ exchange of
+     a silk one, for the cloak of a Presbyterian parson, even
+     with the certainty of succeeding to the first of your
+     numerous Kirk-presentations, I take the liberty to add my
+     own opinion. The elder boys must be looked out and punished,
+     and the parents severely reprimanded, and the whole
+     respectable part of the town made sensible of the loss they
+     must necessarily sustain by the discontinuance of your
+     patronage. And at, or about the same time, I {p.146} should
+     think it proper if your Grace were to distinguish by any
+     little notice such Selkirk people working with you as have
+     their families under good order.
+
+     I am taking leave of Abbotsford _multum gemens_, and have
+     been just giving directions for planting upon _Turn-again_.
+     When shall we eat a cold luncheon there, and look at the
+     view, and root up the monster in his abyss? I assure you
+     none of your numerous vassals can show a finer succession of
+     _distant_ prospects. For the home-view--ahem!--We must wait
+     till the trees grow.
+
+     Ever your Grace's truly faithful
+
+                                        W. SCOTT.
+
+While the abortive negotiation as to the exchequer was still pending,
+Scott was visited, for the first time since his childish years, with a
+painful illness, which proved the harbinger of a series of attacks,
+all nearly of the same kind, continued at short intervals during more
+than two years. Various letters, already introduced, have indicated
+how widely his habits of life when in Edinburgh differed from those of
+Abbotsford. They at all times did so to a great extent; but he had
+pushed his liberties with a most robust constitution to a perilous
+extreme while the affairs of the Ballantynes were laboring, and he was
+now to pay the penalty.
+
+This first serious alarm occurred towards the close of a merry
+dinner-party in Castle Street (on the 5th of March), when Scott
+suddenly sustained such exquisite torture from cramp in the stomach,
+that his masculine powers of endurance gave way, and he retired from
+the room with a scream of agony which electrified his guests. This
+scene was often repeated, as we shall see presently. His friends in
+Edinburgh continued all that spring in great anxiety on his account.
+Scarcely, however, had the first symptoms yielded to severe medical
+treatment, than he is found to have beguiled the intervals of his
+suffering by planning a dramatic piece on a story supplied to him by
+one of Train's communications, which he desired to {p.147} present to
+Terry, on behalf of the actor's first-born son who had been christened
+by the name of Walter Scott.[58] Such was the origin of the Fortunes
+of Devorgoil--a piece which, though completed soon afterwards, and
+submitted by Terry to many manipulations with a view to the stage, was
+never received by any manager, and was first published, towards the
+close of the author's life, under the title, slightly altered for an
+obvious reason, of The Doom of Devorgoil. The sketch of the story
+which he gives in the following letter will probably be considered by
+many besides myself as well worth the drama. It appears that the actor
+had mentioned to Scott his intention of _Terryfying_ The Black Dwarf.
+
+              [Footnote 58: This young gentleman is now an officer in
+              the East India Company's army.--(1837.) Mr. W. S. Terry
+              lived to distinguish himself as a soldier, and fell in
+              action against the Afghans.--(1848.)]
+
+     TO DANIEL TERRY, ESQ., LONDON.
+
+                                        EDINBURGH, 12th March, 1817.
+
+     DEAR TERRY,--I am now able to write to you on your own
+     affairs, though still as weak as water from the operations
+     of the medical faculty, who, I think, treated me as a
+     recusant to their authority, and having me once at
+     advantage, were determined I should not have strength to
+     rebel again in a hurry. After all, I believe it was touch
+     and go; and considering how much I have to do for my own
+     family and others, my elegy might have been that of the Auld
+     Man's Mare,--
+
+          "The peats and turf are all to lead,
+             What ail'd the beast to die?"
+
+     You don't mention the nature of your undertaking in your
+     last, and in your former you spoke both of the Black Dwarf
+     and of Triermain. I have some doubts whether the town will
+     endure a second time the following up a well-known tale with
+     a dramatic representation--and there is no _vis comica_ to
+     redeem the Black Dwarf, as in the case of Dominie Sampson. I
+     have thought of {p.148} two subjects for you, if, like the
+     Archbishop's homilies, they do not smell of the apoplexy.
+     The first is a noble and very dramatic tradition preserved
+     in Galloway, which runs briefly thus: The Barons of Plenton
+     (the family name, I think, was ---- by Jupiter, forgot!)
+     boasted of great antiquity, and formerly of extensive power
+     and wealth, to which the ruins of their huge castle,
+     situated on an inland loch, still bear witness. In the
+     middle of the seventeenth century, it is said, these ruins
+     were still inhabited by the lineal descendant of this
+     powerful family. But the ruinous halls and towers of his
+     ancestors were all that had descended to him, and he
+     cultivated the garden of the castle, and sold its fruits for
+     a subsistence. He married in a line suitable rather to his
+     present situation than the dignity of his descent, and was
+     quite sunk into the rank of peasantry, excepting that he was
+     still called--more in mockery, or at least in familiarity,
+     than in respect--the Baron of Plenton. A causeway connected
+     the castle with the mainland; it was cut in the middle, and
+     the moat only passable by a drawbridge which yet subsisted,
+     and which the poor old couple contrived to raise every night
+     by their joint efforts, the country being very unsettled at
+     the time. It must be observed that the old man and his wife
+     occupied only one apartment in the extensive ruins, a small
+     one adjoining to the drawbridge; the rest was waste and
+     dilapidated.
+
+     As they were about to retire one night to rest, they were
+     deterred by a sudden storm which, rising in the wildest
+     manner possible, threatened to bury them under the ruins of
+     the castle. While they listened in terror to the complicated
+     sounds of thunder, wind, and rain, they were astonished to
+     hear the clang of hoofs on the causeway, and the voices of
+     people clamoring for admittance. This was a request not
+     rashly to be granted. The couple looked out, and dimly
+     discerned through the storm that the causeway was crowded
+     with riders. "How many of {p.149} you are there?" demanded
+     John.--"Not more than the hall will hold," was the answer;
+     "but open the gate, lower the bridge, and do not keep the
+     _ladies_ in the rain."--John's heart was melted for the
+     _ladies_, and, against his wife's advice, he undid the
+     bolts, sunk the drawbridge, and bade them enter in the name
+     of God. Having done so, he instantly retired into his
+     _sanctum sanctorum_ to await the event, for there was
+     something in the voices and language of his guests that
+     sounded mysterious and awful. They rushed into the castle,
+     and appeared to know their way through all its recesses.
+     Grooms were heard hurrying their horses to the
+     stables--sentinels were heard mounting guard--a thousand
+     lights gleamed from place to place through the ruins, till
+     at length they seemed all concentrated in the baronial hall,
+     whose range of broad windows threw a resplendent
+     illumination on the moss-grown court below.
+
+     After a short time, a domestic, clad in a rich but very
+     antique dress, appeared before the old couple, and commanded
+     them to attend his lord and lady in the great hall. They
+     went with tottering steps, and to their great terror found
+     themselves in the midst of a most brilliant and joyous
+     company; but the fearful part of it was, that most of the
+     guests resembled the ancestors of John's family, and were
+     known to him by their resemblance to pictures which
+     mouldered in the castle, or by traditionary description. At
+     the head, the founder of the race, dressed like some mighty
+     baron, or rather some Galwegian prince, sat with his lady.
+     There was a difference of opinion between these ghostly
+     personages concerning our honest John. The chief was
+     inclined to receive him graciously; the lady considered him,
+     from his mean marriage, as utterly unworthy of their name
+     and board. The upshot is, that the chief discovers to his
+     descendant the means of finding a huge treasure concealed in
+     the castle; the lady assures him that the discovery shall
+     never avail him.--In the morning no trace can be discovered
+     of {p.150} the singular personages who had occupied the
+     hall. But John sought for and discovered the vault where the
+     spoils of the Southrons were concealed, rolled away the
+     covering stone, and feasted his eyes on a range of massy
+     chests of iron, filled doubtless with treasure. As he
+     deliberated on the best means of bringing them up, and
+     descending into the vault, he observed it began slowly to
+     fill with water. Bailing and pumping were resorted to, and
+     when he had exhausted his own and his wife's strength, they
+     summoned the assistance of the neighborhood. But the
+     vengeance of the visionary lady was perfect; the waters of
+     the lake had forced their way into the vault, and John,
+     after a year or two spent in draining and so forth, died
+     broken-hearted, the last Baron of Plenton.
+
+     Such is the tale, of which the incidents seem new, and the
+     interest capable of being rendered striking; the story
+     admits of the highest degree of decoration, both by poetry,
+     music, and scenery, and I propose (in behalf of my godson)
+     to take some pains in dramatizing it. As thus;--you shall
+     play John, as you can speak a little Scotch; I will make him
+     what the Baron of Bradwardine would have been in his
+     circumstances, and he shall be alternately ridiculous from
+     his family pride and prejudices, contrasted with his
+     poverty, and respectable from his just and independent tone
+     of feeling and character. I think Scotland is entitled to
+     have something on the stage to balance Macklin's two
+     worthies.[59] You understand the dialect will be only tinged
+     with the national dialect--not that the baron is to speak
+     broad Scotch, while all the others talk English. His wife
+     and he shall have one child, a daughter, suitored unto by
+     the conceited young parson or schoolmaster of the village,
+     whose addresses are countenanced by her mother,--and by
+     Halbert the hunter, a youth of unknown descent. Now this
+     youth shall be the rightful heir and representative of the
+     English owners of the treasure, of which they had been
+     {p.151} robbed by the baron's ancestors, for which unjust
+     act, their spirits still walked the earth. These, with a
+     substantial character or two, and the ghostly personages,
+     shall mingle as they may--and the discovery of the youth's
+     birth shall break the spell of the treasure-chamber. I will
+     make the ghosts talk as never ghosts talked in the body or
+     out of it; and the music may be as unearthly as you can get
+     it. The rush of the shadows into the castle shall be seen
+     through the window of the baron's apartment in the flat
+     scene. The ghosts' banquet, and many other circumstances,
+     may give great exercise to the scene-painter and dresser. If
+     you like this plan, you had better suspend any other for the
+     present. In my opinion it has the infinite merit of being
+     perfectly new in plot and structure, and I will set about
+     the sketch as soon as my strength is restored in some
+     measure by air and exercise. I am sure I can finish it in a
+     fortnight then. Ever yours truly,
+
+                                        W. SCOTT.
+
+              [Footnote 59: Sir Archy Mac-Sarcasm and Sir Pertinax
+              Mac-Sycophant.]
+
+About the time when this letter was written, a newspaper paragraph
+having excited the apprehension of two--or I should say three--of his
+dearest friends, that his life was in actual danger, Scott wrote to
+them as follows:--
+
+     TO J. B. S. MORRITT, ESQ., M. P., PORTLAND PLACE, LONDON.
+
+                                        EDINBURGH, 20th March, 1817.
+
+     MY DEAR MORRITT,--I hasten to acquaint you that I am in the
+     land of life, and thriving, though I have had a slight
+     shake, and still feel the consequences of medical treatment.
+     I had been plagued all through this winter with cramps in my
+     stomach, which I endured as a man of mould might, and
+     endeavored to combat them by drinking scalding water, and so
+     forth. As they grew rather unpleasantly frequent, I had
+     reluctant recourse to Baillie. But before his answer arrived
+     on the 5th, I had a most violent attack, which broke up a
+     small party at {p.152} my house, and sent me to bed roaring
+     like a bull-calf. All sorts of remedies were applied, as in
+     the case of Gil Blas's pretended colic, but such was the
+     pain of the real disorder, that it outdevilled the Doctor
+     hollow. Even heated salt, which was applied in such a state
+     that it burned my shirt to rags, I hardly felt when clapped
+     to my stomach. At length the symptoms became inflammatory,
+     and dangerously so, the seat being the diaphragm. They only
+     gave way to very profuse bleeding and blistering, which
+     under higher assistance saved my life. My recovery was slow
+     and tedious from the state of exhaustion. I could neither
+     stir for weakness and giddiness, nor read for dazzling in my
+     eyes, nor listen for a whizzing sound in my ears, nor even
+     think for lack of the power of arranging my ideas. So I had
+     a comfortless time of it for about a week. Even yet I by no
+     means feel, as the copy-book hath it,
+
+          "The lion bold, which the lamb doth hold--"
+
+     on the contrary, I am as weak as water. They tell me (of
+     course) I must renounce every creature comfort, as my friend
+     Jedediah calls it. As for dinner and so forth, I care little
+     about it--but toast and water, and three glasses of wine,
+     sound like hard laws to me. However, to parody the
+     lamentation of Hassan, the camel-driver,
+
+          "The lily health outvies the grape's bright ray,
+           And life is dearer than the usquebæ--"
+
+     so I shall be amenable to discipline. But in my own secret
+     mind I suspect the state of my bowels more than anything
+     else. I take enough of exercise and enough of rest; but
+     unluckily they are like a Lapland year, divided as one night
+     and one day. In the vacation I never sit down; in the
+     session-time I seldom rise up. But all this must be better
+     arranged in future; and I trust I shall live to weary out
+     all your kindness.
+
+     I am obliged to break off hastily. I trust I shall be able
+     to get over the Fell in the end of summer, which {p.153}
+     will rejoice me much, for the sound of the woods of Rokeby
+     is lovely in mine ear. Ever yours,
+
+                                        Walter SCOTT.
+
+
+     TO MRS. MACLEAN CLEPHANE, OF TORLOISK, MULL.
+
+                                        EDINBURGH, 23d March, 1817.
+
+     MY DEAR Mrs. AND MISS CLEPHANE,--Here comes to let you know
+     you had nearly seen the last sight of me, unless I had come
+     to visit you on my red beam like one of Fingal's heroes,
+     which, Ossianic as you are, I trow you would readily
+     dispense with. The cause was a cramp in my stomach, which,
+     after various painful visits, as if it had been sent by
+     Prospero, and had mistaken me for Caliban, at length chose
+     to conclude by setting fire to its lodging, like the
+     Frenchmen as they retreated through Russia, and placed me in
+     as proper a state of inflammation as if I had had the whole
+     Spafields committee in my unfortunate stomach. Then bleeding
+     and blistering was the word; and they bled and blistered
+     till they left me neither skin nor blood. However, they beat
+     off the foul fiend, and I am bound to praise the bridge
+     which carried me over. I am still very totterish, and very
+     giddy, kept to panada, or rather to porridge, for I spurned
+     at all foreign slops, and adhered to our ancient oatmeal
+     manufacture.[60] But I have no apprehension of any return of
+     the serious part of the malady, and I am now recovering my
+     strength, though looking somewhat cadaverous upon the
+     occasion.
+
+              [Footnote 60: [On the 17th of March, Scott had written
+              to Joanna Baillie: "Two _remarkables_ struck me in my
+              illness: the first was, that my great wolf-dog clamored
+              wildly and fearfully about my bed when I was very ill,
+              and would hardly be got out of the room; the other, that
+              when I was recovering, all acquired and factitious
+              tastes seemed to leave me, and I could eat nothing but
+              porridge, and listen to no better reading than a stupid
+              Scottish diary which would have made a whole man
+              sick."--_Familiar Letters_, vol. i. p. 421.]]
+
+     I much approve of your going to Italy by sea; indeed it is
+     the only way you ought to think of it. I am only {p.154}
+     sorry you are going to leave us for a while; but indeed the
+     isle of Mull might be Florence to me in respect of
+     separation, and cannot be quite Florence to you, since Lady
+     Compton is not there. I lately heard her mentioned in a
+     company where my interest in her was not known, as one of
+     the very few English ladies now in Italy whom their
+     acquirements, conduct, and mode of managing time, induce
+     that part of foreign society, whose approbation is valuable,
+     to consider with high respect and esteem. This I think is
+     very likely; for, whatever folks say of foreigners, those of
+     good education and high rank among them, must have a supreme
+     contempt for the frivolous, dissatisfied, empty, gad-about
+     manners of many of our modern belles. And we may say among
+     ourselves, that there are few upon whom high accomplishments
+     and information sit more gracefully.
+
+     John Kemble is here to take leave, acting over all his great
+     characters, and with all the spirit of his best years. He
+     played Coriolanus last night (the first time I have ventured
+     out) fully as well as I ever saw him; and you know what a
+     complete model he is of the Roman. He has made a great
+     reformation in his habits; given up wine, which he used to
+     swallow by pailfuls,--and renewed his youth like the eagles.
+     He seems to me always to play best those characters in which
+     there is a predominating tinge of some overmastering
+     passion, or acquired habit of acting and speaking, coloring
+     the whole man. The patrician pride of Coriolanus, the
+     stoicism of Brutus and Cato, the rapid and hurried vehemence
+     of Hotspur, mark the class of characters I mean. But he
+     fails where a ready and pliable yielding to the events and
+     passions of life makes what may be termed a more natural
+     personage. Accordingly I think his Macbeth, Lear, and
+     especially his Richard, inferior in spirit and truth. In
+     Hamlet, the natural fixed melancholy of the prince places
+     him within Kemble's range;--yet many delicate and sudden
+     turns of passion slip through his fingers. He is {p.155} a
+     lordly vessel, goodly and magnificent when going large
+     before the wind, but wanting the facility to go "_ready
+     about_," so that he is sometimes among the breakers before
+     he can wear ship. Yet we lose in him a most excellent
+     critic, an accomplished scholar, and one who graced our
+     forlorn drama with what little it has left of good sense and
+     gentlemanlike feeling. And so exit he. He made me write some
+     lines to speak when he withdraws, and he has been here
+     criticising and correcting till he got them quite to his
+     mind, which has rather tired me.
+
+     Most truly yours while
+
+                                        Walter SCOTT.
+
+On the 29th of March, 1817, John Philip Kemble, after going through
+the round of his chief parts, to the delight of the Edinburgh
+audience, took his final leave of them as Macbeth, and in the costume
+of that character delivered a farewell address, penned for him by
+Scott.[61] No one who witnessed that scene, and heard the lines as
+then recited, can ever expect to be again interested to the same
+extent by anything occurring within the walls {p.156} of a theatre;
+nor was I ever present at any public dinner in all its circumstances
+more impressive than was that which occurred a few days afterwards,
+when Kemble's Scotch friends and admirers assembled around
+him--Francis Jeffrey being chairman, Walter Scott and John Wilson the
+croupiers.
+
+              [Footnote 61: See _Poetical Works_, vol. xi. p. 348
+              [Cambridge Ed. p. 436]. Scott's farewell for Kemble
+              first appeared in _The Sale-Room_ for April 5, 1817; and
+              in the introductory note James Ballantyne says: "The
+              character fixed upon, with happy propriety, for Kemble's
+              closing scene, was Macbeth. He had labored under a
+              severe cold for a few days before, but on the memorable
+              night the physical annoyance yielded to the energy of
+              his mind. 'He was,' he said in the Green-room,
+              immediately before the curtain rose, 'determined to
+              leave behind him the most perfect specimen of his art
+              which he had ever shown;' and his success was complete.
+              At the moment of the tyrant's death, the curtain fell by
+              the universal acclamation of the audience. The applauses
+              were vehement and prolonged; they ceased--were
+              resumed--rose again--were reiterated--and again were
+              hushed. In a few minutes the curtain ascended, and Mr.
+              Kemble came forward, in the dress of Macbeth (the
+              audience by a consentaneous movement rising to receive
+              him), to deliver his _farewell_." ... "Mr. Kemble
+              delivered the lines with exquisite beauty, and with an
+              effect that was evidenced by the tears and sobs of many
+              of the audience. His own emotions were very conspicuous.
+              When his farewell was closed, he lingered long on the
+              stage, as if unable to retire. The house again stood up,
+              and cheered him with the waving of hats and long shouts
+              of applause."]
+
+Shortly before this time, Mr. William Laidlaw had met with
+misfortunes, which rendered it necessary for him to give up the lease
+of a farm, on which he had been for some years settled, in
+Mid-Lothian. He was now anxiously looking about him for some new
+establishment, and it occurred to Scott that it might be mutually
+advantageous, as well as agreeable, if his excellent friend would
+consent to come and occupy a house on his property, and endeavor,
+under his guidance, to make such literary exertions as might raise his
+income to an amount adequate for his comfort. The prospect of
+obtaining such a neighbor was, no doubt, the more welcome to
+"Abbotsford and Kaeside," from its opening at this period of
+fluctuating health; and Laidlaw, who had for twenty years loved and
+revered him, considered the proposal with far greater delight than the
+most lucrative appointment on any noble domain in the island could
+have afforded him. Though possessed of a lively and searching sagacity
+as to things in general, he had always been as to his own worldly
+interests simple as a child. His tastes and habits were all modest;
+and when he looked forward to spending the remainder of what had not
+hitherto been a successful life, under the shadow of the genius that
+he had worshipped almost from boyhood, his gentle heart was all
+happiness. He surveyed with glistening eyes the humble cottage in
+which his friend proposed to lodge him, his wife, and his little ones,
+and said to himself that he should write no more sad songs on _Forest
+Flittings_.[62]
+
+              [Footnote 62: Mr. Laidlaw has not published many verses;
+              but his song of _Lucy's Flitting_--a simple and pathetic
+              picture of a poor Ettrick maiden's feelings in leaving a
+              service where she had been happy--has long been, and
+              must ever be, a favorite with all who understand the
+              delicacies of the Scottish dialect, and the manners of
+              the district in which the scene is laid.]
+
+{p.157} Scott's notes to him at this time afford a truly charming
+picture of thoughtful and respectful delicacy on both sides. Mr.
+Laidlaw, for example, appears to have hinted that he feared his
+friend, in making the proposal as to the house at Kaeside, might have
+perhaps in some degree overlooked the feelings of "Laird Moss," who,
+having sold his land several months before, had as yet continued to
+occupy his old homestead. Scott answers:--
+
+     TO MR. W. LAIDLAW.
+
+                                        EDINBURGH, April 5, 1817.
+
+     MY DEAR SIR,--Nothing can give me more pleasure than the
+     prospect of your making yourself comfortable at Kaeside till
+     some good thing casts up. I have not put Mr. Moss to any
+     inconvenience, for I only requested an answer, giving him
+     leave to sit if he had a mind--and of free will he leaves my
+     premises void and redd at Whitsunday. I suspect the house is
+     not in good order, but we shall get it brushed up a little.
+     Without affectation I consider myself the obliged party in
+     this matter--or at any rate it is a mutual benefit, and you
+     shall have grass for a cow, and so forth--whatever you want.
+     I am sure when you are so near I shall find some literary
+     labor for you that will make ends meet. Yours, in haste,
+
+                                        W. SCOTT.
+
+He had before this time made considerable progress in another
+historical sketch (that of the year 1815) for the Edinburgh Annual
+Register; and the first literary labor which he provided for Laidlaw
+appears to have been arranging for the same volume a set of newspaper
+articles, usually printed under the head of _Chronicle_, to which were
+appended some little extracts of new books of travels, and the like
+miscellanies. The Edinburgh {p.158} Monthly Magazine, subsequently
+known by the name of its projector, Blackwood, commenced in April of
+this year; and one of its editors, Mr. Thomas Pringle, being a
+Teviotdale man and an old acquaintance of Laidlaw's, offered to the
+latter the care of its _Chronicle department_ also,--not perhaps
+without calculating that, in case Laidlaw's connection with the new
+journal should become at all a strict one, Scott would be induced to
+give it occasionally the benefit of his own literary assistance. He
+accordingly did not write--being unwell at the time--but _dictated_ to
+Pringle a collection of anecdotes concerning Scottish gypsies, which
+attracted a good deal of notice;[63] and, I believe, he also assisted
+Laidlaw in drawing up one or more articles on the subject of Scottish
+superstitions. But the bookseller and Pringle soon quarrelled, and the
+Magazine assuming, on the retirement of the latter, a high Tory
+character, Laidlaw's Whig feelings induced him to renounce its
+alliance; while Scott, having no kindness for Blackwood personally,
+and disapproving (though he chuckled over it) the reckless
+extravagance of juvenile satire which, by and by, distinguished his
+journal, appears to have easily acquiesced in the propriety of
+Laidlaw's determination. I insert meantime a few notes, which will
+show with what care and kindness he watched over Laidlaw's operations
+for the Annual Register.
+
+              [Footnote 63: These anecdotes were subsequently inserted
+              in the Introduction to _Guy Mannering_.]
+
+     TO MR. LAIDLAW, AT KAESIDE.
+
+                                        EDINBURGH, June 16, 1817.
+
+     DEAR SIR,--I enclose you "rare guerdon," better than
+     remuneration,--namely, a cheque for £25, for the Chronicle
+     part of the Register. The incidents selected should have
+     some reference to amusement as well as information, and may
+     be occasionally abridged in the narration; but, after all,
+     paste and scissors form your principal {p.159} materials.
+     You must look out for two or three good original articles;
+     and, if you would read and take pains to abridge one or two
+     curious books of travels, I would send out the volumes.
+     Could I once get the head of the concern fairly round before
+     the wind again, I am sure I could make it £100 a year to
+     you. In the present instance it will be at least £50.
+
+     Yours truly,
+
+                                        W. S.
+
+
+     TO THE SAME.
+
+                                        EDINBURGH, July 3, 1817.
+
+     MY DEAR SIR,--I send you Adam's and Riley's Travels. You
+     will observe I don't want a review of the books, or a detail
+     of these persons' adventures, but merely a short article
+     expressing the light, direct or doubtful, which they have
+     thrown on the interior of Africa. "Recent Discoveries in
+     Africa" will be a proper title. I hope to find you
+     materially amended, or rather quite stout, when I come out
+     on Saturday. I am quite well this morning. Yours, in haste,
+
+                                        W. S.
+
+     P. S.--I add Mariner's Tonga Islands, and Campbell's Voyage.
+     Pray take great care of them, as I am a coxcomb about my
+     books, and hate specks or spots. Take care of yourself, and
+     want for nothing that Abbotsford can furnish.
+
+These notes have carried us down to the middle of the year. But I must
+now turn to some others, which show that before Whitsuntide, when
+Laidlaw settled at Kaeside, negotiations were on foot respecting
+another novel.
+
+     TO MR. JOHN BALLANTYNE, HANOVER STREET, EDINBURGH.
+
+                                   ABBOTSFORD, Monday. [April, 1817.]
+
+     DEAR JOHN,--I have a good subject for a work of fiction _in
+     petto_. What do you think Constable would give for a smell
+     of it? You ran away without taking {p.160} leave the other
+     morning, or I wished to have spoken to you about it. I don't
+     mean a continuation of Jedediah, because there might be some
+     delicacy in putting that by the original publishers. You may
+     write if anything occurs to you on this subject. It will not
+     interrupt my History. By the way, I have a great lot of the
+     Register ready for delivery, and no man asks for it. I shall
+     want to pay up some cash at Whitsunday, which will make me
+     draw on my brains. Yours truly,
+
+                                        W. SCOTT.
+
+
+     TO THE SAME.
+
+                                   ABBOTSFORD, Saturday, May 3, 1817.
+
+     DEAR JOHN,--I shall be much obliged to you to come here with
+     Constable on Monday, as he proposes a visit, and it will
+     save time. By the way, you must attend that the usual
+     quantity of stock is included in the arrangement--that is
+     £600 for 6000 copies. My sum is £1700, payable in May--a
+     round advance, by'r Lady, but I think I am entitled to it,
+     considering what I have twined off hitherto on such
+     occasions.
+
+     I make a point on your coming with Constable, health
+     allowing. Yours truly,
+
+                                        W. S.
+
+The result of this meeting is indicated in a note, scribbled by John
+Ballantyne at the bottom of the foregoing letter, before it was seen
+by his brother the printer:--
+
+                                        Half-past 3 o'clock, Tuesday.
+
+     DEAR JAMES,--I am at this moment returned from Abbotsford,
+     with entire and full success. Wish me joy. I shall gain
+     above £600--Constable taking my share of stock also. This
+     title is _Rob Roy--by the Author of Waverley!!!_ Keep this
+     letter for me.
+
+                                        J. B.
+
+On the same page there is written, in fresher ink, which marks, no
+doubt, the time when John pasted it into his collection of private
+papers now before me,--
+
+     N. B.--I did gain above £1200.--J. B.
+
+{p.161} The title of this novel was suggested by Constable, and he
+told me years afterwards the difficulty he had to get it adopted by
+the author. "What!" said he, "Mr. Accoucheur, must you be setting up
+for Mr. Sponsor too?--but let's hear it." Constable said the name of
+the real hero would be the best possible name for the book. "Nay,"
+answered Scott, "never let me have to write up to a name. You well
+know I have generally adopted a title that told nothing."--The
+bookseller, however, persevered; and after the trio had dined, these
+scruples gave way.
+
+On rising from table, according to Constable, they sallied out to the
+green before the door of the cottage, and all in the highest spirits
+enjoyed the fine May evening. John Ballantyne, hopping up and down in
+his glee, exclaimed, "Is Rob's gun here, Mr. Scott; would you object
+to my trying the auld barrel with a _few de joy_?"--"Nay, Mr. Puff,"
+said Scott, "it would burst, and blow you to the devil before your
+time."--"Johnny, my man," said Constable, "what the mischief puts
+drawing at sight into _your_ head?" Scott laughed heartily at this
+innuendo; and then observing that the little man felt somewhat sore,
+called attention to the notes of a bird in the adjoining shrubbery.
+"And by the bye," said he, as they continued listening, "'tis a long
+time, Johnny, since we have had the Cobbler of Kelso." Mr. Puff
+forthwith jumped up on a mass of stone, and seating himself in the
+proper attitude of one working with his awl, began a favorite
+interlude, mimicking a certain son of Crispin, at whose stall Scott
+and he had often lingered when they were schoolboys, and a blackbird,
+the only companion of his cell, that used to sing to him, while he
+talked and whistled to it all day long. With this performance Scott
+was always delighted: nothing could be richer than the contrast of the
+bird's wild sweet notes, some of which he imitated with wonderful
+skill, and the accompaniment of the Cobbler's hoarse cracked {p.162}
+voice, uttering all manner of endearing epithets, which Johnny
+multiplied and varied in a style worthy of the Old Women in Rabelais
+at the birth of Pantagruel. I often wondered that Mathews, who
+borrowed so many good things from John Ballantyne, allowed this
+Cobbler, which was certainly the masterpiece, to escape him.
+
+Scott himself had probably exceeded that evening the three glasses of
+wine sanctioned by his Sangrados. "I never," said Constable, "had
+found him so disposed to be communicative about what he meant to do.
+Though he had had a return of his illness but the day before, he
+continued for an hour or more to walk backwards and forwards on the
+green, talking and laughing--he told us he was sure he should make a
+hit in a Glasgow weaver, whom he would _ravel up with Rob_; and fairly
+outshone the Cobbler, in an extempore dialogue between the bailie and
+the cateran--something not unlike what the book gives us as passing in
+the Glasgow tolbooth."
+
+Mr. Puff might well exult in the "full and entire success" of this
+trip to Abbotsford. His friend had made it a _sine qua non_ with
+Constable that he should have a third share in the bookseller's moiety
+of the bargain--and though Johnny had no more trouble about the
+publishing or selling of Rob Roy than his own Cobbler of Kelso, this
+stipulation had secured him a _bonus_ of £1200, before two years
+passed. Moreover, one must admire his adroitness in persuading
+Constable, during their journey back to Edinburgh, to relieve him of
+that fraction of his own old stock, with which his unhazardous share
+in the new transaction was burdened. Scott's kindness continued, as
+long as John Ballantyne lived, to provide for him a constant
+succession of similar advantages at the same easy rate; and Constable,
+from deference to Scott's wishes, and from his own liking for the
+humorous auctioneer, appears to have submitted with hardly a momentary
+grudge to this heavy tax on his most important ventures.
+
+{p.163} The same week Scott received Southey's celebrated letter to
+Mr. William Smith, M. P. for Norwich. The poet of Keswick had also
+forwarded to him somewhat earlier his Pilgrimage to Waterloo, which
+piece contains a touching allusion to the affliction the author had
+recently sustained in the death of a fine boy. Scott's letter on this
+occasion was as follows:--
+
+     TO ROBERT SOUTHEY, ESQ., KESWICK.
+
+                                        SELKIRK, May 9, 1817.
+
+     MY DEAR SOUTHEY,--I have been a strangely negligent
+     correspondent for some months past, more especially as I
+     have had you rarely out of my thoughts, for I think you will
+     hardly doubt of my sincere sympathy in events which have
+     happened since I have written. I shed sincere tears over the
+     Pilgrimage to Waterloo. But in the crucible of human life,
+     the purest gold is tried by the strongest heat, and I can
+     only hope for the continuance of your present family
+     blessings to one so well formed to enjoy the pure happiness
+     they afford. My health has, of late, been very indifferent.
+     I was very nearly succumbing under a violent inflammatory
+     attack, and still feel the effects of the necessary
+     treatment. I believe they took one third of the blood of my
+     system, and blistered in proportion: so that both my flesh
+     and my blood have been in a woefully reduced state. I got
+     out here some weeks since, where, by dint of the insensible
+     exercise which one takes in the country, I feel myself
+     gathering strength daily, but am still obliged to observe a
+     severe regimen. It was not to croak about myself, however,
+     that I took up the pen, but to wish you joy of your
+     triumphant answer to that coarse-minded William Smith. He
+     deserved all he has got, and, to say the truth, you do not
+     spare him, and have no cause. His attack seems to have
+     proceeded from the vulgar insolence of a low mind desirous
+     of attacking genius at disadvantage. It is the ancient and
+     eternal strife of which the witch speaks in {p.164}
+     Thalaba. Such a man as he, feels he has no alliance with
+     such as you, and his evil instincts lead him to treat as
+     hostile whatever he cannot comprehend. I met Smith once
+     during his stay in Edinburgh,[64] and had, what I seldom
+     have with any one in society, a high quarrel with him. His
+     mode of travelling had been from one gentleman's seat to
+     another, abusing the well-known hospitality of the Highland
+     lairds, by taking possession of their houses, even during
+     their absence, domineering in them when they were present,
+     and not only eating the dinner of to-day, but requiring that
+     the dinner of to-morrow should also be made ready and
+     carried forward with him, to save the expense of inns. All
+     this was no business of mine, but when, in the middle of a
+     company consisting of those to whom he had owed this
+     hospitality, he abused the country, of which he knew
+     little--the language, of which he knew nothing--and the
+     people, who have their faults, but are a much more harmless,
+     moral, and at the same time high-spirited population, than,
+     I venture to say, he ever lived amongst--I thought it was
+     really too bad, and so e'en took up the debate, and gave it
+     him over the knuckles as smartly as I could. Your pamphlet,
+     therefore, fed fat my ancient grudge against him as well as
+     the modern one, for you cannot doubt that my blood boiled at
+     reading the report of his speech. Enough of this gentleman,
+     who, I think, will not walk out of the round in a hurry
+     again, to slander the conduct of individuals.
+
+              [Footnote 64: Scott's meeting with this Mr. Smith
+              occurred at the table of his friend and colleague,
+              Hector Macdonald Buchanan. The company, except Scott and
+              Smith, were all, like their hospitable landlord,
+              Highlanders.]
+
+     I am at present writing at our head-court of freeholders--a
+     set of quiet, unpretending, but sound-judging country
+     gentlemen, and whose opinions may be very well taken as a
+     fair specimen of those men of sense and honor, who are not
+     likely to be dazzled by literary talent, which {p.165} lies
+     out of their beat, and who, therefore, cannot be of partial
+     counsel in the cause; and I never heard an opinion more
+     generally, and even warmly expressed, than that your
+     triumphant vindication brands Smith as a slanderer in all
+     time coming. I think you may not be displeased to know this,
+     because what men of keen feelings and literary pursuits must
+     have felt, cannot be unknown to you, and you may not have
+     the same access to know the impression made upon the general
+     class of society.
+
+     I have to thank you for the continuation of the History of
+     Brazil--one of your gigantic labors; the fruit of a mind so
+     active, yet so patient of labor. I am not yet far advanced
+     in the second volume, reserving it usually for my hour's
+     amusement in the evening, as children keep their dainties
+     for _bonne bouche_: but as far as I have come, it possesses
+     all the interest of the commencement, though a more
+     faithless and worthless set than both Dutch and Portuguese I
+     have never read of; and it requires your knowledge of the
+     springs of human action, and your lively description of
+     "hair-breadth 'scapes," to make one care whether the hog
+     bites the dog, or the dog bites the hog. Both nations were
+     in rapid declension from their short-lived age of heroism,
+     and in the act of experiencing all those retrograde
+     movements which are the natural consequence of selfishness
+     on the one hand, and bigotry on the other.
+
+     I am glad to see you are turning your mind to the state of
+     the poor. Should you enter into details on the subject of
+     the best mode of assisting them, I would be happy to tell
+     you the few observations I have made--not on a very small
+     scale neither, considering my fortune, for I have kept about
+     thirty of the laborers in my neighborhood in constant
+     employment this winter. This I do not call charity, because
+     they executed some extensive plantations and other works,
+     which I could never have got done so cheaply, and which I
+     always intended {p.166} one day to do. But neither was it
+     altogether selfish on my part, because I was putting myself
+     to inconvenience in incurring the expense of several years
+     at once, and certainly would not have done so, but to serve
+     mine honest neighbors, who were likely to want work but for
+     such exertion. From my observation, I am inclined greatly to
+     doubt the salutary effect of the scheme generally adopted in
+     Edinburgh and elsewhere for relieving the poor. At
+     Edinburgh, they are employed on public works at so much a
+     day--tenpence, I believe, or one shilling, with an advance
+     to those who have families. This rate is fixed below that of
+     ordinary wages, in order that no person may be employed but
+     those who really cannot find work elsewhere. But it is
+     attended with this bad effect, that the people regard it
+     partly as charity, which is humiliating--and partly as an
+     imposition, in taking their labor below its usual salable
+     value; to which many add a third view of the
+     subject--namely, that this sort of half-pay is not given
+     them for the purpose of working, but to prevent their rising
+     in rebellion. None of these misconceptions are favorable to
+     hard labor, and the consequence is, that I never have seen
+     such a set of idle _fainéants_ as those employed on this
+     system in the public works, and I am sure that,
+     notwithstanding the very laudable intention of those who
+     subscribed to form the fund, and the yet more praiseworthy,
+     because more difficult, exertions of those who superintend
+     it, the issue of the scheme will occasion full as much
+     mischief as good to the people engaged in it. Private
+     gentlemen, acting on something like a similar system, may
+     make it answer better, because they have not the lazy dross
+     of a metropolis to contend with--because they have fewer
+     hands to manage--and, above all, because an individual
+     always manages his own concerns better than those of the
+     country can be managed. Yet all who have employed those who
+     were distressed for want of work at under wages, have had,
+     less or more, similar complaints to make. I {p.167} think I
+     have avoided this in my own case, by inviting the country
+     people to do piece-work by the contract. Two things only are
+     necessary--one is, that the nature of the work should be
+     such as will admit of its being ascertained, when finished,
+     to have been substantially executed. All sort of spade-work
+     and hoe-work, with many other kinds of country labor, fall
+     under this description, and the employer can hardly be
+     cheated in the execution if he keeps a reasonable lookout.
+     The other point is, to take care that the undertakers, in
+     their anxiety for employment, do not take the job too cheap.
+     A little acquaintance with country labor will enable one to
+     regulate this; but it is an essential point, for if you do
+     not keep them to their bargain, it is making a jest of the
+     thing, and forfeiting the very advantage you have in
+     view--that, namely, of inducing the laborer to bring his
+     heart and spirit to his work. But this he will do where he
+     has a fair bargain, which is to prove a good or bad one
+     according to his own exertions. In this case you make the
+     poor man his own friend, for the profits of his good conduct
+     are all his own. It is astonishing how partial the people
+     are to this species of contract, and how diligently they
+     labor, acquiring or maintaining all the while those habits
+     which render them honorable and useful members of society. I
+     mention this to you, because the rich, much to their honor,
+     do not, in general, require to be so much stimulated to
+     benevolence, as to be directed in the most useful way to
+     exert it.
+
+     I have still a word to say about the poor of our own parish
+     of Parnassus. I have been applied to by a very worthy
+     friend, Mr. Scott of Sinton, in behalf of an unfortunate Mr.
+     Gilmour, who, it seems, has expended a little fortune in
+     printing, upon his own account, poems which, from the sample
+     I saw, seem exactly to answer the description of Dean
+     Swift's country house:--
+
+          "Too bad for a blessing, too good for a curse,
+           I wish from my soul they were better or worse."
+
+     {p.168} But you are the dean of our corporation, and, I am
+     informed, take some interest in this poor gentleman. If you
+     can point out any way in which I can serve him, I am sure my
+     inclination is not wanting, but it looks like a very
+     hopeless case. I beg my kindest respects to Mrs. Southey,
+     and am always sincerely and affectionately yours,
+
+                                        Walter SCOTT.
+
+About this time Hogg took possession of Altrive Lake, and some of his
+friends in Edinburgh set on foot a subscription edition of his Queen's
+Wake (at a guinea each copy), in the hope of thus raising a sum
+adequate to the stocking of the little farm. The following letter
+alludes to this affair; and also to the death of Frances, Lady
+Douglas, sister to Duke Henry of Buccleuch, whose early kindness to
+Scott has been more than once mentioned.
+
+     TO THE RIGHT HON. LORD MONTAGU.
+
+                                        ABBOTSFORD, June 8, 1817.
+
+     MY DEAR LORD,--I am honored with your letter, and will not
+     fail to take care that the Shepherd profits by your kind
+     intentions, and those of Lady Montagu. This is a scheme
+     which I did not devise, for I fear it will end in
+     disappointment, but for which I have done, and will do, all
+     I possibly can. There is an old saying of the seamen's,
+     "Every man is not born to be a boatswain," and I think I
+     have heard of men born under a sixpenny planet, and doomed
+     never to be worth a groat. I fear something of this vile
+     sixpenny influence had gleamed in at the cottage window when
+     poor Hogg first came squeaking into the world. All that he
+     made by his original book he ventured on a flock of sheep to
+     drive into the Highlands to a farm he had taken there, but
+     of which he could not get possession, so that all the stock
+     was ruined and sold to disadvantage. Then he tried another
+     farm, which proved too dear, so that he fairly broke upon
+     it. Then put forth divers publications, {p.169} which had
+     little sale--and brought him accordingly few pence, though
+     some praise. Then came this Queen's Wake, by which he might
+     and ought to have made from £100 to £200--for there were, I
+     think, three editions--when lo! his bookseller turned
+     bankrupt, and paid him never a penny. The Duke has now, with
+     his wonted generosity, given him a cosie bield, and the
+     object of the present attack upon the public is to get if
+     possible as much cash together as will stock it. But no one
+     has loose guineas now to give poor poets, and I greatly
+     doubt the scheme succeeding, unless it is more strongly
+     patronized than can almost be expected. In bookselling
+     matters, an author must either be the conjurer, who commands
+     the devil, or the witch who serves him--and few are they
+     whose situation is sufficiently independent to enable them
+     to assume the higher character--and this is injurious to the
+     indigent author in every respect, for not only is he obliged
+     to turn his pen to every various kind of composition, and so
+     to injure himself with the public by writing hastily, and on
+     subjects unfitted for his genius; but, moreover, those
+     honest gentlemen, the booksellers, from a natural
+     association, consider the books as of least value, which
+     they find they can get at least expense of copy-money, and
+     therefore are proportionally careless in pushing the sale of
+     the work. Whereas a good round sum out of their purse, like
+     a moderate rise of rent on a farm, raises the work thus
+     acquired in their own eyes, and serves as a spur to make
+     them clear away every channel, by which they can discharge
+     their quires upon the public. So much for bookselling, the
+     most ticklish and unsafe and hazardous of all professions,
+     scarcely with the exception of horse-jockeyship.
+
+     You cannot doubt the sincere interest I take in Lady
+     Montagu's health. I was very glad to learn from the Duke,
+     that the late melancholy event had produced no permanent
+     effect on her constitution, as I know how {p.170} much her
+     heart must have suffered.[65] I saw our regretted friend for
+     the last time at the Theatre, and made many schemes to be at
+     Bothwell this next July. But thus the world glides from us,
+     and those we most love and honor are withdrawn from the
+     stage before us. I know not why it was that among the few
+     for whom I had so much respectful regard, I never had
+     associated the idea of early deprivation with Lady Douglas.
+     Her excellent sense, deep information, and the wit which she
+     wielded with so much good-humor, were allied apparently to a
+     healthy constitution, which might have permitted us to
+     enjoy, and be instructed by her society for many years. _Dis
+     aliter visum_, and the recollection dwelling on all the
+     delight which she afforded to society, and the good which
+     she did in private life, is what now remains to us of her
+     wit, wisdom, and benevolence. The Duke keeps his usual
+     health, with always just so much of the gout, however, as
+     would make me wish that he had more--a kind wish, for which
+     I do not observe that he is sufficiently grateful. I hope to
+     spend a few days at Drumlanrig Castle, when that ancient
+     mansion shall have so far limited its courtesy as to stand
+     covered in the presence of the wind and rain, which I
+     believe is not yet the case. I am no friend to ceremony, and
+     like a house as well when it does not carry its roof _en
+     chapeau bras_. I heartily wish your Lordship joy of the new
+     mansion at Ditton, and hope my good stars will permit me to
+     pay my respects there one day. The discovery of the niches
+     certainly bodes good luck to the house of Montagu, and as
+     there are three of them, I presume it is to come threefold.
+     From the care with which they were concealed, I presume they
+     had been closed in the days of Cromwell, or a little before,
+     and that the artist employed (like the {p.171} General, who
+     told his soldiers to fight bravely against the Pope, since
+     they were Venetians before they were Christians) had more
+     professional than religious zeal, and did not even,
+     according to the practice of the time, think it necessary to
+     sweep away Popery with the besom of destruction.[66] I am
+     here on a stolen visit of two days, and find my mansion
+     gradually enlarging. Thanks to Mr. Atkinson (who found out a
+     practical use for our romantic theory), it promises to make
+     a comfortable station for offering your Lordship and Lady
+     Montagu a pilgrim's meal, when you next visit Melrose Abbey,
+     and that without any risk of your valet (who I recollect is
+     a substantial person) sticking between the wall of the
+     parlor and the backs of the chairs placed round the table.
+     This literally befell Sir Harry Macdougal's fat butler, who
+     looked like a ship of the line in the loch at Bowhill,
+     altogether unlike his master, who could glide wherever a
+     weasel might make his way. Mr. Atkinson has indeed been more
+     attentive than I can express, when I consider how valuable
+     his time must be.[67] We are attempting no castellated
+     conundrums to rival those Lord Napier used to have executed
+     in sugar, when he was Commissioner, and no cottage neither,
+     but an irregular somewhat--like an old English hall, in
+     which your squire of £500 a year used to drink his ale in
+     days of yore.
+
+              [Footnote 65: Lady Montagu was the daughter of the late
+              Lord Douglas by his first marriage with Lady Lucy
+              Graham, daughter of the second Duke of Montrose.]
+
+              [Footnote 66: Lord Montagu's house at Ditton Park, near
+              Windsor, had recently been destroyed by fire--and the
+              ruins revealed some niches with antique candlesticks,
+              etc., belonging to a domestic chapel that had been
+              converted to other purposes from the time, I believe, of
+              Henry VIII.]
+
+              [Footnote 67: Mr. Atkinson, of St. John's Wood, was the
+              architect of Lord Montagu's new mansion at Ditton, as
+              well as the artist ultimately employed in arranging
+              Scott's interior at Abbotsford.]
+
+     I am making considerable plantations (that is, considering),
+     being greatly encouraged by the progress of those I formerly
+     laid out. Read the veracious Gulliver's account of the
+     Windsor Forest of Lilliput, and you will {p.172} have some
+     idea of the solemn gloom of my Druid shades. Your Lordship's
+     truly faithful
+
+                                        Walter SCOTT.
+
+     This is the 8th of June, and not an ash-tree in leaf yet.
+     The country cruelly backward, and whole fields destroyed by
+     the grub. I dread this next season.
+
+
+
+
+{p.173} CHAPTER XXXIX.
+
+     Excursion to the Lennox, Glasgow, and Drumlanrig. --
+     Purchase of Toftfield. -- Establishment of the Ferguson
+     Family at Huntly Burn. -- Lines Written in Illness. --
+     Visits of Washington Irving, Lady Byron, and Sir David
+     Wilkie. -- Progress of the Building at Abbotsford. --
+     Letters to Morritt, Terry, etc. -- Conclusion of Rob Roy.
+
+1817.
+
+
+During the summer term of 1817, Scott seems to have labored chiefly on
+his History of 1815 for the Register, which was published in August;
+but he also found time to draw up the Introduction for a richly
+embellished quarto, entitled Border Antiquities, which came out a
+month later. This valuable essay, containing large additions to the
+information previously embodied in the Minstrelsy, has been included
+in the late collection of his Miscellaneous Prose, and has thus
+obtained a circulation not to be expected for it in the original
+costly form.
+
+Upon the rising of the Court in July, he made an excursion to the
+Lennox, chiefly that he might visit a cave at the head of Loch Lomond,
+said to have been a favorite retreat of his hero, Rob Roy. He was
+accompanied to the seat of his friend, Mr. Macdonald Buchanan, by
+Captain Adam Ferguson--the _long Linton_ of the days of his
+apprenticeship; and thence to Glasgow, where, under the auspices of a
+kind and intelligent acquaintance, Mr. John Smith, bookseller, he
+refreshed his recollection of the noble cathedral, and other
+localities of the birthplace of Bailie Jarvie. Mr. Smith took care
+also {p.174} to show the tourists the most remarkable novelties in
+the great manufacturing establishments of his flourishing city; and he
+remembers particularly the delight which Scott expressed on seeing the
+process of _singeing_ muslin--that is, of divesting the finished web
+of all superficial knots and irregularities, by passing it, with the
+rapidity of lightning, over a bar of red-hot iron. "The man that
+imagined this," said Scott, "was _the Shakespeare of the Wabsters_,--
+
+  'Things out of hope are compass'd oft with vent'ring.'"[68]
+
+              [Footnote 68: Shakespeare's Poems--_Venus and Adonis_.]
+
+The following note indicates the next stages of his progress:--
+
+     TO HIS GRACE THE DUKE OF BUCCLEUCH, DRUMLANRIG CASTLE.
+
+                                SANQUHAR, 2 o'clock, July 30,[69] 1817.
+
+  From Ross, where the clouds on Benlomond are sleeping--
+  From Greenock, where Clyde to the Ocean is sweeping--
+  From Largs, where the Scotch gave the Northmen a drilling--
+  From Ardrossan, whose harbor cost many a shilling--
+  From Old Cumnock, where beds are as hard as a plank, sir--
+  From a chop and green pease, and a chicken in Sanquhar,
+  This eve, please the Fates, at Drumlanrig we anchor.
+
+                                        W. S.
+
+              [Footnote 69: [A misprint of some earlier date, possibly
+              the _16th_. See the more detailed account of Scott's
+              movements at this time, to be found in _Familiar
+              Letters_, vol. i. pp. 432-436.]]
+
+The Poet and Captain Ferguson remained a week at Drumlanrig, and
+thence repaired together to Abbotsford. By this time, the foundations
+of that part of the existing house, which extends from the hall
+westwards to the original courtyard, had been laid; and Scott now
+found a new source of constant occupation in watching the proceedings
+of his masons. He had, moreover, no lack of employment further
+a-field,--for he was now negotiating with another neighboring
+landowner for the purchase of an addition, of more consequence than
+any he had hitherto {p.175} made, to his estate. In the course of the
+autumn he concluded this matter, and became, for the price of £10,000,
+proprietor of the lands of _Toftfield_,[70] on which there had
+recently been erected a substantial mansion-house, fitted, in all
+points, for the accommodation of a genteel family. This circumstance
+offered a temptation which much quickened Scott's zeal for completing
+his arrangement. The venerable Professor Ferguson had died a year
+before; Captain Adam Ferguson was at home on half-pay; and Scott now
+saw the means of securing for himself, henceforth, the immediate
+neighborhood of the companion of his youth, and his amiable sisters.
+Ferguson, who had written, from the lines of Torres Vedras, his hopes
+of finding, when the war should be over, some sheltering cottage upon
+the Tweed, within a walk of Abbotsford, was delighted to see his
+dreams realized; and the family took up their residence next spring at
+the new house of Toftfield, on which Scott then bestowed, at the
+ladies' request, the name of Huntly Burn: this more harmonious
+designation being taken from the mountain brook which passes through
+its grounds and garden,--the same famous in tradition as the scene of
+Thomas the Rhymer's interviews with the Queen of Fairy. The upper part
+of the _Rhymer's Glen_, through which this brook finds its way from
+the Cauldshiels Loch to Toftfield, had been included in a previous
+purchase. He was now master of all these haunts of "True Thomas," and
+of the whole ground of the battle of Melrose, from _Skirmish-field_ to
+_Turn-again_. His enjoyment of the new territories was, however,
+interrupted by various returns of his cramp, and the depression of
+spirit which always attended, in his case, the use of opium, {p.176}
+the only medicine that seemed to have power over the disease.[71]
+
+              [Footnote 70: On completing this purchase, Scott writes
+              to John Ballantyne:--"DEAR JOHN,--I have closed with
+              Usher for his beautiful patrimony, which makes me a
+              great laird. I am afraid the people will take me up for
+              coining. Indeed, these novels, while their attractions
+              last, are something like it. I am very glad of _your_
+              good prospects. Still I cry, _Prudence!
+              Prudence!_--Yours truly,
+                                        W. S."]
+
+              [Footnote 71: [On August 1, 1817, Jeffrey writes to
+              Scott, asking if he could not be induced to write a
+              notice of Mr. C. K. Sharpe's edition of Kirkton's
+              _Secret and True History of the Church of Scotland_, for
+              the _Edinburgh Review_, to which Scott replies, August
+              5:--
+
+              "I flatter myself it will not require many protestations
+              to assure you with what pleasure I would undertake any
+              book that can give you pleasure; but in the present case
+              I am hampered by two circumstances: one, that I promised
+              Gifford a review of this very Kirkton for the
+              _Quarterly_; the other that I shall certainly be unable
+              to keep my word with him. I am obliged to take exercise
+              three or four hours in the forenoon and two after
+              dinner, to keep off the infernal spasms which since last
+              winter have attacked me with such violence, as if all
+              the imps that used to plague poor Caliban were washing,
+              wringing, and ironing the unshapely but useful bag which
+              Sir John Sinclair treats with such distinction--my
+              stomach, in short. Now, as I have much to do of my own,
+              I fear I can hardly be of use to you in the present
+              case, which I am very sorry for, as I like the subject,
+              and would be pleased to give my own opinion respecting
+              the Jacobitism of the editor, which, like my own, has a
+              good spice of affectation in it, mingled with some not
+              unnatural feelings of respect for a cause which, though
+              indefensible in common sense and ordinary policy, has a
+              great deal of high-spirited Quixotry about it.
+
+              "Can you not borrow from your briefs and criticism a
+              couple of days to look about you here? I dare not ask
+              Mrs. Jeffrey till next year, when my hand will be out of
+              the mortar-tub; and at present my only spare bed was
+              till of late but accessible by the feudal accommodation
+              of a drawbridge made of two deals, and still requires
+              the clue of Ariadne.... I am like one of Miss
+              Edgeworth's heroines, master of all things in
+              miniature--a little hill, and a little glen, and a
+              little horse-pond of a loch, and a little river, I was
+              going to call it,--the Tweed; but I remember the
+              minister was mobbed by his parishioners for terming it,
+              in his statistical report, an inconsiderable stream. So
+              pray do come and see me, and if I can stead you, or
+              pleasure you, in the course of the winter, you shall
+              command me."--Cockburn's _Life of Jeffrey_, vol. i p.
+              417.]]
+
+It was while struggling with such languor, on one lovely evening of
+this autumn, that he composed the following beautiful verses. They
+mark the very spot of their birth,--namely, the then naked height
+overhanging the northern side of the Cauldshiels Loch, from which
+Melrose Abbey to the eastward, and the hills of Ettrick and Yarrow to
+the west, are now visible over a wide range of rich woodland,--all the
+work of the poet's hand:--
+
+  {p.177} "The sun upon the Weirdlaw Hill,
+             In Ettrick's vale, is sinking sweet;
+           The westland wind is hush and still--
+             The lake lies sleeping at my feet.
+           Yet not the landscape to mine eye
+             Bears those bright hues that once it bore;
+           Though evening, with her richest dye,
+             Flames o'er the hills of Ettrick's shore.
+
+           "With listless look along the plain
+             I see Tweed's silver current glide,
+           And coldly mark the holy fane
+             Of Melrose rise in ruin'd pride.
+           The quiet lake, the balmy air,
+             The hill, the stream, the tower, the tree,--
+           Are they still such as once they were,
+             Or is the dreary change in me?
+
+           "Alas! the warp'd and broken board,
+             How can it bear the painter's dye!
+           The harp of strain'd and tuneless chord,
+             How to the minstrel's skill reply!
+           To aching eyes each landscape lowers,
+             To feverish pulse each gale blows chill;
+           And Araby's or Eden's bowers
+             Were barren as this moorland hill."
+
+He again alludes to his illness in a letter to Mr. Morritt:--
+
+     TO J. B. S. MORRITT, ESQ., M. P., ROKEBY.
+
+                                        ABBOTSFORD, August 11, 1817.
+
+     MY DEAR MORRITT,--I am arrived from a little tour in the
+     west of Scotland, and had hoped, in compliance with your
+     kind wish, to have indulged myself with a skip over the
+     Border as far as Rokeby, about the end of this month. But my
+     fate denies me this pleasure; for, in consequence of one or
+     two blunders, during my absence, in executing my new
+     premises, I perceive the necessity of remaining at the helm
+     while they are going on. Our masons, though excellent
+     workmen, are too little accustomed to the gimcracks of their
+     art, to be trusted with the execution of a _bravura_ plan,
+     without constant inspection. Besides, the said laborers lay
+     me under the necessity {p.178} of laboring a little myself;
+     and I find I can no longer with impunity undertake to make
+     one week's hard work supply the omissions of a fortnight's
+     idleness. Like you, I have abridged my
+     creature-comforts,--as Old Mortality would call
+     them,--renouncing beer and ale on all ordinary occasions;
+     also pastry, fruit, etc., and all that tends to acidity.
+     These are awkward warnings; but _sat est vixisse_. To have
+     lived respected and regarded by some of the best men in our
+     age is enough for an individual like me; the rest must be as
+     God wills, and when He wills.
+
+     The poor-laws, into which you have ventured for the love of
+     the country, form a sad quagmire. They are like John
+     Bunyan's Slough of Despond, into which, as he observes,
+     millions of cart-loads of good resolutions have been thrown,
+     without perceptibly mending the way. From what you say, and
+     from what I have heard from others, there is a very natural
+     desire to trust to one or two empirical remedies, such as
+     general systems of education, and so forth. But a man with a
+     broken constitution might as well put faith in Spilsbury or
+     Godbold. It is not the knowledge, but the use which is made
+     of it, that is productive of real benefit. To say that the
+     Scottish peasant is less likely than the Englishman to
+     become an incumbrance on his parish, is saying, in other
+     words, that this country is less populous,--that there are
+     fewer villages and towns,--that the agricultural classes,
+     from the landed proprietor down to the cottager, are
+     individually more knit and cemented together;--above all,
+     that the Scotch peasant has harder habits of life, and can
+     endure from his infancy a worse fare and lodging than your
+     parish almshouses offer.--There is a terrible evil in
+     England to which we are strangers,--the number, to wit, of
+     tippling-houses, where the laborer, as a matter of course,
+     spends the overplus of his earnings. In Scotland there are
+     few; and the Justices are commendably inexorable in
+     rejecting all application for licenses where {p.179} there
+     appears no public necessity for granting them. A man,
+     therefore, cannot easily spend much money in liquor, since
+     he must walk three or four miles to the place of suction and
+     back again, which infers a sort of _malice prepense_ of
+     which few are capable; and the habitual opportunity of
+     indulgence not being at hand, the habits of intemperance,
+     and of waste connected with it, are not acquired. If
+     financiers would admit a general limitation of the
+     ale-houses over England to one fourth of the number, I am
+     convinced you would find the money spent in that manner
+     would remain with the peasant, as a source of self-support
+     and independence.
+
+     All this applies chiefly to the country;--in towns, and in
+     the manufacturing districts, the evil could hardly be
+     diminished by such regulations. There would, perhaps, be no
+     means so effectual as that (which will never be listened to)
+     of taxing the manufacturers according to the number of hands
+     which they employ on an average, and applying the produce in
+     maintaining the manufacturing poor. If it should be alleged
+     that this would injure the manufacturers, I would boldly
+     reply,--"And why not injure, or rather limit, speculations,
+     the excessive stretch of which has been productive of so
+     much damage to the principles of the country, and to the
+     population, whom it has, in so many respects, degraded and
+     demoralized?" For a great many years, manufactures, taken in
+     a general point of view, have not partaken of the character
+     of a regular profession, in which all who engaged with
+     honest industry and a sufficient capital might reasonably
+     expect returns proportional to their advances and labor--but
+     have, on the contrary, rather resembled a lottery, in which
+     the great majority of the adventurers are sure to be losers,
+     although some may draw considerable advantage. Men continued
+     for a great many years to exert themselves, and to pay
+     extravagant wages, not in hopes that there could be a
+     reasonable prospect of an orderly and regular demand for the
+     goods they wrought {p.180} up, but in order that they might
+     be the first to take advantage of some casual opening which
+     might consume their cargo, let others shift as they could.
+     Hence extravagant wages on some occasions; for these
+     adventurers who thus played at hit or miss, stood on no
+     scruples while the chance of success remained open. Hence,
+     also, the stoppage of work, and the discharge of the
+     workmen, when the speculators failed of their object. All
+     this while the country was the sufferer;--for whoever
+     gained, the result, being upon the whole a loss, fell on the
+     nation, together with the task of maintaining a poor,
+     rendered effeminate and vicious by over-wages and
+     over-living, and necessarily cast loose upon society. I
+     cannot but think that the necessity of making some fund
+     beforehand, for the provision of those whom they debauch,
+     and render only fit for the almshouse, in prosecution of
+     their own adventures, though it operated as a check on the
+     increase of manufactures, would be a measure just in itself,
+     and beneficial to the community. But it would never be
+     listened to;--the weaver's beam, and the sons of Zeruiah,
+     would be too many for the proposers.
+
+     This is the eleventh of August: Walter, happier than he will
+     ever be again, perhaps, is preparing for the moors. He has a
+     better dog than Trout, and rather less active. Mrs. Scott
+     and all our family send kind love.
+
+     Yours ever,
+
+                                        W. S.
+
+Two or three days after this letter was written, Scott first saw
+Washington Irving, who has recorded his visit in a delightful Essay,
+which, however, having been penned nearly twenty years afterwards,
+betrays a good many slips of memory as to names and dates. Mr. Irving
+says he arrived at Abbotsford on the 27th of August, 1816; but he
+describes the walls of the new house as already overtopping the old
+cottage; and this is far from being the only circumstance he mentions
+which {p.181} proves that he should have written 1817.[72] The
+picture which my amiable friend has drawn of his reception shows to
+all who remember the Scott and the Abbotsford of those days, how
+consistent accuracy as to essentials may be with forgetfulness of
+trifles.
+
+              [Footnote 72: I have before me two letters of Mr.
+              Irving's to Scott, both written in September, 1817, from
+              Edinburgh, and referring to his visit (which certainly
+              was his only one at Abbotsford) as immediately
+              preceding. There is also in my hands a letter from Scott
+              to his friend John Richardson, of Fludyer Street, dated
+              22d September, 1817, in which he says, "When you see Tom
+              Campbell, tell him, with my best love, that I have to
+              thank him for making me known to Mr. Washington Irving,
+              who is one of the best and pleasantest acquaintances I
+              have made this many a day."]
+
+Scott had received The History of New York by Knickerbocker, shortly
+after its appearance in 1812, from an accomplished American traveller,
+Mr. Brevoort; and the admirable humor of this early work had led him
+to anticipate the brilliant career which its author has since run. Mr.
+Thomas Campbell, being no stranger to Scott's high estimation of
+Irving's genius, gave him a letter of introduction, which, halting his
+chaise on the high-road above Abbotsford, he modestly sent down to the
+house, "with a card, on which he had written, that he was on his way
+to the ruins of Melrose, and wished to know whether it would be
+agreeable to Mr. Scott to receive a visit from him in the course of
+the morning." Scott's family well remember the delight with which he
+received this announcement:--he was at breakfast, and sallied forth
+instantly, dogs and children after him as usual, to greet the guest,
+and conduct him in person from the highway to the door.
+
+     "The noise of my chaise," says Irving, "had disturbed the
+     quiet of the establishment. Out sallied the warder of the
+     castle, a black greyhound, and leaping on one of the blocks
+     of stone, began a furious barking. This alarm brought out
+     the whole garrison of dogs, all open-mouthed and vociferous.
+     In a little while, the lord of the castle himself made his
+     appearance. I knew him at once, by the likenesses that had
+     been {p.182} published of him. He came limping up the
+     gravel walk, aiding himself by a stout walking staff, but
+     moving rapidly and with vigor. By his side jogged along a
+     large iron-gray staghound, of most grave demeanor, who took
+     no part in the clamor of the canine rabble, but seemed to
+     consider himself bound, for the dignity of the house, to
+     give me a courteous reception.
+
+     "Before Scott reached the gate, he called out in a hearty
+     tone, welcoming me to Abbotsford, and asking news of
+     Campbell. Arrived at the door of the chaise, he grasped me
+     warmly by the hand: 'Come, drive down, drive down to the
+     house,' said he; 'ye're just in time for breakfast, and
+     afterwards ye shall see all the wonders of the Abbey.'
+
+     "I would have excused myself on the plea of having already
+     made my breakfast. 'Hut, man,' cried he, 'a ride in the
+     morning in the keen air of the Scotch hills is warrant
+     enough for a second breakfast.'
+
+     "I was accordingly whirled to the portal of the cottage, and
+     in a few moments found myself seated at the breakfast-table.
+     There was no one present but the family, which consisted of
+     Mrs. Scott; her eldest daughter, Sophia, then a fine girl
+     about seventeen; Miss Anne Scott, two or three years
+     younger; Walter, a well-grown stripling; and Charles, a
+     lively boy, eleven or twelve years of age.
+
+     "I soon felt myself quite at home, and my heart in a glow,
+     with the cordial welcome I experienced. I had thought to
+     make a mere morning visit, but found I was not to be let off
+     so lightly. 'You must not think our neighborhood is to be
+     read in a morning like a newspaper,' said Scott; 'it takes
+     several days of study for an observant traveller, that has a
+     relish for auld-world trumpery. After breakfast you shall
+     make your visit to Melrose Abbey; I shall not be able to
+     accompany you, as I have some household affairs to attend
+     to; but I will put you in charge of my son Charles, who is
+     very learned in all things touching the old ruin and the
+     neighborhood it stands in; and he and my friend Johnnie
+     Bower will tell you the whole truth about it, with a great
+     deal more that you are not called upon to believe, unless
+     you be a true and nothing-doubting antiquary. When you come
+     back, I'll take you out on a ramble about the neighborhood.
+     To-morrow we will take a {p.183} look at the Yarrow, and
+     the next day we will drive over to Dryburgh Abbey, which is
+     a fine old ruin, well worth your seeing.'--In a word, before
+     Scott had got through with his plan, I found myself
+     committed for a visit of several days, and it seemed as if a
+     little realm of romance was suddenly open before me."
+
+After breakfast, while Scott, no doubt, wrote a chapter of Rob Roy,
+Mr. Irving, under young Charles's guidance, saw Melrose Abbey, and
+Johnnie Bower the elder, whose son long since inherited his office as
+showman of the ruins, and all his enthusiasm about them and their
+poet. The senior on this occasion was loud in his praises of the
+affability of Scott. "He'll come here sometimes," said he, "with great
+folks in his company, and the first I'll know of it is hearing his
+voice calling out Johnnie!--Johnnie Bower!--and when I go out I'm sure
+to be greeted with a joke or a pleasant word. He'll stand and crack,
+an' laugh wi' me just like an auld wife,--and _to think that of a man
+that has such an awfu' knowledge o' history!_"[73]
+
+              [Footnote 73: [From the journal of three English ladies,
+              travellers in Scotland in the summer of 1817, we get
+              another glimpse of Johnnie Bower, and a pleasant sketch
+              of Sophia Scott:--
+
+              "In the chancel Miss Scott, a very charming, lively girl
+              of seventeen, pointed out to us 'The Wizard's Grave,'
+              and then the black stone in the form of a coffin, to
+              which the allusion is made in the poem, 'A Scottish
+              monarch sleeps below,'--said to be the tomb of Alexander
+              II. 'But I will tell you a secret,' she half whispered;
+              'only don't you tell Johnnie Bower. There is no Scottish
+              monarch there at all, nor anybody else, for papa had the
+              stone taken up, not long ago, and no coffin nor anything
+              was to be found. And then Johnnie came and begged me not
+              to tell people so. "For what wull I do, Miss Scott, when
+              I show the ruins, if I canna point to this bit, and say,
+              'A Scottish monarch sleeps below'?"' As, however, he had
+              the pleasure of saying this to us the evening before,
+              Miss Scott thought we might fairly have her secret....
+
+              "We now set out for Dryburgh, about five miles. Mr.
+              Scott placed his daughter in our carriage, that she
+              might point out the different places as we passed them.
+              We could not have had a better director, nor a more
+              lively, entertaining companion. Every spot was known to
+              her, and in this fairyland her quick imagination seemed
+              to delight in all the legendary lore she had heard, and
+              could so promptly apply.... At the view of some distant
+              mountains, Miss Scott suddenly exclaimed, 'Look, there
+              are the Cheviots; are you not glad to see England
+              again?' We assured her we were, though we should quit
+              Scotland with so much regret. 'Well,' she said, 'I
+              should not have liked you if you were not glad to return
+              home.' Her father had taken her to London the year
+              before, and she was delighted to get back again, and to
+              hail the Cheviots on her return. It was plain to see she
+              was her father's darling, and she talked of him with
+              enthusiasm. She has a very natural, unaffected
+              character, with a strong tincture of romantic feeling,
+              which seemed judiciously kept in check by him, as she
+              said he did not allow her to read much poetry, nor had
+              she even read all his own poems, which were never to be
+              found _in the way_, at their house. She spoke of her
+              sister and her brothers, with a warmth of affection very
+              pleasing. On asking what was become of Camp, she shook
+              her head, and said he was dead. 'You must never come to
+              Abbotsford when any of the dogs die, for there is a sad
+              weeping amongst us all.'"--Lang's _Life of Lockhart_,
+              vol. i. pp. 232-234.]]
+
+{p.184} On his return from the Abbey, Irving found Scott ready for a
+ramble. I cannot refuse myself the pleasure of extracting some parts
+of his description of it.
+
+     "As we sallied forth, every dog in the establishment turned
+     out to attend us. There was the old staghound, Maida, that I
+     have already mentioned, a noble animal, and Hamlet, the
+     black greyhound, a wild thoughtless youngster, not yet
+     arrived at the years of discretion; and Finette, a beautiful
+     setter, with soft, silken hair, long pendent ears, and a
+     mild eye, the parlor favorite. When in front of the house,
+     we were joined by a superannuated greyhound, who came from
+     the kitchen wagging his tail; and was cheered by Scott as an
+     old friend and comrade. In our walks, he would frequently
+     pause in conversation, to notice his dogs, and speak to them
+     as if rational companions; and, indeed, there appears to be
+     a vast deal of rationality in these faithful attendants on
+     man, derived from their close intimacy with him. Maida
+     deported himself with a gravity becoming his age and size,
+     and seemed to consider himself called upon to preserve a
+     great degree of dignity and decorum in our society. As he
+     jogged along a little distance ahead of us, the young dogs
+     would gambol about him, leap on his neck, worry at his ears,
+     and endeavor to tease him into a gambol. The old dog would
+     keep on for a long time with imperturbable solemnity, now
+     and then seeming to rebuke the wantonness of his young
+     companions. At length he would make a sudden turn, seize one
+     of them, and tumble him in the dust, then giving a {p.185}
+     glance at us, as much as to say, 'You see, gentlemen, I
+     can't help giving way to this nonsense,' would resume his
+     gravity, and jog on as before. Scott amused himself with
+     these peculiarities. 'I make no doubt,' said he, 'when Maida
+     is alone with these young dogs, he throws gravity aside, and
+     plays the boy as much as any of them; but he is ashamed to
+     do so in our company, and seems to say--Ha' done with your
+     nonsense, youngsters: what will the laird and that other
+     gentleman think of me if I give way to such foolery?'
+
+     "Scott amused himself with the peculiarities of another of
+     his dogs, a little shamefaced terrier, with large glassy
+     eyes, one of the most sensitive little bodies to insult and
+     indignity in the world. 'If ever he whipped him,' he said,
+     'the little fellow would sneak off and hide himself from the
+     light of day in a lumber garret, from whence there was no
+     drawing him forth but by the sound of the chopping-knife, as
+     if chopping up his victuals, when he would steal forth with
+     humiliated and downcast look, but would skulk away again if
+     any one regarded him.'
+
+     "While we were discussing the humors and peculiarities of
+     our canine companions, some object provoked their spleen,
+     and produced a sharp and petulant barking from the smaller
+     fry; but it was some time before Maida was sufficiently
+     roused to ramp forward two or three bounds, and join the
+     chorus with a deep-mouthed _bow wow_. It was but a transient
+     outbreak, and he returned instantly, wagging his tail, and
+     looking up dubiously in his master's face, uncertain whether
+     he would receive censure or applause. 'Ay, ay, old boy!'
+     cried Scott, 'you have done wonders; you have shaken the
+     Eildon hills with your roaring: you may now lay by your
+     artillery for the rest of the day. Maida,' continued he, 'is
+     like the great gun at Constantinople; it takes so long to
+     get it ready, that the smaller guns can fire off a dozen
+     times first: but when it does go off, it plays the very
+     devil.'
+
+     "These simple anecdotes may serve to show the delightful
+     play of Scott's humors and feelings in private life. His
+     domestic animals were his friends. Everything about him
+     seemed to rejoice in the light of his countenance.
+
+     "Our ramble took us on the hills commanding an extensive
+     prospect. 'Now,' said Scott, 'I have brought you, like the
+     pilgrim in the Pilgrim's Progress, to the top of the
+     Delectable {p.186} Mountains, that I may show you all the
+     goodly regions hereabouts. Yonder is Lammermuir, and
+     Smailholm; and there you have Galashiels, and Torwoodlee,
+     and Gala Water; and in that direction you see Teviotdale and
+     the Braes of Yarrow, and Ettrick stream winding along like a
+     silver thread, to throw itself into the Tweed.' He went on
+     thus to call over names celebrated in Scottish song, and
+     most of which had recently received a romantic interest from
+     his own pen. In fact, I saw a great part of the Border
+     country spread out before me, and could trace the scenes of
+     those poems and romances which had in a manner bewitched the
+     world.
+
+     "I gazed about me for a time with mute surprise, I may
+     almost say with disappointment. I beheld a mere succession
+     of gray waving hills, line beyond line, as far as my eye
+     could reach, monotonous in their aspect, and so destitute of
+     trees, that one could almost see a stout fly walking along
+     their profile; and the far-famed Tweed appeared a naked
+     stream, flowing between bare hills, without a tree or
+     thicket on its banks; and yet such had been the magic web of
+     poetry and romance thrown over the whole, that it had a
+     greater charm for me than the richest scenery I had beheld
+     in England. I could not help giving utterance to my
+     thoughts. Scott hummed for a moment to himself, and looked
+     grave; he had no idea of having his Muse complimented at the
+     expense of his native hills. 'It may be pertinacity,' said
+     he at length; 'but to my eye, these gray hills, and all this
+     wild Border country, have beauties peculiar to themselves. I
+     like the very nakedness of the land; it has something bold,
+     and stern, and solitary about it. When I have been for some
+     time in the rich scenery about Edinburgh, which is like
+     ornamented garden land, I begin to wish myself back again
+     among my own honest gray hills; and if I did not see the
+     heather, at least once a year, _I think I should die!_' The
+     last words were said with an honest warmth, accompanied by a
+     thump on the ground with his staff, by way of emphasis, that
+     showed his heart was in his speech. He vindicated the Tweed,
+     too, as a beautiful stream in itself; and observed that he
+     did not dislike it for being bare of trees, probably from
+     having been much of an angler in his time; and an angler
+     does not like to have a stream overhung by trees, which
+     embarrass him in the exercise of his rod and line.
+
+     {p.187} "I took occasion to plead, in like manner, the
+     associations of early life for my disappointment in respect
+     to the surrounding scenery. I had been so accustomed to see
+     hills crowned with forests, and streams breaking their way
+     through a wilderness of trees, that all my ideas of romantic
+     landscape were apt to be well wooded. 'Ay, and that's the
+     great charm of your country,' cried Scott. 'You love the
+     forest as I do the heather; but I would not have you think I
+     do not feel the glory of a great woodland prospect. There is
+     nothing I should like more than to be in the midst of one of
+     your grand wild original forests, with the idea of hundreds
+     of miles of untrodden forest around me. I once saw at Leith
+     an immense stick of timber, just landed from America. It
+     must have been an enormous tree when it stood in its native
+     soil, at its full height, and with all its branches. I gazed
+     at it with admiration; it seemed like one of the gigantic
+     obelisks which are now and then brought from Egypt to shame
+     the pigmy monuments of Europe; and, in fact, these vast
+     aboriginal trees, that have sheltered the Indians before the
+     intrusion of the white men, are the monuments and
+     antiquities of your country.'
+
+     "The conversation here turned upon Campbell's poem of
+     Gertrude of Wyoming, as illustrative of the poetic materials
+     furnished by American scenery. Scott cited several passages
+     of it with great delight. 'What a pity it is,' said he,
+     'that Campbell does not write more, and oftener, and give
+     full sweep to his genius! He has wings that would bear him
+     to the skies; and he does, now and then, spread them
+     grandly, but folds them up again, and resumes his perch, as
+     if he was afraid to launch away. What a grand idea is that,'
+     said he, 'about prophetic boding, or, in common parlance,
+     second sight--
+
+          "Coming events cast their shadows before!"--
+
+     The fact is,' added he, 'Campbell is, in a manner, a bugbear
+     to himself. The brightness of his early success is a
+     detriment to all his further efforts. _He is afraid of the
+     shadow that his own fame casts before him._'
+
+     "We had not walked much farther, before we saw the two Miss
+     Scotts advancing along the hillside to meet us. The
+     morning's studies being over, they had set off to take a
+     ramble on the hills, and gather heather blossoms with which
+     to decorate {p.188} their hair for dinner. As they came
+     bounding lightly like young fawns, and their dresses
+     fluttering in the pure summer breeze, I was reminded of
+     Scott's own description of his children, in his introduction
+     to one of the cantos of Marmion:--
+
+          'My imps, though hardy, bold, and wild,
+           As best befits the mountain child,' etc.
+
+     As they approached, the dogs all sprang forward, and
+     gambolled around them. They joined us with countenances full
+     of health and glee. Sophia, the eldest, was the most lively
+     and joyous, having much of her father's varied spirit in
+     conversation, and seeming to catch excitement from his words
+     and looks; Anne was of a quieter mood, rather silent, owing,
+     in some measure, no doubt, to her being some years
+     younger."[74]
+
+              [Footnote 74: ["His daughter Sophia and his son Charles
+              were those of his family who seemed most to feel and
+              understand his humors, and to take delight in his
+              conversation. Mrs. Scott did not always pay the same
+              attention, and would now and then make a casual remark
+              which would operate a little like a damper. Thus, one
+              morning at breakfast, when Dominie Thomson the tutor was
+              present, Scott was going on with great glee to relate an
+              anecdote of the laird of Macnab, 'who, poor fellow!'
+              premised he, 'is dead and gone.' 'Why, Mr. Scott,'
+              exclaimed the good lady, 'Macnab's not dead, is he?'
+              'Faith, my dear,' replied Scott, with humorous gravity,
+              'if he's not dead, they've done him a great
+              injustice,--for they've buried him.'
+
+              "The joke passed harmless and unnoticed by Mrs. Scott,
+              but hit the poor Dominie just as he had raised a cup of
+              tea to his lips ... sending half its contents about the
+              table."--Irving's _Abbotsford_.]]
+
+Having often, many years afterwards, heard Irving speak warmly of
+William Laidlaw, I must not omit the following passage:--
+
+     "One of my pleasantest rambles with Scott about the
+     neighborhood of Abbotsford was taken in company with Mr.
+     William Laidlaw, the steward of his estate. This was a
+     gentleman for whom Scott entertained a particular value. He
+     had been born to a competency, had been well educated, his
+     mind was richly stored with varied information, and he was a
+     man of sterling moral worth. Having been reduced by
+     misfortune, Scott had got him to take charge of his estate.
+     He lived at a small farm, on the hillside above Abbotsford,
+     and was treated {p.189} by Scott as a cherished and
+     confidential friend, rather than a dependant.
+
+     "That day at dinner we had Mr. Laidlaw and his wife, and a
+     female friend who accompanied them. The latter was a very
+     intelligent respectable person, about the middle age, and
+     was treated with particular attention and courtesy by Scott.
+     Our dinner was a most agreeable one, for the guests were
+     evidently cherished visitors to the house, and felt that
+     they were appreciated. When they were gone, Scott spoke of
+     them in the most cordial manner. 'I wished to show you,'
+     said he, 'some of our really excellent, plain Scotch people:
+     not fine gentlemen and ladies, for such you can meet
+     everywhere, and they are everywhere the same. The character
+     of a nation is not to be learnt from its fine folks.' He
+     then went on with a particular eulogium on the lady who had
+     accompanied the Laidlaws. She was the daughter, he said, of
+     a poor country clergyman, who had died in debt, and left her
+     an orphan and destitute. Having had a good plain education,
+     she immediately set up a child's school, and had soon a
+     numerous flock under her care, by which she earned a decent
+     maintenance. That, however, was not her main object. Her
+     first care was to pay off her father's debts, that no ill
+     word or ill will might rest upon his memory. This, by dint
+     of Scotch economy, backed by filial reverence and pride, she
+     accomplished, though in the effort she subjected herself to
+     every privation. Not content with this, she in certain
+     instances refused to take pay for the tuition of the
+     children of some of her neighbors, who had befriended her
+     father in his need, and had since fallen into poverty. 'In a
+     word,' added Scott, 'she's a fine old Scotch girl, and I
+     delight in her more than in many a fine lady I have known,
+     and I have known many of the finest.'
+
+     "The evening passed away delightfully in a quaint-looking
+     apartment, half study, half drawing-room. Scott read several
+     passages from the old Romance of Arthur, with a fine deep
+     sonorous voice, and a gravity of tone that seemed to suit
+     the antiquated black-letter volume. It was a rich treat to
+     hear such a work read by such a person, and in such a place;
+     and his appearance, as he sat reading, in a large armchair,
+     with his favorite hound Maida at his feet, and surrounded by
+     books and reliques and Border trophies, would have formed
+     {p.190} an admirable and most characteristic picture. When
+     I retired for the night, I found it almost impossible to
+     sleep: the idea of being under the roof of Scott; of being
+     on the Borders on the Tweed; in the very centre of that
+     region which had, for some time past, been the favorite
+     scene of romantic fiction; and, above all, the recollections
+     of the ramble I had taken, the company in which I had taken
+     it, and the conversation which had passed, all fermented in
+     my mind, and nearly drove sleep from my pillow.
+
+     "On the following morning the sun darted his beams from over
+     the hills through the low lattice of my window. I rose at an
+     early hour, and looked out between the branches of eglantine
+     which overhung the casement. To my surprise, Scott was
+     already up, and forth, seated on a fragment of stone, and
+     chatting with the workmen employed in the new building. I
+     had supposed, after the time he had wasted upon me
+     yesterday, he would be closely occupied this morning: but he
+     appeared like a man of leisure, who had nothing to do but
+     bask in the sunshine, and amuse himself. I soon dressed
+     myself and joined him. He talked about his proposed plans of
+     Abbotsford: happy would it have been for him could he have
+     contented himself with his delightful little vine-covered
+     cottage, and the simple, yet hearty and hospitable, style in
+     which he lived at the time of my visit."[75]
+
+              [Footnote 75: [That this visit remained a vivid and
+              delightful memory to the end of Irving's life is shown
+              in some words spoken not long before his death: "Oh!
+              Scott was a master spirit--as glorious in his
+              conversation as in his writings. Jeffrey was delightful,
+              and had _eloquent runs_ in conversation; but there was a
+              consciousness of talent with it. Scott had nothing of
+              that. He spoke from the fulness of his mind, pouring out
+              an incessant flow of anecdote, story, with dashes of
+              humor, and then never monopolizing, but always ready to
+              listen to and appreciate what came from others. I never
+              felt such a consciousness of happiness as when under his
+              roof."--_Washington Irving's Life and Letters_, vol. iv.
+              p. 260.]]
+
+Among other visitors who succeeded the distinguished American that
+autumn, were Lady Byron, the wife of the poet, and the great artist,
+Mr., now Sir David Wilkie, who then executed for Captain Ferguson that
+pleasing little picture, in which Scott and his family are represented
+as a group of peasants, while the gallant soldier {p.191} himself
+figures by them in the character of a gamekeeper, or perhaps poacher.
+Mr. Irving has given, in the little work from which I have quoted so
+liberally, an amusing account of the delicate scruples of Wilkie about
+soliciting Scott to devote a morning to the requisite sitting, until,
+after lingering for several days, he at length became satisfied that,
+by whatever magic his host might contrive to keep Ballantyne's presses
+in full play, he had always abundance of leisure for matters less
+important than Ferguson's destined heirloom. I shall now, however,
+return to his correspondence; and begin with a letter to Joanna
+Baillie on Lady Byron's visit.
+
+     TO MISS JOANNA BAILLIE, HAMPSTEAD.
+
+                                        ABBOTSFORD, September 26, 1817.
+
+     MY DEAR MISS BAILLIE,--A series of little trinketty sort of
+     business, and occupation, and idleness, have succeeded to
+     each other so closely, that I have been scarce able, for
+     some three weeks past, to call my time my own for half an
+     hour together; but enough of apologies--they are vile
+     things, and I know you will impute my negligence to anything
+     rather than forgetting or undervaluing your friendship. You
+     know, by this time, that we have had a visit from Lady
+     Byron, delightful both on its own account, and because it
+     was accompanied with good news and a letter from you. I
+     regret we could not keep her longer than a day with us,
+     which was spent on the banks of the Yarrow, and I hope and
+     believe she was pleased with us, because I am sure she will
+     be so with everything that is intended to please her:
+     meantime her visit gave me a most lawyer-like fit of the
+     bile. I have lived too long to be surprised at any instance
+     of human caprice, but still it vexes me. Now, one would
+     suppose Lady Byron, young, beautiful, with birth, and rank,
+     and fortune, and taste, and high accomplishments, and
+     admirable good sense, qualified to have made happy one whose
+     talents are so high as Lord Byron's, and whose marked
+     {p.192} propensity it is to like those who are qualified to
+     admire and understand his talents; and yet it has proved
+     otherwise. I can safely say my heart ached for her all the
+     time we were together; there was so much patience and decent
+     resignation to a situation which must have pressed on her
+     thoughts, that she was to me one of the most interesting
+     creatures I had seen for a score of years. I am sure I
+     should not have felt such strong kindness towards her had
+     she been at the height of her fortune, and in the full
+     enjoyment of all the brilliant prospects to which she seemed
+     destined.--You will wish to hear of my complaint. I think,
+     thank God, that it is leaving me--not suddenly, however, for
+     I have had some repetitions, but they have become fainter
+     and fainter, and I have not been disturbed by one for these
+     three weeks. I trust, by care and attention, my stomach will
+     return to its usual tone, and I am as careful as I can. I
+     have taken hard exercise with good effect, and am often six
+     hours on foot without stopping or sitting down, to which my
+     plantations and enclosures contribute not a little. I have,
+     however, given up the gun this season, finding myself unable
+     to walk up to the dogs; but Walter has taken it in hand, and
+     promises to be a first-rate shot; he brought us in about
+     seven or eight brace of birds the evening Lady Byron came to
+     us, which papa was of course a little proud of. The
+     blackcocks are getting very plenty on our moor-ground at
+     Abbotsford, but I associate them so much with your beautiful
+     poem,[76] that I have not the pleasure I used to have in
+     knocking them down. I wish I knew how to send you a brace. I
+     get on with my labors here; my house is about to be roofed
+     in, and a comical concern it is.
+
+     Yours truly,
+
+                                        W. S.
+
+              [Footnote 76:
+                    "Good-morrow to thy sable beak,
+                     And glossy plumage dark and sleek,
+                     Thy crimson moon, and azure eye,
+                     Cock of the heath, so wildly shy!" etc.]
+
+{p.193} The next letter refers to the Duke of Buccleuch's preparations
+for a cattle-show at Bowhill, which was followed by an entertainment
+on a large scale to his Grace's Selkirkshire neighbors and tenantry,
+and next day by a fox-hunt, after Dandie Dinmont's fashion, among the
+rocks of the Yarrow. The Sheriff attended _with his tail on_; and
+Wilkie, too, went with him. It was there that Sir David first saw
+Hogg, and the Shepherd's greeting was graceful. He eyed the great
+painter for a moment in silence, and then stretching out his hand,
+said: "Thank God for it. I did not know that you were so young a man!"
+
+     TO THE DUKE OF BUCCLEUCH, ETC., ETC., ETC., DRUMLANRIG CASTLE.
+
+     MY DEAR LORD DUKE,--I am just honored with your Grace's of
+     the 27th. The posts, which are as cross as pie-crust, have
+     occasioned some delay. Depend on our attending at Bowhill on
+     the 20th, and staying over the show. I have written to Adam
+     Ferguson, who will come with a whoop and a hollo. So will
+     the Ballantynes--flageolet[77] and all--for the festival,
+     and they shall be housed at Abbotsford. I have an inimitably
+     good songster in the person of Terence Magrath, who teaches
+     my girls. He beats almost all whom I have ever heard attempt
+     Moore's songs, and I can easily cajole him also out to
+     Abbotsford for a day or two. In jest or earnest, I never
+     heard a better singer in a room, though his voice is not
+     quite full enough for a concert; and for an after-supper
+     song, he almost equals Irish Johnstone.[78]
+
+              [Footnote 77: The _flageolet_ alludes to Mr. Alexander
+              Ballantyne, the third of the brothers--a fine musician,
+              and a most amiable and modest man, never connected with
+              Scott in any business matters, but always much his
+              favorite in private.]
+
+              [Footnote 78: Mr. Magrath has now been long established
+              in his native city of Dublin. His musical excellence was
+              by no means the only merit that attached Scott to his
+              society while he remained in Edinburgh.]
+
+     Trade of every kind is recovering, and not a loom idle
+     {p.194} in Glasgow. The most faithful respects of this
+     family attend the Ladies and all at Drumlanrig. I ever am
+     your Grace's truly obliged and grateful
+
+                                        Walter SCOTT.
+
+       Given from my Castle of Grawacky,
+       this second day of the month called
+       October, One Thousand Eight Hundred
+       and Seventeen Years.
+
+     There is a date nearly as long as the letter.
+
+     I hope we shall attack the foxes at Bowhill. I will hazard
+     Maida.
+
+We have some allusions to this Bowhill party in another letter; the
+first of several which I shall now insert according to their dates,
+leaving them, with a few marginal notes, to tell out the story of
+1817:--
+
+     TO DANIEL TERRY, ESQ., LONDON.
+
+                                        ABBOTSFORD, October 24, 1817.
+
+     DEAR TERRY,--Bullock has not gone to Skye, and I am very
+     glad he has not, for to me who knew the Hebrides well, the
+     attempt seemed very perilous at this season. I have
+     considerably enlarged my domains since I wrote to you, by
+     the purchase of a beautiful farm adjacent. The farmhouse,
+     which is new and excellent, I have let to Adam Ferguson and
+     his sisters. We will be within a pleasant walk of each
+     other, and hope to end our lives, as they began, in each
+     other's society. There is a beautiful brook, with remnants
+     of natural wood, which would make Toftfield rival
+     Abbotsford, but for the majestic Tweed. I am in treaty for a
+     field or two more; one of which contains the only specimen
+     of a Peel-house, or defensive residence of a small
+     proprietor, which remains in this neighborhood. It is an
+     orchard, in the hamlet of Darnick, to which it gives a most
+     picturesque effect. Blore admires it very much. We are all
+     well here, but crowded with company. I have been junketing
+     {p.195} this week past at Bowhill. Mr. Magrath has been
+     with us these two or three days, and has seen his ward,
+     Hamlet, behave most _princelike_ on Newark Hill and
+     elsewhere. He promises to be a real treasure.[79]
+     Notwithstanding, Mr. Magrath went to Bowhill with me one
+     day, where his vocal talents gave great pleasure, and I hope
+     will procure him the notice and protection of the Buccleuch
+     family. The Duke says my building engrosses, as a common
+     centre, the thoughts of Mr. Atkinson and Mr. Bullock, and
+     wishes he could make them equally anxious in his own behalf.
+     You may believe this flatters me not a little.
+
+              [Footnote 79: This fine greyhound, a gift from Terry,
+              had been sent to Scotland under the care of Mr. Magrath.
+              Terry had called the dog _Marmion_, but Scott
+              rechristened him _Hamlet_, in honor of his "inky coat."]
+
+     P. S.--I agree with you that the tower will look rather rich
+     for the rest of the building; yet you may be assured, that
+     with diagonal chimneys and notched gables, it will have a
+     very fine effect, and is in Scotch architecture by no means
+     incompatible. My house has been like a _cried fair_, and
+     extreme the inconvenience of having no corner sacred to my
+     own use, and free from intrusion.
+
+     Ever truly yours,
+
+                                        W. S.
+
+
+     TO THE SAME.
+
+                                        ABBOTSFORD, 29th October, 1817.
+
+     MY DEAR TERRY,--I enclose a full sketch of the lower story,
+     with accurate measurements of rooms, casements, doorways,
+     chimneys, etc., that Mr. Atkinson's good will may not want
+     means to work upon. I will speak to the subjects of your
+     letters separately, that I may omit none of them. _1st_, I
+     cannot possibly surrender the window to the west in the
+     library,[80] although I subscribe to all you urge about it.
+     Still it is essential in point of light to my old eyes, and
+     the single northern {p.196} aspect would not serve me.
+     Above all, it looks into the yard, and enables me to summon
+     Tom Purdie without the intervention of a third party.
+     Indeed, as I can have but a few books about me, it is of the
+     less consequence. _2dly_, I resign the idea of _coving_ the
+     library to your better judgment, and I think the Stirling
+     Heads[81] will be admirably disposed in the glass of the
+     armory window. I have changed my mind as to having doors on
+     the book-presses, which is, after all, a great bore. No
+     person will be admitted into my sanctum, and I can have the
+     door locked during my absence. _3dly_, I expect Mr. Bullock
+     here every day, and should be glad to have the drawings for
+     the dining-room wainscot, as he could explain them to the
+     artists who are to work them. This (always if quite
+     convenient) would be the more desirable, as I must leave
+     this place in a fortnight at farthest,--the more 's the
+     pity,--and, consequently, the risk of blunders will be
+     considerably increased. I should like if the panelling of
+     the wainscot could admit of a press on each side of the
+     sideboard. I don't mean a formal press with a high door, but
+     some crypt, or, to speak vulgarly, _cupboard_, to put away
+     bottles of wine, etc. You know I am my own butler, and such
+     accommodation is very convenient. We begin roofing
+     to-morrow. Wilkie admires the whole as a composition, and
+     that is high authority. I agree that the fountain shall be
+     out of doors in front of the greenhouse; there may be an
+     enclosure for it with some ornamented mason work, as in old
+     gardens, and it will occupy an angle, which I should be
+     puzzled what to do with, for turf and gravel would be rather
+     meagre, and flowers not easily kept. I have the old fountain
+     belonging to the Cross of Edinburgh, which flowed with wine
+     at the coronation of our kings and on other occasions of
+     {p.197} public rejoicing. I send a sketch of this venerable
+     relic, connected as it is with a thousand associations. It
+     is handsome in its forms and proportions--a freestone basin
+     about three feet in diameter, and five inches and a half in
+     depth, very handsomely hollowed. A piece has been broken off
+     one edge, but as we have the fragment, it can easily be
+     restored with cement. There are four openings for pipes in
+     the circumference--each had been covered with a Gothic
+     masque, now broken off and defaced, but which may be easily
+     restored. Through these the wine had fallen into a larger
+     and lower reservoir. I intend this for the centre of my
+     fountain. I do not believe I should save £100 by retaining
+     Mrs. Redford, by the time she was raised, altered, and
+     beautified, for, like the Highlandman's gun, she wants
+     stock, lock, and barrel, to put her into repair. In the mean
+     time, "the cabin is convenient." Yours ever,
+
+                                        W. S.
+
+              [Footnote 80: Before the second and larger part of the
+              present house of Abbotsford was built, the small room,
+              subsequently known as the breakfast parlor, was during
+              several years Scott's _sanctum_.]
+
+              [Footnote 81: This alludes to certain pieces of painted
+              glass, representing the heads of some of the old Scotch
+              kings, copied from the carved ceiling of the
+              presence-chamber in Stirling Castle. There are
+              engravings of them in a work called _Lacunar
+              Strevelinense_. Edinb. 4to, 1817.]
+
+     TO MR. WILLIAM LAIDLAW, KAESIDE.
+
+                                        EDINBURGH, November 15, 1817.
+
+     DEAR WILLIE,--I have no intention to let the Whitehaugh
+     without your express approbation, and I wish you to act as
+     my adviser and representative in these matters. I would
+     hardly have ventured to purchase so much land without the
+     certainty of your counsel and cooperation.... On the other
+     side you will find a small order on the banker at
+     Galashiels, to be renewed half yearly; not by way of
+     recompensing your friendship "with a load of barren money,"
+     but merely to ease my conscience in some degree for the time
+     which I must necessarily withdraw from the labor which is to
+     maintain your family. Believe me, dear Willie, yours truly,
+
+                                        W. SCOTT.
+
+
+     TO THE SAME.
+
+                                        EDINBURGH, 19th November, 1817.
+
+     DEAR WILLIE,--I hope you will not quarrel with my last.
+     Believe me that, to a sound-judging, and philosophical
+     {p.198} mind, this same account of Dr. and Cr., which fills
+     up so much time in the world, is comparatively of very small
+     value. When you get rich, unless I thrive in the same
+     proportion, I will request your assistance for less, for
+     little, or for nothing, as the case may require; but while I
+     wear my seven-leagued boots to stride in triumph over moss
+     and muir, it would be very silly in either of us to let a
+     cheque twice a year of £25 make a difference between us. But
+     all this we will talk over when we meet. I meditate one day
+     a _coup-de-maître_, which will make my friend's advice and
+     exertion essential--indeed worthy of much better
+     remuneration. When you come, I hope you will bring us
+     information of all my rural proceedings. Though so lately
+     come to town, I still remember, at my waking hours, that I
+     can neither see Tom Purdie nor Adam Paterson,[82] and rise
+     with the more unwillingness. I was unwell on Monday and
+     Tuesday, but am quite recovered.
+
+     Yours truly,
+
+                                        W. S.
+
+              [Footnote 82: Adam Paterson was the intelligent foreman
+              of the company of masons then employed at Abbotsford.]
+
+     TO THOMAS SCOTT, ESQ., PAYMASTER, 70TH REGIMENT, KINGSTON, CANADA.
+
+                                        EDINBURGH, 13th December, 1817.
+
+     MY DEAR TOM,--I should be happy to attend to your commission
+     about a dominie for your boy, but I think there will be much
+     risk in yoking yourself with one for three or four years.
+     You know what sort of black cattle these are, and how
+     difficult it is to discern their real character, though one
+     may give a guess at their attainments. When they get good
+     provender in their guts, they are apt to turn out very
+     different animals from what they were in their original low
+     condition, and get frisky and troublesome. I have made
+     several inquiries, however, and request to know what salary
+     you would think reasonable, and also what acquisitions he
+     ought to possess. {p.199} There is no combating the
+     feelings which you express for the society of your son,
+     otherwise I really think that a Scottish education would be
+     highly desirable; and should you at any time revert to this
+     plan, you may rely on my bestowing the same attention upon
+     him as upon my own boys.
+
+     I agree entirely with you on the necessity of your remaining
+     in the regiment while it is stationary, and retiring on
+     half-pay when it marches; but I cannot so easily acquiesce
+     in your plan of settling in Canada. On the latter event
+     taking place, on the contrary, I think it would be highly
+     advisable that you should return to your native country. In
+     the course of nature you must soon be possessed of
+     considerable property, now life-rented by our mother, and I
+     should think that even your present income would secure you
+     comfort and independence here. Should you remain in Canada,
+     you must consider your family as settlers in that state, and
+     as I cannot believe that it will remain very long separated
+     from America, I should almost think this equal to depriving
+     them of the advantages of British subjects--at least of
+     those which they might derive from their respectable
+     connections in this country. With respect to your son, in
+     particular, I have little doubt that I could be of
+     considerable service to him in almost any line of life he
+     might chance to adopt here, but could of course have less
+     influence on his fortunes were he to remain on the Niagara.
+     I certainly feel anxious on this subject, because the
+     settlement of your residence in America would be saying, in
+     other words, that we two, the last remains of a family once
+     so numerous, are never more to meet upon this side of time.
+     My own health is very much broken up by the periodical
+     recurrence of violent cramps in the stomach, which neither
+     seem disposed to yield to medicine nor to abstinence. The
+     complaint, the doctors say, is not dangerous in itself, but
+     I cannot look forward to its continued recurrence, without
+     being certain that it is to break my health, and {p.200}
+     anticipate old age in cutting me short. Be it so, my dear
+     Tom--_Sat est vixisse_--and I am too much of a philosopher
+     to be anxious about protracted life, which, with all its
+     infirmities and deprivations, I have never considered as a
+     blessing. In the years which may be before me, it would be a
+     lively satisfaction to me to have the pleasure of seeing you
+     in this country, with the prospect of a comfortable
+     settlement. I have but an imperfect account to render of my
+     doings here. I have amused myself with making an addition to
+     my cottage in the country. One little apartment is to be
+     fitted up as an armory for my old relics and curiosities. On
+     the wicket I intend to mount your _deer's foot_[83]--as an
+     appropriate knocker. I hope the young ladies liked their
+     watches, and that all your books, stationery, etc., came
+     safe to hand. I am told you have several kinds of the oak
+     peculiar to America. If you can send me a few good acorns,
+     with the names of the kinds they belong to, I will have them
+     reared with great care and attention. The heaviest and
+     smoothest acorns should be selected, as one would wish them,
+     sent from such a distance, to succeed, which rarely happens
+     unless they are particularly well ripened. I shall be as
+     much obliged to you as Sancho was to the Duchess, or, to
+     speak more correctly, the Duchess to Sancho, for a similar
+     favor. Our mother keeps her health surprisingly well now,
+     nor do I think there is any difference, unless that her
+     deafness is rather increased. My eldest boy is upwards of
+     six feet high; therefore born, as Sergeant Kite says, to be
+     a great man. I should not like such a rapid growth, but that
+     he carries strength along with it; my youngest boy is a very
+     sharp little fellow--and the girls give us great
+     satisfaction. Ever affectionately yours,
+
+                                        Walter SCOTT.
+
+              [Footnote 83: Thomas Scott had sent his brother the
+              horns and feet of a gigantic stag, shot by him in
+              Canada. The feet were ultimately suspended to bell-cords
+              in the armory at Abbotsford; and the horns mounted as
+              drinking-cups.]
+
+{p.201} The following note is without date. It accompanied, no doubt,
+the last proof sheet of Rob Roy, and was therefore in all probability
+written about ten days before the 31st of December, 1817--on which day
+the novel was published.
+
+     TO MR. JAMES BALLANTYNE, ST. JOHN STREET.
+
+     DEAR JAMES,--
+
+          With great joy
+          I send you Roy.
+          'T was a tough job,
+          But we're done with Rob.
+
+     I forget if I mentioned Terry in my list of Friends. Pray
+     send me two or three copies as soon as you can. It were pity
+     to make the Grinder[84] pay carriage.
+
+     Yours ever,
+
+                                        W. S.
+
+              [Footnote 84: They called Daniel Terry among themselves
+              "The Grinder," in double allusion to the song of _Terry
+              the Grinder_, and to some harsh under-notes of their
+              friend's voice.]
+
+The novel had indeed been "a tough job"--for lightly and airily as it
+reads, the author had struggled almost throughout with the pains of
+cramp or the lassitude of opium. Calling on him one day to dun him for
+copy, James Ballantyne found him with a clean pen and a blank sheet
+before him, and uttered some rather solemn exclamation of surprise.
+"Ay, ay, Jemmy," said he, "'tis easy for you to bid me get on, but how
+the deuce can I make Rob Roy's wife speak, with such a _curmurring_ in
+my guts?"
+
+
+
+
+{p.202} CHAPTER XL.
+
+     Rob Roy Published. -- Negotiation Concerning the Second
+     Series of Tales of my Landlord. -- Commission to Search for
+     the Scottish Regalia. -- Letters to the Duke of Buccleuch,
+     Mr. Croker, Mr. Morritt, Mr. Murray, Mr. Maturin, etc. --
+     Correspondence on Rural Affairs with Mr. Laidlaw, and on the
+     Buildings at Abbotsford with Mr. Terry. -- Death Of Mrs.
+     Murray Keith and Mr. George Bullock.
+
+1818.
+
+
+Rob Roy and his wife, Bailie Nicol Jarvie and his housekeeper, Die
+Vernon and Rashleigh Osbaldistone--these boldly drawn and happily
+contrasted personages--were welcomed as warmly as the most fortunate
+of their predecessors.[85] Constable's resolution to begin with an
+{p.203} edition of 10,000 proved to have been as sagacious as brave;
+for within a fortnight a second impression of 3000 was called for; and
+the subsequent sale of this novel has considerably exceeded 40,000
+more.
+
+              [Footnote 85: [On the 16th of February, Lady Louisa
+              Stuart wrote:--
+
+              "I have read _Rob Roy_ twice.... The scale with me would
+              be _Waverley_, _Old Mortality_, _Guy Mannering_--so far
+              I am sure. I am not sure which of the others I could
+              positively prefer; there are striking beauties in each.
+              In _Rob Roy_ the painting of character is as vivid as in
+              anything the author ever wrote. Rob himself, Die Vernon,
+              Nicol Jarvie, Andrew Fairservice, not to speak of the
+              Tory baronet and his cubs, or the Jesuit Rashleigh. The
+              beginning and end, I am afraid, I quarrel with; ... but
+              beginnings signify little; ends signify more. Now, I
+              fear the end of this is huddled, as if the author were
+              tired and wanted to get rid of his personages as fast as
+              he could, knocking them on the head without mercy. Die
+              Vernon has what a Lord Bellamont (famous in my day and
+              before it for profligacy and affectation) used to call
+              such 'a catastrophical countenance' that one cannot
+              reconcile oneself to her being married and settled like
+              her sober neighbors. It is almost as bad as if Flora
+              MacIvor had married the Colonel's nephew.... You see I
+              give my opinion (let it be worth something or nothing)
+              as if I were writing to a person not supposed to be in
+              any way sib to the mysterious Unknown; but it is because
+              I believe you have too distinguishing a taste to relish
+              all sugar and treacle. Goldsmith's metaphor was bad when
+              he said, 'Who peppers the highest is surest to please,'
+              for flattery resembles neither pepper nor salt. Apropos
+              of the mystery, those who see far into a millstone are
+              now sure that the _Tales of my Landlord_ were written by
+              a different person, and parts of them by different
+              hands. When they give their reasons with a complacent
+              delight in their own sagacity, I think to myself, how
+              often must I have talked as much wise nonsense upon
+              subjects which I knew nothing about."--_Familiar
+              Letters_, vol. ii. p. 11.]]
+
+Scott, however, had not waited for this new burst of applause. As soon
+as he came within view of the completion of Rob Roy, he desired John
+Ballantyne to propose to Constable and Co. a second series of the
+Tales of my Landlord, to be comprised, like the first, in four
+volumes, and ready for publication by "the King's birthday;" that is,
+the 4th of June, 1818. "I have hungered and thirsted," he wrote, "to
+see the end of those shabby borrowings among friends; they have all
+been wiped out except the good Duke's £4000--and I will not suffer
+either new offers of land or anything else to come in the way of that
+clearance. I expect that you will be able to arrange this resurrection
+of Jedediah, so that £5000 shall be at my order."
+
+Mr. Rigdum used to glory in recounting that he acquitted himself on
+this occasion with a species of dexterity not contemplated in his
+commission. He well knew how sorely Constable had been wounded by
+seeing the first Tales of Jedediah published by Murray and
+Blackwood--and that the utmost success of Rob Roy would only double
+his anxiety to keep them out of the field, when the hint should be
+dropt that a second MS. from Gandercleuch might shortly be looked for.
+John therefore took a convenient opportunity to mention the new scheme
+as if casually--so as to give Constable the impression {p.204} that
+the author's purpose was to divide the second series also between his
+old rival in Albemarle Street, of whom his jealousy was always
+sensitive, and his neighbor Blackwood, whom, if there had been no
+other grudge, the recent conduct and rapidly increasing sale of his
+Magazine would have been sufficient to make Constable hate with a
+perfect hatred. To see not only his old "Scots Magazine" eclipsed, but
+the authority of the Edinburgh Review itself bearded on its own soil
+by this juvenile upstart, was to him gall and wormwood; and, moreover,
+he himself had come in for his share in some of those grotesque _jeux
+d'esprit_ by which, at this period, Blackwood's young Tory wags
+delighted to assail their elders and betters of the Whig persuasion.
+To prevent the proprietor of this new journal from acquiring anything
+like a hold on the author of Waverley, and thus competing with himself
+not only in periodical literature, but in the highest of the time, was
+an object for which, as John Ballantyne shrewdly guessed, Constable
+would have made at that moment almost any sacrifice. When, therefore,
+the haughty but trembling bookseller--"The Lord High Constable" (as he
+had been dubbed by these jesters)--signified his earnest hope that the
+second Tales of my Landlord were destined to come out under the same
+auspices with Rob Roy, the plenipotentiary answered with an air of
+deep regret, that he feared it would be impossible for the author to
+dispose of the work--unless to publishers who should agree to take
+with it _the whole_ of the remaining stock of "John Ballantyne and
+Co.;" and Constable, pertinaciously as he had stood out against many
+more modest propositions of this nature, was so worked upon by his
+jealous feelings, that his resolution at once gave way. He agreed on
+the instant to do all that John seemed to shrink from asking--and at
+one sweep cleared the Augean stable in Hanover Street of unsalable
+rubbish to the amount of £5270! I am assured by his surviving partner,
+that when he had finally {p.205} redisposed of the stock, he found
+himself a loser by fully two thirds of this sum.
+
+Burthened with this heavy condition, the agreement for the sale of
+10,000 copies of the embryo series was signed before the end of
+November, 1817; and on the 7th January, 1818, Scott wrote as follows
+to his noble friend:--
+
+     TO THE DUKE OF BUCCLEUCH, ETC., ETC.
+
+     MY DEAR LORD DUKE,--I have the great pleasure of enclosing
+     the discharged bond which your Grace stood engaged in for
+     me, and on my account. The accommodation was of the greatest
+     consequence to me, as it enabled me to retain possession of
+     some valuable literary property, which I must otherwise have
+     suffered to be sold at a time when the booksellers had no
+     money to buy it. My dear Lord, to wish that all your
+     numerous and extensive acts of kindness may be attended with
+     similar advantages to the persons whom you oblige, is
+     wishing you what to your mind will be the best recompense;
+     and to wish that they may be felt by all as gratefully as by
+     me, though you may be careless to hear about that part of
+     the story, is only wishing what is creditable to human
+     nature. I have this moment your more than kind letter, and
+     congratulate your Grace that, in one sense of the word, you
+     can be what you never will be in any other, _ambidexter_.
+     But I am sorry you took so much trouble, and I fear _pains_
+     besides, to display your new talent.
+
+     Ever your Grace's truly faithful,
+
+                                        Walter SCOTT.
+
+The closing sentence of this letter refers to a fit of the gout which
+had disabled the Duke's right hand, but not cooled his zeal on a
+subject which, throughout January, 1818, occupied, I firmly believe,
+much more of his correspondent's thoughts by day and dreams by night,
+than any one, or perhaps than all others, besides. The time {p.206}
+now approached when a Commission to examine the Crown-room in the
+Castle of Edinburgh, which had sprung from one of Scott's
+conversations with the Prince Regent in 1815, was at length to be
+acted upon. The minstrel of the "Rough Clan" had taken care that the
+name of his chief should stand at the head of the document; but the
+Duke's now precarious health ultimately prevented him from being
+present at the discovery of the long buried and almost forgotten
+Regalia of Scotland. The two following letters on this subject are of
+the same date--Edinburgh, 14th January, 1818.
+
+     TO THE DUKE OF BUCCLEUCH, ETC., ETC., BOWHILL.
+
+     MY DEAR LORD,--You will hear from the Advocate that the
+     Commission for opening the Regalia is arrived, and that the
+     Commissioners held their first meeting yesterday. They have
+     named next Wednesday (in case your Grace can attend) for
+     opening the mysterious chest. So this question will be put
+     to rest forever.
+
+     I remember among the rebel company which debauched my youth,
+     there was a drunken old Tory, who used to sing a ballad made
+     about these same Regalia at the time of the Union, in which
+     they were all destined to the basest uses; the crown, for
+     example,
+
+          "To make a can for Brandy Nan
+           To puke in when she's tipsy."
+
+     The rest of the song is in a tone of equally pure humor; the
+     chorus ran:--
+
+          "Farewell, thou ancient kingdom--
+           Farewell, thou ancient kingdom.
+           Who sold thyself for English pelf--
+           Was ever such a thing done?"
+
+     I hope your Grace feels yourself sufficiently interested in
+     the recovery of these ancient symbols of national
+     independence, so long worn by your forefathers, and which
+     were never profaned by the touch of a monarch of a foreign
+     {p.207} dynasty. Here is fine planting weather. I trust it
+     is as good in the Forest and on Tweedside.
+
+     Ever your Grace's truly faithful
+
+                                        Walter SCOTT.
+
+
+     TO J. B. S. MORRITT, ESQ., M. P., ROKEBY.
+
+     DEAR MORRITT,--Our fat friend has remembered a petition
+     which I put up to him, and has granted a Commission to the
+     Officers of State and others (my unworthy self
+     included)--which trusty and well-beloved persons are to
+     institute a search after the Regalia of Scotland. There has
+     an odd mystery hung about the fate of these royal symbols of
+     national independence. The spirit of the Scotch at the Union
+     clung fondly to these emblems; and to soothe their jealousy
+     it was specially provided by an article of the Union, that
+     the Regalia should never be removed, under any pretext, from
+     the kingdom of Scotland. Accordingly they were deposited,
+     with much ceremony, as an authentic instrument bears, in a
+     strong chest, secured by many locks, and the chest itself
+     placed in a strong room, which again was carefully bolted up
+     and secured, leaving to national pride the satisfaction of
+     pointing to the barred window, with the consciousness that
+     there lay the Regalia of Scotland. But this gratification
+     was strangely qualified by a surmise, which somehow became
+     generally averred, stating, that the Regalia had been sent
+     to London; and you may remember that we saw at the Jewel
+     Office a crown, _said to be_ the ancient Crown of Scotland.
+     If this transfer (by the way, highly illegal) was ever made,
+     it must have been under some secret warrant; for no
+     authority can be traced for such a proceeding in the records
+     of the Secretary of State's Office. Fifteen or twenty years
+     ago, the Crown-room, as it is called, was opened by certain
+     Commissioners, under authority of a sign-manual. They saw
+     the fatal chest, strewed with the dust of an hundred years,
+     about six inches thick: a coating of like thickness lay on
+     {p.208} the floor; and I have heard the late President
+     Blair say, that the uniform and level appearance of the dust
+     warranted them to believe that the chest, if opened at all
+     after 1707, must have been violated within a short time of
+     that date, since, had it been opened at a later period, the
+     dust accumulated on the lid, and displaced at opening it,
+     must have been lying around the chest. But the Commissioners
+     did not think their warrant entitled them to force this
+     chest, for which no keys could be found; especially as their
+     warrant only entitled them to search for _records_--not for
+     crowns and sceptres.
+
+     The mystery, therefore, remained unpenetrated; and public
+     curiosity was left to console itself with the nursery
+     rhyme:--
+
+          "On Tintock tap there is a mist,
+           And in the mist there is a kist."
+
+     Our fat friend's curiosity, however, goes to the point at
+     once, authorizing and enjoining an express search for the
+     Regalia. Our friend of Buccleuch is at the head of the
+     Commission, and will, I think, be as keen as I or any one,
+     to see the issue.
+
+     I trust you have read Rob by this time. I think he smells of
+     the cramp. Above all, I had too much flax on my distaff; and
+     as it did not consist with my patience or my plan to make a
+     fourth volume, I was obliged at last to draw a rough,
+     coarse, and hasty thread. But the book is well liked here,
+     and has reeled off in great style. I have two stories on the
+     anvil, far superior to Rob Roy in point of interest. Ever
+     yours,
+
+                                        Walter SCOTT.
+
+The Commissioners, who finally assembled on the 4th of February, were,
+according to the record, "the Right Hon. Charles Hope, Lord President
+of the Court of Session; the Right Hon. David Boyle, Lord
+Justice-Clerk; the Right Hon. William Adam, Lord Chief Commissioner of
+the Jury Court; Major-General John Hope {p.209} (Commanding the
+Forces in Scotland); the Solicitor-General (James Wedderburn, Esq.);
+the Lord Provost of Edinburgh (Kincaid Mackenzie, Esq.); William
+Clerk, Esq., Principal Clerk of the Jury Court; Henry Jardine, Esq.,
+Deputy Remembrancer in the Exchequer; Thomas Thomson, Esq., Deputy
+Clerk-Register of Scotland; and Walter Scott, Esq., one of the
+Principal Clerks of Session."
+
+Of the proceedings of this day, the reader has a full and particular
+account in an Essay which Scott penned shortly afterwards, and which
+is included in his Prose Miscellanies (vol. vii.). But I must not omit
+the contemporaneous letters in which he announced the success of the
+quest to his friend the Secretary of the Admiralty, and through him to
+the Regent:--
+
+     TO J. W. CROKER, ESQ., M. P., ETC., ETC., ADMIRALTY, LONDON.
+
+                                        EDINBURGH, 4th February, 1818.
+
+     MY DEAR CROKER,--I have the pleasure to assure you the
+     Regalia of Scotland were this day found in perfect
+     preservation. The Sword of State and Sceptre showed marks of
+     hard usage at some former period; but in all respects agree
+     with the description in Thomson's work.[86] I will send you
+     a complete account of the opening to-morrow, as the official
+     account will take some time to draw up. In the mean time, I
+     hope you will remain as obstinate in your unbelief as St.
+     Thomas, because then you will come down to satisfy yourself.
+     I know nobody entitled to earlier information, save ONE, to
+     whom you can perhaps find the means of communicating the
+     result of our researches. The post is just going off.
+
+     Ever yours truly,
+
+                                        Walter SCOTT.
+
+              [Footnote 86: _Collection of Inventories and other
+              Records of the Royal Wardrobe and Jewel-House, etc._
+              Edin. 1815, 4to.]
+
+     {p.210} TO THE SAME.
+
+                                        EDINBURGH, 5th February, 1818.
+
+     MY DEAR CROKER,--I promised I would add something to my
+     report of yesterday, and yet I find I have but little to
+     say. The extreme solemnity of opening sealed doors of oak
+     and iron, and finally breaking open a chest which had been
+     shut since 7th March, 1707, about a hundred and eleven
+     years, gave a sort of interest to our researches, which I
+     can hardly express to you, and it would be very difficult to
+     describe the intense eagerness with which we watched the
+     rising of the lid of the chest, and the progress of the
+     workmen in breaking it open, which was neither an easy nor a
+     speedy task. It sounded very hollow when they worked on it
+     with their tools, and I began to lean to your faction of the
+     Little Faiths. However, I never could assign any probable or
+     feasible reason for withdrawing these memorials of ancient
+     independence; and my doubts rather arose from the conviction
+     that many absurd things are done in public as well as in
+     private life, merely out of a hasty impression of passion or
+     resentment. For it was evident the removal of the Regalia
+     might have greatly irritated people's minds here, and
+     offered a fair pretext of breaking the Union, which for
+     thirty years was the predominant wish of the Scottish
+     nation.
+
+     The discovery of the Regalia has interested people's minds
+     much more strongly than I expected, and is certainly
+     calculated to make a pleasant and favorable impression upon
+     them in respect to the kingly part of the constitution. It
+     would be of the utmost consequence that they should be
+     occasionally shown to them, under proper regulations, and
+     for a small fee. The Sword of State is a most beautiful
+     piece of workmanship, a present from Pope Julius II. to
+     James IV. The scabbard is richly decorated with filigree
+     work of silver, double gilded, representing oak leaves and
+     acorns, executed in {p.211} a taste worthy that classical
+     age in which the arts revived. A draughtsman has been
+     employed to make sketches of these articles, in order to be
+     laid before his Royal Highness. The fate of these Regalia,
+     which his Royal Highness's goodness has thus restored to
+     light and honor, has on one or two occasions been singular
+     enough. They were, in 1652, lodged in the Castle of
+     Dunnottar, the seat of the Earl Marischal, by whom,
+     according to his ancient privilege, they were kept. The
+     castle was defended by George Ogilvie of Barra, who,
+     apprehensive of the progress which the English made in
+     reducing the strong places in Scotland, became anxious for
+     the safety of these valuable memorials. The ingenuity of his
+     lady had them conveyed out of the castle in a bag on a
+     woman's back, among some _hards_, as they are called, of
+     lint. They were carried to the Kirk of Kinneff, and
+     entrusted to the care of the clergyman, named Grainger, and
+     his wife, and buried under the pulpit. The Castle of
+     Dunnottar, though very strong and faithfully defended, was
+     at length under necessity of surrendering, being the last
+     strong place in Britain on which the royal flag floated in
+     those calamitous times. Ogilvie and his lady were threatened
+     with the utmost extremities by the Republican General
+     Morgan, unless they should produce the Regalia. The governor
+     stuck to it that he knew nothing of them, as in fact they
+     had been carried away without his knowledge. The lady
+     maintained she had given them to John Keith, second son of
+     the Earl Marischal, by whom, she said, they had been carried
+     to France. They suffered a long imprisonment, and much ill
+     usage. On the Restoration, the old Countess Marischal,
+     founding upon the story Mrs. Ogilvie had told to screen her
+     husband, obtained for her own son, John Keith, the earldom
+     of Kintore, and the post of Knight Marischal, with £400 a
+     year, as if he had been in truth the preserver of the
+     Regalia. It soon proved that this reward had been too
+     hastily given, for Ogilvie of Barra {p.212} produced the
+     Regalia, the honest clergyman refusing to deliver them to
+     any one but those from whom he received them. Ogilvie was
+     made a Knight Baronet, however, and got a new charter of the
+     lands, acknowledging the good service. Thus it happened
+     oddly enough, that Keith, who was abroad during the
+     transaction, and had nothing to do with it, got the earldom,
+     pension, etc., Ogilvie only inferior honors, and the poor
+     clergyman nothing whatever, or, as we say, _the hare's foot
+     to lick_. As for Ogilvie's lady, she died before the
+     Restoration, her health being ruined by the hardships she
+     endured from the Cromwellian satellites. She was a Douglas,
+     with all the high spirit of that proud family. On her
+     deathbed, and not till then, she told her husband where the
+     honors were concealed, charging him to suffer death rather
+     than betray them. Popular tradition says, not very probably,
+     that Grainger and his wife were _booted_ (that is, tortured
+     with the engine called the boots). I think that the Knight
+     Marischal's office rested in the Kintore family until 1715,
+     when it was resumed on account of the bearded Earl's
+     accession to the Insurrection of that year. He escaped well,
+     for they might have taken his estate and his earldom. I must
+     save post, however, and conclude abruptly. Yours ever,
+
+                                        Walter SCOTT.
+
+On the 5th, after the foregoing letter had been written at the Clerk's
+table, Scott and several of his brother Commissioners revisited the
+Castle, accompanied by some of the ladies of their families. His
+daughter tells me that her father's conversation had worked her
+feelings up to such a pitch, that when the lid was again removed, she
+nearly fainted, and drew back from the circle. As she was retiring,
+she was startled by his voice exclaiming, in a tone of the deepest
+emotion, "something between anger and despair," as she expresses
+it,--"By G----, No!" One of the Commissioners, not quite entering
+{p.213} into the solemnity with which Scott regarded this business,
+had, it seems, made a sort of motion as if he meant to put the crown
+on the head of one of the young ladies near him, but the voice and
+aspect of the Poet were more than sufficient to make the worthy
+gentleman understand his error; and, respecting the enthusiasm with
+which he had not been taught to sympathize, he laid down the ancient
+diadem with an air of painful embarrassment. Scott whispered, "Pray,
+forgive me;" and turning round at the moment, observed his daughter
+deadly pale, and leaning by the door. He immediately drew her out of
+the room, and when the air had somewhat recovered her, walked with her
+across the Mound to Castle Street. "He never spoke all the way home,"
+she says, "but every now and then I felt his arm tremble; and from
+that time I fancied he began to treat me more like a woman than a
+child. I thought he liked me better, too, than he had ever done
+before."
+
+These little incidents may give some notion of the profound
+seriousness with which his imagination had invested this matter. I am
+obliged to add, that in the society of Edinburgh at the time, even in
+the highest Tory circles, it did not seem to awaken much even of
+curiosity--to say nothing of any deeper feeling. There was, however, a
+great excitement among the common people of the town, and a still
+greater among the peasantry, not only in the neighborhood, but all
+over Scotland; and the Crown-room, becoming thenceforth one of the
+established _lions_ of a city much resorted to, moreover, by stranger
+tourists, was likely, on the most moderate scale of admission-fee, to
+supply a revenue sufficient for remunerating responsible and
+respectable guardianship. This post would, as Scott thought, be a very
+suitable one for his friend, Captain Adam Ferguson; and he exerted all
+his zeal for that purpose. The Captain was appointed: his nomination,
+however, did not take place for some months after; and the postscript
+of a {p.214} letter to the Duke of Buccleuch, dated May 14, 1818,
+plainly indicates the interest on which Scott mainly relied for its
+completion: "If you happen," he writes, "to see Lord Melville, pray
+give him a jog about Ferguson's affair; but between ourselves, I
+depend chiefly on the kind offices of Willie Adam, who is an auld
+sneck-drawer." The Lord Chief-Commissioner, at all times ready to lend
+Scott his influence with the Royal Family, had, on the present
+occasion, the additional motive of warm and hereditary personal regard
+for Ferguson.
+
+I have placed together such letters as referred principally to the
+episode of the Regalia; but shall now give, in the order of time, a
+few which will sufficiently illustrate the usual course of his
+existence, while The Heart of Mid-Lothian was in progress. It appears
+that he resumed, in the beginning of this year, his drama of
+Devorgoil. His letters to Terry are of course full of that subject,
+but they contain, at the same time, many curious indications of his
+views and feelings as to theatrical affairs in general--and mixed up
+with these a most characteristic record of the earnestness with which
+he now watched the interior fitting up, as he had in the season before
+the outward architecture, of the new edifice at Abbotsford. Meanwhile
+it will be seen that he found leisure hours for various contributions
+to periodical works,--among others, an article on Kirkton's Church
+History, and another on (of all subjects in the world) _military
+bridges_, for the Quarterly Review; a spirited version of the old
+German ballad on the Battle of Sempach, and a generous criticism on
+Mrs. Shelley's romance of Frankenstein, for Blackwood's Magazine. This
+being the first winter and spring of Laidlaw's establishment at
+Kaeside, communications as to the affairs of the farm were exchanged
+weekly whenever Scott was in Edinburgh, and they afford delightful
+evidence of that paternal solicitude for the well-being of his rural
+dependents, which all along kept pace with Scott's zeal as to the
+economical {p.215} improvement, and the picturesque adornment of his
+territories.
+
+     TO D. TERRY, ESQ., LONDON.
+
+                                        EDINBURGH, 23d January, 1818.
+
+     MY DEAR TERRY,--You have by this time the continuation of
+     the drama, down to the commencement of the third act, as I
+     have your letter on the subject of the first. You will
+     understand that I only mean them as sketches; for the first
+     and second acts are too short, and both want much to combine
+     them with the third. I can easily add music to Miss
+     Devorgoil's part. As to Braham, he is a beast of an actor,
+     though an angel of a singer, and truly I do not see what he
+     could personify. Let me know, however, your thoughts and
+     wishes, and all shall be moulded to the best of my power to
+     meet them: the point is to make it _take_ if we can; the
+     rest is all leather and prunella. A great many things must
+     occur to you technically better, in the way of alteration
+     and improvement, and you know well that, though too indolent
+     to amend things on my own conviction, I am always ready to
+     make them meet my friends' wishes if possible. We shall both
+     wish it better than I can make it, but there is no reason
+     why we should not do for it all that we can. I advise you to
+     take some sapient friend into your counsels, and let me know
+     the result, returning the MS. at the same time.
+
+     I am now anxious to complete Abbotsford. I think I told you
+     I mean to do nothing whatever to the present house, but to
+     take it away altogether at some future time, so that I
+     finish the upper story without any communication with Mrs.
+     Redford's _ci-devant_ mansion, and shall place the opening
+     in the lower story, wherever it will be most suitable for
+     the new house, without regard to defacing the temporary
+     drawing-room. I am quite feverish about the armory. I have
+     two pretty complete suits of armor--one Indian one, and a
+     cuirassier's, with {p.216} boots, casque, etc.; many
+     helmets, corselets, and steel caps, swords and poniards
+     without end, and about a dozen of guns, ancient and modern.
+     I have besides two or three battle-axes and maces, pikes and
+     targets, a Highlander's accoutrement complete, a great
+     variety of branches of horns, pikes, bows and arrows, and
+     the clubs and creases of Indian tribes. Mr. Bullock promised
+     to give some hint about the fashion of disposing all these
+     matters; and now our spring is approaching, and I want but
+     my plans to get on. I have reason to be proud of the
+     finishing of my castle, for even of the tower, for which I
+     trembled, not a stone has been shaken by the late terrific
+     gale, which blew a roof clear off in the neighborhood. It
+     was lying in the road like a saddle, as Tom Purdie expressed
+     it. Neither has a slate been lifted, though about two yards
+     of slating were stripped from the stables in the haugh,
+     which you know were comparatively less exposed.
+
+     I am glad to hear of Mrs. Terry's improved health and good
+     prospects. As for young Master Mumblecrust, I have no doubt
+     he will be a credit to us all.
+
+     Yours ever truly,
+
+                                        W. SCOTT.
+
+As the letters to Mr. Laidlaw did not travel by post, but in the
+basket which had come laden with farm-produce for the use of the
+family in Edinburgh, they have rarely any date but the day of the
+week. This is, however, of no consequence.
+
+     TO MR. LAIDLAW, KAESIDE.
+
+                                        Wednesday. [January, 1818.]
+
+     DEAR WILLIE,--Should the weather be rough, and you
+     nevertheless obliged to come to town, do not think of
+     riding, but take the Blucher.[87] Remember, your health is
+     of consequence to your family. Pray talk generally with the
+     notables of Darnick--I mean Rutherford, {p.217} and so
+     forth--concerning the best ordering of the road to the
+     marle; and also of the foot-road. It appears to me some
+     route might be found more convenient than the present, but
+     that which is most agreeable to those interested shall also
+     be most agreeable for me. As a patriotic member of the
+     community of Darnick, I consider their rights equally
+     important as my own.
+
+              [Footnote 87: A stage-coach, so called, which ran
+              betwixt Edinburgh and Jedburgh.]
+
+     I told you I should like to convert the present steading at
+     Beechland into a little hamlet of laborers, which we will
+     name Abbotstown. The art of making people happy is to leave
+     them much to their own guidance, but some little regulation
+     is necessary. In the first place, I should like to have
+     active and decent people there; then it is to be considered
+     on what footing they should be. I conceive the best possible
+     is, that they should pay for their cottages, and cow-grass,
+     and potato ground, and be paid for their labor at the
+     ordinary rate. I would give them some advantages sufficient
+     to balance the following conditions, which, after all, are
+     conditions in my favor: _1st_, That they shall keep their
+     cottages and little gardens, and doors, tolerably neat; and
+     _2d_, That the men shall on no account shoot, or the boys
+     break timber or take birds' nests, or go among the planting.
+     I do not know any other restrictions, and these are easy. I
+     should think we might settle a few families very happily
+     here, which is an object I have much at heart, for I have no
+     notion of the proprietor who is only ambitious to be lord of
+     the "beast and the brute," and chases the human face from
+     his vicinity. By the bye, could we not manage to have a
+     piper among the colonists?
+
+     We are delighted to hear that your little folks like the
+     dells. Pray, in your walks try to ascertain the locality of
+     St. John's Well, which cures the botts, and which John Moss
+     claims for Kaeside; also the true history of the Carline's
+     Hole. Ever most truly yours,
+
+                                        W. SCOTT.
+
+{p.218} I hope Mrs. Laidlaw does not want for anything that she can
+get from the garden or elsewhere.
+
+     TO DANIEL TERRY, ESQ.
+
+                                        8th February, 1818.
+
+     MY DEAR TERRY,--Yours arrived, unluckily, just half an hour
+     after my packet was in the post-office, so this will cost
+     you 9_d._, for which I grieve. To answer your principal
+     question first,--the drama is
+
+          "Yours, Terry, yours in every thought."
+
+     I should never have dreamed of making such an attempt in my
+     own proper person; and if I had such a vision, I should have
+     been anxious to have made it something of a legitimate
+     drama, such as a literary man, uncalled upon by any
+     circumstance to connect himself with the stage, might have
+     been expected to produce. Now this is just what any
+     gentleman in your situation might run off, to give a little
+     novelty to the entertainment of the year, and as such will
+     meet a mitigated degree of criticism, and have a better
+     chance of that _productive_ success, which is my principal
+     object in my godson's behalf. If any time should come when
+     you might wish to disclose the secret, it will be in your
+     power, and our correspondence will always serve to show that
+     it was only at my earnest request, annexed as the condition
+     of bringing the play forward, that you gave it your name--a
+     circumstance which, with all the attending particulars, will
+     prove plainly that there was no assumption on your part.
+
+     A beautiful drama might be made on the concealment of the
+     Scotch Regalia during the troubles. But it would interfere
+     with the democratic spirit of the times, and would probably
+
+                       ---- "By party rage,
+          Or right or wrong, be hooted from the stage."
+
+     {p.219} I will never forgive you if you let any false idea
+     of my authorial feelings prevent your acting in this affair
+     as if you were the real parent, not the godfather of the
+     piece. Our facetious friend J. B. knows nought of such a
+     matter being _en train_, and never will know. I am delighted
+     to hear my windows are finished. Yours very truly,
+
+                                        Walter SCOTT.
+
+              [Footnote 88: Slightly altered from Dr. Johnson's
+              Prologue to the comedy of _A Word to the Wise_.]
+
+     TO MR. LAIDLAW, KAESIDE.
+
+                                        Wednesday. [February, 1818.]
+
+     DEAR WILLIE,--I am not desirous to buy more land at present,
+     unless I were to deal with Mr. Rutherford or Heiton, and I
+     would rather deal with them next year than this, when I
+     would have all my payments made for what I am now buying.
+     Three or four such years as the last would enable me with
+     prudence and propriety to ask Nicol[89] himself to flit and
+     remove.
+
+              [Footnote 89: Mr. Nicol Milne of Faldonside. This
+              gentleman's property is a valuable and extensive one,
+              situated immediately to the westward of Abbotsford; and
+              Scott continued, year after year, to dream of adding it
+              also to his own.]
+
+     I like the idea of the birch-hedge much, and if intermixed
+     with holly and thorns, I think it might make an impenetrable
+     thicket, having all the advantages of a hedge without the
+     formality. I fancy you will also need a great number of
+     (black) Italian poplars--which are among the most useful and
+     best growers, as well as most beautiful of plants which love
+     a wet soil.
+
+     I am glad the saws are going.[90] We may begin by and by
+     with wrights, but I cannot but think that a handy laborer
+     might be taught to work at them. I shall insist on Tom
+     learning the process perfectly himself.
+
+              [Footnote 90: A sawmill had just been erected at
+              Toftfield.]
+
+     As to the darkness of the garrets, they are intended for the
+     accommodation of travelling geniuses, poets, painters, and
+     so forth, and a little obscurity will refresh their
+     shattered brains. I dare say Lauchie[91] will _shave_
+     {p.220} his knoll, if it is required--it may to the
+     barber's with the Laird's hebdomadal beard--and Packwood
+     would have thought it the easier job of the two.
+
+              [Footnote 91: A cocklaird adjoining Abbotsford at the
+              eastern side. His farm is properly _Lochbreist_; but in
+              the neighborhood he was generally known as _Laird
+              Lauchie_--or _Lauchie Langlegs_. Washington Irving
+              describes him in his _Abbotsford_, with high gusto. He
+              was a most absurd original.]
+
+     I saw Blackwood yesterday, and Hogg the day before, and I
+     understand from them you think of resigning the Chronicle
+     department of the Magazine. Blackwood told me that if you
+     did not like that part of the duty, he would consider
+     himself accountable for the same sum he had specified to you
+     for any other articles you might communicate from time to
+     time. He proposes that Hogg should do the Chronicle: He will
+     not do it so well as you, for he wants judgment and caution,
+     and likes to have the appearance of eccentricity where
+     eccentricity is least graceful; that, however, is
+     Blackwood's affair. If you really do not like the Chronicle,
+     there can be no harm in your giving it up. What strikes me
+     is, that there is a something certain in having such a
+     department to conduct, whereas you may sometimes find
+     yourself at a loss when you have to cast about for a subject
+     every month. Blackwood _is_ rather in a bad pickle just
+     now--sent to Coventry by the trade, as the booksellers call
+     themselves, and all about the parody of the two beasts.[92]
+     {p.221} Surely these gentlemen think themselves rather
+     formed of porcelain clay than of common potter's ware.
+     Dealing in satire against all others, their own dignity
+     suffers so cruelly from an ill-imagined joke! If B. had good
+     books to sell, he might set them all at defiance. His
+     Magazine does well, and beats Constable's: but we will talk
+     of this when we meet.[93]
+
+              [Footnote 92: An article in one of the early numbers of
+              _Blackwood's Magazine_, entitled _The Chaldee MS._, in
+              which the literati and booksellers of Edinburgh were
+              quizzed _en masse_--Scott himself among the rest. It was
+              in this lampoon that Constable first saw himself
+              designated in print by the _sobriquet_ of "The Crafty,"
+              long before bestowed on him by one of his own most
+              eminent Whig supporters; but nothing nettled him so much
+              as the passages in which he and Blackwood are
+              represented entreating the support of Scott for their
+              respective Magazines, and waved off by "the Great
+              Magician" in the same identical phrases of contemptuous
+              indifference. The description of Constable's visit to
+              Abbotsford may be worth transcribing--for Sir David
+              Wilkie, who was present when Scott read it, says he was
+              almost choked with laughter, and he afterwards confessed
+              that the Chaldean author had given a sufficiently
+              accurate version of what really passed on the
+              occasion:--
+
+              "26. But when the Spirits were gone, he (The Crafty)
+              said unto himself, I will arise and go unto a magician,
+              which is of my friends: of a surety he will devise some
+              remedy, and free me out of all my distresses.
+
+              "27. So he arose and came unto that great magician which
+              hath his dwelling in the old fastness, hard by the River
+              Jordan, which is by the Border.
+
+              "28. And the magician opened his mouth and said, Lo! my
+              heart wisheth thy good, and let the thing prosper which
+              is in thy hands to do it.
+
+              "29. But thou seest that my hands are full of working,
+              and my labor is great. For, lo, I have to feed all the
+              people of my land, and none knoweth whence his food
+              cometh; but each man openeth his mouth, and my hand
+              filleth it with pleasant things.
+
+              "30. Moreover, thine adversary also is of my familiars.
+
+              "31. The land is before thee: draw thou up thine hosts
+              for the battle on the mount of Proclamation, and defy
+              boldly thine enemy, which hath his camp in the place of
+              Princes; quit ye as men, and let favor be shown unto him
+              which is most valiant.
+
+              "32. Yet be thou silent; peradventure will I help thee
+              some little.
+
+              "33. But the man which is Crafty saw that the magician
+              loved him not. For he knew him of old, and they had had
+              many dealings; and he perceived that he would not assist
+              him in the day of his adversity.
+
+              "34. So he turned about, and went out of his fastness.
+              And he shook the dust from his feet, and said, Behold I
+              have given this magician much money, yet see now, he
+              hath utterly deserted me. Verily, my fine gold hath
+              perished."--Chap. iii.]
+
+              [Footnote 93: [The story of the composition of _The
+              Chaldee Manuscript_, its publication in the first number
+              of the magazine, destined to so long and brilliant a
+              career, and the extraordinary commotion caused thereby,
+              is admirably told in the _Annals of a Publishing House_,
+              which also gives the details regarding Laidlaw's brief
+              connection with the new periodical, and the
+              correspondence of Scott and Blackwood during its early
+              months.--See Mrs. Oliphant's _William Blackwood and His
+              Sons_, vol. i. chap, iii.]]
+
+     As for Whiggery in general, I can only say, that as no man
+     can be said to be utterly overset until his rump has been
+     higher than his head, so I cannot read in history of any
+     free state which has been brought to slavery until the
+     rascal and uninstructed populace had had their short hour of
+     anarchical government, which naturally {p.222} leads to the
+     stern repose of military despotism. Property, morals,
+     education, are the proper qualifications for those who
+     should hold political rights, and extending them very widely
+     greatly lessens the chance of these qualifications being
+     found in electors. Look at the sort of persons chosen at
+     elections where the franchise is very general, and you will
+     find either fools who are content to flatter the passions of
+     the mob for a little transient popularity, or knaves who
+     pander to their follies, that they may make their necks a
+     footstool for their own promotion. With these convictions, I
+     am very jealous of Whiggery, under all modifications; and I
+     must say, my acquaintance with the total want of principle
+     in some of its warmest professors does not tend to recommend
+     it. Somewhat too much of this. My compliments to the
+     goodwife. Yours truly,
+
+                                        Walter SCOTT.
+
+
+     TO THE SAME.
+
+                                        Wednesday. [February, 1818.]
+
+     DEAR WILLIE,--I have no idea Usher[94] will take the
+     sheepland again, nor would I press it on him. As my
+     circumstances stand, immediate revenue is much less my
+     object than the real improvement of this property, which
+     amuses me besides; our wants are amply supplied by my £1600
+     a year official income: nor have we a wish or a motive to
+     extend our expenses beyond that of the decencies and
+     hospitality of our station in life; so that my other
+     resources remain for buying land in future, or improving
+     what we have. No doubt Abbotsford, in maintaining our
+     establishment during the summer, may be reckoned £150 or
+     £200 saved on what we must otherwise buy; and if we could
+     arrange to have mutton and beef {p.223} occasionally from
+     the farm in winter, it would be a still greater saving. All
+     this you will consider: for Tom, thoroughly honest and very
+     clever in his way, has no kind of generalizing, and would
+     often like to save sixpence in his own department at the
+     expense of my paying five shillings in another. This is his
+     fault, and when you join to it a Scotch slovenliness which
+     leads him to see things half-finished without pain or
+     anxiety, I do not know any other he has--but such as they
+     are, these must be guarded against. For our housemaid (for
+     housekeeper we must not call her), I should like much a hawk
+     of a nest so good as that you mention: but would not such a
+     place be rather beneath her views? Her duty would be to look
+     to scrupulous cleanliness within doors, and employ her
+     leisure in spinning, or plain-work, as wanted. When we came
+     out for a blink, she would be expected to cook a little in a
+     plain way, and play maid of all work; when we were
+     stationary, she would assist the housemaid and superintend
+     the laundry. Probably your aunt's granddaughter will have
+     pretensions to something better than this; but as we are to
+     be out on the 12th March, we will talk it over. Assuredly a
+     well-connected steady person would be of the greatest
+     consequence to us. I like your plan of pitting much; and to
+     compromise betwixt you and Tom, do one half with superior
+     attention, and slit in the others for mere nurses. But I am
+     no friend to that same slitting.
+
+              [Footnote 94: John Usher, the ex-proprietor of
+              Toftfield, was eventually Scott's tenant on part of
+              those lands for many years. He was a man of far superior
+              rank and intelligence to the rest of the displaced
+              lairds--and came presently to be one of Scott's trusty
+              rural friends, and a frequent companion of his sports.]
+
+     I adhere to trying a patch or two of larches, of a quarter
+     of an acre each, upon the Athole plan, by way of experiment.
+     We can plant them up if they do not thrive. On the whole,
+     three-and-a-half feet is, I think, the right distance. I
+     have no fear of the ground being impoverished. Trees are not
+     like arable crops, which necessarily derive their sustenance
+     from the superficial earth--the roots of trees go far and
+     wide, and, if incommoded by a neighbor, they send out
+     suckers to procure nourishment elsewhere. They never hurt
+     each other till {p.224} their tops interfere, which may be
+     easily prevented by timely weeding.
+
+     I rejoice in the sawmill. Have you settled with Harper?--and
+     how do Og and Bashan[95] come on? I cannot tell you how
+     delighted I am with the account Hogg gives me of Mr. Grieve.
+     The great Cameron was chaplain in the house of my great
+     something grandfather, and so I hope Mr. Grieve will be
+     mine. If, as the King of Prussia said to Rousseau, "a little
+     persecution is necessary to make his home entirely to his
+     mind," he shall have it; and what persecutors seldom
+     promise, I will stop whenever he is tired of it. I have a
+     pair of thumbikins also much at his service, if he requires
+     their assistance to glorify God and the Covenant. Sincerely,
+     I like enthusiasm of every kind so well, especially when
+     united with worth of character, that I shall be delighted
+     with this old gentleman. Ever yours,
+
+                                        W. SCOTT.
+
+              [Footnote 95: A yoke of oxen.]
+
+The last paragraph of this letter refers to an uncle of Laidlaw's (the
+father of Hogg's friend, John Grieve), who at this time thought of
+occupying a cottage on Scott's estate. He was a preacher of the
+Cameronian sect, and had long ministered to a very small remnant of
+"the hill-folk" scattered among the wilds of Ettrick. He was a very
+good man, and had a most venerable and apostolical benignity of
+aspect; but his prejudices were as extravagant as those of Cameron,
+his patriarch, himself could have been. The project of his removal to
+Tweedside was never realized.
+
+The following admirable letter was written at the request of Messrs.
+Constable, who had, on Scott's recommendation, undertaken the
+publication of Mr. Maturin's novel, Women, or _Pour et Contre_. The
+reverend author's Bertram had, it may be remembered, undergone some
+rather rough usage in Coleridge's Biographia Literaria; {p.225} and
+he was now desirous to revenge himself by a preface of the polemical
+sort:--
+
+     TO THE REV. C. R. MATURIN, DUBLIN.
+
+                                        26th February, 1818.
+
+     DEAR SIR,--I am going to claim the utmost and best privilege
+     of sincere friendship and good-will, that of offering a few
+     words of well-meant advice; and you may be sure that the
+     occasion seems important to induce me to venture so far upon
+     your tolerance. It respects the preface to your work, which
+     Constable and Co. have sent to me. It is as well written as
+     that sort of thing can be; but will you forgive me if I
+     say--it is too much in the tone of the offence which gave
+     rise to it, to be agreeable either to good taste or to
+     general feeling. Coleridge's work has been little read or
+     heard of, and has made no general impression
+     whatever--certainly no impression unfavorable to you or your
+     play. In the opinion, therefore, of many, you will be
+     resenting an injury of which they are unacquainted with the
+     existence. If I see a man beating another unmercifully, I am
+     apt to condemn him upon the first blush of the business, and
+     hardly excuse him though I may afterwards learn he had ample
+     provocation. Besides, your diatribe is not _hujus loci_. We
+     take up a novel for amusement, and this current of
+     controversy breaks out upon us like a stream of lava out of
+     the side of a beautiful green hill; men will say you should
+     have reserved your disputes for reviews or periodical
+     publications, and they will sympathize less with your anger,
+     because they will not think the time proper for expressing
+     it. We are bad judges, bad physicians, and bad divines in
+     our own case; but, above all, we are seldom able, when
+     injured or insulted, to judge of the degree of sympathy
+     which the world will bear in our resentment and our
+     retaliation. The instant, however, that such degree of
+     sympathy is exceeded, we hurt ourselves, and not our
+     adversary. I am so convinced {p.226} of this, and so deeply
+     fixed in the opinion, that besides the uncomfortable
+     feelings which are generated in the course of literary
+     debate, a man lowers his estimation in the public eye by
+     engaging in such controversy, that, since I have been dipped
+     in ink, I have suffered no personal attacks (and I have been
+     honored with them of all descriptions) to provoke me to
+     reply. A man will certainly be vexed on such occasions, and
+     I have wished to have the knaves _where the muircock was the
+     bailie_--or, as _you_ would say, _upon the sod_--but I never
+     let the thing cling to my mind, and always adhered to my
+     resolution, that if my writings and tenor of life did not
+     confute such attacks, my words never should. Let me entreat
+     you to view Coleridge's violence as a thing to be contemned,
+     not retaliated--the opinion of a British public may surely
+     be set in honest opposition to that of one disappointed and
+     wayward man. You should also consider, _en bon Chrétien_,
+     that Coleridge has had some room to be spited at the world,
+     and you are, I trust, to continue to be a favorite with the
+     public--so that you should totally neglect and despise
+     criticism, however virulent, which arises out of his bad
+     fortune and your good.
+
+     I have only to add that Messrs. Constable and Co. are
+     seriously alarmed for the effects of the preface upon the
+     public mind as unfavorable to the work. In this they must be
+     tolerable judges, for their experience as to popular feeling
+     is very great; and as they have met your wishes, in all the
+     course of the transaction, perhaps you will be disposed to
+     give some weight to their opinion upon a point like this.
+     Upon my own part I can only say that I have no habits of
+     friendship, and scarce those of acquaintance with
+     Coleridge--I have not even read his Autobiography--but I
+     consider him as a man of genius, struggling with bad habits
+     and difficult circumstances. It is, however, entirely upon
+     your account that I take the liberty of stating an opinion
+     on a subject of such delicacy. I should wish you to give
+     your excellent {p.227} talents fair play, and to ride this
+     race without carrying any superfluous weight; and I am so
+     well acquainted with my old friend the public, that I could
+     bet a thousand pounds to a shilling, that the preface (if
+     that controversial part of it is not cancelled) will greatly
+     prejudice your novel.
+
+     I will not ask your forgiveness for the freedom I have used,
+     for I am sure you will not suspect me of any motives but
+     those which arise from regard to your talents and person;
+     but I shall be glad to hear (whether you follow my advice or
+     no) that you are not angry with me for having volunteered to
+     offer it.
+
+     My health is, I think, greatly improved; I have had some
+     returns of my spasmodic affection, but tolerable in degree,
+     and yielding to medicine. I hope gentle exercise and the air
+     of my hills will set me up this summer. I trust you will
+     soon be out now. I have delayed reading the sheets in
+     progress after Vol. I., that I might enjoy them when
+     collected. Ever yours, etc.,
+
+                                        Walter SCOTT.
+
+
+     TO MR. LAIDLAW.
+
+                                   EDINBURGH, Wednesday. [March, 1818.]
+
+     DEAR WILLIE,--I am delighted to hear the plantings get on so
+     well. The weather here has been cruelly changeable--fresh
+     one day--frost the next--snow the third. This morning the
+     snow lay three inches thick, and before noon it was gone,
+     and blowing a tempest. Many of the better ranks are ill of
+     the typhus fever, and some deaths. How do your poor folks
+     come on? Let Tom advance you money when it is wanted. I do
+     not propose, like the heroine of a novel, to convert the
+     hovels of want into the abodes of elegant plenty, but we
+     have enough to spare to relieve actual distress, and do not
+     wish to economize where we can find out (which is difficult)
+     where the assistance is instantly useful.
+
+     Don't let Tom forget hedgerow trees, which he is very
+     {p.228} unwilling to remember; and also to plant birches,
+     oaks, elms, and such like round-headed trees along the
+     verges of the Kaeside plantations; they make a beautiful
+     outline, and also a sort of fence, and were not planted last
+     year because the earth at the sunk fences was too newly
+     travelled. This should be mixed with various bushes, as
+     hollies, thorns, so as to make a wild hedge, or thickety
+     obstruction to the inroads of cattle. A few sweetbriers,
+     alders, honeysuckles, laburnums, etc., should be thrown in.
+     A verdant screen may be made in this way, of the wildest and
+     most beautiful description, which should never be clipt,
+     only pruned, allowing the loose branches to drop over those
+     that are taken away. Tom is very costive about trees, and
+     talks only of 300 poplars. I shall send at least double that
+     number; also some hagberries, etc. He thinks he is saving me
+     money when he is starving my projects; but he is a pearl of
+     honesty and good intention, and I like him the better for
+     needing driving where expense is likely. Ever yours,
+
+                                        W. SCOTT.
+
+
+     TO JOHN MURRAY, ESQ., ALBEMARLE STREET, LONDON.
+
+                                        ABBOTSFORD, 23d March, 1818.
+
+     DEAR MURRAY,--
+
+          "Grieve not for me, my dearest dear,
+           I am not dead but sleepeth here."--
+
+     I have little to plead for myself, but the old and vile
+     apologies of laziness and indisposition. I think I have been
+     so unlucky of late as to have always the will to work when
+     sitting at the desk hurts me, and the irresistible
+     propensity to be lazy, when I might, like the man whom
+     Hogarth introduces into Bridewell with his hands strapped up
+     against the wall, "better work than stand thus." I laid
+     Kirkton[96] aside half finished, from a desire {p.229} to
+     get the original edition of the lives of Cameron, etc., by
+     Patrick Walker, which I had not seen since a boy, and now I
+     have got it, and find, as I suspected, that some curious
+     _morceaux_ have been cut out by subsequent editors.[97] I
+     will, without loss of time, finish the article, which I
+     think you will like. Blackwood kidnapped an article for his
+     Magazine on the Frankenstein story,[98] which I intended for
+     you. A very old friend and school companion of mine, and a
+     gallant soldier, if ever there was one, Sir Howard Douglas,
+     has asked me to review his work on Military Bridges. I must
+     get a friend's assistance for the scientific part, and add
+     some balaam of mine own (as printers' devils say) to make up
+     four or five pages. I have no objection to attempt Lord
+     Orford if I have time, and find I can do it with ease.
+     Though far from admiring his character, I have always had a
+     high opinion of his talents, and am well acquainted with his
+     works. The letters you have published are, I think, his very
+     best--lively, entertaining, and unaffected.[99] I am greatly
+     obliged to you for these and other literary treasures which
+     I owe to your goodness from time to time. Although not
+     thankfully acknowledged as they should be in course, these
+     things are never thanklessly received.
+
+              [Footnote 96: Scott's article on Kirkton's _History of
+              the Church of Scotland_, edited by Mr. C. K. Sharpe,
+              appeared in the 36th number of the _Quarterly
+              Review_,--See _Miscellaneous Prose Works_, vol. xix. p.
+              213.]
+
+              [Footnote 97: Scott expressed great satisfaction on
+              seeing the _Lives of the Covenanters_--Cameron, Peden,
+              Semple, Wellwood, Cargill, Smith, Renwick,
+              etc.--reprinted without mutilation in the _Biographia
+              Presbyteriana_. Edin. 1827. The publisher of this
+              collection was the late Mr. John Stevenson, long chief
+              clerk to John Ballantyne, and usually styled by Scott
+              "True Jock," in opposition to one of his old master's
+              many _aliases_--namely, "Leein' Johnnie."]
+
+              [Footnote 98: See Scott's _Prose Miscellanies_, vol.
+              xviii. p. 250.]
+
+              [Footnote 99: The Letters of Horace Walpole to George
+              Montagu.]
+
+     I could have sworn that Beppo was founded on Whistlecraft,
+     as both were on Anthony Hall,[100] who, like Beppo, had more
+     wit than grace.
+
+              [Footnote 100: _Anthony Hall_ is only known as Editor of
+              one of Leland's works. I have no doubt Scott was
+              thinking of _John Hall Stevenson_, author of _Crazy
+              Tales_; the friend, and (it is said) the _Eugenius_ of
+              Sterne.]
+
+     {p.230} I am not, however, in spirits at present for
+     treating either these worthies, or my friend Rose,[101]
+     though few have warmer wishes to any of the trio. But this
+     confounded changeable weather has twice within this
+     fortnight brought back my cramp in the stomach. Adieu. My
+     next shall be with a packet.--Yours truly,
+
+                                        W. SCOTT.
+
+              [Footnote 101: I believe Mr. Rose's _Court and
+              Parliament of Beasts_ is here alluded to.]
+
+In the next letter we have Scott's lamentation over the death of Mrs.
+Murray Keith--the Mrs. Bethune Baliol of his Chronicles of the
+Canongate. The person alluded to under the designation of "Prince of
+the Black Marble Islands" was Mr. George Bullock, already often
+mentioned as, with Terry and Mr. Atkinson, consulted about all the
+arrangements of the rising house at Abbotsford. Scott gave him this
+title from the Arabian Nights, on occasion of his becoming the lessee
+of some marble quarries in the Isle of Anglesea.
+
+     TO D. TERRY, ESQ., LONDON.
+
+                                        April 30, 1818--SELKIRK.
+
+     MY DEAR TERRY,--Your packet arrived this morning. I was much
+     disappointed not to find the Prince of the Black Islands'
+     plan in it, nor have I heard a word from him since anent it,
+     or anent the still more essential articles of doors and
+     windows. I heard from Hector Macdonald Buchanan, that the
+     said doors and windows were packing a fortnight since, but
+     there are no news of them. Surely our friend's heart has
+     grown as hard as his materials; or the spell of the
+     enchantress, which confined itself to the extremities of his
+     predecessor, has extended over his whole person. Mr.
+     Atkinson has kept tryst charmingly, and the ceiling of the
+     dining-room will be superb. I have got I know not how many
+     casts, from Melrose and other places, of pure Gothic
+     antiquity. I {p.231} must leave this on the 12th, and I
+     could bet a trifle the doors, etc., will arrive the very day
+     I set out, and be all put up _à la bonne aventure_. Meantime
+     I am keeping open house, not much to my convenience, and I
+     am afraid I shall be stopped in my plastering by the want of
+     these matters. The exposed state of my house has led to a
+     mysterious disturbance. The night before last we were awaked
+     by a violent noise, like drawing heavy boards along the new
+     part of the house. I fancied something had fallen, and
+     thought no more about it. This was about _two_ in the
+     morning. Last night, at the same witching hour, the very
+     same noise occurred. Mrs. S., as you know, is rather
+     _timbersome_, so up got I, with Beardie's broadsword under
+     my arm,
+
+          "So bolt upright,
+           And ready to fight."
+
+     But nothing was out of order, neither can I discover what
+     occasioned the disturbance. However, I went to bed,
+     grumbling against Tenterden Street,[102] and all its works.
+     If there was no entrance but the keyhole, I should warrant
+     myself against the ghosts. We have a set of idle fellows
+     called workmen about us, which is a better way of accounting
+     for nocturnal noises than any that is to be found in Baxter
+     or Glanville.
+
+              [Footnote 102: Bullock's manufactory was in this
+              street.]
+
+     When you see Mr. Atkinson, will you ask him how far he is
+     satisfied with the arch between the armory and the
+     ante-room, and whether it pleases him as it now stands? I
+     have a brave old oaken cabinet, as black as ebony, 300 years
+     old at least, which will occupy one side of the ante-room
+     for the present. It is seven feet and a half long, about
+     eighteen inches deep, and upwards of six feet high--a fine
+     stand for china, etc.
+
+     You will be sorry to hear that we have lost our excellent
+     old friend, Mrs. Murray Keith. She enjoyed all her spirits
+     and excellent faculties till within two days of her death,
+     when she was seized with a feverish complaint, {p.232}
+     which eighty-two years were not calculated to resist. Much
+     tradition, and of the very best kind, has died with this
+     excellent old lady; one of the few persons whose spirits and
+     cleanliness, and freshness of mind and body, made old age
+     lovely and desirable. In the general case, it seems scarce
+     endurable.
+
+     It seems odd to me that Rob Roy[103] should have made good
+     fortune; pray let me know something of its history. There is
+     in Jedediah's present work a thing capable of being woven
+     out a _bourgeoise_ tragedy. I think of contriving that it
+     shall be in your hands some time before the public see it,
+     that you may try to operate upon it yourself. This would not
+     be difficult, as vol. 4, and part of 3d, contain a different
+     story. _Avowedly_ I will never write for the stage; if I do,
+     "call me _horse_." And indeed I feel severely the want of
+     knowledge of theatrical business and effect: however,
+     something we will do. I am writing in the noise and babble
+     of a head-court of freeholders; therefore my letter is
+     incoherent, and therefore it is written also on long paper;
+     but therefore, moreover, it will move by frank, as the
+     member is here, and stands upon his popularity. Kind
+     compliments to Mrs. Terry and Walter.
+
+     Yours very truly,
+
+                                        Walter SCOTT.
+
+              [Footnote 103: A drama founded on the novel of _Rob Roy_
+              had been produced, with great success, on the London
+              stage.]
+
+On the morning that Mr. Terry received the foregoing letter in London,
+Mr. William Erskine was breakfasting with him; and the chief subject
+of their conversation was the sudden death of George Bullock, which
+had occurred on the same night, and, as nearly as they could
+ascertain, at the very hour when Scott was roused from his sleep by
+the "mysterious disturbance" here described, and sallied from his
+chamber with old Beardie's Killiecrankie claymore in his hand. This
+coincidence, when {p.233} Scott received Erskine's minute detail of
+what had happened in Tenterden Street, made a much stronger impression
+on his mind than might be gathered from the tone of an ensuing
+communication.
+
+     TO D. TERRY, ESQ., LONDON.
+
+                                        ABBOTSFORD, 4th May, 1818.
+
+     DEAR TERRY,--I received with the greatest surprise, and the
+     most sincere distress, the news of poor George Bullock's
+     death. In the full career of honorable
+     industry,--distinguished by his uncommon taste and
+     talent,--esteemed by all who transacted business with
+     him,--and loved by those who had the pleasure of his more
+     intimate acquaintance,--I can scarce conceive a more
+     melancholy summons. It comes as a particular shock to me,
+     because I had, particularly of late, so much associated his
+     idea with the improvements here, in which his kind and
+     enthusiastic temper led him to take such interest; and in
+     looking at every unfinished or projected circumstance, I
+     feel an impression of melancholy which will for some time
+     take away the pleasure I have found in them. I liked George
+     Bullock because he had no trumpery selfishness about his
+     heart, taste, or feelings. Pray let me know about the
+     circumstances of his family, etc. I feel most sincerely
+     interested in all that concerns him. It must have been a
+     dreadful surprise to Mr. Atkinson and you who lived with him
+     so much. I need not, I am sure, beg you to be in no hurry
+     about my things. The confusion must be cruelly great,
+     without any friend adding to it; and in fact, at this
+     moment, I am very indifferent on the subject. The poor kind
+     fellow! He took so much notice of little Charles, and was so
+     domesticated with us all, that I really looked with a
+     schoolboy's anxiety for his being here in the season, to
+     take his own quiet pleasures, and to forward mine. But God's
+     will be done. All that surviving friends can do upon such a
+     loss is, if possible, to love each other still better.--I
+     {p.234} beg to be kindly remembered to Mrs. Terry and
+     Monsieur Walter. Ever most truly yours,
+
+                                        Walter SCOTT.
+
+
+     TO THE SAME.
+
+                                        EDINBURGH, 16th May, 1818.
+
+     MY DEAR TERRY,--Mr. Nasmyth[104] has obligingly given me an
+     opportunity of writing to you a few lines, as he is setting
+     out for London. I cannot tell you how much I continue to be
+     grieved for our kind-hearted and enthusiastic friend
+     Bullock. I trust he has left his family comfortably settled,
+     though, with so many plans which required his active and
+     intelligent mind to carry them through, one has natural
+     apprehensions upon that score. When you can with propriety
+     make inquiry how my matters stand, I should be glad to know.
+     Hector Macdonald tells me that my doors and windows were
+     ready packed, in which case, perhaps, the sooner they are
+     embarked the better, not only for safety, but because they
+     can only be in the way, and the money will now be the more
+     acceptable. Poor Bullock had also the measures for my
+     chimney-pieces, for grates of different kinds, and orders
+     for beds, dining-room tables and chairs. But how far these
+     are in progress of being executed, or whether they can now
+     be executed, I must leave to your judgment and inquiry. Your
+     good sense and delicacy will understand the _façon de faire_
+     better than I can point it out. I shall never have the
+     pleasure in these things that I expected.
+
+              [Footnote 104: Mr. Alexander Nasmyth, an eminent
+              landscape painter of Edinburgh--the father of Mrs.
+              Terry.]
+
+     I have just left Abbotsford to attend the Summer
+     session--left it when the leaves were coming out--the most
+     delightful season for a worshipper of the country like me.
+     The Home-bank, which we saw at first green with turnips,
+     will now hide a man somewhat taller than Johnny Ballantyne
+     in its shades. In fact, the trees {p.235} cover the ground,
+     and have a very pretty bosky effect; from six years to ten
+     or twelve, I think wood is as beautiful as ever it is
+     afterwards until it figures as aged and magnificent. Your
+     hobbledehoy tree of twenty-five years' standing is neither
+     so beautiful as in its infancy, nor so respectable as in its
+     age.
+
+     Counsellor Erskine is returned, much pleased with your
+     hospitality, and giving an excellent account of you. Were
+     you not struck with the fantastical coincidence of our
+     nocturnal disturbances at Abbotsford with the melancholy
+     event that followed? I protest to you the noise resembled
+     half-a-dozen men hard at work putting up boards and
+     furniture, and nothing can be more certain than that there
+     was nobody on the premises at the time. With a few
+     additional touches, the story would figure in Glanville or
+     Aubrey's Collection. In the mean time you may set it down
+     with poor Dubisson's warnings,[105] as a remarkable
+     coincidence coming under your own observation. I trust we
+     shall see you this season. I think we could hammer a neat
+     _comédie bourgeoise_ out of The Heart of Mid-Lothian. Mrs.
+     Scott and family join in kind compliments to Mrs. Terry; and
+     I am ever yours truly,
+
+                                        Walter SCOTT.
+
+              [Footnote 105: See _ante_, vol. iii. p. 220.]
+
+It appears from one of these letters to Terry, that, so late as the
+30th of April, Scott still designed to include two separate stories in
+the second series of the Tales of my Landlord. But he must have
+changed his plan soon after that date; since the four volumes,
+entirely occupied with The Heart of Mid-Lothian, were before the
+public in the course of June. The story thus deferred, in consequence
+of the extent to which that of Jeanie Deans grew on his hands, was The
+Bride of Lammermoor.
+
+
+
+
+{p.236} CHAPTER XLI.
+
+     Dinner at Mr. Home Drummond's. -- Scott's Edinburgh Den. --
+     Details of his Domestic Life in Castle Street. -- His Sunday
+     Dinners. -- His Evening Drives, etc. -- His Conduct in the
+     General Society of Edinburgh. -- Dinners at John
+     Ballantyne's Villa, and at James Ballantyne's in St. John
+     Street, on the Appearance of a New Novel. -- Anecdotes of
+     the Ballantynes, and of Constable.
+
+1818.
+
+
+On the 12th of May, as we have seen, Scott left Abbotsford, for the
+summer session in Edinburgh.
+
+At this moment, his position, take it for all in all, was, I am
+inclined to believe, what no other man had ever won for himself by the
+pen alone. His works were the daily food, not only of his countrymen,
+but of all educated Europe. His society was courted by whatever
+England could show of eminence. Station, power, wealth, beauty, and
+genius, strove with each other in every demonstration of respect and
+worship--and, a few political fanatics and envious poetasters
+apart--wherever he appeared in town or in country, whoever had Scotch
+blood in him, "gentle or simple," felt it move more rapidly through
+his veins when he was in the presence of Scott. To descend to what
+many looked on as higher things, he considered himself, and was
+considered by all about him, as rapidly consolidating a large fortune:
+the annual profits of his novels alone had, for several years, been
+not less than £10,000: his domains {p.237} were daily increased--his
+castle was rising--and perhaps few doubted that erelong he might
+receive from the just favor of his Prince some distinction in the way
+of external rank, such as had seldom before been dreamt of as the
+possible consequence of a mere literary celebrity. It was about this
+time that the compiler of these pages first had the opportunity of
+observing the plain easy modesty which had survived the many
+temptations of such a career; and the kindness of heart pervading, in
+all circumstances, his gentle deportment, which made him the rare,
+perhaps the solitary, example of a man signally elevated from humble
+beginnings, and loved more and more by his earliest friends and
+connections, in proportion as he had fixed on himself the homage of
+the great, and the wonder of the world.
+
+It was during the sitting of the General Assembly of the Kirk in May,
+1818, that I first had the honor of meeting him in private society:
+the party was not a large one, at the house of a much-valued common
+friend--Mr. Home Drummond of Blair Drummond, the grandson of Lord
+Kames. Mr. Scott, ever apt to consider too favorably the literary
+efforts of others, and more especially of very young persons, received
+me, when I was presented to him, with a cordiality which I had not
+been prepared to expect from one filling a station so exalted. This,
+however, is the same story that every individual, who ever met him
+under similar circumstances, has had to tell. When the ladies retired
+from the dinner-table, I happened to sit next him; and he, having
+heard that I had lately returned from a tour in Germany, made that
+country and its recent literature the subject of some conversation. In
+the course of it, I told him that when, on reaching the inn at Weimar,
+I asked the waiter whether Goethe was then in the town, the man stared
+as if he had not heard the name before; and that on my repeating the
+question, adding _Goethe der grosse dichter_ (the great poet), he
+shook his head as doubtfully as {p.238} before--until the landlady
+solved our difficulties, by suggesting that perhaps the traveller
+might mean "the _Herr Geheimer-Rath_ (Privy Counsellor) _Von Goethe_."
+Scott seemed amused with this, and said, "I hope you will come one of
+these days and see me at Abbotsford; and when you reach Selkirk or
+Melrose, be sure you ask even the landlady for nobody but _the
+Sheriff_." He appeared particularly interested when I described Goethe
+as I first saw him, alighting from a carriage, crammed with wild
+plants and herbs which he had picked up in the course of his morning's
+botanizing among the hills above Jena. "I am glad," said he, "that my
+old master has pursuits somewhat akin to my own. I am no botanist,
+properly speaking; and though a dweller on the banks of the Tweed,
+shall never be knowing about Flora's beauties;[106] but how I should
+like to have a talk with him about trees!" I mentioned how much any
+one must be struck with the majestic beauty of Goethe's countenance
+(the noblest certainly by far that I have ever yet seen): "Well," said
+he, "the grandest demigod I ever saw was Dr. Carlyle, minister of
+Musselburgh, commonly called _Jupiter Carlyle_, from having sat more
+than once for the king of gods and men to Gavin Hamilton--and a
+shrewd, clever old carle was he, no doubt, but no more a poet than his
+precentor. As for poets, I have seen, I believe, all the best of our
+own time and country--and, though Burns had the most glorious eyes
+imaginable, I never thought any of them would come up to an artist's
+notion of the character, except Byron." A reverend gentleman present
+(I think, Principal Nicoll of St. Andrews) expressed his regret that
+he had never seen Lord Byron. "And the prints," resumed Scott, "give
+one no impression of him--the lustre is there, Doctor, but it is not
+lighted up. Byron's countenance is _a thing to dream of_. A certain
+fair lady, whose name has been too often {p.239} mentioned in
+connection with his, told a friend of mine, that when she first saw
+Byron, it was in a crowded room, and she did not know who it was, but
+her eyes were instantly nailed, and she said to herself, _that pale
+face is my fate_. And, poor soul, if a godlike face and godlike powers
+could have made any excuse for devilry, to be sure she had one." In
+the course of this talk, an old friend and schoolfellow of
+Scott's[107] asked him across the table if he had any faith in the
+antique busts of Homer. "No, truly," he answered, smiling, "for if
+there had been either limners or stuccoyers worth their salt in those
+days, the owner of such a headpiece would never have had to trail the
+poke. They would have alimented the honest man decently among them for
+a lay-figure."
+
+              [Footnote 106:
+                "What beauties does Flora disclose,
+                 How sweet are her smiles upon Tweed," etc.--_Crawford._]
+
+              [Footnote 107: The late Sir Patrick Murray of
+              Ochtertyre, Bart.--one of the Scotch Barons of
+              Exchequer.]
+
+A few days after this, I received a communication from the Messrs.
+Ballantyne, to the effect that Mr. Scott's various avocations had
+prevented him from fulfilling his agreement with them as to the
+historical department of the Edinburgh Annual Register for 1816, and
+that it would be acceptable to him as well as them, if I could
+undertake to supply it in the course of the autumn. This proposal was
+agreed to on my part, and I had consequently occasion to meet him
+pretty often during that summer session. He told me, that if the war
+had gone on, he should have liked to do the historical summary as
+before; but that the prospect of having no events to record but
+radical riots, and the passing or rejecting of corn bills and poor
+bills, sickened him; that his health was no longer what it had been;
+and that though he did not mean to give over writing altogether--(here
+he smiled significantly, and glanced his eye towards a pile of MS. on
+the desk by him)--he thought himself now entitled to write nothing but
+what would rather be an amusement than a fatigue to him--"_Juniores ad
+labores_."
+
+{p.240} He at this time occupied as his _den_ a square small room,
+behind the dining parlor in Castle Street. It had but a single
+Venetian window, opening on a patch of turf not much larger than
+itself, and the aspect of the place was on the whole sombrous. The
+walls were entirely clothed with books; most of them folios and
+quartos, and all in that complete state of repair which at a glance
+reveals a tinge of bibliomania. A dozen volumes or so, needful for
+immediate purposes of reference, were placed close by him on a small
+movable frame--something like a dumb-waiter. All the rest were in
+their proper niches, and wherever a volume had been lent, its room was
+occupied by a wooden block of the same size, having a card with the
+name of the borrower and date of the loan, tacked on its front. The
+old bindings had obviously been retouched and regilt in the most
+approved manner; the new, when the books were of any mark, were rich,
+but never gaudy--a large proportion of blue morocco--all stamped with
+his _device_ of the portcullis, and its motto, _clausus tutus
+ero_--being an anagram of his name in Latin. Every case and shelf was
+accurately lettered, and the works arranged systematically; history
+and biography on one side--poetry and the drama on another--law books
+and dictionaries behind his own chair. The only table was a massive
+piece of furniture which he had had constructed on the model of one at
+Rokeby, with a desk and all its appurtenances on either side, that an
+amanuensis might work opposite to him when he chose; and with small
+tiers of drawers, reaching all round to the floor. The top displayed a
+goodly array of session papers, and on the desk below were, besides
+the MS. at which he was working, sundry parcels of letters, proof
+sheets, and so forth, all neatly done up with red tape. His own
+writing apparatus was a very handsome old box, richly carved, lined
+with crimson velvet, and containing ink-bottles, taper-stand, etc., in
+silver--the whole in such order that it might have come from the
+silversmith's {p.241} window half an hour before. Besides his own
+huge elbow-chair, there were but two others in the room, and one of
+these seemed, from its position, to be reserved exclusively for the
+amanuensis. I observed, during the first evening I spent with him in
+this _sanctum_, that while he talked, his hands were hardly ever
+idle--sometimes he folded letter-covers--sometimes he twisted paper
+into matches, performing both tasks with great mechanical expertness
+and nicety; and when there was no loose paper fit to be so dealt with,
+he snapped his fingers, and the noble Maida aroused himself from his
+lair on the hearth-rug, and laid his head across his master's knees,
+to be caressed and fondled. The room had no space for pictures except
+one, an original portrait of Claverhouse, which hung over the
+chimney-piece, with a Highland target on either side, and broadswords
+and dirks (each having its own story), disposed star-fashion round
+them. A few green tin-boxes, such as solicitors keep title-deeds in,
+were piled over each other on one side of the window; and on the top
+of these lay a fox's tail, mounted on an antique silver handle,
+wherewith, as often as he had occasion to take down a book, he gently
+brushed the dust off the upper leaves before opening it. I think I
+have mentioned all the furniture of the room except a sort of ladder,
+low, broad, well carpeted, and strongly guarded with oaken rails, by
+which he helped himself to books from his higher shelves. On the top
+step of this convenience, Hinse of Hinsfeldt, (so called from one of
+the German _Kinder-märchen_,) a venerable tom-cat, fat and sleek, and
+no longer very locomotive, usually lay watching the proceedings of his
+master and Maida with an air of dignified equanimity; but when Maida
+chose to leave the party, he signified his inclinations by thumping
+the door with his huge paw, as violently as ever a fashionable footman
+handled a knocker in Grosvenor Square; the Sheriff rose and opened it
+for him with courteous alacrity,--and then Hinse came {p.242} down
+purring from his perch, and mounted guard by the footstool, _vice_
+Maida absent upon furlough.[108] Whatever discourse might be passing,
+was broken every now and then by some affectionate apostrophe to these
+four-footed friends. He said they understood everything he said to
+them--and I believe they did understand a great deal of it. But at all
+events, dogs and cats, like children, have some infallible tact for
+discovering at once who is and who is not really fond of their
+company; and I venture to say, Scott was never five minutes in any
+room before the little pets of the family, whether dumb or lisping,
+had found out his kindness for all their generation.
+
+              [Footnote 108: [Of Hinse, Washington Irving writes in
+              his _Abbotsford_:--
+
+              "Among the other important and privileged members of the
+              household who figured in attendance at dinner, was a
+              large gray cat, who, I observed, was regaled from time
+              to time with titbits from the table. This sage grimalkin
+              was a favorite of both master and mistress, and slept at
+              night in their room, and Scott laughingly observed, that
+              one of the least wise parts of their establishment was
+              that the window was left open at night for puss to go in
+              and out. The cat assumed a kind of ascendency among the
+              quadrupeds--sitting in state in Scott's armchair, and
+              occasionally stationing himself on a chair beside the
+              door, as if to review his subjects as they passed,
+              giving each dog a cuff beside the ears as he went by.
+              This clapper-clawing was always taken in good part; it
+              appeared to be, in fact, a mere act of sovereignty on
+              the part of grimalkin to remind the others of their
+              vassalage; which they acknowledged by the most perfect
+              acquiescence. A general harmony prevailed between
+              sovereign and subjects, and they would all sleep
+              together in the sunshine."]]
+
+I never thought it lawful to keep a journal of what passes in private
+society, so that no one need expect from the sequel of this narrative
+any detailed record of Scott's familiar talk. What fragments of it
+have happened to adhere to a tolerably retentive memory, and may be
+put into black and white without wounding any feelings which my
+friend, were he alive, would have wished to spare, I shall introduce
+as the occasion suggests or serves. But I disclaim on the threshold
+anything more than this; and I also wish to enter a protest once for
+all against the general fidelity of several literary gentlemen who
+have kindly forwarded to me private lucubrations {p.243} of theirs,
+designed to _Boswellize_ Scott, and which they may probably publish
+hereafter. To report conversations fairly, it is a necessary
+prerequisite that we should be completely familiar with all the
+interlocutors, and understand thoroughly all their minutest relations,
+and points of common knowledge and common feeling with each other. He
+who does not, must be perpetually in danger of misinterpreting
+sportive allusion into serious statement; and the man who was only
+recalling, by some jocular phrase or half-phrase, to an old companion,
+some trivial reminiscence of their boyhood or youth, may be
+represented as expressing, upon some person or incident casually
+tabled, an opinion which he had never framed, or if he had, would
+never have given words to in any mixed assemblage--not even among what
+the world calls _friends_ at his own board. In proportion as a man is
+witty and humorous, there will always be about him and his a widening
+maze and wilderness of cues and catchwords, which the uninitiated
+will, if they are bold enough to try interpretation, construe, ever
+and anon, egregiously amiss--not seldom into arrant falsity. For this
+one reason, to say nothing of many others, I consider no man justified
+in journalizing what he sees and hears in a domestic circle where he
+is not thoroughly at home; and I think there are still higher and
+better reasons why he should not do so where he is.
+
+Before I ever met Scott in private, I had, of course, heard many
+people describe and discuss his style of conversation. Everybody
+seemed to agree that it overflowed with hearty good-humor, as well as
+plain unaffected good sense and sagacity; but I had heard not a few
+persons of undoubted ability and accomplishment maintain that the
+genius of the great poet and novelist rarely, if ever, revealed itself
+in his talk. It is needless to say, that the persons I allude to were
+all his own countrymen, and themselves imbued, more or less, with the
+conversational habits derived from a system of education in which the
+{p.244} study of metaphysics occupies a very large share of
+attention. The best table-talk of Edinburgh was, and probably still
+is, in a very great measure made up of brilliant disquisition--such as
+might be transferred without alteration to a professor's note-book, or
+the pages of a critical Review--and of sharp word-catchings, ingenious
+thrusting and parrying of dialectics, and all the quips and quibblets
+of bar pleading. It was the talk of a society to which lawyers and
+lecturers had, for at least a hundred years, given the tone. From the
+date of the Union, Edinburgh ceased to be the headquarters of the
+Scotch nobility--and long before the time of which I speak, they had
+all but entirely abandoned it as a place of residence. I think I never
+knew above two or three of the Peerage to have houses there at the
+same time--and these were usually among the poorest and most
+insignificant of their order. The wealthier gentry had followed their
+example. Very few of that class ever spent any considerable part of
+the year in Edinburgh, except for the purposes of educating their
+children, or superintending the progress of a lawsuit; and these were
+not more likely than a score or two of comatose and lethargic old
+Indians, to make head against the established influences of academical
+and forensic celebrity. Now Scott's tastes and resources had not much
+in common with those who had inherited and preserved the chief
+authority in this provincial hierarchy of rhetoric. He was highly
+amused with watching their dexterous logomachies--but his delight in
+such displays arose mainly, I cannot doubt, from the fact of their
+being, both as to subject-matter and style and method, remote _a
+Scævolæ studiis_. He sat by, as he would have done at a stage-play or
+a fencing-match, enjoying and applauding the skill exhibited, but
+without feeling much ambition to parade himself as a rival either of
+the foil or the buskin. I can easily believe, therefore, that in the
+earlier part of his life--before the blaze of universal fame had
+overawed {p.245} local prejudice, and a new generation, accustomed to
+hear of that fame from their infancy, had grown up--it may have been
+the commonly adopted creed in Edinburgh, that Scott, however
+distinguished otherwise, was not to be named as a table-companion in
+the same day with this or that master of luminous dissertation or
+quick rejoinder, who now sleeps as forgotten as his grandmother. It
+was natural enough that persons brought up in the same circle with
+him, who remembered all his beginnings, and had but slowly learned to
+acquiesce in the justice of his claim to unrivalled honor in
+literature, should have clung all the closer for that late
+acquiescence to their original estimate of him as inferior to
+themselves in other titles to admiration. It was also natural that
+their prejudice on that score should be readily taken up by the young
+aspirants who breathed, as it were, the atmosphere of their
+professional renown. Perhaps, too, Scott's steady Toryism, and the
+effect of his genius and example in modifying the intellectual sway of
+the long dominant Whigs in the north, may have had some share in this
+matter. However all that may have been, the substance of what I had
+been accustomed to hear certainly was, that Scott had a marvellous
+stock of queer stories, which he often told with happy effect, but
+that, bating these drafts on a portentous memory, set off with a
+simple old-fashioned _naïveté_ of humor and pleasantry, his strain of
+talk was remarkable neither for depth of remark nor felicity of
+illustration; that his views and opinions on the most important topics
+of practical interest were hopelessly perverted by his blind
+enthusiasm for the dreams of bygone ages; and that, but for the
+grotesque phenomenon presented by a great writer of the nineteenth
+century gravely uttering sentiments worthy of his own Dundees and
+Invernahyles, the main texture of his discourse would be pronounced,
+by any enlightened member of modern society, rather bald and poor than
+otherwise. I think the epithet most in vogue was _commonplace_.
+
+{p.246} It will easily be believed that, in companies such as I have
+been alluding to, made up of, or habitually domineered over, by
+voluble Whigs and political economists, Scott was often tempted to put
+forth his Tory doctrines and antiquarian prejudices in an exaggerated
+shape--in colors, to say the truth, altogether different from what
+they assumed under other circumstances, or which had any real
+influence upon his mind and conduct on occasions of practical moment.
+But I fancy it will seem equally credible, that the most sharp-sighted
+of these social critics may not always have been capable of tracing,
+and doing justice to, the powers which Scott brought to bear upon the
+topics which they, not he, had chosen for discussion. In passing from
+a gas-lit hall into a room with wax candles, the guests sometimes
+complain that they have left splendor for gloom; but let them try by
+what sort of light it is most satisfactory to read, write, or
+embroider, or consider at leisure under which of the two, either men
+or women look their best.
+
+The strongest, purest, and least observed of all lights, is, however,
+daylight; and his talk was commonplace, just as sunshine is, which
+gilds the most indifferent objects, and adds brilliancy to the
+brightest. As for the old-world anecdotes which these clever persons
+were condescending enough to laugh at as pleasant extravagances,
+serving merely to relieve and set off the main stream of debate, they
+were often enough, it may be guessed, connected with the theme in hand
+by links not the less apt that they might be too subtle to catch their
+bedazzled and self-satisfied optics. There might be keener knowledge
+of human nature than was "dreamt of in their philosophy"--which passed
+with them for _commonplace_, only because it was clothed in plain
+familiar household words, not dressed up in some pedantic masquerade
+of antithesis. "There are people," says Landor, "who think they write
+and speak finely, merely because they have forgotten the language in
+which their fathers and {p.247} mothers used to talk to them;" and
+surely there are a thousand homely old proverbs, which many a dainty
+modern would think it beneath his dignity to quote either in speech or
+writing, any one of which condenses more wit (take that word in any of
+its senses) than could be extracted from all that was ever said or
+written by the _doctrinaires_ of the Edinburgh school. Many of those
+gentlemen held Scott's conversation to be commonplace exactly for the
+same reason that a child thinks a perfectly limpid stream, though
+perhaps deep enough to drown it three times over, must needs be
+shallow. But it will be easily believed that the best and highest of
+their own idols had better means and skill of measurement: I can never
+forget the pregnant expression of one of the ablest of that school and
+party--Lord Cockburn--who, when some glib youth chanced to echo in his
+hearing the consolatory tenet of local mediocrity, answered quietly:
+"I have the misfortune to think differently from you--in my humble
+opinion, Walter Scott's _sense_ is a still more wonderful thing than
+his _genius_."
+
+Indeed I have no sort of doubt that, long before 1818, full justice
+was done to Scott, even in these minor things, by all those of his
+Edinburgh acquaintance, whether Whig or Tory, on whose personal
+opinion he could have been supposed to set much value. With few
+exceptions, the really able lawyers of his own or nearly similar
+standing had ere that time attained stations of judicial dignity, or
+were in the springtide of practice; and in either case they were
+likely to consider general society much in his own fashion, as the
+joyous relaxation of life, rather than the theatre of exertion and
+display. Their tables were elegantly, some of them sumptuously spread;
+and they lived in a pretty constant interchange of entertainments upon
+a large scale, in every circumstance of which, conversation included,
+it was their ambition to imitate those voluptuous metropolitan
+circles, wherein most of them had from time to time mingled, and
+several of them {p.248} with distinguished success. Among such
+prosperous gentlemen, like himself past the _mezzo cammin_, Scott's
+picturesque anecdotes, rich easy humor, and gay involuntary glances of
+mother-wit, were, it is not difficult to suppose, appreciated above
+contributions of a more ambitious stamp; and no doubt his London
+_réputation de salon_ (which had by degrees risen to a high pitch,
+although he cared nothing for it) was not without its effect in
+Edinburgh. But still the old prejudice lingered on in the general
+opinion of the place, especially among the smart praters of _the
+Outer-House_, whose glimpses of the social habits of their superiors
+were likely to be rare, and their gall-bladders to be more distended
+than their purses.
+
+In truth, it was impossible to listen to Scott's oral narrations,
+whether gay or serious, or to the felicitous fun with which he parried
+absurdities of all sorts, without discovering better qualities in his
+talk than _wit_--and of a higher order; I mean especially a power of
+_vivid painting_--the true and primary sense of what is called
+_Imagination_. He was like Jaques--though not a "Melancholy Jaques;"
+and "moralized" a common topic "into a thousand similitudes."
+Shakespeare and the banished Duke would have found him "full of
+matter." He disliked mere disquisitions in Edinburgh, and prepared
+_impromptus_ in London; and puzzled the promoters of such things
+sometimes by placid silence, sometimes by broad merriment. To such men
+he seemed _commonplace_--not so to the most dexterous masters in what
+was to some of them almost a science; not so to Rose, Hallam, Moore,
+or Rogers,--to Ellis, Mackintosh, Croker, or Canning.
+
+Scott managed to give and receive such great dinners as I have been
+alluding to, at least as often as any other private gentleman in
+Edinburgh; but he very rarely accompanied his wife and daughters to
+the evening assemblies, which commonly ensued under other roofs--for
+{p.249} _early to rise_, unless in the case of spare-fed anchorites,
+takes for granted _early to bed_. When he had no dinner engagement, he
+frequently gave a few hours to the theatre; but still more frequently,
+when the weather was fine, and still more, I believe, to his own
+satisfaction, he drove out with some of his family, or a single
+friend, in an open carriage; the favorite rides being either to the
+Blackford Hills, or to Ravelston, and so home by Corstorphine; or to
+the beach of Portobello, where Peter was always instructed to keep his
+horses as near as possible to the sea. More than once, even in the
+first summer of my acquaintance with him, I had the pleasure of
+accompanying him on these evening excursions; and never did he seem to
+enjoy himself more fully than when placidly surveying, at such sunset
+or moonlight hours, either the massive outlines of his "own romantic
+town," or the tranquil expanse of its noble estuary. He delighted,
+too, in passing, when he could, through some of the quaint windings of
+the ancient city itself, now deserted, except at mid-day, by the upper
+world. How often have I seen him go a long way round about, rather
+than miss the opportunity of halting for a few minutes on the vacant
+esplanade of Holyrood, or under the darkest shadows of the Castle
+rock, where it overhangs the Grassmarket, and the huge slab that still
+marks where the gibbet of Porteous and the Covenanters had its
+station. His coachman knew him too well to move at a Jehu's pace
+amidst such scenes as these. No funeral hearse crept more leisurely
+than did his landau up the Canongate or the Cowgate; and not a queer
+tottering gable but recalled to him some long-buried memory of
+splendor or bloodshed, which, by a few words, he set before the hearer
+in the reality of life. His image is so associated in my mind with the
+antiquities of his native place, that I cannot now revisit them
+without feeling as if I were treading on his gravestone.
+
+Whatever might happen on the other evenings of the {p.250} week, he
+always dined at home on Sunday, and usually some few friends were then
+with him, but never any person with whom he stood on ceremony. These
+were, it may be readily supposed, the most agreeable of his
+entertainments. He came into the room rubbing his hands, his face
+bright and gleesome, like a boy arriving at home for the holidays, his
+Peppers and Mustards gambolling about his heels, and even the stately
+Maida grinning and wagging his tail in sympathy. Among the most
+regular guests on these happy evenings were, in my time, as had long
+before been the case, Mrs. Maclean Clephane of Torloisk (with whom he
+agreed cordially on all subjects except the authenticity of Ossian),
+and her daughters, whose guardian he had become, at their own choice.
+The eldest of them had been for some years married to the Earl Compton
+(now Marquis of Northampton), and was of course seldom in the north;
+but the others had much of the same tastes and accomplishments which
+so highly distinguished the late Lady Northampton; and Scott delighted
+especially in their proficiency in the poetry and music of their
+native isles. Mr. and Mrs. Skene of Rubislaw were frequent
+attendants--and so were the Macdonald-Buchanans of Drumakiln, whose
+eldest daughter, Isabella, was his chief favorite among all his
+_nieces_ of the Clerk's table--as was, among the _nephews_, my own
+dear friend and companion, Joseph Hume, a singularly graceful young
+man, rich in the promise of hereditary genius, but, alas, cut off in
+the early bloom of his days. The well-beloved Erskine was seldom
+absent; and very often Terry or James Ballantyne came with
+him--sometimes, though less frequently, Constable. Among other persons
+who now and then appeared at these "dinners without the silver
+dishes," as Scott called them, I may mention--to say nothing of such
+old cronies as Mr. Clerk, Mr. Thomson, and Mr. Kirkpatrick Sharpe--Sir
+Alexander Boswell of Auchinleck, who had all his father _Bozzy's_
+cleverness, good-humor, {p.251} and joviality, without one touch of
+his meaner qualities,--wrote Jenny dang the Weaver, and some other
+popular songs, which he sang capitally--and was moreover a thorough
+bibliomaniac; the late Sir Alexander Don of Newton, in all courteous
+and elegant accomplishments the model of a cavalier; and last, not
+least, William Allan, R. A., who had shortly before this time returned
+to Scotland from several years of travel in Russia and Turkey. At one
+of these plain hearty dinners, however, the company rarely exceeded
+three or four, besides the as yet undivided family.
+
+Scott had a story of a topping goldsmith on the Bridge, who prided
+himself on being the mirror of Amphitryons, and accounted for his
+success by stating that it was his invariable custom to set his own
+stomach at ease, by a beefsteak and a pint of port in his back-shop,
+half an hour before the arrival of his guests. But the host of Castle
+Street had no occasion to imitate this prudent arrangement, for his
+appetite at dinner was neither keen nor nice. Breakfast was his chief
+meal. Before that came, he had gone through the severest part of his
+day's work, and he then set to with the zeal of Crabbe's Squire
+Tovell--
+
+  "And laid at once a pound upon his plate."
+
+No fox-hunter ever prepared himself for the field by more substantial
+appliances. His table was always provided, in addition to the usually
+plentiful delicacies of a Scotch breakfast, with some solid article,
+on which he did most lusty execution--a round of beef--a pasty, such
+as made Gil Blas's eyes water--or, most welcome of all, a cold sheep's
+head, the charms of which primitive dainty he has so gallantly
+defended against the disparaging sneers of Dr. Johnson and his
+bear-leader.[109] A huge brown loaf flanked his elbow, and it was
+placed upon a broad wooden trencher, that he might cut and come again
+with the bolder knife. Often did the _Clerks' {p.252} coach_,
+commonly called among themselves _the Lively_--which trundled round
+every morning to pick up the brotherhood, and then deposited them at
+the proper minute in the Parliament Close--often did this lumbering
+hackney arrive at his door before he had fully appeased what Homer
+calls "the sacred rage of hunger;" and vociferous was the merriment of
+the learned _uncles_, when the surprised poet swung forth to join
+them, with an extemporized sandwich, that looked like a ploughman's
+luncheon, in his hand. But this robust supply would have served him in
+fact for the day. He never tasted anything more before dinner, and at
+dinner he ate almost as sparingly as Squire Tovell's niece from the
+boarding-school,--
+
+  --"Who cut the sanguine flesh in frustums fine,
+  And marvelled much to see the creatures dine."
+
+              [Footnote 109: See Croker's _Boswell_ (edit. 1831), vol.
+              iii p. 38.]
+
+The only dishes he was at all fond of were the old-fashioned ones to
+which he had been accustomed in the days of Saunders Fairford; and
+which really are excellent dishes,--such, in truth, as Scotland
+borrowed from France before Catherine de' Medici brought in her
+Italian _virtuosi_ to revolutionize the kitchen like the court. Of
+most of these, I believe, he has in the course of his novels found
+some opportunity to record his esteem. But, above all, who can forget
+that his King Jamie, amidst the splendors of Whitehall, thinks himself
+an ill-used monarch unless his first course includes _cocky-leeky_?
+
+It is a fact, which some philosophers may think worth setting down,
+that Scott's organization, as to more than one of the senses, was the
+reverse of exquisite. He had very little of what musicians call an
+ear; his smell was hardly more delicate. I have seen him stare about,
+quite unconscious of the cause, when his whole company betrayed their
+uneasiness at the approach of an overkept haunch of venison; and
+neither by the nose nor the palate could he distinguish corked wine
+from sound. He could never tell Madeira from sherry,--nay, an Oriental
+friend having sent him a butt of _sheeraz_, when he {p.253}
+remembered the circumstance some time afterwards, and called for a
+bottle to have Sir John Malcolm's opinion of its quality, it turned
+out that his butler, mistaking the label, had already served up half
+the bin as _sherry_. Port he considered as physic: he never willingly
+swallowed more than one glass of it, and was sure to anathematize a
+second, if offered, by repeating John Home's epigram:--
+
+  "Bold and erect the Caledonian stood,
+  Old was his mutton, and his claret good;
+  Let him drink port, the English statesman cried--
+  He drank the poison, and his spirit died."
+
+In truth, he liked no wines except sparkling champagne and claret; but
+even as to this last he was no connoisseur; and sincerely preferred a
+tumbler of whiskey-toddy to the most precious "liquid ruby" that ever
+flowed in the cup of a prince. He rarely took any other potation when
+quite alone with his family; but at the Sunday board he circulated the
+champagne briskly during dinner, and considered a pint of claret each
+man's fair share afterwards. I should not omit, however, that his
+Bordeaux was uniformly preceded by a small libation of the genuine
+_mountain dew_, which he poured with his own hand, _more majorum_, for
+each guest--making use for the purpose of such a multifarious
+collection of ancient Highland _quaighs_ (little cups of curiously
+dovetailed wood, inlaid with silver) as no Lowland sideboard but his
+was ever equipped with--but commonly reserving for himself one that
+was peculiarly precious in his eyes, as having travelled from
+Edinburgh to Derby in the canteen of Prince Charlie. This relic had
+been presented to "the wandering Ascanius" by some very careful
+follower, for its bottom is of glass, that he who quaffed might keep
+his eye the while upon the dirk hand of his companion.
+
+The sound of music (even, I suspect, of any sacred music but
+psalm-singing) would be considered indecorous {p.254} in the streets
+of Edinburgh on a Sunday night; so, upon the occasions I am speaking
+of, the harp was silent, and Otterburne and The Bonnie House of Airlie
+must needs be dispensed with. To make amends, after tea in the
+drawing-room, Scott usually read some favorite author for the
+amusement of his little circle; or Erskine, Ballantyne, or Terry, did
+so, at his request. He himself read aloud high poetry with far greater
+simplicity, depth, and effect, than any other man I ever heard; and in
+Macbeth or Julius Cæsar, or the like, I doubt if Kemble could have
+been more impressive. Yet the changes of intonation were so gently
+managed, that he contrived to set the different interlocutors clearly
+before us, without the least approach to theatrical artifice. Not so
+the others I have mentioned; they all read cleverly and agreeably, but
+with the decided trickery of stage recitation. To them he usually gave
+the book when it was a comedy, or, indeed, any other drama than
+Shakespeare's or Joanna Baillie's. Dryden's Fables, Johnson's two
+Satires, and certain detached scenes of Beaumont and Fletcher,
+especially that in The Lover's Progress, where the ghost of the
+musical innkeeper makes his appearance, were frequently selected. Of
+the poets, his contemporaries, however, there was not one that did not
+come in for his part. In Wordsworth, his pet pieces were, I think, the
+Song for Brougham Castle, the Laodamia, and some of the early sonnets;
+in Southey, Queen Orraca, Fernando Ramirez, the Lines on the Holly
+Tree--and, of his larger poems, the Thalaba. Crabbe was perhaps, next
+to Shakespeare, the standing resource; but in those days Byron was
+pouring out his spirit fresh and full: and, if a new piece from his
+hand had appeared, it was sure to be read by Scott the Sunday evening
+afterwards, and that with such delighted emphasis as showed how
+completely the elder bard had kept all his enthusiasm for poetry at
+the pitch of youth, all his admiration of genius, free, pure, and
+unstained by the least drop of literary {p.255} jealousy. Rare and
+beautiful example of a happily constituted and virtuously disciplined
+mind and character!
+
+Very often something read aloud by himself or his friends suggested
+an old story of greater compass than would have suited a
+dinner-table--and he told it, whether serious or comical, or, as more
+frequently happened, part of both, exactly in every respect in the
+tone and style of the notes and illustrations to his novels. A great
+number of his best oral narratives have, indeed, been preserved in
+those parting lucubrations; and not a few in his letters. Yet very
+many there were of which his pen has left no record--so many, that,
+were I to task my memory, I could, I believe, recall the outlines at
+least of more than would be sufficient to occupy a couple of these
+volumes. Possibly, though well aware how little justice I could do to
+such things, rather than think of their perishing forever, and leaving
+not even a shadow behind, I may at some future day hazard the attempt.
+
+Let me turn, meanwhile, to some dinner-tables very different from his
+own, at which, from this time forward, I often met Scott. It is very
+true of the societies I am about to describe, that he was "among them,
+not of them;" and it is also most true that this fact was apparent in
+all the demeanor of his bibliopolical and typographical allies towards
+him whenever he visited them under their roofs--not a bit less so than
+when they were received at his own board; but still, considering how
+closely his most important worldly affairs were connected with the
+personal character of the Ballantynes, I think it a part, though
+neither a proud nor a very pleasing part, of my duty as his
+biographer, to record my reminiscences of them and their doings in
+some detail.
+
+James Ballantyne then lived in St. John Street, a row of good,
+old-fashioned, and spacious houses, adjoining the Canongate and
+Holyrood, and at no great distance from his printing establishment. He
+had married a few {p.256} years before the daughter of a wealthy
+farmer in Berwickshire--a quiet, amiable woman, of simple manners, and
+perfectly domestic habits: a group of fine young children were growing
+up about him; and he usually, if not constantly, had under his roof
+his aged mother, his and his wife's tender care of whom it was most
+pleasing to witness. As far as a stranger might judge, there could not
+be a more exemplary household, or a happier one; and I have
+occasionally met the poet in St. John Street when there were no other
+guests but Erskine, Terry, George Hogarth,[110] and another intimate
+friend or two, and when James Ballantyne was content to appear in his
+own true and best colors, the kind head of his family, the respectful
+but honest schoolfellow of Scott, the easy landlord of a plain,
+comfortable table. But when any great event was about to take place in
+the business, especially on the eve of a new novel, there were doings
+of a higher strain in St. John Street; and to be present at one of
+those scenes was truly a rich treat, even--if not especially--for
+persons who, like myself, had no more _knowledge_ than the rest of the
+world as to the authorship of Waverley. Then were congregated about
+the printer all his own literary allies, of whom a considerable number
+were by no means personally familiar with "THE GREAT UNKNOWN:"--who,
+by the way, owed to him that widely adopted title;--and He
+appeared among the rest with his usual open aspect of buoyant
+good-humor--although it was not difficult to trace, in the occasional
+play of his features, the diversion it afforded him to watch all the
+procedure of his swelling confidant, and the curious neophytes that
+surrounded the well-spread board.
+
+              [Footnote 110: George Hogarth, Esq., W. S., brother of
+              Mrs. James Ballantyne. This gentleman is now well known
+              in the literary world; especially by a History of Music,
+              of which all who understand that science speak highly.
+              [He was the father-in-law of Charles Dickens, and for
+              many years a musical and dramatic critic in London.]]
+
+The feast was, to use one of James's own favorite epithets, {p.257}
+_gorgeous_; an aldermanic display of turtle and venison, with the
+suitable accompaniments of iced punch, potent ale, and generous
+Madeira. When the cloth was drawn, the burly preses arose, with all he
+could muster of the port of John Kemble, and spouted with a sonorous
+voice the formula of Macbeth:--
+
+                                   "Fill full!
+  I drink to the general joy of the whole table!"
+
+This was followed by "The King, God bless him!" and second
+came--"Gentlemen, there is another toast which never has been nor
+shall be omitted in this house of mine--I give you the health of Mr.
+Walter Scott with three times three!" All honor having been done to
+this health, and Scott having briefly thanked the company with some
+expressions of warm affection to their host, Mrs. Ballantyne retired;
+the bottles passed round twice or thrice in the usual way; and then
+James rose once more, every vein on his brow distended, his eyes
+solemnly fixed upon vacancy, to propose, not as before in his
+stentorian key, but with "'bated breath," in the sort of whisper by
+which a stage conspirator thrills the gallery,--"_Gentlemen, a bumper
+to the immortal Author of Waverley!_" The uproar of cheering, in which
+Scott made a fashion of joining, was succeeded by deep silence, and
+then Ballantyne proceeded--
+
+  "In his Lord Burleigh look, serene and serious,
+   A something of imposing and mysterious"--
+
+to lament the obscurity in which his illustrious but too modest
+correspondent still chose to conceal himself from the plaudits of the
+world, to thank the company for the manner in which the _nominis
+umbra_ had been received, and to assure them that the Author of
+Waverley would, when informed of the circumstance, feel highly
+delighted--"the proudest hour of his life," etc., etc. The cool,
+demure fun of Scott's features during all this mummery was perfect;
+and Erskine's attempt at a gay _nonchalance_ was still more
+ludicrously meritorious. Aldiborontiphoscophornio, {p.258} however,
+bursting as he was, knew too well to allow the new novel to be made
+the subject of discussion. Its name was announced, and success to it
+crowned another cup; but after that, no more of Jedediah. To cut the
+thread, he rolled out unbidden some one of his many theatrical songs,
+in a style that would have done no dishonor to almost any
+orchestra--The Maid of Lodi--or perhaps, The Bay of Biscay, O!--or The
+Sweet Little Cherub that Sits up Aloft. Other toasts followed,
+interspersed with ditties from other performers;--old George Thomson,
+the friend of Burns, was ready, for one, with The Moorland Wedding, or
+Willie Brew'd a Peck o' Maut;--and so it went on, until Scott and
+Erskine, with any clerical or very staid personage that had chanced to
+be admitted, saw fit to withdraw. Then the scene was changed. The
+claret and olives made way for broiled bones and a mighty bowl of
+punch; and when a few glasses of the hot beverage had restored his
+powers, James opened _ore rotundo_ on the merits of the forthcoming
+romance. "One chapter, one chapter only," was the cry. After "_Nay,
+by'r Lady, nay!_" and a few more coy shifts, the proof sheets were at
+length produced, and James, with many a prefatory hem, read aloud what
+he considered as the most striking dialogue they contained.
+
+The first I heard so read was the interview between Jeanie Deans, the
+Duke of Argyle, and Queen Caroline, in Richmond Park; and
+notwithstanding some spice of the pompous tricks to which he was
+addicted, I must say he did the inimitable scene great justice. At all
+events, the effect it produced was deep and memorable, and no wonder
+that the exulting typographer's _one bumper more to Jedediah
+Cleishbotham_ preceded his parting stave, which was uniformly The Last
+Words of Marmion, executed certainly with no contemptible rivalry of
+Braham.
+
+What a different affair was a dinner, although probably including many
+of the same guests, at the junior partner's! He in those days
+retained, I think, no private {p.259} apartments attached to his
+auction-rooms in Hanover Street, over the door of which he still kept
+emblazoned "John Ballantyne and Company, Booksellers." At any rate,
+such of his entertainments as I ever saw Scott partake of, were given
+at his villa near to the Frith of Forth, by Trinity;--a retreat which
+the little man had named "Harmony Hall," and invested with an air of
+dainty voluptuous finery, contrasting strikingly enough with the
+substantial citizen-like snugness of his elder brother's domestic
+appointments. His house was surrounded by gardens so contrived as to
+seem of considerable extent, having many a shady tuft, trellised
+alley, and mysterious alcove, interspersed among their bright
+parterres. It was a fairy-like labyrinth, and there was no want of
+pretty Armidas, such as they might be, to glide half-seen among its
+mazes. The sitting-rooms opened upon gay and perfumed conservatories,
+and John's professional excursions to Paris and Brussels in quest of
+objects of _virtu_, had supplied both the temptation and the means to
+set forth the interior in a fashion that might have satisfied the most
+fastidious _petite maîtresse_ of Norwood or St. Denis. John, too, was
+a married man: he had, however, erected for himself a private wing,
+the accesses to which, whether from the main building or the
+_bosquet_, were so narrow that it was physically impossible for the
+handsome and portly lady who bore his name to force her person through
+any one of them. His dinners were in all respects Parisian, for his
+wasted palate disdained such John Bull luxuries as were all in all
+with James. The piquant pasty of Strasburg or Perigord was never to
+seek; and even the _pièce de résistance_ was probably a boar's head
+from Coblentz, or a turkey ready stuffed with truffles from the Palais
+Royal. The pictures scattered among John's innumerable mirrors were
+chiefly of theatrical subjects--many of them portraits of beautiful
+actresses--the same Peg Woffingtons, Bellamys, Kitty Clives, and so
+forth, that {p.260} found their way in the sequel to Charles
+Mathews's gallery at Highgate. Here that exquisite comedian's own
+mimicries and parodies were the life and soul of many a festival, and
+here, too, he gathered from his facetious host not a few of the
+richest materials for his _at homes_ and _monopolylogues_. But,
+indeed, whatever actor or singer of eminence visited Edinburgh, of the
+evenings when he did not perform several were sure to be reserved for
+Trinity. Here Braham quavered, and here Liston drolled his best--here
+Johnstone, and Murray, and Yates mixed jest and stave--here Kean
+revelled and rioted--and here the Roman Kemble often played the Greek
+from sunset to dawn. Nor did the popular _cantatrice_ or _danseuse_ of
+the time disdain to freshen her roses, after a laborious week, amidst
+these Paphian arbors of Harmony Hall.
+
+Johnny had other tastes that were equally expensive. He had a
+well-furnished stable, and followed the foxhounds whenever the cover
+was within an easy distance. His horses were all called after heroes
+in Scott's poems or novels; and at this time he usually rode up to his
+auction on a tall milk-white hunter, yclept _Old Mortality_, attended
+by a leash or two of greyhounds,--Die Vernon, Jenny Dennison, and so
+forth, by name. The featherweight himself appeared uniformly,
+hammer-in-hand, in the half-dress of some sporting club--a light gray
+frock, with emblems of the chase on its silver buttons, white cord
+breeches, and jockey-boots in Meltonian order. Yet he affected in the
+pulpit rather a grave address; and was really one of the most
+plausible and imposing of the Puff tribe. Probably Scott's presence
+overawed his ludicrous propensities; for the poet was, when sales were
+going on, almost a daily attendant in Hanover Street, and himself not
+the least energetic of the numerous competitors for Johnny's uncut
+_fifteeners_, Venetian lamps, Milanese cuirasses, and old Dutch
+cabinets. Maida, by the way, was so well aware of his master's
+{p.261} habits, that about the time when the Court of Session was
+likely to break up for the day, he might usually be seen couched in
+expectation among Johnny's own _tail_ of greyhounds at the threshold
+of the mart.
+
+It was at one of those Trinity dinners this summer that I first saw
+Constable. Being struck with his appearance, I asked Scott who he was,
+and he told me--expressing some surprise that anybody should have
+lived a winter or two in Edinburgh without knowing, by sight at least,
+a citizen whose name was so familiar to the world. I happened to say
+that I had not been prepared to find the great bookseller a man of
+such gentlemanlike and even distinguished bearing. Scott smiled, and
+answered, "Ay, Constable is indeed a grand-looking chield. He puts me
+in mind of Fielding's apology for Lady Booby--to wit, that Joseph
+Andrews had an air which, to those who had not seen many noblemen,
+would give an idea of nobility." I had not in those days been much
+initiated in the private jokes of what is called, by way of
+excellence, _the trade_, and was puzzled when Scott, in the course of
+the dinner, said to Constable, "Will your Czarish Majesty do me the
+honor to take a glass of champagne?" I asked the master of the feast
+for an explanation. "Oh!" said he, "are you so green as not to know
+that Constable long since dubbed himself _The Czar of Muscovy_, John
+Murray, _The Emperor of the West_, and Longman and his string of
+partners _The Divan_?" "And what title," I asked, "has Mr. John
+Ballantyne himself found in this new _almanach imperial_?"--"Let that
+flee stick to the wa'," quoth Johnny: "When I set up for a bookseller,
+The Crafty christened me _The Dey of Alljeers_--but he now considers
+me as next thing to dethroned." He added, "His Majesty the autocrat is
+too fond of these nicknames. One day a partner of the house of Longman
+was dining with him in the country, to settle an important piece of
+business, about which there occurred a good deal of difficulty. 'What
+fine {p.262} swans you have in your pond there!' said the Londoner,
+by way of parenthesis.--'Swans!' cried Constable; 'they are only
+geese, man. There are just five of them, if you please to observe, and
+their names are Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown.' This skit cost
+The Crafty a good bargain."
+
+It always appeared to me that James Ballantyne felt his genius rebuked
+in the presence of Constable: his manner was constrained, his smile
+servile, his hilarity elaborate. Not so with Johnny: the little fellow
+never seemed more airily frolicsome than when he capered for the
+amusement of the Czar.[111] I never, however, saw those two together,
+where, I am told, the humors of them both were exhibited to the
+richest advantage--I mean at the dinners with which Constable regaled,
+among others, his own circle of literary serfs, and when "Jocund
+Johnny" was very commonly his croupier. There are stories enough of
+practical jokes upon such occasions, some of them near akin to those
+which the author of Humphrey Clinker has thought fit to record of his
+own suburban villa, in the most diverting of young Melford's letters
+to Sir Watkin Philips. I have heard, for example, a luculent
+description of poor _Allister Campbell_, and another drudge of the
+same class, running a race after dinner for a new pair of breeches,
+which Mr. David Bridges, tailor in ordinary to this northern
+potentate,--himself a wit, a virtuoso, and the croupier on that day in
+lieu of Rigdum,--had been instructed to bring with him, and display
+before the threadbare rivals. But I had these pictures from John
+Ballantyne, and I dare say they might be overcharged. That Constable
+was a most bountiful and generous patron to the ragged tenants of Grub
+Street, there can, however, be no doubt: and as {p.263} little that
+John himself acted on all occasions by them in the same spirit, and
+this to an extent greatly beyond what prudence (if he had ever
+consulted that guide in anything) would have dictated.
+
+              [Footnote 111: "Now, John," cried Constable, one evening
+              after he had told one of his best stories, "now, John,
+              is that true?" His object evidently was, in Iago's
+              phrase, _to let down the pegs_; but Rigdum answered
+              gayly, "True, indeed! Not one word of it!--any blockhead
+              may stick to truth, my hearty--but 't is a sad hamperer
+              of genius."]
+
+When I visited Constable, as I often did at a period somewhat later
+than that of which I now speak, and for the most part in company with
+Scott, I found the bookseller established in a respectable country
+gentleman's seat, some six or seven miles out of Edinburgh, and doing
+the honors of it with all the ease that might have been looked for had
+he been the long-descended owner of the place; there was no foppery,
+no show, no idle luxury, but to all appearance the plain abundance and
+simple enjoyment of hereditary wealth. His conversation was manly and
+vigorous, abounding in Scotch anecdotes of the old time, which he told
+with a degree of spirit and humor only second to his great author's.
+No man could more effectually control, when he had a mind, either the
+extravagant vanity which, on too many occasions, made him ridiculous,
+or the despotic temper, which habitually held in fear and trembling
+all such as were in any sort dependent on his Czarish Majesty's
+pleasure. In him I never saw (at this period) anything but the
+unobtrusive sense and the calm courtesy of a well-bred gentleman. His
+very equipage kept up the series of contrasts between him and the two
+Ballantynes. Constable went back and forward between the town and
+Polton in a deep-hung and capacious green barouche, without any
+pretence at heraldic blazonry, drawn by a pair of sleek, black,
+long-tailed horses, and conducted by a grave old coachman in plain
+blue livery. The Printer of the Canongate drove himself and his wife
+about the streets and suburbs in a snug machine, which did not
+overburthen one powerful and steady cob; while the gay auctioneer,
+whenever he left the saddle for the box, mounted a bright
+blue dogcart, and rattled down the Newhaven road with two
+high-mettled steeds, prancing _tandem_ before him, and {p.264} most
+probably--especially if he was on his way to the races at
+Musselburgh--with some "sweet singer of Israel" flaming, with all her
+feathers, beside him. On such occasions, by the bye, Johnny sometimes
+had a French horn with him, and he played on it with good skill, and
+with an energy by no means prudent in the state of his lungs.
+
+The Sheriff told with peculiar unction the following anecdote of this
+spark. The first time he went over to pick up curiosities at Paris, it
+happened that he met, in the course of his traffickings, a certain
+brother bookseller of Edinburgh, as unlike him as one man could well
+be to another--a grave, dry Presbyterian, rigid in all his notions as
+the buckle of his wig. This precise worthy having ascertained John's
+address, went to call on him, a day or two afterwards, with the news
+of some richly illuminated missal, which he might possibly be glad to
+make prize of. On asking for his friend, a smiling _laquais de place_
+informed him that _Monsieur_ had gone out, but that _Madame_ was at
+home. Not doubting that Mrs. Ballantyne had accompanied her husband on
+his trip, he desired to pay his respects to _Madame_, and was ushered
+in accordingly. "But oh, Mr. Scott!" said, or rather groaned, the
+austere elder, on his return from this modern Babylon, "oh, Mr. Scott,
+there was nae Mrs. John yonder, but a painted Jezebel sittin' up in
+her bed, wi' a wheen impudent French limmers like hersel', and twa or
+three whiskered blackguards, takin' their collation o' knickknacks and
+champagne wine! I ran out o' the house as if I had been shot. What
+judgment will this wicked warld come to! The Lord pity us!" Scott was
+a severe enough censor in the general of such levities, but somehow,
+in the case of Rigdumfunnidos, he seemed to regard them with much the
+same toleration as the naughty tricks of a monkey in the "Jardin des
+Plantes."
+
+Why did Scott persist in mixing up all his most important {p.265}
+concerns with such people as I have been describing? I asked himself
+that question too unceremoniously at a long subsequent period, and in
+due time the reader shall see the answer I received; but it left the
+main question, to my apprehension, as much in the dark as ever. I
+shall return to the sad subject hereafter more seriously; but in the
+mean time let it suffice to say, that he was the most patient,
+long-suffering, affectionate, and charitable of mankind; that in the
+case of both the Ballantynes he could count, after all, on a
+sincerely, nay, a passionately devoted attachment to his person; that,
+with the greatest of human beings, use is in all but unconquerable
+power; and that he who so loftily tossed aside the seemingly most
+dangerous assaults of flattery, the blandishment of dames, the
+condescension of princes, the enthusiasm of crowds--had still his weak
+point, upon which two or three humble besiegers, and one unwearied,
+though most frivolous underminer, well knew how to direct their
+approaches. It was a favorite saw of his own, that the wisest of our
+race often reserve the average stock of folly to be all expended upon
+some one flagrant absurdity.
+
+
+
+
+{p.266} CHAPTER XLII.
+
+     Publication of the Heart of Mid-Lothian. -- Its Reception in
+     Edinburgh and in England. -- Abbotsford in October. --
+     Melrose Abbey, Dryburgh, etc. -- Lion-hunters from America.
+     -- Tragedy of the Cherokee Lovers. -- Scott's Dinner to the
+     Selkirkshire Yeomen.
+
+1818.
+
+
+Hoping to be forgiven for a long digression, the biographer willingly
+returns to the thread of Scott's story. The Heart of Mid-Lothian
+appeared, as has been mentioned, before the close of June, 1818, and
+among the letters which he received soon afterwards from the friends
+by this time in the secret, there is one which (though I do not
+venture to name the writer) I am tempted to take the liberty of
+quoting:[112]--
+
+              [Footnote 112: [This letter was written August 11, by
+              Lady Louisa Stuart, and it appears in its original and
+              complete form in _Familiar Letters_, vol. ii. p. 18. To
+              the end of her long life, the writer was somewhat
+              influenced by the feeling prevailing in her youth as to
+              the loss of caste suffered by women of good social
+              position who appeared in print. Writing to Mrs. Lockhart
+              after her father's death, and enclosing some of his
+              letters, Lady Louisa says: "If Mr. Lockhart wishes to
+              insert any of these, I will beg not to be named. It is
+              not that I am not proud enough of having been honored
+              with _his_ regard, but I never yet saw my name in print,
+              and hope I never shall." Mr. Lockhart evidently in part
+              overcame this objection.]]
+
+     "Now for it, dear Mr. Scott. I can speak to the purpose, as
+     I have not only read it myself, but am in a house where
+     everybody is tearing it out of each other's hands, and
+     talking of nothing else. So much for its success--the more
+     flattering, because it overcomes a prejudice. People were
+     beginning to say the author would wear himself out; it was
+     going on too {p.267} long in the same key, and no striking
+     notes could possibly be produced. On the contrary, I think
+     the interest is stronger here than in any of the former
+     ones--(always excepting my first-love Waverley)--and one may
+     congratulate you upon having effected what many have tried
+     to do, and nobody yet succeeded in, making the perfectly
+     good character the most interesting. Of late days,
+     especially since it has been the fashion to write moral and
+     even religious novels, one might almost say of some of the
+     wise good heroines, what a lively girl once said to [me] of
+     her well-meaning aunt--'Upon my word she is enough to make
+     anybody wicked.' And though beauty and talents are heaped on
+     the right side, the writer, in spite of himself, is sure to
+     put agreeableness on the wrong; the person from whose errors
+     he means you should take warning, runs away with your secret
+     partiality in the mean time. Had this very story been
+     conducted by a common hand, Effie would have attracted all
+     our concern and sympathy--Jeanie only cold approbation.
+     Whereas Jeanie, without youth, beauty, genius, warm
+     passions, or any other novel-perfection, is here our object
+     from beginning to end. This is 'inlisting the affections in
+     the cause of virtue' ten times more than ever Richardson
+     did; for whose male and female pedants, all-excelling as
+     they are, I never could care half so much as I found myself
+     inclined to do for Jeanie before I finished the first
+     volume....
+
+     "You know I tell you my opinion just as I should do to a
+     third person, and I trust the freedom is not unwelcome. I
+     was a little tired of your Edinburgh lawyers in the
+     introduction; English people in general will be more so, as
+     well as impatient of the passages alluding to Scotch law
+     throughout. Mr. Saddletree will not entertain them. The
+     latter part of the fourth volume unavoidably flags to a
+     certain degree; after Jeanie is happily settled at
+     Roseneath, we have no more to wish for. But the chief fault
+     I have to find relates to the reappearance and shocking fate
+     of the boy. I hear on all sides, 'Oh, I do not like that!' I
+     cannot say what I would have had instead; but I do not like
+     it either; it is a lame, huddled conclusion. I know you so
+     well in it, by the bye!--you grow tired yourself, want to
+     get rid of the story, and hardly care how. Sir George
+     Staunton finishes his career very fitly; he ought not to die
+     in his bed, and for Jeanie's sake one would not have him
+     hanged. {p.268} It is unnatural, though, that he should
+     ever have gone within twenty miles of the Tolbooth, or shown
+     his face in the streets of Edinburgh, or dined at a public
+     meeting, if the Lord Commissioner had been his brother. Here
+     ends my _per contra_ account. The opposite page would make
+     my letter too long if I entered equally into particulars.
+     Carlisle and Corby Castles in Waverley did not affect me
+     more deeply than the prison and trial scenes. The end of
+     poor Madge Wildfire is also most pathetic. The meeting at
+     Muschat's Cairn tremendous. Dumbiedikes and Rory Bean are
+     delightful. And I shall own that my prejudices were secretly
+     gratified by the light in which you place [Uncle] John of
+     Argyle, whom Mr. Coxe so ran down to please Lord Orford. You
+     have drawn him to the very life. I heard so much of him in
+     my youth, so many anecdotes, so often 'as the Duke of Argyle
+     used to say'--that I really believe I am almost as good a
+     judge as if I had seen and lived with him.... [My beloved
+     mother] has told me, that when she married, [in 1737, the
+     very time], he was still remarkably handsome; with manners
+     more graceful and engaging than she ever saw in any one
+     else; the most agreeable person in conversation, the best
+     teller of a story. When fifty-seven thus captivates
+     eighteen, the natural powers of pleasing must be
+     extraordinary. You have likewise colored Queen Caroline
+     exactly right--but I was bred up in another creed about Lady
+     Suffolk, of whom, as a very old deaf woman, I have some
+     faint recollection. [My mother] knew her intimately, and
+     never would allow she had been the King's mistress, though
+     she owned it was currently believed. She said he had just
+     enough liking for her to make the Queen very civil to her,
+     and very jealous and spiteful; the rest remained always
+     uncertain at most, like a similar scandal in our days, where
+     I, for one, imagine love of seeming influence on one side,
+     and love of lounging, of an easy house and a good dinner on
+     the other, to be all the criminal passions concerned.
+     However, I confess, [my mother] had that in herself which
+     made her not ready to think the worst of her fellow-women.
+
+     "Did you ever hear the history of John, Duke of Argyle's
+     marriage, and constant attachment, before and after, to a
+     woman not handsomer or much more elegant than Jeanie Deans,
+     though very unlike her in understanding? I can give it you,
+     if you {p.269} wish it, for it is at my fingers' ends. [I
+     was so much the youngest of a numerous family that I had no
+     playfellow, and for that reason listened with all my ears to
+     the grown people's conversation, most especially when my
+     mother and the friends of her youth got upon old stories;
+     nor did I lose my taste for them when I grew old enough to
+     converse with her on equal terms, and enquire into
+     particulars.] Now I am [an] ancient [tabby] myself, I should
+     be a great treasure of anecdote to anybody who had the same
+     humor,--but I meet with few who have. They read vulgar tales
+     in books, Wraxall, and so forth, what the footmen and maids
+     only gave credit to at the moment, but they desire no
+     farther information. I dare swear many of your readers never
+     heard of the Duke of Argyle before. 'Pray, who was Sir
+     Robert Walpole,' they ask me, 'and when did he live?'--or
+     perhaps--'Was not the great Lord Chatham in Queen Anne's
+     days?'[113]
+
+              [Footnote 113: In 1827, Lady Louisa wrote for Caroline,
+              Lady Scott, a great-granddaughter of the duke, _Some
+              Account of John, Duke of Argyle, and his Family_. This
+              delightful memoir was first printed (privately) in 1863.
+              It was published in 1899, in _Selections from the
+              Manuscripts of Lady Louisa Stuart_.]
+
+     "[Amongst the persons most pleased here is Lady Charlotte
+     Lindsay. She has the true North humor, and love of humor,
+     and she does enjoy it heartily. They] have, to help [them],
+     an exemplification on two legs in [their] country
+     apothecary, whom you have painted over and over without the
+     honor of knowing him; an old, dry, arguing, prosing,
+     obstinate Scotchman, very shrewd, rather sarcastic, a sturdy
+     Whig and Presbyterian, _tirant un peu sur le démocrate_.
+     Your books are birdlime to him, however; he hovers about the
+     house to obtain a volume when others have done with it. I
+     long to ask him whether Douce Davie was any way _sib_ to
+     him. He acknowledges he would not _now_ go to Muschat's
+     Cairn at night for any money--he had such a horror of it
+     'sixty years ago' when a laddie. But I am come to the end of
+     my fourth page, and will not tire you with any more
+     scribbling....
+
+     "P. S.--If I had known nothing, and the whole world had told
+     me the contrary, I should have found you out in that one
+     parenthesis,--'for the man was mortal, and had been a
+     schoolmaster.'"
+
+{p.270} This letter was addressed from a great country house in the
+south[114]; and may, I presume, be accepted as a fair index of the
+instantaneous English popularity of Jeanie Deans. From the choice of
+localities, and the splendid blazoning of tragical circumstances that
+had left the strongest impression on the memory and imagination of
+every inhabitant, the reception of this tale in Edinburgh was a scene
+of all-engrossing enthusiasm, such as I never witnessed there on the
+appearance of any other literary novelty. But the admiration and
+delight were the same all over Scotland. Never before had he seized
+such really noble features of the national character as were canonized
+in the person of his homely heroine: no art had ever devised a happier
+running contrast than that of her and her sister, or interwoven a
+portraiture of lowly manners and simple virtues, with more graceful
+delineations of polished life, or with bolder shadows of terror,
+guilt, crime, remorse, madness, and all the agony of the passions.
+
+              [Footnote 114: [Sheffield Place, the seat of Lord
+              Sheffield, the friend and editor of Gibbon.]]
+
+In the introduction and notes to The Heart of Mid-Lothian, drawn up in
+1830, we are presented with details concerning the suggestion of the
+main plot, and the chief historical incidents made use of, to which I
+can add nothing of any moment.
+
+The 12th of July restored the author as usual to the supervision of
+his trees and carpenters; but he had already told the Ballantynes that
+the story which he had found it impossible to include in the recent
+series of Jedediah should be forthwith taken up as the opening one of
+a third; and instructed John to embrace the first favorable
+opportunity of offering Constable the publication of this, on the
+footing of 10,000 copies again forming the first edition; but now at
+length without any more stipulations connected with the unfortunate
+"old stock" of the Hanover Street Company.
+
+{p.271} Before he settled himself to his work, however, he made a
+little tour of the favorite description with his wife and
+children--halting for a few days at Drumlanrig, thence crossing the
+Border to Carlisle and Rokeby, and returning by way of Alnwick. On the
+17th August he writes thus to John Ballantyne from Drumlanrig: "This
+is heavenly weather, and I am making the most of it, as I shall have a
+laborious autumn before me. I may say of my head and fingers as the
+farmer of his mare, when he indulged her with an extra feed,--
+
+  'Ye ken that Maggie winna sleep
+   For that or Simmer.'
+
+We have taken our own horses with us, and I have my pony, and ride
+when I find it convenient."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The following seems to have been among the first letters he wrote
+after his return:--
+
+     TO J. B. S. MORRITT, ESQ., M. P., ROKEBY.
+
+                                        ABBOTSFORD, 10th September, 1818.
+
+     MY DEAR MORRITT,--We have been cruising to and fro since we
+     left your land of woods and streams. Lord Melville wished me
+     to come and stay two days with him at Melville Castle, which
+     has broken in upon my time a little, and interrupted my
+     purpose of telling you as how we arrived safe at Abbotsford,
+     without a drop of rain, thus completing a tour of three
+     weeks in the same fine weather in which we commenced it--a
+     thing which never fell to my lot before. Captain Ferguson is
+     inducted into the office of Keeper of the Regalia, to the
+     great joy, I think, of all Edinburgh. He has entered upon a
+     farm (of eleven acres) in consequence of this advancement,
+     for you know it is a general rule, that whenever a Scotsman
+     gets his head _above water_, he immediately turns it to
+     _land_. As he has already taken all the advice of all the
+     _notables_ in and about the good village of Darnick, we
+     expect to see his farm look like a tailor's {p.272} book of
+     patterns, a snip of every several opinion which he has
+     received occupying its appropriate corner. He is truly what
+     the French call _un drôle de corps_.
+
+     I wish you would allow your coachman to look out for me
+     among your neighbors a couple of young colts (rising three
+     would be the best age) that would match for a carriage some
+     two years hence. I have plenty of grass for them in the mean
+     while, and should never know the expense of their keep at
+     Abbotsford. He seemed to think he could pick them up at from
+     £25 to £30, which would make an immense saving hereafter.
+     Peter Matheson and he had arranged some sort of plan of this
+     kind. For a pair of very ordinary carriage-horses in
+     Edinburgh they ask £140 or more; so it is worth while to be
+     a little provident. Even then you only get one good horse,
+     the other being usually a brute. Pray you excuse all this
+     palaver,--
+
+          "These little things are great to little men."
+
+     Our harvest is almost all in, but as farmers always grumble
+     about something, they are now growling about the lightness
+     of the crop. All the young part of our household are wrapt
+     up in uncertainty concerning the Queen's illness--for--if
+     her Majesty parts cable, there will be no Forest Ball, and
+     that is a terrible prospect. On Wednesday (when no post
+     arrives from London) Lord Melville chanced to receive a
+     letter with a black seal by express, and as it was of course
+     argued to contain the expected intelligence of poor
+     Charlotte, it sold a good many ells of black cloth and
+     stuffs before it was ascertained to contain no such
+     information. Surely this came within the line of high
+     treason, being an imagining of the Queen's death.
+
+     Ever yours truly,
+
+                                        Walter SCOTT.
+
+     P. S.--Once more _anent_ the colts. I am indifferent about
+     color; but, _cæteris paribus_, would prefer black or brown,
+     to bright bay or gray. I mention two off--as {p.273} the
+     age at which they can be best judged of by the buyer.
+
+Of the same date I find written in pencil, on what must have been the
+envelope of some sheriff's-process, this note, addressed to Mr.
+Charles Erskine, the Sheriff-Substitute of Selkirkshire:--
+
+                                        September 10, 1818.
+
+     DEAR CHARLES,--I have read these papers with all attention
+     this morning--but think you will agree with me that there
+     must be an Eke to the Condescendence. Order the Eke against
+     next day.--Tom leaves with this packet a blackcock, and
+     (more's the pity) a gray hen. Yours,
+
+                                        W. S.
+
+And again he thus writes by post to James Ballantyne:
+
+                                        ABBOTSFORD, September 10, 1818.
+
+     DEAR JAMES,--I am quite satisfied with what has been done as
+     to the London bills. I am glad the presses move. I have been
+     interrupted sadly since my return by tourist gazers. This
+     day a confounded pair of Cambridge boys have robbed me of
+     two good hours, and you of a sheet of copy--though whether a
+     good sheet or no, deponent saith not. The story is a dismal
+     one, and I doubt sometimes whether it will bear working out
+     to much length after all. Query, if I shall make it so
+     effective in two volumes as my mother does in her quarter of
+     an hour's crack by the fireside? But _nil desperandum_. You
+     shall have a bunch to-morrow or next day--and when the
+     proofs come in, my pen must and shall step out. By the bye,
+     I want a supply of pens--and ditto of ink. Adieu for the
+     present, for I must go over to Toftfield, to give orders
+     _anent_ the dam and the footpath, and see _item_ as to what
+     should be done _anent_ steps at the Rhymer's Waterfall,
+     which I think may be made to turn out a decent bit of a
+     linn, as would set True Thomas his worth and dignity. Ever
+     yours,
+
+                                        W. S.
+
+{p.274} It must, I think, be allowed that these careless scraps, when
+combined, give a curious picture of the man who was brooding over the
+first chapters of The Bride of Lammermoor. One of his visitors of that
+month was Mr. R. Cadell, who was of course in all the secrets of the
+house of Constable; and observing how his host was harassed with
+lion-hunters, and what a number of hours he spent daily in the company
+of his work-people, he expressed, during one of their walks, his
+wonder that Scott should ever be able to write books at all while in
+the country. "I know," he said, "that you contrive to get a few hours
+in your own room, and that may do for the mere pen-work; but when is
+it that you think?" "Oh," said Scott, "I lie _simmering_ over things
+for an hour or so before I get up--and there's the time I am dressing
+to overhaul my half-sleeping, half-waking _projet de chapitre_--and
+when I get the paper before me, it commonly runs off pretty
+easily.--Besides, I often take a doze in the plantations, and while
+Tom marks out a dyke or a drain as I have directed, one's fancy may be
+running its ain riggs in some other world."
+
+It was in the month following that I first saw Abbotsford. He invited
+my friend John Wilson (now Professor of Moral Philosophy at Edinburgh)
+and myself to visit him for a day or two on our return from an
+excursion to Mr. Wilson's beautiful villa on the Lake of Windermere,
+but named the particular day (October 8) on which it would be most
+convenient for him to receive us; and we discovered on our arrival
+that he had fixed it from a good-natured motive. We found him walking
+in one of his plantations, at no great distance from the house, with
+five or six young people, and his friends Lord Melville and Captain
+Ferguson. Having presented us to the First Lord of the Admiralty, he
+fell back a little and said, "I am glad you came to-day, for I thought
+it might be of use to you both, some time or other, to be known to my
+old schoolfellow here, who is, and I hope {p.275} will long continue
+to be, the great giver of good things in the Parliament House. I trust
+you have had enough of certain pranks with your friend Ebony, and if
+so, Lord Melville will have too much sense to remember them."[115] We
+then walked round the plantation, as yet in a very young state, and
+came back to the house by a formidable work which he was constructing
+for the defence of his _haugh_ against the wintry violences of the
+Tweed; and he discoursed for some time with keen interest upon the
+comparative merits of different methods of embankment, but stopped now
+and then to give us the advantage of any point of view in which his
+new building on the eminence above pleased his eye. It had a fantastic
+appearance--being but a fragment of the existing edifice--and not at
+all harmonizing in its outline with "Mother Retford's" original
+tenement to the eastward. Scott, however, expatiated _con amore_ on
+the rapidity with which, being chiefly of darkish granite, it was
+assuming a "time-honored" aspect. Ferguson, with a grave and
+respectful look, observed, "Yes, it really has much the air of some
+old fastness hard by the river Jordan." This allusion to the Chaldee
+MS., already quoted, in the manufacture of which Ferguson fancied
+Wilson and myself to have had a share, gave rise to a burst of
+laughter among Scott's merry young folks and their companions, while
+he himself drew in his nether lip, and rebuked the Captain with
+"Toots, Adam! toots, Adam!" He then returned to his embankment, and
+described how a former one had been entirely swept away in one night's
+flood. But the Captain was ready with another verse of the Chaldee
+MS., and groaned out, by way of echo, "Verily my fine gold hath
+perished!" Whereupon the "Great Magician" elevated his huge oaken
+staff as if to {p.276} lay it on the waggish soldier's back--but
+flourished it gayly over his own head, and laughed louder than the
+youngest of the company. As we walked and talked, the Pepper and
+Mustard terriers kept snuffing about among the bushes and heather near
+us, and started every five minutes a hare, which scudded away before
+them and the ponderous staghound Maida--the Sheriff and all his tail
+hollowing and cheering, in perfect confidence that the dogs could do
+no more harm to poor puss than the venerable tom-cat, Hinse of
+Hinsfeldt, who pursued the vain chase with the rest.
+
+              [Footnote 115: _Ebony_ was Mr. Blackwood's own usual
+              designation in the _jeux d'esprit_ of his young
+              Magazine, in many of which the persons thus addressed by
+              Scott were conjoint culprits. They both were then, as
+              may be inferred, sweeping the boards of the Parliament
+              House as "briefless barristers."]
+
+At length we drew near _Peterhouse_, and found sober Peter himself,
+and his brother-in-law, the facetious factotum Tom Purdie,
+superintending, pipe in mouth, three or four sturdy laborers busy in
+laying down the turf for a bowling-green. "I have planted hollies all
+round it, you see," said Scott, "and laid out an arbor on the
+right-hand side for the laird; and here I mean to have a game at bowls
+after dinner every day in fine weather--for I take that to have been
+among the indispensables of our old _vie de château_." But I must not
+forget the reason he gave me some time afterwards for having fixed on
+that spot for his bowling-green. "In truth," he then said, "I wished
+to have a smooth walk, and a canny seat for myself within ear-shot of
+Peter's evening psalm." The coachman was a devout Presbyterian, and
+many a time have I in after-years accompanied Scott on his evening
+stroll, when the principal object was to enjoy, from the
+bowling-green, the unfailing melody of this good man's family
+worship--and heard him repeat, as Peter's manly voice led the humble
+choir within, that beautiful stanza of Burns's Saturday Night:--
+
+  "They chaunt their artless notes in simple guise;
+   They tune their hearts, by far the noblest aim," etc.
+
+It was near the dinner-hour before we reached the house, and presently
+I saw assembled a larger company than I should have fancied to be at
+all compatible with {p.277} the existing accommodations of the place;
+but it turned out that Captain Ferguson, and the friends whom I have
+not as yet mentioned, were to find quarters elsewhere for the night.
+His younger brother, Captain John Ferguson of the Royal Navy (a
+favorite lieutenant of Lord Nelson's), had come over from Huntly Burn;
+there were present, also, Mr. Scott of Gala, whose residence is within
+an easy distance; Sir Henry Hay Macdougal of Mackerstoun, an old
+baronet, with gay, lively, and highly polished manners, related in the
+same degree to both Gala and the Sheriff; Sir Alexander Don, the
+member for Roxburghshire, whose elegant social qualities have been
+alluded to in the preceding chapter; and Dr. Scott of Darnlee, a
+modest and intelligent gentleman, who having realized a fortune in the
+East India Company's medical service, had settled within two or three
+miles of Abbotsford, and, though no longer practising his profession,
+had kindly employed all the resources of his skill in the endeavor to
+counteract his neighbor's recent liability to attacks of cramp. Our
+host and one or two others appeared, as was in those days a common
+fashion with country gentlemen, in the lieutenancy uniform of their
+county. How fourteen or fifteen people contrived to be seated in the
+then dining-room of Abbotsford I know not--for it seemed quite full
+enough when it contained only eight or ten; but so it was--nor, as Sir
+Harry Macdougal's fat valet, warned by former experience, did not join
+the train of attendants, was there any perceptible difficulty in the
+detail of the arrangements. Everything about the dinner was, as
+the phrase runs, in excellent style; and in particular the _potage
+à la Meg Merrilies_, announced as an attempt to imitate a device
+of the Duke of Buccleuch's celebrated cook,--by name Monsieur
+Florence,--seemed, to those at least who were better acquainted with
+the Kaim of Derncleugh than with the _cuisine_ of Bowhill,[116] a very
+laudable specimen of the art. {p.278} The champagne circulated
+nimbly--and I never was present at a gayer dinner. It had advanced a
+little beyond the soup when it received an accompaniment which would
+not, perhaps, have improved the satisfaction of southern guests, had
+any such been present. A tall and stalwart bagpiper, in complete
+Highland costume, appeared pacing to and fro on the green before the
+house, and the window being open, it seemed as if he might as well
+have been straining his lungs within the parlor. At a pause of his
+strenuous performance, Scott took occasion to explain that _John of
+Skye_ was a recent acquisition to the rising hamlet of Abbotstown;
+that the man was a capital hedger and ditcher, and only figured with
+the pipe and philabeg on high occasions in the after-part of the day;
+"but indeed," he added, laughing, "I fear John will soon be
+discovering that the hook and mattock are unfavorable to his chanter
+hand." When the cloth was drawn, and the never-failing salver of
+_quaighs_ introduced, John of Skye, upon some well-known signal,
+entered the room, but _en militaire_, without removing his bonnet, and
+taking his station behind the landlord, received from his hand the
+largest of the Celtic bickers brimful of Glenlivet. The man saluted
+the company in his own dialect, tipped off the contents (probably a
+quarter of an English pint of raw aqua vitæ) at a gulp, wheeled about
+as solemnly as if the whole ceremony had been a movement on parade,
+and forthwith recommenced his pibrochs and gatherings, which continued
+until long after the ladies had left the table, and the autumnal moon
+was streaming in upon us so brightly as to dim the candles.
+
+              [Footnote 116: I understand that this now celebrated
+              soup was _extemporized_ by M. Florence on Scott's first
+              visit to Bowhill after the publication of _Guy
+              Mannering_. Florence had _served_--and Scott having on
+              some sporting party made his personal acquaintance, he
+              used often afterwards to gratify the poet's military
+              propensities by sending up magnificent representations
+              in pastry, of citadels taken by the Emperor, etc.]
+
+I had never before seen Scott in such buoyant spirits as he showed
+this evening--and I never saw him in {p.279} higher afterwards; and
+no wonder, for this was the first time that he, Lord Melville, and
+Adam Ferguson, daily companions at the High School of Edinburgh, and
+partners in many joyous scenes of the early volunteer period, had met
+since the commencement of what I may call the serious part of any of
+their lives. The great poet and novelist was receiving them under his
+own roof, when his fame was at its _acme_, and his fortune seemed
+culminating to about a corresponding height--and the generous
+exuberance of his hilarity might have overflowed without moving the
+spleen of a Cynic. Old stories of _the Yards_ and _the Cross-causeway_
+were relieved by sketches of real warfare, such as none but Ferguson
+(or Charles Mathews, had he been a soldier) could ever have given; and
+they toasted the memory of _Green-breeks_ and the health of _the Beau_
+with equal devotion.
+
+When we rose from table, Scott proposed that we should all ascend his
+western turret, to enjoy a moonlight view of the valley. The younger
+part of his company were too happy to do so: some of the seniors, who
+had tried the thing before, found pretexts for hanging back. The
+stairs were dark, narrow, and steep; but the Sheriff piloted the way,
+and at length there were as many on the top as it could well afford
+footing for. Nothing could be more lovely than the panorama; all the
+harsher and more naked features being lost in the delicious moonlight;
+the Tweed and the Gala winding and sparkling beneath our feet; and the
+distant ruins of Melrose appearing, as if carved of alabaster, under
+the black mass of the Eildons. The poet, leaning on his battlement,
+seemed to hang over the beautiful vision as if he had never seen it
+before. "If I live," he exclaimed, "I will build me a higher tower,
+with a more spacious platform, and a staircase better fitted for an
+old fellow's scrambling." The piper was heard re-tuning his instrument
+below, and he called to him for Lochaber no More. John of Skye obeyed,
+and as the music rose, softened by {p.280} the distance, Scott
+repeated in a low key the melancholy words of the song of exile.
+
+On descending from the tower, the whole company were assembled in the
+new dining-room, which was still under the hands of the carpenters,
+but had been brilliantly illuminated for the occasion. Mr. Bruce took
+his station, and old and young danced reels to his melodious
+accompaniment until they were weary, while Scott and the Dominie
+looked on with gladsome faces, and beat time now and then, the one
+with his staff, the other with his wooden leg. A tray with mulled wine
+and whiskey punch was then introduced, and Lord Melville proposed a
+bumper, with all the honors, to the _Roof-tree_. Captain Ferguson
+having sung Johnnie Cope, called on the young ladies for Kenmure's On
+and Awa'; and our host then insisted that the whole party should join,
+standing in a circle hand-in-hand _more majorum_, in the hearty chorus
+of
+
+  "Weel may we a' be,
+   Ill may we never see,
+   God bless the king and the gude companie!"
+
+--which being duly performed, all dispersed. Such was _the handsel_
+(for Scott protested against its being considered as _the
+house-heating_) of the new Abbotsford.
+
+When I began this chapter, I thought it would be a short one, but it
+is surprising how, when one digs into his memory, the smallest details
+of a scene that was interesting at the time, shall by degrees come to
+light again. I now recall, as if I had seen and heard them yesterday,
+the looks and words of eighteen years ago. Awakening between six and
+seven next morning, I heard Scott's voice close to me, and looking out
+of the little latticed window of the then detached cottage called _the
+chapel_, saw him and Tom Purdie pacing together on the green before
+the door, in earnest deliberation over what seemed to be a rude daub
+of a drawing; and every time they approached my end of their parade, I
+was sure to {p.281} catch the words _Blue Bank_. It turned out in the
+course of the day, that a field of clay near Toftfield went by this
+name, and that the draining of it was one of the chief operations then
+in hand. My friend Wilson meanwhile, who lodged also in the chapel,
+tapped at my door, and asked me to rise and take a walk with him by
+the river, for he had some angling project in his head. He went out
+and joined in the consultation about the Blue Bank, while I was
+dressing; presently Scott hailed me at the casement, and said he had
+observed a volume of a new edition of Goethe on my table--would I lend
+it him for a little? He carried off the volume accordingly, and
+retreated with it to his den. It contained the Faust, and, I believe,
+in a more complete shape than he had before seen that masterpiece of
+his old favorite. When we met at breakfast, a couple of hours after,
+he was full of the poem--dwelt with enthusiasm on the airy beauty of
+its lyrics, the terrible pathos of the scene before the _Mater
+Dolorosa_, and the deep skill shown in the various subtle shadings of
+character between Mephistopheles and poor Margaret. He remarked,
+however, of the Introduction (which I suspect was new to him), that
+blood would out--that, consummate artist as he was, Goethe was a
+German, and that nobody but a German would ever have provoked a
+comparison with the Book of Job, "the grandest poem that ever was
+written." He added, that he suspected the end of the story had been
+left _in obscuro_, from despair to match the closing scene of our own
+Marlowe's Doctor Faustus. Mr. Wilson mentioned a report that Coleridge
+was engaged on a translation of the Faust. "I hope it is so," said
+Scott; "Coleridge made Schiller's Wallenstein far finer than he found
+it, and so he will do by this. No man has all the resources of poetry
+in such profusion, but he cannot manage them so as to bring out
+anything of his own on a large scale at all worthy of his genius. He
+is like a lump of coal rich with gas, which lies expending itself in
+puffs and {p.282} gleams, unless some shrewd body will clap it into a
+cast-iron box, and compel the compressed element to do itself justice.
+His fancy and diction would have long ago placed him above all his
+contemporaries, had they been under the direction of a sound judgment
+and a steady will.[117] I don't now expect a great original poem from
+Coleridge, but he might easily make a sort of fame for himself as a
+poetical translator,--that would be a thing completely unique and _sui
+generis_."
+
+              [Footnote 117: In the Introduction to _The Lay of the
+              Last Minstrel_, 1830, Sir Walter says: "Were I ever to
+              take the unbecoming freedom of censuring a man of Mr.
+              Coleridge's extraordinary talents, it would be on
+              account of the caprice and indolence with which he has
+              thrown from him, as in mere wantonness, those unfinished
+              scraps of poetry, which, like the Torso of antiquity,
+              defy the skill of his poetical brethren to complete
+              them. The charming fragments which the author abandons
+              to their fate are surely too valuable to be treated like
+              the proofs of careless engravers, the sweepings of whose
+              studios often make the fortune of some painstaking
+              collector." And in a note to _The Abbot_, alluding to
+              Coleridge's beautiful and tantalizing fragment of
+              _Christabel_, he adds: "Has not our own imaginative poet
+              cause to fear that future ages will desire to summon him
+              from his place of rest, as Milton longed
+
+                  'To call up him who left half told
+                   The story of Cambuscan bold'?"]
+
+While this criticism proceeded, Scott was cutting away at his brown
+loaf and a plate of kippered salmon, in a style which strongly
+reminded me of Dandie Dinmont's luncheon at Mump's Hall; nor was his
+German topic at all the predominant one. On the contrary, the
+sentences which have dwelt on my memory dropt from him now and then,
+in the pauses, as it were, of his main talk;--for though he could not
+help recurring, ever and anon, to the subject, it would have been
+quite out of his way to make any literary matter the chief theme of
+his conversation, when there was a single person present who was not
+likely to feel much interested in its discussion.--How often have I
+heard him quote on such occasions Mr. Vellum's advice to the butler in
+Addison's excellent play of The Drummer: "Your conjuror, John, is
+indeed a twofold personage--but he _eats and drinks like other
+people_!"
+
+{p.283} I may, however, take this opportunity of observing, that
+nothing could have been more absurdly unfounded than the statement
+which I have seen repeated in various sketches of his Life and
+Manners, that he habitually abstained from conversation on literary
+topics. In point of fact, there were no topics on which he talked more
+openly or more earnestly; but he, when in society, lived and talked
+for the persons with whom he found himself surrounded, and if he did
+not always choose to enlarge upon the subjects which his companions
+for the time suggested, it was simply because he thought or fancied
+that these had selected, out of deference or flattery, subjects about
+which they really cared little more than they knew. I have already
+repeated, over and again, my conviction that Scott considered
+literature, _per se_, as a thing of far inferior importance to the
+high concerns of political or practical life; but it would be too
+ridiculous to question that literature nevertheless engrossed, at all
+times and seasons, the greater part of his own interest and
+reflection: nor can it be doubted that his general preference of the
+society of men engaged in the active business of the world, rather
+than that of, so-called, literary people, was grounded substantially
+on his feeling that literature, worthy of the name, was more likely to
+be fed and nourished by the converse of the former than by that of the
+latter class.
+
+Before breakfast was over, the post-bag arrived, and its contents were
+so numerous, that Lord Melville asked Scott what election was on
+hand--not doubting that there must be some very particular reason for
+such a shoal of letters. He answered that it was much the same most
+days, and added, "though no one has kinder friends in the franking
+line, and though Freeling and Croker especially are always ready to
+stretch the point of privilege in my favor, I am nevertheless a fair
+contributor to the revenue, for I think my bill for letters seldom
+comes under £150 a year; and as to coach-parcels, they {p.284} are a
+perfect ruination." He then told with high merriment a disaster that
+had lately befallen him. "One morning last spring," he said, "I opened
+a huge lump of a despatch, without looking how it was addressed, never
+doubting that it had travelled under some omnipotent frank like the
+First Lord of the Admiralty's, when, lo and behold, the contents
+proved to be a MS. play, by a young lady of New York, who kindly
+requested me to read and correct it, equip it with prologue and
+epilogue, procure for it a favorable reception from the manager of
+Drury Lane, and make Murray or Constable bleed handsomely for the
+copyright; and on inspecting the cover, I found that I had been
+charged five pounds odd for the postage. This was bad enough--but
+there was no help, so I groaned and submitted. A fortnight or so
+after, another packet, of not less formidable bulk, arrived, and I was
+absent enough to break its seal, too, without examination. Conceive my
+horror when out jumped the same identical tragedy of The Cherokee
+Lovers, with a second epistle from the authoress, stating that, as the
+winds had been boisterous, she feared the vessel entrusted with her
+former communication might have foundered, and therefore judged it
+prudent to forward a duplicate."
+
+Scott said he must retire to answer his letters, but that the sociable
+and the ponies would be at the door by one o'clock, when he proposed
+to show Melrose and Dryburgh to Lady Melville and any of the rest of
+the party that chose to accompany them; adding that his son Walter
+would lead anybody who preferred a gun to the likeliest place for a
+blackcock, and that Charlie Purdie (Tom's brother) would attend upon
+Mr. Wilson, and whoever else chose to try a cast of the salmon-rod. He
+withdrew when all this was arranged, and appeared at the time
+appointed, with perhaps a dozen letters sealed for the post, and a
+coach-parcel addressed to James Ballantyne, which he dropt at the
+turnpike-gate as we drove to Melrose. Seeing it picked up by a dirty
+urchin, and carried {p.285} into a hedge pot-house, where
+half-a-dozen nondescript wayfarers were smoking and tippling, I could
+not but wonder that it had not been the fate of some one of those
+innumerable packets to fall into unscrupulous hands, and betray the
+grand secret. That very morning we had seen two post-chaises drawn up
+at his gate, and the enthusiastic travellers, seemingly decent
+tradesmen and their families, who must have been packed in a manner
+worthy of Mrs. Gilpin, lounging about to catch a glimpse of him at his
+going forth. But it was impossible in those days to pass between
+Melrose and Abbotsford without encountering some odd figure, armed
+with a sketch-book, evidently bent on a peep at the Great Unknown; and
+it must be allowed that many of these pedestrians looked as if they
+might have thought it very excusable to make prize, by hook or by
+crook, of a MS. chapter of the Tales of my Landlord.
+
+Scott showed us the ruins of Melrose in detail; and as we proceeded to
+Dryburgh, descanted learnedly and sagaciously on the good effects
+which must have attended the erection of so many great monastic
+establishments in a district so peculiarly exposed to the inroads of
+the English in the days of the Border wars. "They were now and then
+violated," he said, "as their aspect to this hour bears witness; but
+for once that they suffered, any lay property similarly situated must
+have been _harried_ a dozen times. The bold Dacres, Liddells, and
+Howards, that could get easy absolution at York or Durham for any
+ordinary breach of a truce with the Scots, would have had _to dree a
+heavy dole_ had they confessed plundering from the fat brothers, of
+the same order perhaps, whose lines had fallen to them on the wrong
+side of the Cheviot." He enlarged, too, on the heavy penalty which the
+Crown of Scotland had paid for its rash acquiescence in the wholesale
+robbery of the Church at the Reformation. "The proportion of the soil
+in the hands of the clergy had," he said, "been very great--too great
+to be {p.286} continued. If we may judge by their share in the public
+burdens, they must have had nearly a third of the land in their
+possession. But this vast wealth was now distributed among a turbulent
+nobility, too powerful before; and the Stuarts soon found, that in the
+bishops and lord abbots they had lost the only means of balancing
+their factions, so as to turn the scale in favor of law and order; and
+by and by the haughty barons themselves, who had scrambled for the
+worldly spoil of the church, found that the spiritual influence had
+been concentrated in hands as haughty as their own, and connected with
+no feelings likely to buttress their order any more than the Crown--a
+new and sterner monkery, under a different name, and essentially
+plebeian. Presently the Scotch were on the verge of republicanism, in
+state as well as kirk, and I have sometimes thought it was only the
+accession of King Jamie to the throne of England that could have given
+monarchy a chance of prolonging its existence here." One of his
+friends asked what he supposed might have been the annual revenue of
+the abbey of Melrose in its best day. He answered that he suspected,
+if all the sources of their income were now in clever hands, the
+produce could hardly be under £100,000 a year; and added: "Making
+every allowance for modern improvements, there can be no question that
+the sixty brothers of Melrose divided a princely rental. The superiors
+were often men of very high birth, and the great majority of the rest
+were younger brothers of gentlemen's families. I fancy they may have
+been, on the whole, pretty near akin to your Fellows of All
+Souls--who, according to their statute, must be _bene nati, bene
+vestiti, et mediocriter docti_. They had a good house in Edinburgh,
+where, no doubt, my lord abbot and his chaplains maintained a
+hospitable table during the sittings of Parliament." Some one
+regretted that we had no lively picture of the enormous revolution in
+manners that must have followed the downfall of the ancient Church in
+{p.287} Scotland. He observed that there were, he fancied, materials
+enough for constructing such a one, but that they were mostly
+scattered in records--"of which," said he, "who knows anything to the
+purpose except Tom Thomson and John Riddell? It is common to laugh at
+such researches, but they pay the good brains that meddle with
+them;--and had Thomson been as diligent in setting down his
+discoveries as he has been in making them, he might, long before this
+time of day, have placed himself on a level with Ducange or Camden.
+The change in the country-side," he continued, "must indeed have been
+terrific; but it does not seem to have been felt very severely by a
+certain Boniface of St. Andrews, for when somebody asked him, on the
+subsidence of the storm, what he thought of all that had
+occurred,--'Why,' answered mine host, 'it comes to this, that the
+moder_au_tor sits in my meikle chair, where the dean sat before, and
+in place of calling for the third stoup of Bordeaux, bids Jenny bring
+ben anither bowl of toddy.'"
+
+At Dryburgh, Scott pointed out to us the sepulchral aisle of his
+Haliburton ancestors, and said he hoped, in God's appointed time, to
+lay his bones among their dust. The spot was, even then, a
+sufficiently interesting and impressive one; but I shall not say more
+of it at present.
+
+On returning to Abbotsford, we found Mrs. Scott and her daughters
+doing penance under the merciless curiosity of a couple of tourists
+who had arrived from Selkirk soon after we set out for Melrose. They
+were rich specimens--tall, lanky young men, both of them rigged out in
+new jackets and trousers of the Macgregor tartan; the one, as they had
+revealed, being a lawyer, the other a Unitarian preacher, from New
+England. These gentlemen, when told on their arrival that Mr. Scott
+was not at home, had shown such signs of impatience, that the servant
+took it for granted they must have serious business, and asked if they
+would wish to speak a word with his {p.288} lady. They grasped at
+this, and so conducted themselves in the interview, that Mrs. Scott
+never doubted they had brought letters of introduction to her husband,
+and invited them accordingly to partake of her luncheon. They had been
+walking about the house and grounds with her and her daughters ever
+since that time, and appeared at the porch, when the Sheriff and his
+party returned to dinner, as if they had been already fairly enrolled
+on his visiting list. For the moment, he too was taken in--he fancied
+that his wife must have received and opened their credentials--and
+shook hands with them with courteous cordiality. But Mrs. Scott, with
+all her overflowing good-nature, was a sharp observer; and she, before
+a minute had elapsed, interrupted the ecstatic compliments of the
+strangers, by reminding them that her husband would be glad to have
+the letters of the friends who had been so good as to write by them.
+It then turned out that there were no letters to be produced--and
+Scott, signifying that his hour for dinner approached, added, that as
+he supposed they meant to walk to Melrose, he could not trespass
+further on their time. The two lion-hunters seemed quite unprepared
+for this abrupt escape. But there was about Scott, in perfection, when
+he chose to exert it, the power of civil repulsion; he bowed the
+overwhelmed originals to his door, and on reëntering the parlor, found
+Mrs. Scott complaining very indignantly that they had gone so far as
+to pull out their note-book, and beg an exact account, not only of his
+age--but of her own. Scott, already half relenting, laughed heartily
+at this misery. He observed, however, that, "if he were to take in all
+the world, he had better put up a sign-post at once,--
+
+  'Porter, ale, and British spirits,
+   Painted bright between twa trees;'[118]
+
+and that no traveller of respectability could ever be at a loss for
+such an introduction as would insure his best {p.289} hospitality."
+Still he was not quite pleased with what had happened--and as we were
+about to pass, half an hour afterwards, from the drawing-room to the
+dining-room, he said to his wife, "Hang the Yahoos, Charlotte--but we
+should have bid them stay dinner." "Devil a bit," quoth Captain John
+Ferguson, who had again come over from Huntly Burn, and had been
+latterly assisting the lady to amuse her Americans, "Devil a bit, my
+dear,--they were quite in a mistake, I could see. The one asked Madame
+whether she deigned to call her new house Tully-Veolan or
+Tillietudlem; and the other, when Maida happened to lay his nose
+against the window, exclaimed _pro-di-gi-ous_! In short, they
+evidently meant all their humbug not for you, but for the culprit of
+Waverley, and the rest of that there rubbish." "Well, well, Skipper,"
+was the reply, "for a' that, the loons would hae been nane the waur o'
+their kail."
+
+              [Footnote 118: Macneill's _Will and Jean_.]
+
+From this banter it may be inferred that the younger Ferguson had not
+as yet been told the Waverley secret--which to any of that house could
+never have been any mystery. Probably this, or some similar occasion
+soon afterwards, led to his formal initiation; for during the many
+subsequent years that the veil was kept on, I used to admire the tact
+with which, when in their topmost high-jinks humor, both "Captain
+John" and "The Auld Captain" eschewed any the most distant allusion to
+the affair.
+
+And this reminds me, that at the period of which I am writing, none of
+Scott's own family, except of course his wife, had the advantage in
+that matter of the Skipper. Some of them, too, were apt, like him, so
+long as no regular confidence had been reposed in them, to avail
+themselves of the author's reserve for their own sport among friends.
+Thus one morning, just as Scott was opening the door of the parlor,
+the rest of the party being already seated at the breakfast-table, the
+Dominie was in the act of helping himself to an egg, marked with
+{p.290} a peculiar hieroglyphic by Mrs. Thomas Purdie, upon which
+Anne Scott, then a lively rattling girl of sixteen, lisped out,
+"That's a mysterious-looking egg, Mr. Thomson--what if it should have
+been meant for _the Great Unknown_?" Ere the Dominie could reply, her
+father advanced to the foot of the table, and having seated himself
+and deposited his stick on the carpet beside him, with a sort of
+whispered whistle--"What's that Lady Anne's[119] saying?" quoth he; "I
+thought it had been well known that the _keelavined_ egg must be a
+soft one for _the Sherra_." And so he took his egg, and while all
+smiled in silence, poor Anne said gayly, in the midst of her blushes,
+"Upon my word, papa, I thought Mr. John Ballantyne might have been
+expected." This allusion to Johnny's glory in being considered as the
+accredited representative of Jedediah Cleishbotham produced a
+laugh,--at which the Sheriff frowned--and then laughed too.
+
+              [Footnote 119: When playing, in childhood, with the
+              young ladies of the Buccleuch family, she had been
+              overheard saying to her namesake Lady Anne Scott, "Well,
+              I do wish I were Lady Anne too--it is so much prettier
+              than Miss;" thenceforth she was commonly addressed in
+              the family by the coveted title.]
+
+I remember nothing particular about our second day's dinner, except
+that it was then I first met my dear and honored friend William
+Laidlaw. The evening passed rather more quietly than the preceding
+one. Instead of the dance in the new dining-room, we had a succession
+of old ballads sung to the harp and guitar by the young ladies of the
+house; and Scott, when they seemed to have done enough, found some
+reason for taking down a volume of Crabbe, and read us one of his
+favorite tales,--
+
+  "Grave Jonas Kindred, Sibyl Kindred's sire,
+   Was six feet high, and looked six inches higher," etc.
+
+But jollity revived in full vigor when the supper-tray was introduced;
+and to cap all merriment, Captain Ferguson dismissed us with The Laird
+of Cockpen. Lord and Lady Melville were to return to Melville Castle
+next {p.291} morning, and Mr. Wilson and I happened to mention that
+we were engaged to dine and sleep at the seat of my friend and
+relation, Mr. Pringle of Torwoodlee, on our way to Edinburgh. Scott
+immediately said that he would send word in the morning to the Laird,
+that he and Adam Ferguson meant to accompany us--such being the
+unceremonious style in which country neighbors in Scotland visit each
+other. Next day, accordingly, we all rode over together to Mr.
+Pringle's beautiful seat--the "distant Torwoodlee" of The Lay of the
+Last Minstrel, but distant not above five or six miles from
+Abbotsford--coursing hares as we proceeded, but inspecting the
+antiquities of the _Catrail_ to the interruption of our sport. We had
+another joyous evening at Torwoodlee. Scott and Ferguson returned home
+at night, and the morning after, as Wilson and I mounted for
+Edinburgh, our kind old host, his sides still sore with laughter,
+remarked that "the Sheriff and the Captain together were too much for
+any company."
+
+There was much talk between the Sheriff and Mr. Pringle about the
+Selkirkshire Yeomanry Cavalry, of which the latter had been the
+original commandant. Young Walter Scott had been for a year or more
+Cornet in the corps, and his father was consulting Torwoodlee about an
+entertainment which he meant to give them on his son's approaching
+birthday. It was then that the new dining-room was to be first
+_heated_ in good earnest; and Scott very kindly pressed Wilson and
+myself, at parting, to return for the occasion--which, however, we
+found it impossible to do. The reader must therefore be satisfied with
+what is said about it in one of the following letters:--
+
+     TO J. B. S. MORRITT, ESQ., M. P., ROKEBY.
+
+                                        ABBOTSFORD, 5th November, 1818.
+
+     MY DEAR MORRITT,--Many thanks for your kind letter of 29th
+     October. The matter of the colts being as {p.292} you
+     state, I shall let it lie over until next year, and then
+     avail myself of your being in the neighborhood to get a good
+     pair of four-year-olds, since it would be unnecessary to buy
+     them a year younger, and incur all the risks of disease and
+     accident, unless they could have been had at a proportional
+     under-value.
+
+     * * * * * * leaves us this morning after a visit of about a
+     week. He improves on acquaintance, and especially seems so
+     pleased with everything, that it would be very hard to
+     quarrel with him. Certainly, as the Frenchman said, _il a un
+     grand talent pour le silence_. I take the opportunity of his
+     servant going direct to Rokeby to charge him with this
+     letter, and a plaid which my daughters entreat you to accept
+     of as a token of their _warm_ good wishes. Seriously you
+     will find it a good bosom friend in an easterly wind, a
+     black frost, or when your country avocations lead you to
+     face a _dry wap of snow_. I find it by far the lightest and
+     most comfortable integument which I can use upon such
+     occasions.
+
+     We had a grand jollification here last week;--the whole
+     troop of Forest Yeomanry dining with us. I assure you the
+     scene was gay and even grand, with glittering sabres, waving
+     standards, and screaming bagpipes; and that it might not
+     lack spectators of taste, who should arrive in the midst of
+     the hurricane, but Lord and Lady Compton, whose presence
+     gave a great zest to the whole affair. Everything went off
+     very well, and as cavalry have the great advantage over
+     infantry, that their _legs_ never get drunk, they retired in
+     decent disorder about ten o'clock. I was glad to see Lord
+     and Lady Compton so very comfortable, and surrounded with so
+     fine a family, the natural bond of mutual regard and
+     affection. She has got very jolly, but otherwise has
+     improved on her travels. I had a long chat with her, and was
+     happy to find her quite contented and pleased with the lot
+     she has drawn in life. It is a brilliant one in many
+     respects, to be sure; but still I have seen the story of the
+     poor {p.293} woman, who, after all rational subjects of
+     distress had been successively remedied, tormented herself
+     about the screaming of a neighbor's peacock--I say, I have
+     seen this so often realized in actual life, that I am more
+     afraid of my friends making themselves uncomfortable, who
+     have only imaginary evils to indulge, than I am for the
+     peace of those who, battling magnanimously with real
+     inconvenience and danger, find a remedy in the very force of
+     the exertions to which their lot compels them.
+
+     I sympathize with you for the _dole_ which you are _dreeing_
+     under the inflictions of your honest proser. Of all the
+     boring machines ever devised, your regular and determined
+     story-teller is the most peremptory and powerful in his
+     operations. This is a rainy day, and my present infliction
+     is an idle cousin, a great amateur of the pipes, who is
+     performing incessantly in the next room for the benefit of a
+     probationary minstrel, whose pipes scream _à la distance_,
+     as the young hoarse cock-chicken imitates the gallant and
+     triumphant screech of a veteran Sir Chanticleer. Yours
+     affectionately,
+
+                                        W. SCOTT.
+
+
+
+
+{p.295} APPENDIX
+
+
+THE DURHAM GARLAND
+
+IN THREE PARTS
+
+[The following is the _Garland_ referred to at pages 4 and 26, in
+connection with the novel of Guy Mannering. The ballad was taken down
+from the recitation of Mrs. Young of Castle-Douglas, who, as her
+family informed Mr. Train, had long been in the habit of repeating it
+over to them once in the year, in order that it might not escape from
+her memory.]
+
+
+PART I
+
+    1
+
+    A worthy Lord of birth and state,
+    Who did in Durham live of late--
+    But I will not declare his name,
+    By reason of his birth and fame.
+
+    2
+
+    This Lord he did a-hunting go;
+    If you the truth of all would know,
+    He had indeed a noble train,
+    Of Lords and Knights and Gentlemen.
+
+    3
+
+    This noble Lord he left the train
+    Of Lords and Knights and Gentlemen;
+    And hearing not the horn to blow,
+    He could not tell which way to go.
+
+    4
+
+    But he did wander to and fro,
+    Being weary, likewise full of woe:
+    At last Dame Fortune was so kind
+    That he the Keeper's house did find.
+
+    {p.296} 5
+
+    He went and knocked at the door,
+    He thought it was so late an hour.
+    The Forester did let him in,
+    And kindly entertained him.
+
+    6
+
+    About the middle of the night,
+    When as the stars did shine most bright,
+    This Lord was in a sad surprise,
+    Being wakened by a fearful noise.
+
+    7
+
+    Then he did rise and call with speed,
+    To know the reason then indeed,
+    Of all that shrieking and those cries
+    Which did disturb his weary eyes.
+
+    8
+
+    "I'm sorry, Sir," the Keeper said,
+    "That you should be so much afraid;
+    But I do hope all will be well,
+    For my wife she is in travail."
+
+    9
+
+    The noble Lord was learned and wise,
+    To know the Planets in the skies.
+    He saw one evil Planet reign,
+    He called the Forester again.
+
+    10
+
+    He gave him then to understand,
+    He'd have the Midwife hold her hand;
+    But he was answered by the maid,
+    "My Mistress is delivered."
+
+    11
+
+    At one o'clock that very morn,
+    A lovely infant there was born;
+    It was indeed a charming boy,
+    Which brought the man and wife much joy.
+
+    12
+
+    The Lord was generous, kind, and free,
+    And proffered Godfather to be;
+    The Goodman thanked him heartily
+    For his goodwill and courtesy.
+
+    {p.297} 13
+
+    A parson was sent for with speed,
+    For to baptize the child indeed;
+    And after that, as I heard say,
+    In mirth and joy they spent the day.
+
+    14
+
+    This Lord did noble presents give,
+    Which all the servants did receive.
+    They prayed God to enrich his store,
+    For they never had so much before.
+
+    15
+
+    And likewise to the child he gave
+    A present noble, rich, and brave;
+    It was a charming cabinet,
+    That was with pearls and jewels set.
+
+    16
+
+    And within it was a chain of gold,
+    Would dazzle eyes for to behold;
+    A richer gift, as I may say,
+    Was not beheld this many a day.
+
+    17
+
+    He charged his father faithfully,
+    That he himself would keep the key,
+    Until the child could write and read--
+    And then to give him it indeed;--
+
+    18
+
+    "Pray do not open it at all
+    Whatever should on you befall;
+    For it may do my godson good,
+    If it be rightly understood."
+
+    19
+
+    This Lord did not declare his name,
+    Nor yet the place from whence he came,
+    But secretly he did depart,
+    And left them grieved to the heart.
+
+
+PART II
+
+    1
+
+    The second part I now unfold,
+    As true a story as e'er was told,
+    {p.298} Concerning of a lovely child,
+    Who was obedient, sweet, and mild.
+
+    2
+
+    This child did take his learning so,
+    If you the truth of all would know,
+    At eleven years of age indeed,
+    Both Greek and Latin he could read.
+
+    3
+
+    Then thinking of his cabinet,
+    That was with pearls and jewels set,
+    He asked his father for the key,
+    Which he gave him right speedily;
+
+    4
+
+    And when he did the same unlock,
+    He was with great amazement struck
+    When he the riches did behold,
+    And likewise saw the chain of gold.
+
+    5
+
+    But searching farther he did find
+    A paper which disturbed his mind,
+    That was within the cabinet,
+    In Greek and Latin it was writ.
+
+    6
+
+    _My child, serve God that is on high,
+    And pray to him incessantly;
+    Obey your parents, love your king,
+    That nothing may your conscience sting._
+
+    7
+
+    _At seven years hence your fate will be,
+    You must be hanged upon a tree;
+    Then pray to God both night and day,
+    To let that hour pass away._
+
+    8
+
+    When he these woeful lines did read,
+    He with a sigh did say indeed,
+    "If hanging be my destiny,
+    My parents shall not see me die;
+
+    9
+
+    "For I will wander to and fro,
+    I'll go where I no one do know;
+    But first I'll ask my parents' leave,
+    In hopes their blessing to receive."
+
+    {p.299} 10
+
+    Then locking up his cabinet,
+    He went from his own chamber straight
+    Unto his only parents dear,
+    Beseeching them with many a tear
+
+    11
+
+    That they would grant what he would have--
+    "But first your blessing I do crave,
+    And beg you'll let me go away,
+    'T will do me good another day."
+
+    12
+
+    *  *  *  *  *
+    *  *  *  *  *
+    "And if I live I will return,
+    When seven years are past and gone."
+
+    13
+
+    Both man and wife did then reply,
+    "I fear, my son, that we shall die;
+    If we should yield to let you go,
+    Our aged hearts would break with woe."
+
+    14
+
+    But he entreated eagerly,
+    While they were forced to comply,
+    And give consent to let him go,
+    But where, alas! they did not know.
+
+    15
+
+    In the third part you soon shall find,
+    That fortune was to him most kind,
+    And after many dangers past,
+    He came to Durham at the last.
+
+
+PART III
+
+  1
+
+  He went by chance, as I heard say,
+  To that same house that very day
+  In which his Godfather did dwell;
+  But mind what luck to him befell--
+
+  2
+
+  This child did crave a service there,
+  On which came out his Godfather,
+  {p.300} And seeing him a pretty youth,
+  He took him for his Page in truth.
+
+  3
+
+  Then in this place he pleased so well,
+  That 'bove the rest he bore the bell;
+  This child so well the Lord did please,
+  He raised him higher by degrees.
+
+  4
+
+  He made him Butler sure indeed,
+  And then his Steward with all speed,
+  Which made the other servants spite,
+  And envy him both day and night.
+
+  5
+
+  He was never false unto his trust,
+  But proved ever true and just;
+  And to the Lord did hourly pray
+  To guide him still both night and day.
+
+  6
+
+  In this place, plainly it appears,
+  He lived the space of seven years;
+  His parents then he thought upon,
+  And of his promise to return.
+
+  7
+
+  Then humbly of his Lord did crave,
+  That he his free consent might have
+  To go and see his parents dear,
+  He had not seen this many a year.
+
+  8
+
+  Then having leave, away he went,
+  Not dreaming of the false intent
+  That was contrived against him then
+  By wicked, false, deceitful men.
+
+  9
+
+  They had in his portmanteau put
+  This noble Lord's fine golden cup;
+  That when the Lord at dinner was,
+  The cup was missed as come to pass.
+
+  10
+
+  "Where can it be?" this Lord did say,
+  "We had it here but yesterday."
+  {p.301} The Butler then replied with speed,
+  "If you will hear the truth indeed.
+
+  11
+
+  "Your darling Steward which is gone,
+  With feathered nest away is flown;
+  I'll warrant you he has that, and more
+  That doth belong unto your store."
+
+  12
+
+  "No," says this Lord, "that cannot be,
+  For I have tried his honesty;"
+  "Then," said the Cook, "my Lord, I die
+  Upon a tree full ten feet high."
+
+  13
+
+  Then hearing what these men did say,
+  He sent a messenger that day,
+  To take him with a hue and cry,
+  And bring him back immediately.
+
+  14
+
+  They searched his portmanteau with speed,
+  In which they found the cup indeed;
+  Then was he struck with sad surprise,
+  He could not well believe his eyes.
+
+  15
+
+  The assizes then were drawing nigh,
+  And he was tried and doomed to die;
+  And his injured innocence
+  Could nothing say in his defense.
+
+  16
+
+  But going to the Gallows tree,
+  On which he thought to hanged be
+  He clapped his hands upon his breast,
+  And thus in tears these words exprest:--
+
+  17
+
+  "Blind Fortune will be Fortune still,
+  I see, let man do what he will;
+  For though this day I needs must die,
+  I am not guilty--no, not I."
+
+  18
+
+  This noble Lord was in amaze,
+  He stood and did with wonder gaze;
+  {p.302} Then he spoke out with words so mild,--
+  "What mean you by that saying, Child?"
+
+  19
+
+  "Will that your Lordship," then said he,
+  "Grant one day's full reprieve for me,
+  A dismal story I'll relate,
+  Concerning of my wretched fate."
+
+  20
+
+  "Speak up, my Child," this Lord did say,
+  "I say you shall not die this day--
+  And if I find you innocent,
+  I'll crown your days with sweet content."
+
+  21
+
+  He told him all his dangers past,
+  He had gone through from first to last,
+  He fetched the chain and cabinet,
+  Likewise the paper that was writ.
+
+  22
+
+  When that this noble Lord did see,
+  He ran to him most eagerly,
+  And in his arms did him embrace,
+  Repeating of those words in haste.--
+
+  23
+
+  "My Child, my Child, how blessed am I
+  Thou art innocent, and shalt not die;
+  For I'm indeed thy Godfather,
+  And thou wast born in fair Yorkshire.
+
+  24
+
+  "I have indeed one daughter dear,
+  Which is indeed my only heir;
+  And I will give her unto thee,
+  And crown you with felicity."
+
+  25
+
+  So then the Butler and the Cook
+  ('Twas them that stole the golden cup)
+  Confessed their faults immediately,
+  And for it died deservedly.
+
+  26
+
+  This goodly youth, as I do hear,
+  Thus raised, sent for his parents dear,
+  Who did rejoice their Child to see--
+  And so I end my Tragedy.
+
+
+
+
+{p.303} NARRATIVE OF THE LIFE OF JAMES ANNESLEY.
+
+(See NOTE, p. 26.)
+
+
+"Lord and Lady Altham, of Dunmain, in the county of Wexford, had been
+for many years married and childless, when, in the year 1715, their
+warmest hopes and wishes were realized by the birth of an heir to
+their estates and title. On that joyful evening the hospitality of the
+house of Dunmain was claimed by a young gentleman travelling from
+Dublin, named 'Master Richard Fitzgerald,' who joined Lord Altham and
+his household in drinking the healths of the 'lady in the straw,' and
+the long expected heir, in the customary groaning drink. It does not
+appear that Master Fitzgerald was learned in astrology, or practised
+any branch of the 'Black art,' or that he used any spell with
+reference to the infant more potent than these hearty libations and
+sincere good wishes for his future prosperity. Next day, before
+leaving the hospitable mansion, the little hero of this tale was
+presented to the stranger, who 'kissed him, and gave the nurse
+half-a-guinea.'
+
+"Of Fitzgerald we have only to add, that he entered the army and
+became a distinguished officer in the service of the queen of Hungary,
+and that twenty-eight years afterwards he returned to Ireland to
+assist in recovering for his former infantile friend the estates and
+titles of his ancestors, which had been for many years iniquitously
+withheld from him.
+
+"Lord and Lady Altham lived unhappily together, and a separation took
+place soon after the birth of their son. Her Ladyship, shamefully
+neglected by her husband, resided in England during the remainder of
+her life, and from disease and poverty was reduced to a state of
+extreme imbecility both of body and mind.
+
+"James Annesley, the infant son of this unhappy mother, was entrusted,
+by Lord Altham, to the charge of a woman of indifferent character,
+named Joan or Juggy Landy. Juggy was a dependent of the family, and
+lived in a cabin on the estate, about a quarter of a mile from the
+house of Dunmain. This hut is described as a 'despicable place,
+without any furniture except a pot, two or three trenchers, a couple
+of straw {p.304} beds on the floor,' and 'with only a bush to draw in
+and out for a door.' Thus humbly and inauspiciously was the boy reared
+under the care of a nurse, who, however unfortunate or guilty, appears
+to have lavished upon her young charge the most affectionate
+attention. From some unexplained cause, however, Juggy Landy incurred
+the displeasure of Lord Altham, who took the boy from her, and ordered
+his groom to 'horsewhip her,' and 'to set the dogs upon her,' when she
+persisted in hovering about the premises to obtain a sight of her
+former charge.
+
+"Lord Altham now removed with his son to Dublin where he appears to
+have entered upon a career of the most dissipated and profligate
+conduct. We find him reduced to extreme pecuniary embarrassment, and
+his property became a prey to low and abandoned associates; one of
+whom, a Miss Kennedy, he ultimately endeavored to introduce to society
+as his wife. This worthless woman must have obtained great ascendancy
+over his Lordship, as she was enabled to drive James Annesley from his
+father's protection, and the poor boy became a houseless vagabond,
+wandering about the streets of Dublin, and procuring a scanty and
+precarious subsistence 'by running of errands and holding gentlemen's
+horses.'
+
+"Meantime Lord Altham's pecuniary difficulties had so increased as to
+induce him to endeavor to borrow money on his reversionary interest in
+the estates of the Earl of Anglesey, to whom he was heir-at-law. In
+this scheme he was joined by his brother Captain Annesley, and they
+jointly succeeded in procuring several small sums of money. But as
+James Annesley would have proved an important legal impediment to
+these transactions, he was represented to some parties to be dead; and
+where his existence could not be denied, he was asserted to be the
+natural son of his Lordship and of Juggy Landy.
+
+"Lord Altham died in the year 1727, 'so miserably poor that he was
+actually buried at the public expense.' His brother Captain Annesley
+attended the funeral as chief mourner, and assumed the title of Baron
+Altham, but when he claimed to have this title registered he was
+refused by the king-at-arms, 'on account of his nephew being reported
+still alive, and for want of the honorary fees.' Ultimately, however,
+by means {p.305} which are stated to have been 'well known and
+obvious,' he succeeded in procuring his registration.
+
+"But there was another and a more sincere mourner at the funeral of
+Lord Altham than the successful inheritor of his title: a poor boy of
+twelve years of age, half naked, bareheaded and barefooted, and
+wearing, as the most important part of his dress, an old yellow livery
+waistcoat,[120] followed at a humble distance, and wept over his
+father's grave. Young Annesley was speedily recognized by his uncle,
+who forcibly drove him from the place, but not before the boy had made
+himself known to several old servants of his father, who were
+attending the corpse of their late lord to the tomb.
+
+              [Footnote 120: _Vide_ "Green-breeks" in the General
+              Introduction to the _Waverley Novels_. Surely _Yellow
+              Waistcoat_ was his prototype.]
+
+"The usurper now commenced a series of attempts to obtain possession
+of his nephew's person, for the purpose of transporting him beyond
+seas, or otherwise ridding himself of so formidable a rival. For some
+time, however, these endeavors were frustrated, principally through
+the gallantry of a brave and kind-hearted butcher, named Purcel, who,
+having compassion upon the boy's destitute state, took him into his
+house and hospitably maintained him for a considerable time; and on
+one occasion, when he was assailed by a numerous party of his uncle's
+emissaries, Purcel placed the boy between his legs, and stoutly
+defending him with his cudgel, resisted their utmost efforts, and
+succeeded in rescuing his young charge.
+
+"After having escaped from many attempts of the same kind, Annesley
+was at length kidnapped in the streets of Dublin, dragged by his uncle
+and a party of hired ruffians to a boat, and carried on board a vessel
+in the river, which immediately sailed with our hero for America,
+where, on his arrival, he was apprenticed as a plantation slave, and
+in this condition he remained for the succeeding thirteen years.
+
+"During his absence his uncle, on the demise of the Earl of Anglesey,
+quietly succeeded to that title and immense wealth.
+
+"While forcibly detained in the plantations, Annesley suffered many
+severe hardships and privations, particularly in his frequent
+unsuccessful attempts to escape. Among other incidents which befell
+him, he incurred the deadly hatred of one master, in consequence of a
+suspected intrigue with his wife--a {p.306} charge from which he was
+afterwards honorably acquitted. The daughter of a second master became
+affectionately attached to him; but it does not appear that this
+regard was reciprocal. And finally, in effecting his escape, he fell
+into the hands of some hostile negroes, who stabbed him severely in
+various places; from the effects of which cruelty he did not recover
+for several months.
+
+"At the end of thirteen years, Annesley, who had now attained the age
+of twenty-five, succeeded in reaching Jamaica in a merchant vessel,
+and he immediately volunteered himself as a private sailor on board a
+man-of-war. Here he was at once identified by several officers; and
+Admiral Vernon, who was then in command of the British West India
+fleet, wrote home an account of the case to the Duke of Newcastle (the
+Premier), and, 'in the mean time, supplied him with clothes and money,
+and treated him with the respect and attention which his rank
+demanded.'
+
+"The Earl of Anglesey no sooner heard of these transactions on board
+the fleet, than he used every effort to keep possession of his usurped
+title and property, and 'the most eminent lawyers within the English
+and Irish bars were retained to defend a cause, the prosecution of
+which was not as yet even threatened.'
+
+"On Annesley's arrival in Dublin, 'several servants who had lived with
+his father came from the country to see him. They knew him at first
+sight, and some of them fell on their knees to thank heaven for his
+preservation,--embraced his legs, and shed tears of joy for his
+return.'
+
+"Lord Anglesey became so much alarmed at the probable result of the
+now threatened trial, that he expressed his intention to make a
+compromise with the claimant, renounce the title, and retire into
+France; and with this view he commenced learning the French language.
+But this resolution was given up, in consequence of an occurrence
+which encouraged the flattering hope that his opponent would be
+speedily and most effectually disposed of.
+
+"After his arrival in England, Annesley unfortunately occasioned the
+death of a man by the accidental discharge of a fowling-piece which he
+was in the act of carrying. Though there could not exist a doubt of
+his innocence from all intention {p.307} of such a deed, the
+circumstance offered too good a chance to be lost sight of by his
+uncle, who employed an attorney named Gifford, and with his assistance
+used every effort at the coroner's inquest, and the subsequent trial,
+to bring about a verdict of murder. In this, however, he did not
+succeed, although 'he practised all the unfair means that could be
+invented to procure the removal of the prisoner to Newgate from the
+healthy gaol to which he had been at first committed;' and 'the Earl
+even appeared in person on the bench, endeavoring to intimidate and
+browbeat the witnesses, and to inveigle the prisoner into destructive
+confessions.' Annesley was honorably acquitted, after his uncle had
+expended nearly one thousand pounds on the prosecution.
+
+"The trial between James Annesley, Esq., and Richard, Earl of
+Anglesey, before the Right Honorable the Lord Chief Justice and other
+Barons of the Exchequer, commenced on the 11th November, 1743, and was
+continued for thirteen days. The defendant's counsel examined an
+immense number of witnesses in an attempt to prove that Annesley was
+the illegitimate son of the late Baron Altham. The Jury found for the
+plaintiff; but it did not prove sufficient to recover his title and
+estates: for his uncle 'had recourse to every device the law allowed,
+and his powerful interest procured a writ of error which set aside the
+verdict.' Before another trial could be brought about, Annesley died
+without male issue, and Lord Anglesey consequently remained in
+undisturbed possession.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+"It is presumed that the points of resemblance between the leading
+incidents in the life of this unfortunate young nobleman and the
+adventures of Henry Bertram in Guy Mannering, are so evident as to
+require neither comment nor enumeration to make them apparent to the
+most cursory reader of the Novel. The addition of a very few other
+circumstances will, it is believed, amount to a proof of the identity
+of the two stories.
+
+
+
+
+END OF VOLUME FIVE
+
+
+
+***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE OF SIR WALTER
+SCOTT, VOLUME V (OF 10)***
+
+
+******* This file should be named 24498-8.txt or 24498-8.zip *******
+
+
+This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:
+http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/2/4/4/9/24498
+
+
+
+Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions
+will be renamed.
+
+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.  Special rules,
+set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to
+copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to
+protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark.  Project
+Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you
+charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission.  If you
+do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the
+rules is very easy.  You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose
+such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and
+research.  They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do
+practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks.  Redistribution is
+subject to the trademark license, especially commercial
+redistribution.
+
+
+
+*** START: FULL LICENSE ***
+
+THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE
+PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK
+
+To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free
+distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work
+(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project
+Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project
+Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at
+http://www.gutenberg.org/license).
+
+
+Section 1.  General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic works
+
+1.A.  By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to
+and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property
+(trademark/copyright) agreement.  If you do not agree to abide by all
+the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy
+all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession.
+If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the
+terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or
+entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8.
+
+1.B.  "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark.  It may only be
+used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who
+agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement.  There are a few
+things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works
+even without complying with the full terms of this agreement.  See
+paragraph 1.C below.  There are a lot of things you can do with Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement
+and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works.  See paragraph 1.E below.
+
+1.C.  The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation"
+or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic works.  Nearly all the individual works in the
+collection are in the public domain in the United States.  If an
+individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are
+located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from
+copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative
+works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg
+are removed.  Of course, we hope that you will support the Project
+Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by
+freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of
+this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with
+the work.  You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by
+keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project
+Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others.
+
+1.D.  The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern
+what you can do with this work.  Copyright laws in most countries are in
+a constant state of change.  If you are outside the United States, check
+the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement
+before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or
+creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project
+Gutenberg-tm work.  The Foundation makes no representations concerning
+the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United
+States.
+
+1.E.  Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg:
+
+1.E.1.  The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate
+access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently
+whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the
+phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project
+Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed,
+copied or distributed:
+
+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 www.gutenberg.org
+
+1.E.2.  If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived
+from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is
+posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied
+and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees
+or charges.  If you are redistributing or providing access to a work
+with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the
+work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1
+through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the
+Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or
+1.E.9.
+
+1.E.3.  If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted
+with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution
+must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional
+terms imposed by the copyright holder.  Additional terms will be linked
+to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the
+permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work.
+
+1.E.4.  Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this
+work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm.
+
+1.E.5.  Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this
+electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without
+prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with
+active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm License.
+
+1.E.6.  You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary,
+compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any
+word processing or hypertext form.  However, if you provide access to or
+distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than
+"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version
+posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org),
+you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a
+copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon
+request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other
+form.  Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1.
+
+1.E.7.  Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying,
+performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works
+unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9.
+
+1.E.8.  You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing
+access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided
+that
+
+- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from
+     the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method
+     you already use to calculate your applicable taxes.  The fee is
+     owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he
+     has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the
+     Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation.  Royalty payments
+     must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you
+     prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax
+     returns.  Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and
+     sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the
+     address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to
+     the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation."
+
+- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies
+     you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he
+     does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+     License.  You must require such a user to return or
+     destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium
+     and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of
+     Project Gutenberg-tm works.
+
+- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any
+     money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the
+     electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days
+     of receipt of the work.
+
+- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free
+     distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works.
+
+1.E.9.  If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set
+forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from
+both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael
+Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark.  Contact the
+Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below.
+
+1.F.
+
+1.F.1.  Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable
+effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread
+public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm
+collection.  Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain
+"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or
+corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual
+property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a
+computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by
+your equipment.
+
+1.F.2.  LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right
+of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all
+liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal
+fees.  YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT
+LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE
+PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH F3.  YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE
+TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE
+LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR
+INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH
+DAMAGE.
+
+1.F.3.  LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a
+defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can
+receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a
+written explanation to the person you received the work from.  If you
+received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with
+your written explanation.  The person or entity that provided you with
+the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a
+refund.  If you received the work electronically, the person or entity
+providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to
+receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund.  If the second copy
+is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further
+opportunities to fix the problem.
+
+1.F.4.  Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth
+in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS', WITH NO OTHER
+WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO
+WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE.
+
+1.F.5.  Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied
+warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages.
+If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the
+law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be
+interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by
+the applicable state law.  The invalidity or unenforceability of any
+provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions.
+
+1.F.6.  INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the
+trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone
+providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance
+with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production,
+promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works,
+harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees,
+that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do
+or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm
+work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any
+Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause.
+
+
+Section  2.  Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of
+electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers
+including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers.  It exists
+because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from
+people in all walks of life.
+
+Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the
+assistance they need, is critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's
+goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will
+remain freely available for generations to come.  In 2001, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure
+and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations.
+To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation
+and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4
+and the Foundation web page at http://www.gutenberg.org/fundraising/pglaf.
+
+
+Section 3.  Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive
+Foundation
+
+The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit
+501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the
+state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal
+Revenue Service.  The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification
+number is 64-6221541.  Contributions to the Project Gutenberg
+Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent
+permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws.
+
+The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S.
+Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered
+throughout numerous locations.  Its business office is located at
+809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email
+business@pglaf.org.  Email contact links and up to date contact
+information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official
+page at http://www.gutenberg.org/about/contact
+
+For additional contact information:
+     Dr. Gregory B. Newby
+     Chief Executive and Director
+     gbnewby@pglaf.org
+
+Section 4.  Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg
+Literary Archive Foundation
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide
+spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of
+increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be
+freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest
+array of equipment including outdated equipment.  Many small donations
+($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt
+status with the IRS.
+
+The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating
+charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United
+States.  Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a
+considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up
+with these requirements.  We do not solicit donations in locations
+where we have not received written confirmation of compliance.  To
+SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any
+particular state visit http://www.gutenberg.org/fundraising/donate
+
+While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we
+have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition
+against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who
+approach us with offers to donate.
+
+International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make
+any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from
+outside the United States.  U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff.
+
+Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation
+methods and addresses.  Donations are accepted in a number of other
+ways including checks, online payments and credit card donations.
+To donate, please visit:
+http://www.gutenberg.org/fundraising/donate
+
+
+Section 5.  General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works.
+
+Professor Michael S. Hart is the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm
+concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared
+with anyone.  For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project
+Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support.
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed
+editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S.
+unless a copyright notice is included.  Thus, we do not necessarily
+keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition.
+
+Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility:
+
+     http://www.gutenberg.org
+
+This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm,
+including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary
+Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to
+subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks.
+
diff --git a/24498-8.zip b/24498-8.zip
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..2294e2d
--- /dev/null
+++ b/24498-8.zip
diff --git a/24498-h.zip b/24498-h.zip
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..ad29e2b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/24498-h.zip
diff --git a/24498-h/24498-h.htm b/24498-h/24498-h.htm
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..db82e51
--- /dev/null
+++ b/24498-h/24498-h.htm
@@ -0,0 +1,12677 @@
+<!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 V (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;}
+
+hr.small {width: 20%; margin-left:40%;}
+
+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%;}
+.note {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%;}
+.right {text-align: right;}
+
+.larg50 {margin-right: 50%; font-size: 90%;}
+
+.left50 {margin-left: 50%;}
+
+.add1em {margin-left: 1em;}
+.add2em {margin-left: 2em;}
+.add3em {margin-left: 3em;}
+.add35em {margin-left: 3.5em;}
+.add5em {margin-left: 5em;}
+.add55em {margin-left: 5.5em;}
+.add6em {margin-left: 6em;}
+.add65em {margin-left: 6.5em;}
+.add11em {margin-left: 11em;}
+.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 V (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 V (of 10)</p>
+<p>Author: John Gibson Lockhart</p>
+<p>Release Date: February 2, 2008  [eBook #24498]</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 V (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>&nbsp;</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>Page 218: The marker for footnote <a href="#footnote88" title="Go to footnote 19">88</a> could not be found in the
+text.</p></div>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr class="full" noshade>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+
+<a id="img001" name="img001"></a>
+<div class="figcenter">
+<img src="images/img001.jpg" width="400" height="506" alt="Frontispiece" title="">
+</div>
+
+<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 V</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="toc" name="toc"></a>
+<h2><span class="pagenum"><a id="pagev" name="pagev"></a>(p. v)</span> TABLE OF CONTENTS</h2>
+
+<ul>
+<li>Chap.</li>
+</ul>
+
+<ul class="roman toc">
+<li value="34">Progress of The Lord of the Isles. &mdash; Correspondence
+  with Mr. Joseph Train. &mdash; Rapid
+  completion of The Lord of the Isles. &mdash; "Refreshing
+  the Machine." &mdash; "Six Weeks
+  at a Christmas." &mdash; Publication of the
+  Poem, &mdash; and of Guy Mannering. &mdash; Letters
+  to Morritt, Terry, and John Ballantyne. &mdash; Anecdotes
+  by James Ballantyne. &mdash; Visit
+  to London. &mdash; Meeting with Lord
+  Byron. &mdash; Dinners at Carlton House.
+  1814-1815.<span class="ralign"><a href="#page001">1</a></span></li>
+
+
+<li>Battle of Waterloo &mdash; Letter of Sir
+  Charles Bell. &mdash; Visit to the Continent. &mdash; Waterloo. &mdash; Letters
+  from Brussels and
+  Paris. &mdash; Anecdotes of Scott at Paris. &mdash; The
+  Duke of Wellington. &mdash; The Emperor
+  Alexander. &mdash; Blücher. &mdash; Platoff &mdash; Party
+  at Ermenonville, etc. &mdash; London. &mdash; Parting
+  with Lord Byron. &mdash; Scott's
+  Sheffield Knife. &mdash; Return to Abbotsford. &mdash; Anecdotes
+  by Mr. Skene and James
+  Ballantyne. 1815.<span class="ralign"><a href="#page039">39</a></span></li>
+
+
+<li>Field of Waterloo published. &mdash; Revision
+  of Paul's Letters, etc. &mdash; Quarrel and Reconciliation
+  with Hogg. &mdash; Football Match
+  at Carterhaugh. &mdash; Songs on the Banner
+  of Buccleuch. &mdash; Dinner at Bowhill. &mdash; Design
+  for a Piece of Plate to the Sutors of
+  Selkirk. &mdash; Letters to the Duke of Buccleuch,
+  Joanna Baillie, and Mr. Morritt.
+  1815.<span class="ralign"><a href="#page076">76</a></span></li>
+
+
+<li><span class="pagenum"><a id="pagevi" name="pagevi"></a>(p. vi)</span> Publication of Paul's Letters to his Kinsfolk. &mdash; Guy
+  Mannering "Terry-fied." &mdash; Death
+  of Major John Scott. &mdash; Letters to
+  Thomas Scott. &mdash; Publication of The Antiquary. &mdash; History
+  of 1814 for the Edinburgh
+  Annual Register. &mdash; Letters on the
+  History of Scotland projected. &mdash; Publication
+  of the First Tales of my Landlord by
+  Murray and Blackwood. &mdash; Anecdotes by
+  Mr. Train. &mdash; Quarterly Review on the
+  Tales. &mdash; Building at Abbotsford begun. &mdash; Letters
+  to Morritt, Terry, Murray, and
+  the Ballantynes. 1816.<span class="ralign"><a href="#page094">94</a></span></li>
+
+
+<li>Harold the Dauntless published. &mdash; Scott
+  aspires to be a Baron of the Exchequer. &mdash; Letter
+  to the Duke of Buccleuch concerning
+  Poachers, etc. &mdash; First Attack of
+  Cramp in the Stomach. &mdash; Letters to Morritt,
+  Terry, and Mrs. Maclean Clephane. &mdash; Story
+  of The Doom of Devorgoil. &mdash; John
+  Kemble's retirement from the Stage. &mdash; William
+  Laidlaw established at Kaeside. &mdash; Novel
+  of Rob Roy projected. &mdash; Letter
+  to Southey on the Relief of the
+  Poor, etc. &mdash; Letter to Lord Montagu on
+  Hogg's Queen's Wake, and on the Death
+  of Frances, Lady Douglas. 1817.<span class="ralign"><a href="#page135">135</a></span></li>
+
+
+<li>Excursion to the Lennox, Glasgow, and
+  Drumlanrig. &mdash; Purchase of Toftfield. &mdash; Establishment
+  of the Ferguson Family at
+  Huntly Burn. &mdash; Lines written in Illness. &mdash; Visits
+  of Washington Irving, Lady
+  Byron, and Sir David Wilkie. &mdash; Progress
+  of the Building at Abbotsford. &mdash; Letters
+  to Morritt, Terry, etc. &mdash; Conclusion of
+  Rob Roy. 1817.<span class="ralign"><a href="#page173">173</a></span></li>
+
+
+<li>Rob Boy published. &mdash; Negotiation
+  concerning the Second Series of Tales of my
+  Landlord. &mdash; Commission to search for the
+  <span class="pagenum"><a id="pagevii" name="pagevii"></a>(p. vii)</span> Scottish Regalia. &mdash; Letters to the Duke
+  of Buccleuch, Mr. Croker, Mr. Morritt,
+  Mr. Murray, Mr. Maturin, etc. &mdash; Correspondence
+  on Rural Affairs with Mr. Laidlaw,
+  and on the Buildings at Abbotsford
+  with Mr. Terry. &mdash; Death of Mrs. Murray
+  Keith and Mr. George Bullock. 1818.<span class="ralign"><a href="#page202">202</a></span></li>
+
+
+<li>Dinner at Mr. Home Drummond's. &mdash; Scott's
+  Edinburgh Den. &mdash; Details of his
+  Domestic Life in Castle Street. &mdash; His
+  Sunday Dinners. &mdash; His Evening Drives,
+  etc. &mdash; His Conduct in the General Society
+  of Edinburgh. &mdash; Dinners at John
+  Ballantyne's Villa, and at James Ballantyne's
+  in St. John Street, on the appearance
+  of a new Novel. &mdash; Anecdotes of the Ballantynes,
+  and of Constable. 1818.<span class="ralign"><a href="#page236">236</a></span></li>
+
+
+<li>Publication of the Heart of Mid-Lothian. &mdash; Its
+  Reception in Edinburgh and in England. &mdash; Abbotsford
+  in October. &mdash; Melrose
+  Abbey, Dryburgh, etc. &mdash; Lion-Hunters
+  from America. &mdash; Tragedy of the Cherokee
+  Lovers. &mdash; Scott's Dinner to the Selkirkshire
+  Yeomen. 1818.<span class="ralign"><a href="#page266">266</a></span></li>
+</ul>
+
+<ul class="toc">
+<li>Appendix: The Durham Garland.<span class="ralign"><a href="#page295">295</a></span></li>
+
+<li>Narrative of the Life of James Annesley.<span class="ralign"><a href="#page303">303</a></span></li>
+</ul>
+
+<a id="illolist" name="illolist"></a>
+<h2><span class="pagenum"><a id="pageviii" name="pageviii"></a>(p. viii)</span> LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS</h2>
+
+<ul class="toc">
+<li><a href="#img001"><span class="smcap min2em">Walter Scott in 1822</span></a><br>
+       From the painting by Sir Henry Raeburn, R. A., in the possession
+       of the Earl of Home.  <span class="ralign italic">Frontispiece</span></li>
+
+<li><a href="#img002"><span class="smcap min2em">Maida, the Scottish Deerhound</span></a><br>
+       After the painting by Landseer made in 1824. <span class="ralign">96</span></li>
+
+<li><a href="#img003"><span class="smcap min2em">John Murray</span></a><br>
+       From the painting by Henry W. Pickersgill, R. A., in the
+       possession of John Murray, Esq. <span class="ralign">124</span></li>
+
+<li><a href="#img004"><span class="smcap min2em">Washington Irving</span></a><br>
+       After the painting by Charles Robert Leslie, R. A.<span class="ralign">180</span></li>
+
+<li><a href="#img005"><span class="smcap min2em">Scott's House in Castle Street</span></a><br>
+       After the drawing by J. M. W. Turner, R.A.<span class="ralign">250</span></li>
+
+<li><a href="#img006"><span class="smcap min2em">John Gibson Lockhart</span></a><br>
+       After the painting by Henry W. Pickersgill, R. A.<span class="ralign">274</span></li>
+</ul>
+
+
+<h3><span class="pagenum"><a id="page001" name="page001"></a>(p. 001)</span> CHAPTER XXXIV.</h3>
+
+<p class="summary">progress of the lord of the isles. &mdash; correspondence
+  with mr. joseph train. &mdash; rapid completion
+  of the lord of the isles. &mdash; "refreshing the
+  machine." &mdash; "six weeks at a christmas." &mdash; publication
+  of the poem, &mdash; and of guy mannering. &mdash; letters
+  to morritt, terry, and john ballantyne. &mdash; anecdotes
+  by james ballantyne. &mdash; visit to
+  london. &mdash; meeting with lord byron. &mdash; dinners
+  at carlton house.</p>
+
+<p class="center">1814-1815.</p>
+
+<p>By the 11th of November, then, The Lord of the Isles
+  had made great progress, and Scott had also authorized
+  Ballantyne to negotiate among the booksellers for the
+  publication of a second novel. But before I go further
+  into these transactions, I must introduce the circumstances
+  of Scott's first connection with an able and amiable
+  man, whose services were of high importance to him,
+  at this time and ever after, in the prosecution of his
+  literary labors. Calling at Ballantyne's printing-office
+  while Waverley was in the press, he happened to take
+  up a proof sheet of a volume entitled "Poems, with notes
+  illustrative of traditions in Galloway and Ayrshire, by
+  Joseph Train, Supervisor of Excise at Newton-Stewart."
+  The sheet contained a ballad on an Ayrshire tradition,
+  about a certain "Witch of Carrick," whose skill in the
+  black art was, it seems, instrumental in the destruction
+  <span class="pagenum"><a id="page002" name="page002"></a>(p. 002)</span> of one of the scattered vessels of the Spanish Armada.
+  The ballad begins:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p class="poem10">
+  "Why gallops the palfrey with Lady Dunore?<br>
+  Who drives away Turnberry's kine from the shore?<br>
+  Go tell it in Carrick, and tell it in Kyle&mdash;<br>
+  Although the proud Dons are now passing the Moil,<a id="footnotetag1" name="footnotetag1"></a><a href="#footnote1" title="Go to footnote 1"><span class="small">[1]</span></a><br>
+<span class="add1em">On this magic clew,</span><br>
+<span class="add1em">That in fairyland grew,</span><br>
+  Old Elcine de Aggart has taken in hand<br>
+  To wind up their lives ere they win to our strand."</p>
+
+<p>Scott immediately wrote to the author, begging to be included in his
+list of subscribers for a dozen copies, and suggesting at the same
+time a verbal alteration in one of the stanzas of this ballad. Mr.
+Train acknowledged his letter with gratitude, and the little book
+reached him just as he was about to embark in the lighthouse yacht. He
+took it with him on his voyage, and, on returning home again, wrote to
+Mr. Train, expressing the gratification he had received from several
+of his metrical pieces, but still more from his notes, and requesting
+him, as he seemed to be enthusiastic about traditions and legends, to
+communicate any matters of that order connected with Galloway which he
+might not himself think of turning to account; "for," said Scott,
+"nothing interests me so much as local anecdotes; and, as the
+applications for charity usually conclude, the smallest donation will
+be thankfully accepted."</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Train, in a little narrative with which he has favored me, says,
+that for some years before this time he had been engaged, in alliance
+with a friend of his, Mr. Denniston, in collecting materials for a
+History of Galloway; they had circulated lists of queries among the
+clergy and parish schoolmasters, and had thus, and by their own
+personal researches, accumulated "a great variety of the most
+excellent materials for that purpose;" but that, from the hour of his
+correspondence with Walter Scott, he "renounced every idea of
+authorship for <span class="pagenum"><a id="page003" name="page003"></a>(p. 003)</span> himself," resolving, "that thenceforth his
+chief pursuit should be collecting whatever he thought would be most
+interesting to <span class="italic">him</span>;" and that Mr. Denniston was easily persuaded to
+acquiesce in the abandonment of their original design. "Upon receiving
+Mr. Scott's letter," says Mr. Train, "I became still more zealous in
+the pursuit of ancient lore, and being the first person who had
+attempted to collect old stories in that quarter with any view to
+publication, I became so noted, that even beggars, in the hope of
+reward, came frequently from afar to Newton-Stewart, to recite old
+ballads and relate old stories to me." Erelong, Mr. Train visited
+Scott both at Edinburgh and at Abbotsford; a true affection continued
+ever afterwards to be maintained between them; and this generous ally
+was, as the prefaces to the Waverley Novels signify, one of the
+earliest confidants of that series of works, and certainly the most
+efficient of all the author's friends in furnishing him with materials
+for their composition. Nor did he confine himself to literary
+services: whatever portable object of antiquarian curiosity met his
+eye, this good man secured and treasured up with the same destination;
+and if ever a catalogue of the museum at Abbotsford shall appear, no
+single contributor, most assuredly, will fill so large a space in it
+as Mr. Train.<a id="footnotetag2" name="footnotetag2"></a><a href="#footnote2" title="Go to footnote 2"><span class="small">[2]</span></a></p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page004" name="page004"></a>(p. 004)</span> His first considerable communication, after he had formed the
+unselfish determination above mentioned, consisted of a collection of
+anecdotes concerning the Galloway gypsies, and "a local story of an
+astrologer, who calling at a farmhouse at the moment when the goodwife
+was in travail, had, it was said, predicted the future fortune of the
+child, almost in the words placed in the mouth of John MacKinlay, in
+the Introduction to Guy Mannering." Scott told him, in reply, that the
+story of the astrologer reminded him of "one he had heard in his
+youth;" that is to say, as the Introduction explains, from this
+MacKinlay; but Mr. Train has, since his friend's death, recovered a
+rude <span class="italic">Durham</span> ballad, which in fact contains a great deal more of the
+main fable of Guy Mannering than either his own written, or
+MacKinlay's oral edition of the <span class="italic">Gallovidian</span> anecdote had conveyed;
+and&mdash;possessing, as I do, numberless evidences of the haste with which
+Scott drew up his beautiful Prefaces and Introductions of 1829, 1830,
+and 1831&mdash;I am strongly inclined to think that he must in his boyhood
+have read the Durham Broadside or Chapbook itself&mdash;as well as heard
+the old serving-man's Scottish version of it.</p>
+
+<p>However this may have been, Scott's answer to Mr. Train proceeded in
+these words:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="quote">
+<p>I am now to solicit a favor, which I think your interest
+     <span class="pagenum"><a id="page005" name="page005"></a>(p. 005)</span> in Scottish antiquities will induce you readily to
+     comply with. I am very desirous to have some account of the
+     present state of <span class="italic">Turnberry Castle</span>&mdash;whether any vestiges of
+     it remain&mdash;what is the appearance of the ground&mdash;the names
+     of the neighboring places&mdash;and, above all, what are the
+     traditions of the place (if any) concerning its memorable
+     surprise by Bruce, upon his return from the coast of
+     Ireland, in the commencement of the brilliant part of his
+     career. The purpose of this is to furnish some hints for
+     notes to a work in which I am now engaged, and I need not
+     say I will have great pleasure in mentioning the source from
+     which I derive my information. I have only to add, with the
+     modest importunity of a lazy correspondent, that the sooner
+     you oblige me with an answer (if you can assist me on the
+     subject), the greater will the obligation be on me, who am
+     already your obliged humble servant,</p>
+
+<p class="left50 smcap">W. Scott.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>The recurrence of the word <span class="italic">Turnberry</span>, in the ballad of Elcine de
+Aggart, had of course suggested this application, which was dated on
+the 7th of November. "I had often," says Mr. Train, "when a boy,
+climbed the brown hills, and traversed the shores of Carrick, but I
+could not sufficiently remember the exact places and distances as to
+which Mr. Scott inquired; so, immediately on receipt of his letter, I
+made a journey into Ayrshire to collect all the information I possibly
+could, and forwarded it to him on the 18th of the same month." Among
+the particulars thus communicated, was the local superstition, that on
+the anniversary of the night when Bruce landed at Turnberry from
+Arran, the same meteoric gleam which had attended his voyage
+reappeared, unfailingly, in the same quarter of the heavens. With this
+circumstance Scott was much struck. "Your information," he writes on
+the 22d November, "was particularly interesting and acceptable,
+especially that which <span class="pagenum"><a id="page006" name="page006"></a>(p. 006)</span> relates to the supposed preternatural
+appearance of the fire, etc., which I hope to make some use of." What
+use he did make of it, if any reader has forgotten, will be seen by
+reference to stanzas 7-17 of the 5th Canto of the Poem; and the notes
+to the same Canto embody, with due acknowledgment, the more authentic
+results of Mr. Train's pilgrimage to Carrick.</p>
+
+<p>I shall recur presently to this communication from Mr. Train; but must
+pause for a moment to introduce two letters, both written in the same
+week with Scott's request as to the localities of Turnberry. They both
+give us amusing sketches of his buoyant spirits at this period of
+gigantic exertion;&mdash;and the first of them, which relates chiefly to
+Maturin's Tragedy of Bertram, shows how he could still contrive to
+steal time for attention to the affairs of brother authors less
+energetic than himself.</p>
+
+<div class="quote">
+<p class="tit-center">TO DANIEL TERRY, ESQ.</p>
+
+<p class="left50"><span class="smcap">Abbotsford</span>, November 10, 1814.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">My Dear Terry</span>,&mdash;I should have long since answered your kind
+     letter by our friend Young, but he would tell you of my
+     departure with our trusty and well-beloved Erskine, on a
+     sort of a voyage to Nova Zembla. Since my return, I have
+     fallen under the tyrannical dominion of a certain Lord of
+     the Isles. Those Lords were famous for oppression in the
+     days of yore, and if I can judge by the posthumous despotism
+     exercised over me, they have not improved by their demise.
+     The <span class="italic" lang="fr">peine forte et dure</span> is, you know, nothing in
+     comparison to being obliged to grind verses; and so devilish
+     repulsive is my disposition, that I can never put my wheel
+     into constant and regular motion, till Ballantyne's devil
+     claps in his proofs, like the hot cinder which you Bath
+     folks used to clap in beside an unexperienced turnspit, as a
+     hint to be expeditious in his duty. O long life to the old
+     hermit of Prague, who never saw pen and ink!&mdash;much happier
+     in <span class="pagenum"><a id="page007" name="page007"></a>(p. 007)</span> that negative circumstance than in his alliance
+     with the niece of King Gorboduc.</p>
+
+<p>To talk upon a blither subject, I wish you saw Abbotsford,
+     which begins this season to look the whimsical, gay, odd
+     cabin, that we had chalked out. I have been obliged to
+     relinquish Stark's plan, which was greatly too expensive. So
+     I have made the old farmhouse my <span class="italic" lang="fr">corps de logis</span>, with some
+     outlying places for kitchen, laundry, and two spare
+     bedrooms, which run along the east wall of the farm-court,
+     not without some picturesque effect. A perforated cross, the
+     spoils of the old kirk of Galashiels, decorates an advanced
+     door, and looks very well. This little sly bit of sacrilege
+     has given our spare rooms the name of <span class="italic">the chapel</span>. I
+     earnestly invite you to a <span class="italic">pew</span> there, which you will find
+     as commodious for the purpose of a nap as you have ever
+     experienced when, under the guidance of old Mrs. Smollett,
+     you were led to St. George's, Edinburgh.</p>
+
+<p>I have been recommending to John Kemble (I dare say without
+     any chance of success) to peruse a MS. Tragedy of Maturin's
+     author of Montorio: it is one of those things which will
+     either succeed greatly or be damned gloriously, for its
+     merits are marked, deep, and striking, and its faults of a
+     nature obnoxious to ridicule. He had our old friend Satan
+     (none of your sneaking St. John Street devils, but the
+     arch-fiend himself) brought on the stage bodily. I believe I
+     have exorcised the foul fiend&mdash;for, though in reading he was
+     a most terrible fellow, I feared for his reception in
+     public. The last act is ill contrived. He piddles (so to
+     speak) through a cullender, and divides the whole horrors of
+     the catastrophe (though God wot there are enough of them)
+     into a kind of drippity-droppity of four or five scenes,
+     instead of inundating the audience with them at once in the
+     finale, with a grand "<span class="italic" lang="fr">gardez l'eau</span>." With all this, which
+     I should say had I written the thing myself, it is grand and
+     powerful; the language most animated and poetical; and the
+     characters <span class="pagenum"><a id="page008" name="page008"></a>(p. 008)</span> sketched with a masterly enthusiasm.
+     Many thanks for Captain Richard Falconer.<a id="footnotetag3" name="footnotetag3"></a><a href="#footnote3" title="Go to footnote 3"><span class="small">[3]</span></a> To your
+     kindness I owe the two books in the world I most longed to
+     see, not so much for their intrinsic merits, as because they
+     bring back with vivid associations the sentiments of my
+     childhood&mdash;I might almost say infancy. Nothing ever
+     disturbed my feelings more than when, sitting by the old oak
+     table, my aunt, Lady Raeburn, used to read the lamentable
+     catastrophe of the ship's departing without Captain
+     Falconer, in consequence of the whole party making free with
+     lime-punch on the eve of its being launched. This and
+     Captain Bingfield,<a id="footnotetag4" name="footnotetag4"></a><a href="#footnote4" title="Go to footnote 4"><span class="small">[4]</span></a> I much wished <span class="pagenum"><a id="page009" name="page009"></a>(p. 009)</span> to read once
+     more, and I owe the possession of both to your kindness.
+     Everybody that I see talks highly of your steady interest
+     with the public, wherewith, as I never doubted of it, I am
+     pleased but not surprised. We are just now leaving this for
+     the winter: the children went yesterday. Tom Purdie,
+     Finella, and the greyhounds, all in excellent health; the
+     latter have not been hunted this season!!! Can add nothing
+     more to excite your admiration. Mrs. Scott sends her kind
+     compliments.</p>
+
+<p class="left50 smcap">W. Scott.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>The following, dated a day after, refers to some lines which Mr.
+Morritt had sent him from Worthing.</p>
+
+<div class="quote">
+
+<p class="tit-center">TO J. B. S. MORRITT, ESQ., M. P., WORTHING.</p>
+
+<p class="left50"><span class="smcap">Abbotsford</span>, November 11, 1814.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">My dear Morritt</span>,&mdash;I had your kind letter with the beautiful
+     verses. May the Muse meet you often on the verge of the sea
+     or among your own woods of Rokeby! May you have spirits to
+     profit by her visits (and that implies all good wishes for
+     the continuance of Mrs. M.'s convalescence), and may I
+     often, by the fruits of your inspiration, have my share of
+     pleasure! My Muse is a Tyranness, and not a Christian queen,
+     and compels me to attend to longs and shorts, and I know not
+     what, when, God wot, I had rather be planting evergreens by
+     my new old fountain. You must know that, like the complaint
+     of a fine young boy who was complimented by a stranger on
+     his being a smart fellow, "I am sair halded down by <span class="italic">the
+     bubbly jock</span>." In other words, the turkey cock, at the head
+     of a family of some forty or fifty infidels, lays waste all
+     my shrubs. In vain I remonstrate with Charlotte upon these
+     occasions; she is in league with the hen-wife, the natural
+     protectress of these pirates; and I have only the inhuman
+     consolation that I may one day, like a cannibal, eat up my
+     enemies. This is but dull fun, but what else have I to tell
+     you about? It <span class="pagenum"><a id="page010" name="page010"></a>(p. 010)</span> would be worse if, like Justice
+     Shallow's Davy, I should consult you upon sowing down the
+     headland with wheat. My literary tormentor is a certain Lord
+     of the Isles, famed for his tyranny of yore, and not
+     unjustly. I am bothering some tale of him I have had long by
+     me into a sort of romance. I think you will like it: it is
+     Scottified up to the teeth, and somehow I feel myself like
+     the liberated chiefs of the Rolliad, "who boast their native
+     philabeg restored." I believe the frolics one can cut in
+     this loose garb are all set down by you Sassenachs to the
+     real agility of the wearer, and not the brave, free, and
+     independent character of his clothing. It is, in a word, the
+     real Highland fling, and no one is supposed able to dance it
+     but a native. I always thought that epithet of Gallia
+     <span class="italic">Braccata</span> implied subjugation, and was never surprised at
+     Cæsar's easy conquests, considering that his Labienus and
+     all his merry men wore, as we say, bottomless breeks.</p>
+
+<p class="left50">Ever yours,<br>
+<span class="add5em">W. S.</span></p>
+</div>
+
+<p>Well might he describe himself as being hard at work with his Lord of
+the Isles. The date of Ballantyne's letter to Miss Edgeworth (November
+11), in which he mentions the third Canto as completed; that of the
+communication from Mr. Train (November 18), on which so much of Canto
+Fifth was grounded; and that of a note from Scott to Ballantyne
+(December 16, 1814), announcing that he had sent the last stanza of
+the poem: these dates, taken together, afford conclusive evidence of
+the fiery rapidity with which the three last Cantos of The Lord of the
+Isles were composed.</p>
+
+<p>He writes, on the 25th December, to Constable that he "had corrected
+the last proofs, and was setting out for Abbotsford to refresh the
+machine." And in what did his refreshment of the machine consist?
+Besides having written within this year the greater part (almost, I
+believe, the whole) of the Life of Swift&mdash;Waverley&mdash;and <span class="pagenum"><a id="page011" name="page011"></a>(p. 011)</span> The
+Lord of the Isles&mdash;he had given two essays to the Encyclopædia
+Supplement, and published, with an Introduction and notes, one of the
+most curious pieces of family history ever produced to the world, on
+which he labored with more than usual zeal and diligence, from his
+warm affection for the noble representative of its author. This
+inimitable Memorie of the Somervilles came out in October; and it was
+speedily followed by an annotated reprint of the strange old treatise,
+entitled "Rowland's letting off the humours of the blood in the head
+vein, 1611." He had also kept up his private correspondence on a scale
+which I believe never to have been exemplified in the case of any
+other person who wrote continually for the press&mdash;except, perhaps,
+Voltaire; and, to say nothing of strictly professional duties, he had,
+as a vast heap of documents now before me proves, superintended from
+day to day, except during his Hebridean voyage, the still perplexed
+concerns of the Ballantynes, with a watchful assiduity that might have
+done credit to the most diligent of tradesmen. The "machine" might
+truly require "refreshment."</p>
+
+<p>It was, as has been seen, on the 7th of November that Scott
+acknowledged the receipt of that communication from Mr. Train which
+included the story of the Galloway astrologer. There can be no doubt
+that this story recalled to his mind, if not the Durham ballad, the
+similar but more detailed corruption of it which he had heard told by
+his father's servant, John MacKinlay, in the days of George's Square
+and Green-breeks, and which he has preserved in the introduction to
+Guy Mannering, as the groundwork of that tale. It has been shown that
+the three last Cantos of The Lord of the Isles were written between
+the 11th of November and the 25th of December; and it is therefore
+scarcely to be supposed that any part of this novel had been penned
+before he thus talked of "refreshing the machine." It is quite certain
+that when James Ballantyne wrote to Miss Edgeworth on the <span class="pagenum"><a id="page012" name="page012"></a>(p. 012)</span>
+11th November, he could not have seen one page of Guy Mannering, since
+he in that letter announces that the new novel of his nameless friend
+would depict manners <span class="italic">more ancient</span> than those of 1745. And yet it is
+equally certain, that before The Lord of the Isles was <span class="italic">published</span>,
+which took place on the 18th of January, 1815, two volumes of Guy
+Mannering had been not only written and copied by an amanuensis, but
+printed.</p>
+
+<p>Scott thus writes to Morritt, in sending him his copy of The Lord of
+the Isles:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="quote">
+<p class="tit-center">TO J. B. S. MORRITT, ESQ., M. P., WORTHING.</p>
+
+<p class="left50"><span class="smcap">Edinburgh</span>, 19th January, 1815.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">My dear Morritt</span>,&mdash;I have been very foolishly putting off my
+     writing until I should have time for a good long epistle;
+     and it is astonishing what a number of trifles have
+     interfered to prevent my commencing on a great scale. The
+     last of these has been rather of an extraordinary kind, for
+     your little friend Walter has chose to make himself the town
+     talk, by taking what seemed to be the small-pox, despite of
+     vaccination in infancy, and inoculation with the variolous
+     matter thereafter, which last I resorted to by way of making
+     assurance double sure. The medical gentleman who attended
+     him is of opinion that he <span class="italic">has</span> had the real small-pox, but
+     it shall never be averred by me&mdash;for the catastrophe of Tom
+     Thumb is enough to deter any thinking person from entering
+     into a feud with the cows. Walter is quite well again, which
+     was the principal matter I was interested in. We had very
+     nearly been in a bad scrape, for I had fixed the Monday on
+     which he sickened, to take him with me for the Christmas
+     vacation to Abbotsford. It is probable that he would not
+     have pleaded headache when there was such a party in view,
+     especially as we were to shoot wild ducks one day together
+     at Cauldshiels Loch; and what the consequence of such a
+     journey might have been, God alone knows.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page013" name="page013"></a>(p. 013)</span> I am clear of The Lord of the Isles, and I trust
+     you have your copy. It closes my poetic labors upon an
+     extended scale: but I dare say I shall always be dabbling in
+     rhyme until the <span class="italic">solve senescentem</span>. I have directed the
+     copy to be sent to Portland Place. I want to shake myself
+     free of Waverley, and accordingly have made a considerable
+     exertion to finish an odd little tale within such time as
+     will mystify the public, I trust&mdash;unless they suppose me to
+     be Briareus. Two volumes are already printed, and the only
+     persons in my confidence, W. Erskine and Ballantyne, are of
+     opinion that it is much more interesting than Waverley. It
+     is a tale of private life, and only varied by the perilous
+     exploits of smugglers and excisemen. The success of Waverley
+     has given me a spare hundred or two, which I have resolved
+     to spend in London this spring, bringing up Charlotte and
+     Sophia with me. I do not forget my English friends&mdash;but I
+     fear they will forget me, unless I show face now and then.
+     My correspondence gradually drops, as must happen when
+     people do not meet; and I long to see Ellis, Heber, Gifford,
+     and one or two more. I do not include Mrs. Morritt and you,
+     because we are much nearer neighbors, and within a whoop and
+     a holla in comparison. I think we should come up by sea, if
+     I were not a little afraid of Charlotte being startled by
+     the March winds&mdash;for our vacation begins 12th March.</p>
+
+<p>You will have heard of poor Caberfae's death? What a pity it
+     is he should have outlived his promising young
+     representative. His state was truly pitiable&mdash;all his fine
+     faculties lost in paralytic imbecility, and yet not so
+     entirely so but that he perceived his deprivation as in a
+     glass darkly. Sometimes he was fretful and anxious because
+     he did not see his son; sometimes he expostulated and
+     complained that his boy had been allowed to die without his
+     seeing him; and sometimes, in a less clouded state of
+     intellect, he was sensible of, and lamented his loss in its
+     full extent. These, indeed, are <span class="pagenum"><a id="page014" name="page014"></a>(p. 014)</span> the "fears of the
+     brave, and follies of the wise,"<a id="footnotetag5" name="footnotetag5"></a><a href="#footnote5" title="Go to footnote 5"><span class="small">[5]</span></a> which sadden and
+     humiliate the lingering hours of prolonged existence. Our
+     friend Lady Hood will now be Caberfae herself. She has the
+     spirit of a chieftainess in every drop of her blood, but
+     there are few situations in which the cleverest women are so
+     apt to be imposed upon as in the management of landed
+     property, more especially of an Highland estate. I do fear
+     the accomplishment of the prophecy, that when there should
+     be a deaf Caberfae, the house was to fall.<a id="footnotetag6" name="footnotetag6"></a><a href="#footnote6" title="Go to footnote 6"><span class="small">[6]</span></a></p>
+
+<p>I am delighted to find Mrs. Morritt is recovering health and
+     strength&mdash;better walking on the beach at Worthing than on
+     the <span class="italic">plainstanes</span> of Prince's Street, for the weather is
+     very severe here indeed. I trust Mrs. M. will, in her milder
+     climate, lay in such a stock of health and strength as may
+     enable you to face the north in Autumn. I have got the
+     nicest crib for you possible, just about twelve feet square,
+     and in the harmonious vicinity of a piggery. You never saw
+     so minute an establishment,&mdash;but <span class="pagenum"><a id="page015" name="page015"></a>(p. 015)</span> it has all that
+     we wish for, and all our friends will care about; and we
+     long to see you there. Charlotte sends the kindest
+     remembrances to Mrs. Morritt.</p>
+
+<p>As for politics, I have thought little about them lately;
+     the high and exciting interest is so completely subsided,
+     that the wine is upon the lees. As for America, we have so
+     managed as to give her the appearance of triumph, and what
+     is worse, encouragement to resume the war upon a more
+     favorable opportunity. It was our business to have given
+     them a fearful memento that the babe unborn should have
+     remembered; but, having missed this opportunity, I believe
+     that this country would submit with great reluctance to
+     continue a war, for which there is really no specific
+     object. As for the Continental monarchs, there is no
+     guessing what the folly of Kings and Ministers may do; but
+     God knows! would any of them look at home, enough is to be
+     done which might strengthen and improve their dominions in a
+     different manner than by mere extension. I trust Ministers
+     will go out rather than be engaged in war again, upon any
+     account. If France is wise (I have no fear that any
+     superfluous feeling of humanity will stand in the way), she
+     will send 10,000 of her most refractory troops to fight with
+     Christophe and the yellow fever in the Island of St.
+     Domingo, and then I presume they may sit down in quiet at
+     home.</p>
+
+<p>But my sheet grows to an end, and so does the pleading of
+     the learned counsel, who is thumping the poor bar as I
+     write. He hems twice. Forward, sweet Orator Higgins!&mdash;at
+     least till I sign myself, dear Morritt,</p>
+
+<p class="left50">Yours most truly,<br>
+<span class="add5em smcap">Walter Scott.</span></p>
+</div>
+
+<p>Guy Mannering was published on the 24th of February&mdash;that is, exactly
+two months after The Lord of the Isles <span class="pagenum"><a id="page016" name="page016"></a>(p. 016)</span> was dismissed from
+the author's desk; and&mdash;making but a narrow allowance for the
+operations of the transcriber, printer, bookseller, etc., I think the
+dates I have gathered together confirm the accuracy of what I have
+often heard Scott say, that his second novel "was the work of six
+weeks at a Christmas." Such was his recipe "for refreshing the
+machine."</p>
+
+<p>I am sorry to have to add, that this severity of labor, like the
+repetition of it which had such deplorable effects at a later period
+of his life, was the result of his anxiety to acquit himself of
+obligations arising out of his connection with the commercial
+speculations of the Ballantynes. The approach of Christmas, 1814,
+brought with it the prospect of such a recurrence of difficulties
+about the discount of John's bills, as to render it absolutely
+necessary that Scott should either apply again for assistance to his
+private friends, or task his literary powers with some such
+extravagant effort as has now been recorded. The great object, which
+was still to get rid of the heavy stock that had been accumulated
+before the storm of May, 1813, at length determined the chief partner
+to break up, as soon as possible, the concern which his own sanguine
+rashness, and the gross irregularities of his mercurial lieutenant,
+had so lamentably perplexed; but Constable, having already enabled the
+firm to avoid public exposure more than once, was not now, any more
+than when he made his contract for The Lord of the Isles, disposed to
+burden himself with an additional load of Weber's Beaumont and
+Fletcher, and other almost as unsalable books. While they were still
+in hopes of overcoming his scruples, it happened that a worthy friend
+of Scott's, the late Mr. Charles Erskine, his sheriff-substitute in
+Selkirkshire, had immediate occasion for a sum of money which he had
+some time before advanced, at Scott's personal request, to the firm of
+John Ballantyne and Company; and on receiving his application, Scott
+wrote as follows:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="quote">
+
+<p class="tit-center"><span class="pagenum"><a id="page017" name="page017"></a>(p. 017)</span> TO MR. JOHN BALLANTYNE, BOOKSELLER, EDINBURGH.</p>
+<p class="left50"><span class="smcap">Abbotsford</span>, October 14, 1814.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Dear John</span>,&mdash;Charles Erskine wishes his money, as he has made
+     a purchase of land. This is a new perplexity&mdash;for paid he
+     must be forthwith&mdash;as his advance was friendly and
+     confidential. I do not at this moment see how it is to be
+     raised, but believe I shall find means. In the mean while,
+     it will be necessary to propitiate the Leviathans of
+     Paternoster Row. My idea is, that you or James should write
+     to them to the following effect: That a novel is offered you
+     by the Author of Waverley; that the author is desirous it
+     should be out before Mr. Scott's poem, or as soon thereafter
+     as possible; and that having resolved, as they are aware, to
+     relinquish publishing, you only wish to avail yourselves of
+     this offer to the extent of helping off some of your stock.
+     I leave it to you to consider whether you should condescend
+     on any particular work to offer them as bread to their
+     butter&mdash;or on any particular amount&mdash;as £500. One thing must
+     be provided, that Constable shares to the extent of the
+     Scottish sale&mdash;they, however, managing. My reason for
+     letting them have this scent of roast meat is, in case it
+     should be necessary for us to apply to them to renew bills
+     in December. Yours,</p>
+
+<p class="left50">W. S.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>Upon receiving this letter, John Ballantyne suggested to Scott that he
+should be allowed to offer, not only the new novel, but the next
+edition of Waverley, to Longman, Murray, or Blackwood&mdash;in the hope
+that the prospect of being let in to the profits of the already
+established favorite, would overcome effectually the hesitation of one
+or other of these houses about venturing on the encumbrance which
+Constable seemed to shrink from with such pertinacity; but upon this
+ingenious proposition Scott at once set his <span class="italic">veto</span>. He writes (October
+17, 1814):&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="qutoe">
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page018" name="page018"></a>(p. 018)</span> <span class="smcap">Dear John</span>,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>Your expedients are all wretched, as far as regards me. I
+     never will give Constable, or any one, room to say I have
+     broken my word with him in the slightest degree. If I lose
+     everything else, I will at least keep my honor unblemished;
+     and I do hold myself bound in honor to offer him a Waverley,
+     while he shall continue to comply with the conditions
+     annexed. I intend the new novel to operate as something more
+     permanent than a mere accommodation; and if I can but be
+     permitted to do so, I will print it before it is sold to any
+     one, and then propose, first to Constable and
+     Longman&mdash;second, to Murray and Blackwood&mdash;to take the whole
+     at such a rate as will give them one half of the fair
+     profits; granting acceptances which, upon an edition of
+     3000, which we shall be quite authorized to print, will
+     amount to an immediate command of £1500; and to this we may
+     couple the condition, that they must take £500 or £600 of
+     the old stock. I own I am not solicitous to deal with
+     Constable alone, nor am I at all bound to offer him the new
+     novel on any terms; but he, knowing of the intention, may
+     expect to be treated with, at least, although it is possible
+     we may not deal. However, if Murray and Blackwood were to
+     come forward with any handsome proposal as to the stock, I
+     should certainly have no objection to James's giving the
+     pledge of the Author of W. for his next work. You are like
+     the crane in the fable, when you boast of not having got
+     anything from the business; you may thank God that it did
+     not bite your head off. Would to God I were at let-a-be for
+     let-a-be;&mdash;but you have done your best, and so must I.</p>
+
+<p class="left50">Yours truly,<br>
+<span class="add5em">W. S.</span></p>
+</div>
+
+<p>Both Mr. Murray, and Longman's partner, Mr. Rees, were in Scotland
+about this time; and the former at least paid Scott a visit at
+Abbotsford. Of course, however, whatever propositions they may have
+made were received by one or other of the Ballantynes. The result was,
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page019" name="page019"></a>(p. 019)</span> that the house of Longman undertook Guy Mannering on the
+terms dictated by Scott&mdash;namely, granting bills for £1500, and
+relieving John Ballantyne and Company of stock to the extent of £500
+more; and Constable's first information of the transaction was from
+Messrs. Longman themselves, when they, in compliance with Scott's
+wish, as signified in the letter last quoted, offered him a share in
+the edition which they had purchased. With one or two exceptions,
+originating in circumstances nearly similar, the house of Constable
+published all the subsequent series of the Waverley Novels.</p>
+
+<p>I must not, however, forget that The Lord of the Isles was published a
+month before Guy Mannering. The poem was received with an interest
+much heightened by the recent and growing success of the mysterious
+Waverley. Its appearance, so rapidly following that novel, and
+accompanied with the announcement of another prose tale, just about to
+be published, by the same hand, puzzled and confounded the mob of
+dulness.<a id="footnotetag7" name="footnotetag7"></a><a href="#footnote7" title="Go to footnote 7"><span class="small">[7]</span></a> The more sagacious few said to themselves&mdash;Scott is making
+one serious effort more in his old line, and by this it will be
+determined whether he does or does not altogether renounce that for
+his new one.</p>
+
+<p>The Edinburgh Review on The Lord of the Isles begins with,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p class="quote">"Here is another genuine Lay of the Great Minstrel, with all
+     his characteristic faults, beauties, and irregularities. The
+     same glow of coloring&mdash;the same energy of narration&mdash;the
+     same amplitude of description are conspicuous&mdash;with the same
+     still more characteristic disdain of puny graces and small
+     originalities&mdash;the true poetical hardihood, in the strength
+     of which he urges on his Pegasus fearlessly through dense
+     and rare, and aiming gallantly at the great ends of truth
+     and effect, <span class="pagenum"><a id="page020" name="page020"></a>(p. 020)</span> stoops but rarely to study the means
+     by which they are to be attained; avails himself without
+     scruple of common sentiments and common images wherever they
+     seem fitted for his purpose; and is original by the very
+     boldness of his borrowing, and impressive by his disregard
+     of epigram and emphasis."</p>
+
+<p>The conclusion of the contemporaneous article in the Quarterly Review
+is as follows:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p class="quote">"The many beautiful passages which we have extracted from
+     the poem, combined with the brief remarks subjoined to each
+     canto, will sufficiently show, that although The Lord of the
+     Isles is not likely to add very much to the reputation of
+     Mr. Scott, yet this must be imputed rather to the greatness
+     of his previous reputation, than to the absolute inferiority
+     of the poem itself. Unfortunately, its merits are merely
+     incidental, while its defects are mixed up with the very
+     elements of the poem. But it is not in the power of Mr.
+     Scott to write with tameness; be the subject what it will
+     (and he could not easily have chosen one more
+     impracticable), he impresses upon whatever scenes he
+     describes so much movement and activity,&mdash;he infuses into
+     his narrative such a flow of life, and, if we may so express
+     ourselves, of animal spirits, that without satisfying the
+     judgment, or moving the feelings, or elevating the mind, or
+     even very greatly interesting the curiosity, he is able to
+     seize upon, and, as it were, exhilarate the imagination of
+     his readers, in a manner which is often truly unaccountable.
+     This quality Mr. Scott possesses in an admirable degree; and
+     supposing that he had no other object in view than to
+     convince the world of the great poetical powers with which
+     he is gifted, the poem before us would be quite sufficient
+     for his purpose. But this is of very inferior importance to
+     the public; what they want is a good poem, and, as
+     experience has shown, this can only be constructed upon a
+     solid foundation of taste, and judgment, and meditation."</p>
+
+<p>These passages appear to me to condense the result of deliberate and
+candid reflection, and I have therefore quoted them. The most
+important remarks of either Essayist on the details of the plot and
+execution are annexed to the last edition of the poem; and show such
+an <span class="pagenum"><a id="page021" name="page021"></a>(p. 021)</span> exact coincidence of judgment in two masters of their
+calling, as had not hitherto been exemplified in the professional
+criticism of his metrical romances. The defects which both point out
+are, I presume, but too completely explained by the preceding
+statement of the rapidity with which this, the last of those great
+performances, had been thrown off; nor do I see that either Reviewer
+has failed to do sufficient justice to the beauties which redeem the
+imperfections of The Lord of the Isles&mdash;except as regards the whole
+character of Bruce, its real hero, and the picture of the battle of
+Bannockburn, which, now that one can compare these works from
+something like the same point of view, does not appear to me in the
+slightest particular inferior to the Flodden of Marmion.</p>
+
+<p>This poem is now, I believe, about as popular as Rokeby; but it has
+never reached the same station in general favor with the Lay, Marmion,
+or The Lady of the Lake. The first edition of 1800 copies in quarto
+was, however, rapidly disposed of, and the separate editions in 8vo,
+which ensued before his poetical works were collected, amounted
+together to 12,250 copies. This, in the case of almost any other
+author, would have been splendid success; but as compared with what he
+had previously experienced, even in his Rokeby, and still more so as
+compared with the enormous circulation at once attained by Lord
+Byron's early tales, which were then following each other in almost
+breathless succession, the falling off was decided. One evening, some
+days after the poem had been published, Scott requested James
+Ballantyne to call on him, and the printer found him alone in his
+library, working at the third volume of Guy Mannering. I give what
+follows from Ballantyne's Memoranda:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p class="quote">"'Well, James,' he said, 'I have given you a week&mdash;what are
+     people saying about The Lord of the Isles?' I hesitated a
+     little, after the fashion of Gil Blas, but he speedily
+     brought the matter to a point. 'Come,' he said, 'speak out,
+     my good <span class="pagenum"><a id="page022" name="page022"></a>(p. 022)</span> fellow; what has put it into your head to
+     be on so much ceremony <span class="italic">with me</span> all of a sudden? But, I see
+     how it is, the result is given in one
+     word&mdash;<span class="italic">Disappointment</span>.' My silence admitted his inference
+     to the fullest extent. His countenance certainly did look
+     rather blank for a few seconds; in truth, he had been wholly
+     unprepared for the event; for it is a singular fact, that
+     before the public, or rather the booksellers, had given
+     their decision, he no more knew whether he had written well
+     or ill, than whether a die thrown out of a box was to turn
+     up a size or an ace. However, he instantly resumed his
+     spirits, and expressed his wonder rather that his poetical
+     popularity should have lasted so long, than that it should
+     have now at last given way. At length he said, with perfect
+     cheerfulness, 'Well, well, James, so be it&mdash;but you know we
+     must not droop, for we can't afford to give over. Since one
+     line has failed, we must just stick to something else:'&mdash;and
+     so he dismissed me and resumed his novel."</p>
+
+<p>Ballantyne concludes the anecdote in these words:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="quote">
+<p>"He spoke thus, probably unaware of the undiscovered wonders
+     then slumbering in his mind. Yet still he could not but have
+     felt that the production of a few poems was nothing in
+     comparison of what must be in reserve for him, for he was at
+     this time scarcely more than forty.<a id="footnotetag8" name="footnotetag8"></a><a href="#footnote8" title="Go to footnote 8"><span class="small">[8]</span></a> An evening or two
+     after, I called again on him, and found on the table a copy
+     of The Giaour, which he seemed to have been reading. Having
+     an enthusiastic young lady in my house, I asked him if I
+     might carry the book home with me, but chancing to glance on
+     the autograph blazon, '<span class="italic">To the Monarch of Parnassus from one
+     of his subjects</span>,' instantly retracted my request, and said
+     I had not observed Lord Byron's inscription before. 'What
+     inscription?' said he; 'oh yes, I had forgot, but
+     inscription or no inscription, you are equally welcome.' I
+     again took it up, and he continued, 'James, Byron hits the
+     mark where I don't even pretend to fledge my arrow.' At this
+     time he had never seen Byron, but I knew he meant soon to be
+     in London, when, no doubt, the mighty consummation of the
+     meeting of the two bards would be accomplished; and I
+     ventured to say that he must be looking forward to it with
+     some interest. His countenance <span class="pagenum"><a id="page023" name="page023"></a>(p. 023)</span> became fixed, and
+     he answered impressively, 'Oh, of course.' In a minute or
+     two afterwards he rose from his chair, paced the room at a
+     very rapid rate, which was his practice in certain moods of
+     mind, then made a dead halt, and bursting into an
+     extravaganza of laughter, 'James,' cried he, 'I'll tell you
+     what Byron should say to me when we are about to accost each
+     other,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p class="poem10">"Art thou the man whom men famed Grizzle call?"</p>
+
+<p>And then how germane would be my answer,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p class="poem10">"Art thou the still more famed Tom Thumb the small?"'</p>
+
+<p>"This," says the printer, "is a specimen of his peculiar
+     humor; it kept him full of mirth for the rest of the
+     evening."</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>The whole of the scene strikes me as equally and delightfully
+characteristic; I may add, hardly more so of Scott than of his
+printer; for Ballantyne, with all his profound worship of his friend
+and benefactor, was in truth, even more than he, an undoubting
+acquiescer in "the decision of the public, or rather of the
+booksellers;" and among the many absurdities into which his reverence
+for the popedom of Paternoster Row led him, I never could but consider
+with special astonishment, the facility with which he seemed to have
+adopted the notion that the Byron of 1814 was really entitled to
+supplant Scott as a popular poet. Appreciating, as a man of his
+talents could hardly fail to do, the splendidly original glow and
+depth of Childe Harold, he always appeared to me quite blind to the
+fact, that in The Giaour, in The Bride of Abydos, in Parisina, and
+indeed in all his early serious narratives, Byron owed at least half
+his success to clever, though perhaps unconscious imitation of Scott,
+and no trivial share of the rest to the lavish use of materials which
+Scott never employed, only because his genius was, from the beginning
+to the end of his career, under the guidance of high and chivalrous
+feelings of moral rectitude. All this Lord Byron himself seems to have
+felt most completely&mdash;as witness the whole sequence of <span class="pagenum"><a id="page024" name="page024"></a>(p. 024)</span> his
+letters and diaries;<a id="footnotetag9" name="footnotetag9"></a><a href="#footnote9" title="Go to footnote 9"><span class="small">[9]</span></a> and I think I see many symptoms that both the
+decision of the million, and its index, "the decision of the
+booksellers," tend the same way at present; but my business is to
+record, as far as my means may permit, the growth and structure of one
+great mind, and the effect which it produced upon the actual witnesses
+of its manifestations, not to obtrude the conjectures of a partial
+individual as to what rank posterity may assign it amongst or above
+contemporary rivals.</p>
+
+<p>The following letter was addressed to Lord Byron on the receipt of
+that copy of The Giaour to which Mr. Ballantyne's Memorandum refers: I
+believe the inscription to Scott first appeared on the ninth edition
+of the poem:</p>
+
+<div class="quote">
+<p class="tit-center">TO THE RIGHT HON. LORD BYRON, LONDON.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">My Lord</span>,&mdash;I have long owed you my best thanks for the
+     uncommon pleasure I had in perusing your high-spirited
+     Turkish fragment. But I should hardly have ventured to offer
+     them, well knowing how you must be overwhelmed by volunteer
+     intrusions of approbation (which always look as if the
+     writer valued his opinion at fully more than it may be
+     worth) unless I had to-day learned that I have an apology
+     for entering upon the subject, from your having so kindly
+     sent me a copy of the poem. I did not receive it sooner,
+     owing to my absence from Edinburgh, where it had been lying
+     quietly at my house in Castle Street; so that I must have
+     seemed ungrateful, when, in truth, I was only modest. The
+     last offence may be forgiven, as not common in a lawyer
+     <span class="pagenum"><a id="page025" name="page025"></a>(p. 025)</span> and poet; the first is said to be equal to the
+     crime of witchcraft, but many an act of my life hath shown
+     that I am no conjurer. If I were, however, ten times more
+     modest than twenty years' attendance at the Bar renders
+     probable, your flattering inscription would cure me of so
+     unfashionable a malady. I might, indeed, lately have had a
+     legal title to as much supremacy on Parnassus as can be
+     conferred by a sign-manual, for I had a very flattering
+     offer of the laurel; but as I felt obliged, for a great many
+     reasons, to decline it, I am altogether unconscious of any
+     other title to sit high upon the forked hill.</p>
+
+<p>     To return to The Giaour; I had lent my first edition, but
+     the whole being imprinted in my memory, I had no difficulty
+     in tracing the additions, which are great improvements, as I
+     should have conjectured aforehand merely from their being
+     additions. I hope your Lordship intends to proceed with this
+     fascinating style of composition. You have access to a
+     stream of sentiments, imagery, and manners, which are so
+     little known to us as to convey all the interest of novelty,
+     yet so endeared to us by the early perusal of Eastern tales,
+     that we are not embarrassed with utter ignorance upon the
+     subject. Vathek, bating some passages, would have made a
+     charming subject for a tale. The conclusion is truly grand.
+     I would give a great deal to know the originals from which
+     it was drawn. Excuse this hasty scrawl, and believe me, my
+     Lord, your Lordship's much obliged, very humble servant,</p>
+
+<p class="left50 smcap">Walter Scott.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>If January brought the writer of this letter "disappointment," there
+was abundant consolation in store for February, 1815. Guy Mannering
+was received with eager curiosity, and pronounced by acclamation fully
+worthy to share the honors of Waverley. The easy transparent flow of
+its style; the beautiful simplicity, and here and there the wild
+solemn magnificence of its <span class="pagenum"><a id="page026" name="page026"></a>(p. 026)</span> sketches of scenery; the rapid,
+ever heightening interest of the narrative; the unaffected kindliness
+of feeling, the manly purity of thought, everywhere mingled with a
+gentle humor and a homely sagacity; but, above all, the rich variety
+and skilful contrast of characters and manners, at once fresh in
+fiction, and stamped with the unforgeable seal of truth and nature:
+these were charms that spoke to every heart and mind; and the few
+murmurs of pedantic criticism were lost in the voice of general
+delight, which never fails to welcome the invention that introduces to
+the sympathy of imagination a new group of immortal realities.</p>
+
+<p>The earlier chapters of the present narrative have anticipated much of
+what I might, perhaps with better judgment, have reserved for this
+page. Taken together with the author's Introduction and Notes, those
+anecdotes of his days of youthful wandering must, however, have
+enabled the reader to trace almost as minutely as he could wish, the
+sources from which the novelist drew his materials, both of scenery
+and character; and the Durham Garland, which I print in the Appendix
+to this volume, exhausts my information concerning the humble
+groundwork on which fancy reared this delicious romance.<a id="footnotetag10" name="footnotetag10"></a><a href="#footnote10" title="Go to footnote 10"><span class="small">[10]</span></a></p>
+
+<p>The first edition was, like that of Waverley, in three little volumes,
+with a humility of paper and printing which the meanest novelist would
+now disdain to imitate; <span class="pagenum"><a id="page027" name="page027"></a>(p. 027)</span> the price a guinea. The 2000 copies
+of which it consisted were sold the day after the publication; and
+within three months came a second and a third impression, making
+together 5000 copies more. The sale, before those novels began to be
+collected, had reached nearly 10,000; and since then (to say nothing
+of foreign reprints of the text, and myriads of translations into
+every tongue of Europe) the domestic sale has amounted to 50,000.</p>
+
+<p>On the rising of the Court of Session in March, Mr. and Mrs. Scott
+went by sea to London with their eldest girl, whom, being yet too
+young for general society, they again deposited with Joanna Baillie at
+Hampstead, while they themselves resumed, for two months, their usual
+quarters at kind Miss Dumergue's in Piccadilly. Six years had elapsed
+since Scott last appeared in the metropolis; and brilliant as his
+reception had then been, it was still more so on the present occasion.
+Scotland had been visited in the interim, chiefly from the interest
+excited by his writings, by crowds of the English nobility, most of
+whom had found introduction to his personal acquaintance&mdash;not a few
+had partaken of his hospitality at Ashestiel or Abbotsford. The
+generation among whom, I presume, a genius of this order feels his own
+influence with the proudest and sweetest confidence&mdash;on whose fresh
+minds and ears he has himself made the first indelible
+impressions&mdash;the generation with whose earliest romance of the heart
+and fancy his idea had been blended, was now grown to the full
+stature; the success of these recent novels, seen on every table, the
+subject of every conversation, had, with those who did not doubt their
+parentage, far more than counterweighed his declination, dubious after
+all, in the poetical balance; while the mystery that hung over them
+quickened the curiosity of the hesitating and conjecturing many&mdash;and
+the name on which ever and anon some new circumstance accumulated
+stronger suspicion, loomed larger through the <span class="pagenum"><a id="page028" name="page028"></a>(p. 028)</span> haze in which
+he had thought fit to envelop it. Moreover, this was a period of high
+national pride and excitement.</p>
+
+<div class="poem10">
+<p>"O who that shared them ever shall forget<br>
+    The emotions of the spirit-rousing time,<br>
+    When breathless in the mart the couriers met,<br>
+    Early and late, at evening and at prime;<br>
+    When the loud cannon and the merry chime<br>
+    Hail'd news on news, as field on field was won,<br>
+    When Hope, long doubtful, soared at length sublime,<br>
+    And our glad eyes, awake as day begun,<br>
+<span class="min1em">Watch'd Joy's broad banner rise, to meet the rising sun?</span></p>
+
+<p>"O these were hours, when thrilling joy repaid<br>
+    A long, long course of darkness, doubts, and fears!<br>
+    The heart-sick faintness of the hope delayed,<br>
+    The waste, the woe, the bloodshed, and the tears<br>
+    That tracked with terror twenty rolling years&mdash;<br>
+    All was forgot in that blithe jubilee.<br>
+    Her downcast eye even pale Affliction rears,<br>
+    To sigh a thankful prayer amid the glee<br>
+<span class="min1em">That hailed the Despot's fall, and peace and liberty!"<a id="footnotetag11" name="footnotetag11"></a><a href="#footnote11" title="Go to footnote 11"><span class="small">[11]</span></a></span></p>
+</div>
+
+<p>At such a time, Prince and people were well prepared to hail him who,
+more perhaps than any other master of the pen, had contributed to
+sustain the spirit of England throughout the struggle, which was as
+yet supposed to have been terminated on the field of Toulouse. "Thank
+Heaven you are coming at last!" Joanna Baillie had written a month or
+two before. "Make up your mind to be stared at only a little less than
+the Czar of Muscovy, or old Blücher."</p>
+
+<p>And now took place James Ballantyne's "mighty consummation of the
+meeting of the two bards." Scott's own account of it, in a letter to
+Mr. Moore, must have been seen by most of my readers; yet I think it
+ought also to find a place here. He says:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"It was in the spring of 1815, that, chancing to be in London, I had
+the advantage of a personal introduction <span class="pagenum"><a id="page029" name="page029"></a>(p. 029)</span> to Lord Byron.
+Report had prepared me to meet a man of peculiar habits and a quick
+temper, and I had some doubts whether we were likely to suit each
+other in society. I was most agreeably disappointed in this respect. I
+found Lord Byron in the highest degree courteous, and even kind. We
+met for an hour or two almost daily, in Mr. Murray's drawing-room, and
+found a great deal to say to each other.<a id="footnotetag12" name="footnotetag12"></a><a href="#footnote12" title="Go to footnote 12"><span class="small">[12]</span></a> We also met frequently in
+parties and evening society, so that for about two months I had the
+advantage of a considerable intimacy with this distinguished
+individual. Our sentiments agreed a good deal, except upon the
+subjects of religion and politics, upon neither of which I was
+inclined to believe that Lord Byron entertained very fixed opinions. I
+remember saying to him, that I really thought that if he lived a few
+years he would alter his sentiments. He answered, rather sharply, 'I
+suppose you are one of those who prophesy I shall turn Methodist.' I
+replied: 'No, I don't expect your conversion to be of such an ordinary
+kind. I would rather look to see you retreat upon the Catholic faith,
+and distinguish yourself by the austerity of your penances. The
+species of religion to which you must, or may, one day attach
+yourself, must exercise a strong power on the imagination.' He smiled
+gravely, and seemed to allow I might be right.</p>
+
+<p>"On politics, he used sometimes to express a high strain of what is
+now called Liberalism; but it appeared to me that the pleasure it
+afforded him, as a vehicle for displaying his wit and satire against
+individuals in office, was at the bottom of this habit of thinking,
+rather than any real conviction of the political principles on which
+he talked. He was certainly proud of his rank and ancient family, and,
+in that respect, as much an aristocrat <span class="pagenum"><a id="page030" name="page030"></a>(p. 030)</span> as was consistent
+with good sense and good breeding. Some disgusts, how adopted I know
+not, seemed to me to have given this peculiar and (as it appeared to
+me) contradictory cast of mind; but, at heart, I would have termed
+Byron a patrician on principle.</p>
+
+<p>"Lord Byron's reading did not seem to me to have been very extensive,
+either in poetry or history. Having the advantage of him in that
+respect, and possessing a good competent share of such reading as is
+little read, I was sometimes able to put under his eye objects which
+had for him the interest of novelty. I remember particularly repeating
+to him the fine poem of Hardyknute, an imitation of the old Scottish
+ballad, with which he was so much affected, that some one who was in
+the same apartment asked me what I could possibly have been telling
+Byron by which he was so much agitated.</p>
+
+<p>"I saw Byron for the last time in 1815, after I returned from France.
+He dined, or lunched, with me at Long's, in Bond Street. I never saw
+him so full of gayety and good-humor, to which the presence of Mr.
+Mathews, the comedian, added not a little. Poor Terry was also
+present. After one of the gayest parties I ever was present at, my
+fellow-traveller, Mr. Scott of Gala, and I set off for Scotland, and I
+never saw Lord Byron again. Several letters passed between us&mdash;one
+perhaps every half-year. Like the old heroes in Homer, we exchanged
+gifts. I gave Byron a beautiful dagger mounted with gold, which had
+been the property of the redoubted Elfi Bey. But I was to play the
+part of Diomed in the Iliad, for Byron sent me, some time after, a
+large sepulchral vase of silver. It was full of dead men's bones, and
+had inscriptions on two sides of the base. One ran thus: 'The bones
+contained in this urn were found in certain ancient sepulchres within
+the long walls of Athens, in the month of February, 1811.' The other
+face bears the lines of Juvenal: '<span class="italic">Expende&mdash;quot libras in duce summo
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page031" name="page031"></a>(p. 031)</span> invenies?&mdash;Mors sola fatetur quantula sint hominum
+corpuscula.</span>'</p>
+
+<p>"To these I have added a third inscription, in these words, 'The gift
+of Lord Byron to Walter Scott.'<a id="footnotetag13" name="footnotetag13"></a><a href="#footnote13" title="Go to footnote 13"><span class="small">[13]</span></a> There was a letter with this vase,
+more valuable to me than the gift itself, from the kindness with which
+the donor expressed himself towards me. I left it naturally in the urn
+with the bones; but it is now missing. As the theft was not of a
+nature to be practised by a mere domestic, I am compelled to suspect
+the inhospitality of some individual of higher station, most
+gratuitously exercised certainly, since, after what I have here said,
+no one will probably choose to boast of possessing this literary
+curiosity.</p>
+
+<p>"We had a good deal of laughing, I remember, on what the public might
+be supposed to think, or say, concerning the gloomy and ominous nature
+of our mutual gifts.</p>
+
+<p>"I think I can add little more to my recollections of Byron. He was
+often melancholy&mdash;almost gloomy. When I observed him in this humor, I
+used either to wait till it went off of its own accord, or till some
+natural and easy mode occurred of leading him into conversation, when
+the shadows almost always left his countenance, like the mist rising
+from a landscape. In conversation he was very animated.</p>
+
+<p>"I met with him very frequently in society; our mutual acquaintances
+doing me the honor to think that he liked to meet with me. Some very
+agreeable parties I can recollect&mdash;particularly one at Sir George
+Beaumont's&mdash;where the amiable landlord had assembled some persons
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page032" name="page032"></a>(p. 032)</span> distinguished for talent. Of these I need only mention the
+late Sir Humphry Davy, whose talents for literature were as remarkable
+as his empire over science. Mr. Richard Sharpe and Mr. Rogers were
+also present.</p>
+
+<p>"I think I also remarked in Byron's temper starts of suspicion, when
+he seemed to pause and consider whether there had not been a secret,
+and perhaps offensive, meaning in something casually said to him. In
+this case, I also judged it best to let his mind, like a troubled
+spring, work itself clear, which it did in a minute or two. I was
+considerably older, you will recollect, than my noble friend, and had
+no reason to fear his misconstruing my sentiments towards him, nor had
+I ever the slightest reason to doubt that they were kindly returned on
+his part. If I had occasion to be mortified by the display of genius
+which threw into the shade such pretensions as I was then supposed to
+possess, I might console myself that, in my own case, the materials of
+mental happiness had been mingled in a greater proportion.</p>
+
+<p>"I rummage my brains in vain for what often rushes into my head
+unbidden&mdash;little traits and sayings which recall his looks, manner,
+tone, and gestures; and I have always continued to think that a crisis
+of life was arrived, in which a new career of fame was opened to him,
+and that had he been permitted to start upon it, he would have
+obliterated the memory of such parts of his life as friends would wish
+to forget."</p>
+
+<p>I have nothing to add to this interesting passage, except that Joanna
+Baillie's tragedy of The Family Legend being performed at one of the
+theatres during Scott's stay in town, Lord Byron accompanied the
+authoress and Mr. and Mrs. Scott to witness the representation; and
+that the vase with the Attic bones appears to have been sent to Scott
+very soon after his arrival in London, not, as Mr. Moore had gathered
+from the hasty diction of his Reminiscences, at some "subsequent
+period of their acquaintance." <span class="pagenum"><a id="page033" name="page033"></a>(p. 033)</span> This is sufficiently proved
+by the following note:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="quote">
+<p class="tit-center">TO THE RIGHT HONORABLE LORD BYRON, ETC., ETC.</p>
+<p class="left50">PICCADILLY, MONDAY.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">My dear Lord</span>,&mdash;I am not a little ashamed of the value of the
+     shrine in which your Lordship has enclosed the Attic relics;
+     but were it yet more costly, the circumstance could not add
+     value to it in my estimation, when considered as a pledge of
+     your Lordship's regard and friendship. The principal
+     pleasure which I have derived from my connection with
+     literature has been the access which it has given me to
+     those who are distinguished by talents and accomplishments;
+     and, standing so high as your Lordship justly does in that
+     rank, my satisfaction in making your acquaintance has been
+     proportionally great. It is one of those wishes which, after
+     having been long and earnestly entertained, I have found
+     completely gratified upon becoming personally known to you;
+     and I trust you will permit me to profit by it frequently,
+     during my stay in town. I am, my dear Lord, your truly
+     obliged and faithful</p>
+
+<p class="left50 smcap">Walter Scott.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>It was also in the spring of 1815 that Scott had, for the first time,
+the honor of being presented to the Prince Regent. His Royal Highness
+had (as has been seen from a letter to Joanna Baillie, already quoted)
+signified, more than a year before this time, his wish that the poet
+should revisit London&mdash;and, on reading his Edinburgh Address in
+particular, he said to Mr. Dundas, that "Walter Scott's charming
+behavior about the laureateship had made him doubly desirous of seeing
+him at Carlton House." More lately, on receiving a copy of The Lord of
+the Isles, his Royal Highness's librarian had been commanded to write
+to him in these terms:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="quote">
+<p class="tit-center"><span class="pagenum"><a id="page034" name="page034"></a>(p. 034)</span> TO WALTER SCOTT, ESQ., EDINBURGH.</p>
+<p class="left50"><span class="smcap">Carlton House</span>, January 19, 1815.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">My dear Sir</span>,&mdash;You are deservedly so great a favorite with
+     the Prince Regent, that his librarian is not only directed
+     to return you the thanks of his Royal Highness for your
+     valuable present, but to inform you that the Prince Regent
+     particularly wishes to see you whenever you come to London;
+     and desires you will always, when you are there, come into
+     his library whenever you please. Believe me always, with
+     sincerity, one of your warmest admirers, and most obliged
+     friends,</p>
+
+<p class="left50 smcap">J. S. Clarke.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>On hearing from Mr. Croker (then Secretary to the Admiralty) that
+Scott was to be in town by the middle of March, the Prince said, "Let
+me know when he comes, and I'll get up a snug little dinner that will
+suit him;" and, after he had been presented and graciously received at
+the levee, he was invited to dinner accordingly, through his excellent
+friend Mr. Adam (now Lord Chief Commissioner of the Jury Court in
+Scotland),<a id="footnotetag14" name="footnotetag14"></a><a href="#footnote14" title="Go to footnote 14"><span class="small">[14]</span></a> who at that time held a confidential office in the
+royal household. The Regent had consulted with Mr. Adam also as to the
+composition of the party. "Let us have," said he, "just a few friends
+of his own&mdash;and the more Scotch the better;" and both the Chief
+Commissioner and Mr. Croker assure me that the party was the most
+interesting and agreeable one in their recollection. It comprised, I
+believe, the Duke of York&mdash;the late Duke of Gordon (then Marquis of
+Huntly)&mdash;the Marquis of Hertford (then Lord Yarmouth)&mdash;the Earl of
+Fife&mdash;and <span class="pagenum"><a id="page035" name="page035"></a>(p. 035)</span> Scott's early friend Lord Melville. "The Prince
+and Scott," says Mr. Croker, "were the two most brilliant
+story-tellers in their several ways, that I have ever happened to
+meet; they were both aware of their <span class="italic">forte</span>, and both exerted
+themselves that evening with delightful effect. On going home, I
+really could not decide which of them had shone the most. The Regent
+was enchanted with Scott, as Scott with him; and on all his subsequent
+visits to London, he was a frequent guest at the royal table." The
+Lord Chief Commissioner remembers that the Prince was particularly
+delighted with the poet's anecdotes of the old Scotch judges and
+lawyers, which his Royal Highness sometimes <span class="italic">capped</span> by ludicrous
+traits of certain ermined sages of his own acquaintance. Scott told,
+among others, a story, which he was fond of telling; and the
+commentary of his Royal Highness on hearing it amused Scott, who often
+mentioned it afterwards. The anecdote is this: A certain Judge,
+whenever he went on a particular circuit, was in the habit of visiting
+a gentleman of good fortune in the neighborhood of one of the assize
+towns, and staying at least one night, which, being both of them
+ardent chess-players, they usually concluded with their favorite game.
+One Spring circuit the battle was not decided at daybreak, so the
+Judge said, "Weel, Donald, I must e'en come back this gate in the
+harvest, and let the game lie ower for the present;" and back he came
+in October, but not to his old friend's hospitable house; for that
+gentleman had, in the interim, been apprehended on a capital charge
+(of forgery), and his name stood on the <span class="italic">Porteous Roll</span>, or list of
+those who were about to be tried under his former guest's auspices.
+The laird was indicted and tried accordingly, and the jury returned a
+verdict of <span class="italic">guilty</span>. The Judge forthwith put on his cocked hat (which
+answers to the black cap in England), and pronounced the sentence of
+the law in the usual terms: "To be hanged by the neck until you be
+dead; and may the Lord have <span class="pagenum"><a id="page036" name="page036"></a>(p. 036)</span> mercy upon your unhappy soul!"
+Having concluded this awful formula in his most sonorous cadence, the
+Judge, dismounting his formidable beaver, gave a familiar nod to his
+unfortunate acquaintance, and said to him in a sort of chuckling
+whisper, "And now, Donald, my man, I think I've checkmated you for
+ance." The Regent laughed heartily at this specimen of judicial humor;
+and "I' faith, Walter," said he, "this old big-wig seems to have taken
+things as coolly as my tyrannical self. Don't you remember Tom Moore's
+description of me at breakfast,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p class="poem20">'The table spread with tea and toast,<br>
+  Death-warrants and the Morning Post?'"</p>
+
+<p>Towards midnight, the Prince called for "a bumper, with all the
+honors, to the Author of Waverley," and looked significantly, as he
+was charging his own glass, to Scott. Scott seemed somewhat puzzled
+for a moment, but instantly recovering himself, and filling his glass
+to the brim, said, "Your Royal Highness looks as if you thought I had
+some claim to the honors of this toast. I have no such pretensions,
+but shall take good care that the real Simon Pure hears of the high
+compliment that has now been paid him." He then drank off his claret,
+and joined in the cheering, which the Prince himself timed. But before
+the company could resume their seats, his Royal Highness exclaimed,
+"Another of the same, if you please, to the Author of Marmion&mdash;and
+now, Walter, my man, I have checkmated you for <span class="italic">ance</span>." The second
+bumper was followed by cheers still more prolonged: and Scott then
+rose and returned thanks in a short address, which struck the Lord
+Chief Commissioner as "alike grave and graceful." This story has been
+circulated in a very perverted shape. I now give it on the authority
+of my venerated friend. He adds, that having occasion, the day after,
+to call on the Duke of York, his Royal Highness said to him: "Upon my
+word, Adam, my brother went rather too near the wind about
+Waverley&mdash;but <span class="pagenum"><a id="page037" name="page037"></a>(p. 037)</span> nobody could have turned the thing more
+prettily than Walter Scott did&mdash;and upon the whole I never had better
+fun."<a id="footnotetag15" name="footnotetag15"></a><a href="#footnote15" title="Go to footnote 15"><span class="small">[15]</span></a></p>
+
+<p>The Regent, as was his custom with those he most delighted to honor,
+uniformly addressed the poet, even at their first dinner, by his
+Christian name, "Walter."</p>
+
+<p>Before he left town, he again dined at Carlton House, when the party
+was a still smaller one than before, and the merriment, if possible,
+still more free. That nothing might be wanting, the Prince sung
+several capital songs in the course of that evening&mdash;as witness the
+lines in Sultan Serendib:<a id="footnotetag16" name="footnotetag16"></a><a href="#footnote16" title="Go to footnote 16"><span class="small">[16]</span></a>&mdash;</p>
+
+<p class="poem10">
+  "I love a Prince will bid the bottle pass,<br>
+  Exchanging with his subjects glance and glass,<br>
+  In fitting time can, gayest of the gay,<br>
+  Keep up the jest and mingle in the lay.<br>
+  Such Monarchs best our freeborn humor suit,<br>
+  But despots must be stately, stern, and mute."<a id="footnotetag17" name="footnotetag17"></a><a href="#footnote17" title="Go to footnote 17"><span class="small">[17]</span></a></p>
+
+<p>Before he returned to Edinburgh, on the 22d of May, the Regent sent
+him a gold snuff-box, set in brilliants, with a medallion of his Royal
+Highness's head on the lid, "as a testimony" (writes Mr. Adam, in
+transmitting it) "of the high opinion his Royal Highness entertains of
+your genius and merit."</p>
+
+<p>I transcribe what follows from James Ballantyne's <span class="italic">Memoranda</span>:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p class="quote">"After Mr. Scott's first interview with his Sovereign, one
+     or two intimate friends took the liberty of inquiring, what
+     judgment he had formed of the Regent's talents? He declined
+     <span class="pagenum"><a id="page038" name="page038"></a>(p. 038)</span> giving any definite answer&mdash;but repeated that 'he
+     was the first gentleman he had seen&mdash;certainly the first
+     <span class="italic">English</span> gentleman of his day;&mdash;there was something about
+     him which, independently of the <span class="italic">prestige</span>, the "divinity,
+     which hedges a King," marked him as standing entirely by
+     himself; but as to his abilities, spoken of as distinct from
+     his charming manners, how could any one form a fair judgment
+     of that man who introduced whatever subject he chose,
+     discussed it just as long as he chose, and dismissed it when
+     he chose?'"</p>
+
+<p>Ballantyne adds:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p class="quote">"What I have now to say is more important, not only in
+     itself, but as it will enable you to give a final
+     contradiction to an injurious report which has been in
+     circulation; namely, that the Regent asked him as to the
+     authorship of Waverley, and received a distinct and solemn
+     denial. I took the bold freedom of requesting to know <span class="italic">from
+     him</span> whether his Royal Highness had questioned him on that
+     subject, and what had been his answer. He glanced at me with
+     a look of mild surprise, and said, 'What answer I might have
+     made to such a question, put to me by my Sovereign, perhaps
+     I do not, or rather perhaps I do know; but I was never put
+     to the test. He is far too well-bred a man ever to put so
+     ill-bred a question.'"</p>
+
+<p>The account I have already given of the convivial scene alluded to
+would probably have been sufficient; but it can do no harm to place
+Ballantyne's, or rather Scott's own testimony, also on record.</p>
+
+<p>I ought not to have omitted, that during Scott's residence in London,
+in April, 1815, he lost one of the English friends, to a meeting with
+whom he had looked forward with the highest pleasure. Mr. George Ellis
+died on the 15th of that month, at his seat of Sunning Hill. This
+threw a cloud over what would otherwise have been a period of unmixed
+enjoyment. Mr. Canning penned the epitaph for that dearest of his
+friends, but he submitted it to Scott's consideration before it was
+engraved.<a href="#toc"><span class="small">[Back to Contents]</span></a></p>
+
+
+
+
+<h3><span class="pagenum"><a id="page039" name="page039"></a>(p. 039)</span> CHAPTER XXXV.</h3>
+
+<p class="summary">battle of waterloo. &mdash; letter of sir charles bell. &mdash; visit
+     to the continent. &mdash; waterloo. &mdash; letters from brussels and
+     paris. &mdash; anecdotes of scott at paris. &mdash; the duke of
+     wellington. &mdash; the emperor alexander. &mdash; blücher. &mdash;
+     platoff. &mdash; party at ermenonville, etc. &mdash; london. &mdash;
+     parting with lord byron. &mdash; scott's sheffield knife. &mdash;
+     return to abbotsford. &mdash; anecdotes by mr. skene and james
+     ballantyne.</p>
+
+<p class="center">1815.</p>
+
+
+<p>Goethe expressed, I fancy, a very general sentiment, when he said,
+that to him the great charm and value of my friend's Life of
+Buonaparte seemed quite independent of the question of its accuracy as
+to small details; that he turned eagerly to the book, not to find
+dates sifted, and countermarches analyzed, but to contemplate what
+could not but be a true record of the broad impressions made on the
+mind of Scott by the marvellous revolutions of his own time in their
+progress. Feeling how justly in the main that work has preserved those
+impressions, though gracefully softened and sobered in the retrospect
+of peaceful and more advanced years, I the less regret that I have it
+not in my power to quote any letters of his touching the reappearance
+of Napoleon on the soil of France&mdash;the immortal march from Cannes&mdash;the
+reign of the Hundred Days, and the preparations for another struggle,
+which fixed the gaze of Europe in May, 1815.</p>
+
+<p>That he should have been among the first civilians <span class="pagenum"><a id="page040" name="page040"></a>(p. 040)</span> who
+hurried over to see the field of Waterloo, and hear English bugles
+sound about the walls of Paris, could have surprised none who knew the
+lively concern he had always taken in the military efforts of his
+countrymen, and the career of the illustrious captain, who had taught
+them to reëstablish the renown of Agincourt and Blenheim,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p class="poem30">"Victor of Assaye's Eastern plain,<br>
+  Victor of all the fields of Spain."</p>
+
+<p>I had often heard him say, however, that his determination was, if not
+fixed, much quickened by a letter of an old acquaintance of his, who
+had, on the arrival of the news of the 18th of June, instantly
+repaired to Brussels, to tender his professional skill in aid of the
+overburdened medical staff of the conqueror's army. When, therefore, I
+found the letter in question preserved among Scott's papers, I perused
+it with a peculiar interest; and I now venture, with the writer's
+permission, to present it to the reader. It was addressed by Sir
+Charles Bell to his brother, an eminent barrister in Edinburgh, who
+transmitted it to Scott. "When I read it," said he, "it set me on
+fire." The marriage of Miss Maclean Clephane of Torloisk with the Earl
+Compton (now Marquis of Northampton), which took place on the 24th of
+July, was in fact the only cause why he did not leave Scotland
+instantly; for that dear young friend had chosen Scott for her
+guardian, and on him accordingly devolved the chief care of the
+arrangements on this occasion. The extract sent to him by Mr. George
+Joseph Bell is as follows:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="quote">
+<p class="left50">"<span class="smcap">Brussels</span>, 2d July, 1815.</p>
+
+<p>"This country, the finest in the world, has been of late
+     quite out of our minds. I did not, in any degree, anticipate
+     the pleasure I should enjoy, the admiration forced from me,
+     on coming into one of these antique towns, or in journeying
+     through the rich garden. Can you recollect the time when
+     there were gentlemen meeting at the Cross of Edinburgh, or
+     those whom we thought such? They are all collected here.
+     <span class="pagenum"><a id="page041" name="page041"></a>(p. 041)</span> You see the very men, with their scraggy necks
+     sticking out of the collars of their old-fashioned
+     square-skirted coats&mdash;their canes&mdash;their cocked-hats; and,
+     when they meet, the formal bow, the hat off to the ground,
+     and the powder flying in the wind. I could divert you with
+     the odd resemblances of the Scottish faces among the
+     peasants, too&mdash;but I noted <span class="italic">them</span> at the time with my
+     pencil, and I write to you only of things that you won't
+     find in my pocket-book.</p>
+
+<p>"I have just returned from seeing the French wounded
+     received in their hospital; and could you see them laid out
+     naked, or almost so&mdash;100 in a row of low beds on the
+     ground&mdash;though wounded, exhausted, beaten, you would still
+     conclude with me that these were men capable of marching
+     unopposed from the west of Europe to the east of Asia.
+     Strong, thickset, hardy veterans, brave spirits and
+     unsubdued, as they cast their wild glance upon you,&mdash;their
+     black eyes and brown cheeks finely contrasted with the fresh
+     sheets,&mdash;you would much admire their capacity of adaptation.
+     These fellows are brought from the field after lying many
+     days on the ground; many dying&mdash;many in the agony&mdash;many
+     miserably racked with pain and spasms; and the next mimics
+     his fellow, and gives it a tune,&mdash;<span class="italic" lang="fr">Aha, vous chantez bien!</span>
+     How they are wounded you will see in my notes. But I must
+     not have you to lose the present impression on me of the
+     formidable nature of these fellows as exemplars of the breed
+     in France. It is a forced praise; for from all I have seen,
+     and all I have heard of their fierceness, cruelty, and
+     bloodthirstiness, I cannot convey to you my detestation of
+     this race of trained banditti. By what means they are to be
+     kept in subjection until other habits come upon them, I know
+     not; but I am convinced that these men cannot be left to the
+     bent of their propensities.</p>
+
+<p>"This superb city is now ornamented with the finest groups
+     of armed men that the most romantic fancy could dream of. I
+     was struck with the words of a friend&mdash;E. 'I saw,' said he,
+     '<span class="italic">that</span> man returning from the field on the 16th.' (This was
+     a Brunswicker, of the Black or Death Hussars.) 'He was
+     wounded, and had had his arm amputated on the field. He was
+     among the first that came in. He rode straight and stark
+     upon his horse&mdash;the bloody clouts about his stump&mdash;pale as
+     death, but upright, with a stern, fixed expression of
+     <span class="pagenum"><a id="page042" name="page042"></a>(p. 042)</span> feature, as if loath to lose his revenge.' These
+     troops are very remarkable in their fine military
+     appearance; their dark and ominous dress sets off to
+     advantage their strong, manly, northern features and white
+     mustachios; and there is something more than commonly
+     impressive about the whole effect.</p>
+
+<p>"This is the second Sunday after the battle, and many are
+     not yet dressed. There are 20,000 wounded in this town,
+     besides those in the hospitals, and the many in the other
+     towns;&mdash;only 3000 prisoners; 80,000, they say, killed and
+     wounded on both sides."</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>I think it not wonderful that this extract should have set Scott's
+imagination effectually on fire; that he should have grasped at the
+idea of seeing probably the last shadows of real warfare that his own
+age would afford; or that some parts of the great surgeon's simple
+phraseology are reproduced, almost verbatim, in the first of Paul's
+Letters to his Kinsfolk. No sooner was Scott's purpose known, than
+some of his young neighbors in the country proposed to join his
+excursion; and, in company with three of them, namely, his kinsman,
+John Scott of Gala, Alexander Pringle, the younger, of Whytbank (now
+M. P. for Selkirkshire), and Robert Bruce, advocate (now Sheriff of
+Argyle), he left Edinburgh for the south, at 5. <span class="smcap">A. M.</span> on the 27th of
+July.</p>
+
+<p>They travelled by the stage-coach, and took the route of Hull and
+Lincoln to Cambridge; for Gala and Whytbank, being both members of
+that university, were anxious to seize this opportunity of revisiting
+it themselves, and showing its beautiful architecture to their friend.
+After this wish had been gratified, they proceeded to Harwich, and
+thence, on the 3d of August, took ship for Helvoetsluys.</p>
+
+<p class="quote">"The weather was beautiful," says Gala, "so we all went
+     outside the coach from Cambridge to Harwich. At starting,
+     there was a general complaint of thirst, the consequence of
+     some experiments overnight on the celebrated <span class="italic">bishop</span> of my
+     <span class="italic">Alma Mater</span>; our friend, however, was in great glee, and
+     <span class="pagenum"><a id="page043" name="page043"></a>(p. 043)</span> never was a merrier <span class="italic">basket</span> than he made it all
+     the morning. He had cautioned us, on leaving Edinburgh,
+     never to <span class="italic">name names</span> in such situations, and our adherence
+     to this rule was rewarded by some amusing incidents. For
+     example, as we entered the town where we were to dine, a
+     heavy-looking man, who was to stop there, took occasion to
+     thank Scott for the pleasure his anecdotes had afforded him:
+     'You have a good memory, sir,' said he; 'mayhap, now, you
+     sometimes write down what you hear or be a-reading about?'
+     He answered, very gravely, that he did occasionally put down
+     a <span class="italic">few</span> notes, if anything struck him particularly. In the
+     afternoon, it happened that he sat on the box, while the
+     rest of us were behind him. Here, by degrees, he became
+     quite absorbed in his own reflections. He frequently
+     repeated to himself, or <span class="italic">composed</span> perhaps, for a good
+     while, and often smiled or raised his hand, seeming
+     completely occupied and amused. His neighbor, a vastly
+     scientific and rather grave professor, in a smooth drab
+     Benjamin and broad-brimmed beaver, cast many a curious
+     sidelong glance at him, evidently suspecting that all was
+     not right with the upper story, but preserved perfect
+     politeness. The poet was, however, discovered by the captain
+     of the vessel in which we crossed the Channel;&mdash;and a
+     perilous passage it was, chiefly in consequence of the
+     unceasing tumblers in which this worthy kept drinking his
+     health."</p>
+
+<p>Before leaving Edinburgh, Scott had settled in his mind the plan of
+Paul's Letters; for on that same day, his agent, John Ballantyne,
+addressed the following letter, from his marine villa near Newhaven:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="quote">
+<p class="tit-center">TO MESSRS. CONSTABLE &amp; CO.</p>
+
+<p class="left50"><span class="smcap">Trinity</span>, 27th July, 1815.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Dear Sirs</span>,&mdash;Mr. Scott left town to-day for the Continent. He
+     proposes writing from thence a series of letters on a
+     peculiar plan, varied in matter and style, and to different
+     supposititious correspondents.</p>
+
+<p>The work is to form a demy 8vo volume of twenty-two sheets,
+     to sell at 12s. It is to be begun immediately on his arrival
+     in France, and to be published, if possible, the second week
+     of September, when he proposes to return.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page044" name="page044"></a>(p. 044)</span> We print 3000 of this, and I am empowered to offer
+     you one third of the edition, Messrs. Longman &amp; Co. and Mr.
+     Murray having each the same share: the terms, twelve months'
+     acceptance for paper and print, and half profits at six
+     months, granted now as under. The over copies will pay the
+     charge for advertising, I am, etc.,</p>
+
+<p class="left50 smcap">John Ballantyne.</p>
+
+<table  border="0" cellpadding="0" summary="Charges.">
+<colgroup>
+    <col width="10%">
+    <col width="20%">
+    <col width="5%">
+    <col width="15%">
+    <col width="50%">
+</colgroup>
+<tr>
+<td class="center" colspan="3"><span class="italic">Charge</span>&mdash;</td>
+<td colspan="2">&nbsp;</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="right">22 </td>
+<td>sheets printing,</td>
+<td>&mdash;</td>
+<td class="right">£3 15 0</td>
+<td class="right">£82 10 0</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="right">145 </td>
+<td>reams demy,</td>
+<td>&mdash;</td>
+<td class="right">1 10 0</td>
+<td class="right">217 10 0</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td colspan="4">&nbsp;</td>
+<td class="right">&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td colspan="4">&nbsp;</td>
+<td class="right">£300&nbsp;&nbsp; 0 0</td>
+</tr>
+</table>
+
+<table  border="0" cellpadding="0" summary="Charges.">
+<colgroup>
+    <col width="15%">
+    <col width="20%">
+    <col width="65%">
+</colgroup>
+<tr>
+<td class="right">3000 at 8s.</td>
+<td class="right">£1200 0 0</td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="right">Cost,</td>
+<td class="right">300 0 0</td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="right">&nbsp;</td>
+<td class="right">&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;</td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="right">&nbsp;</td>
+<td class="right">£900 0 0</td>
+<td>&nbsp;profit&mdash;One half is £450.</td>
+</tr>
+</table>
+</div>
+
+<p>Before Scott reached Harwich, he knew that this offer had been
+accepted without hesitation; and thenceforth, accordingly, he threw
+his daily letters to his wife into the form of communications meant
+for an imaginary group, consisting of a spinster sister, a statistical
+laird, a rural clergyman of the Presbyterian Kirk, and a brother, a
+veteran officer on half-pay. The rank of this last personage
+corresponded, however, exactly with that of his own elder brother,
+John Scott, who also, like the Major of the book, had served in the
+Duke of York's unfortunate campaign of 1797; the sister is only a
+slender disguise for his aunt Christian Rutherford, already often
+mentioned; Lord Somerville, long President of the Board of
+Agriculture, was Paul's laird; and the shrewd and unbigoted Dr.
+Douglas of Galashiels was his "minister of the gospel." These
+epistles, after having been devoured by the little circle at
+Abbotsford, were transmitted to Major John Scott, his mother, and Miss
+Rutherford, in Edinburgh; from their hands they passed to those of
+James Ballantyne and Mr. Erskine, both of whom assured me that the
+copy ultimately sent to the press consisted, in great part, of the
+identical sheets that <span class="pagenum"><a id="page045" name="page045"></a>(p. 045)</span> had successively reached Melrose
+through the post. The rest had of course been, as Ballantyne expresses
+it, "somewhat cobbled;" but, on the whole, Paul's Letters are to be
+considered as a true and faithful journal of this expedition;
+insomuch, that I might perhaps content myself, in this place, with a
+simple reference to that delightful volume. He found time, however, to
+write letters during his absence from Britain, to some others of his
+friends; and a specimen or two of these may interest the reader. I
+have also gathered, from the companions of the journey, a few more
+particulars, which Scott's modesty withheld him from recording; and
+some trivial circumstances which occur to me, from recollection of his
+own conversation, may also be acceptable.</p>
+
+<p>But I hope that, if the reader has not perused Paul's Letters
+recently, he will refresh his memory, before he proceeds further, by
+bestowing an hour on that genuine fragment of the author's
+autobiography. He is now, unless he had the advantage of Scott's
+personal familiarity, much better acquainted with the man than he
+could have been before he took up this compilation of his private
+correspondence&mdash;and especially before he perused the full diary of the
+lighthouse yacht in 1814; and a thousand little turns and
+circumstances which may have, when he originally read the book, passed
+lightly before his eye, will now, I venture to say, possess a warm and
+vivid interest, as inimitably characteristic of a departed friend. The
+kindest of husbands and fathers never portrayed himself with more
+unaffected truth than in this vain effort, if such he really fancied
+he was making, to sustain the character of "a cross old bachelor." The
+whole man, just as he was, breathes in every line, with all his
+compassionate and benevolent sympathy of heart, all his sharpness of
+observation, and sober shrewdness of reflection; all his enthusiasm
+for nature, for country life, for simple manners and simple pleasures,
+mixed up with an equally glowing enthusiasm, at which many may
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page046" name="page046"></a>(p. 046)</span> smile, for the tiniest relics of feudal antiquity&mdash;and last,
+not least, a pulse of physical rapture for the "circumstance of war,"
+which bears witness to the blood of <span class="italic">Boltfoot</span> and <span class="italic">Fire-the-Braes</span>.</p>
+
+<p>At Brussels, Scott found the small English garrison left there in
+command of Major-General Sir Frederick Adam, the son of his highly
+valued friend, the Lord Chief Commissioner. Sir Frederick had been
+wounded at Waterloo, and could not as yet mount on horseback; but one
+of his aides-de-camp, Captain Campbell, escorted Scott and his party
+to the field of battle, on which occasion they were also accompanied
+by another old acquaintance of his, Major Pryse Gordon, who being then
+on half-pay, happened to be domesticated with his family at Brussels.
+Major Gordon has since published two lively volumes of Personal
+Memoirs; and Gala bears witness to the fidelity of certain
+reminiscences of Scott at Brussels and Waterloo, which occupy one of
+the chapters of this work. I shall, therefore, extract the passage:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="quote">
+<p>"Sir Walter Scott accepted my services to conduct him to
+     Waterloo: the General's aide-de-camp was also of the party.
+     He made no secret of his having undertaken to write
+     something on the battle; and perhaps he took the greater
+     interest on this account in everything that he saw. Besides,
+     he had never seen the field of such a conflict; and never
+     having been before on the Continent, it was all new to his
+     comprehensive mind. The day was beautiful; and I had the
+     precaution to send out a couple of saddle-horses, that he
+     might not be fatigued in walking over the fields, which had
+     been recently ploughed up. In our rounds we fell in with
+     Monsieur de Costar, with whom he got into conversation. This
+     man had attracted so much notice by his pretended story of
+     being about the person of Napoleon, that he was of too much
+     importance to be passed by: I did not, indeed, know as much
+     of this fellow's charlatanism at that time as afterwards,
+     when I saw him confronted with a blacksmith of La Belle
+     Alliance, who had been his companion in a hiding-place ten
+     miles from the field during the whole day; a <span class="pagenum"><a id="page047" name="page047"></a>(p. 047)</span> fact
+     which he could not deny. But he had got up a tale so
+     plausible and so profitable, that he could afford to bestow
+     hush-money on the companion of his flight, so that the
+     imposition was but little known; and strangers continued to
+     be gulled. He had picked up a good deal of information about
+     the positions and details of the battle; and, being
+     naturally a sagacious Walloon, and speaking French pretty
+     fluently, he became the favorite cicerone, and every lie he
+     told was taken for gospel. Year after year, until his death
+     in 1824, he continued his popularity, and raised the price
+     of his rounds from a couple of francs to five; besides as
+     much for the hire of a horse, his own property; for he
+     pretended that the fatigue of walking so many hours was
+     beyond his powers. It has been said that in this way he
+     realized every summer a couple of hundred Napoleons.</p>
+
+<p>"When Sir Walter had examined every point of defence and
+     attack, we adjourned to the 'Original Duke of Wellington' at
+     Waterloo, to lunch after the fatigues of the ride. Here he
+     had a crowded levee of peasants, and collected a great many
+     trophies, from cuirasses down to buttons and bullets. He
+     picked up himself many little relics, and was fortunate in
+     purchasing a grand cross of the Legion of Honor. But the
+     most precious memorial was presented to him by my wife&mdash;a
+     French soldier's book, well stained with blood, and
+     containing some songs popular in the French army, which he
+     found so interesting that he introduced versions of them in
+     his Paul's Letters; of which, he did me the honor to send me
+     a copy, with a letter, saying, 'that he considered my wife's
+     gift as the most valuable of all his Waterloo relics.'</p>
+
+<p>"On our return from the field, he kindly passed the evening
+     with us, and a few friends whom we invited to meet him. He
+     charmed us with his delightful conversation, and was in
+     great spirits from the agreeable day he had passed; and with
+     great good-humor promised to write a stanza in my wife's
+     album. On the following morning he fulfilled his promise by
+     contributing some beautiful verses on Hougomont. I put him
+     into my little library to prevent interruption, as a great
+     many persons had paraded in the <span class="italic" lang="fr">Parc</span> opposite my window to
+     get a peep of the celebrated man, many having dogged him
+     from his hotel.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page048" name="page048"></a>(p. 048)</span> "Brussels affords but little worthy of the notice
+     of such a traveller as the Author of Waverley; but he
+     greatly admired the splendid tower of the Maison de Ville,
+     and the ancient sculpture and style of architecture of the
+     buildings which surround the Grand Place.</p>
+
+<p>"He told us, with great humor, a laughable incident which
+     had occurred to him at Antwerp. The morning after his
+     arrival at that city from Holland, he started at an early
+     hour to visit the tomb of Rubens in the church of St.
+     Jacques, before his party were up. After wandering about for
+     some time, without finding the object he had in view, he
+     determined to make inquiry, and observing a person stalking
+     about, he addressed him in his best French; but the
+     stranger, pulling off his hat, very respectfully replied in
+     the pure Highland accent, 'I'm vary sorry, sir, but I canna
+     speak onything besides English.'&mdash;'This is very unlucky
+     indeed, Donald,' said Sir Walter, 'but we must help one
+     another; for, to tell you the truth, I'm not good at any
+     other tongue but the English, or rather, the Scotch.'&mdash;'Oh,
+     sir, maybe,' replied the Highlander, 'you are a countryman,
+     and ken my maister Captain Cameron of the 79th, and could
+     tell me whare he lodges. I'm just cum in, sir, frae a place
+     they ca' <span class="italic">Machlin</span>,<a id="footnotetag18" name="footnotetag18"></a><a href="#footnote18" title="Go to footnote 18"><span class="small">[18]</span></a> and ha' forgotten the name of the
+     captain's quarters; it was something like the
+     <span class="italic">Laaborer</span>.'&mdash;'I can, I think, help you with this, my
+     friend,' rejoined Sir Walter. 'There is an inn just opposite
+     to you' (pointing to the <span class="italic" lang="fr">Hôtel du Grand Laboureur</span>): 'I
+     dare say that will be the captain's quarters;' and it was
+     so. I cannot do justice to the humor with which Sir Walter
+     recounted this dialogue."<a id="footnotetag19" name="footnotetag19"></a><a href="#footnote19" title="Go to footnote 19"><span class="small">[19]</span></a></p>
+</div>
+
+<p>The following is the letter which Scott addressed to the Duke of
+Buccleuch immediately after seeing the field of Waterloo; and it may
+amuse the reader to compare it with Major Gordon's chapter, and with
+the writer's own fuller, and, of course, "cobbled" detail, in the
+pages of Paul:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="quote">
+
+<p class="tit-center"><span class="pagenum"><a id="page049" name="page049"></a>(p. 049)</span> TO HIS GRACE THE DUKE OF BUCCLEUCH, ETC.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">My Dear Lord Duke</span>,&mdash;I promised to let you hear of my
+     wanderings, however unimportant; and have now the pleasure
+     of informing your Grace that I am at this present time an
+     inhabitant of the <span lang="fr">Premier Hôtel de Cambrai</span>, after having
+     been about a week upon the Continent. We landed at Helvoet,
+     and proceeded to Brussels, by Bergen-op-Zoom and Antwerp,
+     both of which are very strongly fortified. The ravages of
+     war are little remarked in a country so rich by nature; but
+     everything seems at present stationary, or rather
+     retrograde, where capital is required. The châteaux are
+     deserted, and going to decay; no new houses are built, and
+     those of older date are passing rapidly into the possession
+     of a class inferior to those for whom we must suppose them
+     to have been built. Even the old gentlewoman of Babylon has
+     lost much of her splendor, and her robes and pomp are of a
+     description far subordinate to the costume of her more
+     magnificent days. The dresses of the priests were worn and
+     shabby, both at Antwerp and Brussels, and reminded me of the
+     decayed wardrobe of a bankrupt theatre: yet, though the
+     gentry and priesthood have suffered, the eternal bounty of
+     nature has protected the lower ranks against much distress.
+     The unexampled fertility of the soil gives them all, and
+     more than they want; and could they but sell the grain which
+     they raise in the Netherlands, nothing else would be wanting
+     to render them the richest people (common people, that is to
+     say) in the world.</p>
+
+<p>On Wednesday last, I rode over the field of Waterloo, now
+     forever consecrated to immortality. The more ghastly tokens
+     of the carnage are now removed, the bodies both of men and
+     horses being either burned or buried; but all the ground is
+     still torn with the shot and shells, and covered with
+     cartridges, old hats, and shoes, and various relics of the
+     fray which the peasants have not <span class="pagenum"><a id="page050" name="page050"></a>(p. 050)</span> thought worth
+     removing. Besides, at Waterloo and all the hamlets in the
+     vicinage, there is a mart established for cuirasses; for the
+     eagles worn by the imperial guard on their caps; for
+     casques, swords, carabines, and similar articles. I have
+     bought two handsome cuirasses, and intend them, one for
+     Bowhill, and one for Abbotsford, if I can get them safe
+     over, which Major Pryse Gordon has promised to manage for
+     me. I have also, for your Grace, one of the little
+     memorandum-books, which I picked up on the field, in which
+     every French soldier was obliged to enter his receipts and
+     expenditure, his services, and even his punishments. The
+     field was covered with fragments of these records. I also
+     got a good MS. collection of French songs, probably the work
+     of some young officer, and a croix of the Legion of Honor. I
+     enclose, under another cover, a sketch of the battle, made
+     at Brussels. It is not, I understand, strictly accurate; but
+     sufficiently so to give a good notion of what took place. In
+     fact, it would require twenty separate plans to give an idea
+     of the battle at its various stages. The front, upon which
+     the armies engaged, does not exceed a long mile. Our line,
+     indeed, originally extended half a mile farther towards the
+     village of Brain-la-Leude; but as the French indicated no
+     disposition to attack in that direction, the troops which
+     occupied this space were gradually concentrated by Lord
+     Wellington, and made to advance till they had reached
+     Hougomont&mdash;a sort of château, with a garden and wood
+     attached to it, which was powerfully and effectually
+     maintained by the Guards during the action. This place was
+     particularly interesting. It was a quiet-looking gentleman's
+     house, which had been burnt by the French shells. The
+     defenders, burnt out of the house itself, betook themselves
+     to the little garden, where, breaking loopholes through the
+     brick walls, they kept up a most destructive fire on the
+     assailants, who had possessed themselves of a little wood
+     which surrounds the villa on one side. In this spot vast
+     numbers <span class="pagenum"><a id="page051" name="page051"></a>(p. 051)</span> had fallen; and, being hastily buried, the
+     smell is most offensive at this moment. Indeed, I felt the
+     same annoyance in many parts of the field; and, did I live
+     near the spot, I should be anxious about the diseases which
+     this steaming carnage might occasion. The rest of the
+     ground, excepting this château, and a farmhouse called La
+     Hay Sainte, early taken, and long held, by the French,
+     because it was too close under the brow of the descent on
+     which our artillery was placed to admit of the pieces being
+     depressed so as to play into it,&mdash;the rest of the ground, I
+     say, is quite open, and lies between two ridges, one of
+     which (Mont St. Jean) was constantly occupied by the
+     English; the other, upon which is the farm of La Belle
+     Alliance, was the position of the French. The slopes between
+     are gentle and varied; the ground everywhere practicable for
+     cavalry, as was well experienced on that memorable day. The
+     cuirassiers, despite their arms of proof, were quite
+     inferior to our heavy dragoons. The meeting of the two
+     bodies occasioned a noise, not unaptly compared to the
+     tinkering and hammering of a smith's shop. Generally the
+     cuirassiers came on stooping their heads very low, and
+     giving point; the British frequently struck away their
+     casques while they were in this position, and then laid at
+     the bare head. Officers and soldiers all fought hand to hand
+     without distinction; and many of the former owed their life
+     to dexterity at their weapon, and personal strength of body.
+     Shaw, the milling Life-Guardsman, whom your Grace may
+     remember among the champions of The Fancy, maintained the
+     honor of the fist, and killed or disabled upwards of twenty
+     Frenchmen with his single arm, until he was killed by the
+     assault of numbers.<a id="footnotetag20" name="footnotetag20"></a><a href="#footnote20" title="Go to footnote 20"><span class="small">[20]</span></a> At one place, where there is a
+     precipitous sand or gravel pit, the heavy English cavalry
+     drove many of the cuirassiers over pell-mell, and followed
+     over themselves, like fox-hunters. The conduct of the
+     infantry and artillery was equally, <span class="pagenum"><a id="page052" name="page052"></a>(p. 052)</span> or, if
+     possible, more distinguished, and it was all fully
+     necessary; for, besides that our army was much outnumbered,
+     a great part of the sum-total were foreigners. Of these, the
+     Brunswickers and Hanoverians behaved very well; the Belgians
+     but sorrily enough. On one occasion, when a Belgic regiment
+     fairly ran off, Lord Wellington rode up to them, and said,
+     "My lads, you must be a little blown; come, do take your
+     breath for a moment, and then we'll go back, and try if we
+     can do a little better;" and he actually carried them back
+     to the charge. He was, indeed, upon that day, everywhere,
+     and the soul of everything; nor could less than his personal
+     endeavors have supported the spirits of the men through a
+     contest so long, so desperate, and so unequal. At his last
+     attack, Buonaparte brought up 15,000 of his Guard, who had
+     never drawn trigger during the day. It was upon their
+     failure that his hopes abandoned him.</p>
+
+<p>I spoke long with a shrewd Flemish peasant, called John de
+     Costar, whom he had seized upon as his guide, and who
+     remained beside him the whole day, and afterwards
+     accompanied him in his flight as far as Charleroi. Your
+     Grace may be sure that I interrogated Mynheer very closely
+     about what he heard and saw. He guided me to the spot where
+     Buonaparte remained during the latter part of the action. It
+     was in the highway from Brussels to Charleroi, where it runs
+     between two high banks, on each of which was a French
+     battery. He was pretty well sheltered from the English fire;
+     and, though many bullets flew over his head, neither he nor
+     any of his suite were touched. His other stations, during
+     that day, were still more remote from all danger. The story
+     of his having an observatory erected for him is a mistake.
+     There is such a thing, and he repaired to it during the
+     action; but it was built or erected some months before, for
+     the purpose of a trigonometrical survey of the country, by
+     the King of the Netherlands. Bony's last position was nearly
+     fronting a tree where the Duke of Wellington <span class="pagenum"><a id="page053" name="page053"></a>(p. 053)</span> was
+     stationed; there was not more than a quarter of a mile
+     between them; but Bony was well sheltered, and the Duke so
+     much exposed, that the tree is barked in several places by
+     the cannon-balls levelled at him. As for Bony, De Costar
+     says he was very cool during the whole day, and even gay. As
+     the cannon-balls flew over them, De Costar ducked; at which
+     the Emperor laughed, and told him they would hit him all the
+     same. At length, about the time he made his grand and last
+     effort, the fire of the Prussian artillery was heard upon
+     his right, and the heads of their columns became visible
+     pressing out of the woods. Aide-de-camp after aide-de-camp
+     came with the tidings of their advance, to which Bony only
+     replied, <span class="italic" lang="fr">Attendez, attendez un instant</span>, until he saw his
+     troops, <span class="italic" lang="fr">fantassins et cavaliers</span>, return in disorder from
+     the attack. He then observed hastily to a general beside
+     him, <span class="italic" lang="fr">Je crois qu'ils sont mêlés</span>. The person to whom he
+     spoke hastily raised the spyglass to his eye; but Bony, whom
+     the first glance had satisfied of their total discomfiture,
+     bent his face to the ground, and shook his head twice, his
+     complexion being then as pale as death. The general then
+     said something, to which Buonaparte answered, <span class="italic" lang="fr">C'est trop
+     tard&mdash;sauvons nous</span>. Just at that moment, the allied troops,
+     cavalry and infantry, appeared in full advance on all hands;
+     and the Prussians, operating upon the right flank of the
+     French, were rapidly gaining their rear. Bony, therefore,
+     was compelled to abandon the high-road, which, besides, was
+     choked with dead, with baggage, and with cannon; and,
+     gaining the open country, kept at full gallop, until he
+     gained, like Johnnie Cope, the van of the flying army. The
+     marshals followed his example; and it was the most complete
+     <span class="italic" lang="fr">sauve qui peut</span> that can well be imagined. Nevertheless,
+     the prisoners who were brought into Brussels maintained
+     their national impudence, and boldly avowed their intention
+     of sacking the city with every sort of severity. At the same
+     time they had friends there. <span class="pagenum"><a id="page054" name="page054"></a>(p. 054)</span> One man of rank and
+     wealth went over to Bony during the action, and I saw his
+     hotel converted into an hospital for wounded soldiers. It
+     occupied one half of one of the sides of the Place Royale, a
+     noble square, which your Grace has probably seen. But, in
+     general, the inhabitants of Brussels were very differently
+     disposed; and their benevolence to our poor wounded fellows
+     was unbounded. The difficulty was to prevent them from
+     killing their guests with kindness, by giving them butcher's
+     meat and wine during their fever. As I cannot put my letter
+     into post until we get to Paris, I shall continue it as we
+     get along.</p>
+
+<p><span class="italic">12th August, Roye, in Picardy.</span>&mdash;I imagine your Grace about
+     this time to be tolerably well fagged with a hard day on the
+     moors. If the weather has been as propitious as with us, it
+     must be delightful. The country through which we have
+     travelled is most uncommonly fertile, and skirted with
+     beautiful woods; but its present political situation is so
+     very uncommon, that I would give the world your Grace had
+     come over for a fortnight. France may be considered as
+     neither at peace nor war. Valenciennes, for example, is in a
+     state of blockade; we passed through the posts of the
+     allies, all in the utmost state of vigilance, with patrols
+     of cavalry and vedettes of infantry, up to the very gates,
+     and two or three batteries were manned and mounted. The
+     French troops were equally vigilant at the gates, yet made
+     no objections to our passing through the town. Most of them
+     had the white cockade, but looked very sulky, and were in
+     obvious disorder and confusion. They had not yet made their
+     terms with the King, nor accepted a commander appointed by
+     him; but as they obviously feel their party desperate, the
+     soldiers are running from the officers, and the officers
+     from the soldiers. In fact, the multiplied hosts which pour
+     into this country, exhibiting all the various dresses and
+     forms of war which can be imagined, must necessarily render
+     resistance impracticable. Yet, <span class="pagenum"><a id="page055" name="page055"></a>(p. 055)</span> like Satan, these
+     fellows retain the unconquered propensity to defiance, even
+     in the midst of defeat and despair. This morning we passed a
+     great number of the disbanded garrison of Condé, and they
+     were the most horrid-looking cut-throats I ever saw,
+     extremely disposed to be very insolent, and only repressed
+     by the consciousness that all the villages and towns around
+     are occupied by the allies. They began by crying to us in an
+     ironical tone, <span class="italic" lang="fr">Vive le Roi</span>; then followed, <span class="italic" lang="fr">sotto voce,
+     Sacre B&mdash;&mdash;, Mille diables</span>, and other graces of French
+     eloquence. I felt very well pleased that we were armed, and
+     four in number; and still more so that it was daylight, for
+     they seemed most mischievous ruffians. As for the appearance
+     of the country, it is, notwithstanding a fine harvest, most
+     melancholy. The windows of all the detached houses on the
+     road are uniformly shut up; and you see few people,
+     excepting the peasants who are employed in driving the
+     contributions to maintain the armies. The towns are little
+     better, having for the most part been partially injured by
+     shells or by storm, as was the case both of Cambrai and
+     Peronne. The men look very sulky; and if you speak three
+     words to a woman, she is sure to fall a-crying. In short,
+     the <span class="italic">politesse</span> and good-humor of this people have fled with
+     the annihilation of their self-conceit; and they look on you
+     as if they thought you were laughing at them, or come to
+     enjoy the triumph of our arms over theirs. Postmasters and
+     landlords are all the same, and hardly to be propitiated
+     even by English money, although they charge us about three
+     times as much as they durst do to their countryfolks. As for
+     the Prussians, a party of cavalry dined at our hotel at
+     Mons, eat and drank of the best the poor devils had left to
+     give, called for their horses, and laughed in the face of
+     the landlord when he offered his bill, telling him they
+     should pay as they came back. The English, they say, have
+     always paid honorably, and upon these they indemnify
+     themselves. It is impossible to <span class="italic" lang="fr">marchander</span>, for if
+     <span class="pagenum"><a id="page056" name="page056"></a>(p. 056)</span> you object, the poor landlady begins to cry, and
+     tells you she will accept whatever <span class="italic">your lordship</span> pleases,
+     but that she is almost ruined and bankrupt, etc., etc., etc.</p>
+
+<p>This is a long stupid letter, but I will endeavor to send a
+     better from Paris. Ever your Grace's truly obliged,</p>
+
+<p class="left50 smcap">Walter Scott.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>The only letter which Scott addressed to Joanna Baillie, while in
+Paris, goes over partly the same ground: I transcribe the rest.</p>
+
+<div class="quote">
+
+<p class="left50"><span class="smcap">Paris</span>, 6th September, 1815.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">My Dear Friend</span>,&mdash;I owe you a long letter, but my late
+     travels and the date of this epistle will be a tolerable
+     plea for your indulgence. The truth is, I became very
+     restless after the battle of Waterloo, and was only detained
+     by the necessity of attending a friend's marriage, from
+     setting off instantly for the Continent. At length, however,
+     I got away to Brussels, and was on the memorable field of
+     battle about five weeks after it had been fought....</p>
+
+<p>If our army had been all British, the day would have been
+     soon decided; but the Duke, or, as they call him here, from
+     his detestation of all manner of foppery, the <span class="italic">Beau</span>, had
+     not above 35,000 British. All this was to be supplied by
+     treble exertion on the part of our troops. The Duke was
+     everywhere during the battle; and it was the mercy of Heaven
+     that protected him, when all his staff had been killed or
+     wounded round him. I asked him, among many other questions,
+     if he had seen Buonaparte; he said, "No; but at one time,
+     from the repeated shouts of <span class="italic" lang="fr">Vive l'Empereur</span>, I thought he
+     must be near." This was when John de Costar placed him in
+     the hollow way. I think, so near as I can judge, there may
+     at that time have been a quarter of a mile between these two
+     great generals.</p>
+
+<p>The fate of the French, after this day of decisive appeal,
+     has been severe enough. There were never people <span class="pagenum"><a id="page057" name="page057"></a>(p. 057)</span>
+     more mortified, more subdued, and apparently more broken in
+     spirit. They submit with sad civility to the extortions of
+     the Prussians and the Russians, and avenge themselves at the
+     expense of the English, whom they charge three prices for
+     everything, because they are the only people who pay at all.
+     They are in the right, however, to enforce discipline and
+     good order, which not only maintains the national character
+     in the mean time, but will prevent the army from suffering
+     by habits of indulgence. I question if the Prussians will
+     soon regain their discipline and habits of hardihood. At
+     present their powers of eating and drinking, which are
+     really something preternatural, are exerted to the very
+     utmost. A thin Prussian boy, whom I sometimes see, eats in
+     one day as much as three English ploughmen. At daybreak he
+     roars for chocolate and eggs; about nine he breakfasts more
+     solemnly, <span class="italic" lang="fr">à la fourchette</span>, when, besides all the usual
+     apparatus of an English <span class="italic" lang="fr">déjeuner</span>, he eats a world of
+     cutlets, oysters, fruit, etc., and drinks a glass of brandy
+     and a bottle of champagne. His dinner might serve Gargantua,
+     at which he gets himself about three parts drunk&mdash;a
+     circumstance which does not prevent the charge upon cold
+     meat, with tea and chocolate, about six o'clock; and
+     concluding the whole with an immense supper. Positively the
+     appetite of this lad reminds one of the Eastern tale of a
+     man taken out of the sea by a ship's crew, who, in return,
+     ate up all the provisions of the vessel. He was, I think,
+     flown away with by a roc; but from what quarter of the
+     heavens the French are to look for deliverance from these
+     devourers, I cannot presume to guess.</p>
+
+<p>The needless wreck and ruin which they make in the houses
+     adds much to the inconvenience of their presence. Most of
+     the châteaux, where the Prussians are quartered, are what is
+     technically called <span class="italic">rumped</span>, that is to say, plundered out
+     and out. In the fine château of Montmorency, for instance,
+     the most splendid apartments, <span class="pagenum"><a id="page058" name="page058"></a>(p. 058)</span> highly ornamented
+     with gilding and carving, were converted into barracks for
+     the dirtiest and most savage-looking hussars I have yet
+     seen. Imagine the work these fellows make with velvet
+     hangings and embroidery. I saw one hag boiling her
+     camp-kettle with part of a picture frame; the picture itself
+     has probably gone to Prussia. With all this greediness and
+     love of mischief, the Prussians are not bloodthirsty; and
+     their utmost violence seldom exceeds a blow or two with the
+     flat of the sabre. They are also very civil to the women,
+     and in both respects behave much better than the French did
+     in their country; but they follow the bad example quite
+     close enough for the sake of humanity and of discipline. As
+     for our people, they live in a most orderly and regular
+     manner. All the young men pique themselves on imitating the
+     Duke of Wellington in <span class="italic">nonchalance</span> and coolness of manner;
+     so they wander about everywhere, with their hands in the
+     pockets of their long waistcoats, or cantering upon Cossack
+     ponies, staring and whistling, and trotting to and fro, as
+     if all Paris was theirs. The French hate them sufficiently
+     for the <span class="italic">hauteur</span> of their manner and pretensions, but the
+     grounds of dislike against us are drowned in the actual
+     detestation afforded by the other powers.</p>
+
+<p>This morning I saw a grand military spectacle&mdash;about 20,000
+     Russians pass in review before all the Kings and Dominations
+     who are now resident at Paris. The Emperor, King of Prussia,
+     Duke of Wellington, with their numerous and brilliant
+     attendance of generals, staff-officers, etc., were in the
+     centre of what is called the <span lang="fr">Place Louis Quinze</span>, almost on
+     the very spot where Louis XVI. was beheaded. A very long
+     avenue, which faces the station where they were placed, was
+     like a glowing furnace, so fiercely were the sunbeams
+     reflected from the arms of the host by which it was filled.
+     A body of Cossacks kept the ground with their pikes, and, by
+     their wild appearance, added to the singularity of the
+     scene. On one <span class="pagenum"><a id="page059" name="page059"></a>(p. 059)</span> hand was the extended line of the
+     Tuileries, seen through the gardens and the rows of
+     orange-trees; on the other, the long column of troops
+     advancing to the music. Behind was a long colonnade, forming
+     the front to the palace, where the Chamber of
+     Representatives are to hold their sittings; and in front of
+     the monarchs was a superb row of buildings, on which you
+     distinguish the bronze pillar erected by Napoleon to
+     commemorate his victories over Russia, Prussia, and Austria,
+     whose princes were now reviewing their victorious armies in
+     what was so lately his capital. Your fancy, my dear friend,
+     will anticipate, better than I can express, the thousand
+     sentiments which arose in my mind from witnessing such a
+     splendid scene, in a spot connected with such various
+     associations. It may give you some idea of the feelings of
+     the French&mdash;once so fond of <span class="italic">spectacles</span>&mdash;to know that, I
+     think, there were not a hundred of that nation looking on.
+     Yet this country will soon recover the actual losses she has
+     sustained, for never was there a soil so blessed by nature,
+     or so rich in corn, wine, and oil, and in the animated
+     industry of its inhabitants. France is at present the fabled
+     giant, struggling, or rather lying supine, under the load of
+     mountains which have been precipitated on her; but she is
+     not, and cannot be crushed. Remove the incumbent weight of
+     600,000 or 700,000 foreigners, and she will soon stand
+     upright&mdash;happy, if experience shall have taught her to be
+     contented to exert her natural strength only for her own
+     protection, and not for the annoyance of her neighbors. I am
+     cut short in my lucubrations by an opportunity to send this
+     letter with Lord Castlereagh's despatches, which is of less
+     consequence, as I will endeavor to see you in passing
+     through London. I leave this city for Dieppe on Saturday,
+     but I intend to go round by Harfleur, if possible.</p>
+
+
+<p>Ever your truly obliged and affectionate<br>
+<span class="left50 smcap">Walter Scott.</span></p>
+</div>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page060" name="page060"></a>(p. 060)</span> "Paul" modestly acknowledges, in his last letter, the
+personal attentions which he received, while in Paris, from Lords
+Cathcart, Aberdeen, and Castlereagh; and hints that, through their
+intervention, he had witnessed several of the splendid <span class="italic" lang="fr">fêtes</span> given
+by the Duke of Wellington, where he saw half the crowned heads of
+Europe grouped among the gallant soldiers who had cut a way for them
+to the guilty capital of France. Scott's reception, however, had been
+distinguished to a degree of which Paul's language gives no notion.
+The Noble Lords above named welcomed him with cordial satisfaction;
+and the Duke of Wellington, to whom he was first presented by Sir John
+Malcolm, treated him then, and ever afterwards, with a kindness and
+confidence, which, I have often heard him say, he considered as "the
+highest distinction of his life." He used to tell, with great effect,
+the circumstances of his introduction to the Emperor Alexander, at a
+dinner given by the Earl of Cathcart. Scott appeared, on that
+occasion, in the blue and red dress of the Selkirkshire Lieutenancy;
+and the Czar's first question, glancing at his lameness, was, "In what
+affair were you wounded?" Scott signified that he suffered from a
+natural infirmity; upon which the Emperor said, "I thought Lord
+Cathcart mentioned that you had served." Scott observed that the Earl
+looked a little embarrassed at this, and promptly answered, "Oh yes;
+in a certain sense I have served&mdash;that is, in the yeomanry cavalry; a
+home force resembling the Landwehr, or Landsturm."&mdash;"Under what
+commander?"&mdash;"<span lang="fr">Sous M. le Chevalier</span> Rae."&mdash;"Were you ever
+engaged?"&mdash;"In some slight actions&mdash;such as the battle of the Cross
+Causeway and the affair of Moredun-Mill."&mdash;"This," says Mr. Pringle of
+Whytbank, "was, as he saw in Lord Cathcart's face, quite sufficient,
+so he managed to turn the conversation to some other subject." It was
+at the same dinner that he first met Platoff,<a id="footnotetag21" name="footnotetag21"></a><a href="#footnote21" title="Go to footnote 21"><span class="small">[21]</span></a> who <span class="pagenum"><a id="page061" name="page061"></a>(p. 061)</span> seemed
+to take a great fancy to him, though, adds my friend, "I really don't
+think they had any common language to converse in." Next day, however,
+when Pringle and Scott were walking together in the <span lang="fr">Rue de la Paix</span>,
+the Hetman happened to come up, cantering with some of his Cossacks;
+as soon as he saw Scott, he jumped off his horse, leaving it to the
+Pulk, and, running up to him, kissed him on each side of the cheek
+with extraordinary demonstrations of affection&mdash;and then made him
+understand, through an aide-de-camp, that he wished him to join his
+staff at the next great review, when he would take care to mount him
+on the gentlest of his Ukraine horses.</p>
+
+<p>It will seem less surprising that Scott should have been honored with
+much attention by the leading soldiers and statesmen of Germany then
+in Paris. The fame of his poetry had already been established for some
+years in that country. Yet it may be doubted whether Blücher had heard
+of Marmion any more than Platoff; and old Blücher struck Scott's
+fellow-travellers as taking more interest in him than any foreign
+general, except only the Hetman.</p>
+
+<p>A striking passage in Paul's 10th letter indicates the high notion
+which Scott had formed of the personal qualities of the Prince of
+Orange. After depicting, with almost prophetic accuracy, the dangers
+to which the then recent union of Holland and Belgium must be exposed,
+he concludes with expressing his hope that the firmness and sagacity
+of the King of the Netherlands, and the admiration which his heir's
+character and bearing had already excited among all, even Belgian
+observers, might <span class="pagenum"><a id="page062" name="page062"></a>(p. 062)</span> ultimately prove effective in redeeming
+this difficult experiment from the usual failure of
+"<span class="italic" lang="fr">arrondissements</span>, indemnities, and all the other terms of modern
+date, under sanction of which cities and districts, and even kingdoms,
+have been passed from one government to another, as the property of
+lands or stock is transferred by a bargain between private parties."</p>
+
+<p>It is not less curious to compare, with the subsequent course of
+affairs in France, the following brief hint in Paul's 16th letter:
+"The general rallying point of the <span class="italic" lang="fr">Libéralistes</span> is an avowed dislike
+to the present monarch and his immediate connections. They will
+sacrifice, they pretend, so much to the general inclinations of
+Europe, as to select a king from the Bourbon race; but he must be one
+of their own choosing, and the Duke of Orleans is most familiar in
+their mouths." Thus, in its very bud, had his eye detected the
+<span class="italic" lang="fr">conjuration de quinze ans!</span></p>
+
+<p>Among the gay parties of this festive period, Scott mentioned with
+special pleasure one fine day given to an excursion to Ermenonville,
+under the auspices of Lady Castlereagh. The company was a large one,
+including most of the distinguished personages whom I have been
+naming, and they dined <span class="italic">al fresco</span> among the scenes of Rousseau's
+retirement, but in a fashion less accordant with the spirit of his
+<span class="italic" lang="fr">rêveries d'un promeneur solitaire</span>, than with the song which
+commemorates some earlier tenants of that delicious valley,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p class="poem30" lang="fr">
+  "La belle Gabrielle<br>
+<span class="add1em">Étoit dans ces lieux&mdash;</span><br>
+  Et le souvenir d'elle<br>
+<span class="add1em">Nous rend heureux," etc.</span></p>
+
+<p>At some stage of this merry day's proceedings, the ladies got tired of
+walking, and one of Lord Castlereagh's young diplomatists was
+despatched into a village in quest of donkeys for their accommodation.
+The <span class="italic" lang="fr">attaché</span> returned by and by with a face of disappointment,
+complaining that the charge the people made was so extravagant,
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page063" name="page063"></a>(p. 063)</span> he could not think of yielding to the extortion. "<span class="italic">Marshal
+Forwards</span>" said nothing, but nodded to an aide-de-camp. They had
+passed a Prussian picket a little while before;&mdash;three times the
+requisite number of donkeys appeared presently, driven before
+half-a-dozen hussars, who were followed by the screaming population of
+the refractory hamlet; and "an angry man was Blücher," said Scott,
+"when Lord Castlereagh condescended to go among them, all smiles, and
+sent them back with more Napoleons than perhaps the fee-simple of the
+whole stud was worth."</p>
+
+<p>Another evening of more peaceful enjoyment has left a better record.
+But I need not quote here the lines on Saint Cloud.<a id="footnotetag22" name="footnotetag22"></a><a href="#footnote22" title="Go to footnote 22"><span class="small">[22]</span></a> They were
+sent, on the 16th of August, to the late Lady Alvanley, with whom and
+her daughters he spent much of his time while in Paris.</p>
+
+<p>As yet, the literary reputation of Scott had made but little way among
+the French nation; but some few of their eminent men vied even with
+the enthusiastic Germans in their courteous and unwearied attentions
+to him. The venerable <span class="italic">Chevalier</span>, in particular, seemed anxious to
+embrace every opportunity of acting as his cicerone; and many mornings
+were spent in exploring, under his guidance, the most remarkable
+scenes and objects of historical and antiquarian interest both in
+Paris and its neighborhood. He several times also entertained Scott
+and his young companions at dinner; but the last of those dinners was
+thoroughly poisoned by a preliminary circumstance. The poet, on
+entering the saloon, was presented to a stranger, whose physiognomy
+struck him as the most hideous he had ever seen; nor was his disgust
+lessened, when he found, a few minutes afterwards, that he had
+undergone the <span class="italic">accolade</span> of David "of the blood-stained brush."</p>
+
+<p>From Paris, Mr. Bruce and Mr. Pringle went on to <span class="pagenum"><a id="page064" name="page064"></a>(p. 064)</span>
+Switzerland, leaving the poet and Gala to return home together, which
+they did by way of Dieppe, Brighton, and London. It was here, on the
+14th of September, that Scott had that last meeting with Lord Byron,
+alluded to in his communication to Mr. Moore, already quoted. He
+carried his young friend in the morning to call on Lord Byron, who
+agreed to dine with them at their hotel, where he met also Charles
+Mathews and Daniel Terry. The only survivor of the party<a id="footnotetag23" name="footnotetag23"></a><a href="#footnote23" title="Go to footnote 23"><span class="small">[23]</span></a> has
+recorded it in his note-book as the most interesting day he ever
+spent. "How I did stare," he says, "at Byron's beautiful pale face,
+like a spirit's&mdash;good or evil. But he was <span class="italic">bitter</span>&mdash;what a contrast to
+Scott! Among other anecdotes of British prowess and spirit, Scott
+mentioned that a young gentleman &mdash;&mdash; &mdash;&mdash; &mdash;&mdash; had been awfully shot
+in the head while conveying an order from the Duke, and yet staggered
+on, and delivered his message when at the point of death. 'Ha!' said
+Byron, 'I dare say he could do as well as most people without his
+head&mdash;it was never of much use to him.' Waterloo did not delight him,
+probably&mdash;and Scott could talk or think of scarcely anything else."</p>
+
+<p>Mathews accompanied them as far as Warwick and Kenilworth, both of
+which castles the poet had seen before, but now reëxamined with
+particular curiosity. They spent a night at Sheffield; and early next
+morning Scott sallied forth to provide himself with a planter's knife
+of the most complex contrivance and finished workmanship. Having
+secured one to his mind, and which for many years after was his
+constant pocket-companion, he wrote his name on a card, "Walter Scott,
+Abbotsford," and directed it to be engraved on the handle. On his
+mentioning this acquisition at breakfast, young Gala expressed his
+desire to equip himself in like fashion, and was directed to the shop
+accordingly. When he had <span class="pagenum"><a id="page065" name="page065"></a>(p. 065)</span> purchased a similar knife, and
+produced his name in turn for the engraver, the master cutler eyed the
+signature for a moment, and exclaimed, "John Scott of Gala! Well, I
+hope your ticket may serve me in as good stead as another Mr. Scott's
+has just done. Upon my word, one of my best men, an honest fellow from
+the North, went out of his senses when he saw it&mdash;he offered me a
+week's work if I would let him keep it to himself&mdash;and I took
+<span class="italic">Saunders</span> at his word." Scott used to talk of this as one of the most
+gratifying compliments he ever received in his literary capacity.</p>
+
+<p>Their next halt was at Rokeby; but since Scott had heard from thence,
+Mrs. Morritt's illness had made such alarming progress, that the
+travellers regretted having obtruded themselves on the scene of
+affliction, and resumed their journey early next morning.</p>
+
+<p>Reaching Abbotsford, Scott found with his family his old friend Mr.
+Skene of Rubislaw, who had expected him to come home sooner, and James
+Ballantyne, who had arrived with a copious budget of bills, calendars,
+booksellers' letters, and proof sheets. From each of these visitors'
+<span class="italic">memoranda</span> I now extract an anecdote. Mr. Skene's is of a small
+enough matter, but still it places the man so completely before
+myself, that I am glad he thought it worth setting down.</p>
+
+<p class="quote">"During Scott's absence," says his friend, "his wife had had
+     the tiny drawing-room of the cottage fitted up with new
+     chintz furniture,&mdash;everything had been set out in the best
+     style,&mdash;and she and her girls had been looking forward to
+     the pleasure which they supposed the little surprise of the
+     arrangements would give him. He was received in the spruce
+     fresh room, set himself comfortably down in the chair
+     prepared for him, and remained in the full enjoyment of his
+     own fireside, and a return to his family circle, without the
+     least consciousness that any change had taken place&mdash;until,
+     at length, Mrs. Scott's patience could hold out no longer,
+     and his attention was expressly called to it. The vexation
+     he showed at having caused <span class="pagenum"><a id="page066" name="page066"></a>(p. 066)</span> such a disappointment,
+     struck me as amiably characteristic&mdash;and in the course of
+     the evening he every now and then threw out some word of
+     admiration to reconsole <span class="italic">mamma</span>."</p>
+
+<p>Ballantyne's note of their next morning's conference is in these
+terms:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p class="quote">"He had just been reviewing a pageant of emperors and kings,
+     which seemed, like another Field of the Cloth of Gold, to
+     have been got up to realize before his eyes some of his own
+     splendid descriptions. I begged him to tell me what was the
+     general impression left on his mind. He answered, that he
+     might now say he had seen and conversed with all classes of
+     society, from the palace to the cottage, and including every
+     conceivable shade of science and ignorance&mdash;but that he had
+     never felt awed or abashed except in the presence of one
+     man&mdash;the Duke of Wellington. I expressed some surprise. He
+     said I ought not, for that the Duke of Wellington possessed
+     every one mighty quality of the mind in a higher degree than
+     any other man did, or had ever done. He said he beheld in
+     him a great soldier and a great statesman&mdash;the greatest of
+     each. When it was suggested that the Duke, on his part, saw
+     before him a great poet and novelist, he smiled, and said,
+     'What would the Duke of Wellington think of a few <span class="italic">bits of
+     novels</span>, which perhaps he had never read, and for which the
+     strong probability is that he would not care a sixpence if
+     he had?' You are not" (adds Ballantyne) "to suppose that he
+     looked either sheepish or embarrassed in the presence of the
+     Duke&mdash;indeed you well know that he did not, and could not do
+     so; but the feeling, qualified and modified as I have
+     described it, unquestionably did exist to a certain extent.
+     Its origin forms a curious moral problem; and may probably
+     be traced to a secret consciousness, which he might not
+     himself advert to, that the Duke, however great as a soldier
+     and statesman, was so defective in imagination as to be
+     incapable of appreciating that which had formed the charm of
+     his own life, as well as of his works."</p>
+
+<p>It is proper to add to Mr. Ballantyne's solution of his "curious moral
+problem," that he was in his latter days a strenuous opponent of the
+Duke of Wellington's politics; <span class="pagenum"><a id="page067" name="page067"></a>(p. 067)</span> to which circumstance he
+ascribes, in these same <span class="italic">memoranda</span>, the only coolness that ever
+occurred between him and Scott. I need hardly repeat, what has been
+already distinctly stated more than once, that Scott never considered
+any amount of literary distinction as entitled to be spoken of in the
+same breath with mastery in the higher departments of practical
+life&mdash;least of all, with the glory of a first-rate captain. To have
+done things worthy to be written was in his eyes a dignity to which no
+man made any approach, who had only written things worthy to be read.
+He on two occasions, which I can never forget, betrayed painful
+uneasiness when his works were alluded to as reflecting honor on the
+age that had produced Watt's improvement of the steam-engine, and the
+safety-lamp of Sir Humphry Davy. Such was his modest creed&mdash;but from
+all I ever saw or heard of his intercourse with the Duke of
+Wellington, I am not disposed to believe that he partook it with the
+only man in whose presence he ever felt awe and abashment.<a id="footnotetag24" name="footnotetag24"></a><a href="#footnote24" title="Go to footnote 24"><span class="small">[24]</span></a></p>
+
+<p>A charming page in Mr. Washington Irving's Abbotsford and Newstead
+affords us another anecdote connected with this return from Paris. Two
+years after this time, when the amiable American visited Scott, he
+walked with him to a quarry, where his people were at work.</p>
+
+<p class="quote">"The face of the humblest dependent," he says, "brightened
+     at his approach&mdash;all paused from their labor to have a
+     pleasant <span class="pagenum"><a id="page068" name="page068"></a>(p. 068)</span> 'crack wi' the laird.' Among the rest was
+     a tall straight old fellow, with a healthful complexion and
+     silver hairs, and a small round-crowned white hat. He had
+     been about to shoulder a hod, but paused, and stood looking
+     at Scott with a slight sparkling of his blue eye as if
+     waiting his turn; for the old fellow knew he was a favorite.
+     Scott accosted him in an affable tone, and asked for a pinch
+     of snuff. The old man drew forth a horn snuff-box. 'Hoot
+     man,' said Scott, 'not that old mull. Where's the bonnie
+     French one that I brought you from Paris?'&mdash;'Troth, your
+     honor,' replied the old fellow, 'sic a mull as that is nae
+     for week-days.' On leaving the quarry, Scott informed me,
+     that, when absent at Paris, he had purchased several
+     trifling articles as presents for his dependents, and, among
+     others, the gay snuff-box in question, which was so
+     carefully reserved for Sundays by the veteran. 'It was not
+     so much the value of the gifts,' said he, 'that pleased
+     them, as the idea that the laird should think of them when
+     so far away.'"</p>
+
+<p>One more incident of this return&mdash;it was told to me by himself, some
+years afterwards, with gravity, and even sadness. "The last of my
+chargers," he said, "was a high-spirited and very handsome one, by
+name Daisy, all over white, without a speck, and with such a mane as
+Rubens delighted to paint. He had, among other good qualities, one
+always particularly valuable in my case, that of standing like a rock
+to be mounted. When he was brought to the door, after I came home from
+the Continent, instead of signifying, by the usual tokens, that he was
+pleased to see his master, he looked askant at me like a devil; and
+when I put my foot in the stirrup, he reared bolt upright, and I fell
+to the ground rather awkwardly. The experiment was repeated twice or
+thrice, always with the same result. It occurred to me that he might
+have taken some capricious dislike to my dress; and Tom Purdie, who
+always falls heir to the white hat and green jacket, and so forth,
+when Mrs. Scott has made me discard a set of garments, was sent for,
+to try whether these habiliments would produce him a similar reception
+from his old friend Daisy: but Daisy <span class="pagenum"><a id="page069" name="page069"></a>(p. 069)</span> allowed Tom to back him
+with all manner of gentleness. The thing was inexplicable&mdash;but he had
+certainly taken some part of my conduct in high dudgeon and disgust;
+and after trying him again, at the interval of a week, I was obliged
+to part with Daisy&mdash;and wars and rumors of wars being over, I resolved
+thenceforth to have done with such dainty blood. I now stick to a good
+sober cob." Somebody suggested that Daisy might have considered
+himself as ill-used, by being left at home when <span class="italic">the laird</span> went on
+his journey. "Ay," said he, "these creatures have many thoughts of
+their own, no doubt, that we can never penetrate." Then, laughing,
+"Troth," said he, "maybe some bird had whispered Daisy that I had been
+to see the grand reviews at Paris on a little scrag of a Cossack,
+while my own gallant trooper was left behind bearing Peter and the
+post-bag to Melrose."</p>
+
+<p>A few letters, written shortly after this return to Abbotsford, will,
+among other things, show with what zeal he at once resumed his
+literary industry, if indeed that can be said to have been at all
+interrupted by a journey, in the course of which a great part of
+Paul's narrative, and also of the poem of The Field of Waterloo, must
+have been composed.</p>
+
+<div class="quote">
+<p class="tit-center">TO J. B. S. MORRITT, ESQ., M. P., ROKEBY PARK.</p>
+<p class="left50"><span class="smcap">Abbotsford</span>, 2d October, 1815.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">My dear Morritt</span>,&mdash;Few things could have given me more real
+     pain, than to see Mrs. Morritt under such severe suffering,
+     and the misery you sustain in witnessing it. Yet let us
+     trust in the goodness of Providence, which restored the
+     health so deservedly dear to you, from as great a state of
+     depression upon a former occasion. Our visit was indeed a
+     melancholy one, and, I fear, added to your distress, when,
+     God knows, it required no addition.&mdash;The contrast of this
+     quiet bird's-nest of a place, with the late scene of
+     confusion and military splendor which I have witnessed, is
+     something of a stunning <span class="pagenum"><a id="page070" name="page070"></a>(p. 070)</span> nature&mdash;and, for the first
+     five or six days, I have been content to fold my hands, and
+     saunter up and down in a sort of indolent and stupefied
+     tranquillity, my only attempt at occupation having gone no
+     farther than pruning a young tree now and then. Yesterday,
+     however, and to-day, I began, from necessity, to prune
+     verses, and have been correcting proofs of my little attempt
+     at a poem on Waterloo. It will be out this week, and you
+     shall have a copy by the Carlisle coach, which pray judge
+     favorably, and remember it is not always the grandest
+     actions which are best adapted for the arts of poetry and
+     painting. I believe I shall give offence to my old friends
+     the Whigs, by not condoling with Buonaparte. Since his
+     sentence of transportation, he has begun to look wonderfully
+     comely in their eyes. I would they had hanged him, that he
+     might have died a perfect Adonis. Every reasonable creature
+     must think the Ministers would have deserved the cord
+     themselves, if they had left him in a condition again to
+     cost us the loss of 10,000 of our best and bravest, besides
+     thirty millions of good money. The very threats and frights
+     which he has given the well-meaning people of this realm
+     (myself included), deserved no less a punishment than
+     banishment, since the "putting in bodily fear" makes so
+     material a part of every criminal indictment. But, no doubt,
+     we shall see Ministers attacked for their want of generosity
+     to a fallen enemy, by the same party who last year, with
+     better grounds, assailed them for having left him in a
+     situation again to disturb the tranquillity of Europe.&mdash;My
+     young friend Gala has left me, after a short visit to
+     Abbotsford. He is my nearest (conversible) neighbor, and I
+     promise myself much comfort in him, as he has a turn both
+     for the sciences and for the arts, rather uncommon among our
+     young Scotch lairds. He was delighted with Rokeby and its
+     lord, though he saw both at so melancholy a period, and
+     endured, not only with good-humor but with sympathy, the
+     stupidity of his fellow-traveller, who was not by <span class="pagenum"><a id="page071" name="page071"></a>(p. 071)</span>
+     any means <span class="italic" lang="fr">dans son brillant</span> for some time after leaving
+     you.</p>
+
+<p>We visited Corby Castle on our return to Scotland, which
+     remains, in point of situation, as beautiful as when its
+     walks were celebrated by David Hume, in the only rhymes he
+     was ever known to be guilty of. Here they are, from a pane
+     of glass in an inn at Carlisle:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p class="poem20">"Here chicks in eggs for breakfast sprawl,<br>
+  Here godless boys God's glories squall,<br>
+  Here Scotchmen's heads do guard the wall,<br>
+  But Corby's walks atone for all."</p>
+
+<p>Would it not be a good quiz to advertise <span class="italic">The Poetical Works
+     of David Hume</span>, with notes, critical, historical, and so
+     forth&mdash;with an historical inquiry into the use of eggs for
+     breakfast, a physical discussion on the causes of their
+     being addled; a history of the English Church music, and of
+     the choir of Carlisle in particular; a full account of the
+     affair of 1745, with the trials, last speeches, and so
+     forth, of the poor <span class="italic">plaids</span> who were strapped up at
+     Carlisle; and, lastly, a full and particular description of
+     Corby, with the genealogy of every family who ever possessed
+     it? I think, even without more than the usual waste of
+     margin, the Poems of David would make a decent
+     twelve-shilling touch. I shall think about it when I have
+     exhausted mine own <span class="italic">century of inventions</span>.</p>
+
+<p>I do not know whether it is perverseness of state, or old
+     associations, but an excellent and very handsome modern
+     house, which Mr. Howard has lately built at Corby, does not,
+     in my mind, assimilate so well with the scenery as the old
+     irregular monastic hall, with its weather-beaten and antique
+     appearance, which I remember there some years ago.</p>
+
+<p>Out of my Field of Waterloo has sprung an odd wild sort of
+     thing, which I intend to finish separately, and call it The
+     Dance of Death.<a id="footnotetag25" name="footnotetag25"></a><a href="#footnote25" title="Go to footnote 25"><span class="small">[25]</span></a> These matters take up my <span class="pagenum"><a id="page072" name="page072"></a>(p. 072)</span> time
+     so much, that I must bid you adieu for the present. Besides,
+     I am summoned to attend a grand <span class="italic">chasse</span>, and I see the
+     children are all mounted upon the ponies. By the way, Walter
+     promises to be a gallant horseman. Ever most truly yours,</p>
+
+<p class="left50 smcap">Walter Scott.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>I shall close this chapter with a transcript of some <span class="italic">Notes</span> on the
+proof sheets of The Field of Waterloo. John Ballantyne being at
+Abbotsford on the 3d of October, his brother the printer addressed the
+packet containing the sheets to him. John appears to have considered
+James's observations on the margin before Scott saw them; and the
+record of the style in which the Poet repelled, or yielded to, his
+critics, will at all events illustrate his habitual good-nature.</p>
+
+<p>John Ballantyne writes on the fly-leaf of the proofs, to his
+confidential clerk: "Mr. Hodgson, I beg these sheets and all the MS.
+may be carefully preserved just as they stand, and put in my father's
+desk. J. B."</p>
+
+<p>James prefaces his animadversions with this quotation:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p class="quote">"Cut deep and spare not.&mdash;<span class="italic">Penruddock.</span>"</p>
+
+<p>The <span class="italic">Notes</span> are these:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="note">
+
+<p class="p2"><span class="smcap">Stanza</span> I.&mdash;"Fair Brussels, thou art far behind."</p>
+
+<p><span class="italic">James Ballantyne.</span>&mdash;I do not like this line. It is tame, and the phrase
+  "far behind," has, to my feeling, some associated vulgarity.</p>
+
+<p><span class="italic">Scott.</span>&mdash;Stet.</p>
+
+<p class="p2"><span class="smcap">Stanza</span> II.&mdash;"Let not <span class="italic">the</span> stranger with disdain<br>
+ <span class="italic add55em">The</span> architecture view."</p>
+
+<p><span class="italic">James.</span>&mdash;These two words are cacophonous. Would not <span class="italic">its</span> do?</p>
+
+<p><span class="italic">Scott.</span>&mdash;Th. is a bad sound. Ts. a much worse. Read <span class="italic">their</span>.</p>
+
+<p class="p2"><span class="smcap">Stanza</span> IV.&mdash;"A stranger might reply."</p>
+
+<p><span class="italic">James.</span>&mdash;My objection to this is probably fantastical, and I state it only
+  because, from the first moment to the last, it has always made me boggle.
+  I don't like a <span class="italic">stranger</span>&mdash;Query, "The questioned"&mdash;The "spectator"&mdash;"gazer,"
+  etc.</p>
+
+<p><span class="italic">Scott.</span>&mdash;<span class="italic">Stranger</span> is appropriate&mdash;it means stranger to the circumstances.</p>
+
+<p class="p2"><span class="pagenum"><a id="page073" name="page073"></a>(p. 073)</span> <span class="smcap">Stanza</span> VI.&mdash;<span class="italic">James.</span>&mdash;You had changed "garner-house
+     profound," which I think quite admirable, to "garner under
+     ground," which I think quite otherways. I have presumed not
+     to make the change&mdash;must I?</p>
+
+<p><span class="italic">Scott.</span>&mdash;I acquiesce, but with doubts; <span class="italic">profound</span> sounds
+     affected.</p>
+
+<p class="p2"><span class="smcap">Stanza</span> VIII.&mdash;"The deadly tug of war at length<br>
+ <span class="add65em">Must limits find in human strength,</span><br>
+ <span class="add65em">And <span class="italic">cease</span> when these are passed.</span><br>
+ <span class="add65em">Vain hope!" etc.</span></p>
+
+<p><span class="italic">James.</span>&mdash;I must needs repeat, that the deadly tug <span class="italic">did</span>
+     cease in the case supposed. It lasted long&mdash;very long; but,
+     when the limits of resistance, of human strength, were
+     past&mdash;that is, after they had fought for ten hours, then the
+     deadly tug <span class="italic">did</span> cease. Therefore the "hope" was not "vain."</p>
+
+<p><span class="italic">Scott.</span>&mdash;I answer, it did <span class="italic">not</span>,&mdash;because the observation
+     relates to the strength of those actually engaged, and when
+     <span class="italic">their</span> strength was exhausted, other squadrons were brought
+     up. Suppose you saw two lawyers scolding at the bar, you
+     might say this must have an end&mdash;human lungs cannot hold
+     out&mdash;but, if the debate were continued by the senior
+     counsel, your well-grounded expectations would be
+     disappointed&mdash;"Cousin, thou wert not wont to be so dull!"&mdash;</p>
+
+<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Ibid.</span>&mdash;"Nor ceased the <span class="italic">intermitted</span> shot."</p>
+
+<p><span class="italic">James.</span>&mdash;Mr. Erskine contends that "intermitted" is
+     redundant.</p>
+
+<p><span class="italic">Scott.</span>&mdash;"Nor ceased the <span class="italic">storm of shell and shot</span>."</p>
+
+<p class="p2"><span class="smcap">Stanza</span> X.&mdash;"&mdash;&mdash; Never shall our country say<br>
+<span class="add55em">We gave one inch of ground away,</span><br>
+<span class="italic add55em">When battling</span> for her right."</p>
+
+<p><span class="italic">James.</span>&mdash;<span class="italic">In conflict?</span></p>
+
+<p><span class="italic">John B.</span>&mdash;<span class="italic">Warring?</span> I am afraid <span class="italic">battling</span> must stand.</p>
+
+<p><span class="italic">Scott.</span>&mdash;All worse than the text.</p>
+
+<p class="p2"><span class="smcap">Stanza</span> XI.&mdash;"Peal'd wildly the imperial name."</p>
+
+<p><span class="italic">James.</span>&mdash;I submit with diffidence whether this be not a
+     somewhat tame conclusion to so very animated a stanza? And,
+     at any rate, you will observe, that as it stands, you have
+     no rhyme whatever to "The Cohort eagles <span class="italic">fly</span>."&mdash;You have no
+     rhyme to <span class="italic">fly</span>. <span class="italic">Flew</span> and <span class="italic">fly</span>, also, are perhaps too
+     near, considering that each word closes a line of the same
+     sort. I don't well like "<span class="italic">Thus</span> in a torrent," either. If it
+     were, "In one broad torrent," etc., it strikes me that it
+     would be more spirited.</p>
+
+<p><span class="italic">Scott.</span>&mdash;Granted as to most of these observations&mdash;Read,
+     "in one <span class="italic">dark</span> torrent broad and strong," etc.&mdash;The
+     "imperial name" is <span class="italic">true</span>, therefore must stand.</p>
+
+<p class="p2"><span class="smcap">Stanza</span> XII.&mdash;"Nor was one forward footstep <span class="italic">stopped</span>."</p>
+
+<p><span class="italic">James.</span>&mdash;This staggering word was intended, I presume, but
+     I don't like it.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page074" name="page074"></a>(p. 074)</span> <span class="italic">Scott.</span>&mdash;Granted. Read <span class="italic">staid</span>, etc.</p>
+
+<p class="poem20"><span class="smcap">Ibid</span>.&mdash;"Down were the eagle banners sent,<br>
+<span class="add3em">Down, down the horse and horsemen went."</span></p>
+
+<p><span class="italic">James.</span>&mdash;This is very spirited and very fine; but it is
+     unquestionably liable to the charge of being very nearly a
+     direct repetition of yourself. See <span class="italic">Lord of the Isles</span>,
+     Canto vi. Stanza 24:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p class="poem30">"<span class="italic">Down! down!</span> in headlong overthrow,<br>
+  <span class="italic">Horseman and horse</span>, the foremost go," etc.</p>
+
+<p>This passage is at once so striking and so recent, that its
+     close similarity to the present, if not indeed its identity,
+     must strike every reader; and really, to borrow from one's
+     self is hardly much better than to borrow from one's
+     neighbors. And yet again, a few lines lower&mdash;</p>
+
+<p class="poem30">"As hammers on the <span class="italic">anvils</span> reel,<br>
+  Against the cuirass <span class="italic">clangs</span> the steel."</p>
+
+<p>See <span class="italic">Lady of the Lake</span>, Canto vi. Stanza 18:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p class="poem30">"I heard the broadswords' deadly <span class="italic">clang</span>,<br>
+  As if an hundred <span class="italic">anvils</span> rang."</p>
+
+<p>Here is precisely the same image, in very nearly the same words.</p>
+
+<p><span class="italic">Scott.</span>&mdash;I have altered the expression, but made a note,
+     which, I think, will vindicate my retaining the simile.</p>
+
+<p class="p2"><span class="smcap">Stanza</span> XIII.&mdash;"As their own Ocean-rocks hold <span class="italic">stance</span>."</p>
+
+<p><span class="italic">John.</span>&mdash;I do not know such an English word as <span class="italic">stance</span>.</p>
+
+<p><span class="italic">Scott.</span>&mdash;Then we'll make it one for the <span class="italic">nance</span>.</p>
+
+<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Ibid.</span>&mdash;"And <span class="italic">newer</span> standards fly."</p>
+
+<p><span class="italic">James.</span>&mdash;I don't like <span class="italic">newer</span>.</p>
+
+<p><span class="italic">Scott.</span>&mdash;"And <span class="italic">other</span> standards fly."</p>
+
+<p class="poem20"><span class="smcap">Ibid.</span>&mdash;"Or can thy memory fail to <span class="italic">quote</span>,<br>
+<span class="add3em">Heard to thy cost the vengeful note."</span></p>
+
+<p><span class="italic">James.</span>&mdash;Would to God you would alter this <span class="italic">quote</span>!</p>
+
+<p><span class="italic">John.</span>&mdash;Would to God <span class="italic">I</span> could!&mdash;I certainly should.&mdash;</p>
+
+<p><span class="italic">Scott.</span>&mdash;"Or can thy memory fail to know,<br>
+<span class="add35em">Heard oft before in hour of woe."</span></p>
+
+<p>Or&mdash;</p>
+
+<p class="add35em">"Or dwells not in thy memory still,<br>
+  Heard frequent in thine hour of ill."</p>
+
+<p class="p2"><span class="smcap">Stanza</span> XV.&mdash;"Wrung forth by pride, <span class="italic">regret</span>, and shame."</p>
+
+<p><span class="italic">James.</span>&mdash;I have ventured to submit to your choice&mdash;</p>
+
+<p class="poem10">"Wrung forth by pride, <span class="italic">and rage</span>, and shame."</p>
+
+<p><span class="italic">Regret</span> appearing a faint epithet amidst such a combination
+     of bitter feelings.</p>
+
+<p><span class="italic">Scott.</span>&mdash;Granted.</p>
+
+<p class="poem20"><span class="pagenum"><a id="page075" name="page075"></a>(p. 075)</span> <span class="smcap">Ibid</span>.&mdash;"So mingle banner, wain, and gun,<br>
+<span class="add3em">Where in one tide of horror run</span><br>
+<span class="add3em">The warriors," etc.</span></p>
+
+<p><span class="italic">James.</span>&mdash;In the first place, warriors <span class="italic">running</span> in a tide
+     is a clashing metaphor; in the second, the warriors
+     <span class="italic">running</span> at all is a little homely. It is true, no doubt;
+     but really running is little better than scampering. For
+     these causes, one or both, I think the lines should be
+     altered.</p>
+
+<p><span class="italic">Scott.</span>&mdash;You are wrong in one respect. A tide is always
+     said to <span class="italic">run</span>,&mdash;but I thought of the tide without attending
+     to the equivoque, which must be altered. Read,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p class="center">"Where the tumultuous flight rolls on."</p>
+
+<p class="p2"><span class="smcap">Stanza</span> XVI.&mdash;"&mdash;&mdash; found <span class="italic">gallant</span> grave."</p>
+
+<p><span class="italic">James.</span>&mdash;This is surely a singular epithet to a grave. I
+     think the whole of this stanza eminently fine; and, in
+     particular, the conclusion.</p>
+
+<p><span class="italic">Scott.</span>&mdash;"&mdash;&mdash; found <span class="italic">soldier's</span> grave." &mdash;&mdash;</p>
+
+<p class="p2"><span class="smcap">Stanza</span> XXI.&mdash;"<span class="italic">Redoubted</span> Picton's soul of fire."</p>
+
+<p><span class="italic">James.</span>&mdash;From long association, this epithet strikes me as
+     conveying a semi-ludicrous idea.</p>
+
+<p><span class="italic">Scott.</span>&mdash;It is here appropriate, and your objection seems
+     merely personal to your own association.</p>
+
+<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Ibid.</span>&mdash;"Through his friends' heart to <span class="italic">wound</span> his own."</p>
+
+<p><span class="italic">James.</span>&mdash;Quære&mdash;<span class="italic">Pierce</span>, or rather <span class="italic">stab</span>&mdash;<span class="italic">wound</span> is
+     faint.</p>
+
+<p><span class="italic">Scott.</span>&mdash;"Pierce."</p>
+
+<p class="p2"><span class="smcap">Stanza</span> XXII.&mdash;"Forgive, <span class="italic">brave fallen</span>, the imperfect lay."</p>
+
+<p><span class="italic">James.</span>&mdash;Don't like "brave fallen" at all; nor "appropriate
+     praise," three lines after. The latter in particular is
+     prosaic.</p>
+
+<p><span class="italic">Scott.</span>&mdash;"Forgive, <span class="italic">brave dead</span>,"
+            &mdash;&mdash; "<span class="italic">The dear-earned praise.</span>"<a href="#toc"><span class="small">[Back to Contents]</span></a></p>
+</div>
+
+
+
+
+<h3><span class="pagenum"><a id="page076" name="page076"></a>(p. 076)</span> CHAPTER XXXVI.</h3>
+
+<p class="summary">field of waterloo published. &mdash; revision of paul's letters,
+     etc. &mdash; quarrel and reconciliation with hogg. &mdash; football
+     match at carterhaugh. &mdash; songs on the banner of buccleuch.
+     &mdash; dinner at bowhill. &mdash; design for a piece of plate to the
+     sutors of selkirk. &mdash; letters to the duke of buccleuch,
+     joanna baillie, and mr. morritt.</p>
+
+<p class="center">1815.</p>
+
+
+<p>The poem of The Field of Waterloo was published before the end of
+October; the profits of the first edition being the author's
+contribution to the fund raised for the relief of the widows and
+children of the soldiers slain in the battle. This piece appears to
+have disappointed those most disposed to sympathize with the author's
+views and feelings. The descent is indeed heavy from his Bannockburn
+to his Waterloo: the presence, or all but visible reality of what his
+dreams cherished, seems to have overawed his imagination, and tamed it
+into a weak pomposity of movement. The burst of pure native enthusiasm
+upon the <span class="italic">Scottish</span> heroes that fell around the Duke of Wellington's
+person bears, however, the broadest marks of the "Mighty Minstrel:"&mdash;</p>
+
+<p class="poem20">
+<span class="add2em">"Saw gallant Miller's fading eye</span><br>
+  Still bent where Albyn's standards fly,<br>
+  And Cameron, in the shock of steel,<br>
+  Die like the offspring of Lochiel," etc.;&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>and this is far from being the only redeeming passage. There is one,
+indeed, in which he illustrates what he then thought Buonaparte's
+poorness of spirit in adversity, <span class="pagenum"><a id="page077" name="page077"></a>(p. 077)</span> which always struck me as
+preëminently characteristic of Scott's manner of interweaving, both in
+prose and verse, the moral energies with analogous natural
+description, and combining thought with imagery,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p class="poem20">
+<span class="add1em">"Or is thy soul like mountain tide,</span><br>
+  That, swelled by winter storm and shower,<br>
+  Rolls down in turbulence of power,<br>
+<span class="add1em">A torrent fierce and wide;</span><br>
+  Reft of these aids, a rill obscure,<br>
+  Shrinking unnoticed, mean and poor,<br>
+<span class="add1em">Whose channel shows displayed</span><br>
+  The wrecks of its impetuous course,<br>
+  But not one symptom of the force<br>
+<span class="add1em">By which these wrecks were made!"</span></p>
+
+<p>The poem was the first upon a subject likely to be sufficiently
+hackneyed; and, having the advantage of coming out in a small cheap
+form&mdash;(prudently imitated from Murray's innovation with the tales of
+Byron, which was the death-blow to the system of verse in quarto)&mdash;it
+attained rapidly a measure of circulation above what had been reached
+either by Rokeby or The Lord of the Isles.</p>
+
+<p>Meanwhile the revision of Paul's Letters was proceeding; and Scott had
+almost immediately on his return to Abbotsford concluded his bargain
+for the first edition of a third novel&mdash;The Antiquary&mdash;to be published
+also in the approaching winter. Harold the Dauntless, too, was from
+time to time taken up as the amusement of <span class="italic">horæ subsecivæ</span>. As for
+Scott's out-of-doors occupations of that autumn, sufficient light will
+be thrown on them by the following letter; from which it is seen that
+he had now completed a rather tedious negotiation with another
+bonnet-laird, and definitively added the lands of <span class="italic">Kaeside</span> to the
+original estate of Abbotsford.</p>
+
+<div class="quote">
+<p class="tit-center">TO MISS JOANNA BAILLIE, HAMPSTEAD.</p>
+<p class="left50"><span class="smcap">Abbotsford</span>, November 12, 1815.</p>
+
+<p>I have been long in acknowledging your letter, my dear
+     friend, and yet you have not only been frequent in my
+     thoughts, as must always be the case, but your name
+     <span class="pagenum"><a id="page078" name="page078"></a>(p. 078)</span> has been of late familiar in my mouth as a
+     household word. You must know that the pinasters you had the
+     goodness to send me some time since, which are now fit to be
+     set out of the nursery, have occupied my mind as to the mode
+     of disposing of them. Now, mark the event: there is in the
+     middle of what will soon be a bank of fine young wood, a
+     certain old gravel-pit, which is the present scene of my
+     operations. I have caused it to be covered with better
+     earth, and gently altered with the spade, so as, if
+     possible, to give it the air of one of those accidental
+     hollows which the surface of a hill frequently presents.
+     Having arranged my ground, I intend to plant it all round
+     with the pinasters, and other varieties of the pine species,
+     and in the interior I will have a rustic seat, surrounded by
+     all kinds of evergreen shrubs (laurels in particular), and
+     all varieties of the holly and cedar, and so forth, and this
+     is to be called and entitled <span class="italic">Joanna's Bower</span>. We are
+     determined in the choice of our ornaments by necessity, for
+     our ground fronts (in poetic phrase) the rising sun, or, in
+     common language, looks to the east; and being also on the
+     north side of the hill&mdash;(don't you shiver at the
+     thought?)&mdash;why, to say truth, George Wynnos and I are both
+     of opinion that nothing but evergreens will flourish there;
+     but I trust I shall convert a present deformity into a very
+     pretty little hobby-horsical sort of thing. It will not bear
+     looking at for years, and that is a pity; but it will so far
+     resemble the person from whom it takes name, that it is
+     planted, as she has written, for the benefit as well of
+     posterity as for the passing generation. Time and I, says
+     the Spaniard, against any two; and fully confiding in the
+     proverb, I have just undertaken another grand task. You must
+     know, I have purchased a large lump of wild land, lying
+     adjoining to this little property, which greatly more than
+     doubles my domains. The land is said to be reasonably
+     bought, and I am almost certain I can turn it to advantage
+     by a little judicious expenditure; for this <span class="pagenum"><a id="page079" name="page079"></a>(p. 079)</span> place
+     is already allowed to be worth twice what it cost me; and
+     our people here think so little of planting, and do it so
+     carelessly, that they stare with astonishment at the
+     alteration which well-planted woods make on the face of a
+     country. There is, besides, a very great temptation, from
+     the land running to within a quarter of a mile of a very
+     sweet wild sheet of water, of which (that is, one side of
+     it) I have every chance to become proprietor: this is a
+     poetical circumstance not to be lost sight of, and
+     accordingly I keep it full in my view. Amid these various
+     avocations, past, present, and to come, I have not thought
+     much about Waterloo, only that I am truly glad you like it.
+     I might, no doubt, have added many curious anecdotes, but I
+     think the pamphlet long enough as it stands, and never had
+     any design of writing copious notes.</p>
+
+<p>I do most devoutly hope Lord Byron will succeed in his
+     proposal of bringing out one of your dramas; that he is your
+     sincere admirer is only synonymous with his being a man of
+     genius; and he has, I am convinced, both the power and
+     inclination to serve the public, by availing himself of the
+     treasures you have laid before them. Yet I long for "some
+     yet untasted spring," and heartily wish you would take Lord
+     B. into your counsels, and adjust, from your yet unpublished
+     materials, some drama for the public. In such a case, I
+     would, in your place, conceal my name till the issue of the
+     adventure. It is a sickening thing to think how many angry
+     and evil passions the mere name of admitted excellence
+     brings into full activity. I wish you would consider this
+     hint, and I am sure the result would be great gratification
+     to the public, and to yourself that sort of satisfaction
+     which arises from receiving proofs of having attained the
+     mark at which you aimed. Of this last, indeed, you cannot
+     doubt, if you consult only the voices of the intelligent and
+     the accomplished; but the object of the dramatist is
+     professedly to delight the public at large, and therefore I
+     think you should make the experiment fairly.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page080" name="page080"></a>(p. 080)</span> Little Sophia is much obliged by your kind and
+     continued recollection: she is an excellent good child,
+     sufficiently sensible, very affectionate, not without
+     perception of character; but the gods have not made her
+     poetical, and I hope she will never attempt to act a part
+     which nature has not called her to. I am myself a poet,
+     writing to a poetess, and therefore cannot be suspected of a
+     wish to degrade a talent, to which, in whatever degree I may
+     have possessed it, I am indebted for much happiness: but
+     this depends only on the rare coincidence of some talent
+     falling in with a novelty in style and diction and conduct
+     of story, which suited the popular taste; and were my
+     children to be better poets than me, they would not be such
+     in general estimation, simply because the second cannot be
+     the first, and the first (I mean in point of date) is
+     everything, while others are nothing, even with more
+     intrinsic merit. I am therefore particularly anxious to
+     store the heads of my young damsels with something better
+     than the tags of rhymes; and I hope Sophia is old enough
+     (young though she be) to view her little incidents of
+     celebrity, such as they are, in the right point of view.
+     Mrs. Scott and she are at present in Edinburgh; the rest of
+     the children are with me in this place; my eldest boy is
+     already a bold horseman and a fine shot, though only about
+     fourteen years old. I assure you I was prouder of the first
+     blackcock he killed, than I have been of anything whatever
+     since I first killed one myself, and that is twenty years
+     ago. This is all stupid gossip; but, as Master Corporal Nym
+     says, "things must be as they may:" you cannot expect grapes
+     from thorns, or much amusement from a brain bewildered with
+     thorn hedges at Kaeside, for such is the sonorous title of
+     my new possession, in virtue of which I subscribe myself,</p>
+
+<p class="left50 smcap">Abbotsford &amp; Kaeside.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>There is now to be mentioned a little pageant of <span class="pagenum"><a id="page081" name="page081"></a>(p. 081)</span> December,
+1815, which perhaps interested <span class="italic">Abbotsford and Kaeside</span> not very much
+less than the "Field of the Cloth of Gold," as James Ballantyne calls
+it, of the preceding autumn. This was no other than a football match,
+got up under the auspices of the Duke of Buccleuch, between the men of
+the Vale of Yarrow and the Burghers of Selkirk, the particulars of
+which will be sufficiently explained by an extract from Ballantyne's
+newspaper, written, I can have no doubt, by the Sheriff of the Forest.
+But the part taken in this solemnity by the Ettrick Shepherd reminds
+me of an extraordinary epistle which Scott had received from him some
+months before this time, and of the account given by Hogg himself, in
+one of his autobiographies, of the manner in which Scott's kindness
+terminated the alienation it refers to.</p>
+
+<p>The Shepherd, being as usual in pecuniary straits, had projected a
+work, to be called The Poetic Mirror, in which should appear some
+piece by each popular poet of the time, the whole to be edited by
+himself, and published for his benefit; and he addressed, accordingly,
+to his brother bards a circular petition for their best assistance.
+Scott&mdash;like Byron and most of the other persons thus applied
+to&mdash;declined the proposition. The letter in which he signified his
+refusal has not been preserved;&mdash;indeed it is sufficiently remarkable,
+that of all the many letters which Hogg must have received from his
+distinguished contemporaries, he appears to have kept not one; but
+Scott's decided aversion to joint-stock adventures in authorship must
+have been well known ere now to Hogg&mdash;and, at all events, nobody can
+suspect that his note of refusal was meant to be an unfriendly
+communication. The Shepherd, however, took some phrase in high
+dudgeon, and penned an answer virulently insolent in spirit and in
+language, accusing him of base jealousy of his own superior natural
+genius. I am not sure whether it was on this or another occasion of
+the like sort, that James varied the usual formulas of <span class="pagenum"><a id="page082" name="page082"></a>(p. 082)</span>
+epistolary composition, by beginning with "Damned Sir," and ending,
+"Believe me, Sir, yours with disgust, etc.;" but certainly the
+performance was such that no intercourse took place between the
+parties for some weeks, or perhaps months, afterwards. The letter in
+which Hogg at length solicits a renewal of kindliness says nothing, it
+may be observed, of the circumstance which, according to his
+autobiography, confirmed by the recollection of two friends, whom he
+names in the letter itself (Mr. John Grieve and Mr. William Laidlaw),
+had really caused him to repent of his suspicions, and their
+outrageous expression. The fact was, that hearing, shortly after the
+receipt of the offensive epistle, that Hogg was confined to his
+lodgings, in an obscure alley of Edinburgh, called Gabriel's Road, by
+a dangerous illness, Scott called on Mr. Grieve to make inquiries
+about him, and to offer to take on himself the expenses of the best
+medical attendance. He had, however, cautioned the worthy hatter that
+no hint of this offer must reach Hogg; and, in consequence, it might
+perhaps be the Shepherd's feeling at the time that he should not, in
+addressing his lifelong benefactor, betray any acquaintance with this
+recent interference on his behalf. There can be no doubt, however,
+that he obeyed the genuine dictates of his better nature when he
+penned this apologetic effusion:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="quote">
+<p class="tit-center">TO WALTER SCOTT, ESQ., CASTLE STREET.</p>
+<p class="left50"><span class="smcap">Gabriel's Road</span>, February 28, 1815.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Mr. Scott</span>,&mdash;I think it is great nonsense for two men who are
+     friends at heart, and who ever must be so,&mdash;indeed it is not
+     in the nature of things that they can be otherwise,&mdash;should
+     be professed enemies.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Grieve and Mr. Laidlaw, who were very severe on me, and
+     to whom I was obliged to show your letter, have long ago
+     convinced me that I mistook part of it, and that it was not
+     me you held in such contempt, but the opinion of the public.
+     The <span class="pagenum"><a id="page083" name="page083"></a>(p. 083)</span> idea that you might mean that (though I still
+     think the reading will bear either construction) has given
+     me much pain; for I know I answered yours intemperately, and
+     in a mortal rage. I meant to have enclosed yours, and begged
+     of you to return mine, but I cannot find it, and am sure
+     that some one to whom I have been induced to show it, has
+     taken it away. However, as my troubles on that subject were
+     never like to wear to an end, I could no longer resist
+     telling you that I am extremely vexed about it. I desire not
+     a renewal of our former intimacy, for haply, after what I
+     have written, your family would not suffer it; but I wish it
+     to be understood that, when we meet <span class="italic">by chance</span>, we might
+     shake hands, and speak to one another as old acquaintances,
+     and likewise that we may exchange a letter occasionally, for
+     I find there are many things which I yearn to communicate to
+     you, and the tears rush to my eyes when I consider that I
+     may not.</p>
+
+<p>If you allow of this, pray let me know, and if you do not,
+     let me know. Indeed, I am anxious to hear from you, for "as
+     the day of trouble is with me, so shall my strength be." To
+     be friends <span class="italic">from the teeth forwards</span> is common enough; but
+     it strikes me that there is something still more ludicrous
+     in the reverse of the picture, and so to be enemies&mdash;and why
+     should I be, <span class="italic">from the teeth forwards</span>, yours sincerely,</p>
+
+<p class="left50 smcap">James Hogg?</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>Scott's reply was, as Hogg says, "a brief note, telling him to think
+no more of the business, and come to breakfast next morning." The
+misunderstanding being thus closed, they appear to have counselled and
+coöperated together in the most cordial fashion, in disciplining their
+rural allies for the muster of Carterhaugh&mdash;the Duke of Buccleuch's
+brother-in-law, the Earl of Home, having appointed the Shepherd his
+Lieutenant over the Yarrow Band, while the Sheriff took under his
+special cognizance the <span class="italic">Sutors</span>, i.e., <span class="italic">shoemakers</span>, of Selkirk&mdash;for
+so the burgesses of that town have for ages styled themselves, and
+under that denomination their warlike prowess in days of yore has been
+celebrated in many an old ballad, besides the well-known one which
+begins with</p>
+
+<p class="poem20"><span class="pagenum"><a id="page084" name="page084"></a>(p. 084)</span> "'Tis up wi' the Sutors o' Selkirk,<br>
+  And 'tis down wi' the Earl of Home!"</p>
+
+<p>In order to understand all the allusions in the newspaper record of
+this important day, one must be familiar with the notes to the
+Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border; but I shall not burden it with
+further comment here.</p>
+
+<div class="quote">
+<p class="tit-center smcap">Football Match.</p>
+
+<p>"On Monday, 4th December, there was played, upon the
+     extensive plain of Carterhaugh, near the junction of the
+     Ettrick and Yarrow, the greatest match at the ball which has
+     taken place for many years. It was held by the people of the
+     Dale of Yarrow, against those of the parish of Selkirk; the
+     former being brought to the field by the Right Hon. the Earl
+     of Home, and the Gallant Sutors by their Chief Magistrate,
+     Ebenezer Clarkson, Esq. Both sides were joined by many
+     volunteers from other parishes; and the appearance of the
+     various parties marching from their different glens to the
+     place of rendezvous, with pipes playing and loud
+     acclamations, carried back the coldest imagination to the
+     old times when the Foresters assembled with the less
+     peaceable purpose of invading the English territory, or
+     defending their own. The romantic character of the scenery
+     aided the illusion, as well as the performance of a feudal
+     ceremony previous to commencing the games.</p>
+
+<p>"His Grace the Duke of Buccleuch and Queensberry came upon
+     the ground about eleven o'clock, attended by his sons, the
+     young Earl of Dalkeith and Lord John Scott; the Countess of
+     Home; the Ladies Anne, Charlotte, and Isabella Scott; Lord
+     and Lady Montagu and family; the Hon. General Sir Edward
+     Stopford, K. B.; Sir John Riddell of Riddell; Sir Alexander
+     Don of Newton; Mr. Elliot Lockhart, member for the county;
+     Mr. Pringle of Whytbank, younger; Mr. Pringle of Torwoodlee;
+     Captain Pringle, Royal Navy; Mr. Boyd of Broadmeadows and
+     family; Mr. Chisholm of Chisholm; Major Pott of Todrig; Mr.
+     Walter Scott, Sheriff of Selkirkshire, and family,&mdash;and many
+     other gentlemen and ladies.&mdash;The ancient banner of the
+     Buccleuch family, a curious and venerable relique,
+     emblazoned with armorial bearings, and with the word
+     '<span class="italic">Bellendaine</span>,' the ancient war-cry of the clan of Scott,
+     was then displayed, <span class="pagenum"><a id="page085" name="page085"></a>(p. 085)</span> as on former occasions when
+     the Chief took the field in person, whether for the purpose
+     of war or sport. The banner was delivered by Lady Anne Scott
+     to Master Walter Scott, younger of Abbotsford, who attended
+     suitably mounted and armed, and riding over the field
+     displayed it to the sound of the war-pipes, and amid the
+     acclamations of the assembled spectators, who could not be
+     fewer than 2000 in number. That this singular renewal of an
+     ancient military custom might not want poetical celebrity,
+     verses were distributed among the spectators, composed for
+     the occasion by Mr. Walter Scott and the Ettrick
+     Shepherd.&mdash;Mr. James Hogg acted as aide-de-camp to the Earl
+     of Home in the command of the Yarrow men, and Mr. Robert
+     Henderson of Selkirk to Mr. Clarkson, both of whom
+     contributed not a little to the good order of the day.</p>
+
+<p>"The ball was thrown up between the parties by the Duke of
+     Buccleuch, and the first game was gained, after a severe
+     conflict of an hour and a half duration, by the Selkirk men.
+     The second game was still more severely contested, and after
+     a close and stubborn struggle of more than three hours, with
+     various fortune, and much display of strength and agility on
+     both sides, was at length carried by the Yarrow men. The
+     ball should then have been thrown up a third time, but
+     considerable difficulty occurred in arranging the voluntary
+     auxiliaries from other parishes, so as to make the match
+     equal; and, as the day began to close, it was found
+     impossible to bring the strife to an issue, by playing a
+     decisive game.</p>
+
+<p>"Both parties, therefore, parted with equal honors, but,
+     before they left the ground, the Sheriff threw up his hat,
+     and in Lord Dalkeith's name and his own, challenged the
+     Yarrow men, on the part of the Sutors, to a match to be
+     played upon the first convenient opportunity, with 100
+     picked men only on each side. The challenge was mutually
+     accepted by Lord Home, on his own part, and for Lord John
+     Scott, and was received with acclamation by the players on
+     both sides. The principal gentlemen present took part with
+     one side or other, except the Duke of Buccleuch, who remains
+     neutral. Great play is expected, and all bets are to be paid
+     by the losers to the poor of the winning parish. We cannot
+     dismiss the subject without giving our highest commendation
+     to the Earl of Home, <span class="pagenum"><a id="page086" name="page086"></a>(p. 086)</span> and to Mr. Clarkson, for the
+     attention which they showed in promoting the spirit and good
+     order of the day. For the players themselves, it was
+     impossible to see a finer set of active and athletic young
+     fellows than appeared on the field. But what we chiefly
+     admired in their conduct was, that though several hundreds
+     in number, exceedingly keen for their respective parties,
+     and engaged in so rough and animated a contest, they
+     maintained the most perfect good-humor, and showed how
+     unnecessary it is to discourage manly and athletic exercises
+     among the common people, under pretext of maintaining
+     subordination and good order. We have only to regret that
+     the great concourse of spectators rendered it difficult to
+     mention the names of the several players who distinguished
+     themselves by feats of strength or agility; but we must not
+     omit to record that the first ball was <span class="italic">hailed</span> by Robert
+     Hall, mason in <span class="italic">Selkirk</span>, and the second by George Brodie,
+     from <span class="italic">Greatlaws</span>, upon <span class="italic">Aillwater</span>.</p>
+
+<p>"The Selkirk party wore slips of fir as their mark of
+     distinction&mdash;the Yarrow men, sprigs of heath.</p>
+
+<p>"Refreshments were distributed to the players by the Duke of
+     Buccleuch's domestics, in a booth erected for the purpose;
+     and no persons were allowed to sell ale or spirits on the
+     field.</p>
+
+<p>"In the evening there was a dance at the Duke's hunting-seat
+     at Bowhill, attended by the nobility and gentry who had
+     witnessed the sport of the day; and the fascination of Gow's
+     violin and band detained them in the dancing-room till the
+     dawn of the winter morning."</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>The newspaper then gives the songs above alluded to&mdash;namely, Scott's
+Lifting of the Banner:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p class="poem20">
+  "From the brown crest of Newark its summons extending,<br>
+<span class="add1em">Our signal is waving in smoke and in flame,</span><br>
+  And each Forester blithe, from his mountain descending,<br>
+<span class="add1em">Bounds light o'er the heather to join in the game;</span><br>
+  Then up with the Banner! let forest winds fan her!<br>
+<span class="add1em">She has blazed over Ettrick eight ages and more;</span><br>
+  In sport we'll attend her, in battle defend her,<br>
+<span class="add1em">With heart and with hand, like our Fathers before," etc.<a id="footnotetag26" name="footnotetag26"></a><a href="#footnote26" title="Go to footnote 26"><span class="small">[26]</span></a></span></p>
+
+<p>&mdash;and that excellent ditty by Hogg, entitled The Ettrick <span class="pagenum"><a id="page087" name="page087"></a>(p. 087)</span>
+Garland, to the Ancient Banner of the House of Buccleuch:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p class="poem20">
+  "And hast thou here, like hermit gray,<br>
+<span class="add1em">Thy mystic characters unroll'd,</span><br>
+  O'er peaceful revellers to play,<br>
+<span class="add1em">Thou emblem of the days of old?</span><br>
+  All hail! memorial of the brave,<br>
+<span class="add1em">The liegeman's pride, the Border's awe!</span><br>
+  May thy gray pennon never wave<br>
+<span class="add1em">On sterner field than Carterhaugh!" etc.</span></p>
+
+<p>I have no doubt the Sheriff of the Forest was a prouder man, when he
+saw his boy ride about Carterhaugh with the pennon of Bellenden, than
+when Platoff mounted himself for the imperial review of the <span class="italic">Champ de
+Mars</span>. It is a pity that I should have occasion to allude, before I
+quit a scene so characteristic of Scott, to another outbreak of Hogg's
+jealous humor. His Autobiography informs us, that when the more
+distinguished part of the company assembled on the conclusion of the
+sport to dine at Bowhill, he was proceeding to place himself at a
+particular table&mdash;but the Sheriff seized his arm, told him <span class="italic">that</span> was
+reserved for the nobility, and seated him at an inferior
+board&mdash;"between himself and the Laird of Harden"&mdash;the first gentleman
+of the clan Scott. "The fact is," says Hogg, "I am convinced he was
+sore afraid of my getting to be too great a favorite among the young
+ladies of Buccleuch!" Who can read this, and not be reminded of Sancho
+Panza and the Duchess? And, after all, he quite mistook what Scott had
+said to him; for certainly there was, neither on this, nor on any
+similar occasion at Bowhill, any <span class="italic">high table for the nobility</span>, though
+there was a <span class="italic">side-table for the children</span>, at which, when the Shepherd
+of Ettrick was about to seat himself, his friend probably whispered
+that it was reserved for the "<span class="italic">little</span> lords and ladies, and their
+playmates." This blunder may seem undeserving of any explanation; but
+it is often in small matters that the strongest feelings are most
+strikingly betrayed&mdash;and this story is, in exact <span class="pagenum"><a id="page088" name="page088"></a>(p. 088)</span> proportion
+to its silliness, indicative of the jealous feeling which mars and
+distorts so many of Hogg's representations of Scott's conduct and
+demeanor.</p>
+
+<p>It appears from the account of this football match in the Edinburgh
+Journal, that Scott took a lead in proposing a renewal of the contest.
+This, however, never occurred; and that it ought not to do so had
+probably occurred from the first to the Duke of Buccleuch, who is
+mentioned as having alone abstained from laying any bets on the final
+issue.</p>
+
+<p>When Mr. Washington Irving visited Scott two years afterwards at
+Abbotsford, he told his American friend that "the old feuds and local
+interests, and rivalries and animosities of the Scotch, still slept in
+their ashes, and might easily be roused; their hereditary feeling for
+names was still great; it was not always safe to have even the game of
+football between villages;&mdash;the old clannish spirit was too apt to
+break out."<a id="footnotetag27" name="footnotetag27"></a><a href="#footnote27" title="Go to footnote 27"><span class="small">[27]</span></a></p>
+
+<p>The good Duke of Buccleuch's solitary exemption from these heats of
+Carterhaugh might read a significant lesson to minor politicians of
+all parties on more important scenes. In pursuance of the same
+peace-making spirit, he appears to have been desirous of doing
+something gratifying to the men of the town of Selkirk, who had on
+this occasion taken the field against his Yarrow tenantry. His Grace
+consulted Scott about the design of a piece of plate to be presented
+to their community; and his letter on this weighty subject must not be
+omitted in the memoirs of a Sheriff of Selkirk:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="quote">
+<p class="tit-center">TO HIS GRACE THE DUKE OF BUCCLEUCH, ETC., BOWHILL.</p>
+<p class="left50"><span class="smcap">Edinburgh</span>, Thursday.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">My Dear Lord</span>,&mdash;I have proceeded in my commission about the
+     cup. It will be a very handsome one. But I am still puzzled
+     to dispose of the birse<a id="footnotetag28" name="footnotetag28"></a><a href="#footnote28" title="Go to footnote 28"><span class="small">[28]</span></a> in a <span class="pagenum"><a id="page089" name="page089"></a>(p. 089)</span> becoming manner.
+     It is a most unmanageable decoration. I tried it upright on
+     the top of the cup; it looked like a shaving-brush, and the
+     goblet might be intended to make the lather. Then I thought
+     I had a brilliant idea. The arms of Selkirk are a female
+     seated on a sarcophagus, decorated with the arms of
+     Scotland, which will make a beautiful top to the cup. So I
+     thought of putting the birse into the lady's other hand;
+     but, alas, it looked so precisely like the rod of
+     chastisement uplifted over the poor child, that I laughed at
+     the drawing for half an hour. Next I tried to take off the
+     castigatory appearance, by inserting the bristles in a kind
+     of handle; but then it looked as if the poor woman had been
+     engaged in the capacities of housemaid and child-keeper at
+     once, and, fatigued with her double duty, had sat down on
+     the wine-cooler, with the broom in one hand, and the bairn
+     in the other. At length, after some conference with Charles
+     Sharpe, I have hit on a plan, which, I think, will look very
+     well, if tolerably executed,&mdash;namely, to have the lady
+     seated in due form on the top of the lid (which will look
+     handsome, and will be well taken), and to have a thistle
+     wreathed around the sarcophagus and rising above her head,
+     and from the top of the thistle shall proceed the birse. I
+     will bring a drawing with me, and they shall get the cup
+     ready in the mean time. I hope to be at Abbotsford on Monday
+     night, to stay for a week. My cat has eat two or three
+     birds, while regaling on the crumbs that were thrown for
+     them. This was a breach of hospitality; but <span class="italic">oportet
+     vivere</span>&mdash;and <span class="italic">micat inter omnes</span>&mdash;with which stolen pun, and
+     my respectful compliments to Lord Montagu and the ladies, I
+     am, very truly, your Grace's most faithful and obliged
+     servant,</p>
+
+<p class="left50 smcap">Walter Scott.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page090" name="page090"></a>(p. 090)</span> P. S.&mdash;Under another cover, which I have just
+     received, I send the two drawings of the front and reverse
+     of the lid of the proposed cup. Your Grace will be so good
+     as understand that the thistle&mdash;the top of which is
+     garnished with the bristle&mdash;is entirely detached, in
+     working, from the figure, and slips into a socket. The
+     following lines are humbly suggested for a motto, being
+     taken from an ancient Scottish canzonetta,&mdash;unless the
+     Yarrow committee can find any better:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p class="poem20">"The sutor ga'e the sow a kiss:<br>
+  Grumph! quo' the sow, it's a' for my birss."</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>Some weeks before the year 1815 closed, Mr. Morritt sustained the
+heaviest of domestic afflictions; and several letters on that sad
+subject had passed between Rokeby and Abbotsford,<a id="footnotetag29" name="footnotetag29"></a><a href="#footnote29" title="Go to footnote 29"><span class="small">[29]</span></a> before the date
+of the following:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="quote">
+<p class="tit-center">TO J. B. S. MORRITT, ESQ., M. P., ROKEBY PARK.</p>
+<p class="left50"><span class="smcap">Edinburgh</span>, 22d December, 1815.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">My dear Morritt</span>,&mdash;While you know what satisfaction it would
+     have given me to have seen you here, I am very sensible of
+     the more weighty reasons which you urge for preferring to
+     stay at Rokeby for some time. I only hope you will remember
+     that Scotland has claims on you, whenever you shall find
+     your own mind so far at ease as to permit you to look abroad
+     for consolation; and if it should happen that you thought of
+     being here about our time of vacation, I have my time then
+     entirely at my own command, and I need not say, that as much
+     of it as could in any manner of way contribute to your
+     amusement, is most heartily at yours. I have myself at
+     present the melancholy task of watching the declining health
+     of my elder brother, Major Scott, whom, I think, you have
+     seen.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page091" name="page091"></a>(p. 091)</span> My literary occupation is getting through the press
+     the Letters of Paul, of whose lucubrations I trust soon to
+     send you a copy. As the observations of a bystander, perhaps
+     you will find some amusement in them, especially as I had
+     some channels of information not accessible to every one.
+     The recess of our courts, which takes place to-morrow, for
+     three weeks, will give me ample time to complete this job,
+     and also the second volume of Triermain, which is nearly
+     finished,&mdash;a strange rude story, founded partly on the
+     ancient northern traditions respecting the Berserkers, whose
+     peculiar habits and fits of martial frenzy make such a
+     figure in the Sagas. I shall then set myself seriously to
+     The Antiquary, of which I have only a very general sketch at
+     present; but when once I get my pen to the paper it will
+     walk fast enough. I am sometimes tempted to leave it alone,
+     and try whether it will not write as well without the
+     assistance of my head as with it. A hopeful prospect for the
+     reader. In the mean while, the snow, which is now falling so
+     fast as to make it dubious when this letter may reach
+     Rokeby, is likely to forward these important avocations, by
+     keeping me a constant resident in Edinburgh, in lieu of my
+     plan of going to Abbotsford, where I had a number of schemes
+     in hand, in the way of planting and improving. I believe I
+     told you I have made a considerable addition to my little
+     farm, and extended my domains towards a wild lake, which I
+     have a good prospect of acquiring also. It has a sort of
+     legendary fame; for the persuasion of the solitary shepherds
+     who approach its banks is, that it is tenanted by a very
+     large amphibious animal called by them a water-bull, and
+     which several of them pretend to have seen. As his
+     dimensions greatly exceed those of an otter, I am tempted to
+     think with Trinculo, "This is the devil, and no monster."
+     But, after all, is it not strange, that as to almost all the
+     lakes in Scotland, both Lowland and Highland, such a belief
+     should prevail? and that the description popularly given
+     <span class="pagenum"><a id="page092" name="page092"></a>(p. 092)</span> uniformly corresponds with that of the
+     hippopotamus? Is it possible, that at some remote period,
+     that remarkable animal, like some others which have now
+     disappeared, may have been an inhabitant of our large lakes?
+     Certainly the vanishing of the mammoth and other animals
+     from the face of the creation renders such a conjecture less
+     wild than I would otherwise esteem it. It is certain we have
+     lost the beaver, whose bones have been more than once found
+     in our Selkirkshire bogs and marlmosses. The remains of the
+     wild bull are very frequently found; and I have more than
+     one skull with horns of most formidable dimensions.</p>
+
+<p>About a fortnight ago we had a great football match in
+     Selkirkshire, when the Duke of Buccleuch raised his banner
+     (a very curious and ancient pennon) in great form. Your
+     friend Walter was banner-bearer, dressed, like a forester of
+     old, in green, with a green bonnet, and an eagle feather in
+     it; and, as he was well mounted, and rode handsomely over
+     the field, he was much admired by all his clansmen.</p>
+
+<p>I have thrown these trifles together, without much hope that
+     they will afford you amusement; but I know you will wish to
+     know what I am about, and I have but trifles to send to
+     those friends who interest themselves about a trifler. My
+     present employment is watching, from time to time, the
+     progress of a stupid cause, in order to be ready to reduce
+     the sentence into writing, when the Court shall have decided
+     whether Gordon of Kenmore or MacMichan of Meikleforthhead be
+     the superior of the lands of Tarschrechan and Dalbrattie,
+     and entitled to the feudal casualties payable forth thereof,
+     which may amount to twopence sterling, once in half a dozen
+     of years. Marry, sir, they make part of a freehold
+     qualification, and the decision may wing a voter. I did not
+     send the book you received by the Selkirk coach. I wish I
+     could have had sense enough to send anything which could
+     afford you consolation. I think our friend <span class="pagenum"><a id="page093" name="page093"></a>(p. 093)</span> Lady
+     Louisa was likely to have had this attention; she has, God
+     knows, been herself tried with affliction, and is well
+     acquainted with the sources from which comfort can be drawn.
+     My wife joins in kindest remembrances, as do Sophia and
+     Walter. Ever yours affectionately,</p>
+
+<p class="left50 smcap">Walter Scott.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>This letter is dated the 22d of December. On the 26th, John
+Ballantyne, being then at Abbotsford, writes to Messrs. Constable:
+"Paul is <span class="italic">all</span> in hand;" and an envelope, addressed to James
+Ballantyne on the 29th, has preserved another little fragment of
+Scott's playful doggerel:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p class="poem20">
+  "Dear James&mdash;I'm done, thank God, with the long yarns<br>
+  Of the most prosy of Apostles&mdash;Paul;<br>
+  And now advance, sweet Heathen of Monkbarns,<br>
+  Step out, old quizz, as fast as I can scrawl."<a href="#toc"><span class="small">[Back to Contents]</span></a></p>
+
+
+<h3><span class="pagenum"><a id="page094" name="page094"></a>(p. 094)</span> CHAPTER XXXVII.</h3>
+
+<p class="summary">publication of paul's letters to his kinsfolk. &mdash; guy
+     mannering "terry-fied." &mdash; death of major john scott. &mdash;
+     letters to thomas scott. &mdash; publication of the antiquary. &mdash;
+     history of 1814 for the edinburgh annual register. &mdash;
+     letters on the history of scotland projected. &mdash; publication
+     of the first tales of my landlord by murray and blackwood.
+     &mdash; anecdotes by mr. train. &mdash; quarterly review on the tales.
+     &mdash; building at abbotsford begun. &mdash; letters to morritt,
+     terry, murray, and the ballantynes.</p>
+
+<p class="center">1816.</p>
+
+
+<p>The year 1815 may be considered as, for Scott's peaceful tenor of
+life, an eventful one. That which followed has left almost its only
+traces in the successive appearance of nine volumes, which attest the
+prodigal genius, and hardly less astonishing industry of the man.
+Early in January were published Paul's Letters to his Kinsfolk, of
+which I need not now say more than that they were received with lively
+curiosity, and general, though not vociferous applause. The first
+edition was an octavo, of 6000 copies; and it was followed, in the
+course of the next two or three years, by a second and a third,
+amounting together to 3000 more. The popularity of the novelist was at
+its height; and this admitted, if not avowed, specimen of Scott's
+prose must have been perceived, by all who had any share of
+discrimination, to flow from the same pen.</p>
+
+<a id="img002" name="img002"></a>
+<div class="figcenter">
+<img src="images/img002.jpg"  width="400" height="578" alt="" title="">
+<p>MAIDA<br>
+After Landseer's painting.</div>
+
+<p>Mr. Terry produced, in the spring of 1816, a dramatic <span class="pagenum"><a id="page095" name="page095"></a>(p. 095)</span> piece,
+entitled Guy Mannering, which met with great success on the London
+boards, and still continues to be a favorite with the theatrical
+public. What share the novelist himself had in this first specimen of
+what he used to call "the art of <span class="italic">Terryfying</span>," I cannot exactly say;
+but his correspondence shows that the pretty song of the Lullaby<a id="footnotetag30" name="footnotetag30"></a><a href="#footnote30" title="Go to footnote 30"><span class="small">[30]</span></a>
+was not his only contribution to it; and I infer that he had taken the
+trouble to modify the plot, and rearrange, for stage purposes, a
+considerable part of the original dialogue. The casual risk of
+discovery, through the introduction of the song which had, in the mean
+time, been communicated to one of his humble friends, the late Mr.
+Alexander Campbell,<a id="footnotetag31" name="footnotetag31"></a><a href="#footnote31" title="Go to footnote 31"><span class="small">[31]</span></a> editor of Albyn's Anthology&mdash;(commonly known
+at Abbotsford as, by way of excellence, <span class="italic">The Dunniewassal</span>,)&mdash;and
+Scott's suggestions on that difficulty will amuse the reader of the
+following letter:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="quote">
+<p class="tit-center">TO D. TERRY, ESQ., ALFRED PLACE, BLOOMSBURY, LONDON.</p>
+<p class="left50"><span class="smcap">Abbotsford</span>, 18th April, 1816.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">My dear Terry</span>,&mdash;I give you joy of your promotion to the
+     dignity of an householder, and heartily wish you all the
+     success you so well deserve, to answer the approaching
+     enlargement of your domestic establishment. You will find a
+     house a very devouring monster, and that the purveying for
+     it requires a little exertion, and a great <span class="pagenum"><a id="page096" name="page096"></a>(p. 096)</span> deal of
+     self-denial and arrangement. But when there is domestic
+     peace and contentment, all that would otherwise be
+     disagreeable, as restraining our taste and occupying our
+     time, becomes easy. I trust Mrs. Terry will get her business
+     easily over, and that you will soon "dandle Dickie on your
+     knee."&mdash;I have been at the spring circuit, which made me
+     late in receiving your letter, and there I was introduced to
+     a man whom I never saw in my life before, namely, the
+     proprietor of all the Pepper and Mustard family,&mdash;in other
+     words, the genuine Dandie Dinmont. Dandie is himself modest,
+     and says, "he b'lives it's only the dougs that is in the
+     buik, and no himsel'." As the surveyor of taxes was going
+     his ominous rounds past Hyndlea, which is the abode of
+     Dandie, his whole pack rushed out upon the man of execution,
+     and Dandie followed them (conscious that their number
+     greatly exceeded his return), exclaiming, "The tae hauf o'
+     them is but whalps, man." In truth, I knew nothing of the
+     man, except his odd humor of having only two names for
+     twenty dogs. But there are lines of general resemblance
+     among all these hill-men, which there is no missing; and
+     Jamie Davidson of Hyndlea certainly looks Dandie Dinmont
+     remarkably well. He is much flattered with the compliment,
+     and goes uniformly by the name among his comrades, but has
+     never read the book. Ailie used to read it to him, but it
+     set him to sleep. All this you will think funny enough. I am
+     afraid I am in a scrape about the song, and that of my own
+     making; for as it never occurred to me that there was
+     anything odd in my writing two or three verses for you,
+     which have no connection with the novel, I was at no pains
+     to disown them; and Campbell is just that sort of crazy
+     creature, with whom there is no confidence, not from want of
+     honor and disposition to oblige, but from his flighty
+     temper. The music of <span class="italic">Cadil g&#0365; lo</span> is already printed
+     in his publication, and nothing can be done with him, for
+     fear of setting his tongue a-going. Erskine and <span class="pagenum"><a id="page097" name="page097"></a>(p. 097)</span>
+     you may consider whether you should barely acknowledge an
+     obligation to an unknown friend, or pass the matter
+     altogether in silence. In my opinion, my <span class="italic">first</span> idea was
+     preferable to both, because I cannot see what earthly
+     connection there is between the song and the novel, or how
+     acknowledging the one is fathering the other. On the
+     contrary, it seems to me that acknowledgment tends to
+     exclude the idea of farther obligation than to the extent
+     specified. I forgot also that I had given a copy of the
+     lines to Mrs. Macleod of Macleod, from whom I had the air.
+     But I remit the matter entirely to you and Erskine, for
+     there must be many points in it which I cannot be supposed a
+     good judge of. At any rate, don't let it delay your
+     publication, and believe I shall be quite satisfied with
+     what you think proper.</p>
+
+<p>I have got from my friend Glengarry the noblest dog ever
+     seen on the Border since Johnnie Armstrong's time. He is
+     between the wolf and deer greyhound, about six feet long
+     from the tip of the nose to the tail, and high and strong in
+     proportion: he is quite gentle, and a great favorite: tell
+     Will Erskine he will eat off his plate without being at the
+     trouble to put a paw on the table or chair.<a id="footnotetag32" name="footnotetag32"></a><a href="#footnote32" title="Go to footnote 32"><span class="small">[32]</span></a> I showed him
+     to Mathews, who dined one day in Castle Street before I came
+     here, where, except for Mrs. S., I am like unto</p>
+
+<p class="poem20"><span class="pagenum"><a id="page098" name="page098"></a>(p. 098)</span> "The spirit who bideth by himself,<br>
+  In the land of mist and snow"&mdash;<a id="footnotetag33" name="footnotetag33"></a><a href="#footnote33" title="Go to footnote 33"><span class="small">[33]</span></a></p>
+
+<p>for it is snowing and hailing eternally, and will kill all
+     the lambs to a certainty, unless it changes in a few hours.
+     At any rate, it will cure us of the embarrassments arising
+     from plenty and low markets. Much good luck to your dramatic
+     exertions: when I can be of use, command me. Mrs. Scott
+     joins me in regards to Mrs. Terry, and considers the house
+     as the greatest possible bargain: the situation is all you
+     can wish. Adieu! yours truly,</p>
+
+<p class="left50 smcap">Walter Scott.</p>
+
+<p>P. S.&mdash;On consideration, and comparing difficulties, I think
+     I will settle with Campbell to take my name from the verses,
+     as they stand in his collection. The verses themselves I
+     cannot take away without imprudent explanations; and as they
+     go to other music, and stand without any name, they will
+     probably not be noticed, so you need give yourself no
+     farther trouble on the score. I should like to see my copy:
+     pray send it to the post-office, under cover to Mr.
+     Freeling, whose unlimited privilege is at my service on all
+     occasions.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>Early in May appeared the novel of The Antiquary, which seems to have
+been begun a little before the close of 1815. It came out at a moment
+of domestic distress.</p>
+
+<p>Throughout the year 1815, Major John Scott had been drooping. He died
+on the 8th of May, 1816; and I extract the letter in which this event
+was announced to Mr. Thomas Scott by his only surviving brother.</p>
+
+<div class="quote">
+
+<p class="tit-center">TO THOMAS SCOTT, ESQ., PAYMASTER OF THE 70TH REGIMENT, CANADA.</p>
+<p class="left50"><span class="smcap">Edinburgh</span>, 15th May, 1816.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">My Dear Tom</span>,&mdash;This brings you the melancholy news of our
+     brother John's concluding his long and lingering illness by
+     death, upon Thursday last. We had <span class="pagenum"><a id="page099" name="page099"></a>(p. 099)</span> thought it
+     impossible he should survive the winter, but, as the weather
+     became milder, he gathered strength, and went out several
+     times. In the beginning of the week he became worse, and on
+     Wednesday kept his bed. On Thursday, about two o'clock, they
+     sent me an express to Abbotsford&mdash;the man reached me at
+     nine. I immediately set out, and travelled all night&mdash;but
+     had not the satisfaction to see my brother alive. He had
+     died about four o'clock, without much pain, being completely
+     exhausted. You will naturally feel most anxious about my
+     mother's state of health and spirits. I am happy to say she
+     has borne this severe shock with great firmness and
+     resignation, is perfectly well in her health, and as strong
+     in her mind as ever you knew her. She feels her loss, but is
+     also sensible that protracted existence, with a constitution
+     so irretrievably broken up, could have been no blessing.
+     Indeed I must say, that, in many respects, her situation
+     will be more comfortable on account of this removal, when
+     the first shock is over; for to watch an invalid, and to
+     undergo all the changes of a temper fretted by suffering,
+     suited ill with her age and habits. The funeral, which took
+     place yesterday, was decent and private, becoming our
+     father's eldest son, and the head of a quiet family. After
+     it, I asked Hay Donaldson and Mr. Macculloch<a id="footnotetag34" name="footnotetag34"></a><a href="#footnote34" title="Go to footnote 34"><span class="small">[34]</span></a> to look
+     over his papers, in case there should be any testamentary
+     provision, but none such was found; nor do I think he had
+     any intention of altering the destination which divides his
+     effects between his surviving brothers.&mdash;Your affectionate</p>
+
+<p class="left50">W. S.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>A few days afterwards, he hands to Mr. Thomas Scott a formal statement
+of pecuniary affairs; the result of which was, that the Major had left
+something not much under £6000. Major Scott, from all I have heard,
+was <span class="pagenum"><a id="page100" name="page100"></a>(p. 100)</span> a sober, sedate bachelor, of dull mind and frugal
+tastes, who, after his retirement from the army, divided his time
+between his mother's primitive fireside, and the society of a few
+whist-playing brother officers, that met for an evening rubber at
+Fortune's tavern. But, making every allowance for his retired and
+thrifty habits, I infer that the payments made to each of the three
+brothers out of their father's estate must have, prior to 1816,
+amounted to £5000. From the letter conveying this statement (29th
+May), I extract a few sentences:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="quote">
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Dear Tom</span>,&mdash;... Should the possession of this sum, and the
+     certainty that you must, according to the course of nature,
+     in a short space of years succeed to a similar sum of £3000
+     belonging to our mother, induce you to turn your thoughts to
+     Scotland, I shall be most happy to forward your views with
+     any influence I may possess; and I have little doubt that,
+     sooner or later, something may be done. But, unfortunately,
+     every avenue is now choked with applicants, whose claims are
+     very strong; for the number of disbanded officers, and
+     public servants dismissed in consequence of Parliament
+     turning restive and refusing the income-tax, is great and
+     increasing. Economy is the order of the day, and I assure
+     you they are shaving properly close. It would, no doubt, be
+     comparatively easy to get you a better situation where you
+     are, but then it is bidding farewell to your country, at
+     least for a long time, and separating your children from all
+     knowledge of those with whom they are naturally connected. I
+     shall anxiously expect to hear from you on your views and
+     wishes. I think, at all events, you ought to get rid of the
+     drudgery of the paymastership&mdash;but not without trying to
+     exchange it for something else. I do not know how it is with
+     you&mdash;but I do not feel myself quite so <span class="italic">young</span> as I was when
+     we met last, and I should like well to see my only brother
+     return to his own country and settle, without thoughts
+     <span class="pagenum"><a id="page101" name="page101"></a>(p. 101)</span> of leaving it, till it is exchanged for one that
+     is dark and distant.... I left all Jack's personal trifles
+     at my mother's disposal. There was nothing of the slightest
+     value, excepting his gold watch, which was my sister's, and
+     a good one. My mother says he had wished my son Walter
+     should have it, as his male representative&mdash;which I can only
+     accept on condition <span class="italic">your</span> little Walter will accept a
+     similar token of regard from his remaining uncle.&mdash;Yours
+     affectionately,</p>
+
+<p class="left50">W. S.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>The letter in which Scott communicated his brother's death to Mr.
+Morritt gives us his own original opinion of The Antiquary. It has
+also some remarks on the separation of Lord and Lady Byron&mdash;and the
+"domestic verses" of the noble poet.</p>
+
+<div class="quote">
+<p class="tit-center">TO J. B. S. MORRITT, ESQ., M. P., LONDON.</p>
+<p class="left50"><span class="smcap">Edinburgh</span>, May 16, 1816.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">My dear Morritt</span>,&mdash;I have been occupied of late with scenes
+     of domestic distress, my poor brother, Major John Scott,
+     having last week closed a life which wasting disease had
+     long rendered burthensome. His death, under all the
+     circumstances, cannot be termed a subject of deep
+     affliction; and though we were always on fraternal terms of
+     mutual kindness and good-will, yet our habits of life, our
+     taste for society and circles of friends, were so totally
+     different, that there was less frequent intercourse between
+     us than our connection and real liking to each other might
+     have occasioned. Yet it is a heavy consideration to have
+     lost the last but one who was interested in our early
+     domestic life, our habits of boyhood, and our first friends
+     and connections. It makes one look about and see how the
+     scene has changed around him, and how he himself has been
+     changed with it. My only remaining brother is in Canada, and
+     seems to have an intention of remaining there; so that my
+     mother, now upwards of eighty, has now only one child left
+     to her <span class="pagenum"><a id="page102" name="page102"></a>(p. 102)</span> out of thirteen whom she has borne. She is
+     a most excellent woman, possessed, even at her advanced age,
+     of all the force of mind and sense of duty which have
+     carried her through so many domestic griefs, as the
+     successive deaths of eleven children, some of them come to
+     men and women's estate, naturally infers. She is the
+     principal subject of my attention at present, and is, I am
+     glad to say, perfectly well in body and composed in mind.</p>
+
+<p>Nothing can give me more pleasure than the prospect of
+     seeing you in September, which will suit our motions
+     perfectly well. I trust I shall have an opportunity to
+     introduce you to some of our glens which you have not yet
+     seen. But I hope we shall have some mild weather before that
+     time, for we are now in the seventh month of winter, which
+     almost leads me to suppose that we shall see no summer this
+     season. As for spring, that is past praying for. In the
+     month of November last, people were skating in the
+     neighborhood of Edinburgh; and now, in the middle of May,
+     the snow is lying white on Arthur's Seat, and on the range
+     of the Pentlands. It is really fearful, and the sheep are
+     perishing by scores. <span class="italic">Jam satis terræ nivis</span>, etc., may well
+     be taken up as the song of eighteen hundred and sixteen.</p>
+
+<p>So Lord Byron's romance seems to be concluded for one
+     while&mdash;and it is surely time, after he has announced, or
+     rather they themselves have announced, half-a-dozen
+     blackguard newspaper editors, to have been his confidants on
+     the occasion. Surely it is a strange thirst of public fame
+     that seeks such a road to it. But Lord Byron, with high
+     genius and many points of a noble and generous feeling, has
+     Childe Harolded himself, and outlawed himself, into too
+     great a resemblance with the pictures of his imagination. He
+     has one excuse, however, and it is a sad one. I have been
+     reckoned to make a good hit enough at a pirate, or an
+     outlaw, or a smuggling bandit; but I cannot say I was ever
+     so much enchanted with my <span class="pagenum"><a id="page103" name="page103"></a>(p. 103)</span> work as to think of
+     carrying off a <span class="italic">drift</span> of my neighbor's sheep, or half a
+     dozen of his milk cows. Only I remember, in the rough times,
+     having a scheme with the Duke of Buccleuch, that when the
+     worst came to the worst, we should repair Hermitage Castle,
+     and live, like Robin Hood and his merry men, at the expense
+     of all round us. But this presupposed a grand
+     <span class="italic" lang="fr">bouleversement</span> of society. In the mean while, I think my
+     noble friend is something like my old peacock, who chooses
+     to bivouac apart from his lady, and sit below my bedroom
+     window, to keep me awake with his screeching lamentation.
+     Only I own he is not equal in melody to Lord Byron, for
+     <span class="italic">Fare-thee-well&mdash;and if for ever</span>, etc., is a very sweet
+     dirge indeed. After all, <span class="italic" lang="fr">C'est génie mal logé</span>, and that's
+     all that can be said about it.</p>
+
+<p>I am quite reconciled to your opinions on the income-tax,
+     and am not at all in despair at the prospect of keeping £200
+     a year in my pocket, since the ministers can fadge without
+     it. But their throwing the helve after the hatchet, and
+     giving up the malt-duty because they had lost the other, was
+     droll enough. After all, our fat friend<a id="footnotetag35" name="footnotetag35"></a><a href="#footnote35" title="Go to footnote 35"><span class="small">[35]</span></a> must learn to
+     live within compass, and fire off no more crackers in the
+     Park, for John Bull is getting dreadfully sore on all sides
+     when money is concerned.</p>
+
+<p>I sent you, some time since, The Antiquary. It is not so
+     interesting as its predecessors&mdash;the period did not
+     <span class="pagenum"><a id="page104" name="page104"></a>(p. 104)</span> admit of so much romantic situation. But it has
+     been more fortunate than any of them in the sale, for 6000
+     went off in the first six days, and it is now at press
+     again; which is very flattering to the unknown author.
+     Another incognito proposes immediately to resume the second
+     volume of Triermain, which is at present in the state of the
+     Bear and Fiddle.<a id="footnotetag36" name="footnotetag36"></a><a href="#footnote36" title="Go to footnote 36"><span class="small">[36]</span></a> Adieu, dear Morritt.</p>
+
+<p>Ever yours,<br>
+<span class="left50 smcap">Walter Scott.</span></p>
+</div>
+
+<p>Speaking of his third novel in a letter of the same date to Terry,
+Scott says: "It wants the romance of Waverley and the adventure of Guy
+Mannering; and yet there is some salvation about it, for if a man will
+paint from nature, he will be likely to amuse those who are daily
+looking at it."</p>
+
+<p>After a little pause of hesitation, The Antiquary attained popularity
+not inferior to Guy Mannering; and though the author appears for a
+moment to have shared the doubts which he read in the countenance of
+James Ballantyne, it certainly was, in the sequel, his chief favorite
+among all his novels. Nor is it difficult to account for this
+preference, without laying any stress on the fact, that, during a few
+short weeks, it was pretty commonly talked of as a falling off from
+its immediate predecessors&mdash;and that some minor critics reëchoed this
+stupid whisper in print. In that view, there were many of its
+successors that had much stronger claims on the parental instinct of
+protection. But the truth is, that although Scott's Introduction of
+1830 represents him as pleased with fancying that, in the principal
+personage, he had embalmed a worthy friend of his boyish days, his own
+antiquarian propensities, originating perhaps in the kind attentions
+of George Constable of Wallace-Craigie, and fostered not a little, at
+about as ductile a period, by those of old Clerk of Eldin, and John
+Ramsay of Ochtertyre, had by degrees so developed themselves, that he
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page105" name="page105"></a>(p. 105)</span> could hardly, even when The Antiquary was published, have
+scrupled about recognizing a quaint caricature of the founder of
+Abbotsford Museum, in the inimitable portraiture of the Laird of
+Monkbarns. The Descriptive Catalogue of that collection, which he
+began towards the close of his life, but, alas, never finished, is
+entitled "Reliquiæ Trottcosianæ&mdash;or the Gabions of the late Jonathan
+Oldbuck, Esq."</p>
+
+<p>But laying this, which might have been little more than a good-humored
+pleasantry, out of the question, there is assuredly no one of all his
+works on which more of his own early associations have left their
+image. Of those early associations, as his full-grown tastes were all
+the progeny, so his genius, in all its happiest efforts, was the
+"Recording Angel;" and when George Constable first expounded his
+"Gabions" to the child that was to immortalize his name, they were
+either wandering hand in hand over the field where the grass still
+grew rank upon the grave of <span class="italic">Balmawhapple</span>, or sauntering on the beach
+where the <span class="italic">Mucklebackets</span> of Prestonpans dried their nets, singing,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p class="poem10">
+  "Weel may the boatie row, and better may she speed,<br>
+  O weel may the boatie row that wins the bairns' bread"&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>or telling wild stories about cliff-escapes and the funerals of
+shipwrecked fishermen.</p>
+
+<p>Considered by itself, without reference to these sources of personal
+interest, this novel seems to me to possess, almost throughout, in
+common with its two predecessors, a kind of simple unsought charm,
+which the subsequent works of the series hardly reached, save in
+occasional snatches: like them it is, in all its humbler and softer
+scenes, the transcript of actual Scottish life, as observed by the man
+himself. And I think it must also be allowed that he has nowhere
+displayed his highest art, that of skilful contrast, in greater
+perfection. Even the tragic romance of Waverley does not set off its
+Macwheebles and Callum Begs better than the oddities of <span class="pagenum"><a id="page106" name="page106"></a>(p. 106)</span>
+Jonathan Oldbuck and his circle are relieved, on the one hand, by the
+stately gloom of the Glenallans, on the other, by the stern affliction
+of the poor fisherman, who, when discovered repairing the "auld black
+bitch o' a boat" in which his boy had been lost, and congratulated by
+his visitor on being capable of the exertion, makes answer,&mdash;"And what
+would you have me to do, unless I wanted to see four children starve,
+because one is drowned? <span class="italic">It's weel wi' you gentles, that can sit in
+the house wi' handkerchers at your een, when ye lose a friend; but the
+like o' us maun to our wark again, if our hearts were beating as hard
+as my hammer.</span>"</p>
+
+<p>It may be worth noting, that it was in correcting the proof sheets of
+this novel that Scott first took to equipping his chapters with
+mottoes of his own fabrication. On one occasion he happened to ask
+John Ballantyne, who was sitting by him, to hunt for a particular
+passage in Beaumont and Fletcher. John did as he was bid, but did not
+succeed in discovering the lines. "Hang it, Johnnie," cried Scott, "I
+believe I can make a motto sooner than you will find one." He did so
+accordingly; and from that hour, whenever memory failed to suggest an
+appropriate epigraph, he had recourse to the inexhaustible mines of
+"<span class="italic">old play</span>" or "<span class="italic">old ballad</span>," to which we owe some of the most
+exquisite verses that ever flowed from his pen.</p>
+
+<p>Unlike, I believe, most men, whenever Scott neared the end of one
+composition, his spirits seem to have caught a new spring of buoyancy,
+and before the last sheet was sent from his desk, he had crowded his
+brain with the imagination of another fiction. The Antiquary was
+published, as we have seen, in May, but by the beginning of April he
+had already opened to the Ballantynes the plan of the first Tales of
+my Landlord; and&mdash;to say nothing of Harold the Dauntless, which he
+began shortly after The Bridal of Triermain was finished, and which he
+seems to have kept before him for two years <span class="pagenum"><a id="page107" name="page107"></a>(p. 107)</span> as a congenial
+plaything, to be taken up whenever the coach brought no proof sheets
+to jog him as to serious matters&mdash;he had also, before this time,
+undertaken to write the historical department of the Register for
+1814. Mr. Southey had, for reasons upon which I do not enter,
+discontinued his services to that work: and it was now doubly
+necessary, after trying for one year a less eminent hand, that if the
+work were not to be dropped altogether, some strenuous exertion should
+be made to sustain its character. Scott had not yet collected the
+materials requisite for his historical sketch of a year distinguished
+for the importance and complexity of its events; but these, he doubted
+not, would soon reach him, and he felt no hesitation about pledging
+himself to complete, not only that sketch, but four new volumes of
+prose romances&mdash;and his Harold the Dauntless also, if Ballantyne could
+make any suitable arrangement on that score&mdash;between the April and the
+Christmas of 1816.</p>
+
+<p>The Antiquary had been published by Constable, but I presume that, in
+addition to the usual stipulations, he had been again, on that
+occasion, solicited to relieve John Ballantyne and Co.'s stock to an
+extent which he did not find quite convenient; and at all events he
+had of late shown a considerable reluctance to employ James Ballantyne
+and Co. as printers. One or other of these impediments is alluded to
+in a note of Scott's, which, though undated, has been pasted into John
+Ballantyne's private letter-book among the documents of the period in
+question. It is in these words:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="quote">
+<p><span class="smcap">Dear John</span>,&mdash;I have seen the great swab, who is supple as a
+     glove, and will do <span class="smcap">ALL</span>, which some interpret <span class="smcap">NOTHING</span>.
+     However, we shall do well enough.</p>
+
+<p class="left50">W. S.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>Constable had been admitted, almost from the beginning, into the
+<span class="italic">secret</span> of the Novels&mdash;and for that, among <span class="pagenum"><a id="page108" name="page108"></a>(p. 108)</span> other reasons,
+it would have been desirable for the Novelist to have him continue the
+publisher without interruption; but Scott was led to suspect, that if
+he were called upon to conclude a bargain for a fourth novel before
+the third had made its appearance, his scruples as to the matter of
+<span class="italic">printing</span> might at least protract the treaty; and why Scott should
+have been urgently desirous of seeing the transaction settled before
+the expiration of the half-yearly term of Whitsunday is sufficiently
+explained by the fact, that though so much of the old unfortunate
+stock of John Ballantyne and Co. still remained on hand&mdash;and with it
+some occasional recurrence of commercial difficulty as to floating
+bills was to be expected&mdash;while James Ballantyne's management of the
+pecuniary affairs of the printing-house had continued to be highly
+negligent and irregular<a id="footnotetag37" name="footnotetag37"></a><a href="#footnote37" title="Go to footnote 37"><span class="small">[37]</span></a>&mdash;nevertheless, the sanguine author had
+gone on purchasing one patch of land after another, until his estate
+at Abbotsford had already grown from 150 to nearly 1000 acres. The
+property all about his original farm had been in the hands of various
+small holders (Scotticè <span class="italic">cock-lairds</span>;) these persons were sharp
+enough to understand, erelong, that their neighbor could with
+difficulty resist any temptation that might present itself in the
+shape of an offer of more acres; and thus he proceeded buying up lot
+after lot of unimproved ground, at extravagant prices,&mdash;his "appetite
+increasing by what it fed on," while the ejected yeomen set themselves
+down elsewhere, to fatten at their leisure upon the profits&mdash;most
+commonly the anticipated profits&mdash;of "The Scotch Novels."</p>
+
+<p>He was ever and anon pulled up with a momentary misgiving,&mdash;and
+resolved that the latest acquisition should be the last, until he
+could get rid entirely of "John Ballantyne and Co." But John
+Ballantyne was, <span class="pagenum"><a id="page109" name="page109"></a>(p. 109)</span> from the utter lightness of his mind, his
+incapacity to look a day before him, and his eager impatience to enjoy
+the passing hour, the very last man in the world who could, under such
+circumstances, have been a serviceable agent. Moreover, John, too, had
+his professional ambition: he was naturally proud of his connection,
+however secondary, with the publication of these works&mdash;and this
+connection, though subordinate, was still very profitable; he must
+have suspected, that should his name disappear altogether from the
+list of booksellers, it would be a very difficult matter for him to
+retain any concern in them; and I cannot, on the whole, but consider
+it as certain that, the first and more serious embarrassments being
+overcome, he was far from continuing to hold by his patron's anxiety
+for the total abolition of their unhappy copartnership. He, at all
+events, unless when some sudden emergency arose, flattered Scott's own
+gay imagination, by uniformly representing everything in the most
+smiling colors; and though Scott, in his replies, seldom failed to
+introduce some passing hint of caution&mdash;such as "<span class="italic">Nullum numen abest
+si sit prudentia</span>"&mdash;he more and more took home to himself the
+agreeable cast of his <span class="italic">Rigdum's</span> anticipations, and wrote to him in a
+vein as merry as his own;&mdash;<span class="italic">e. g.</span>&mdash;"As for our stock,</p>
+
+<p class="poem10">
+  "'T will be wearing awa', John,<br>
+  Like snaw-wreaths when it's thaw, John," etc., etc., etc.</p>
+
+<p>I am very sorry, in a word, to confess my conviction that John
+Ballantyne, however volatile and light-headed, acted at this period
+with cunning selfishness, both by Scott and by Constable. He well knew
+that it was to Constable alone that his firm had more than once owed
+its escape from utter ruin and dishonor; and he must also have known,
+that had a fair straightforward effort been made for that purpose,
+after the triumphant career of the Waverley series had once commenced,
+nothing could have been more easy than to bring all the affairs of his
+"back-stock," etc., to a complete close, by entering <span class="pagenum"><a id="page110" name="page110"></a>(p. 110)</span> into a
+distinct and candid treaty on that subject, in connection with the
+future works of the great Novelist, either with Constable or with any
+other first-rate house in the trade. But John, foreseeing that, were
+that unhappy concern quite out of the field, he must himself subside
+into a mere clerk of the printing company, seems to have parried the
+blow by the only arts of any consequence in which he ever was an
+adept. He appears to have systematically disguised from Scott the
+extent to which the whole Ballantyne concern had been sustained by
+Constable&mdash;especially during his Hebridean tour of 1814, and his
+Continental one of 1815&mdash;and prompted and enforced the idea of trying
+other booksellers from time to time, instead of adhering to Constable,
+merely for the selfish purposes,&mdash;first, of facilitating the immediate
+discount of bills;&mdash;secondly, of further perplexing Scott's affairs,
+the entire disentanglement of which would have been, as he fancied,
+prejudicial to his own personal importance.</p>
+
+<p>It was resolved, accordingly, to offer the risk and half profits of
+the first edition of another new novel&mdash;or rather collection of
+novels&mdash;not to Messrs. Constable, but to Mr. Murray of Albemarle
+Street, and Mr. Blackwood, who was then Murray's agent in Scotland;
+but it was at the same time resolved, partly because Scott wished to
+try another experiment on the public sagacity, but partly also, no
+question, from the wish to spare Constable's feelings, that the
+title-page of the Tales of my Landlord should not bear the magical
+words "By the Author of Waverley." The facility with which both Murray
+and Blackwood embraced such a proposal, as no untried novelist, being
+sane, could have dreamt of hazarding, shows that neither of them had
+any doubt as to the identity of the author. They both considered the
+withholding of the avowal on the forthcoming title-page as likely to
+check very much the first success of the book; but they were both
+eager to prevent Constable's acquiring <span class="pagenum"><a id="page111" name="page111"></a>(p. 111)</span> a sort of
+prescriptive right to publish for the unrivalled novelist, and willing
+to disturb his tenure at this additional, and, as they thought it,
+wholly unnecessary risk.</p>
+
+<p>How sharply the unseen parent watched this first negotiation of his
+<span class="italic">Jedediah Cleishbotham</span> will appear from one of his letters:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="quote">
+<p class="tit-center">TO MR. JOHN BALLANTYNE, HANOVER STREET, EDINBURGH.</p>
+<p class="left50"><span class="smcap">Abbotsford</span>, April 29, 1816.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Dear John</span>,&mdash;James has made one or two important mistakes in
+     the bargain with Murray and Blackwood. Briefly as follows:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>1stly, Having only authority from me to promise 6000 copies,
+     he proposes they shall have the copyright <span class="italic">forever</span>. I will
+     see their noses cheese first.</p>
+
+<p>2dly, He proposes I shall have twelve months' bills&mdash;I have
+     always got six. However, I would not stand on that.</p>
+
+<p>3dly, He talks of volumes being put into the publisher's
+     hands to consider and decide on. No such thing; a bare
+     perusal at St. John Street<a id="footnotetag38" name="footnotetag38"></a><a href="#footnote38" title="Go to footnote 38"><span class="small">[38]</span></a> only.</p>
+
+<p>Then for omissions&mdash;It is <span class="smcap">NOT</span> stipulated that we supply the
+     paper and print of successive editions. This must be nailed,
+     and not left to understanding.&mdash;Secondly, I will have London
+     bills as well as Blackwood's.</p>
+
+<p>If they agree to these conditions, good and well. If they
+     demur, Constable must be instantly tried; giving half to the
+     Longmans, and <span class="italic">we</span> drawing on <span class="italic">them</span> for that moiety, or
+     Constable lodging their bill in our hands. You will
+     understand it is a four-volume touch&mdash;a work totally
+     different in style and structure from the others; a new
+     cast, in short, of the net which has hitherto made
+     miraculous draughts. I do not limit you to terms, because I
+     think you will make them better than I can do. <span class="pagenum"><a id="page112" name="page112"></a>(p. 112)</span> But
+     he must do more than others, since he will not or cannot
+     print with us. For every point but that, I would rather deal
+     with Constable than any one; he has always shown himself
+     spirited, judicious, and liberal. Blackwood must be brought
+     to the point <span class="italic">instantly</span>; and <span class="italic">whenever</span> he demurs,
+     Constable must be treated with; for there is no use in
+     suffering the thing to be blown on. At the same time, you
+     need not conceal from him that there were some proposals
+     elsewhere, but you may add, with truth, I would rather close
+     with him. Yours truly,</p>
+
+<p class="left50">W. S.</p>
+
+<p>P. S.&mdash;I think Constable should jump at this affair; for I
+     believe the work will be very popular.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>Messrs. Murray and Blackwood agreed to all the author's conditions
+here expressed. They also relieved John Ballantyne and Co. of stock to
+the value of £500; and at least Mr. Murray must, moreover, have
+subsequently consented to anticipate the period of his payments. At
+all events, I find, in a letter of Scott's, dated in the subsequent
+August, this new echo of the old advice:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="quote">
+<p class="tit-center">TO MR. JOHN BALLANTYNE.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Dear John</span>,&mdash;I have the pleasure to enclose Murray's
+     acceptances. I earnestly recommend to you to push, realizing
+     as much as you can.</p>
+
+<p class="poem30">
+  "Consider weel, gude man,<br>
+  We hae but borrowed gear;<br>
+  The horse that I ride on,br>
+  It is John Murray's mear."</p>
+
+<p>Yours truly,<br>
+<span class="left50 smcap">W. Scott.</span></p>
+</div>
+
+<p>I know not how much of the tale of The Black Dwarf had been seen by
+Blackwood, in St. John Street, before he concluded this bargain for
+himself and his friend Murray; but when the closing sheets of that
+novel <span class="pagenum"><a id="page113" name="page113"></a>(p. 113)</span> reached him, he considered them as by no means
+sustaining the delightful promise of the opening ones. He was a man of
+strong talents, and, though without anything that could be called
+learning, of very respectable information&mdash;greatly superior to what
+has, in this age, been common in his profession; acute, earnest,
+eminently zealous in whatever he put his hand to; upright, honest,
+sincere, and courageous. But as Constable owed his first introduction
+to the upper world of literature and of society in general to his
+Edinburgh Review, so did Blackwood his to the Magazine, which has now
+made his name familiar to the world&mdash;and at the period of which I
+write, that miscellany was unborn; he was known only as a diligent
+antiquarian bookseller of the old town of Edinburgh, and the Scotch
+agent of the great London publisher, Murray. The abilities, in short,
+which he lived to develop, were as yet unsuspected&mdash;unless, perhaps,
+among a small circle; and the knowledge of the world, which so few men
+gather from anything but painful collision with various conflicting
+orders of their fellow-men, was not his. He was to the last plain and
+blunt; at this time I can easily believe him to have been so to a
+degree which Scott might look upon as "ungracious"&mdash;I take the epithet
+from one of his letters to James Ballantyne. Mr. Blackwood, therefore,
+upon reading what seemed to him the lame and impotent conclusion of a
+well-begun story, did not search about for any glossy periphrase, but
+at once requested James Ballantyne to inform the unknown author that
+such was his opinion. This might possibly have been endured; but
+Blackwood, feeling, I have no doubt, a genuine enthusiasm for the
+author's fame, as well as a just tradesman's anxiety as to his own
+adventure, proceeded to suggest the outline of what would, in his
+judgment, be a better upwinding of the plot of The Black Dwarf, and
+concluded with announcing his willingness, in case the proposed
+alteration were agreed to, that the whole expense of cancelling
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page114" name="page114"></a>(p. 114)</span> and reprinting a certain number of sheets should be charged
+to his own account. He appears to have further indicated that he had
+taken counsel with some literary person, on whose taste he placed
+great reliance, and who, if he had not originated, at least approved
+of the proposed process of recasting. Had Scott never possessed any
+such system of inter-agency as the Ballantynes supplied, he would,
+among other and perhaps greater inconveniences, have escaped that of
+the want of personal familiarity with several persons, with whose
+confidence,&mdash;and why should I not add?&mdash;with the innocent
+gratification of whose little vanities&mdash;his own pecuniary interests
+were often deeply connected. A very little personal contact would have
+introduced such a character as Blackwood's to the respect, nay, to the
+affectionate respect, of Scott, who, above all others, was ready to
+sympathize cordially with honest and able men, in whatever condition
+of life he discovered them. He did both know and appreciate Blackwood
+better in after-times; but in 1816, when this communication reached
+him, the name was little more than a name, and his answer to the most
+solemn of go-betweens was in these terms, which I sincerely wish I
+could tell how Signior Aldiborontiphoscophornio translated into any
+dialect submissible to Blackwood's apprehension:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="quote">
+<p class="smcap">Dear James,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>I have received Blackwood's impudent proposal. G&mdash; d&mdash; his
+     soul! Tell him and his coadjutor that I belong to the Black
+     Hussars of Literature, who neither give nor receive
+     criticism. I'll be cursed but this is the most impudent
+     proposal that ever was made.</p>
+
+<p class="left50">W. S.<a id="footnotetag39" name="footnotetag39"></a><a href="#footnote39" title="Go to footnote 39"><span class="small">[39]</span></a></p>
+</div>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page115" name="page115"></a>(p. 115)</span> While these volumes were in progress, Scott found time to
+make an excursion into Perthshire and Dumbartonshire, <span class="pagenum"><a id="page116" name="page116"></a>(p. 116)</span> for
+the sake of showing the scenery, made famous in The Lady of the Lake
+and Waverley, to his <span class="pagenum"><a id="page117" name="page117"></a>(p. 117)</span> wife's old friends, Miss Dumergue and
+Mrs. Sarah Nicolson,<a id="footnotetag40" name="footnotetag40"></a><a href="#footnote40" title="Go to footnote 40"><span class="small">[40]</span></a> who had never before been in Scotland. The
+account which he gives of these ladies' visit at Abbotsford, and this
+little tour, in a letter to Mr. Morritt, shows the "Black Hussar of
+Literature" in his gentler and more habitual mood.</p>
+
+<div class="quote">
+<p class="tit-center">TO J. B. S. MORRITT, ESQ., M. P., ROKEBY PARK.</p>
+<p class="left50"><span class="smcap">Abbotsford</span>, 21st August, 1816.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">My dear Morritt</span>,&mdash;I have not had a moment's kindly leisure
+     to answer your kind letter, and to tell how delighted I
+     shall be to see you in this least of all possible dwellings,
+     but where we, nevertheless, can contrive a pilgrim's
+     quarters and the warmest welcome for you and any friend of
+     your journey;&mdash;if young Stanley, so much the better. Now, as
+     to the important business with the which I have been
+     occupied: You are to know we have had our kind hostesses of
+     Piccadilly upon a two months' visit to us. We owed them so
+     much hospitality, that we were particularly anxious to make
+     Scotland agreeable to the good girls. But, alas, the wind
+     has blown, and the rain has fallen, in a style which beats
+     all that ever I remembered. We accomplished, with some
+     difficulty, a visit to Loch Katrine and Loch Lomond, and, by
+     dint of the hospitality of Cambusmore and the Ross, we
+     defied bad weather, wet roads, and long walks. But the
+     weather settled into regular tempest, when we settled at
+     Abbotsford; and, though the natives, accustomed to bad
+     weather (though not at such a time of year), contrived to
+     brave the extremities of the season, it only served to
+     increase the dismay of our unlucky visitors, who, accustomed
+     only to Paris and London, expected <span class="italic">fiacres</span> at the
+     Milestane Cross, and a pair of oars at the Deadman's Haugh.
+     Add to this a strong disposition to <span class="italic" lang="fr">commérage</span>, when there
+     was no possibility of gratifying it, and a <span class="pagenum"><a id="page118" name="page118"></a>(p. 118)</span> total
+     indisposition to scenery or rural amusements, which were all
+     we had to offer&mdash;and you will pity both hosts and guests. I
+     have the gratification to think I fully supported the
+     hospitality of my country. I walked them to death, I talked
+     them to death, I showed them landscapes which the driving
+     rain hardly permitted them to see, and told them of feuds
+     about which they cared as little as I do about their
+     next-door news in Piccadilly. Yea, I even played at cards,
+     and as I had Charlotte for a partner, so ran no risk of
+     being scolded, I got on pretty well. Still the weather was
+     so execrable, that, as the old drunken landlord used to say
+     at Arroquhar, "I was perfectly ashamed of it;" and, to this
+     moment, I wonder how my two friends fought it out so
+     patiently as they did. But the young people and the cottages
+     formed considerable resources. Yesterday they left us,
+     deeply impressed with the conviction, which I can hardly
+     blame, that the sun never shone in Scotland,&mdash;which that
+     noble luminary seems disposed to confirm, by making this the
+     first fair day we have seen this month&mdash;so that his beams
+     will greet them at Longtown, as if he were determined to put
+     Scotland to utter shame.</p>
+
+<p>In you I expect a guest of a different calibre; and I think
+     (barring downright rain) I can promise you some sport of one
+     kind or other. We have a good deal of game about us; and
+     Walter, to whom I have resigned my gun and license, will be
+     an excellent attendant. He brought in six brace of moor-fowl
+     on the 12th, which had (<span class="italic">si fas est diceri</span>) its own effect
+     in softening the minds of our guests towards this unhappy
+     climate. In other respects things look melancholy enough
+     here. Corn is, however, rising, and the poor have plenty of
+     work, and wages which, though greatly inferior to what they
+     had when hands were scarce, assort perfectly well with the
+     present state of the markets. Most folks try to live as much
+     on their own produce as they can, by way of fighting off
+     distress; and though speculating <span class="pagenum"><a id="page119" name="page119"></a>(p. 119)</span> farmers and
+     landlords must suffer, I think the temporary ague-fit will,
+     on the whole, be advantageous to the country. It will check
+     that inordinate and unbecoming spirit of expense, or rather
+     extravagance, which was poisoning all classes, and bring us
+     back to the sober virtues of our ancestors. It will also
+     have the effect of teaching the landed interest, that their
+     connection with their farmers should be of a nature more
+     intimate than that of mere payment and receipt of rent, and
+     that the largest offerer for a lease is often the person
+     least entitled to be preferred as a tenant. Above all, it
+     will complete the destruction of those execrable quacks,
+     terming themselves land-doctors, who professed, from a two
+     days' scamper over your estate, to tell you its
+     constitution,&mdash;in other words its value,&mdash;acre by acre.
+     These men, paid according to the golden hopes they held out,
+     afforded by their reports one principal means of deceiving
+     both landlord and tenant, by setting an ideal and
+     extravagant value upon land, which seemed to entitle the one
+     to expect, and the other to offer, rent far beyond what any
+     expectation formed by either, upon their own acquaintance
+     with the property, could rationally have warranted. More
+     than one landed gentleman has cursed, in my presence, the
+     day he ever consulted one of those empirics, whose
+     prognostications induced him to reject the offers of
+     substantial men, practically acquainted with the <span class="italic">locale</span>.</p>
+
+<p>Ever, my dear Morritt, most truly yours,<br>
+<span class="left50 smcap">Walter Scott.</span></p>
+</div>
+
+<p>In October, 1816, appeared the Edinburgh Annual Register, containing
+Scott's historical sketch of the year 1814&mdash;a composition which would
+occupy at least four such volumes as the reader has now in his
+hand.<a id="footnotetag41" name="footnotetag41"></a><a href="#footnote41" title="Go to footnote 41"><span class="small">[41]</span></a> Though executed with extraordinary rapidity, the sketch is
+as clear as spirited; but I need say no more of it here, as the author
+travels mostly over the same ground again in his Life of Napoleon.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page120" name="page120"></a>(p. 120)</span> Scott's correspondence proves, that during this autumn he had
+received many English guests besides the good spinsters of Piccadilly
+and Mr. Morritt. I regret to add, it also proves that he had continued
+all the while to be annoyed with calls for money from John Ballantyne;
+yet before the 12th of November called him to Edinburgh, he appears to
+have nearly finished the first Tales of my Landlord. He had, moreover,
+concluded a negotiation with Constable and Longman for a series of
+Letters on the History of Scotland: of which, however, if he ever
+wrote any part, the MS. has not been discovered. It is probable that
+he may have worked some detached fragments into his long-subsequent
+Tales of a Grandfather.<a id="footnotetag42" name="footnotetag42"></a><a href="#footnote42" title="Go to footnote 42"><span class="small">[42]</span></a> The following letter shows likewise that
+he was now busy with plans of building at Abbotsford, and deep in
+consultation on that subject with an artist eminent for his skill in
+Gothic architecture,&mdash;Mr. Edward Blore:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="quote">
+<p class="tit-center">TO DANIEL TERRY, ESQ.</p>
+<p class="left50">November 12, 1816.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">My dear Terry</span>,&mdash;I have been shockingly negligent in
+     acknowledging your repeated favors; but it so happened, that
+     I have had very little to <span class="italic">say</span>, with a great <span class="pagenum"><a id="page121" name="page121"></a>(p. 121)</span> deal
+     to <span class="italic">do</span>; so that I trusted to your kindness to forgive my
+     apparent want of kindness, and indisputable lack of
+     punctuality. You will readily suppose that I have heard with
+     great satisfaction of the prosperity of your household,
+     particularly of the good health of my little namesake and
+     his mother. Godmothers of yore used to be fairies; and
+     though only a godfather, I think of sending you, one day, a
+     <span class="italic">fairy</span> gift&mdash;a little drama, namely, which, if the audience
+     be indulgent, may be of use to him. Of course, you will
+     stand godfather to it yourself: it is yet only in embryo&mdash;a
+     sort of poetical Hans in Kelder&mdash;nor am I sure when I can
+     bring him forth; not for this season, at any rate. You will
+     receive, in the course of a few days, my late <span class="italic">whereabouts</span>
+     in four volumes: there are two tales&mdash;the last of which I
+     really prefer to any fictitious narrative I have yet been
+     able to produce&mdash;the first is wish-washy enough. The subject
+     of the second tale lies among the old Scottish
+     Cameronians&mdash;nay, I'll tickle ye off a Covenanter as readily
+     as old Jack could do a young Prince; and a rare fellow he
+     is, when brought forth in his true colors. Were it not for
+     the necessity of using Scriptural language, which is
+     essential to the character, but improper for the stage, it
+     would be very dramatic. But of all this you will judge by
+     and by. To give the go-by to the public, I have doubled and
+     leaped into my form, like a hare in snow: that is, I have
+     changed my publisher, and come forth like a maiden knight's
+     white shield (there is a conceit!) without any adhesion to
+     fame gained in former adventures (another!) or, in other
+     words, with a virgin title-page (another!)&mdash;I should not be
+     so light-hearted about all this, but that it is very nearly
+     finished and out, which is always a blithe moment for Mr.
+     Author. And now to other matters. The books came safe, and
+     were unpacked two days since, on our coming to town&mdash;most
+     ingeniously were they stowed in the legs of the very
+     handsome stand for Lord Byron's vase, with which our
+     <span class="pagenum"><a id="page122" name="page122"></a>(p. 122)</span> friend George Bullock has equipped me. I was made
+     very happy to receive him at Abbotsford, though only for a
+     start; and no less so to see Mr. Blore, from whom I received
+     your last letter. He is a very fine young man, modest,
+     simple, and unaffected in his manners, as well as a most
+     capital artist. I have had the assistance of both these
+     gentlemen in arranging an addition to the cottage at
+     Abbotsford, intended to connect the present farmhouse with
+     the line of low buildings to the right of it. Mr. Bullock
+     will show you the plan, which I think is very ingenious. He
+     has promised to give it his consideration with respect to
+     the interior; and Mr. Blore has drawn me a very handsome
+     elevation, both to the road and to the river. I expect to
+     get some decorations from the old Tolbooth of Edinburgh,
+     particularly the cope-stones of the doorway, or lintels, as
+     we call them, and a <span class="italic">niche</span> or two&mdash;one very handsome
+     indeed! Better get a niche <span class="italic">from</span> the Tolbooth than a niche
+     <span class="italic">in</span> it, to which such building operations are apt to bring
+     the projectors. This addition will give me: first, a
+     handsome boudoir, in which I intend to place Mr. Bullock's
+     Shakespeare,<a id="footnotetag43" name="footnotetag43"></a><a href="#footnote43" title="Go to footnote 43"><span class="small">[43]</span></a> with his superb cabinet, which serves as a
+     pedestal. This opens into the little drawing-room, to which
+     it serves as a chapel of ease; and on the other side, to a
+     handsome dining-parlor of 27 feet by 18, with three windows
+     to the north, and one to the south,&mdash;the last to be Gothic,
+     and filled with stained glass. Besides these commodities,
+     there is a small conservatory or greenhouse; and a study for
+     myself, which we design to fit up with ornaments from
+     Melrose Abbey. Bullock made several casts with his own
+     hands&mdash;masks, and so forth, delightful for cornices, etc.</p>
+
+<p>Do not let Mrs. Terry think of the windows till little
+     <span class="pagenum"><a id="page123" name="page123"></a>(p. 123)</span> Wat is duly cared after.<a id="footnotetag44" name="footnotetag44"></a><a href="#footnote44" title="Go to footnote 44"><span class="small">[44]</span></a> I am informed by Mr.
+     Blore that he is a fine thriving fellow, very like papa.
+     About my armorial bearings: I will send you a correct
+     drawing as I can get hold of Blore; namely&mdash;of the
+     scutcheons of my grandsires on each side, and my own. I
+     could detail them in the jargon of heraldry, but it is
+     better to speak to your eyes by translating them into
+     colored drawings, as the sublime science of armory has
+     fallen into some neglect of late years, with all its
+     mascles, buckles, crescents, and boars of the first, second,
+     third, and fourth.</p>
+
+<p>I was very sorry I had no opportunity of showing attention
+     to your friend Mr. Abbot, not being in town at the time. I
+     grieve to say that neither the genius of Kean nor the charms
+     of Miss O'Neill could bring me from the hillside and the
+     sweet society of Tom Purdie. All our family are very
+     well&mdash;Walter as tall nearly as I am, fishing salmon and
+     shooting moor-fowl and blackcock, in good style; the girls
+     growing up, and, as yet, not losing their simplicity of
+     character; little Charles excellent at play, and not
+     deficient at learning, when the young dog will take pains.
+     Abbotsford is looking pretty at last, and the planting is
+     making some show. I have now several hundred acres thereof,
+     running out as far as beyond the lake. We observe with great
+     pleasure the steady rise which you make in public opinion,
+     and expect, one day, to hail you stage-manager. Believe me,
+     my dear Terry, always very much yours,</p>
+
+<p class="left50 smcap">W. Scott.</p>
+
+<p>P. S.&mdash;The Counsellor and both the Ballantynes are well and
+     hearty.</p>
+</div>
+
+<a id="img003" name="img003"></a>
+<div class="figcenter">
+<img src="images/img003.jpg" width="400" height="557" alt="" title="">
+<p>JOHN MURRAY<br>
+From the painting by Pickersgill.</div>
+
+<p>On the first of December, the first series of the Tales of my Landlord
+appeared, and notwithstanding the silence of the title-page, and the
+change of publishers, and <span class="pagenum"><a id="page124" name="page124"></a>(p. 124)</span> the attempt which had certainly
+been made to vary the style both of delineation and of language, all
+doubts whether they were or were not from the same hand with Waverley
+had worn themselves out before the lapse of a week.&mdash;The enthusiasm of
+their reception among the highest literary circles of London may be
+gathered from the following letter:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="quote">
+<p class="tit-center">TO WALTER SCOTT, ESQ., EDINBURGH.</p>
+<p class="left50"><span class="smcap">Albemarle Street</span>, 14th December, 1816.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Dear Sir</span>,&mdash;Although I dare not address you as the author of
+     certain "Tales" (which, however, must be written either by
+     Walter Scott or the Devil), yet nothing can restrain me from
+     thinking it is to your influence with the author that I am
+     indebted for the essential honor of being one of their
+     publishers, and I must intrude upon you to offer my most
+     hearty thanks&mdash;not divided, but doubled&mdash;alike for my
+     worldly gain therein, and for the great acquisition of
+     professional reputation which their publication has already
+     procured me. I believe I might, under any oath that could be
+     proposed, swear that I never experienced such unmixed
+     pleasure as the reading of this exquisite work has afforded
+     me; and if you could see me, as the author's literary
+     chamberlain, receiving the unanimous and vehement praises of
+     every one who has read it, and the curses of those whose
+     needs my scanty supply could not satisfy, you might judge of
+     the sincerity with which I now entreat you to assure him of
+     the most complete success. Lord Holland said, when I asked
+     his opinion&mdash;"Opinion! We did not one of us go to bed last
+     night&mdash;nothing slept but my gout." Frere, Hallam,
+     Boswell,<a id="footnotetag45" name="footnotetag45"></a><a href="#footnote45" title="Go to footnote 45"><span class="small">[45]</span></a> Lord Glenbervie, William Lamb,<a id="footnotetag46" name="footnotetag46"></a><a href="#footnote46" title="Go to footnote 46"><span class="small">[46]</span></a> all agree
+     that it surpasses all the other novels. Gifford's estimate
+     is increased at every reperusal. Heber says there are only
+     two men in the world&mdash;Walter Scott and Lord Byron. Between
+     you, you have given existence to a third&mdash;Ever your faithful
+     servant,</p>
+
+<p class="left50 smcap">John Murray.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>To this cordial effusion Scott returned the following answer. It was
+necessary, since he had fairly resolved <span class="pagenum"><a id="page125" name="page125"></a>(p. 125)</span> against compromising
+his incognito, that he should be prepared not only to repel the
+impertinent curiosity of strangers, but to evade the proffered
+congratulations of overflowing kindness. He contrived, however, to do
+so, on this and all similar occasions, in a style of equivoque which
+could never be seriously misunderstood:<a id="footnotetag47" name="footnotetag47"></a><a href="#footnote47" title="Go to footnote 47"><span class="small">[47]</span></a>&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="quote">
+<p class="tit-center">TO JOHN MURRAY, ESQ., ALBEMARLE STREET, LONDON.</p>
+<p class="left50"><span class="smcap">Edinburgh</span>, 18th December, 1816.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">My dear Sir</span>,&mdash;I give you heartily joy of the success of the
+     Tales, although I do not claim that paternal interest in
+     them which my friends do me the credit to assign me. I
+     assure you I have never read a volume of them until they
+     were printed, and can only join with the rest of the world
+     in applauding the true and striking portraits which they
+     present of old Scottish manners. I do not expect implicit
+     reliance to be placed on my disavowal, because I know very
+     well that he who is disposed not to own a work must
+     necessarily deny it, and that otherwise <span class="pagenum"><a id="page126" name="page126"></a>(p. 126)</span> his secret
+     would be at the mercy of all who choose to ask the question,
+     since silence in such a case must always pass for consent,
+     or rather assent. But I have a mode of convincing you that I
+     am perfectly serious in my denial&mdash;pretty similar to that by
+     which Solomon distinguished the fictitious from the real
+     mother&mdash;and that is, by reviewing the work, which I take to
+     be an operation equal to that of quartering the child. But
+     this is only on condition I can have Mr. Erskine's
+     assistance, who admires the work greatly more than I do,
+     though I think the painting of the second Tale both true and
+     powerful. I knew Old Mortality very well; his name was
+     Paterson, but few knew him otherwise than by his nickname.
+     The first Tale is not very original in its concoction, and
+     lame and impotent in its conclusion. My love to Gifford. I
+     have been over head and ears in work this summer, or I would
+     have sent the Gypsies; indeed I was partly stopped by
+     finding it impossible to procure a few words of their
+     language.</p>
+
+<p>Constable wrote to me about two months since, desirous of
+     having a new edition of Paul; but not hearing from you, I
+     conclude you are still on hand. Longman's people had then
+     only sixty copies.</p>
+
+<p>Kind compliments to Heber, whom I expected at Abbotsford
+     this summer; also to Mr. Croker and all your four o'clock
+     visitors. I am just going to Abbotsford to make a small
+     addition to my premises there. I have now about 700 acres,
+     thanks to the booksellers and the discerning public. Yours
+     truly,</p>
+
+<p class="left50 smcap">Walter Scott.</p>
+
+<p>P. S.&mdash;I have much to ask about Lord Byron if I had time.
+     The third canto of the Childe is inimitable. Of the last
+     poems, there are one or two which indicate rather an
+     irregular play of imagination.<a id="footnotetag48" name="footnotetag48"></a><a href="#footnote48" title="Go to footnote 48"><span class="small">[48]</span></a> What a pity that a man of
+     such exquisite genius will not be contented <span class="pagenum"><a id="page127" name="page127"></a>(p. 127)</span> to be
+     happy on the ordinary terms!<a id="footnotetag49" name="footnotetag49"></a><a href="#footnote49" title="Go to footnote 49"><span class="small">[49]</span></a> I declare my heart bleeds
+     when I think of him, self-banished from the country to which
+     he is an honor.<a id="footnotetag50" name="footnotetag50"></a><a href="#footnote50" title="Go to footnote 50"><span class="small">[50]</span></a></p>
+</div>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page128" name="page128"></a>(p. 128)</span> Mr. Murray, gladly embracing this offer of an article for his
+journal on the Tales of my Landlord, begged Scott to take a wider
+scope, and dropping all respect for the idea of a divided parentage,
+to place together any materials he might have for the illustration of
+the Waverley Novels in general; he suggested in particular, that,
+instead of drawing up a long-promised disquisition on the Gypsies in a
+separate shape, whatever he had to say concerning that picturesque
+generation might be introduced by way of comment on the character of
+Meg Merrilies. What Scott's original conception had been I know not;
+he certainly gave his reviewal all the breadth which Murray could have
+wished, and, <span class="italic">inter alia</span>, diversified it with a few anecdotes of the
+Scottish Gypsies. But the late excellent biographer of John Knox, Dr.
+Thomas M'Crie, had, in the mean time, considered the representation of
+the Covenanters, in the story of Old Mortality, as so unfair as to
+demand at his <span class="pagenum"><a id="page129" name="page129"></a>(p. 129)</span> hands a very serious rebuke. The Doctor
+forthwith published, in a magazine called the Edinburgh Christian
+Instructor, a set of papers, in which the historical foundations of
+that tale were attacked with indignant warmth; and though Scott, when
+he first heard of these invectives, expressed his resolution never
+even to read them, he found the impression they were producing so
+strong, that he soon changed his purpose, and finally devoted a very
+large part of his article for the Quarterly Review to an elaborate
+defence of his own picture of the Covenanters.<a id="footnotetag51" name="footnotetag51"></a><a href="#footnote51" title="Go to footnote 51"><span class="small">[51]</span></a></p>
+
+<p>Before the first Tales of my Landlord were six weeks old, two editions
+of 2000 copies disappeared, and a third of 2000 was put to press; but
+notwithstanding this rapid success, which was still further continued,
+and the friendly relations which always subsisted between the
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page130" name="page130"></a>(p. 130)</span> author and Mr. Murray, circumstances erelong occurred which
+carried the publication of the work into the hands of Messrs.
+Constable.</p>
+
+<p>The author's answer to Dr. M'Crie, and his Introduction of 1830, have
+exhausted the historical materials on which he constructed his Old
+Mortality; and the origin of The Black Dwarf&mdash;as to the conclusion of
+which story he appears on reflection to have completely adopted the
+opinion of honest Blackwood&mdash;has already been sufficiently illustrated
+by an anecdote of his early wanderings in Tweeddale. The latter tale,
+however imperfect, and unworthy as a work of art to be placed high in
+the catalogue of his productions, derives a singular interest from its
+delineation of the dark feelings so often connected with physical
+deformity; feelings which appear to have diffused their shadow over
+the whole genius of Byron&mdash;and which, but for this single picture, we
+should hardly have conceived ever to have passed through Scott's
+happier mind.<a id="footnotetag52" name="footnotetag52"></a><a href="#footnote52" title="Go to footnote 52"><span class="small">[52]</span></a> All the bitter blasphemy of spirit which, from
+infancy to the tomb, swelled up in Byron against the unkindness of
+nature; which sometimes perverted even his filial love into a
+sentiment of diabolical malignity; all this black and desolate train
+of reflections must have been encountered and deliberately subdued by
+the manly parent of The Black Dwarf. Old Mortality, on the other hand,
+is remarkable as the <span class="italic">novelist's</span> first attempt to repeople the past
+by the power of imagination working on materials furnished by books.
+In Waverley he revived the fervid dreams of his boyhood, and drew, not
+from printed records, but from the artless oral narratives of his
+<span class="italic">Invernahyles</span>. In Guy Mannering and The Antiquary he embodied
+characters and manners familiar <span class="pagenum"><a id="page131" name="page131"></a>(p. 131)</span> to his own wandering youth.
+But whenever his letters mention Old Mortality in its progress, they
+represent him as strong in the confidence that the industry with which
+he had pored over a library of forgotten tracts would enable him to
+identify himself with the time in which they had birth, as completely
+as if he had listened with his own ears to the dismal sermons of
+Peden, ridden with Claverhouse and Dalzell in the rout of Bothwell,
+and been an advocate at the bar of the Privy Council, when Lauderdale
+catechised and tortured the assassins of Archbishop Sharp. To
+reproduce a departed age with such minute and lifelike accuracy as
+this tale exhibits, demanded a far more energetic sympathy of
+imagination than had been called for in any effort of his serious
+verse. It is indeed most curiously instructive for any student of art
+to compare the Roundheads of Rokeby with the Bluebonnets of Old
+Mortality. For the rest&mdash;the story is framed with a deeper skill than
+any of the preceding novels: the canvas is a broader one; the
+characters are contrasted and projected with a power and felicity
+which neither he nor any other master ever surpassed; and,
+notwithstanding all that has been urged against him as a disparager of
+the Covenanters, it is to me very doubtful whether the inspiration of
+romantic chivalry ever prompted him to nobler emotions than he has
+lavished on the re-animation of their stern and solemn enthusiasm.
+This work has always appeared to me the Marmion of his novels.<a id="footnotetag53" name="footnotetag53"></a><a href="#footnote53" title="Go to footnote 53"><span class="small">[53]</span></a></p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page132" name="page132"></a>(p. 132)</span> I have disclaimed the power of farther illustrating its
+historical groundworks, but I am enabled by Mr. Train's kindness to
+give some interesting additions to Scott's own account of this novel
+as a composition. The generous Supervisor visited him in Edinburgh in
+May, 1816, a few days after the publication of The Antiquary, carrying
+with him several relics which he wished to present to his collection;
+among others a purse that had belonged <span class="pagenum"><a id="page133" name="page133"></a>(p. 133)</span> to Rob Roy, and also
+a fresh heap of traditionary gleanings, which he had gathered among
+the tale-tellers of his district. One of these last was in the shape
+of a letter to Mr. Train from a Mr. Broadfoot, "schoolmaster at the
+clachan of Penningham, and author of the <span class="italic">celebrated song</span> of the
+Hills of Galloway"&mdash;with which I confess myself unacquainted.
+Broadfoot had facetiously signed his communication <span class="italic">Clashbottom</span>,&mdash;"a
+professional appellation derived," says Mr. Train, "from the use of
+the birch, and by which he was usually addressed among his
+companions,&mdash;who assembled, not at the Wallace Inn of Gandercleuch,
+but at the sign of the Shoulder of Mutton in Newton-Stewart." Scott
+received these gifts with benignity, and invited the friendly donor to
+breakfast next morning. He found him at work in his library, and
+surveyed with enthusiastic curiosity the furniture of the room,
+especially its only picture, a portrait of Graham of Claverhouse.
+Train expressed the surprise with which every one, who had known
+Dundee only in the pages of the Presbyterian Annalists, must see for
+the first time that beautiful and melancholy visage, worthy of the
+most pathetic dreams of romance. Scott replied, "that no character had
+been so foully traduced as the Viscount of Dundee; that, thanks to
+Wodrow, Cruickshanks, and such chroniclers, he, who was every inch a
+soldier and a gentleman, still passed among the Scottish vulgar for a
+ruffian desperado, who rode a goblin horse, was proof against shot,
+and in league with the Devil." "Might he not," said Mr. Train, "be
+made, in good hands, the hero of a national romance as interesting as
+any about either Wallace or Prince Charlie?" "He might," said Scott,
+"but your western zealots would require to be faithfully portrayed in
+order to bring him out with the right effect."<a id="footnotetag54" name="footnotetag54"></a><a href="#footnote54" title="Go to footnote 54"><span class="small">[54]</span></a> "And what," resumed
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page134" name="page134"></a>(p. 134)</span> Train, "if the story were to be delivered as if from the
+mouth of <span class="italic">Old Mortality</span>? Would <span class="italic">he</span> not do as well as <span class="italic">the Minstrel</span>
+did in the Lay?" "Old Mortality!" said Scott&mdash;"who was he?" Mr. Train
+then told what he could remember of old Paterson, and seeing how much
+his story interested the hearer, offered to inquire farther about that
+enthusiast on his return to Galloway. "Do so by all means," said
+Scott; "I assure you I shall look with anxiety for your
+communication." He said nothing at this time of his own meeting with
+Old Mortality in the churchyard of Dunnottar&mdash;and I think there can be
+no doubt that that meeting was thus recalled to his recollection; or
+that to this intercourse with Mr. Train we owe the whole machinery of
+the Tales of my Landlord, as well as the adoption of Claverhouse's
+period for the scene of one of its first fictions. I think it highly
+probable that we owe a further obligation to the worthy Supervisor's
+presentation of Rob Roy's <span class="italic">spleuchan</span>.</p>
+
+<p>The original design for the First Series of Jedediah Cleishbotham was,
+as Scott told me, to include four separate tales illustrative of four
+districts of the country, in the like number of volumes; but, his
+imagination once kindled upon any theme, he could not but pour himself
+out freely&mdash;so that notion was soon abandoned.<a href="#toc"><span class="small">[Back to Contents]</span></a></p>
+
+
+
+
+<h3><span class="pagenum"><a id="page135" name="page135"></a>(p. 135)</span> CHAPTER XXXVIII.</h3>
+
+<p class="summary">harold the dauntless published. &mdash; scott aspires to be a
+     baron of the exchequer. &mdash; letter to the duke of buccleuch
+     concerning poachers, etc. &mdash; first attack of cramp in the
+     stomach. &mdash; letters to morritt, terry, and mrs. maclean
+     clephane. &mdash; story of the doom of devorgoil. &mdash; john
+     kemble's retirement from the stage. &mdash; william laidlaw
+     established at kaeside. &mdash; novel of rob roy projected. &mdash;
+     letter to southey on the relief of the poor, etc. &mdash; letter
+     to lord montagu on hogg's queen's wake, and on the death of
+     frances, lady douglas.</p>
+
+<p class="center">1817.</p>
+
+
+<p>Within less than a month, The Black Dwarf and Old Mortality were
+followed by "Harold the Dauntless, by the author of The Bridal of
+Triermain." This poem had been, it appears, begun several years back;
+nay, part of it had been actually printed before the appearance of
+Childe Harold, though that circumstance had escaped the author's
+remembrance when he penned, in 1830, his Introduction to The Lord of
+the Isles; for he there says, "I am still astonished at my having
+committed the gross error of selecting the very name which Lord Byron
+had made so famous." The volume was published by Messrs. Constable,
+and had, in those booksellers' phrase, "considerable success." It has
+never, however, been placed on a level with Triermain; and though it
+contains many vigorous pictures, and splendid verses, and here and
+there some happy humor, the confusion and harsh transitions <span class="pagenum"><a id="page136" name="page136"></a>(p. 136)</span>
+of the fable, and the dim rudeness of character and manners, seem
+sufficient to account for this inferiority in public favor. It is not
+surprising that the author should have redoubled his aversion to the
+notion of any more serious performances in verse. He had seized on an
+instrument of wider compass, and which, handled with whatever
+rapidity, seemed to reveal at every touch treasures that had hitherto
+slept unconsciously within him. He had thrown off his fetters, and
+might well go forth rejoicing in the native elasticity of his
+strength.</p>
+
+<p>It is at least a curious coincidence in literary history, that, as
+Cervantes, driven from the stage of Madrid by the success of Lope de
+Vega, threw himself into prose romance, and produced, at the moment
+when the world considered him as silenced forever, the Don Quixote
+which has outlived Lope's two thousand triumphant dramas&mdash;so Scott,
+abandoning verse to Byron, should have rebounded from his fall by the
+only prose romances, which seem to be classed with the masterpiece of
+Spanish genius, by the general judgment of Europe.</p>
+
+<p>I shall insert two letters, in which he announces the publication of
+Harold the Dauntless. In the first of them he also mentions the light
+and humorous little piece entitled The Sultan of Serendib, or the
+Search after Happiness, originally published in a weekly paper, after
+the fashion of the old Essayists, which about this time issued from
+John Ballantyne's premises, under the appropriate name of "The
+<span class="smcap">Sale-Room</span>." The paper had slender success; and though Scott wrote
+several things for it, none of them, except this metrical essay,
+attracted any notice. The Sale-Room was, in fact, a dull and hopeless
+concern; and I should scarcely have thought it worth mentioning, but
+for the confirmation it lends to my suspicion that Mr. John Ballantyne
+was very unwilling, after all his warnings, to retire completely from
+the field of publishing.</p>
+
+<div class="quote">
+<p class="tit-center"><span class="pagenum"><a id="page137" name="page137"></a>(p. 137)</span> TO J. B. S. MORRITT, ESQ., M. P., ROKEBY PARK.</p>
+<p class="left50"><span class="smcap">Edinburgh</span>, January 30, 1817.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">My dear Morritt</span>,&mdash;I hope to send you in a couple of days
+     Harold the Dauntless, which has not turned out so good as I
+     thought it would have done. I begin to get too old and
+     stupid, I think, for poetry, and will certainly never again
+     adventure on a grand scale. For amusement, and to help a
+     little publication that is going on here, I have spun a
+     doggerel tale called The Search after Happiness, of which I
+     shall send you a copy by post, if it is of a frankable size;
+     if not, I can put it up with the Dauntless. Among other
+     misfortunes of Harold is his name, but the thing was partly
+     printed before Childe Harold was in question.</p>
+
+<p>My great and good news at present is, that the bog (that
+     perpetual hobby-horse) has produced a commodity of most
+     excellent marle, and promises to be of the very last
+     consequence to my wild ground in the neighborhood; for
+     nothing can equal the effect of marle as a top-dressing.
+     Methinks (in my mind's eye, Horatio) I see all the
+     blue-bank, the hinny-lee, and the other provinces of my poor
+     kingdom, waving with deep rye-grass and clover, like the
+     meadows at Rokeby. In honest truth, it will do me yeoman's
+     service.</p>
+
+<p>My next good tidings are, that Jedediah carries the world
+     before him. Six thousand have been disposed of, and three
+     thousand more are pressing onward, which will be worth £2500
+     to the worthy pedagogue of Gandercleuch. Some of the Scotch
+     Whigs, of the right old fanatical leaven, have waxed wroth
+     with Jedediah,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p class="poem30">
+  "But shall we go mourn for that, my dear?<br>
+<span class="add1em">The cold moon shines by night,</span><br>
+  And when we wander here and there,<br>
+<span class="add1em">We then do go most right."<a id="footnotetag55" name="footnotetag55"></a><a href="#footnote55" title="Go to footnote 55"><span class="small">[55]</span></a></span></p>
+
+<p>After all, these honest gentlemen are like Queen Elizabeth
+     <span class="pagenum"><a id="page138" name="page138"></a>(p. 138)</span> in their ideas of portrait-painting. They require
+     the pictures of their predecessors to be likenesses, and at
+     the same time demand that they shall be painted without
+     shade, being probably of opinion, with the virgin majesty of
+     England, that there is no such thing in nature.</p>
+
+<p>I presume you will be going almost immediately to London&mdash;at
+     least all our Scotch members are requested to be at their
+     posts, the meaning of which I cannot pretend to guess. The
+     finances are the only ticklish matter, but there is, after
+     all, plenty of money in the country, now that our fever-fit
+     is a little over. In Britain, when there is the least damp
+     upon the spirits of the public, they are exactly like people
+     in a crowd, who take the alarm, and shoulder each other to
+     and fro till some dozen or two of the weakest are borne down
+     and trodden to death; whereas, if they would but have
+     patience and remain quiet, there would be a safe and speedy
+     end to their embarrassment. How we want Billie Pitt now to
+     get up and give the tone to our feelings and opinions!</p>
+
+<p>As I take up this letter to finish the same, I hear the
+     Prince Regent has been attacked and fired at. Since he was
+     not hurt (for I should be sincerely sorry for my fat
+     friend), I see nothing but good luck to result from this
+     assault. It will make him a good manageable boy, and, I
+     think, secure you a quiet session of Parliament.&mdash;Adieu, my
+     dear Morritt, God bless you. Let me know if the gimcracks
+     come safe&mdash;I mean the book, etc.</p>
+
+<p>Ever yours,<br>
+<span class="left50 smcap">Walter Scott.</span></p>
+</div>
+
+<div class="quote">
+<p class="tit-center">TO THE LADY LOUISA STUART, GLOUCESTER PLACE, LONDON.</p>
+<p class="left50"><span class="smcap">Edinburgh</span>, January 31, 1817.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">My dear Lady Louisa</span>,&mdash;This accompanies Harold the Dauntless.
+     I thought once I should have made it something clever, but
+     it turned vapid upon my imagination; and I finished it at
+     last with hurry and impatience. Nobody knows, that has not
+     tried the feverish trade of poetry, how much it depends upon
+     mood and whim. I <span class="pagenum"><a id="page139" name="page139"></a>(p. 139)</span> don't wonder, that, in dismissing
+     all the other deities of Paganism, the Muse should have been
+     retained by common consent; for, in sober reality, writing
+     good verses seems to depend upon something separate from the
+     volition of the author. I sometimes think my fingers set up
+     for themselves, independent of my head; for twenty times I
+     have begun a thing on a certain plan, and never in my life
+     adhered to it (in a work of imagination, that is) for half
+     an hour together. I would hardly write this sort of
+     egotistical trash to any one but yourself, yet it is very
+     true for all that. What my kind correspondent had
+     anticipated on account of Jedediah's effusions has actually
+     taken place; and the author of a very good Life of Knox has,
+     I understand, made a most energetic attack, upon the score
+     that the old Covenanters are not treated with decorum. I
+     have not read it, and certainly never shall. I really think
+     there is nothing in the book that is not very fair and
+     legitimate subject of raillery; and I own I have my
+     suspicions of that very susceptible devotion which so
+     readily takes offence: such men should not read books of
+     amusement; but do they suppose, because they are virtuous,
+     and choose to be thought outrageously so, "there shall be no
+     cakes and ale"?&mdash;"Ay, by our lady, and ginger shall be hot
+     in the mouth too."<a id="footnotetag56" name="footnotetag56"></a><a href="#footnote56" title="Go to footnote 56"><span class="small">[56]</span></a> As for the consequences to the
+     author, they can only affect his fortune or his temper&mdash;the
+     former, such as it is, has been long fixed beyond shot of
+     these sort of fowlers; and for my temper, I considered
+     always, that by subjecting myself to the irritability which
+     much greater authors have felt on occasions of literary
+     dispute, I should be laying in a plentiful stock of
+     unhappiness for the rest of my life. I therefore make it a
+     rule never to read the attacks made upon me. I remember
+     being capable of something like this sort of self-denial at
+     a very early period of life, for I could not be six years
+     old. I had been put into my bed in the nursery, and two
+     servant <span class="pagenum"><a id="page140" name="page140"></a>(p. 140)</span> girls sat down by the embers of the fire,
+     to have their own quiet chat, and the one began to tell a
+     most dismal ghost story, of which I remember the
+     commencement distinctly at this moment; but perceiving which
+     way the tale was tending, and though necessarily curious,
+     being at the same time conscious that, if I listened on, I
+     should be frightened out of my wits for the rest of the
+     night, I had the force to cover up my head in the
+     bed-clothes, so that I could not hear another word that was
+     said. The only inconvenience attending a similar prudential
+     line of conduct in the present case is, that it may seem
+     like a deficiency of spirit; but I am not much afraid of
+     that being laid to my charge&mdash;my fault in early life (I hope
+     long since corrected) having lain rather the other way. And
+     so I say, with mine honest Prior,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p class="poem10">"Sleep, Philo, untouch'd, on my peaceable shelf,<br>
+  Nor take it amiss that so little I heed thee;<br>
+  I've no malice at thee, and some love for myself&mdash;<br>
+  Then why should I answer, since first I must read thee?"</p>
+
+<p>So you are getting finely on in London. I own I am very glad
+     of it. I am glad the banditti act like banditti, because it
+     will make men of property look round them in time. This
+     country is very like the toys which folks buy for children,
+     and which, tumble them about in any way the urchins will,
+     are always brought to their feet again, by the lead
+     deposited in their extremities. The mass of property has the
+     same effect on our Constitution, and is a sort of ballast
+     which will always <span class="italic">right</span> the vessel, to use a sailor's
+     phrase, and bring it to its due equipoise.</p>
+
+<p>Ministers have acted most sillily in breaking up the burgher
+     volunteers in large towns. On the contrary, the service
+     should have been made coercive. Such men have a moral effect
+     upon the minds of the populace, besides their actual force,
+     and are so much interested in keeping good order, that you
+     may always rely on them, especially as a corps in which
+     there is necessarily a common <span class="pagenum"><a id="page141" name="page141"></a>(p. 141)</span> spirit of union and
+     confidence. But all this is nonsense again, quoth my Uncle
+     Toby to himself. Adieu, my dear Lady Louisa; my sincere good
+     wishes always attend you.</p>
+
+<p class="left50">W. S.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>Not to disturb the narrative of his literary proceedings, I have
+deferred until now the mention of an attempt which Scott made during
+the winter of 1816-1817, to exchange his seat at the Clerk's table for
+one on the Bench of the Scotch Court of Exchequer. It had often
+occurred to me, in the most prosperous years of his life, that such a
+situation would have suited him better in every respect than that
+which he held, and that his never attaining a promotion, which the
+Scottish public would have considered so naturally due to his
+character and services, reflected little honor on his political
+allies. But at the period when I was entitled to hint this to him, he
+appeared to have made up his mind that the rank of Clerk of Session
+was more compatible than that of a Supreme Judge with the habits of a
+literary man, who was perpetually publishing, and whose writings were
+generally of the imaginative order. I had also witnessed the zeal with
+which he seconded the views of more than one of his own friends, when
+their ambition was directed to the Exchequer Bench. I remained, in
+short, ignorant that he ever had seriously thought of it for himself,
+until the ruin of his worldly fortunes in 1826; nor had I any
+information that his wish to obtain it had ever been distinctly
+stated, until certain letters, one of which I shall introduce, were
+placed in my hands after his death, by the present Duke of Buccleuch.
+The late Duke's answers to these letters are also before me; but of
+them it is sufficient to say, that while they show the warmest anxiety
+to serve Scott, they refer to private matters, which rendered it
+inconsistent with his Grace's feelings to interfere at the time in
+question with the distribution of Crown patronage. I incline to think,
+on the whole, <span class="pagenum"><a id="page142" name="page142"></a>(p. 142)</span> that the death of this nobleman, which soon
+after left the influence of his house in abeyance, must have, far more
+than any other circumstance, determined Scott to renounce all notions
+of altering his professional position.</p>
+
+<div class="quote">
+<p class="tit-center">TO THE DUKE OF BUCCLEUCH, ETC., ETC.</p>
+<p class="left50"><span class="smcap">Edinburgh</span>, 11th December, 1816.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">My dear Lord Duke</span>,&mdash;Your Grace has been so much my constant
+     and kind friend and patron through the course of my life,
+     that I trust I need no apology for thrusting upon your
+     consideration some ulterior views, which have been suggested
+     to me by my friends, and which I will either endeavor to
+     prosecute, time and place serving, or lay aside all thoughts
+     of, as they appear to your Grace feasible, and likely to be
+     forwarded by your patronage. It has been suggested to me, in
+     a word, that there would be no impropriety in my being put
+     in nomination as a candidate for the situation of a Baron of
+     Exchequer, when a vacancy shall take place. The difference
+     of the emolument between that situation and those which I
+     now hold, is just £400 a year, so that, in that point of
+     view, it is not a very great object. But there is a
+     difference in the rank, and also in the leisure afforded by
+     a Baron's situation; and a man may, without condemnation,
+     endeavor, at my period of life, to obtain as much honor and
+     ease as he can handsomely come by. My pretensions to such an
+     honor (next to your Grace's countenancing my wishes) would
+     rest very much on the circumstance that my nomination would
+     vacate two good offices (Clerk of Session and Sheriff of
+     Selkirkshire) to the amount of £1000 and £300 a year; and,
+     besides, would extinguish a pension of £300 which I have for
+     life, over and above my salary as Clerk of Session, as
+     having been in office at the time when the Judicature Act
+     deprived us of a part of our vested fees and emoluments. The
+     extinction of this pension would be just so much saved to
+     the public. I am pretty confident also that I should
+     <span class="pagenum"><a id="page143" name="page143"></a>(p. 143)</span> be personally acceptable to our friend the Chief
+     Baron.<a id="footnotetag57" name="footnotetag57"></a><a href="#footnote57" title="Go to footnote 57"><span class="small">[57]</span></a> But whether all or any of these circumstances
+     will weigh much in my favor, must solely and entirely rest
+     with your Grace, without whose countenance it would be folly
+     in me to give the matter a second thought. <span class="italic">With</span> your
+     patronage, both my situation and habits of society may place
+     my hopes as far as any who are likely to apply; and your
+     interest would be strengthened by the opportunity of placing
+     some good friend in Selkirkshire, besides converting the
+     Minstrel of the Clan into a Baron,&mdash;a transmutation worthy
+     of so powerful and kind a chief. But if your Grace thinks I
+     ought to drop thoughts of this preferment, I am bound to
+     say, that I think myself as well provided for by my friends
+     and the public as I have the least title to expect, and that
+     I am perfectly contented and grateful for what I have
+     received. Ever your Grace's faithful and truly obliged
+     servant,</p>
+
+<p class="left50 smcap">Walter Scott.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>The following letter, to the same noble friend, contains a slight
+allusion to this affair of the Barony; but I insert it for a better
+reason. The Duke had, it seems, been much annoyed by some depredations
+on his game in the district of Ettrick Water; and more so by the ill
+use which some boys from Selkirk made of his liberality in allowing
+the people of that town free access to his beautiful walks on the
+banks of the Yarrow, adjoining Newark and Bowhill. The Duke's
+forester, by name Thomas Hudson, had recommended rigorous measures
+with reference to both these classes of offenders, and the Sheriff was
+of course called into council:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="quote">
+<p class="tit-center">TO HIS GRACE THE DUKE OF BUCCLEUCH, ETC., ETC., ETC.</p>
+<p class="left50"><span class="smcap">Abbotsford</span>, January 11, 1817.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">My dear Lord Duke</span>,&mdash;I have been thinking anxiously about the
+     disagreeable affair of Tom Hudson, <span class="pagenum"><a id="page144" name="page144"></a>(p. 144)</span> and the
+     impudent ingratitude of the Selkirk rising generation, and I
+     will take the usual liberty your friendship permits me, of
+     saying what occurs to me on each subject. Respecting the
+     shooting, the crime is highly punishable, and we will omit
+     no inquiries to discover the individuals guilty. Charles
+     Erskine, who is a good police-officer, will be sufficiently
+     active. I know my friend and kinsman, Mr. Scott of Harden,
+     feels very anxious to oblige your Grace, and I have little
+     doubt that if you will have the goodness to mention to him
+     this unpleasant circumstance, he would be anxious to put his
+     game under such regulations as should be agreeable to you.
+     But I believe the pride and pleasure he would feel in
+     obliging your Grace, as heading one of the most ancient and
+     most respectable branches of your name (if I may be pardoned
+     for saying so much in our favor), would be certainly much
+     more gratified by a compliance with your personal request,
+     than if it came through any other channel. Your Grace knows
+     there are many instances in life in which the most effectual
+     way of conferring a favor is condescending to accept one. I
+     have known Harden long and most intimately&mdash;a more
+     respectable man, either for feeling, or talent, or knowledge
+     of human life, is rarely to be met with. But he is rather
+     indecisive&mdash;requiring some instant stimulus in order to make
+     him resolve to do, not only what he knows to be right, but
+     what he really wishes to do, and means to do one time or
+     other. He is exactly Prior's Earl of Oxford:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p class="poem20">
+  "Let that be done which Mat doth say."<br>
+  "Yea," quoth the Earl, "<span class="italic">but not to-day</span>."</p>
+
+<p>And so exit Harden, and enter Selkirk.</p>
+
+<p>I know hardly anything more exasperating than the conduct of
+     the little blackguards, and it will be easy to discover and
+     make an example of the biggest and most insolent. In the
+     mean while, my dear Lord, pardon my requesting you will take
+     no general or sweeping resolution as to the Selkirk folks.
+     Your Grace lives near <span class="pagenum"><a id="page145" name="page145"></a>(p. 145)</span> them&mdash;your residence, both
+     from your direct beneficence, and the indirect advantages
+     which they derive from that residence, is of the utmost
+     consequence; and they must be made sensible that all these
+     advantages are endangered by the very violent and brutal
+     conduct of their children. But I think your Grace will be
+     inclined to follow this up only for the purpose of
+     correction, not for that of requital. They are so much
+     beneath you, and so much in your power, that this would be
+     unworthy of you&mdash;especially as all the inhabitants of the
+     little country town must necessarily be included in the
+     punishment. Were your Grace really angry with them, and
+     acting accordingly, you might ultimately feel the regret of
+     my old schoolmaster, who, when he had knocked me down,
+     apologized by saying he did not know his own strength. After
+     all, those who look for anything better than ingratitude
+     from the uneducated and unreflecting mass of a corrupted
+     population, must always be deceived; and the better the
+     heart is that has been expanded towards them, their wants
+     and their wishes, the deeper is the natural feeling of
+     disappointment. But it is our duty to fight on, doing what
+     good we can (and surely the disposition and the means were
+     never more happily united than in your Grace), and trusting
+     to God Almighty, whose grace ripens the seeds we commit to
+     the earth, that our benefactions shall bear fruit. And now,
+     my Lord, asking your pardon for this discharge of my
+     conscience, and assuring your Grace I have no wish to
+     exchange my worsted gown, or the remote <span class="italic">Pisgah</span> exchange of
+     a silk one, for the cloak of a Presbyterian parson, even
+     with the certainty of succeeding to the first of your
+     numerous Kirk-presentations, I take the liberty to add my
+     own opinion. The elder boys must be looked out and punished,
+     and the parents severely reprimanded, and the whole
+     respectable part of the town made sensible of the loss they
+     must necessarily sustain by the discontinuance of your
+     patronage. And at, or about the same time, I <span class="pagenum"><a id="page146" name="page146"></a>(p. 146)</span>
+     should think it proper if your Grace were to distinguish by
+     any little notice such Selkirk people working with you as
+     have their families under good order.</p>
+
+<p>I am taking leave of Abbotsford <span class="italic">multum gemens</span>, and have
+     been just giving directions for planting upon <span class="italic">Turn-again</span>.
+     When shall we eat a cold luncheon there, and look at the
+     view, and root up the monster in his abyss? I assure you
+     none of your numerous vassals can show a finer succession of
+     <span class="italic">distant</span> prospects. For the home-view&mdash;ahem!&mdash;We must wait
+     till the trees grow.</p>
+
+<p>Ever your Grace's truly faithful<br>
+<span class="left50 smcap">W. Scott</span>.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>While the abortive negotiation as to the exchequer was still pending,
+Scott was visited, for the first time since his childish years, with a
+painful illness, which proved the harbinger of a series of attacks,
+all nearly of the same kind, continued at short intervals during more
+than two years. Various letters, already introduced, have indicated
+how widely his habits of life when in Edinburgh differed from those of
+Abbotsford. They at all times did so to a great extent; but he had
+pushed his liberties with a most robust constitution to a perilous
+extreme while the affairs of the Ballantynes were laboring, and he was
+now to pay the penalty.</p>
+
+<p>This first serious alarm occurred towards the close of a merry
+dinner-party in Castle Street (on the 5th of March), when Scott
+suddenly sustained such exquisite torture from cramp in the stomach,
+that his masculine powers of endurance gave way, and he retired from
+the room with a scream of agony which electrified his guests. This
+scene was often repeated, as we shall see presently. His friends in
+Edinburgh continued all that spring in great anxiety on his account.
+Scarcely, however, had the first symptoms yielded to severe medical
+treatment, than he is found to have beguiled the intervals of his
+suffering by planning a dramatic piece on a story supplied to him by
+one of Train's communications, which he desired to <span class="pagenum"><a id="page147" name="page147"></a>(p. 147)</span> present
+to Terry, on behalf of the actor's first-born son who had been
+christened by the name of Walter Scott.<a id="footnotetag58" name="footnotetag58"></a><a href="#footnote58" title="Go to footnote 58"><span class="small">[58]</span></a> Such was the origin of the
+Fortunes of Devorgoil&mdash;a piece which, though completed soon
+afterwards, and submitted by Terry to many manipulations with a view
+to the stage, was never received by any manager, and was first
+published, towards the close of the author's life, under the title,
+slightly altered for an obvious reason, of The Doom of Devorgoil. The
+sketch of the story which he gives in the following letter will
+probably be considered by many besides myself as well worth the drama.
+It appears that the actor had mentioned to Scott his intention of
+<span class="italic">Terryfying</span> The Black Dwarf.</p>
+
+<div class="quote">
+<p class="tit-center">TO DANIEL TERRY, ESQ., LONDON.</p>
+<p class="left50"><span class="smcap">Edinburgh</span>, 12th March, 1817.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Dear Terry</span>,&mdash;I am now able to write to you on your own
+     affairs, though still as weak as water from the operations
+     of the medical faculty, who, I think, treated me as a
+     recusant to their authority, and having me once at
+     advantage, were determined I should not have strength to
+     rebel again in a hurry. After all, I believe it was touch
+     and go; and considering how much I have to do for my own
+     family and others, my elegy might have been that of the Auld
+     Man's Mare,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p class="poem30">
+  "The peats and turf are all to lead,<br>
+<span class="add1em">What ail'd the beast to die?"</span></p>
+
+<p>You don't mention the nature of your undertaking in your
+     last, and in your former you spoke both of the Black Dwarf
+     and of Triermain. I have some doubts whether the town will
+     endure a second time the following up a well-known tale with
+     a dramatic representation&mdash;and there is no <span class="italic">vis comica</span> to
+     redeem the Black Dwarf, as in the case of Dominie Sampson. I
+     have thought of <span class="pagenum"><a id="page148" name="page148"></a>(p. 148)</span> two subjects for you, if, like the
+     Archbishop's homilies, they do not smell of the apoplexy.
+     The first is a noble and very dramatic tradition preserved
+     in Galloway, which runs briefly thus: The Barons of Plenton
+     (the family name, I think, was &mdash;&mdash; by Jupiter, forgot!)
+     boasted of great antiquity, and formerly of extensive power
+     and wealth, to which the ruins of their huge castle,
+     situated on an inland loch, still bear witness. In the
+     middle of the seventeenth century, it is said, these ruins
+     were still inhabited by the lineal descendant of this
+     powerful family. But the ruinous halls and towers of his
+     ancestors were all that had descended to him, and he
+     cultivated the garden of the castle, and sold its fruits for
+     a subsistence. He married in a line suitable rather to his
+     present situation than the dignity of his descent, and was
+     quite sunk into the rank of peasantry, excepting that he was
+     still called&mdash;more in mockery, or at least in familiarity,
+     than in respect&mdash;the Baron of Plenton. A causeway connected
+     the castle with the mainland; it was cut in the middle, and
+     the moat only passable by a drawbridge which yet subsisted,
+     and which the poor old couple contrived to raise every night
+     by their joint efforts, the country being very unsettled at
+     the time. It must be observed that the old man and his wife
+     occupied only one apartment in the extensive ruins, a small
+     one adjoining to the drawbridge; the rest was waste and
+     dilapidated.</p>
+
+<p>As they were about to retire one night to rest, they were
+     deterred by a sudden storm which, rising in the wildest
+     manner possible, threatened to bury them under the ruins of
+     the castle. While they listened in terror to the complicated
+     sounds of thunder, wind, and rain, they were astonished to
+     hear the clang of hoofs on the causeway, and the voices of
+     people clamoring for admittance. This was a request not
+     rashly to be granted. The couple looked out, and dimly
+     discerned through the storm that the causeway was crowded
+     with riders. "How many of <span class="pagenum"><a id="page149" name="page149"></a>(p. 149)</span> you are there?" demanded
+     John.&mdash;"Not more than the hall will hold," was the answer;
+     "but open the gate, lower the bridge, and do not keep the
+     <span class="italic">ladies</span> in the rain."&mdash;John's heart was melted for the
+     <span class="italic">ladies</span>, and, against his wife's advice, he undid the
+     bolts, sunk the drawbridge, and bade them enter in the name
+     of God. Having done so, he instantly retired into his
+     <span class="italic">sanctum sanctorum</span> to await the event, for there was
+     something in the voices and language of his guests that
+     sounded mysterious and awful. They rushed into the castle,
+     and appeared to know their way through all its recesses.
+     Grooms were heard hurrying their horses to the
+     stables&mdash;sentinels were heard mounting guard&mdash;a thousand
+     lights gleamed from place to place through the ruins, till
+     at length they seemed all concentrated in the baronial hall,
+     whose range of broad windows threw a resplendent
+     illumination on the moss-grown court below.</p>
+
+<p>After a short time, a domestic, clad in a rich but very
+     antique dress, appeared before the old couple, and commanded
+     them to attend his lord and lady in the great hall. They
+     went with tottering steps, and to their great terror found
+     themselves in the midst of a most brilliant and joyous
+     company; but the fearful part of it was, that most of the
+     guests resembled the ancestors of John's family, and were
+     known to him by their resemblance to pictures which
+     mouldered in the castle, or by traditionary description. At
+     the head, the founder of the race, dressed like some mighty
+     baron, or rather some Galwegian prince, sat with his lady.
+     There was a difference of opinion between these ghostly
+     personages concerning our honest John. The chief was
+     inclined to receive him graciously; the lady considered him,
+     from his mean marriage, as utterly unworthy of their name
+     and board. The upshot is, that the chief discovers to his
+     descendant the means of finding a huge treasure concealed in
+     the castle; the lady assures him that the discovery shall
+     never avail him.&mdash;In the morning no trace can be discovered
+     of <span class="pagenum"><a id="page150" name="page150"></a>(p. 150)</span> the singular personages who had occupied the
+     hall. But John sought for and discovered the vault where the
+     spoils of the Southrons were concealed, rolled away the
+     covering stone, and feasted his eyes on a range of massy
+     chests of iron, filled doubtless with treasure. As he
+     deliberated on the best means of bringing them up, and
+     descending into the vault, he observed it began slowly to
+     fill with water. Bailing and pumping were resorted to, and
+     when he had exhausted his own and his wife's strength, they
+     summoned the assistance of the neighborhood. But the
+     vengeance of the visionary lady was perfect; the waters of
+     the lake had forced their way into the vault, and John,
+     after a year or two spent in draining and so forth, died
+     broken-hearted, the last Baron of Plenton.</p>
+
+<p>Such is the tale, of which the incidents seem new, and the
+     interest capable of being rendered striking; the story
+     admits of the highest degree of decoration, both by poetry,
+     music, and scenery, and I propose (in behalf of my godson)
+     to take some pains in dramatizing it. As thus;&mdash;you shall
+     play John, as you can speak a little Scotch; I will make him
+     what the Baron of Bradwardine would have been in his
+     circumstances, and he shall be alternately ridiculous from
+     his family pride and prejudices, contrasted with his
+     poverty, and respectable from his just and independent tone
+     of feeling and character. I think Scotland is entitled to
+     have something on the stage to balance Macklin's two
+     worthies.<a id="footnotetag59" name="footnotetag59"></a><a href="#footnote59" title="Go to footnote 59"><span class="small">[59]</span></a> You understand the dialect will be only tinged
+     with the national dialect&mdash;not that the baron is to speak
+     broad Scotch, while all the others talk English. His wife
+     and he shall have one child, a daughter, suitored unto by
+     the conceited young parson or schoolmaster of the village,
+     whose addresses are countenanced by her mother,&mdash;and by
+     Halbert the hunter, a youth of unknown descent. Now this
+     youth shall be the rightful heir and representative of the
+     English owners of the treasure, of which they had been
+     <span class="pagenum"><a id="page151" name="page151"></a>(p. 151)</span> robbed by the baron's ancestors, for which unjust
+     act, their spirits still walked the earth. These, with a
+     substantial character or two, and the ghostly personages,
+     shall mingle as they may&mdash;and the discovery of the youth's
+     birth shall break the spell of the treasure-chamber. I will
+     make the ghosts talk as never ghosts talked in the body or
+     out of it; and the music may be as unearthly as you can get
+     it. The rush of the shadows into the castle shall be seen
+     through the window of the baron's apartment in the flat
+     scene. The ghosts' banquet, and many other circumstances,
+     may give great exercise to the scene-painter and dresser. If
+     you like this plan, you had better suspend any other for the
+     present. In my opinion it has the infinite merit of being
+     perfectly new in plot and structure, and I will set about
+     the sketch as soon as my strength is restored in some
+     measure by air and exercise. I am sure I can finish it in a
+     fortnight then. Ever yours truly,</p>
+
+<p class="left50 smcap">W. Scott.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>About the time when this letter was written, a newspaper paragraph
+having excited the apprehension of two&mdash;or I should say three&mdash;of his
+dearest friends, that his life was in actual danger, Scott wrote to
+them as follows:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="quote">
+<p class="tit-center">TO J. B. S. MORRITT, ESQ., M. P., PORTLAND PLACE, LONDON.</p>
+<p class="left50"><span class="smcap">Edinburgh</span>, 20th March, 1817.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">My dear Morritt</span>,&mdash;I hasten to acquaint you that I am in the
+     land of life, and thriving, though I have had a slight
+     shake, and still feel the consequences of medical treatment.
+     I had been plagued all through this winter with cramps in my
+     stomach, which I endured as a man of mould might, and
+     endeavored to combat them by drinking scalding water, and so
+     forth. As they grew rather unpleasantly frequent, I had
+     reluctant recourse to Baillie. But before his answer arrived
+     on the 5th, I had a most violent attack, which broke up a
+     small party at <span class="pagenum"><a id="page152" name="page152"></a>(p. 152)</span> my house, and sent me to bed
+     roaring like a bull-calf. All sorts of remedies were
+     applied, as in the case of Gil Blas's pretended colic, but
+     such was the pain of the real disorder, that it outdevilled
+     the Doctor hollow. Even heated salt, which was applied in
+     such a state that it burned my shirt to rags, I hardly felt
+     when clapped to my stomach. At length the symptoms became
+     inflammatory, and dangerously so, the seat being the
+     diaphragm. They only gave way to very profuse bleeding and
+     blistering, which under higher assistance saved my life. My
+     recovery was slow and tedious from the state of exhaustion.
+     I could neither stir for weakness and giddiness, nor read
+     for dazzling in my eyes, nor listen for a whizzing sound in
+     my ears, nor even think for lack of the power of arranging
+     my ideas. So I had a comfortless time of it for about a
+     week. Even yet I by no means feel, as the copy-book hath it,</p>
+
+<p class="poem20">
+  "The lion bold, which the lamb doth hold&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>on the contrary, I am as weak as water. They tell me (of
+     course) I must renounce every creature comfort, as my friend
+     Jedediah calls it. As for dinner and so forth, I care little
+     about it&mdash;but toast and water, and three glasses of wine,
+     sound like hard laws to me. However, to parody the
+     lamentation of Hassan, the camel-driver,</p>
+
+<p class="poem20">
+  "The lily health outvies the grape's bright ray,<br>
+  And life is dearer than the usquebæ&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>so I shall be amenable to discipline. But in my own secret
+     mind I suspect the state of my bowels more than anything
+     else. I take enough of exercise and enough of rest; but
+     unluckily they are like a Lapland year, divided as one night
+     and one day. In the vacation I never sit down; in the
+     session-time I seldom rise up. But all this must be better
+     arranged in future; and I trust I shall live to weary out
+     all your kindness.</p>
+
+<p>I am obliged to break off hastily. I trust I shall be able
+     to get over the Fell in the end of summer, which <span class="pagenum"><a id="page153" name="page153"></a>(p. 153)</span>
+     will rejoice me much, for the sound of the woods of Rokeby
+     is lovely in mine ear. Ever yours,</p>
+
+<p class="left50 smcap">Walter Scott.</p>
+</div>
+
+<div class="quote">
+<p class="tit-center">TO MRS. MACLEAN CLEPHANE, OF TORLOISK, MULL.</p>
+<p class="left50"><span class="smcap">Edinburgh</span>, 23d March, 1817.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">My dear Mrs. and Miss Clephane</span>,&mdash;Here comes to let you know
+     you had nearly seen the last sight of me, unless I had come
+     to visit you on my red beam like one of Fingal's heroes,
+     which, Ossianic as you are, I trow you would readily
+     dispense with. The cause was a cramp in my stomach, which,
+     after various painful visits, as if it had been sent by
+     Prospero, and had mistaken me for Caliban, at length chose
+     to conclude by setting fire to its lodging, like the
+     Frenchmen as they retreated through Russia, and placed me in
+     as proper a state of inflammation as if I had had the whole
+     Spafields committee in my unfortunate stomach. Then bleeding
+     and blistering was the word; and they bled and blistered
+     till they left me neither skin nor blood. However, they beat
+     off the foul fiend, and I am bound to praise the bridge
+     which carried me over. I am still very totterish, and very
+     giddy, kept to panada, or rather to porridge, for I spurned
+     at all foreign slops, and adhered to our ancient oatmeal
+     manufacture.<a id="footnotetag60" name="footnotetag60"></a><a href="#footnote60" title="Go to footnote 60"><span class="small">[60]</span></a> But I have no apprehension of any return of
+     the serious part of the malady, and I am now recovering my
+     strength, though looking somewhat cadaverous upon the
+     occasion.</p>
+
+<p>I much approve of your going to Italy by sea; indeed it is
+     the only way you ought to think of it. I am only <span class="pagenum"><a id="page154" name="page154"></a>(p. 154)</span>
+     sorry you are going to leave us for a while; but indeed the
+     isle of Mull might be Florence to me in respect of
+     separation, and cannot be quite Florence to you, since Lady
+     Compton is not there. I lately heard her mentioned in a
+     company where my interest in her was not known, as one of
+     the very few English ladies now in Italy whom their
+     acquirements, conduct, and mode of managing time, induce
+     that part of foreign society, whose approbation is valuable,
+     to consider with high respect and esteem. This I think is
+     very likely; for, whatever folks say of foreigners, those of
+     good education and high rank among them, must have a supreme
+     contempt for the frivolous, dissatisfied, empty, gad-about
+     manners of many of our modern belles. And we may say among
+     ourselves, that there are few upon whom high accomplishments
+     and information sit more gracefully.</p>
+
+<p>John Kemble is here to take leave, acting over all his great
+     characters, and with all the spirit of his best years. He
+     played Coriolanus last night (the first time I have ventured
+     out) fully as well as I ever saw him; and you know what a
+     complete model he is of the Roman. He has made a great
+     reformation in his habits; given up wine, which he used to
+     swallow by pailfuls,&mdash;and renewed his youth like the eagles.
+     He seems to me always to play best those characters in which
+     there is a predominating tinge of some overmastering
+     passion, or acquired habit of acting and speaking, coloring
+     the whole man. The patrician pride of Coriolanus, the
+     stoicism of Brutus and Cato, the rapid and hurried vehemence
+     of Hotspur, mark the class of characters I mean. But he
+     fails where a ready and pliable yielding to the events and
+     passions of life makes what may be termed a more natural
+     personage. Accordingly I think his Macbeth, Lear, and
+     especially his Richard, inferior in spirit and truth. In
+     Hamlet, the natural fixed melancholy of the prince places
+     him within Kemble's range;&mdash;yet many delicate and sudden
+     turns of passion slip through his fingers. He is <span class="pagenum"><a id="page155" name="page155"></a>(p. 155)</span> a
+     lordly vessel, goodly and magnificent when going large
+     before the wind, but wanting the facility to go "<span class="italic">ready
+     about</span>," so that he is sometimes among the breakers before
+     he can wear ship. Yet we lose in him a most excellent
+     critic, an accomplished scholar, and one who graced our
+     forlorn drama with what little it has left of good sense and
+     gentlemanlike feeling. And so exit he. He made me write some
+     lines to speak when he withdraws, and he has been here
+     criticising and correcting till he got them quite to his
+     mind, which has rather tired me.</p>
+
+<p>Most truly yours while<br>
+<span class="left50 smcap">Walter Scott</span>.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>On the 29th of March, 1817, John Philip Kemble, after going through
+the round of his chief parts, to the delight of the Edinburgh
+audience, took his final leave of them as Macbeth, and in the costume
+of that character delivered a farewell address, penned for him by
+Scott.<a id="footnotetag61" name="footnotetag61"></a><a href="#footnote61" title="Go to footnote 61"><span class="small">[61]</span></a> No one who witnessed that scene, and heard the lines as
+then recited, can ever expect to be again interested to the same
+extent by anything occurring within the walls <span class="pagenum"><a id="page156" name="page156"></a>(p. 156)</span> of a theatre;
+nor was I ever present at any public dinner in all its circumstances
+more impressive than was that which occurred a few days afterwards,
+when Kemble's Scotch friends and admirers assembled around
+him&mdash;Francis Jeffrey being chairman, Walter Scott and John Wilson the
+croupiers.</p>
+
+<p>Shortly before this time, Mr. William Laidlaw had met with
+misfortunes, which rendered it necessary for him to give up the lease
+of a farm, on which he had been for some years settled, in
+Mid-Lothian. He was now anxiously looking about him for some new
+establishment, and it occurred to Scott that it might be mutually
+advantageous, as well as agreeable, if his excellent friend would
+consent to come and occupy a house on his property, and endeavor,
+under his guidance, to make such literary exertions as might raise his
+income to an amount adequate for his comfort. The prospect of
+obtaining such a neighbor was, no doubt, the more welcome to
+"Abbotsford and Kaeside," from its opening at this period of
+fluctuating health; and Laidlaw, who had for twenty years loved and
+revered him, considered the proposal with far greater delight than the
+most lucrative appointment on any noble domain in the island could
+have afforded him. Though possessed of a lively and searching sagacity
+as to things in general, he had always been as to his own worldly
+interests simple as a child. His tastes and habits were all modest;
+and when he looked forward to spending the remainder of what had not
+hitherto been a successful life, under the shadow of the genius that
+he had worshipped almost from boyhood, his gentle heart was all
+happiness. He surveyed with glistening eyes the humble cottage in
+which his friend proposed to lodge him, his wife, and his little ones,
+and said to himself that he should write no more sad songs on <span class="italic">Forest
+Flittings</span>.<a id="footnotetag62" name="footnotetag62"></a><a href="#footnote62" title="Go to footnote 62"><span class="small">[62]</span></a></p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page157" name="page157"></a>(p. 157)</span> Scott's notes to him at this time afford a truly charming
+picture of thoughtful and respectful delicacy on both sides. Mr.
+Laidlaw, for example, appears to have hinted that he feared his
+friend, in making the proposal as to the house at Kaeside, might have
+perhaps in some degree overlooked the feelings of "Laird Moss," who,
+having sold his land several months before, had as yet continued to
+occupy his old homestead. Scott answers:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="quote">
+<p class="tit-center">TO MR. W. LAIDLAW.</p>
+<p class="left50"><span class="smcap">Edinburgh</span>, April 5, 1817.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">My dear Sir</span>,&mdash;Nothing can give me more pleasure than the
+     prospect of your making yourself comfortable at Kaeside till
+     some good thing casts up. I have not put Mr. Moss to any
+     inconvenience, for I only requested an answer, giving him
+     leave to sit if he had a mind&mdash;and of free will he leaves my
+     premises void and redd at Whitsunday. I suspect the house is
+     not in good order, but we shall get it brushed up a little.
+     Without affectation I consider myself the obliged party in
+     this matter&mdash;or at any rate it is a mutual benefit, and you
+     shall have grass for a cow, and so forth&mdash;whatever you want.
+     I am sure when you are so near I shall find some literary
+     labor for you that will make ends meet. Yours, in haste,</p>
+
+<p class="left50 smcap">W. Scott.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>He had before this time made considerable progress in another
+historical sketch (that of the year 1815) for the Edinburgh Annual
+Register; and the first literary labor which he provided for Laidlaw
+appears to have been arranging for the same volume a set of newspaper
+articles, usually printed under the head of <span class="italic">Chronicle</span>, to which were
+appended some little extracts of new books of travels, and the like
+miscellanies. The Edinburgh <span class="pagenum"><a id="page158" name="page158"></a>(p. 158)</span> Monthly Magazine, subsequently
+known by the name of its projector, Blackwood, commenced in April of
+this year; and one of its editors, Mr. Thomas Pringle, being a
+Teviotdale man and an old acquaintance of Laidlaw's, offered to the
+latter the care of its <span class="italic">Chronicle department</span> also,&mdash;not perhaps
+without calculating that, in case Laidlaw's connection with the new
+journal should become at all a strict one, Scott would be induced to
+give it occasionally the benefit of his own literary assistance. He
+accordingly did not write&mdash;being unwell at the time&mdash;but <span class="italic">dictated</span> to
+Pringle a collection of anecdotes concerning Scottish gypsies, which
+attracted a good deal of notice;<a id="footnotetag63" name="footnotetag63"></a><a href="#footnote63" title="Go to footnote 63"><span class="small">[63]</span></a> and, I believe, he also assisted
+Laidlaw in drawing up one or more articles on the subject of Scottish
+superstitions. But the bookseller and Pringle soon quarrelled, and the
+Magazine assuming, on the retirement of the latter, a high Tory
+character, Laidlaw's Whig feelings induced him to renounce its
+alliance; while Scott, having no kindness for Blackwood personally,
+and disapproving (though he chuckled over it) the reckless
+extravagance of juvenile satire which, by and by, distinguished his
+journal, appears to have easily acquiesced in the propriety of
+Laidlaw's determination. I insert meantime a few notes, which will
+show with what care and kindness he watched over Laidlaw's operations
+for the Annual Register.</p>
+
+<div class="quote">
+<p class="tit-center">TO MR. LAIDLAW, AT KAESIDE.</p>
+<p class="left50"><span class="smcap">Edinburgh</span>, June 16, 1817.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Dear Sir</span>,&mdash;I enclose you "rare guerdon," better than
+     remuneration,&mdash;namely, a cheque for £25, for the Chronicle
+     part of the Register. The incidents selected should have
+     some reference to amusement as well as information, and may
+     be occasionally abridged in the narration; but, after all,
+     paste and scissors form your principal <span class="pagenum"><a id="page159" name="page159"></a>(p. 159)</span> materials.
+     You must look out for two or three good original articles;
+     and, if you would read and take pains to abridge one or two
+     curious books of travels, I would send out the volumes.
+     Could I once get the head of the concern fairly round before
+     the wind again, I am sure I could make it £100 a year to
+     you. In the present instance it will be at least £50.</p>
+
+<p>Yours truly,<br>
+<span class="left50">W. S.</span></p>
+</div>
+
+<div class="quote">
+<p class="tit-center">TO THE SAME.</p>
+<p class="left50"><span class="smcap">Edinburgh</span>, July 3, 1817.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">My dear Sir</span>,&mdash;I send you Adam's and Riley's Travels. You
+     will observe I don't want a review of the books, or a detail
+     of these persons' adventures, but merely a short article
+     expressing the light, direct or doubtful, which they have
+     thrown on the interior of Africa. "Recent Discoveries in
+     Africa" will be a proper title. I hope to find you
+     materially amended, or rather quite stout, when I come out
+     on Saturday. I am quite well this morning. Yours, in haste,</p>
+
+<p class="left50">W. S.</p>
+
+<p>P. S.&mdash;I add Mariner's Tonga Islands, and Campbell's Voyage.
+     Pray take great care of them, as I am a coxcomb about my
+     books, and hate specks or spots. Take care of yourself, and
+     want for nothing that Abbotsford can furnish.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>These notes have carried us down to the middle of the year. But I must
+now turn to some others, which show that before Whitsuntide, when
+Laidlaw settled at Kaeside, negotiations were on foot respecting
+another novel.</p>
+
+<div class="quote">
+<p class="tit-center">TO MR. JOHN BALLANTYNE, HANOVER STREET, EDINBURGH.</p>
+<p class="left50"><span class="smcap">Abbotsford</span>, Monday. [April, 1817.]</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Dear John</span>,&mdash;I have a good subject for a work of fiction <span class="italic">in
+     petto</span>. What do you think Constable would give for a smell
+     of it? You ran away without taking <span class="pagenum"><a id="page160" name="page160"></a>(p. 160)</span> leave the other
+     morning, or I wished to have spoken to you about it. I don't
+     mean a continuation of Jedediah, because there might be some
+     delicacy in putting that by the original publishers. You may
+     write if anything occurs to you on this subject. It will not
+     interrupt my History. By the way, I have a great lot of the
+     Register ready for delivery, and no man asks for it. I shall
+     want to pay up some cash at Whitsunday, which will make me
+     draw on my brains. Yours truly,</p>
+
+<p class="left50 smcap">W. Scott.</p>
+</div>
+
+<div class="quote">
+<p class="tit-center">TO THE SAME.</p>
+<p class="left50"><span class="smcap">Abbotsford</span>, Saturday, May 3, 1817.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Dear John</span>,&mdash;I shall be much obliged to you to come here with
+     Constable on Monday, as he proposes a visit, and it will
+     save time. By the way, you must attend that the usual
+     quantity of stock is included in the arrangement&mdash;that is
+     £600 for 6000 copies. My sum is £1700, payable in May&mdash;a
+     round advance, by'r Lady, but I think I am entitled to it,
+     considering what I have twined off hitherto on such
+     occasions.</p>
+
+<p>I make a point on your coming with Constable, health
+     allowing. Yours truly,</p>
+
+<p class="left50">W. S.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>The result of this meeting is indicated in a note, scribbled by John
+Ballantyne at the bottom of the foregoing letter, before it was seen
+by his brother the printer:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="quote">
+<p class="left50">Half-past 3 o'clock, Tuesday.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Dear James</span>,&mdash;I am at this moment returned from Abbotsford,
+     with entire and full success. Wish me joy. I shall gain
+     above £600&mdash;Constable taking my share of stock also. This
+     title is <span class="italic">Rob Roy&mdash;by the Author of Waverley!!!</span> Keep this
+     letter for me.</p>
+
+<p class="left50">J. B.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>On the same page there is written, in fresher ink, which marks, no
+doubt, the time when John pasted it into his collection of private
+papers now before me,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p class="quote">N. B.&mdash;I did gain above £1200.&mdash;J. B.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page161" name="page161"></a>(p. 161)</span> The title of this novel was suggested by Constable, and he
+told me years afterwards the difficulty he had to get it adopted by
+the author. "What!" said he, "Mr. Accoucheur, must you be setting up
+for Mr. Sponsor too?&mdash;but let's hear it." Constable said the name of
+the real hero would be the best possible name for the book. "Nay,"
+answered Scott, "never let me have to write up to a name. You well
+know I have generally adopted a title that told nothing."&mdash;The
+bookseller, however, persevered; and after the trio had dined, these
+scruples gave way.</p>
+
+<p>On rising from table, according to Constable, they sallied out to the
+green before the door of the cottage, and all in the highest spirits
+enjoyed the fine May evening. John Ballantyne, hopping up and down in
+his glee, exclaimed, "Is Rob's gun here, Mr. Scott; would you object
+to my trying the auld barrel with a <span class="italic">few de joy</span>?"&mdash;"Nay, Mr. Puff,"
+said Scott, "it would burst, and blow you to the devil before your
+time."&mdash;"Johnny, my man," said Constable, "what the mischief puts
+drawing at sight into <span class="italic">your</span> head?" Scott laughed heartily at this
+innuendo; and then observing that the little man felt somewhat sore,
+called attention to the notes of a bird in the adjoining shrubbery.
+"And by the bye," said he, as they continued listening, "'tis a long
+time, Johnny, since we have had the Cobbler of Kelso." Mr. Puff
+forthwith jumped up on a mass of stone, and seating himself in the
+proper attitude of one working with his awl, began a favorite
+interlude, mimicking a certain son of Crispin, at whose stall Scott
+and he had often lingered when they were schoolboys, and a blackbird,
+the only companion of his cell, that used to sing to him, while he
+talked and whistled to it all day long. With this performance Scott
+was always delighted: nothing could be richer than the contrast of the
+bird's wild sweet notes, some of which he imitated with wonderful
+skill, and the accompaniment of the Cobbler's hoarse cracked <span class="pagenum"><a id="page162" name="page162"></a>(p. 162)</span>
+voice, uttering all manner of endearing epithets, which Johnny
+multiplied and varied in a style worthy of the Old Women in Rabelais
+at the birth of Pantagruel. I often wondered that Mathews, who
+borrowed so many good things from John Ballantyne, allowed this
+Cobbler, which was certainly the masterpiece, to escape him.</p>
+
+<p>Scott himself had probably exceeded that evening the three glasses of
+wine sanctioned by his Sangrados. "I never," said Constable, "had
+found him so disposed to be communicative about what he meant to do.
+Though he had had a return of his illness but the day before, he
+continued for an hour or more to walk backwards and forwards on the
+green, talking and laughing&mdash;he told us he was sure he should make a
+hit in a Glasgow weaver, whom he would <span class="italic">ravel up with Rob</span>; and fairly
+outshone the Cobbler, in an extempore dialogue between the bailie and
+the cateran&mdash;something not unlike what the book gives us as passing in
+the Glasgow tolbooth."</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Puff might well exult in the "full and entire success" of this
+trip to Abbotsford. His friend had made it a <span class="italic">sine qua non</span> with
+Constable that he should have a third share in the bookseller's moiety
+of the bargain&mdash;and though Johnny had no more trouble about the
+publishing or selling of Rob Roy than his own Cobbler of Kelso, this
+stipulation had secured him a <span class="italic">bonus</span> of £1200, before two years
+passed. Moreover, one must admire his adroitness in persuading
+Constable, during their journey back to Edinburgh, to relieve him of
+that fraction of his own old stock, with which his unhazardous share
+in the new transaction was burdened. Scott's kindness continued, as
+long as John Ballantyne lived, to provide for him a constant
+succession of similar advantages at the same easy rate; and Constable,
+from deference to Scott's wishes, and from his own liking for the
+humorous auctioneer, appears to have submitted with hardly a momentary
+grudge to this heavy tax on his most important ventures.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page163" name="page163"></a>(p. 163)</span> The same week Scott received Southey's celebrated letter to
+Mr. William Smith, M. P. for Norwich. The poet of Keswick had also
+forwarded to him somewhat earlier his Pilgrimage to Waterloo, which
+piece contains a touching allusion to the affliction the author had
+recently sustained in the death of a fine boy. Scott's letter on this
+occasion was as follows:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="quote">
+<p class="tit-center">TO ROBERT SOUTHEY, ESQ., KESWICK.</p>
+<p class="left50"><span class="smcap">Selkirk</span>, May 9, 1817.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">My dear Southey</span>,&mdash;I have been a strangely negligent
+     correspondent for some months past, more especially as I
+     have had you rarely out of my thoughts, for I think you will
+     hardly doubt of my sincere sympathy in events which have
+     happened since I have written. I shed sincere tears over the
+     Pilgrimage to Waterloo. But in the crucible of human life,
+     the purest gold is tried by the strongest heat, and I can
+     only hope for the continuance of your present family
+     blessings to one so well formed to enjoy the pure happiness
+     they afford. My health has, of late, been very indifferent.
+     I was very nearly succumbing under a violent inflammatory
+     attack, and still feel the effects of the necessary
+     treatment. I believe they took one third of the blood of my
+     system, and blistered in proportion: so that both my flesh
+     and my blood have been in a woefully reduced state. I got
+     out here some weeks since, where, by dint of the insensible
+     exercise which one takes in the country, I feel myself
+     gathering strength daily, but am still obliged to observe a
+     severe regimen. It was not to croak about myself, however,
+     that I took up the pen, but to wish you joy of your
+     triumphant answer to that coarse-minded William Smith. He
+     deserved all he has got, and, to say the truth, you do not
+     spare him, and have no cause. His attack seems to have
+     proceeded from the vulgar insolence of a low mind desirous
+     of attacking genius at disadvantage. It is the ancient and
+     eternal strife of which the witch speaks in <span class="pagenum"><a id="page164" name="page164"></a>(p. 164)</span>
+     Thalaba. Such a man as he, feels he has no alliance with
+     such as you, and his evil instincts lead him to treat as
+     hostile whatever he cannot comprehend. I met Smith once
+     during his stay in Edinburgh,<a id="footnotetag64" name="footnotetag64"></a><a href="#footnote64" title="Go to footnote 64"><span class="small">[64]</span></a> and had, what I seldom
+     have with any one in society, a high quarrel with him. His
+     mode of travelling had been from one gentleman's seat to
+     another, abusing the well-known hospitality of the Highland
+     lairds, by taking possession of their houses, even during
+     their absence, domineering in them when they were present,
+     and not only eating the dinner of to-day, but requiring that
+     the dinner of to-morrow should also be made ready and
+     carried forward with him, to save the expense of inns. All
+     this was no business of mine, but when, in the middle of a
+     company consisting of those to whom he had owed this
+     hospitality, he abused the country, of which he knew
+     little&mdash;the language, of which he knew nothing&mdash;and the
+     people, who have their faults, but are a much more harmless,
+     moral, and at the same time high-spirited population, than,
+     I venture to say, he ever lived amongst&mdash;I thought it was
+     really too bad, and so e'en took up the debate, and gave it
+     him over the knuckles as smartly as I could. Your pamphlet,
+     therefore, fed fat my ancient grudge against him as well as
+     the modern one, for you cannot doubt that my blood boiled at
+     reading the report of his speech. Enough of this gentleman,
+     who, I think, will not walk out of the round in a hurry
+     again, to slander the conduct of individuals.</p>
+
+<p>I am at present writing at our head-court of freeholders&mdash;a
+     set of quiet, unpretending, but sound-judging country
+     gentlemen, and whose opinions may be very well taken as a
+     fair specimen of those men of sense and honor, who are not
+     likely to be dazzled by literary talent, which <span class="pagenum"><a id="page165" name="page165"></a>(p. 165)</span>
+     lies out of their beat, and who, therefore, cannot be of
+     partial counsel in the cause; and I never heard an opinion
+     more generally, and even warmly expressed, than that your
+     triumphant vindication brands Smith as a slanderer in all
+     time coming. I think you may not be displeased to know this,
+     because what men of keen feelings and literary pursuits must
+     have felt, cannot be unknown to you, and you may not have
+     the same access to know the impression made upon the general
+     class of society.</p>
+
+<p>I have to thank you for the continuation of the History of
+     Brazil&mdash;one of your gigantic labors; the fruit of a mind so
+     active, yet so patient of labor. I am not yet far advanced
+     in the second volume, reserving it usually for my hour's
+     amusement in the evening, as children keep their dainties
+     for <span class="italic" lang="fr">bonne bouche</span>: but as far as I have come, it possesses
+     all the interest of the commencement, though a more
+     faithless and worthless set than both Dutch and Portuguese I
+     have never read of; and it requires your knowledge of the
+     springs of human action, and your lively description of
+     "hair-breadth 'scapes," to make one care whether the hog
+     bites the dog, or the dog bites the hog. Both nations were
+     in rapid declension from their short-lived age of heroism,
+     and in the act of experiencing all those retrograde
+     movements which are the natural consequence of selfishness
+     on the one hand, and bigotry on the other.</p>
+
+<p>I am glad to see you are turning your mind to the state of
+     the poor. Should you enter into details on the subject of
+     the best mode of assisting them, I would be happy to tell
+     you the few observations I have made&mdash;not on a very small
+     scale neither, considering my fortune, for I have kept about
+     thirty of the laborers in my neighborhood in constant
+     employment this winter. This I do not call charity, because
+     they executed some extensive plantations and other works,
+     which I could never have got done so cheaply, and which I
+     always intended <span class="pagenum"><a id="page166" name="page166"></a>(p. 166)</span> one day to do. But neither was it
+     altogether selfish on my part, because I was putting myself
+     to inconvenience in incurring the expense of several years
+     at once, and certainly would not have done so, but to serve
+     mine honest neighbors, who were likely to want work but for
+     such exertion. From my observation, I am inclined greatly to
+     doubt the salutary effect of the scheme generally adopted in
+     Edinburgh and elsewhere for relieving the poor. At
+     Edinburgh, they are employed on public works at so much a
+     day&mdash;tenpence, I believe, or one shilling, with an advance
+     to those who have families. This rate is fixed below that of
+     ordinary wages, in order that no person may be employed but
+     those who really cannot find work elsewhere. But it is
+     attended with this bad effect, that the people regard it
+     partly as charity, which is humiliating&mdash;and partly as an
+     imposition, in taking their labor below its usual salable
+     value; to which many add a third view of the
+     subject&mdash;namely, that this sort of half-pay is not given
+     them for the purpose of working, but to prevent their rising
+     in rebellion. None of these misconceptions are favorable to
+     hard labor, and the consequence is, that I never have seen
+     such a set of idle <span class="italic" lang="fr">fainéants</span> as those employed on this
+     system in the public works, and I am sure that,
+     notwithstanding the very laudable intention of those who
+     subscribed to form the fund, and the yet more praiseworthy,
+     because more difficult, exertions of those who superintend
+     it, the issue of the scheme will occasion full as much
+     mischief as good to the people engaged in it. Private
+     gentlemen, acting on something like a similar system, may
+     make it answer better, because they have not the lazy dross
+     of a metropolis to contend with&mdash;because they have fewer
+     hands to manage&mdash;and, above all, because an individual
+     always manages his own concerns better than those of the
+     country can be managed. Yet all who have employed those who
+     were distressed for want of work at under wages, have had,
+     less or more, similar complaints to make. I <span class="pagenum"><a id="page167" name="page167"></a>(p. 167)</span> think
+     I have avoided this in my own case, by inviting the country
+     people to do piece-work by the contract. Two things only are
+     necessary&mdash;one is, that the nature of the work should be
+     such as will admit of its being ascertained, when finished,
+     to have been substantially executed. All sort of spade-work
+     and hoe-work, with many other kinds of country labor, fall
+     under this description, and the employer can hardly be
+     cheated in the execution if he keeps a reasonable lookout.
+     The other point is, to take care that the undertakers, in
+     their anxiety for employment, do not take the job too cheap.
+     A little acquaintance with country labor will enable one to
+     regulate this; but it is an essential point, for if you do
+     not keep them to their bargain, it is making a jest of the
+     thing, and forfeiting the very advantage you have in
+     view&mdash;that, namely, of inducing the laborer to bring his
+     heart and spirit to his work. But this he will do where he
+     has a fair bargain, which is to prove a good or bad one
+     according to his own exertions. In this case you make the
+     poor man his own friend, for the profits of his good conduct
+     are all his own. It is astonishing how partial the people
+     are to this species of contract, and how diligently they
+     labor, acquiring or maintaining all the while those habits
+     which render them honorable and useful members of society. I
+     mention this to you, because the rich, much to their honor,
+     do not, in general, require to be so much stimulated to
+     benevolence, as to be directed in the most useful way to
+     exert it.</p>
+
+<p>I have still a word to say about the poor of our own parish
+     of Parnassus. I have been applied to by a very worthy
+     friend, Mr. Scott of Sinton, in behalf of an unfortunate Mr.
+     Gilmour, who, it seems, has expended a little fortune in
+     printing, upon his own account, poems which, from the sample
+     I saw, seem exactly to answer the description of Dean
+     Swift's country house:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p class="poem10">
+  "Too bad for a blessing, too good for a curse,<br>
+  I wish from my soul they were better or worse."</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page168" name="page168"></a>(p. 168)</span> But you are the dean of our corporation, and, I am
+     informed, take some interest in this poor gentleman. If you
+     can point out any way in which I can serve him, I am sure my
+     inclination is not wanting, but it looks like a very
+     hopeless case. I beg my kindest respects to Mrs. Southey,
+     and am always sincerely and affectionately yours,</p>
+
+<p class="left50 smcap">Walter Scott.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>About this time Hogg took possession of Altrive Lake, and some of his
+friends in Edinburgh set on foot a subscription edition of his Queen's
+Wake (at a guinea each copy), in the hope of thus raising a sum
+adequate to the stocking of the little farm. The following letter
+alludes to this affair; and also to the death of Frances, Lady
+Douglas, sister to Duke Henry of Buccleuch, whose early kindness to
+Scott has been more than once mentioned.</p>
+
+<div class="quote">
+<p class="tit-center">TO THE RIGHT HON. LORD MONTAGU.</p>
+<p class="left50"><span class="smcap">Abbotsford</span>, June 8, 1817.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">My dear Lord</span>,&mdash;I am honored with your letter, and will not
+     fail to take care that the Shepherd profits by your kind
+     intentions, and those of Lady Montagu. This is a scheme
+     which I did not devise, for I fear it will end in
+     disappointment, but for which I have done, and will do, all
+     I possibly can. There is an old saying of the seamen's,
+     "Every man is not born to be a boatswain," and I think I
+     have heard of men born under a sixpenny planet, and doomed
+     never to be worth a groat. I fear something of this vile
+     sixpenny influence had gleamed in at the cottage window when
+     poor Hogg first came squeaking into the world. All that he
+     made by his original book he ventured on a flock of sheep to
+     drive into the Highlands to a farm he had taken there, but
+     of which he could not get possession, so that all the stock
+     was ruined and sold to disadvantage. Then he tried another
+     farm, which proved too dear, so that he fairly broke upon
+     it. Then put forth divers publications, <span class="pagenum"><a id="page169" name="page169"></a>(p. 169)</span> which had
+     little sale&mdash;and brought him accordingly few pence, though
+     some praise. Then came this Queen's Wake, by which he might
+     and ought to have made from £100 to £200&mdash;for there were, I
+     think, three editions&mdash;when lo! his bookseller turned
+     bankrupt, and paid him never a penny. The Duke has now, with
+     his wonted generosity, given him a cosie bield, and the
+     object of the present attack upon the public is to get if
+     possible as much cash together as will stock it. But no one
+     has loose guineas now to give poor poets, and I greatly
+     doubt the scheme succeeding, unless it is more strongly
+     patronized than can almost be expected. In bookselling
+     matters, an author must either be the conjurer, who commands
+     the devil, or the witch who serves him&mdash;and few are they
+     whose situation is sufficiently independent to enable them
+     to assume the higher character&mdash;and this is injurious to the
+     indigent author in every respect, for not only is he obliged
+     to turn his pen to every various kind of composition, and so
+     to injure himself with the public by writing hastily, and on
+     subjects unfitted for his genius; but, moreover, those
+     honest gentlemen, the booksellers, from a natural
+     association, consider the books as of least value, which
+     they find they can get at least expense of copy-money, and
+     therefore are proportionally careless in pushing the sale of
+     the work. Whereas a good round sum out of their purse, like
+     a moderate rise of rent on a farm, raises the work thus
+     acquired in their own eyes, and serves as a spur to make
+     them clear away every channel, by which they can discharge
+     their quires upon the public. So much for bookselling, the
+     most ticklish and unsafe and hazardous of all professions,
+     scarcely with the exception of horse-jockeyship.</p>
+
+<p>You cannot doubt the sincere interest I take in Lady
+     Montagu's health. I was very glad to learn from the Duke,
+     that the late melancholy event had produced no permanent
+     effect on her constitution, as I know how <span class="pagenum"><a id="page170" name="page170"></a>(p. 170)</span> much her
+     heart must have suffered.<a id="footnotetag65" name="footnotetag65"></a><a href="#footnote65" title="Go to footnote 65"><span class="small">[65]</span></a> I saw our regretted friend for
+     the last time at the Theatre, and made many schemes to be at
+     Bothwell this next July. But thus the world glides from us,
+     and those we most love and honor are withdrawn from the
+     stage before us. I know not why it was that among the few
+     for whom I had so much respectful regard, I never had
+     associated the idea of early deprivation with Lady Douglas.
+     Her excellent sense, deep information, and the wit which she
+     wielded with so much good-humor, were allied apparently to a
+     healthy constitution, which might have permitted us to
+     enjoy, and be instructed by her society for many years. <span class="italic">Dis
+     aliter visum</span>, and the recollection dwelling on all the
+     delight which she afforded to society, and the good which
+     she did in private life, is what now remains to us of her
+     wit, wisdom, and benevolence. The Duke keeps his usual
+     health, with always just so much of the gout, however, as
+     would make me wish that he had more&mdash;a kind wish, for which
+     I do not observe that he is sufficiently grateful. I hope to
+     spend a few days at Drumlanrig Castle, when that ancient
+     mansion shall have so far limited its courtesy as to stand
+     covered in the presence of the wind and rain, which I
+     believe is not yet the case. I am no friend to ceremony, and
+     like a house as well when it does not carry its roof <span class="italic">en
+     chapeau bras</span>. I heartily wish your Lordship joy of the new
+     mansion at Ditton, and hope my good stars will permit me to
+     pay my respects there one day. The discovery of the niches
+     certainly bodes good luck to the house of Montagu, and as
+     there are three of them, I presume it is to come threefold.
+     From the care with which they were concealed, I presume they
+     had been closed in the days of Cromwell, or a little before,
+     and that the artist employed (like the <span class="pagenum"><a id="page171" name="page171"></a>(p. 171)</span> General,
+     who told his soldiers to fight bravely against the Pope,
+     since they were Venetians before they were Christians) had
+     more professional than religious zeal, and did not even,
+     according to the practice of the time, think it necessary to
+     sweep away Popery with the besom of destruction.<a id="footnotetag66" name="footnotetag66"></a><a href="#footnote66" title="Go to footnote 66"><span class="small">[66]</span></a> I am
+     here on a stolen visit of two days, and find my mansion
+     gradually enlarging. Thanks to Mr. Atkinson (who found out a
+     practical use for our romantic theory), it promises to make
+     a comfortable station for offering your Lordship and Lady
+     Montagu a pilgrim's meal, when you next visit Melrose Abbey,
+     and that without any risk of your valet (who I recollect is
+     a substantial person) sticking between the wall of the
+     parlor and the backs of the chairs placed round the table.
+     This literally befell Sir Harry Macdougal's fat butler, who
+     looked like a ship of the line in the loch at Bowhill,
+     altogether unlike his master, who could glide wherever a
+     weasel might make his way. Mr. Atkinson has indeed been more
+     attentive than I can express, when I consider how valuable
+     his time must be.<a id="footnotetag67" name="footnotetag67"></a><a href="#footnote67" title="Go to footnote 67"><span class="small">[67]</span></a> We are attempting no castellated
+     conundrums to rival those Lord Napier used to have executed
+     in sugar, when he was Commissioner, and no cottage neither,
+     but an irregular somewhat&mdash;like an old English hall, in
+     which your squire of £500 a year used to drink his ale in
+     days of yore.</p>
+
+<p>I am making considerable plantations (that is, considering),
+     being greatly encouraged by the progress of those I formerly
+     laid out. Read the veracious Gulliver's account of the
+     Windsor Forest of Lilliput, and you will <span class="pagenum"><a id="page172" name="page172"></a>(p. 172)</span> have some
+     idea of the solemn gloom of my Druid shades. Your Lordship's
+     truly faithful</p>
+
+<p class="left50 smcap">Walter Scott.</p>
+
+<p>This is the 8th of June, and not an ash-tree in leaf yet. The country
+cruelly backward, and whole fields destroyed by the grub. I dread this
+next season.<a href="#toc"><span class="small">[Back to Contents]</span></a></p>
+</div>
+
+
+
+
+<h3><span class="pagenum"><a id="page173" name="page173"></a>(p. 173)</span> CHAPTER XXXIX.</h3>
+
+<p class="summary">excursion to the lennox, glasgow, and drumlanrig. &mdash;
+     purchase of toftfield. &mdash; establishment of the ferguson
+     family at huntly burn. &mdash; lines written in illness. &mdash;
+     visits of washington irving, lady byron, and sir david
+     wilkie. &mdash; progress of the building at abbotsford. &mdash;
+     letters to morritt, terry, etc. &mdash; conclusion of rob roy.</p>
+
+<p class="center">1817.</p>
+
+
+<p>During the summer term of 1817, Scott seems to have labored chiefly on
+his History of 1815 for the Register, which was published in August;
+but he also found time to draw up the Introduction for a richly
+embellished quarto, entitled Border Antiquities, which came out a
+month later. This valuable essay, containing large additions to the
+information previously embodied in the Minstrelsy, has been included
+in the late collection of his Miscellaneous Prose, and has thus
+obtained a circulation not to be expected for it in the original
+costly form.</p>
+
+<p>Upon the rising of the Court in July, he made an excursion to the
+Lennox, chiefly that he might visit a cave at the head of Loch Lomond,
+said to have been a favorite retreat of his hero, Rob Roy. He was
+accompanied to the seat of his friend, Mr. Macdonald Buchanan, by
+Captain Adam Ferguson&mdash;the <span class="italic">long Linton</span> of the days of his
+apprenticeship; and thence to Glasgow, where, under the auspices of a
+kind and intelligent acquaintance, Mr. John Smith, bookseller, he
+refreshed his recollection of the noble cathedral, and other
+localities of the birthplace of Bailie Jarvie. Mr. Smith took care
+also <span class="pagenum"><a id="page174" name="page174"></a>(p. 174)</span> to show the tourists the most remarkable novelties in
+the great manufacturing establishments of his flourishing city; and he
+remembers particularly the delight which Scott expressed on seeing the
+process of <span class="italic">singeing</span> muslin&mdash;that is, of divesting the finished web
+of all superficial knots and irregularities, by passing it, with the
+rapidity of lightning, over a bar of red-hot iron. "The man that
+imagined this," said Scott, "was <span class="italic">the Shakespeare of the Wabsters</span>,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p class="poem10">'Things out of hope are compass'd oft with vent'ring.'"<a id="footnotetag68" name="footnotetag68"></a><a href="#footnote68" title="Go to footnote 68"><span class="small">[68]</span></a></p>
+
+<p>The following note indicates the next stages of his progress:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="quote">
+<p class="tit-center">TO HIS GRACE THE DUKE OF BUCCLEUCH, DRUMLANRIG CASTLE.</p>
+<p class="left50"><span class="smcap">Sanquhar</span>, 2 o'clock, July 30,<a id="footnotetag69" name="footnotetag69"></a><a href="#footnote69" title="Go to footnote 69"><span class="small">[69]</span></a> 1817.</p>
+
+<p class="poem10">
+  From Ross, where the clouds on Benlomond are sleeping&mdash;<br>
+  From Greenock, where Clyde to the Ocean is sweeping&mdash;<br>
+  From Largs, where the Scotch gave the Northmen a drilling&mdash;<br>
+  From Ardrossan, whose harbor cost many a shilling&mdash;<br>
+  From Old Cumnock, where beds are as hard as a plank, sir&mdash;<br>
+  From a chop and green pease, and a chicken in Sanquhar,<br>
+  This eve, please the Fates, at Drumlanrig we anchor.</p>
+<p class="left50">W. S.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>The Poet and Captain Ferguson remained a week at Drumlanrig, and
+thence repaired together to Abbotsford. By this time, the foundations
+of that part of the existing house, which extends from the hall
+westwards to the original courtyard, had been laid; and Scott now
+found a new source of constant occupation in watching the proceedings
+of his masons. He had, moreover, no lack of employment further
+a-field,&mdash;for he was now negotiating with another neighboring
+landowner for the purchase of an addition, of more consequence than
+any he had hitherto <span class="pagenum"><a id="page175" name="page175"></a>(p. 175)</span> made, to his estate. In the course of
+the autumn he concluded this matter, and became, for the price of
+£10,000, proprietor of the lands of <span class="italic">Toftfield</span>,<a id="footnotetag70" name="footnotetag70"></a><a href="#footnote70" title="Go to footnote 70"><span class="small">[70]</span></a> on which there
+had recently been erected a substantial mansion-house, fitted, in all
+points, for the accommodation of a genteel family. This circumstance
+offered a temptation which much quickened Scott's zeal for completing
+his arrangement. The venerable Professor Ferguson had died a year
+before; Captain Adam Ferguson was at home on half-pay; and Scott now
+saw the means of securing for himself, henceforth, the immediate
+neighborhood of the companion of his youth, and his amiable sisters.
+Ferguson, who had written, from the lines of Torres Vedras, his hopes
+of finding, when the war should be over, some sheltering cottage upon
+the Tweed, within a walk of Abbotsford, was delighted to see his
+dreams realized; and the family took up their residence next spring at
+the new house of Toftfield, on which Scott then bestowed, at the
+ladies' request, the name of Huntly Burn: this more harmonious
+designation being taken from the mountain brook which passes through
+its grounds and garden,&mdash;the same famous in tradition as the scene of
+Thomas the Rhymer's interviews with the Queen of Fairy. The upper part
+of the <span class="italic">Rhymer's Glen</span>, through which this brook finds its way from
+the Cauldshiels Loch to Toftfield, had been included in a previous
+purchase. He was now master of all these haunts of "True Thomas," and
+of the whole ground of the battle of Melrose, from <span class="italic">Skirmish-field</span> to
+<span class="italic">Turn-again</span>. His enjoyment of the new territories was, however,
+interrupted by various returns of his cramp, and the depression of
+spirit which always attended, in his case, the use of opium, <span class="pagenum"><a id="page176" name="page176"></a>(p. 176)</span>
+the only medicine that seemed to have power over the disease.<a id="footnotetag71" name="footnotetag71"></a><a href="#footnote71" title="Go to footnote 71"><span class="small">[71]</span></a></p>
+
+<p>It was while struggling with such languor, on one lovely evening of
+this autumn, that he composed the following beautiful verses. They
+mark the very spot of their birth,&mdash;namely, the then naked height
+overhanging the northern side of the Cauldshiels Loch, from which
+Melrose Abbey to the eastward, and the hills of Ettrick and Yarrow to
+the west, are now visible over a wide range of rich woodland,&mdash;all the
+work of the poet's hand:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="poem20">
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page177" name="page177"></a>(p. 177)</span> "The sun upon the Weirdlaw Hill,<br>
+<span class="add1em">In Ettrick's vale, is sinking sweet;</span><br>
+  The westland wind is hush and still&mdash;<br>
+<span class="add1em">The lake lies sleeping at my feet.</span><br>
+  Yet not the landscape to mine eye<br>
+<span class="add1em">Bears those bright hues that once it bore;</span><br>
+  Though evening, with her richest dye,<br>
+<span class="add1em">Flames o'er the hills of Ettrick's shore.</span></p>
+
+<p>"With listless look along the plain<br>
+<span class="add1em">I see Tweed's silver current glide,</span><br>
+  And coldly mark the holy fane<br>
+<span class="add1em">Of Melrose rise in ruin'd pride.</span><br>
+  The quiet lake, the balmy air,<br>
+<span class="add1em">The hill, the stream, the tower, the tree,&mdash;</span><br>
+  Are they still such as once they were,<br>
+<span class="add1em">Or is the dreary change in me?</span></p>
+
+<p>"Alas! the warp'd and broken board,<br>
+<span class="add1em">How can it bear the painter's dye!</span><br>
+  The harp of strain'd and tuneless chord,<br>
+<span class="add1em">How to the minstrel's skill reply!</span><br>
+  To aching eyes each landscape lowers,<br>
+<span class="add1em">To feverish pulse each gale blows chill;</span><br>
+  And Araby's or Eden's bowers<br>
+<span class="add1em">Were barren as this moorland hill."</span></p>
+</div>
+
+<p>He again alludes to his illness in a letter to Mr. Morritt:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="quote">
+<p class="tit-center">TO J. B. S. MORRITT, ESQ., M. P., ROKEBY.</p>
+<p class="left50"><span class="smcap">Abbotsford</span>, August 11, 1817.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">My dear Morritt</span>,&mdash;I am arrived from a little tour in the
+     west of Scotland, and had hoped, in compliance with your
+     kind wish, to have indulged myself with a skip over the
+     Border as far as Rokeby, about the end of this month. But my
+     fate denies me this pleasure; for, in consequence of one or
+     two blunders, during my absence, in executing my new
+     premises, I perceive the necessity of remaining at the helm
+     while they are going on. Our masons, though excellent
+     workmen, are too little accustomed to the gimcracks of their
+     art, to be trusted with the execution of a <span class="italic">bravura</span> plan,
+     without constant inspection. Besides, the said laborers lay
+     me under the necessity <span class="pagenum"><a id="page178" name="page178"></a>(p. 178)</span> of laboring a little
+     myself; and I find I can no longer with impunity undertake
+     to make one week's hard work supply the omissions of a
+     fortnight's idleness. Like you, I have abridged my
+     creature-comforts,&mdash;as Old Mortality would call
+     them,&mdash;renouncing beer and ale on all ordinary occasions;
+     also pastry, fruit, etc., and all that tends to acidity.
+     These are awkward warnings; but <span class="italic">sat est vixisse</span>. To have
+     lived respected and regarded by some of the best men in our
+     age is enough for an individual like me; the rest must be as
+     God wills, and when He wills.</p>
+
+<p>The poor-laws, into which you have ventured for the love of
+     the country, form a sad quagmire. They are like John
+     Bunyan's Slough of Despond, into which, as he observes,
+     millions of cart-loads of good resolutions have been thrown,
+     without perceptibly mending the way. From what you say, and
+     from what I have heard from others, there is a very natural
+     desire to trust to one or two empirical remedies, such as
+     general systems of education, and so forth. But a man with a
+     broken constitution might as well put faith in Spilsbury or
+     Godbold. It is not the knowledge, but the use which is made
+     of it, that is productive of real benefit. To say that the
+     Scottish peasant is less likely than the Englishman to
+     become an incumbrance on his parish, is saying, in other
+     words, that this country is less populous,&mdash;that there are
+     fewer villages and towns,&mdash;that the agricultural classes,
+     from the landed proprietor down to the cottager, are
+     individually more knit and cemented together;&mdash;above all,
+     that the Scotch peasant has harder habits of life, and can
+     endure from his infancy a worse fare and lodging than your
+     parish almshouses offer.&mdash;There is a terrible evil in
+     England to which we are strangers,&mdash;the number, to wit, of
+     tippling-houses, where the laborer, as a matter of course,
+     spends the overplus of his earnings. In Scotland there are
+     few; and the Justices are commendably inexorable in
+     rejecting all application for licenses where <span class="pagenum"><a id="page179" name="page179"></a>(p. 179)</span> there
+     appears no public necessity for granting them. A man,
+     therefore, cannot easily spend much money in liquor, since
+     he must walk three or four miles to the place of suction and
+     back again, which infers a sort of <span class="italic">malice prepense</span> of
+     which few are capable; and the habitual opportunity of
+     indulgence not being at hand, the habits of intemperance,
+     and of waste connected with it, are not acquired. If
+     financiers would admit a general limitation of the
+     ale-houses over England to one fourth of the number, I am
+     convinced you would find the money spent in that manner
+     would remain with the peasant, as a source of self-support
+     and independence.</p>
+
+<p>All this applies chiefly to the country;&mdash;in towns, and in
+     the manufacturing districts, the evil could hardly be
+     diminished by such regulations. There would, perhaps, be no
+     means so effectual as that (which will never be listened to)
+     of taxing the manufacturers according to the number of hands
+     which they employ on an average, and applying the produce in
+     maintaining the manufacturing poor. If it should be alleged
+     that this would injure the manufacturers, I would boldly
+     reply,&mdash;"And why not injure, or rather limit, speculations,
+     the excessive stretch of which has been productive of so
+     much damage to the principles of the country, and to the
+     population, whom it has, in so many respects, degraded and
+     demoralized?" For a great many years, manufactures, taken in
+     a general point of view, have not partaken of the character
+     of a regular profession, in which all who engaged with
+     honest industry and a sufficient capital might reasonably
+     expect returns proportional to their advances and labor&mdash;but
+     have, on the contrary, rather resembled a lottery, in which
+     the great majority of the adventurers are sure to be losers,
+     although some may draw considerable advantage. Men continued
+     for a great many years to exert themselves, and to pay
+     extravagant wages, not in hopes that there could be a
+     reasonable prospect of an orderly and regular demand for the
+     goods they wrought <span class="pagenum"><a id="page180" name="page180"></a>(p. 180)</span> up, but in order that they
+     might be the first to take advantage of some casual opening
+     which might consume their cargo, let others shift as they
+     could. Hence extravagant wages on some occasions; for these
+     adventurers who thus played at hit or miss, stood on no
+     scruples while the chance of success remained open. Hence,
+     also, the stoppage of work, and the discharge of the
+     workmen, when the speculators failed of their object. All
+     this while the country was the sufferer;&mdash;for whoever
+     gained, the result, being upon the whole a loss, fell on the
+     nation, together with the task of maintaining a poor,
+     rendered effeminate and vicious by over-wages and
+     over-living, and necessarily cast loose upon society. I
+     cannot but think that the necessity of making some fund
+     beforehand, for the provision of those whom they debauch,
+     and render only fit for the almshouse, in prosecution of
+     their own adventures, though it operated as a check on the
+     increase of manufactures, would be a measure just in itself,
+     and beneficial to the community. But it would never be
+     listened to;&mdash;the weaver's beam, and the sons of Zeruiah,
+     would be too many for the proposers.</p>
+
+<p>This is the eleventh of August: Walter, happier than he will
+     ever be again, perhaps, is preparing for the moors. He has a
+     better dog than Trout, and rather less active. Mrs. Scott
+     and all our family send kind love.</p>
+
+<p>Yours ever,<br>
+<span class="left50">W. S.</span></p>
+</div>
+
+<a id="img004" name="img004"></a>
+<div class="figcenter">
+<img src="images/img004.jpg" width="400" height="531" alt="" title="">
+<p>WASHINGTON IRVING<br>
+After the painting by Leslie.</div>
+
+<p>Two or three days after this letter was written, Scott first saw
+Washington Irving, who has recorded his visit in a delightful Essay,
+which, however, having been penned nearly twenty years afterwards,
+betrays a good many slips of memory as to names and dates. Mr. Irving
+says he arrived at Abbotsford on the 27th of August, 1816; but he
+describes the walls of the new house as already overtopping the old
+cottage; and this is far from being the only circumstance he mentions
+which <span class="pagenum"><a id="page181" name="page181"></a>(p. 181)</span> proves that he should have written 1817.<a id="footnotetag72" name="footnotetag72"></a><a href="#footnote72" title="Go to footnote 72"><span class="small">[72]</span></a> The
+picture which my amiable friend has drawn of his reception shows to
+all who remember the Scott and the Abbotsford of those days, how
+consistent accuracy as to essentials may be with forgetfulness of
+trifles.</p>
+
+<p>Scott had received The History of New York by Knickerbocker, shortly
+after its appearance in 1812, from an accomplished American traveller,
+Mr. Brevoort; and the admirable humor of this early work had led him
+to anticipate the brilliant career which its author has since run. Mr.
+Thomas Campbell, being no stranger to Scott's high estimation of
+Irving's genius, gave him a letter of introduction, which, halting his
+chaise on the high-road above Abbotsford, he modestly sent down to the
+house, "with a card, on which he had written, that he was on his way
+to the ruins of Melrose, and wished to know whether it would be
+agreeable to Mr. Scott to receive a visit from him in the course of
+the morning." Scott's family well remember the delight with which he
+received this announcement:&mdash;he was at breakfast, and sallied forth
+instantly, dogs and children after him as usual, to greet the guest,
+and conduct him in person from the highway to the door.</p>
+
+<div class="quote">
+<p>"The noise of my chaise," says Irving, "had disturbed the
+     quiet of the establishment. Out sallied the warder of the
+     castle, a black greyhound, and leaping on one of the blocks
+     of stone, began a furious barking. This alarm brought out
+     the whole garrison of dogs, all open-mouthed and vociferous.
+     In a little while, the lord of the castle himself made his
+     appearance. I knew him at once, by the likenesses that had
+     been <span class="pagenum"><a id="page182" name="page182"></a>(p. 182)</span> published of him. He came limping up the
+     gravel walk, aiding himself by a stout walking staff, but
+     moving rapidly and with vigor. By his side jogged along a
+     large iron-gray staghound, of most grave demeanor, who took
+     no part in the clamor of the canine rabble, but seemed to
+     consider himself bound, for the dignity of the house, to
+     give me a courteous reception.</p>
+
+<p>"Before Scott reached the gate, he called out in a hearty
+     tone, welcoming me to Abbotsford, and asking news of
+     Campbell. Arrived at the door of the chaise, he grasped me
+     warmly by the hand: 'Come, drive down, drive down to the
+     house,' said he; 'ye're just in time for breakfast, and
+     afterwards ye shall see all the wonders of the Abbey.'</p>
+
+<p>"I would have excused myself on the plea of having already
+     made my breakfast. 'Hut, man,' cried he, 'a ride in the
+     morning in the keen air of the Scotch hills is warrant
+     enough for a second breakfast.'</p>
+
+<p>"I was accordingly whirled to the portal of the cottage, and
+     in a few moments found myself seated at the breakfast-table.
+     There was no one present but the family, which consisted of
+     Mrs. Scott; her eldest daughter, Sophia, then a fine girl
+     about seventeen; Miss Anne Scott, two or three years
+     younger; Walter, a well-grown stripling; and Charles, a
+     lively boy, eleven or twelve years of age.</p>
+
+<p>"I soon felt myself quite at home, and my heart in a glow,
+     with the cordial welcome I experienced. I had thought to
+     make a mere morning visit, but found I was not to be let off
+     so lightly. 'You must not think our neighborhood is to be
+     read in a morning like a newspaper,' said Scott; 'it takes
+     several days of study for an observant traveller, that has a
+     relish for auld-world trumpery. After breakfast you shall
+     make your visit to Melrose Abbey; I shall not be able to
+     accompany you, as I have some household affairs to attend
+     to; but I will put you in charge of my son Charles, who is
+     very learned in all things touching the old ruin and the
+     neighborhood it stands in; and he and my friend Johnnie
+     Bower will tell you the whole truth about it, with a great
+     deal more that you are not called upon to believe, unless
+     you be a true and nothing-doubting antiquary. When you come
+     back, I'll take you out on a ramble about the neighborhood.
+     To-morrow we will take a <span class="pagenum"><a id="page183" name="page183"></a>(p. 183)</span> look at the Yarrow, and
+     the next day we will drive over to Dryburgh Abbey, which is
+     a fine old ruin, well worth your seeing.'&mdash;In a word, before
+     Scott had got through with his plan, I found myself
+     committed for a visit of several days, and it seemed as if a
+     little realm of romance was suddenly open before me."</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>After breakfast, while Scott, no doubt, wrote a chapter of Rob Roy,
+Mr. Irving, under young Charles's guidance, saw Melrose Abbey, and
+Johnnie Bower the elder, whose son long since inherited his office as
+showman of the ruins, and all his enthusiasm about them and their
+poet. The senior on this occasion was loud in his praises of the
+affability of Scott. "He'll come here sometimes," said he, "with great
+folks in his company, and the first I'll know of it is hearing his
+voice calling out Johnnie!&mdash;Johnnie Bower!&mdash;and when I go out I'm sure
+to be greeted with a joke or a pleasant word. He'll stand and crack,
+an' laugh wi' me just like an auld wife,&mdash;and <span class="italic">to think that of a man
+that has such an awfu' knowledge o' history!</span>"<a id="footnotetag73" name="footnotetag73"></a><a href="#footnote73" title="Go to footnote 73"><span class="small">[73]</span></a></p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page184" name="page184"></a>(p. 184)</span> On his return from the Abbey, Irving found Scott ready for a
+ramble. I cannot refuse myself the pleasure of extracting some parts
+of his description of it.</p>
+
+<div class="quote">
+<p>"As we sallied forth, every dog in the establishment turned
+     out to attend us. There was the old staghound, Maida, that I
+     have already mentioned, a noble animal, and Hamlet, the
+     black greyhound, a wild thoughtless youngster, not yet
+     arrived at the years of discretion; and Finette, a beautiful
+     setter, with soft, silken hair, long pendent ears, and a
+     mild eye, the parlor favorite. When in front of the house,
+     we were joined by a superannuated greyhound, who came from
+     the kitchen wagging his tail; and was cheered by Scott as an
+     old friend and comrade. In our walks, he would frequently
+     pause in conversation, to notice his dogs, and speak to them
+     as if rational companions; and, indeed, there appears to be
+     a vast deal of rationality in these faithful attendants on
+     man, derived from their close intimacy with him. Maida
+     deported himself with a gravity becoming his age and size,
+     and seemed to consider himself called upon to preserve a
+     great degree of dignity and decorum in our society. As he
+     jogged along a little distance ahead of us, the young dogs
+     would gambol about him, leap on his neck, worry at his ears,
+     and endeavor to tease him into a gambol. The old dog would
+     keep on for a long time with imperturbable solemnity, now
+     and then seeming to rebuke the wantonness of his young
+     companions. At length he would make a sudden turn, seize one
+     of them, and tumble him in the dust, then giving a <span class="pagenum"><a id="page185" name="page185"></a>(p. 185)</span>
+     glance at us, as much as to say, 'You see, gentlemen, I
+     can't help giving way to this nonsense,' would resume his
+     gravity, and jog on as before. Scott amused himself with
+     these peculiarities. 'I make no doubt,' said he, 'when Maida
+     is alone with these young dogs, he throws gravity aside, and
+     plays the boy as much as any of them; but he is ashamed to
+     do so in our company, and seems to say&mdash;Ha' done with your
+     nonsense, youngsters: what will the laird and that other
+     gentleman think of me if I give way to such foolery?'</p>
+
+<p>"Scott amused himself with the peculiarities of another of
+     his dogs, a little shamefaced terrier, with large glassy
+     eyes, one of the most sensitive little bodies to insult and
+     indignity in the world. 'If ever he whipped him,' he said,
+     'the little fellow would sneak off and hide himself from the
+     light of day in a lumber garret, from whence there was no
+     drawing him forth but by the sound of the chopping-knife, as
+     if chopping up his victuals, when he would steal forth with
+     humiliated and downcast look, but would skulk away again if
+     any one regarded him.'</p>
+
+<p>"While we were discussing the humors and peculiarities of
+     our canine companions, some object provoked their spleen,
+     and produced a sharp and petulant barking from the smaller
+     fry; but it was some time before Maida was sufficiently
+     roused to ramp forward two or three bounds, and join the
+     chorus with a deep-mouthed <span class="italic">bow wow</span>. It was but a transient
+     outbreak, and he returned instantly, wagging his tail, and
+     looking up dubiously in his master's face, uncertain whether
+     he would receive censure or applause. 'Ay, ay, old boy!'
+     cried Scott, 'you have done wonders; you have shaken the
+     Eildon hills with your roaring: you may now lay by your
+     artillery for the rest of the day. Maida,' continued he, 'is
+     like the great gun at Constantinople; it takes so long to
+     get it ready, that the smaller guns can fire off a dozen
+     times first: but when it does go off, it plays the very
+     devil.'</p>
+
+<p>"These simple anecdotes may serve to show the delightful
+     play of Scott's humors and feelings in private life. His
+     domestic animals were his friends. Everything about him
+     seemed to rejoice in the light of his countenance.</p>
+
+<p>"Our ramble took us on the hills commanding an extensive
+     prospect. 'Now,' said Scott, 'I have brought you, like the
+     pilgrim in the Pilgrim's Progress, to the top of the
+     Delectable <span class="pagenum"><a id="page186" name="page186"></a>(p. 186)</span> Mountains, that I may show you all the
+     goodly regions hereabouts. Yonder is Lammermuir, and
+     Smailholm; and there you have Galashiels, and Torwoodlee,
+     and Gala Water; and in that direction you see Teviotdale and
+     the Braes of Yarrow, and Ettrick stream winding along like a
+     silver thread, to throw itself into the Tweed.' He went on
+     thus to call over names celebrated in Scottish song, and
+     most of which had recently received a romantic interest from
+     his own pen. In fact, I saw a great part of the Border
+     country spread out before me, and could trace the scenes of
+     those poems and romances which had in a manner bewitched the
+     world.</p>
+
+<p>"I gazed about me for a time with mute surprise, I may
+     almost say with disappointment. I beheld a mere succession
+     of gray waving hills, line beyond line, as far as my eye
+     could reach, monotonous in their aspect, and so destitute of
+     trees, that one could almost see a stout fly walking along
+     their profile; and the far-famed Tweed appeared a naked
+     stream, flowing between bare hills, without a tree or
+     thicket on its banks; and yet such had been the magic web of
+     poetry and romance thrown over the whole, that it had a
+     greater charm for me than the richest scenery I had beheld
+     in England. I could not help giving utterance to my
+     thoughts. Scott hummed for a moment to himself, and looked
+     grave; he had no idea of having his Muse complimented at the
+     expense of his native hills. 'It may be pertinacity,' said
+     he at length; 'but to my eye, these gray hills, and all this
+     wild Border country, have beauties peculiar to themselves. I
+     like the very nakedness of the land; it has something bold,
+     and stern, and solitary about it. When I have been for some
+     time in the rich scenery about Edinburgh, which is like
+     ornamented garden land, I begin to wish myself back again
+     among my own honest gray hills; and if I did not see the
+     heather, at least once a year, <span class="italic">I think I should die!</span>' The
+     last words were said with an honest warmth, accompanied by a
+     thump on the ground with his staff, by way of emphasis, that
+     showed his heart was in his speech. He vindicated the Tweed,
+     too, as a beautiful stream in itself; and observed that he
+     did not dislike it for being bare of trees, probably from
+     having been much of an angler in his time; and an angler
+     does not like to have a stream overhung by trees, which
+     embarrass him in the exercise of his rod and line.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page187" name="page187"></a>(p. 187)</span> "I took occasion to plead, in like manner, the
+     associations of early life for my disappointment in respect
+     to the surrounding scenery. I had been so accustomed to see
+     hills crowned with forests, and streams breaking their way
+     through a wilderness of trees, that all my ideas of romantic
+     landscape were apt to be well wooded. 'Ay, and that's the
+     great charm of your country,' cried Scott. 'You love the
+     forest as I do the heather; but I would not have you think I
+     do not feel the glory of a great woodland prospect. There is
+     nothing I should like more than to be in the midst of one of
+     your grand wild original forests, with the idea of hundreds
+     of miles of untrodden forest around me. I once saw at Leith
+     an immense stick of timber, just landed from America. It
+     must have been an enormous tree when it stood in its native
+     soil, at its full height, and with all its branches. I gazed
+     at it with admiration; it seemed like one of the gigantic
+     obelisks which are now and then brought from Egypt to shame
+     the pigmy monuments of Europe; and, in fact, these vast
+     aboriginal trees, that have sheltered the Indians before the
+     intrusion of the white men, are the monuments and
+     antiquities of your country.'</p>
+
+<p>"The conversation here turned upon Campbell's poem of
+     Gertrude of Wyoming, as illustrative of the poetic materials
+     furnished by American scenery. Scott cited several passages
+     of it with great delight. 'What a pity it is,' said he,
+     'that Campbell does not write more, and oftener, and give
+     full sweep to his genius! He has wings that would bear him
+     to the skies; and he does, now and then, spread them
+     grandly, but folds them up again, and resumes his perch, as
+     if he was afraid to launch away. What a grand idea is that,'
+     said he, 'about prophetic boding, or, in common parlance,
+     second sight&mdash;</p>
+
+<p class="poem20">"Coming events cast their shadows before!"&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>The fact is,' added he, 'Campbell is, in a manner, a bugbear
+     to himself. The brightness of his early success is a
+     detriment to all his further efforts. <span class="italic">He is afraid of the
+     shadow that his own fame casts before him.</span>'</p>
+
+<p>"We had not walked much farther, before we saw the two Miss
+     Scotts advancing along the hillside to meet us. The
+     morning's studies being over, they had set off to take a
+     ramble on the hills, and gather heather blossoms with which
+     to decorate <span class="pagenum"><a id="page188" name="page188"></a>(p. 188)</span> their hair for dinner. As they came
+     bounding lightly like young fawns, and their dresses
+     fluttering in the pure summer breeze, I was reminded of
+     Scott's own description of his children, in his introduction
+     to one of the cantos of Marmion:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p class="poem20">
+  'My imps, though hardy, bold, and wild,<br>
+  As best befits the mountain child,' etc.</p>
+
+<p>As they approached, the dogs all sprang forward, and
+     gambolled around them. They joined us with countenances full
+     of health and glee. Sophia, the eldest, was the most lively
+     and joyous, having much of her father's varied spirit in
+     conversation, and seeming to catch excitement from his words
+     and looks; Anne was of a quieter mood, rather silent, owing,
+     in some measure, no doubt, to her being some years
+     younger."<a id="footnotetag74" name="footnotetag74"></a><a href="#footnote74" title="Go to footnote 74"><span class="small">[74]</span></a></p>
+</div>
+
+<p>Having often, many years afterwards, heard Irving speak warmly of
+William Laidlaw, I must not omit the following passage:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="quote">
+<p>"One of my pleasantest rambles with Scott about the
+     neighborhood of Abbotsford was taken in company with Mr.
+     William Laidlaw, the steward of his estate. This was a
+     gentleman for whom Scott entertained a particular value. He
+     had been born to a competency, had been well educated, his
+     mind was richly stored with varied information, and he was a
+     man of sterling moral worth. Having been reduced by
+     misfortune, Scott had got him to take charge of his estate.
+     He lived at a small farm, on the hillside above Abbotsford,
+     and was treated <span class="pagenum"><a id="page189" name="page189"></a>(p. 189)</span> by Scott as a cherished and
+     confidential friend, rather than a dependant.</p>
+
+<p>"That day at dinner we had Mr. Laidlaw and his wife, and a
+     female friend who accompanied them. The latter was a very
+     intelligent respectable person, about the middle age, and
+     was treated with particular attention and courtesy by Scott.
+     Our dinner was a most agreeable one, for the guests were
+     evidently cherished visitors to the house, and felt that
+     they were appreciated. When they were gone, Scott spoke of
+     them in the most cordial manner. 'I wished to show you,'
+     said he, 'some of our really excellent, plain Scotch people:
+     not fine gentlemen and ladies, for such you can meet
+     everywhere, and they are everywhere the same. The character
+     of a nation is not to be learnt from its fine folks.' He
+     then went on with a particular eulogium on the lady who had
+     accompanied the Laidlaws. She was the daughter, he said, of
+     a poor country clergyman, who had died in debt, and left her
+     an orphan and destitute. Having had a good plain education,
+     she immediately set up a child's school, and had soon a
+     numerous flock under her care, by which she earned a decent
+     maintenance. That, however, was not her main object. Her
+     first care was to pay off her father's debts, that no ill
+     word or ill will might rest upon his memory. This, by dint
+     of Scotch economy, backed by filial reverence and pride, she
+     accomplished, though in the effort she subjected herself to
+     every privation. Not content with this, she in certain
+     instances refused to take pay for the tuition of the
+     children of some of her neighbors, who had befriended her
+     father in his need, and had since fallen into poverty. 'In a
+     word,' added Scott, 'she's a fine old Scotch girl, and I
+     delight in her more than in many a fine lady I have known,
+     and I have known many of the finest.'</p>
+
+<p>"The evening passed away delightfully in a quaint-looking
+     apartment, half study, half drawing-room. Scott read several
+     passages from the old Romance of Arthur, with a fine deep
+     sonorous voice, and a gravity of tone that seemed to suit
+     the antiquated black-letter volume. It was a rich treat to
+     hear such a work read by such a person, and in such a place;
+     and his appearance, as he sat reading, in a large armchair,
+     with his favorite hound Maida at his feet, and surrounded by
+     books and reliques and Border trophies, would have formed
+     <span class="pagenum"><a id="page190" name="page190"></a>(p. 190)</span> an admirable and most characteristic picture. When
+     I retired for the night, I found it almost impossible to
+     sleep: the idea of being under the roof of Scott; of being
+     on the Borders on the Tweed; in the very centre of that
+     region which had, for some time past, been the favorite
+     scene of romantic fiction; and, above all, the recollections
+     of the ramble I had taken, the company in which I had taken
+     it, and the conversation which had passed, all fermented in
+     my mind, and nearly drove sleep from my pillow.</p>
+
+<p>"On the following morning the sun darted his beams from over
+     the hills through the low lattice of my window. I rose at an
+     early hour, and looked out between the branches of eglantine
+     which overhung the casement. To my surprise, Scott was
+     already up, and forth, seated on a fragment of stone, and
+     chatting with the workmen employed in the new building. I
+     had supposed, after the time he had wasted upon me
+     yesterday, he would be closely occupied this morning: but he
+     appeared like a man of leisure, who had nothing to do but
+     bask in the sunshine, and amuse himself. I soon dressed
+     myself and joined him. He talked about his proposed plans of
+     Abbotsford: happy would it have been for him could he have
+     contented himself with his delightful little vine-covered
+     cottage, and the simple, yet hearty and hospitable, style in
+     which he lived at the time of my visit."<a id="footnotetag75" name="footnotetag75"></a><a href="#footnote75" title="Go to footnote 75"><span class="small">[75]</span></a></p>
+</div>
+
+<p>Among other visitors who succeeded the distinguished American that
+autumn, were Lady Byron, the wife of the poet, and the great artist,
+Mr., now Sir David Wilkie, who then executed for Captain Ferguson that
+pleasing little picture, in which Scott and his family are represented
+as a group of peasants, while the gallant soldier <span class="pagenum"><a id="page191" name="page191"></a>(p. 191)</span> himself
+figures by them in the character of a gamekeeper, or perhaps poacher.
+Mr. Irving has given, in the little work from which I have quoted so
+liberally, an amusing account of the delicate scruples of Wilkie about
+soliciting Scott to devote a morning to the requisite sitting, until,
+after lingering for several days, he at length became satisfied that,
+by whatever magic his host might contrive to keep Ballantyne's presses
+in full play, he had always abundance of leisure for matters less
+important than Ferguson's destined heirloom. I shall now, however,
+return to his correspondence; and begin with a letter to Joanna
+Baillie on Lady Byron's visit.</p>
+
+<div class="quote">
+<p class="tit-center">TO MISS JOANNA BAILLIE, HAMPSTEAD.</p>
+<p class="left50"><span class="smcap">Abbotsford</span>, September 26, 1817.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">My dear Miss Baillie</span>,&mdash;A series of little trinketty sort of
+     business, and occupation, and idleness, have succeeded to
+     each other so closely, that I have been scarce able, for
+     some three weeks past, to call my time my own for half an
+     hour together; but enough of apologies&mdash;they are vile
+     things, and I know you will impute my negligence to anything
+     rather than forgetting or undervaluing your friendship. You
+     know, by this time, that we have had a visit from Lady
+     Byron, delightful both on its own account, and because it
+     was accompanied with good news and a letter from you. I
+     regret we could not keep her longer than a day with us,
+     which was spent on the banks of the Yarrow, and I hope and
+     believe she was pleased with us, because I am sure she will
+     be so with everything that is intended to please her:
+     meantime her visit gave me a most lawyer-like fit of the
+     bile. I have lived too long to be surprised at any instance
+     of human caprice, but still it vexes me. Now, one would
+     suppose Lady Byron, young, beautiful, with birth, and rank,
+     and fortune, and taste, and high accomplishments, and
+     admirable good sense, qualified to have made happy one whose
+     talents are so high as Lord Byron's, and whose marked
+     <span class="pagenum"><a id="page192" name="page192"></a>(p. 192)</span> propensity it is to like those who are qualified
+     to admire and understand his talents; and yet it has proved
+     otherwise. I can safely say my heart ached for her all the
+     time we were together; there was so much patience and decent
+     resignation to a situation which must have pressed on her
+     thoughts, that she was to me one of the most interesting
+     creatures I had seen for a score of years. I am sure I
+     should not have felt such strong kindness towards her had
+     she been at the height of her fortune, and in the full
+     enjoyment of all the brilliant prospects to which she seemed
+     destined.&mdash;You will wish to hear of my complaint. I think,
+     thank God, that it is leaving me&mdash;not suddenly, however, for
+     I have had some repetitions, but they have become fainter
+     and fainter, and I have not been disturbed by one for these
+     three weeks. I trust, by care and attention, my stomach will
+     return to its usual tone, and I am as careful as I can. I
+     have taken hard exercise with good effect, and am often six
+     hours on foot without stopping or sitting down, to which my
+     plantations and enclosures contribute not a little. I have,
+     however, given up the gun this season, finding myself unable
+     to walk up to the dogs; but Walter has taken it in hand, and
+     promises to be a first-rate shot; he brought us in about
+     seven or eight brace of birds the evening Lady Byron came to
+     us, which papa was of course a little proud of. The
+     blackcocks are getting very plenty on our moor-ground at
+     Abbotsford, but I associate them so much with your beautiful
+     poem,<a id="footnotetag76" name="footnotetag76"></a><a href="#footnote76" title="Go to footnote 76"><span class="small">[76]</span></a> that I have not the pleasure I used to have in
+     knocking them down. I wish I knew how to send you a brace. I
+     get on with my labors here; my house is about to be roofed
+     in, and a comical concern it is.</p>
+
+<p>Yours truly,<br>
+<span class="left50">W. S.</span></p>
+</div>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page193" name="page193"></a>(p. 193)</span> The next letter refers to the Duke of Buccleuch's
+preparations for a cattle-show at Bowhill, which was followed by an
+entertainment on a large scale to his Grace's Selkirkshire neighbors
+and tenantry, and next day by a fox-hunt, after Dandie Dinmont's
+fashion, among the rocks of the Yarrow. The Sheriff attended <span class="italic">with his
+tail on</span>; and Wilkie, too, went with him. It was there that Sir David
+first saw Hogg, and the Shepherd's greeting was graceful. He eyed the
+great painter for a moment in silence, and then stretching out his
+hand, said: "Thank God for it. I did not know that you were so young a
+man!"</p>
+
+<div class="quote">
+<p class="tit-center">TO THE DUKE OF BUCCLEUCH, ETC., ETC., ETC., DRUMLANRIG CASTLE.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">My dear Lord Duke</span>,&mdash;I am just honored with your Grace's of
+     the 27th. The posts, which are as cross as pie-crust, have
+     occasioned some delay. Depend on our attending at Bowhill on
+     the 20th, and staying over the show. I have written to Adam
+     Ferguson, who will come with a whoop and a hollo. So will
+     the Ballantynes&mdash;<span  lang="fr">flageolet</span><a id="footnotetag77" name="footnotetag77"></a><a href="#footnote77" title="Go to footnote 77"><span class="small">[77]</span></a> and all&mdash;for the festival,
+     and they shall be housed at Abbotsford. I have an inimitably
+     good songster in the person of Terence Magrath, who teaches
+     my girls. He beats almost all whom I have ever heard attempt
+     Moore's songs, and I can easily cajole him also out to
+     Abbotsford for a day or two. In jest or earnest, I never
+     heard a better singer in a room, though his voice is not
+     quite full enough for a concert; and for an after-supper
+     song, he almost equals Irish Johnstone.<a id="footnotetag78" name="footnotetag78"></a><a href="#footnote78" title="Go to footnote 78"><span class="small">[78]</span></a></p>
+
+<p>Trade of every kind is recovering, and not a loom idle
+     <span class="pagenum"><a id="page194" name="page194"></a>(p. 194)</span> in Glasgow. The most faithful respects of this
+     family attend the Ladies and all at Drumlanrig. I ever am
+     your Grace's truly obliged and grateful</p>
+
+<p class="left50 smcap">Walter Scott.</p>
+
+<p class="larg50">Given from my Castle of Grawacky,
+  this second day of the month called
+  October, One Thousand Eight Hundred
+  and Seventeen Years.</p>
+
+<p>There is a date nearly as long as the letter.</p>
+
+<p>I hope we shall attack the foxes at Bowhill. I will hazard
+     Maida.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>We have some allusions to this Bowhill party in another letter; the
+first of several which I shall now insert according to their dates,
+leaving them, with a few marginal notes, to tell out the story of
+1817:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="quote">
+<p class="tit-center">TO DANIEL TERRY, ESQ., LONDON.</p>
+<p class="left50"><span class="smcap">Abbotsford</span>, October 24, 1817.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Dear Terry</span>,&mdash;Bullock has not gone to Skye, and I am very
+     glad he has not, for to me who knew the Hebrides well, the
+     attempt seemed very perilous at this season. I have
+     considerably enlarged my domains since I wrote to you, by
+     the purchase of a beautiful farm adjacent. The farmhouse,
+     which is new and excellent, I have let to Adam Ferguson and
+     his sisters. We will be within a pleasant walk of each
+     other, and hope to end our lives, as they began, in each
+     other's society. There is a beautiful brook, with remnants
+     of natural wood, which would make Toftfield rival
+     Abbotsford, but for the majestic Tweed. I am in treaty for a
+     field or two more; one of which contains the only specimen
+     of a Peel-house, or defensive residence of a small
+     proprietor, which remains in this neighborhood. It is an
+     orchard, in the hamlet of Darnick, to which it gives a most
+     picturesque effect. Blore admires it very much. We are all
+     well here, but crowded with company. I have been junketing
+     <span class="pagenum"><a id="page195" name="page195"></a>(p. 195)</span> this week past at Bowhill. Mr. Magrath has been
+     with us these two or three days, and has seen his ward,
+     Hamlet, behave most <span class="italic">princelike</span> on Newark Hill and
+     elsewhere. He promises to be a real treasure.<a id="footnotetag79" name="footnotetag79"></a><a href="#footnote79" title="Go to footnote 79"><span class="small">[79]</span></a>
+     Notwithstanding, Mr. Magrath went to Bowhill with me one
+     day, where his vocal talents gave great pleasure, and I hope
+     will procure him the notice and protection of the Buccleuch
+     family. The Duke says my building engrosses, as a common
+     centre, the thoughts of Mr. Atkinson and Mr. Bullock, and
+     wishes he could make them equally anxious in his own behalf.
+     You may believe this flatters me not a little.</p>
+
+<p>P. S.&mdash;I agree with you that the tower will look rather rich
+     for the rest of the building; yet you may be assured, that
+     with diagonal chimneys and notched gables, it will have a
+     very fine effect, and is in Scotch architecture by no means
+     incompatible. My house has been like a <span class="italic">cried fair</span>, and
+     extreme the inconvenience of having no corner sacred to my
+     own use, and free from intrusion.</p>
+
+<p>Ever truly yours,<br>
+<span class="left50">W. S.</span></p>
+</div>
+
+<div class="quote">
+<p class="tit-center">TO THE SAME.</p>
+<p class="left50"><span class="smcap">Abbotsford</span>, 29th October, 1817.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">My dear Terry</span>,&mdash;I enclose a full sketch of the lower story,
+     with accurate measurements of rooms, casements, doorways,
+     chimneys, etc., that Mr. Atkinson's good will may not want
+     means to work upon. I will speak to the subjects of your
+     letters separately, that I may omit none of them. <span class="italic">1st</span>, I
+     cannot possibly surrender the window to the west in the
+     library,<a id="footnotetag80" name="footnotetag80"></a><a href="#footnote80" title="Go to footnote 80"><span class="small">[80]</span></a> although I subscribe to all you urge about it.
+     Still it is essential in point of light to my old eyes, and
+     the single northern <span class="pagenum"><a id="page196" name="page196"></a>(p. 196)</span> aspect would not serve me.
+     Above all, it looks into the yard, and enables me to summon
+     Tom Purdie without the intervention of a third party.
+     Indeed, as I can have but a few books about me, it is of the
+     less consequence. <span class="italic">2dly</span>, I resign the idea of <span class="italic">coving</span> the
+     library to your better judgment, and I think the Stirling
+     Heads<a id="footnotetag81" name="footnotetag81"></a><a href="#footnote81" title="Go to footnote 81"><span class="small">[81]</span></a> will be admirably disposed in the glass of the
+     armory window. I have changed my mind as to having doors on
+     the book-presses, which is, after all, a great bore. No
+     person will be admitted into my sanctum, and I can have the
+     door locked during my absence. <span class="italic">3dly</span>, I expect Mr. Bullock
+     here every day, and should be glad to have the drawings for
+     the dining-room wainscot, as he could explain them to the
+     artists who are to work them. This (always if quite
+     convenient) would be the more desirable, as I must leave
+     this place in a fortnight at farthest,&mdash;the more 's the
+     pity,&mdash;and, consequently, the risk of blunders will be
+     considerably increased. I should like if the panelling of
+     the wainscot could admit of a press on each side of the
+     sideboard. I don't mean a formal press with a high door, but
+     some crypt, or, to speak vulgarly, <span class="italic">cupboard</span>, to put away
+     bottles of wine, etc. You know I am my own butler, and such
+     accommodation is very convenient. We begin roofing
+     to-morrow. Wilkie admires the whole as a composition, and
+     that is high authority. I agree that the fountain shall be
+     out of doors in front of the greenhouse; there may be an
+     enclosure for it with some ornamented mason work, as in old
+     gardens, and it will occupy an angle, which I should be
+     puzzled what to do with, for turf and gravel would be rather
+     meagre, and flowers not easily kept. I have the old fountain
+     belonging to the Cross of Edinburgh, which flowed with wine
+     at the coronation of our kings and on other occasions of
+     <span class="pagenum"><a id="page197" name="page197"></a>(p. 197)</span> public rejoicing. I send a sketch of this
+     venerable relic, connected as it is with a thousand
+     associations. It is handsome in its forms and proportions&mdash;a
+     freestone basin about three feet in diameter, and five
+     inches and a half in depth, very handsomely hollowed. A
+     piece has been broken off one edge, but as we have the
+     fragment, it can easily be restored with cement. There are
+     four openings for pipes in the circumference&mdash;each had been
+     covered with a Gothic masque, now broken off and defaced,
+     but which may be easily restored. Through these the wine had
+     fallen into a larger and lower reservoir. I intend this for
+     the centre of my fountain. I do not believe I should save
+     £100 by retaining Mrs. Redford, by the time she was raised,
+     altered, and beautified, for, like the Highlandman's gun,
+     she wants stock, lock, and barrel, to put her into repair.
+     In the mean time, "the cabin is convenient." Yours ever,</p>
+
+<p class="left50">W. S.</p>
+</div>
+
+<div class="quote">
+<p class="tit-center">TO MR. WILLIAM LAIDLAW, KAESIDE.</p>
+<p class="left50"><span class="smcap">Edinburgh</span>, November 15, 1817.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Dear Willie</span>,&mdash;I have no intention to let the Whitehaugh
+     without your express approbation, and I wish you to act as
+     my adviser and representative in these matters. I would
+     hardly have ventured to purchase so much land without the
+     certainty of your counsel and coöperation.... On the other
+     side you will find a small order on the banker at
+     Galashiels, to be renewed half yearly; not by way of
+     recompensing your friendship "with a load of barren money,"
+     but merely to ease my conscience in some degree for the time
+     which I must necessarily withdraw from the labor which is to
+     maintain your family. Believe me, dear Willie, yours truly,</p>
+
+<p class="left50 smcap">W. Scott.</p>
+</div>
+
+<div class="quote">
+<p class="tit-center">TO THE SAME.</p>
+<p class="left50"><span class="smcap">Edinburgh</span>, 19th November, 1817.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Dear Willie</span>,&mdash;I hope you will not quarrel with my last.
+     Believe me that, to a sound-judging, and philosophical
+     <span class="pagenum"><a id="page198" name="page198"></a>(p. 198)</span> mind, this same account of Dr. and Cr., which
+     fills up so much time in the world, is comparatively of very
+     small value. When you get rich, unless I thrive in the same
+     proportion, I will request your assistance for less, for
+     little, or for nothing, as the case may require; but while I
+     wear my seven-leagued boots to stride in triumph over moss
+     and muir, it would be very silly in either of us to let a
+     cheque twice a year of £25 make a difference between us. But
+     all this we will talk over when we meet. I meditate one day
+     a <span class="italic" lang="fr">coup-de-maître</span>, which will make my friend's advice and
+     exertion essential&mdash;indeed worthy of much better
+     remuneration. When you come, I hope you will bring us
+     information of all my rural proceedings. Though so lately
+     come to town, I still remember, at my waking hours, that I
+     can neither see Tom Purdie nor Adam Paterson,<a id="footnotetag82" name="footnotetag82"></a><a href="#footnote82" title="Go to footnote 82"><span class="small">[82]</span></a> and rise
+     with the more unwillingness. I was unwell on Monday and
+     Tuesday, but am quite recovered.</p>
+
+<p>Yours truly,<br>
+<span class="left50">W. S.</span></p>
+</div>
+
+<div class="quote">
+<p class="tit-center">TO THOMAS SCOTT, ESQ., PAYMASTER, 70TH REGIMENT, KINGSTON, CANADA.</p>
+<p class="left50"><span class="smcap">Edinburgh</span>, 13th December, 1817.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">My dear Tom</span>,&mdash;I should be happy to attend to your commission
+     about a dominie for your boy, but I think there will be much
+     risk in yoking yourself with one for three or four years.
+     You know what sort of black cattle these are, and how
+     difficult it is to discern their real character, though one
+     may give a guess at their attainments. When they get good
+     provender in their guts, they are apt to turn out very
+     different animals from what they were in their original low
+     condition, and get frisky and troublesome. I have made
+     several inquiries, however, and request to know what salary
+     you would think reasonable, and also what acquisitions he
+     ought to possess. <span class="pagenum"><a id="page199" name="page199"></a>(p. 199)</span> There is no combating the
+     feelings which you express for the society of your son,
+     otherwise I really think that a Scottish education would be
+     highly desirable; and should you at any time revert to this
+     plan, you may rely on my bestowing the same attention upon
+     him as upon my own boys.</p>
+
+<p>I agree entirely with you on the necessity of your remaining
+     in the regiment while it is stationary, and retiring on
+     half-pay when it marches; but I cannot so easily acquiesce
+     in your plan of settling in Canada. On the latter event
+     taking place, on the contrary, I think it would be highly
+     advisable that you should return to your native country. In
+     the course of nature you must soon be possessed of
+     considerable property, now life-rented by our mother, and I
+     should think that even your present income would secure you
+     comfort and independence here. Should you remain in Canada,
+     you must consider your family as settlers in that state, and
+     as I cannot believe that it will remain very long separated
+     from America, I should almost think this equal to depriving
+     them of the advantages of British subjects&mdash;at least of
+     those which they might derive from their respectable
+     connections in this country. With respect to your son, in
+     particular, I have little doubt that I could be of
+     considerable service to him in almost any line of life he
+     might chance to adopt here, but could of course have less
+     influence on his fortunes were he to remain on the Niagara.
+     I certainly feel anxious on this subject, because the
+     settlement of your residence in America would be saying, in
+     other words, that we two, the last remains of a family once
+     so numerous, are never more to meet upon this side of time.
+     My own health is very much broken up by the periodical
+     recurrence of violent cramps in the stomach, which neither
+     seem disposed to yield to medicine nor to abstinence. The
+     complaint, the doctors say, is not dangerous in itself, but
+     I cannot look forward to its continued recurrence, without
+     being certain that it is to break my health, and <span class="pagenum"><a id="page200" name="page200"></a>(p. 200)</span>
+     anticipate old age in cutting me short. Be it so, my dear
+     Tom&mdash;<span class="italic">Sat est vixisse</span>&mdash;and I am too much of a philosopher
+     to be anxious about protracted life, which, with all its
+     infirmities and deprivations, I have never considered as a
+     blessing. In the years which may be before me, it would be a
+     lively satisfaction to me to have the pleasure of seeing you
+     in this country, with the prospect of a comfortable
+     settlement. I have but an imperfect account to render of my
+     doings here. I have amused myself with making an addition to
+     my cottage in the country. One little apartment is to be
+     fitted up as an armory for my old relics and curiosities. On
+     the wicket I intend to mount your <span class="italic">deer's foot</span><a id="footnotetag83" name="footnotetag83"></a><a href="#footnote83" title="Go to footnote 83"><span class="small">[83]</span></a>&mdash;as an
+     appropriate knocker. I hope the young ladies liked their
+     watches, and that all your books, stationery, etc., came
+     safe to hand. I am told you have several kinds of the oak
+     peculiar to America. If you can send me a few good acorns,
+     with the names of the kinds they belong to, I will have them
+     reared with great care and attention. The heaviest and
+     smoothest acorns should be selected, as one would wish them,
+     sent from such a distance, to succeed, which rarely happens
+     unless they are particularly well ripened. I shall be as
+     much obliged to you as Sancho was to the Duchess, or, to
+     speak more correctly, the Duchess to Sancho, for a similar
+     favor. Our mother keeps her health surprisingly well now,
+     nor do I think there is any difference, unless that her
+     deafness is rather increased. My eldest boy is upwards of
+     six feet high; therefore born, as Sergeant Kite says, to be
+     a great man. I should not like such a rapid growth, but that
+     he carries strength along with it; my youngest boy is a very
+     sharp little fellow&mdash;and the girls give us great
+     satisfaction. Ever affectionately yours,</p>
+
+<p class="left50 smcap">Walter Scott.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page201" name="page201"></a>(p. 201)</span> The following note is without date. It accompanied, no doubt,
+the last proof sheet of Rob Roy, and was therefore in all probability
+written about ten days before the 31st of December, 1817&mdash;on which day
+the novel was published.</p>
+
+<div class="quote">
+<p class="tit-center">TO MR. JAMES BALLANTYNE, ST. JOHN STREET.</p>
+
+<p class="smcap">Dear James,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p class="poem30">
+  With great joy<br>
+  I send you Roy.<br>
+  'T was a tough job,<br>
+  But we're done with Rob.</p>
+
+<p>I forget if I mentioned Terry in my list of Friends. Pray
+     send me two or three copies as soon as you can. It were pity
+     to make the Grinder<a id="footnotetag84" name="footnotetag84"></a><a href="#footnote84" title="Go to footnote 84"><span class="small">[84]</span></a> pay carriage.</p>
+
+<p>Yours ever,<br>
+<span class="left50">W. S.</span></p>
+</div>
+
+<p>The novel had indeed been "a tough job"&mdash;for lightly and airily as it
+reads, the author had struggled almost throughout with the pains of
+cramp or the lassitude of opium. Calling on him one day to dun him for
+copy, James Ballantyne found him with a clean pen and a blank sheet
+before him, and uttered some rather solemn exclamation of surprise.
+"Ay, ay, Jemmy," said he, "'tis easy for you to bid me get on, but how
+the deuce can I make Rob Roy's wife speak, with such a <span class="italic">curmurring</span> in
+my guts?"<a href="#toc"><span class="small">[Back to Contents]</span></a></p>
+
+
+
+
+<h3><span class="pagenum"><a id="page202" name="page202"></a>(p. 202)</span> CHAPTER XL.</h3>
+
+<p class="summary">rob roy published. &mdash; negotiation concerning the second
+     series of tales of my landlord. &mdash; commission to search for
+     the scottish regalia. &mdash; letters to the duke of buccleuch,
+     mr. croker, mr. morritt, mr. murray, mr. maturin, etc. &mdash;
+     correspondence on rural affairs with mr. laidlaw, and on the
+     buildings at abbotsford with mr. terry. &mdash; death of mrs.
+     murray keith and mr. george bullock.</p>
+
+<p class="center">1818.</p>
+
+
+<p>Rob Roy and his wife, Bailie Nicol Jarvie and his housekeeper, Die
+Vernon and Rashleigh Osbaldistone&mdash;these boldly drawn and happily
+contrasted personages&mdash;were welcomed as warmly as the most fortunate
+of their predecessors.<a id="footnotetag85" name="footnotetag85"></a><a href="#footnote85" title="Go to footnote 85"><span class="small">[85]</span></a> Constable's resolution to begin with an
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page203" name="page203"></a>(p. 203)</span> edition of 10,000 proved to have been as sagacious as brave;
+for within a fortnight a second impression of 3000 was called for; and
+the subsequent sale of this novel has considerably exceeded 40,000
+more.</p>
+
+<p>Scott, however, had not waited for this new burst of applause. As soon
+as he came within view of the completion of Rob Roy, he desired John
+Ballantyne to propose to Constable and Co. a second series of the
+Tales of my Landlord, to be comprised, like the first, in four
+volumes, and ready for publication by "the King's birthday;" that is,
+the 4th of June, 1818. "I have hungered and thirsted," he wrote, "to
+see the end of those shabby borrowings among friends; they have all
+been wiped out except the good Duke's £4000&mdash;and I will not suffer
+either new offers of land or anything else to come in the way of that
+clearance. I expect that you will be able to arrange this resurrection
+of Jedediah, so that £5000 shall be at my order."</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Rigdum used to glory in recounting that he acquitted himself on
+this occasion with a species of dexterity not contemplated in his
+commission. He well knew how sorely Constable had been wounded by
+seeing the first Tales of Jedediah published by Murray and
+Blackwood&mdash;and that the utmost success of Rob Roy would only double
+his anxiety to keep them out of the field, when the hint should be
+dropt that a second MS. from Gandercleuch might shortly be looked for.
+John therefore took a convenient opportunity to mention the new scheme
+as if casually&mdash;so as to give Constable the impression <span class="pagenum"><a id="page204" name="page204"></a>(p. 204)</span> that
+the author's purpose was to divide the second series also between his
+old rival in Albemarle Street, of whom his jealousy was always
+sensitive, and his neighbor Blackwood, whom, if there had been no
+other grudge, the recent conduct and rapidly increasing sale of his
+Magazine would have been sufficient to make Constable hate with a
+perfect hatred. To see not only his old "Scots Magazine" eclipsed, but
+the authority of the Edinburgh Review itself bearded on its own soil
+by this juvenile upstart, was to him gall and wormwood; and, moreover,
+he himself had come in for his share in some of those grotesque <span class="italic" lang="fr">jeux
+d'esprit</span> by which, at this period, Blackwood's young Tory wags
+delighted to assail their elders and betters of the Whig persuasion.
+To prevent the proprietor of this new journal from acquiring anything
+like a hold on the author of Waverley, and thus competing with himself
+not only in periodical literature, but in the highest of the time, was
+an object for which, as John Ballantyne shrewdly guessed, Constable
+would have made at that moment almost any sacrifice. When, therefore,
+the haughty but trembling bookseller&mdash;"The Lord High Constable" (as he
+had been dubbed by these jesters)&mdash;signified his earnest hope that the
+second Tales of my Landlord were destined to come out under the same
+auspices with Rob Roy, the plenipotentiary answered with an air of
+deep regret, that he feared it would be impossible for the author to
+dispose of the work&mdash;unless to publishers who should agree to take
+with it <span class="italic">the whole</span> of the remaining stock of "John Ballantyne and
+Co.;" and Constable, pertinaciously as he had stood out against many
+more modest propositions of this nature, was so worked upon by his
+jealous feelings, that his resolution at once gave way. He agreed on
+the instant to do all that John seemed to shrink from asking&mdash;and at
+one sweep cleared the Augean stable in Hanover Street of unsalable
+rubbish to the amount of £5270! I am assured by his surviving partner,
+that when he had finally <span class="pagenum"><a id="page205" name="page205"></a>(p. 205)</span> redisposed of the stock, he found
+himself a loser by fully two thirds of this sum.</p>
+
+<p>Burthened with this heavy condition, the agreement for the sale of
+10,000 copies of the embryo series was signed before the end of
+November, 1817; and on the 7th January, 1818, Scott wrote as follows
+to his noble friend:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="quote">
+<p class="tit-center">TO THE DUKE OF BUCCLEUCH, ETC., ETC.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">My dear Lord Duke</span>,&mdash;I have the great pleasure of enclosing
+     the discharged bond which your Grace stood engaged in for
+     me, and on my account. The accommodation was of the greatest
+     consequence to me, as it enabled me to retain possession of
+     some valuable literary property, which I must otherwise have
+     suffered to be sold at a time when the booksellers had no
+     money to buy it. My dear Lord, to wish that all your
+     numerous and extensive acts of kindness may be attended with
+     similar advantages to the persons whom you oblige, is
+     wishing you what to your mind will be the best recompense;
+     and to wish that they may be felt by all as gratefully as by
+     me, though you may be careless to hear about that part of
+     the story, is only wishing what is creditable to human
+     nature. I have this moment your more than kind letter, and
+     congratulate your Grace that, in one sense of the word, you
+     can be what you never will be in any other, <span class="italic">ambidexter</span>.
+     But I am sorry you took so much trouble, and I fear <span class="italic">pains</span>
+     besides, to display your new talent.</p>
+
+<p>Ever your Grace's truly faithful,<br>
+<span class="left50 smcap">Walter Scott.</span></p>
+</div>
+
+<p>The closing sentence of this letter refers to a fit of the gout which
+had disabled the Duke's right hand, but not cooled his zeal on a
+subject which, throughout January, 1818, occupied, I firmly believe,
+much more of his correspondent's thoughts by day and dreams by night,
+than any one, or perhaps than all others, besides. The time <span class="pagenum"><a id="page206" name="page206"></a>(p. 206)</span>
+now approached when a Commission to examine the Crown-room in the
+Castle of Edinburgh, which had sprung from one of Scott's
+conversations with the Prince Regent in 1815, was at length to be
+acted upon. The minstrel of the "Rough Clan" had taken care that the
+name of his chief should stand at the head of the document; but the
+Duke's now precarious health ultimately prevented him from being
+present at the discovery of the long buried and almost forgotten
+Regalia of Scotland. The two following letters on this subject are of
+the same date&mdash;Edinburgh, 14th January, 1818.</p>
+
+<div class="quote">
+<p class="tit-center">TO THE DUKE OF BUCCLEUCH, ETC., ETC., BOWHILL.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">My dear Lord</span>,&mdash;You will hear from the Advocate that the
+     Commission for opening the Regalia is arrived, and that the
+     Commissioners held their first meeting yesterday. They have
+     named next Wednesday (in case your Grace can attend) for
+     opening the mysterious chest. So this question will be put
+     to rest forever.</p>
+
+<p>I remember among the rebel company which debauched my youth,
+     there was a drunken old Tory, who used to sing a ballad made
+     about these same Regalia at the time of the Union, in which
+     they were all destined to the basest uses; the crown, for
+     example,</p>
+
+<p class="poem30">
+  "To make a can for Brandy Nan<br>
+  To puke in when she's tipsy."</p>
+
+<p>The rest of the song is in a tone of equally pure humor; the
+     chorus ran:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p class="poem30">
+  "Farewell, thou ancient kingdom&mdash;<br>
+  Farewell, thou ancient kingdom.<br>
+  Who sold thyself for English pelf&mdash;<br>
+  Was ever such a thing done?"</p>
+
+<p>I hope your Grace feels yourself sufficiently interested in
+     the recovery of these ancient symbols of national
+     independence, so long worn by your forefathers, and which
+     were never profaned by the touch of a monarch of a foreign
+     <span class="pagenum"><a id="page207" name="page207"></a>(p. 207)</span> dynasty. Here is fine planting weather. I trust it
+     is as good in the Forest and on Tweedside.</p>
+
+<p>Ever your Grace's truly faithful<br>
+<span class="left50 smcap">Walter Scott.</span></p>
+</div>
+
+<div class="quote">
+<p class="tit-center">TO J. B. S. MORRITT, ESQ., M. P., ROKEBY.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Dear Morritt</span>,&mdash;Our fat friend has remembered a petition
+     which I put up to him, and has granted a Commission to the
+     Officers of State and others (my unworthy self
+     included)&mdash;which trusty and well-beloved persons are to
+     institute a search after the Regalia of Scotland. There has
+     an odd mystery hung about the fate of these royal symbols of
+     national independence. The spirit of the Scotch at the Union
+     clung fondly to these emblems; and to soothe their jealousy
+     it was specially provided by an article of the Union, that
+     the Regalia should never be removed, under any pretext, from
+     the kingdom of Scotland. Accordingly they were deposited,
+     with much ceremony, as an authentic instrument bears, in a
+     strong chest, secured by many locks, and the chest itself
+     placed in a strong room, which again was carefully bolted up
+     and secured, leaving to national pride the satisfaction of
+     pointing to the barred window, with the consciousness that
+     there lay the Regalia of Scotland. But this gratification
+     was strangely qualified by a surmise, which somehow became
+     generally averred, stating, that the Regalia had been sent
+     to London; and you may remember that we saw at the Jewel
+     Office a crown, <span class="italic">said to be</span> the ancient Crown of Scotland.
+     If this transfer (by the way, highly illegal) was ever made,
+     it must have been under some secret warrant; for no
+     authority can be traced for such a proceeding in the records
+     of the Secretary of State's Office. Fifteen or twenty years
+     ago, the Crown-room, as it is called, was opened by certain
+     Commissioners, under authority of a sign-manual. They saw
+     the fatal chest, strewed with the dust of an hundred years,
+     about six inches thick: a coating of like thickness lay on
+     <span class="pagenum"><a id="page208" name="page208"></a>(p. 208)</span> the floor; and I have heard the late President
+     Blair say, that the uniform and level appearance of the dust
+     warranted them to believe that the chest, if opened at all
+     after 1707, must have been violated within a short time of
+     that date, since, had it been opened at a later period, the
+     dust accumulated on the lid, and displaced at opening it,
+     must have been lying around the chest. But the Commissioners
+     did not think their warrant entitled them to force this
+     chest, for which no keys could be found; especially as their
+     warrant only entitled them to search for <span class="italic">records</span>&mdash;not for
+     crowns and sceptres.</p>
+
+<p>The mystery, therefore, remained unpenetrated; and public
+     curiosity was left to console itself with the nursery
+     rhyme:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p class="poem30">
+  "On Tintock tap there is a mist,<br>
+  And in the mist there is a kist."</p>
+
+<p>Our fat friend's curiosity, however, goes to the point at
+     once, authorizing and enjoining an express search for the
+     Regalia. Our friend of Buccleuch is at the head of the
+     Commission, and will, I think, be as keen as I or any one,
+     to see the issue.</p>
+
+<p>I trust you have read Rob by this time. I think he smells of
+     the cramp. Above all, I had too much flax on my distaff; and
+     as it did not consist with my patience or my plan to make a
+     fourth volume, I was obliged at last to draw a rough,
+     coarse, and hasty thread. But the book is well liked here,
+     and has reeled off in great style. I have two stories on the
+     anvil, far superior to Rob Roy in point of interest. Ever
+     yours,</p>
+
+<p class="left50 smcap">Walter Scott.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>The Commissioners, who finally assembled on the 4th of February, were,
+according to the record, "the Right Hon. Charles Hope, Lord President
+of the Court of Session; the Right Hon. David Boyle, Lord
+Justice-Clerk; the Right Hon. William Adam, Lord Chief Commissioner of
+the Jury Court; Major-General John Hope <span class="pagenum"><a id="page209" name="page209"></a>(p. 209)</span> (Commanding the
+Forces in Scotland); the Solicitor-General (James Wedderburn, Esq.);
+the Lord Provost of Edinburgh (Kincaid Mackenzie, Esq.); William
+Clerk, Esq., Principal Clerk of the Jury Court; Henry Jardine, Esq.,
+Deputy Remembrancer in the Exchequer; Thomas Thomson, Esq., Deputy
+Clerk-Register of Scotland; and Walter Scott, Esq., one of the
+Principal Clerks of Session."</p>
+
+<p>Of the proceedings of this day, the reader has a full and particular
+account in an Essay which Scott penned shortly afterwards, and which
+is included in his Prose Miscellanies (vol. vii.). But I must not omit
+the contemporaneous letters in which he announced the success of the
+quest to his friend the Secretary of the Admiralty, and through him to
+the Regent:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="quote">
+<p class="tit-center">TO J. W. CROKER, ESQ., M. P., ETC., ETC., ADMIRALTY, LONDON.</p>
+<p class="left50"><span class="smcap">Edinburgh</span>, 4th February, 1818.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">My dear Croker</span>,&mdash;I have the pleasure to assure you the
+     Regalia of Scotland were this day found in perfect
+     preservation. The Sword of State and Sceptre showed marks of
+     hard usage at some former period; but in all respects agree
+     with the description in Thomson's work.<a id="footnotetag86" name="footnotetag86"></a><a href="#footnote86" title="Go to footnote 86"><span class="small">[86]</span></a> I will send you
+     a complete account of the opening to-morrow, as the official
+     account will take some time to draw up. In the mean time, I
+     hope you will remain as obstinate in your unbelief as St.
+     Thomas, because then you will come down to satisfy yourself.
+     I know nobody entitled to earlier information, save <span class="smcap">ONE</span>, to
+     whom you can perhaps find the means of communicating the
+     result of our researches. The post is just going off.</p>
+
+<p>Ever yours truly,<br>
+<span class="left50 smcap">Walter Scott.</span></p>
+</div>
+
+<div class="quote">
+<p class="tit-center"><span class="pagenum"><a id="page210" name="page210"></a>(p. 210)</span> TO THE SAME.</p>
+<p class="left50"><span class="smcap">Edinburgh</span>, 5th February, 1818.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">My dear Croker</span>,&mdash;I promised I would add something to my
+     report of yesterday, and yet I find I have but little to
+     say. The extreme solemnity of opening sealed doors of oak
+     and iron, and finally breaking open a chest which had been
+     shut since 7th March, 1707, about a hundred and eleven
+     years, gave a sort of interest to our researches, which I
+     can hardly express to you, and it would be very difficult to
+     describe the intense eagerness with which we watched the
+     rising of the lid of the chest, and the progress of the
+     workmen in breaking it open, which was neither an easy nor a
+     speedy task. It sounded very hollow when they worked on it
+     with their tools, and I began to lean to your faction of the
+     Little Faiths. However, I never could assign any probable or
+     feasible reason for withdrawing these memorials of ancient
+     independence; and my doubts rather arose from the conviction
+     that many absurd things are done in public as well as in
+     private life, merely out of a hasty impression of passion or
+     resentment. For it was evident the removal of the Regalia
+     might have greatly irritated people's minds here, and
+     offered a fair pretext of breaking the Union, which for
+     thirty years was the predominant wish of the Scottish
+     nation.</p>
+
+<p>The discovery of the Regalia has interested people's minds
+     much more strongly than I expected, and is certainly
+     calculated to make a pleasant and favorable impression upon
+     them in respect to the kingly part of the constitution. It
+     would be of the utmost consequence that they should be
+     occasionally shown to them, under proper regulations, and
+     for a small fee. The Sword of State is a most beautiful
+     piece of workmanship, a present from Pope Julius II. to
+     James IV. The scabbard is richly decorated with filigree
+     work of silver, double gilded, representing oak leaves and
+     acorns, executed in <span class="pagenum"><a id="page211" name="page211"></a>(p. 211)</span> a taste worthy that classical
+     age in which the arts revived. A draughtsman has been
+     employed to make sketches of these articles, in order to be
+     laid before his Royal Highness. The fate of these Regalia,
+     which his Royal Highness's goodness has thus restored to
+     light and honor, has on one or two occasions been singular
+     enough. They were, in 1652, lodged in the Castle of
+     Dunnottar, the seat of the Earl Marischal, by whom,
+     according to his ancient privilege, they were kept. The
+     castle was defended by George Ogilvie of Barra, who,
+     apprehensive of the progress which the English made in
+     reducing the strong places in Scotland, became anxious for
+     the safety of these valuable memorials. The ingenuity of his
+     lady had them conveyed out of the castle in a bag on a
+     woman's back, among some <span class="italic">hards</span>, as they are called, of
+     lint. They were carried to the Kirk of Kinneff, and
+     entrusted to the care of the clergyman, named Grainger, and
+     his wife, and buried under the pulpit. The Castle of
+     Dunnottar, though very strong and faithfully defended, was
+     at length under necessity of surrendering, being the last
+     strong place in Britain on which the royal flag floated in
+     those calamitous times. Ogilvie and his lady were threatened
+     with the utmost extremities by the Republican General
+     Morgan, unless they should produce the Regalia. The governor
+     stuck to it that he knew nothing of them, as in fact they
+     had been carried away without his knowledge. The lady
+     maintained she had given them to John Keith, second son of
+     the Earl Marischal, by whom, she said, they had been carried
+     to France. They suffered a long imprisonment, and much ill
+     usage. On the Restoration, the old Countess Marischal,
+     founding upon the story Mrs. Ogilvie had told to screen her
+     husband, obtained for her own son, John Keith, the earldom
+     of Kintore, and the post of Knight Marischal, with £400 a
+     year, as if he had been in truth the preserver of the
+     Regalia. It soon proved that this reward had been too
+     hastily given, for Ogilvie of Barra <span class="pagenum"><a id="page212" name="page212"></a>(p. 212)</span> produced the
+     Regalia, the honest clergyman refusing to deliver them to
+     any one but those from whom he received them. Ogilvie was
+     made a Knight Baronet, however, and got a new charter of the
+     lands, acknowledging the good service. Thus it happened
+     oddly enough, that Keith, who was abroad during the
+     transaction, and had nothing to do with it, got the earldom,
+     pension, etc., Ogilvie only inferior honors, and the poor
+     clergyman nothing whatever, or, as we say, <span class="italic">the hare's foot
+     to lick</span>. As for Ogilvie's lady, she died before the
+     Restoration, her health being ruined by the hardships she
+     endured from the Cromwellian satellites. She was a Douglas,
+     with all the high spirit of that proud family. On her
+     deathbed, and not till then, she told her husband where the
+     honors were concealed, charging him to suffer death rather
+     than betray them. Popular tradition says, not very probably,
+     that Grainger and his wife were <span class="italic">booted</span> (that is, tortured
+     with the engine called the boots). I think that the Knight
+     Marischal's office rested in the Kintore family until 1715,
+     when it was resumed on account of the bearded Earl's
+     accession to the Insurrection of that year. He escaped well,
+     for they might have taken his estate and his earldom. I must
+     save post, however, and conclude abruptly. Yours ever,</p>
+
+<p class="left50 smcap">Walter Scott.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>On the 5th, after the foregoing letter had been written at the Clerk's
+table, Scott and several of his brother Commissioners revisited the
+Castle, accompanied by some of the ladies of their families. His
+daughter tells me that her father's conversation had worked her
+feelings up to such a pitch, that when the lid was again removed, she
+nearly fainted, and drew back from the circle. As she was retiring,
+she was startled by his voice exclaiming, in a tone of the deepest
+emotion, "something between anger and despair," as she expresses
+it,&mdash;"By G&mdash;, No!" One of the Commissioners, not quite entering
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page213" name="page213"></a>(p. 213)</span> into the solemnity with which Scott regarded this business,
+had, it seems, made a sort of motion as if he meant to put the crown
+on the head of one of the young ladies near him, but the voice and
+aspect of the Poet were more than sufficient to make the worthy
+gentleman understand his error; and, respecting the enthusiasm with
+which he had not been taught to sympathize, he laid down the ancient
+diadem with an air of painful embarrassment. Scott whispered, "Pray,
+forgive me;" and turning round at the moment, observed his daughter
+deadly pale, and leaning by the door. He immediately drew her out of
+the room, and when the air had somewhat recovered her, walked with her
+across the Mound to Castle Street. "He never spoke all the way home,"
+she says, "but every now and then I felt his arm tremble; and from
+that time I fancied he began to treat me more like a woman than a
+child. I thought he liked me better, too, than he had ever done
+before."</p>
+
+<p>These little incidents may give some notion of the profound
+seriousness with which his imagination had invested this matter. I am
+obliged to add, that in the society of Edinburgh at the time, even in
+the highest Tory circles, it did not seem to awaken much even of
+curiosity&mdash;to say nothing of any deeper feeling. There was, however, a
+great excitement among the common people of the town, and a still
+greater among the peasantry, not only in the neighborhood, but all
+over Scotland; and the Crown-room, becoming thenceforth one of the
+established <span class="italic">lions</span> of a city much resorted to, moreover, by stranger
+tourists, was likely, on the most moderate scale of admission-fee, to
+supply a revenue sufficient for remunerating responsible and
+respectable guardianship. This post would, as Scott thought, be a very
+suitable one for his friend, Captain Adam Ferguson; and he exerted all
+his zeal for that purpose. The Captain was appointed: his nomination,
+however, did not take place for some months after; and the postscript
+of a <span class="pagenum"><a id="page214" name="page214"></a>(p. 214)</span> letter to the Duke of Buccleuch, dated May 14, 1818,
+plainly indicates the interest on which Scott mainly relied for its
+completion: "If you happen," he writes, "to see Lord Melville, pray
+give him a jog about Ferguson's affair; but between ourselves, I
+depend chiefly on the kind offices of Willie Adam, who is an auld
+sneck-drawer." The Lord Chief-Commissioner, at all times ready to lend
+Scott his influence with the Royal Family, had, on the present
+occasion, the additional motive of warm and hereditary personal regard
+for Ferguson.</p>
+
+<p>I have placed together such letters as referred principally to the
+episode of the Regalia; but shall now give, in the order of time, a
+few which will sufficiently illustrate the usual course of his
+existence, while The Heart of Mid-Lothian was in progress. It appears
+that he resumed, in the beginning of this year, his drama of
+Devorgoil. His letters to Terry are of course full of that subject,
+but they contain, at the same time, many curious indications of his
+views and feelings as to theatrical affairs in general&mdash;and mixed up
+with these a most characteristic record of the earnestness with which
+he now watched the interior fitting up, as he had in the season before
+the outward architecture, of the new edifice at Abbotsford. Meanwhile
+it will be seen that he found leisure hours for various contributions
+to periodical works,&mdash;among others, an article on Kirkton's Church
+History, and another on (of all subjects in the world) <span class="italic">military
+bridges</span>, for the Quarterly Review; a spirited version of the old
+German ballad on the Battle of Sempach, and a generous criticism on
+Mrs. Shelley's romance of Frankenstein, for Blackwood's Magazine. This
+being the first winter and spring of Laidlaw's establishment at
+Kaeside, communications as to the affairs of the farm were exchanged
+weekly whenever Scott was in Edinburgh, and they afford delightful
+evidence of that paternal solicitude for the well-being of his rural
+dependents, which all along kept pace with Scott's zeal as to the
+economical <span class="pagenum"><a id="page215" name="page215"></a>(p. 215)</span> improvement, and the picturesque adornment of his
+territories.</p>
+
+<div class="quote">
+<p class="tit-center">TO D. TERRY, ESQ., LONDON.</p>
+<p class="left50"><span class="smcap">Edinburgh</span>, 23d January, 1818.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">My dear Terry</span>,&mdash;You have by this time the continuation of
+     the drama, down to the commencement of the third act, as I
+     have your letter on the subject of the first. You will
+     understand that I only mean them as sketches; for the first
+     and second acts are too short, and both want much to combine
+     them with the third. I can easily add music to Miss
+     Devorgoil's part. As to Braham, he is a beast of an actor,
+     though an angel of a singer, and truly I do not see what he
+     could personify. Let me know, however, your thoughts and
+     wishes, and all shall be moulded to the best of my power to
+     meet them: the point is to make it <span class="italic">take</span> if we can; the
+     rest is all leather and prunella. A great many things must
+     occur to you technically better, in the way of alteration
+     and improvement, and you know well that, though too indolent
+     to amend things on my own conviction, I am always ready to
+     make them meet my friends' wishes if possible. We shall both
+     wish it better than I can make it, but there is no reason
+     why we should not do for it all that we can. I advise you to
+     take some sapient friend into your counsels, and let me know
+     the result, returning the MS. at the same time.</p>
+
+<p>I am now anxious to complete Abbotsford. I think I told you
+     I mean to do nothing whatever to the present house, but to
+     take it away altogether at some future time, so that I
+     finish the upper story without any communication with Mrs.
+     Redford's <span class="italic" lang="fr">ci-devant</span> mansion, and shall place the opening
+     in the lower story, wherever it will be most suitable for
+     the new house, without regard to defacing the temporary
+     drawing-room. I am quite feverish about the armory. I have
+     two pretty complete suits of armor&mdash;one Indian one, and a
+     cuirassier's, with <span class="pagenum"><a id="page216" name="page216"></a>(p. 216)</span> boots, casque, etc.; many
+     helmets, corselets, and steel caps, swords and poniards
+     without end, and about a dozen of guns, ancient and modern.
+     I have besides two or three battle-axes and maces, pikes and
+     targets, a Highlander's accoutrement complete, a great
+     variety of branches of horns, pikes, bows and arrows, and
+     the clubs and creases of Indian tribes. Mr. Bullock promised
+     to give some hint about the fashion of disposing all these
+     matters; and now our spring is approaching, and I want but
+     my plans to get on. I have reason to be proud of the
+     finishing of my castle, for even of the tower, for which I
+     trembled, not a stone has been shaken by the late terrific
+     gale, which blew a roof clear off in the neighborhood. It
+     was lying in the road like a saddle, as Tom Purdie expressed
+     it. Neither has a slate been lifted, though about two yards
+     of slating were stripped from the stables in the haugh,
+     which you know were comparatively less exposed.</p>
+
+<p>I am glad to hear of Mrs. Terry's improved health and good
+     prospects. As for young Master Mumblecrust, I have no doubt
+     he will be a credit to us all.</p>
+
+<p>Yours ever truly,<br>
+<span class="left50 smcap">W. Scott.</span></p>
+</div>
+
+<p>As the letters to Mr. Laidlaw did not travel by post, but in the
+basket which had come laden with farm-produce for the use of the
+family in Edinburgh, they have rarely any date but the day of the
+week. This is, however, of no consequence.</p>
+
+<div class="quote">
+<p class="tit-center">TO MR. LAIDLAW, KAESIDE.</p>
+<p class="left50">Wednesday. [January, 1818.]</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Dear Willie</span>,&mdash;Should the weather be rough, and you
+     nevertheless obliged to come to town, do not think of
+     riding, but take the Blucher.<a id="footnotetag87" name="footnotetag87"></a><a href="#footnote87" title="Go to footnote 87"><span class="small">[87]</span></a> Remember, your health is
+     of consequence to your family. Pray talk generally with the
+     notables of Darnick&mdash;I mean Rutherford, <span class="pagenum"><a id="page217" name="page217"></a>(p. 217)</span> and so
+     forth&mdash;concerning the best ordering of the road to the
+     marle; and also of the foot-road. It appears to me some
+     route might be found more convenient than the present, but
+     that which is most agreeable to those interested shall also
+     be most agreeable for me. As a patriotic member of the
+     community of Darnick, I consider their rights equally
+     important as my own.</p>
+
+<p>I told you I should like to convert the present steading at
+     Beechland into a little hamlet of laborers, which we will
+     name Abbotstown. The art of making people happy is to leave
+     them much to their own guidance, but some little regulation
+     is necessary. In the first place, I should like to have
+     active and decent people there; then it is to be considered
+     on what footing they should be. I conceive the best possible
+     is, that they should pay for their cottages, and cow-grass,
+     and potato ground, and be paid for their labor at the
+     ordinary rate. I would give them some advantages sufficient
+     to balance the following conditions, which, after all, are
+     conditions in my favor: <span class="italic">1st</span>, That they shall keep their
+     cottages and little gardens, and doors, tolerably neat; and
+     <span class="italic">2d</span>, That the men shall on no account shoot, or the boys
+     break timber or take birds' nests, or go among the planting.
+     I do not know any other restrictions, and these are easy. I
+     should think we might settle a few families very happily
+     here, which is an object I have much at heart, for I have no
+     notion of the proprietor who is only ambitious to be lord of
+     the "beast and the brute," and chases the human face from
+     his vicinity. By the bye, could we not manage to have a
+     piper among the colonists?</p>
+
+<p>We are delighted to hear that your little folks like the
+     dells. Pray, in your walks try to ascertain the locality of
+     St. John's Well, which cures the botts, and which John Moss
+     claims for Kaeside; also the true history of the Carline's
+     Hole. Ever most truly yours,</p>
+
+<p class="left50 smcap">W. Scott.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page218" name="page218"></a>(p. 218)</span> I hope Mrs. Laidlaw does not want for anything that she can
+get from the garden or elsewhere.</p>
+</div>
+
+<div class="quote">
+<p class="tit-center">TO DANIEL TERRY, ESQ.</p>
+<p class="left50">8th February, 1818.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">My dear Terry</span>,&mdash;Yours arrived, unluckily, just half an hour
+     after my packet was in the post-office, so this will cost
+     you 9<span class="italic">d.</span>, for which I grieve. To answer your principal
+     question first,&mdash;the drama is</p>
+
+<p class="poem30">
+  "Yours, Terry, yours in every thought."</p>
+
+<p>I should never have dreamed of making such an attempt in my
+     own proper person; and if I had such a vision, I should have
+     been anxious to have made it something of a legitimate
+     drama, such as a literary man, uncalled upon by any
+     circumstance to connect himself with the stage, might have
+     been expected to produce. Now this is just what any
+     gentleman in your situation might run off, to give a little
+     novelty to the entertainment of the year, and as such will
+     meet a mitigated degree of criticism, and have a better
+     chance of that <span class="italic">productive</span> success, which is my principal
+     object in my godson's behalf. If any time should come when
+     you might wish to disclose the secret, it will be in your
+     power, and our correspondence will always serve to show that
+     it was only at my earnest request, annexed as the condition
+     of bringing the play forward, that you gave it your name&mdash;a
+     circumstance which, with all the attending particulars, will
+     prove plainly that there was no assumption on your part.</p>
+
+<p>A beautiful drama might be made on the concealment of the
+     Scotch Regalia during the troubles. But it would interfere
+     with the democratic spirit of the times, and would probably</p>
+
+<p class="poem20">
+<span class="add6em">&mdash;&mdash; "By party rage,</span><br>
+  Or right or wrong, be hooted from the stage."</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page219" name="page219"></a>(p. 219)</span> I will never forgive you if you let any false idea
+     of my authorial feelings prevent your acting in this affair
+     as if you were the real parent, not the godfather of the
+     piece. Our facetious friend J. B. knows nought of such a
+     matter being <span class="italic">en train</span>, and never will know. I am delighted
+     to hear my windows are finished. Yours very truly,</p>
+
+<p class="left50 smcap">Walter Scott.</p>
+</div>
+
+<div class="quote">
+<p class="tit-center">TO MR. LAIDLAW, KAESIDE.</p>
+<p class="left50">Wednesday. [February, 1818.]</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Dear Willie</span>,&mdash;I am not desirous to buy more land at present,
+     unless I were to deal with Mr. Rutherford or Heiton, and I
+     would rather deal with them next year than this, when I
+     would have all my payments made for what I am now buying.
+     Three or four such years as the last would enable me with
+     prudence and propriety to ask Nicol<a id="footnotetag89" name="footnotetag89"></a><a href="#footnote89" title="Go to footnote 89"><span class="small">[89]</span></a> himself to flit and
+     remove.</p>
+
+<p>I like the idea of the birch-hedge much, and if intermixed
+     with holly and thorns, I think it might make an impenetrable
+     thicket, having all the advantages of a hedge without the
+     formality. I fancy you will also need a great number of
+     (black) Italian poplars&mdash;which are among the most useful and
+     best growers, as well as most beautiful of plants which love
+     a wet soil.</p>
+
+<p>I am glad the saws are going.<a id="footnotetag90" name="footnotetag90"></a><a href="#footnote90" title="Go to footnote 90"><span class="small">[90]</span></a> We may begin by and by
+     with wrights, but I cannot but think that a handy laborer
+     might be taught to work at them. I shall insist on Tom
+     learning the process perfectly himself.</p>
+
+<p>As to the darkness of the garrets, they are intended for the
+     accommodation of travelling geniuses, poets, painters, and
+     so forth, and a little obscurity will refresh their
+     shattered brains. I dare say Lauchie<a id="footnotetag91" name="footnotetag91"></a><a href="#footnote91" title="Go to footnote 91"><span class="small">[91]</span></a> will <span class="italic">shave</span>
+     <span class="pagenum"><a id="page220" name="page220"></a>(p. 220)</span> his knoll, if it is required&mdash;it may to the
+     barber's with the Laird's hebdomadal beard&mdash;and Packwood
+     would have thought it the easier job of the two.</p>
+
+<p>I saw Blackwood yesterday, and Hogg the day before, and I
+     understand from them you think of resigning the Chronicle
+     department of the Magazine. Blackwood told me that if you
+     did not like that part of the duty, he would consider
+     himself accountable for the same sum he had specified to you
+     for any other articles you might communicate from time to
+     time. He proposes that Hogg should do the Chronicle: He will
+     not do it so well as you, for he wants judgment and caution,
+     and likes to have the appearance of eccentricity where
+     eccentricity is least graceful; that, however, is
+     Blackwood's affair. If you really do not like the Chronicle,
+     there can be no harm in your giving it up. What strikes me
+     is, that there is a something certain in having such a
+     department to conduct, whereas you may sometimes find
+     yourself at a loss when you have to cast about for a subject
+     every month. Blackwood <span class="italic">is</span> rather in a bad pickle just
+     now&mdash;sent to Coventry by the trade, as the booksellers call
+     themselves, and all about the parody of the two beasts.<a id="footnotetag92" name="footnotetag92"></a><a href="#footnote92" title="Go to footnote 92"><span class="small">[92]</span></a>
+     <span class="pagenum"><a id="page221" name="page221"></a>(p. 221)</span> Surely these gentlemen think themselves rather
+     formed of porcelain clay than of common potter's ware.
+     Dealing in satire against all others, their own dignity
+     suffers so cruelly from an ill-imagined joke! If B. had good
+     books to sell, he might set them all at defiance. His
+     Magazine does well, and beats Constable's: but we will talk
+     of this when we meet.<a id="footnotetag93" name="footnotetag93"></a><a href="#footnote93" title="Go to footnote 93"><span class="small">[93]</span></a></p>
+
+<p>As for Whiggery in general, I can only say, that as no man
+     can be said to be utterly overset until his rump has been
+     higher than his head, so I cannot read in history of any
+     free state which has been brought to slavery until the
+     rascal and uninstructed populace had had their short hour of
+     anarchical government, which naturally <span class="pagenum"><a id="page222" name="page222"></a>(p. 222)</span> leads to
+     the stern repose of military despotism. Property, morals,
+     education, are the proper qualifications for those who
+     should hold political rights, and extending them very widely
+     greatly lessens the chance of these qualifications being
+     found in electors. Look at the sort of persons chosen at
+     elections where the franchise is very general, and you will
+     find either fools who are content to flatter the passions of
+     the mob for a little transient popularity, or knaves who
+     pander to their follies, that they may make their necks a
+     footstool for their own promotion. With these convictions, I
+     am very jealous of Whiggery, under all modifications; and I
+     must say, my acquaintance with the total want of principle
+     in some of its warmest professors does not tend to recommend
+     it. Somewhat too much of this. My compliments to the
+     goodwife. Yours truly,</p>
+
+<p class="left50 smcap">Walter Scott.</p>
+</div>
+
+<div class="quote">
+<p class="tit-center">TO THE SAME.</p>
+<p class="left50">Wednesday. [February, 1818.]</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Dear Willie</span>,&mdash;I have no idea Usher<a id="footnotetag94" name="footnotetag94"></a><a href="#footnote94" title="Go to footnote 94"><span class="small">[94]</span></a> will take the
+     sheepland again, nor would I press it on him. As my
+     circumstances stand, immediate revenue is much less my
+     object than the real improvement of this property, which
+     amuses me besides; our wants are amply supplied by my £1600
+     a year official income: nor have we a wish or a motive to
+     extend our expenses beyond that of the decencies and
+     hospitality of our station in life; so that my other
+     resources remain for buying land in future, or improving
+     what we have. No doubt Abbotsford, in maintaining our
+     establishment during the summer, may be reckoned £150 or
+     £200 saved on what we must otherwise buy; and if we could
+     arrange to have mutton and beef <span class="pagenum"><a id="page223" name="page223"></a>(p. 223)</span> occasionally from
+     the farm in winter, it would be a still greater saving. All
+     this you will consider: for Tom, thoroughly honest and very
+     clever in his way, has no kind of generalizing, and would
+     often like to save sixpence in his own department at the
+     expense of my paying five shillings in another. This is his
+     fault, and when you join to it a Scotch slovenliness which
+     leads him to see things half-finished without pain or
+     anxiety, I do not know any other he has&mdash;but such as they
+     are, these must be guarded against. For our housemaid (for
+     housekeeper we must not call her), I should like much a hawk
+     of a nest so good as that you mention: but would not such a
+     place be rather beneath her views? Her duty would be to look
+     to scrupulous cleanliness within doors, and employ her
+     leisure in spinning, or plain-work, as wanted. When we came
+     out for a blink, she would be expected to cook a little in a
+     plain way, and play maid of all work; when we were
+     stationary, she would assist the housemaid and superintend
+     the laundry. Probably your aunt's granddaughter will have
+     pretensions to something better than this; but as we are to
+     be out on the 12th March, we will talk it over. Assuredly a
+     well-connected steady person would be of the greatest
+     consequence to us. I like your plan of pitting much; and to
+     compromise betwixt you and Tom, do one half with superior
+     attention, and slit in the others for mere nurses. But I am
+     no friend to that same slitting.</p>
+
+<p>I adhere to trying a patch or two of larches, of a quarter
+     of an acre each, upon the Athole plan, by way of experiment.
+     We can plant them up if they do not thrive. On the whole,
+     three-and-a-half feet is, I think, the right distance. I
+     have no fear of the ground being impoverished. Trees are not
+     like arable crops, which necessarily derive their sustenance
+     from the superficial earth&mdash;the roots of trees go far and
+     wide, and, if incommoded by a neighbor, they send out
+     suckers to procure nourishment elsewhere. They never hurt
+     each other till <span class="pagenum"><a id="page224" name="page224"></a>(p. 224)</span> their tops interfere, which may be
+     easily prevented by timely weeding.</p>
+
+<p>I rejoice in the sawmill. Have you settled with Harper?&mdash;and
+     how do Og and Bashan<a id="footnotetag95" name="footnotetag95"></a><a href="#footnote95" title="Go to footnote 95"><span class="small">[95]</span></a> come on? I cannot tell you how
+     delighted I am with the account Hogg gives me of Mr. Grieve.
+     The great Cameron was chaplain in the house of my great
+     something grandfather, and so I hope Mr. Grieve will be
+     mine. If, as the King of Prussia said to Rousseau, "a little
+     persecution is necessary to make his home entirely to his
+     mind," he shall have it; and what persecutors seldom
+     promise, I will stop whenever he is tired of it. I have a
+     pair of thumbikins also much at his service, if he requires
+     their assistance to glorify God and the Covenant. Sincerely,
+     I like enthusiasm of every kind so well, especially when
+     united with worth of character, that I shall be delighted
+     with this old gentleman. Ever yours,</p>
+
+<p class="left50 smcap">W. Scott.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>The last paragraph of this letter refers to an uncle of Laidlaw's (the
+father of Hogg's friend, John Grieve), who at this time thought of
+occupying a cottage on Scott's estate. He was a preacher of the
+Cameronian sect, and had long ministered to a very small remnant of
+"the hill-folk" scattered among the wilds of Ettrick. He was a very
+good man, and had a most venerable and apostolical benignity of
+aspect; but his prejudices were as extravagant as those of Cameron,
+his patriarch, himself could have been. The project of his removal to
+Tweedside was never realized.</p>
+
+<p>The following admirable letter was written at the request of Messrs.
+Constable, who had, on Scott's recommendation, undertaken the
+publication of Mr. Maturin's novel, Women, or <span class="italic" lang="fr">Pour et Contre</span>. The
+reverend author's Bertram had, it may be remembered, undergone some
+rather rough usage in Coleridge's Biographia Literaria; <span class="pagenum"><a id="page225" name="page225"></a>(p. 225)</span> and
+he was now desirous to revenge himself by a preface of the polemical
+sort:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="quote">
+<p class="tit-center">TO THE REV. C. R. MATURIN, DUBLIN.</p>
+<p class="left50">26th February, 1818.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Dear Sir</span>,&mdash;I am going to claim the utmost and best privilege
+     of sincere friendship and good-will, that of offering a few
+     words of well-meant advice; and you may be sure that the
+     occasion seems important to induce me to venture so far upon
+     your tolerance. It respects the preface to your work, which
+     Constable and Co. have sent to me. It is as well written as
+     that sort of thing can be; but will you forgive me if I
+     say&mdash;it is too much in the tone of the offence which gave
+     rise to it, to be agreeable either to good taste or to
+     general feeling. Coleridge's work has been little read or
+     heard of, and has made no general impression
+     whatever&mdash;certainly no impression unfavorable to you or your
+     play. In the opinion, therefore, of many, you will be
+     resenting an injury of which they are unacquainted with the
+     existence. If I see a man beating another unmercifully, I am
+     apt to condemn him upon the first blush of the business, and
+     hardly excuse him though I may afterwards learn he had ample
+     provocation. Besides, your diatribe is not <span class="italic">hujus loci</span>. We
+     take up a novel for amusement, and this current of
+     controversy breaks out upon us like a stream of lava out of
+     the side of a beautiful green hill; men will say you should
+     have reserved your disputes for reviews or periodical
+     publications, and they will sympathize less with your anger,
+     because they will not think the time proper for expressing
+     it. We are bad judges, bad physicians, and bad divines in
+     our own case; but, above all, we are seldom able, when
+     injured or insulted, to judge of the degree of sympathy
+     which the world will bear in our resentment and our
+     retaliation. The instant, however, that such degree of
+     sympathy is exceeded, we hurt ourselves, and not our
+     adversary. I am so convinced <span class="pagenum"><a id="page226" name="page226"></a>(p. 226)</span> of this, and so
+     deeply fixed in the opinion, that besides the uncomfortable
+     feelings which are generated in the course of literary
+     debate, a man lowers his estimation in the public eye by
+     engaging in such controversy, that, since I have been dipped
+     in ink, I have suffered no personal attacks (and I have been
+     honored with them of all descriptions) to provoke me to
+     reply. A man will certainly be vexed on such occasions, and
+     I have wished to have the knaves <span class="italic">where the muircock was the
+     bailie</span>&mdash;or, as <span class="italic">you</span> would say, <span class="italic">upon the sod</span>&mdash;but I never
+     let the thing cling to my mind, and always adhered to my
+     resolution, that if my writings and tenor of life did not
+     confute such attacks, my words never should. Let me entreat
+     you to view Coleridge's violence as a thing to be contemned,
+     not retaliated&mdash;the opinion of a British public may surely
+     be set in honest opposition to that of one disappointed and
+     wayward man. You should also consider, <span class="italic" lang="fr">en bon Chrétien</span>,
+     that Coleridge has had some room to be spited at the world,
+     and you are, I trust, to continue to be a favorite with the
+     public&mdash;so that you should totally neglect and despise
+     criticism, however virulent, which arises out of his bad
+     fortune and your good.</p>
+
+<p>I have only to add that Messrs. Constable and Co. are
+     seriously alarmed for the effects of the preface upon the
+     public mind as unfavorable to the work. In this they must be
+     tolerable judges, for their experience as to popular feeling
+     is very great; and as they have met your wishes, in all the
+     course of the transaction, perhaps you will be disposed to
+     give some weight to their opinion upon a point like this.
+     Upon my own part I can only say that I have no habits of
+     friendship, and scarce those of acquaintance with
+     Coleridge&mdash;I have not even read his Autobiography&mdash;but I
+     consider him as a man of genius, struggling with bad habits
+     and difficult circumstances. It is, however, entirely upon
+     your account that I take the liberty of stating an opinion
+     on a subject of such delicacy. I should wish you to give
+     your excellent <span class="pagenum"><a id="page227" name="page227"></a>(p. 227)</span> talents fair play, and to ride this
+     race without carrying any superfluous weight; and I am so
+     well acquainted with my old friend the public, that I could
+     bet a thousand pounds to a shilling, that the preface (if
+     that controversial part of it is not cancelled) will greatly
+     prejudice your novel.</p>
+
+<p>I will not ask your forgiveness for the freedom I have used,
+     for I am sure you will not suspect me of any motives but
+     those which arise from regard to your talents and person;
+     but I shall be glad to hear (whether you follow my advice or
+     no) that you are not angry with me for having volunteered to
+     offer it.</p>
+
+<p>My health is, I think, greatly improved; I have had some
+     returns of my spasmodic affection, but tolerable in degree,
+     and yielding to medicine. I hope gentle exercise and the air
+     of my hills will set me up this summer. I trust you will
+     soon be out now. I have delayed reading the sheets in
+     progress after Vol. I., that I might enjoy them when
+     collected. Ever yours, etc.,</p>
+
+<p class="left50 smcap">Walter Scott.</p>
+</div>
+
+<div class="quote">
+<p class="tit-center">TO MR. LAIDLAW.</p>
+<p class="left50"><span class="smcap">Edinburgh</span>, Wednesday. [March, 1818.]</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Dear Willie</span>,&mdash;I am delighted to hear the plantings get on so
+     well. The weather here has been cruelly changeable&mdash;fresh
+     one day&mdash;frost the next&mdash;snow the third. This morning the
+     snow lay three inches thick, and before noon it was gone,
+     and blowing a tempest. Many of the better ranks are ill of
+     the typhus fever, and some deaths. How do your poor folks
+     come on? Let Tom advance you money when it is wanted. I do
+     not propose, like the heroine of a novel, to convert the
+     hovels of want into the abodes of elegant plenty, but we
+     have enough to spare to relieve actual distress, and do not
+     wish to economize where we can find out (which is difficult)
+     where the assistance is instantly useful.</p>
+
+<p>Don't let Tom forget hedgerow trees, which he is very
+     <span class="pagenum"><a id="page228" name="page228"></a>(p. 228)</span> unwilling to remember; and also to plant birches,
+     oaks, elms, and such like round-headed trees along the
+     verges of the Kaeside plantations; they make a beautiful
+     outline, and also a sort of fence, and were not planted last
+     year because the earth at the sunk fences was too newly
+     travelled. This should be mixed with various bushes, as
+     hollies, thorns, so as to make a wild hedge, or thickety
+     obstruction to the inroads of cattle. A few sweetbriers,
+     alders, honeysuckles, laburnums, etc., should be thrown in.
+     A verdant screen may be made in this way, of the wildest and
+     most beautiful description, which should never be clipt,
+     only pruned, allowing the loose branches to drop over those
+     that are taken away. Tom is very costive about trees, and
+     talks only of 300 poplars. I shall send at least double that
+     number; also some hagberries, etc. He thinks he is saving me
+     money when he is starving my projects; but he is a pearl of
+     honesty and good intention, and I like him the better for
+     needing driving where expense is likely. Ever yours,</p>
+
+<p class="left50 smcap">W. Scott.</p>
+</div>
+
+<div class="quote">
+<p class="tit-center">TO JOHN MURRAY, ESQ., ALBEMARLE STREET, LONDON.</p>
+<p class="left50"><span class="smcap">Abbotsford</span>, 23d March, 1818.</p>
+
+<p class="smcap">Dear Murray,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p class="poem20">
+  "Grieve not for me, my dearest dear,<br>
+  I am not dead but sleepeth here."&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>I have little to plead for myself, but the old and vile
+     apologies of laziness and indisposition. I think I have been
+     so unlucky of late as to have always the will to work when
+     sitting at the desk hurts me, and the irresistible
+     propensity to be lazy, when I might, like the man whom
+     Hogarth introduces into Bridewell with his hands strapped up
+     against the wall, "better work than stand thus." I laid
+     Kirkton<a id="footnotetag96" name="footnotetag96"></a><a href="#footnote96" title="Go to footnote 96"><span class="small">[96]</span></a> aside half finished, from a desire <span class="pagenum"><a id="page229" name="page229"></a>(p. 229)</span> to
+     get the original edition of the lives of Cameron, etc., by
+     Patrick Walker, which I had not seen since a boy, and now I
+     have got it, and find, as I suspected, that some curious
+     <span class="italic" lang="fr">morceaux</span> have been cut out by subsequent editors.<a id="footnotetag97" name="footnotetag97"></a><a href="#footnote97" title="Go to footnote 97"><span class="small">[97]</span></a> I
+     will, without loss of time, finish the article, which I
+     think you will like. Blackwood kidnapped an article for his
+     Magazine on the Frankenstein story,<a id="footnotetag98" name="footnotetag98"></a><a href="#footnote98" title="Go to footnote 98"><span class="small">[98]</span></a> which I intended for
+     you. A very old friend and school companion of mine, and a
+     gallant soldier, if ever there was one, Sir Howard Douglas,
+     has asked me to review his work on Military Bridges. I must
+     get a friend's assistance for the scientific part, and add
+     some balaam of mine own (as printers' devils say) to make up
+     four or five pages. I have no objection to attempt Lord
+     Orford if I have time, and find I can do it with ease.
+     Though far from admiring his character, I have always had a
+     high opinion of his talents, and am well acquainted with his
+     works. The letters you have published are, I think, his very
+     best&mdash;lively, entertaining, and unaffected.<a id="footnotetag99" name="footnotetag99"></a><a href="#footnote99" title="Go to footnote 99"><span class="small">[99]</span></a> I am greatly
+     obliged to you for these and other literary treasures which
+     I owe to your goodness from time to time. Although not
+     thankfully acknowledged as they should be in course, these
+     things are never thanklessly received.</p>
+
+<p>I could have sworn that Beppo was founded on Whistlecraft,
+     as both were on Anthony Hall,<a id="footnotetag100" name="footnotetag100"></a><a href="#footnote100" title="Go to footnote 100"><span class="small">[100]</span></a> who, like Beppo, had more
+     wit than grace.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page230" name="page230"></a>(p. 230)</span> I am not, however, in spirits at present for
+     treating either these worthies, or my friend Rose,<a id="footnotetag101" name="footnotetag101"></a><a href="#footnote101" title="Go to footnote 101"><span class="small">[101]</span></a>
+     though few have warmer wishes to any of the trio. But this
+     confounded changeable weather has twice within this
+     fortnight brought back my cramp in the stomach. Adieu. My
+     next shall be with a packet.&mdash;Yours truly,</p>
+
+<p class="left50">W. Scott.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>In the next letter we have Scott's lamentation over the death of Mrs.
+Murray Keith&mdash;the Mrs. Bethune Baliol of his Chronicles of the
+Canongate. The person alluded to under the designation of "Prince of
+the Black Marble Islands" was Mr. George Bullock, already often
+mentioned as, with Terry and Mr. Atkinson, consulted about all the
+arrangements of the rising house at Abbotsford. Scott gave him this
+title from the Arabian Nights, on occasion of his becoming the lessee
+of some marble quarries in the Isle of Anglesea.</p>
+
+<div class="quote">
+<p class="tit-center">TO D. TERRY, ESQ., LONDON.</p>
+<p class="left50">April 30, 1818&mdash;<span class="smcap">Selkirk</span>.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">My Dear Terry</span>,&mdash;Your packet arrived this morning. I was much
+     disappointed not to find the Prince of the Black Islands'
+     plan in it, nor have I heard a word from him since anent it,
+     or anent the still more essential articles of doors and
+     windows. I heard from Hector Macdonald Buchanan, that the
+     said doors and windows were packing a fortnight since, but
+     there are no news of them. Surely our friend's heart has
+     grown as hard as his materials; or the spell of the
+     enchantress, which confined itself to the extremities of his
+     predecessor, has extended over his whole person. Mr.
+     Atkinson has kept tryst charmingly, and the ceiling of the
+     dining-room will be superb. I have got I know not how many
+     casts, from Melrose and other places, of pure Gothic
+     antiquity. I <span class="pagenum"><a id="page231" name="page231"></a>(p. 231)</span> must leave this on the 12th, and I
+     could bet a trifle the doors, etc., will arrive the very day
+     I set out, and be all put up <span class="italic" lang="fr">à la bonne aventure</span>. Meantime
+     I am keeping open house, not much to my convenience, and I
+     am afraid I shall be stopped in my plastering by the want of
+     these matters. The exposed state of my house has led to a
+     mysterious disturbance. The night before last we were awaked
+     by a violent noise, like drawing heavy boards along the new
+     part of the house. I fancied something had fallen, and
+     thought no more about it. This was about <span class="italic">two</span> in the
+     morning. Last night, at the same witching hour, the very
+     same noise occurred. Mrs. S., as you know, is rather
+     <span class="italic">timbersome</span>, so up got I, with Beardie's broadsword under
+     my arm,</p>
+
+<p class="poem30">
+  "So bolt upright,<br>
+  And ready to fight."</p>
+
+<p>But nothing was out of order, neither can I discover what
+     occasioned the disturbance. However, I went to bed,
+     grumbling against Tenterden Street,<a id="footnotetag102" name="footnotetag102"></a><a href="#footnote102" title="Go to footnote 102"><span class="small">[102]</span></a> and all its works.
+     If there was no entrance but the keyhole, I should warrant
+     myself against the ghosts. We have a set of idle fellows
+     called workmen about us, which is a better way of accounting
+     for nocturnal noises than any that is to be found in Baxter
+     or Glanville.</p>
+
+<p>When you see Mr. Atkinson, will you ask him how far he is
+     satisfied with the arch between the armory and the
+     ante-room, and whether it pleases him as it now stands? I
+     have a brave old oaken cabinet, as black as ebony, 300 years
+     old at least, which will occupy one side of the ante-room
+     for the present. It is seven feet and a half long, about
+     eighteen inches deep, and upwards of six feet high&mdash;a fine
+     stand for china, etc.</p>
+
+<p>You will be sorry to hear that we have lost our excellent
+     old friend, Mrs. Murray Keith. She enjoyed all her spirits
+     and excellent faculties till within two days of her death,
+     when she was seized with a feverish complaint, <span class="pagenum"><a id="page232" name="page232"></a>(p. 232)</span>
+     which eighty-two years were not calculated to resist. Much
+     tradition, and of the very best kind, has died with this
+     excellent old lady; one of the few persons whose spirits and
+     cleanliness, and freshness of mind and body, made old age
+     lovely and desirable. In the general case, it seems scarce
+     endurable.</p>
+
+<p>It seems odd to me that Rob Roy<a id="footnotetag103" name="footnotetag103"></a><a href="#footnote103" title="Go to footnote 103"><span class="small">[103]</span></a> should have made good
+     fortune; pray let me know something of its history. There is
+     in Jedediah's present work a thing capable of being woven
+     out a <span class="italic" lang="fr">bourgeoise</span> tragedy. I think of contriving that it
+     shall be in your hands some time before the public see it,
+     that you may try to operate upon it yourself. This would not
+     be difficult, as vol. 4, and part of 3d, contain a different
+     story. <span class="italic">Avowedly</span> I will never write for the stage; if I do,
+     "call me <span class="italic">horse</span>." And indeed I feel severely the want of
+     knowledge of theatrical business and effect: however,
+     something we will do. I am writing in the noise and babble
+     of a head-court of freeholders; therefore my letter is
+     incoherent, and therefore it is written also on long paper;
+     but therefore, moreover, it will move by frank, as the
+     member is here, and stands upon his popularity. Kind
+     compliments to Mrs. Terry and Walter.</p>
+
+<p>Yours very truly,<br>
+<span class="left50 smcap">Walter Scott.</span></p>
+</div>
+
+<p>On the morning that Mr. Terry received the foregoing letter in London,
+Mr. William Erskine was breakfasting with him; and the chief subject
+of their conversation was the sudden death of George Bullock, which
+had occurred on the same night, and, as nearly as they could
+ascertain, at the very hour when Scott was roused from his sleep by
+the "mysterious disturbance" here described, and sallied from his
+chamber with old Beardie's Killiecrankie claymore in his hand. This
+coincidence, when <span class="pagenum"><a id="page233" name="page233"></a>(p. 233)</span> Scott received Erskine's minute detail of
+what had happened in Tenterden Street, made a much stronger impression
+on his mind than might be gathered from the tone of an ensuing
+communication.</p>
+
+<div class="quote">
+<p class="tit-center">TO D. TERRY, ESQ., LONDON.</p>
+<p class="left50"><span class="smcap">Abbotsford</span>, 4th May, 1818.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Dear Terry</span>,&mdash;I received with the greatest surprise, and the
+     most sincere distress, the news of poor George Bullock's
+     death. In the full career of honorable
+     industry,&mdash;distinguished by his uncommon taste and
+     talent,&mdash;esteemed by all who transacted business with
+     him,&mdash;and loved by those who had the pleasure of his more
+     intimate acquaintance,&mdash;I can scarce conceive a more
+     melancholy summons. It comes as a particular shock to me,
+     because I had, particularly of late, so much associated his
+     idea with the improvements here, in which his kind and
+     enthusiastic temper led him to take such interest; and in
+     looking at every unfinished or projected circumstance, I
+     feel an impression of melancholy which will for some time
+     take away the pleasure I have found in them. I liked George
+     Bullock because he had no trumpery selfishness about his
+     heart, taste, or feelings. Pray let me know about the
+     circumstances of his family, etc. I feel most sincerely
+     interested in all that concerns him. It must have been a
+     dreadful surprise to Mr. Atkinson and you who lived with him
+     so much. I need not, I am sure, beg you to be in no hurry
+     about my things. The confusion must be cruelly great,
+     without any friend adding to it; and in fact, at this
+     moment, I am very indifferent on the subject. The poor kind
+     fellow! He took so much notice of little Charles, and was so
+     domesticated with us all, that I really looked with a
+     schoolboy's anxiety for his being here in the season, to
+     take his own quiet pleasures, and to forward mine. But God's
+     will be done. All that surviving friends can do upon such a
+     loss is, if possible, to love each other still better.&mdash;I
+     <span class="pagenum"><a id="page234" name="page234"></a>(p. 234)</span> beg to be kindly remembered to Mrs. Terry and
+     Monsieur Walter. Ever most truly yours,</p>
+
+<p class="left50 smcap">Walter Scott.</p>
+</div>
+
+<div class="quote">
+<p class="tit-center">TO THE SAME.</p>
+<p class="left50"><span class="smcap">Edinburgh</span>, 16th May, 1818.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">My Dear Terry</span>,&mdash;Mr. Nasmyth<a id="footnotetag104" name="footnotetag104"></a><a href="#footnote104" title="Go to footnote 104"><span class="small">[104]</span></a> has obligingly given me an
+     opportunity of writing to you a few lines, as he is setting
+     out for London. I cannot tell you how much I continue to be
+     grieved for our kind-hearted and enthusiastic friend
+     Bullock. I trust he has left his family comfortably settled,
+     though, with so many plans which required his active and
+     intelligent mind to carry them through, one has natural
+     apprehensions upon that score. When you can with propriety
+     make inquiry how my matters stand, I should be glad to know.
+     Hector Macdonald tells me that my doors and windows were
+     ready packed, in which case, perhaps, the sooner they are
+     embarked the better, not only for safety, but because they
+     can only be in the way, and the money will now be the more
+     acceptable. Poor Bullock had also the measures for my
+     chimney-pieces, for grates of different kinds, and orders
+     for beds, dining-room tables and chairs. But how far these
+     are in progress of being executed, or whether they can now
+     be executed, I must leave to your judgment and inquiry. Your
+     good sense and delicacy will understand the <span class="italic" lang="fr">façon de faire</span>
+     better than I can point it out. I shall never have the
+     pleasure in these things that I expected.</p>
+
+<p>I have just left Abbotsford to attend the Summer
+     session&mdash;left it when the leaves were coming out&mdash;the most
+     delightful season for a worshipper of the country like me.
+     The Home-bank, which we saw at first green with turnips,
+     will now hide a man somewhat taller than Johnny Ballantyne
+     in its shades. In fact, the trees <span class="pagenum"><a id="page235" name="page235"></a>(p. 235)</span> cover the
+     ground, and have a very pretty bosky effect; from six years
+     to ten or twelve, I think wood is as beautiful as ever it is
+     afterwards until it figures as aged and magnificent. Your
+     hobbledehoy tree of twenty-five years' standing is neither
+     so beautiful as in its infancy, nor so respectable as in its
+     age.</p>
+
+<p>Counsellor Erskine is returned, much pleased with your
+     hospitality, and giving an excellent account of you. Were
+     you not struck with the fantastical coincidence of our
+     nocturnal disturbances at Abbotsford with the melancholy
+     event that followed? I protest to you the noise resembled
+     half-a-dozen men hard at work putting up boards and
+     furniture, and nothing can be more certain than that there
+     was nobody on the premises at the time. With a few
+     additional touches, the story would figure in Glanville or
+     Aubrey's Collection. In the mean time you may set it down
+     with poor Dubisson's warnings,<a id="footnotetag105" name="footnotetag105"></a><a href="#footnote105" title="Go to footnote 105"><span class="small">[105]</span></a> as a remarkable
+     coincidence coming under your own observation. I trust we
+     shall see you this season. I think we could hammer a neat
+     <span class="italic" lang="fr">comédie bourgeoise</span> out of The Heart of Mid-Lothian. Mrs.
+     Scott and family join in kind compliments to Mrs. Terry; and
+     I am ever yours truly,</p>
+
+<p class="left50 smcap">Walter Scott.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>It appears from one of these letters to Terry, that, so late as the
+30th of April, Scott still designed to include two separate stories in
+the second series of the Tales of my Landlord. But he must have
+changed his plan soon after that date; since the four volumes,
+entirely occupied with The Heart of Mid-Lothian, were before the
+public in the course of June. The story thus deferred, in consequence
+of the extent to which that of Jeanie Deans grew on his hands, was The
+Bride of Lammermoor.<a href="#toc"><span class="small">[Back to Contents]</span></a></p>
+
+
+
+
+
+<h3><span class="pagenum"><a id="page236" name="page236"></a>(p. 236)</span> CHAPTER XLI.</h3>
+
+<p class="summary">dinner at mr. home drummond's. &mdash; scott's edinburgh den. &mdash;
+     details of his domestic life in castle street. &mdash; his sunday
+     dinners. &mdash; his evening drives, etc. &mdash; his conduct in the
+     general society of edinburgh. &mdash; dinners at john
+     ballantyne's villa, and at james ballantyne's in st. john
+     street, on the appearance of a new novel. &mdash; anecdotes of
+     the ballantynes, and of constable.</p>
+
+<p class="center">1818.</p>
+
+
+<p>On the 12th of May, as we have seen, Scott left Abbotsford, for the
+summer session in Edinburgh.</p>
+
+<p>At this moment, his position, take it for all in all, was, I am
+inclined to believe, what no other man had ever won for himself by the
+pen alone. His works were the daily food, not only of his countrymen,
+but of all educated Europe. His society was courted by whatever
+England could show of eminence. Station, power, wealth, beauty, and
+genius, strove with each other in every demonstration of respect and
+worship&mdash;and, a few political fanatics and envious poetasters
+apart&mdash;wherever he appeared in town or in country, whoever had Scotch
+blood in him, "gentle or simple," felt it move more rapidly through
+his veins when he was in the presence of Scott. To descend to what
+many looked on as higher things, he considered himself, and was
+considered by all about him, as rapidly consolidating a large fortune:
+the annual profits of his novels alone had, for several years, been
+not less than £10,000: his domains <span class="pagenum"><a id="page237" name="page237"></a>(p. 237)</span> were daily increased&mdash;his
+castle was rising&mdash;and perhaps few doubted that erelong he might
+receive from the just favor of his Prince some distinction in the way
+of external rank, such as had seldom before been dreamt of as the
+possible consequence of a mere literary celebrity. It was about this
+time that the compiler of these pages first had the opportunity of
+observing the plain easy modesty which had survived the many
+temptations of such a career; and the kindness of heart pervading, in
+all circumstances, his gentle deportment, which made him the rare,
+perhaps the solitary, example of a man signally elevated from humble
+beginnings, and loved more and more by his earliest friends and
+connections, in proportion as he had fixed on himself the homage of
+the great, and the wonder of the world.</p>
+
+<p>It was during the sitting of the General Assembly of the Kirk in May,
+1818, that I first had the honor of meeting him in private society:
+the party was not a large one, at the house of a much-valued common
+friend&mdash;Mr. Home Drummond of Blair Drummond, the grandson of Lord
+Kames. Mr. Scott, ever apt to consider too favorably the literary
+efforts of others, and more especially of very young persons, received
+me, when I was presented to him, with a cordiality which I had not
+been prepared to expect from one filling a station so exalted. This,
+however, is the same story that every individual, who ever met him
+under similar circumstances, has had to tell. When the ladies retired
+from the dinner-table, I happened to sit next him; and he, having
+heard that I had lately returned from a tour in Germany, made that
+country and its recent literature the subject of some conversation. In
+the course of it, I told him that when, on reaching the inn at Weimar,
+I asked the waiter whether Goethe was then in the town, the man stared
+as if he had not heard the name before; and that on my repeating the
+question, adding <span class="italic" lang="de">Goethe der grosse dichter</span> (the great poet), he
+shook his head as doubtfully as <span class="pagenum"><a id="page238" name="page238"></a>(p. 238)</span> before&mdash;until the landlady
+solved our difficulties, by suggesting that perhaps the traveller
+might mean "the <span class="italic">Herr Geheimer-Rath</span> (Privy Counsellor) <span class="italic">Von Goethe</span>."
+Scott seemed amused with this, and said, "I hope you will come one of
+these days and see me at Abbotsford; and when you reach Selkirk or
+Melrose, be sure you ask even the landlady for nobody but <span class="italic">the
+Sheriff</span>." He appeared particularly interested when I described Goethe
+as I first saw him, alighting from a carriage, crammed with wild
+plants and herbs which he had picked up in the course of his morning's
+botanizing among the hills above Jena. "I am glad," said he, "that my
+old master has pursuits somewhat akin to my own. I am no botanist,
+properly speaking; and though a dweller on the banks of the Tweed,
+shall never be knowing about Flora's beauties;<a id="footnotetag106" name="footnotetag106"></a><a href="#footnote106" title="Go to footnote 106"><span class="small">[106]</span></a> but how I should
+like to have a talk with him about trees!" I mentioned how much any
+one must be struck with the majestic beauty of Goethe's countenance
+(the noblest certainly by far that I have ever yet seen): "Well," said
+he, "the grandest demigod I ever saw was Dr. Carlyle, minister of
+Musselburgh, commonly called <span class="italic">Jupiter Carlyle</span>, from having sat more
+than once for the king of gods and men to Gavin Hamilton&mdash;and a
+shrewd, clever old carle was he, no doubt, but no more a poet than his
+precentor. As for poets, I have seen, I believe, all the best of our
+own time and country&mdash;and, though Burns had the most glorious eyes
+imaginable, I never thought any of them would come up to an artist's
+notion of the character, except Byron." A reverend gentleman present
+(I think, Principal Nicoll of St. Andrews) expressed his regret that
+he had never seen Lord Byron. "And the prints," resumed Scott, "give
+one no impression of him&mdash;the lustre is there, Doctor, but it is not
+lighted up. Byron's countenance is <span class="italic">a thing to dream of</span>. A certain
+fair lady, whose name has been too often <span class="pagenum"><a id="page239" name="page239"></a>(p. 239)</span> mentioned in
+connection with his, told a friend of mine, that when she first saw
+Byron, it was in a crowded room, and she did not know who it was, but
+her eyes were instantly nailed, and she said to herself, <span class="italic">that pale
+face is my fate</span>. And, poor soul, if a godlike face and godlike powers
+could have made any excuse for devilry, to be sure she had one." In
+the course of this talk, an old friend and schoolfellow of
+Scott's<a id="footnotetag107" name="footnotetag107"></a><a href="#footnote107" title="Go to footnote 107"><span class="small">[107]</span></a> asked him across the table if he had any faith in the
+antique busts of Homer. "No, truly," he answered, smiling, "for if
+there had been either limners or stuccoyers worth their salt in those
+days, the owner of such a headpiece would never have had to trail the
+poke. They would have alimented the honest man decently among them for
+a lay-figure."</p>
+
+<p>A few days after this, I received a communication from the Messrs.
+Ballantyne, to the effect that Mr. Scott's various avocations had
+prevented him from fulfilling his agreement with them as to the
+historical department of the Edinburgh Annual Register for 1816, and
+that it would be acceptable to him as well as them, if I could
+undertake to supply it in the course of the autumn. This proposal was
+agreed to on my part, and I had consequently occasion to meet him
+pretty often during that summer session. He told me, that if the war
+had gone on, he should have liked to do the historical summary as
+before; but that the prospect of having no events to record but
+radical riots, and the passing or rejecting of corn bills and poor
+bills, sickened him; that his health was no longer what it had been;
+and that though he did not mean to give over writing altogether&mdash;(here
+he smiled significantly, and glanced his eye towards a pile of MS. on
+the desk by him)&mdash;he thought himself now entitled to write nothing but
+what would rather be an amusement than a fatigue to him&mdash;"<span class="italic">Juniores ad
+labores</span>."</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page240" name="page240"></a>(p. 240)</span> He at this time occupied as his <span class="italic">den</span> a square small room,
+behind the dining parlor in Castle Street. It had but a single
+Venetian window, opening on a patch of turf not much larger than
+itself, and the aspect of the place was on the whole sombrous. The
+walls were entirely clothed with books; most of them folios and
+quartos, and all in that complete state of repair which at a glance
+reveals a tinge of bibliomania. A dozen volumes or so, needful for
+immediate purposes of reference, were placed close by him on a small
+movable frame&mdash;something like a dumb-waiter. All the rest were in
+their proper niches, and wherever a volume had been lent, its room was
+occupied by a wooden block of the same size, having a card with the
+name of the borrower and date of the loan, tacked on its front. The
+old bindings had obviously been retouched and regilt in the most
+approved manner; the new, when the books were of any mark, were rich,
+but never gaudy&mdash;a large proportion of blue morocco&mdash;all stamped with
+his <span class="italic">device</span> of the portcullis, and its motto, <span class="italic">clausus tutus
+ero</span>&mdash;being an anagram of his name in Latin. Every case and shelf was
+accurately lettered, and the works arranged systematically; history
+and biography on one side&mdash;poetry and the drama on another&mdash;law books
+and dictionaries behind his own chair. The only table was a massive
+piece of furniture which he had had constructed on the model of one at
+Rokeby, with a desk and all its appurtenances on either side, that an
+amanuensis might work opposite to him when he chose; and with small
+tiers of drawers, reaching all round to the floor. The top displayed a
+goodly array of session papers, and on the desk below were, besides
+the MS. at which he was working, sundry parcels of letters, proof
+sheets, and so forth, all neatly done up with red tape. His own
+writing apparatus was a very handsome old box, richly carved, lined
+with crimson velvet, and containing ink-bottles, taper-stand, etc., in
+silver&mdash;the whole in such order that it might have come from the
+silversmith's <span class="pagenum"><a id="page241" name="page241"></a>(p. 241)</span> window half an hour before. Besides his own
+huge elbow-chair, there were but two others in the room, and one of
+these seemed, from its position, to be reserved exclusively for the
+amanuensis. I observed, during the first evening I spent with him in
+this <span class="italic">sanctum</span>, that while he talked, his hands were hardly ever
+idle&mdash;sometimes he folded letter-covers&mdash;sometimes he twisted paper
+into matches, performing both tasks with great mechanical expertness
+and nicety; and when there was no loose paper fit to be so dealt with,
+he snapped his fingers, and the noble Maida aroused himself from his
+lair on the hearth-rug, and laid his head across his master's knees,
+to be caressed and fondled. The room had no space for pictures except
+one, an original portrait of Claverhouse, which hung over the
+chimney-piece, with a Highland target on either side, and broadswords
+and dirks (each having its own story), disposed star-fashion round
+them. A few green tin-boxes, such as solicitors keep title-deeds in,
+were piled over each other on one side of the window; and on the top
+of these lay a fox's tail, mounted on an antique silver handle,
+wherewith, as often as he had occasion to take down a book, he gently
+brushed the dust off the upper leaves before opening it. I think I
+have mentioned all the furniture of the room except a sort of ladder,
+low, broad, well carpeted, and strongly guarded with oaken rails, by
+which he helped himself to books from his higher shelves. On the top
+step of this convenience, Hinse of Hinsfeldt, (so called from one of
+the German <span class="italic" lang="de">Kinder-märchen</span>,) a venerable tom-cat, fat and sleek, and
+no longer very locomotive, usually lay watching the proceedings of his
+master and Maida with an air of dignified equanimity; but when Maida
+chose to leave the party, he signified his inclinations by thumping
+the door with his huge paw, as violently as ever a fashionable footman
+handled a knocker in Grosvenor Square; the Sheriff rose and opened it
+for him with courteous alacrity,&mdash;and then Hinse came <span class="pagenum"><a id="page242" name="page242"></a>(p. 242)</span> down
+purring from his perch, and mounted guard by the footstool, <span class="italic">vice</span>
+Maida absent upon furlough.<a id="footnotetag108" name="footnotetag108"></a><a href="#footnote108" title="Go to footnote 108"><span class="small">[108]</span></a> Whatever discourse might be passing,
+was broken every now and then by some affectionate apostrophe to these
+four-footed friends. He said they understood everything he said to
+them&mdash;and I believe they did understand a great deal of it. But at all
+events, dogs and cats, like children, have some infallible tact for
+discovering at once who is and who is not really fond of their
+company; and I venture to say, Scott was never five minutes in any
+room before the little pets of the family, whether dumb or lisping,
+had found out his kindness for all their generation.</p>
+
+<p>I never thought it lawful to keep a journal of what passes in private
+society, so that no one need expect from the sequel of this narrative
+any detailed record of Scott's familiar talk. What fragments of it
+have happened to adhere to a tolerably retentive memory, and may be
+put into black and white without wounding any feelings which my
+friend, were he alive, would have wished to spare, I shall introduce
+as the occasion suggests or serves. But I disclaim on the threshold
+anything more than this; and I also wish to enter a protest once for
+all against the general fidelity of several literary gentlemen who
+have kindly forwarded to me private lucubrations <span class="pagenum"><a id="page243" name="page243"></a>(p. 243)</span> of theirs,
+designed to <span class="italic">Boswellize</span> Scott, and which they may probably publish
+hereafter. To report conversations fairly, it is a necessary
+prerequisite that we should be completely familiar with all the
+interlocutors, and understand thoroughly all their minutest relations,
+and points of common knowledge and common feeling with each other. He
+who does not, must be perpetually in danger of misinterpreting
+sportive allusion into serious statement; and the man who was only
+recalling, by some jocular phrase or half-phrase, to an old companion,
+some trivial reminiscence of their boyhood or youth, may be
+represented as expressing, upon some person or incident casually
+tabled, an opinion which he had never framed, or if he had, would
+never have given words to in any mixed assemblage&mdash;not even among what
+the world calls <span class="italic">friends</span> at his own board. In proportion as a man is
+witty and humorous, there will always be about him and his a widening
+maze and wilderness of cues and catchwords, which the uninitiated
+will, if they are bold enough to try interpretation, construe, ever
+and anon, egregiously amiss&mdash;not seldom into arrant falsity. For this
+one reason, to say nothing of many others, I consider no man justified
+in journalizing what he sees and hears in a domestic circle where he
+is not thoroughly at home; and I think there are still higher and
+better reasons why he should not do so where he is.</p>
+
+<p>Before I ever met Scott in private, I had, of course, heard many
+people describe and discuss his style of conversation. Everybody
+seemed to agree that it overflowed with hearty good-humor, as well as
+plain unaffected good sense and sagacity; but I had heard not a few
+persons of undoubted ability and accomplishment maintain that the
+genius of the great poet and novelist rarely, if ever, revealed itself
+in his talk. It is needless to say, that the persons I allude to were
+all his own countrymen, and themselves imbued, more or less, with the
+conversational habits derived from a system of education in which the
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page244" name="page244"></a>(p. 244)</span> study of metaphysics occupies a very large share of
+attention. The best table-talk of Edinburgh was, and probably still
+is, in a very great measure made up of brilliant disquisition&mdash;such as
+might be transferred without alteration to a professor's note-book, or
+the pages of a critical Review&mdash;and of sharp word-catchings, ingenious
+thrusting and parrying of dialectics, and all the quips and quibblets
+of bar pleading. It was the talk of a society to which lawyers and
+lecturers had, for at least a hundred years, given the tone. From the
+date of the Union, Edinburgh ceased to be the headquarters of the
+Scotch nobility&mdash;and long before the time of which I speak, they had
+all but entirely abandoned it as a place of residence. I think I never
+knew above two or three of the Peerage to have houses there at the
+same time&mdash;and these were usually among the poorest and most
+insignificant of their order. The wealthier gentry had followed their
+example. Very few of that class ever spent any considerable part of
+the year in Edinburgh, except for the purposes of educating their
+children, or superintending the progress of a lawsuit; and these were
+not more likely than a score or two of comatose and lethargic old
+Indians, to make head against the established influences of academical
+and forensic celebrity. Now Scott's tastes and resources had not much
+in common with those who had inherited and preserved the chief
+authority in this provincial hierarchy of rhetoric. He was highly
+amused with watching their dexterous logomachies&mdash;but his delight in
+such displays arose mainly, I cannot doubt, from the fact of their
+being, both as to subject-matter and style and method, remote <span class="italic">a
+Scævolæ studiis</span>. He sat by, as he would have done at a stage-play or
+a fencing-match, enjoying and applauding the skill exhibited, but
+without feeling much ambition to parade himself as a rival either of
+the foil or the buskin. I can easily believe, therefore, that in the
+earlier part of his life&mdash;before the blaze of universal fame had
+overawed <span class="pagenum"><a id="page245" name="page245"></a>(p. 245)</span> local prejudice, and a new generation, accustomed
+to hear of that fame from their infancy, had grown up&mdash;it may have
+been the commonly adopted creed in Edinburgh, that Scott, however
+distinguished otherwise, was not to be named as a table-companion in
+the same day with this or that master of luminous dissertation or
+quick rejoinder, who now sleeps as forgotten as his grandmother. It
+was natural enough that persons brought up in the same circle with
+him, who remembered all his beginnings, and had but slowly learned to
+acquiesce in the justice of his claim to unrivalled honor in
+literature, should have clung all the closer for that late
+acquiescence to their original estimate of him as inferior to
+themselves in other titles to admiration. It was also natural that
+their prejudice on that score should be readily taken up by the young
+aspirants who breathed, as it were, the atmosphere of their
+professional renown. Perhaps, too, Scott's steady Toryism, and the
+effect of his genius and example in modifying the intellectual sway of
+the long dominant Whigs in the north, may have had some share in this
+matter. However all that may have been, the substance of what I had
+been accustomed to hear certainly was, that Scott had a marvellous
+stock of queer stories, which he often told with happy effect, but
+that, bating these drafts on a portentous memory, set off with a
+simple old-fashioned <span class="italic" lang="fr">naïveté</span> of humor and pleasantry, his strain of
+talk was remarkable neither for depth of remark nor felicity of
+illustration; that his views and opinions on the most important topics
+of practical interest were hopelessly perverted by his blind
+enthusiasm for the dreams of bygone ages; and that, but for the
+grotesque phenomenon presented by a great writer of the nineteenth
+century gravely uttering sentiments worthy of his own Dundees and
+Invernahyles, the main texture of his discourse would be pronounced,
+by any enlightened member of modern society, rather bald and poor than
+otherwise. I think the epithet most in vogue was <span class="italic">commonplace</span>.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page246" name="page246"></a>(p. 246)</span> It will easily be believed that, in companies such as I have
+been alluding to, made up of, or habitually domineered over, by
+voluble Whigs and political economists, Scott was often tempted to put
+forth his Tory doctrines and antiquarian prejudices in an exaggerated
+shape&mdash;in colors, to say the truth, altogether different from what
+they assumed under other circumstances, or which had any real
+influence upon his mind and conduct on occasions of practical moment.
+But I fancy it will seem equally credible, that the most sharp-sighted
+of these social critics may not always have been capable of tracing,
+and doing justice to, the powers which Scott brought to bear upon the
+topics which they, not he, had chosen for discussion. In passing from
+a gas-lit hall into a room with wax candles, the guests sometimes
+complain that they have left splendor for gloom; but let them try by
+what sort of light it is most satisfactory to read, write, or
+embroider, or consider at leisure under which of the two, either men
+or women look their best.</p>
+
+<p>The strongest, purest, and least observed of all lights, is, however,
+daylight; and his talk was commonplace, just as sunshine is, which
+gilds the most indifferent objects, and adds brilliancy to the
+brightest. As for the old-world anecdotes which these clever persons
+were condescending enough to laugh at as pleasant extravagances,
+serving merely to relieve and set off the main stream of debate, they
+were often enough, it may be guessed, connected with the theme in hand
+by links not the less apt that they might be too subtle to catch their
+bedazzled and self-satisfied optics. There might be keener knowledge
+of human nature than was "dreamt of in their philosophy"&mdash;which passed
+with them for <span class="italic">commonplace</span>, only because it was clothed in plain
+familiar household words, not dressed up in some pedantic masquerade
+of antithesis. "There are people," says Landor, "who think they write
+and speak finely, merely because they have forgotten the language in
+which their fathers and <span class="pagenum"><a id="page247" name="page247"></a>(p. 247)</span> mothers used to talk to them;" and
+surely there are a thousand homely old proverbs, which many a dainty
+modern would think it beneath his dignity to quote either in speech or
+writing, any one of which condenses more wit (take that word in any of
+its senses) than could be extracted from all that was ever said or
+written by the <span class="italic">doctrinaires</span> of the Edinburgh school. Many of those
+gentlemen held Scott's conversation to be commonplace exactly for the
+same reason that a child thinks a perfectly limpid stream, though
+perhaps deep enough to drown it three times over, must needs be
+shallow. But it will be easily believed that the best and highest of
+their own idols had better means and skill of measurement: I can never
+forget the pregnant expression of one of the ablest of that school and
+party&mdash;Lord Cockburn&mdash;who, when some glib youth chanced to echo in his
+hearing the consolatory tenet of local mediocrity, answered quietly:
+"I have the misfortune to think differently from you&mdash;in my humble
+opinion, Walter Scott's <span class="italic">sense</span> is a still more wonderful thing than
+his <span class="italic">genius</span>."</p>
+
+<p>Indeed I have no sort of doubt that, long before 1818, full justice
+was done to Scott, even in these minor things, by all those of his
+Edinburgh acquaintance, whether Whig or Tory, on whose personal
+opinion he could have been supposed to set much value. With few
+exceptions, the really able lawyers of his own or nearly similar
+standing had ere that time attained stations of judicial dignity, or
+were in the springtide of practice; and in either case they were
+likely to consider general society much in his own fashion, as the
+joyous relaxation of life, rather than the theatre of exertion and
+display. Their tables were elegantly, some of them sumptuously spread;
+and they lived in a pretty constant interchange of entertainments upon
+a large scale, in every circumstance of which, conversation included,
+it was their ambition to imitate those voluptuous metropolitan
+circles, wherein most of them had from time to time mingled, and
+several of them <span class="pagenum"><a id="page248" name="page248"></a>(p. 248)</span> with distinguished success. Among such
+prosperous gentlemen, like himself past the <span class="italic">mezzo cammin</span>, Scott's
+picturesque anecdotes, rich easy humor, and gay involuntary glances of
+mother-wit, were, it is not difficult to suppose, appreciated above
+contributions of a more ambitious stamp; and no doubt his London
+<span class="italic" lang="fr">réputation de salon</span> (which had by degrees risen to a high pitch,
+although he cared nothing for it) was not without its effect in
+Edinburgh. But still the old prejudice lingered on in the general
+opinion of the place, especially among the smart praters of <span class="italic">the
+Outer-House</span>, whose glimpses of the social habits of their superiors
+were likely to be rare, and their gall-bladders to be more distended
+than their purses.</p>
+
+<p>In truth, it was impossible to listen to Scott's oral narrations,
+whether gay or serious, or to the felicitous fun with which he parried
+absurdities of all sorts, without discovering better qualities in his
+talk than <span class="italic">wit</span>&mdash;and of a higher order; I mean especially a power of
+<span class="italic">vivid painting</span>&mdash;the true and primary sense of what is called
+<span class="italic">Imagination</span>. He was like Jaques&mdash;though not a "Melancholy Jaques;"
+and "moralized" a common topic "into a thousand similitudes."
+Shakespeare and the banished Duke would have found him "full of
+matter." He disliked mere disquisitions in Edinburgh, and prepared
+<span class="italic">impromptus</span> in London; and puzzled the promoters of such things
+sometimes by placid silence, sometimes by broad merriment. To such men
+he seemed <span class="italic">commonplace</span>&mdash;not so to the most dexterous masters in what
+was to some of them almost a science; not so to Rose, Hallam, Moore,
+or Rogers,&mdash;to Ellis, Mackintosh, Croker, or Canning.</p>
+
+<p>Scott managed to give and receive such great dinners as I have been
+alluding to, at least as often as any other private gentleman in
+Edinburgh; but he very rarely accompanied his wife and daughters to
+the evening assemblies, which commonly ensued under other roofs&mdash;for
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page249" name="page249"></a>(p. 249)</span> <span class="italic">early to rise</span>, unless in the case of spare-fed anchorites,
+takes for granted <span class="italic">early to bed</span>. When he had no dinner engagement, he
+frequently gave a few hours to the theatre; but still more frequently,
+when the weather was fine, and still more, I believe, to his own
+satisfaction, he drove out with some of his family, or a single
+friend, in an open carriage; the favorite rides being either to the
+Blackford Hills, or to Ravelston, and so home by Corstorphine; or to
+the beach of Portobello, where Peter was always instructed to keep his
+horses as near as possible to the sea. More than once, even in the
+first summer of my acquaintance with him, I had the pleasure of
+accompanying him on these evening excursions; and never did he seem to
+enjoy himself more fully than when placidly surveying, at such sunset
+or moonlight hours, either the massive outlines of his "own romantic
+town," or the tranquil expanse of its noble estuary. He delighted,
+too, in passing, when he could, through some of the quaint windings of
+the ancient city itself, now deserted, except at mid-day, by the upper
+world. How often have I seen him go a long way round about, rather
+than miss the opportunity of halting for a few minutes on the vacant
+esplanade of Holyrood, or under the darkest shadows of the Castle
+rock, where it overhangs the Grassmarket, and the huge slab that still
+marks where the gibbet of Porteous and the Covenanters had its
+station. His coachman knew him too well to move at a Jehu's pace
+amidst such scenes as these. No funeral hearse crept more leisurely
+than did his landau up the Canongate or the Cowgate; and not a queer
+tottering gable but recalled to him some long-buried memory of
+splendor or bloodshed, which, by a few words, he set before the hearer
+in the reality of life. His image is so associated in my mind with the
+antiquities of his native place, that I cannot now revisit them
+without feeling as if I were treading on his gravestone.</p>
+
+<p>Whatever might happen on the other evenings of the <span class="pagenum"><a id="page250" name="page250"></a>(p. 250)</span> week, he
+always dined at home on Sunday, and usually some few friends were then
+with him, but never any person with whom he stood on ceremony. These
+were, it may be readily supposed, the most agreeable of his
+entertainments. He came into the room rubbing his hands, his face
+bright and gleesome, like a boy arriving at home for the holidays, his
+Peppers and Mustards gambolling about his heels, and even the stately
+Maida grinning and wagging his tail in sympathy. Among the most
+regular guests on these happy evenings were, in my time, as had long
+before been the case, Mrs. Maclean Clephane of Torloisk (with whom he
+agreed cordially on all subjects except the authenticity of Ossian),
+and her daughters, whose guardian he had become, at their own choice.
+The eldest of them had been for some years married to the Earl Compton
+(now Marquis of Northampton), and was of course seldom in the north;
+but the others had much of the same tastes and accomplishments which
+so highly distinguished the late Lady Northampton; and Scott delighted
+especially in their proficiency in the poetry and music of their
+native isles. Mr. and Mrs. Skene of Rubislaw were frequent
+attendants&mdash;and so were the Macdonald-Buchanans of Drumakiln, whose
+eldest daughter, Isabella, was his chief favorite among all his
+<span class="italic">nieces</span> of the Clerk's table&mdash;as was, among the <span class="italic">nephews</span>, my own
+dear friend and companion, Joseph Hume, a singularly graceful young
+man, rich in the promise of hereditary genius, but, alas, cut off in
+the early bloom of his days. The well-beloved Erskine was seldom
+absent; and very often Terry or James Ballantyne came with
+him&mdash;sometimes, though less frequently, Constable. Among other persons
+who now and then appeared at these "dinners without the silver
+dishes," as Scott called them, I may mention&mdash;to say nothing of such
+old cronies as Mr. Clerk, Mr. Thomson, and Mr. Kirkpatrick Sharpe&mdash;Sir
+Alexander Boswell of Auchinleck, who had all his father <span class="italic">Bozzy's</span>
+cleverness, good-humor, <span class="pagenum"><a id="page251" name="page251"></a>(p. 251)</span> and joviality, without one touch of
+his meaner qualities,&mdash;wrote Jenny dang the Weaver, and some other
+popular songs, which he sang capitally&mdash;and was moreover a thorough
+bibliomaniac; the late Sir Alexander Don of Newton, in all courteous
+and elegant accomplishments the model of a cavalier; and last, not
+least, William Allan, R. A., who had shortly before this time returned
+to Scotland from several years of travel in Russia and Turkey. At one
+of these plain hearty dinners, however, the company rarely exceeded
+three or four, besides the as yet undivided family.</p>
+
+<a id="img005" name="img005"></a>
+<div class="figcenter">
+<img src="images/img005.jpg" width="400" height="539" alt="" title="">
+<p>SCOTT'S HOUSE IN CASTLE STREET<br>
+After the drawing by J. M. W. Turner.</div>
+
+<p>Scott had a story of a topping goldsmith on the Bridge, who prided
+himself on being the mirror of Amphitryons, and accounted for his
+success by stating that it was his invariable custom to set his own
+stomach at ease, by a beefsteak and a pint of port in his back-shop,
+half an hour before the arrival of his guests. But the host of Castle
+Street had no occasion to imitate this prudent arrangement, for his
+appetite at dinner was neither keen nor nice. Breakfast was his chief
+meal. Before that came, he had gone through the severest part of his
+day's work, and he then set to with the zeal of Crabbe's Squire
+Tovell&mdash;</p>
+
+<p class="poem30">
+  "And laid at once a pound upon his plate."</p>
+
+<p>No fox-hunter ever prepared himself for the field by more substantial
+appliances. His table was always provided, in addition to the usually
+plentiful delicacies of a Scotch breakfast, with some solid article,
+on which he did most lusty execution&mdash;a round of beef&mdash;a pasty, such
+as made Gil Blas's eyes water&mdash;or, most welcome of all, a cold sheep's
+head, the charms of which primitive dainty he has so gallantly
+defended against the disparaging sneers of Dr. Johnson and his
+bear-leader.<a id="footnotetag109" name="footnotetag109"></a><a href="#footnote109" title="Go to footnote 109"><span class="small">[109]</span></a> A huge brown loaf flanked his elbow, and it was
+placed upon a broad wooden trencher, that he might cut and come again
+with the bolder knife. Often did the <span class="italic">Clerks' <span class="pagenum"><a id="page252" name="page252"></a>(p. 252)</span> coach</span>,
+commonly called among themselves <span class="italic">the Lively</span>&mdash;which trundled round
+every morning to pick up the brotherhood, and then deposited them at
+the proper minute in the Parliament Close&mdash;often did this lumbering
+hackney arrive at his door before he had fully appeased what Homer
+calls "the sacred rage of hunger;" and vociferous was the merriment of
+the learned <span class="italic">uncles</span>, when the surprised poet swung forth to join
+them, with an extemporized sandwich, that looked like a ploughman's
+luncheon, in his hand. But this robust supply would have served him in
+fact for the day. He never tasted anything more before dinner, and at
+dinner he ate almost as sparingly as Squire Tovell's niece from the
+boarding-school,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p class="poem20">
+  &mdash;"Who cut the sanguine flesh in frustums fine,<br>
+  And marvelled much to see the creatures dine."</p>
+
+<p>The only dishes he was at all fond of were the old-fashioned ones to
+which he had been accustomed in the days of Saunders Fairford; and
+which really are excellent dishes,&mdash;such, in truth, as Scotland
+borrowed from France before Catherine de' Medici brought in her
+Italian <span class="italic">virtuosi</span> to revolutionize the kitchen like the court. Of
+most of these, I believe, he has in the course of his novels found
+some opportunity to record his esteem. But, above all, who can forget
+that his King Jamie, amidst the splendors of Whitehall, thinks himself
+an ill-used monarch unless his first course includes <span class="italic">cocky-leeky</span>?</p>
+
+<p>It is a fact, which some philosophers may think worth setting down,
+that Scott's organization, as to more than one of the senses, was the
+reverse of exquisite. He had very little of what musicians call an
+ear; his smell was hardly more delicate. I have seen him stare about,
+quite unconscious of the cause, when his whole company betrayed their
+uneasiness at the approach of an overkept haunch of venison; and
+neither by the nose nor the palate could he distinguish corked wine
+from sound. He could never tell Madeira from sherry,&mdash;nay, an Oriental
+friend having sent him a butt of <span class="italic">sheeraz</span>, when he <span class="pagenum"><a id="page253" name="page253"></a>(p. 253)</span>
+remembered the circumstance some time afterwards, and called for a
+bottle to have Sir John Malcolm's opinion of its quality, it turned
+out that his butler, mistaking the label, had already served up half
+the bin as <span class="italic">sherry</span>. Port he considered as physic: he never willingly
+swallowed more than one glass of it, and was sure to anathematize a
+second, if offered, by repeating John Home's epigram:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p class="poem20">
+  "Bold and erect the Caledonian stood,<br>
+  Old was his mutton, and his claret good;<br>
+  Let him drink port, the English statesman cried&mdash;<br>
+  He drank the poison, and his spirit died."</p>
+
+<p>In truth, he liked no wines except sparkling champagne and claret; but
+even as to this last he was no connoisseur; and sincerely preferred a
+tumbler of whiskey-toddy to the most precious "liquid ruby" that ever
+flowed in the cup of a prince. He rarely took any other potation when
+quite alone with his family; but at the Sunday board he circulated the
+champagne briskly during dinner, and considered a pint of claret each
+man's fair share afterwards. I should not omit, however, that his
+Bordeaux was uniformly preceded by a small libation of the genuine
+<span class="italic">mountain dew</span>, which he poured with his own hand, <span class="italic">more majorum</span>, for
+each guest&mdash;making use for the purpose of such a multifarious
+collection of ancient Highland <span class="italic">quaighs</span> (little cups of curiously
+dovetailed wood, inlaid with silver) as no Lowland sideboard but his
+was ever equipped with&mdash;but commonly reserving for himself one that
+was peculiarly precious in his eyes, as having travelled from
+Edinburgh to Derby in the canteen of Prince Charlie. This relic had
+been presented to "the wandering Ascanius" by some very careful
+follower, for its bottom is of glass, that he who quaffed might keep
+his eye the while upon the dirk hand of his companion.</p>
+
+<p>The sound of music (even, I suspect, of any sacred music but
+psalm-singing) would be considered indecorous <span class="pagenum"><a id="page254" name="page254"></a>(p. 254)</span> in the streets
+of Edinburgh on a Sunday night; so, upon the occasions I am speaking
+of, the harp was silent, and Otterburne and The Bonnie House of Airlie
+must needs be dispensed with. To make amends, after tea in the
+drawing-room, Scott usually read some favorite author for the
+amusement of his little circle; or Erskine, Ballantyne, or Terry, did
+so, at his request. He himself read aloud high poetry with far greater
+simplicity, depth, and effect, than any other man I ever heard; and in
+Macbeth or Julius Cæsar, or the like, I doubt if Kemble could have
+been more impressive. Yet the changes of intonation were so gently
+managed, that he contrived to set the different interlocutors clearly
+before us, without the least approach to theatrical artifice. Not so
+the others I have mentioned; they all read cleverly and agreeably, but
+with the decided trickery of stage recitation. To them he usually gave
+the book when it was a comedy, or, indeed, any other drama than
+Shakespeare's or Joanna Baillie's. Dryden's Fables, Johnson's two
+Satires, and certain detached scenes of Beaumont and Fletcher,
+especially that in The Lover's Progress, where the ghost of the
+musical innkeeper makes his appearance, were frequently selected. Of
+the poets, his contemporaries, however, there was not one that did not
+come in for his part. In Wordsworth, his pet pieces were, I think, the
+Song for Brougham Castle, the Laodamia, and some of the early sonnets;
+in Southey, Queen Orraca, Fernando Ramirez, the Lines on the Holly
+Tree&mdash;and, of his larger poems, the Thalaba. Crabbe was perhaps, next
+to Shakespeare, the standing resource; but in those days Byron was
+pouring out his spirit fresh and full: and, if a new piece from his
+hand had appeared, it was sure to be read by Scott the Sunday evening
+afterwards, and that with such delighted emphasis as showed how
+completely the elder bard had kept all his enthusiasm for poetry at
+the pitch of youth, all his admiration of genius, free, pure, and
+unstained by the least drop of literary <span class="pagenum"><a id="page255" name="page255"></a>(p. 255)</span> jealousy. Rare and
+beautiful example of a happily constituted and virtuously disciplined
+mind and character!</p>
+
+<p>Very often something read aloud by himself or his friends suggested an
+old story of greater compass than would have suited a
+dinner-table&mdash;and he told it, whether serious or comical, or, as more
+frequently happened, part of both, exactly in every respect in the
+tone and style of the notes and illustrations to his novels. A great
+number of his best oral narratives have, indeed, been preserved in
+those parting lucubrations; and not a few in his letters. Yet very
+many there were of which his pen has left no record&mdash;so many, that,
+were I to task my memory, I could, I believe, recall the outlines at
+least of more than would be sufficient to occupy a couple of these
+volumes. Possibly, though well aware how little justice I could do to
+such things, rather than think of their perishing forever, and leaving
+not even a shadow behind, I may at some future day hazard the attempt.</p>
+
+<p>Let me turn, meanwhile, to some dinner-tables very different from his
+own, at which, from this time forward, I often met Scott. It is very
+true of the societies I am about to describe, that he was "among them,
+not of them;" and it is also most true that this fact was apparent in
+all the demeanor of his bibliopolical and typographical allies towards
+him whenever he visited them under their roofs&mdash;not a bit less so than
+when they were received at his own board; but still, considering how
+closely his most important worldly affairs were connected with the
+personal character of the Ballantynes, I think it a part, though
+neither a proud nor a very pleasing part, of my duty as his
+biographer, to record my reminiscences of them and their doings in
+some detail.</p>
+
+<p>James Ballantyne then lived in St. John Street, a row of good,
+old-fashioned, and spacious houses, adjoining the Canongate and
+Holyrood, and at no great distance from his printing establishment. He
+had married a few <span class="pagenum"><a id="page256" name="page256"></a>(p. 256)</span> years before the daughter of a wealthy
+farmer in Berwickshire&mdash;a quiet, amiable woman, of simple manners, and
+perfectly domestic habits: a group of fine young children were growing
+up about him; and he usually, if not constantly, had under his roof
+his aged mother, his and his wife's tender care of whom it was most
+pleasing to witness. As far as a stranger might judge, there could not
+be a more exemplary household, or a happier one; and I have
+occasionally met the poet in St. John Street when there were no other
+guests but Erskine, Terry, George Hogarth,<a id="footnotetag110" name="footnotetag110"></a><a href="#footnote110" title="Go to footnote 110"><span class="small">[110]</span></a> and another intimate
+friend or two, and when James Ballantyne was content to appear in his
+own true and best colors, the kind head of his family, the respectful
+but honest schoolfellow of Scott, the easy landlord of a plain,
+comfortable table. But when any great event was about to take place in
+the business, especially on the eve of a new novel, there were doings
+of a higher strain in St. John Street; and to be present at one of
+those scenes was truly a rich treat, even&mdash;if not especially&mdash;for
+persons who, like myself, had no more <span class="italic">knowledge</span> than the rest of the
+world as to the authorship of Waverley. Then were congregated about
+the printer all his own literary allies, of whom a considerable number
+were by no means personally familiar with "<span class="smcap">THE GREAT UNKNOWN</span>:"&mdash;who,
+by the way, owed to him that widely adopted title;&mdash;and He appeared
+among the rest with his usual open aspect of buoyant
+good-humor&mdash;although it was not difficult to trace, in the occasional
+play of his features, the diversion it afforded him to watch all the
+procedure of his swelling confidant, and the curious neophytes that
+surrounded the well-spread board.</p>
+
+<p>The feast was, to use one of James's own favorite epithets, <span class="pagenum"><a id="page257" name="page257"></a>(p. 257)</span>
+<span class="italic">gorgeous</span>; an aldermanic display of turtle and venison, with the
+suitable accompaniments of iced punch, potent ale, and generous
+Madeira. When the cloth was drawn, the burly preses arose, with all he
+could muster of the port of John Kemble, and spouted with a sonorous
+voice the formula of Macbeth:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p class="poem20">
+<span class="add11em">"Fill full!</span><br>
+  I drink to the general joy of the whole table!"</p>
+
+<p>This was followed by "The King, God bless him!" and second
+came&mdash;"Gentlemen, there is another toast which never has been nor
+shall be omitted in this house of mine&mdash;I give you the health of Mr.
+Walter Scott with three times three!" All honor having been done to
+this health, and Scott having briefly thanked the company with some
+expressions of warm affection to their host, Mrs. Ballantyne retired;
+the bottles passed round twice or thrice in the usual way; and then
+James rose once more, every vein on his brow distended, his eyes
+solemnly fixed upon vacancy, to propose, not as before in his
+stentorian key, but with "'bated breath," in the sort of whisper by
+which a stage conspirator thrills the gallery,&mdash;"<span class="italic">Gentlemen, a bumper
+to the immortal Author of Waverley!</span>" The uproar of cheering, in which
+Scott made a fashion of joining, was succeeded by deep silence, and
+then Ballantyne proceeded&mdash;</p>
+
+<p class="poem20">
+  "In his Lord Burleigh look, serene and serious,<br>
+  A something of imposing and mysterious"&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>to lament the obscurity in which his illustrious but too modest
+correspondent still chose to conceal himself from the plaudits of the
+world, to thank the company for the manner in which the <span class="italic">nominis
+umbra</span> had been received, and to assure them that the Author of
+Waverley would, when informed of the circumstance, feel highly
+delighted&mdash;"the proudest hour of his life," etc., etc. The cool,
+demure fun of Scott's features during all this mummery was perfect;
+and Erskine's attempt at a gay <span class="italic">nonchalance</span> was still more
+ludicrously meritorious. Aldiborontiphoscophornio, <span class="pagenum"><a id="page258" name="page258"></a>(p. 258)</span> however,
+bursting as he was, knew too well to allow the new novel to be made
+the subject of discussion. Its name was announced, and success to it
+crowned another cup; but after that, no more of Jedediah. To cut the
+thread, he rolled out unbidden some one of his many theatrical songs,
+in a style that would have done no dishonor to almost any
+orchestra&mdash;The Maid of Lodi&mdash;or perhaps, The Bay of Biscay, O!&mdash;or The
+Sweet Little Cherub that Sits up Aloft. Other toasts followed,
+interspersed with ditties from other performers;&mdash;old George Thomson,
+the friend of Burns, was ready, for one, with The Moorland Wedding, or
+Willie Brew'd a Peck o' Maut;&mdash;and so it went on, until Scott and
+Erskine, with any clerical or very staid personage that had chanced to
+be admitted, saw fit to withdraw. Then the scene was changed. The
+claret and olives made way for broiled bones and a mighty bowl of
+punch; and when a few glasses of the hot beverage had restored his
+powers, James opened <span class="italic">ore rotundo</span> on the merits of the forthcoming
+romance. "One chapter, one chapter only," was the cry. After "<span class="italic">Nay,
+by'r Lady, nay!</span>" and a few more coy shifts, the proof sheets were at
+length produced, and James, with many a prefatory hem, read aloud what
+he considered as the most striking dialogue they contained.</p>
+
+<p>The first I heard so read was the interview between Jeanie Deans, the
+Duke of Argyle, and Queen Caroline, in Richmond Park; and
+notwithstanding some spice of the pompous tricks to which he was
+addicted, I must say he did the inimitable scene great justice. At all
+events, the effect it produced was deep and memorable, and no wonder
+that the exulting typographer's <span class="italic">one bumper more to Jedediah
+Cleishbotham</span> preceded his parting stave, which was uniformly The Last
+Words of Marmion, executed certainly with no contemptible rivalry of
+Braham.</p>
+
+<p>What a different affair was a dinner, although probably including many
+of the same guests, at the junior partner's! He in those days
+retained, I think, no private <span class="pagenum"><a id="page259" name="page259"></a>(p. 259)</span> apartments attached to his
+auction-rooms in Hanover Street, over the door of which he still kept
+emblazoned "John Ballantyne and Company, Booksellers." At any rate,
+such of his entertainments as I ever saw Scott partake of, were given
+at his villa near to the Frith of Forth, by Trinity;&mdash;a retreat which
+the little man had named "Harmony Hall," and invested with an air of
+dainty voluptuous finery, contrasting strikingly enough with the
+substantial citizen-like snugness of his elder brother's domestic
+appointments. His house was surrounded by gardens so contrived as to
+seem of considerable extent, having many a shady tuft, trellised
+alley, and mysterious alcove, interspersed among their bright
+parterres. It was a fairy-like labyrinth, and there was no want of
+pretty Armidas, such as they might be, to glide half-seen among its
+mazes. The sitting-rooms opened upon gay and perfumed conservatories,
+and John's professional excursions to Paris and Brussels in quest of
+objects of <span class="italic">virtu</span>, had supplied both the temptation and the means to
+set forth the interior in a fashion that might have satisfied the most
+fastidious <span class="italic" lang="fr">petite maîtresse</span> of Norwood or St. Denis. John, too, was
+a married man: he had, however, erected for himself a private wing,
+the accesses to which, whether from the main building or the
+<span class="italic" lang="fr">bosquet</span>, were so narrow that it was physically impossible for the
+handsome and portly lady who bore his name to force her person through
+any one of them. His dinners were in all respects Parisian, for his
+wasted palate disdained such John Bull luxuries as were all in all
+with James. The piquant pasty of Strasburg or Perigord was never to
+seek; and even the <span class="italic" lang="fr">pièce de résistance</span> was probably a boar's head
+from Coblentz, or a turkey ready stuffed with truffles from the <span lang="fr">Palais
+Royal</span>. The pictures scattered among John's innumerable mirrors were
+chiefly of theatrical subjects&mdash;many of them portraits of beautiful
+actresses&mdash;the same Peg Woffingtons, Bellamys, Kitty Clives, and so
+forth, that <span class="pagenum"><a id="page260" name="page260"></a>(p. 260)</span> found their way in the sequel to Charles
+Mathews's gallery at Highgate. Here that exquisite comedian's own
+mimicries and parodies were the life and soul of many a festival, and
+here, too, he gathered from his facetious host not a few of the
+richest materials for his <span class="italic">at homes</span> and <span class="italic">monopolylogues</span>. But,
+indeed, whatever actor or singer of eminence visited Edinburgh, of the
+evenings when he did not perform several were sure to be reserved for
+Trinity. Here Braham quavered, and here Liston drolled his best&mdash;here
+Johnstone, and Murray, and Yates mixed jest and stave&mdash;here Kean
+revelled and rioted&mdash;and here the Roman Kemble often played the Greek
+from sunset to dawn. Nor did the popular <span class="italic" lang="fr">cantatrice</span> or <span class="italic">danseuse</span> of
+the time disdain to freshen her roses, after a laborious week, amidst
+these Paphian arbors of Harmony Hall.</p>
+
+<p>Johnny had other tastes that were equally expensive. He had a
+well-furnished stable, and followed the foxhounds whenever the cover
+was within an easy distance. His horses were all called after heroes
+in Scott's poems or novels; and at this time he usually rode up to his
+auction on a tall milk-white hunter, yclept <span class="italic">Old Mortality</span>, attended
+by a leash or two of greyhounds,&mdash;Die Vernon, Jenny Dennison, and so
+forth, by name. The featherweight himself appeared uniformly,
+hammer-in-hand, in the half-dress of some sporting club&mdash;a light gray
+frock, with emblems of the chase on its silver buttons, white cord
+breeches, and jockey-boots in Meltonian order. Yet he affected in the
+pulpit rather a grave address; and was really one of the most
+plausible and imposing of the Puff tribe. Probably Scott's presence
+overawed his ludicrous propensities; for the poet was, when sales were
+going on, almost a daily attendant in Hanover Street, and himself not
+the least energetic of the numerous competitors for Johnny's uncut
+<span class="italic">fifteeners</span>, Venetian lamps, Milanese cuirasses, and old Dutch
+cabinets. Maida, by the way, was so well aware of his master's
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page261" name="page261"></a>(p. 261)</span> habits, that about the time when the Court of Session was
+likely to break up for the day, he might usually be seen couched in
+expectation among Johnny's own <span class="italic">tail</span> of greyhounds at the threshold
+of the mart.</p>
+
+<p>It was at one of those Trinity dinners this summer that I first saw
+Constable. Being struck with his appearance, I asked Scott who he was,
+and he told me&mdash;expressing some surprise that anybody should have
+lived a winter or two in Edinburgh without knowing, by sight at least,
+a citizen whose name was so familiar to the world. I happened to say
+that I had not been prepared to find the great bookseller a man of
+such gentlemanlike and even distinguished bearing. Scott smiled, and
+answered, "Ay, Constable is indeed a grand-looking chield. He puts me
+in mind of Fielding's apology for Lady Booby&mdash;to wit, that Joseph
+Andrews had an air which, to those who had not seen many noblemen,
+would give an idea of nobility." I had not in those days been much
+initiated in the private jokes of what is called, by way of
+excellence, <span class="italic">the trade</span>, and was puzzled when Scott, in the course of
+the dinner, said to Constable, "Will your Czarish Majesty do me the
+honor to take a glass of champagne?" I asked the master of the feast
+for an explanation. "Oh!" said he, "are you so green as not to know
+that Constable long since dubbed himself <span class="italic">The Czar of Muscovy</span>, John
+Murray, <span class="italic">The Emperor of the West</span>, and Longman and his string of
+partners <span class="italic">The Divan</span>?" "And what title," I asked, "has Mr. John
+Ballantyne himself found in this new <span class="italic">almanach imperial</span>?"&mdash;"Let that
+flee stick to the wa'," quoth Johnny: "When I set up for a bookseller,
+The Crafty christened me <span class="italic">The Dey of Alljeers</span>&mdash;but he now considers
+me as next thing to dethroned." He added, "His Majesty the autocrat is
+too fond of these nicknames. One day a partner of the house of Longman
+was dining with him in the country, to settle an important piece of
+business, about which there occurred a good deal of difficulty. 'What
+fine <span class="pagenum"><a id="page262" name="page262"></a>(p. 262)</span> swans you have in your pond there!' said the Londoner,
+by way of parenthesis.&mdash;'Swans!' cried Constable; 'they are only
+geese, man. There are just five of them, if you please to observe, and
+their names are Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown.' This skit cost
+The Crafty a good bargain."</p>
+
+<p>It always appeared to me that James Ballantyne felt his genius rebuked
+in the presence of Constable: his manner was constrained, his smile
+servile, his hilarity elaborate. Not so with Johnny: the little fellow
+never seemed more airily frolicsome than when he capered for the
+amusement of the Czar.<a id="footnotetag111" name="footnotetag111"></a><a href="#footnote111" title="Go to footnote 111"><span class="small">[111]</span></a> I never, however, saw those two together,
+where, I am told, the humors of them both were exhibited to the
+richest advantage&mdash;I mean at the dinners with which Constable regaled,
+among others, his own circle of literary serfs, and when "Jocund
+Johnny" was very commonly his croupier. There are stories enough of
+practical jokes upon such occasions, some of them near akin to those
+which the author of Humphrey Clinker has thought fit to record of his
+own suburban villa, in the most diverting of young Melford's letters
+to Sir Watkin Philips. I have heard, for example, a luculent
+description of poor <span class="italic">Allister Campbell</span>, and another drudge of the
+same class, running a race after dinner for a new pair of breeches,
+which Mr. David Bridges, tailor in ordinary to this northern
+potentate,&mdash;himself a wit, a virtuoso, and the croupier on that day in
+lieu of Rigdum,&mdash;had been instructed to bring with him, and display
+before the threadbare rivals. But I had these pictures from John
+Ballantyne, and I dare say they might be overcharged. That Constable
+was a most bountiful and generous patron to the ragged tenants of Grub
+Street, there can, however, be no doubt: and as <span class="pagenum"><a id="page263" name="page263"></a>(p. 263)</span> little that
+John himself acted on all occasions by them in the same spirit, and
+this to an extent greatly beyond what prudence (if he had ever
+consulted that guide in anything) would have dictated.</p>
+
+<p>When I visited Constable, as I often did at a period somewhat later
+than that of which I now speak, and for the most part in company with
+Scott, I found the bookseller established in a respectable country
+gentleman's seat, some six or seven miles out of Edinburgh, and doing
+the honors of it with all the ease that might have been looked for had
+he been the long-descended owner of the place; there was no foppery,
+no show, no idle luxury, but to all appearance the plain abundance and
+simple enjoyment of hereditary wealth. His conversation was manly and
+vigorous, abounding in Scotch anecdotes of the old time, which he told
+with a degree of spirit and humor only second to his great author's.
+No man could more effectually control, when he had a mind, either the
+extravagant vanity which, on too many occasions, made him ridiculous,
+or the despotic temper, which habitually held in fear and trembling
+all such as were in any sort dependent on his Czarish Majesty's
+pleasure. In him I never saw (at this period) anything but the
+unobtrusive sense and the calm courtesy of a well-bred gentleman. His
+very equipage kept up the series of contrasts between him and the two
+Ballantynes. Constable went back and forward between the town and
+Polton in a deep-hung and capacious green barouche, without any
+pretence at heraldic blazonry, drawn by a pair of sleek, black,
+long-tailed horses, and conducted by a grave old coachman in plain
+blue livery. The Printer of the Canongate drove himself and his wife
+about the streets and suburbs in a snug machine, which did not
+overburthen one powerful and steady cob; while the gay auctioneer,
+whenever he left the saddle for the box, mounted a bright blue
+dogcart, and rattled down the Newhaven road with two high-mettled
+steeds, prancing <span class="italic">tandem</span> before him, and <span class="pagenum"><a id="page264" name="page264"></a>(p. 264)</span> most
+probably&mdash;especially if he was on his way to the races at
+Musselburgh&mdash;with some "sweet singer of Israel" flaming, with all her
+feathers, beside him. On such occasions, by the bye, Johnny sometimes
+had a French horn with him, and he played on it with good skill, and
+with an energy by no means prudent in the state of his lungs.</p>
+
+<p>The Sheriff told with peculiar unction the following anecdote of this
+spark. The first time he went over to pick up curiosities at Paris, it
+happened that he met, in the course of his traffickings, a certain
+brother bookseller of Edinburgh, as unlike him as one man could well
+be to another&mdash;a grave, dry Presbyterian, rigid in all his notions as
+the buckle of his wig. This precise worthy having ascertained John's
+address, went to call on him, a day or two afterwards, with the news
+of some richly illuminated missal, which he might possibly be glad to
+make prize of. On asking for his friend, a smiling <span class="italic">laquais de place</span>
+informed him that <span class="italic">Monsieur</span> had gone out, but that <span class="italic">Madame</span> was at
+home. Not doubting that Mrs. Ballantyne had accompanied her husband on
+his trip, he desired to pay his respects to <span class="italic">Madame</span>, and was ushered
+in accordingly. "But oh, Mr. Scott!" said, or rather groaned, the
+austere elder, on his return from this modern Babylon, "oh, Mr. Scott,
+there was nae Mrs. John yonder, but a painted Jezebel sittin' up in
+her bed, wi' a wheen impudent French limmers like hersel', and twa or
+three whiskered blackguards, takin' their collation o' knickknacks and
+champagne wine! I ran out o' the house as if I had been shot. What
+judgment will this wicked warld come to! The Lord pity us!" Scott was
+a severe enough censor in the general of such levities, but somehow,
+in the case of Rigdumfunnidos, he seemed to regard them with much the
+same toleration as the naughty tricks of a monkey in the <span  lang="fr">"Jardin des
+Plantes."</span></p>
+
+<p>Why did Scott persist in mixing up all his most important <span class="pagenum"><a id="page265" name="page265"></a>(p. 265)</span>
+concerns with such people as I have been describing? I asked himself
+that question too unceremoniously at a long subsequent period, and in
+due time the reader shall see the answer I received; but it left the
+main question, to my apprehension, as much in the dark as ever. I
+shall return to the sad subject hereafter more seriously; but in the
+mean time let it suffice to say, that he was the most patient,
+long-suffering, affectionate, and charitable of mankind; that in the
+case of both the Ballantynes he could count, after all, on a
+sincerely, nay, a passionately devoted attachment to his person; that,
+with the greatest of human beings, use is in all but unconquerable
+power; and that he who so loftily tossed aside the seemingly most
+dangerous assaults of flattery, the blandishment of dames, the
+condescension of princes, the enthusiasm of crowds&mdash;had still his weak
+point, upon which two or three humble besiegers, and one unwearied,
+though most frivolous underminer, well knew how to direct their
+approaches. It was a favorite saw of his own, that the wisest of our
+race often reserve the average stock of folly to be all expended upon
+some one flagrant absurdity.<a href="#toc"><span class="small">[Back to Contents]</span></a></p>
+
+
+
+
+<h3><span class="pagenum"><a id="page266" name="page266"></a>(p. 266)</span> CHAPTER XLII.</h3>
+
+<p class="summary">publication of the heart of mid-lothian. &mdash; its reception in
+     edinburgh and in england. &mdash; abbotsford in october. &mdash;
+     melrose abbey, dryburgh, etc. &mdash; lion-hunters from america.
+     &mdash; tragedy of the cherokee lovers. &mdash; scott's dinner to the
+     selkirkshire yeomen.</p>
+
+<p class="center">1818.</p>
+
+
+<p>Hoping to be forgiven for a long digression, the biographer willingly
+returns to the thread of Scott's story. The Heart of Mid-Lothian
+appeared, as has been mentioned, before the close of June, 1818, and
+among the letters which he received soon afterwards from the friends
+by this time in the secret, there is one which (though I do not
+venture to name the writer) I am tempted to take the liberty of
+quoting:<a id="footnotetag112" name="footnotetag112"></a><a href="#footnote112" title="Go to footnote 112"><span class="small">[112]</span></a>&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="quote">
+<p>"Now for it, dear Mr. Scott. I can speak to the purpose, as
+     I have not only read it myself, but am in a house where
+     everybody is tearing it out of each other's hands, and
+     talking of nothing else. So much for its success&mdash;the more
+     flattering, because it overcomes a prejudice. People were
+     beginning to say the author would wear himself out; it was
+     going on too <span class="pagenum"><a id="page267" name="page267"></a>(p. 267)</span> long in the same key, and no striking
+     notes could possibly be produced. On the contrary, I think
+     the interest is stronger here than in any of the former
+     ones&mdash;(always excepting my first-love Waverley)&mdash;and one may
+     congratulate you upon having effected what many have tried
+     to do, and nobody yet succeeded in, making the perfectly
+     good character the most interesting. Of late days,
+     especially since it has been the fashion to write moral and
+     even religious novels, one might almost say of some of the
+     wise good heroines, what a lively girl once said to [me] of
+     her well-meaning aunt&mdash;'Upon my word she is enough to make
+     anybody wicked.' And though beauty and talents are heaped on
+     the right side, the writer, in spite of himself, is sure to
+     put agreeableness on the wrong; the person from whose errors
+     he means you should take warning, runs away with your secret
+     partiality in the mean time. Had this very story been
+     conducted by a common hand, Effie would have attracted all
+     our concern and sympathy&mdash;Jeanie only cold approbation.
+     Whereas Jeanie, without youth, beauty, genius, warm
+     passions, or any other novel-perfection, is here our object
+     from beginning to end. This is 'inlisting the affections in
+     the cause of virtue' ten times more than ever Richardson
+     did; for whose male and female pedants, all-excelling as
+     they are, I never could care half so much as I found myself
+     inclined to do for Jeanie before I finished the first
+     volume....</p>
+
+<p>"You know I tell you my opinion just as I should do to a
+     third person, and I trust the freedom is not unwelcome. I
+     was a little tired of your Edinburgh lawyers in the
+     introduction; English people in general will be more so, as
+     well as impatient of the passages alluding to Scotch law
+     throughout. Mr. Saddletree will not entertain them. The
+     latter part of the fourth volume unavoidably flags to a
+     certain degree; after Jeanie is happily settled at
+     Roseneath, we have no more to wish for. But the chief fault
+     I have to find relates to the reappearance and shocking fate
+     of the boy. I hear on all sides, 'Oh, I do not like that!' I
+     cannot say what I would have had instead; but I do not like
+     it either; it is a lame, huddled conclusion. I know you so
+     well in it, by the bye!&mdash;you grow tired yourself, want to
+     get rid of the story, and hardly care how. Sir George
+     Staunton finishes his career very fitly; he ought not to die
+     in his bed, and for Jeanie's sake one would not have him
+     hanged. <span class="pagenum"><a id="page268" name="page268"></a>(p. 268)</span> It is unnatural, though, that he should
+     ever have gone within twenty miles of the Tolbooth, or shown
+     his face in the streets of Edinburgh, or dined at a public
+     meeting, if the Lord Commissioner had been his brother. Here
+     ends my <span class="italic">per contra</span> account. The opposite page would make
+     my letter too long if I entered equally into particulars.
+     Carlisle and Corby Castles in Waverley did not affect me
+     more deeply than the prison and trial scenes. The end of
+     poor Madge Wildfire is also most pathetic. The meeting at
+     Muschat's Cairn tremendous. Dumbiedikes and Rory Bean are
+     delightful. And I shall own that my prejudices were secretly
+     gratified by the light in which you place [Uncle] John of
+     Argyle, whom Mr. Coxe so ran down to please Lord Orford. You
+     have drawn him to the very life. I heard so much of him in
+     my youth, so many anecdotes, so often 'as the Duke of Argyle
+     used to say'&mdash;that I really believe I am almost as good a
+     judge as if I had seen and lived with him.... [My beloved
+     mother] has told me, that when she married, [in 1737, the
+     very time], he was still remarkably handsome; with manners
+     more graceful and engaging than she ever saw in any one
+     else; the most agreeable person in conversation, the best
+     teller of a story. When fifty-seven thus captivates
+     eighteen, the natural powers of pleasing must be
+     extraordinary. You have likewise colored Queen Caroline
+     exactly right&mdash;but I was bred up in another creed about Lady
+     Suffolk, of whom, as a very old deaf woman, I have some
+     faint recollection. [My mother] knew her intimately, and
+     never would allow she had been the King's mistress, though
+     she owned it was currently believed. She said he had just
+     enough liking for her to make the Queen very civil to her,
+     and very jealous and spiteful; the rest remained always
+     uncertain at most, like a similar scandal in our days, where
+     I, for one, imagine love of seeming influence on one side,
+     and love of lounging, of an easy house and a good dinner on
+     the other, to be all the criminal passions concerned.
+     However, I confess, [my mother] had that in herself which
+     made her not ready to think the worst of her fellow-women.</p>
+
+<p>"Did you ever hear the history of John, Duke of Argyle's
+     marriage, and constant attachment, before and after, to a
+     woman not handsomer or much more elegant than Jeanie Deans,
+     though very unlike her in understanding? I can give it you,
+     if you <span class="pagenum"><a id="page269" name="page269"></a>(p. 269)</span> wish it, for it is at my fingers' ends. [I
+     was so much the youngest of a numerous family that I had no
+     playfellow, and for that reason listened with all my ears to
+     the grown people's conversation, most especially when my
+     mother and the friends of her youth got upon old stories;
+     nor did I lose my taste for them when I grew old enough to
+     converse with her on equal terms, and enquire into
+     particulars.] Now I am [an] ancient [tabby] myself, I should
+     be a great treasure of anecdote to anybody who had the same
+     humor,&mdash;but I meet with few who have. They read vulgar tales
+     in books, Wraxall, and so forth, what the footmen and maids
+     only gave credit to at the moment, but they desire no
+     farther information. I dare swear many of your readers never
+     heard of the Duke of Argyle before. 'Pray, who was Sir
+     Robert Walpole,' they ask me, 'and when did he live?'&mdash;or
+     perhaps&mdash;'Was not the great Lord Chatham in Queen Anne's
+     days?'<a id="footnotetag113" name="footnotetag113"></a><a href="#footnote113" title="Go to footnote 113"><span class="small">[113]</span></a></p>
+
+<p>"[Amongst the persons most pleased here is Lady Charlotte
+     Lindsay. She has the true North humor, and love of humor,
+     and she does enjoy it heartily. They] have, to help [them],
+     an exemplification on two legs in [their] country
+     apothecary, whom you have painted over and over without the
+     honor of knowing him; an old, dry, arguing, prosing,
+     obstinate Scotchman, very shrewd, rather sarcastic, a sturdy
+     Whig and Presbyterian, <span class="italic" lang="fr">tirant un peu sur le démocrate</span>.
+     Your books are birdlime to him, however; he hovers about the
+     house to obtain a volume when others have done with it. I
+     long to ask him whether Douce Davie was any way <span class="italic">sib</span> to
+     him. He acknowledges he would not <span class="italic">now</span> go to Muschat's
+     Cairn at night for any money&mdash;he had such a horror of it
+     'sixty years ago' when a laddie. But I am come to the end of
+     my fourth page, and will not tire you with any more
+     scribbling....</p>
+
+<p>"P. S.&mdash;If I had known nothing, and the whole world had told
+     me the contrary, I should have found you out in that one
+     parenthesis,&mdash;'for the man was mortal, and had been a
+     schoolmaster.'"</p>
+</div>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page270" name="page270"></a>(p. 270)</span> This letter was addressed from a great country house in the
+south<a id="footnotetag114" name="footnotetag114"></a><a href="#footnote114" title="Go to footnote 114"><span class="small">[114]</span></a>; and may, I presume, be accepted as a fair index of the
+instantaneous English popularity of Jeanie Deans. From the choice of
+localities, and the splendid blazoning of tragical circumstances that
+had left the strongest impression on the memory and imagination of
+every inhabitant, the reception of this tale in Edinburgh was a scene
+of all-engrossing enthusiasm, such as I never witnessed there on the
+appearance of any other literary novelty. But the admiration and
+delight were the same all over Scotland. Never before had he seized
+such really noble features of the national character as were canonized
+in the person of his homely heroine: no art had ever devised a happier
+running contrast than that of her and her sister, or interwoven a
+portraiture of lowly manners and simple virtues, with more graceful
+delineations of polished life, or with bolder shadows of terror,
+guilt, crime, remorse, madness, and all the agony of the passions.</p>
+
+<p>In the introduction and notes to The Heart of Mid-Lothian, drawn up in
+1830, we are presented with details concerning the suggestion of the
+main plot, and the chief historical incidents made use of, to which I
+can add nothing of any moment.</p>
+
+<p>The 12th of July restored the author as usual to the supervision of
+his trees and carpenters; but he had already told the Ballantynes that
+the story which he had found it impossible to include in the recent
+series of Jedediah should be forthwith taken up as the opening one of
+a third; and instructed John to embrace the first favorable
+opportunity of offering Constable the publication of this, on the
+footing of 10,000 copies again forming the first edition; but now at
+length without any more stipulations connected with the unfortunate
+"old stock" of the Hanover Street Company.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page271" name="page271"></a>(p. 271)</span> Before he settled himself to his work, however, he made a
+little tour of the favorite description with his wife and
+children&mdash;halting for a few days at Drumlanrig, thence crossing the
+Border to Carlisle and Rokeby, and returning by way of Alnwick. On the
+17th August he writes thus to John Ballantyne from Drumlanrig: "This
+is heavenly weather, and I am making the most of it, as I shall have a
+laborious autumn before me. I may say of my head and fingers as the
+farmer of his mare, when he indulged her with an extra feed,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p class="poem30">
+  'Ye ken that Maggie winna sleep<br>
+  For that or Simmer.'</p>
+
+<p>We have taken our own horses with us, and I have my pony, and ride
+when I find it convenient."</p>
+
+<p class="p2">The following seems to have been among the first letters he wrote
+after his return:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="quote">
+<p class="tit-center">TO J. B. S. MORRITT, ESQ., M. P., ROKEBY.</p>
+<p class="left50"><span class="smcap">Abbotsford</span>, 10th September, 1818.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">My dear Morritt</span>,&mdash;We have been cruising to and fro since we
+     left your land of woods and streams. Lord Melville wished me
+     to come and stay two days with him at Melville Castle, which
+     has broken in upon my time a little, and interrupted my
+     purpose of telling you as how we arrived safe at Abbotsford,
+     without a drop of rain, thus completing a tour of three
+     weeks in the same fine weather in which we commenced it&mdash;a
+     thing which never fell to my lot before. Captain Ferguson is
+     inducted into the office of Keeper of the Regalia, to the
+     great joy, I think, of all Edinburgh. He has entered upon a
+     farm (of eleven acres) in consequence of this advancement,
+     for you know it is a general rule, that whenever a Scotsman
+     gets his head <span class="italic">above water</span>, he immediately turns it to
+     <span class="italic">land</span>. As he has already taken all the advice of all the
+     <span class="italic">notables</span> in and about the good village of Darnick, we
+     expect to see his farm look like a tailor's <span class="pagenum"><a id="page272" name="page272"></a>(p. 272)</span> book
+     of patterns, a snip of every several opinion which he has
+     received occupying its appropriate corner. He is truly what
+     the French call <span class="italic" lang="fr">un drôle de corps</span>.</p>
+
+<p>I wish you would allow your coachman to look out for me
+     among your neighbors a couple of young colts (rising three
+     would be the best age) that would match for a carriage some
+     two years hence. I have plenty of grass for them in the mean
+     while, and should never know the expense of their keep at
+     Abbotsford. He seemed to think he could pick them up at from
+     £25 to £30, which would make an immense saving hereafter.
+     Peter Matheson and he had arranged some sort of plan of this
+     kind. For a pair of very ordinary carriage-horses in
+     Edinburgh they ask £140 or more; so it is worth while to be
+     a little provident. Even then you only get one good horse,
+     the other being usually a brute. Pray you excuse all this
+     palaver,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p class="poem20">
+  "These little things are great to little men."</p>
+
+<p>Our harvest is almost all in, but as farmers always grumble
+     about something, they are now growling about the lightness
+     of the crop. All the young part of our household are wrapt
+     up in uncertainty concerning the Queen's illness&mdash;for&mdash;if
+     her Majesty parts cable, there will be no Forest Ball, and
+     that is a terrible prospect. On Wednesday (when no post
+     arrives from London) Lord Melville chanced to receive a
+     letter with a black seal by express, and as it was of course
+     argued to contain the expected intelligence of poor
+     Charlotte, it sold a good many ells of black cloth and
+     stuffs before it was ascertained to contain no such
+     information. Surely this came within the line of high
+     treason, being an imagining of the Queen's death.</p>
+
+<p>Ever yours truly,<br>
+<span class="left50 smcap">Walter Scott.</span></p>
+
+<p>P. S.&mdash;Once more <span class="italic">anent</span> the colts. I am indifferent about
+     color; but, <span class="italic">cæteris paribus</span>, would prefer black or brown,
+     to bright bay or gray. I mention two off&mdash;as <span class="pagenum"><a id="page273" name="page273"></a>(p. 273)</span> the
+     age at which they can be best judged of by the buyer.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>Of the same date I find written in pencil, on what must have been the
+envelope of some sheriff's-process, this note, addressed to Mr.
+Charles Erskine, the Sheriff-Substitute of Selkirkshire:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="quote">
+<p class="left50">September 10, 1818.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Dear Charles</span>,&mdash;I have read these papers with all attention
+     this morning&mdash;but think you will agree with me that there
+     must be an Eke to the Condescendence. Order the Eke against
+     next day.&mdash;Tom leaves with this packet a blackcock, and
+     (more's the pity) a gray hen. Yours,</p>
+
+<p class="left50">W. S.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>And again he thus writes by post to James Ballantyne:</p>
+
+<div class="quote">
+<p class="left50"><span class="smcap">Abbotsford</span>, September 10, 1818.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Dear James</span>,&mdash;I am quite satisfied with what has been done as
+     to the London bills. I am glad the presses move. I have been
+     interrupted sadly since my return by tourist gazers. This
+     day a confounded pair of Cambridge boys have robbed me of
+     two good hours, and you of a sheet of copy&mdash;though whether a
+     good sheet or no, deponent saith not. The story is a dismal
+     one, and I doubt sometimes whether it will bear working out
+     to much length after all. Query, if I shall make it so
+     effective in two volumes as my mother does in her quarter of
+     an hour's crack by the fireside? But <span class="italic">nil desperandum</span>. You
+     shall have a bunch to-morrow or next day&mdash;and when the
+     proofs come in, my pen must and shall step out. By the bye,
+     I want a supply of pens&mdash;and ditto of ink. Adieu for the
+     present, for I must go over to Toftfield, to give orders
+     <span class="italic">anent</span> the dam and the footpath, and see <span class="italic">item</span> as to what
+     should be done <span class="italic">anent</span> steps at the Rhymer's Waterfall,
+     which I think may be made to turn out a decent bit of a
+     linn, as would set True Thomas his worth and dignity. Ever
+     yours,</p>
+
+<p class="left50">W. S.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page274" name="page274"></a>(p. 274)</span> It must, I think, be allowed that these careless scraps, when
+combined, give a curious picture of the man who was brooding over the
+first chapters of The Bride of Lammermoor. One of his visitors of that
+month was Mr. R. Cadell, who was of course in all the secrets of the
+house of Constable; and observing how his host was harassed with
+lion-hunters, and what a number of hours he spent daily in the company
+of his work-people, he expressed, during one of their walks, his
+wonder that Scott should ever be able to write books at all while in
+the country. "I know," he said, "that you contrive to get a few hours
+in your own room, and that may do for the mere pen-work; but when is
+it that you think?" "Oh," said Scott, "I lie <span class="italic">simmering</span> over things
+for an hour or so before I get up&mdash;and there's the time I am dressing
+to overhaul my half-sleeping, half-waking <span class="italic" lang="fr">projet de chapitre</span>&mdash;and
+when I get the paper before me, it commonly runs off pretty
+easily.&mdash;Besides, I often take a doze in the plantations, and while
+Tom marks out a dyke or a drain as I have directed, one's fancy may be
+running its ain riggs in some other world."</p>
+
+<a id="img006" name="img006"></a>
+<div class="figcenter">
+<img src="images/img006.jpg" width="400" height="468" alt="" title="">
+<p>JOHN GIBSON LOCKHART<br>
+After the painting by Pickersgill.</div>
+
+<p>It was in the month following that I first saw Abbotsford. He invited
+my friend John Wilson (now Professor of Moral Philosophy at Edinburgh)
+and myself to visit him for a day or two on our return from an
+excursion to Mr. Wilson's beautiful villa on the Lake of Windermere,
+but named the particular day (October 8) on which it would be most
+convenient for him to receive us; and we discovered on our arrival
+that he had fixed it from a good-natured motive. We found him walking
+in one of his plantations, at no great distance from the house, with
+five or six young people, and his friends Lord Melville and Captain
+Ferguson. Having presented us to the First Lord of the Admiralty, he
+fell back a little and said, "I am glad you came to-day, for I thought
+it might be of use to you both, some time or other, to be known to my
+old schoolfellow here, who is, and I hope <span class="pagenum"><a id="page275" name="page275"></a>(p. 275)</span> will long continue
+to be, the great giver of good things in the Parliament House. I trust
+you have had enough of certain pranks with your friend Ebony, and if
+so, Lord Melville will have too much sense to remember them."<a id="footnotetag115" name="footnotetag115"></a><a href="#footnote115" title="Go to footnote 115"><span class="small">[115]</span></a> We
+then walked round the plantation, as yet in a very young state, and
+came back to the house by a formidable work which he was constructing
+for the defence of his <span class="italic">haugh</span> against the wintry violences of the
+Tweed; and he discoursed for some time with keen interest upon the
+comparative merits of different methods of embankment, but stopped now
+and then to give us the advantage of any point of view in which his
+new building on the eminence above pleased his eye. It had a fantastic
+appearance&mdash;being but a fragment of the existing edifice&mdash;and not at
+all harmonizing in its outline with "Mother Retford's" original
+tenement to the eastward. Scott, however, expatiated <span class="italic">con amore</span> on
+the rapidity with which, being chiefly of darkish granite, it was
+assuming a "time-honored" aspect. Ferguson, with a grave and
+respectful look, observed, "Yes, it really has much the air of some
+old fastness hard by the river Jordan." This allusion to the Chaldee
+MS., already quoted, in the manufacture of which Ferguson fancied
+Wilson and myself to have had a share, gave rise to a burst of
+laughter among Scott's merry young folks and their companions, while
+he himself drew in his nether lip, and rebuked the Captain with
+"Toots, Adam! toots, Adam!" He then returned to his embankment, and
+described how a former one had been entirely swept away in one night's
+flood. But the Captain was ready with another verse of the Chaldee
+MS., and groaned out, by way of echo, "Verily my fine gold hath
+perished!" Whereupon the "Great Magician" elevated his huge oaken
+staff as if to <span class="pagenum"><a id="page276" name="page276"></a>(p. 276)</span> lay it on the waggish soldier's back&mdash;but
+flourished it gayly over his own head, and laughed louder than the
+youngest of the company. As we walked and talked, the Pepper and
+Mustard terriers kept snuffing about among the bushes and heather near
+us, and started every five minutes a hare, which scudded away before
+them and the ponderous staghound Maida&mdash;the Sheriff and all his tail
+hollowing and cheering, in perfect confidence that the dogs could do
+no more harm to poor puss than the venerable tom-cat, Hinse of
+Hinsfeldt, who pursued the vain chase with the rest.</p>
+
+<p>At length we drew near <span class="italic">Peterhouse</span>, and found sober Peter himself,
+and his brother-in-law, the facetious factotum Tom Purdie,
+superintending, pipe in mouth, three or four sturdy laborers busy in
+laying down the turf for a bowling-green. "I have planted hollies all
+round it, you see," said Scott, "and laid out an arbor on the
+right-hand side for the laird; and here I mean to have a game at bowls
+after dinner every day in fine weather&mdash;for I take that to have been
+among the indispensables of our old <span class="italic" lang="fr">vie de château</span>." But I must not
+forget the reason he gave me some time afterwards for having fixed on
+that spot for his bowling-green. "In truth," he then said, "I wished
+to have a smooth walk, and a canny seat for myself within ear-shot of
+Peter's evening psalm." The coachman was a devout Presbyterian, and
+many a time have I in after-years accompanied Scott on his evening
+stroll, when the principal object was to enjoy, from the
+bowling-green, the unfailing melody of this good man's family
+worship&mdash;and heard him repeat, as Peter's manly voice led the humble
+choir within, that beautiful stanza of Burns's Saturday Night:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p class="poem20">
+  "They chaunt their artless notes in simple guise;<br>
+  They tune their hearts, by far the noblest aim," etc.</p>
+
+<p>It was near the dinner-hour before we reached the house, and presently
+I saw assembled a larger company than I should have fancied to be at
+all compatible with <span class="pagenum"><a id="page277" name="page277"></a>(p. 277)</span> the existing accommodations of the
+place; but it turned out that Captain Ferguson, and the friends whom I
+have not as yet mentioned, were to find quarters elsewhere for the
+night. His younger brother, Captain John Ferguson of the Royal Navy (a
+favorite lieutenant of Lord Nelson's), had come over from Huntly Burn;
+there were present, also, Mr. Scott of Gala, whose residence is within
+an easy distance; Sir Henry Hay Macdougal of Mackerstoun, an old
+baronet, with gay, lively, and highly polished manners, related in the
+same degree to both Gala and the Sheriff; Sir Alexander Don, the
+member for Roxburghshire, whose elegant social qualities have been
+alluded to in the preceding chapter; and Dr. Scott of Darnlee, a
+modest and intelligent gentleman, who having realized a fortune in the
+East India Company's medical service, had settled within two or three
+miles of Abbotsford, and, though no longer practising his profession,
+had kindly employed all the resources of his skill in the endeavor to
+counteract his neighbor's recent liability to attacks of cramp. Our
+host and one or two others appeared, as was in those days a common
+fashion with country gentlemen, in the lieutenancy uniform of their
+county. How fourteen or fifteen people contrived to be seated in the
+then dining-room of Abbotsford I know not&mdash;for it seemed quite full
+enough when it contained only eight or ten; but so it was&mdash;nor, as Sir
+Harry Macdougal's fat valet, warned by former experience, did not join
+the train of attendants, was there any perceptible difficulty in the
+detail of the arrangements. Everything about the dinner was, as the
+phrase runs, in excellent style; and in particular the <span class="italic">potage à la
+Meg Merrilies</span>, announced as an attempt to imitate a device of the
+Duke of Buccleuch's celebrated cook,&mdash;by name Monsieur
+Florence,&mdash;seemed, to those at least who were better acquainted with
+the Kaim of Derncleugh than with the <span class="italic">cuisine</span> of Bowhill,<a id="footnotetag116" name="footnotetag116"></a><a href="#footnote116" title="Go to footnote 116"><span class="small">[116]</span></a> a very
+laudable specimen of the art. <span class="pagenum"><a id="page278" name="page278"></a>(p. 278)</span> The champagne circulated
+nimbly&mdash;and I never was present at a gayer dinner. It had advanced a
+little beyond the soup when it received an accompaniment which would
+not, perhaps, have improved the satisfaction of southern guests, had
+any such been present. A tall and stalwart bagpiper, in complete
+Highland costume, appeared pacing to and fro on the green before the
+house, and the window being open, it seemed as if he might as well
+have been straining his lungs within the parlor. At a pause of his
+strenuous performance, Scott took occasion to explain that <span class="italic">John of
+Skye</span> was a recent acquisition to the rising hamlet of Abbotstown;
+that the man was a capital hedger and ditcher, and only figured with
+the pipe and philabeg on high occasions in the after-part of the day;
+"but indeed," he added, laughing, "I fear John will soon be
+discovering that the hook and mattock are unfavorable to his chanter
+hand." When the cloth was drawn, and the never-failing salver of
+<span class="italic">quaighs</span> introduced, John of Skye, upon some well-known signal,
+entered the room, but <span class="italic" lang="fr">en militaire</span>, without removing his bonnet, and
+taking his station behind the landlord, received from his hand the
+largest of the Celtic bickers brimful of Glenlivet. The man saluted
+the company in his own dialect, tipped off the contents (probably a
+quarter of an English pint of raw aqua vitæ) at a gulp, wheeled about
+as solemnly as if the whole ceremony had been a movement on parade,
+and forthwith recommenced his pibrochs and gatherings, which continued
+until long after the ladies had left the table, and the autumnal moon
+was streaming in upon us so brightly as to dim the candles.</p>
+
+<p>I had never before seen Scott in such buoyant spirits as he showed
+this evening&mdash;and I never saw him in <span class="pagenum"><a id="page279" name="page279"></a>(p. 279)</span> higher afterwards; and
+no wonder, for this was the first time that he, Lord Melville, and
+Adam Ferguson, daily companions at the High School of Edinburgh, and
+partners in many joyous scenes of the early volunteer period, had met
+since the commencement of what I may call the serious part of any of
+their lives. The great poet and novelist was receiving them under his
+own roof, when his fame was at its <span class="italic">acme</span>, and his fortune seemed
+culminating to about a corresponding height&mdash;and the generous
+exuberance of his hilarity might have overflowed without moving the
+spleen of a Cynic. Old stories of <span class="italic">the Yards</span> and <span class="italic">the Cross-causeway</span>
+were relieved by sketches of real warfare, such as none but Ferguson
+(or Charles Mathews, had he been a soldier) could ever have given; and
+they toasted the memory of <span class="italic">Green-breeks</span> and the health of <span class="italic">the Beau</span>
+with equal devotion.</p>
+
+<p>When we rose from table, Scott proposed that we should all ascend his
+western turret, to enjoy a moonlight view of the valley. The younger
+part of his company were too happy to do so: some of the seniors, who
+had tried the thing before, found pretexts for hanging back. The
+stairs were dark, narrow, and steep; but the Sheriff piloted the way,
+and at length there were as many on the top as it could well afford
+footing for. Nothing could be more lovely than the panorama; all the
+harsher and more naked features being lost in the delicious moonlight;
+the Tweed and the Gala winding and sparkling beneath our feet; and the
+distant ruins of Melrose appearing, as if carved of alabaster, under
+the black mass of the Eildons. The poet, leaning on his battlement,
+seemed to hang over the beautiful vision as if he had never seen it
+before. "If I live," he exclaimed, "I will build me a higher tower,
+with a more spacious platform, and a staircase better fitted for an
+old fellow's scrambling." The piper was heard re-tuning his instrument
+below, and he called to him for Lochaber no More. John of Skye obeyed,
+and as the music rose, softened by <span class="pagenum"><a id="page280" name="page280"></a>(p. 280)</span> the distance, Scott
+repeated in a low key the melancholy words of the song of exile.</p>
+
+<p>On descending from the tower, the whole company were assembled in the
+new dining-room, which was still under the hands of the carpenters,
+but had been brilliantly illuminated for the occasion. Mr. Bruce took
+his station, and old and young danced reels to his melodious
+accompaniment until they were weary, while Scott and the Dominie
+looked on with gladsome faces, and beat time now and then, the one
+with his staff, the other with his wooden leg. A tray with mulled wine
+and whiskey punch was then introduced, and Lord Melville proposed a
+bumper, with all the honors, to the <span class="italic">Roof-tree</span>. Captain Ferguson
+having sung Johnnie Cope, called on the young ladies for Kenmure's On
+and Awa'; and our host then insisted that the whole party should join,
+standing in a circle hand-in-hand <span class="italic">more majorum</span>, in the hearty chorus
+of</p>
+
+<p class="poem20">
+  "Weel may we a' be,<br>
+  Ill may we never see,<br>
+  God bless the king and the gude companie!"</p>
+
+<p>&mdash;which being duly performed, all dispersed. Such was <span class="italic">the handsel</span>
+(for Scott protested against its being considered as <span class="italic">the
+house-heating</span>) of the new Abbotsford.</p>
+
+<p>When I began this chapter, I thought it would be a short one, but it
+is surprising how, when one digs into his memory, the smallest details
+of a scene that was interesting at the time, shall by degrees come to
+light again. I now recall, as if I had seen and heard them yesterday,
+the looks and words of eighteen years ago. Awakening between six and
+seven next morning, I heard Scott's voice close to me, and looking out
+of the little latticed window of the then detached cottage called <span class="italic">the
+chapel</span>, saw him and Tom Purdie pacing together on the green before
+the door, in earnest deliberation over what seemed to be a rude daub
+of a drawing; and every time they approached my end of their parade, I
+was sure to <span class="pagenum"><a id="page281" name="page281"></a>(p. 281)</span> catch the words <span class="italic">Blue Bank</span>. It turned out in
+the course of the day, that a field of clay near Toftfield went by
+this name, and that the draining of it was one of the chief operations
+then in hand. My friend Wilson meanwhile, who lodged also in the
+chapel, tapped at my door, and asked me to rise and take a walk with
+him by the river, for he had some angling project in his head. He went
+out and joined in the consultation about the Blue Bank, while I was
+dressing; presently Scott hailed me at the casement, and said he had
+observed a volume of a new edition of Goethe on my table&mdash;would I lend
+it him for a little? He carried off the volume accordingly, and
+retreated with it to his den. It contained the Faust, and, I believe,
+in a more complete shape than he had before seen that masterpiece of
+his old favorite. When we met at breakfast, a couple of hours after,
+he was full of the poem&mdash;dwelt with enthusiasm on the airy beauty of
+its lyrics, the terrible pathos of the scene before the <span class="italic">Mater
+Dolorosa</span>, and the deep skill shown in the various subtle shadings of
+character between Mephistopheles and poor Margaret. He remarked,
+however, of the Introduction (which I suspect was new to him), that
+blood would out&mdash;that, consummate artist as he was, Goethe was a
+German, and that nobody but a German would ever have provoked a
+comparison with the Book of Job, "the grandest poem that ever was
+written." He added, that he suspected the end of the story had been
+left <span class="italic">in obscuro</span>, from despair to match the closing scene of our own
+Marlowe's Doctor Faustus. Mr. Wilson mentioned a report that Coleridge
+was engaged on a translation of the Faust. "I hope it is so," said
+Scott; "Coleridge made Schiller's Wallenstein far finer than he found
+it, and so he will do by this. No man has all the resources of poetry
+in such profusion, but he cannot manage them so as to bring out
+anything of his own on a large scale at all worthy of his genius. He
+is like a lump of coal rich with gas, which lies expending itself in
+puffs and <span class="pagenum"><a id="page282" name="page282"></a>(p. 282)</span> gleams, unless some shrewd body will clap it into
+a cast-iron box, and compel the compressed element to do itself
+justice. His fancy and diction would have long ago placed him above
+all his contemporaries, had they been under the direction of a sound
+judgment and a steady will.<a id="footnotetag117" name="footnotetag117"></a><a href="#footnote117" title="Go to footnote 117"><span class="small">[117]</span></a> I don't now expect a great original
+poem from Coleridge, but he might easily make a sort of fame for
+himself as a poetical translator,&mdash;that would be a thing completely
+unique and <span class="italic">sui generis</span>."</p>
+
+<p>While this criticism proceeded, Scott was cutting away at his brown
+loaf and a plate of kippered salmon, in a style which strongly
+reminded me of Dandie Dinmont's luncheon at Mump's Hall; nor was his
+German topic at all the predominant one. On the contrary, the
+sentences which have dwelt on my memory dropt from him now and then,
+in the pauses, as it were, of his main talk;&mdash;for though he could not
+help recurring, ever and anon, to the subject, it would have been
+quite out of his way to make any literary matter the chief theme of
+his conversation, when there was a single person present who was not
+likely to feel much interested in its discussion.&mdash;How often have I
+heard him quote on such occasions Mr. Vellum's advice to the butler in
+Addison's excellent play of The Drummer: "Your conjuror, John, is
+indeed a twofold personage&mdash;but he <span class="italic">eats and drinks like other
+people</span>!"</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page283" name="page283"></a>(p. 283)</span> I may, however, take this opportunity of observing, that
+nothing could have been more absurdly unfounded than the statement
+which I have seen repeated in various sketches of his Life and
+Manners, that he habitually abstained from conversation on literary
+topics. In point of fact, there were no topics on which he talked more
+openly or more earnestly; but he, when in society, lived and talked
+for the persons with whom he found himself surrounded, and if he did
+not always choose to enlarge upon the subjects which his companions
+for the time suggested, it was simply because he thought or fancied
+that these had selected, out of deference or flattery, subjects about
+which they really cared little more than they knew. I have already
+repeated, over and again, my conviction that Scott considered
+literature, <span class="italic">per se</span>, as a thing of far inferior importance to the
+high concerns of political or practical life; but it would be too
+ridiculous to question that literature nevertheless engrossed, at all
+times and seasons, the greater part of his own interest and
+reflection: nor can it be doubted that his general preference of the
+society of men engaged in the active business of the world, rather
+than that of, so-called, literary people, was grounded substantially
+on his feeling that literature, worthy of the name, was more likely to
+be fed and nourished by the converse of the former than by that of the
+latter class.</p>
+
+<p>Before breakfast was over, the post-bag arrived, and its contents were
+so numerous, that Lord Melville asked Scott what election was on
+hand&mdash;not doubting that there must be some very particular reason for
+such a shoal of letters. He answered that it was much the same most
+days, and added, "though no one has kinder friends in the franking
+line, and though Freeling and Croker especially are always ready to
+stretch the point of privilege in my favor, I am nevertheless a fair
+contributor to the revenue, for I think my bill for letters seldom
+comes under £150 a year; and as to coach-parcels, they <span class="pagenum"><a id="page284" name="page284"></a>(p. 284)</span> are a
+perfect ruination." He then told with high merriment a disaster that
+had lately befallen him. "One morning last spring," he said, "I opened
+a huge lump of a despatch, without looking how it was addressed, never
+doubting that it had travelled under some omnipotent frank like the
+First Lord of the Admiralty's, when, lo and behold, the contents
+proved to be a MS. play, by a young lady of New York, who kindly
+requested me to read and correct it, equip it with prologue and
+epilogue, procure for it a favorable reception from the manager of
+Drury Lane, and make Murray or Constable bleed handsomely for the
+copyright; and on inspecting the cover, I found that I had been
+charged five pounds odd for the postage. This was bad enough&mdash;but
+there was no help, so I groaned and submitted. A fortnight or so
+after, another packet, of not less formidable bulk, arrived, and I was
+absent enough to break its seal, too, without examination. Conceive my
+horror when out jumped the same identical tragedy of The Cherokee
+Lovers, with a second epistle from the authoress, stating that, as the
+winds had been boisterous, she feared the vessel entrusted with her
+former communication might have foundered, and therefore judged it
+prudent to forward a duplicate."</p>
+
+<p>Scott said he must retire to answer his letters, but that the sociable
+and the ponies would be at the door by one o'clock, when he proposed
+to show Melrose and Dryburgh to Lady Melville and any of the rest of
+the party that chose to accompany them; adding that his son Walter
+would lead anybody who preferred a gun to the likeliest place for a
+blackcock, and that Charlie Purdie (Tom's brother) would attend upon
+Mr. Wilson, and whoever else chose to try a cast of the salmon-rod. He
+withdrew when all this was arranged, and appeared at the time
+appointed, with perhaps a dozen letters sealed for the post, and a
+coach-parcel addressed to James Ballantyne, which he dropt at the
+turnpike-gate as we drove to Melrose. Seeing it picked up by a dirty
+urchin, and carried <span class="pagenum"><a id="page285" name="page285"></a>(p. 285)</span> into a hedge pot-house, where
+half-a-dozen nondescript wayfarers were smoking and tippling, I could
+not but wonder that it had not been the fate of some one of those
+innumerable packets to fall into unscrupulous hands, and betray the
+grand secret. That very morning we had seen two post-chaises drawn up
+at his gate, and the enthusiastic travellers, seemingly decent
+tradesmen and their families, who must have been packed in a manner
+worthy of Mrs. Gilpin, lounging about to catch a glimpse of him at his
+going forth. But it was impossible in those days to pass between
+Melrose and Abbotsford without encountering some odd figure, armed
+with a sketch-book, evidently bent on a peep at the Great Unknown; and
+it must be allowed that many of these pedestrians looked as if they
+might have thought it very excusable to make prize, by hook or by
+crook, of a MS. chapter of the Tales of my Landlord.</p>
+
+<p>Scott showed us the ruins of Melrose in detail; and as we proceeded to
+Dryburgh, descanted learnedly and sagaciously on the good effects
+which must have attended the erection of so many great monastic
+establishments in a district so peculiarly exposed to the inroads of
+the English in the days of the Border wars. "They were now and then
+violated," he said, "as their aspect to this hour bears witness; but
+for once that they suffered, any lay property similarly situated must
+have been <span class="italic">harried</span> a dozen times. The bold Dacres, Liddells, and
+Howards, that could get easy absolution at York or Durham for any
+ordinary breach of a truce with the Scots, would have had <span class="italic">to dree a
+heavy dole</span> had they confessed plundering from the fat brothers, of
+the same order perhaps, whose lines had fallen to them on the wrong
+side of the Cheviot." He enlarged, too, on the heavy penalty which the
+Crown of Scotland had paid for its rash acquiescence in the wholesale
+robbery of the Church at the Reformation. "The proportion of the soil
+in the hands of the clergy had," he said, "been very great&mdash;too great
+to be <span class="pagenum"><a id="page286" name="page286"></a>(p. 286)</span> continued. If we may judge by their share in the
+public burdens, they must have had nearly a third of the land in their
+possession. But this vast wealth was now distributed among a turbulent
+nobility, too powerful before; and the Stuarts soon found, that in the
+bishops and lord abbots they had lost the only means of balancing
+their factions, so as to turn the scale in favor of law and order; and
+by and by the haughty barons themselves, who had scrambled for the
+worldly spoil of the church, found that the spiritual influence had
+been concentrated in hands as haughty as their own, and connected with
+no feelings likely to buttress their order any more than the Crown&mdash;a
+new and sterner monkery, under a different name, and essentially
+plebeian. Presently the Scotch were on the verge of republicanism, in
+state as well as kirk, and I have sometimes thought it was only the
+accession of King Jamie to the throne of England that could have given
+monarchy a chance of prolonging its existence here." One of his
+friends asked what he supposed might have been the annual revenue of
+the abbey of Melrose in its best day. He answered that he suspected,
+if all the sources of their income were now in clever hands, the
+produce could hardly be under £100,000 a year; and added: "Making
+every allowance for modern improvements, there can be no question that
+the sixty brothers of Melrose divided a princely rental. The superiors
+were often men of very high birth, and the great majority of the rest
+were younger brothers of gentlemen's families. I fancy they may have
+been, on the whole, pretty near akin to your Fellows of All
+Souls&mdash;who, according to their statute, must be <span class="italic" lang="la">bene nati, bene
+vestiti, et mediocriter docti</span>. They had a good house in Edinburgh,
+where, no doubt, my lord abbot and his chaplains maintained a
+hospitable table during the sittings of Parliament." Some one
+regretted that we had no lively picture of the enormous revolution in
+manners that must have followed the downfall of the ancient Church in
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page287" name="page287"></a>(p. 287)</span> Scotland. He observed that there were, he fancied, materials
+enough for constructing such a one, but that they were mostly
+scattered in records&mdash;"of which," said he, "who knows anything to the
+purpose except Tom Thomson and John Riddell? It is common to laugh at
+such researches, but they pay the good brains that meddle with
+them;&mdash;and had Thomson been as diligent in setting down his
+discoveries as he has been in making them, he might, long before this
+time of day, have placed himself on a level with Ducange or Camden.
+The change in the country-side," he continued, "must indeed have been
+terrific; but it does not seem to have been felt very severely by a
+certain Boniface of St. Andrews, for when somebody asked him, on the
+subsidence of the storm, what he thought of all that had
+occurred,&mdash;'Why,' answered mine host, 'it comes to this, that the
+moder<span class="italic">au</span>tor sits in my meikle chair, where the dean sat before, and
+in place of calling for the third stoup of Bordeaux, bids Jenny bring
+ben anither bowl of toddy.'"</p>
+
+<p>At Dryburgh, Scott pointed out to us the sepulchral aisle of his
+Haliburton ancestors, and said he hoped, in God's appointed time, to
+lay his bones among their dust. The spot was, even then, a
+sufficiently interesting and impressive one; but I shall not say more
+of it at present.</p>
+
+<p>On returning to Abbotsford, we found Mrs. Scott and her daughters
+doing penance under the merciless curiosity of a couple of tourists
+who had arrived from Selkirk soon after we set out for Melrose. They
+were rich specimens&mdash;tall, lanky young men, both of them rigged out in
+new jackets and trousers of the Macgregor tartan; the one, as they had
+revealed, being a lawyer, the other a Unitarian preacher, from New
+England. These gentlemen, when told on their arrival that Mr. Scott
+was not at home, had shown such signs of impatience, that the servant
+took it for granted they must have serious business, and asked if they
+would wish to speak a word with his <span class="pagenum"><a id="page288" name="page288"></a>(p. 288)</span> lady. They grasped at
+this, and so conducted themselves in the interview, that Mrs. Scott
+never doubted they had brought letters of introduction to her husband,
+and invited them accordingly to partake of her luncheon. They had been
+walking about the house and grounds with her and her daughters ever
+since that time, and appeared at the porch, when the Sheriff and his
+party returned to dinner, as if they had been already fairly enrolled
+on his visiting list. For the moment, he too was taken in&mdash;he fancied
+that his wife must have received and opened their credentials&mdash;and
+shook hands with them with courteous cordiality. But Mrs. Scott, with
+all her overflowing good-nature, was a sharp observer; and she, before
+a minute had elapsed, interrupted the ecstatic compliments of the
+strangers, by reminding them that her husband would be glad to have
+the letters of the friends who had been so good as to write by them.
+It then turned out that there were no letters to be produced&mdash;and
+Scott, signifying that his hour for dinner approached, added, that as
+he supposed they meant to walk to Melrose, he could not trespass
+further on their time. The two lion-hunters seemed quite unprepared
+for this abrupt escape. But there was about Scott, in perfection, when
+he chose to exert it, the power of civil repulsion; he bowed the
+overwhelmed originals to his door, and on reëntering the parlor, found
+Mrs. Scott complaining very indignantly that they had gone so far as
+to pull out their note-book, and beg an exact account, not only of his
+age&mdash;but of her own. Scott, already half relenting, laughed heartily
+at this misery. He observed, however, that, "if he were to take in all
+the world, he had better put up a sign-post at once,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p class="poem30">
+  'Porter, ale, and British spirits,<br>
+  Painted bright between twa trees;'<a id="footnotetag118" name="footnotetag118"></a><a href="#footnote118" title="Go to footnote 118"><span class="small">[118]</span></a></p>
+
+<p>and that no traveller of respectability could ever be at a loss for
+such an introduction as would insure his best <span class="pagenum"><a id="page289" name="page289"></a>(p. 289)</span> hospitality."
+Still he was not quite pleased with what had happened&mdash;and as we were
+about to pass, half an hour afterwards, from the drawing-room to the
+dining-room, he said to his wife, "Hang the Yahoos, Charlotte&mdash;but we
+should have bid them stay dinner." "Devil a bit," quoth Captain John
+Ferguson, who had again come over from Huntly Burn, and had been
+latterly assisting the lady to amuse her Americans, "Devil a bit, my
+dear,&mdash;they were quite in a mistake, I could see. The one asked Madame
+whether she deigned to call her new house Tully-Veolan or
+Tillietudlem; and the other, when Maida happened to lay his nose
+against the window, exclaimed <span class="italic">pro-di-gi-ous</span>! In short, they
+evidently meant all their humbug not for you, but for the culprit of
+Waverley, and the rest of that there rubbish." "Well, well, Skipper,"
+was the reply, "for a' that, the loons would hae been nane the waur o'
+their kail."</p>
+
+<p>From this banter it may be inferred that the younger Ferguson had not
+as yet been told the Waverley secret&mdash;which to any of that house could
+never have been any mystery. Probably this, or some similar occasion
+soon afterwards, led to his formal initiation; for during the many
+subsequent years that the veil was kept on, I used to admire the tact
+with which, when in their topmost high-jinks humor, both "Captain
+John" and "The Auld Captain" eschewed any the most distant allusion to
+the affair.</p>
+
+<p>And this reminds me, that at the period of which I am writing, none of
+Scott's own family, except of course his wife, had the advantage in
+that matter of the Skipper. Some of them, too, were apt, like him, so
+long as no regular confidence had been reposed in them, to avail
+themselves of the author's reserve for their own sport among friends.
+Thus one morning, just as Scott was opening the door of the parlor,
+the rest of the party being already seated at the breakfast-table, the
+Dominie was in the act of helping himself to an egg, marked with
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page290" name="page290"></a>(p. 290)</span> a peculiar hieroglyphic by Mrs. Thomas Purdie, upon which
+Anne Scott, then a lively rattling girl of sixteen, lisped out,
+"That's a mysterious-looking egg, Mr. Thomson&mdash;what if it should have
+been meant for <span class="italic">the Great Unknown</span>?" Ere the Dominie could reply, her
+father advanced to the foot of the table, and having seated himself
+and deposited his stick on the carpet beside him, with a sort of
+whispered whistle&mdash;"What's that Lady Anne's<a id="footnotetag119" name="footnotetag119"></a><a href="#footnote119" title="Go to footnote 119"><span class="small">[119]</span></a> saying?" quoth he; "I
+thought it had been well known that the <span class="italic">keelavined</span> egg must be a
+soft one for <span class="italic">the Sherra</span>." And so he took his egg, and while all
+smiled in silence, poor Anne said gayly, in the midst of her blushes,
+"Upon my word, papa, I thought Mr. John Ballantyne might have been
+expected." This allusion to Johnny's glory in being considered as the
+accredited representative of Jedediah Cleishbotham produced a
+laugh,&mdash;at which the Sheriff frowned&mdash;and then laughed too.</p>
+
+<p>I remember nothing particular about our second day's dinner, except
+that it was then I first met my dear and honored friend William
+Laidlaw. The evening passed rather more quietly than the preceding
+one. Instead of the dance in the new dining-room, we had a succession
+of old ballads sung to the harp and guitar by the young ladies of the
+house; and Scott, when they seemed to have done enough, found some
+reason for taking down a volume of Crabbe, and read us one of his
+favorite tales,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p class="poem20">
+  "Grave Jonas Kindred, Sibyl Kindred's sire,<br>
+  Was six feet high, and looked six inches higher," etc.</p>
+
+<p>But jollity revived in full vigor when the supper-tray was introduced;
+and to cap all merriment, Captain Ferguson dismissed us with The Laird
+of Cockpen. Lord and Lady Melville were to return to Melville Castle
+next <span class="pagenum"><a id="page291" name="page291"></a>(p. 291)</span> morning, and Mr. Wilson and I happened to mention that
+we were engaged to dine and sleep at the seat of my friend and
+relation, Mr. Pringle of Torwoodlee, on our way to Edinburgh. Scott
+immediately said that he would send word in the morning to the Laird,
+that he and Adam Ferguson meant to accompany us&mdash;such being the
+unceremonious style in which country neighbors in Scotland visit each
+other. Next day, accordingly, we all rode over together to Mr.
+Pringle's beautiful seat&mdash;the "distant Torwoodlee" of The Lay of the
+Last Minstrel, but distant not above five or six miles from
+Abbotsford&mdash;coursing hares as we proceeded, but inspecting the
+antiquities of the <span class="italic">Catrail</span> to the interruption of our sport. We had
+another joyous evening at Torwoodlee. Scott and Ferguson returned home
+at night, and the morning after, as Wilson and I mounted for
+Edinburgh, our kind old host, his sides still sore with laughter,
+remarked that "the Sheriff and the Captain together were too much for
+any company."</p>
+
+<p>There was much talk between the Sheriff and Mr. Pringle about the
+Selkirkshire Yeomanry Cavalry, of which the latter had been the
+original commandant. Young Walter Scott had been for a year or more
+Cornet in the corps, and his father was consulting Torwoodlee about an
+entertainment which he meant to give them on his son's approaching
+birthday. It was then that the new dining-room was to be first
+<span class="italic">heated</span> in good earnest; and Scott very kindly pressed Wilson and
+myself, at parting, to return for the occasion&mdash;which, however, we
+found it impossible to do. The reader must therefore be satisfied with
+what is said about it in one of the following letters:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="quote">
+<p class="tit-center">TO J. B. S. MORRITT, ESQ., M. P., ROKEBY.</p>
+<p class="left50"><span class="smcap">Abbotsford</span>, 5th November, 1818.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">My Dear Morritt</span>,&mdash;Many thanks for your kind letter of 29th
+     October. The matter of the colts being as <span class="pagenum"><a id="page292" name="page292"></a>(p. 292)</span> you
+     state, I shall let it lie over until next year, and then
+     avail myself of your being in the neighborhood to get a good
+     pair of four-year-olds, since it would be unnecessary to buy
+     them a year younger, and incur all the risks of disease and
+     accident, unless they could have been had at a proportional
+     under-value.</p>
+
+<p>* * * * * * leaves us this morning after a visit of about a
+     week. He improves on acquaintance, and especially seems so
+     pleased with everything, that it would be very hard to
+     quarrel with him. Certainly, as the Frenchman said, <span class="italic" lang="fr">il a un
+     grand talent pour le silence</span>. I take the opportunity of his
+     servant going direct to Rokeby to charge him with this
+     letter, and a plaid which my daughters entreat you to accept
+     of as a token of their <span class="italic">warm</span> good wishes. Seriously you
+     will find it a good bosom friend in an easterly wind, a
+     black frost, or when your country avocations lead you to
+     face a <span class="italic">dry wap of snow</span>. I find it by far the lightest and
+     most comfortable integument which I can use upon such
+     occasions.</p>
+
+<p>We had a grand jollification here last week;&mdash;the whole
+     troop of Forest Yeomanry dining with us. I assure you the
+     scene was gay and even grand, with glittering sabres, waving
+     standards, and screaming bagpipes; and that it might not
+     lack spectators of taste, who should arrive in the midst of
+     the hurricane, but Lord and Lady Compton, whose presence
+     gave a great zest to the whole affair. Everything went off
+     very well, and as cavalry have the great advantage over
+     infantry, that their <span class="italic">legs</span> never get drunk, they retired in
+     decent disorder about ten o'clock. I was glad to see Lord
+     and Lady Compton so very comfortable, and surrounded with so
+     fine a family, the natural bond of mutual regard and
+     affection. She has got very jolly, but otherwise has
+     improved on her travels. I had a long chat with her, and was
+     happy to find her quite contented and pleased with the lot
+     she has drawn in life. It is a brilliant one in many
+     respects, to be sure; but still I have seen the story of the
+     poor <span class="pagenum"><a id="page293" name="page293"></a>(p. 293)</span> woman, who, after all rational subjects of
+     distress had been successively remedied, tormented herself
+     about the screaming of a neighbor's peacock&mdash;I say, I have
+     seen this so often realized in actual life, that I am more
+     afraid of my friends making themselves uncomfortable, who
+     have only imaginary evils to indulge, than I am for the
+     peace of those who, battling magnanimously with real
+     inconvenience and danger, find a remedy in the very force of
+     the exertions to which their lot compels them.</p>
+
+<p>I sympathize with you for the <span class="italic">dole</span> which you are <span class="italic">dreeing</span>
+     under the inflictions of your honest proser. Of all the
+     boring machines ever devised, your regular and determined
+     story-teller is the most peremptory and powerful in his
+     operations. This is a rainy day, and my present infliction
+     is an idle cousin, a great amateur of the pipes, who is
+     performing incessantly in the next room for the benefit of a
+     probationary minstrel, whose pipes scream <span class="italic">à la distance</span>,
+     as the young hoarse cock-chicken imitates the gallant and
+     triumphant screech of a veteran Sir Chanticleer. Yours
+     affectionately,</p>
+
+<p class="left50 smcap">W. Scott.<a href="#toc"><span class="small">[Back to Contents]</span></a></p>
+</div>
+
+
+
+
+<h3><span class="pagenum"><a id="page295" name="page295"></a>(p. 295)</span> APPENDIX</h3>
+
+<p class="center">THE DURHAM GARLAND<br>
+
+IN THREE PARTS</p>
+
+<p>[The following is the <span class="italic">Garland</span> referred to at pages 4 and 26, in
+connection with the novel of Guy Mannering. The ballad was taken down
+from the recitation of Mrs. Young of Castle-Douglas, who, as her
+family informed Mr. Train, had long been in the habit of repeating it
+over to them once in the year, in order that it might not escape from
+her memory.]</p>
+
+<div class="poem30">
+<p class="add35em">PART I</p>
+
+<p class="add5em">1</p>
+
+<p>A worthy Lord of birth and state,<br>
+  Who did in Durham live of late&mdash;<br>
+  But I will not declare his name,<br>
+  By reason of his birth and fame.</p>
+
+<p class="add5em p2">2</p>
+
+<p>This Lord he did a-hunting go;<br>
+  If you the truth of all would know,<br>
+  He had indeed a noble train,<br>
+  Of Lords and Knights and Gentlemen.</p>
+
+<p class="add5em p2">3</p>
+
+<p>This noble Lord he left the train<br>
+  Of Lords and Knights and Gentlemen;<br>
+  And hearing not the horn to blow,<br>
+  He could not tell which way to go.</p>
+
+<p class="add5em p2">4</p>
+
+<p>But he did wander to and fro,<br>
+  Being weary, likewise full of woe:<br>
+  At last Dame Fortune was so kind<br>
+  That he the Keeper's house did find.</p>
+
+<p class="add5em p2"><span class="pagenum"><a id="page296" name="page296"></a>(p. 296)</span> 5</p>
+
+<p>He went and knocked at the door,<br>
+  He thought it was so late an hour.<br>
+  The Forester did let him in,<br>
+  And kindly entertained him.</p>
+
+<p class="add5em p2">6</p>
+
+<p>About the middle of the night,<br>
+  When as the stars did shine most bright,<br>
+  This Lord was in a sad surprise,<br>
+  Being wakened by a fearful noise.</p>
+
+<p class="add5em p2">7</p>
+
+<p>Then he did rise and call with speed,<br>
+  To know the reason then indeed,<br>
+  Of all that shrieking and those cries<br>
+  Which did disturb his weary eyes.</p>
+
+<p class="add5em p2">8</p>
+
+<p>"I'm sorry, Sir," the Keeper said,<br>
+  "That you should be so much afraid;<br>
+  But I do hope all will be well,<br>
+  For my wife she is in travail."</p>
+
+<p class="add5em p2">9</p>
+
+<p>The noble Lord was learned and wise,<br>
+  To know the Planets in the skies.<br>
+  He saw one evil Planet reign,<br>
+  He called the Forester again.</p>
+
+<p class="add5em p2">10</p>
+
+<p>He gave him then to understand,<br>
+  He'd have the Midwife hold her hand;<br>
+  But he was answered by the maid,<br>
+  "My Mistress is delivered."</p>
+
+<p class="add5em p2">11</p>
+
+<p>At one o'clock that very morn,<br>
+  A lovely infant there was born;<br>
+  It was indeed a charming boy,<br>
+  Which brought the man and wife much joy.</p>
+
+<p class="add5em p2">12</p>
+
+<p>The Lord was generous, kind, and free,<br>
+  And proffered Godfather to be;<br>
+  The Goodman thanked him heartily<br>
+  For his goodwill and courtesy.</p>
+
+<p class="add5em p2"><span class="pagenum"><a id="page297" name="page297"></a>(p. 297)</span> 13</p>
+
+<p>A parson was sent for with speed,<br>
+  For to baptize the child indeed;<br>
+  And after that, as I heard say,<br>
+  In mirth and joy they spent the day.</p>
+
+<p class="add5em p2">14</p>
+
+<p>This Lord did noble presents give,<br>
+  Which all the servants did receive.<br>
+  They prayed God to enrich his store,<br>
+  For they never had so much before.</p>
+
+<p class="add5em p2">15</p>
+
+<p>And likewise to the child he gave<br>
+  A present noble, rich, and brave;<br>
+  It was a charming cabinet,<br>
+  That was with pearls and jewels set.</p>
+
+<p class="add5em p2">16</p>
+
+<p>And within it was a chain of gold,<br>
+  Would dazzle eyes for to behold;<br>
+  A richer gift, as I may say,<br>
+  Was not beheld this many a day.</p>
+
+<p class="add5em p2">17</p>
+
+<p>He charged his father faithfully,<br>
+  That he himself would keep the key,<br>
+  Until the child could write and read&mdash;<br>
+  And then to give him it indeed;&mdash;</p>
+
+<p class="add5em p2">18</p>
+
+<p>"Pray do not open it at all<br>
+  Whatever should on you befall;<br>
+  For it may do my godson good,<br>
+  If it be rightly understood."</p>
+
+<p class="add5em p2">19</p>
+
+<p>This Lord did not declare his name,<br>
+  Nor yet the place from whence he came,<br>
+  But secretly he did depart,<br>
+  And left them grieved to the heart.</p>
+
+
+<p class="add35em p2">PART II</p>
+
+<p class="add5em">1</p>
+
+<p>The second part I now unfold,<br>
+  As true a story as e'er was told,<br>
+  <span class="pagenum"><a id="page298" name="page298"></a>(p. 298)</span> Concerning of a lovely child,<br>
+  Who was obedient, sweet, and mild.</p>
+
+<p class="add5em p2">2</p>
+
+<p>This child did take his learning so,<br>
+  If you the truth of all would know,<br>
+  At eleven years of age indeed,<br>
+  Both Greek and Latin he could read.</p>
+
+<p class="add5em p2">3</p>
+
+<p>Then thinking of his cabinet,<br>
+  That was with pearls and jewels set,<br>
+  He asked his father for the key,<br>
+  Which he gave him right speedily;</p>
+
+<p class="add5em p2">4</p>
+
+<p>And when he did the same unlock,<br>
+  He was with great amazement struck<br>
+  When he the riches did behold,<br>
+  And likewise saw the chain of gold.</p>
+
+<p class="add5em p2">5</p>
+
+<p>But searching farther he did find<br>
+  A paper which disturbed his mind,<br>
+  That was within the cabinet,<br>
+  In Greek and Latin it was writ.</p>
+
+<p class="add5em p2">6</p>
+
+<p><span class="italic">My child, serve God that is on high,<br>
+  And pray to him incessantly;<br>
+  Obey your parents, love your king,<br>
+  That nothing may your conscience sting.</span></p>
+
+<p class="add5em p2">7</p>
+
+<p><span class="italic">At seven years hence your fate will be,<br>
+  You must be hanged upon a tree;<br>
+  Then pray to God both night and day,<br>
+  To let that hour pass away.</span></p>
+
+<p class="add5em p2">8</p>
+
+<p>When he these woeful lines did read,<br>
+  He with a sigh did say indeed,<br>
+  "If hanging be my destiny,<br>
+  My parents shall not see me die;</p>
+
+<p class="add5em p2">9</p>
+
+<p>"For I will wander to and fro,<br>
+  I'll go where I no one do know;<br>
+  But first I'll ask my parents' leave,<br>
+  In hopes their blessing to receive."</p>
+
+<p class="add5em p2"><span class="pagenum"><a id="page299" name="page299"></a>(p. 299)</span> 10</p>
+
+<p>Then locking up his cabinet,<br>
+  He went from his own chamber straight<br>
+  Unto his only parents dear,<br>
+  Beseeching them with many a tear</p>
+
+<p class="add5em p2">11</p>
+
+<p>That they would grant what he would have&mdash;<br>
+  "But first your blessing I do crave,<br>
+  And beg you'll let me go away,<br>
+  'T will do me good another day."</p>
+
+<p class="add5em p2">12</p>
+
+<p>*<span class="add2em">*</span><span class="add2em">*</span><span class="add2em">*</span><span class="add2em">*<br>
+  *</span><span class="add2em">*</span><span class="add2em">*</span><span class="add2em">*</span><span class="add2em">*</span><br>
+  "And if I live I will return,<br>
+  When seven years are past and gone."</p>
+
+<p class="add5em p2">13</p>
+
+<p>Both man and wife did then reply,<br>
+  "I fear, my son, that we shall die;<br>
+  If we should yield to let you go,<br>
+  Our aged hearts would break with woe."</p>
+
+<p class="add5em p2">14</p>
+
+<p>But he entreated eagerly,<br>
+  While they were forced to comply,<br>
+  And give consent to let him go,<br>
+  But where, alas! they did not know.</p>
+
+<p class="add5em p2">15</p>
+
+<p>In the third part you soon shall find,<br>
+  That fortune was to him most kind,<br>
+  And after many dangers past,<br>
+  He came to Durham at the last.</p>
+
+
+<p class="add35em p2">PART III</p>
+
+<p class="add5em p2">1</p>
+
+<p>He went by chance, as I heard say,<br>
+  To that same house that very day<br>
+  In which his Godfather did dwell;<br>
+  But mind what luck to him befell&mdash;</p>
+
+<p class="add5em p2">2</p>
+
+<p>This child did crave a service there,<br>
+  On which came out his Godfather,<br>
+  <span class="pagenum"><a id="page300" name="page300"></a>(p. 300)</span> And seeing him a pretty youth,<br>
+  He took him for his Page in truth.</p>
+
+<p class="add5em p2">3</p>
+
+<p>Then in this place he pleased so well,<br>
+  That 'bove the rest he bore the bell;<br>
+  This child so well the Lord did please,<br>
+  He raised him higher by degrees.</p>
+
+<p class="add5em p2">4</p>
+
+<p>He made him Butler sure indeed,<br>
+  And then his Steward with all speed,<br>
+  Which made the other servants spite,<br>
+  And envy him both day and night.</p>
+
+<p class="add5em p2">5</p>
+
+<p>He was never false unto his trust,<br>
+  But proved ever true and just;<br>
+  And to the Lord did hourly pray<br>
+  To guide him still both night and day.</p>
+
+<p class="add5em p2">6</p>
+
+<p>In this place, plainly it appears,<br>
+  He lived the space of seven years;<br>
+  His parents then he thought upon,<br>
+  And of his promise to return.</p>
+
+<p class="add5em p2">7</p>
+
+<p>Then humbly of his Lord did crave,<br>
+  That he his free consent might have<br>
+  To go and see his parents dear,<br>
+  He had not seen this many a year.</p>
+
+<p class="add5em p2">8</p>
+
+<p>Then having leave, away he went,<br>
+  Not dreaming of the false intent<br>
+  That was contrived against him then<br>
+  By wicked, false, deceitful men.</p>
+
+<p class="add5em p2">9</p>
+
+<p>They had in his portmanteau put<br>
+  This noble Lord's fine golden cup;<br>
+  That when the Lord at dinner was,<br>
+  The cup was missed as come to pass.</p>
+
+<p class="add5em p2">10</p>
+
+<p>"Where can it be?" this Lord did say,<br>
+  "We had it here but yesterday."<br>
+  <span class="pagenum"><a id="page301" name="page301"></a>(p. 301)</span> The Butler then replied with speed,<br>
+  "If you will hear the truth indeed.</p>
+
+<p class="add5em p2">11</p>
+
+<p>"Your darling Steward which is gone,<br>
+  With feathered nest away is flown;<br>
+  I'll warrant you he has that, and more<br>
+  That doth belong unto your store."</p>
+
+<p class="add5em p2">12</p>
+
+<p>"No," says this Lord, "that cannot be,<br>
+  For I have tried his honesty;"<br>
+  "Then," said the Cook, "my Lord, I die<br>
+  Upon a tree full ten feet high."</p>
+
+<p class="add5em p2">13</p>
+
+<p>Then hearing what these men did say,<br>
+  He sent a messenger that day,<br>
+  To take him with a hue and cry,<br>
+  And bring him back immediately.</p>
+
+<p class="add5em p2">14</p>
+
+<p>They searched his portmanteau with speed,<br>
+  In which they found the cup indeed;<br>
+  Then was he struck with sad surprise,<br>
+  He could not well believe his eyes.</p>
+
+<p class="add5em p2">15</p>
+
+<p>The assizes then were drawing nigh,<br>
+  And he was tried and doomed to die;<br>
+  And his injured innocence<br>
+  Could nothing say in his defense.</p>
+
+<p class="add5em p2">16</p>
+
+<p>But going to the Gallows tree,<br>
+  On which he thought to hanged be<br>
+  He clapped his hands upon his breast,<br>
+  And thus in tears these words exprest:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p class="add5em p2">17</p>
+
+<p>"Blind Fortune will be Fortune still,<br>
+  I see, let man do what he will;<br>
+  For though this day I needs must die,<br>
+  I am not guilty&mdash;no, not I."</p>
+
+<p class="add5em p2">18</p>
+
+<p>This noble Lord was in amaze,<br>
+  He stood and did with wonder gaze;<br>
+  <span class="pagenum"><a id="page302" name="page302"></a>(p. 302)</span> Then he spoke out with words so mild,&mdash;<br>
+  "What mean you by that saying, Child?"</p>
+
+<p class="add5em p2">19</p>
+
+<p>"Will that your Lordship," then said he,<br>
+  "Grant one day's full reprieve for me,<br>
+  A dismal story I'll relate,<br>
+  Concerning of my wretched fate."</p>
+
+<p class="add5em p2">20</p>
+
+<p>"Speak up, my Child," this Lord did say,<br>
+  "I say you shall not die this day&mdash;<br>
+  And if I find you innocent,<br>
+  I'll crown your days with sweet content."</p>
+
+<p class="add5em p2">21</p>
+
+<p>He told him all his dangers past,<br>
+  He had gone through from first to last,<br>
+  He fetched the chain and cabinet,<br>
+  Likewise the paper that was writ.</p>
+
+<p class="add5em p2">22</p>
+
+<p>When that this noble Lord did see,<br>
+  He ran to him most eagerly,<br>
+  And in his arms did him embrace,<br>
+  Repeating of those words in haste.&mdash;</p>
+
+<p class="add5em p2">23</p>
+
+<p>"My Child, my Child, how blessed am I<br>
+  Thou art innocent, and shalt not die;<br>
+  For I'm indeed thy Godfather,<br>
+  And thou wast born in fair Yorkshire.</p>
+
+<p class="add5em p2">24</p>
+
+<p>"I have indeed one daughter dear,<br>
+  Which is indeed my only heir;<br>
+  And I will give her unto thee,<br>
+  And crown you with felicity."</p>
+
+<p class="add5em p2">25</p>
+
+<p>So then the Butler and the Cook<br>
+  ('Twas them that stole the golden cup)<br>
+  Confessed their faults immediately,<br>
+  And for it died deservedly.</p>
+
+<p class="add5em p2">26</p>
+
+<p>This goodly youth, as I do hear,<br>
+  Thus raised, sent for his parents dear,<br>
+  Who did rejoice their Child to see&mdash;<br>
+  And so I end my Tragedy.<a href="#toc"><span class="small">[Back to Contents]</span></a></p>
+</div>
+
+
+<h3><span class="pagenum"><a id="page303" name="page303"></a>(p. 303)</span> NARRATIVE OF THE LIFE OF JAMES ANNESLEY.</h3>
+
+<p class="center">(See <span class="smcap"><a href="#page026">Note</a></span>, p. 26.)</p>
+
+
+<p>"Lord and Lady Altham, of Dunmain, in the county of Wexford, had been
+for many years married and childless, when, in the year 1715, their
+warmest hopes and wishes were realized by the birth of an heir to
+their estates and title. On that joyful evening the hospitality of the
+house of Dunmain was claimed by a young gentleman travelling from
+Dublin, named 'Master Richard Fitzgerald,' who joined Lord Altham and
+his household in drinking the healths of the 'lady in the straw,' and
+the long expected heir, in the customary groaning drink. It does not
+appear that Master Fitzgerald was learned in astrology, or practised
+any branch of the 'Black art,' or that he used any spell with
+reference to the infant more potent than these hearty libations and
+sincere good wishes for his future prosperity. Next day, before
+leaving the hospitable mansion, the little hero of this tale was
+presented to the stranger, who 'kissed him, and gave the nurse
+half-a-guinea.'</p>
+
+<p>"Of Fitzgerald we have only to add, that he entered the army and
+became a distinguished officer in the service of the queen of Hungary,
+and that twenty-eight years afterwards he returned to Ireland to
+assist in recovering for his former infantile friend the estates and
+titles of his ancestors, which had been for many years iniquitously
+withheld from him.</p>
+
+<p>"Lord and Lady Altham lived unhappily together, and a separation took
+place soon after the birth of their son. Her Ladyship, shamefully
+neglected by her husband, resided in England during the remainder of
+her life, and from disease and poverty was reduced to a state of
+extreme imbecility both of body and mind.</p>
+
+<p>"James Annesley, the infant son of this unhappy mother, was entrusted,
+by Lord Altham, to the charge of a woman of indifferent character,
+named Joan or Juggy Landy. Juggy was a dependent of the family, and
+lived in a cabin on the estate, about a quarter of a mile from the
+house of Dunmain. This hut is described as a 'despicable place,
+without any furniture except a pot, two or three trenchers, a couple
+of straw <span class="pagenum"><a id="page304" name="page304"></a>(p. 304)</span> beds on the floor,' and 'with only a bush to draw
+in and out for a door.' Thus humbly and inauspiciously was the boy
+reared under the care of a nurse, who, however unfortunate or guilty,
+appears to have lavished upon her young charge the most affectionate
+attention. From some unexplained cause, however, Juggy Landy incurred
+the displeasure of Lord Altham, who took the boy from her, and ordered
+his groom to 'horsewhip her,' and 'to set the dogs upon her,' when she
+persisted in hovering about the premises to obtain a sight of her
+former charge.</p>
+
+<p>"Lord Altham now removed with his son to Dublin where he appears to
+have entered upon a career of the most dissipated and profligate
+conduct. We find him reduced to extreme pecuniary embarrassment, and
+his property became a prey to low and abandoned associates; one of
+whom, a Miss Kennedy, he ultimately endeavored to introduce to society
+as his wife. This worthless woman must have obtained great ascendancy
+over his Lordship, as she was enabled to drive James Annesley from his
+father's protection, and the poor boy became a houseless vagabond,
+wandering about the streets of Dublin, and procuring a scanty and
+precarious subsistence 'by running of errands and holding gentlemen's
+horses.'</p>
+
+<p>"Meantime Lord Altham's pecuniary difficulties had so increased as to
+induce him to endeavor to borrow money on his reversionary interest in
+the estates of the Earl of Anglesey, to whom he was heir-at-law. In
+this scheme he was joined by his brother Captain Annesley, and they
+jointly succeeded in procuring several small sums of money. But as
+James Annesley would have proved an important legal impediment to
+these transactions, he was represented to some parties to be dead; and
+where his existence could not be denied, he was asserted to be the
+natural son of his Lordship and of Juggy Landy.</p>
+
+<p>"Lord Altham died in the year 1727, 'so miserably poor that he was
+actually buried at the public expense.' His brother Captain Annesley
+attended the funeral as chief mourner, and assumed the title of Baron
+Altham, but when he claimed to have this title registered he was
+refused by the king-at-arms, 'on account of his nephew being reported
+still alive, and for want of the honorary fees.' Ultimately, however,
+by means <span class="pagenum"><a id="page305" name="page305"></a>(p. 305)</span> which are stated to have been 'well known and
+obvious,' he succeeded in procuring his registration.</p>
+
+<p>"But there was another and a more sincere mourner at the funeral of
+Lord Altham than the successful inheritor of his title: a poor boy of
+twelve years of age, half naked, bareheaded and barefooted, and
+wearing, as the most important part of his dress, an old yellow livery
+waistcoat,<a id="footnotetag120" name="footnotetag120"></a><a href="#footnote120" title="Go to footnote 120"><span class="small">[120]</span></a> followed at a humble distance, and wept over his
+father's grave. Young Annesley was speedily recognized by his uncle,
+who forcibly drove him from the place, but not before the boy had made
+himself known to several old servants of his father, who were
+attending the corpse of their late lord to the tomb.</p>
+
+<p>"The usurper now commenced a series of attempts to obtain possession
+of his nephew's person, for the purpose of transporting him beyond
+seas, or otherwise ridding himself of so formidable a rival. For some
+time, however, these endeavors were frustrated, principally through
+the gallantry of a brave and kind-hearted butcher, named Purcel, who,
+having compassion upon the boy's destitute state, took him into his
+house and hospitably maintained him for a considerable time; and on
+one occasion, when he was assailed by a numerous party of his uncle's
+emissaries, Purcel placed the boy between his legs, and stoutly
+defending him with his cudgel, resisted their utmost efforts, and
+succeeded in rescuing his young charge.</p>
+
+<p>"After having escaped from many attempts of the same kind, Annesley
+was at length kidnapped in the streets of Dublin, dragged by his uncle
+and a party of hired ruffians to a boat, and carried on board a vessel
+in the river, which immediately sailed with our hero for America,
+where, on his arrival, he was apprenticed as a plantation slave, and
+in this condition he remained for the succeeding thirteen years.</p>
+
+<p>"During his absence his uncle, on the demise of the Earl of Anglesey,
+quietly succeeded to that title and immense wealth.</p>
+
+<p>"While forcibly detained in the plantations, Annesley suffered many
+severe hardships and privations, particularly in his frequent
+unsuccessful attempts to escape. Among other incidents which befell
+him, he incurred the deadly hatred of one master, in consequence of a
+suspected intrigue with his wife&mdash;a <span class="pagenum"><a id="page306" name="page306"></a>(p. 306)</span> charge from which he was
+afterwards honorably acquitted. The daughter of a second master became
+affectionately attached to him; but it does not appear that this
+regard was reciprocal. And finally, in effecting his escape, he fell
+into the hands of some hostile negroes, who stabbed him severely in
+various places; from the effects of which cruelty he did not recover
+for several months.</p>
+
+<p>"At the end of thirteen years, Annesley, who had now attained the age
+of twenty-five, succeeded in reaching Jamaica in a merchant vessel,
+and he immediately volunteered himself as a private sailor on board a
+man-of-war. Here he was at once identified by several officers; and
+Admiral Vernon, who was then in command of the British West India
+fleet, wrote home an account of the case to the Duke of Newcastle (the
+Premier), and, 'in the mean time, supplied him with clothes and money,
+and treated him with the respect and attention which his rank
+demanded.'</p>
+
+<p>"The Earl of Anglesey no sooner heard of these transactions on board
+the fleet, than he used every effort to keep possession of his usurped
+title and property, and 'the most eminent lawyers within the English
+and Irish bars were retained to defend a cause, the prosecution of
+which was not as yet even threatened.'</p>
+
+<p>"On Annesley's arrival in Dublin, 'several servants who had lived with
+his father came from the country to see him. They knew him at first
+sight, and some of them fell on their knees to thank heaven for his
+preservation,&mdash;embraced his legs, and shed tears of joy for his
+return.'</p>
+
+<p>"Lord Anglesey became so much alarmed at the probable result of the
+now threatened trial, that he expressed his intention to make a
+compromise with the claimant, renounce the title, and retire into
+France; and with this view he commenced learning the French language.
+But this resolution was given up, in consequence of an occurrence
+which encouraged the flattering hope that his opponent would be
+speedily and most effectually disposed of.</p>
+
+<p>"After his arrival in England, Annesley unfortunately occasioned the
+death of a man by the accidental discharge of a fowling-piece which he
+was in the act of carrying. Though there could not exist a doubt of
+his innocence from all intention <span class="pagenum"><a id="page307" name="page307"></a>(p. 307)</span> of such a deed, the
+circumstance offered too good a chance to be lost sight of by his
+uncle, who employed an attorney named Gifford, and with his assistance
+used every effort at the coroner's inquest, and the subsequent trial,
+to bring about a verdict of murder. In this, however, he did not
+succeed, although 'he practised all the unfair means that could be
+invented to procure the removal of the prisoner to Newgate from the
+healthy gaol to which he had been at first committed;' and 'the Earl
+even appeared in person on the bench, endeavoring to intimidate and
+browbeat the witnesses, and to inveigle the prisoner into destructive
+confessions.' Annesley was honorably acquitted, after his uncle had
+expended nearly one thousand pounds on the prosecution.</p>
+
+<p>"The trial between James Annesley, Esq., and Richard, Earl of
+Anglesey, before the Right Honorable the Lord Chief Justice and other
+Barons of the Exchequer, commenced on the 11th November, 1743, and was
+continued for thirteen days. The defendant's counsel examined an
+immense number of witnesses in an attempt to prove that Annesley was
+the illegitimate son of the late Baron Altham. The Jury found for the
+plaintiff; but it did not prove sufficient to recover his title and
+estates: for his uncle 'had recourse to every device the law allowed,
+and his powerful interest procured a writ of error which set aside the
+verdict.' Before another trial could be brought about, Annesley died
+without male issue, and Lord Anglesey consequently remained in
+undisturbed possession.</p>
+
+<hr class="small">
+
+<p>"It is presumed that the points of resemblance between the leading
+incidents in the life of this unfortunate young nobleman and the
+adventures of Henry Bertram in Guy Mannering, are so evident as to
+require neither comment nor enumeration to make them apparent to the
+most cursory reader of the Novel. The addition of a very few other
+circumstances will, it is believed, amount to a proof of the identity
+of the two stories.<a href="#toc"><span class="small">[Back to Contents]</span></a></p>
+
+
+<h3>END OF VOLUME FIVE</h3>
+
+<p class="p4"><a id="footnote1" name="footnote1"></a>
+<strong>Footnote 1:</strong> The Mull of Cantyre.<a href="#footnotetag1"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p>
+
+<p><a id="footnote2" name="footnote2"></a>
+<strong>Footnote 2:</strong> [Joseph Train was born in 1779, at Gilminscroft, Sorn,
+Ayrshire, where his father was grieve and land-steward. The boy was
+apprenticed at an early age to a weaver in Ayr, but, notwithstanding
+the narrowness of his circumstances, and a very imperfect education,
+he even then showed a love of learning and a passion for antiquarian
+lore. From 1799 to 1802 he served in the Ayrshire militia. While the
+regiment was stationed at Inverness, he became a subscriber to
+Currie's edition of Burns, and his colonel, Sir David Hunter-Blair,
+seeing the volumes at the bookseller's, was surprised to learn that
+they had been ordered by one of his men. Greatly pleased thereat, Sir
+David had the books handsomely bound and sent to Train, free of
+charge; and later obtained for him an appointment in the Excise in the
+Ayr district. He was a faithful and efficient officer, but owing to
+the then prevalent custom of giving the higher places in the Excise to
+Englishmen, all Scott's efforts for the advancement of his friend were
+unavailing; he remained supervisor till he went on the retired list in
+1836. In 1829 Train was admitted a member of the Scottish Society of
+Antiquaries. Though the death of Scott made a sad blank in his life,
+his interest in his favorite studies continued to the end. The latter
+part of his life was spent in a cottage at Castle Douglas, where he
+was visited shortly before his death by James Hannay, who found him in
+a little parlor, crowded with antiquities of interest and value,&mdash;the
+antiquary, "a tall old man, with an autumnal red in his face, hale
+looking, and of simple, quaint manners." (See <span class="italic">Household Words</span>, July
+10, 1853.) Train's last extended works were an <span class="italic">Historical and
+Statistical Account of the Isle of Man, with a view of its peculiar
+customs and popular superstitions</span> (1845); and a study of a local
+religious sect in <span class="italic">The Buchanites from First to Last</span> (1846); but he
+was an occasional contributor to various periodicals. He died December
+1, 1852.]<a href="#footnotetag2"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p>
+
+<p><a id="footnote3" name="footnote3"></a>
+<strong>Footnote 3:</strong> "<span class="italic">The Voyages, Dangerous Adventures, and Imminent Escapes
+of Capt. Rich. Falconer.</span> Containing the Laws, Customs, and Manners of
+the Indians in America; his shipwrecks; his marrying an Indian wife;
+his narrow escape from the Island of Dominico, etc. Intermixed with
+the Voyages and Adventures of Thomas Randal, of Cork, Pilot; with his
+Shipwreck in the Baltick, being the only man that escap'd. His being
+taken by the Indians of Virginia, etc. And an Account of his Death.
+The Fourth Edition. London. Printed for J. Marshall, at the Bible in
+Gracechurch Street. 1734."</p>
+
+<p>On the fly-leaf is the following note, in Scott's handwriting: "This
+book I read in early youth. I am ignorant whether it is altogether
+fictitious and written upon De Foe's plan, which it greatly resembles,
+or whether it is only an exaggerated account of the adventures of a
+real person. It is very scarce, for, endeavoring to add it to the
+other favorites of my infancy, I think I looked for it ten years to no
+purpose, and at last owed it to the active kindness of Mr. Terry. Yet
+Richard Falconer's adventures seem to have passed through several
+editions."<a href="#footnotetag3"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p>
+
+<p><a id="footnote4" name="footnote4"></a>
+<strong>Footnote 4:</strong> "<span class="italic">The Travels and Adventures of William Bingfield, Esq.</span>,
+containing, as surprizing a Fluctuation of Circumstances, both by Sea
+and Land, as ever befel one man. With an Accurate Account of the
+Shape, Nature, and Properties of that most furious, and amazing
+Animal, the Dog-Bird. Printed from his own Manuscript. With a
+beautiful Frontispiece. 2 vols. 12mo. London: Printed for E. Withers,
+at the Seven Stars, in Fleet Street. 1753." On the fly-leaf of the
+first volume Scott has written as follows: "I read this scarce little
+<span class="italic" lang="fr">Voyage Imaginaire</span> when I was about ten years old, and long after
+sought for a copy without being able to find a person who would so
+much as acknowledge having heard of William Bingfield or his
+Dog-birds, until the indefatigable kindness of my friend Mr. Terry, of
+the Haymarket, made me master of this copy. I am therefore induced to
+think the book is of very rare occurrence." [In consequence of these
+Notes, both Falconer and Bingfield have been recently reprinted in
+London.&mdash;(1839.)]<a href="#footnotetag4"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p>
+
+<p><a id="footnote5" name="footnote5"></a>
+<strong>Footnote 5:</strong> Johnson's <span class="italic">Vanity of Human Wishes</span>.<a href="#footnotetag5"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p>
+
+<p><a id="footnote6" name="footnote6"></a>
+<strong>Footnote 6:</strong> Francis, Lord Seaforth, died 11th January, 1815, in his
+60th year, having outlived four sons, all of high promise. His title
+died with him, and he was succeeded in his estates by his daughter,
+Lady Hood, now the Hon. Mrs. Stewart-Mackenzie of Seaforth.&mdash;See some
+verses on Lord Seaforth's death, in Scott's <span class="italic">Poetical Works</span>, vol.
+viii. p. 392 [Cambridge Ed. p. 419]. The Celtic designation of the
+chief of the clan MacKenzie, <span class="italic">Caberfae</span>, means <span class="italic">Staghead</span>, the bearing
+of the family. The prophecy which Scott alludes to in this letter is
+also mentioned by Sir Humphry Davy in one of his Journals (see his
+<span class="italic">Life</span>, by Dr. Davy, vol. ii. p. 72),&mdash;and it was, if the account be
+correct, a most extraordinary one, for it connected the fall of the
+house of Seaforth not only with the appearance of a deaf <span class="italic">Caberfae</span>,
+but with the contemporaneous appearance of various different physical
+misfortunes in several of the other great Highland chiefs; all of
+which are said&mdash;and were certainly believed both by Scott and Davy&mdash;to
+have actually occurred within the memory of the generation that has
+not yet passed away. Mr. Morritt can testify thus far&mdash;that he "heard
+the prophecy quoted in the Highlands at a time when Lord Seaforth had
+two sons both alive and in good health&mdash;so that it certainly was not
+made <span class="italic" lang="fr">après coup</span>." [Mrs. Stewart-Mackenzie died at Brahan Castle in
+1862, in her 79th year. "Her funeral was one of the largest ever
+witnessed in the North." The Seaforth estates passed to the eldest of
+her three sons.]<a href="#footnotetag6"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p>
+
+<p><a id="footnote7" name="footnote7"></a>
+<strong>Footnote 7:</strong> John Ballantyne put forth the following paragraph in the
+<span class="italic">Scots Magazine</span> of December, 1814:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Mr. Scott's poem of <span class="italic">The Lord of the Isles</span> will appear early in
+January. The Author of <span class="italic">Waverley</span> is about to amuse the public with a
+new novel, in three volumes, entitled <span class="italic">Guy Mannering</span>."<a href="#footnotetag7"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p>
+
+<p><a id="footnote8" name="footnote8"></a>
+<strong>Footnote 8:</strong> He was not forty-four till August, 1815.<a href="#footnotetag8"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p>
+
+<p><a id="footnote9" name="footnote9"></a>
+<strong>Footnote 9:</strong> <span class="italic">E. G.</span> "If they want to depose Scott, I only wish they
+would not set me up as a competitor. I like the man&mdash;and admire his
+works to what Mr. Braham calls <span class="italic">Entusymusy</span>. All such stuff can only
+vex him, and do me no good."&mdash;Byron (1813), vol. ii. p. 259.</p>
+
+<p>"Scott is certainly the most wonderful writer of the day. His novels
+are a new literature in themselves, and his poetry as good as any&mdash;if
+not better (only on an erroneous system), and only ceased to be
+popular, because the vulgar learned were tired of hearing 'Aristides
+called the Just,' and Scott the Best, and ostracized him."&mdash;Byron
+(1821), vol. v. p. 72.<a href="#footnotetag9"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p>
+
+<p><a id="footnote10" name="footnote10"></a>
+<strong>Footnote 10:</strong> I leave my text as it stood in the former editions; but
+since the last of these appeared, a writer in <span class="italic">The Gentleman's
+Magazine</span> (July, 1840) has pointed out some very remarkable
+coincidences between the narrative of <span class="italic">Guy Mannering</span> and the very
+singular history of James Annesley, claimant in 1743 of the honors and
+estates of the Earls of Anglesey, in Ireland. That Sir Walter must
+have read the records of this celebrated trial, as well as Smollett's
+edition of the story in <span class="italic">Peregrine Pickle</span>, there can be no doubt. How
+the circumstance had not recurred to his memory when writing the
+explanatory Introduction to his Novel, I can offer no conjecture. Very
+possibly the <span class="italic">Garland</span> itself may have been framed after the Annesley
+trial took place.&mdash;(1841.) [The paper in <span class="italic">The Gentleman's Magazine</span>,
+referred to above, will be found in the Appendix to this volume.]<a href="#footnotetag10"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p>
+
+<p><a id="footnote11" name="footnote11"></a>
+<strong>Footnote 11:</strong> <span class="italic">Lord of the Isles</span>, Canto vi.<a href="#footnotetag11"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p>
+
+<p><a id="footnote12" name="footnote12"></a>
+<strong>Footnote 12:</strong> [John Murray&mdash;the third of the name&mdash;gives some
+interesting notes of his recollections of these meetings in Albemarle
+Street, in the <span class="italic">Memoirs</span> of his father (vol. i. p. 267).]<a href="#footnotetag12"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p>
+
+<p><a id="footnote13" name="footnote13"></a>
+<strong>Footnote 13:</strong> Mr. Murray had, at the time of giving the vase,
+suggested to Lord Byron, that it would increase the value of the gift
+to add some such inscription; but the noble poet answered modestly,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"April 9, 1815. <span class="smcap">Dear Murray</span>,&mdash;I have a great objection to your
+proposition about inscribing the vase&mdash;which is, that it would appear
+<span class="italic">ostentatious</span> on my part; and of course I must send it as it is,
+without any alteration. Yours ever, <span class="smcap">Byron</span>."<a href="#footnotetag13"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p>
+
+<p><a id="footnote14" name="footnote14"></a>
+<strong>Footnote 14:</strong> This most amiable and venerable gentleman, my dear and
+kind friend, died at Edinburgh on the 17th February, 1839, in the 80th
+year of his age. He retained his strong mental faculties in their
+perfect vigor to the last days of this long life, and with them all
+the warmth of social feelings which had endeared him to all who were
+so happy as to have any opportunity of knowing him. The reader will
+find an affectionate tribute to his worth, from Sir Walter Scott's
+Diary, in a subsequent volume of these Memoirs.&mdash;(March, 1839.)<a href="#footnotetag14"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p>
+
+<p><a id="footnote15" name="footnote15"></a>
+<strong>Footnote 15:</strong> Since this narrative was first published, I have been
+told by two gentlemen who were at this dinner, that, according to
+their recollection, the Prince <span class="italic">did not</span> on that occasion run so "near
+the wind" as my text represents; and I am inclined to believe that a
+scene at Dalkeith, in 1822, may have been unconsciously blended with a
+gentler rehearsal of Carlton House, 1815. The Chief Commissioner had
+promised to revise my sheets for the present edition; but alas, he
+never did so&mdash;and I must now leave the matter as it stands.&mdash;(1839.)<a href="#footnotetag15"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p>
+
+<p><a id="footnote16" name="footnote16"></a>
+<strong>Footnote 16:</strong> [<span class="italic">The Search after Happiness.</span>]<a href="#footnotetag16"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p>
+
+<p><a id="footnote17" name="footnote17"></a>
+<strong>Footnote 17:</strong> Scott's <span class="italic">Poetical Works</span>, vol. xi. p. 353 [Cambridge Ed.
+p. 431].<a href="#footnotetag17"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p>
+
+<p><a id="footnote18" name="footnote18"></a>
+<strong>Footnote 18:</strong> Mechlin&mdash;the Highlander gave it the familiar
+pronunciation of a Scotch village, Mauchline, celebrated in many of
+Burns's poems.<a href="#footnotetag18"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p>
+
+<p><a id="footnote19" name="footnote19"></a>
+<strong>Footnote 19:</strong> See Major Gordon's <span class="italic">Personal Memoirs</span> (1830), vol. ii.
+pp. 325-338.<a href="#footnotetag19"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p>
+
+<p><a id="footnote20" name="footnote20"></a>
+<strong>Footnote 20:</strong> The skull of Shaw is now in the Museum at Abbotsford.<a href="#footnotetag20"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p>
+
+<p><a id="footnote21" name="footnote21"></a>
+<strong>Footnote 21:</strong> Scott acknowledges, in a note to <span class="italic">St. Ronan's Well</span>
+(chap. xv.), that he took from Platoff this portrait of Mr. Touchwood:
+"His face, which at the distance of a yard or two seemed hale and
+smooth, appeared, when closely examined, to be seamed with a million
+of wrinkles, crossing each other in every direction possible, but as
+fine as if drawn by the point of a very small needle." Thus did every
+little peculiarity remain treasured in his memory, to be used in due
+time for giving the air of minute reality to some imaginary
+personage.<a href="#footnotetag21"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p>
+
+<p><a id="footnote22" name="footnote22"></a>
+<strong>Footnote 22:</strong> See <span class="italic">Poetical Works</span> (Edin. Ed.), vol. xi. p. 295
+[Cambridge Ed. p. 420].<a href="#footnotetag22"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p>
+
+<p><a id="footnote23" name="footnote23"></a>
+<strong>Footnote 23:</strong> John Scott, Esq., of Gala, died at Edinburgh, 19th
+April, 1840.&mdash;(1842.)<a href="#footnotetag23"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p>
+
+<p><a id="footnote24" name="footnote24"></a>
+<strong>Footnote 24:</strong> I think it very probable that Scott had his own first
+interview with the Duke of Wellington in his mind when he described
+the introduction of Roland Græme to the Regent Murray, in the novel of
+<span class="italic">The Abbot</span>, chap. xviii.:&mdash;"Such was the personage before whom Roland
+Græme now presented himself with a feeling of breathless awe, very
+different from the usual boldness and vivacity of his temper. In fact,
+he was, from education and nature, ... much more easily controlled by
+the moral superiority arising from the elevated talents and renown of
+those with whom he conversed, than by pretensions founded only on rank
+or external show. He might have braved with indifference the presence
+of an Earl merely distinguished by his belt and coronet; but he felt
+overawed in that of the eminent soldier and statesman, the wielder of
+a nation's power, and the leader of her armies."<a href="#footnotetag24"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p>
+
+<p><a id="footnote25" name="footnote25"></a>
+<strong>Footnote 25:</strong> This was published in the <span class="italic">Edinburgh Annual Register</span> in
+1815.&mdash;See <span class="italic">Poetical Works</span> (Ed. 1834), vol. xi. p. 297 [Cambridge Ed.
+p. 421].<a href="#footnotetag25"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p>
+
+<p><a id="footnote26" name="footnote26"></a>
+<strong>Footnote 26:</strong> See <span class="italic">Poetical Works</span> (Ed. 1834), vol. xi. p. 312
+[Cambridge Ed. p. 424].<a href="#footnotetag26"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p>
+
+<p><a id="footnote27" name="footnote27"></a>
+<strong>Footnote 27:</strong> Irving's <span class="italic">Abbotsford and Newstead</span>, 1835, p. 40.<a href="#footnotetag27"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p>
+
+<p><a id="footnote28" name="footnote28"></a>
+<strong>Footnote 28:</strong> A <span class="italic">birse</span>, or bunch of hog's <span class="italic">bristles</span>, forms the
+cognizance of the Sutors. When a new burgess is admitted into their
+community, <span class="italic">the birse</span> passes round with the cup of welcome, and every
+elder brother dips it into the wine, and draws it through his mouth,
+before it reaches the happy neophyte, who of course pays it similar
+respect.<a href="#footnotetag28"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p>
+
+<p><a id="footnote29" name="footnote29"></a>
+<strong>Footnote 29:</strong> [A touching letter from Morritt, written shortly before
+his wife's death, and one of Scott's, written after that event, will
+be found in <span class="italic">Familiar Letters</span>, vol. i. pp. 352-354.]<a href="#footnotetag29"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p>
+
+<p><a id="footnote30" name="footnote30"></a>
+<strong>Footnote 30:</strong> See Scott's <span class="italic">Poetical Works</span> (Ed. 1834), vol. xi. p. 317
+[Cambridge Ed. p. 425].<a href="#footnotetag30"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p>
+
+<p><a id="footnote31" name="footnote31"></a>
+<strong>Footnote 31:</strong> This Mr. Campbell was the same whom the poet's mother
+employed to teach her boys to sing, as recorded in the
+Autobiographical Fragment&mdash;<span class="italic">ante</span>, vol. i. p. 44. I believe he was
+also the "litigious Highlander" of a story told in Irving's
+<span class="italic">Abbotsford and Newstead</span>, p. 57.</p>
+
+<p>[In the November of this year, Scott writes to Lady Abercorn: "The
+only thing I have been doing of late is to write two or three songs
+for a poor man called Campbell.... He has made an immense collection
+of Highland airs, and I have given him words for some of them. One of
+them is the only good song I ever wrote&mdash;it is a fine Highland
+Gathering tune called <span class="italic">Pibroch an Donuil Dhu</span>, that is, the Pibroch of
+Donald the Black."&mdash;<span class="italic">Familiar Letters</span>, vol. i. p. 374.]<a href="#footnotetag31"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p>
+
+<p><a id="footnote32" name="footnote32"></a>
+<strong>Footnote 32:</strong> [In the letter accompanying his gift, Glengarry says:
+"His name is Maida, out of respect for that action in which my brother
+had the honor to lead the 78th Highlanders to victory." Writing to
+Joanna Baillie, April 12, Scott describes his new friend as "the
+finest dog of the kind in Scotland.... He is between the deer
+greyhound and mastiff, with a shaggy mane like a lion; he always sits
+beside me at dinner, his head as high as the back of my chair; yet it
+will gratify you to know that a favorite cat keeps him in the greatest
+possible order, and insists upon all rights of precedence, and
+scratches with impunity the nose of an animal who would make no bones
+of a wolf, and pulls down a red deer without fear or difficulty. I
+heard my friend set up some most piteous howls, and I assure you the
+noise was no joke, all occasioned by his fear of passing puss, who had
+stationed himself on the stairs."&mdash;<span class="italic">Familiar Letters</span>, vol. i. p.
+358.]<a href="#footnotetag32"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p>
+
+<p><a id="footnote33" name="footnote33"></a>
+<strong>Footnote 33:</strong> Coleridge&mdash;<span class="italic">Ancient Mariner</span>.<a href="#footnotetag33"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p>
+
+<p><a id="footnote34" name="footnote34"></a>
+<strong>Footnote 34:</strong> The late Mr. Hay Donaldson, W. S.,&mdash;an intimate friend
+of both Thomas and Walter Scott,&mdash;and Mr. Macculloch of Ardwell, the
+brother of Mrs. Thomas Scott.<a href="#footnotetag34"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p>
+
+<p><a id="footnote35" name="footnote35"></a>
+<strong>Footnote 35:</strong> Shortly after Beau Brummell (immortalized in <span class="italic">Don Juan</span>)
+fell into disgrace with the Prince Regent, and was dismissed from the
+society of Carlton House, he was riding with another gentleman in the
+Park, when the Prince met them. His Royal Highness stopt to speak to
+Brummell's companion&mdash;the Beau continued to jog on&mdash;and when the other
+dandy rejoined him, asked with an air of sovereign indifference, "Who
+is your fat friend?" Such, at least, was the story that went the round
+of the newspapers at the time, and highly tickled Scott's fancy. I
+have heard that nobody enjoyed so much as the Prince of Wales himself
+an earlier specimen of the Beau's assurance. Taking offence at some
+part of His Royal Highness's conduct or demeanor, "Upon my word,"
+observed Mr. Brummell, "if this kind of thing goes on, I shall be
+obliged to cut Wales, and bring the old King into fashion."<a href="#footnotetag35"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p>
+
+<p><a id="footnote36" name="footnote36"></a>
+<strong>Footnote 36:</strong> See <span class="italic">Hudibras</span>.<a href="#footnotetag36"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p>
+
+<p><a id="footnote37" name="footnote37"></a>
+<strong>Footnote 37:</strong> In February, 1816, when James Ballantyne married, it is
+clearly proved by letters in his handwriting, that he owed to Scott
+more than £3000 of personal debt.&mdash;(1839.)<a href="#footnotetag37"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p>
+
+<p><a id="footnote38" name="footnote38"></a>
+<strong>Footnote 38:</strong> James Ballantyne's dwelling-house was then in this
+street, adjoining the Canongate of Edinburgh.<a href="#footnotetag38"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p>
+
+<p><a id="footnote39" name="footnote39"></a>
+<strong>Footnote 39:</strong> <span class="italic">May</span>, 1839. Since this book was first published, I have
+received from the representatives of Mr. Blackwood several documents
+which throw light on the transaction here mentioned. It will be
+apparent from one of those I am about to quote, that Blackwood, before
+he sent his message to Jedediah Cleishbotham, had ascertained that no
+less a person than Mr. Gifford concurred in his opinion&mdash;nay, that
+James Ballantyne himself took the same view of the matter. But the
+reader will be not less amused in comparing the "Black Hussar's"
+missive in the text, with the edition of it which actually reached
+Blackwood&mdash;and which certainly justifies the conjecture I had ventured
+to express.</p>
+
+<div class="quote">
+<p class="tit-center">TO WILLIAM BLACKWOOD, ESQ.</p>
+<p class="left50"><span class="smcap">Edinburgh</span>, 4th October, 1816.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">My dear Sir</span>,&mdash;Our application to the author of <span class="italic">Tales of my
+     Landlord</span> has been anything but successful; and in order to
+     explain to you the reason why I must decline to address him
+     in this way in future, I shall copy his answer <span class="italic">verbatim</span>:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"My respects to our friends the Booksellers. I belong to the
+     Death-head Hussars of Literature, who neither <span class="italic">take</span> nor
+     <span class="italic">give</span> criticism. I am extremely sorry they showed my work
+     to Gifford, nor would I cancel a leaf to please all the
+     critics of Edinburgh and London; and so let that be as it
+     is: They are mistaken if they think I don't know when I am
+     writing ill, as well as Gifford can tell me. I beg there may
+     be no more communications with critics."</p>
+
+<p>Observe&mdash;that I shall at all times be ready to convey
+     anything from you to the author in a written form, but I do
+     not feel warranted to interfere farther.</p>
+
+<p>Yours very truly,<br>
+<span class="left50 smcap">J. Ballantyne.</span></p>
+</div>
+
+<div class="quote">
+<p class="tit-center">TO JAMES BALLANTYNE, ESQ.</p>
+<p class="left50"><span class="smcap">Edinburgh</span>, 5th October, 1816.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">My dear Sir</span>,&mdash;I am not a little vexed at having ventured to
+     suggest anything to the author of the <span class="italic">Tales of my
+     Landlord</span>, since I find he considers it in the light of
+     <span class="italic">sutor ultra crepidam</span>. I never had for one moment the
+     vanity to think, that from any poor remark of mine, or
+     indeed of any human being, he would be induced to blot one
+     line or alter a single incident, unless the same idea
+     occurred to his own powerful mind. On stating to you what
+     struck me, and finding that your opinion coincided with
+     mine, I was induced to request of you to state it to the
+     author, in order that he might be aware that the expense of
+     cancelling the sheets was no object to me. I was the more
+     anxious to do this, in case the author should have given you
+     the MS. of this portion of the work sooner than he intended,
+     in order to satisfy the clamoring for it which I teased you
+     with. I trust the author will do me the justice to believe
+     that it is quite impossible for any one to have a higher
+     admiration of his most extraordinary talents; and speaking
+     merely as a bookseller, it would be quite unnecessary to be
+     at the expense of altering even one line, although the
+     author himself (who alone can be the proper judge) should
+     wish it, as the success of the work must be rapid, great,
+     and certain.</p>
+
+<p>With regard to the first volume having been shown to Mr.
+     Gifford, I must state in justification of Mr. Murray, that
+     Mr. G. is the only friend whom he consults on all occasions,
+     and to whom his most secret transactions are laid open. He
+     gave him the work, not for the purpose of criticism, but
+     that as a friend he might partake of the enjoyment he had in
+     such an extraordinary performance. No language could be
+     stronger than Mr. Gifford's, as I mentioned to you; and as
+     the same thing had occurred to Mr. G. as to you and me, you
+     thought there would be no harm in stating this to the
+     author.</p>
+
+<p>I have only again to express my regret at what has taken
+     place, and to beg you will communicate this to the author in
+     any way you may think proper.</p>
+
+<p>Yours, etc.,<br>
+<span class="left50 smcap">W. Blackwood.</span></p>
+</div>
+
+<p>[A much fuller and more accurate knowledge of this whole transaction,
+than that possessed by Lockhart, can be gathered from the annals of
+the two great publishing houses concerned in it;&mdash;Smiles's <span class="italic">Memoir of
+John Murray</span> (vol. i. chap. xviii.), and Mrs. Oliphant's <span class="italic">William
+Blackwood and his Sons</span> (vol. i. pp. 56-92), especially from the
+latter work, in which the whole incident is set in its proper light.
+Notwithstanding the heavy preliminary tax for unsalable books from the
+Ballantynes' "wretched stock," neither publisher seems to have had a
+moment's doubt as to the acceptance of the offer of the ostensibly
+anonymous Work of Fiction, though they were much fretted by the
+delays, uncertainties, and mysteries attending the matter. "One in
+business must submit to many things, and swallow many a bitter pill,
+when such a man as Walter Scott is the object in view," writes
+Blackwood to Murray,&mdash;the bitterness being largely the dealing with
+James Ballantyne. "John I always considered as no better than a
+swindler, but James I put some trust and confidence in. You judged him
+more accurately." ... And on another occasion,&mdash;"Except my wife, there
+is not a friend whom I dare advise with. I have not ventured to
+mention the business to my brother on account of the cursed mysteries
+and injunctions of secrecy connected with it. I know he would blame me
+for engaging in it, for he has a very small opinion of the
+Ballantynes." Apart from the vexations attending their office as
+intermediaries, for which the Ballantynes were only partially
+responsible, this shrewd, if irritated, observer appears to have
+formed opinions of the brothers as business men, in some respects not
+differing greatly from those held by Lockhart in later days.</p>
+
+<p>The delight of the two publishers in at last receiving the MS. of <span class="italic">The
+Black Dwarf</span> and the manner in which it passed into the hands of
+Constable, even before the stipulated 6000 copies were disposed
+of,&mdash;it must be owned he treated his rivals somewhat unhandsomely,
+finally severing them from Scott's literary career,&mdash;are fully set
+forth by the historian of the House of Blackwood. With her "one cannot
+but feel that this was one of those tragically insignificant
+circumstances which so often shape life apart from any consciousness
+of ours. Probably ruin would never have overtaken Sir Walter had he
+been in the steady and careful hands of Murray and Blackwood, for it
+is unlikely that even the glamour of the great Magician would have
+turned heads so reasonable and sober."]<a href="#footnotetag39"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p>
+
+<p><a id="footnote40" name="footnote40"></a>
+<strong>Footnote 40:</strong> The sister of Miss Jane Nicolson.&mdash;See <span class="italic">ante</span>, vol. i.
+p. 248. Vol. ii. p. 82.<a href="#footnotetag40"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p>
+
+<p><a id="footnote41" name="footnote41"></a>
+<strong>Footnote 41:</strong> [Referring to the edition of 1839, in ten volumes.]<a href="#footnotetag41"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p>
+
+<p><a id="footnote42" name="footnote42"></a>
+<strong>Footnote 42:</strong> [Scott says in a letter to John Murray, written October
+20, 1814: "In casting about how I might show you some mark of my sense
+of former kindness, a certain MS. History of Scotland in <span class="italic">Letters to
+my Children</span> has occurred to me, which I consider as a desideratum; it
+is upon the plan of <span class="italic">Lord Lyttelton's Letters</span>, as they are called."
+Nearly a year later he returns to the subject, and says: "I intend to
+revise my letters on Scottish History for you, but I will not get to
+press till November, for the country affords no facilities for
+consulting the necessary authorities. I hope it may turn out a thing
+of some interest, though I rather intend to keep to its original
+purpose as a book of instruction to children." These references seem
+to show that the work may have been further advanced than Lockhart
+supposed. The announcement of the proposed book by Constable and
+Longman naturally excited the indignation of Blackwood and Murray, as
+is shown in a vigorous letter from the Edinburgh to the London
+publisher, blaming equally the Ballantynes and Constable.&mdash;See
+<span class="italic">Memoirs of John Murray</span>, vol. i. pp. 245, 246, 462.]<a href="#footnotetag42"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p>
+
+<p><a id="footnote43" name="footnote43"></a>
+<strong>Footnote 43:</strong> A cast from the monumental effigy at
+Stratford-upon-Avon&mdash;now in the library at Abbotsford&mdash;was the gift of
+Mr. George Bullock, long distinguished in London as a collector of
+curiosities. This ingenious man was, as the reader will see in the
+sequel, a great favorite with Scott.<a href="#footnotetag43"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p>
+
+<p><a id="footnote44" name="footnote44"></a>
+<strong>Footnote 44:</strong> Mrs. Terry had offered the services of her elegant
+pencil in designing some windows of painted glass for Scott's armory,
+etc.<a href="#footnotetag44"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p>
+
+<p><a id="footnote45" name="footnote45"></a>
+<strong>Footnote 45:</strong> The late James Boswell, Esq., of the Temple&mdash;second son
+of <span class="italic">Bozzy</span>.<a href="#footnotetag45"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p>
+
+<p><a id="footnote46" name="footnote46"></a>
+<strong>Footnote 46:</strong> The Honorable William Lamb&mdash;now Lord Melbourne.<a href="#footnotetag46"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p>
+
+<p><a id="footnote47" name="footnote47"></a>
+<strong>Footnote 47:</strong> [Even such keen observers as Murray and Blackwood had
+their intervals of doubt regarding the authorship of the Novels. In
+June, 1816, Blackwood writes: "There have been various rumors with
+regard to Greenfield being the author, but I never paid much attention
+to it; the thing appeared to me so very improbable.... But from what I
+have heard lately, and from what you state, I now begin to think that
+Greenfield may probably be the author." And only a month after the
+date of his letter to Scott, here given, Murray writes to Blackwood:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"I can assure you, but <span class="italic">in the greatest confidence</span>, that I have
+discovered the author of all these Novels to be Thomas Scott, Walter
+Scott's brother. He is now in Canada. I have no doubt but that Mr.
+Walter Scott did a great deal to the first Waverley Novel, because of
+his anxiety to save his brother, and his doubt about the success of
+the work. This accounts for the many stories about it. Many persons
+had previously heard from Mr. Scott, but you may rely upon the
+certainty of what I have told you." By this time Blackwood is firm in
+the faith of Scott's authorship; but Bernard Barton writes to Murray
+that he has heard that James Hogg is the author of <span class="italic">Tales of my
+Landlord</span>, and that he has had intimation from himself to that effect;
+while Lady Mackintosh is informed on excellent authority that the
+writer is Mrs. Thomas Scott. Writing to Blackwood in February, 1817,
+Murray avers,&mdash;"I will believe, till within an inch of my life, that
+the author of <span class="italic">Tales of my Landlord</span> is Thomas Scott."&mdash;See Smiles's
+<span class="italic">Memoir of John Murray</span>, vol. i. pp. 461, 473, 474.]<a href="#footnotetag47"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p>
+
+<p><a id="footnote48" name="footnote48"></a>
+<strong>Footnote 48:</strong> <span class="italic">Parisina</span>&mdash;<span class="italic">The Dream</span>&mdash;and the "Domestic Pieces," had
+been recently published.<a href="#footnotetag48"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p>
+
+<p><a id="footnote49" name="footnote49"></a>
+<strong>Footnote 49:</strong> [On November 27 Scott had written to Joanna Baillie, who
+had just returned from a tour on the Continent:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"All I ever longed for on the Continent was their light wines, which
+you do not care about, and their fine climate, which we should both
+value equally; and to say truth, I never saw scene or palace which
+shook my allegiance to Tweedside and Abbotsford, though so inferior in
+every respect, and though the hills, or rather braes, are just high
+enough 'to lift us to the storm' when the storms are not so
+condescending as to sweep both crest and base, which, to do them
+justice, is seldom the case. What have I got to send you?... Alas,
+nothing but the history of petty employments and a calendar of
+increasing bad weather. The latter was much mitigated by enjoying for
+a good portion of the summer the society of John Morritt, of Rokeby,
+who has so much of that which is delightful, both in his grave and gay
+moods, that he can make us forget the hillside while sitting by the
+fireside. His late loss has cast a general shade of melancholy over
+him, which renders him yet dearer to his friends, by the gentle and
+unaffected manner in which his natural gayety of temper gleams through
+it and renders it still more interesting....</p>
+
+<p>"A far different object of interest, yet still of interest, checkered
+with pity and disapprobation, is Lord Byron, whose present situation
+seems to rival all that ever has been said and sung of the misfortunes
+of a too irritable imagination. The last part of <span class="italic">Childe Harold</span>
+intimates a terrible state of mind, and with all the power and genius
+which characterized his former productions, the present seems to
+indicate a more serious and desperate degree of misanthropy. I own I
+was not much moved by the scorn of the world which his first poems
+implied, because I know it is a humor of mind which those whom fortune
+has spoilt by indulgence, or irritated by reverses, are apt to assume,
+because it looks melancholy and gentlemanlike, and becomes a bard as
+well as being desperately in love, or very fond of the sunrise, though
+he lies in bed till noon, or anxious in recommending to others to
+catch cold by visiting old abbeys by moonlight, which he never
+happened to see under the chaste moonbeam himself; but this strange
+poem goes much deeper, and either the Demon of Misanthropy is in full
+possession of him, or he has already invited ten guests, equally
+desperate, to the swept and garnished mansion of Harold's
+understanding."&mdash;<span class="italic">Familiar Letters</span>, vol. i. p. 369.]<a href="#footnotetag49"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p>
+
+<p><a id="footnote50" name="footnote50"></a>
+<strong>Footnote 50:</strong> [This is probably the "expression of kindness" which
+encouraged Murray to beg Scott to review in the <span class="italic">Quarterly</span> Byron's
+recently published volumes, <span class="italic">Childe Harold, Canto III.</span>, and <span class="italic">The
+Prisoner of Chillon, a Dream, and Other Poems</span>. The request was
+promptly complied with, and the article appeared in the next number
+issued (<span class="italic">dated</span> October, 1816),&mdash;a review full of generous, and also
+judicious, appreciation. For some reason, hard now to discover, unless
+it were the kindliness of the writer's tone towards the younger poet,
+some of Lady Byron's friends, among whom was Joanna Baillie, seem to
+have taken strong exception to the paper, and Miss Baillie wrote to
+Scott at some length on the matter, even animadverting upon the purely
+literary criticism of the reviewer. Much of the correspondence which
+ensued, including a characteristic letter from Lady Byron, can be
+found in the <span class="italic">Familiar Letters</span> (vol. i. pp. 413-422).</p>
+
+<p>Of the review, Byron writes to Murray (March 3, 1817):&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>... "It seems to me (as far as the subject of it may be permitted to
+judge) to be <span class="italic">very well</span> written as a composition, and ... even those
+who may condemn its partiality, must praise its generosity. The
+temptations to take another and less favorable view of the question
+have been so great and numerous, that, what with public opinion,
+politics, etc., he must be a gallant as well as a good man, who has
+ventured in that place and at this time to write such an article even
+anonymously. Such things, however, are their own reward; and I even
+flatter myself that the writer, whoever he may be (and I have no
+guess), will not regret that the perusal of this has given me as much
+gratification as any composition of that nature could give, and more
+than any other has ever given,&mdash;and I have had a good many in my time
+of one kind or the other. It is not the mere praise, but there is a
+tact and a delicacy throughout, not only with regard to me, but to
+others, which, as it has not been observed elsewhere, I had till now
+doubted, whether it could be observed anywhere." He writes a few weeks
+later, on learning that Scott wrote the article: ... "It cannot add to
+my good opinion of him, but it adds to that of myself."&mdash;<span class="italic">Letters and
+Journals of Lord Byron</span> (1900), vol. iv. pp. 63, 85.]<a href="#footnotetag50"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p>
+
+<p><a id="footnote51" name="footnote51"></a>
+<strong>Footnote 51:</strong> Since I have mentioned this reviewal, I may as well, to
+avoid recurrence to it, express here my conviction, that Erskine, not
+Scott, was the author of the critical estimate of the Waverley Novels
+which it embraces&mdash;although, for the purpose of mystification, Scott
+had taken the trouble to transcribe the paragraphs in which that
+estimate is contained. At the same time I cannot but add that, had
+Scott really been the sole author of this reviewal, he need not have
+incurred the severe censure which has been applied to his supposed
+conduct in the matter. After all, his judgment of his own works must
+have been allowed to be not above, but very far under the mark; and
+the whole affair would, I think, have been considered by every candid
+person exactly as the letter about Solomon and the rival mothers was
+by Murray, Gifford, and the "four o'clock visitors" of Albemarle
+Street&mdash;as a good joke. A better joke, certainly, than the allusion to
+the report of Thomas Scott being the real author of Waverley, at the
+close of the article, was never penned; and I think it includes a
+confession over which a misanthrope might have chuckled: "We intended
+here to conclude this long article, when a strong report reached us of
+certain Transatlantic confessions, which, if genuine (though of this
+we know nothing), assign a different author to these volumes than the
+party suspected by our Scottish correspondents. Yet a critic may be
+excused seizing upon the nearest suspicious person, on the principle
+happily expressed by Claverhouse, in a letter to the Earl of
+Linlithgow. He had been, it seems, in search of a gifted weaver, who
+used to hold forth at conventicles: 'I sent for the webster (weaver),
+they brought in his <span class="italic">brother</span> for him: though he, maybe, cannot preach
+like his brother, I doubt not but he is as well-principled as he,
+wherefore I thought it would be no great fault to give him the trouble
+to go to jail with the rest!'"&mdash;<span class="italic">Miscellaneous Prose Works</span>, vol. xix.
+pp. 85, 86.<a href="#footnotetag51"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p>
+
+<p><a id="footnote52" name="footnote52"></a>
+<strong>Footnote 52:</strong> [On reading <span class="italic">The Black Dwarf</span>, Mrs. Leigh believed her
+brother to be the author, and wrote to him to that effect. Byron had
+not yet seen the book, and says in his reply: "I am not P. P. [Peter
+Pattieson], I assure you on my honor, and do not understand to what
+book you allude, so that all your compliments are quite thrown
+away."&mdash;Byron's <span class="italic">Letters and Journals</span> (1900), vol. iv. p. 56.]<a href="#footnotetag52"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p>
+
+<p><a id="footnote53" name="footnote53"></a>
+<strong>Footnote 53:</strong> [Lady Louisa Stuart, whose approbation Scott writes he
+values "beyond a whole wilderness of critics," says in a letter of
+December 5, 1816:</p>
+
+<p>"[Old Mortality] is super-excellent in all its points; it breaks up
+fresh ground, and has all the raciness of originality. I cannot help
+thinking it will bear down the world before it triumphantly. As usual
+it makes its personages our intimate acquaintance, and its scenes so
+present to the eye, that, last night, after sitting up unreasonably
+late over it, I got no sleep, from a kind of fever of mind it had
+occasioned. It seemed as if I had been an eye and ear witness of all
+the passages, and I could not lull the agitation into calmness. Mause
+and Cuddie hurried my spirits in another way; they forced me to laugh
+out aloud, which one seldom does alone. On a second slower reading I
+expect to be still better pleased, and then also I suppose I shall
+find out the faults. At present it has, in the Scotch phrase, 'taken
+me off my feet,' and I do not criticise, though I think you will
+believe me when I say I do not and will not flatter. One thing I
+regret, that like the author of <span class="italic">The Antiquary</span>, Jedediah did not add
+a glossary; because even I, a mongrel, occasionally paying long visits
+to Scotland, and hearing Girsy at Bothwell gate and Peggy Macgowan
+hold forth in the village,&mdash;even I, thus qualified, have found a great
+many words absolute Hebrew to me, and I fear the altogether English
+will find many more beyond their comprehension or conjecture. But this
+may be remedied in another edition. I have as yet only one great
+attack to make, and that upon a single word; but such a word! such an
+anachronism! Claverhouse says he has no time to hear <span class="italic">sentimental</span>
+speeches. My dear sir! tell Jedediah that Claverhouse never heard the
+sound of those four syllables in his life. We are used to them; but
+<span class="italic">sentiment</span> and <span class="italic">sentimental</span> were, I believe, first introduced into
+the language by Sterne, and are hardly as old as I am. Let alone the
+Covenanters' days, I am persuaded you would look in vain for them in
+the works of Richardson and Fielding. Nay, the French, from whom they
+were borrowed, did not talk of <span class="italic" lang="fr">le sentiment</span> in that sense till long
+after Louis XIV.'s reign. No such thing is to be found in Madame de
+Sévigné, la Bruyère, etc., etc., etc. At home or abroad I defy Lord
+Dundee ever to have met with the expression. Mr. Peter Pattieson had
+been reading the <span class="italic">Man of Feeling</span>, and it was a slip of his tongue,
+which I am less inclined to excuse than Mause's abstruse Scotch, which
+I duly reverence, as she did Kettledrummle's sermons, because I do not
+understand it. Once more I shall be much disappointed if this work
+does not quickly acquire a very great reputation. I fancy Mr. Morritt
+is in the secret; yet, as I am not certain, I will keep on the secure
+side and not mention it when I write to him, however one may long to
+<span class="italic">intercommune</span> on such subjects with those likely to hold the same
+faith."</p>
+
+<p>At the close of his reply, Scott says: "I must not forget to thank
+your Ladyship for your acute and indisputable criticism on the
+application of the word <span class="italic">sentimental</span>. How it escaped my pen I know
+not, unless that the word owed me a grudge for the ill will I have
+uniformly borne it, and was resolved to slip itself in for the express
+purpose of disgracing me. I will certainly turn it out the first
+opportunity." This was done in the second edition.&mdash;<span class="italic">Familiar
+Letters</span>, vol. i. pp. 394, 400.]<a href="#footnotetag53"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p>
+
+<p><a id="footnote54" name="footnote54"></a>
+<strong>Footnote 54:</strong> [Scott's old friend, John Richardson, who was from the
+first in the secret of the Waverley Novels, was a stanch Whig, as
+beseemed the descendant of an old Covenanting family. Some of his
+ancestral traditions suggested certain passages in <span class="italic">Old Mortality</span>,
+and he has recorded that during a visit to Abbotsford Scott gave him
+the proof sheets of the first volume to read, and how he lost a
+night's sleep in doing it. Twelve years later, in writing to Scott
+regarding <span class="italic">The Tales of a Grandfather</span>, he says that in this
+work,&mdash;"You have paid a debt which you owed to the manes of the
+Covenanters for the flattering picture which you drew of Claverhouse
+in <span class="italic">Old Mortality</span>."</p>
+
+<p>Scott says in his reply (December, 1828): "As to Covenanters and
+Malignants, they were both a set of cruel and bloody bigots, and had,
+notwithstanding, those virtues with which bigotry is sometimes allied.
+Their characters were of a kind much more picturesque than beautiful;
+neither had the least idea either of toleration or humanity, so that
+it happens that, so far as they can be distinguished from each other,
+one is tempted to hate most the party which chances to be uppermost
+for the time."&mdash;See <span class="italic">Journal</span>, note, vol. ii. p. 404.]<a href="#footnotetag54"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p>
+
+<p><a id="footnote55" name="footnote55"></a>
+<strong>Footnote 55:</strong> Joanna Baillie's <span class="italic">Orra</span>.<a href="#footnotetag55"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p>
+
+<p><a id="footnote56" name="footnote56"></a>
+<strong>Footnote 56:</strong> <span class="italic">Twelfth Night</span>, Act II. Scene 3.<a href="#footnotetag56"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p>
+
+<p><a id="footnote57" name="footnote57"></a>
+<strong>Footnote 57:</strong> The late Right Honorable Robert Dundas of Arniston,
+Chief Baron of the Scotch Exchequer; one of Scott's earliest and
+kindest friends in that distinguished family.<a href="#footnotetag57"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p>
+
+<p><a id="footnote58" name="footnote58"></a>
+<strong>Footnote 58:</strong> This young gentleman is now an officer in the East India
+Company's army.&mdash;(1837.) Mr. W. S. Terry lived to distinguish himself
+as a soldier, and fell in action against the Afghans.&mdash;(1848.)<a href="#footnotetag58"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p>
+
+<p><a id="footnote59" name="footnote59"></a>
+<strong>Footnote 59:</strong> Sir Archy Mac-Sarcasm and Sir Pertinax Mac-Sycophant.<a href="#footnotetag59"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p>
+
+<p><a id="footnote60" name="footnote60"></a>
+<strong>Footnote 60:</strong> [On the 17th of March, Scott had written to Joanna
+Baillie: "Two <span class="italic">remarkables</span> struck me in my illness: the first was,
+that my great wolf-dog clamored wildly and fearfully about my bed when
+I was very ill, and would hardly be got out of the room; the other,
+that when I was recovering, all acquired and factitious tastes seemed
+to leave me, and I could eat nothing but porridge, and listen to no
+better reading than a stupid Scottish diary which would have made a
+whole man sick."&mdash;<span class="italic">Familiar Letters</span>, vol. i. p. 421.]<a href="#footnotetag60"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p>
+
+<p><a id="footnote61" name="footnote61"></a>
+<strong>Footnote 61:</strong> See <span class="italic">Poetical Works</span>, vol. xi. p. 348 [Cambridge Ed. p.
+436]. Scott's farewell for Kemble first appeared in <span class="italic">The Sale-Room</span>
+for April 5, 1817; and in the introductory note James Ballantyne says:
+"The character fixed upon, with happy propriety, for Kemble's closing
+scene, was Macbeth. He had labored under a severe cold for a few days
+before, but on the memorable night the physical annoyance yielded to
+the energy of his mind. 'He was,' he said in the Green-room,
+immediately before the curtain rose, 'determined to leave behind him
+the most perfect specimen of his art which he had ever shown;' and his
+success was complete. At the moment of the tyrant's death, the curtain
+fell by the universal acclamation of the audience. The applauses were
+vehement and prolonged; they ceased&mdash;were resumed&mdash;rose again&mdash;were
+reiterated&mdash;and again were hushed. In a few minutes the curtain
+ascended, and Mr. Kemble came forward, in the dress of Macbeth (the
+audience by a consentaneous movement rising to receive him), to
+deliver his <span class="italic">farewell</span>." ... "Mr. Kemble delivered the lines with
+exquisite beauty, and with an effect that was evidenced by the tears
+and sobs of many of the audience. His own emotions were very
+conspicuous. When his farewell was closed, he lingered long on the
+stage, as if unable to retire. The house again stood up, and cheered
+him with the waving of hats and long shouts of applause."<a href="#footnotetag61"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p>
+
+<p><a id="footnote62" name="footnote62"></a>
+<strong>Footnote 62:</strong> Mr. Laidlaw has not published many verses; but his song
+of <span class="italic">Lucy's Flitting</span>&mdash;a simple and pathetic picture of a poor Ettrick
+maiden's feelings in leaving a service where she had been happy&mdash;has
+long been, and must ever be, a favorite with all who understand the
+delicacies of the Scottish dialect, and the manners of the district in
+which the scene is laid.<a href="#footnotetag62"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p>
+
+<p><a id="footnote63" name="footnote63"></a>
+<strong>Footnote 63:</strong> These anecdotes were subsequently inserted in the
+Introduction to <span class="italic">Guy Mannering</span>.<a href="#footnotetag63"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p>
+
+<p><a id="footnote64" name="footnote64"></a>
+<strong>Footnote 64:</strong> Scott's meeting with this Mr. Smith occurred at the
+table of his friend and colleague, Hector Macdonald Buchanan. The
+company, except Scott and Smith, were all, like their hospitable
+landlord, Highlanders.<a href="#footnotetag64"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p>
+
+<p><a id="footnote65" name="footnote65"></a>
+<strong>Footnote 65:</strong> Lady Montagu was the daughter of the late Lord Douglas
+by his first marriage with Lady Lucy Graham, daughter of the second
+Duke of Montrose.<a href="#footnotetag65"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p>
+
+<p><a id="footnote66" name="footnote66"></a>
+<strong>Footnote 66:</strong> Lord Montagu's house at Ditton Park, near Windsor, had
+recently been destroyed by fire&mdash;and the ruins revealed some niches
+with antique candlesticks, etc., belonging to a domestic chapel that
+had been converted to other purposes from the time, I believe, of
+Henry VIII.<a href="#footnotetag66"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p>
+
+<p><a id="footnote67" name="footnote67"></a>
+<strong>Footnote 67:</strong> Mr. Atkinson, of St. John's Wood, was the architect of
+Lord Montagu's new mansion at Ditton, as well as the artist ultimately
+employed in arranging Scott's interior at Abbotsford.<a href="#footnotetag67"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p>
+
+<p><a id="footnote68" name="footnote68"></a>
+<strong>Footnote 68:</strong> Shakespeare's Poems&mdash;<span class="italic">Venus and Adonis</span>.<a href="#footnotetag68"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p>
+
+<p><a id="footnote69" name="footnote69"></a>
+<strong>Footnote 69:</strong> [A misprint of some earlier date, possibly the <span class="italic">16th</span>.
+See the more detailed account of Scott's movements at this time, to be
+found in <span class="italic">Familiar Letters</span>, vol. i. pp. 432-436.]<a href="#footnotetag69"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p>
+
+<p><a id="footnote70" name="footnote70"></a>
+<strong>Footnote 70:</strong> On completing this purchase, Scott writes to John
+Ballantyne:&mdash;"<span class="smcap">Dear John</span>,&mdash;I have closed with Usher for his beautiful
+patrimony, which makes me a great laird. I am afraid the people will
+take me up for coining. Indeed, these novels, while their attractions
+last, are something like it. I am very glad of <span class="italic">your</span> good prospects.
+Still I cry, <span class="italic">Prudence! Prudence!</span>&mdash;Yours truly,</p>
+
+<p class="left50">W. S."<a href="#footnotetag70"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p>
+
+<p><a id="footnote71" name="footnote71"></a>
+<strong>Footnote 71:</strong> [On August 1, 1817, Jeffrey writes to Scott, asking if
+he could not be induced to write a notice of Mr. C. K. Sharpe's
+edition of Kirkton's <span class="italic">Secret and True History of the Church of
+Scotland</span>, for the <span class="italic">Edinburgh Review</span>, to which Scott replies, August
+5:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"I flatter myself it will not require many protestations to assure you
+with what pleasure I would undertake any book that can give you
+pleasure; but in the present case I am hampered by two circumstances:
+one, that I promised Gifford a review of this very Kirkton for the
+<span class="italic">Quarterly</span>; the other that I shall certainly be unable to keep my
+word with him. I am obliged to take exercise three or four hours in
+the forenoon and two after dinner, to keep off the infernal spasms
+which since last winter have attacked me with such violence, as if all
+the imps that used to plague poor Caliban were washing, wringing, and
+ironing the unshapely but useful bag which Sir John Sinclair treats
+with such distinction&mdash;my stomach, in short. Now, as I have much to do
+of my own, I fear I can hardly be of use to you in the present case,
+which I am very sorry for, as I like the subject, and would be pleased
+to give my own opinion respecting the Jacobitism of the editor, which,
+like my own, has a good spice of affectation in it, mingled with some
+not unnatural feelings of respect for a cause which, though
+indefensible in common sense and ordinary policy, has a great deal of
+high-spirited Quixotry about it.</p>
+
+<p>"Can you not borrow from your briefs and criticism a couple of days to
+look about you here? I dare not ask Mrs. Jeffrey till next year, when
+my hand will be out of the mortar-tub; and at present my only spare
+bed was till of late but accessible by the feudal accommodation of a
+drawbridge made of two deals, and still requires the clue of
+Ariadne.... I am like one of Miss Edgeworth's heroines, master of all
+things in miniature&mdash;a little hill, and a little glen, and a little
+horse-pond of a loch, and a little river, I was going to call it,&mdash;the
+Tweed; but I remember the minister was mobbed by his parishioners for
+terming it, in his statistical report, an inconsiderable stream. So
+pray do come and see me, and if I can stead you, or pleasure you, in
+the course of the winter, you shall command me."&mdash;Cockburn's <span class="italic">Life of
+Jeffrey</span>, vol. i p. 417.]<a href="#footnotetag71"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p>
+
+<p><a id="footnote72" name="footnote72"></a>
+<strong>Footnote 72:</strong> I have before me two letters of Mr. Irving's to Scott,
+both written in September, 1817, from Edinburgh, and referring to his
+visit (which certainly was his only one at Abbotsford) as immediately
+preceding. There is also in my hands a letter from Scott to his friend
+John Richardson, of Fludyer Street, dated 22d September, 1817, in
+which he says, "When you see Tom Campbell, tell him, with my best
+love, that I have to thank him for making me known to Mr. Washington
+Irving, who is one of the best and pleasantest acquaintances I have
+made this many a day."<a href="#footnotetag72"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p>
+
+<p><a id="footnote73" name="footnote73"></a>
+<strong>Footnote 73:</strong> [From the journal of three English ladies, travellers in
+Scotland in the summer of 1817, we get another glimpse of Johnnie
+Bower, and a pleasant sketch of Sophia Scott:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"In the chancel Miss Scott, a very charming, lively girl of seventeen,
+pointed out to us 'The Wizard's Grave,' and then the black stone in
+the form of a coffin, to which the allusion is made in the poem, 'A
+Scottish monarch sleeps below,'&mdash;said to be the tomb of Alexander II.
+'But I will tell you a secret,' she half whispered; 'only don't you
+tell Johnnie Bower. There is no Scottish monarch there at all, nor
+anybody else, for papa had the stone taken up, not long ago, and no
+coffin nor anything was to be found. And then Johnnie came and begged
+me not to tell people so. "For what wull I do, Miss Scott, when I show
+the ruins, if I canna point to this bit, and say, 'A Scottish monarch
+sleeps below'?"' As, however, he had the pleasure of saying this to us
+the evening before, Miss Scott thought we might fairly have her
+secret....</p>
+
+<p>"We now set out for Dryburgh, about five miles. Mr. Scott placed his
+daughter in our carriage, that she might point out the different
+places as we passed them. We could not have had a better director, nor
+a more lively, entertaining companion. Every spot was known to her,
+and in this fairyland her quick imagination seemed to delight in all
+the legendary lore she had heard, and could so promptly apply.... At
+the view of some distant mountains, Miss Scott suddenly exclaimed,
+'Look, there are the Cheviots; are you not glad to see England again?'
+We assured her we were, though we should quit Scotland with so much
+regret. 'Well,' she said, 'I should not have liked you if you were not
+glad to return home.' Her father had taken her to London the year
+before, and she was delighted to get back again, and to hail the
+Cheviots on her return. It was plain to see she was her father's
+darling, and she talked of him with enthusiasm. She has a very
+natural, unaffected character, with a strong tincture of romantic
+feeling, which seemed judiciously kept in check by him, as she said he
+did not allow her to read much poetry, nor had she even read all his
+own poems, which were never to be found <span class="italic">in the way</span>, at their house.
+She spoke of her sister and her brothers, with a warmth of affection
+very pleasing. On asking what was become of Camp, she shook her head,
+and said he was dead. 'You must never come to Abbotsford when any of
+the dogs die, for there is a sad weeping amongst us all.'"&mdash;Lang's
+<span class="italic">Life of Lockhart</span>, vol. i. pp. 232-234.]<a href="#footnotetag73"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p>
+
+<p><a id="footnote74" name="footnote74"></a>
+<strong>Footnote 74:</strong> ["His daughter Sophia and his son Charles were those of
+his family who seemed most to feel and understand his humors, and to
+take delight in his conversation. Mrs. Scott did not always pay the
+same attention, and would now and then make a casual remark which
+would operate a little like a damper. Thus, one morning at breakfast,
+when Dominie Thomson the tutor was present, Scott was going on with
+great glee to relate an anecdote of the laird of Macnab, 'who, poor
+fellow!' premised he, 'is dead and gone.' 'Why, Mr. Scott,' exclaimed
+the good lady, 'Macnab's not dead, is he?' 'Faith, my dear,' replied
+Scott, with humorous gravity, 'if he's not dead, they've done him a
+great injustice,&mdash;for they've buried him.'</p>
+
+<p>"The joke passed harmless and unnoticed by Mrs. Scott, but hit the
+poor Dominie just as he had raised a cup of tea to his lips ...
+sending half its contents about the table."&mdash;Irving's <span class="italic">Abbotsford</span>.]<a href="#footnotetag74"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p>
+
+<p><a id="footnote75" name="footnote75"></a>
+<strong>Footnote 75:</strong> [That this visit remained a vivid and delightful memory
+to the end of Irving's life is shown in some words spoken not long
+before his death: "Oh! Scott was a master spirit&mdash;as glorious in his
+conversation as in his writings. Jeffrey was delightful, and had
+<span class="italic">eloquent runs</span> in conversation; but there was a consciousness of
+talent with it. Scott had nothing of that. He spoke from the fulness
+of his mind, pouring out an incessant flow of anecdote, story, with
+dashes of humor, and then never monopolizing, but always ready to
+listen to and appreciate what came from others. I never felt such a
+consciousness of happiness as when under his roof."&mdash;<span class="italic">Washington
+Irving's Life and Letters</span>, vol. iv. p. 260.]<a href="#footnotetag75"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p>
+
+<p><a id="footnote76" name="footnote76"></a>
+<strong>Footnote 76:</strong></p>
+
+<p class="poem20">"Good-morrow to thy sable beak,<br>
+  And glossy plumage dark and sleek,<br>
+  Thy crimson moon, and azure eye,<br>
+  Cock of the heath, so wildly shy!" etc.<a href="#footnotetag76"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p>
+
+<p><a id="footnote77" name="footnote77"></a>
+<strong>Footnote 77:</strong> The <span class="italic" lang="fr">flageolet</span> alludes to Mr. Alexander Ballantyne, the
+third of the brothers&mdash;a fine musician, and a most amiable and modest
+man, never connected with Scott in any business matters, but always
+much his favorite in private.<a href="#footnotetag77"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p>
+
+<p><a id="footnote78" name="footnote78"></a>
+<strong>Footnote 78:</strong> Mr. Magrath has now been long established in his native
+city of Dublin. His musical excellence was by no means the only merit
+that attached Scott to his society while he remained in Edinburgh.<a href="#footnotetag78"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p>
+
+<p><a id="footnote79" name="footnote79"></a>
+<strong>Footnote 79:</strong> This fine greyhound, a gift from Terry, had been sent to
+Scotland under the care of Mr. Magrath. Terry had called the dog
+<span class="italic">Marmion</span>, but Scott rechristened him <span class="italic">Hamlet</span>, in honor of his "inky
+coat."<a href="#footnotetag79"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p>
+
+<p><a id="footnote80" name="footnote80"></a>
+<strong>Footnote 80:</strong> Before the second and larger part of the present house
+of Abbotsford was built, the small room, subsequently known as the
+breakfast parlor, was during several years Scott's <span class="italic">sanctum</span>.<a href="#footnotetag80"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p>
+
+<p><a id="footnote81" name="footnote81"></a>
+<strong>Footnote 81:</strong> This alludes to certain pieces of painted glass,
+representing the heads of some of the old Scotch kings, copied from
+the carved ceiling of the presence-chamber in Stirling Castle. There
+are engravings of them in a work called <span class="italic">Lacunar Strevelinense</span>.
+Edinb. 4to, 1817.<a href="#footnotetag81"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p>
+
+<p><a id="footnote82" name="footnote82"></a>
+<strong>Footnote 82:</strong> Adam Paterson was the intelligent foreman of the company
+of masons then employed at Abbotsford.<a href="#footnotetag82"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p>
+
+<p><a id="footnote83" name="footnote83"></a>
+<strong>Footnote 83:</strong> Thomas Scott had sent his brother the horns and feet of
+a gigantic stag, shot by him in Canada. The feet were ultimately
+suspended to bell-cords in the armory at Abbotsford; and the horns
+mounted as drinking-cups.<a href="#footnotetag83"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p>
+
+<p><a id="footnote84" name="footnote84"></a>
+<strong>Footnote 84:</strong> They called Daniel Terry among themselves "The Grinder,"
+in double allusion to the song of <span class="italic">Terry the Grinder</span>, and to some
+harsh under-notes of their friend's voice.<a href="#footnotetag84"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p>
+
+<p><a id="footnote85" name="footnote85"></a>
+<strong>Footnote 85:</strong> [On the 16th of February, Lady Louisa Stuart wrote:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"I have read <span class="italic">Rob Roy</span> twice.... The scale with me would be
+<span class="italic">Waverley</span>, <span class="italic">Old Mortality</span>, <span class="italic">Guy Mannering</span>&mdash;so far I am sure. I am
+not sure which of the others I could positively prefer; there are
+striking beauties in each. In <span class="italic">Rob Roy</span> the painting of character is
+as vivid as in anything the author ever wrote. Rob himself, Die
+Vernon, Nicol Jarvie, Andrew Fairservice, not to speak of the Tory
+baronet and his cubs, or the Jesuit Rashleigh. The beginning and end,
+I am afraid, I quarrel with; ... but beginnings signify little; ends
+signify more. Now, I fear the end of this is huddled, as if the author
+were tired and wanted to get rid of his personages as fast as he
+could, knocking them on the head without mercy. Die Vernon has what a
+Lord Bellamont (famous in my day and before it for profligacy and
+affectation) used to call such 'a catastrophical countenance' that one
+cannot reconcile oneself to her being married and settled like her
+sober neighbors. It is almost as bad as if Flora MacIvor had married
+the Colonel's nephew.... You see I give my opinion (let it be worth
+something or nothing) as if I were writing to a person not supposed to
+be in any way sib to the mysterious Unknown; but it is because I
+believe you have too distinguishing a taste to relish all sugar and
+treacle. Goldsmith's metaphor was bad when he said, 'Who peppers the
+highest is surest to please,' for flattery resembles neither pepper
+nor salt. Apropos of the mystery, those who see far into a millstone
+are now sure that the <span class="italic">Tales of my Landlord</span> were written by a
+different person, and parts of them by different hands. When they give
+their reasons with a complacent delight in their own sagacity, I think
+to myself, how often must I have talked as much wise nonsense upon
+subjects which I knew nothing about."&mdash;<span class="italic">Familiar Letters</span>, vol. ii. p.
+11.]<a href="#footnotetag85"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p>
+
+<p><a id="footnote86" name="footnote86"></a>
+<strong>Footnote 86:</strong> <span class="italic">Collection of Inventories and other Records of the
+Royal Wardrobe and Jewel-House, etc.</span> Edin. 1815, 4to.<a href="#footnotetag86"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p>
+
+<p><a id="footnote87" name="footnote87"></a>
+<strong>Footnote 87:</strong> A stage-coach, so called, which ran betwixt Edinburgh
+and Jedburgh.<a href="#footnotetag87"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p>
+
+<p><a id="footnote88" name="footnote88"></a>
+<strong>Footnote 88:</strong> Slightly altered from Dr. Johnson's Prologue to the
+comedy of <span class="italic">A Word to the Wise</span>.</p>
+
+<p><a id="footnote89" name="footnote89"></a>
+<strong>Footnote 89:</strong> Mr. Nicol Milne of Faldonside. This gentleman's property
+is a valuable and extensive one, situated immediately to the westward
+of Abbotsford; and Scott continued, year after year, to dream of
+adding it also to his own.<a href="#footnotetag89"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p>
+
+<p><a id="footnote90" name="footnote90"></a>
+<strong>Footnote 90:</strong> A sawmill had just been erected at Toftfield.<a href="#footnotetag90"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p>
+
+<p><a id="footnote91" name="footnote91"></a>
+<strong>Footnote 91:</strong> A cocklaird adjoining Abbotsford at the eastern side.
+His farm is properly <span class="italic">Lochbreist</span>; but in the neighborhood he was
+generally known as <span class="italic">Laird Lauchie</span>&mdash;or <span class="italic">Lauchie Langlegs</span>. Washington
+Irving describes him in his <span class="italic">Abbotsford</span>, with high gusto. He was a
+most absurd original.<a href="#footnotetag91"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p>
+
+<p><a id="footnote92" name="footnote92"></a>
+<strong>Footnote 92:</strong> An article in one of the early numbers of <span class="italic">Blackwood's
+Magazine</span>, entitled <span class="italic">The Chaldee MS.</span>, in which the literati and
+booksellers of Edinburgh were quizzed <span class="italic">en masse</span>&mdash;Scott himself among
+the rest. It was in this lampoon that Constable first saw himself
+designated in print by the <span class="italic">sobriquet</span> of "The Crafty," long before
+bestowed on him by one of his own most eminent Whig supporters; but
+nothing nettled him so much as the passages in which he and Blackwood
+are represented entreating the support of Scott for their respective
+Magazines, and waved off by "the Great Magician" in the same identical
+phrases of contemptuous indifference. The description of Constable's
+visit to Abbotsford may be worth transcribing&mdash;for Sir David Wilkie,
+who was present when Scott read it, says he was almost choked with
+laughter, and he afterwards confessed that the Chaldean author had
+given a sufficiently accurate version of what really passed on the
+occasion:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"26. But when the Spirits were gone, he (The Crafty) said unto
+himself, I will arise and go unto a magician, which is of my friends:
+of a surety he will devise some remedy, and free me out of all my
+distresses.</p>
+
+<p>"27. So he arose and came unto that great magician which hath his
+dwelling in the old fastness, hard by the River Jordan, which is by
+the Border.</p>
+
+<p>"28. And the magician opened his mouth and said, Lo! my heart wisheth
+thy good, and let the thing prosper which is in thy hands to do it.</p>
+
+<p>"29. But thou seest that my hands are full of working, and my labor is
+great. For, lo, I have to feed all the people of my land, and none
+knoweth whence his food cometh; but each man openeth his mouth, and my
+hand filleth it with pleasant things.</p>
+
+<p>"30. Moreover, thine adversary also is of my familiars.</p>
+
+<p>"31. The land is before thee: draw thou up thine hosts for the battle
+on the mount of Proclamation, and defy boldly thine enemy, which hath
+his camp in the place of Princes; quit ye as men, and let favor be
+shown unto him which is most valiant.</p>
+
+<p>"32. Yet be thou silent; peradventure will I help thee some little.</p>
+
+<p>"33. But the man which is Crafty saw that the magician loved him not.
+For he knew him of old, and they had had many dealings; and he
+perceived that he would not assist him in the day of his adversity.</p>
+
+<p>"34. So he turned about, and went out of his fastness. And he shook
+the dust from his feet, and said, Behold I have given this magician
+much money, yet see now, he hath utterly deserted me. Verily, my fine
+gold hath perished."&mdash;Chap. iii.<a href="#footnotetag92"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p>
+
+<p><a id="footnote93" name="footnote93"></a>
+<strong>Footnote 93:</strong> [The story of the composition of <span class="italic">The Chaldee
+Manuscript</span>, its publication in the first number of the magazine,
+destined to so long and brilliant a career, and the extraordinary
+commotion caused thereby, is admirably told in the <span class="italic">Annals of a
+Publishing House</span>, which also gives the details regarding Laidlaw's
+brief connection with the new periodical, and the correspondence of
+Scott and Blackwood during its early months.&mdash;See Mrs. Oliphant's
+<span class="italic">William Blackwood and His Sons</span>, vol. i. chap, iii.]<a href="#footnotetag93"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p>
+
+<p><a id="footnote94" name="footnote94"></a>
+<strong>Footnote 94:</strong> John Usher, the ex-proprietor of Toftfield, was
+eventually Scott's tenant on part of those lands for many years. He
+was a man of far superior rank and intelligence to the rest of the
+displaced lairds&mdash;and came presently to be one of Scott's trusty rural
+friends, and a frequent companion of his sports.<a href="#footnotetag94"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p>
+
+<p><a id="footnote95" name="footnote95"></a>
+<strong>Footnote 95:</strong> A yoke of oxen.<a href="#footnotetag95"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p>
+
+<p><a id="footnote96" name="footnote96"></a>
+<strong>Footnote 96:</strong> Scott's article on Kirkton's <span class="italic">History of the Church of
+Scotland</span>, edited by Mr. C. K. Sharpe, appeared in the 36th number of
+the <span class="italic">Quarterly Review</span>,&mdash;See <span class="italic">Miscellaneous Prose Works</span>, vol. xix. p.
+213.<a href="#footnotetag96"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p>
+
+<p><a id="footnote97" name="footnote97"></a>
+<strong>Footnote 97:</strong> Scott expressed great satisfaction on seeing the <span class="italic">Lives
+of the Covenanters</span>&mdash;Cameron, Peden, Semple, Wellwood, Cargill, Smith,
+Renwick, etc.&mdash;reprinted without mutilation in the <span class="italic">Biographia
+Presbyteriana</span>. Edin. 1827. The publisher of this collection was the
+late Mr. John Stevenson, long chief clerk to John Ballantyne, and
+usually styled by Scott "True Jock," in opposition to one of his old
+master's many <span class="italic">aliases</span>&mdash;namely, "Leein' Johnnie."<a href="#footnotetag97"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p>
+
+<p><a id="footnote98" name="footnote98"></a>
+<strong>Footnote 98:</strong> See Scott's <span class="italic">Prose Miscellanies</span>, vol. xviii. p. 250.<a href="#footnotetag98"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p>
+
+<p><a id="footnote99" name="footnote99"></a>
+<strong>Footnote 99:</strong> The Letters of Horace Walpole to George Montagu.<a href="#footnotetag99"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p>
+
+<p><a id="footnote100" name="footnote100"></a>
+<strong>Footnote 100:</strong> <span class="italic">Anthony Hall</span> is only known as Editor of one of
+Leland's works. I have no doubt Scott was thinking of <span class="italic">John Hall
+Stevenson</span>, author of <span class="italic">Crazy Tales</span>; the friend, and (it is said) the
+<span class="italic">Eugenius</span> of Sterne.<a href="#footnotetag100"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p>
+
+<p><a id="footnote101" name="footnote101"></a>
+<strong>Footnote 101:</strong> I believe Mr. Rose's <span class="italic">Court and Parliament of Beasts</span>
+is here alluded to.<a href="#footnotetag101"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p>
+
+<p><a id="footnote102" name="footnote102"></a>
+<strong>Footnote 102:</strong> Bullock's manufactory was in this street.<a href="#footnotetag102"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p>
+
+<p><a id="footnote103" name="footnote103"></a>
+<strong>Footnote 103:</strong> A drama founded on the novel of <span class="italic">Rob Roy</span> had been
+produced, with great success, on the London stage.<a href="#footnotetag103"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p>
+
+<p><a id="footnote104" name="footnote104"></a>
+<strong>Footnote 104:</strong> Mr. Alexander Nasmyth, an eminent landscape painter of
+Edinburgh&mdash;the father of Mrs. Terry.<a href="#footnotetag104"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p>
+
+<p><a id="footnote105" name="footnote105"></a>
+<strong>Footnote 105:</strong> See <span class="italic">ante</span>, vol. iii. p. 220.<a href="#footnotetag105"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p>
+
+<p><a id="footnote106" name="footnote106"></a>
+<strong>Footnote 106:</strong></p>
+
+<p class="poem20">"What beauties does Flora disclose,<br>
+  How sweet are her smiles upon Tweed," etc.&mdash;<span class="italic">Crawford.</span><a href="#footnotetag106"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p>
+
+<p><a id="footnote107" name="footnote107"></a>
+<strong>Footnote 107:</strong> The late Sir Patrick Murray of Ochtertyre, Bart.&mdash;one
+of the Scotch Barons of Exchequer.<a href="#footnotetag107"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p>
+
+<p><a id="footnote108" name="footnote108"></a>
+<strong>Footnote 108:</strong> [Of Hinse, Washington Irving writes in his
+<span class="italic">Abbotsford</span>:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Among the other important and privileged members of the household who
+figured in attendance at dinner, was a large gray cat, who, I
+observed, was regaled from time to time with titbits from the table.
+This sage grimalkin was a favorite of both master and mistress, and
+slept at night in their room, and Scott laughingly observed, that one
+of the least wise parts of their establishment was that the window was
+left open at night for puss to go in and out. The cat assumed a kind
+of ascendency among the quadrupeds&mdash;sitting in state in Scott's
+armchair, and occasionally stationing himself on a chair beside the
+door, as if to review his subjects as they passed, giving each dog a
+cuff beside the ears as he went by. This clapper-clawing was always
+taken in good part; it appeared to be, in fact, a mere act of
+sovereignty on the part of grimalkin to remind the others of their
+vassalage; which they acknowledged by the most perfect acquiescence. A
+general harmony prevailed between sovereign and subjects, and they
+would all sleep together in the sunshine."]<a href="#footnotetag108"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p>
+
+<p><a id="footnote109" name="footnote109"></a>
+<strong>Footnote 109:</strong> See Croker's <span class="italic">Boswell</span> (edit. 1831), vol. iii p. 38.<a href="#footnotetag109"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p>
+
+<p><a id="footnote110" name="footnote110"></a>
+<strong>Footnote 110:</strong> George Hogarth, Esq., W. S., brother of Mrs. James
+Ballantyne. This gentleman is now well known in the literary world;
+especially by a History of Music, of which all who understand that
+science speak highly. [He was the father-in-law of Charles Dickens,
+and for many years a musical and dramatic critic in London.]<a href="#footnotetag110"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p>
+
+<p><a id="footnote111" name="footnote111"></a>
+<strong>Footnote 111:</strong> "Now, John," cried Constable, one evening after he had
+told one of his best stories, "now, John, is that true?" His object
+evidently was, in Iago's phrase, <span class="italic">to let down the pegs</span>; but Rigdum
+answered gayly, "True, indeed! Not one word of it!&mdash;any blockhead may
+stick to truth, my hearty&mdash;but 't is a sad hamperer of genius."<a href="#footnotetag111"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p>
+
+<p><a id="footnote112" name="footnote112"></a>
+<strong>Footnote 112:</strong> [This letter was written August 11, by Lady Louisa
+Stuart, and it appears in its original and complete form in <span class="italic">Familiar
+Letters</span>, vol. ii. p. 18. To the end of her long life, the writer was
+somewhat influenced by the feeling prevailing in her youth as to the
+loss of caste suffered by women of good social position who appeared
+in print. Writing to Mrs. Lockhart after her father's death, and
+enclosing some of his letters, Lady Louisa says: "If Mr. Lockhart
+wishes to insert any of these, I will beg not to be named. It is not
+that I am not proud enough of having been honored with <span class="italic">his</span> regard,
+but I never yet saw my name in print, and hope I never shall." Mr.
+Lockhart evidently in part overcame this objection.]<a href="#footnotetag112"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p>
+
+<p><a id="footnote113" name="footnote113"></a>
+<strong>Footnote 113:</strong> In 1827, Lady Louisa wrote for Caroline, Lady Scott, a
+great-granddaughter of the duke, <span class="italic">Some Account of John, Duke of
+Argyle, and his Family</span>. This delightful memoir was first printed
+(privately) in 1863. It was published in 1899, in <span class="italic">Selections from the
+Manuscripts of Lady Louisa Stuart</span>.<a href="#footnotetag113"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p>
+
+<p><a id="footnote114" name="footnote114"></a>
+<strong>Footnote 114:</strong> [Sheffield Place, the seat of Lord Sheffield, the
+friend and editor of Gibbon.]<a href="#footnotetag114"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p>
+
+<p><a id="footnote115" name="footnote115"></a>
+<strong>Footnote 115:</strong> <span class="italic">Ebony</span> was Mr. Blackwood's own usual designation in
+the <span class="italic">jeux d'esprit</span> of his young Magazine, in many of which the
+persons thus addressed by Scott were conjoint culprits. They both were
+then, as may be inferred, sweeping the boards of the Parliament House
+as "briefless barristers."<a href="#footnotetag115"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p>
+
+<p><a id="footnote116" name="footnote116"></a>
+<strong>Footnote 116:</strong> I understand that this now celebrated soup was
+<span class="italic">extemporized</span> by M. Florence on Scott's first visit to Bowhill after
+the publication of <span class="italic">Guy Mannering</span>. Florence had <span class="italic">served</span>&mdash;and Scott
+having on some sporting party made his personal acquaintance, he used
+often afterwards to gratify the poet's military propensities by
+sending up magnificent representations in pastry, of citadels taken by
+the Emperor, etc.<a href="#footnotetag116"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p>
+
+<p><a id="footnote117" name="footnote117"></a>
+<strong>Footnote 117:</strong> In the Introduction to <span class="italic">The Lay of the Last Minstrel</span>,
+1830, Sir Walter says: "Were I ever to take the unbecoming freedom of
+censuring a man of Mr. Coleridge's extraordinary talents, it would be
+on account of the caprice and indolence with which he has thrown from
+him, as in mere wantonness, those unfinished scraps of poetry, which,
+like the Torso of antiquity, defy the skill of his poetical brethren
+to complete them. The charming fragments which the author abandons to
+their fate are surely too valuable to be treated like the proofs of
+careless engravers, the sweepings of whose studios often make the
+fortune of some painstaking collector." And in a note to <span class="italic">The Abbot</span>,
+alluding to Coleridge's beautiful and tantalizing fragment of
+<span class="italic">Christabel</span>, he adds: "Has not our own imaginative poet cause to fear
+that future ages will desire to summon him from his place of rest, as
+Milton longed</p>
+
+<p class="poem20">'To call up him who left half told<br>
+  The story of Cambuscan bold'?"<a href="#footnotetag117"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p>
+
+<p><a id="footnote118" name="footnote118"></a>
+<strong>Footnote 118:</strong> Macneill's <span class="italic">Will and Jean</span>.<a href="#footnotetag118"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p>
+
+<p><a id="footnote119" name="footnote119"></a>
+<strong>Footnote 119:</strong> When playing, in childhood, with the young ladies of
+the Buccleuch family, she had been overheard saying to her namesake
+Lady Anne Scott, "Well, I do wish I were Lady Anne too&mdash;it is so much
+prettier than Miss;" thenceforth she was commonly addressed in the
+family by the coveted title.<a href="#footnotetag119"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p>
+
+<p><a id="footnote120" name="footnote120"></a>
+<strong>Footnote 120:</strong> <span class="italic">Vide</span> "Green-breeks" in the General Introduction to
+the <span class="italic">Waverley Novels</span>. Surely <span class="italic">Yellow Waistcoat</span> was his prototype.<a href="#footnotetag120"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr class="full" noshade>
+<p>***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE OF SIR WALTER SCOTT, VOLUME V (OF 10)***</p>
+<p>******* This file should be named 24498-h.txt or 24498-h.zip *******</p>
+<p>This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:<br>
+<a href="http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/2/4/4/9/24498">http://www.gutenberg.org/2/4/4/9/24498</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.  Special rules,
+set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to
+copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to
+protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark.  Project
+Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you
+charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission.  If you
+do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the
+rules is very easy.  You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose
+such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and
+research.  They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do
+practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks.  Redistribution is
+subject to the trademark license, especially commercial
+redistribution.</p>
+
+
+
+<pre>
+*** START: FULL LICENSE ***
+
+THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE
+PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK
+
+To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free
+distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work
+(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project
+Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project
+Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at
+<a href="http://www.gutenberg.org/license">http://www.gutenberg.org/license)</a>.
+
+
+Section 1.  General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic works
+
+1.A.  By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to
+and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property
+(trademark/copyright) agreement.  If you do not agree to abide by all
+the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy
+all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession.
+If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the
+terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or
+entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8.
+
+1.B.  "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark.  It may only be
+used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who
+agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement.  There are a few
+things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works
+even without complying with the full terms of this agreement.  See
+paragraph 1.C below.  There are a lot of things you can do with Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement
+and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works.  See paragraph 1.E below.
+
+1.C.  The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation"
+or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic works.  Nearly all the individual works in the
+collection are in the public domain in the United States.  If an
+individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are
+located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from
+copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative
+works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg
+are removed.  Of course, we hope that you will support the Project
+Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by
+freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of
+this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with
+the work.  You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by
+keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project
+Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others.
+
+1.D.  The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern
+what you can do with this work.  Copyright laws in most countries are in
+a constant state of change.  If you are outside the United States, check
+the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement
+before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or
+creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project
+Gutenberg-tm work.  The Foundation makes no representations concerning
+the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United
+States.
+
+1.E.  Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg:
+
+1.E.1.  The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate
+access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently
+whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the
+phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project
+Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed,
+copied or distributed:
+
+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 www.gutenberg.org
+
+1.E.2.  If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived
+from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is
+posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied
+and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees
+or charges.  If you are redistributing or providing access to a work
+with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the
+work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1
+through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the
+Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or
+1.E.9.
+
+1.E.3.  If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted
+with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution
+must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional
+terms imposed by the copyright holder.  Additional terms will be linked
+to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the
+permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work.
+
+1.E.4.  Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this
+work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm.
+
+1.E.5.  Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this
+electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without
+prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with
+active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm License.
+
+1.E.6.  You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary,
+compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any
+word processing or hypertext form.  However, if you provide access to or
+distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than
+"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version
+posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org),
+you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a
+copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon
+request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other
+form.  Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1.
+
+1.E.7.  Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying,
+performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works
+unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9.
+
+1.E.8.  You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing
+access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided
+that
+
+- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from
+     the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method
+     you already use to calculate your applicable taxes.  The fee is
+     owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he
+     has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the
+     Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation.  Royalty payments
+     must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you
+     prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax
+     returns.  Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and
+     sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the
+     address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to
+     the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation."
+
+- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies
+     you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he
+     does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+     License.  You must require such a user to return or
+     destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium
+     and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of
+     Project Gutenberg-tm works.
+
+- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any
+     money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the
+     electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days
+     of receipt of the work.
+
+- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free
+     distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works.
+
+1.E.9.  If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set
+forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from
+both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael
+Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark.  Contact the
+Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below.
+
+1.F.
+
+1.F.1.  Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable
+effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread
+public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm
+collection.  Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain
+"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or
+corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual
+property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a
+computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by
+your equipment.
+
+1.F.2.  LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right
+of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all
+liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal
+fees.  YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT
+LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE
+PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH F3.  YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE
+TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE
+LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR
+INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH
+DAMAGE.
+
+1.F.3.  LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a
+defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can
+receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a
+written explanation to the person you received the work from.  If you
+received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with
+your written explanation.  The person or entity that provided you with
+the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a
+refund.  If you received the work electronically, the person or entity
+providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to
+receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund.  If the second copy
+is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further
+opportunities to fix the problem.
+
+1.F.4.  Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth
+in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS,' WITH NO OTHER
+WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO
+WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE.
+
+1.F.5.  Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied
+warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages.
+If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the
+law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be
+interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by
+the applicable state law.  The invalidity or unenforceability of any
+provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions.
+
+1.F.6.  INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the
+trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone
+providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance
+with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production,
+promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works,
+harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees,
+that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do
+or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm
+work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any
+Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause.
+
+
+Section  2.  Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of
+electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers
+including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers.  It exists
+because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from
+people in all walks of life.
+
+Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the
+assistance they need, is critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's
+goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will
+remain freely available for generations to come.  In 2001, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure
+and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations.
+To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation
+and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4
+and the Foundation web page at http://www.gutenberg.org/fundraising/pglaf.
+
+
+Section 3.  Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive
+Foundation
+
+The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit
+501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the
+state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal
+Revenue Service.  The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification
+number is 64-6221541.  Contributions to the Project Gutenberg
+Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent
+permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws.
+
+The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S.
+Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered
+throughout numerous locations.  Its business office is located at
+809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email
+business@pglaf.org.  Email contact links and up to date contact
+information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official
+page at http://www.gutenberg.org/about/contact
+
+For additional contact information:
+     Dr. Gregory B. Newby
+     Chief Executive and Director
+     gbnewby@pglaf.org
+
+Section 4.  Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg
+Literary Archive Foundation
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide
+spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of
+increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be
+freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest
+array of equipment including outdated equipment.  Many small donations
+($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt
+status with the IRS.
+
+The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating
+charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United
+States.  Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a
+considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up
+with these requirements.  We do not solicit donations in locations
+where we have not received written confirmation of compliance.  To
+SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any
+particular state visit http://www.gutenberg.org/fundraising/pglaf
+
+While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we
+have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition
+against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who
+approach us with offers to donate.
+
+International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make
+any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from
+outside the United States.  U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff.
+
+Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation
+methods and addresses.  Donations are accepted in a number of other
+ways including checks, online payments and credit card donations.
+To donate, please visit: http://www.gutenberg.org/fundraising/donate
+
+
+Section 5.  General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works.
+
+Professor Michael S. Hart is the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm
+concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared
+with anyone.  For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project
+Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support.
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed
+editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S.
+unless a copyright notice is included.  Thus, we do not necessarily
+keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition.
+
+Each eBook is in a subdirectory of the same number as the eBook's
+eBook number, often in several formats including plain vanilla ASCII,
+compressed (zipped), HTML and others.
+
+Corrected EDITIONS of our eBooks replace the old file and take over
+the old filename and etext number.  The replaced older file is renamed.
+VERSIONS based on separate sources are treated as new eBooks receiving
+new filenames and etext numbers.
+
+Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility:
+
+<a href="http://www.gutenberg.org">http://www.gutenberg.org</a>
+
+This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm,
+including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary
+Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to
+subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks.
+
+EBooks posted prior to November 2003, with eBook numbers BELOW #10000,
+are filed in directories based on their release date.  If you want to
+download any of these eBooks directly, rather than using the regular
+search system you may utilize the following addresses and just
+download by the etext year.
+
+<a href="http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/etext06/">http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/etext06/</a>
+
+    (Or /etext 05, 04, 03, 02, 01, 00, 99,
+     98, 97, 96, 95, 94, 93, 92, 92, 91 or 90)
+
+EBooks posted since November 2003, with etext numbers OVER #10000, are
+filed in a different way.  The year of a release date is no longer part
+of the directory path.  The path is based on the etext number (which is
+identical to the filename).  The path to the file is made up of single
+digits corresponding to all but the last digit in the filename.  For
+example an eBook of filename 10234 would be found at:
+
+http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/0/2/3/10234
+
+or filename 24689 would be found at:
+http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/2/4/6/8/24689
+
+An alternative method of locating eBooks:
+<a href="http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/GUTINDEX.ALL">http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/GUTINDEX.ALL</a>
+
+*** END: FULL LICENSE ***
+</pre>
+</body>
+</html>
diff --git a/24498-h/images/img000.jpg b/24498-h/images/img000.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..c9ce441
--- /dev/null
+++ b/24498-h/images/img000.jpg
diff --git a/24498-h/images/img001.jpg b/24498-h/images/img001.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..ff5275c
--- /dev/null
+++ b/24498-h/images/img001.jpg
diff --git a/24498-h/images/img002.jpg b/24498-h/images/img002.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..5c79d2c
--- /dev/null
+++ b/24498-h/images/img002.jpg
diff --git a/24498-h/images/img003.jpg b/24498-h/images/img003.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..2ae10a1
--- /dev/null
+++ b/24498-h/images/img003.jpg
diff --git a/24498-h/images/img004.jpg b/24498-h/images/img004.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..719e4eb
--- /dev/null
+++ b/24498-h/images/img004.jpg
diff --git a/24498-h/images/img005.jpg b/24498-h/images/img005.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..afa9aa2
--- /dev/null
+++ b/24498-h/images/img005.jpg
diff --git a/24498-h/images/img006.jpg b/24498-h/images/img006.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..d28c6f0
--- /dev/null
+++ b/24498-h/images/img006.jpg
diff --git a/24498.txt b/24498.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..81fb10f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/24498.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,12475 @@
+The Project Gutenberg eBook, Memoirs of the Life of Sir Walter Scott,
+Volume V (of 10), by John Gibson Lockhart
+
+
+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 www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+
+
+
+Title: Memoirs of the Life of Sir Walter Scott, Volume V (of 10)
+
+
+Author: John Gibson Lockhart
+
+
+
+Release Date: February 2, 2008  [eBook #24498]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII)
+
+
+***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE OF SIR WALTER
+SCOTT, VOLUME V (OF 10)***
+
+
+E-text prepared by Thierry Alberto, Henry Craig, Christine P. Travers, and
+the Project Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team
+(http://www.pgdp.net)
+
+
+
+Transcriber's note:
+
+   Obvious printer's errors have been corrected; all other
+   inconsistencies are as in the original. The author's spelling
+   has been retained.
+
+   Page numbers have been retained as {p.xxx}.
+
+   Page 96: The "u" in "Cadil gu lo" has a breve in the original.
+
+   Page 218: The marker for footnote 88 could not be found in the
+             text.
+
+
+
+
+
+MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE
+OF
+SIR WALTER SCOTT
+BART.
+
+by
+
+JOHN GIBSON LOCKHART
+
+In Ten Volumes
+
+VOLUME V
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+Boston and New York
+Houghton, Mifflin and Company
+The Riverside Press, Cambridge
+MCMI
+
+Copyright, 1901
+by Houghton, Mifflin and Company
+All Rights Reserved
+
+Six Hundred Copies Printed
+Number,
+
+
+
+
+{p.v} TABLE OF CONTENTS
+
+
+  Chap.                                                      Page
+
+  XXXIV. Progress of The Lord of the Isles. -- Correspondence
+     with Mr. Joseph Train. -- Rapid completion of The Lord of
+     the Isles. -- "Refreshing the Machine." -- "Six Weeks at a
+     Christmas." -- Publication of the Poem, -- and of Guy
+     Mannering. -- Letters to Morritt, Terry, and John
+     Ballantyne. -- Anecdotes by James Ballantyne. -- Visit to
+     London. -- Meeting with Lord Byron. -- Dinners at Carlton
+     House. 1814-1815.                                          1
+
+  XXXV. Battle of Waterloo -- Letter of Sir Charles Bell. --
+     Visit to the Continent. -- Waterloo. -- Letters from
+     Brussels and Paris. -- Anecdotes of Scott at Paris. -- The
+     Duke of Wellington. -- The Emperor Alexander. -- Bluecher. --
+     Platoff -- Party at Ermenonville, etc. -- London. -- Parting
+     with Lord Byron. -- Scott's Sheffield Knife. -- Return to
+     Abbotsford. -- Anecdotes by Mr. Skene and James Ballantyne.
+     1815.                                                     39
+
+  XXXVI. Field of Waterloo published. -- Revision of Paul's
+     Letters, etc. -- Quarrel and Reconciliation with Hogg. --
+     Football Match at Carterhaugh. -- Songs on the Banner of
+     Buccleuch. -- Dinner at Bowhill. -- Design for a Piece of
+     Plate to the Sutors of Selkirk. -- Letters to the Duke of
+     Buccleuch, Joanna Baillie, and Mr. Morritt. 1815.         76
+
+  XXXVII. {p.vi} Publication of Paul's Letters to his
+     Kinsfolk. -- Guy Mannering "Terry-fied." -- Death of Major
+     John Scott. -- Letters to Thomas Scott. -- Publication of
+     The Antiquary. -- History of 1814 for the Edinburgh Annual
+     Register. -- Letters on the History of Scotland projected.
+     -- Publication of the First Tales of my Landlord by Murray
+     and Blackwood. -- Anecdotes by Mr. Train. -- Quarterly
+     Review on the Tales. -- Building at Abbotsford begun. --
+     Letters to Morritt, Terry, Murray, and the Ballantynes.
+     1816.                                                     94
+
+  XXXVIII. Harold the Dauntless published. -- Scott aspires to
+     be a Baron of the Exchequer. -- Letter to the Duke of
+     Buccleuch concerning Poachers, etc. -- First Attack of Cramp
+     in the Stomach. -- Letters to Morritt, Terry, and Mrs.
+     Maclean Clephane. -- Story of The Doom of Devorgoil. -- John
+     Kemble's retirement from the Stage. -- William Laidlaw
+     established at Kaeside. -- Novel of Rob Roy projected. --
+     Letter to Southey on the Relief of the Poor, etc. -- Letter
+     to Lord Montagu on Hogg's Queen's Wake, and on the Death of
+     Frances, Lady Douglas. 1817.                             135
+
+  XXXIX. Excursion to the Lennox, Glasgow, and Drumlanrig. --
+     Purchase of Toftfield. -- Establishment of the Ferguson
+     Family at Huntly Burn. -- Lines written in Illness. --
+     Visits of Washington Irving, Lady Byron, and Sir David
+     Wilkie. -- Progress of the Building at Abbotsford. --
+     Letters to Morritt, Terry, etc. -- Conclusion of Rob Roy.
+     1817.                                                    173
+
+  XL. Rob Boy published. -- Negotiation concerning the Second
+     Series of Tales of my Landlord. -- Commission to search for
+     the {p.vii} Scottish Regalia. -- Letters to the Duke of
+     Buccleuch, Mr. Croker, Mr. Morritt, Mr. Murray, Mr. Maturin,
+     etc. -- Correspondence on Rural Affairs with Mr. Laidlaw,
+     and on the Buildings at Abbotsford with Mr. Terry. -- Death
+     of Mrs. Murray Keith and Mr. George Bullock. 1818.       202
+
+  XLI. Dinner at Mr. Home Drummond's. -- Scott's Edinburgh
+     Den. -- Details of his Domestic Life in Castle Street. --
+     His Sunday Dinners. -- His Evening Drives, etc. -- His
+     Conduct in the General Society of Edinburgh. -- Dinners at
+     John Ballantyne's Villa, and at James Ballantyne's in St.
+     John Street, on the appearance of a new Novel. -- Anecdotes
+     of the Ballantynes, and of Constable. 1818.              236
+
+  XLII. Publication of the Heart of Mid-Lothian. -- Its
+     Reception in Edinburgh and in England. -- Abbotsford in
+     October. -- Melrose Abbey, Dryburgh, etc. -- Lion-Hunters
+     from America. -- Tragedy of the Cherokee Lovers. -- Scott's
+     Dinner to the Selkirkshire Yeomen. 1818.                 266
+
+  Appendix: The Durham Garland.                               295
+
+  Narrative of the Life of James Annesley.                    303
+
+
+
+
+{p.viii} LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
+
+
+  WALTER SCOTT IN 1822                             _Frontispiece_
+  From the painting by Sir Henry Raeburn, R. A., in the possession
+  of the Earl of Home.
+
+  MAIDA, THE SCOTTISH DEERHOUND                                96
+  After the painting by Landseer made in 1824.
+
+  JOHN MURRAY                                                 124
+  From the painting by Henry W. Pickersgill, R. A., in the
+  possession of John Murray, Esq.
+
+  WASHINGTON IRVING                                           180
+  After the painting by Charles Robert Leslie, R. A.
+
+  SCOTT'S HOUSE IN CASTLE STREET                              250
+  After the drawing by J. M. W. Turner, R.A.
+
+  JOHN GIBSON LOCKHART                                        274
+  After the painting by Henry W. Pickersgill, R. A.
+
+
+
+
+{p.001} CHAPTER XXXIV.
+
+     Progress of the Lord of the Isles. -- Correspondence with
+     Mr. Joseph Train. -- Rapid Completion of the Lord of the
+     Isles. -- "Refreshing the Machine." -- "Six Weeks at a
+     Christmas." -- Publication of the Poem, -- And of Guy
+     Mannering. -- Letters to Morritt, Terry, and John
+     Ballantyne. -- Anecdotes by James Ballantyne. -- Visit to
+     London. -- Meeting with Lord Byron. -- Dinners at Carlton
+     House.
+
+1814-1815.
+
+
+By the 11th of November, then, The Lord of the Isles had made great
+progress, and Scott had also authorized Ballantyne to negotiate among
+the booksellers for the publication of a second novel. But before I go
+further into these transactions, I must introduce the circumstances of
+Scott's first connection with an able and amiable man, whose services
+were of high importance to him, at this time and ever after, in the
+prosecution of his literary labors. Calling at Ballantyne's
+printing-office while Waverley was in the press, he happened to take
+up a proof sheet of a volume entitled "Poems, with notes illustrative
+of traditions in Galloway and Ayrshire, by Joseph Train, Supervisor of
+Excise at Newton-Stewart." The sheet contained a ballad on an Ayrshire
+tradition, about a certain "Witch of Carrick," whose skill in the
+black art was, it seems, instrumental in the destruction {p.002} of
+one of the scattered vessels of the Spanish Armada. The ballad
+begins:--
+
+  "Why gallops the palfrey with Lady Dunore?
+   Who drives away Turnberry's kine from the shore?
+   Go tell it in Carrick, and tell it in Kyle--
+   Although the proud Dons are now passing the Moil,[1]
+             On this magic clew,
+             That in fairyland grew,
+   Old Elcine de Aggart has taken in hand
+   To wind up their lives ere they win to our strand."
+
+              [Footnote 1: The Mull of Cantyre.]
+
+Scott immediately wrote to the author, begging to be included in his
+list of subscribers for a dozen copies, and suggesting at the same
+time a verbal alteration in one of the stanzas of this ballad. Mr.
+Train acknowledged his letter with gratitude, and the little book
+reached him just as he was about to embark in the lighthouse yacht. He
+took it with him on his voyage, and, on returning home again, wrote to
+Mr. Train, expressing the gratification he had received from several
+of his metrical pieces, but still more from his notes, and requesting
+him, as he seemed to be enthusiastic about traditions and legends, to
+communicate any matters of that order connected with Galloway which he
+might not himself think of turning to account; "for," said Scott,
+"nothing interests me so much as local anecdotes; and, as the
+applications for charity usually conclude, the smallest donation will
+be thankfully accepted."
+
+Mr. Train, in a little narrative with which he has favored me, says,
+that for some years before this time he had been engaged, in alliance
+with a friend of his, Mr. Denniston, in collecting materials for a
+History of Galloway; they had circulated lists of queries among the
+clergy and parish schoolmasters, and had thus, and by their own
+personal researches, accumulated "a great variety of the most
+excellent materials for that purpose;" but that, from the hour of his
+correspondence with Walter Scott, he "renounced every idea of
+authorship for {p.003} himself," resolving, "that thenceforth his
+chief pursuit should be collecting whatever he thought would be most
+interesting to _him_;" and that Mr. Denniston was easily persuaded to
+acquiesce in the abandonment of their original design. "Upon receiving
+Mr. Scott's letter," says Mr. Train, "I became still more zealous in
+the pursuit of ancient lore, and being the first person who had
+attempted to collect old stories in that quarter with any view to
+publication, I became so noted, that even beggars, in the hope of
+reward, came frequently from afar to Newton-Stewart, to recite old
+ballads and relate old stories to me." Erelong, Mr. Train visited
+Scott both at Edinburgh and at Abbotsford; a true affection continued
+ever afterwards to be maintained between them; and this generous ally
+was, as the prefaces to the Waverley Novels signify, one of the
+earliest confidants of that series of works, and certainly the most
+efficient of all the author's friends in furnishing him with materials
+for their composition. Nor did he confine himself to literary
+services: whatever portable object of antiquarian curiosity met his
+eye, this good man secured and treasured up with the same destination;
+and if ever a catalogue of the museum at Abbotsford shall appear, no
+single contributor, most assuredly, will fill so large a space in it
+as Mr. Train.[2]
+
+              [Footnote 2: [Joseph Train was born in 1779, at
+              Gilminscroft, Sorn, Ayrshire, where his father was
+              grieve and land-steward. The boy was apprenticed at an
+              early age to a weaver in Ayr, but, notwithstanding the
+              narrowness of his circumstances, and a very imperfect
+              education, he even then showed a love of learning and a
+              passion for antiquarian lore. From 1799 to 1802 he
+              served in the Ayrshire militia. While the regiment was
+              stationed at Inverness, he became a subscriber to
+              Currie's edition of Burns, and his colonel, Sir David
+              Hunter-Blair, seeing the volumes at the bookseller's,
+              was surprised to learn that they had been ordered by one
+              of his men. Greatly pleased thereat, Sir David had the
+              books handsomely bound and sent to Train, free of
+              charge; and later obtained for him an appointment in the
+              Excise in the Ayr district. He was a faithful and
+              efficient officer, but owing to the then prevalent
+              custom of giving the higher places in the Excise to
+              Englishmen, all Scott's efforts for the advancement of
+              his friend were unavailing; he remained supervisor till
+              he went on the retired list in 1836. In 1829 Train was
+              admitted a member of the Scottish Society of
+              Antiquaries. Though the death of Scott made a sad blank
+              in his life, his interest in his favorite studies
+              continued to the end. The latter part of his life was
+              spent in a cottage at Castle Douglas, where he was
+              visited shortly before his death by James Hannay, who
+              found him in a little parlor, crowded with antiquities
+              of interest and value,--the antiquary, "a tall old man,
+              with an autumnal red in his face, hale looking, and of
+              simple, quaint manners." (See _Household Words_, July
+              10, 1853.) Train's last extended works were an
+              _Historical and Statistical Account of the Isle of Man,
+              with a view of its peculiar customs and popular
+              superstitions_ (1845); and a study of a local religious
+              sect in _The Buchanites from First to Last_ (1846); but
+              he was an occasional contributor to various periodicals.
+              He died December 1, 1852.]]
+
+{p.004} His first considerable communication, after he had formed the
+unselfish determination above mentioned, consisted of a collection of
+anecdotes concerning the Galloway gypsies, and "a local story of an
+astrologer, who calling at a farmhouse at the moment when the goodwife
+was in travail, had, it was said, predicted the future fortune of the
+child, almost in the words placed in the mouth of John MacKinlay, in
+the Introduction to Guy Mannering." Scott told him, in reply, that the
+story of the astrologer reminded him of "one he had heard in his
+youth;" that is to say, as the Introduction explains, from this
+MacKinlay; but Mr. Train has, since his friend's death, recovered a
+rude _Durham_ ballad, which in fact contains a great deal more of the
+main fable of Guy Mannering than either his own written, or
+MacKinlay's oral edition of the _Gallovidian_ anecdote had conveyed;
+and--possessing, as I do, numberless evidences of the haste with which
+Scott drew up his beautiful Prefaces and Introductions of 1829, 1830,
+and 1831--I am strongly inclined to think that he must in his boyhood
+have read the Durham Broadside or Chapbook itself--as well as heard
+the old serving-man's Scottish version of it.
+
+However this may have been, Scott's answer to Mr. Train proceeded in
+these words:--
+
+     I am now to solicit a favor, which I think your interest
+     {p.005} in Scottish antiquities will induce you readily to
+     comply with. I am very desirous to have some account of the
+     present state of _Turnberry Castle_--whether any vestiges of
+     it remain--what is the appearance of the ground--the names
+     of the neighboring places--and, above all, what are the
+     traditions of the place (if any) concerning its memorable
+     surprise by Bruce, upon his return from the coast of
+     Ireland, in the commencement of the brilliant part of his
+     career. The purpose of this is to furnish some hints for
+     notes to a work in which I am now engaged, and I need not
+     say I will have great pleasure in mentioning the source from
+     which I derive my information. I have only to add, with the
+     modest importunity of a lazy correspondent, that the sooner
+     you oblige me with an answer (if you can assist me on the
+     subject), the greater will the obligation be on me, who am
+     already your obliged humble servant,
+
+                                        W. SCOTT.
+
+The recurrence of the word _Turnberry_, in the ballad of Elcine de
+Aggart, had of course suggested this application, which was dated on
+the 7th of November. "I had often," says Mr. Train, "when a boy,
+climbed the brown hills, and traversed the shores of Carrick, but I
+could not sufficiently remember the exact places and distances as to
+which Mr. Scott inquired; so, immediately on receipt of his letter, I
+made a journey into Ayrshire to collect all the information I possibly
+could, and forwarded it to him on the 18th of the same month." Among
+the particulars thus communicated, was the local superstition, that on
+the anniversary of the night when Bruce landed at Turnberry from
+Arran, the same meteoric gleam which had attended his voyage
+reappeared, unfailingly, in the same quarter of the heavens. With this
+circumstance Scott was much struck. "Your information," he writes on
+the 22d November, "was particularly interesting and acceptable,
+especially that which {p.006} relates to the supposed preternatural
+appearance of the fire, etc., which I hope to make some use of." What
+use he did make of it, if any reader has forgotten, will be seen by
+reference to stanzas 7-17 of the 5th Canto of the Poem; and the notes
+to the same Canto embody, with due acknowledgment, the more authentic
+results of Mr. Train's pilgrimage to Carrick.
+
+I shall recur presently to this communication from Mr. Train; but must
+pause for a moment to introduce two letters, both written in the same
+week with Scott's request as to the localities of Turnberry. They both
+give us amusing sketches of his buoyant spirits at this period of
+gigantic exertion;--and the first of them, which relates chiefly to
+Maturin's Tragedy of Bertram, shows how he could still contrive to
+steal time for attention to the affairs of brother authors less
+energetic than himself.
+
+     TO DANIEL TERRY, ESQ.
+
+                                        ABBOTSFORD, November 10, 1814.
+
+     MY DEAR TERRY,--I should have long since answered your kind
+     letter by our friend Young, but he would tell you of my
+     departure with our trusty and well-beloved Erskine, on a
+     sort of a voyage to Nova Zembla. Since my return, I have
+     fallen under the tyrannical dominion of a certain Lord of
+     the Isles. Those Lords were famous for oppression in the
+     days of yore, and if I can judge by the posthumous despotism
+     exercised over me, they have not improved by their demise.
+     The _peine forte et dure_ is, you know, nothing in
+     comparison to being obliged to grind verses; and so devilish
+     repulsive is my disposition, that I can never put my wheel
+     into constant and regular motion, till Ballantyne's devil
+     claps in his proofs, like the hot cinder which you Bath
+     folks used to clap in beside an unexperienced turnspit, as a
+     hint to be expeditious in his duty. O long life to the old
+     hermit of Prague, who never saw pen and ink!--much happier
+     in {p.007} that negative circumstance than in his alliance
+     with the niece of King Gorboduc.
+
+     To talk upon a blither subject, I wish you saw Abbotsford,
+     which begins this season to look the whimsical, gay, odd
+     cabin, that we had chalked out. I have been obliged to
+     relinquish Stark's plan, which was greatly too expensive. So
+     I have made the old farmhouse my _corps de logis_, with some
+     outlying places for kitchen, laundry, and two spare
+     bedrooms, which run along the east wall of the farm-court,
+     not without some picturesque effect. A perforated cross, the
+     spoils of the old kirk of Galashiels, decorates an advanced
+     door, and looks very well. This little sly bit of sacrilege
+     has given our spare rooms the name of _the chapel_. I
+     earnestly invite you to a _pew_ there, which you will find
+     as commodious for the purpose of a nap as you have ever
+     experienced when, under the guidance of old Mrs. Smollett,
+     you were led to St. George's, Edinburgh.
+
+     I have been recommending to John Kemble (I dare say without
+     any chance of success) to peruse a MS. Tragedy of Maturin's
+     author of Montorio: it is one of those things which will
+     either succeed greatly or be damned gloriously, for its
+     merits are marked, deep, and striking, and its faults of a
+     nature obnoxious to ridicule. He had our old friend Satan
+     (none of your sneaking St. John Street devils, but the
+     arch-fiend himself) brought on the stage bodily. I believe I
+     have exorcised the foul fiend--for, though in reading he was
+     a most terrible fellow, I feared for his reception in
+     public. The last act is ill contrived. He piddles (so to
+     speak) through a cullender, and divides the whole horrors of
+     the catastrophe (though God wot there are enough of them)
+     into a kind of drippity-droppity of four or five scenes,
+     instead of inundating the audience with them at once in the
+     finale, with a grand "_gardez l'eau_." With all this, which
+     I should say had I written the thing myself, it is grand and
+     powerful; the language most animated and poetical; and the
+     characters {p.008} sketched with a masterly enthusiasm.
+     Many thanks for Captain Richard Falconer.[3] To your
+     kindness I owe the two books in the world I most longed to
+     see, not so much for their intrinsic merits, as because they
+     bring back with vivid associations the sentiments of my
+     childhood--I might almost say infancy. Nothing ever
+     disturbed my feelings more than when, sitting by the old oak
+     table, my aunt, Lady Raeburn, used to read the lamentable
+     catastrophe of the ship's departing without Captain
+     Falconer, in consequence of the whole party making free with
+     lime-punch on the eve of its being launched. This and
+     Captain Bingfield,[4] I much wished {p.009} to read once
+     more, and I owe the possession of both to your kindness.
+     Everybody that I see talks highly of your steady interest
+     with the public, wherewith, as I never doubted of it, I am
+     pleased but not surprised. We are just now leaving this for
+     the winter: the children went yesterday. Tom Purdie,
+     Finella, and the greyhounds, all in excellent health; the
+     latter have not been hunted this season!!! Can add nothing
+     more to excite your admiration. Mrs. Scott sends her kind
+     compliments.
+
+                                        W. SCOTT.
+
+              [Footnote 3: "_The Voyages, Dangerous Adventures, and
+              Imminent Escapes of Capt. Rich. Falconer._ Containing
+              the Laws, Customs, and Manners of the Indians in
+              America; his shipwrecks; his marrying an Indian wife;
+              his narrow escape from the Island of Dominico, etc.
+              Intermixed with the Voyages and Adventures of Thomas
+              Randal, of Cork, Pilot; with his Shipwreck in the
+              Baltick, being the only man that escap'd. His being
+              taken by the Indians of Virginia, etc. And an Account of
+              his Death. The Fourth Edition. London. Printed for J.
+              Marshall, at the Bible in Gracechurch Street. 1734."
+
+              On the fly-leaf is the following note, in Scott's
+              handwriting: "This book I read in early youth. I am
+              ignorant whether it is altogether fictitious and written
+              upon De Foe's plan, which it greatly resembles, or
+              whether it is only an exaggerated account of the
+              adventures of a real person. It is very scarce, for,
+              endeavoring to add it to the other favorites of my
+              infancy, I think I looked for it ten years to no
+              purpose, and at last owed it to the active kindness of
+              Mr. Terry. Yet Richard Falconer's adventures seem to
+              have passed through several editions."]
+
+              [Footnote 4: "_The Travels and Adventures of William
+              Bingfield, Esq._, containing, as surprizing a
+              Fluctuation of Circumstances, both by Sea and Land, as
+              ever befel one man. With an Accurate Account of the
+              Shape, Nature, and Properties of that most furious, and
+              amazing Animal, the Dog-Bird. Printed from his own
+              Manuscript. With a beautiful Frontispiece. 2 vols. 12mo.
+              London: Printed for E. Withers, at the Seven Stars, in
+              Fleet Street. 1753." On the fly-leaf of the first volume
+              Scott has written as follows: "I read this scarce little
+              _Voyage Imaginaire_ when I was about ten years old, and
+              long after sought for a copy without being able to find
+              a person who would so much as acknowledge having heard
+              of William Bingfield or his Dog-birds, until the
+              indefatigable kindness of my friend Mr. Terry, of the
+              Haymarket, made me master of this copy. I am therefore
+              induced to think the book is of very rare occurrence."
+              [In consequence of these Notes, both Falconer and
+              Bingfield have been recently reprinted in
+              London.--(1839.)]]
+
+The following, dated a day after, refers to some lines which Mr.
+Morritt had sent him from Worthing.
+
+     TO J. B. S. MORRITT, ESQ., M. P., WORTHING.
+
+                                        ABBOTSFORD, November 11, 1814.
+
+     MY DEAR MORRITT,--I had your kind letter with the beautiful
+     verses. May the Muse meet you often on the verge of the sea
+     or among your own woods of Rokeby! May you have spirits to
+     profit by her visits (and that implies all good wishes for
+     the continuance of Mrs. M.'s convalescence), and may I
+     often, by the fruits of your inspiration, have my share of
+     pleasure! My Muse is a Tyranness, and not a Christian queen,
+     and compels me to attend to longs and shorts, and I know not
+     what, when, God wot, I had rather be planting evergreens by
+     my new old fountain. You must know that, like the complaint
+     of a fine young boy who was complimented by a stranger on
+     his being a smart fellow, "I am sair halded down by _the
+     bubbly jock_." In other words, the turkey cock, at the head
+     of a family of some forty or fifty infidels, lays waste all
+     my shrubs. In vain I remonstrate with Charlotte upon these
+     occasions; she is in league with the hen-wife, the natural
+     protectress of these pirates; and I have only the inhuman
+     consolation that I may one day, like a cannibal, eat up my
+     enemies. This is but dull fun, but what else have I to tell
+     you about? It {p.010} would be worse if, like Justice
+     Shallow's Davy, I should consult you upon sowing down the
+     headland with wheat. My literary tormentor is a certain Lord
+     of the Isles, famed for his tyranny of yore, and not
+     unjustly. I am bothering some tale of him I have had long by
+     me into a sort of romance. I think you will like it: it is
+     Scottified up to the teeth, and somehow I feel myself like
+     the liberated chiefs of the Rolliad, "who boast their native
+     philabeg restored." I believe the frolics one can cut in
+     this loose garb are all set down by you Sassenachs to the
+     real agility of the wearer, and not the brave, free, and
+     independent character of his clothing. It is, in a word, the
+     real Highland fling, and no one is supposed able to dance it
+     but a native. I always thought that epithet of Gallia
+     _Braccata_ implied subjugation, and was never surprised at
+     Caesar's easy conquests, considering that his Labienus and
+     all his merry men wore, as we say, bottomless breeks.
+
+     Ever yours,
+
+                                        W. S.
+
+Well might he describe himself as being hard at work with his Lord of
+the Isles. The date of Ballantyne's letter to Miss Edgeworth (November
+11), in which he mentions the third Canto as completed; that of the
+communication from Mr. Train (November 18), on which so much of Canto
+Fifth was grounded; and that of a note from Scott to Ballantyne
+(December 16, 1814), announcing that he had sent the last stanza of
+the poem: these dates, taken together, afford conclusive evidence of
+the fiery rapidity with which the three last Cantos of The Lord of the
+Isles were composed.
+
+He writes, on the 25th December, to Constable that he "had corrected
+the last proofs, and was setting out for Abbotsford to refresh the
+machine." And in what did his refreshment of the machine consist?
+Besides having written within this year the greater part (almost, I
+believe, the whole) of the Life of Swift--Waverley--and {p.011} The
+Lord of the Isles--he had given two essays to the Encyclopaedia
+Supplement, and published, with an Introduction and notes, one of the
+most curious pieces of family history ever produced to the world, on
+which he labored with more than usual zeal and diligence, from his
+warm affection for the noble representative of its author. This
+inimitable Memorie of the Somervilles came out in October; and it was
+speedily followed by an annotated reprint of the strange old treatise,
+entitled "Rowland's letting off the humours of the blood in the head
+vein, 1611." He had also kept up his private correspondence on a scale
+which I believe never to have been exemplified in the case of any
+other person who wrote continually for the press--except, perhaps,
+Voltaire; and, to say nothing of strictly professional duties, he had,
+as a vast heap of documents now before me proves, superintended from
+day to day, except during his Hebridean voyage, the still perplexed
+concerns of the Ballantynes, with a watchful assiduity that might have
+done credit to the most diligent of tradesmen. The "machine" might
+truly require "refreshment."
+
+It was, as has been seen, on the 7th of November that Scott
+acknowledged the receipt of that communication from Mr. Train which
+included the story of the Galloway astrologer. There can be no doubt
+that this story recalled to his mind, if not the Durham ballad, the
+similar but more detailed corruption of it which he had heard told by
+his father's servant, John MacKinlay, in the days of George's Square
+and Green-breeks, and which he has preserved in the introduction to
+Guy Mannering, as the groundwork of that tale. It has been shown that
+the three last Cantos of The Lord of the Isles were written between
+the 11th of November and the 25th of December; and it is therefore
+scarcely to be supposed that any part of this novel had been penned
+before he thus talked of "refreshing the machine." It is quite certain
+that when James Ballantyne wrote to Miss Edgeworth on the {p.012}
+11th November, he could not have seen one page of Guy Mannering, since
+he in that letter announces that the new novel of his nameless friend
+would depict manners _more ancient_ than those of 1745. And yet it is
+equally certain, that before The Lord of the Isles was _published_,
+which took place on the 18th of January, 1815, two volumes of Guy
+Mannering had been not only written and copied by an amanuensis, but
+printed.
+
+Scott thus writes to Morritt, in sending him his copy of The Lord of
+the Isles:--
+
+     TO J. B. S. MORRITT, ESQ., M. P., WORTHING.
+
+                                        EDINBURGH, 19th January, 1815.
+
+     MY DEAR MORRITT,--I have been very foolishly putting off my
+     writing until I should have time for a good long epistle;
+     and it is astonishing what a number of trifles have
+     interfered to prevent my commencing on a great scale. The
+     last of these has been rather of an extraordinary kind, for
+     your little friend Walter has chose to make himself the town
+     talk, by taking what seemed to be the small-pox, despite of
+     vaccination in infancy, and inoculation with the variolous
+     matter thereafter, which last I resorted to by way of making
+     assurance double sure. The medical gentleman who attended
+     him is of opinion that he _has_ had the real small-pox, but
+     it shall never be averred by me--for the catastrophe of Tom
+     Thumb is enough to deter any thinking person from entering
+     into a feud with the cows. Walter is quite well again, which
+     was the principal matter I was interested in. We had very
+     nearly been in a bad scrape, for I had fixed the Monday on
+     which he sickened, to take him with me for the Christmas
+     vacation to Abbotsford. It is probable that he would not
+     have pleaded headache when there was such a party in view,
+     especially as we were to shoot wild ducks one day together
+     at Cauldshiels Loch; and what the consequence of such a
+     journey might have been, God alone knows.
+
+     {p.013} I am clear of The Lord of the Isles, and I trust you
+     have your copy. It closes my poetic labors upon an extended
+     scale: but I dare say I shall always be dabbling in rhyme
+     until the _solve senescentem_. I have directed the copy to
+     be sent to Portland Place. I want to shake myself free of
+     Waverley, and accordingly have made a considerable exertion
+     to finish an odd little tale within such time as will
+     mystify the public, I trust--unless they suppose me to be
+     Briareus. Two volumes are already printed, and the only
+     persons in my confidence, W. Erskine and Ballantyne, are of
+     opinion that it is much more interesting than Waverley. It
+     is a tale of private life, and only varied by the perilous
+     exploits of smugglers and excisemen. The success of Waverley
+     has given me a spare hundred or two, which I have resolved
+     to spend in London this spring, bringing up Charlotte and
+     Sophia with me. I do not forget my English friends--but I
+     fear they will forget me, unless I show face now and then.
+     My correspondence gradually drops, as must happen when
+     people do not meet; and I long to see Ellis, Heber, Gifford,
+     and one or two more. I do not include Mrs. Morritt and you,
+     because we are much nearer neighbors, and within a whoop and
+     a holla in comparison. I think we should come up by sea, if
+     I were not a little afraid of Charlotte being startled by
+     the March winds--for our vacation begins 12th March.
+
+     You will have heard of poor Caberfae's death? What a pity it
+     is he should have outlived his promising young
+     representative. His state was truly pitiable--all his fine
+     faculties lost in paralytic imbecility, and yet not so
+     entirely so but that he perceived his deprivation as in a
+     glass darkly. Sometimes he was fretful and anxious because
+     he did not see his son; sometimes he expostulated and
+     complained that his boy had been allowed to die without his
+     seeing him; and sometimes, in a less clouded state of
+     intellect, he was sensible of, and lamented his loss in its
+     full extent. These, indeed, are {p.014} the "fears of the
+     brave, and follies of the wise,"[5] which sadden and
+     humiliate the lingering hours of prolonged existence. Our
+     friend Lady Hood will now be Caberfae herself. She has the
+     spirit of a chieftainess in every drop of her blood, but
+     there are few situations in which the cleverest women are so
+     apt to be imposed upon as in the management of landed
+     property, more especially of an Highland estate. I do fear
+     the accomplishment of the prophecy, that when there should
+     be a deaf Caberfae, the house was to fall.[6]
+
+              [Footnote 5: Johnson's _Vanity of Human Wishes_.]
+
+              [Footnote 6: Francis, Lord Seaforth, died 11th January,
+              1815, in his 60th year, having outlived four sons, all
+              of high promise. His title died with him, and he was
+              succeeded in his estates by his daughter, Lady Hood, now
+              the Hon. Mrs. Stewart-Mackenzie of Seaforth.--See some
+              verses on Lord Seaforth's death, in Scott's _Poetical
+              Works_, vol. viii. p. 392 [Cambridge Ed. p. 419]. The
+              Celtic designation of the chief of the clan MacKenzie,
+              _Caberfae_, means _Staghead_, the bearing of the family.
+              The prophecy which Scott alludes to in this letter is
+              also mentioned by Sir Humphry Davy in one of his
+              Journals (see his _Life_, by Dr. Davy, vol. ii. p.
+              72),--and it was, if the account be correct, a most
+              extraordinary one, for it connected the fall of the
+              house of Seaforth not only with the appearance of a deaf
+              _Caberfae_, but with the contemporaneous appearance of
+              various different physical misfortunes in several of the
+              other great Highland chiefs; all of which are said--and
+              were certainly believed both by Scott and Davy--to have
+              actually occurred within the memory of the generation
+              that has not yet passed away. Mr. Morritt can testify
+              thus far--that he "heard the prophecy quoted in the
+              Highlands at a time when Lord Seaforth had two sons both
+              alive and in good health--so that it certainly was not
+              made _apres coup_." [Mrs. Stewart-Mackenzie died at
+              Brahan Castle in 1862, in her 79th year. "Her funeral
+              was one of the largest ever witnessed in the North." The
+              Seaforth estates passed to the eldest of her three
+              sons.]]
+
+     I am delighted to find Mrs. Morritt is recovering health and
+     strength--better walking on the beach at Worthing than on
+     the _plainstanes_ of Prince's Street, for the weather is
+     very severe here indeed. I trust Mrs. M. will, in her milder
+     climate, lay in such a stock of health and strength as may
+     enable you to face the north in Autumn. I have got the
+     nicest crib for you possible, just about twelve feet square,
+     and in the harmonious vicinity of a piggery. You never saw
+     so minute an establishment,--but {p.015} it has all that we
+     wish for, and all our friends will care about; and we long
+     to see you there. Charlotte sends the kindest remembrances
+     to Mrs. Morritt.
+
+     As for politics, I have thought little about them lately;
+     the high and exciting interest is so completely subsided,
+     that the wine is upon the lees. As for America, we have so
+     managed as to give her the appearance of triumph, and what
+     is worse, encouragement to resume the war upon a more
+     favorable opportunity. It was our business to have given
+     them a fearful memento that the babe unborn should have
+     remembered; but, having missed this opportunity, I believe
+     that this country would submit with great reluctance to
+     continue a war, for which there is really no specific
+     object. As for the Continental monarchs, there is no
+     guessing what the folly of Kings and Ministers may do; but
+     God knows! would any of them look at home, enough is to be
+     done which might strengthen and improve their dominions in a
+     different manner than by mere extension. I trust Ministers
+     will go out rather than be engaged in war again, upon any
+     account. If France is wise (I have no fear that any
+     superfluous feeling of humanity will stand in the way), she
+     will send 10,000 of her most refractory troops to fight with
+     Christophe and the yellow fever in the Island of St.
+     Domingo, and then I presume they may sit down in quiet at
+     home.
+
+     But my sheet grows to an end, and so does the pleading of
+     the learned counsel, who is thumping the poor bar as I
+     write. He hems twice. Forward, sweet Orator Higgins!--at
+     least till I sign myself, dear Morritt,
+
+     Yours most truly,
+
+                                        Walter SCOTT.
+
+Guy Mannering was published on the 24th of February--that is, exactly
+two months after The Lord of the Isles {p.016} was dismissed from the
+author's desk; and--making but a narrow allowance for the operations
+of the transcriber, printer, bookseller, etc., I think the dates I
+have gathered together confirm the accuracy of what I have often heard
+Scott say, that his second novel "was the work of six weeks at a
+Christmas." Such was his recipe "for refreshing the machine."
+
+I am sorry to have to add, that this severity of labor, like the
+repetition of it which had such deplorable effects at a later period
+of his life, was the result of his anxiety to acquit himself of
+obligations arising out of his connection with the commercial
+speculations of the Ballantynes. The approach of Christmas, 1814,
+brought with it the prospect of such a recurrence of difficulties
+about the discount of John's bills, as to render it absolutely
+necessary that Scott should either apply again for assistance to his
+private friends, or task his literary powers with some such
+extravagant effort as has now been recorded. The great object, which
+was still to get rid of the heavy stock that had been accumulated
+before the storm of May, 1813, at length determined the chief partner
+to break up, as soon as possible, the concern which his own sanguine
+rashness, and the gross irregularities of his mercurial lieutenant,
+had so lamentably perplexed; but Constable, having already enabled the
+firm to avoid public exposure more than once, was not now, any more
+than when he made his contract for The Lord of the Isles, disposed to
+burden himself with an additional load of Weber's Beaumont and
+Fletcher, and other almost as unsalable books. While they were still
+in hopes of overcoming his scruples, it happened that a worthy friend
+of Scott's, the late Mr. Charles Erskine, his sheriff-substitute in
+Selkirkshire, had immediate occasion for a sum of money which he had
+some time before advanced, at Scott's personal request, to the firm of
+John Ballantyne and Company; and on receiving his application, Scott
+wrote as follows:--
+
+     {p.017} TO MR. JOHN BALLANTYNE, BOOKSELLER, EDINBURGH.
+
+                                        ABBOTSFORD, October 14, 1814.
+
+     DEAR JOHN,--Charles Erskine wishes his money, as he has made
+     a purchase of land. This is a new perplexity--for paid he
+     must be forthwith--as his advance was friendly and
+     confidential. I do not at this moment see how it is to be
+     raised, but believe I shall find means. In the mean while,
+     it will be necessary to propitiate the Leviathans of
+     Paternoster Row. My idea is, that you or James should write
+     to them to the following effect: That a novel is offered you
+     by the Author of Waverley; that the author is desirous it
+     should be out before Mr. Scott's poem, or as soon thereafter
+     as possible; and that having resolved, as they are aware, to
+     relinquish publishing, you only wish to avail yourselves of
+     this offer to the extent of helping off some of your stock.
+     I leave it to you to consider whether you should condescend
+     on any particular work to offer them as bread to their
+     butter--or on any particular amount--as L500. One thing must
+     be provided, that Constable shares to the extent of the
+     Scottish sale--they, however, managing. My reason for
+     letting them have this scent of roast meat is, in case it
+     should be necessary for us to apply to them to renew bills
+     in December. Yours,
+
+                                        W. S.
+
+Upon receiving this letter, John Ballantyne suggested to Scott that he
+should be allowed to offer, not only the new novel, but the next
+edition of Waverley, to Longman, Murray, or Blackwood--in the hope
+that the prospect of being let in to the profits of the already
+established favorite, would overcome effectually the hesitation of one
+or other of these houses about venturing on the encumbrance which
+Constable seemed to shrink from with such pertinacity; but upon this
+ingenious proposition Scott at once set his _veto_. He writes (October
+17, 1814):--
+
+     {p.018} DEAR JOHN,--
+
+     Your expedients are all wretched, as far as regards me. I
+     never will give Constable, or any one, room to say I have
+     broken my word with him in the slightest degree. If I lose
+     everything else, I will at least keep my honor unblemished;
+     and I do hold myself bound in honor to offer him a Waverley,
+     while he shall continue to comply with the conditions
+     annexed. I intend the new novel to operate as something more
+     permanent than a mere accommodation; and if I can but be
+     permitted to do so, I will print it before it is sold to any
+     one, and then propose, first to Constable and
+     Longman--second, to Murray and Blackwood--to take the whole
+     at such a rate as will give them one half of the fair
+     profits; granting acceptances which, upon an edition of
+     3000, which we shall be quite authorized to print, will
+     amount to an immediate command of L1500; and to this we may
+     couple the condition, that they must take L500 or L600 of
+     the old stock. I own I am not solicitous to deal with
+     Constable alone, nor am I at all bound to offer him the new
+     novel on any terms; but he, knowing of the intention, may
+     expect to be treated with, at least, although it is possible
+     we may not deal. However, if Murray and Blackwood were to
+     come forward with any handsome proposal as to the stock, I
+     should certainly have no objection to James's giving the
+     pledge of the Author of W. for his next work. You are like
+     the crane in the fable, when you boast of not having got
+     anything from the business; you may thank God that it did
+     not bite your head off. Would to God I were at let-a-be for
+     let-a-be;--but you have done your best, and so must I.
+
+     Yours truly,
+
+                                        W. S.
+
+Both Mr. Murray, and Longman's partner, Mr. Rees, were in Scotland
+about this time; and the former at least paid Scott a visit at
+Abbotsford. Of course, however, whatever propositions they may have
+made were received by one or other of the Ballantynes. The result was,
+{p.019} that the house of Longman undertook Guy Mannering on the
+terms dictated by Scott--namely, granting bills for L1500, and
+relieving John Ballantyne and Company of stock to the extent of L500
+more; and Constable's first information of the transaction was from
+Messrs. Longman themselves, when they, in compliance with Scott's
+wish, as signified in the letter last quoted, offered him a share in
+the edition which they had purchased. With one or two exceptions,
+originating in circumstances nearly similar, the house of Constable
+published all the subsequent series of the Waverley Novels.
+
+I must not, however, forget that The Lord of the Isles was published a
+month before Guy Mannering. The poem was received with an interest
+much heightened by the recent and growing success of the mysterious
+Waverley. Its appearance, so rapidly following that novel, and
+accompanied with the announcement of another prose tale, just about to
+be published, by the same hand, puzzled and confounded the mob of
+dulness.[7] The more sagacious few said to themselves--Scott is making
+one serious effort more in his old line, and by this it will be
+determined whether he does or does not altogether renounce that for
+his new one.
+
+              [Footnote 7: John Ballantyne put forth the following
+              paragraph in the _Scots Magazine_ of December, 1814:--
+
+              "Mr. Scott's poem of _The Lord of the Isles_ will appear
+              early in January. The Author of _Waverley_ is about to
+              amuse the public with a new novel, in three volumes,
+              entitled _Guy Mannering_."]
+
+The Edinburgh Review on The Lord of the Isles begins with,--
+
+     "Here is another genuine Lay of the Great Minstrel, with all
+     his characteristic faults, beauties, and irregularities. The
+     same glow of coloring--the same energy of narration--the
+     same amplitude of description are conspicuous--with the same
+     still more characteristic disdain of puny graces and small
+     originalities--the true poetical hardihood, in the strength
+     of which he urges on his Pegasus fearlessly through dense
+     and rare, and aiming gallantly at the great ends of truth
+     and effect, {p.020} stoops but rarely to study the means by
+     which they are to be attained; avails himself without
+     scruple of common sentiments and common images wherever they
+     seem fitted for his purpose; and is original by the very
+     boldness of his borrowing, and impressive by his disregard
+     of epigram and emphasis."
+
+The conclusion of the contemporaneous article in the Quarterly Review
+is as follows:--
+
+     "The many beautiful passages which we have extracted from
+     the poem, combined with the brief remarks subjoined to each
+     canto, will sufficiently show, that although The Lord of the
+     Isles is not likely to add very much to the reputation of
+     Mr. Scott, yet this must be imputed rather to the greatness
+     of his previous reputation, than to the absolute inferiority
+     of the poem itself. Unfortunately, its merits are merely
+     incidental, while its defects are mixed up with the very
+     elements of the poem. But it is not in the power of Mr.
+     Scott to write with tameness; be the subject what it will
+     (and he could not easily have chosen one more
+     impracticable), he impresses upon whatever scenes he
+     describes so much movement and activity,--he infuses into
+     his narrative such a flow of life, and, if we may so express
+     ourselves, of animal spirits, that without satisfying the
+     judgment, or moving the feelings, or elevating the mind, or
+     even very greatly interesting the curiosity, he is able to
+     seize upon, and, as it were, exhilarate the imagination of
+     his readers, in a manner which is often truly unaccountable.
+     This quality Mr. Scott possesses in an admirable degree; and
+     supposing that he had no other object in view than to
+     convince the world of the great poetical powers with which
+     he is gifted, the poem before us would be quite sufficient
+     for his purpose. But this is of very inferior importance to
+     the public; what they want is a good poem, and, as
+     experience has shown, this can only be constructed upon a
+     solid foundation of taste, and judgment, and meditation."
+
+These passages appear to me to condense the result of deliberate and
+candid reflection, and I have therefore quoted them. The most
+important remarks of either Essayist on the details of the plot and
+execution are annexed to the last edition of the poem; and show such
+an {p.021} exact coincidence of judgment in two masters of their
+calling, as had not hitherto been exemplified in the professional
+criticism of his metrical romances. The defects which both point out
+are, I presume, but too completely explained by the preceding
+statement of the rapidity with which this, the last of those great
+performances, had been thrown off; nor do I see that either Reviewer
+has failed to do sufficient justice to the beauties which redeem the
+imperfections of The Lord of the Isles--except as regards the whole
+character of Bruce, its real hero, and the picture of the battle of
+Bannockburn, which, now that one can compare these works from
+something like the same point of view, does not appear to me in the
+slightest particular inferior to the Flodden of Marmion.
+
+This poem is now, I believe, about as popular as Rokeby; but it has
+never reached the same station in general favor with the Lay, Marmion,
+or The Lady of the Lake. The first edition of 1800 copies in quarto
+was, however, rapidly disposed of, and the separate editions in 8vo,
+which ensued before his poetical works were collected, amounted
+together to 12,250 copies. This, in the case of almost any other
+author, would have been splendid success; but as compared with what he
+had previously experienced, even in his Rokeby, and still more so as
+compared with the enormous circulation at once attained by Lord
+Byron's early tales, which were then following each other in almost
+breathless succession, the falling off was decided. One evening, some
+days after the poem had been published, Scott requested James
+Ballantyne to call on him, and the printer found him alone in his
+library, working at the third volume of Guy Mannering. I give what
+follows from Ballantyne's Memoranda:--
+
+     "'Well, James,' he said, 'I have given you a week--what are
+     people saying about The Lord of the Isles?' I hesitated a
+     little, after the fashion of Gil Blas, but he speedily
+     brought the matter to a point. 'Come,' he said, 'speak out,
+     my good {p.022} fellow; what has put it into your head to
+     be on so much ceremony _with me_ all of a sudden? But, I see
+     how it is, the result is given in one
+     word--_Disappointment_.' My silence admitted his inference
+     to the fullest extent. His countenance certainly did look
+     rather blank for a few seconds; in truth, he had been wholly
+     unprepared for the event; for it is a singular fact, that
+     before the public, or rather the booksellers, had given
+     their decision, he no more knew whether he had written well
+     or ill, than whether a die thrown out of a box was to turn
+     up a size or an ace. However, he instantly resumed his
+     spirits, and expressed his wonder rather that his poetical
+     popularity should have lasted so long, than that it should
+     have now at last given way. At length he said, with perfect
+     cheerfulness, 'Well, well, James, so be it--but you know we
+     must not droop, for we can't afford to give over. Since one
+     line has failed, we must just stick to something else:'--and
+     so he dismissed me and resumed his novel."
+
+Ballantyne concludes the anecdote in these words:--
+
+     "He spoke thus, probably unaware of the undiscovered wonders
+     then slumbering in his mind. Yet still he could not but have
+     felt that the production of a few poems was nothing in
+     comparison of what must be in reserve for him, for he was at
+     this time scarcely more than forty.[8] An evening or two
+     after, I called again on him, and found on the table a copy
+     of The Giaour, which he seemed to have been reading. Having
+     an enthusiastic young lady in my house, I asked him if I
+     might carry the book home with me, but chancing to glance on
+     the autograph blazon, '_To the Monarch of Parnassus from one
+     of his subjects_,' instantly retracted my request, and said
+     I had not observed Lord Byron's inscription before. 'What
+     inscription?' said he; 'oh yes, I had forgot, but
+     inscription or no inscription, you are equally welcome.' I
+     again took it up, and he continued, 'James, Byron hits the
+     mark where I don't even pretend to fledge my arrow.' At this
+     time he had never seen Byron, but I knew he meant soon to be
+     in London, when, no doubt, the mighty consummation of the
+     meeting of the two bards would be accomplished; and I
+     ventured to say that he must be looking forward to it with
+     some interest. His countenance {p.023} became fixed, and he
+     answered impressively, 'Oh, of course.' In a minute or two
+     afterwards he rose from his chair, paced the room at a very
+     rapid rate, which was his practice in certain moods of mind,
+     then made a dead halt, and bursting into an extravaganza of
+     laughter, 'James,' cried he, 'I'll tell you what Byron
+     should say to me when we are about to accost each other,--
+
+              [Footnote 8: He was not forty-four till August, 1815.]
+
+          "Art thou the man whom men famed Grizzle call?"
+
+     And then how germane would be my answer,--
+
+          "Art thou the still more famed Tom Thumb the small?"'
+
+     "This," says the printer, "is a specimen of his peculiar
+     humor; it kept him full of mirth for the rest of the
+     evening."
+
+The whole of the scene strikes me as equally and delightfully
+characteristic; I may add, hardly more so of Scott than of his
+printer; for Ballantyne, with all his profound worship of his friend
+and benefactor, was in truth, even more than he, an undoubting
+acquiescer in "the decision of the public, or rather of the
+booksellers;" and among the many absurdities into which his reverence
+for the popedom of Paternoster Row led him, I never could but consider
+with special astonishment, the facility with which he seemed to have
+adopted the notion that the Byron of 1814 was really entitled to
+supplant Scott as a popular poet. Appreciating, as a man of his
+talents could hardly fail to do, the splendidly original glow and
+depth of Childe Harold, he always appeared to me quite blind to the
+fact, that in The Giaour, in The Bride of Abydos, in Parisina, and
+indeed in all his early serious narratives, Byron owed at least half
+his success to clever, though perhaps unconscious imitation of Scott,
+and no trivial share of the rest to the lavish use of materials which
+Scott never employed, only because his genius was, from the beginning
+to the end of his career, under the guidance of high and chivalrous
+feelings of moral rectitude. All this Lord Byron himself seems to have
+felt most completely--as witness the whole sequence of {p.024} his
+letters and diaries;[9] and I think I see many symptoms that both the
+decision of the million, and its index, "the decision of the
+booksellers," tend the same way at present; but my business is to
+record, as far as my means may permit, the growth and structure of one
+great mind, and the effect which it produced upon the actual witnesses
+of its manifestations, not to obtrude the conjectures of a partial
+individual as to what rank posterity may assign it amongst or above
+contemporary rivals.
+
+              [Footnote 9: _E. G._ "If they want to depose Scott, I
+              only wish they would not set me up as a competitor. I
+              like the man--and admire his works to what Mr. Braham
+              calls _Entusymusy_. All such stuff can only vex him, and
+              do me no good."--Byron (1813), vol. ii. p. 259.
+
+              "Scott is certainly the most wonderful writer of the
+              day. His novels are a new literature in themselves, and
+              his poetry as good as any--if not better (only on an
+              erroneous system), and only ceased to be popular,
+              because the vulgar learned were tired of hearing
+              'Aristides called the Just,' and Scott the Best, and
+              ostracized him."--Byron (1821), vol. v. p. 72.]
+
+The following letter was addressed to Lord Byron on the receipt of
+that copy of The Giaour to which Mr. Ballantyne's Memorandum refers: I
+believe the inscription to Scott first appeared on the ninth edition
+of the poem:
+
+     TO THE RIGHT HON. LORD BYRON, LONDON.
+
+     MY LORD,--I have long owed you my best thanks for the
+     uncommon pleasure I had in perusing your high-spirited
+     Turkish fragment. But I should hardly have ventured to offer
+     them, well knowing how you must be overwhelmed by volunteer
+     intrusions of approbation (which always look as if the
+     writer valued his opinion at fully more than it may be
+     worth) unless I had to-day learned that I have an apology
+     for entering upon the subject, from your having so kindly
+     sent me a copy of the poem. I did not receive it sooner,
+     owing to my absence from Edinburgh, where it had been lying
+     quietly at my house in Castle Street; so that I must have
+     seemed ungrateful, when, in truth, I was only modest. The
+     last offence may be forgiven, as not common in a lawyer
+     {p.025} and poet; the first is said to be equal to the
+     crime of witchcraft, but many an act of my life hath shown
+     that I am no conjurer. If I were, however, ten times more
+     modest than twenty years' attendance at the Bar renders
+     probable, your flattering inscription would cure me of so
+     unfashionable a malady. I might, indeed, lately have had a
+     legal title to as much supremacy on Parnassus as can be
+     conferred by a sign-manual, for I had a very flattering
+     offer of the laurel; but as I felt obliged, for a great many
+     reasons, to decline it, I am altogether unconscious of any
+     other title to sit high upon the forked hill.
+
+     To return to The Giaour; I had lent my first edition, but
+     the whole being imprinted in my memory, I had no difficulty
+     in tracing the additions, which are great improvements, as I
+     should have conjectured aforehand merely from their being
+     additions. I hope your Lordship intends to proceed with this
+     fascinating style of composition. You have access to a
+     stream of sentiments, imagery, and manners, which are so
+     little known to us as to convey all the interest of novelty,
+     yet so endeared to us by the early perusal of Eastern tales,
+     that we are not embarrassed with utter ignorance upon the
+     subject. Vathek, bating some passages, would have made a
+     charming subject for a tale. The conclusion is truly grand.
+     I would give a great deal to know the originals from which
+     it was drawn. Excuse this hasty scrawl, and believe me, my
+     Lord, your Lordship's much obliged, very humble servant,
+
+                                        Walter SCOTT.
+
+If January brought the writer of this letter "disappointment," there
+was abundant consolation in store for February, 1815. Guy Mannering
+was received with eager curiosity, and pronounced by acclamation fully
+worthy to share the honors of Waverley. The easy transparent flow of
+its style; the beautiful simplicity, and here and there the wild
+solemn magnificence of its {p.026} sketches of scenery; the rapid,
+ever heightening interest of the narrative; the unaffected kindliness
+of feeling, the manly purity of thought, everywhere mingled with a
+gentle humor and a homely sagacity; but, above all, the rich variety
+and skilful contrast of characters and manners, at once fresh in
+fiction, and stamped with the unforgeable seal of truth and nature:
+these were charms that spoke to every heart and mind; and the few
+murmurs of pedantic criticism were lost in the voice of general
+delight, which never fails to welcome the invention that introduces to
+the sympathy of imagination a new group of immortal realities.
+
+The earlier chapters of the present narrative have anticipated much of
+what I might, perhaps with better judgment, have reserved for this
+page. Taken together with the author's Introduction and Notes, those
+anecdotes of his days of youthful wandering must, however, have
+enabled the reader to trace almost as minutely as he could wish, the
+sources from which the novelist drew his materials, both of scenery
+and character; and the Durham Garland, which I print in the Appendix
+to this volume, exhausts my information concerning the humble
+groundwork on which fancy reared this delicious romance.[10]
+
+              [Footnote 10: I leave my text as it stood in the former
+              editions; but since the last of these appeared, a writer
+              in _The Gentleman's Magazine_ (July, 1840) has pointed
+              out some very remarkable coincidences between the
+              narrative of _Guy Mannering_ and the very singular
+              history of James Annesley, claimant in 1743 of the
+              honors and estates of the Earls of Anglesey, in Ireland.
+              That Sir Walter must have read the records of this
+              celebrated trial, as well as Smollett's edition of the
+              story in _Peregrine Pickle_, there can be no doubt. How
+              the circumstance had not recurred to his memory when
+              writing the explanatory Introduction to his Novel, I can
+              offer no conjecture. Very possibly the _Garland_ itself
+              may have been framed after the Annesley trial took
+              place.--(1841.) [The paper in _The Gentleman's
+              Magazine_, referred to above, will be found in the
+              Appendix to this volume.]]
+
+The first edition was, like that of Waverley, in three little volumes,
+with a humility of paper and printing which the meanest novelist would
+now disdain to imitate; {p.027} the price a guinea. The 2000 copies
+of which it consisted were sold the day after the publication; and
+within three months came a second and a third impression, making
+together 5000 copies more. The sale, before those novels began to be
+collected, had reached nearly 10,000; and since then (to say nothing
+of foreign reprints of the text, and myriads of translations into
+every tongue of Europe) the domestic sale has amounted to 50,000.
+
+On the rising of the Court of Session in March, Mr. and Mrs. Scott
+went by sea to London with their eldest girl, whom, being yet too
+young for general society, they again deposited with Joanna Baillie at
+Hampstead, while they themselves resumed, for two months, their usual
+quarters at kind Miss Dumergue's in Piccadilly. Six years had elapsed
+since Scott last appeared in the metropolis; and brilliant as his
+reception had then been, it was still more so on the present occasion.
+Scotland had been visited in the interim, chiefly from the interest
+excited by his writings, by crowds of the English nobility, most of
+whom had found introduction to his personal acquaintance--not a few
+had partaken of his hospitality at Ashestiel or Abbotsford. The
+generation among whom, I presume, a genius of this order feels his
+own influence with the proudest and sweetest confidence--on whose
+fresh minds and ears he has himself made the first indelible
+impressions--the generation with whose earliest romance of the heart
+and fancy his idea had been blended, was now grown to the full
+stature; the success of these recent novels, seen on every table, the
+subject of every conversation, had, with those who did not doubt their
+parentage, far more than counterweighed his declination, dubious after
+all, in the poetical balance; while the mystery that hung over them
+quickened the curiosity of the hesitating and conjecturing many--and
+the name on which ever and anon some new circumstance accumulated
+stronger suspicion, loomed larger through the {p.028} haze in which
+he had thought fit to envelop it. Moreover, this was a period of high
+national pride and excitement.
+
+   "O who that shared them ever shall forget
+    The emotions of the spirit-rousing time,
+    When breathless in the mart the couriers met,
+    Early and late, at evening and at prime;
+    When the loud cannon and the merry chime
+    Hail'd news on news, as field on field was won,
+    When Hope, long doubtful, soared at length sublime,
+    And our glad eyes, awake as day begun,
+  Watch'd Joy's broad banner rise, to meet the rising sun?
+
+   "O these were hours, when thrilling joy repaid
+    A long, long course of darkness, doubts, and fears!
+    The heart-sick faintness of the hope delayed,
+    The waste, the woe, the bloodshed, and the tears
+    That tracked with terror twenty rolling years--
+    All was forgot in that blithe jubilee.
+    Her downcast eye even pale Affliction rears,
+    To sigh a thankful prayer amid the glee
+  That hailed the Despot's fall, and peace and liberty!"[11]
+
+              [Footnote 11: _Lord of the Isles_, Canto vi.]
+
+At such a time, Prince and people were well prepared to hail him who,
+more perhaps than any other master of the pen, had contributed to
+sustain the spirit of England throughout the struggle, which was as
+yet supposed to have been terminated on the field of Toulouse. "Thank
+Heaven you are coming at last!" Joanna Baillie had written a month or
+two before. "Make up your mind to be stared at only a little less than
+the Czar of Muscovy, or old Bluecher."
+
+And now took place James Ballantyne's "mighty consummation of the
+meeting of the two bards." Scott's own account of it, in a letter to
+Mr. Moore, must have been seen by most of my readers; yet I think it
+ought also to find a place here. He says:--
+
+"It was in the spring of 1815, that, chancing to be in London, I had
+the advantage of a personal introduction {p.029} to Lord Byron.
+Report had prepared me to meet a man of peculiar habits and a quick
+temper, and I had some doubts whether we were likely to suit each
+other in society. I was most agreeably disappointed in this respect. I
+found Lord Byron in the highest degree courteous, and even kind. We
+met for an hour or two almost daily, in Mr. Murray's drawing-room, and
+found a great deal to say to each other.[12] We also met frequently in
+parties and evening society, so that for about two months I had the
+advantage of a considerable intimacy with this distinguished
+individual. Our sentiments agreed a good deal, except upon the
+subjects of religion and politics, upon neither of which I was
+inclined to believe that Lord Byron entertained very fixed opinions. I
+remember saying to him, that I really thought that if he lived a few
+years he would alter his sentiments. He answered, rather sharply, 'I
+suppose you are one of those who prophesy I shall turn Methodist.' I
+replied: 'No, I don't expect your conversion to be of such an ordinary
+kind. I would rather look to see you retreat upon the Catholic faith,
+and distinguish yourself by the austerity of your penances. The
+species of religion to which you must, or may, one day attach
+yourself, must exercise a strong power on the imagination.' He smiled
+gravely, and seemed to allow I might be right.
+
+              [Footnote 12: [John Murray--the third of the name--gives
+              some interesting notes of his recollections of these
+              meetings in Albemarle Street, in the _Memoirs_ of his
+              father (vol. i. p. 267).]]
+
+"On politics, he used sometimes to express a high strain of what is
+now called Liberalism; but it appeared to me that the pleasure it
+afforded him, as a vehicle for displaying his wit and satire against
+individuals in office, was at the bottom of this habit of thinking,
+rather than any real conviction of the political principles on which
+he talked. He was certainly proud of his rank and ancient family, and,
+in that respect, as much an aristocrat {p.030} as was consistent with
+good sense and good breeding. Some disgusts, how adopted I know not,
+seemed to me to have given this peculiar and (as it appeared to me)
+contradictory cast of mind; but, at heart, I would have termed Byron a
+patrician on principle.
+
+"Lord Byron's reading did not seem to me to have been very extensive,
+either in poetry or history. Having the advantage of him in that
+respect, and possessing a good competent share of such reading as is
+little read, I was sometimes able to put under his eye objects which
+had for him the interest of novelty. I remember particularly repeating
+to him the fine poem of Hardyknute, an imitation of the old Scottish
+ballad, with which he was so much affected, that some one who was in
+the same apartment asked me what I could possibly have been telling
+Byron by which he was so much agitated.
+
+"I saw Byron for the last time in 1815, after I returned from France.
+He dined, or lunched, with me at Long's, in Bond Street. I never saw
+him so full of gayety and good-humor, to which the presence of Mr.
+Mathews, the comedian, added not a little. Poor Terry was also
+present. After one of the gayest parties I ever was present at, my
+fellow-traveller, Mr. Scott of Gala, and I set off for Scotland, and I
+never saw Lord Byron again. Several letters passed between us--one
+perhaps every half-year. Like the old heroes in Homer, we exchanged
+gifts. I gave Byron a beautiful dagger mounted with gold, which had
+been the property of the redoubted Elfi Bey. But I was to play the
+part of Diomed in the Iliad, for Byron sent me, some time after, a
+large sepulchral vase of silver. It was full of dead men's bones, and
+had inscriptions on two sides of the base. One ran thus: 'The bones
+contained in this urn were found in certain ancient sepulchres within
+the long walls of Athens, in the month of February, 1811.' The other
+face bears the lines of Juvenal: '_Expende--quot libras in duce summo
+{p.031} invenies?--Mors sola fatetur quantula sint hominum
+corpuscula._'
+
+"To these I have added a third inscription, in these words, 'The gift
+of Lord Byron to Walter Scott.'[13] There was a letter with this vase,
+more valuable to me than the gift itself, from the kindness with which
+the donor expressed himself towards me. I left it naturally in the urn
+with the bones; but it is now missing. As the theft was not of a
+nature to be practised by a mere domestic, I am compelled to suspect
+the inhospitality of some individual of higher station, most
+gratuitously exercised certainly, since, after what I have here said,
+no one will probably choose to boast of possessing this literary
+curiosity.
+
+              [Footnote 13: Mr. Murray had, at the time of giving the
+              vase, suggested to Lord Byron, that it would increase
+              the value of the gift to add some such inscription; but
+              the noble poet answered modestly,--
+
+              "April 9, 1815. DEAR MURRAY,--I have a great objection
+              to your proposition about inscribing the vase--which is,
+              that it would appear _ostentatious_ on my part; and of
+              course I must send it as it is, without any alteration.
+              Yours ever, BYRON."]
+
+"We had a good deal of laughing, I remember, on what the public might
+be supposed to think, or say, concerning the gloomy and ominous nature
+of our mutual gifts.
+
+"I think I can add little more to my recollections of Byron. He was
+often melancholy--almost gloomy. When I observed him in this humor, I
+used either to wait till it went off of its own accord, or till some
+natural and easy mode occurred of leading him into conversation, when
+the shadows almost always left his countenance, like the mist rising
+from a landscape. In conversation he was very animated.
+
+"I met with him very frequently in society; our mutual acquaintances
+doing me the honor to think that he liked to meet with me. Some very
+agreeable parties I can recollect--particularly one at Sir George
+Beaumont's--where the amiable landlord had assembled some persons
+{p.032} distinguished for talent. Of these I need only mention the
+late Sir Humphry Davy, whose talents for literature were as remarkable
+as his empire over science. Mr. Richard Sharpe and Mr. Rogers were
+also present.
+
+"I think I also remarked in Byron's temper starts of suspicion, when
+he seemed to pause and consider whether there had not been a secret,
+and perhaps offensive, meaning in something casually said to him. In
+this case, I also judged it best to let his mind, like a troubled
+spring, work itself clear, which it did in a minute or two. I was
+considerably older, you will recollect, than my noble friend, and had
+no reason to fear his misconstruing my sentiments towards him, nor had
+I ever the slightest reason to doubt that they were kindly returned on
+his part. If I had occasion to be mortified by the display of genius
+which threw into the shade such pretensions as I was then supposed to
+possess, I might console myself that, in my own case, the materials of
+mental happiness had been mingled in a greater proportion.
+
+"I rummage my brains in vain for what often rushes into my head
+unbidden--little traits and sayings which recall his looks, manner,
+tone, and gestures; and I have always continued to think that a crisis
+of life was arrived, in which a new career of fame was opened to him,
+and that had he been permitted to start upon it, he would have
+obliterated the memory of such parts of his life as friends would wish
+to forget."
+
+I have nothing to add to this interesting passage, except that Joanna
+Baillie's tragedy of The Family Legend being performed at one of the
+theatres during Scott's stay in town, Lord Byron accompanied the
+authoress and Mr. and Mrs. Scott to witness the representation; and
+that the vase with the Attic bones appears to have been sent to Scott
+very soon after his arrival in London, not, as Mr. Moore had gathered
+from the hasty diction of his Reminiscences, at some "subsequent
+period of their acquaintance." {p.033} This is sufficiently proved by
+the following note:--
+
+     TO THE RIGHT HONORABLE LORD BYRON, ETC., ETC.
+
+                                        PICCADILLY, MONDAY.
+
+     MY DEAR LORD,--I am not a little ashamed of the value of the
+     shrine in which your Lordship has enclosed the Attic relics;
+     but were it yet more costly, the circumstance could not add
+     value to it in my estimation, when considered as a pledge of
+     your Lordship's regard and friendship. The principal
+     pleasure which I have derived from my connection with
+     literature has been the access which it has given me to
+     those who are distinguished by talents and accomplishments;
+     and, standing so high as your Lordship justly does in that
+     rank, my satisfaction in making your acquaintance has been
+     proportionally great. It is one of those wishes which, after
+     having been long and earnestly entertained, I have found
+     completely gratified upon becoming personally known to you;
+     and I trust you will permit me to profit by it frequently,
+     during my stay in town. I am, my dear Lord, your truly
+     obliged and faithful
+
+                                        Walter SCOTT.
+
+It was also in the spring of 1815 that Scott had, for the first time,
+the honor of being presented to the Prince Regent. His Royal Highness
+had (as has been seen from a letter to Joanna Baillie, already quoted)
+signified, more than a year before this time, his wish that the poet
+should revisit London--and, on reading his Edinburgh Address in
+particular, he said to Mr. Dundas, that "Walter Scott's charming
+behavior about the laureateship had made him doubly desirous of seeing
+him at Carlton House." More lately, on receiving a copy of The Lord of
+the Isles, his Royal Highness's librarian had been commanded to write
+to him in these terms:--
+
+     {p.034} TO WALTER SCOTT, ESQ., EDINBURGH.
+
+                                        CARLTON HOUSE, January 19, 1815.
+
+     MY DEAR SIR,--You are deservedly so great a favorite with
+     the Prince Regent, that his librarian is not only directed
+     to return you the thanks of his Royal Highness for your
+     valuable present, but to inform you that the Prince Regent
+     particularly wishes to see you whenever you come to London;
+     and desires you will always, when you are there, come into
+     his library whenever you please. Believe me always, with
+     sincerity, one of your warmest admirers, and most obliged
+     friends,
+
+                                        J. S. CLARKE.
+
+On hearing from Mr. Croker (then Secretary to the Admiralty) that
+Scott was to be in town by the middle of March, the Prince said, "Let
+me know when he comes, and I'll get up a snug little dinner that will
+suit him;" and, after he had been presented and graciously received at
+the levee, he was invited to dinner accordingly, through his excellent
+friend Mr. Adam (now Lord Chief Commissioner of the Jury Court in
+Scotland),[14] who at that time held a confidential office in the
+royal household. The Regent had consulted with Mr. Adam also as to the
+composition of the party. "Let us have," said he, "just a few friends
+of his own--and the more Scotch the better;" and both the Chief
+Commissioner and Mr. Croker assure me that the party was the most
+interesting and agreeable one in their recollection. It comprised, I
+believe, the Duke of York--the late Duke of Gordon (then Marquis of
+Huntly)--the Marquis of Hertford (then Lord Yarmouth)--the Earl of
+Fife--and {p.035} Scott's early friend Lord Melville. "The Prince and
+Scott," says Mr. Croker, "were the two most brilliant story-tellers in
+their several ways, that I have ever happened to meet; they were both
+aware of their _forte_, and both exerted themselves that evening with
+delightful effect. On going home, I really could not decide which of
+them had shone the most. The Regent was enchanted with Scott, as Scott
+with him; and on all his subsequent visits to London, he was a
+frequent guest at the royal table." The Lord Chief Commissioner
+remembers that the Prince was particularly delighted with the poet's
+anecdotes of the old Scotch judges and lawyers, which his Royal
+Highness sometimes _capped_ by ludicrous traits of certain ermined
+sages of his own acquaintance. Scott told, among others, a story,
+which he was fond of telling; and the commentary of his Royal Highness
+on hearing it amused Scott, who often mentioned it afterwards. The
+anecdote is this: A certain Judge, whenever he went on a particular
+circuit, was in the habit of visiting a gentleman of good fortune in
+the neighborhood of one of the assize towns, and staying at least one
+night, which, being both of them ardent chess-players, they usually
+concluded with their favorite game. One Spring circuit the battle was
+not decided at daybreak, so the Judge said, "Weel, Donald, I must e'en
+come back this gate in the harvest, and let the game lie ower for the
+present;" and back he came in October, but not to his old friend's
+hospitable house; for that gentleman had, in the interim, been
+apprehended on a capital charge (of forgery), and his name stood on
+the _Porteous Roll_, or list of those who were about to be tried under
+his former guest's auspices. The laird was indicted and tried
+accordingly, and the jury returned a verdict of _guilty_. The Judge
+forthwith put on his cocked hat (which answers to the black cap in
+England), and pronounced the sentence of the law in the usual terms:
+"To be hanged by the neck until you be dead; and may the Lord have
+{p.036} mercy upon your unhappy soul!" Having concluded this awful
+formula in his most sonorous cadence, the Judge, dismounting his
+formidable beaver, gave a familiar nod to his unfortunate
+acquaintance, and said to him in a sort of chuckling whisper, "And
+now, Donald, my man, I think I've checkmated you for ance." The Regent
+laughed heartily at this specimen of judicial humor; and "I' faith,
+Walter," said he, "this old big-wig seems to have taken things as
+coolly as my tyrannical self. Don't you remember Tom Moore's
+description of me at breakfast,--
+
+  'The table spread with tea and toast,
+   Death-warrants and the Morning Post?'"
+
+              [Footnote 14: This most amiable and venerable gentleman,
+              my dear and kind friend, died at Edinburgh on the 17th
+              February, 1839, in the 80th year of his age. He retained
+              his strong mental faculties in their perfect vigor to
+              the last days of this long life, and with them all the
+              warmth of social feelings which had endeared him to all
+              who were so happy as to have any opportunity of knowing
+              him. The reader will find an affectionate tribute to his
+              worth, from Sir Walter Scott's Diary, in a subsequent
+              volume of these Memoirs.--(March, 1839.)]
+
+Towards midnight, the Prince called for "a bumper, with all the
+honors, to the Author of Waverley," and looked significantly, as he
+was charging his own glass, to Scott. Scott seemed somewhat puzzled
+for a moment, but instantly recovering himself, and filling his glass
+to the brim, said, "Your Royal Highness looks as if you thought I had
+some claim to the honors of this toast. I have no such pretensions,
+but shall take good care that the real Simon Pure hears of the high
+compliment that has now been paid him." He then drank off his claret,
+and joined in the cheering, which the Prince himself timed. But before
+the company could resume their seats, his Royal Highness exclaimed,
+"Another of the same, if you please, to the Author of Marmion--and
+now, Walter, my man, I have checkmated you for _ance_." The second
+bumper was followed by cheers still more prolonged: and Scott then
+rose and returned thanks in a short address, which struck the Lord
+Chief Commissioner as "alike grave and graceful." This story has been
+circulated in a very perverted shape. I now give it on the authority
+of my venerated friend. He adds, that having occasion, the day after,
+to call on the Duke of York, his Royal Highness said to him: "Upon my
+word, Adam, my brother went rather too near the wind about
+Waverley--but {p.037} nobody could have turned the thing more
+prettily than Walter Scott did--and upon the whole I never had better
+fun."[15]
+
+              [Footnote 15: Since this narrative was first published,
+              I have been told by two gentlemen who were at this
+              dinner, that, according to their recollection, the
+              Prince _did not_ on that occasion run so "near the wind"
+              as my text represents; and I am inclined to believe that
+              a scene at Dalkeith, in 1822, may have been
+              unconsciously blended with a gentler rehearsal of
+              Carlton House, 1815. The Chief Commissioner had promised
+              to revise my sheets for the present edition; but alas,
+              he never did so--and I must now leave the matter as it
+              stands.--(1839.)]
+
+The Regent, as was his custom with those he most delighted to honor,
+uniformly addressed the poet, even at their first dinner, by his
+Christian name, "Walter."
+
+Before he left town, he again dined at Carlton House, when the party
+was a still smaller one than before, and the merriment, if possible,
+still more free. That nothing might be wanting, the Prince sung
+several capital songs in the course of that evening--as witness the
+lines in Sultan Serendib:[16]--
+
+  "I love a Prince will bid the bottle pass,
+  Exchanging with his subjects glance and glass,
+  In fitting time can, gayest of the gay,
+  Keep up the jest and mingle in the lay.
+  Such Monarchs best our freeborn humor suit,
+  But despots must be stately, stern, and mute."[17]
+
+              [Footnote 16: [_The Search after Happiness._]]
+
+              [Footnote 17: Scott's _Poetical Works_, vol. xi. p. 353
+              [Cambridge Ed. p. 431].]
+
+Before he returned to Edinburgh, on the 22d of May, the Regent sent
+him a gold snuff-box, set in brilliants, with a medallion of his Royal
+Highness's head on the lid, "as a testimony" (writes Mr. Adam, in
+transmitting it) "of the high opinion his Royal Highness entertains of
+your genius and merit."
+
+I transcribe what follows from James Ballantyne's _Memoranda_:--
+
+     "After Mr. Scott's first interview with his Sovereign, one
+     or two intimate friends took the liberty of inquiring, what
+     judgment he had formed of the Regent's talents? He declined
+     {p.038} giving any definite answer--but repeated that 'he
+     was the first gentleman he had seen--certainly the first
+     _English_ gentleman of his day;--there was something about
+     him which, independently of the _prestige_, the "divinity,
+     which hedges a King," marked him as standing entirely by
+     himself; but as to his abilities, spoken of as distinct from
+     his charming manners, how could any one form a fair judgment
+     of that man who introduced whatever subject he chose,
+     discussed it just as long as he chose, and dismissed it when
+     he chose?'"
+
+Ballantyne adds:--
+
+     "What I have now to say is more important, not only in
+     itself, but as it will enable you to give a final
+     contradiction to an injurious report which has been in
+     circulation; namely, that the Regent asked him as to the
+     authorship of Waverley, and received a distinct and solemn
+     denial. I took the bold freedom of requesting to know _from
+     him_ whether his Royal Highness had questioned him on that
+     subject, and what had been his answer. He glanced at me with
+     a look of mild surprise, and said, 'What answer I might have
+     made to such a question, put to me by my Sovereign, perhaps
+     I do not, or rather perhaps I do know; but I was never put
+     to the test. He is far too well-bred a man ever to put so
+     ill-bred a question.'"
+
+The account I have already given of the convivial scene alluded to
+would probably have been sufficient; but it can do no harm to place
+Ballantyne's, or rather Scott's own testimony, also on record.
+
+I ought not to have omitted, that during Scott's residence in London,
+in April, 1815, he lost one of the English friends, to a meeting with
+whom he had looked forward with the highest pleasure. Mr. George Ellis
+died on the 15th of that month, at his seat of Sunning Hill. This
+threw a cloud over what would otherwise have been a period of unmixed
+enjoyment. Mr. Canning penned the epitaph for that dearest of his
+friends, but he submitted it to Scott's consideration before it was
+engraved.
+
+
+
+
+{p.039} CHAPTER XXXV.
+
+     Battle of Waterloo. -- Letter of Sir Charles Bell. -- Visit
+     to the Continent. -- Waterloo. -- Letters from Brussels and
+     Paris. -- Anecdotes of Scott at Paris. -- The Duke of
+     Wellington. -- The Emperor Alexander. -- Bluecher. --
+     Platoff. -- Party at Ermenonville, etc. -- London. --
+     Parting with Lord Byron. -- Scott's Sheffield Knife. --
+     Return to Abbotsford. -- Anecdotes by Mr. Skene and James
+     Ballantyne.
+
+1815.
+
+
+Goethe expressed, I fancy, a very general sentiment, when he said,
+that to him the great charm and value of my friend's Life of
+Buonaparte seemed quite independent of the question of its accuracy as
+to small details; that he turned eagerly to the book, not to find
+dates sifted, and countermarches analyzed, but to contemplate what
+could not but be a true record of the broad impressions made on the
+mind of Scott by the marvellous revolutions of his own time in their
+progress. Feeling how justly in the main that work has preserved those
+impressions, though gracefully softened and sobered in the retrospect
+of peaceful and more advanced years, I the less regret that I have it
+not in my power to quote any letters of his touching the reappearance
+of Napoleon on the soil of France--the immortal march from Cannes--the
+reign of the Hundred Days, and the preparations for another struggle,
+which fixed the gaze of Europe in May, 1815.
+
+That he should have been among the first civilians {p.040} who
+hurried over to see the field of Waterloo, and hear English bugles
+sound about the walls of Paris, could have surprised none who knew the
+lively concern he had always taken in the military efforts of his
+countrymen, and the career of the illustrious captain, who had taught
+them to reestablish the renown of Agincourt and Blenheim,--
+
+  "Victor of Assaye's Eastern plain,
+   Victor of all the fields of Spain."
+
+I had often heard him say, however, that his determination was, if not
+fixed, much quickened by a letter of an old acquaintance of his, who
+had, on the arrival of the news of the 18th of June, instantly
+repaired to Brussels, to tender his professional skill in aid of the
+overburdened medical staff of the conqueror's army. When, therefore, I
+found the letter in question preserved among Scott's papers, I perused
+it with a peculiar interest; and I now venture, with the writer's
+permission, to present it to the reader. It was addressed by Sir
+Charles Bell to his brother, an eminent barrister in Edinburgh, who
+transmitted it to Scott. "When I read it," said he, "it set me on
+fire." The marriage of Miss Maclean Clephane of Torloisk with the Earl
+Compton (now Marquis of Northampton), which took place on the 24th of
+July, was in fact the only cause why he did not leave Scotland
+instantly; for that dear young friend had chosen Scott for her
+guardian, and on him accordingly devolved the chief care of the
+arrangements on this occasion. The extract sent to him by Mr. George
+Joseph Bell is as follows:--
+
+                                        "BRUSSELS, 2d July, 1815.
+
+     "This country, the finest in the world, has been of late
+     quite out of our minds. I did not, in any degree, anticipate
+     the pleasure I should enjoy, the admiration forced from me,
+     on coming into one of these antique towns, or in journeying
+     through the rich garden. Can you recollect the time when
+     there were gentlemen meeting at the Cross of Edinburgh, or
+     those whom we thought such? They are all collected here.
+     {p.041} You see the very men, with their scraggy necks
+     sticking out of the collars of their old-fashioned
+     square-skirted coats--their canes--their cocked-hats; and,
+     when they meet, the formal bow, the hat off to the ground,
+     and the powder flying in the wind. I could divert you with
+     the odd resemblances of the Scottish faces among the
+     peasants, too--but I noted _them_ at the time with my
+     pencil, and I write to you only of things that you won't
+     find in my pocket-book.
+
+     "I have just returned from seeing the French wounded
+     received in their hospital; and could you see them laid out
+     naked, or almost so--100 in a row of low beds on the
+     ground--though wounded, exhausted, beaten, you would still
+     conclude with me that these were men capable of marching
+     unopposed from the west of Europe to the east of Asia.
+     Strong, thickset, hardy veterans, brave spirits and
+     unsubdued, as they cast their wild glance upon you,--their
+     black eyes and brown cheeks finely contrasted with the fresh
+     sheets,--you would much admire their capacity of adaptation.
+     These fellows are brought from the field after lying many
+     days on the ground; many dying--many in the agony--many
+     miserably racked with pain and spasms; and the next mimics
+     his fellow, and gives it a tune,--_Aha, vous chantez bien!_
+     How they are wounded you will see in my notes. But I must
+     not have you to lose the present impression on me of the
+     formidable nature of these fellows as exemplars of the breed
+     in France. It is a forced praise; for from all I have seen,
+     and all I have heard of their fierceness, cruelty, and
+     bloodthirstiness, I cannot convey to you my detestation of
+     this race of trained banditti. By what means they are to be
+     kept in subjection until other habits come upon them, I know
+     not; but I am convinced that these men cannot be left to the
+     bent of their propensities.
+
+     "This superb city is now ornamented with the finest groups
+     of armed men that the most romantic fancy could dream of. I
+     was struck with the words of a friend--E. 'I saw,' said he,
+     '_that_ man returning from the field on the 16th.' (This was
+     a Brunswicker, of the Black or Death Hussars.) 'He was
+     wounded, and had had his arm amputated on the field. He was
+     among the first that came in. He rode straight and stark
+     upon his horse--the bloody clouts about his stump--pale as
+     death, but upright, with a stern, fixed expression of
+     {p.042} feature, as if loath to lose his revenge.' These
+     troops are very remarkable in their fine military
+     appearance; their dark and ominous dress sets off to
+     advantage their strong, manly, northern features and white
+     mustachios; and there is something more than commonly
+     impressive about the whole effect.
+
+     "This is the second Sunday after the battle, and many are
+     not yet dressed. There are 20,000 wounded in this town,
+     besides those in the hospitals, and the many in the other
+     towns;--only 3000 prisoners; 80,000, they say, killed and
+     wounded on both sides."
+
+I think it not wonderful that this extract should have set Scott's
+imagination effectually on fire; that he should have grasped at the
+idea of seeing probably the last shadows of real warfare that his own
+age would afford; or that some parts of the great surgeon's simple
+phraseology are reproduced, almost verbatim, in the first of Paul's
+Letters to his Kinsfolk. No sooner was Scott's purpose known, than
+some of his young neighbors in the country proposed to join his
+excursion; and, in company with three of them, namely, his kinsman,
+John Scott of Gala, Alexander Pringle, the younger, of Whytbank (now
+M. P. for Selkirkshire), and Robert Bruce, advocate (now Sheriff of
+Argyle), he left Edinburgh for the south, at 5. A. M. on the 27th of
+July.
+
+They travelled by the stage-coach, and took the route of Hull and
+Lincoln to Cambridge; for Gala and Whytbank, being both members of
+that university, were anxious to seize this opportunity of revisiting
+it themselves, and showing its beautiful architecture to their friend.
+After this wish had been gratified, they proceeded to Harwich, and
+thence, on the 3d of August, took ship for Helvoetsluys.
+
+     "The weather was beautiful," says Gala, "so we all went
+     outside the coach from Cambridge to Harwich. At starting,
+     there was a general complaint of thirst, the consequence of
+     some experiments overnight on the celebrated _bishop_ of my
+     _Alma Mater_; our friend, however, was in great glee, and
+     {p.043} never was a merrier _basket_ than he made it all
+     the morning. He had cautioned us, on leaving Edinburgh,
+     never to _name names_ in such situations, and our adherence
+     to this rule was rewarded by some amusing incidents. For
+     example, as we entered the town where we were to dine, a
+     heavy-looking man, who was to stop there, took occasion to
+     thank Scott for the pleasure his anecdotes had afforded him:
+     'You have a good memory, sir,' said he; 'mayhap, now, you
+     sometimes write down what you hear or be a-reading about?'
+     He answered, very gravely, that he did occasionally put down
+     a _few_ notes, if anything struck him particularly. In the
+     afternoon, it happened that he sat on the box, while the
+     rest of us were behind him. Here, by degrees, he became
+     quite absorbed in his own reflections. He frequently
+     repeated to himself, or _composed_ perhaps, for a good
+     while, and often smiled or raised his hand, seeming
+     completely occupied and amused. His neighbor, a vastly
+     scientific and rather grave professor, in a smooth drab
+     Benjamin and broad-brimmed beaver, cast many a curious
+     sidelong glance at him, evidently suspecting that all was
+     not right with the upper story, but preserved perfect
+     politeness. The poet was, however, discovered by the captain
+     of the vessel in which we crossed the Channel;--and a
+     perilous passage it was, chiefly in consequence of the
+     unceasing tumblers in which this worthy kept drinking his
+     health."
+
+Before leaving Edinburgh, Scott had settled in his mind the plan of
+Paul's Letters; for on that same day, his agent, John Ballantyne,
+addressed the following letter, from his marine villa near Newhaven:--
+
+     TO MESSRS. CONSTABLE & CO.
+
+                                        TRINITY, 27th July, 1815.
+
+     DEAR SIRS,--Mr. Scott left town to-day for the Continent. He
+     proposes writing from thence a series of letters on a
+     peculiar plan, varied in matter and style, and to different
+     supposititious correspondents.
+
+     The work is to form a demy 8vo volume of twenty-two sheets,
+     to sell at 12s. It is to be begun immediately on his arrival
+     in France, and to be published, if possible, the second week
+     of September, when he proposes to return.
+
+     {p.044} We print 3000 of this, and I am empowered to offer
+     you one third of the edition, Messrs. Longman & Co. and Mr.
+     Murray having each the same share: the terms, twelve months'
+     acceptance for paper and print, and half profits at six
+     months, granted now as under. The over copies will pay the
+     charge for advertising, I am, etc.,
+
+                                        John BALLANTYNE.
+
+           _Charge_--
+        22 sheets printing,--L3 15 0        L82 10 0
+       145 reams demy,     -- 1 10 0        217 10 0
+                                           ---------
+                                            L300 0 0
+
+       3000 at 8s. L1200 0 0
+              Cost,  300 0 0
+                   ----------
+                    L900 0 0 profit--One half is L450.
+
+Before Scott reached Harwich, he knew that this offer had been
+accepted without hesitation; and thenceforth, accordingly, he threw
+his daily letters to his wife into the form of communications meant
+for an imaginary group, consisting of a spinster sister, a statistical
+laird, a rural clergyman of the Presbyterian Kirk, and a brother, a
+veteran officer on half-pay. The rank of this last personage
+corresponded, however, exactly with that of his own elder brother,
+John Scott, who also, like the Major of the book, had served in the
+Duke of York's unfortunate campaign of 1797; the sister is only a
+slender disguise for his aunt Christian Rutherford, already often
+mentioned; Lord Somerville, long President of the Board of
+Agriculture, was Paul's laird; and the shrewd and unbigoted Dr.
+Douglas of Galashiels was his "minister of the gospel." These
+epistles, after having been devoured by the little circle at
+Abbotsford, were transmitted to Major John Scott, his mother, and Miss
+Rutherford, in Edinburgh; from their hands they passed to those of
+James Ballantyne and Mr. Erskine, both of whom assured me that the
+copy ultimately sent to the press consisted, in great part, of the
+identical sheets that {p.045} had successively reached Melrose
+through the post. The rest had of course been, as Ballantyne expresses
+it, "somewhat cobbled;" but, on the whole, Paul's Letters are to be
+considered as a true and faithful journal of this expedition;
+insomuch, that I might perhaps content myself, in this place, with a
+simple reference to that delightful volume. He found time, however, to
+write letters during his absence from Britain, to some others of his
+friends; and a specimen or two of these may interest the reader. I
+have also gathered, from the companions of the journey, a few more
+particulars, which Scott's modesty withheld him from recording; and
+some trivial circumstances which occur to me, from recollection of his
+own conversation, may also be acceptable.
+
+But I hope that, if the reader has not perused Paul's Letters
+recently, he will refresh his memory, before he proceeds further, by
+bestowing an hour on that genuine fragment of the author's
+autobiography. He is now, unless he had the advantage of Scott's
+personal familiarity, much better acquainted with the man than he
+could have been before he took up this compilation of his private
+correspondence--and especially before he perused the full diary of the
+lighthouse yacht in 1814; and a thousand little turns and
+circumstances which may have, when he originally read the book, passed
+lightly before his eye, will now, I venture to say, possess a warm and
+vivid interest, as inimitably characteristic of a departed friend. The
+kindest of husbands and fathers never portrayed himself with more
+unaffected truth than in this vain effort, if such he really fancied
+he was making, to sustain the character of "a cross old bachelor." The
+whole man, just as he was, breathes in every line, with all his
+compassionate and benevolent sympathy of heart, all his sharpness of
+observation, and sober shrewdness of reflection; all his enthusiasm
+for nature, for country life, for simple manners and simple pleasures,
+mixed up with an equally glowing enthusiasm, at which many may
+{p.046} smile, for the tiniest relics of feudal antiquity--and last,
+not least, a pulse of physical rapture for the "circumstance of war,"
+which bears witness to the blood of _Boltfoot_ and _Fire-the-Braes_.
+
+At Brussels, Scott found the small English garrison left there in
+command of Major-General Sir Frederick Adam, the son of his highly
+valued friend, the Lord Chief Commissioner. Sir Frederick had been
+wounded at Waterloo, and could not as yet mount on horseback; but one
+of his aides-de-camp, Captain Campbell, escorted Scott and his party
+to the field of battle, on which occasion they were also accompanied
+by another old acquaintance of his, Major Pryse Gordon, who being then
+on half-pay, happened to be domesticated with his family at Brussels.
+Major Gordon has since published two lively volumes of Personal
+Memoirs; and Gala bears witness to the fidelity of certain
+reminiscences of Scott at Brussels and Waterloo, which occupy one of
+the chapters of this work. I shall, therefore, extract the passage:--
+
+     "Sir Walter Scott accepted my services to conduct him to
+     Waterloo: the General's aide-de-camp was also of the party.
+     He made no secret of his having undertaken to write
+     something on the battle; and perhaps he took the greater
+     interest on this account in everything that he saw. Besides,
+     he had never seen the field of such a conflict; and never
+     having been before on the Continent, it was all new to his
+     comprehensive mind. The day was beautiful; and I had the
+     precaution to send out a couple of saddle-horses, that he
+     might not be fatigued in walking over the fields, which had
+     been recently ploughed up. In our rounds we fell in with
+     Monsieur de Costar, with whom he got into conversation. This
+     man had attracted so much notice by his pretended story of
+     being about the person of Napoleon, that he was of too much
+     importance to be passed by: I did not, indeed, know as much
+     of this fellow's charlatanism at that time as afterwards,
+     when I saw him confronted with a blacksmith of La Belle
+     Alliance, who had been his companion in a hiding-place ten
+     miles from the field during the whole day; a {p.047} fact
+     which he could not deny. But he had got up a tale so
+     plausible and so profitable, that he could afford to bestow
+     hush-money on the companion of his flight, so that the
+     imposition was but little known; and strangers continued to
+     be gulled. He had picked up a good deal of information about
+     the positions and details of the battle; and, being
+     naturally a sagacious Walloon, and speaking French pretty
+     fluently, he became the favorite cicerone, and every lie he
+     told was taken for gospel. Year after year, until his death
+     in 1824, he continued his popularity, and raised the price
+     of his rounds from a couple of francs to five; besides as
+     much for the hire of a horse, his own property; for he
+     pretended that the fatigue of walking so many hours was
+     beyond his powers. It has been said that in this way he
+     realized every summer a couple of hundred Napoleons.
+
+     "When Sir Walter had examined every point of defence and
+     attack, we adjourned to the 'Original Duke of Wellington' at
+     Waterloo, to lunch after the fatigues of the ride. Here he
+     had a crowded levee of peasants, and collected a great many
+     trophies, from cuirasses down to buttons and bullets. He
+     picked up himself many little relics, and was fortunate in
+     purchasing a grand cross of the Legion of Honor. But the
+     most precious memorial was presented to him by my wife--a
+     French soldier's book, well stained with blood, and
+     containing some songs popular in the French army, which he
+     found so interesting that he introduced versions of them in
+     his Paul's Letters; of which, he did me the honor to send me
+     a copy, with a letter, saying, 'that he considered my wife's
+     gift as the most valuable of all his Waterloo relics.'
+
+     "On our return from the field, he kindly passed the evening
+     with us, and a few friends whom we invited to meet him. He
+     charmed us with his delightful conversation, and was in
+     great spirits from the agreeable day he had passed; and with
+     great good-humor promised to write a stanza in my wife's
+     album. On the following morning he fulfilled his promise by
+     contributing some beautiful verses on Hougomont. I put him
+     into my little library to prevent interruption, as a great
+     many persons had paraded in the _Parc_ opposite my window to
+     get a peep of the celebrated man, many having dogged him
+     from his hotel.
+
+     {p.048} "Brussels affords but little worthy of the notice of
+     such a traveller as the Author of Waverley; but he greatly
+     admired the splendid tower of the Maison de Ville, and the
+     ancient sculpture and style of architecture of the buildings
+     which surround the Grand Place.
+
+     "He told us, with great humor, a laughable incident which
+     had occurred to him at Antwerp. The morning after his
+     arrival at that city from Holland, he started at an early
+     hour to visit the tomb of Rubens in the church of St.
+     Jacques, before his party were up. After wandering about for
+     some time, without finding the object he had in view, he
+     determined to make inquiry, and observing a person stalking
+     about, he addressed him in his best French; but the
+     stranger, pulling off his hat, very respectfully replied in
+     the pure Highland accent, 'I'm vary sorry, sir, but I canna
+     speak onything besides English.'--'This is very unlucky
+     indeed, Donald,' said Sir Walter, 'but we must help one
+     another; for, to tell you the truth, I'm not good at any
+     other tongue but the English, or rather, the Scotch.'--'Oh,
+     sir, maybe,' replied the Highlander, 'you are a countryman,
+     and ken my maister Captain Cameron of the 79th, and could
+     tell me whare he lodges. I'm just cum in, sir, frae a place
+     they ca' _Machlin_,[18] and ha' forgotten the name of the
+     captain's quarters; it was something like the
+     _Laaborer_.'--'I can, I think, help you with this, my
+     friend,' rejoined Sir Walter. 'There is an inn just opposite
+     to you' (pointing to the _Hotel du Grand Laboureur_): 'I
+     dare say that will be the captain's quarters;' and it was
+     so. I cannot do justice to the humor with which Sir Walter
+     recounted this dialogue."[19]
+
+              [Footnote 18: Mechlin--the Highlander gave it the
+              familiar pronunciation of a Scotch village, Mauchline,
+              celebrated in many of Burns's poems.]
+
+              [Footnote 19: See Major Gordon's _Personal Memoirs_
+              (1830), vol. ii. pp. 325-338.]
+
+The following is the letter which Scott addressed to the Duke of
+Buccleuch immediately after seeing the field of Waterloo; and it may
+amuse the reader to compare it with Major Gordon's chapter, and with
+the writer's own fuller, and, of course, "cobbled" detail, in the
+pages of Paul:--
+
+     {p.049} TO HIS GRACE THE DUKE OF BUCCLEUCH, ETC.
+
+     MY DEAR LORD DUKE,--I promised to let you hear of my
+     wanderings, however unimportant; and have now the pleasure
+     of informing your Grace that I am at this present time an
+     inhabitant of the Premier Hotel de Cambrai, after having
+     been about a week upon the Continent. We landed at Helvoet,
+     and proceeded to Brussels, by Bergen-op-Zoom and Antwerp,
+     both of which are very strongly fortified. The ravages of
+     war are little remarked in a country so rich by nature; but
+     everything seems at present stationary, or rather
+     retrograde, where capital is required. The chateaux are
+     deserted, and going to decay; no new houses are built, and
+     those of older date are passing rapidly into the possession
+     of a class inferior to those for whom we must suppose them
+     to have been built. Even the old gentlewoman of Babylon has
+     lost much of her splendor, and her robes and pomp are of a
+     description far subordinate to the costume of her more
+     magnificent days. The dresses of the priests were worn and
+     shabby, both at Antwerp and Brussels, and reminded me of the
+     decayed wardrobe of a bankrupt theatre: yet, though the
+     gentry and priesthood have suffered, the eternal bounty of
+     nature has protected the lower ranks against much distress.
+     The unexampled fertility of the soil gives them all, and
+     more than they want; and could they but sell the grain which
+     they raise in the Netherlands, nothing else would be wanting
+     to render them the richest people (common people, that is to
+     say) in the world.
+
+     On Wednesday last, I rode over the field of Waterloo, now
+     forever consecrated to immortality. The more ghastly tokens
+     of the carnage are now removed, the bodies both of men and
+     horses being either burned or buried; but all the ground is
+     still torn with the shot and shells, and covered with
+     cartridges, old hats, and shoes, and various relics of the
+     fray which the peasants have not {p.050} thought worth
+     removing. Besides, at Waterloo and all the hamlets in the
+     vicinage, there is a mart established for cuirasses; for the
+     eagles worn by the imperial guard on their caps; for
+     casques, swords, carabines, and similar articles. I have
+     bought two handsome cuirasses, and intend them, one for
+     Bowhill, and one for Abbotsford, if I can get them safe
+     over, which Major Pryse Gordon has promised to manage for
+     me. I have also, for your Grace, one of the little
+     memorandum-books, which I picked up on the field, in which
+     every French soldier was obliged to enter his receipts and
+     expenditure, his services, and even his punishments. The
+     field was covered with fragments of these records. I also
+     got a good MS. collection of French songs, probably the work
+     of some young officer, and a croix of the Legion of Honor. I
+     enclose, under another cover, a sketch of the battle, made
+     at Brussels. It is not, I understand, strictly accurate; but
+     sufficiently so to give a good notion of what took place. In
+     fact, it would require twenty separate plans to give an idea
+     of the battle at its various stages. The front, upon which
+     the armies engaged, does not exceed a long mile. Our line,
+     indeed, originally extended half a mile farther towards the
+     village of Brain-la-Leude; but as the French indicated no
+     disposition to attack in that direction, the troops which
+     occupied this space were gradually concentrated by Lord
+     Wellington, and made to advance till they had reached
+     Hougomont--a sort of chateau, with a garden and wood
+     attached to it, which was powerfully and effectually
+     maintained by the Guards during the action. This place was
+     particularly interesting. It was a quiet-looking gentleman's
+     house, which had been burnt by the French shells. The
+     defenders, burnt out of the house itself, betook themselves
+     to the little garden, where, breaking loopholes through the
+     brick walls, they kept up a most destructive fire on the
+     assailants, who had possessed themselves of a little wood
+     which surrounds the villa on one side. In this spot vast
+     numbers {p.051} had fallen; and, being hastily buried, the
+     smell is most offensive at this moment. Indeed, I felt the
+     same annoyance in many parts of the field; and, did I live
+     near the spot, I should be anxious about the diseases which
+     this steaming carnage might occasion. The rest of the
+     ground, excepting this chateau, and a farmhouse called La
+     Hay Sainte, early taken, and long held, by the French,
+     because it was too close under the brow of the descent on
+     which our artillery was placed to admit of the pieces being
+     depressed so as to play into it,--the rest of the ground, I
+     say, is quite open, and lies between two ridges, one of
+     which (Mont St. Jean) was constantly occupied by the
+     English; the other, upon which is the farm of La Belle
+     Alliance, was the position of the French. The slopes between
+     are gentle and varied; the ground everywhere practicable for
+     cavalry, as was well experienced on that memorable day. The
+     cuirassiers, despite their arms of proof, were quite
+     inferior to our heavy dragoons. The meeting of the two
+     bodies occasioned a noise, not unaptly compared to the
+     tinkering and hammering of a smith's shop. Generally the
+     cuirassiers came on stooping their heads very low, and
+     giving point; the British frequently struck away their
+     casques while they were in this position, and then laid at
+     the bare head. Officers and soldiers all fought hand to hand
+     without distinction; and many of the former owed their life
+     to dexterity at their weapon, and personal strength of body.
+     Shaw, the milling Life-Guardsman, whom your Grace may
+     remember among the champions of The Fancy, maintained the
+     honor of the fist, and killed or disabled upwards of twenty
+     Frenchmen with his single arm, until he was killed by the
+     assault of numbers.[20] At one place, where there is a
+     precipitous sand or gravel pit, the heavy English cavalry
+     drove many of the cuirassiers over pell-mell, and followed
+     over themselves, like fox-hunters. The conduct of the
+     infantry and artillery was equally, {p.052} or, if
+     possible, more distinguished, and it was all fully
+     necessary; for, besides that our army was much outnumbered,
+     a great part of the sum-total were foreigners. Of these, the
+     Brunswickers and Hanoverians behaved very well; the Belgians
+     but sorrily enough. On one occasion, when a Belgic regiment
+     fairly ran off, Lord Wellington rode up to them, and said,
+     "My lads, you must be a little blown; come, do take your
+     breath for a moment, and then we'll go back, and try if we
+     can do a little better;" and he actually carried them back
+     to the charge. He was, indeed, upon that day, everywhere,
+     and the soul of everything; nor could less than his personal
+     endeavors have supported the spirits of the men through a
+     contest so long, so desperate, and so unequal. At his last
+     attack, Buonaparte brought up 15,000 of his Guard, who had
+     never drawn trigger during the day. It was upon their
+     failure that his hopes abandoned him.
+
+              [Footnote 20: The skull of Shaw is now in the Museum at
+              Abbotsford.]
+
+     I spoke long with a shrewd Flemish peasant, called John de
+     Costar, whom he had seized upon as his guide, and who
+     remained beside him the whole day, and afterwards
+     accompanied him in his flight as far as Charleroi. Your
+     Grace may be sure that I interrogated Mynheer very closely
+     about what he heard and saw. He guided me to the spot where
+     Buonaparte remained during the latter part of the action. It
+     was in the highway from Brussels to Charleroi, where it runs
+     between two high banks, on each of which was a French
+     battery. He was pretty well sheltered from the English fire;
+     and, though many bullets flew over his head, neither he nor
+     any of his suite were touched. His other stations, during
+     that day, were still more remote from all danger. The story
+     of his having an observatory erected for him is a mistake.
+     There is such a thing, and he repaired to it during the
+     action; but it was built or erected some months before, for
+     the purpose of a trigonometrical survey of the country, by
+     the King of the Netherlands. Bony's last position was nearly
+     fronting a tree where the Duke of Wellington {p.053} was
+     stationed; there was not more than a quarter of a mile
+     between them; but Bony was well sheltered, and the Duke so
+     much exposed, that the tree is barked in several places by
+     the cannon-balls levelled at him. As for Bony, De Costar
+     says he was very cool during the whole day, and even gay. As
+     the cannon-balls flew over them, De Costar ducked; at which
+     the Emperor laughed, and told him they would hit him all the
+     same. At length, about the time he made his grand and last
+     effort, the fire of the Prussian artillery was heard upon
+     his right, and the heads of their columns became visible
+     pressing out of the woods. Aide-de-camp after aide-de-camp
+     came with the tidings of their advance, to which Bony only
+     replied, _Attendez, attendez un instant_, until he saw his
+     troops, _fantassins et cavaliers_, return in disorder from
+     the attack. He then observed hastily to a general beside
+     him, _Je crois qu'ils sont meles_. The person to whom he
+     spoke hastily raised the spyglass to his eye; but Bony, whom
+     the first glance had satisfied of their total discomfiture,
+     bent his face to the ground, and shook his head twice, his
+     complexion being then as pale as death. The general then
+     said something, to which Buonaparte answered, _C'est trop
+     tard--sauvons nous_. Just at that moment, the allied troops,
+     cavalry and infantry, appeared in full advance on all hands;
+     and the Prussians, operating upon the right flank of the
+     French, were rapidly gaining their rear. Bony, therefore,
+     was compelled to abandon the high-road, which, besides, was
+     choked with dead, with baggage, and with cannon; and,
+     gaining the open country, kept at full gallop, until he
+     gained, like Johnnie Cope, the van of the flying army. The
+     marshals followed his example; and it was the most complete
+     _sauve qui peut_ that can well be imagined. Nevertheless,
+     the prisoners who were brought into Brussels maintained
+     their national impudence, and boldly avowed their intention
+     of sacking the city with every sort of severity. At the same
+     time they had friends there. {p.054} One man of rank and
+     wealth went over to Bony during the action, and I saw his
+     hotel converted into an hospital for wounded soldiers. It
+     occupied one half of one of the sides of the Place Royale, a
+     noble square, which your Grace has probably seen. But, in
+     general, the inhabitants of Brussels were very differently
+     disposed; and their benevolence to our poor wounded fellows
+     was unbounded. The difficulty was to prevent them from
+     killing their guests with kindness, by giving them butcher's
+     meat and wine during their fever. As I cannot put my letter
+     into post until we get to Paris, I shall continue it as we
+     get along.
+
+     _12th August, Roye, in Picardy._--I imagine your Grace about
+     this time to be tolerably well fagged with a hard day on the
+     moors. If the weather has been as propitious as with us, it
+     must be delightful. The country through which we have
+     travelled is most uncommonly fertile, and skirted with
+     beautiful woods; but its present political situation is so
+     very uncommon, that I would give the world your Grace had
+     come over for a fortnight. France may be considered as
+     neither at peace nor war. Valenciennes, for example, is in a
+     state of blockade; we passed through the posts of the
+     allies, all in the utmost state of vigilance, with patrols
+     of cavalry and vedettes of infantry, up to the very gates,
+     and two or three batteries were manned and mounted. The
+     French troops were equally vigilant at the gates, yet made
+     no objections to our passing through the town. Most of them
+     had the white cockade, but looked very sulky, and were in
+     obvious disorder and confusion. They had not yet made their
+     terms with the King, nor accepted a commander appointed by
+     him; but as they obviously feel their party desperate, the
+     soldiers are running from the officers, and the officers
+     from the soldiers. In fact, the multiplied hosts which pour
+     into this country, exhibiting all the various dresses and
+     forms of war which can be imagined, must necessarily render
+     resistance impracticable. Yet, {p.055} like Satan, these
+     fellows retain the unconquered propensity to defiance, even
+     in the midst of defeat and despair. This morning we passed a
+     great number of the disbanded garrison of Conde, and they
+     were the most horrid-looking cut-throats I ever saw,
+     extremely disposed to be very insolent, and only repressed
+     by the consciousness that all the villages and towns around
+     are occupied by the allies. They began by crying to us in an
+     ironical tone, _Vive le Roi_; then followed, _sotto voce,
+     Sacre B----, Mille diables_, and other graces of French
+     eloquence. I felt very well pleased that we were armed, and
+     four in number; and still more so that it was daylight, for
+     they seemed most mischievous ruffians. As for the appearance
+     of the country, it is, notwithstanding a fine harvest, most
+     melancholy. The windows of all the detached houses on the
+     road are uniformly shut up; and you see few people,
+     excepting the peasants who are employed in driving the
+     contributions to maintain the armies. The towns are little
+     better, having for the most part been partially injured by
+     shells or by storm, as was the case both of Cambrai and
+     Peronne. The men look very sulky; and if you speak three
+     words to a woman, she is sure to fall a-crying. In short,
+     the _politesse_ and good-humor of this people have fled with
+     the annihilation of their self-conceit; and they look on you
+     as if they thought you were laughing at them, or come to
+     enjoy the triumph of our arms over theirs. Postmasters and
+     landlords are all the same, and hardly to be propitiated
+     even by English money, although they charge us about three
+     times as much as they durst do to their countryfolks. As for
+     the Prussians, a party of cavalry dined at our hotel at
+     Mons, eat and drank of the best the poor devils had left to
+     give, called for their horses, and laughed in the face of
+     the landlord when he offered his bill, telling him they
+     should pay as they came back. The English, they say, have
+     always paid honorably, and upon these they indemnify
+     themselves. It is impossible to _marchander_, for if
+     {p.056} you object, the poor landlady begins to cry, and
+     tells you she will accept whatever _your lordship_ pleases,
+     but that she is almost ruined and bankrupt, etc., etc., etc.
+
+     This is a long stupid letter, but I will endeavor to send a
+     better from Paris. Ever your Grace's truly obliged,
+
+                                        Walter SCOTT.
+
+The only letter which Scott addressed to Joanna Baillie, while in
+Paris, goes over partly the same ground: I transcribe the rest.
+
+                                        PARIS, 6th September, 1815.
+
+     MY DEAR FRIEND,--I owe you a long letter, but my late
+     travels and the date of this epistle will be a tolerable
+     plea for your indulgence. The truth is, I became very
+     restless after the battle of Waterloo, and was only detained
+     by the necessity of attending a friend's marriage, from
+     setting off instantly for the Continent. At length, however,
+     I got away to Brussels, and was on the memorable field of
+     battle about five weeks after it had been fought....
+
+     If our army had been all British, the day would have been
+     soon decided; but the Duke, or, as they call him here, from
+     his detestation of all manner of foppery, the _Beau_, had
+     not above 35,000 British. All this was to be supplied by
+     treble exertion on the part of our troops. The Duke was
+     everywhere during the battle; and it was the mercy of Heaven
+     that protected him, when all his staff had been killed or
+     wounded round him. I asked him, among many other questions,
+     if he had seen Buonaparte; he said, "No; but at one time,
+     from the repeated shouts of _Vive l'Empereur_, I thought he
+     must be near." This was when John de Costar placed him in
+     the hollow way. I think, so near as I can judge, there may
+     at that time have been a quarter of a mile between these two
+     great generals.
+
+     The fate of the French, after this day of decisive appeal,
+     has been severe enough. There were never people {p.057}
+     more mortified, more subdued, and apparently more broken in
+     spirit. They submit with sad civility to the extortions of
+     the Prussians and the Russians, and avenge themselves at the
+     expense of the English, whom they charge three prices for
+     everything, because they are the only people who pay at all.
+     They are in the right, however, to enforce discipline and
+     good order, which not only maintains the national character
+     in the mean time, but will prevent the army from suffering
+     by habits of indulgence. I question if the Prussians will
+     soon regain their discipline and habits of hardihood. At
+     present their powers of eating and drinking, which are
+     really something preternatural, are exerted to the very
+     utmost. A thin Prussian boy, whom I sometimes see, eats in
+     one day as much as three English ploughmen. At daybreak he
+     roars for chocolate and eggs; about nine he breakfasts more
+     solemnly, _a la fourchette_, when, besides all the usual
+     apparatus of an English _dejeuner_, he eats a world of
+     cutlets, oysters, fruit, etc., and drinks a glass of brandy
+     and a bottle of champagne. His dinner might serve Gargantua,
+     at which he gets himself about three parts drunk--a
+     circumstance which does not prevent the charge upon cold
+     meat, with tea and chocolate, about six o'clock; and
+     concluding the whole with an immense supper. Positively the
+     appetite of this lad reminds one of the Eastern tale of a
+     man taken out of the sea by a ship's crew, who, in return,
+     ate up all the provisions of the vessel. He was, I think,
+     flown away with by a roc; but from what quarter of the
+     heavens the French are to look for deliverance from these
+     devourers, I cannot presume to guess.
+
+     The needless wreck and ruin which they make in the houses
+     adds much to the inconvenience of their presence. Most of
+     the chateaux, where the Prussians are quartered, are what is
+     technically called _rumped_, that is to say, plundered out
+     and out. In the fine chateau of Montmorency, for instance,
+     the most splendid apartments, {p.058} highly ornamented
+     with gilding and carving, were converted into barracks for
+     the dirtiest and most savage-looking hussars I have yet
+     seen. Imagine the work these fellows make with velvet
+     hangings and embroidery. I saw one hag boiling her
+     camp-kettle with part of a picture frame; the picture itself
+     has probably gone to Prussia. With all this greediness and
+     love of mischief, the Prussians are not bloodthirsty; and
+     their utmost violence seldom exceeds a blow or two with the
+     flat of the sabre. They are also very civil to the women,
+     and in both respects behave much better than the French did
+     in their country; but they follow the bad example quite
+     close enough for the sake of humanity and of discipline. As
+     for our people, they live in a most orderly and regular
+     manner. All the young men pique themselves on imitating the
+     Duke of Wellington in _nonchalance_ and coolness of manner;
+     so they wander about everywhere, with their hands in the
+     pockets of their long waistcoats, or cantering upon Cossack
+     ponies, staring and whistling, and trotting to and fro, as
+     if all Paris was theirs. The French hate them sufficiently
+     for the _hauteur_ of their manner and pretensions, but the
+     grounds of dislike against us are drowned in the actual
+     detestation afforded by the other powers.
+
+     This morning I saw a grand military spectacle--about 20,000
+     Russians pass in review before all the Kings and Dominations
+     who are now resident at Paris. The Emperor, King of Prussia,
+     Duke of Wellington, with their numerous and brilliant
+     attendance of generals, staff-officers, etc., were in the
+     centre of what is called the Place Louis Quinze, almost on
+     the very spot where Louis XVI. was beheaded. A very long
+     avenue, which faces the station where they were placed, was
+     like a glowing furnace, so fiercely were the sunbeams
+     reflected from the arms of the host by which it was filled.
+     A body of Cossacks kept the ground with their pikes, and, by
+     their wild appearance, added to the singularity of the
+     scene. On one {p.059} hand was the extended line of the
+     Tuileries, seen through the gardens and the rows of
+     orange-trees; on the other, the long column of troops
+     advancing to the music. Behind was a long colonnade, forming
+     the front to the palace, where the Chamber of
+     Representatives are to hold their sittings; and in front of
+     the monarchs was a superb row of buildings, on which you
+     distinguish the bronze pillar erected by Napoleon to
+     commemorate his victories over Russia, Prussia, and Austria,
+     whose princes were now reviewing their victorious armies in
+     what was so lately his capital. Your fancy, my dear friend,
+     will anticipate, better than I can express, the thousand
+     sentiments which arose in my mind from witnessing such a
+     splendid scene, in a spot connected with such various
+     associations. It may give you some idea of the feelings of
+     the French--once so fond of _spectacles_--to know that, I
+     think, there were not a hundred of that nation looking on.
+     Yet this country will soon recover the actual losses she has
+     sustained, for never was there a soil so blessed by nature,
+     or so rich in corn, wine, and oil, and in the animated
+     industry of its inhabitants. France is at present the fabled
+     giant, struggling, or rather lying supine, under the load of
+     mountains which have been precipitated on her; but she is
+     not, and cannot be crushed. Remove the incumbent weight of
+     600,000 or 700,000 foreigners, and she will soon stand
+     upright--happy, if experience shall have taught her to be
+     contented to exert her natural strength only for her own
+     protection, and not for the annoyance of her neighbors. I am
+     cut short in my lucubrations by an opportunity to send this
+     letter with Lord Castlereagh's despatches, which is of less
+     consequence, as I will endeavor to see you in passing
+     through London. I leave this city for Dieppe on Saturday,
+     but I intend to go round by Harfleur, if possible.
+
+     Ever your truly obliged and affectionate
+
+                                        Walter SCOTT.
+
+{p.060} "Paul" modestly acknowledges, in his last letter, the
+personal attentions which he received, while in Paris, from Lords
+Cathcart, Aberdeen, and Castlereagh; and hints that, through their
+intervention, he had witnessed several of the splendid _fetes_ given
+by the Duke of Wellington, where he saw half the crowned heads of
+Europe grouped among the gallant soldiers who had cut a way for them
+to the guilty capital of France. Scott's reception, however, had been
+distinguished to a degree of which Paul's language gives no notion.
+The Noble Lords above named welcomed him with cordial satisfaction;
+and the Duke of Wellington, to whom he was first presented by Sir John
+Malcolm, treated him then, and ever afterwards, with a kindness and
+confidence, which, I have often heard him say, he considered as "the
+highest distinction of his life." He used to tell, with great effect,
+the circumstances of his introduction to the Emperor Alexander, at a
+dinner given by the Earl of Cathcart. Scott appeared, on that
+occasion, in the blue and red dress of the Selkirkshire Lieutenancy;
+and the Czar's first question, glancing at his lameness, was, "In what
+affair were you wounded?" Scott signified that he suffered from a
+natural infirmity; upon which the Emperor said, "I thought Lord
+Cathcart mentioned that you had served." Scott observed that the Earl
+looked a little embarrassed at this, and promptly answered, "Oh yes;
+in a certain sense I have served--that is, in the yeomanry cavalry; a
+home force resembling the Landwehr, or Landsturm."--"Under what
+commander?"--"Sous M. le Chevalier Rae."--"Were you ever
+engaged?"--"In some slight actions--such as the battle of the Cross
+Causeway and the affair of Moredun-Mill."--"This," says Mr. Pringle of
+Whytbank, "was, as he saw in Lord Cathcart's face, quite sufficient,
+so he managed to turn the conversation to some other subject." It was
+at the same dinner that he first met Platoff,[21] who {p.061} seemed
+to take a great fancy to him, though, adds my friend, "I really don't
+think they had any common language to converse in." Next day, however,
+when Pringle and Scott were walking together in the Rue de la Paix,
+the Hetman happened to come up, cantering with some of his Cossacks;
+as soon as he saw Scott, he jumped off his horse, leaving it to the
+Pulk, and, running up to him, kissed him on each side of the cheek
+with extraordinary demonstrations of affection--and then made him
+understand, through an aide-de-camp, that he wished him to join his
+staff at the next great review, when he would take care to mount him
+on the gentlest of his Ukraine horses.
+
+              [Footnote 21: Scott acknowledges, in a note to _St.
+              Ronan's Well_ (chap. xv.), that he took from Platoff
+              this portrait of Mr. Touchwood: "His face, which at the
+              distance of a yard or two seemed hale and smooth,
+              appeared, when closely examined, to be seamed with a
+              million of wrinkles, crossing each other in every
+              direction possible, but as fine as if drawn by the point
+              of a very small needle." Thus did every little
+              peculiarity remain treasured in his memory, to be used
+              in due time for giving the air of minute reality to some
+              imaginary personage.]
+
+It will seem less surprising that Scott should have been honored with
+much attention by the leading soldiers and statesmen of Germany then
+in Paris. The fame of his poetry had already been established for some
+years in that country. Yet it may be doubted whether Bluecher had heard
+of Marmion any more than Platoff; and old Bluecher struck Scott's
+fellow-travellers as taking more interest in him than any foreign
+general, except only the Hetman.
+
+A striking passage in Paul's 10th letter indicates the high notion
+which Scott had formed of the personal qualities of the Prince of
+Orange. After depicting, with almost prophetic accuracy, the dangers
+to which the then recent union of Holland and Belgium must be exposed,
+he concludes with expressing his hope that the firmness and sagacity
+of the King of the Netherlands, and the admiration which his heir's
+character and bearing had already excited among all, even Belgian
+observers, might {p.062} ultimately prove effective in redeeming this
+difficult experiment from the usual failure of "_arrondissements_,
+indemnities, and all the other terms of modern date, under sanction of
+which cities and districts, and even kingdoms, have been passed from
+one government to another, as the property of lands or stock is
+transferred by a bargain between private parties."
+
+It is not less curious to compare, with the subsequent course of
+affairs in France, the following brief hint in Paul's 16th letter:
+"The general rallying point of the _Liberalistes_ is an avowed dislike
+to the present monarch and his immediate connections. They will
+sacrifice, they pretend, so much to the general inclinations of
+Europe, as to select a king from the Bourbon race; but he must be one
+of their own choosing, and the Duke of Orleans is most familiar in
+their mouths." Thus, in its very bud, had his eye detected the
+_conjuration de quinze ans!_
+
+Among the gay parties of this festive period, Scott mentioned with
+special pleasure one fine day given to an excursion to Ermenonville,
+under the auspices of Lady Castlereagh. The company was a large one,
+including most of the distinguished personages whom I have been
+naming, and they dined _al fresco_ among the scenes of Rousseau's
+retirement, but in a fashion less accordant with the spirit of his
+_reveries d'un promeneur solitaire_, than with the song which
+commemorates some earlier tenants of that delicious valley,--
+
+  "La belle Gabrielle
+     Etoit dans ces lieux--
+  Et le souvenir d'elle
+     Nous rend heureux," etc.
+
+At some stage of this merry day's proceedings, the ladies got tired of
+walking, and one of Lord Castlereagh's young diplomatists was
+despatched into a village in quest of donkeys for their accommodation.
+The _attache_ returned by and by with a face of disappointment,
+complaining that the charge the people made was so extravagant,
+{p.063} he could not think of yielding to the extortion. "_Marshal
+Forwards_" said nothing, but nodded to an aide-de-camp. They had
+passed a Prussian picket a little while before;--three times the
+requisite number of donkeys appeared presently, driven before
+half-a-dozen hussars, who were followed by the screaming population of
+the refractory hamlet; and "an angry man was Bluecher," said Scott,
+"when Lord Castlereagh condescended to go among them, all smiles, and
+sent them back with more Napoleons than perhaps the fee-simple of the
+whole stud was worth."
+
+Another evening of more peaceful enjoyment has left a better record.
+But I need not quote here the lines on Saint Cloud.[22] They were
+sent, on the 16th of August, to the late Lady Alvanley, with whom and
+her daughters he spent much of his time while in Paris.
+
+              [Footnote 22: See _Poetical Works_ (Edin. Ed.), vol. xi.
+              p. 295 [Cambridge Ed. p. 420].]
+
+As yet, the literary reputation of Scott had made but little way among
+the French nation; but some few of their eminent men vied even with
+the enthusiastic Germans in their courteous and unwearied attentions
+to him. The venerable _Chevalier_, in particular, seemed anxious to
+embrace every opportunity of acting as his cicerone; and many mornings
+were spent in exploring, under his guidance, the most remarkable
+scenes and objects of historical and antiquarian interest both in
+Paris and its neighborhood. He several times also entertained Scott
+and his young companions at dinner; but the last of those dinners was
+thoroughly poisoned by a preliminary circumstance. The poet, on
+entering the saloon, was presented to a stranger, whose physiognomy
+struck him as the most hideous he had ever seen; nor was his disgust
+lessened, when he found, a few minutes afterwards, that he had
+undergone the _accolade_ of David "of the blood-stained brush."
+
+From Paris, Mr. Bruce and Mr. Pringle went on to {p.064} Switzerland,
+leaving the poet and Gala to return home together, which they did by
+way of Dieppe, Brighton, and London. It was here, on the 14th of
+September, that Scott had that last meeting with Lord Byron, alluded
+to in his communication to Mr. Moore, already quoted. He carried his
+young friend in the morning to call on Lord Byron, who agreed to dine
+with them at their hotel, where he met also Charles Mathews and Daniel
+Terry. The only survivor of the party[23] has recorded it in his
+note-book as the most interesting day he ever spent. "How I did
+stare," he says, "at Byron's beautiful pale face, like a
+spirit's--good or evil. But he was _bitter_--what a contrast to Scott!
+Among other anecdotes of British prowess and spirit, Scott mentioned
+that a young gentleman ---- ---- ---- had been awfully shot in the
+head while conveying an order from the Duke, and yet staggered on, and
+delivered his message when at the point of death. 'Ha!' said Byron, 'I
+dare say he could do as well as most people without his head--it was
+never of much use to him.' Waterloo did not delight him, probably--and
+Scott could talk or think of scarcely anything else."
+
+              [Footnote 23: John Scott, Esq., of Gala, died at
+              Edinburgh, 19th April, 1840.--(1842.)]
+
+Mathews accompanied them as far as Warwick and Kenilworth, both of
+which castles the poet had seen before, but now reexamined with
+particular curiosity. They spent a night at Sheffield; and early next
+morning Scott sallied forth to provide himself with a planter's knife
+of the most complex contrivance and finished workmanship. Having
+secured one to his mind, and which for many years after was his
+constant pocket-companion, he wrote his name on a card, "Walter Scott,
+Abbotsford," and directed it to be engraved on the handle. On his
+mentioning this acquisition at breakfast, young Gala expressed his
+desire to equip himself in like fashion, and was directed to the shop
+accordingly. When he had {p.065} purchased a similar knife, and
+produced his name in turn for the engraver, the master cutler eyed the
+signature for a moment, and exclaimed, "John Scott of Gala! Well, I
+hope your ticket may serve me in as good stead as another Mr. Scott's
+has just done. Upon my word, one of my best men, an honest fellow from
+the North, went out of his senses when he saw it--he offered me a
+week's work if I would let him keep it to himself--and I took
+_Saunders_ at his word." Scott used to talk of this as one of the most
+gratifying compliments he ever received in his literary capacity.
+
+Their next halt was at Rokeby; but since Scott had heard from thence,
+Mrs. Morritt's illness had made such alarming progress, that the
+travellers regretted having obtruded themselves on the scene of
+affliction, and resumed their journey early next morning.
+
+Reaching Abbotsford, Scott found with his family his old friend Mr.
+Skene of Rubislaw, who had expected him to come home sooner, and James
+Ballantyne, who had arrived with a copious budget of bills, calendars,
+booksellers' letters, and proof sheets. From each of these visitors'
+_memoranda_ I now extract an anecdote. Mr. Skene's is of a small
+enough matter, but still it places the man so completely before
+myself, that I am glad he thought it worth setting down.
+
+     "During Scott's absence," says his friend, "his wife had had
+     the tiny drawing-room of the cottage fitted up with new
+     chintz furniture,--everything had been set out in the best
+     style,--and she and her girls had been looking forward to
+     the pleasure which they supposed the little surprise of the
+     arrangements would give him. He was received in the spruce
+     fresh room, set himself comfortably down in the chair
+     prepared for him, and remained in the full enjoyment of his
+     own fireside, and a return to his family circle, without the
+     least consciousness that any change had taken place--until,
+     at length, Mrs. Scott's patience could hold out no longer,
+     and his attention was expressly called to it. The vexation
+     he showed at having caused {p.066} such a disappointment,
+     struck me as amiably characteristic--and in the course of
+     the evening he every now and then threw out some word of
+     admiration to reconsole _mamma_."
+
+Ballantyne's note of their next morning's conference is in these
+terms:--
+
+     "He had just been reviewing a pageant of emperors and kings,
+     which seemed, like another Field of the Cloth of Gold, to
+     have been got up to realize before his eyes some of his own
+     splendid descriptions. I begged him to tell me what was the
+     general impression left on his mind. He answered, that he
+     might now say he had seen and conversed with all classes of
+     society, from the palace to the cottage, and including every
+     conceivable shade of science and ignorance--but that he had
+     never felt awed or abashed except in the presence of one
+     man--the Duke of Wellington. I expressed some surprise. He
+     said I ought not, for that the Duke of Wellington possessed
+     every one mighty quality of the mind in a higher degree than
+     any other man did, or had ever done. He said he beheld in
+     him a great soldier and a great statesman--the greatest of
+     each. When it was suggested that the Duke, on his part, saw
+     before him a great poet and novelist, he smiled, and said,
+     'What would the Duke of Wellington think of a few _bits of
+     novels_, which perhaps he had never read, and for which the
+     strong probability is that he would not care a sixpence if
+     he had?' You are not" (adds Ballantyne) "to suppose that he
+     looked either sheepish or embarrassed in the presence of the
+     Duke--indeed you well know that he did not, and could not do
+     so; but the feeling, qualified and modified as I have
+     described it, unquestionably did exist to a certain extent.
+     Its origin forms a curious moral problem; and may probably
+     be traced to a secret consciousness, which he might not
+     himself advert to, that the Duke, however great as a soldier
+     and statesman, was so defective in imagination as to be
+     incapable of appreciating that which had formed the charm of
+     his own life, as well as of his works."
+
+It is proper to add to Mr. Ballantyne's solution of his "curious moral
+problem," that he was in his latter days a strenuous opponent of the
+Duke of Wellington's politics; {p.067} to which circumstance he
+ascribes, in these same _memoranda_, the only coolness that ever
+occurred between him and Scott. I need hardly repeat, what has been
+already distinctly stated more than once, that Scott never considered
+any amount of literary distinction as entitled to be spoken of in the
+same breath with mastery in the higher departments of practical
+life--least of all, with the glory of a first-rate captain. To have
+done things worthy to be written was in his eyes a dignity to which no
+man made any approach, who had only written things worthy to be read.
+He on two occasions, which I can never forget, betrayed painful
+uneasiness when his works were alluded to as reflecting honor on the
+age that had produced Watt's improvement of the steam-engine, and the
+safety-lamp of Sir Humphry Davy. Such was his modest creed--but from
+all I ever saw or heard of his intercourse with the Duke of
+Wellington, I am not disposed to believe that he partook it with the
+only man in whose presence he ever felt awe and abashment.[24]
+
+              [Footnote 24: I think it very probable that Scott had
+              his own first interview with the Duke of Wellington in
+              his mind when he described the introduction of Roland
+              Graeme to the Regent Murray, in the novel of _The Abbot_,
+              chap. xviii.:--"Such was the personage before whom
+              Roland Graeme now presented himself with a feeling of
+              breathless awe, very different from the usual boldness
+              and vivacity of his temper. In fact, he was, from
+              education and nature, ... much more easily controlled by
+              the moral superiority arising from the elevated talents
+              and renown of those with whom he conversed, than by
+              pretensions founded only on rank or external show. He
+              might have braved with indifference the presence of an
+              Earl merely distinguished by his belt and coronet; but
+              he felt overawed in that of the eminent soldier and
+              statesman, the wielder of a nation's power, and the
+              leader of her armies."]
+
+A charming page in Mr. Washington Irving's Abbotsford and Newstead
+affords us another anecdote connected with this return from Paris. Two
+years after this time, when the amiable American visited Scott, he
+walked with him to a quarry, where his people were at work.
+
+     "The face of the humblest dependent," he says, "brightened
+     at his approach--all paused from their labor to have a
+     pleasant {p.068} 'crack wi' the laird.' Among the rest was
+     a tall straight old fellow, with a healthful complexion and
+     silver hairs, and a small round-crowned white hat. He had
+     been about to shoulder a hod, but paused, and stood looking
+     at Scott with a slight sparkling of his blue eye as if
+     waiting his turn; for the old fellow knew he was a favorite.
+     Scott accosted him in an affable tone, and asked for a pinch
+     of snuff. The old man drew forth a horn snuff-box. 'Hoot
+     man,' said Scott, 'not that old mull. Where's the bonnie
+     French one that I brought you from Paris?'--'Troth, your
+     honor,' replied the old fellow, 'sic a mull as that is nae
+     for week-days.' On leaving the quarry, Scott informed me,
+     that, when absent at Paris, he had purchased several
+     trifling articles as presents for his dependents, and, among
+     others, the gay snuff-box in question, which was so
+     carefully reserved for Sundays by the veteran. 'It was not
+     so much the value of the gifts,' said he, 'that pleased
+     them, as the idea that the laird should think of them when
+     so far away.'"
+
+One more incident of this return--it was told to me by himself, some
+years afterwards, with gravity, and even sadness. "The last of my
+chargers," he said, "was a high-spirited and very handsome one, by
+name Daisy, all over white, without a speck, and with such a mane as
+Rubens delighted to paint. He had, among other good qualities, one
+always particularly valuable in my case, that of standing like a rock
+to be mounted. When he was brought to the door, after I came home from
+the Continent, instead of signifying, by the usual tokens, that he was
+pleased to see his master, he looked askant at me like a devil; and
+when I put my foot in the stirrup, he reared bolt upright, and I fell
+to the ground rather awkwardly. The experiment was repeated twice or
+thrice, always with the same result. It occurred to me that he might
+have taken some capricious dislike to my dress; and Tom Purdie, who
+always falls heir to the white hat and green jacket, and so forth,
+when Mrs. Scott has made me discard a set of garments, was sent for,
+to try whether these habiliments would produce him a similar reception
+from his old friend Daisy: but Daisy {p.069} allowed Tom to back him
+with all manner of gentleness. The thing was inexplicable--but he had
+certainly taken some part of my conduct in high dudgeon and disgust;
+and after trying him again, at the interval of a week, I was obliged
+to part with Daisy--and wars and rumors of wars being over, I resolved
+thenceforth to have done with such dainty blood. I now stick to a good
+sober cob." Somebody suggested that Daisy might have considered
+himself as ill-used, by being left at home when _the laird_ went on
+his journey. "Ay," said he, "these creatures have many thoughts of
+their own, no doubt, that we can never penetrate." Then, laughing,
+"Troth," said he, "maybe some bird had whispered Daisy that I had been
+to see the grand reviews at Paris on a little scrag of a Cossack,
+while my own gallant trooper was left behind bearing Peter and the
+post-bag to Melrose."
+
+A few letters, written shortly after this return to Abbotsford, will,
+among other things, show with what zeal he at once resumed his
+literary industry, if indeed that can be said to have been at all
+interrupted by a journey, in the course of which a great part of
+Paul's narrative, and also of the poem of The Field of Waterloo, must
+have been composed.
+
+     TO J. B. S. MORRITT, ESQ., M. P., ROKEBY PARK.
+
+                                        ABBOTSFORD, 2d October, 1815.
+
+     MY DEAR MORRITT,--Few things could have given me more real
+     pain, than to see Mrs. Morritt under such severe suffering,
+     and the misery you sustain in witnessing it. Yet let us
+     trust in the goodness of Providence, which restored the
+     health so deservedly dear to you, from as great a state of
+     depression upon a former occasion. Our visit was indeed a
+     melancholy one, and, I fear, added to your distress, when,
+     God knows, it required no addition.--The contrast of this
+     quiet bird's-nest of a place, with the late scene of
+     confusion and military splendor which I have witnessed, is
+     something of a stunning {p.070} nature--and, for the first
+     five or six days, I have been content to fold my hands, and
+     saunter up and down in a sort of indolent and stupefied
+     tranquillity, my only attempt at occupation having gone no
+     farther than pruning a young tree now and then. Yesterday,
+     however, and to-day, I began, from necessity, to prune
+     verses, and have been correcting proofs of my little attempt
+     at a poem on Waterloo. It will be out this week, and you
+     shall have a copy by the Carlisle coach, which pray judge
+     favorably, and remember it is not always the grandest
+     actions which are best adapted for the arts of poetry and
+     painting. I believe I shall give offence to my old friends
+     the Whigs, by not condoling with Buonaparte. Since his
+     sentence of transportation, he has begun to look wonderfully
+     comely in their eyes. I would they had hanged him, that he
+     might have died a perfect Adonis. Every reasonable creature
+     must think the Ministers would have deserved the cord
+     themselves, if they had left him in a condition again to
+     cost us the loss of 10,000 of our best and bravest, besides
+     thirty millions of good money. The very threats and frights
+     which he has given the well-meaning people of this realm
+     (myself included), deserved no less a punishment than
+     banishment, since the "putting in bodily fear" makes so
+     material a part of every criminal indictment. But, no doubt,
+     we shall see Ministers attacked for their want of generosity
+     to a fallen enemy, by the same party who last year, with
+     better grounds, assailed them for having left him in a
+     situation again to disturb the tranquillity of Europe.--My
+     young friend Gala has left me, after a short visit to
+     Abbotsford. He is my nearest (conversible) neighbor, and I
+     promise myself much comfort in him, as he has a turn both
+     for the sciences and for the arts, rather uncommon among our
+     young Scotch lairds. He was delighted with Rokeby and its
+     lord, though he saw both at so melancholy a period, and
+     endured, not only with good-humor but with sympathy, the
+     stupidity of his fellow-traveller, who was not by {p.071}
+     any means _dans son brillant_ for some time after leaving
+     you.
+
+     We visited Corby Castle on our return to Scotland, which
+     remains, in point of situation, as beautiful as when its
+     walks were celebrated by David Hume, in the only rhymes he
+     was ever known to be guilty of. Here they are, from a pane
+     of glass in an inn at Carlisle:--
+
+       "Here chicks in eggs for breakfast sprawl,
+        Here godless boys God's glories squall,
+        Here Scotchmen's heads do guard the wall,
+        But Corby's walks atone for all."
+
+     Would it not be a good quiz to advertise _The Poetical Works
+     of David Hume_, with notes, critical, historical, and so
+     forth--with an historical inquiry into the use of eggs for
+     breakfast, a physical discussion on the causes of their
+     being addled; a history of the English Church music, and of
+     the choir of Carlisle in particular; a full account of the
+     affair of 1745, with the trials, last speeches, and so
+     forth, of the poor _plaids_ who were strapped up at
+     Carlisle; and, lastly, a full and particular description of
+     Corby, with the genealogy of every family who ever possessed
+     it? I think, even without more than the usual waste of
+     margin, the Poems of David would make a decent
+     twelve-shilling touch. I shall think about it when I have
+     exhausted mine own _century of inventions_.
+
+     I do not know whether it is perverseness of state, or old
+     associations, but an excellent and very handsome modern
+     house, which Mr. Howard has lately built at Corby, does not,
+     in my mind, assimilate so well with the scenery as the old
+     irregular monastic hall, with its weather-beaten and antique
+     appearance, which I remember there some years ago.
+
+     Out of my Field of Waterloo has sprung an odd wild sort of
+     thing, which I intend to finish separately, and call it The
+     Dance of Death.[25] These matters take up my {p.072} time
+     so much, that I must bid you adieu for the present. Besides,
+     I am summoned to attend a grand _chasse_, and I see the
+     children are all mounted upon the ponies. By the way, Walter
+     promises to be a gallant horseman. Ever most truly yours,
+
+                                        Walter SCOTT.
+
+              [Footnote 25: This was published in the _Edinburgh
+              Annual Register_ in 1815.--See _Poetical Works_ (Ed.
+              1834), vol. xi. p. 297 [Cambridge Ed. p. 421].]
+
+I shall close this chapter with a transcript of some _Notes_ on the
+proof sheets of The Field of Waterloo. John Ballantyne being at
+Abbotsford on the 3d of October, his brother the printer addressed the
+packet containing the sheets to him. John appears to have considered
+James's observations on the margin before Scott saw them; and the
+record of the style in which the Poet repelled, or yielded to, his
+critics, will at all events illustrate his habitual good-nature.
+
+John Ballantyne writes on the fly-leaf of the proofs, to his
+confidential clerk: "Mr. Hodgson, I beg these sheets and all the MS.
+may be carefully preserved just as they stand, and put in my father's
+desk. J. B."
+
+James prefaces his animadversions with this quotation:--
+
+     "Cut deep and spare not.--_Penruddock._"
+
+The _Notes_ are these:--
+
+  STANZA I.--"Fair Brussels, thou art far behind."
+
+
+  _James Ballantyne._--I do not like this line. It is tame, and the
+  phrase "far behind," has, to my feeling, some associated vulgarity.
+
+  _Scott._--Stet.
+
+
+  STANZA II.--"Let not _the_ stranger with disdain
+              _The_ architecture view."
+
+
+  _James._--These two words are cacophonous. Would not _its_ do?
+
+  _Scott._--Th. is a bad sound. Ts. a much worse. Read _their_.
+
+
+  STANZA IV.--"A stranger might reply."
+
+
+  _James._--My objection to this is probably fantastical, and I state
+  it only because, from the first moment to the last, it has always
+  made me boggle. I don't like a _stranger_--Query, "The
+  questioned"--The "spectator"--"gazer," etc.
+
+  _Scott._--_Stranger_ is appropriate--it means stranger to the
+  circumstances.
+
+
+  {p.073} STANZA VI.--_James._--You had changed "garner-house
+  profound," which I think quite admirable, to "garner under ground,"
+  which I think quite otherways. I have presumed not to make the
+  change--must I?
+
+
+  _Scott._--I acquiesce, but with doubts; _profound_ sounds affected.
+
+
+  STANZA VIII.--"The deadly tug of war at length
+                 Must limits find in human strength,
+                 And _cease_ when these are passed.
+                 Vain hope!" etc.
+
+
+  _James._--I must needs repeat, that the deadly tug _did_ cease in
+  the case supposed. It lasted long--very long; but, when the limits
+  of resistance, of human strength, were past--that is, after they had
+  fought for ten hours, then the deadly tug _did_ cease. Therefore the
+  "hope" was not "vain."
+
+  _Scott._--I answer, it did _not_,--because the observation relates
+  to the strength of those actually engaged, and when _their_ strength
+  was exhausted, other squadrons were brought up. Suppose you saw two
+  lawyers scolding at the bar, you might say this must have an
+  end--human lungs cannot hold out--but, if the debate were continued
+  by the senior counsel, your well-grounded expectations would be
+  disappointed--"Cousin, thou wert not wont to be so dull!"--
+
+          IBID.--"Nor ceased the _intermitted_ shot."
+
+  _James._--Mr. Erskine contends that "intermitted" is redundant.
+
+  _Scott._--"Nor ceased the _storm of shell and shot_."
+
+
+  STANZA X.--"---- Never shall our country say
+              We gave one inch of ground away,
+             _When battling_ for her right."
+
+
+  _James._--_In conflict?_
+
+  _John B._--_Warring?_ I am afraid _battling_ must stand.
+
+  _Scott._--All worse than the text.
+
+
+  STANZA XI.--"Peal'd wildly the imperial name."
+
+
+  _James._--I submit with diffidence whether this be not a somewhat
+  tame conclusion to so very animated a stanza? And, at any rate, you
+  will observe, that as it stands, you have no rhyme whatever to "The
+  Cohort eagles _fly_."--You have no rhyme to _fly_. _Flew_ and _fly_,
+  also, are perhaps too near, considering that each word closes a line
+  of the same sort. I don't well like "_Thus_ in a torrent," either.
+  If it were, "In one broad torrent," etc., it strikes me that it
+  would be more spirited.
+
+  _Scott._--Granted as to most of these observations--Read, "in one
+  _dark_ torrent broad and strong," etc.--The "imperial name" is
+  _true_, therefore must stand.
+
+
+  STANZA XII.--"Nor was one forward footstep _stopped_."
+
+
+  _James._--This staggering word was intended, I presume, but I don't
+  like it.
+
+  {p.074} _Scott._--Granted. Read _staid_, etc.
+
+          IBID.--"Down were the eagle banners sent,
+                  Down, down the horse and horsemen went."
+
+  _James._--This is very spirited and very fine; but it is
+  unquestionably liable to the charge of being very nearly a direct
+  repetition of yourself. See _Lord of the Isles_, Canto vi. Stanza
+  24:--
+
+          "_Down! down!_ in headlong overthrow,
+           _Horseman and horse_, the foremost go," etc.
+
+This passage is at once so striking and so recent, that its close
+similarity to the present, if not indeed its identity, must strike
+every reader; and really, to borrow from one's self is hardly much
+better than to borrow from one's neighbors. And yet again, a few lines
+lower--
+
+          "As hammers on the _anvils_ reel,
+           Against the cuirass _clangs_ the steel."
+
+See _Lady of the Lake_, Canto vi. Stanza 18:--
+
+          "I heard the broadswords' deadly _clang_,
+           As if an hundred _anvils_ rang."
+
+Here is precisely the same image, in very nearly the same words.
+
+  _Scott._--I have altered the expression, but made a note, which, I
+  think, will vindicate my retaining the simile.
+
+
+  STANZA XIII.--"As their own Ocean-rocks hold _stance_."
+
+
+  _John._--I do not know such an English word as _stance_.
+
+  _Scott._--Then we'll make it one for the _nance_.
+
+          IBID.--"And _newer_ standards fly."
+
+  _James._--I don't like _newer_.
+
+  _Scott._--"And _other_ standards fly."
+
+          IBID.--"Or can thy memory fail to _quote_,
+                  Heard to thy cost the vengeful note."
+
+  _James._--Would to God you would alter this _quote_!
+
+  _John._--Would to God _I_ could!--I certainly should.--
+
+  _Scott._--"Or can thy memory fail to know,
+             Heard oft before in hour of woe."
+
+     Or--
+
+            "Or dwells not in thy memory still,
+             Heard frequent in thine hour of ill."
+
+
+  STANZA XV.--"Wrung forth by pride, _regret_, and shame."
+
+
+  _James._--I have ventured to submit to your choice--
+
+          "Wrung forth by pride, _and rage_, and shame."
+
+  _Regret_ appearing a faint epithet amidst such a combination of
+  bitter feelings.
+
+  _Scott._--Granted.
+
+          {p.075} IBID.--"So mingle banner, wain, and gun,
+                          Where in one tide of horror run
+                          The warriors," etc.
+
+  _James._--In the first place, warriors _running_ in a tide is a
+  clashing metaphor; in the second, the warriors _running_ at all is a
+  little homely. It is true, no doubt; but really running is little
+  better than scampering. For these causes, one or both, I think the
+  lines should be altered.
+
+  _Scott._--You are wrong in one respect. A tide is always said to
+  _run_,--but I thought of the tide without attending to the
+  equivoque, which must be altered. Read,--
+
+          "Where the tumultuous flight rolls on."
+
+
+  STANZA XVI.--"---- found _gallant_ grave."
+
+
+  _James._--This is surely a singular epithet to a grave. I think the
+  whole of this stanza eminently fine; and, in particular, the
+  conclusion.
+
+  _Scott._--"---- found _soldier's_ grave." ----
+
+
+  STANZA XXI.--"_Redoubted_ Picton's soul of fire."
+
+
+  _James._--From long association, this epithet strikes me as
+  conveying a semi-ludicrous idea.
+
+  _Scott._--It is here appropriate, and your objection seems merely
+  personal to your own association.
+
+          IBID.--"Through his friends' heart to _wound_ his own."
+
+  _James._--Quaere--_Pierce_, or rather _stab_--_wound_ is faint.
+
+  _Scott._--"Pierce."
+
+
+  STANZA XXII.--"Forgive, _brave fallen_, the imperfect lay."
+
+
+  _James._--Don't like "brave fallen" at all; nor "appropriate
+  praise," three lines after. The latter in particular is prosaic.
+
+  _Scott._--"Forgive, _brave dead_,"
+             ---- "_The dear-earned praise._"
+
+
+
+
+{p.076} CHAPTER XXXVI.
+
+     Field of Waterloo Published. -- Revision of Paul's Letters,
+     etc. -- Quarrel and Reconciliation with Hogg. -- Football
+     Match at Carterhaugh. -- Songs on the Banner of Buccleuch.
+     -- Dinner at Bowhill. -- Design for a Piece of Plate to the
+     Sutors of Selkirk. -- Letters to the Duke of Buccleuch,
+     Joanna Baillie, and Mr. Morritt.
+
+1815.
+
+
+The poem of The Field of Waterloo was published before the end of
+October; the profits of the first edition being the author's
+contribution to the fund raised for the relief of the widows and
+children of the soldiers slain in the battle. This piece appears to
+have disappointed those most disposed to sympathize with the author's
+views and feelings. The descent is indeed heavy from his Bannockburn
+to his Waterloo: the presence, or all but visible reality of what his
+dreams cherished, seems to have overawed his imagination, and tamed it
+into a weak pomposity of movement. The burst of pure native enthusiasm
+upon the _Scottish_ heroes that fell around the Duke of Wellington's
+person bears, however, the broadest marks of the "Mighty Minstrel:"--
+
+        "Saw gallant Miller's fading eye
+  Still bent where Albyn's standards fly,
+  And Cameron, in the shock of steel,
+  Die like the offspring of Lochiel," etc.;--
+
+and this is far from being the only redeeming passage. There is one,
+indeed, in which he illustrates what he then thought Buonaparte's
+poorness of spirit in adversity, {p.077} which always struck me as
+preeminently characteristic of Scott's manner of interweaving, both in
+prose and verse, the moral energies with analogous natural
+description, and combining thought with imagery,--
+
+   "Or is thy soul like mountain tide,
+  That, swelled by winter storm and shower,
+  Rolls down in turbulence of power,
+    A torrent fierce and wide;
+  Reft of these aids, a rill obscure,
+  Shrinking unnoticed, mean and poor,
+    Whose channel shows displayed
+  The wrecks of its impetuous course,
+  But not one symptom of the force
+    By which these wrecks were made!"
+
+The poem was the first upon a subject likely to be sufficiently
+hackneyed; and, having the advantage of coming out in a small cheap
+form--(prudently imitated from Murray's innovation with the tales of
+Byron, which was the death-blow to the system of verse in quarto)--it
+attained rapidly a measure of circulation above what had been reached
+either by Rokeby or The Lord of the Isles.
+
+Meanwhile the revision of Paul's Letters was proceeding; and Scott had
+almost immediately on his return to Abbotsford concluded his bargain
+for the first edition of a third novel--The Antiquary--to be published
+also in the approaching winter. Harold the Dauntless, too, was from
+time to time taken up as the amusement of _horae subsecivae_. As for
+Scott's out-of-doors occupations of that autumn, sufficient light will
+be thrown on them by the following letter; from which it is seen that
+he had now completed a rather tedious negotiation with another
+bonnet-laird, and definitively added the lands of _Kaeside_ to the
+original estate of Abbotsford.
+
+     TO MISS JOANNA BAILLIE, HAMPSTEAD.
+
+                                        ABBOTSFORD, November 12, 1815.
+
+     I have been long in acknowledging your letter, my dear
+     friend, and yet you have not only been frequent in my
+     thoughts, as must always be the case, but your name {p.078}
+     has been of late familiar in my mouth as a household word.
+     You must know that the pinasters you had the goodness to
+     send me some time since, which are now fit to be set out of
+     the nursery, have occupied my mind as to the mode of
+     disposing of them. Now, mark the event: there is in the
+     middle of what will soon be a bank of fine young wood, a
+     certain old gravel-pit, which is the present scene of my
+     operations. I have caused it to be covered with better
+     earth, and gently altered with the spade, so as, if
+     possible, to give it the air of one of those accidental
+     hollows which the surface of a hill frequently presents.
+     Having arranged my ground, I intend to plant it all round
+     with the pinasters, and other varieties of the pine species,
+     and in the interior I will have a rustic seat, surrounded by
+     all kinds of evergreen shrubs (laurels in particular), and
+     all varieties of the holly and cedar, and so forth, and this
+     is to be called and entitled _Joanna's Bower_. We are
+     determined in the choice of our ornaments by necessity, for
+     our ground fronts (in poetic phrase) the rising sun, or, in
+     common language, looks to the east; and being also on the
+     north side of the hill--(don't you shiver at the
+     thought?)--why, to say truth, George Wynnos and I are both
+     of opinion that nothing but evergreens will flourish there;
+     but I trust I shall convert a present deformity into a very
+     pretty little hobby-horsical sort of thing. It will not bear
+     looking at for years, and that is a pity; but it will so far
+     resemble the person from whom it takes name, that it is
+     planted, as she has written, for the benefit as well of
+     posterity as for the passing generation. Time and I, says
+     the Spaniard, against any two; and fully confiding in the
+     proverb, I have just undertaken another grand task. You must
+     know, I have purchased a large lump of wild land, lying
+     adjoining to this little property, which greatly more than
+     doubles my domains. The land is said to be reasonably
+     bought, and I am almost certain I can turn it to advantage
+     by a little judicious expenditure; for this {p.079} place
+     is already allowed to be worth twice what it cost me; and
+     our people here think so little of planting, and do it so
+     carelessly, that they stare with astonishment at the
+     alteration which well-planted woods make on the face of a
+     country. There is, besides, a very great temptation, from
+     the land running to within a quarter of a mile of a very
+     sweet wild sheet of water, of which (that is, one side of
+     it) I have every chance to become proprietor: this is a
+     poetical circumstance not to be lost sight of, and
+     accordingly I keep it full in my view. Amid these various
+     avocations, past, present, and to come, I have not thought
+     much about Waterloo, only that I am truly glad you like it.
+     I might, no doubt, have added many curious anecdotes, but I
+     think the pamphlet long enough as it stands, and never had
+     any design of writing copious notes.
+
+     I do most devoutly hope Lord Byron will succeed in his
+     proposal of bringing out one of your dramas; that he is your
+     sincere admirer is only synonymous with his being a man of
+     genius; and he has, I am convinced, both the power and
+     inclination to serve the public, by availing himself of the
+     treasures you have laid before them. Yet I long for "some
+     yet untasted spring," and heartily wish you would take Lord
+     B. into your counsels, and adjust, from your yet unpublished
+     materials, some drama for the public. In such a case, I
+     would, in your place, conceal my name till the issue of the
+     adventure. It is a sickening thing to think how many angry
+     and evil passions the mere name of admitted excellence
+     brings into full activity. I wish you would consider this
+     hint, and I am sure the result would be great gratification
+     to the public, and to yourself that sort of satisfaction
+     which arises from receiving proofs of having attained the
+     mark at which you aimed. Of this last, indeed, you cannot
+     doubt, if you consult only the voices of the intelligent and
+     the accomplished; but the object of the dramatist is
+     professedly to delight the public at large, and therefore I
+     think you should make the experiment fairly.
+
+     {p.080} Little Sophia is much obliged by your kind and
+     continued recollection: she is an excellent good child,
+     sufficiently sensible, very affectionate, not without
+     perception of character; but the gods have not made her
+     poetical, and I hope she will never attempt to act a part
+     which nature has not called her to. I am myself a poet,
+     writing to a poetess, and therefore cannot be suspected of a
+     wish to degrade a talent, to which, in whatever degree I may
+     have possessed it, I am indebted for much happiness: but
+     this depends only on the rare coincidence of some talent
+     falling in with a novelty in style and diction and conduct
+     of story, which suited the popular taste; and were my
+     children to be better poets than me, they would not be such
+     in general estimation, simply because the second cannot be
+     the first, and the first (I mean in point of date) is
+     everything, while others are nothing, even with more
+     intrinsic merit. I am therefore particularly anxious to
+     store the heads of my young damsels with something better
+     than the tags of rhymes; and I hope Sophia is old enough
+     (young though she be) to view her little incidents of
+     celebrity, such as they are, in the right point of view.
+     Mrs. Scott and she are at present in Edinburgh; the rest of
+     the children are with me in this place; my eldest boy is
+     already a bold horseman and a fine shot, though only about
+     fourteen years old. I assure you I was prouder of the first
+     blackcock he killed, than I have been of anything whatever
+     since I first killed one myself, and that is twenty years
+     ago. This is all stupid gossip; but, as Master Corporal Nym
+     says, "things must be as they may:" you cannot expect grapes
+     from thorns, or much amusement from a brain bewildered with
+     thorn hedges at Kaeside, for such is the sonorous title of
+     my new possession, in virtue of which I subscribe myself,
+
+                                        ABBOTSFORD & KAESIDE.
+
+There is now to be mentioned a little pageant of {p.081} December,
+1815, which perhaps interested _Abbotsford and Kaeside_ not very much
+less than the "Field of the Cloth of Gold," as James Ballantyne calls
+it, of the preceding autumn. This was no other than a football match,
+got up under the auspices of the Duke of Buccleuch, between the men of
+the Vale of Yarrow and the Burghers of Selkirk, the particulars of
+which will be sufficiently explained by an extract from Ballantyne's
+newspaper, written, I can have no doubt, by the Sheriff of the Forest.
+But the part taken in this solemnity by the Ettrick Shepherd reminds
+me of an extraordinary epistle which Scott had received from him some
+months before this time, and of the account given by Hogg himself, in
+one of his autobiographies, of the manner in which Scott's kindness
+terminated the alienation it refers to.
+
+The Shepherd, being as usual in pecuniary straits, had projected a
+work, to be called The Poetic Mirror, in which should appear some
+piece by each popular poet of the time, the whole to be edited by
+himself, and published for his benefit; and he addressed, accordingly,
+to his brother bards a circular petition for their best assistance.
+Scott--like Byron and most of the other persons thus applied
+to--declined the proposition. The letter in which he signified his
+refusal has not been preserved;--indeed it is sufficiently remarkable,
+that of all the many letters which Hogg must have received from his
+distinguished contemporaries, he appears to have kept not one; but
+Scott's decided aversion to joint-stock adventures in authorship must
+have been well known ere now to Hogg--and, at all events, nobody can
+suspect that his note of refusal was meant to be an unfriendly
+communication. The Shepherd, however, took some phrase in high
+dudgeon, and penned an answer virulently insolent in spirit and in
+language, accusing him of base jealousy of his own superior natural
+genius. I am not sure whether it was on this or another occasion of
+the like sort, that James varied the usual formulas of {p.082}
+epistolary composition, by beginning with "Damned Sir," and ending,
+"Believe me, Sir, yours with disgust, etc.;" but certainly the
+performance was such that no intercourse took place between the
+parties for some weeks, or perhaps months, afterwards. The letter in
+which Hogg at length solicits a renewal of kindliness says nothing, it
+may be observed, of the circumstance which, according to his
+autobiography, confirmed by the recollection of two friends, whom he
+names in the letter itself (Mr. John Grieve and Mr. William Laidlaw),
+had really caused him to repent of his suspicions, and their
+outrageous expression. The fact was, that hearing, shortly after the
+receipt of the offensive epistle, that Hogg was confined to his
+lodgings, in an obscure alley of Edinburgh, called Gabriel's Road, by
+a dangerous illness, Scott called on Mr. Grieve to make inquiries
+about him, and to offer to take on himself the expenses of the best
+medical attendance. He had, however, cautioned the worthy hatter that
+no hint of this offer must reach Hogg; and, in consequence, it might
+perhaps be the Shepherd's feeling at the time that he should not, in
+addressing his lifelong benefactor, betray any acquaintance with this
+recent interference on his behalf. There can be no doubt, however,
+that he obeyed the genuine dictates of his better nature when he
+penned this apologetic effusion:--
+
+     TO WALTER SCOTT, ESQ., CASTLE STREET.
+
+                                   GABRIEL'S ROAD, February 28, 1815.
+
+     Mr. SCOTT,--I think it is great nonsense for two men who are
+     friends at heart, and who ever must be so,--indeed it is not
+     in the nature of things that they can be otherwise,--should
+     be professed enemies.
+
+     Mr. Grieve and Mr. Laidlaw, who were very severe on me, and
+     to whom I was obliged to show your letter, have long ago
+     convinced me that I mistook part of it, and that it was not
+     me you held in such contempt, but the opinion of the public.
+     The {p.083} idea that you might mean that (though I still
+     think the reading will bear either construction) has given
+     me much pain; for I know I answered yours intemperately, and
+     in a mortal rage. I meant to have enclosed yours, and begged
+     of you to return mine, but I cannot find it, and am sure
+     that some one to whom I have been induced to show it, has
+     taken it away. However, as my troubles on that subject were
+     never like to wear to an end, I could no longer resist
+     telling you that I am extremely vexed about it. I desire not
+     a renewal of our former intimacy, for haply, after what I
+     have written, your family would not suffer it; but I wish it
+     to be understood that, when we meet _by chance_, we might
+     shake hands, and speak to one another as old acquaintances,
+     and likewise that we may exchange a letter occasionally, for
+     I find there are many things which I yearn to communicate to
+     you, and the tears rush to my eyes when I consider that I
+     may not.
+
+     If you allow of this, pray let me know, and if you do not,
+     let me know. Indeed, I am anxious to hear from you, for "as
+     the day of trouble is with me, so shall my strength be." To
+     be friends _from the teeth forwards_ is common enough; but
+     it strikes me that there is something still more ludicrous
+     in the reverse of the picture, and so to be enemies--and why
+     should I be, _from the teeth forwards_, yours sincerely,
+
+                                        James HOGG?
+
+Scott's reply was, as Hogg says, "a brief note, telling him to think
+no more of the business, and come to breakfast next morning." The
+misunderstanding being thus closed, they appear to have counselled and
+cooperated together in the most cordial fashion, in disciplining their
+rural allies for the muster of Carterhaugh--the Duke of Buccleuch's
+brother-in-law, the Earl of Home, having appointed the Shepherd his
+Lieutenant over the Yarrow Band, while the Sheriff took under his
+special cognizance the _Sutors_, i.e., _shoemakers_, of Selkirk--for
+so the burgesses of that town have for ages styled themselves, and
+under that denomination their warlike prowess in days of yore has been
+celebrated in many an old ballad, besides the well-known one which
+begins with
+
+  {p.084} "'Tis up wi' the Sutors o' Selkirk,
+           And 'tis down wi' the Earl of Home!"
+
+In order to understand all the allusions in the newspaper record of
+this important day, one must be familiar with the notes to the
+Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border; but I shall not burden it with
+further comment here.
+
+     FOOTBALL MATCH.
+
+     "On Monday, 4th December, there was played, upon the
+     extensive plain of Carterhaugh, near the junction of the
+     Ettrick and Yarrow, the greatest match at the ball which has
+     taken place for many years. It was held by the people of the
+     Dale of Yarrow, against those of the parish of Selkirk; the
+     former being brought to the field by the Right Hon. the Earl
+     of Home, and the Gallant Sutors by their Chief Magistrate,
+     Ebenezer Clarkson, Esq. Both sides were joined by many
+     volunteers from other parishes; and the appearance of the
+     various parties marching from their different glens to the
+     place of rendezvous, with pipes playing and loud
+     acclamations, carried back the coldest imagination to the
+     old times when the Foresters assembled with the less
+     peaceable purpose of invading the English territory, or
+     defending their own. The romantic character of the scenery
+     aided the illusion, as well as the performance of a feudal
+     ceremony previous to commencing the games.
+
+     "His Grace the Duke of Buccleuch and Queensberry came upon
+     the ground about eleven o'clock, attended by his sons, the
+     young Earl of Dalkeith and Lord John Scott; the Countess of
+     Home; the Ladies Anne, Charlotte, and Isabella Scott; Lord
+     and Lady Montagu and family; the Hon. General Sir Edward
+     Stopford, K. B.; Sir John Riddell of Riddell; Sir Alexander
+     Don of Newton; Mr. Elliot Lockhart, member for the county;
+     Mr. Pringle of Whytbank, younger; Mr. Pringle of Torwoodlee;
+     Captain Pringle, Royal Navy; Mr. Boyd of Broadmeadows and
+     family; Mr. Chisholm of Chisholm; Major Pott of Todrig; Mr.
+     Walter Scott, Sheriff of Selkirkshire, and family,--and many
+     other gentlemen and ladies.--The ancient banner of the
+     Buccleuch family, a curious and venerable relique,
+     emblazoned with armorial bearings, and with the word
+     '_Bellendaine_,' the ancient war-cry of the clan of Scott,
+     was then displayed, {p.085} as on former occasions when the
+     Chief took the field in person, whether for the purpose of
+     war or sport. The banner was delivered by Lady Anne Scott to
+     Master Walter Scott, younger of Abbotsford, who attended
+     suitably mounted and armed, and riding over the field
+     displayed it to the sound of the war-pipes, and amid the
+     acclamations of the assembled spectators, who could not be
+     fewer than 2000 in number. That this singular renewal of an
+     ancient military custom might not want poetical celebrity,
+     verses were distributed among the spectators, composed for
+     the occasion by Mr. Walter Scott and the Ettrick
+     Shepherd.--Mr. James Hogg acted as aide-de-camp to the Earl
+     of Home in the command of the Yarrow men, and Mr. Robert
+     Henderson of Selkirk to Mr. Clarkson, both of whom
+     contributed not a little to the good order of the day.
+
+     "The ball was thrown up between the parties by the Duke of
+     Buccleuch, and the first game was gained, after a severe
+     conflict of an hour and a half duration, by the Selkirk men.
+     The second game was still more severely contested, and after
+     a close and stubborn struggle of more than three hours, with
+     various fortune, and much display of strength and agility on
+     both sides, was at length carried by the Yarrow men. The
+     ball should then have been thrown up a third time, but
+     considerable difficulty occurred in arranging the voluntary
+     auxiliaries from other parishes, so as to make the match
+     equal; and, as the day began to close, it was found
+     impossible to bring the strife to an issue, by playing a
+     decisive game.
+
+     "Both parties, therefore, parted with equal honors, but,
+     before they left the ground, the Sheriff threw up his hat,
+     and in Lord Dalkeith's name and his own, challenged the
+     Yarrow men, on the part of the Sutors, to a match to be
+     played upon the first convenient opportunity, with 100
+     picked men only on each side. The challenge was mutually
+     accepted by Lord Home, on his own part, and for Lord John
+     Scott, and was received with acclamation by the players on
+     both sides. The principal gentlemen present took part with
+     one side or other, except the Duke of Buccleuch, who remains
+     neutral. Great play is expected, and all bets are to be paid
+     by the losers to the poor of the winning parish. We cannot
+     dismiss the subject without giving our highest commendation
+     to the Earl of Home, {p.086} and to Mr. Clarkson, for the
+     attention which they showed in promoting the spirit and good
+     order of the day. For the players themselves, it was
+     impossible to see a finer set of active and athletic young
+     fellows than appeared on the field. But what we chiefly
+     admired in their conduct was, that though several hundreds
+     in number, exceedingly keen for their respective parties,
+     and engaged in so rough and animated a contest, they
+     maintained the most perfect good-humor, and showed how
+     unnecessary it is to discourage manly and athletic exercises
+     among the common people, under pretext of maintaining
+     subordination and good order. We have only to regret that
+     the great concourse of spectators rendered it difficult to
+     mention the names of the several players who distinguished
+     themselves by feats of strength or agility; but we must not
+     omit to record that the first ball was _hailed_ by Robert
+     Hall, mason in _Selkirk_, and the second by George Brodie,
+     from _Greatlaws_, upon _Aillwater_.
+
+     "The Selkirk party wore slips of fir as their mark of
+     distinction--the Yarrow men, sprigs of heath.
+
+     "Refreshments were distributed to the players by the Duke of
+     Buccleuch's domestics, in a booth erected for the purpose;
+     and no persons were allowed to sell ale or spirits on the
+     field.
+
+     "In the evening there was a dance at the Duke's hunting-seat
+     at Bowhill, attended by the nobility and gentry who had
+     witnessed the sport of the day; and the fascination of Gow's
+     violin and band detained them in the dancing-room till the
+     dawn of the winter morning."
+
+The newspaper then gives the songs above alluded to--namely, Scott's
+Lifting of the Banner:--
+
+  "From the brown crest of Newark its summons extending,
+     Our signal is waving in smoke and in flame,
+   And each Forester blithe, from his mountain descending,
+     Bounds light o'er the heather to join in the game;
+   Then up with the Banner! let forest winds fan her!
+     She has blazed over Ettrick eight ages and more;
+   In sport we'll attend her, in battle defend her,
+     With heart and with hand, like our Fathers before," etc.[26]
+
+              [Footnote 26: See _Poetical Works_ (Ed. 1834), vol. xi.
+              p. 312 [Cambridge Ed. p. 424].]
+
+--and that excellent ditty by Hogg, entitled The Ettrick {p.087}
+Garland, to the Ancient Banner of the House of Buccleuch:--
+
+  "And hast thou here, like hermit gray,
+     Thy mystic characters unroll'd,
+   O'er peaceful revellers to play,
+     Thou emblem of the days of old?
+   All hail! memorial of the brave,
+     The liegeman's pride, the Border's awe!
+   May thy gray pennon never wave
+     On sterner field than Carterhaugh!" etc.
+
+I have no doubt the Sheriff of the Forest was a prouder man, when he
+saw his boy ride about Carterhaugh with the pennon of Bellenden, than
+when Platoff mounted himself for the imperial review of the _Champ de
+Mars_. It is a pity that I should have occasion to allude, before I
+quit a scene so characteristic of Scott, to another outbreak of Hogg's
+jealous humor. His Autobiography informs us, that when the more
+distinguished part of the company assembled on the conclusion of the
+sport to dine at Bowhill, he was proceeding to place himself at a
+particular table--but the Sheriff seized his arm, told him _that_ was
+reserved for the nobility, and seated him at an inferior
+board--"between himself and the Laird of Harden"--the first gentleman
+of the clan Scott. "The fact is," says Hogg, "I am convinced he was
+sore afraid of my getting to be too great a favorite among the young
+ladies of Buccleuch!" Who can read this, and not be reminded of Sancho
+Panza and the Duchess? And, after all, he quite mistook what Scott had
+said to him; for certainly there was, neither on this, nor on any
+similar occasion at Bowhill, any _high table for the nobility_, though
+there was a _side-table for the children_, at which, when the Shepherd
+of Ettrick was about to seat himself, his friend probably whispered
+that it was reserved for the "_little_ lords and ladies, and their
+playmates." This blunder may seem undeserving of any explanation; but
+it is often in small matters that the strongest feelings are most
+strikingly betrayed--and this story is, in exact {p.088} proportion
+to its silliness, indicative of the jealous feeling which mars and
+distorts so many of Hogg's representations of Scott's conduct and
+demeanor.
+
+It appears from the account of this football match in the Edinburgh
+Journal, that Scott took a lead in proposing a renewal of the contest.
+This, however, never occurred; and that it ought not to do so had
+probably occurred from the first to the Duke of Buccleuch, who is
+mentioned as having alone abstained from laying any bets on the final
+issue.
+
+When Mr. Washington Irving visited Scott two years afterwards at
+Abbotsford, he told his American friend that "the old feuds and local
+interests, and rivalries and animosities of the Scotch, still slept in
+their ashes, and might easily be roused; their hereditary feeling for
+names was still great; it was not always safe to have even the game of
+football between villages;--the old clannish spirit was too apt to
+break out."[27]
+
+              [Footnote 27: Irving's _Abbotsford and Newstead_, 1835,
+              p. 40.]
+
+The good Duke of Buccleuch's solitary exemption from these heats of
+Carterhaugh might read a significant lesson to minor politicians of
+all parties on more important scenes. In pursuance of the same
+peace-making spirit, he appears to have been desirous of doing
+something gratifying to the men of the town of Selkirk, who had on
+this occasion taken the field against his Yarrow tenantry. His Grace
+consulted Scott about the design of a piece of plate to be presented
+to their community; and his letter on this weighty subject must not be
+omitted in the memoirs of a Sheriff of Selkirk:--
+
+     TO HIS GRACE THE DUKE OF BUCCLEUCH, ETC., BOWHILL.
+
+                                        EDINBURGH, Thursday.
+
+     MY DEAR LORD,--I have proceeded in my commission about the
+     cup. It will be a very handsome one. But I am still puzzled
+     to dispose of the birse[28] in a {p.089} becoming manner.
+     It is a most unmanageable decoration. I tried it upright on
+     the top of the cup; it looked like a shaving-brush, and the
+     goblet might be intended to make the lather. Then I thought
+     I had a brilliant idea. The arms of Selkirk are a female
+     seated on a sarcophagus, decorated with the arms of
+     Scotland, which will make a beautiful top to the cup. So I
+     thought of putting the birse into the lady's other hand;
+     but, alas, it looked so precisely like the rod of
+     chastisement uplifted over the poor child, that I laughed at
+     the drawing for half an hour. Next I tried to take off the
+     castigatory appearance, by inserting the bristles in a kind
+     of handle; but then it looked as if the poor woman had been
+     engaged in the capacities of housemaid and child-keeper at
+     once, and, fatigued with her double duty, had sat down on
+     the wine-cooler, with the broom in one hand, and the bairn
+     in the other. At length, after some conference with Charles
+     Sharpe, I have hit on a plan, which, I think, will look very
+     well, if tolerably executed,--namely, to have the lady
+     seated in due form on the top of the lid (which will look
+     handsome, and will be well taken), and to have a thistle
+     wreathed around the sarcophagus and rising above her head,
+     and from the top of the thistle shall proceed the birse. I
+     will bring a drawing with me, and they shall get the cup
+     ready in the mean time. I hope to be at Abbotsford on Monday
+     night, to stay for a week. My cat has eat two or three
+     birds, while regaling on the crumbs that were thrown for
+     them. This was a breach of hospitality; but _oportet
+     vivere_--and _micat inter omnes_--with which stolen pun, and
+     my respectful compliments to Lord Montagu and the ladies, I
+     am, very truly, your Grace's most faithful and obliged
+     servant,
+
+                                        Walter SCOTT.
+
+              [Footnote 28: A _birse_, or bunch of hog's _bristles_,
+              forms the cognizance of the Sutors. When a new burgess
+              is admitted into their community, _the birse_ passes
+              round with the cup of welcome, and every elder brother
+              dips it into the wine, and draws it through his mouth,
+              before it reaches the happy neophyte, who of course pays
+              it similar respect.]
+
+     {p.090} P. S.--Under another cover, which I have just
+     received, I send the two drawings of the front and reverse
+     of the lid of the proposed cup. Your Grace will be so good
+     as understand that the thistle--the top of which is
+     garnished with the bristle--is entirely detached, in
+     working, from the figure, and slips into a socket. The
+     following lines are humbly suggested for a motto, being
+     taken from an ancient Scottish canzonetta,--unless the
+     Yarrow committee can find any better:--
+
+          "The sutor ga'e the sow a kiss:
+           Grumph! quo' the sow, it's a' for my birss."
+
+Some weeks before the year 1815 closed, Mr. Morritt sustained the
+heaviest of domestic afflictions; and several letters on that sad
+subject had passed between Rokeby and Abbotsford,[29] before the date
+of the following:--
+
+              [Footnote 29: [A touching letter from Morritt, written
+              shortly before his wife's death, and one of Scott's,
+              written after that event, will be found in _Familiar
+              Letters_, vol. i. pp. 352-354.]]
+
+     TO J. B. S. MORRITT, ESQ., M. P., ROKEBY PARK.
+
+                                        EDINBURGH, 22d December, 1815.
+
+     MY DEAR MORRITT,--While you know what satisfaction it would
+     have given me to have seen you here, I am very sensible of
+     the more weighty reasons which you urge for preferring to
+     stay at Rokeby for some time. I only hope you will remember
+     that Scotland has claims on you, whenever you shall find
+     your own mind so far at ease as to permit you to look abroad
+     for consolation; and if it should happen that you thought of
+     being here about our time of vacation, I have my time then
+     entirely at my own command, and I need not say, that as much
+     of it as could in any manner of way contribute to your
+     amusement, is most heartily at yours. I have myself at
+     present the melancholy task of watching the declining health
+     of my elder brother, Major Scott, whom, I think, you have
+     seen.
+
+     {p.091} My literary occupation is getting through the press
+     the Letters of Paul, of whose lucubrations I trust soon to
+     send you a copy. As the observations of a bystander, perhaps
+     you will find some amusement in them, especially as I had
+     some channels of information not accessible to every one.
+     The recess of our courts, which takes place to-morrow, for
+     three weeks, will give me ample time to complete this job,
+     and also the second volume of Triermain, which is nearly
+     finished,--a strange rude story, founded partly on the
+     ancient northern traditions respecting the Berserkers, whose
+     peculiar habits and fits of martial frenzy make such a
+     figure in the Sagas. I shall then set myself seriously to
+     The Antiquary, of which I have only a very general sketch at
+     present; but when once I get my pen to the paper it will
+     walk fast enough. I am sometimes tempted to leave it alone,
+     and try whether it will not write as well without the
+     assistance of my head as with it. A hopeful prospect for the
+     reader. In the mean while, the snow, which is now falling so
+     fast as to make it dubious when this letter may reach
+     Rokeby, is likely to forward these important avocations, by
+     keeping me a constant resident in Edinburgh, in lieu of my
+     plan of going to Abbotsford, where I had a number of schemes
+     in hand, in the way of planting and improving. I believe I
+     told you I have made a considerable addition to my little
+     farm, and extended my domains towards a wild lake, which I
+     have a good prospect of acquiring also. It has a sort of
+     legendary fame; for the persuasion of the solitary shepherds
+     who approach its banks is, that it is tenanted by a very
+     large amphibious animal called by them a water-bull, and
+     which several of them pretend to have seen. As his
+     dimensions greatly exceed those of an otter, I am tempted to
+     think with Trinculo, "This is the devil, and no monster."
+     But, after all, is it not strange, that as to almost all the
+     lakes in Scotland, both Lowland and Highland, such a belief
+     should prevail? and that the description popularly given
+     {p.092} uniformly corresponds with that of the
+     hippopotamus? Is it possible, that at some remote period,
+     that remarkable animal, like some others which have now
+     disappeared, may have been an inhabitant of our large lakes?
+     Certainly the vanishing of the mammoth and other animals
+     from the face of the creation renders such a conjecture less
+     wild than I would otherwise esteem it. It is certain we have
+     lost the beaver, whose bones have been more than once found
+     in our Selkirkshire bogs and marlmosses. The remains of the
+     wild bull are very frequently found; and I have more than
+     one skull with horns of most formidable dimensions.
+
+     About a fortnight ago we had a great football match in
+     Selkirkshire, when the Duke of Buccleuch raised his banner
+     (a very curious and ancient pennon) in great form. Your
+     friend Walter was banner-bearer, dressed, like a forester of
+     old, in green, with a green bonnet, and an eagle feather in
+     it; and, as he was well mounted, and rode handsomely over
+     the field, he was much admired by all his clansmen.
+
+     I have thrown these trifles together, without much hope that
+     they will afford you amusement; but I know you will wish to
+     know what I am about, and I have but trifles to send to
+     those friends who interest themselves about a trifler. My
+     present employment is watching, from time to time, the
+     progress of a stupid cause, in order to be ready to reduce
+     the sentence into writing, when the Court shall have decided
+     whether Gordon of Kenmore or MacMichan of Meikleforthhead be
+     the superior of the lands of Tarschrechan and Dalbrattie,
+     and entitled to the feudal casualties payable forth thereof,
+     which may amount to twopence sterling, once in half a dozen
+     of years. Marry, sir, they make part of a freehold
+     qualification, and the decision may wing a voter. I did not
+     send the book you received by the Selkirk coach. I wish I
+     could have had sense enough to send anything which could
+     afford you consolation. I think our friend {p.093} Lady
+     Louisa was likely to have had this attention; she has, God
+     knows, been herself tried with affliction, and is well
+     acquainted with the sources from which comfort can be drawn.
+     My wife joins in kindest remembrances, as do Sophia and
+     Walter. Ever yours affectionately,
+
+                                         Walter SCOTT.
+
+This letter is dated the 22d of December. On the 26th, John
+Ballantyne, being then at Abbotsford, writes to Messrs. Constable:
+"Paul is _all_ in hand;" and an envelope, addressed to James
+Ballantyne on the 29th, has preserved another little fragment of
+Scott's playful doggerel:--
+
+  "Dear James--I'm done, thank God, with the long yarns
+   Of the most prosy of Apostles--Paul;
+   And now advance, sweet Heathen of Monkbarns,
+   Step out, old quizz, as fast as I can scrawl."
+
+
+
+
+{p.094} CHAPTER XXXVII.
+
+     Publication of Paul's Letters to his Kinsfolk. -- Guy
+     Mannering "Terry-fied." -- Death of Major John Scott. --
+     Letters to Thomas Scott. -- Publication of the Antiquary. --
+     History of 1814 for the Edinburgh Annual Register. --
+     Letters on the History of Scotland Projected. -- Publication
+     of the First Tales of My Landlord by Murray and Blackwood.
+     -- Anecdotes by Mr. Train. -- Quarterly Review on the Tales.
+     -- Building at Abbotsford Begun. -- Letters to Morritt,
+     Terry, Murray, and the Ballantynes.
+
+1816.
+
+
+The year 1815 may be considered as, for Scott's peaceful tenor of
+life, an eventful one. That which followed has left almost its only
+traces in the successive appearance of nine volumes, which attest the
+prodigal genius, and hardly less astonishing industry of the man.
+Early in January were published Paul's Letters to his Kinsfolk, of
+which I need not now say more than that they were received with lively
+curiosity, and general, though not vociferous applause. The first
+edition was an octavo, of 6000 copies; and it was followed, in the
+course of the next two or three years, by a second and a third,
+amounting together to 3000 more. The popularity of the novelist was at
+its height; and this admitted, if not avowed, specimen of Scott's
+prose must have been perceived, by all who had any share of
+discrimination, to flow from the same pen.
+
+Mr. Terry produced, in the spring of 1816, a dramatic {p.095} piece,
+entitled Guy Mannering, which met with great success on the London
+boards, and still continues to be a favorite with the theatrical
+public. What share the novelist himself had in this first specimen of
+what he used to call "the art of _Terryfying_," I cannot exactly say;
+but his correspondence shows that the pretty song of the Lullaby[30]
+was not his only contribution to it; and I infer that he had taken the
+trouble to modify the plot, and rearrange, for stage purposes, a
+considerable part of the original dialogue. The casual risk of
+discovery, through the introduction of the song which had, in the mean
+time, been communicated to one of his humble friends, the late Mr.
+Alexander Campbell,[31] editor of Albyn's Anthology--(commonly known
+at Abbotsford as, by way of excellence, _The Dunniewassal_,)--and
+Scott's suggestions on that difficulty will amuse the reader of the
+following letter:--
+
+              [Footnote 30: See Scott's _Poetical Works_ (Ed. 1834),
+              vol. xi. p. 317 (Cambridge Ed. p. 425).]
+
+              [Footnote 31: This Mr. Campbell was the same whom the
+              poet's mother employed to teach her boys to sing, as
+              recorded in the Autobiographical Fragment--_ante_, vol.
+              i. p. 44. I believe he was also the "litigious
+              Highlander" of a story told in Irving's _Abbotsford and
+              Newstead_, p. 57.
+
+              (In the November of this year, Scott writes to Lady
+              Abercorn: "The only thing I have been doing of late is
+              to write two or three songs for a poor man called
+              Campbell.... He has made an immense collection of
+              Highland airs, and I have given him words for some of
+              them. One of them is the only good song I ever wrote--it
+              is a fine Highland Gathering tune called _Pibroch an
+              Donuil Dhu_, that is, the Pibroch of Donald the
+              Black."--_Familiar Letters_, vol. i. p. 374.)]
+
+     TO D. TERRY, ESQ., ALFRED PLACE, BLOOMSBURY, LONDON.
+
+                                        ABBOTSFORD, 18th April, 1816.
+
+     MY DEAR TERRY,--I give you joy of your promotion to the
+     dignity of an householder, and heartily wish you all the
+     success you so well deserve, to answer the approaching
+     enlargement of your domestic establishment. You will find a
+     house a very devouring monster, and that the purveying for
+     it requires a little exertion, and a great {p.096} deal of
+     self-denial and arrangement. But when there is domestic
+     peace and contentment, all that would otherwise be
+     disagreeable, as restraining our taste and occupying our
+     time, becomes easy. I trust Mrs. Terry will get her business
+     easily over, and that you will soon "dandle Dickie on your
+     knee."--I have been at the spring circuit, which made me
+     late in receiving your letter, and there I was introduced to
+     a man whom I never saw in my life before, namely, the
+     proprietor of all the Pepper and Mustard family,--in other
+     words, the genuine Dandie Dinmont. Dandie is himself modest,
+     and says, "he b'lives it's only the dougs that is in the
+     buik, and no himsel'." As the surveyor of taxes was going
+     his ominous rounds past Hyndlea, which is the abode of
+     Dandie, his whole pack rushed out upon the man of execution,
+     and Dandie followed them (conscious that their number
+     greatly exceeded his return), exclaiming, "The tae hauf o'
+     them is but whalps, man." In truth, I knew nothing of the
+     man, except his odd humor of having only two names for
+     twenty dogs. But there are lines of general resemblance
+     among all these hill-men, which there is no missing; and
+     Jamie Davidson of Hyndlea certainly looks Dandie Dinmont
+     remarkably well. He is much flattered with the compliment,
+     and goes uniformly by the name among his comrades, but has
+     never read the book. Ailie used to read it to him, but it
+     set him to sleep. All this you will think funny enough. I am
+     afraid I am in a scrape about the song, and that of my own
+     making; for as it never occurred to me that there was
+     anything odd in my writing two or three verses for you,
+     which have no connection with the novel, I was at no pains
+     to disown them; and Campbell is just that sort of crazy
+     creature, with whom there is no confidence, not from want of
+     honor and disposition to oblige, but from his flighty
+     temper. The music of _Cadil gu lo_ is already printed in his
+     publication, and nothing can be done with him, for fear of
+     setting his tongue a-going. Erskine and {p.097} you may
+     consider whether you should barely acknowledge an obligation
+     to an unknown friend, or pass the matter altogether in
+     silence. In my opinion, my _first_ idea was preferable to
+     both, because I cannot see what earthly connection there is
+     between the song and the novel, or how acknowledging the one
+     is fathering the other. On the contrary, it seems to me that
+     acknowledgment tends to exclude the idea of farther
+     obligation than to the extent specified. I forgot also that
+     I had given a copy of the lines to Mrs. Macleod of Macleod,
+     from whom I had the air. But I remit the matter entirely to
+     you and Erskine, for there must be many points in it which I
+     cannot be supposed a good judge of. At any rate, don't let
+     it delay your publication, and believe I shall be quite
+     satisfied with what you think proper.
+
+     I have got from my friend Glengarry the noblest dog ever
+     seen on the Border since Johnnie Armstrong's time. He is
+     between the wolf and deer greyhound, about six feet long
+     from the tip of the nose to the tail, and high and strong in
+     proportion: he is quite gentle, and a great favorite: tell
+     Will Erskine he will eat off his plate without being at the
+     trouble to put a paw on the table or chair.[32] I showed him
+     to Mathews, who dined one day in Castle Street before I came
+     here, where, except for Mrs. S., I am like unto
+
+       {p.098} "The spirit who bideth by himself,
+                In the land of mist and snow"--[33]
+
+     for it is snowing and hailing eternally, and will kill all
+     the lambs to a certainty, unless it changes in a few hours.
+     At any rate, it will cure us of the embarrassments arising
+     from plenty and low markets. Much good luck to your dramatic
+     exertions: when I can be of use, command me. Mrs. Scott
+     joins me in regards to Mrs. Terry, and considers the house
+     as the greatest possible bargain: the situation is all you
+     can wish. Adieu! yours truly,
+
+                                        Walter SCOTT.
+
+              [Footnote 32: [In the letter accompanying his gift,
+              Glengarry says: "His name is Maida, out of respect for
+              that action in which my brother had the honor to lead
+              the 78th Highlanders to victory." Writing to Joanna
+              Baillie, April 12, Scott describes his new friend as
+              "the finest dog of the kind in Scotland.... He is
+              between the deer greyhound and mastiff, with a shaggy
+              mane like a lion; he always sits beside me at dinner,
+              his head as high as the back of my chair; yet it will
+              gratify you to know that a favorite cat keeps him in the
+              greatest possible order, and insists upon all rights of
+              precedence, and scratches with impunity the nose of an
+              animal who would make no bones of a wolf, and pulls down
+              a red deer without fear or difficulty. I heard my friend
+              set up some most piteous howls, and I assure you the
+              noise was no joke, all occasioned by his fear of passing
+              puss, who had stationed himself on the
+              stairs."--_Familiar Letters_, vol. i. p. 358.]]
+
+              [Footnote 33: Coleridge--_Ancient Mariner_.]
+
+     P. S.--On consideration, and comparing difficulties, I think
+     I will settle with Campbell to take my name from the verses,
+     as they stand in his collection. The verses themselves I
+     cannot take away without imprudent explanations; and as they
+     go to other music, and stand without any name, they will
+     probably not be noticed, so you need give yourself no
+     farther trouble on the score. I should like to see my copy:
+     pray send it to the post-office, under cover to Mr.
+     Freeling, whose unlimited privilege is at my service on all
+     occasions.
+
+Early in May appeared the novel of The Antiquary, which seems to have
+been begun a little before the close of 1815. It came out at a moment
+of domestic distress.
+
+Throughout the year 1815, Major John Scott had been drooping. He died
+on the 8th of May, 1816; and I extract the letter in which this event
+was announced to Mr. Thomas Scott by his only surviving brother.
+
+     TO THOMAS SCOTT, ESQ., PAYMASTER OF THE 70TH REGIMENT, CANADA.
+
+                                        EDINBURGH, 15th May, 1816.
+
+     MY DEAR TOM,--This brings you the melancholy news of our
+     brother John's concluding his long and lingering illness by
+     death, upon Thursday last. We had {p.099} thought it
+     impossible he should survive the winter, but, as the weather
+     became milder, he gathered strength, and went out several
+     times. In the beginning of the week he became worse, and on
+     Wednesday kept his bed. On Thursday, about two o'clock, they
+     sent me an express to Abbotsford--the man reached me at
+     nine. I immediately set out, and travelled all night--but
+     had not the satisfaction to see my brother alive. He had
+     died about four o'clock, without much pain, being completely
+     exhausted. You will naturally feel most anxious about my
+     mother's state of health and spirits. I am happy to say she
+     has borne this severe shock with great firmness and
+     resignation, is perfectly well in her health, and as strong
+     in her mind as ever you knew her. She feels her loss, but is
+     also sensible that protracted existence, with a constitution
+     so irretrievably broken up, could have been no blessing.
+     Indeed I must say, that, in many respects, her situation
+     will be more comfortable on account of this removal, when
+     the first shock is over; for to watch an invalid, and to
+     undergo all the changes of a temper fretted by suffering,
+     suited ill with her age and habits. The funeral, which took
+     place yesterday, was decent and private, becoming our
+     father's eldest son, and the head of a quiet family. After
+     it, I asked Hay Donaldson and Mr. Macculloch[34] to look
+     over his papers, in case there should be any testamentary
+     provision, but none such was found; nor do I think he had
+     any intention of altering the destination which divides his
+     effects between his surviving brothers.--Your affectionate
+
+                                        W. S.
+
+              [Footnote 34: The late Mr. Hay Donaldson, W. S.,--an
+              intimate friend of both Thomas and Walter Scott,--and
+              Mr. Macculloch of Ardwell, the brother of Mrs. Thomas
+              Scott.]
+
+A few days afterwards, he hands to Mr. Thomas Scott a formal statement
+of pecuniary affairs; the result of which was, that the Major had left
+something not much under L6000. Major Scott, from all I have heard,
+was {p.100} a sober, sedate bachelor, of dull mind and frugal tastes,
+who, after his retirement from the army, divided his time between his
+mother's primitive fireside, and the society of a few whist-playing
+brother officers, that met for an evening rubber at Fortune's tavern.
+But, making every allowance for his retired and thrifty habits, I
+infer that the payments made to each of the three brothers out of
+their father's estate must have, prior to 1816, amounted to L5000.
+From the letter conveying this statement (29th May), I extract a few
+sentences:--
+
+     DEAR TOM,--... Should the possession of this sum, and the
+     certainty that you must, according to the course of nature,
+     in a short space of years succeed to a similar sum of L3000
+     belonging to our mother, induce you to turn your thoughts to
+     Scotland, I shall be most happy to forward your views with
+     any influence I may possess; and I have little doubt that,
+     sooner or later, something may be done. But, unfortunately,
+     every avenue is now choked with applicants, whose claims are
+     very strong; for the number of disbanded officers, and
+     public servants dismissed in consequence of Parliament
+     turning restive and refusing the income-tax, is great and
+     increasing. Economy is the order of the day, and I assure
+     you they are shaving properly close. It would, no doubt, be
+     comparatively easy to get you a better situation where you
+     are, but then it is bidding farewell to your country, at
+     least for a long time, and separating your children from all
+     knowledge of those with whom they are naturally connected. I
+     shall anxiously expect to hear from you on your views and
+     wishes. I think, at all events, you ought to get rid of the
+     drudgery of the paymastership--but not without trying to
+     exchange it for something else. I do not know how it is with
+     you--but I do not feel myself quite so _young_ as I was when
+     we met last, and I should like well to see my only brother
+     return to his own country and settle, without thoughts
+     {p.101} of leaving it, till it is exchanged for one that is
+     dark and distant.... I left all Jack's personal trifles at
+     my mother's disposal. There was nothing of the slightest
+     value, excepting his gold watch, which was my sister's, and
+     a good one. My mother says he had wished my son Walter
+     should have it, as his male representative--which I can only
+     accept on condition _your_ little Walter will accept a
+     similar token of regard from his remaining uncle.--Yours
+     affectionately,
+
+                                        W. S.
+
+The letter in which Scott communicated his brother's death to Mr.
+Morritt gives us his own original opinion of The Antiquary. It has
+also some remarks on the separation of Lord and Lady Byron--and the
+"domestic verses" of the noble poet.
+
+     TO J. B. S. MORRITT, ESQ., M. P., LONDON.
+
+                                        EDINBURGH, May 16, 1816.
+
+     MY DEAR MORRITT,--I have been occupied of late with scenes
+     of domestic distress, my poor brother, Major John Scott,
+     having last week closed a life which wasting disease had
+     long rendered burthensome. His death, under all the
+     circumstances, cannot be termed a subject of deep
+     affliction; and though we were always on fraternal terms of
+     mutual kindness and good-will, yet our habits of life, our
+     taste for society and circles of friends, were so totally
+     different, that there was less frequent intercourse between
+     us than our connection and real liking to each other might
+     have occasioned. Yet it is a heavy consideration to have
+     lost the last but one who was interested in our early
+     domestic life, our habits of boyhood, and our first friends
+     and connections. It makes one look about and see how the
+     scene has changed around him, and how he himself has been
+     changed with it. My only remaining brother is in Canada, and
+     seems to have an intention of remaining there; so that my
+     mother, now upwards of eighty, has now only one child left
+     to her {p.102} out of thirteen whom she has borne. She is a
+     most excellent woman, possessed, even at her advanced age,
+     of all the force of mind and sense of duty which have
+     carried her through so many domestic griefs, as the
+     successive deaths of eleven children, some of them come to
+     men and women's estate, naturally infers. She is the
+     principal subject of my attention at present, and is, I am
+     glad to say, perfectly well in body and composed in mind.
+
+     Nothing can give me more pleasure than the prospect of
+     seeing you in September, which will suit our motions
+     perfectly well. I trust I shall have an opportunity to
+     introduce you to some of our glens which you have not yet
+     seen. But I hope we shall have some mild weather before that
+     time, for we are now in the seventh month of winter, which
+     almost leads me to suppose that we shall see no summer this
+     season. As for spring, that is past praying for. In the
+     month of November last, people were skating in the
+     neighborhood of Edinburgh; and now, in the middle of May,
+     the snow is lying white on Arthur's Seat, and on the range
+     of the Pentlands. It is really fearful, and the sheep are
+     perishing by scores. _Jam satis terrae nivis_, etc., may well
+     be taken up as the song of eighteen hundred and sixteen.
+
+     So Lord Byron's romance seems to be concluded for one
+     while--and it is surely time, after he has announced, or
+     rather they themselves have announced, half-a-dozen
+     blackguard newspaper editors, to have been his confidants on
+     the occasion. Surely it is a strange thirst of public fame
+     that seeks such a road to it. But Lord Byron, with high
+     genius and many points of a noble and generous feeling, has
+     Childe Harolded himself, and outlawed himself, into too
+     great a resemblance with the pictures of his imagination. He
+     has one excuse, however, and it is a sad one. I have been
+     reckoned to make a good hit enough at a pirate, or an
+     outlaw, or a smuggling bandit; but I cannot say I was ever
+     so much enchanted with my {p.103} work as to think of
+     carrying off a _drift_ of my neighbor's sheep, or half a
+     dozen of his milk cows. Only I remember, in the rough times,
+     having a scheme with the Duke of Buccleuch, that when the
+     worst came to the worst, we should repair Hermitage Castle,
+     and live, like Robin Hood and his merry men, at the expense
+     of all round us. But this presupposed a grand
+     _bouleversement_ of society. In the mean while, I think my
+     noble friend is something like my old peacock, who chooses
+     to bivouac apart from his lady, and sit below my bedroom
+     window, to keep me awake with his screeching lamentation.
+     Only I own he is not equal in melody to Lord Byron, for
+     _Fare-thee-well--and if for ever_, etc., is a very sweet
+     dirge indeed. After all, _C'est genie mal loge_, and that's
+     all that can be said about it.
+
+     I am quite reconciled to your opinions on the income-tax,
+     and am not at all in despair at the prospect of keeping L200
+     a year in my pocket, since the ministers can fadge without
+     it. But their throwing the helve after the hatchet, and
+     giving up the malt-duty because they had lost the other, was
+     droll enough. After all, our fat friend[35] must learn to
+     live within compass, and fire off no more crackers in the
+     Park, for John Bull is getting dreadfully sore on all sides
+     when money is concerned.
+
+              [Footnote 35: Shortly after Beau Brummell (immortalized
+              in _Don Juan_) fell into disgrace with the Prince
+              Regent, and was dismissed from the society of Carlton
+              House, he was riding with another gentleman in the Park,
+              when the Prince met them. His Royal Highness stopt to
+              speak to Brummell's companion--the Beau continued to jog
+              on--and when the other dandy rejoined him, asked with an
+              air of sovereign indifference, "Who is your fat friend?"
+              Such, at least, was the story that went the round of the
+              newspapers at the time, and highly tickled Scott's
+              fancy. I have heard that nobody enjoyed so much as the
+              Prince of Wales himself an earlier specimen of the
+              Beau's assurance. Taking offence at some part of His
+              Royal Highness's conduct or demeanor, "Upon my word,"
+              observed Mr. Brummell, "if this kind of thing goes on, I
+              shall be obliged to cut Wales, and bring the old King
+              into fashion."]
+
+     I sent you, some time since, The Antiquary. It is not so
+     interesting as its predecessors--the period did not {p.104}
+     admit of so much romantic situation. But it has been more
+     fortunate than any of them in the sale, for 6000 went off in
+     the first six days, and it is now at press again; which is
+     very flattering to the unknown author. Another incognito
+     proposes immediately to resume the second volume of
+     Triermain, which is at present in the state of the Bear and
+     Fiddle.[36] Adieu, dear Morritt.
+
+     Ever yours,
+
+                                        Walter SCOTT.
+
+              [Footnote 36: See _Hudibras_.]
+
+Speaking of his third novel in a letter of the same date to Terry,
+Scott says: "It wants the romance of Waverley and the adventure of Guy
+Mannering; and yet there is some salvation about it, for if a man will
+paint from nature, he will be likely to amuse those who are daily
+looking at it."
+
+After a little pause of hesitation, The Antiquary attained popularity
+not inferior to Guy Mannering; and though the author appears for a
+moment to have shared the doubts which he read in the countenance of
+James Ballantyne, it certainly was, in the sequel, his chief favorite
+among all his novels. Nor is it difficult to account for this
+preference, without laying any stress on the fact, that, during a few
+short weeks, it was pretty commonly talked of as a falling off from
+its immediate predecessors--and that some minor critics reechoed this
+stupid whisper in print. In that view, there were many of its
+successors that had much stronger claims on the parental instinct of
+protection. But the truth is, that although Scott's Introduction of
+1830 represents him as pleased with fancying that, in the principal
+personage, he had embalmed a worthy friend of his boyish days, his own
+antiquarian propensities, originating perhaps in the kind attentions
+of George Constable of Wallace-Craigie, and fostered not a little, at
+about as ductile a period, by those of old Clerk of Eldin, and John
+Ramsay of Ochtertyre, had by degrees so developed themselves, that he
+{p.105} could hardly, even when The Antiquary was published, have
+scrupled about recognizing a quaint caricature of the founder of
+Abbotsford Museum, in the inimitable portraiture of the Laird of
+Monkbarns. The Descriptive Catalogue of that collection, which he
+began towards the close of his life, but, alas, never finished, is
+entitled "Reliquiae Trottcosianae--or the Gabions of the late Jonathan
+Oldbuck, Esq."
+
+But laying this, which might have been little more than a good-humored
+pleasantry, out of the question, there is assuredly no one of all his
+works on which more of his own early associations have left their
+image. Of those early associations, as his full-grown tastes were all
+the progeny, so his genius, in all its happiest efforts, was the
+"Recording Angel;" and when George Constable first expounded his
+"Gabions" to the child that was to immortalize his name, they were
+either wandering hand in hand over the field where the grass still
+grew rank upon the grave of _Balmawhapple_, or sauntering on the beach
+where the _Mucklebackets_ of Prestonpans dried their nets, singing,--
+
+  "Weel may the boatie row, and better may she speed,
+   O weel may the boatie row that wins the bairns' bread"--
+
+or telling wild stories about cliff-escapes and the funerals of
+shipwrecked fishermen.
+
+Considered by itself, without reference to these sources of personal
+interest, this novel seems to me to possess, almost throughout, in
+common with its two predecessors, a kind of simple unsought charm,
+which the subsequent works of the series hardly reached, save in
+occasional snatches: like them it is, in all its humbler and softer
+scenes, the transcript of actual Scottish life, as observed by the man
+himself. And I think it must also be allowed that he has nowhere
+displayed his highest art, that of skilful contrast, in greater
+perfection. Even the tragic romance of Waverley does not set off its
+Macwheebles and Callum Begs better than the oddities of {p.106}
+Jonathan Oldbuck and his circle are relieved, on the one hand, by the
+stately gloom of the Glenallans, on the other, by the stern affliction
+of the poor fisherman, who, when discovered repairing the "auld black
+bitch o' a boat" in which his boy had been lost, and congratulated by
+his visitor on being capable of the exertion, makes answer,--"And what
+would you have me to do, unless I wanted to see four children starve,
+because one is drowned? _It's weel wi' you gentles, that can sit in
+the house wi' handkerchers at your een, when ye lose a friend; but the
+like o' us maun to our wark again, if our hearts were beating as hard
+as my hammer._"
+
+It may be worth noting, that it was in correcting the proof sheets of
+this novel that Scott first took to equipping his chapters with
+mottoes of his own fabrication. On one occasion he happened to ask
+John Ballantyne, who was sitting by him, to hunt for a particular
+passage in Beaumont and Fletcher. John did as he was bid, but did not
+succeed in discovering the lines. "Hang it, Johnnie," cried Scott, "I
+believe I can make a motto sooner than you will find one." He did so
+accordingly; and from that hour, whenever memory failed to suggest an
+appropriate epigraph, he had recourse to the inexhaustible mines of
+"_old play_" or "_old ballad_," to which we owe some of the most
+exquisite verses that ever flowed from his pen.
+
+Unlike, I believe, most men, whenever Scott neared the end of one
+composition, his spirits seem to have caught a new spring of buoyancy,
+and before the last sheet was sent from his desk, he had crowded his
+brain with the imagination of another fiction. The Antiquary was
+published, as we have seen, in May, but by the beginning of April he
+had already opened to the Ballantynes the plan of the first Tales of
+my Landlord; and--to say nothing of Harold the Dauntless, which he
+began shortly after The Bridal of Triermain was finished, and which he
+seems to have kept before him for two years {p.107} as a congenial
+plaything, to be taken up whenever the coach brought no proof sheets
+to jog him as to serious matters--he had also, before this time,
+undertaken to write the historical department of the Register for
+1814. Mr. Southey had, for reasons upon which I do not enter,
+discontinued his services to that work: and it was now doubly
+necessary, after trying for one year a less eminent hand, that if the
+work were not to be dropped altogether, some strenuous exertion should
+be made to sustain its character. Scott had not yet collected the
+materials requisite for his historical sketch of a year distinguished
+for the importance and complexity of its events; but these, he doubted
+not, would soon reach him, and he felt no hesitation about pledging
+himself to complete, not only that sketch, but four new volumes of
+prose romances--and his Harold the Dauntless also, if Ballantyne could
+make any suitable arrangement on that score--between the April and the
+Christmas of 1816.
+
+The Antiquary had been published by Constable, but I presume that, in
+addition to the usual stipulations, he had been again, on that
+occasion, solicited to relieve John Ballantyne and Co.'s stock to an
+extent which he did not find quite convenient; and at all events he
+had of late shown a considerable reluctance to employ James Ballantyne
+and Co. as printers. One or other of these impediments is alluded to
+in a note of Scott's, which, though undated, has been pasted into John
+Ballantyne's private letter-book among the documents of the period in
+question. It is in these words:--
+
+     DEAR JOHN,--I have seen the great swab, who is supple as a
+     glove, and will do ALL, which some interpret NOTHING.
+     However, we shall do well enough.
+
+                                        W. S.
+
+Constable had been admitted, almost from the beginning, into the
+_secret_ of the Novels--and for that, among {p.108} other reasons, it
+would have been desirable for the Novelist to have him continue the
+publisher without interruption; but Scott was led to suspect, that if
+he were called upon to conclude a bargain for a fourth novel before
+the third had made its appearance, his scruples as to the matter of
+_printing_ might at least protract the treaty; and why Scott should
+have been urgently desirous of seeing the transaction settled before
+the expiration of the half-yearly term of Whitsunday is sufficiently
+explained by the fact, that though so much of the old unfortunate
+stock of John Ballantyne and Co. still remained on hand--and with it
+some occasional recurrence of commercial difficulty as to floating
+bills was to be expected--while James Ballantyne's management of the
+pecuniary affairs of the printing-house had continued to be highly
+negligent and irregular[37]--nevertheless, the sanguine author had
+gone on purchasing one patch of land after another, until his estate
+at Abbotsford had already grown from 150 to nearly 1000 acres. The
+property all about his original farm had been in the hands of various
+small holders (Scottice _cock-lairds_;) these persons were sharp
+enough to understand, erelong, that their neighbor could with
+difficulty resist any temptation that might present itself in the
+shape of an offer of more acres; and thus he proceeded buying up lot
+after lot of unimproved ground, at extravagant prices,--his "appetite
+increasing by what it fed on," while the ejected yeomen set themselves
+down elsewhere, to fatten at their leisure upon the profits--most
+commonly the anticipated profits--of "The Scotch Novels."
+
+              [Footnote 37: In February, 1816, when James Ballantyne
+              married, it is clearly proved by letters in his
+              handwriting, that he owed to Scott more than L3000 of
+              personal debt.--(1839.)]
+
+He was ever and anon pulled up with a momentary misgiving,--and
+resolved that the latest acquisition should be the last, until he
+could get rid entirely of "John Ballantyne and Co." But John
+Ballantyne was, {p.109} from the utter lightness of his mind, his
+incapacity to look a day before him, and his eager impatience to enjoy
+the passing hour, the very last man in the world who could, under such
+circumstances, have been a serviceable agent. Moreover, John, too, had
+his professional ambition: he was naturally proud of his connection,
+however secondary, with the publication of these works--and this
+connection, though subordinate, was still very profitable; he must
+have suspected, that should his name disappear altogether from the
+list of booksellers, it would be a very difficult matter for him to
+retain any concern in them; and I cannot, on the whole, but consider
+it as certain that, the first and more serious embarrassments being
+overcome, he was far from continuing to hold by his patron's anxiety
+for the total abolition of their unhappy copartnership. He, at all
+events, unless when some sudden emergency arose, flattered Scott's own
+gay imagination, by uniformly representing everything in the most
+smiling colors; and though Scott, in his replies, seldom failed to
+introduce some passing hint of caution--such as "_Nullum numen abest
+si sit prudentia_"--he more and more took home to himself the
+agreeable cast of his _Rigdum's_ anticipations, and wrote to him in a
+vein as merry as his own;--_e. g._--"As for our stock,
+
+  "'T will be wearing awa', John,
+   Like snaw-wreaths when it's thaw, John," etc., etc., etc.
+
+I am very sorry, in a word, to confess my conviction that John
+Ballantyne, however volatile and light-headed, acted at this period
+with cunning selfishness, both by Scott and by Constable. He well knew
+that it was to Constable alone that his firm had more than once owed
+its escape from utter ruin and dishonor; and he must also have known,
+that had a fair straightforward effort been made for that purpose,
+after the triumphant career of the Waverley series had once commenced,
+nothing could have been more easy than to bring all the affairs of his
+"back-stock," etc., to a complete close, by entering {p.110} into a
+distinct and candid treaty on that subject, in connection with the
+future works of the great Novelist, either with Constable or with any
+other first-rate house in the trade. But John, foreseeing that, were
+that unhappy concern quite out of the field, he must himself subside
+into a mere clerk of the printing company, seems to have parried the
+blow by the only arts of any consequence in which he ever was an
+adept. He appears to have systematically disguised from Scott the
+extent to which the whole Ballantyne concern had been sustained by
+Constable--especially during his Hebridean tour of 1814, and his
+Continental one of 1815--and prompted and enforced the idea of trying
+other booksellers from time to time, instead of adhering to Constable,
+merely for the selfish purposes,--first, of facilitating the immediate
+discount of bills;--secondly, of further perplexing Scott's affairs,
+the entire disentanglement of which would have been, as he fancied,
+prejudicial to his own personal importance.
+
+It was resolved, accordingly, to offer the risk and half profits of
+the first edition of another new novel--or rather collection of
+novels--not to Messrs. Constable, but to Mr. Murray of Albemarle
+Street, and Mr. Blackwood, who was then Murray's agent in Scotland;
+but it was at the same time resolved, partly because Scott wished to
+try another experiment on the public sagacity, but partly also, no
+question, from the wish to spare Constable's feelings, that the
+title-page of the Tales of my Landlord should not bear the magical
+words "By the Author of Waverley." The facility with which both Murray
+and Blackwood embraced such a proposal, as no untried novelist, being
+sane, could have dreamt of hazarding, shows that neither of them had
+any doubt as to the identity of the author. They both considered the
+withholding of the avowal on the forthcoming title-page as likely to
+check very much the first success of the book; but they were both
+eager to prevent Constable's acquiring {p.111} a sort of prescriptive
+right to publish for the unrivalled novelist, and willing to disturb
+his tenure at this additional, and, as they thought it, wholly
+unnecessary risk.
+
+How sharply the unseen parent watched this first negotiation of his
+_Jedediah Cleishbotham_ will appear from one of his letters:--
+
+     TO MR. JOHN BALLANTYNE, HANOVER STREET, EDINBURGH.
+
+                                        ABBOTSFORD, April 29, 1816.
+
+     DEAR JOHN,--James has made one or two important mistakes in
+     the bargain with Murray and Blackwood. Briefly as follows:--
+
+     1stly, Having only authority from me to promise 6000 copies,
+     he proposes they shall have the copyright _forever_. I will
+     see their noses cheese first.
+
+     2dly, He proposes I shall have twelve months' bills--I have
+     always got six. However, I would not stand on that.
+
+     3dly, He talks of volumes being put into the publisher's
+     hands to consider and decide on. No such thing; a bare
+     perusal at St. John Street[38] only.
+
+              [Footnote 38: James Ballantyne's dwelling-house was then
+              in this street, adjoining the Canongate of Edinburgh.]
+
+     Then for omissions--It is NOT stipulated that we supply the
+     paper and print of successive editions. This must be nailed,
+     and not left to understanding.--Secondly, I will have London
+     bills as well as Blackwood's.
+
+     If they agree to these conditions, good and well. If they
+     demur, Constable must be instantly tried; giving half to the
+     Longmans, and _we_ drawing on _them_ for that moiety, or
+     Constable lodging their bill in our hands. You will
+     understand it is a four-volume touch--a work totally
+     different in style and structure from the others; a new
+     cast, in short, of the net which has hitherto made
+     miraculous draughts. I do not limit you to terms, because I
+     think you will make them better than I can do. {p.112} But
+     he must do more than others, since he will not or cannot
+     print with us. For every point but that, I would rather deal
+     with Constable than any one; he has always shown himself
+     spirited, judicious, and liberal. Blackwood must be brought
+     to the point _instantly_; and _whenever_ he demurs,
+     Constable must be treated with; for there is no use in
+     suffering the thing to be blown on. At the same time, you
+     need not conceal from him that there were some proposals
+     elsewhere, but you may add, with truth, I would rather close
+     with him. Yours truly,
+
+                                        W. S.
+
+     P. S.--I think Constable should jump at this affair; for I
+     believe the work will be very popular.
+
+Messrs. Murray and Blackwood agreed to all the author's conditions
+here expressed. They also relieved John Ballantyne and Co. of stock to
+the value of L500; and at least Mr. Murray must, moreover, have
+subsequently consented to anticipate the period of his payments. At
+all events, I find, in a letter of Scott's, dated in the subsequent
+August, this new echo of the old advice:--
+
+     TO MR. JOHN BALLANTYNE.
+
+     DEAR JOHN,--I have the pleasure to enclose Murray's
+     acceptances. I earnestly recommend to you to push, realizing
+     as much as you can.
+
+          "Consider weel, gude man,
+           We hae but borrowed gear;
+           The horse that I ride on,
+           It is John Murray's mear."
+
+     Yours truly,
+
+                                        W. SCOTT.
+
+I know not how much of the tale of The Black Dwarf had been seen by
+Blackwood, in St. John Street, before he concluded this bargain for
+himself and his friend Murray; but when the closing sheets of that
+novel {p.113} reached him, he considered them as by no means
+sustaining the delightful promise of the opening ones. He was a man of
+strong talents, and, though without anything that could be called
+learning, of very respectable information--greatly superior to what
+has, in this age, been common in his profession; acute, earnest,
+eminently zealous in whatever he put his hand to; upright, honest,
+sincere, and courageous. But as Constable owed his first introduction
+to the upper world of literature and of society in general to his
+Edinburgh Review, so did Blackwood his to the Magazine, which has now
+made his name familiar to the world--and at the period of which I
+write, that miscellany was unborn; he was known only as a diligent
+antiquarian bookseller of the old town of Edinburgh, and the Scotch
+agent of the great London publisher, Murray. The abilities, in short,
+which he lived to develop, were as yet unsuspected--unless, perhaps,
+among a small circle; and the knowledge of the world, which so few men
+gather from anything but painful collision with various conflicting
+orders of their fellow-men, was not his. He was to the last plain and
+blunt; at this time I can easily believe him to have been so to a
+degree which Scott might look upon as "ungracious"--I take the epithet
+from one of his letters to James Ballantyne. Mr. Blackwood, therefore,
+upon reading what seemed to him the lame and impotent conclusion of a
+well-begun story, did not search about for any glossy periphrase, but
+at once requested James Ballantyne to inform the unknown author that
+such was his opinion. This might possibly have been endured; but
+Blackwood, feeling, I have no doubt, a genuine enthusiasm for the
+author's fame, as well as a just tradesman's anxiety as to his own
+adventure, proceeded to suggest the outline of what would, in his
+judgment, be a better upwinding of the plot of The Black Dwarf, and
+concluded with announcing his willingness, in case the proposed
+alteration were agreed to, that the whole expense of cancelling
+{p.114} and reprinting a certain number of sheets should be charged
+to his own account. He appears to have further indicated that he had
+taken counsel with some literary person, on whose taste he placed
+great reliance, and who, if he had not originated, at least approved
+of the proposed process of recasting. Had Scott never possessed any
+such system of inter-agency as the Ballantynes supplied, he would,
+among other and perhaps greater inconveniences, have escaped that of
+the want of personal familiarity with several persons, with whose
+confidence,--and why should I not add?--with the innocent
+gratification of whose little vanities--his own pecuniary interests
+were often deeply connected. A very little personal contact would have
+introduced such a character as Blackwood's to the respect, nay, to the
+affectionate respect, of Scott, who, above all others, was ready to
+sympathize cordially with honest and able men, in whatever condition
+of life he discovered them. He did both know and appreciate Blackwood
+better in after-times; but in 1816, when this communication reached
+him, the name was little more than a name, and his answer to the most
+solemn of go-betweens was in these terms, which I sincerely wish I
+could tell how Signior Aldiborontiphoscophornio translated into any
+dialect submissible to Blackwood's apprehension:--
+
+     DEAR JAMES,--
+
+     I have received Blackwood's impudent proposal. G---- d----
+     his soul! Tell him and his coadjutor that I belong to the
+     Black Hussars of Literature, who neither give nor receive
+     criticism. I'll be cursed but this is the most impudent
+     proposal that ever was made.
+
+                                        W. S.[39]
+
+              [Footnote 39: _May_, 1839. Since this book was first
+              published, I have received from the representatives of
+              Mr. Blackwood several documents which throw light on the
+              transaction here mentioned. It will be apparent from one
+              of those I am about to quote, that Blackwood, before he
+              sent his message to Jedediah Cleishbotham, had
+              ascertained that no less a person than Mr. Gifford
+              concurred in his opinion--nay, that James Ballantyne
+              himself took the same view of the matter. But the reader
+              will be not less amused in comparing the "Black
+              Hussar's" missive in the text, with the edition of it
+              which actually reached Blackwood--and which certainly
+              justifies the conjecture I had ventured to express.
+
+     TO WILLIAM BLACKWOOD, ESQ.
+
+                                        EDINBURGH, 4th October, 1816.
+
+     MY DEAR SIR,--Our application to the author of _Tales of my
+     Landlord_ has been anything but successful; and in order to
+     explain to you the reason why I must decline to address him
+     in this way in future, I shall copy his answer _verbatim_:--
+
+     "My respects to our friends the Booksellers. I belong to the
+     Death-head Hussars of Literature, who neither _take_ nor
+     _give_ criticism. I am extremely sorry they showed my work
+     to Gifford, nor would I cancel a leaf to please all the
+     critics of Edinburgh and London; and so let that be as it
+     is: They are mistaken if they think I don't know when I am
+     writing ill, as well as Gifford can tell me. I beg there may
+     be no more communications with critics."
+
+     Observe--that I shall at all times be ready to convey
+     anything from you to the author in a written form, but I do
+     not feel warranted to interfere farther.
+
+     Yours very truly,
+
+                                        J. BALLANTYNE.
+
+
+     TO JAMES BALLANTYNE, ESQ.
+
+                                        EDINBURGH, 5th October, 1816.
+
+     MY DEAR SIR,--I am not a little vexed at having ventured to
+     suggest anything to the author of the _Tales of my
+     Landlord_, since I find he considers it in the light of
+     _sutor ultra crepidam_. I never had for one moment the
+     vanity to think, that from any poor remark of mine, or
+     indeed of any human being, he would be induced to blot one
+     line or alter a single incident, unless the same idea
+     occurred to his own powerful mind. On stating to you what
+     struck me, and finding that your opinion coincided with
+     mine, I was induced to request of you to state it to the
+     author, in order that he might be aware that the expense of
+     cancelling the sheets was no object to me. I was the more
+     anxious to do this, in case the author should have given you
+     the MS. of this portion of the work sooner than he intended,
+     in order to satisfy the clamoring for it which I teased you
+     with. I trust the author will do me the justice to believe
+     that it is quite impossible for any one to have a higher
+     admiration of his most extraordinary talents; and speaking
+     merely as a bookseller, it would be quite unnecessary to be
+     at the expense of altering even one line, although the
+     author himself (who alone can be the proper judge) should
+     wish it, as the success of the work must be rapid, great,
+     and certain.
+
+     With regard to the first volume having been shown to Mr.
+     Gifford, I must state in justification of Mr. Murray, that
+     Mr. G. is the only friend whom he consults on all occasions,
+     and to whom his most secret transactions are laid open. He
+     gave him the work, not for the purpose of criticism, but
+     that as a friend he might partake of the enjoyment he had in
+     such an extraordinary performance. No language could be
+     stronger than Mr. Gifford's, as I mentioned to you; and as
+     the same thing had occurred to Mr. G. as to you and me, you
+     thought there would be no harm in stating this to the
+     author.
+
+     I have only again to express my regret at what has taken
+     place, and to beg you will communicate this to the author in
+     any way you may think proper.
+
+     Yours, etc.,
+
+                                        W. BLACKWOOD.
+
+              (A much fuller and more accurate knowledge of this whole
+              transaction, than that possessed by Lockhart, can be
+              gathered from the annals of the two great publishing
+              houses concerned in it;--Smiles's _Memoir of John
+              Murray_ (vol. i. chap. xviii.), and Mrs. Oliphant's
+              _William Blackwood and his Sons_ (vol. i. pp. 56-92),
+              especially from the latter work, in which the whole
+              incident is set in its proper light. Notwithstanding the
+              heavy preliminary tax for unsalable books from the
+              Ballantynes' "wretched stock," neither publisher seems
+              to have had a moment's doubt as to the acceptance of the
+              offer of the ostensibly anonymous Work of Fiction,
+              though they were much fretted by the delays,
+              uncertainties, and mysteries attending the matter. "One
+              in business must submit to many things, and swallow many
+              a bitter pill, when such a man as Walter Scott is the
+              object in view," writes Blackwood to Murray,--the
+              bitterness being largely the dealing with James
+              Ballantyne. "John I always considered as no better than
+              a swindler, but James I put some trust and confidence
+              in. You judged him more accurately." ... And on another
+              occasion,--"Except my wife, there is not a friend whom I
+              dare advise with. I have not ventured to mention the
+              business to my brother on account of the cursed
+              mysteries and injunctions of secrecy connected with it.
+              I know he would blame me for engaging in it, for he has
+              a very small opinion of the Ballantynes." Apart from the
+              vexations attending their office as intermediaries, for
+              which the Ballantynes were only partially responsible,
+              this shrewd, if irritated, observer appears to have
+              formed opinions of the brothers as business men, in some
+              respects not differing greatly from those held by
+              Lockhart in later days.
+
+              The delight of the two publishers in at last receiving
+              the MS. of _The Black Dwarf_ and the manner in which it
+              passed into the hands of Constable, even before the
+              stipulated 6000 copies were disposed of,--it must be
+              owned he treated his rivals somewhat unhandsomely,
+              finally severing them from Scott's literary career,--are
+              fully set forth by the historian of the House of
+              Blackwood. With her "one cannot but feel that this was
+              one of those tragically insignificant circumstances
+              which so often shape life apart from any consciousness
+              of ours. Probably ruin would never have overtaken Sir
+              Walter had he been in the steady and careful hands of
+              Murray and Blackwood, for it is unlikely that even the
+              glamour of the great Magician would have turned heads so
+              reasonable and sober.")]
+
+{p.115} While these volumes were in progress, Scott found time to make
+an excursion into Perthshire and Dumbartonshire, {p.116} for the sake
+of showing the scenery, made famous in The Lady of the Lake and
+Waverley, to his {p.117} wife's old friends, Miss Dumergue and Mrs.
+Sarah Nicolson,[40] who had never before been in Scotland. The account
+which he gives of these ladies' visit at Abbotsford, and this little
+tour, in a letter to Mr. Morritt, shows the "Black Hussar of
+Literature" in his gentler and more habitual mood.
+
+              [Footnote 40: The sister of Miss Jane Nicolson.--See
+              _ante_, vol. i. p. 248. Vol. ii. p. 82.]
+
+     TO J. B. S. MORRITT, ESQ., M. P., ROKEBY PARK.
+
+                                        ABBOTSFORD, 21st August, 1816.
+
+     MY DEAR MORRITT,--I have not had a moment's kindly leisure
+     to answer your kind letter, and to tell how delighted I
+     shall be to see you in this least of all possible dwellings,
+     but where we, nevertheless, can contrive a pilgrim's
+     quarters and the warmest welcome for you and any friend of
+     your journey;--if young Stanley, so much the better. Now, as
+     to the important business with the which I have been
+     occupied: You are to know we have had our kind hostesses of
+     Piccadilly upon a two months' visit to us. We owed them so
+     much hospitality, that we were particularly anxious to make
+     Scotland agreeable to the good girls. But, alas, the wind
+     has blown, and the rain has fallen, in a style which beats
+     all that ever I remembered. We accomplished, with some
+     difficulty, a visit to Loch Katrine and Loch Lomond, and, by
+     dint of the hospitality of Cambusmore and the Ross, we
+     defied bad weather, wet roads, and long walks. But the
+     weather settled into regular tempest, when we settled at
+     Abbotsford; and, though the natives, accustomed to bad
+     weather (though not at such a time of year), contrived to
+     brave the extremities of the season, it only served to
+     increase the dismay of our unlucky visitors, who, accustomed
+     only to Paris and London, expected _fiacres_ at the
+     Milestane Cross, and a pair of oars at the Deadman's Haugh.
+     Add to this a strong disposition to _commerage_, when there
+     was no possibility of gratifying it, and a {p.118} total
+     indisposition to scenery or rural amusements, which were all
+     we had to offer--and you will pity both hosts and guests. I
+     have the gratification to think I fully supported the
+     hospitality of my country. I walked them to death, I talked
+     them to death, I showed them landscapes which the driving
+     rain hardly permitted them to see, and told them of feuds
+     about which they cared as little as I do about their
+     next-door news in Piccadilly. Yea, I even played at cards,
+     and as I had Charlotte for a partner, so ran no risk of
+     being scolded, I got on pretty well. Still the weather was
+     so execrable, that, as the old drunken landlord used to say
+     at Arroquhar, "I was perfectly ashamed of it;" and, to this
+     moment, I wonder how my two friends fought it out so
+     patiently as they did. But the young people and the cottages
+     formed considerable resources. Yesterday they left us,
+     deeply impressed with the conviction, which I can hardly
+     blame, that the sun never shone in Scotland,--which that
+     noble luminary seems disposed to confirm, by making this the
+     first fair day we have seen this month--so that his beams
+     will greet them at Longtown, as if he were determined to put
+     Scotland to utter shame.
+
+     In you I expect a guest of a different calibre; and I think
+     (barring downright rain) I can promise you some sport of one
+     kind or other. We have a good deal of game about us; and
+     Walter, to whom I have resigned my gun and license, will be
+     an excellent attendant. He brought in six brace of moor-fowl
+     on the 12th, which had (_si fas est diceri_) its own effect
+     in softening the minds of our guests towards this unhappy
+     climate. In other respects things look melancholy enough
+     here. Corn is, however, rising, and the poor have plenty of
+     work, and wages which, though greatly inferior to what they
+     had when hands were scarce, assort perfectly well with the
+     present state of the markets. Most folks try to live as much
+     on their own produce as they can, by way of fighting off
+     distress; and though speculating {p.119} farmers and
+     landlords must suffer, I think the temporary ague-fit will,
+     on the whole, be advantageous to the country. It will check
+     that inordinate and unbecoming spirit of expense, or rather
+     extravagance, which was poisoning all classes, and bring us
+     back to the sober virtues of our ancestors. It will also
+     have the effect of teaching the landed interest, that their
+     connection with their farmers should be of a nature more
+     intimate than that of mere payment and receipt of rent, and
+     that the largest offerer for a lease is often the person
+     least entitled to be preferred as a tenant. Above all, it
+     will complete the destruction of those execrable quacks,
+     terming themselves land-doctors, who professed, from a two
+     days' scamper over your estate, to tell you its
+     constitution,--in other words its value,--acre by acre.
+     These men, paid according to the golden hopes they held out,
+     afforded by their reports one principal means of deceiving
+     both landlord and tenant, by setting an ideal and
+     extravagant value upon land, which seemed to entitle the one
+     to expect, and the other to offer, rent far beyond what any
+     expectation formed by either, upon their own acquaintance
+     with the property, could rationally have warranted. More
+     than one landed gentleman has cursed, in my presence, the
+     day he ever consulted one of those empirics, whose
+     prognostications induced him to reject the offers of
+     substantial men, practically acquainted with the _locale_.
+
+     Ever, my dear Morritt, most truly yours,
+
+                                        Walter SCOTT.
+
+In October, 1816, appeared the Edinburgh Annual Register, containing
+Scott's historical sketch of the year 1814--a composition which would
+occupy at least four such volumes as the reader has now in his
+hand.[41] Though executed with extraordinary rapidity, the sketch is
+as clear as spirited; but I need say no more of it here, as the author
+travels mostly over the same ground again in his Life of Napoleon.
+
+              [Footnote 41: [Referring to the edition of 1839, in ten
+              volumes.]]
+
+{p.120} Scott's correspondence proves, that during this autumn he had
+received many English guests besides the good spinsters of Piccadilly
+and Mr. Morritt. I regret to add, it also proves that he had continued
+all the while to be annoyed with calls for money from John Ballantyne;
+yet before the 12th of November called him to Edinburgh, he appears to
+have nearly finished the first Tales of my Landlord. He had, moreover,
+concluded a negotiation with Constable and Longman for a series of
+Letters on the History of Scotland: of which, however, if he ever
+wrote any part, the MS. has not been discovered. It is probable that
+he may have worked some detached fragments into his long-subsequent
+Tales of a Grandfather.[42] The following letter shows likewise that
+he was now busy with plans of building at Abbotsford, and deep in
+consultation on that subject with an artist eminent for his skill in
+Gothic architecture,--Mr. Edward Blore:--
+
+              [Footnote 42: [Scott says in a letter to John Murray,
+              written October 20, 1814: "In casting about how I might
+              show you some mark of my sense of former kindness, a
+              certain MS. History of Scotland in _Letters to my
+              Children_ has occurred to me, which I consider as a
+              desideratum; it is upon the plan of _Lord Lyttelton's
+              Letters_, as they are called." Nearly a year later he
+              returns to the subject, and says: "I intend to revise my
+              letters on Scottish History for you, but I will not get
+              to press till November, for the country affords no
+              facilities for consulting the necessary authorities. I
+              hope it may turn out a thing of some interest, though I
+              rather intend to keep to its original purpose as a book
+              of instruction to children." These references seem to
+              show that the work may have been further advanced than
+              Lockhart supposed. The announcement of the proposed book
+              by Constable and Longman naturally excited the
+              indignation of Blackwood and Murray, as is shown in a
+              vigorous letter from the Edinburgh to the London
+              publisher, blaming equally the Ballantynes and
+              Constable.--See _Memoirs of John Murray_, vol. i. pp.
+              245, 246, 462.]]
+
+     TO DANIEL TERRY, ESQ.
+
+                                        November 12, 1816.
+
+     MY DEAR TERRY,--I have been shockingly negligent in
+     acknowledging your repeated favors; but it so happened, that
+     I have had very little to _say_, with a great {p.121} deal
+     to _do_; so that I trusted to your kindness to forgive my
+     apparent want of kindness, and indisputable lack of
+     punctuality. You will readily suppose that I have heard with
+     great satisfaction of the prosperity of your household,
+     particularly of the good health of my little namesake and
+     his mother. Godmothers of yore used to be fairies; and
+     though only a godfather, I think of sending you, one day, a
+     _fairy_ gift--a little drama, namely, which, if the audience
+     be indulgent, may be of use to him. Of course, you will
+     stand godfather to it yourself: it is yet only in embryo--a
+     sort of poetical Hans in Kelder--nor am I sure when I can
+     bring him forth; not for this season, at any rate. You will
+     receive, in the course of a few days, my late _whereabouts_
+     in four volumes: there are two tales--the last of which I
+     really prefer to any fictitious narrative I have yet been
+     able to produce--the first is wish-washy enough. The subject
+     of the second tale lies among the old Scottish
+     Cameronians--nay, I'll tickle ye off a Covenanter as readily
+     as old Jack could do a young Prince; and a rare fellow he
+     is, when brought forth in his true colors. Were it not for
+     the necessity of using Scriptural language, which is
+     essential to the character, but improper for the stage, it
+     would be very dramatic. But of all this you will judge by
+     and by. To give the go-by to the public, I have doubled and
+     leaped into my form, like a hare in snow: that is, I have
+     changed my publisher, and come forth like a maiden knight's
+     white shield (there is a conceit!) without any adhesion to
+     fame gained in former adventures (another!) or, in other
+     words, with a virgin title-page (another!)--I should not be
+     so light-hearted about all this, but that it is very nearly
+     finished and out, which is always a blithe moment for Mr.
+     Author. And now to other matters. The books came safe, and
+     were unpacked two days since, on our coming to town--most
+     ingeniously were they stowed in the legs of the very
+     handsome stand for Lord Byron's vase, with which our
+     {p.122} friend George Bullock has equipped me. I was made
+     very happy to receive him at Abbotsford, though only for a
+     start; and no less so to see Mr. Blore, from whom I received
+     your last letter. He is a very fine young man, modest,
+     simple, and unaffected in his manners, as well as a most
+     capital artist. I have had the assistance of both these
+     gentlemen in arranging an addition to the cottage at
+     Abbotsford, intended to connect the present farmhouse with
+     the line of low buildings to the right of it. Mr. Bullock
+     will show you the plan, which I think is very ingenious. He
+     has promised to give it his consideration with respect to
+     the interior; and Mr. Blore has drawn me a very handsome
+     elevation, both to the road and to the river. I expect to
+     get some decorations from the old Tolbooth of Edinburgh,
+     particularly the cope-stones of the doorway, or lintels, as
+     we call them, and a _niche_ or two--one very handsome
+     indeed! Better get a niche _from_ the Tolbooth than a niche
+     _in_ it, to which such building operations are apt to bring
+     the projectors. This addition will give me: first, a
+     handsome boudoir, in which I intend to place Mr. Bullock's
+     Shakespeare,[43] with his superb cabinet, which serves as a
+     pedestal. This opens into the little drawing-room, to which
+     it serves as a chapel of ease; and on the other side, to a
+     handsome dining-parlor of 27 feet by 18, with three windows
+     to the north, and one to the south,--the last to be Gothic,
+     and filled with stained glass. Besides these commodities,
+     there is a small conservatory or greenhouse; and a study for
+     myself, which we design to fit up with ornaments from
+     Melrose Abbey. Bullock made several casts with his own
+     hands--masks, and so forth, delightful for cornices, etc.
+
+              [Footnote 43: A cast from the monumental effigy at
+              Stratford-upon-Avon--now in the library at
+              Abbotsford--was the gift of Mr. George Bullock, long
+              distinguished in London as a collector of curiosities.
+              This ingenious man was, as the reader will see in the
+              sequel, a great favorite with Scott.]
+
+     Do not let Mrs. Terry think of the windows till little
+     {p.123} Wat is duly cared after.[44] I am informed by Mr.
+     Blore that he is a fine thriving fellow, very like papa.
+     About my armorial bearings: I will send you a correct
+     drawing as I can get hold of Blore; namely--of the
+     scutcheons of my grandsires on each side, and my own. I
+     could detail them in the jargon of heraldry, but it is
+     better to speak to your eyes by translating them into
+     colored drawings, as the sublime science of armory has
+     fallen into some neglect of late years, with all its
+     mascles, buckles, crescents, and boars of the first, second,
+     third, and fourth.
+
+              [Footnote 44: Mrs. Terry had offered the services of her
+              elegant pencil in designing some windows of painted
+              glass for Scott's armory, etc.]
+
+     I was very sorry I had no opportunity of showing attention
+     to your friend Mr. Abbot, not being in town at the time. I
+     grieve to say that neither the genius of Kean nor the charms
+     of Miss O'Neill could bring me from the hillside and the
+     sweet society of Tom Purdie. All our family are very
+     well--Walter as tall nearly as I am, fishing salmon and
+     shooting moor-fowl and blackcock, in good style; the girls
+     growing up, and, as yet, not losing their simplicity of
+     character; little Charles excellent at play, and not
+     deficient at learning, when the young dog will take pains.
+     Abbotsford is looking pretty at last, and the planting is
+     making some show. I have now several hundred acres thereof,
+     running out as far as beyond the lake. We observe with great
+     pleasure the steady rise which you make in public opinion,
+     and expect, one day, to hail you stage-manager. Believe me,
+     my dear Terry, always very much yours,
+
+                                        W. SCOTT.
+
+     P. S.--The Counsellor and both the Ballantynes are well and
+     hearty.
+
+On the first of December, the first series of the Tales of my Landlord
+appeared, and notwithstanding the silence of the title-page, and the
+change of publishers, and {p.124} the attempt which had certainly
+been made to vary the style both of delineation and of language, all
+doubts whether they were or were not from the same hand with Waverley
+had worn themselves out before the lapse of a week.--The enthusiasm of
+their reception among the highest literary circles of London may be
+gathered from the following letter:--
+
+     TO WALTER SCOTT, ESQ., EDINBURGH.
+
+                                   ALBEMARLE STREET, 14th December, 1816.
+
+     DEAR SIR,--Although I dare not address you as the author of
+     certain "Tales" (which, however, must be written either by
+     Walter Scott or the Devil), yet nothing can restrain me from
+     thinking it is to your influence with the author that I am
+     indebted for the essential honor of being one of their
+     publishers, and I must intrude upon you to offer my most
+     hearty thanks--not divided, but doubled--alike for my
+     worldly gain therein, and for the great acquisition of
+     professional reputation which their publication has already
+     procured me. I believe I might, under any oath that could be
+     proposed, swear that I never experienced such unmixed
+     pleasure as the reading of this exquisite work has afforded
+     me; and if you could see me, as the author's literary
+     chamberlain, receiving the unanimous and vehement praises of
+     every one who has read it, and the curses of those whose
+     needs my scanty supply could not satisfy, you might judge of
+     the sincerity with which I now entreat you to assure him of
+     the most complete success. Lord Holland said, when I asked
+     his opinion--"Opinion! We did not one of us go to bed last
+     night--nothing slept but my gout." Frere, Hallam,
+     Boswell,[45] Lord Glenbervie, William Lamb,[46] all agree
+     that it surpasses all the other novels. Gifford's estimate
+     is increased at every reperusal. Heber says there are only
+     two men in the world--Walter Scott and Lord Byron. Between
+     you, you have given existence to a third--Ever your faithful
+     servant,
+
+                                        John MURRAY.
+
+              [Footnote 45: The late James Boswell, Esq., of the
+              Temple--second son of _Bozzy_.]
+
+              [Footnote 46: The Honorable William Lamb--now Lord
+              Melbourne.]
+
+To this cordial effusion Scott returned the following answer. It was
+necessary, since he had fairly resolved {p.125} against compromising
+his incognito, that he should be prepared not only to repel the
+impertinent curiosity of strangers, but to evade the proffered
+congratulations of overflowing kindness. He contrived, however, to do
+so, on this and all similar occasions, in a style of equivoque which
+could never be seriously misunderstood:[47]--
+
+              [Footnote 47: [Even such keen observers as Murray and
+              Blackwood had their intervals of doubt regarding the
+              authorship of the Novels. In June, 1816, Blackwood
+              writes: "There have been various rumors with regard to
+              Greenfield being the author, but I never paid much
+              attention to it; the thing appeared to me so very
+              improbable.... But from what I have heard lately, and
+              from what you state, I now begin to think that
+              Greenfield may probably be the author." And only a month
+              after the date of his letter to Scott, here given,
+              Murray writes to Blackwood:--
+
+              "I can assure you, but _in the greatest confidence_,
+              that I have discovered the author of all these Novels to
+              be Thomas Scott, Walter Scott's brother. He is now in
+              Canada. I have no doubt but that Mr. Walter Scott did a
+              great deal to the first Waverley Novel, because of his
+              anxiety to save his brother, and his doubt about the
+              success of the work. This accounts for the many stories
+              about it. Many persons had previously heard from Mr.
+              Scott, but you may rely upon the certainty of what I
+              have told you." By this time Blackwood is firm in the
+              faith of Scott's authorship; but Bernard Barton writes
+              to Murray that he has heard that James Hogg is the
+              author of _Tales of my Landlord_, and that he has had
+              intimation from himself to that effect; while Lady
+              Mackintosh is informed on excellent authority that the
+              writer is Mrs. Thomas Scott. Writing to Blackwood in
+              February, 1817, Murray avers,--"I will believe, till
+              within an inch of my life, that the author of _Tales of
+              my Landlord_ is Thomas Scott."--See Smiles's _Memoir of
+              John Murray_, vol. i. pp. 461, 473, 474.]]
+
+     TO JOHN MURRAY, ESQ., ALBEMARLE STREET, LONDON.
+
+                                        EDINBURGH, 18th December, 1816.
+
+     MY DEAR SIR,--I give you heartily joy of the success of the
+     Tales, although I do not claim that paternal interest in
+     them which my friends do me the credit to assign me. I
+     assure you I have never read a volume of them until they
+     were printed, and can only join with the rest of the world
+     in applauding the true and striking portraits which they
+     present of old Scottish manners. I do not expect implicit
+     reliance to be placed on my disavowal, because I know very
+     well that he who is disposed not to own a work must
+     necessarily deny it, and that otherwise {p.126} his secret
+     would be at the mercy of all who choose to ask the question,
+     since silence in such a case must always pass for consent,
+     or rather assent. But I have a mode of convincing you that I
+     am perfectly serious in my denial--pretty similar to that by
+     which Solomon distinguished the fictitious from the real
+     mother--and that is, by reviewing the work, which I take to
+     be an operation equal to that of quartering the child. But
+     this is only on condition I can have Mr. Erskine's
+     assistance, who admires the work greatly more than I do,
+     though I think the painting of the second Tale both true and
+     powerful. I knew Old Mortality very well; his name was
+     Paterson, but few knew him otherwise than by his nickname.
+     The first Tale is not very original in its concoction, and
+     lame and impotent in its conclusion. My love to Gifford. I
+     have been over head and ears in work this summer, or I would
+     have sent the Gypsies; indeed I was partly stopped by
+     finding it impossible to procure a few words of their
+     language.
+
+     Constable wrote to me about two months since, desirous of
+     having a new edition of Paul; but not hearing from you, I
+     conclude you are still on hand. Longman's people had then
+     only sixty copies.
+
+     Kind compliments to Heber, whom I expected at Abbotsford
+     this summer; also to Mr. Croker and all your four o'clock
+     visitors. I am just going to Abbotsford to make a small
+     addition to my premises there. I have now about 700 acres,
+     thanks to the booksellers and the discerning public. Yours
+     truly,
+
+                                        Walter SCOTT.
+
+     P. S.--I have much to ask about Lord Byron if I had time.
+     The third canto of the Childe is inimitable. Of the last
+     poems, there are one or two which indicate rather an
+     irregular play of imagination.[48] What a pity that a man of
+     such exquisite genius will not be contented {p.127} to be
+     happy on the ordinary terms![49] I declare my heart bleeds
+     when I think of him, self-banished from the country to which
+     he is an honor.[50]
+
+              [Footnote 48: _Parisina_--_The Dream_--and the "Domestic
+              Pieces," had been recently published.]
+
+              [Footnote 49: (On November 27 Scott had written to
+              Joanna Baillie, who had just returned from a tour on the
+              Continent:--
+
+              "All I ever longed for on the Continent was their light
+              wines, which you do not care about, and their fine
+              climate, which we should both value equally; and to say
+              truth, I never saw scene or palace which shook my
+              allegiance to Tweedside and Abbotsford, though so
+              inferior in every respect, and though the hills, or
+              rather braes, are just high enough 'to lift us to the
+              storm' when the storms are not so condescending as to
+              sweep both crest and base, which, to do them justice, is
+              seldom the case. What have I got to send you?... Alas,
+              nothing but the history of petty employments and a
+              calendar of increasing bad weather. The latter was much
+              mitigated by enjoying for a good portion of the summer
+              the society of John Morritt, of Rokeby, who has so much
+              of that which is delightful, both in his grave and gay
+              moods, that he can make us forget the hillside while
+              sitting by the fireside. His late loss has cast a
+              general shade of melancholy over him, which renders him
+              yet dearer to his friends, by the gentle and unaffected
+              manner in which his natural gayety of temper gleams
+              through it and renders it still more interesting....
+
+              "A far different object of interest, yet still of
+              interest, checkered with pity and disapprobation, is
+              Lord Byron, whose present situation seems to rival all
+              that ever has been said and sung of the misfortunes of a
+              too irritable imagination. The last part of _Childe
+              Harold_ intimates a terrible state of mind, and with all
+              the power and genius which characterized his former
+              productions, the present seems to indicate a more
+              serious and desperate degree of misanthropy. I own I was
+              not much moved by the scorn of the world which his first
+              poems implied, because I know it is a humor of mind
+              which those whom fortune has spoilt by indulgence, or
+              irritated by reverses, are apt to assume, because it
+              looks melancholy and gentlemanlike, and becomes a bard
+              as well as being desperately in love, or very fond of
+              the sunrise, though he lies in bed till noon, or anxious
+              in recommending to others to catch cold by visiting old
+              abbeys by moonlight, which he never happened to see
+              under the chaste moonbeam himself; but this strange poem
+              goes much deeper, and either the Demon of Misanthropy is
+              in full possession of him, or he has already invited ten
+              guests, equally desperate, to the swept and garnished
+              mansion of Harold's understanding."--_Familiar Letters_,
+              vol. i. p. 369.)]
+
+              [Footnote 50: [This is probably the "expression of
+              kindness" which encouraged Murray to beg Scott to review
+              in the _Quarterly_ Byron's recently published volumes,
+              _Childe Harold, Canto III._, and _The Prisoner of
+              Chillon, a Dream, and Other Poems_. The request was
+              promptly complied with, and the article appeared in the
+              next number issued (_dated_ October, 1816),--a review
+              full of generous, and also judicious, appreciation. For
+              some reason, hard now to discover, unless it were the
+              kindliness of the writer's tone towards the younger
+              poet, some of Lady Byron's friends, among whom was
+              Joanna Baillie, seem to have taken strong exception to
+              the paper, and Miss Baillie wrote to Scott at some
+              length on the matter, even animadverting upon the purely
+              literary criticism of the reviewer. Much of the
+              correspondence which ensued, including a characteristic
+              letter from Lady Byron, can be found in the _Familiar
+              Letters_ (vol. i. pp. 413-422).
+
+              Of the review, Byron writes to Murray (March 3, 1817):--
+
+              ... "It seems to me (as far as the subject of it may be
+              permitted to judge) to be _very well_ written as a
+              composition, and ... even those who may condemn its
+              partiality, must praise its generosity. The temptations
+              to take another and less favorable view of the question
+              have been so great and numerous, that, what with public
+              opinion, politics, etc., he must be a gallant as well as
+              a good man, who has ventured in that place and at this
+              time to write such an article even anonymously. Such
+              things, however, are their own reward; and I even
+              flatter myself that the writer, whoever he may be (and I
+              have no guess), will not regret that the perusal of this
+              has given me as much gratification as any composition of
+              that nature could give, and more than any other has ever
+              given,--and I have had a good many in my time of one
+              kind or the other. It is not the mere praise, but there
+              is a tact and a delicacy throughout, not only with
+              regard to me, but to others, which, as it has not been
+              observed elsewhere, I had till now doubted, whether it
+              could be observed anywhere." He writes a few weeks
+              later, on learning that Scott wrote the article: ... "It
+              cannot add to my good opinion of him, but it adds to
+              that of myself."--_Letters and Journals of Lord Byron_
+              (1900), vol. iv. pp. 63, 85.]]
+
+{p.128} Mr. Murray, gladly embracing this offer of an article for his
+journal on the Tales of my Landlord, begged Scott to take a wider
+scope, and dropping all respect for the idea of a divided parentage,
+to place together any materials he might have for the illustration of
+the Waverley Novels in general; he suggested in particular, that,
+instead of drawing up a long-promised disquisition on the Gypsies in a
+separate shape, whatever he had to say concerning that picturesque
+generation might be introduced by way of comment on the character of
+Meg Merrilies. What Scott's original conception had been I know not;
+he certainly gave his reviewal all the breadth which Murray could have
+wished, and, _inter alia_, diversified it with a few anecdotes of the
+Scottish Gypsies. But the late excellent biographer of John Knox, Dr.
+Thomas M'Crie, had, in the mean time, considered the representation of
+the Covenanters, in the story of Old Mortality, as so unfair as to
+demand at his {p.129} hands a very serious rebuke. The Doctor
+forthwith published, in a magazine called the Edinburgh Christian
+Instructor, a set of papers, in which the historical foundations of
+that tale were attacked with indignant warmth; and though Scott, when
+he first heard of these invectives, expressed his resolution never
+even to read them, he found the impression they were producing so
+strong, that he soon changed his purpose, and finally devoted a very
+large part of his article for the Quarterly Review to an elaborate
+defence of his own picture of the Covenanters.[51]
+
+              [Footnote 51: Since I have mentioned this reviewal, I
+              may as well, to avoid recurrence to it, express here my
+              conviction, that Erskine, not Scott, was the author of
+              the critical estimate of the Waverley Novels which it
+              embraces--although, for the purpose of mystification,
+              Scott had taken the trouble to transcribe the paragraphs
+              in which that estimate is contained. At the same time I
+              cannot but add that, had Scott really been the sole
+              author of this reviewal, he need not have incurred the
+              severe censure which has been applied to his supposed
+              conduct in the matter. After all, his judgment of his
+              own works must have been allowed to be not above, but
+              very far under the mark; and the whole affair would, I
+              think, have been considered by every candid person
+              exactly as the letter about Solomon and the rival
+              mothers was by Murray, Gifford, and the "four o'clock
+              visitors" of Albemarle Street--as a good joke. A better
+              joke, certainly, than the allusion to the report of
+              Thomas Scott being the real author of Waverley, at the
+              close of the article, was never penned; and I think it
+              includes a confession over which a misanthrope might
+              have chuckled: "We intended here to conclude this long
+              article, when a strong report reached us of certain
+              Transatlantic confessions, which, if genuine (though of
+              this we know nothing), assign a different author to
+              these volumes than the party suspected by our Scottish
+              correspondents. Yet a critic may be excused seizing upon
+              the nearest suspicious person, on the principle happily
+              expressed by Claverhouse, in a letter to the Earl of
+              Linlithgow. He had been, it seems, in search of a gifted
+              weaver, who used to hold forth at conventicles: 'I sent
+              for the webster (weaver), they brought in his _brother_
+              for him: though he, maybe, cannot preach like his
+              brother, I doubt not but he is as well-principled as he,
+              wherefore I thought it would be no great fault to give
+              him the trouble to go to jail with the
+              rest!'"--_Miscellaneous Prose Works_, vol. xix. pp. 85,
+              86.]
+
+Before the first Tales of my Landlord were six weeks old, two editions
+of 2000 copies disappeared, and a third of 2000 was put to press; but
+notwithstanding this rapid success, which was still further continued,
+and the friendly relations which always subsisted between the {p.130}
+author and Mr. Murray, circumstances erelong occurred which carried
+the publication of the work into the hands of Messrs. Constable.
+
+The author's answer to Dr. M'Crie, and his Introduction of 1830, have
+exhausted the historical materials on which he constructed his Old
+Mortality; and the origin of The Black Dwarf--as to the conclusion of
+which story he appears on reflection to have completely adopted the
+opinion of honest Blackwood--has already been sufficiently illustrated
+by an anecdote of his early wanderings in Tweeddale. The latter tale,
+however imperfect, and unworthy as a work of art to be placed high in
+the catalogue of his productions, derives a singular interest from its
+delineation of the dark feelings so often connected with physical
+deformity; feelings which appear to have diffused their shadow over
+the whole genius of Byron--and which, but for this single picture, we
+should hardly have conceived ever to have passed through Scott's
+happier mind.[52] All the bitter blasphemy of spirit which, from
+infancy to the tomb, swelled up in Byron against the unkindness of
+nature; which sometimes perverted even his filial love into a
+sentiment of diabolical malignity; all this black and desolate train
+of reflections must have been encountered and deliberately subdued by
+the manly parent of The Black Dwarf. Old Mortality, on the other hand,
+is remarkable as the _novelist's_ first attempt to repeople the past
+by the power of imagination working on materials furnished by books.
+In Waverley he revived the fervid dreams of his boyhood, and drew, not
+from printed records, but from the artless oral narratives of his
+_Invernahyles_. In Guy Mannering and The Antiquary he embodied
+characters and manners familiar {p.131} to his own wandering youth.
+But whenever his letters mention Old Mortality in its progress, they
+represent him as strong in the confidence that the industry with which
+he had pored over a library of forgotten tracts would enable him to
+identify himself with the time in which they had birth, as completely
+as if he had listened with his own ears to the dismal sermons of
+Peden, ridden with Claverhouse and Dalzell in the rout of Bothwell,
+and been an advocate at the bar of the Privy Council, when Lauderdale
+catechised and tortured the assassins of Archbishop Sharp. To
+reproduce a departed age with such minute and lifelike accuracy as
+this tale exhibits, demanded a far more energetic sympathy of
+imagination than had been called for in any effort of his serious
+verse. It is indeed most curiously instructive for any student of art
+to compare the Roundheads of Rokeby with the Bluebonnets of Old
+Mortality. For the rest--the story is framed with a deeper skill than
+any of the preceding novels: the canvas is a broader one; the
+characters are contrasted and projected with a power and felicity
+which neither he nor any other master ever surpassed; and,
+notwithstanding all that has been urged against him as a disparager of
+the Covenanters, it is to me very doubtful whether the inspiration of
+romantic chivalry ever prompted him to nobler emotions than he has
+lavished on the re-animation of their stern and solemn enthusiasm.
+This work has always appeared to me the Marmion of his novels.[53]
+
+              [Footnote 52: [On reading _The Black Dwarf_, Mrs. Leigh
+              believed her brother to be the author, and wrote to him
+              to that effect. Byron had not yet seen the book, and
+              says in his reply: "I am not P. P. [Peter Pattieson], I
+              assure you on my honor, and do not understand to what
+              book you allude, so that all your compliments are quite
+              thrown away."--Byron's _Letters and Journals_ (1900),
+              vol. iv. p. 56.]]
+
+              [Footnote 53: [Lady Louisa Stuart, whose approbation
+              Scott writes he values "beyond a whole wilderness of
+              critics," says in a letter of December 5, 1816:
+
+              "[Old Mortality] is super-excellent in all its points;
+              it breaks up fresh ground, and has all the raciness of
+              originality. I cannot help thinking it will bear down
+              the world before it triumphantly. As usual it makes its
+              personages our intimate acquaintance, and its scenes so
+              present to the eye, that, last night, after sitting up
+              unreasonably late over it, I got no sleep, from a kind
+              of fever of mind it had occasioned. It seemed as if I
+              had been an eye and ear witness of all the passages, and
+              I could not lull the agitation into calmness. Mause and
+              Cuddie hurried my spirits in another way; they forced me
+              to laugh out aloud, which one seldom does alone. On a
+              second slower reading I expect to be still better
+              pleased, and then also I suppose I shall find out the
+              faults. At present it has, in the Scotch phrase, 'taken
+              me off my feet,' and I do not criticise, though I think
+              you will believe me when I say I do not and will not
+              flatter. One thing I regret, that like the author of
+              _The Antiquary_, Jedediah did not add a glossary;
+              because even I, a mongrel, occasionally paying long
+              visits to Scotland, and hearing Girsy at Bothwell gate
+              and Peggy Macgowan hold forth in the village,--even I,
+              thus qualified, have found a great many words absolute
+              Hebrew to me, and I fear the altogether English will
+              find many more beyond their comprehension or conjecture.
+              But this may be remedied in another edition. I have as
+              yet only one great attack to make, and that upon a
+              single word; but such a word! such an anachronism!
+              Claverhouse says he has no time to hear _sentimental_
+              speeches. My dear sir! tell Jedediah that Claverhouse
+              never heard the sound of those four syllables in his
+              life. We are used to them; but _sentiment_ and
+              _sentimental_ were, I believe, first introduced into the
+              language by Sterne, and are hardly as old as I am. Let
+              alone the Covenanters' days, I am persuaded you would
+              look in vain for them in the works of Richardson and
+              Fielding. Nay, the French, from whom they were borrowed,
+              did not talk of _le sentiment_ in that sense till long
+              after Louis XIV.'s reign. No such thing is to be found
+              in Madame de Sevigne, la Bruyere, etc., etc., etc. At
+              home or abroad I defy Lord Dundee ever to have met with
+              the expression. Mr. Peter Pattieson had been reading the
+              _Man of Feeling_, and it was a slip of his tongue, which
+              I am less inclined to excuse than Mause's abstruse
+              Scotch, which I duly reverence, as she did
+              Kettledrummle's sermons, because I do not understand it.
+              Once more I shall be much disappointed if this work does
+              not quickly acquire a very great reputation. I fancy Mr.
+              Morritt is in the secret; yet, as I am not certain, I
+              will keep on the secure side and not mention it when I
+              write to him, however one may long to _intercommune_ on
+              such subjects with those likely to hold the same faith."
+
+              At the close of his reply, Scott says: "I must not
+              forget to thank your Ladyship for your acute and
+              indisputable criticism on the application of the word
+              _sentimental_. How it escaped my pen I know not, unless
+              that the word owed me a grudge for the ill will I have
+              uniformly borne it, and was resolved to slip itself in
+              for the express purpose of disgracing me. I will
+              certainly turn it out the first opportunity." This was
+              done in the second edition.--_Familiar Letters_, vol. i.
+              pp. 394, 400.]]
+
+{p.132} I have disclaimed the power of farther illustrating its
+historical groundworks, but I am enabled by Mr. Train's kindness to
+give some interesting additions to Scott's own account of this novel
+as a composition. The generous Supervisor visited him in Edinburgh in
+May, 1816, a few days after the publication of The Antiquary, carrying
+with him several relics which he wished to present to his collection;
+among others a purse that had belonged {p.133} to Rob Roy, and also a
+fresh heap of traditionary gleanings, which he had gathered among the
+tale-tellers of his district. One of these last was in the shape of a
+letter to Mr. Train from a Mr. Broadfoot, "schoolmaster at the clachan
+of Penningham, and author of the _celebrated song_ of the Hills of
+Galloway"--with which I confess myself unacquainted. Broadfoot had
+facetiously signed his communication _Clashbottom_,--"a professional
+appellation derived," says Mr. Train, "from the use of the birch, and
+by which he was usually addressed among his companions,--who
+assembled, not at the Wallace Inn of Gandercleuch, but at the sign of
+the Shoulder of Mutton in Newton-Stewart." Scott received these gifts
+with benignity, and invited the friendly donor to breakfast next
+morning. He found him at work in his library, and surveyed with
+enthusiastic curiosity the furniture of the room, especially its only
+picture, a portrait of Graham of Claverhouse. Train expressed the
+surprise with which every one, who had known Dundee only in the pages
+of the Presbyterian Annalists, must see for the first time that
+beautiful and melancholy visage, worthy of the most pathetic dreams of
+romance. Scott replied, "that no character had been so foully traduced
+as the Viscount of Dundee; that, thanks to Wodrow, Cruickshanks, and
+such chroniclers, he, who was every inch a soldier and a gentleman,
+still passed among the Scottish vulgar for a ruffian desperado, who
+rode a goblin horse, was proof against shot, and in league with the
+Devil." "Might he not," said Mr. Train, "be made, in good hands, the
+hero of a national romance as interesting as any about either Wallace
+or Prince Charlie?" "He might," said Scott, "but your western zealots
+would require to be faithfully portrayed in order to bring him out
+with the right effect."[54] "And what," resumed {p.134} Train, "if
+the story were to be delivered as if from the mouth of _Old
+Mortality_? Would _he_ not do as well as _the Minstrel_ did in the
+Lay?" "Old Mortality!" said Scott--"who was he?" Mr. Train then told
+what he could remember of old Paterson, and seeing how much his story
+interested the hearer, offered to inquire farther about that
+enthusiast on his return to Galloway. "Do so by all means," said
+Scott; "I assure you I shall look with anxiety for your
+communication." He said nothing at this time of his own meeting with
+Old Mortality in the churchyard of Dunnottar--and I think there can be
+no doubt that that meeting was thus recalled to his recollection; or
+that to this intercourse with Mr. Train we owe the whole machinery of
+the Tales of my Landlord, as well as the adoption of Claverhouse's
+period for the scene of one of its first fictions. I think it highly
+probable that we owe a further obligation to the worthy Supervisor's
+presentation of Rob Roy's _spleuchan_.
+
+              [Footnote 54: [Scott's old friend, John Richardson, who
+              was from the first in the secret of the Waverley Novels,
+              was a stanch Whig, as beseemed the descendant of an old
+              Covenanting family. Some of his ancestral traditions
+              suggested certain passages in _Old Mortality_, and he
+              has recorded that during a visit to Abbotsford Scott
+              gave him the proof sheets of the first volume to read,
+              and how he lost a night's sleep in doing it. Twelve
+              years later, in writing to Scott regarding _The Tales of
+              a Grandfather_, he says that in this work,--"You have
+              paid a debt which you owed to the manes of the
+              Covenanters for the flattering picture which you drew of
+              Claverhouse in _Old Mortality_."
+
+              Scott says in his reply (December, 1828): "As to
+              Covenanters and Malignants, they were both a set of
+              cruel and bloody bigots, and had, notwithstanding, those
+              virtues with which bigotry is sometimes allied. Their
+              characters were of a kind much more picturesque than
+              beautiful; neither had the least idea either of
+              toleration or humanity, so that it happens that, so far
+              as they can be distinguished from each other, one is
+              tempted to hate most the party which chances to be
+              uppermost for the time."--See _Journal_, note, vol. ii.
+              p. 404.]]
+
+The original design for the First Series of Jedediah Cleishbotham was,
+as Scott told me, to include four separate tales illustrative of four
+districts of the country, in the like number of volumes; but, his
+imagination once kindled upon any theme, he could not but pour himself
+out freely--so that notion was soon abandoned.
+
+
+
+
+{p.135} CHAPTER XXXVIII.
+
+     Harold the Dauntless Published. -- Scott Aspires to Be a
+     Baron of the Exchequer. -- Letter to the Duke of Buccleuch
+     Concerning Poachers, etc. -- First Attack of Cramp in the
+     Stomach. -- Letters to Morritt, Terry, and Mrs. Maclean
+     Clephane. -- Story of the Doom of Devorgoil. -- John
+     Kemble's Retirement from the Stage. -- William Laidlaw
+     Established at Kaeside. -- Novel of Rob Roy Projected. --
+     Letter to Southey on the Relief of the Poor, etc. -- Letter
+     to Lord Montagu on Hogg's Queen's Wake, and on the Death of
+     Frances, Lady Douglas.
+
+1817.
+
+
+Within less than a month, The Black Dwarf and Old Mortality were
+followed by "Harold the Dauntless, by the author of The Bridal of
+Triermain." This poem had been, it appears, begun several years back;
+nay, part of it had been actually printed before the appearance of
+Childe Harold, though that circumstance had escaped the author's
+remembrance when he penned, in 1830, his Introduction to The Lord of
+the Isles; for he there says, "I am still astonished at my having
+committed the gross error of selecting the very name which Lord Byron
+had made so famous." The volume was published by Messrs. Constable,
+and had, in those booksellers' phrase, "considerable success." It has
+never, however, been placed on a level with Triermain; and though it
+contains many vigorous pictures, and splendid verses, and here and
+there some happy humor, the confusion and harsh transitions {p.136}
+of the fable, and the dim rudeness of character and manners, seem
+sufficient to account for this inferiority in public favor. It is not
+surprising that the author should have redoubled his aversion to the
+notion of any more serious performances in verse. He had seized on an
+instrument of wider compass, and which, handled with whatever
+rapidity, seemed to reveal at every touch treasures that had hitherto
+slept unconsciously within him. He had thrown off his fetters, and
+might well go forth rejoicing in the native elasticity of his
+strength.
+
+It is at least a curious coincidence in literary history, that, as
+Cervantes, driven from the stage of Madrid by the success of Lope de
+Vega, threw himself into prose romance, and produced, at the moment
+when the world considered him as silenced forever, the Don Quixote
+which has outlived Lope's two thousand triumphant dramas--so Scott,
+abandoning verse to Byron, should have rebounded from his fall by the
+only prose romances, which seem to be classed with the masterpiece of
+Spanish genius, by the general judgment of Europe.
+
+I shall insert two letters, in which he announces the publication of
+Harold the Dauntless. In the first of them he also mentions the light
+and humorous little piece entitled The Sultan of Serendib, or the
+Search after Happiness, originally published in a weekly paper, after
+the fashion of the old Essayists, which about this time issued from
+John Ballantyne's premises, under the appropriate name of "The
+SALE-ROOM." The paper had slender success; and though Scott wrote
+several things for it, none of them, except this metrical essay,
+attracted any notice. The Sale-Room was, in fact, a dull and hopeless
+concern; and I should scarcely have thought it worth mentioning, but
+for the confirmation it lends to my suspicion that Mr. John Ballantyne
+was very unwilling, after all his warnings, to retire completely from
+the field of publishing.
+
+     {p.137} TO J. B. S. MORRITT, ESQ., M. P., ROKEBY PARK.
+
+                                        EDINBURGH, January 30, 1817.
+
+     MY DEAR MORRITT,--I hope to send you in a couple of days
+     Harold the Dauntless, which has not turned out so good as I
+     thought it would have done. I begin to get too old and
+     stupid, I think, for poetry, and will certainly never again
+     adventure on a grand scale. For amusement, and to help a
+     little publication that is going on here, I have spun a
+     doggerel tale called The Search after Happiness, of which I
+     shall send you a copy by post, if it is of a frankable size;
+     if not, I can put it up with the Dauntless. Among other
+     misfortunes of Harold is his name, but the thing was partly
+     printed before Childe Harold was in question.
+
+     My great and good news at present is, that the bog (that
+     perpetual hobby-horse) has produced a commodity of most
+     excellent marle, and promises to be of the very last
+     consequence to my wild ground in the neighborhood; for
+     nothing can equal the effect of marle as a top-dressing.
+     Methinks (in my mind's eye, Horatio) I see all the
+     blue-bank, the hinny-lee, and the other provinces of my poor
+     kingdom, waving with deep rye-grass and clover, like the
+     meadows at Rokeby. In honest truth, it will do me yeoman's
+     service.
+
+     My next good tidings are, that Jedediah carries the world
+     before him. Six thousand have been disposed of, and three
+     thousand more are pressing onward, which will be worth L2500
+     to the worthy pedagogue of Gandercleuch. Some of the Scotch
+     Whigs, of the right old fanatical leaven, have waxed wroth
+     with Jedediah,--
+
+          "But shall we go mourn for that, my dear?
+             The cold moon shines by night,
+           And when we wander here and there,
+             We then do go most right."[55]
+
+              [Footnote 55: Joanna Baillie's _Orra_.]
+
+     After all, these honest gentlemen are like Queen Elizabeth
+     {p.138} in their ideas of portrait-painting. They require
+     the pictures of their predecessors to be likenesses, and at
+     the same time demand that they shall be painted without
+     shade, being probably of opinion, with the virgin majesty of
+     England, that there is no such thing in nature.
+
+     I presume you will be going almost immediately to London--at
+     least all our Scotch members are requested to be at their
+     posts, the meaning of which I cannot pretend to guess. The
+     finances are the only ticklish matter, but there is, after
+     all, plenty of money in the country, now that our fever-fit
+     is a little over. In Britain, when there is the least damp
+     upon the spirits of the public, they are exactly like people
+     in a crowd, who take the alarm, and shoulder each other to
+     and fro till some dozen or two of the weakest are borne down
+     and trodden to death; whereas, if they would but have
+     patience and remain quiet, there would be a safe and speedy
+     end to their embarrassment. How we want Billie Pitt now to
+     get up and give the tone to our feelings and opinions!
+
+     As I take up this letter to finish the same, I hear the
+     Prince Regent has been attacked and fired at. Since he was
+     not hurt (for I should be sincerely sorry for my fat
+     friend), I see nothing but good luck to result from this
+     assault. It will make him a good manageable boy, and, I
+     think, secure you a quiet session of Parliament.--Adieu, my
+     dear Morritt, God bless you. Let me know if the gimcracks
+     come safe--I mean the book, etc.
+
+     Ever yours,
+
+                                        Walter SCOTT.
+
+
+     TO THE LADY LOUISA STUART, GLOUCESTER PLACE, LONDON.
+
+                                        EDINBURGH, January 31, 1817.
+
+     MY DEAR LADY LOUISA,--This accompanies Harold the Dauntless.
+     I thought once I should have made it something clever, but
+     it turned vapid upon my imagination; and I finished it at
+     last with hurry and impatience. Nobody knows, that has not
+     tried the feverish trade of poetry, how much it depends upon
+     mood and whim. I {p.139} don't wonder, that, in dismissing
+     all the other deities of Paganism, the Muse should have been
+     retained by common consent; for, in sober reality, writing
+     good verses seems to depend upon something separate from the
+     volition of the author. I sometimes think my fingers set up
+     for themselves, independent of my head; for twenty times I
+     have begun a thing on a certain plan, and never in my life
+     adhered to it (in a work of imagination, that is) for half
+     an hour together. I would hardly write this sort of
+     egotistical trash to any one but yourself, yet it is very
+     true for all that. What my kind correspondent had
+     anticipated on account of Jedediah's effusions has actually
+     taken place; and the author of a very good Life of Knox has,
+     I understand, made a most energetic attack, upon the score
+     that the old Covenanters are not treated with decorum. I
+     have not read it, and certainly never shall. I really think
+     there is nothing in the book that is not very fair and
+     legitimate subject of raillery; and I own I have my
+     suspicions of that very susceptible devotion which so
+     readily takes offence: such men should not read books of
+     amusement; but do they suppose, because they are virtuous,
+     and choose to be thought outrageously so, "there shall be no
+     cakes and ale"?--"Ay, by our lady, and ginger shall be hot
+     in the mouth too."[56] As for the consequences to the
+     author, they can only affect his fortune or his temper--the
+     former, such as it is, has been long fixed beyond shot of
+     these sort of fowlers; and for my temper, I considered
+     always, that by subjecting myself to the irritability which
+     much greater authors have felt on occasions of literary
+     dispute, I should be laying in a plentiful stock of
+     unhappiness for the rest of my life. I therefore make it a
+     rule never to read the attacks made upon me. I remember
+     being capable of something like this sort of self-denial at
+     a very early period of life, for I could not be six years
+     old. I had been put into my bed in the nursery, and two
+     servant {p.140} girls sat down by the embers of the fire,
+     to have their own quiet chat, and the one began to tell a
+     most dismal ghost story, of which I remember the
+     commencement distinctly at this moment; but perceiving which
+     way the tale was tending, and though necessarily curious,
+     being at the same time conscious that, if I listened on, I
+     should be frightened out of my wits for the rest of the
+     night, I had the force to cover up my head in the
+     bed-clothes, so that I could not hear another word that was
+     said. The only inconvenience attending a similar prudential
+     line of conduct in the present case is, that it may seem
+     like a deficiency of spirit; but I am not much afraid of
+     that being laid to my charge--my fault in early life (I hope
+     long since corrected) having lain rather the other way. And
+     so I say, with mine honest Prior,--
+
+        "Sleep, Philo, untouch'd, on my peaceable shelf,
+         Nor take it amiss that so little I heed thee;
+         I've no malice at thee, and some love for myself--
+         Then why should I answer, since first I must read thee?"
+
+              [Footnote 56: _Twelfth Night_, Act II. Scene 3.]
+
+     So you are getting finely on in London. I own I am very glad
+     of it. I am glad the banditti act like banditti, because it
+     will make men of property look round them in time. This
+     country is very like the toys which folks buy for children,
+     and which, tumble them about in any way the urchins will,
+     are always brought to their feet again, by the lead
+     deposited in their extremities. The mass of property has the
+     same effect on our Constitution, and is a sort of ballast
+     which will always _right_ the vessel, to use a sailor's
+     phrase, and bring it to its due equipoise.
+
+     Ministers have acted most sillily in breaking up the burgher
+     volunteers in large towns. On the contrary, the service
+     should have been made coercive. Such men have a moral effect
+     upon the minds of the populace, besides their actual force,
+     and are so much interested in keeping good order, that you
+     may always rely on them, especially as a corps in which
+     there is necessarily a common {p.141} spirit of union and
+     confidence. But all this is nonsense again, quoth my Uncle
+     Toby to himself. Adieu, my dear Lady Louisa; my sincere good
+     wishes always attend you.
+
+                                        W. S.
+
+Not to disturb the narrative of his literary proceedings, I have
+deferred until now the mention of an attempt which Scott made during
+the winter of 1816-1817, to exchange his seat at the Clerk's table for
+one on the Bench of the Scotch Court of Exchequer. It had often
+occurred to me, in the most prosperous years of his life, that such a
+situation would have suited him better in every respect than that
+which he held, and that his never attaining a promotion, which the
+Scottish public would have considered so naturally due to his
+character and services, reflected little honor on his political
+allies. But at the period when I was entitled to hint this to him, he
+appeared to have made up his mind that the rank of Clerk of Session
+was more compatible than that of a Supreme Judge with the habits of a
+literary man, who was perpetually publishing, and whose writings were
+generally of the imaginative order. I had also witnessed the zeal with
+which he seconded the views of more than one of his own friends, when
+their ambition was directed to the Exchequer Bench. I remained, in
+short, ignorant that he ever had seriously thought of it for himself,
+until the ruin of his worldly fortunes in 1826; nor had I any
+information that his wish to obtain it had ever been distinctly
+stated, until certain letters, one of which I shall introduce, were
+placed in my hands after his death, by the present Duke of Buccleuch.
+The late Duke's answers to these letters are also before me; but of
+them it is sufficient to say, that while they show the warmest anxiety
+to serve Scott, they refer to private matters, which rendered it
+inconsistent with his Grace's feelings to interfere at the time in
+question with the distribution of Crown patronage. I incline to think,
+on the whole, {p.142} that the death of this nobleman, which soon
+after left the influence of his house in abeyance, must have, far more
+than any other circumstance, determined Scott to renounce all notions
+of altering his professional position.
+
+     TO THE DUKE OF BUCCLEUCH, ETC., ETC.
+
+                                        EDINBURGH, 11th December, 1816.
+
+     MY DEAR LORD DUKE,--Your Grace has been so much my constant
+     and kind friend and patron through the course of my life,
+     that I trust I need no apology for thrusting upon your
+     consideration some ulterior views, which have been suggested
+     to me by my friends, and which I will either endeavor to
+     prosecute, time and place serving, or lay aside all thoughts
+     of, as they appear to your Grace feasible, and likely to be
+     forwarded by your patronage. It has been suggested to me, in
+     a word, that there would be no impropriety in my being put
+     in nomination as a candidate for the situation of a Baron of
+     Exchequer, when a vacancy shall take place. The difference
+     of the emolument between that situation and those which I
+     now hold, is just L400 a year, so that, in that point of
+     view, it is not a very great object. But there is a
+     difference in the rank, and also in the leisure afforded by
+     a Baron's situation; and a man may, without condemnation,
+     endeavor, at my period of life, to obtain as much honor and
+     ease as he can handsomely come by. My pretensions to such an
+     honor (next to your Grace's countenancing my wishes) would
+     rest very much on the circumstance that my nomination would
+     vacate two good offices (Clerk of Session and Sheriff of
+     Selkirkshire) to the amount of L1000 and L300 a year; and,
+     besides, would extinguish a pension of L300 which I have for
+     life, over and above my salary as Clerk of Session, as
+     having been in office at the time when the Judicature Act
+     deprived us of a part of our vested fees and emoluments. The
+     extinction of this pension would be just so much saved to
+     the public. I am pretty confident also that I should
+     {p.143} be personally acceptable to our friend the Chief
+     Baron.[57] But whether all or any of these circumstances
+     will weigh much in my favor, must solely and entirely rest
+     with your Grace, without whose countenance it would be folly
+     in me to give the matter a second thought. _With_ your
+     patronage, both my situation and habits of society may place
+     my hopes as far as any who are likely to apply; and your
+     interest would be strengthened by the opportunity of placing
+     some good friend in Selkirkshire, besides converting the
+     Minstrel of the Clan into a Baron,--a transmutation worthy
+     of so powerful and kind a chief. But if your Grace thinks I
+     ought to drop thoughts of this preferment, I am bound to
+     say, that I think myself as well provided for by my friends
+     and the public as I have the least title to expect, and that
+     I am perfectly contented and grateful for what I have
+     received. Ever your Grace's faithful and truly obliged
+     servant,
+
+                                        Walter SCOTT.
+
+              [Footnote 57: The late Right Honorable Robert Dundas of
+              Arniston, Chief Baron of the Scotch Exchequer; one of
+              Scott's earliest and kindest friends in that
+              distinguished family.]
+
+The following letter, to the same noble friend, contains a slight
+allusion to this affair of the Barony; but I insert it for a better
+reason. The Duke had, it seems, been much annoyed by some depredations
+on his game in the district of Ettrick Water; and more so by the ill
+use which some boys from Selkirk made of his liberality in allowing
+the people of that town free access to his beautiful walks on the
+banks of the Yarrow, adjoining Newark and Bowhill. The Duke's
+forester, by name Thomas Hudson, had recommended rigorous measures
+with reference to both these classes of offenders, and the Sheriff was
+of course called into council:--
+
+     TO HIS GRACE THE DUKE OF BUCCLEUCH, ETC., ETC., ETC.
+
+                                        ABBOTSFORD, January 11, 1817.
+
+     MY DEAR LORD DUKE,--I have been thinking anxiously about the
+     disagreeable affair of Tom Hudson, {p.144} and the impudent
+     ingratitude of the Selkirk rising generation, and I will
+     take the usual liberty your friendship permits me, of saying
+     what occurs to me on each subject. Respecting the shooting,
+     the crime is highly punishable, and we will omit no
+     inquiries to discover the individuals guilty. Charles
+     Erskine, who is a good police-officer, will be sufficiently
+     active. I know my friend and kinsman, Mr. Scott of Harden,
+     feels very anxious to oblige your Grace, and I have little
+     doubt that if you will have the goodness to mention to him
+     this unpleasant circumstance, he would be anxious to put his
+     game under such regulations as should be agreeable to you.
+     But I believe the pride and pleasure he would feel in
+     obliging your Grace, as heading one of the most ancient and
+     most respectable branches of your name (if I may be pardoned
+     for saying so much in our favor), would be certainly much
+     more gratified by a compliance with your personal request,
+     than if it came through any other channel. Your Grace knows
+     there are many instances in life in which the most effectual
+     way of conferring a favor is condescending to accept one. I
+     have known Harden long and most intimately--a more
+     respectable man, either for feeling, or talent, or knowledge
+     of human life, is rarely to be met with. But he is rather
+     indecisive--requiring some instant stimulus in order to make
+     him resolve to do, not only what he knows to be right, but
+     what he really wishes to do, and means to do one time or
+     other. He is exactly Prior's Earl of Oxford:--
+
+          "Let that be done which Mat doth say."
+          "Yea," quoth the Earl, "_but not to-day_."
+
+     And so exit Harden, and enter Selkirk.
+
+     I know hardly anything more exasperating than the conduct of
+     the little blackguards, and it will be easy to discover and
+     make an example of the biggest and most insolent. In the
+     mean while, my dear Lord, pardon my requesting you will take
+     no general or sweeping resolution as to the Selkirk folks.
+     Your Grace lives near {p.145} them--your residence, both
+     from your direct beneficence, and the indirect advantages
+     which they derive from that residence, is of the utmost
+     consequence; and they must be made sensible that all these
+     advantages are endangered by the very violent and brutal
+     conduct of their children. But I think your Grace will be
+     inclined to follow this up only for the purpose of
+     correction, not for that of requital. They are so much
+     beneath you, and so much in your power, that this would be
+     unworthy of you--especially as all the inhabitants of the
+     little country town must necessarily be included in the
+     punishment. Were your Grace really angry with them, and
+     acting accordingly, you might ultimately feel the regret of
+     my old schoolmaster, who, when he had knocked me down,
+     apologized by saying he did not know his own strength. After
+     all, those who look for anything better than ingratitude
+     from the uneducated and unreflecting mass of a corrupted
+     population, must always be deceived; and the better the
+     heart is that has been expanded towards them, their wants
+     and their wishes, the deeper is the natural feeling of
+     disappointment. But it is our duty to fight on, doing what
+     good we can (and surely the disposition and the means were
+     never more happily united than in your Grace), and trusting
+     to God Almighty, whose grace ripens the seeds we commit to
+     the earth, that our benefactions shall bear fruit. And now,
+     my Lord, asking your pardon for this discharge of my
+     conscience, and assuring your Grace I have no wish to
+     exchange my worsted gown, or the remote _Pisgah_ exchange of
+     a silk one, for the cloak of a Presbyterian parson, even
+     with the certainty of succeeding to the first of your
+     numerous Kirk-presentations, I take the liberty to add my
+     own opinion. The elder boys must be looked out and punished,
+     and the parents severely reprimanded, and the whole
+     respectable part of the town made sensible of the loss they
+     must necessarily sustain by the discontinuance of your
+     patronage. And at, or about the same time, I {p.146} should
+     think it proper if your Grace were to distinguish by any
+     little notice such Selkirk people working with you as have
+     their families under good order.
+
+     I am taking leave of Abbotsford _multum gemens_, and have
+     been just giving directions for planting upon _Turn-again_.
+     When shall we eat a cold luncheon there, and look at the
+     view, and root up the monster in his abyss? I assure you
+     none of your numerous vassals can show a finer succession of
+     _distant_ prospects. For the home-view--ahem!--We must wait
+     till the trees grow.
+
+     Ever your Grace's truly faithful
+
+                                        W. SCOTT.
+
+While the abortive negotiation as to the exchequer was still pending,
+Scott was visited, for the first time since his childish years, with a
+painful illness, which proved the harbinger of a series of attacks,
+all nearly of the same kind, continued at short intervals during more
+than two years. Various letters, already introduced, have indicated
+how widely his habits of life when in Edinburgh differed from those of
+Abbotsford. They at all times did so to a great extent; but he had
+pushed his liberties with a most robust constitution to a perilous
+extreme while the affairs of the Ballantynes were laboring, and he was
+now to pay the penalty.
+
+This first serious alarm occurred towards the close of a merry
+dinner-party in Castle Street (on the 5th of March), when Scott
+suddenly sustained such exquisite torture from cramp in the stomach,
+that his masculine powers of endurance gave way, and he retired from
+the room with a scream of agony which electrified his guests. This
+scene was often repeated, as we shall see presently. His friends in
+Edinburgh continued all that spring in great anxiety on his account.
+Scarcely, however, had the first symptoms yielded to severe medical
+treatment, than he is found to have beguiled the intervals of his
+suffering by planning a dramatic piece on a story supplied to him by
+one of Train's communications, which he desired to {p.147} present to
+Terry, on behalf of the actor's first-born son who had been christened
+by the name of Walter Scott.[58] Such was the origin of the Fortunes
+of Devorgoil--a piece which, though completed soon afterwards, and
+submitted by Terry to many manipulations with a view to the stage, was
+never received by any manager, and was first published, towards the
+close of the author's life, under the title, slightly altered for an
+obvious reason, of The Doom of Devorgoil. The sketch of the story
+which he gives in the following letter will probably be considered by
+many besides myself as well worth the drama. It appears that the actor
+had mentioned to Scott his intention of _Terryfying_ The Black Dwarf.
+
+              [Footnote 58: This young gentleman is now an officer in
+              the East India Company's army.--(1837.) Mr. W. S. Terry
+              lived to distinguish himself as a soldier, and fell in
+              action against the Afghans.--(1848.)]
+
+     TO DANIEL TERRY, ESQ., LONDON.
+
+                                        EDINBURGH, 12th March, 1817.
+
+     DEAR TERRY,--I am now able to write to you on your own
+     affairs, though still as weak as water from the operations
+     of the medical faculty, who, I think, treated me as a
+     recusant to their authority, and having me once at
+     advantage, were determined I should not have strength to
+     rebel again in a hurry. After all, I believe it was touch
+     and go; and considering how much I have to do for my own
+     family and others, my elegy might have been that of the Auld
+     Man's Mare,--
+
+          "The peats and turf are all to lead,
+             What ail'd the beast to die?"
+
+     You don't mention the nature of your undertaking in your
+     last, and in your former you spoke both of the Black Dwarf
+     and of Triermain. I have some doubts whether the town will
+     endure a second time the following up a well-known tale with
+     a dramatic representation--and there is no _vis comica_ to
+     redeem the Black Dwarf, as in the case of Dominie Sampson. I
+     have thought of {p.148} two subjects for you, if, like the
+     Archbishop's homilies, they do not smell of the apoplexy.
+     The first is a noble and very dramatic tradition preserved
+     in Galloway, which runs briefly thus: The Barons of Plenton
+     (the family name, I think, was ---- by Jupiter, forgot!)
+     boasted of great antiquity, and formerly of extensive power
+     and wealth, to which the ruins of their huge castle,
+     situated on an inland loch, still bear witness. In the
+     middle of the seventeenth century, it is said, these ruins
+     were still inhabited by the lineal descendant of this
+     powerful family. But the ruinous halls and towers of his
+     ancestors were all that had descended to him, and he
+     cultivated the garden of the castle, and sold its fruits for
+     a subsistence. He married in a line suitable rather to his
+     present situation than the dignity of his descent, and was
+     quite sunk into the rank of peasantry, excepting that he was
+     still called--more in mockery, or at least in familiarity,
+     than in respect--the Baron of Plenton. A causeway connected
+     the castle with the mainland; it was cut in the middle, and
+     the moat only passable by a drawbridge which yet subsisted,
+     and which the poor old couple contrived to raise every night
+     by their joint efforts, the country being very unsettled at
+     the time. It must be observed that the old man and his wife
+     occupied only one apartment in the extensive ruins, a small
+     one adjoining to the drawbridge; the rest was waste and
+     dilapidated.
+
+     As they were about to retire one night to rest, they were
+     deterred by a sudden storm which, rising in the wildest
+     manner possible, threatened to bury them under the ruins of
+     the castle. While they listened in terror to the complicated
+     sounds of thunder, wind, and rain, they were astonished to
+     hear the clang of hoofs on the causeway, and the voices of
+     people clamoring for admittance. This was a request not
+     rashly to be granted. The couple looked out, and dimly
+     discerned through the storm that the causeway was crowded
+     with riders. "How many of {p.149} you are there?" demanded
+     John.--"Not more than the hall will hold," was the answer;
+     "but open the gate, lower the bridge, and do not keep the
+     _ladies_ in the rain."--John's heart was melted for the
+     _ladies_, and, against his wife's advice, he undid the
+     bolts, sunk the drawbridge, and bade them enter in the name
+     of God. Having done so, he instantly retired into his
+     _sanctum sanctorum_ to await the event, for there was
+     something in the voices and language of his guests that
+     sounded mysterious and awful. They rushed into the castle,
+     and appeared to know their way through all its recesses.
+     Grooms were heard hurrying their horses to the
+     stables--sentinels were heard mounting guard--a thousand
+     lights gleamed from place to place through the ruins, till
+     at length they seemed all concentrated in the baronial hall,
+     whose range of broad windows threw a resplendent
+     illumination on the moss-grown court below.
+
+     After a short time, a domestic, clad in a rich but very
+     antique dress, appeared before the old couple, and commanded
+     them to attend his lord and lady in the great hall. They
+     went with tottering steps, and to their great terror found
+     themselves in the midst of a most brilliant and joyous
+     company; but the fearful part of it was, that most of the
+     guests resembled the ancestors of John's family, and were
+     known to him by their resemblance to pictures which
+     mouldered in the castle, or by traditionary description. At
+     the head, the founder of the race, dressed like some mighty
+     baron, or rather some Galwegian prince, sat with his lady.
+     There was a difference of opinion between these ghostly
+     personages concerning our honest John. The chief was
+     inclined to receive him graciously; the lady considered him,
+     from his mean marriage, as utterly unworthy of their name
+     and board. The upshot is, that the chief discovers to his
+     descendant the means of finding a huge treasure concealed in
+     the castle; the lady assures him that the discovery shall
+     never avail him.--In the morning no trace can be discovered
+     of {p.150} the singular personages who had occupied the
+     hall. But John sought for and discovered the vault where the
+     spoils of the Southrons were concealed, rolled away the
+     covering stone, and feasted his eyes on a range of massy
+     chests of iron, filled doubtless with treasure. As he
+     deliberated on the best means of bringing them up, and
+     descending into the vault, he observed it began slowly to
+     fill with water. Bailing and pumping were resorted to, and
+     when he had exhausted his own and his wife's strength, they
+     summoned the assistance of the neighborhood. But the
+     vengeance of the visionary lady was perfect; the waters of
+     the lake had forced their way into the vault, and John,
+     after a year or two spent in draining and so forth, died
+     broken-hearted, the last Baron of Plenton.
+
+     Such is the tale, of which the incidents seem new, and the
+     interest capable of being rendered striking; the story
+     admits of the highest degree of decoration, both by poetry,
+     music, and scenery, and I propose (in behalf of my godson)
+     to take some pains in dramatizing it. As thus;--you shall
+     play John, as you can speak a little Scotch; I will make him
+     what the Baron of Bradwardine would have been in his
+     circumstances, and he shall be alternately ridiculous from
+     his family pride and prejudices, contrasted with his
+     poverty, and respectable from his just and independent tone
+     of feeling and character. I think Scotland is entitled to
+     have something on the stage to balance Macklin's two
+     worthies.[59] You understand the dialect will be only tinged
+     with the national dialect--not that the baron is to speak
+     broad Scotch, while all the others talk English. His wife
+     and he shall have one child, a daughter, suitored unto by
+     the conceited young parson or schoolmaster of the village,
+     whose addresses are countenanced by her mother,--and by
+     Halbert the hunter, a youth of unknown descent. Now this
+     youth shall be the rightful heir and representative of the
+     English owners of the treasure, of which they had been
+     {p.151} robbed by the baron's ancestors, for which unjust
+     act, their spirits still walked the earth. These, with a
+     substantial character or two, and the ghostly personages,
+     shall mingle as they may--and the discovery of the youth's
+     birth shall break the spell of the treasure-chamber. I will
+     make the ghosts talk as never ghosts talked in the body or
+     out of it; and the music may be as unearthly as you can get
+     it. The rush of the shadows into the castle shall be seen
+     through the window of the baron's apartment in the flat
+     scene. The ghosts' banquet, and many other circumstances,
+     may give great exercise to the scene-painter and dresser. If
+     you like this plan, you had better suspend any other for the
+     present. In my opinion it has the infinite merit of being
+     perfectly new in plot and structure, and I will set about
+     the sketch as soon as my strength is restored in some
+     measure by air and exercise. I am sure I can finish it in a
+     fortnight then. Ever yours truly,
+
+                                        W. SCOTT.
+
+              [Footnote 59: Sir Archy Mac-Sarcasm and Sir Pertinax
+              Mac-Sycophant.]
+
+About the time when this letter was written, a newspaper paragraph
+having excited the apprehension of two--or I should say three--of his
+dearest friends, that his life was in actual danger, Scott wrote to
+them as follows:--
+
+     TO J. B. S. MORRITT, ESQ., M. P., PORTLAND PLACE, LONDON.
+
+                                        EDINBURGH, 20th March, 1817.
+
+     MY DEAR MORRITT,--I hasten to acquaint you that I am in the
+     land of life, and thriving, though I have had a slight
+     shake, and still feel the consequences of medical treatment.
+     I had been plagued all through this winter with cramps in my
+     stomach, which I endured as a man of mould might, and
+     endeavored to combat them by drinking scalding water, and so
+     forth. As they grew rather unpleasantly frequent, I had
+     reluctant recourse to Baillie. But before his answer arrived
+     on the 5th, I had a most violent attack, which broke up a
+     small party at {p.152} my house, and sent me to bed roaring
+     like a bull-calf. All sorts of remedies were applied, as in
+     the case of Gil Blas's pretended colic, but such was the
+     pain of the real disorder, that it outdevilled the Doctor
+     hollow. Even heated salt, which was applied in such a state
+     that it burned my shirt to rags, I hardly felt when clapped
+     to my stomach. At length the symptoms became inflammatory,
+     and dangerously so, the seat being the diaphragm. They only
+     gave way to very profuse bleeding and blistering, which
+     under higher assistance saved my life. My recovery was slow
+     and tedious from the state of exhaustion. I could neither
+     stir for weakness and giddiness, nor read for dazzling in my
+     eyes, nor listen for a whizzing sound in my ears, nor even
+     think for lack of the power of arranging my ideas. So I had
+     a comfortless time of it for about a week. Even yet I by no
+     means feel, as the copy-book hath it,
+
+          "The lion bold, which the lamb doth hold--"
+
+     on the contrary, I am as weak as water. They tell me (of
+     course) I must renounce every creature comfort, as my friend
+     Jedediah calls it. As for dinner and so forth, I care little
+     about it--but toast and water, and three glasses of wine,
+     sound like hard laws to me. However, to parody the
+     lamentation of Hassan, the camel-driver,
+
+          "The lily health outvies the grape's bright ray,
+           And life is dearer than the usquebae--"
+
+     so I shall be amenable to discipline. But in my own secret
+     mind I suspect the state of my bowels more than anything
+     else. I take enough of exercise and enough of rest; but
+     unluckily they are like a Lapland year, divided as one night
+     and one day. In the vacation I never sit down; in the
+     session-time I seldom rise up. But all this must be better
+     arranged in future; and I trust I shall live to weary out
+     all your kindness.
+
+     I am obliged to break off hastily. I trust I shall be able
+     to get over the Fell in the end of summer, which {p.153}
+     will rejoice me much, for the sound of the woods of Rokeby
+     is lovely in mine ear. Ever yours,
+
+                                        Walter SCOTT.
+
+
+     TO MRS. MACLEAN CLEPHANE, OF TORLOISK, MULL.
+
+                                        EDINBURGH, 23d March, 1817.
+
+     MY DEAR Mrs. AND MISS CLEPHANE,--Here comes to let you know
+     you had nearly seen the last sight of me, unless I had come
+     to visit you on my red beam like one of Fingal's heroes,
+     which, Ossianic as you are, I trow you would readily
+     dispense with. The cause was a cramp in my stomach, which,
+     after various painful visits, as if it had been sent by
+     Prospero, and had mistaken me for Caliban, at length chose
+     to conclude by setting fire to its lodging, like the
+     Frenchmen as they retreated through Russia, and placed me in
+     as proper a state of inflammation as if I had had the whole
+     Spafields committee in my unfortunate stomach. Then bleeding
+     and blistering was the word; and they bled and blistered
+     till they left me neither skin nor blood. However, they beat
+     off the foul fiend, and I am bound to praise the bridge
+     which carried me over. I am still very totterish, and very
+     giddy, kept to panada, or rather to porridge, for I spurned
+     at all foreign slops, and adhered to our ancient oatmeal
+     manufacture.[60] But I have no apprehension of any return of
+     the serious part of the malady, and I am now recovering my
+     strength, though looking somewhat cadaverous upon the
+     occasion.
+
+              [Footnote 60: [On the 17th of March, Scott had written
+              to Joanna Baillie: "Two _remarkables_ struck me in my
+              illness: the first was, that my great wolf-dog clamored
+              wildly and fearfully about my bed when I was very ill,
+              and would hardly be got out of the room; the other, that
+              when I was recovering, all acquired and factitious
+              tastes seemed to leave me, and I could eat nothing but
+              porridge, and listen to no better reading than a stupid
+              Scottish diary which would have made a whole man
+              sick."--_Familiar Letters_, vol. i. p. 421.]]
+
+     I much approve of your going to Italy by sea; indeed it is
+     the only way you ought to think of it. I am only {p.154}
+     sorry you are going to leave us for a while; but indeed the
+     isle of Mull might be Florence to me in respect of
+     separation, and cannot be quite Florence to you, since Lady
+     Compton is not there. I lately heard her mentioned in a
+     company where my interest in her was not known, as one of
+     the very few English ladies now in Italy whom their
+     acquirements, conduct, and mode of managing time, induce
+     that part of foreign society, whose approbation is valuable,
+     to consider with high respect and esteem. This I think is
+     very likely; for, whatever folks say of foreigners, those of
+     good education and high rank among them, must have a supreme
+     contempt for the frivolous, dissatisfied, empty, gad-about
+     manners of many of our modern belles. And we may say among
+     ourselves, that there are few upon whom high accomplishments
+     and information sit more gracefully.
+
+     John Kemble is here to take leave, acting over all his great
+     characters, and with all the spirit of his best years. He
+     played Coriolanus last night (the first time I have ventured
+     out) fully as well as I ever saw him; and you know what a
+     complete model he is of the Roman. He has made a great
+     reformation in his habits; given up wine, which he used to
+     swallow by pailfuls,--and renewed his youth like the eagles.
+     He seems to me always to play best those characters in which
+     there is a predominating tinge of some overmastering
+     passion, or acquired habit of acting and speaking, coloring
+     the whole man. The patrician pride of Coriolanus, the
+     stoicism of Brutus and Cato, the rapid and hurried vehemence
+     of Hotspur, mark the class of characters I mean. But he
+     fails where a ready and pliable yielding to the events and
+     passions of life makes what may be termed a more natural
+     personage. Accordingly I think his Macbeth, Lear, and
+     especially his Richard, inferior in spirit and truth. In
+     Hamlet, the natural fixed melancholy of the prince places
+     him within Kemble's range;--yet many delicate and sudden
+     turns of passion slip through his fingers. He is {p.155} a
+     lordly vessel, goodly and magnificent when going large
+     before the wind, but wanting the facility to go "_ready
+     about_," so that he is sometimes among the breakers before
+     he can wear ship. Yet we lose in him a most excellent
+     critic, an accomplished scholar, and one who graced our
+     forlorn drama with what little it has left of good sense and
+     gentlemanlike feeling. And so exit he. He made me write some
+     lines to speak when he withdraws, and he has been here
+     criticising and correcting till he got them quite to his
+     mind, which has rather tired me.
+
+     Most truly yours while
+
+                                        Walter SCOTT.
+
+On the 29th of March, 1817, John Philip Kemble, after going through
+the round of his chief parts, to the delight of the Edinburgh
+audience, took his final leave of them as Macbeth, and in the costume
+of that character delivered a farewell address, penned for him by
+Scott.[61] No one who witnessed that scene, and heard the lines as
+then recited, can ever expect to be again interested to the same
+extent by anything occurring within the walls {p.156} of a theatre;
+nor was I ever present at any public dinner in all its circumstances
+more impressive than was that which occurred a few days afterwards,
+when Kemble's Scotch friends and admirers assembled around
+him--Francis Jeffrey being chairman, Walter Scott and John Wilson the
+croupiers.
+
+              [Footnote 61: See _Poetical Works_, vol. xi. p. 348
+              [Cambridge Ed. p. 436]. Scott's farewell for Kemble
+              first appeared in _The Sale-Room_ for April 5, 1817; and
+              in the introductory note James Ballantyne says: "The
+              character fixed upon, with happy propriety, for Kemble's
+              closing scene, was Macbeth. He had labored under a
+              severe cold for a few days before, but on the memorable
+              night the physical annoyance yielded to the energy of
+              his mind. 'He was,' he said in the Green-room,
+              immediately before the curtain rose, 'determined to
+              leave behind him the most perfect specimen of his art
+              which he had ever shown;' and his success was complete.
+              At the moment of the tyrant's death, the curtain fell by
+              the universal acclamation of the audience. The applauses
+              were vehement and prolonged; they ceased--were
+              resumed--rose again--were reiterated--and again were
+              hushed. In a few minutes the curtain ascended, and Mr.
+              Kemble came forward, in the dress of Macbeth (the
+              audience by a consentaneous movement rising to receive
+              him), to deliver his _farewell_." ... "Mr. Kemble
+              delivered the lines with exquisite beauty, and with an
+              effect that was evidenced by the tears and sobs of many
+              of the audience. His own emotions were very conspicuous.
+              When his farewell was closed, he lingered long on the
+              stage, as if unable to retire. The house again stood up,
+              and cheered him with the waving of hats and long shouts
+              of applause."]
+
+Shortly before this time, Mr. William Laidlaw had met with
+misfortunes, which rendered it necessary for him to give up the lease
+of a farm, on which he had been for some years settled, in
+Mid-Lothian. He was now anxiously looking about him for some new
+establishment, and it occurred to Scott that it might be mutually
+advantageous, as well as agreeable, if his excellent friend would
+consent to come and occupy a house on his property, and endeavor,
+under his guidance, to make such literary exertions as might raise his
+income to an amount adequate for his comfort. The prospect of
+obtaining such a neighbor was, no doubt, the more welcome to
+"Abbotsford and Kaeside," from its opening at this period of
+fluctuating health; and Laidlaw, who had for twenty years loved and
+revered him, considered the proposal with far greater delight than the
+most lucrative appointment on any noble domain in the island could
+have afforded him. Though possessed of a lively and searching sagacity
+as to things in general, he had always been as to his own worldly
+interests simple as a child. His tastes and habits were all modest;
+and when he looked forward to spending the remainder of what had not
+hitherto been a successful life, under the shadow of the genius that
+he had worshipped almost from boyhood, his gentle heart was all
+happiness. He surveyed with glistening eyes the humble cottage in
+which his friend proposed to lodge him, his wife, and his little ones,
+and said to himself that he should write no more sad songs on _Forest
+Flittings_.[62]
+
+              [Footnote 62: Mr. Laidlaw has not published many verses;
+              but his song of _Lucy's Flitting_--a simple and pathetic
+              picture of a poor Ettrick maiden's feelings in leaving a
+              service where she had been happy--has long been, and
+              must ever be, a favorite with all who understand the
+              delicacies of the Scottish dialect, and the manners of
+              the district in which the scene is laid.]
+
+{p.157} Scott's notes to him at this time afford a truly charming
+picture of thoughtful and respectful delicacy on both sides. Mr.
+Laidlaw, for example, appears to have hinted that he feared his
+friend, in making the proposal as to the house at Kaeside, might have
+perhaps in some degree overlooked the feelings of "Laird Moss," who,
+having sold his land several months before, had as yet continued to
+occupy his old homestead. Scott answers:--
+
+     TO MR. W. LAIDLAW.
+
+                                        EDINBURGH, April 5, 1817.
+
+     MY DEAR SIR,--Nothing can give me more pleasure than the
+     prospect of your making yourself comfortable at Kaeside till
+     some good thing casts up. I have not put Mr. Moss to any
+     inconvenience, for I only requested an answer, giving him
+     leave to sit if he had a mind--and of free will he leaves my
+     premises void and redd at Whitsunday. I suspect the house is
+     not in good order, but we shall get it brushed up a little.
+     Without affectation I consider myself the obliged party in
+     this matter--or at any rate it is a mutual benefit, and you
+     shall have grass for a cow, and so forth--whatever you want.
+     I am sure when you are so near I shall find some literary
+     labor for you that will make ends meet. Yours, in haste,
+
+                                        W. SCOTT.
+
+He had before this time made considerable progress in another
+historical sketch (that of the year 1815) for the Edinburgh Annual
+Register; and the first literary labor which he provided for Laidlaw
+appears to have been arranging for the same volume a set of newspaper
+articles, usually printed under the head of _Chronicle_, to which were
+appended some little extracts of new books of travels, and the like
+miscellanies. The Edinburgh {p.158} Monthly Magazine, subsequently
+known by the name of its projector, Blackwood, commenced in April of
+this year; and one of its editors, Mr. Thomas Pringle, being a
+Teviotdale man and an old acquaintance of Laidlaw's, offered to the
+latter the care of its _Chronicle department_ also,--not perhaps
+without calculating that, in case Laidlaw's connection with the new
+journal should become at all a strict one, Scott would be induced to
+give it occasionally the benefit of his own literary assistance. He
+accordingly did not write--being unwell at the time--but _dictated_ to
+Pringle a collection of anecdotes concerning Scottish gypsies, which
+attracted a good deal of notice;[63] and, I believe, he also assisted
+Laidlaw in drawing up one or more articles on the subject of Scottish
+superstitions. But the bookseller and Pringle soon quarrelled, and the
+Magazine assuming, on the retirement of the latter, a high Tory
+character, Laidlaw's Whig feelings induced him to renounce its
+alliance; while Scott, having no kindness for Blackwood personally,
+and disapproving (though he chuckled over it) the reckless
+extravagance of juvenile satire which, by and by, distinguished his
+journal, appears to have easily acquiesced in the propriety of
+Laidlaw's determination. I insert meantime a few notes, which will
+show with what care and kindness he watched over Laidlaw's operations
+for the Annual Register.
+
+              [Footnote 63: These anecdotes were subsequently inserted
+              in the Introduction to _Guy Mannering_.]
+
+     TO MR. LAIDLAW, AT KAESIDE.
+
+                                        EDINBURGH, June 16, 1817.
+
+     DEAR SIR,--I enclose you "rare guerdon," better than
+     remuneration,--namely, a cheque for L25, for the Chronicle
+     part of the Register. The incidents selected should have
+     some reference to amusement as well as information, and may
+     be occasionally abridged in the narration; but, after all,
+     paste and scissors form your principal {p.159} materials.
+     You must look out for two or three good original articles;
+     and, if you would read and take pains to abridge one or two
+     curious books of travels, I would send out the volumes.
+     Could I once get the head of the concern fairly round before
+     the wind again, I am sure I could make it L100 a year to
+     you. In the present instance it will be at least L50.
+
+     Yours truly,
+
+                                        W. S.
+
+
+     TO THE SAME.
+
+                                        EDINBURGH, July 3, 1817.
+
+     MY DEAR SIR,--I send you Adam's and Riley's Travels. You
+     will observe I don't want a review of the books, or a detail
+     of these persons' adventures, but merely a short article
+     expressing the light, direct or doubtful, which they have
+     thrown on the interior of Africa. "Recent Discoveries in
+     Africa" will be a proper title. I hope to find you
+     materially amended, or rather quite stout, when I come out
+     on Saturday. I am quite well this morning. Yours, in haste,
+
+                                        W. S.
+
+     P. S.--I add Mariner's Tonga Islands, and Campbell's Voyage.
+     Pray take great care of them, as I am a coxcomb about my
+     books, and hate specks or spots. Take care of yourself, and
+     want for nothing that Abbotsford can furnish.
+
+These notes have carried us down to the middle of the year. But I must
+now turn to some others, which show that before Whitsuntide, when
+Laidlaw settled at Kaeside, negotiations were on foot respecting
+another novel.
+
+     TO MR. JOHN BALLANTYNE, HANOVER STREET, EDINBURGH.
+
+                                   ABBOTSFORD, Monday. [April, 1817.]
+
+     DEAR JOHN,--I have a good subject for a work of fiction _in
+     petto_. What do you think Constable would give for a smell
+     of it? You ran away without taking {p.160} leave the other
+     morning, or I wished to have spoken to you about it. I don't
+     mean a continuation of Jedediah, because there might be some
+     delicacy in putting that by the original publishers. You may
+     write if anything occurs to you on this subject. It will not
+     interrupt my History. By the way, I have a great lot of the
+     Register ready for delivery, and no man asks for it. I shall
+     want to pay up some cash at Whitsunday, which will make me
+     draw on my brains. Yours truly,
+
+                                        W. SCOTT.
+
+
+     TO THE SAME.
+
+                                   ABBOTSFORD, Saturday, May 3, 1817.
+
+     DEAR JOHN,--I shall be much obliged to you to come here with
+     Constable on Monday, as he proposes a visit, and it will
+     save time. By the way, you must attend that the usual
+     quantity of stock is included in the arrangement--that is
+     L600 for 6000 copies. My sum is L1700, payable in May--a
+     round advance, by'r Lady, but I think I am entitled to it,
+     considering what I have twined off hitherto on such
+     occasions.
+
+     I make a point on your coming with Constable, health
+     allowing. Yours truly,
+
+                                        W. S.
+
+The result of this meeting is indicated in a note, scribbled by John
+Ballantyne at the bottom of the foregoing letter, before it was seen
+by his brother the printer:--
+
+                                        Half-past 3 o'clock, Tuesday.
+
+     DEAR JAMES,--I am at this moment returned from Abbotsford,
+     with entire and full success. Wish me joy. I shall gain
+     above L600--Constable taking my share of stock also. This
+     title is _Rob Roy--by the Author of Waverley!!!_ Keep this
+     letter for me.
+
+                                        J. B.
+
+On the same page there is written, in fresher ink, which marks, no
+doubt, the time when John pasted it into his collection of private
+papers now before me,--
+
+     N. B.--I did gain above L1200.--J. B.
+
+{p.161} The title of this novel was suggested by Constable, and he
+told me years afterwards the difficulty he had to get it adopted by
+the author. "What!" said he, "Mr. Accoucheur, must you be setting up
+for Mr. Sponsor too?--but let's hear it." Constable said the name of
+the real hero would be the best possible name for the book. "Nay,"
+answered Scott, "never let me have to write up to a name. You well
+know I have generally adopted a title that told nothing."--The
+bookseller, however, persevered; and after the trio had dined, these
+scruples gave way.
+
+On rising from table, according to Constable, they sallied out to the
+green before the door of the cottage, and all in the highest spirits
+enjoyed the fine May evening. John Ballantyne, hopping up and down in
+his glee, exclaimed, "Is Rob's gun here, Mr. Scott; would you object
+to my trying the auld barrel with a _few de joy_?"--"Nay, Mr. Puff,"
+said Scott, "it would burst, and blow you to the devil before your
+time."--"Johnny, my man," said Constable, "what the mischief puts
+drawing at sight into _your_ head?" Scott laughed heartily at this
+innuendo; and then observing that the little man felt somewhat sore,
+called attention to the notes of a bird in the adjoining shrubbery.
+"And by the bye," said he, as they continued listening, "'tis a long
+time, Johnny, since we have had the Cobbler of Kelso." Mr. Puff
+forthwith jumped up on a mass of stone, and seating himself in the
+proper attitude of one working with his awl, began a favorite
+interlude, mimicking a certain son of Crispin, at whose stall Scott
+and he had often lingered when they were schoolboys, and a blackbird,
+the only companion of his cell, that used to sing to him, while he
+talked and whistled to it all day long. With this performance Scott
+was always delighted: nothing could be richer than the contrast of the
+bird's wild sweet notes, some of which he imitated with wonderful
+skill, and the accompaniment of the Cobbler's hoarse cracked {p.162}
+voice, uttering all manner of endearing epithets, which Johnny
+multiplied and varied in a style worthy of the Old Women in Rabelais
+at the birth of Pantagruel. I often wondered that Mathews, who
+borrowed so many good things from John Ballantyne, allowed this
+Cobbler, which was certainly the masterpiece, to escape him.
+
+Scott himself had probably exceeded that evening the three glasses of
+wine sanctioned by his Sangrados. "I never," said Constable, "had
+found him so disposed to be communicative about what he meant to do.
+Though he had had a return of his illness but the day before, he
+continued for an hour or more to walk backwards and forwards on the
+green, talking and laughing--he told us he was sure he should make a
+hit in a Glasgow weaver, whom he would _ravel up with Rob_; and fairly
+outshone the Cobbler, in an extempore dialogue between the bailie and
+the cateran--something not unlike what the book gives us as passing in
+the Glasgow tolbooth."
+
+Mr. Puff might well exult in the "full and entire success" of this
+trip to Abbotsford. His friend had made it a _sine qua non_ with
+Constable that he should have a third share in the bookseller's moiety
+of the bargain--and though Johnny had no more trouble about the
+publishing or selling of Rob Roy than his own Cobbler of Kelso, this
+stipulation had secured him a _bonus_ of L1200, before two years
+passed. Moreover, one must admire his adroitness in persuading
+Constable, during their journey back to Edinburgh, to relieve him of
+that fraction of his own old stock, with which his unhazardous share
+in the new transaction was burdened. Scott's kindness continued, as
+long as John Ballantyne lived, to provide for him a constant
+succession of similar advantages at the same easy rate; and Constable,
+from deference to Scott's wishes, and from his own liking for the
+humorous auctioneer, appears to have submitted with hardly a momentary
+grudge to this heavy tax on his most important ventures.
+
+{p.163} The same week Scott received Southey's celebrated letter to
+Mr. William Smith, M. P. for Norwich. The poet of Keswick had also
+forwarded to him somewhat earlier his Pilgrimage to Waterloo, which
+piece contains a touching allusion to the affliction the author had
+recently sustained in the death of a fine boy. Scott's letter on this
+occasion was as follows:--
+
+     TO ROBERT SOUTHEY, ESQ., KESWICK.
+
+                                        SELKIRK, May 9, 1817.
+
+     MY DEAR SOUTHEY,--I have been a strangely negligent
+     correspondent for some months past, more especially as I
+     have had you rarely out of my thoughts, for I think you will
+     hardly doubt of my sincere sympathy in events which have
+     happened since I have written. I shed sincere tears over the
+     Pilgrimage to Waterloo. But in the crucible of human life,
+     the purest gold is tried by the strongest heat, and I can
+     only hope for the continuance of your present family
+     blessings to one so well formed to enjoy the pure happiness
+     they afford. My health has, of late, been very indifferent.
+     I was very nearly succumbing under a violent inflammatory
+     attack, and still feel the effects of the necessary
+     treatment. I believe they took one third of the blood of my
+     system, and blistered in proportion: so that both my flesh
+     and my blood have been in a woefully reduced state. I got
+     out here some weeks since, where, by dint of the insensible
+     exercise which one takes in the country, I feel myself
+     gathering strength daily, but am still obliged to observe a
+     severe regimen. It was not to croak about myself, however,
+     that I took up the pen, but to wish you joy of your
+     triumphant answer to that coarse-minded William Smith. He
+     deserved all he has got, and, to say the truth, you do not
+     spare him, and have no cause. His attack seems to have
+     proceeded from the vulgar insolence of a low mind desirous
+     of attacking genius at disadvantage. It is the ancient and
+     eternal strife of which the witch speaks in {p.164}
+     Thalaba. Such a man as he, feels he has no alliance with
+     such as you, and his evil instincts lead him to treat as
+     hostile whatever he cannot comprehend. I met Smith once
+     during his stay in Edinburgh,[64] and had, what I seldom
+     have with any one in society, a high quarrel with him. His
+     mode of travelling had been from one gentleman's seat to
+     another, abusing the well-known hospitality of the Highland
+     lairds, by taking possession of their houses, even during
+     their absence, domineering in them when they were present,
+     and not only eating the dinner of to-day, but requiring that
+     the dinner of to-morrow should also be made ready and
+     carried forward with him, to save the expense of inns. All
+     this was no business of mine, but when, in the middle of a
+     company consisting of those to whom he had owed this
+     hospitality, he abused the country, of which he knew
+     little--the language, of which he knew nothing--and the
+     people, who have their faults, but are a much more harmless,
+     moral, and at the same time high-spirited population, than,
+     I venture to say, he ever lived amongst--I thought it was
+     really too bad, and so e'en took up the debate, and gave it
+     him over the knuckles as smartly as I could. Your pamphlet,
+     therefore, fed fat my ancient grudge against him as well as
+     the modern one, for you cannot doubt that my blood boiled at
+     reading the report of his speech. Enough of this gentleman,
+     who, I think, will not walk out of the round in a hurry
+     again, to slander the conduct of individuals.
+
+              [Footnote 64: Scott's meeting with this Mr. Smith
+              occurred at the table of his friend and colleague,
+              Hector Macdonald Buchanan. The company, except Scott and
+              Smith, were all, like their hospitable landlord,
+              Highlanders.]
+
+     I am at present writing at our head-court of freeholders--a
+     set of quiet, unpretending, but sound-judging country
+     gentlemen, and whose opinions may be very well taken as a
+     fair specimen of those men of sense and honor, who are not
+     likely to be dazzled by literary talent, which {p.165} lies
+     out of their beat, and who, therefore, cannot be of partial
+     counsel in the cause; and I never heard an opinion more
+     generally, and even warmly expressed, than that your
+     triumphant vindication brands Smith as a slanderer in all
+     time coming. I think you may not be displeased to know this,
+     because what men of keen feelings and literary pursuits must
+     have felt, cannot be unknown to you, and you may not have
+     the same access to know the impression made upon the general
+     class of society.
+
+     I have to thank you for the continuation of the History of
+     Brazil--one of your gigantic labors; the fruit of a mind so
+     active, yet so patient of labor. I am not yet far advanced
+     in the second volume, reserving it usually for my hour's
+     amusement in the evening, as children keep their dainties
+     for _bonne bouche_: but as far as I have come, it possesses
+     all the interest of the commencement, though a more
+     faithless and worthless set than both Dutch and Portuguese I
+     have never read of; and it requires your knowledge of the
+     springs of human action, and your lively description of
+     "hair-breadth 'scapes," to make one care whether the hog
+     bites the dog, or the dog bites the hog. Both nations were
+     in rapid declension from their short-lived age of heroism,
+     and in the act of experiencing all those retrograde
+     movements which are the natural consequence of selfishness
+     on the one hand, and bigotry on the other.
+
+     I am glad to see you are turning your mind to the state of
+     the poor. Should you enter into details on the subject of
+     the best mode of assisting them, I would be happy to tell
+     you the few observations I have made--not on a very small
+     scale neither, considering my fortune, for I have kept about
+     thirty of the laborers in my neighborhood in constant
+     employment this winter. This I do not call charity, because
+     they executed some extensive plantations and other works,
+     which I could never have got done so cheaply, and which I
+     always intended {p.166} one day to do. But neither was it
+     altogether selfish on my part, because I was putting myself
+     to inconvenience in incurring the expense of several years
+     at once, and certainly would not have done so, but to serve
+     mine honest neighbors, who were likely to want work but for
+     such exertion. From my observation, I am inclined greatly to
+     doubt the salutary effect of the scheme generally adopted in
+     Edinburgh and elsewhere for relieving the poor. At
+     Edinburgh, they are employed on public works at so much a
+     day--tenpence, I believe, or one shilling, with an advance
+     to those who have families. This rate is fixed below that of
+     ordinary wages, in order that no person may be employed but
+     those who really cannot find work elsewhere. But it is
+     attended with this bad effect, that the people regard it
+     partly as charity, which is humiliating--and partly as an
+     imposition, in taking their labor below its usual salable
+     value; to which many add a third view of the
+     subject--namely, that this sort of half-pay is not given
+     them for the purpose of working, but to prevent their rising
+     in rebellion. None of these misconceptions are favorable to
+     hard labor, and the consequence is, that I never have seen
+     such a set of idle _faineants_ as those employed on this
+     system in the public works, and I am sure that,
+     notwithstanding the very laudable intention of those who
+     subscribed to form the fund, and the yet more praiseworthy,
+     because more difficult, exertions of those who superintend
+     it, the issue of the scheme will occasion full as much
+     mischief as good to the people engaged in it. Private
+     gentlemen, acting on something like a similar system, may
+     make it answer better, because they have not the lazy dross
+     of a metropolis to contend with--because they have fewer
+     hands to manage--and, above all, because an individual
+     always manages his own concerns better than those of the
+     country can be managed. Yet all who have employed those who
+     were distressed for want of work at under wages, have had,
+     less or more, similar complaints to make. I {p.167} think I
+     have avoided this in my own case, by inviting the country
+     people to do piece-work by the contract. Two things only are
+     necessary--one is, that the nature of the work should be
+     such as will admit of its being ascertained, when finished,
+     to have been substantially executed. All sort of spade-work
+     and hoe-work, with many other kinds of country labor, fall
+     under this description, and the employer can hardly be
+     cheated in the execution if he keeps a reasonable lookout.
+     The other point is, to take care that the undertakers, in
+     their anxiety for employment, do not take the job too cheap.
+     A little acquaintance with country labor will enable one to
+     regulate this; but it is an essential point, for if you do
+     not keep them to their bargain, it is making a jest of the
+     thing, and forfeiting the very advantage you have in
+     view--that, namely, of inducing the laborer to bring his
+     heart and spirit to his work. But this he will do where he
+     has a fair bargain, which is to prove a good or bad one
+     according to his own exertions. In this case you make the
+     poor man his own friend, for the profits of his good conduct
+     are all his own. It is astonishing how partial the people
+     are to this species of contract, and how diligently they
+     labor, acquiring or maintaining all the while those habits
+     which render them honorable and useful members of society. I
+     mention this to you, because the rich, much to their honor,
+     do not, in general, require to be so much stimulated to
+     benevolence, as to be directed in the most useful way to
+     exert it.
+
+     I have still a word to say about the poor of our own parish
+     of Parnassus. I have been applied to by a very worthy
+     friend, Mr. Scott of Sinton, in behalf of an unfortunate Mr.
+     Gilmour, who, it seems, has expended a little fortune in
+     printing, upon his own account, poems which, from the sample
+     I saw, seem exactly to answer the description of Dean
+     Swift's country house:--
+
+          "Too bad for a blessing, too good for a curse,
+           I wish from my soul they were better or worse."
+
+     {p.168} But you are the dean of our corporation, and, I am
+     informed, take some interest in this poor gentleman. If you
+     can point out any way in which I can serve him, I am sure my
+     inclination is not wanting, but it looks like a very
+     hopeless case. I beg my kindest respects to Mrs. Southey,
+     and am always sincerely and affectionately yours,
+
+                                        Walter SCOTT.
+
+About this time Hogg took possession of Altrive Lake, and some of his
+friends in Edinburgh set on foot a subscription edition of his Queen's
+Wake (at a guinea each copy), in the hope of thus raising a sum
+adequate to the stocking of the little farm. The following letter
+alludes to this affair; and also to the death of Frances, Lady
+Douglas, sister to Duke Henry of Buccleuch, whose early kindness to
+Scott has been more than once mentioned.
+
+     TO THE RIGHT HON. LORD MONTAGU.
+
+                                        ABBOTSFORD, June 8, 1817.
+
+     MY DEAR LORD,--I am honored with your letter, and will not
+     fail to take care that the Shepherd profits by your kind
+     intentions, and those of Lady Montagu. This is a scheme
+     which I did not devise, for I fear it will end in
+     disappointment, but for which I have done, and will do, all
+     I possibly can. There is an old saying of the seamen's,
+     "Every man is not born to be a boatswain," and I think I
+     have heard of men born under a sixpenny planet, and doomed
+     never to be worth a groat. I fear something of this vile
+     sixpenny influence had gleamed in at the cottage window when
+     poor Hogg first came squeaking into the world. All that he
+     made by his original book he ventured on a flock of sheep to
+     drive into the Highlands to a farm he had taken there, but
+     of which he could not get possession, so that all the stock
+     was ruined and sold to disadvantage. Then he tried another
+     farm, which proved too dear, so that he fairly broke upon
+     it. Then put forth divers publications, {p.169} which had
+     little sale--and brought him accordingly few pence, though
+     some praise. Then came this Queen's Wake, by which he might
+     and ought to have made from L100 to L200--for there were, I
+     think, three editions--when lo! his bookseller turned
+     bankrupt, and paid him never a penny. The Duke has now, with
+     his wonted generosity, given him a cosie bield, and the
+     object of the present attack upon the public is to get if
+     possible as much cash together as will stock it. But no one
+     has loose guineas now to give poor poets, and I greatly
+     doubt the scheme succeeding, unless it is more strongly
+     patronized than can almost be expected. In bookselling
+     matters, an author must either be the conjurer, who commands
+     the devil, or the witch who serves him--and few are they
+     whose situation is sufficiently independent to enable them
+     to assume the higher character--and this is injurious to the
+     indigent author in every respect, for not only is he obliged
+     to turn his pen to every various kind of composition, and so
+     to injure himself with the public by writing hastily, and on
+     subjects unfitted for his genius; but, moreover, those
+     honest gentlemen, the booksellers, from a natural
+     association, consider the books as of least value, which
+     they find they can get at least expense of copy-money, and
+     therefore are proportionally careless in pushing the sale of
+     the work. Whereas a good round sum out of their purse, like
+     a moderate rise of rent on a farm, raises the work thus
+     acquired in their own eyes, and serves as a spur to make
+     them clear away every channel, by which they can discharge
+     their quires upon the public. So much for bookselling, the
+     most ticklish and unsafe and hazardous of all professions,
+     scarcely with the exception of horse-jockeyship.
+
+     You cannot doubt the sincere interest I take in Lady
+     Montagu's health. I was very glad to learn from the Duke,
+     that the late melancholy event had produced no permanent
+     effect on her constitution, as I know how {p.170} much her
+     heart must have suffered.[65] I saw our regretted friend for
+     the last time at the Theatre, and made many schemes to be at
+     Bothwell this next July. But thus the world glides from us,
+     and those we most love and honor are withdrawn from the
+     stage before us. I know not why it was that among the few
+     for whom I had so much respectful regard, I never had
+     associated the idea of early deprivation with Lady Douglas.
+     Her excellent sense, deep information, and the wit which she
+     wielded with so much good-humor, were allied apparently to a
+     healthy constitution, which might have permitted us to
+     enjoy, and be instructed by her society for many years. _Dis
+     aliter visum_, and the recollection dwelling on all the
+     delight which she afforded to society, and the good which
+     she did in private life, is what now remains to us of her
+     wit, wisdom, and benevolence. The Duke keeps his usual
+     health, with always just so much of the gout, however, as
+     would make me wish that he had more--a kind wish, for which
+     I do not observe that he is sufficiently grateful. I hope to
+     spend a few days at Drumlanrig Castle, when that ancient
+     mansion shall have so far limited its courtesy as to stand
+     covered in the presence of the wind and rain, which I
+     believe is not yet the case. I am no friend to ceremony, and
+     like a house as well when it does not carry its roof _en
+     chapeau bras_. I heartily wish your Lordship joy of the new
+     mansion at Ditton, and hope my good stars will permit me to
+     pay my respects there one day. The discovery of the niches
+     certainly bodes good luck to the house of Montagu, and as
+     there are three of them, I presume it is to come threefold.
+     From the care with which they were concealed, I presume they
+     had been closed in the days of Cromwell, or a little before,
+     and that the artist employed (like the {p.171} General, who
+     told his soldiers to fight bravely against the Pope, since
+     they were Venetians before they were Christians) had more
+     professional than religious zeal, and did not even,
+     according to the practice of the time, think it necessary to
+     sweep away Popery with the besom of destruction.[66] I am
+     here on a stolen visit of two days, and find my mansion
+     gradually enlarging. Thanks to Mr. Atkinson (who found out a
+     practical use for our romantic theory), it promises to make
+     a comfortable station for offering your Lordship and Lady
+     Montagu a pilgrim's meal, when you next visit Melrose Abbey,
+     and that without any risk of your valet (who I recollect is
+     a substantial person) sticking between the wall of the
+     parlor and the backs of the chairs placed round the table.
+     This literally befell Sir Harry Macdougal's fat butler, who
+     looked like a ship of the line in the loch at Bowhill,
+     altogether unlike his master, who could glide wherever a
+     weasel might make his way. Mr. Atkinson has indeed been more
+     attentive than I can express, when I consider how valuable
+     his time must be.[67] We are attempting no castellated
+     conundrums to rival those Lord Napier used to have executed
+     in sugar, when he was Commissioner, and no cottage neither,
+     but an irregular somewhat--like an old English hall, in
+     which your squire of L500 a year used to drink his ale in
+     days of yore.
+
+              [Footnote 65: Lady Montagu was the daughter of the late
+              Lord Douglas by his first marriage with Lady Lucy
+              Graham, daughter of the second Duke of Montrose.]
+
+              [Footnote 66: Lord Montagu's house at Ditton Park, near
+              Windsor, had recently been destroyed by fire--and the
+              ruins revealed some niches with antique candlesticks,
+              etc., belonging to a domestic chapel that had been
+              converted to other purposes from the time, I believe, of
+              Henry VIII.]
+
+              [Footnote 67: Mr. Atkinson, of St. John's Wood, was the
+              architect of Lord Montagu's new mansion at Ditton, as
+              well as the artist ultimately employed in arranging
+              Scott's interior at Abbotsford.]
+
+     I am making considerable plantations (that is, considering),
+     being greatly encouraged by the progress of those I formerly
+     laid out. Read the veracious Gulliver's account of the
+     Windsor Forest of Lilliput, and you will {p.172} have some
+     idea of the solemn gloom of my Druid shades. Your Lordship's
+     truly faithful
+
+                                        Walter SCOTT.
+
+     This is the 8th of June, and not an ash-tree in leaf yet.
+     The country cruelly backward, and whole fields destroyed by
+     the grub. I dread this next season.
+
+
+
+
+{p.173} CHAPTER XXXIX.
+
+     Excursion to the Lennox, Glasgow, and Drumlanrig. --
+     Purchase of Toftfield. -- Establishment of the Ferguson
+     Family at Huntly Burn. -- Lines Written in Illness. --
+     Visits of Washington Irving, Lady Byron, and Sir David
+     Wilkie. -- Progress of the Building at Abbotsford. --
+     Letters to Morritt, Terry, etc. -- Conclusion of Rob Roy.
+
+1817.
+
+
+During the summer term of 1817, Scott seems to have labored chiefly on
+his History of 1815 for the Register, which was published in August;
+but he also found time to draw up the Introduction for a richly
+embellished quarto, entitled Border Antiquities, which came out a
+month later. This valuable essay, containing large additions to the
+information previously embodied in the Minstrelsy, has been included
+in the late collection of his Miscellaneous Prose, and has thus
+obtained a circulation not to be expected for it in the original
+costly form.
+
+Upon the rising of the Court in July, he made an excursion to the
+Lennox, chiefly that he might visit a cave at the head of Loch Lomond,
+said to have been a favorite retreat of his hero, Rob Roy. He was
+accompanied to the seat of his friend, Mr. Macdonald Buchanan, by
+Captain Adam Ferguson--the _long Linton_ of the days of his
+apprenticeship; and thence to Glasgow, where, under the auspices of a
+kind and intelligent acquaintance, Mr. John Smith, bookseller, he
+refreshed his recollection of the noble cathedral, and other
+localities of the birthplace of Bailie Jarvie. Mr. Smith took care
+also {p.174} to show the tourists the most remarkable novelties in
+the great manufacturing establishments of his flourishing city; and he
+remembers particularly the delight which Scott expressed on seeing the
+process of _singeing_ muslin--that is, of divesting the finished web
+of all superficial knots and irregularities, by passing it, with the
+rapidity of lightning, over a bar of red-hot iron. "The man that
+imagined this," said Scott, "was _the Shakespeare of the Wabsters_,--
+
+  'Things out of hope are compass'd oft with vent'ring.'"[68]
+
+              [Footnote 68: Shakespeare's Poems--_Venus and Adonis_.]
+
+The following note indicates the next stages of his progress:--
+
+     TO HIS GRACE THE DUKE OF BUCCLEUCH, DRUMLANRIG CASTLE.
+
+                                SANQUHAR, 2 o'clock, July 30,[69] 1817.
+
+  From Ross, where the clouds on Benlomond are sleeping--
+  From Greenock, where Clyde to the Ocean is sweeping--
+  From Largs, where the Scotch gave the Northmen a drilling--
+  From Ardrossan, whose harbor cost many a shilling--
+  From Old Cumnock, where beds are as hard as a plank, sir--
+  From a chop and green pease, and a chicken in Sanquhar,
+  This eve, please the Fates, at Drumlanrig we anchor.
+
+                                        W. S.
+
+              [Footnote 69: [A misprint of some earlier date, possibly
+              the _16th_. See the more detailed account of Scott's
+              movements at this time, to be found in _Familiar
+              Letters_, vol. i. pp. 432-436.]]
+
+The Poet and Captain Ferguson remained a week at Drumlanrig, and
+thence repaired together to Abbotsford. By this time, the foundations
+of that part of the existing house, which extends from the hall
+westwards to the original courtyard, had been laid; and Scott now
+found a new source of constant occupation in watching the proceedings
+of his masons. He had, moreover, no lack of employment further
+a-field,--for he was now negotiating with another neighboring
+landowner for the purchase of an addition, of more consequence than
+any he had hitherto {p.175} made, to his estate. In the course of the
+autumn he concluded this matter, and became, for the price of L10,000,
+proprietor of the lands of _Toftfield_,[70] on which there had
+recently been erected a substantial mansion-house, fitted, in all
+points, for the accommodation of a genteel family. This circumstance
+offered a temptation which much quickened Scott's zeal for completing
+his arrangement. The venerable Professor Ferguson had died a year
+before; Captain Adam Ferguson was at home on half-pay; and Scott now
+saw the means of securing for himself, henceforth, the immediate
+neighborhood of the companion of his youth, and his amiable sisters.
+Ferguson, who had written, from the lines of Torres Vedras, his hopes
+of finding, when the war should be over, some sheltering cottage upon
+the Tweed, within a walk of Abbotsford, was delighted to see his
+dreams realized; and the family took up their residence next spring at
+the new house of Toftfield, on which Scott then bestowed, at the
+ladies' request, the name of Huntly Burn: this more harmonious
+designation being taken from the mountain brook which passes through
+its grounds and garden,--the same famous in tradition as the scene of
+Thomas the Rhymer's interviews with the Queen of Fairy. The upper part
+of the _Rhymer's Glen_, through which this brook finds its way from
+the Cauldshiels Loch to Toftfield, had been included in a previous
+purchase. He was now master of all these haunts of "True Thomas," and
+of the whole ground of the battle of Melrose, from _Skirmish-field_ to
+_Turn-again_. His enjoyment of the new territories was, however,
+interrupted by various returns of his cramp, and the depression of
+spirit which always attended, in his case, the use of opium, {p.176}
+the only medicine that seemed to have power over the disease.[71]
+
+              [Footnote 70: On completing this purchase, Scott writes
+              to John Ballantyne:--"DEAR JOHN,--I have closed with
+              Usher for his beautiful patrimony, which makes me a
+              great laird. I am afraid the people will take me up for
+              coining. Indeed, these novels, while their attractions
+              last, are something like it. I am very glad of _your_
+              good prospects. Still I cry, _Prudence!
+              Prudence!_--Yours truly,
+                                        W. S."]
+
+              [Footnote 71: [On August 1, 1817, Jeffrey writes to
+              Scott, asking if he could not be induced to write a
+              notice of Mr. C. K. Sharpe's edition of Kirkton's
+              _Secret and True History of the Church of Scotland_, for
+              the _Edinburgh Review_, to which Scott replies, August
+              5:--
+
+              "I flatter myself it will not require many protestations
+              to assure you with what pleasure I would undertake any
+              book that can give you pleasure; but in the present case
+              I am hampered by two circumstances: one, that I promised
+              Gifford a review of this very Kirkton for the
+              _Quarterly_; the other that I shall certainly be unable
+              to keep my word with him. I am obliged to take exercise
+              three or four hours in the forenoon and two after
+              dinner, to keep off the infernal spasms which since last
+              winter have attacked me with such violence, as if all
+              the imps that used to plague poor Caliban were washing,
+              wringing, and ironing the unshapely but useful bag which
+              Sir John Sinclair treats with such distinction--my
+              stomach, in short. Now, as I have much to do of my own,
+              I fear I can hardly be of use to you in the present
+              case, which I am very sorry for, as I like the subject,
+              and would be pleased to give my own opinion respecting
+              the Jacobitism of the editor, which, like my own, has a
+              good spice of affectation in it, mingled with some not
+              unnatural feelings of respect for a cause which, though
+              indefensible in common sense and ordinary policy, has a
+              great deal of high-spirited Quixotry about it.
+
+              "Can you not borrow from your briefs and criticism a
+              couple of days to look about you here? I dare not ask
+              Mrs. Jeffrey till next year, when my hand will be out of
+              the mortar-tub; and at present my only spare bed was
+              till of late but accessible by the feudal accommodation
+              of a drawbridge made of two deals, and still requires
+              the clue of Ariadne.... I am like one of Miss
+              Edgeworth's heroines, master of all things in
+              miniature--a little hill, and a little glen, and a
+              little horse-pond of a loch, and a little river, I was
+              going to call it,--the Tweed; but I remember the
+              minister was mobbed by his parishioners for terming it,
+              in his statistical report, an inconsiderable stream. So
+              pray do come and see me, and if I can stead you, or
+              pleasure you, in the course of the winter, you shall
+              command me."--Cockburn's _Life of Jeffrey_, vol. i p.
+              417.]]
+
+It was while struggling with such languor, on one lovely evening of
+this autumn, that he composed the following beautiful verses. They
+mark the very spot of their birth,--namely, the then naked height
+overhanging the northern side of the Cauldshiels Loch, from which
+Melrose Abbey to the eastward, and the hills of Ettrick and Yarrow to
+the west, are now visible over a wide range of rich woodland,--all the
+work of the poet's hand:--
+
+  {p.177} "The sun upon the Weirdlaw Hill,
+             In Ettrick's vale, is sinking sweet;
+           The westland wind is hush and still--
+             The lake lies sleeping at my feet.
+           Yet not the landscape to mine eye
+             Bears those bright hues that once it bore;
+           Though evening, with her richest dye,
+             Flames o'er the hills of Ettrick's shore.
+
+           "With listless look along the plain
+             I see Tweed's silver current glide,
+           And coldly mark the holy fane
+             Of Melrose rise in ruin'd pride.
+           The quiet lake, the balmy air,
+             The hill, the stream, the tower, the tree,--
+           Are they still such as once they were,
+             Or is the dreary change in me?
+
+           "Alas! the warp'd and broken board,
+             How can it bear the painter's dye!
+           The harp of strain'd and tuneless chord,
+             How to the minstrel's skill reply!
+           To aching eyes each landscape lowers,
+             To feverish pulse each gale blows chill;
+           And Araby's or Eden's bowers
+             Were barren as this moorland hill."
+
+He again alludes to his illness in a letter to Mr. Morritt:--
+
+     TO J. B. S. MORRITT, ESQ., M. P., ROKEBY.
+
+                                        ABBOTSFORD, August 11, 1817.
+
+     MY DEAR MORRITT,--I am arrived from a little tour in the
+     west of Scotland, and had hoped, in compliance with your
+     kind wish, to have indulged myself with a skip over the
+     Border as far as Rokeby, about the end of this month. But my
+     fate denies me this pleasure; for, in consequence of one or
+     two blunders, during my absence, in executing my new
+     premises, I perceive the necessity of remaining at the helm
+     while they are going on. Our masons, though excellent
+     workmen, are too little accustomed to the gimcracks of their
+     art, to be trusted with the execution of a _bravura_ plan,
+     without constant inspection. Besides, the said laborers lay
+     me under the necessity {p.178} of laboring a little myself;
+     and I find I can no longer with impunity undertake to make
+     one week's hard work supply the omissions of a fortnight's
+     idleness. Like you, I have abridged my
+     creature-comforts,--as Old Mortality would call
+     them,--renouncing beer and ale on all ordinary occasions;
+     also pastry, fruit, etc., and all that tends to acidity.
+     These are awkward warnings; but _sat est vixisse_. To have
+     lived respected and regarded by some of the best men in our
+     age is enough for an individual like me; the rest must be as
+     God wills, and when He wills.
+
+     The poor-laws, into which you have ventured for the love of
+     the country, form a sad quagmire. They are like John
+     Bunyan's Slough of Despond, into which, as he observes,
+     millions of cart-loads of good resolutions have been thrown,
+     without perceptibly mending the way. From what you say, and
+     from what I have heard from others, there is a very natural
+     desire to trust to one or two empirical remedies, such as
+     general systems of education, and so forth. But a man with a
+     broken constitution might as well put faith in Spilsbury or
+     Godbold. It is not the knowledge, but the use which is made
+     of it, that is productive of real benefit. To say that the
+     Scottish peasant is less likely than the Englishman to
+     become an incumbrance on his parish, is saying, in other
+     words, that this country is less populous,--that there are
+     fewer villages and towns,--that the agricultural classes,
+     from the landed proprietor down to the cottager, are
+     individually more knit and cemented together;--above all,
+     that the Scotch peasant has harder habits of life, and can
+     endure from his infancy a worse fare and lodging than your
+     parish almshouses offer.--There is a terrible evil in
+     England to which we are strangers,--the number, to wit, of
+     tippling-houses, where the laborer, as a matter of course,
+     spends the overplus of his earnings. In Scotland there are
+     few; and the Justices are commendably inexorable in
+     rejecting all application for licenses where {p.179} there
+     appears no public necessity for granting them. A man,
+     therefore, cannot easily spend much money in liquor, since
+     he must walk three or four miles to the place of suction and
+     back again, which infers a sort of _malice prepense_ of
+     which few are capable; and the habitual opportunity of
+     indulgence not being at hand, the habits of intemperance,
+     and of waste connected with it, are not acquired. If
+     financiers would admit a general limitation of the
+     ale-houses over England to one fourth of the number, I am
+     convinced you would find the money spent in that manner
+     would remain with the peasant, as a source of self-support
+     and independence.
+
+     All this applies chiefly to the country;--in towns, and in
+     the manufacturing districts, the evil could hardly be
+     diminished by such regulations. There would, perhaps, be no
+     means so effectual as that (which will never be listened to)
+     of taxing the manufacturers according to the number of hands
+     which they employ on an average, and applying the produce in
+     maintaining the manufacturing poor. If it should be alleged
+     that this would injure the manufacturers, I would boldly
+     reply,--"And why not injure, or rather limit, speculations,
+     the excessive stretch of which has been productive of so
+     much damage to the principles of the country, and to the
+     population, whom it has, in so many respects, degraded and
+     demoralized?" For a great many years, manufactures, taken in
+     a general point of view, have not partaken of the character
+     of a regular profession, in which all who engaged with
+     honest industry and a sufficient capital might reasonably
+     expect returns proportional to their advances and labor--but
+     have, on the contrary, rather resembled a lottery, in which
+     the great majority of the adventurers are sure to be losers,
+     although some may draw considerable advantage. Men continued
+     for a great many years to exert themselves, and to pay
+     extravagant wages, not in hopes that there could be a
+     reasonable prospect of an orderly and regular demand for the
+     goods they wrought {p.180} up, but in order that they might
+     be the first to take advantage of some casual opening which
+     might consume their cargo, let others shift as they could.
+     Hence extravagant wages on some occasions; for these
+     adventurers who thus played at hit or miss, stood on no
+     scruples while the chance of success remained open. Hence,
+     also, the stoppage of work, and the discharge of the
+     workmen, when the speculators failed of their object. All
+     this while the country was the sufferer;--for whoever
+     gained, the result, being upon the whole a loss, fell on the
+     nation, together with the task of maintaining a poor,
+     rendered effeminate and vicious by over-wages and
+     over-living, and necessarily cast loose upon society. I
+     cannot but think that the necessity of making some fund
+     beforehand, for the provision of those whom they debauch,
+     and render only fit for the almshouse, in prosecution of
+     their own adventures, though it operated as a check on the
+     increase of manufactures, would be a measure just in itself,
+     and beneficial to the community. But it would never be
+     listened to;--the weaver's beam, and the sons of Zeruiah,
+     would be too many for the proposers.
+
+     This is the eleventh of August: Walter, happier than he will
+     ever be again, perhaps, is preparing for the moors. He has a
+     better dog than Trout, and rather less active. Mrs. Scott
+     and all our family send kind love.
+
+     Yours ever,
+
+                                        W. S.
+
+Two or three days after this letter was written, Scott first saw
+Washington Irving, who has recorded his visit in a delightful Essay,
+which, however, having been penned nearly twenty years afterwards,
+betrays a good many slips of memory as to names and dates. Mr. Irving
+says he arrived at Abbotsford on the 27th of August, 1816; but he
+describes the walls of the new house as already overtopping the old
+cottage; and this is far from being the only circumstance he mentions
+which {p.181} proves that he should have written 1817.[72] The
+picture which my amiable friend has drawn of his reception shows to
+all who remember the Scott and the Abbotsford of those days, how
+consistent accuracy as to essentials may be with forgetfulness of
+trifles.
+
+              [Footnote 72: I have before me two letters of Mr.
+              Irving's to Scott, both written in September, 1817, from
+              Edinburgh, and referring to his visit (which certainly
+              was his only one at Abbotsford) as immediately
+              preceding. There is also in my hands a letter from Scott
+              to his friend John Richardson, of Fludyer Street, dated
+              22d September, 1817, in which he says, "When you see Tom
+              Campbell, tell him, with my best love, that I have to
+              thank him for making me known to Mr. Washington Irving,
+              who is one of the best and pleasantest acquaintances I
+              have made this many a day."]
+
+Scott had received The History of New York by Knickerbocker, shortly
+after its appearance in 1812, from an accomplished American traveller,
+Mr. Brevoort; and the admirable humor of this early work had led him
+to anticipate the brilliant career which its author has since run. Mr.
+Thomas Campbell, being no stranger to Scott's high estimation of
+Irving's genius, gave him a letter of introduction, which, halting his
+chaise on the high-road above Abbotsford, he modestly sent down to the
+house, "with a card, on which he had written, that he was on his way
+to the ruins of Melrose, and wished to know whether it would be
+agreeable to Mr. Scott to receive a visit from him in the course of
+the morning." Scott's family well remember the delight with which he
+received this announcement:--he was at breakfast, and sallied forth
+instantly, dogs and children after him as usual, to greet the guest,
+and conduct him in person from the highway to the door.
+
+     "The noise of my chaise," says Irving, "had disturbed the
+     quiet of the establishment. Out sallied the warder of the
+     castle, a black greyhound, and leaping on one of the blocks
+     of stone, began a furious barking. This alarm brought out
+     the whole garrison of dogs, all open-mouthed and vociferous.
+     In a little while, the lord of the castle himself made his
+     appearance. I knew him at once, by the likenesses that had
+     been {p.182} published of him. He came limping up the
+     gravel walk, aiding himself by a stout walking staff, but
+     moving rapidly and with vigor. By his side jogged along a
+     large iron-gray staghound, of most grave demeanor, who took
+     no part in the clamor of the canine rabble, but seemed to
+     consider himself bound, for the dignity of the house, to
+     give me a courteous reception.
+
+     "Before Scott reached the gate, he called out in a hearty
+     tone, welcoming me to Abbotsford, and asking news of
+     Campbell. Arrived at the door of the chaise, he grasped me
+     warmly by the hand: 'Come, drive down, drive down to the
+     house,' said he; 'ye're just in time for breakfast, and
+     afterwards ye shall see all the wonders of the Abbey.'
+
+     "I would have excused myself on the plea of having already
+     made my breakfast. 'Hut, man,' cried he, 'a ride in the
+     morning in the keen air of the Scotch hills is warrant
+     enough for a second breakfast.'
+
+     "I was accordingly whirled to the portal of the cottage, and
+     in a few moments found myself seated at the breakfast-table.
+     There was no one present but the family, which consisted of
+     Mrs. Scott; her eldest daughter, Sophia, then a fine girl
+     about seventeen; Miss Anne Scott, two or three years
+     younger; Walter, a well-grown stripling; and Charles, a
+     lively boy, eleven or twelve years of age.
+
+     "I soon felt myself quite at home, and my heart in a glow,
+     with the cordial welcome I experienced. I had thought to
+     make a mere morning visit, but found I was not to be let off
+     so lightly. 'You must not think our neighborhood is to be
+     read in a morning like a newspaper,' said Scott; 'it takes
+     several days of study for an observant traveller, that has a
+     relish for auld-world trumpery. After breakfast you shall
+     make your visit to Melrose Abbey; I shall not be able to
+     accompany you, as I have some household affairs to attend
+     to; but I will put you in charge of my son Charles, who is
+     very learned in all things touching the old ruin and the
+     neighborhood it stands in; and he and my friend Johnnie
+     Bower will tell you the whole truth about it, with a great
+     deal more that you are not called upon to believe, unless
+     you be a true and nothing-doubting antiquary. When you come
+     back, I'll take you out on a ramble about the neighborhood.
+     To-morrow we will take a {p.183} look at the Yarrow, and
+     the next day we will drive over to Dryburgh Abbey, which is
+     a fine old ruin, well worth your seeing.'--In a word, before
+     Scott had got through with his plan, I found myself
+     committed for a visit of several days, and it seemed as if a
+     little realm of romance was suddenly open before me."
+
+After breakfast, while Scott, no doubt, wrote a chapter of Rob Roy,
+Mr. Irving, under young Charles's guidance, saw Melrose Abbey, and
+Johnnie Bower the elder, whose son long since inherited his office as
+showman of the ruins, and all his enthusiasm about them and their
+poet. The senior on this occasion was loud in his praises of the
+affability of Scott. "He'll come here sometimes," said he, "with great
+folks in his company, and the first I'll know of it is hearing his
+voice calling out Johnnie!--Johnnie Bower!--and when I go out I'm sure
+to be greeted with a joke or a pleasant word. He'll stand and crack,
+an' laugh wi' me just like an auld wife,--and _to think that of a man
+that has such an awfu' knowledge o' history!_"[73]
+
+              [Footnote 73: [From the journal of three English ladies,
+              travellers in Scotland in the summer of 1817, we get
+              another glimpse of Johnnie Bower, and a pleasant sketch
+              of Sophia Scott:--
+
+              "In the chancel Miss Scott, a very charming, lively girl
+              of seventeen, pointed out to us 'The Wizard's Grave,'
+              and then the black stone in the form of a coffin, to
+              which the allusion is made in the poem, 'A Scottish
+              monarch sleeps below,'--said to be the tomb of Alexander
+              II. 'But I will tell you a secret,' she half whispered;
+              'only don't you tell Johnnie Bower. There is no Scottish
+              monarch there at all, nor anybody else, for papa had the
+              stone taken up, not long ago, and no coffin nor anything
+              was to be found. And then Johnnie came and begged me not
+              to tell people so. "For what wull I do, Miss Scott, when
+              I show the ruins, if I canna point to this bit, and say,
+              'A Scottish monarch sleeps below'?"' As, however, he had
+              the pleasure of saying this to us the evening before,
+              Miss Scott thought we might fairly have her secret....
+
+              "We now set out for Dryburgh, about five miles. Mr.
+              Scott placed his daughter in our carriage, that she
+              might point out the different places as we passed them.
+              We could not have had a better director, nor a more
+              lively, entertaining companion. Every spot was known to
+              her, and in this fairyland her quick imagination seemed
+              to delight in all the legendary lore she had heard, and
+              could so promptly apply.... At the view of some distant
+              mountains, Miss Scott suddenly exclaimed, 'Look, there
+              are the Cheviots; are you not glad to see England
+              again?' We assured her we were, though we should quit
+              Scotland with so much regret. 'Well,' she said, 'I
+              should not have liked you if you were not glad to return
+              home.' Her father had taken her to London the year
+              before, and she was delighted to get back again, and to
+              hail the Cheviots on her return. It was plain to see she
+              was her father's darling, and she talked of him with
+              enthusiasm. She has a very natural, unaffected
+              character, with a strong tincture of romantic feeling,
+              which seemed judiciously kept in check by him, as she
+              said he did not allow her to read much poetry, nor had
+              she even read all his own poems, which were never to be
+              found _in the way_, at their house. She spoke of her
+              sister and her brothers, with a warmth of affection very
+              pleasing. On asking what was become of Camp, she shook
+              her head, and said he was dead. 'You must never come to
+              Abbotsford when any of the dogs die, for there is a sad
+              weeping amongst us all.'"--Lang's _Life of Lockhart_,
+              vol. i. pp. 232-234.]]
+
+{p.184} On his return from the Abbey, Irving found Scott ready for a
+ramble. I cannot refuse myself the pleasure of extracting some parts
+of his description of it.
+
+     "As we sallied forth, every dog in the establishment turned
+     out to attend us. There was the old staghound, Maida, that I
+     have already mentioned, a noble animal, and Hamlet, the
+     black greyhound, a wild thoughtless youngster, not yet
+     arrived at the years of discretion; and Finette, a beautiful
+     setter, with soft, silken hair, long pendent ears, and a
+     mild eye, the parlor favorite. When in front of the house,
+     we were joined by a superannuated greyhound, who came from
+     the kitchen wagging his tail; and was cheered by Scott as an
+     old friend and comrade. In our walks, he would frequently
+     pause in conversation, to notice his dogs, and speak to them
+     as if rational companions; and, indeed, there appears to be
+     a vast deal of rationality in these faithful attendants on
+     man, derived from their close intimacy with him. Maida
+     deported himself with a gravity becoming his age and size,
+     and seemed to consider himself called upon to preserve a
+     great degree of dignity and decorum in our society. As he
+     jogged along a little distance ahead of us, the young dogs
+     would gambol about him, leap on his neck, worry at his ears,
+     and endeavor to tease him into a gambol. The old dog would
+     keep on for a long time with imperturbable solemnity, now
+     and then seeming to rebuke the wantonness of his young
+     companions. At length he would make a sudden turn, seize one
+     of them, and tumble him in the dust, then giving a {p.185}
+     glance at us, as much as to say, 'You see, gentlemen, I
+     can't help giving way to this nonsense,' would resume his
+     gravity, and jog on as before. Scott amused himself with
+     these peculiarities. 'I make no doubt,' said he, 'when Maida
+     is alone with these young dogs, he throws gravity aside, and
+     plays the boy as much as any of them; but he is ashamed to
+     do so in our company, and seems to say--Ha' done with your
+     nonsense, youngsters: what will the laird and that other
+     gentleman think of me if I give way to such foolery?'
+
+     "Scott amused himself with the peculiarities of another of
+     his dogs, a little shamefaced terrier, with large glassy
+     eyes, one of the most sensitive little bodies to insult and
+     indignity in the world. 'If ever he whipped him,' he said,
+     'the little fellow would sneak off and hide himself from the
+     light of day in a lumber garret, from whence there was no
+     drawing him forth but by the sound of the chopping-knife, as
+     if chopping up his victuals, when he would steal forth with
+     humiliated and downcast look, but would skulk away again if
+     any one regarded him.'
+
+     "While we were discussing the humors and peculiarities of
+     our canine companions, some object provoked their spleen,
+     and produced a sharp and petulant barking from the smaller
+     fry; but it was some time before Maida was sufficiently
+     roused to ramp forward two or three bounds, and join the
+     chorus with a deep-mouthed _bow wow_. It was but a transient
+     outbreak, and he returned instantly, wagging his tail, and
+     looking up dubiously in his master's face, uncertain whether
+     he would receive censure or applause. 'Ay, ay, old boy!'
+     cried Scott, 'you have done wonders; you have shaken the
+     Eildon hills with your roaring: you may now lay by your
+     artillery for the rest of the day. Maida,' continued he, 'is
+     like the great gun at Constantinople; it takes so long to
+     get it ready, that the smaller guns can fire off a dozen
+     times first: but when it does go off, it plays the very
+     devil.'
+
+     "These simple anecdotes may serve to show the delightful
+     play of Scott's humors and feelings in private life. His
+     domestic animals were his friends. Everything about him
+     seemed to rejoice in the light of his countenance.
+
+     "Our ramble took us on the hills commanding an extensive
+     prospect. 'Now,' said Scott, 'I have brought you, like the
+     pilgrim in the Pilgrim's Progress, to the top of the
+     Delectable {p.186} Mountains, that I may show you all the
+     goodly regions hereabouts. Yonder is Lammermuir, and
+     Smailholm; and there you have Galashiels, and Torwoodlee,
+     and Gala Water; and in that direction you see Teviotdale and
+     the Braes of Yarrow, and Ettrick stream winding along like a
+     silver thread, to throw itself into the Tweed.' He went on
+     thus to call over names celebrated in Scottish song, and
+     most of which had recently received a romantic interest from
+     his own pen. In fact, I saw a great part of the Border
+     country spread out before me, and could trace the scenes of
+     those poems and romances which had in a manner bewitched the
+     world.
+
+     "I gazed about me for a time with mute surprise, I may
+     almost say with disappointment. I beheld a mere succession
+     of gray waving hills, line beyond line, as far as my eye
+     could reach, monotonous in their aspect, and so destitute of
+     trees, that one could almost see a stout fly walking along
+     their profile; and the far-famed Tweed appeared a naked
+     stream, flowing between bare hills, without a tree or
+     thicket on its banks; and yet such had been the magic web of
+     poetry and romance thrown over the whole, that it had a
+     greater charm for me than the richest scenery I had beheld
+     in England. I could not help giving utterance to my
+     thoughts. Scott hummed for a moment to himself, and looked
+     grave; he had no idea of having his Muse complimented at the
+     expense of his native hills. 'It may be pertinacity,' said
+     he at length; 'but to my eye, these gray hills, and all this
+     wild Border country, have beauties peculiar to themselves. I
+     like the very nakedness of the land; it has something bold,
+     and stern, and solitary about it. When I have been for some
+     time in the rich scenery about Edinburgh, which is like
+     ornamented garden land, I begin to wish myself back again
+     among my own honest gray hills; and if I did not see the
+     heather, at least once a year, _I think I should die!_' The
+     last words were said with an honest warmth, accompanied by a
+     thump on the ground with his staff, by way of emphasis, that
+     showed his heart was in his speech. He vindicated the Tweed,
+     too, as a beautiful stream in itself; and observed that he
+     did not dislike it for being bare of trees, probably from
+     having been much of an angler in his time; and an angler
+     does not like to have a stream overhung by trees, which
+     embarrass him in the exercise of his rod and line.
+
+     {p.187} "I took occasion to plead, in like manner, the
+     associations of early life for my disappointment in respect
+     to the surrounding scenery. I had been so accustomed to see
+     hills crowned with forests, and streams breaking their way
+     through a wilderness of trees, that all my ideas of romantic
+     landscape were apt to be well wooded. 'Ay, and that's the
+     great charm of your country,' cried Scott. 'You love the
+     forest as I do the heather; but I would not have you think I
+     do not feel the glory of a great woodland prospect. There is
+     nothing I should like more than to be in the midst of one of
+     your grand wild original forests, with the idea of hundreds
+     of miles of untrodden forest around me. I once saw at Leith
+     an immense stick of timber, just landed from America. It
+     must have been an enormous tree when it stood in its native
+     soil, at its full height, and with all its branches. I gazed
+     at it with admiration; it seemed like one of the gigantic
+     obelisks which are now and then brought from Egypt to shame
+     the pigmy monuments of Europe; and, in fact, these vast
+     aboriginal trees, that have sheltered the Indians before the
+     intrusion of the white men, are the monuments and
+     antiquities of your country.'
+
+     "The conversation here turned upon Campbell's poem of
+     Gertrude of Wyoming, as illustrative of the poetic materials
+     furnished by American scenery. Scott cited several passages
+     of it with great delight. 'What a pity it is,' said he,
+     'that Campbell does not write more, and oftener, and give
+     full sweep to his genius! He has wings that would bear him
+     to the skies; and he does, now and then, spread them
+     grandly, but folds them up again, and resumes his perch, as
+     if he was afraid to launch away. What a grand idea is that,'
+     said he, 'about prophetic boding, or, in common parlance,
+     second sight--
+
+          "Coming events cast their shadows before!"--
+
+     The fact is,' added he, 'Campbell is, in a manner, a bugbear
+     to himself. The brightness of his early success is a
+     detriment to all his further efforts. _He is afraid of the
+     shadow that his own fame casts before him._'
+
+     "We had not walked much farther, before we saw the two Miss
+     Scotts advancing along the hillside to meet us. The
+     morning's studies being over, they had set off to take a
+     ramble on the hills, and gather heather blossoms with which
+     to decorate {p.188} their hair for dinner. As they came
+     bounding lightly like young fawns, and their dresses
+     fluttering in the pure summer breeze, I was reminded of
+     Scott's own description of his children, in his introduction
+     to one of the cantos of Marmion:--
+
+          'My imps, though hardy, bold, and wild,
+           As best befits the mountain child,' etc.
+
+     As they approached, the dogs all sprang forward, and
+     gambolled around them. They joined us with countenances full
+     of health and glee. Sophia, the eldest, was the most lively
+     and joyous, having much of her father's varied spirit in
+     conversation, and seeming to catch excitement from his words
+     and looks; Anne was of a quieter mood, rather silent, owing,
+     in some measure, no doubt, to her being some years
+     younger."[74]
+
+              [Footnote 74: ["His daughter Sophia and his son Charles
+              were those of his family who seemed most to feel and
+              understand his humors, and to take delight in his
+              conversation. Mrs. Scott did not always pay the same
+              attention, and would now and then make a casual remark
+              which would operate a little like a damper. Thus, one
+              morning at breakfast, when Dominie Thomson the tutor was
+              present, Scott was going on with great glee to relate an
+              anecdote of the laird of Macnab, 'who, poor fellow!'
+              premised he, 'is dead and gone.' 'Why, Mr. Scott,'
+              exclaimed the good lady, 'Macnab's not dead, is he?'
+              'Faith, my dear,' replied Scott, with humorous gravity,
+              'if he's not dead, they've done him a great
+              injustice,--for they've buried him.'
+
+              "The joke passed harmless and unnoticed by Mrs. Scott,
+              but hit the poor Dominie just as he had raised a cup of
+              tea to his lips ... sending half its contents about the
+              table."--Irving's _Abbotsford_.]]
+
+Having often, many years afterwards, heard Irving speak warmly of
+William Laidlaw, I must not omit the following passage:--
+
+     "One of my pleasantest rambles with Scott about the
+     neighborhood of Abbotsford was taken in company with Mr.
+     William Laidlaw, the steward of his estate. This was a
+     gentleman for whom Scott entertained a particular value. He
+     had been born to a competency, had been well educated, his
+     mind was richly stored with varied information, and he was a
+     man of sterling moral worth. Having been reduced by
+     misfortune, Scott had got him to take charge of his estate.
+     He lived at a small farm, on the hillside above Abbotsford,
+     and was treated {p.189} by Scott as a cherished and
+     confidential friend, rather than a dependant.
+
+     "That day at dinner we had Mr. Laidlaw and his wife, and a
+     female friend who accompanied them. The latter was a very
+     intelligent respectable person, about the middle age, and
+     was treated with particular attention and courtesy by Scott.
+     Our dinner was a most agreeable one, for the guests were
+     evidently cherished visitors to the house, and felt that
+     they were appreciated. When they were gone, Scott spoke of
+     them in the most cordial manner. 'I wished to show you,'
+     said he, 'some of our really excellent, plain Scotch people:
+     not fine gentlemen and ladies, for such you can meet
+     everywhere, and they are everywhere the same. The character
+     of a nation is not to be learnt from its fine folks.' He
+     then went on with a particular eulogium on the lady who had
+     accompanied the Laidlaws. She was the daughter, he said, of
+     a poor country clergyman, who had died in debt, and left her
+     an orphan and destitute. Having had a good plain education,
+     she immediately set up a child's school, and had soon a
+     numerous flock under her care, by which she earned a decent
+     maintenance. That, however, was not her main object. Her
+     first care was to pay off her father's debts, that no ill
+     word or ill will might rest upon his memory. This, by dint
+     of Scotch economy, backed by filial reverence and pride, she
+     accomplished, though in the effort she subjected herself to
+     every privation. Not content with this, she in certain
+     instances refused to take pay for the tuition of the
+     children of some of her neighbors, who had befriended her
+     father in his need, and had since fallen into poverty. 'In a
+     word,' added Scott, 'she's a fine old Scotch girl, and I
+     delight in her more than in many a fine lady I have known,
+     and I have known many of the finest.'
+
+     "The evening passed away delightfully in a quaint-looking
+     apartment, half study, half drawing-room. Scott read several
+     passages from the old Romance of Arthur, with a fine deep
+     sonorous voice, and a gravity of tone that seemed to suit
+     the antiquated black-letter volume. It was a rich treat to
+     hear such a work read by such a person, and in such a place;
+     and his appearance, as he sat reading, in a large armchair,
+     with his favorite hound Maida at his feet, and surrounded by
+     books and reliques and Border trophies, would have formed
+     {p.190} an admirable and most characteristic picture. When
+     I retired for the night, I found it almost impossible to
+     sleep: the idea of being under the roof of Scott; of being
+     on the Borders on the Tweed; in the very centre of that
+     region which had, for some time past, been the favorite
+     scene of romantic fiction; and, above all, the recollections
+     of the ramble I had taken, the company in which I had taken
+     it, and the conversation which had passed, all fermented in
+     my mind, and nearly drove sleep from my pillow.
+
+     "On the following morning the sun darted his beams from over
+     the hills through the low lattice of my window. I rose at an
+     early hour, and looked out between the branches of eglantine
+     which overhung the casement. To my surprise, Scott was
+     already up, and forth, seated on a fragment of stone, and
+     chatting with the workmen employed in the new building. I
+     had supposed, after the time he had wasted upon me
+     yesterday, he would be closely occupied this morning: but he
+     appeared like a man of leisure, who had nothing to do but
+     bask in the sunshine, and amuse himself. I soon dressed
+     myself and joined him. He talked about his proposed plans of
+     Abbotsford: happy would it have been for him could he have
+     contented himself with his delightful little vine-covered
+     cottage, and the simple, yet hearty and hospitable, style in
+     which he lived at the time of my visit."[75]
+
+              [Footnote 75: [That this visit remained a vivid and
+              delightful memory to the end of Irving's life is shown
+              in some words spoken not long before his death: "Oh!
+              Scott was a master spirit--as glorious in his
+              conversation as in his writings. Jeffrey was delightful,
+              and had _eloquent runs_ in conversation; but there was a
+              consciousness of talent with it. Scott had nothing of
+              that. He spoke from the fulness of his mind, pouring out
+              an incessant flow of anecdote, story, with dashes of
+              humor, and then never monopolizing, but always ready to
+              listen to and appreciate what came from others. I never
+              felt such a consciousness of happiness as when under his
+              roof."--_Washington Irving's Life and Letters_, vol. iv.
+              p. 260.]]
+
+Among other visitors who succeeded the distinguished American that
+autumn, were Lady Byron, the wife of the poet, and the great artist,
+Mr., now Sir David Wilkie, who then executed for Captain Ferguson that
+pleasing little picture, in which Scott and his family are represented
+as a group of peasants, while the gallant soldier {p.191} himself
+figures by them in the character of a gamekeeper, or perhaps poacher.
+Mr. Irving has given, in the little work from which I have quoted so
+liberally, an amusing account of the delicate scruples of Wilkie about
+soliciting Scott to devote a morning to the requisite sitting, until,
+after lingering for several days, he at length became satisfied that,
+by whatever magic his host might contrive to keep Ballantyne's presses
+in full play, he had always abundance of leisure for matters less
+important than Ferguson's destined heirloom. I shall now, however,
+return to his correspondence; and begin with a letter to Joanna
+Baillie on Lady Byron's visit.
+
+     TO MISS JOANNA BAILLIE, HAMPSTEAD.
+
+                                        ABBOTSFORD, September 26, 1817.
+
+     MY DEAR MISS BAILLIE,--A series of little trinketty sort of
+     business, and occupation, and idleness, have succeeded to
+     each other so closely, that I have been scarce able, for
+     some three weeks past, to call my time my own for half an
+     hour together; but enough of apologies--they are vile
+     things, and I know you will impute my negligence to anything
+     rather than forgetting or undervaluing your friendship. You
+     know, by this time, that we have had a visit from Lady
+     Byron, delightful both on its own account, and because it
+     was accompanied with good news and a letter from you. I
+     regret we could not keep her longer than a day with us,
+     which was spent on the banks of the Yarrow, and I hope and
+     believe she was pleased with us, because I am sure she will
+     be so with everything that is intended to please her:
+     meantime her visit gave me a most lawyer-like fit of the
+     bile. I have lived too long to be surprised at any instance
+     of human caprice, but still it vexes me. Now, one would
+     suppose Lady Byron, young, beautiful, with birth, and rank,
+     and fortune, and taste, and high accomplishments, and
+     admirable good sense, qualified to have made happy one whose
+     talents are so high as Lord Byron's, and whose marked
+     {p.192} propensity it is to like those who are qualified to
+     admire and understand his talents; and yet it has proved
+     otherwise. I can safely say my heart ached for her all the
+     time we were together; there was so much patience and decent
+     resignation to a situation which must have pressed on her
+     thoughts, that she was to me one of the most interesting
+     creatures I had seen for a score of years. I am sure I
+     should not have felt such strong kindness towards her had
+     she been at the height of her fortune, and in the full
+     enjoyment of all the brilliant prospects to which she seemed
+     destined.--You will wish to hear of my complaint. I think,
+     thank God, that it is leaving me--not suddenly, however, for
+     I have had some repetitions, but they have become fainter
+     and fainter, and I have not been disturbed by one for these
+     three weeks. I trust, by care and attention, my stomach will
+     return to its usual tone, and I am as careful as I can. I
+     have taken hard exercise with good effect, and am often six
+     hours on foot without stopping or sitting down, to which my
+     plantations and enclosures contribute not a little. I have,
+     however, given up the gun this season, finding myself unable
+     to walk up to the dogs; but Walter has taken it in hand, and
+     promises to be a first-rate shot; he brought us in about
+     seven or eight brace of birds the evening Lady Byron came to
+     us, which papa was of course a little proud of. The
+     blackcocks are getting very plenty on our moor-ground at
+     Abbotsford, but I associate them so much with your beautiful
+     poem,[76] that I have not the pleasure I used to have in
+     knocking them down. I wish I knew how to send you a brace. I
+     get on with my labors here; my house is about to be roofed
+     in, and a comical concern it is.
+
+     Yours truly,
+
+                                        W. S.
+
+              [Footnote 76:
+                    "Good-morrow to thy sable beak,
+                     And glossy plumage dark and sleek,
+                     Thy crimson moon, and azure eye,
+                     Cock of the heath, so wildly shy!" etc.]
+
+{p.193} The next letter refers to the Duke of Buccleuch's preparations
+for a cattle-show at Bowhill, which was followed by an entertainment
+on a large scale to his Grace's Selkirkshire neighbors and tenantry,
+and next day by a fox-hunt, after Dandie Dinmont's fashion, among the
+rocks of the Yarrow. The Sheriff attended _with his tail on_; and
+Wilkie, too, went with him. It was there that Sir David first saw
+Hogg, and the Shepherd's greeting was graceful. He eyed the great
+painter for a moment in silence, and then stretching out his hand,
+said: "Thank God for it. I did not know that you were so young a man!"
+
+     TO THE DUKE OF BUCCLEUCH, ETC., ETC., ETC., DRUMLANRIG CASTLE.
+
+     MY DEAR LORD DUKE,--I am just honored with your Grace's of
+     the 27th. The posts, which are as cross as pie-crust, have
+     occasioned some delay. Depend on our attending at Bowhill on
+     the 20th, and staying over the show. I have written to Adam
+     Ferguson, who will come with a whoop and a hollo. So will
+     the Ballantynes--flageolet[77] and all--for the festival,
+     and they shall be housed at Abbotsford. I have an inimitably
+     good songster in the person of Terence Magrath, who teaches
+     my girls. He beats almost all whom I have ever heard attempt
+     Moore's songs, and I can easily cajole him also out to
+     Abbotsford for a day or two. In jest or earnest, I never
+     heard a better singer in a room, though his voice is not
+     quite full enough for a concert; and for an after-supper
+     song, he almost equals Irish Johnstone.[78]
+
+              [Footnote 77: The _flageolet_ alludes to Mr. Alexander
+              Ballantyne, the third of the brothers--a fine musician,
+              and a most amiable and modest man, never connected with
+              Scott in any business matters, but always much his
+              favorite in private.]
+
+              [Footnote 78: Mr. Magrath has now been long established
+              in his native city of Dublin. His musical excellence was
+              by no means the only merit that attached Scott to his
+              society while he remained in Edinburgh.]
+
+     Trade of every kind is recovering, and not a loom idle
+     {p.194} in Glasgow. The most faithful respects of this
+     family attend the Ladies and all at Drumlanrig. I ever am
+     your Grace's truly obliged and grateful
+
+                                        Walter SCOTT.
+
+       Given from my Castle of Grawacky,
+       this second day of the month called
+       October, One Thousand Eight Hundred
+       and Seventeen Years.
+
+     There is a date nearly as long as the letter.
+
+     I hope we shall attack the foxes at Bowhill. I will hazard
+     Maida.
+
+We have some allusions to this Bowhill party in another letter; the
+first of several which I shall now insert according to their dates,
+leaving them, with a few marginal notes, to tell out the story of
+1817:--
+
+     TO DANIEL TERRY, ESQ., LONDON.
+
+                                        ABBOTSFORD, October 24, 1817.
+
+     DEAR TERRY,--Bullock has not gone to Skye, and I am very
+     glad he has not, for to me who knew the Hebrides well, the
+     attempt seemed very perilous at this season. I have
+     considerably enlarged my domains since I wrote to you, by
+     the purchase of a beautiful farm adjacent. The farmhouse,
+     which is new and excellent, I have let to Adam Ferguson and
+     his sisters. We will be within a pleasant walk of each
+     other, and hope to end our lives, as they began, in each
+     other's society. There is a beautiful brook, with remnants
+     of natural wood, which would make Toftfield rival
+     Abbotsford, but for the majestic Tweed. I am in treaty for a
+     field or two more; one of which contains the only specimen
+     of a Peel-house, or defensive residence of a small
+     proprietor, which remains in this neighborhood. It is an
+     orchard, in the hamlet of Darnick, to which it gives a most
+     picturesque effect. Blore admires it very much. We are all
+     well here, but crowded with company. I have been junketing
+     {p.195} this week past at Bowhill. Mr. Magrath has been
+     with us these two or three days, and has seen his ward,
+     Hamlet, behave most _princelike_ on Newark Hill and
+     elsewhere. He promises to be a real treasure.[79]
+     Notwithstanding, Mr. Magrath went to Bowhill with me one
+     day, where his vocal talents gave great pleasure, and I hope
+     will procure him the notice and protection of the Buccleuch
+     family. The Duke says my building engrosses, as a common
+     centre, the thoughts of Mr. Atkinson and Mr. Bullock, and
+     wishes he could make them equally anxious in his own behalf.
+     You may believe this flatters me not a little.
+
+              [Footnote 79: This fine greyhound, a gift from Terry,
+              had been sent to Scotland under the care of Mr. Magrath.
+              Terry had called the dog _Marmion_, but Scott
+              rechristened him _Hamlet_, in honor of his "inky coat."]
+
+     P. S.--I agree with you that the tower will look rather rich
+     for the rest of the building; yet you may be assured, that
+     with diagonal chimneys and notched gables, it will have a
+     very fine effect, and is in Scotch architecture by no means
+     incompatible. My house has been like a _cried fair_, and
+     extreme the inconvenience of having no corner sacred to my
+     own use, and free from intrusion.
+
+     Ever truly yours,
+
+                                        W. S.
+
+
+     TO THE SAME.
+
+                                        ABBOTSFORD, 29th October, 1817.
+
+     MY DEAR TERRY,--I enclose a full sketch of the lower story,
+     with accurate measurements of rooms, casements, doorways,
+     chimneys, etc., that Mr. Atkinson's good will may not want
+     means to work upon. I will speak to the subjects of your
+     letters separately, that I may omit none of them. _1st_, I
+     cannot possibly surrender the window to the west in the
+     library,[80] although I subscribe to all you urge about it.
+     Still it is essential in point of light to my old eyes, and
+     the single northern {p.196} aspect would not serve me.
+     Above all, it looks into the yard, and enables me to summon
+     Tom Purdie without the intervention of a third party.
+     Indeed, as I can have but a few books about me, it is of the
+     less consequence. _2dly_, I resign the idea of _coving_ the
+     library to your better judgment, and I think the Stirling
+     Heads[81] will be admirably disposed in the glass of the
+     armory window. I have changed my mind as to having doors on
+     the book-presses, which is, after all, a great bore. No
+     person will be admitted into my sanctum, and I can have the
+     door locked during my absence. _3dly_, I expect Mr. Bullock
+     here every day, and should be glad to have the drawings for
+     the dining-room wainscot, as he could explain them to the
+     artists who are to work them. This (always if quite
+     convenient) would be the more desirable, as I must leave
+     this place in a fortnight at farthest,--the more 's the
+     pity,--and, consequently, the risk of blunders will be
+     considerably increased. I should like if the panelling of
+     the wainscot could admit of a press on each side of the
+     sideboard. I don't mean a formal press with a high door, but
+     some crypt, or, to speak vulgarly, _cupboard_, to put away
+     bottles of wine, etc. You know I am my own butler, and such
+     accommodation is very convenient. We begin roofing
+     to-morrow. Wilkie admires the whole as a composition, and
+     that is high authority. I agree that the fountain shall be
+     out of doors in front of the greenhouse; there may be an
+     enclosure for it with some ornamented mason work, as in old
+     gardens, and it will occupy an angle, which I should be
+     puzzled what to do with, for turf and gravel would be rather
+     meagre, and flowers not easily kept. I have the old fountain
+     belonging to the Cross of Edinburgh, which flowed with wine
+     at the coronation of our kings and on other occasions of
+     {p.197} public rejoicing. I send a sketch of this venerable
+     relic, connected as it is with a thousand associations. It
+     is handsome in its forms and proportions--a freestone basin
+     about three feet in diameter, and five inches and a half in
+     depth, very handsomely hollowed. A piece has been broken off
+     one edge, but as we have the fragment, it can easily be
+     restored with cement. There are four openings for pipes in
+     the circumference--each had been covered with a Gothic
+     masque, now broken off and defaced, but which may be easily
+     restored. Through these the wine had fallen into a larger
+     and lower reservoir. I intend this for the centre of my
+     fountain. I do not believe I should save L100 by retaining
+     Mrs. Redford, by the time she was raised, altered, and
+     beautified, for, like the Highlandman's gun, she wants
+     stock, lock, and barrel, to put her into repair. In the mean
+     time, "the cabin is convenient." Yours ever,
+
+                                        W. S.
+
+              [Footnote 80: Before the second and larger part of the
+              present house of Abbotsford was built, the small room,
+              subsequently known as the breakfast parlor, was during
+              several years Scott's _sanctum_.]
+
+              [Footnote 81: This alludes to certain pieces of painted
+              glass, representing the heads of some of the old Scotch
+              kings, copied from the carved ceiling of the
+              presence-chamber in Stirling Castle. There are
+              engravings of them in a work called _Lacunar
+              Strevelinense_. Edinb. 4to, 1817.]
+
+     TO MR. WILLIAM LAIDLAW, KAESIDE.
+
+                                        EDINBURGH, November 15, 1817.
+
+     DEAR WILLIE,--I have no intention to let the Whitehaugh
+     without your express approbation, and I wish you to act as
+     my adviser and representative in these matters. I would
+     hardly have ventured to purchase so much land without the
+     certainty of your counsel and cooperation.... On the other
+     side you will find a small order on the banker at
+     Galashiels, to be renewed half yearly; not by way of
+     recompensing your friendship "with a load of barren money,"
+     but merely to ease my conscience in some degree for the time
+     which I must necessarily withdraw from the labor which is to
+     maintain your family. Believe me, dear Willie, yours truly,
+
+                                        W. SCOTT.
+
+
+     TO THE SAME.
+
+                                        EDINBURGH, 19th November, 1817.
+
+     DEAR WILLIE,--I hope you will not quarrel with my last.
+     Believe me that, to a sound-judging, and philosophical
+     {p.198} mind, this same account of Dr. and Cr., which fills
+     up so much time in the world, is comparatively of very small
+     value. When you get rich, unless I thrive in the same
+     proportion, I will request your assistance for less, for
+     little, or for nothing, as the case may require; but while I
+     wear my seven-leagued boots to stride in triumph over moss
+     and muir, it would be very silly in either of us to let a
+     cheque twice a year of L25 make a difference between us. But
+     all this we will talk over when we meet. I meditate one day
+     a _coup-de-maitre_, which will make my friend's advice and
+     exertion essential--indeed worthy of much better
+     remuneration. When you come, I hope you will bring us
+     information of all my rural proceedings. Though so lately
+     come to town, I still remember, at my waking hours, that I
+     can neither see Tom Purdie nor Adam Paterson,[82] and rise
+     with the more unwillingness. I was unwell on Monday and
+     Tuesday, but am quite recovered.
+
+     Yours truly,
+
+                                        W. S.
+
+              [Footnote 82: Adam Paterson was the intelligent foreman
+              of the company of masons then employed at Abbotsford.]
+
+     TO THOMAS SCOTT, ESQ., PAYMASTER, 70TH REGIMENT, KINGSTON, CANADA.
+
+                                        EDINBURGH, 13th December, 1817.
+
+     MY DEAR TOM,--I should be happy to attend to your commission
+     about a dominie for your boy, but I think there will be much
+     risk in yoking yourself with one for three or four years.
+     You know what sort of black cattle these are, and how
+     difficult it is to discern their real character, though one
+     may give a guess at their attainments. When they get good
+     provender in their guts, they are apt to turn out very
+     different animals from what they were in their original low
+     condition, and get frisky and troublesome. I have made
+     several inquiries, however, and request to know what salary
+     you would think reasonable, and also what acquisitions he
+     ought to possess. {p.199} There is no combating the
+     feelings which you express for the society of your son,
+     otherwise I really think that a Scottish education would be
+     highly desirable; and should you at any time revert to this
+     plan, you may rely on my bestowing the same attention upon
+     him as upon my own boys.
+
+     I agree entirely with you on the necessity of your remaining
+     in the regiment while it is stationary, and retiring on
+     half-pay when it marches; but I cannot so easily acquiesce
+     in your plan of settling in Canada. On the latter event
+     taking place, on the contrary, I think it would be highly
+     advisable that you should return to your native country. In
+     the course of nature you must soon be possessed of
+     considerable property, now life-rented by our mother, and I
+     should think that even your present income would secure you
+     comfort and independence here. Should you remain in Canada,
+     you must consider your family as settlers in that state, and
+     as I cannot believe that it will remain very long separated
+     from America, I should almost think this equal to depriving
+     them of the advantages of British subjects--at least of
+     those which they might derive from their respectable
+     connections in this country. With respect to your son, in
+     particular, I have little doubt that I could be of
+     considerable service to him in almost any line of life he
+     might chance to adopt here, but could of course have less
+     influence on his fortunes were he to remain on the Niagara.
+     I certainly feel anxious on this subject, because the
+     settlement of your residence in America would be saying, in
+     other words, that we two, the last remains of a family once
+     so numerous, are never more to meet upon this side of time.
+     My own health is very much broken up by the periodical
+     recurrence of violent cramps in the stomach, which neither
+     seem disposed to yield to medicine nor to abstinence. The
+     complaint, the doctors say, is not dangerous in itself, but
+     I cannot look forward to its continued recurrence, without
+     being certain that it is to break my health, and {p.200}
+     anticipate old age in cutting me short. Be it so, my dear
+     Tom--_Sat est vixisse_--and I am too much of a philosopher
+     to be anxious about protracted life, which, with all its
+     infirmities and deprivations, I have never considered as a
+     blessing. In the years which may be before me, it would be a
+     lively satisfaction to me to have the pleasure of seeing you
+     in this country, with the prospect of a comfortable
+     settlement. I have but an imperfect account to render of my
+     doings here. I have amused myself with making an addition to
+     my cottage in the country. One little apartment is to be
+     fitted up as an armory for my old relics and curiosities. On
+     the wicket I intend to mount your _deer's foot_[83]--as an
+     appropriate knocker. I hope the young ladies liked their
+     watches, and that all your books, stationery, etc., came
+     safe to hand. I am told you have several kinds of the oak
+     peculiar to America. If you can send me a few good acorns,
+     with the names of the kinds they belong to, I will have them
+     reared with great care and attention. The heaviest and
+     smoothest acorns should be selected, as one would wish them,
+     sent from such a distance, to succeed, which rarely happens
+     unless they are particularly well ripened. I shall be as
+     much obliged to you as Sancho was to the Duchess, or, to
+     speak more correctly, the Duchess to Sancho, for a similar
+     favor. Our mother keeps her health surprisingly well now,
+     nor do I think there is any difference, unless that her
+     deafness is rather increased. My eldest boy is upwards of
+     six feet high; therefore born, as Sergeant Kite says, to be
+     a great man. I should not like such a rapid growth, but that
+     he carries strength along with it; my youngest boy is a very
+     sharp little fellow--and the girls give us great
+     satisfaction. Ever affectionately yours,
+
+                                        Walter SCOTT.
+
+              [Footnote 83: Thomas Scott had sent his brother the
+              horns and feet of a gigantic stag, shot by him in
+              Canada. The feet were ultimately suspended to bell-cords
+              in the armory at Abbotsford; and the horns mounted as
+              drinking-cups.]
+
+{p.201} The following note is without date. It accompanied, no doubt,
+the last proof sheet of Rob Roy, and was therefore in all probability
+written about ten days before the 31st of December, 1817--on which day
+the novel was published.
+
+     TO MR. JAMES BALLANTYNE, ST. JOHN STREET.
+
+     DEAR JAMES,--
+
+          With great joy
+          I send you Roy.
+          'T was a tough job,
+          But we're done with Rob.
+
+     I forget if I mentioned Terry in my list of Friends. Pray
+     send me two or three copies as soon as you can. It were pity
+     to make the Grinder[84] pay carriage.
+
+     Yours ever,
+
+                                        W. S.
+
+              [Footnote 84: They called Daniel Terry among themselves
+              "The Grinder," in double allusion to the song of _Terry
+              the Grinder_, and to some harsh under-notes of their
+              friend's voice.]
+
+The novel had indeed been "a tough job"--for lightly and airily as it
+reads, the author had struggled almost throughout with the pains of
+cramp or the lassitude of opium. Calling on him one day to dun him for
+copy, James Ballantyne found him with a clean pen and a blank sheet
+before him, and uttered some rather solemn exclamation of surprise.
+"Ay, ay, Jemmy," said he, "'tis easy for you to bid me get on, but how
+the deuce can I make Rob Roy's wife speak, with such a _curmurring_ in
+my guts?"
+
+
+
+
+{p.202} CHAPTER XL.
+
+     Rob Roy Published. -- Negotiation Concerning the Second
+     Series of Tales of my Landlord. -- Commission to Search for
+     the Scottish Regalia. -- Letters to the Duke of Buccleuch,
+     Mr. Croker, Mr. Morritt, Mr. Murray, Mr. Maturin, etc. --
+     Correspondence on Rural Affairs with Mr. Laidlaw, and on the
+     Buildings at Abbotsford with Mr. Terry. -- Death Of Mrs.
+     Murray Keith and Mr. George Bullock.
+
+1818.
+
+
+Rob Roy and his wife, Bailie Nicol Jarvie and his housekeeper, Die
+Vernon and Rashleigh Osbaldistone--these boldly drawn and happily
+contrasted personages--were welcomed as warmly as the most fortunate
+of their predecessors.[85] Constable's resolution to begin with an
+{p.203} edition of 10,000 proved to have been as sagacious as brave;
+for within a fortnight a second impression of 3000 was called for; and
+the subsequent sale of this novel has considerably exceeded 40,000
+more.
+
+              [Footnote 85: [On the 16th of February, Lady Louisa
+              Stuart wrote:--
+
+              "I have read _Rob Roy_ twice.... The scale with me would
+              be _Waverley_, _Old Mortality_, _Guy Mannering_--so far
+              I am sure. I am not sure which of the others I could
+              positively prefer; there are striking beauties in each.
+              In _Rob Roy_ the painting of character is as vivid as in
+              anything the author ever wrote. Rob himself, Die Vernon,
+              Nicol Jarvie, Andrew Fairservice, not to speak of the
+              Tory baronet and his cubs, or the Jesuit Rashleigh. The
+              beginning and end, I am afraid, I quarrel with; ... but
+              beginnings signify little; ends signify more. Now, I
+              fear the end of this is huddled, as if the author were
+              tired and wanted to get rid of his personages as fast as
+              he could, knocking them on the head without mercy. Die
+              Vernon has what a Lord Bellamont (famous in my day and
+              before it for profligacy and affectation) used to call
+              such 'a catastrophical countenance' that one cannot
+              reconcile oneself to her being married and settled like
+              her sober neighbors. It is almost as bad as if Flora
+              MacIvor had married the Colonel's nephew.... You see I
+              give my opinion (let it be worth something or nothing)
+              as if I were writing to a person not supposed to be in
+              any way sib to the mysterious Unknown; but it is because
+              I believe you have too distinguishing a taste to relish
+              all sugar and treacle. Goldsmith's metaphor was bad when
+              he said, 'Who peppers the highest is surest to please,'
+              for flattery resembles neither pepper nor salt. Apropos
+              of the mystery, those who see far into a millstone are
+              now sure that the _Tales of my Landlord_ were written by
+              a different person, and parts of them by different
+              hands. When they give their reasons with a complacent
+              delight in their own sagacity, I think to myself, how
+              often must I have talked as much wise nonsense upon
+              subjects which I knew nothing about."--_Familiar
+              Letters_, vol. ii. p. 11.]]
+
+Scott, however, had not waited for this new burst of applause. As soon
+as he came within view of the completion of Rob Roy, he desired John
+Ballantyne to propose to Constable and Co. a second series of the
+Tales of my Landlord, to be comprised, like the first, in four
+volumes, and ready for publication by "the King's birthday;" that is,
+the 4th of June, 1818. "I have hungered and thirsted," he wrote, "to
+see the end of those shabby borrowings among friends; they have all
+been wiped out except the good Duke's L4000--and I will not suffer
+either new offers of land or anything else to come in the way of that
+clearance. I expect that you will be able to arrange this resurrection
+of Jedediah, so that L5000 shall be at my order."
+
+Mr. Rigdum used to glory in recounting that he acquitted himself on
+this occasion with a species of dexterity not contemplated in his
+commission. He well knew how sorely Constable had been wounded by
+seeing the first Tales of Jedediah published by Murray and
+Blackwood--and that the utmost success of Rob Roy would only double
+his anxiety to keep them out of the field, when the hint should be
+dropt that a second MS. from Gandercleuch might shortly be looked for.
+John therefore took a convenient opportunity to mention the new scheme
+as if casually--so as to give Constable the impression {p.204} that
+the author's purpose was to divide the second series also between his
+old rival in Albemarle Street, of whom his jealousy was always
+sensitive, and his neighbor Blackwood, whom, if there had been no
+other grudge, the recent conduct and rapidly increasing sale of his
+Magazine would have been sufficient to make Constable hate with a
+perfect hatred. To see not only his old "Scots Magazine" eclipsed, but
+the authority of the Edinburgh Review itself bearded on its own soil
+by this juvenile upstart, was to him gall and wormwood; and, moreover,
+he himself had come in for his share in some of those grotesque _jeux
+d'esprit_ by which, at this period, Blackwood's young Tory wags
+delighted to assail their elders and betters of the Whig persuasion.
+To prevent the proprietor of this new journal from acquiring anything
+like a hold on the author of Waverley, and thus competing with himself
+not only in periodical literature, but in the highest of the time, was
+an object for which, as John Ballantyne shrewdly guessed, Constable
+would have made at that moment almost any sacrifice. When, therefore,
+the haughty but trembling bookseller--"The Lord High Constable" (as he
+had been dubbed by these jesters)--signified his earnest hope that the
+second Tales of my Landlord were destined to come out under the same
+auspices with Rob Roy, the plenipotentiary answered with an air of
+deep regret, that he feared it would be impossible for the author to
+dispose of the work--unless to publishers who should agree to take
+with it _the whole_ of the remaining stock of "John Ballantyne and
+Co.;" and Constable, pertinaciously as he had stood out against many
+more modest propositions of this nature, was so worked upon by his
+jealous feelings, that his resolution at once gave way. He agreed on
+the instant to do all that John seemed to shrink from asking--and at
+one sweep cleared the Augean stable in Hanover Street of unsalable
+rubbish to the amount of L5270! I am assured by his surviving partner,
+that when he had finally {p.205} redisposed of the stock, he found
+himself a loser by fully two thirds of this sum.
+
+Burthened with this heavy condition, the agreement for the sale of
+10,000 copies of the embryo series was signed before the end of
+November, 1817; and on the 7th January, 1818, Scott wrote as follows
+to his noble friend:--
+
+     TO THE DUKE OF BUCCLEUCH, ETC., ETC.
+
+     MY DEAR LORD DUKE,--I have the great pleasure of enclosing
+     the discharged bond which your Grace stood engaged in for
+     me, and on my account. The accommodation was of the greatest
+     consequence to me, as it enabled me to retain possession of
+     some valuable literary property, which I must otherwise have
+     suffered to be sold at a time when the booksellers had no
+     money to buy it. My dear Lord, to wish that all your
+     numerous and extensive acts of kindness may be attended with
+     similar advantages to the persons whom you oblige, is
+     wishing you what to your mind will be the best recompense;
+     and to wish that they may be felt by all as gratefully as by
+     me, though you may be careless to hear about that part of
+     the story, is only wishing what is creditable to human
+     nature. I have this moment your more than kind letter, and
+     congratulate your Grace that, in one sense of the word, you
+     can be what you never will be in any other, _ambidexter_.
+     But I am sorry you took so much trouble, and I fear _pains_
+     besides, to display your new talent.
+
+     Ever your Grace's truly faithful,
+
+                                        Walter SCOTT.
+
+The closing sentence of this letter refers to a fit of the gout which
+had disabled the Duke's right hand, but not cooled his zeal on a
+subject which, throughout January, 1818, occupied, I firmly believe,
+much more of his correspondent's thoughts by day and dreams by night,
+than any one, or perhaps than all others, besides. The time {p.206}
+now approached when a Commission to examine the Crown-room in the
+Castle of Edinburgh, which had sprung from one of Scott's
+conversations with the Prince Regent in 1815, was at length to be
+acted upon. The minstrel of the "Rough Clan" had taken care that the
+name of his chief should stand at the head of the document; but the
+Duke's now precarious health ultimately prevented him from being
+present at the discovery of the long buried and almost forgotten
+Regalia of Scotland. The two following letters on this subject are of
+the same date--Edinburgh, 14th January, 1818.
+
+     TO THE DUKE OF BUCCLEUCH, ETC., ETC., BOWHILL.
+
+     MY DEAR LORD,--You will hear from the Advocate that the
+     Commission for opening the Regalia is arrived, and that the
+     Commissioners held their first meeting yesterday. They have
+     named next Wednesday (in case your Grace can attend) for
+     opening the mysterious chest. So this question will be put
+     to rest forever.
+
+     I remember among the rebel company which debauched my youth,
+     there was a drunken old Tory, who used to sing a ballad made
+     about these same Regalia at the time of the Union, in which
+     they were all destined to the basest uses; the crown, for
+     example,
+
+          "To make a can for Brandy Nan
+           To puke in when she's tipsy."
+
+     The rest of the song is in a tone of equally pure humor; the
+     chorus ran:--
+
+          "Farewell, thou ancient kingdom--
+           Farewell, thou ancient kingdom.
+           Who sold thyself for English pelf--
+           Was ever such a thing done?"
+
+     I hope your Grace feels yourself sufficiently interested in
+     the recovery of these ancient symbols of national
+     independence, so long worn by your forefathers, and which
+     were never profaned by the touch of a monarch of a foreign
+     {p.207} dynasty. Here is fine planting weather. I trust it
+     is as good in the Forest and on Tweedside.
+
+     Ever your Grace's truly faithful
+
+                                        Walter SCOTT.
+
+
+     TO J. B. S. MORRITT, ESQ., M. P., ROKEBY.
+
+     DEAR MORRITT,--Our fat friend has remembered a petition
+     which I put up to him, and has granted a Commission to the
+     Officers of State and others (my unworthy self
+     included)--which trusty and well-beloved persons are to
+     institute a search after the Regalia of Scotland. There has
+     an odd mystery hung about the fate of these royal symbols of
+     national independence. The spirit of the Scotch at the Union
+     clung fondly to these emblems; and to soothe their jealousy
+     it was specially provided by an article of the Union, that
+     the Regalia should never be removed, under any pretext, from
+     the kingdom of Scotland. Accordingly they were deposited,
+     with much ceremony, as an authentic instrument bears, in a
+     strong chest, secured by many locks, and the chest itself
+     placed in a strong room, which again was carefully bolted up
+     and secured, leaving to national pride the satisfaction of
+     pointing to the barred window, with the consciousness that
+     there lay the Regalia of Scotland. But this gratification
+     was strangely qualified by a surmise, which somehow became
+     generally averred, stating, that the Regalia had been sent
+     to London; and you may remember that we saw at the Jewel
+     Office a crown, _said to be_ the ancient Crown of Scotland.
+     If this transfer (by the way, highly illegal) was ever made,
+     it must have been under some secret warrant; for no
+     authority can be traced for such a proceeding in the records
+     of the Secretary of State's Office. Fifteen or twenty years
+     ago, the Crown-room, as it is called, was opened by certain
+     Commissioners, under authority of a sign-manual. They saw
+     the fatal chest, strewed with the dust of an hundred years,
+     about six inches thick: a coating of like thickness lay on
+     {p.208} the floor; and I have heard the late President
+     Blair say, that the uniform and level appearance of the dust
+     warranted them to believe that the chest, if opened at all
+     after 1707, must have been violated within a short time of
+     that date, since, had it been opened at a later period, the
+     dust accumulated on the lid, and displaced at opening it,
+     must have been lying around the chest. But the Commissioners
+     did not think their warrant entitled them to force this
+     chest, for which no keys could be found; especially as their
+     warrant only entitled them to search for _records_--not for
+     crowns and sceptres.
+
+     The mystery, therefore, remained unpenetrated; and public
+     curiosity was left to console itself with the nursery
+     rhyme:--
+
+          "On Tintock tap there is a mist,
+           And in the mist there is a kist."
+
+     Our fat friend's curiosity, however, goes to the point at
+     once, authorizing and enjoining an express search for the
+     Regalia. Our friend of Buccleuch is at the head of the
+     Commission, and will, I think, be as keen as I or any one,
+     to see the issue.
+
+     I trust you have read Rob by this time. I think he smells of
+     the cramp. Above all, I had too much flax on my distaff; and
+     as it did not consist with my patience or my plan to make a
+     fourth volume, I was obliged at last to draw a rough,
+     coarse, and hasty thread. But the book is well liked here,
+     and has reeled off in great style. I have two stories on the
+     anvil, far superior to Rob Roy in point of interest. Ever
+     yours,
+
+                                        Walter SCOTT.
+
+The Commissioners, who finally assembled on the 4th of February, were,
+according to the record, "the Right Hon. Charles Hope, Lord President
+of the Court of Session; the Right Hon. David Boyle, Lord
+Justice-Clerk; the Right Hon. William Adam, Lord Chief Commissioner of
+the Jury Court; Major-General John Hope {p.209} (Commanding the
+Forces in Scotland); the Solicitor-General (James Wedderburn, Esq.);
+the Lord Provost of Edinburgh (Kincaid Mackenzie, Esq.); William
+Clerk, Esq., Principal Clerk of the Jury Court; Henry Jardine, Esq.,
+Deputy Remembrancer in the Exchequer; Thomas Thomson, Esq., Deputy
+Clerk-Register of Scotland; and Walter Scott, Esq., one of the
+Principal Clerks of Session."
+
+Of the proceedings of this day, the reader has a full and particular
+account in an Essay which Scott penned shortly afterwards, and which
+is included in his Prose Miscellanies (vol. vii.). But I must not omit
+the contemporaneous letters in which he announced the success of the
+quest to his friend the Secretary of the Admiralty, and through him to
+the Regent:--
+
+     TO J. W. CROKER, ESQ., M. P., ETC., ETC., ADMIRALTY, LONDON.
+
+                                        EDINBURGH, 4th February, 1818.
+
+     MY DEAR CROKER,--I have the pleasure to assure you the
+     Regalia of Scotland were this day found in perfect
+     preservation. The Sword of State and Sceptre showed marks of
+     hard usage at some former period; but in all respects agree
+     with the description in Thomson's work.[86] I will send you
+     a complete account of the opening to-morrow, as the official
+     account will take some time to draw up. In the mean time, I
+     hope you will remain as obstinate in your unbelief as St.
+     Thomas, because then you will come down to satisfy yourself.
+     I know nobody entitled to earlier information, save ONE, to
+     whom you can perhaps find the means of communicating the
+     result of our researches. The post is just going off.
+
+     Ever yours truly,
+
+                                        Walter SCOTT.
+
+              [Footnote 86: _Collection of Inventories and other
+              Records of the Royal Wardrobe and Jewel-House, etc._
+              Edin. 1815, 4to.]
+
+     {p.210} TO THE SAME.
+
+                                        EDINBURGH, 5th February, 1818.
+
+     MY DEAR CROKER,--I promised I would add something to my
+     report of yesterday, and yet I find I have but little to
+     say. The extreme solemnity of opening sealed doors of oak
+     and iron, and finally breaking open a chest which had been
+     shut since 7th March, 1707, about a hundred and eleven
+     years, gave a sort of interest to our researches, which I
+     can hardly express to you, and it would be very difficult to
+     describe the intense eagerness with which we watched the
+     rising of the lid of the chest, and the progress of the
+     workmen in breaking it open, which was neither an easy nor a
+     speedy task. It sounded very hollow when they worked on it
+     with their tools, and I began to lean to your faction of the
+     Little Faiths. However, I never could assign any probable or
+     feasible reason for withdrawing these memorials of ancient
+     independence; and my doubts rather arose from the conviction
+     that many absurd things are done in public as well as in
+     private life, merely out of a hasty impression of passion or
+     resentment. For it was evident the removal of the Regalia
+     might have greatly irritated people's minds here, and
+     offered a fair pretext of breaking the Union, which for
+     thirty years was the predominant wish of the Scottish
+     nation.
+
+     The discovery of the Regalia has interested people's minds
+     much more strongly than I expected, and is certainly
+     calculated to make a pleasant and favorable impression upon
+     them in respect to the kingly part of the constitution. It
+     would be of the utmost consequence that they should be
+     occasionally shown to them, under proper regulations, and
+     for a small fee. The Sword of State is a most beautiful
+     piece of workmanship, a present from Pope Julius II. to
+     James IV. The scabbard is richly decorated with filigree
+     work of silver, double gilded, representing oak leaves and
+     acorns, executed in {p.211} a taste worthy that classical
+     age in which the arts revived. A draughtsman has been
+     employed to make sketches of these articles, in order to be
+     laid before his Royal Highness. The fate of these Regalia,
+     which his Royal Highness's goodness has thus restored to
+     light and honor, has on one or two occasions been singular
+     enough. They were, in 1652, lodged in the Castle of
+     Dunnottar, the seat of the Earl Marischal, by whom,
+     according to his ancient privilege, they were kept. The
+     castle was defended by George Ogilvie of Barra, who,
+     apprehensive of the progress which the English made in
+     reducing the strong places in Scotland, became anxious for
+     the safety of these valuable memorials. The ingenuity of his
+     lady had them conveyed out of the castle in a bag on a
+     woman's back, among some _hards_, as they are called, of
+     lint. They were carried to the Kirk of Kinneff, and
+     entrusted to the care of the clergyman, named Grainger, and
+     his wife, and buried under the pulpit. The Castle of
+     Dunnottar, though very strong and faithfully defended, was
+     at length under necessity of surrendering, being the last
+     strong place in Britain on which the royal flag floated in
+     those calamitous times. Ogilvie and his lady were threatened
+     with the utmost extremities by the Republican General
+     Morgan, unless they should produce the Regalia. The governor
+     stuck to it that he knew nothing of them, as in fact they
+     had been carried away without his knowledge. The lady
+     maintained she had given them to John Keith, second son of
+     the Earl Marischal, by whom, she said, they had been carried
+     to France. They suffered a long imprisonment, and much ill
+     usage. On the Restoration, the old Countess Marischal,
+     founding upon the story Mrs. Ogilvie had told to screen her
+     husband, obtained for her own son, John Keith, the earldom
+     of Kintore, and the post of Knight Marischal, with L400 a
+     year, as if he had been in truth the preserver of the
+     Regalia. It soon proved that this reward had been too
+     hastily given, for Ogilvie of Barra {p.212} produced the
+     Regalia, the honest clergyman refusing to deliver them to
+     any one but those from whom he received them. Ogilvie was
+     made a Knight Baronet, however, and got a new charter of the
+     lands, acknowledging the good service. Thus it happened
+     oddly enough, that Keith, who was abroad during the
+     transaction, and had nothing to do with it, got the earldom,
+     pension, etc., Ogilvie only inferior honors, and the poor
+     clergyman nothing whatever, or, as we say, _the hare's foot
+     to lick_. As for Ogilvie's lady, she died before the
+     Restoration, her health being ruined by the hardships she
+     endured from the Cromwellian satellites. She was a Douglas,
+     with all the high spirit of that proud family. On her
+     deathbed, and not till then, she told her husband where the
+     honors were concealed, charging him to suffer death rather
+     than betray them. Popular tradition says, not very probably,
+     that Grainger and his wife were _booted_ (that is, tortured
+     with the engine called the boots). I think that the Knight
+     Marischal's office rested in the Kintore family until 1715,
+     when it was resumed on account of the bearded Earl's
+     accession to the Insurrection of that year. He escaped well,
+     for they might have taken his estate and his earldom. I must
+     save post, however, and conclude abruptly. Yours ever,
+
+                                        Walter SCOTT.
+
+On the 5th, after the foregoing letter had been written at the Clerk's
+table, Scott and several of his brother Commissioners revisited the
+Castle, accompanied by some of the ladies of their families. His
+daughter tells me that her father's conversation had worked her
+feelings up to such a pitch, that when the lid was again removed, she
+nearly fainted, and drew back from the circle. As she was retiring,
+she was startled by his voice exclaiming, in a tone of the deepest
+emotion, "something between anger and despair," as she expresses
+it,--"By G----, No!" One of the Commissioners, not quite entering
+{p.213} into the solemnity with which Scott regarded this business,
+had, it seems, made a sort of motion as if he meant to put the crown
+on the head of one of the young ladies near him, but the voice and
+aspect of the Poet were more than sufficient to make the worthy
+gentleman understand his error; and, respecting the enthusiasm with
+which he had not been taught to sympathize, he laid down the ancient
+diadem with an air of painful embarrassment. Scott whispered, "Pray,
+forgive me;" and turning round at the moment, observed his daughter
+deadly pale, and leaning by the door. He immediately drew her out of
+the room, and when the air had somewhat recovered her, walked with her
+across the Mound to Castle Street. "He never spoke all the way home,"
+she says, "but every now and then I felt his arm tremble; and from
+that time I fancied he began to treat me more like a woman than a
+child. I thought he liked me better, too, than he had ever done
+before."
+
+These little incidents may give some notion of the profound
+seriousness with which his imagination had invested this matter. I am
+obliged to add, that in the society of Edinburgh at the time, even in
+the highest Tory circles, it did not seem to awaken much even of
+curiosity--to say nothing of any deeper feeling. There was, however, a
+great excitement among the common people of the town, and a still
+greater among the peasantry, not only in the neighborhood, but all
+over Scotland; and the Crown-room, becoming thenceforth one of the
+established _lions_ of a city much resorted to, moreover, by stranger
+tourists, was likely, on the most moderate scale of admission-fee, to
+supply a revenue sufficient for remunerating responsible and
+respectable guardianship. This post would, as Scott thought, be a very
+suitable one for his friend, Captain Adam Ferguson; and he exerted all
+his zeal for that purpose. The Captain was appointed: his nomination,
+however, did not take place for some months after; and the postscript
+of a {p.214} letter to the Duke of Buccleuch, dated May 14, 1818,
+plainly indicates the interest on which Scott mainly relied for its
+completion: "If you happen," he writes, "to see Lord Melville, pray
+give him a jog about Ferguson's affair; but between ourselves, I
+depend chiefly on the kind offices of Willie Adam, who is an auld
+sneck-drawer." The Lord Chief-Commissioner, at all times ready to lend
+Scott his influence with the Royal Family, had, on the present
+occasion, the additional motive of warm and hereditary personal regard
+for Ferguson.
+
+I have placed together such letters as referred principally to the
+episode of the Regalia; but shall now give, in the order of time, a
+few which will sufficiently illustrate the usual course of his
+existence, while The Heart of Mid-Lothian was in progress. It appears
+that he resumed, in the beginning of this year, his drama of
+Devorgoil. His letters to Terry are of course full of that subject,
+but they contain, at the same time, many curious indications of his
+views and feelings as to theatrical affairs in general--and mixed up
+with these a most characteristic record of the earnestness with which
+he now watched the interior fitting up, as he had in the season before
+the outward architecture, of the new edifice at Abbotsford. Meanwhile
+it will be seen that he found leisure hours for various contributions
+to periodical works,--among others, an article on Kirkton's Church
+History, and another on (of all subjects in the world) _military
+bridges_, for the Quarterly Review; a spirited version of the old
+German ballad on the Battle of Sempach, and a generous criticism on
+Mrs. Shelley's romance of Frankenstein, for Blackwood's Magazine. This
+being the first winter and spring of Laidlaw's establishment at
+Kaeside, communications as to the affairs of the farm were exchanged
+weekly whenever Scott was in Edinburgh, and they afford delightful
+evidence of that paternal solicitude for the well-being of his rural
+dependents, which all along kept pace with Scott's zeal as to the
+economical {p.215} improvement, and the picturesque adornment of his
+territories.
+
+     TO D. TERRY, ESQ., LONDON.
+
+                                        EDINBURGH, 23d January, 1818.
+
+     MY DEAR TERRY,--You have by this time the continuation of
+     the drama, down to the commencement of the third act, as I
+     have your letter on the subject of the first. You will
+     understand that I only mean them as sketches; for the first
+     and second acts are too short, and both want much to combine
+     them with the third. I can easily add music to Miss
+     Devorgoil's part. As to Braham, he is a beast of an actor,
+     though an angel of a singer, and truly I do not see what he
+     could personify. Let me know, however, your thoughts and
+     wishes, and all shall be moulded to the best of my power to
+     meet them: the point is to make it _take_ if we can; the
+     rest is all leather and prunella. A great many things must
+     occur to you technically better, in the way of alteration
+     and improvement, and you know well that, though too indolent
+     to amend things on my own conviction, I am always ready to
+     make them meet my friends' wishes if possible. We shall both
+     wish it better than I can make it, but there is no reason
+     why we should not do for it all that we can. I advise you to
+     take some sapient friend into your counsels, and let me know
+     the result, returning the MS. at the same time.
+
+     I am now anxious to complete Abbotsford. I think I told you
+     I mean to do nothing whatever to the present house, but to
+     take it away altogether at some future time, so that I
+     finish the upper story without any communication with Mrs.
+     Redford's _ci-devant_ mansion, and shall place the opening
+     in the lower story, wherever it will be most suitable for
+     the new house, without regard to defacing the temporary
+     drawing-room. I am quite feverish about the armory. I have
+     two pretty complete suits of armor--one Indian one, and a
+     cuirassier's, with {p.216} boots, casque, etc.; many
+     helmets, corselets, and steel caps, swords and poniards
+     without end, and about a dozen of guns, ancient and modern.
+     I have besides two or three battle-axes and maces, pikes and
+     targets, a Highlander's accoutrement complete, a great
+     variety of branches of horns, pikes, bows and arrows, and
+     the clubs and creases of Indian tribes. Mr. Bullock promised
+     to give some hint about the fashion of disposing all these
+     matters; and now our spring is approaching, and I want but
+     my plans to get on. I have reason to be proud of the
+     finishing of my castle, for even of the tower, for which I
+     trembled, not a stone has been shaken by the late terrific
+     gale, which blew a roof clear off in the neighborhood. It
+     was lying in the road like a saddle, as Tom Purdie expressed
+     it. Neither has a slate been lifted, though about two yards
+     of slating were stripped from the stables in the haugh,
+     which you know were comparatively less exposed.
+
+     I am glad to hear of Mrs. Terry's improved health and good
+     prospects. As for young Master Mumblecrust, I have no doubt
+     he will be a credit to us all.
+
+     Yours ever truly,
+
+                                        W. SCOTT.
+
+As the letters to Mr. Laidlaw did not travel by post, but in the
+basket which had come laden with farm-produce for the use of the
+family in Edinburgh, they have rarely any date but the day of the
+week. This is, however, of no consequence.
+
+     TO MR. LAIDLAW, KAESIDE.
+
+                                        Wednesday. [January, 1818.]
+
+     DEAR WILLIE,--Should the weather be rough, and you
+     nevertheless obliged to come to town, do not think of
+     riding, but take the Blucher.[87] Remember, your health is
+     of consequence to your family. Pray talk generally with the
+     notables of Darnick--I mean Rutherford, {p.217} and so
+     forth--concerning the best ordering of the road to the
+     marle; and also of the foot-road. It appears to me some
+     route might be found more convenient than the present, but
+     that which is most agreeable to those interested shall also
+     be most agreeable for me. As a patriotic member of the
+     community of Darnick, I consider their rights equally
+     important as my own.
+
+              [Footnote 87: A stage-coach, so called, which ran
+              betwixt Edinburgh and Jedburgh.]
+
+     I told you I should like to convert the present steading at
+     Beechland into a little hamlet of laborers, which we will
+     name Abbotstown. The art of making people happy is to leave
+     them much to their own guidance, but some little regulation
+     is necessary. In the first place, I should like to have
+     active and decent people there; then it is to be considered
+     on what footing they should be. I conceive the best possible
+     is, that they should pay for their cottages, and cow-grass,
+     and potato ground, and be paid for their labor at the
+     ordinary rate. I would give them some advantages sufficient
+     to balance the following conditions, which, after all, are
+     conditions in my favor: _1st_, That they shall keep their
+     cottages and little gardens, and doors, tolerably neat; and
+     _2d_, That the men shall on no account shoot, or the boys
+     break timber or take birds' nests, or go among the planting.
+     I do not know any other restrictions, and these are easy. I
+     should think we might settle a few families very happily
+     here, which is an object I have much at heart, for I have no
+     notion of the proprietor who is only ambitious to be lord of
+     the "beast and the brute," and chases the human face from
+     his vicinity. By the bye, could we not manage to have a
+     piper among the colonists?
+
+     We are delighted to hear that your little folks like the
+     dells. Pray, in your walks try to ascertain the locality of
+     St. John's Well, which cures the botts, and which John Moss
+     claims for Kaeside; also the true history of the Carline's
+     Hole. Ever most truly yours,
+
+                                        W. SCOTT.
+
+{p.218} I hope Mrs. Laidlaw does not want for anything that she can
+get from the garden or elsewhere.
+
+     TO DANIEL TERRY, ESQ.
+
+                                        8th February, 1818.
+
+     MY DEAR TERRY,--Yours arrived, unluckily, just half an hour
+     after my packet was in the post-office, so this will cost
+     you 9_d._, for which I grieve. To answer your principal
+     question first,--the drama is
+
+          "Yours, Terry, yours in every thought."
+
+     I should never have dreamed of making such an attempt in my
+     own proper person; and if I had such a vision, I should have
+     been anxious to have made it something of a legitimate
+     drama, such as a literary man, uncalled upon by any
+     circumstance to connect himself with the stage, might have
+     been expected to produce. Now this is just what any
+     gentleman in your situation might run off, to give a little
+     novelty to the entertainment of the year, and as such will
+     meet a mitigated degree of criticism, and have a better
+     chance of that _productive_ success, which is my principal
+     object in my godson's behalf. If any time should come when
+     you might wish to disclose the secret, it will be in your
+     power, and our correspondence will always serve to show that
+     it was only at my earnest request, annexed as the condition
+     of bringing the play forward, that you gave it your name--a
+     circumstance which, with all the attending particulars, will
+     prove plainly that there was no assumption on your part.
+
+     A beautiful drama might be made on the concealment of the
+     Scotch Regalia during the troubles. But it would interfere
+     with the democratic spirit of the times, and would probably
+
+                       ---- "By party rage,
+          Or right or wrong, be hooted from the stage."
+
+     {p.219} I will never forgive you if you let any false idea
+     of my authorial feelings prevent your acting in this affair
+     as if you were the real parent, not the godfather of the
+     piece. Our facetious friend J. B. knows nought of such a
+     matter being _en train_, and never will know. I am delighted
+     to hear my windows are finished. Yours very truly,
+
+                                        Walter SCOTT.
+
+              [Footnote 88: Slightly altered from Dr. Johnson's
+              Prologue to the comedy of _A Word to the Wise_.]
+
+     TO MR. LAIDLAW, KAESIDE.
+
+                                        Wednesday. [February, 1818.]
+
+     DEAR WILLIE,--I am not desirous to buy more land at present,
+     unless I were to deal with Mr. Rutherford or Heiton, and I
+     would rather deal with them next year than this, when I
+     would have all my payments made for what I am now buying.
+     Three or four such years as the last would enable me with
+     prudence and propriety to ask Nicol[89] himself to flit and
+     remove.
+
+              [Footnote 89: Mr. Nicol Milne of Faldonside. This
+              gentleman's property is a valuable and extensive one,
+              situated immediately to the westward of Abbotsford; and
+              Scott continued, year after year, to dream of adding it
+              also to his own.]
+
+     I like the idea of the birch-hedge much, and if intermixed
+     with holly and thorns, I think it might make an impenetrable
+     thicket, having all the advantages of a hedge without the
+     formality. I fancy you will also need a great number of
+     (black) Italian poplars--which are among the most useful and
+     best growers, as well as most beautiful of plants which love
+     a wet soil.
+
+     I am glad the saws are going.[90] We may begin by and by
+     with wrights, but I cannot but think that a handy laborer
+     might be taught to work at them. I shall insist on Tom
+     learning the process perfectly himself.
+
+              [Footnote 90: A sawmill had just been erected at
+              Toftfield.]
+
+     As to the darkness of the garrets, they are intended for the
+     accommodation of travelling geniuses, poets, painters, and
+     so forth, and a little obscurity will refresh their
+     shattered brains. I dare say Lauchie[91] will _shave_
+     {p.220} his knoll, if it is required--it may to the
+     barber's with the Laird's hebdomadal beard--and Packwood
+     would have thought it the easier job of the two.
+
+              [Footnote 91: A cocklaird adjoining Abbotsford at the
+              eastern side. His farm is properly _Lochbreist_; but in
+              the neighborhood he was generally known as _Laird
+              Lauchie_--or _Lauchie Langlegs_. Washington Irving
+              describes him in his _Abbotsford_, with high gusto. He
+              was a most absurd original.]
+
+     I saw Blackwood yesterday, and Hogg the day before, and I
+     understand from them you think of resigning the Chronicle
+     department of the Magazine. Blackwood told me that if you
+     did not like that part of the duty, he would consider
+     himself accountable for the same sum he had specified to you
+     for any other articles you might communicate from time to
+     time. He proposes that Hogg should do the Chronicle: He will
+     not do it so well as you, for he wants judgment and caution,
+     and likes to have the appearance of eccentricity where
+     eccentricity is least graceful; that, however, is
+     Blackwood's affair. If you really do not like the Chronicle,
+     there can be no harm in your giving it up. What strikes me
+     is, that there is a something certain in having such a
+     department to conduct, whereas you may sometimes find
+     yourself at a loss when you have to cast about for a subject
+     every month. Blackwood _is_ rather in a bad pickle just
+     now--sent to Coventry by the trade, as the booksellers call
+     themselves, and all about the parody of the two beasts.[92]
+     {p.221} Surely these gentlemen think themselves rather
+     formed of porcelain clay than of common potter's ware.
+     Dealing in satire against all others, their own dignity
+     suffers so cruelly from an ill-imagined joke! If B. had good
+     books to sell, he might set them all at defiance. His
+     Magazine does well, and beats Constable's: but we will talk
+     of this when we meet.[93]
+
+              [Footnote 92: An article in one of the early numbers of
+              _Blackwood's Magazine_, entitled _The Chaldee MS._, in
+              which the literati and booksellers of Edinburgh were
+              quizzed _en masse_--Scott himself among the rest. It was
+              in this lampoon that Constable first saw himself
+              designated in print by the _sobriquet_ of "The Crafty,"
+              long before bestowed on him by one of his own most
+              eminent Whig supporters; but nothing nettled him so much
+              as the passages in which he and Blackwood are
+              represented entreating the support of Scott for their
+              respective Magazines, and waved off by "the Great
+              Magician" in the same identical phrases of contemptuous
+              indifference. The description of Constable's visit to
+              Abbotsford may be worth transcribing--for Sir David
+              Wilkie, who was present when Scott read it, says he was
+              almost choked with laughter, and he afterwards confessed
+              that the Chaldean author had given a sufficiently
+              accurate version of what really passed on the
+              occasion:--
+
+              "26. But when the Spirits were gone, he (The Crafty)
+              said unto himself, I will arise and go unto a magician,
+              which is of my friends: of a surety he will devise some
+              remedy, and free me out of all my distresses.
+
+              "27. So he arose and came unto that great magician which
+              hath his dwelling in the old fastness, hard by the River
+              Jordan, which is by the Border.
+
+              "28. And the magician opened his mouth and said, Lo! my
+              heart wisheth thy good, and let the thing prosper which
+              is in thy hands to do it.
+
+              "29. But thou seest that my hands are full of working,
+              and my labor is great. For, lo, I have to feed all the
+              people of my land, and none knoweth whence his food
+              cometh; but each man openeth his mouth, and my hand
+              filleth it with pleasant things.
+
+              "30. Moreover, thine adversary also is of my familiars.
+
+              "31. The land is before thee: draw thou up thine hosts
+              for the battle on the mount of Proclamation, and defy
+              boldly thine enemy, which hath his camp in the place of
+              Princes; quit ye as men, and let favor be shown unto him
+              which is most valiant.
+
+              "32. Yet be thou silent; peradventure will I help thee
+              some little.
+
+              "33. But the man which is Crafty saw that the magician
+              loved him not. For he knew him of old, and they had had
+              many dealings; and he perceived that he would not assist
+              him in the day of his adversity.
+
+              "34. So he turned about, and went out of his fastness.
+              And he shook the dust from his feet, and said, Behold I
+              have given this magician much money, yet see now, he
+              hath utterly deserted me. Verily, my fine gold hath
+              perished."--Chap. iii.]
+
+              [Footnote 93: [The story of the composition of _The
+              Chaldee Manuscript_, its publication in the first number
+              of the magazine, destined to so long and brilliant a
+              career, and the extraordinary commotion caused thereby,
+              is admirably told in the _Annals of a Publishing House_,
+              which also gives the details regarding Laidlaw's brief
+              connection with the new periodical, and the
+              correspondence of Scott and Blackwood during its early
+              months.--See Mrs. Oliphant's _William Blackwood and His
+              Sons_, vol. i. chap, iii.]]
+
+     As for Whiggery in general, I can only say, that as no man
+     can be said to be utterly overset until his rump has been
+     higher than his head, so I cannot read in history of any
+     free state which has been brought to slavery until the
+     rascal and uninstructed populace had had their short hour of
+     anarchical government, which naturally {p.222} leads to the
+     stern repose of military despotism. Property, morals,
+     education, are the proper qualifications for those who
+     should hold political rights, and extending them very widely
+     greatly lessens the chance of these qualifications being
+     found in electors. Look at the sort of persons chosen at
+     elections where the franchise is very general, and you will
+     find either fools who are content to flatter the passions of
+     the mob for a little transient popularity, or knaves who
+     pander to their follies, that they may make their necks a
+     footstool for their own promotion. With these convictions, I
+     am very jealous of Whiggery, under all modifications; and I
+     must say, my acquaintance with the total want of principle
+     in some of its warmest professors does not tend to recommend
+     it. Somewhat too much of this. My compliments to the
+     goodwife. Yours truly,
+
+                                        Walter SCOTT.
+
+
+     TO THE SAME.
+
+                                        Wednesday. [February, 1818.]
+
+     DEAR WILLIE,--I have no idea Usher[94] will take the
+     sheepland again, nor would I press it on him. As my
+     circumstances stand, immediate revenue is much less my
+     object than the real improvement of this property, which
+     amuses me besides; our wants are amply supplied by my L1600
+     a year official income: nor have we a wish or a motive to
+     extend our expenses beyond that of the decencies and
+     hospitality of our station in life; so that my other
+     resources remain for buying land in future, or improving
+     what we have. No doubt Abbotsford, in maintaining our
+     establishment during the summer, may be reckoned L150 or
+     L200 saved on what we must otherwise buy; and if we could
+     arrange to have mutton and beef {p.223} occasionally from
+     the farm in winter, it would be a still greater saving. All
+     this you will consider: for Tom, thoroughly honest and very
+     clever in his way, has no kind of generalizing, and would
+     often like to save sixpence in his own department at the
+     expense of my paying five shillings in another. This is his
+     fault, and when you join to it a Scotch slovenliness which
+     leads him to see things half-finished without pain or
+     anxiety, I do not know any other he has--but such as they
+     are, these must be guarded against. For our housemaid (for
+     housekeeper we must not call her), I should like much a hawk
+     of a nest so good as that you mention: but would not such a
+     place be rather beneath her views? Her duty would be to look
+     to scrupulous cleanliness within doors, and employ her
+     leisure in spinning, or plain-work, as wanted. When we came
+     out for a blink, she would be expected to cook a little in a
+     plain way, and play maid of all work; when we were
+     stationary, she would assist the housemaid and superintend
+     the laundry. Probably your aunt's granddaughter will have
+     pretensions to something better than this; but as we are to
+     be out on the 12th March, we will talk it over. Assuredly a
+     well-connected steady person would be of the greatest
+     consequence to us. I like your plan of pitting much; and to
+     compromise betwixt you and Tom, do one half with superior
+     attention, and slit in the others for mere nurses. But I am
+     no friend to that same slitting.
+
+              [Footnote 94: John Usher, the ex-proprietor of
+              Toftfield, was eventually Scott's tenant on part of
+              those lands for many years. He was a man of far superior
+              rank and intelligence to the rest of the displaced
+              lairds--and came presently to be one of Scott's trusty
+              rural friends, and a frequent companion of his sports.]
+
+     I adhere to trying a patch or two of larches, of a quarter
+     of an acre each, upon the Athole plan, by way of experiment.
+     We can plant them up if they do not thrive. On the whole,
+     three-and-a-half feet is, I think, the right distance. I
+     have no fear of the ground being impoverished. Trees are not
+     like arable crops, which necessarily derive their sustenance
+     from the superficial earth--the roots of trees go far and
+     wide, and, if incommoded by a neighbor, they send out
+     suckers to procure nourishment elsewhere. They never hurt
+     each other till {p.224} their tops interfere, which may be
+     easily prevented by timely weeding.
+
+     I rejoice in the sawmill. Have you settled with Harper?--and
+     how do Og and Bashan[95] come on? I cannot tell you how
+     delighted I am with the account Hogg gives me of Mr. Grieve.
+     The great Cameron was chaplain in the house of my great
+     something grandfather, and so I hope Mr. Grieve will be
+     mine. If, as the King of Prussia said to Rousseau, "a little
+     persecution is necessary to make his home entirely to his
+     mind," he shall have it; and what persecutors seldom
+     promise, I will stop whenever he is tired of it. I have a
+     pair of thumbikins also much at his service, if he requires
+     their assistance to glorify God and the Covenant. Sincerely,
+     I like enthusiasm of every kind so well, especially when
+     united with worth of character, that I shall be delighted
+     with this old gentleman. Ever yours,
+
+                                        W. SCOTT.
+
+              [Footnote 95: A yoke of oxen.]
+
+The last paragraph of this letter refers to an uncle of Laidlaw's (the
+father of Hogg's friend, John Grieve), who at this time thought of
+occupying a cottage on Scott's estate. He was a preacher of the
+Cameronian sect, and had long ministered to a very small remnant of
+"the hill-folk" scattered among the wilds of Ettrick. He was a very
+good man, and had a most venerable and apostolical benignity of
+aspect; but his prejudices were as extravagant as those of Cameron,
+his patriarch, himself could have been. The project of his removal to
+Tweedside was never realized.
+
+The following admirable letter was written at the request of Messrs.
+Constable, who had, on Scott's recommendation, undertaken the
+publication of Mr. Maturin's novel, Women, or _Pour et Contre_. The
+reverend author's Bertram had, it may be remembered, undergone some
+rather rough usage in Coleridge's Biographia Literaria; {p.225} and
+he was now desirous to revenge himself by a preface of the polemical
+sort:--
+
+     TO THE REV. C. R. MATURIN, DUBLIN.
+
+                                        26th February, 1818.
+
+     DEAR SIR,--I am going to claim the utmost and best privilege
+     of sincere friendship and good-will, that of offering a few
+     words of well-meant advice; and you may be sure that the
+     occasion seems important to induce me to venture so far upon
+     your tolerance. It respects the preface to your work, which
+     Constable and Co. have sent to me. It is as well written as
+     that sort of thing can be; but will you forgive me if I
+     say--it is too much in the tone of the offence which gave
+     rise to it, to be agreeable either to good taste or to
+     general feeling. Coleridge's work has been little read or
+     heard of, and has made no general impression
+     whatever--certainly no impression unfavorable to you or your
+     play. In the opinion, therefore, of many, you will be
+     resenting an injury of which they are unacquainted with the
+     existence. If I see a man beating another unmercifully, I am
+     apt to condemn him upon the first blush of the business, and
+     hardly excuse him though I may afterwards learn he had ample
+     provocation. Besides, your diatribe is not _hujus loci_. We
+     take up a novel for amusement, and this current of
+     controversy breaks out upon us like a stream of lava out of
+     the side of a beautiful green hill; men will say you should
+     have reserved your disputes for reviews or periodical
+     publications, and they will sympathize less with your anger,
+     because they will not think the time proper for expressing
+     it. We are bad judges, bad physicians, and bad divines in
+     our own case; but, above all, we are seldom able, when
+     injured or insulted, to judge of the degree of sympathy
+     which the world will bear in our resentment and our
+     retaliation. The instant, however, that such degree of
+     sympathy is exceeded, we hurt ourselves, and not our
+     adversary. I am so convinced {p.226} of this, and so deeply
+     fixed in the opinion, that besides the uncomfortable
+     feelings which are generated in the course of literary
+     debate, a man lowers his estimation in the public eye by
+     engaging in such controversy, that, since I have been dipped
+     in ink, I have suffered no personal attacks (and I have been
+     honored with them of all descriptions) to provoke me to
+     reply. A man will certainly be vexed on such occasions, and
+     I have wished to have the knaves _where the muircock was the
+     bailie_--or, as _you_ would say, _upon the sod_--but I never
+     let the thing cling to my mind, and always adhered to my
+     resolution, that if my writings and tenor of life did not
+     confute such attacks, my words never should. Let me entreat
+     you to view Coleridge's violence as a thing to be contemned,
+     not retaliated--the opinion of a British public may surely
+     be set in honest opposition to that of one disappointed and
+     wayward man. You should also consider, _en bon Chretien_,
+     that Coleridge has had some room to be spited at the world,
+     and you are, I trust, to continue to be a favorite with the
+     public--so that you should totally neglect and despise
+     criticism, however virulent, which arises out of his bad
+     fortune and your good.
+
+     I have only to add that Messrs. Constable and Co. are
+     seriously alarmed for the effects of the preface upon the
+     public mind as unfavorable to the work. In this they must be
+     tolerable judges, for their experience as to popular feeling
+     is very great; and as they have met your wishes, in all the
+     course of the transaction, perhaps you will be disposed to
+     give some weight to their opinion upon a point like this.
+     Upon my own part I can only say that I have no habits of
+     friendship, and scarce those of acquaintance with
+     Coleridge--I have not even read his Autobiography--but I
+     consider him as a man of genius, struggling with bad habits
+     and difficult circumstances. It is, however, entirely upon
+     your account that I take the liberty of stating an opinion
+     on a subject of such delicacy. I should wish you to give
+     your excellent {p.227} talents fair play, and to ride this
+     race without carrying any superfluous weight; and I am so
+     well acquainted with my old friend the public, that I could
+     bet a thousand pounds to a shilling, that the preface (if
+     that controversial part of it is not cancelled) will greatly
+     prejudice your novel.
+
+     I will not ask your forgiveness for the freedom I have used,
+     for I am sure you will not suspect me of any motives but
+     those which arise from regard to your talents and person;
+     but I shall be glad to hear (whether you follow my advice or
+     no) that you are not angry with me for having volunteered to
+     offer it.
+
+     My health is, I think, greatly improved; I have had some
+     returns of my spasmodic affection, but tolerable in degree,
+     and yielding to medicine. I hope gentle exercise and the air
+     of my hills will set me up this summer. I trust you will
+     soon be out now. I have delayed reading the sheets in
+     progress after Vol. I., that I might enjoy them when
+     collected. Ever yours, etc.,
+
+                                        Walter SCOTT.
+
+
+     TO MR. LAIDLAW.
+
+                                   EDINBURGH, Wednesday. [March, 1818.]
+
+     DEAR WILLIE,--I am delighted to hear the plantings get on so
+     well. The weather here has been cruelly changeable--fresh
+     one day--frost the next--snow the third. This morning the
+     snow lay three inches thick, and before noon it was gone,
+     and blowing a tempest. Many of the better ranks are ill of
+     the typhus fever, and some deaths. How do your poor folks
+     come on? Let Tom advance you money when it is wanted. I do
+     not propose, like the heroine of a novel, to convert the
+     hovels of want into the abodes of elegant plenty, but we
+     have enough to spare to relieve actual distress, and do not
+     wish to economize where we can find out (which is difficult)
+     where the assistance is instantly useful.
+
+     Don't let Tom forget hedgerow trees, which he is very
+     {p.228} unwilling to remember; and also to plant birches,
+     oaks, elms, and such like round-headed trees along the
+     verges of the Kaeside plantations; they make a beautiful
+     outline, and also a sort of fence, and were not planted last
+     year because the earth at the sunk fences was too newly
+     travelled. This should be mixed with various bushes, as
+     hollies, thorns, so as to make a wild hedge, or thickety
+     obstruction to the inroads of cattle. A few sweetbriers,
+     alders, honeysuckles, laburnums, etc., should be thrown in.
+     A verdant screen may be made in this way, of the wildest and
+     most beautiful description, which should never be clipt,
+     only pruned, allowing the loose branches to drop over those
+     that are taken away. Tom is very costive about trees, and
+     talks only of 300 poplars. I shall send at least double that
+     number; also some hagberries, etc. He thinks he is saving me
+     money when he is starving my projects; but he is a pearl of
+     honesty and good intention, and I like him the better for
+     needing driving where expense is likely. Ever yours,
+
+                                        W. SCOTT.
+
+
+     TO JOHN MURRAY, ESQ., ALBEMARLE STREET, LONDON.
+
+                                        ABBOTSFORD, 23d March, 1818.
+
+     DEAR MURRAY,--
+
+          "Grieve not for me, my dearest dear,
+           I am not dead but sleepeth here."--
+
+     I have little to plead for myself, but the old and vile
+     apologies of laziness and indisposition. I think I have been
+     so unlucky of late as to have always the will to work when
+     sitting at the desk hurts me, and the irresistible
+     propensity to be lazy, when I might, like the man whom
+     Hogarth introduces into Bridewell with his hands strapped up
+     against the wall, "better work than stand thus." I laid
+     Kirkton[96] aside half finished, from a desire {p.229} to
+     get the original edition of the lives of Cameron, etc., by
+     Patrick Walker, which I had not seen since a boy, and now I
+     have got it, and find, as I suspected, that some curious
+     _morceaux_ have been cut out by subsequent editors.[97] I
+     will, without loss of time, finish the article, which I
+     think you will like. Blackwood kidnapped an article for his
+     Magazine on the Frankenstein story,[98] which I intended for
+     you. A very old friend and school companion of mine, and a
+     gallant soldier, if ever there was one, Sir Howard Douglas,
+     has asked me to review his work on Military Bridges. I must
+     get a friend's assistance for the scientific part, and add
+     some balaam of mine own (as printers' devils say) to make up
+     four or five pages. I have no objection to attempt Lord
+     Orford if I have time, and find I can do it with ease.
+     Though far from admiring his character, I have always had a
+     high opinion of his talents, and am well acquainted with his
+     works. The letters you have published are, I think, his very
+     best--lively, entertaining, and unaffected.[99] I am greatly
+     obliged to you for these and other literary treasures which
+     I owe to your goodness from time to time. Although not
+     thankfully acknowledged as they should be in course, these
+     things are never thanklessly received.
+
+              [Footnote 96: Scott's article on Kirkton's _History of
+              the Church of Scotland_, edited by Mr. C. K. Sharpe,
+              appeared in the 36th number of the _Quarterly
+              Review_,--See _Miscellaneous Prose Works_, vol. xix. p.
+              213.]
+
+              [Footnote 97: Scott expressed great satisfaction on
+              seeing the _Lives of the Covenanters_--Cameron, Peden,
+              Semple, Wellwood, Cargill, Smith, Renwick,
+              etc.--reprinted without mutilation in the _Biographia
+              Presbyteriana_. Edin. 1827. The publisher of this
+              collection was the late Mr. John Stevenson, long chief
+              clerk to John Ballantyne, and usually styled by Scott
+              "True Jock," in opposition to one of his old master's
+              many _aliases_--namely, "Leein' Johnnie."]
+
+              [Footnote 98: See Scott's _Prose Miscellanies_, vol.
+              xviii. p. 250.]
+
+              [Footnote 99: The Letters of Horace Walpole to George
+              Montagu.]
+
+     I could have sworn that Beppo was founded on Whistlecraft,
+     as both were on Anthony Hall,[100] who, like Beppo, had more
+     wit than grace.
+
+              [Footnote 100: _Anthony Hall_ is only known as Editor of
+              one of Leland's works. I have no doubt Scott was
+              thinking of _John Hall Stevenson_, author of _Crazy
+              Tales_; the friend, and (it is said) the _Eugenius_ of
+              Sterne.]
+
+     {p.230} I am not, however, in spirits at present for
+     treating either these worthies, or my friend Rose,[101]
+     though few have warmer wishes to any of the trio. But this
+     confounded changeable weather has twice within this
+     fortnight brought back my cramp in the stomach. Adieu. My
+     next shall be with a packet.--Yours truly,
+
+                                        W. SCOTT.
+
+              [Footnote 101: I believe Mr. Rose's _Court and
+              Parliament of Beasts_ is here alluded to.]
+
+In the next letter we have Scott's lamentation over the death of Mrs.
+Murray Keith--the Mrs. Bethune Baliol of his Chronicles of the
+Canongate. The person alluded to under the designation of "Prince of
+the Black Marble Islands" was Mr. George Bullock, already often
+mentioned as, with Terry and Mr. Atkinson, consulted about all the
+arrangements of the rising house at Abbotsford. Scott gave him this
+title from the Arabian Nights, on occasion of his becoming the lessee
+of some marble quarries in the Isle of Anglesea.
+
+     TO D. TERRY, ESQ., LONDON.
+
+                                        April 30, 1818--SELKIRK.
+
+     MY DEAR TERRY,--Your packet arrived this morning. I was much
+     disappointed not to find the Prince of the Black Islands'
+     plan in it, nor have I heard a word from him since anent it,
+     or anent the still more essential articles of doors and
+     windows. I heard from Hector Macdonald Buchanan, that the
+     said doors and windows were packing a fortnight since, but
+     there are no news of them. Surely our friend's heart has
+     grown as hard as his materials; or the spell of the
+     enchantress, which confined itself to the extremities of his
+     predecessor, has extended over his whole person. Mr.
+     Atkinson has kept tryst charmingly, and the ceiling of the
+     dining-room will be superb. I have got I know not how many
+     casts, from Melrose and other places, of pure Gothic
+     antiquity. I {p.231} must leave this on the 12th, and I
+     could bet a trifle the doors, etc., will arrive the very day
+     I set out, and be all put up _a la bonne aventure_. Meantime
+     I am keeping open house, not much to my convenience, and I
+     am afraid I shall be stopped in my plastering by the want of
+     these matters. The exposed state of my house has led to a
+     mysterious disturbance. The night before last we were awaked
+     by a violent noise, like drawing heavy boards along the new
+     part of the house. I fancied something had fallen, and
+     thought no more about it. This was about _two_ in the
+     morning. Last night, at the same witching hour, the very
+     same noise occurred. Mrs. S., as you know, is rather
+     _timbersome_, so up got I, with Beardie's broadsword under
+     my arm,
+
+          "So bolt upright,
+           And ready to fight."
+
+     But nothing was out of order, neither can I discover what
+     occasioned the disturbance. However, I went to bed,
+     grumbling against Tenterden Street,[102] and all its works.
+     If there was no entrance but the keyhole, I should warrant
+     myself against the ghosts. We have a set of idle fellows
+     called workmen about us, which is a better way of accounting
+     for nocturnal noises than any that is to be found in Baxter
+     or Glanville.
+
+              [Footnote 102: Bullock's manufactory was in this
+              street.]
+
+     When you see Mr. Atkinson, will you ask him how far he is
+     satisfied with the arch between the armory and the
+     ante-room, and whether it pleases him as it now stands? I
+     have a brave old oaken cabinet, as black as ebony, 300 years
+     old at least, which will occupy one side of the ante-room
+     for the present. It is seven feet and a half long, about
+     eighteen inches deep, and upwards of six feet high--a fine
+     stand for china, etc.
+
+     You will be sorry to hear that we have lost our excellent
+     old friend, Mrs. Murray Keith. She enjoyed all her spirits
+     and excellent faculties till within two days of her death,
+     when she was seized with a feverish complaint, {p.232}
+     which eighty-two years were not calculated to resist. Much
+     tradition, and of the very best kind, has died with this
+     excellent old lady; one of the few persons whose spirits and
+     cleanliness, and freshness of mind and body, made old age
+     lovely and desirable. In the general case, it seems scarce
+     endurable.
+
+     It seems odd to me that Rob Roy[103] should have made good
+     fortune; pray let me know something of its history. There is
+     in Jedediah's present work a thing capable of being woven
+     out a _bourgeoise_ tragedy. I think of contriving that it
+     shall be in your hands some time before the public see it,
+     that you may try to operate upon it yourself. This would not
+     be difficult, as vol. 4, and part of 3d, contain a different
+     story. _Avowedly_ I will never write for the stage; if I do,
+     "call me _horse_." And indeed I feel severely the want of
+     knowledge of theatrical business and effect: however,
+     something we will do. I am writing in the noise and babble
+     of a head-court of freeholders; therefore my letter is
+     incoherent, and therefore it is written also on long paper;
+     but therefore, moreover, it will move by frank, as the
+     member is here, and stands upon his popularity. Kind
+     compliments to Mrs. Terry and Walter.
+
+     Yours very truly,
+
+                                        Walter SCOTT.
+
+              [Footnote 103: A drama founded on the novel of _Rob Roy_
+              had been produced, with great success, on the London
+              stage.]
+
+On the morning that Mr. Terry received the foregoing letter in London,
+Mr. William Erskine was breakfasting with him; and the chief subject
+of their conversation was the sudden death of George Bullock, which
+had occurred on the same night, and, as nearly as they could
+ascertain, at the very hour when Scott was roused from his sleep by
+the "mysterious disturbance" here described, and sallied from his
+chamber with old Beardie's Killiecrankie claymore in his hand. This
+coincidence, when {p.233} Scott received Erskine's minute detail of
+what had happened in Tenterden Street, made a much stronger impression
+on his mind than might be gathered from the tone of an ensuing
+communication.
+
+     TO D. TERRY, ESQ., LONDON.
+
+                                        ABBOTSFORD, 4th May, 1818.
+
+     DEAR TERRY,--I received with the greatest surprise, and the
+     most sincere distress, the news of poor George Bullock's
+     death. In the full career of honorable
+     industry,--distinguished by his uncommon taste and
+     talent,--esteemed by all who transacted business with
+     him,--and loved by those who had the pleasure of his more
+     intimate acquaintance,--I can scarce conceive a more
+     melancholy summons. It comes as a particular shock to me,
+     because I had, particularly of late, so much associated his
+     idea with the improvements here, in which his kind and
+     enthusiastic temper led him to take such interest; and in
+     looking at every unfinished or projected circumstance, I
+     feel an impression of melancholy which will for some time
+     take away the pleasure I have found in them. I liked George
+     Bullock because he had no trumpery selfishness about his
+     heart, taste, or feelings. Pray let me know about the
+     circumstances of his family, etc. I feel most sincerely
+     interested in all that concerns him. It must have been a
+     dreadful surprise to Mr. Atkinson and you who lived with him
+     so much. I need not, I am sure, beg you to be in no hurry
+     about my things. The confusion must be cruelly great,
+     without any friend adding to it; and in fact, at this
+     moment, I am very indifferent on the subject. The poor kind
+     fellow! He took so much notice of little Charles, and was so
+     domesticated with us all, that I really looked with a
+     schoolboy's anxiety for his being here in the season, to
+     take his own quiet pleasures, and to forward mine. But God's
+     will be done. All that surviving friends can do upon such a
+     loss is, if possible, to love each other still better.--I
+     {p.234} beg to be kindly remembered to Mrs. Terry and
+     Monsieur Walter. Ever most truly yours,
+
+                                        Walter SCOTT.
+
+
+     TO THE SAME.
+
+                                        EDINBURGH, 16th May, 1818.
+
+     MY DEAR TERRY,--Mr. Nasmyth[104] has obligingly given me an
+     opportunity of writing to you a few lines, as he is setting
+     out for London. I cannot tell you how much I continue to be
+     grieved for our kind-hearted and enthusiastic friend
+     Bullock. I trust he has left his family comfortably settled,
+     though, with so many plans which required his active and
+     intelligent mind to carry them through, one has natural
+     apprehensions upon that score. When you can with propriety
+     make inquiry how my matters stand, I should be glad to know.
+     Hector Macdonald tells me that my doors and windows were
+     ready packed, in which case, perhaps, the sooner they are
+     embarked the better, not only for safety, but because they
+     can only be in the way, and the money will now be the more
+     acceptable. Poor Bullock had also the measures for my
+     chimney-pieces, for grates of different kinds, and orders
+     for beds, dining-room tables and chairs. But how far these
+     are in progress of being executed, or whether they can now
+     be executed, I must leave to your judgment and inquiry. Your
+     good sense and delicacy will understand the _facon de faire_
+     better than I can point it out. I shall never have the
+     pleasure in these things that I expected.
+
+              [Footnote 104: Mr. Alexander Nasmyth, an eminent
+              landscape painter of Edinburgh--the father of Mrs.
+              Terry.]
+
+     I have just left Abbotsford to attend the Summer
+     session--left it when the leaves were coming out--the most
+     delightful season for a worshipper of the country like me.
+     The Home-bank, which we saw at first green with turnips,
+     will now hide a man somewhat taller than Johnny Ballantyne
+     in its shades. In fact, the trees {p.235} cover the ground,
+     and have a very pretty bosky effect; from six years to ten
+     or twelve, I think wood is as beautiful as ever it is
+     afterwards until it figures as aged and magnificent. Your
+     hobbledehoy tree of twenty-five years' standing is neither
+     so beautiful as in its infancy, nor so respectable as in its
+     age.
+
+     Counsellor Erskine is returned, much pleased with your
+     hospitality, and giving an excellent account of you. Were
+     you not struck with the fantastical coincidence of our
+     nocturnal disturbances at Abbotsford with the melancholy
+     event that followed? I protest to you the noise resembled
+     half-a-dozen men hard at work putting up boards and
+     furniture, and nothing can be more certain than that there
+     was nobody on the premises at the time. With a few
+     additional touches, the story would figure in Glanville or
+     Aubrey's Collection. In the mean time you may set it down
+     with poor Dubisson's warnings,[105] as a remarkable
+     coincidence coming under your own observation. I trust we
+     shall see you this season. I think we could hammer a neat
+     _comedie bourgeoise_ out of The Heart of Mid-Lothian. Mrs.
+     Scott and family join in kind compliments to Mrs. Terry; and
+     I am ever yours truly,
+
+                                        Walter SCOTT.
+
+              [Footnote 105: See _ante_, vol. iii. p. 220.]
+
+It appears from one of these letters to Terry, that, so late as the
+30th of April, Scott still designed to include two separate stories in
+the second series of the Tales of my Landlord. But he must have
+changed his plan soon after that date; since the four volumes,
+entirely occupied with The Heart of Mid-Lothian, were before the
+public in the course of June. The story thus deferred, in consequence
+of the extent to which that of Jeanie Deans grew on his hands, was The
+Bride of Lammermoor.
+
+
+
+
+{p.236} CHAPTER XLI.
+
+     Dinner at Mr. Home Drummond's. -- Scott's Edinburgh Den. --
+     Details of his Domestic Life in Castle Street. -- His Sunday
+     Dinners. -- His Evening Drives, etc. -- His Conduct in the
+     General Society of Edinburgh. -- Dinners at John
+     Ballantyne's Villa, and at James Ballantyne's in St. John
+     Street, on the Appearance of a New Novel. -- Anecdotes of
+     the Ballantynes, and of Constable.
+
+1818.
+
+
+On the 12th of May, as we have seen, Scott left Abbotsford, for the
+summer session in Edinburgh.
+
+At this moment, his position, take it for all in all, was, I am
+inclined to believe, what no other man had ever won for himself by the
+pen alone. His works were the daily food, not only of his countrymen,
+but of all educated Europe. His society was courted by whatever
+England could show of eminence. Station, power, wealth, beauty, and
+genius, strove with each other in every demonstration of respect and
+worship--and, a few political fanatics and envious poetasters
+apart--wherever he appeared in town or in country, whoever had Scotch
+blood in him, "gentle or simple," felt it move more rapidly through
+his veins when he was in the presence of Scott. To descend to what
+many looked on as higher things, he considered himself, and was
+considered by all about him, as rapidly consolidating a large fortune:
+the annual profits of his novels alone had, for several years, been
+not less than L10,000: his domains {p.237} were daily increased--his
+castle was rising--and perhaps few doubted that erelong he might
+receive from the just favor of his Prince some distinction in the way
+of external rank, such as had seldom before been dreamt of as the
+possible consequence of a mere literary celebrity. It was about this
+time that the compiler of these pages first had the opportunity of
+observing the plain easy modesty which had survived the many
+temptations of such a career; and the kindness of heart pervading, in
+all circumstances, his gentle deportment, which made him the rare,
+perhaps the solitary, example of a man signally elevated from humble
+beginnings, and loved more and more by his earliest friends and
+connections, in proportion as he had fixed on himself the homage of
+the great, and the wonder of the world.
+
+It was during the sitting of the General Assembly of the Kirk in May,
+1818, that I first had the honor of meeting him in private society:
+the party was not a large one, at the house of a much-valued common
+friend--Mr. Home Drummond of Blair Drummond, the grandson of Lord
+Kames. Mr. Scott, ever apt to consider too favorably the literary
+efforts of others, and more especially of very young persons, received
+me, when I was presented to him, with a cordiality which I had not
+been prepared to expect from one filling a station so exalted. This,
+however, is the same story that every individual, who ever met him
+under similar circumstances, has had to tell. When the ladies retired
+from the dinner-table, I happened to sit next him; and he, having
+heard that I had lately returned from a tour in Germany, made that
+country and its recent literature the subject of some conversation. In
+the course of it, I told him that when, on reaching the inn at Weimar,
+I asked the waiter whether Goethe was then in the town, the man stared
+as if he had not heard the name before; and that on my repeating the
+question, adding _Goethe der grosse dichter_ (the great poet), he
+shook his head as doubtfully as {p.238} before--until the landlady
+solved our difficulties, by suggesting that perhaps the traveller
+might mean "the _Herr Geheimer-Rath_ (Privy Counsellor) _Von Goethe_."
+Scott seemed amused with this, and said, "I hope you will come one of
+these days and see me at Abbotsford; and when you reach Selkirk or
+Melrose, be sure you ask even the landlady for nobody but _the
+Sheriff_." He appeared particularly interested when I described Goethe
+as I first saw him, alighting from a carriage, crammed with wild
+plants and herbs which he had picked up in the course of his morning's
+botanizing among the hills above Jena. "I am glad," said he, "that my
+old master has pursuits somewhat akin to my own. I am no botanist,
+properly speaking; and though a dweller on the banks of the Tweed,
+shall never be knowing about Flora's beauties;[106] but how I should
+like to have a talk with him about trees!" I mentioned how much any
+one must be struck with the majestic beauty of Goethe's countenance
+(the noblest certainly by far that I have ever yet seen): "Well," said
+he, "the grandest demigod I ever saw was Dr. Carlyle, minister of
+Musselburgh, commonly called _Jupiter Carlyle_, from having sat more
+than once for the king of gods and men to Gavin Hamilton--and a
+shrewd, clever old carle was he, no doubt, but no more a poet than his
+precentor. As for poets, I have seen, I believe, all the best of our
+own time and country--and, though Burns had the most glorious eyes
+imaginable, I never thought any of them would come up to an artist's
+notion of the character, except Byron." A reverend gentleman present
+(I think, Principal Nicoll of St. Andrews) expressed his regret that
+he had never seen Lord Byron. "And the prints," resumed Scott, "give
+one no impression of him--the lustre is there, Doctor, but it is not
+lighted up. Byron's countenance is _a thing to dream of_. A certain
+fair lady, whose name has been too often {p.239} mentioned in
+connection with his, told a friend of mine, that when she first saw
+Byron, it was in a crowded room, and she did not know who it was, but
+her eyes were instantly nailed, and she said to herself, _that pale
+face is my fate_. And, poor soul, if a godlike face and godlike powers
+could have made any excuse for devilry, to be sure she had one." In
+the course of this talk, an old friend and schoolfellow of
+Scott's[107] asked him across the table if he had any faith in the
+antique busts of Homer. "No, truly," he answered, smiling, "for if
+there had been either limners or stuccoyers worth their salt in those
+days, the owner of such a headpiece would never have had to trail the
+poke. They would have alimented the honest man decently among them for
+a lay-figure."
+
+              [Footnote 106:
+                "What beauties does Flora disclose,
+                 How sweet are her smiles upon Tweed," etc.--_Crawford._]
+
+              [Footnote 107: The late Sir Patrick Murray of
+              Ochtertyre, Bart.--one of the Scotch Barons of
+              Exchequer.]
+
+A few days after this, I received a communication from the Messrs.
+Ballantyne, to the effect that Mr. Scott's various avocations had
+prevented him from fulfilling his agreement with them as to the
+historical department of the Edinburgh Annual Register for 1816, and
+that it would be acceptable to him as well as them, if I could
+undertake to supply it in the course of the autumn. This proposal was
+agreed to on my part, and I had consequently occasion to meet him
+pretty often during that summer session. He told me, that if the war
+had gone on, he should have liked to do the historical summary as
+before; but that the prospect of having no events to record but
+radical riots, and the passing or rejecting of corn bills and poor
+bills, sickened him; that his health was no longer what it had been;
+and that though he did not mean to give over writing altogether--(here
+he smiled significantly, and glanced his eye towards a pile of MS. on
+the desk by him)--he thought himself now entitled to write nothing but
+what would rather be an amusement than a fatigue to him--"_Juniores ad
+labores_."
+
+{p.240} He at this time occupied as his _den_ a square small room,
+behind the dining parlor in Castle Street. It had but a single
+Venetian window, opening on a patch of turf not much larger than
+itself, and the aspect of the place was on the whole sombrous. The
+walls were entirely clothed with books; most of them folios and
+quartos, and all in that complete state of repair which at a glance
+reveals a tinge of bibliomania. A dozen volumes or so, needful for
+immediate purposes of reference, were placed close by him on a small
+movable frame--something like a dumb-waiter. All the rest were in
+their proper niches, and wherever a volume had been lent, its room was
+occupied by a wooden block of the same size, having a card with the
+name of the borrower and date of the loan, tacked on its front. The
+old bindings had obviously been retouched and regilt in the most
+approved manner; the new, when the books were of any mark, were rich,
+but never gaudy--a large proportion of blue morocco--all stamped with
+his _device_ of the portcullis, and its motto, _clausus tutus
+ero_--being an anagram of his name in Latin. Every case and shelf was
+accurately lettered, and the works arranged systematically; history
+and biography on one side--poetry and the drama on another--law books
+and dictionaries behind his own chair. The only table was a massive
+piece of furniture which he had had constructed on the model of one at
+Rokeby, with a desk and all its appurtenances on either side, that an
+amanuensis might work opposite to him when he chose; and with small
+tiers of drawers, reaching all round to the floor. The top displayed a
+goodly array of session papers, and on the desk below were, besides
+the MS. at which he was working, sundry parcels of letters, proof
+sheets, and so forth, all neatly done up with red tape. His own
+writing apparatus was a very handsome old box, richly carved, lined
+with crimson velvet, and containing ink-bottles, taper-stand, etc., in
+silver--the whole in such order that it might have come from the
+silversmith's {p.241} window half an hour before. Besides his own
+huge elbow-chair, there were but two others in the room, and one of
+these seemed, from its position, to be reserved exclusively for the
+amanuensis. I observed, during the first evening I spent with him in
+this _sanctum_, that while he talked, his hands were hardly ever
+idle--sometimes he folded letter-covers--sometimes he twisted paper
+into matches, performing both tasks with great mechanical expertness
+and nicety; and when there was no loose paper fit to be so dealt with,
+he snapped his fingers, and the noble Maida aroused himself from his
+lair on the hearth-rug, and laid his head across his master's knees,
+to be caressed and fondled. The room had no space for pictures except
+one, an original portrait of Claverhouse, which hung over the
+chimney-piece, with a Highland target on either side, and broadswords
+and dirks (each having its own story), disposed star-fashion round
+them. A few green tin-boxes, such as solicitors keep title-deeds in,
+were piled over each other on one side of the window; and on the top
+of these lay a fox's tail, mounted on an antique silver handle,
+wherewith, as often as he had occasion to take down a book, he gently
+brushed the dust off the upper leaves before opening it. I think I
+have mentioned all the furniture of the room except a sort of ladder,
+low, broad, well carpeted, and strongly guarded with oaken rails, by
+which he helped himself to books from his higher shelves. On the top
+step of this convenience, Hinse of Hinsfeldt, (so called from one of
+the German _Kinder-maerchen_,) a venerable tom-cat, fat and sleek, and
+no longer very locomotive, usually lay watching the proceedings of his
+master and Maida with an air of dignified equanimity; but when Maida
+chose to leave the party, he signified his inclinations by thumping
+the door with his huge paw, as violently as ever a fashionable footman
+handled a knocker in Grosvenor Square; the Sheriff rose and opened it
+for him with courteous alacrity,--and then Hinse came {p.242} down
+purring from his perch, and mounted guard by the footstool, _vice_
+Maida absent upon furlough.[108] Whatever discourse might be passing,
+was broken every now and then by some affectionate apostrophe to these
+four-footed friends. He said they understood everything he said to
+them--and I believe they did understand a great deal of it. But at all
+events, dogs and cats, like children, have some infallible tact for
+discovering at once who is and who is not really fond of their
+company; and I venture to say, Scott was never five minutes in any
+room before the little pets of the family, whether dumb or lisping,
+had found out his kindness for all their generation.
+
+              [Footnote 108: [Of Hinse, Washington Irving writes in
+              his _Abbotsford_:--
+
+              "Among the other important and privileged members of the
+              household who figured in attendance at dinner, was a
+              large gray cat, who, I observed, was regaled from time
+              to time with titbits from the table. This sage grimalkin
+              was a favorite of both master and mistress, and slept at
+              night in their room, and Scott laughingly observed, that
+              one of the least wise parts of their establishment was
+              that the window was left open at night for puss to go in
+              and out. The cat assumed a kind of ascendency among the
+              quadrupeds--sitting in state in Scott's armchair, and
+              occasionally stationing himself on a chair beside the
+              door, as if to review his subjects as they passed,
+              giving each dog a cuff beside the ears as he went by.
+              This clapper-clawing was always taken in good part; it
+              appeared to be, in fact, a mere act of sovereignty on
+              the part of grimalkin to remind the others of their
+              vassalage; which they acknowledged by the most perfect
+              acquiescence. A general harmony prevailed between
+              sovereign and subjects, and they would all sleep
+              together in the sunshine."]]
+
+I never thought it lawful to keep a journal of what passes in private
+society, so that no one need expect from the sequel of this narrative
+any detailed record of Scott's familiar talk. What fragments of it
+have happened to adhere to a tolerably retentive memory, and may be
+put into black and white without wounding any feelings which my
+friend, were he alive, would have wished to spare, I shall introduce
+as the occasion suggests or serves. But I disclaim on the threshold
+anything more than this; and I also wish to enter a protest once for
+all against the general fidelity of several literary gentlemen who
+have kindly forwarded to me private lucubrations {p.243} of theirs,
+designed to _Boswellize_ Scott, and which they may probably publish
+hereafter. To report conversations fairly, it is a necessary
+prerequisite that we should be completely familiar with all the
+interlocutors, and understand thoroughly all their minutest relations,
+and points of common knowledge and common feeling with each other. He
+who does not, must be perpetually in danger of misinterpreting
+sportive allusion into serious statement; and the man who was only
+recalling, by some jocular phrase or half-phrase, to an old companion,
+some trivial reminiscence of their boyhood or youth, may be
+represented as expressing, upon some person or incident casually
+tabled, an opinion which he had never framed, or if he had, would
+never have given words to in any mixed assemblage--not even among what
+the world calls _friends_ at his own board. In proportion as a man is
+witty and humorous, there will always be about him and his a widening
+maze and wilderness of cues and catchwords, which the uninitiated
+will, if they are bold enough to try interpretation, construe, ever
+and anon, egregiously amiss--not seldom into arrant falsity. For this
+one reason, to say nothing of many others, I consider no man justified
+in journalizing what he sees and hears in a domestic circle where he
+is not thoroughly at home; and I think there are still higher and
+better reasons why he should not do so where he is.
+
+Before I ever met Scott in private, I had, of course, heard many
+people describe and discuss his style of conversation. Everybody
+seemed to agree that it overflowed with hearty good-humor, as well as
+plain unaffected good sense and sagacity; but I had heard not a few
+persons of undoubted ability and accomplishment maintain that the
+genius of the great poet and novelist rarely, if ever, revealed itself
+in his talk. It is needless to say, that the persons I allude to were
+all his own countrymen, and themselves imbued, more or less, with the
+conversational habits derived from a system of education in which the
+{p.244} study of metaphysics occupies a very large share of
+attention. The best table-talk of Edinburgh was, and probably still
+is, in a very great measure made up of brilliant disquisition--such as
+might be transferred without alteration to a professor's note-book, or
+the pages of a critical Review--and of sharp word-catchings, ingenious
+thrusting and parrying of dialectics, and all the quips and quibblets
+of bar pleading. It was the talk of a society to which lawyers and
+lecturers had, for at least a hundred years, given the tone. From the
+date of the Union, Edinburgh ceased to be the headquarters of the
+Scotch nobility--and long before the time of which I speak, they had
+all but entirely abandoned it as a place of residence. I think I never
+knew above two or three of the Peerage to have houses there at the
+same time--and these were usually among the poorest and most
+insignificant of their order. The wealthier gentry had followed their
+example. Very few of that class ever spent any considerable part of
+the year in Edinburgh, except for the purposes of educating their
+children, or superintending the progress of a lawsuit; and these were
+not more likely than a score or two of comatose and lethargic old
+Indians, to make head against the established influences of academical
+and forensic celebrity. Now Scott's tastes and resources had not much
+in common with those who had inherited and preserved the chief
+authority in this provincial hierarchy of rhetoric. He was highly
+amused with watching their dexterous logomachies--but his delight in
+such displays arose mainly, I cannot doubt, from the fact of their
+being, both as to subject-matter and style and method, remote _a
+Scaevolae studiis_. He sat by, as he would have done at a stage-play or
+a fencing-match, enjoying and applauding the skill exhibited, but
+without feeling much ambition to parade himself as a rival either of
+the foil or the buskin. I can easily believe, therefore, that in the
+earlier part of his life--before the blaze of universal fame had
+overawed {p.245} local prejudice, and a new generation, accustomed to
+hear of that fame from their infancy, had grown up--it may have been
+the commonly adopted creed in Edinburgh, that Scott, however
+distinguished otherwise, was not to be named as a table-companion in
+the same day with this or that master of luminous dissertation or
+quick rejoinder, who now sleeps as forgotten as his grandmother. It
+was natural enough that persons brought up in the same circle with
+him, who remembered all his beginnings, and had but slowly learned to
+acquiesce in the justice of his claim to unrivalled honor in
+literature, should have clung all the closer for that late
+acquiescence to their original estimate of him as inferior to
+themselves in other titles to admiration. It was also natural that
+their prejudice on that score should be readily taken up by the young
+aspirants who breathed, as it were, the atmosphere of their
+professional renown. Perhaps, too, Scott's steady Toryism, and the
+effect of his genius and example in modifying the intellectual sway of
+the long dominant Whigs in the north, may have had some share in this
+matter. However all that may have been, the substance of what I had
+been accustomed to hear certainly was, that Scott had a marvellous
+stock of queer stories, which he often told with happy effect, but
+that, bating these drafts on a portentous memory, set off with a
+simple old-fashioned _naivete_ of humor and pleasantry, his strain of
+talk was remarkable neither for depth of remark nor felicity of
+illustration; that his views and opinions on the most important topics
+of practical interest were hopelessly perverted by his blind
+enthusiasm for the dreams of bygone ages; and that, but for the
+grotesque phenomenon presented by a great writer of the nineteenth
+century gravely uttering sentiments worthy of his own Dundees and
+Invernahyles, the main texture of his discourse would be pronounced,
+by any enlightened member of modern society, rather bald and poor than
+otherwise. I think the epithet most in vogue was _commonplace_.
+
+{p.246} It will easily be believed that, in companies such as I have
+been alluding to, made up of, or habitually domineered over, by
+voluble Whigs and political economists, Scott was often tempted to put
+forth his Tory doctrines and antiquarian prejudices in an exaggerated
+shape--in colors, to say the truth, altogether different from what
+they assumed under other circumstances, or which had any real
+influence upon his mind and conduct on occasions of practical moment.
+But I fancy it will seem equally credible, that the most sharp-sighted
+of these social critics may not always have been capable of tracing,
+and doing justice to, the powers which Scott brought to bear upon the
+topics which they, not he, had chosen for discussion. In passing from
+a gas-lit hall into a room with wax candles, the guests sometimes
+complain that they have left splendor for gloom; but let them try by
+what sort of light it is most satisfactory to read, write, or
+embroider, or consider at leisure under which of the two, either men
+or women look their best.
+
+The strongest, purest, and least observed of all lights, is, however,
+daylight; and his talk was commonplace, just as sunshine is, which
+gilds the most indifferent objects, and adds brilliancy to the
+brightest. As for the old-world anecdotes which these clever persons
+were condescending enough to laugh at as pleasant extravagances,
+serving merely to relieve and set off the main stream of debate, they
+were often enough, it may be guessed, connected with the theme in hand
+by links not the less apt that they might be too subtle to catch their
+bedazzled and self-satisfied optics. There might be keener knowledge
+of human nature than was "dreamt of in their philosophy"--which passed
+with them for _commonplace_, only because it was clothed in plain
+familiar household words, not dressed up in some pedantic masquerade
+of antithesis. "There are people," says Landor, "who think they write
+and speak finely, merely because they have forgotten the language in
+which their fathers and {p.247} mothers used to talk to them;" and
+surely there are a thousand homely old proverbs, which many a dainty
+modern would think it beneath his dignity to quote either in speech or
+writing, any one of which condenses more wit (take that word in any of
+its senses) than could be extracted from all that was ever said or
+written by the _doctrinaires_ of the Edinburgh school. Many of those
+gentlemen held Scott's conversation to be commonplace exactly for the
+same reason that a child thinks a perfectly limpid stream, though
+perhaps deep enough to drown it three times over, must needs be
+shallow. But it will be easily believed that the best and highest of
+their own idols had better means and skill of measurement: I can never
+forget the pregnant expression of one of the ablest of that school and
+party--Lord Cockburn--who, when some glib youth chanced to echo in his
+hearing the consolatory tenet of local mediocrity, answered quietly:
+"I have the misfortune to think differently from you--in my humble
+opinion, Walter Scott's _sense_ is a still more wonderful thing than
+his _genius_."
+
+Indeed I have no sort of doubt that, long before 1818, full justice
+was done to Scott, even in these minor things, by all those of his
+Edinburgh acquaintance, whether Whig or Tory, on whose personal
+opinion he could have been supposed to set much value. With few
+exceptions, the really able lawyers of his own or nearly similar
+standing had ere that time attained stations of judicial dignity, or
+were in the springtide of practice; and in either case they were
+likely to consider general society much in his own fashion, as the
+joyous relaxation of life, rather than the theatre of exertion and
+display. Their tables were elegantly, some of them sumptuously spread;
+and they lived in a pretty constant interchange of entertainments upon
+a large scale, in every circumstance of which, conversation included,
+it was their ambition to imitate those voluptuous metropolitan
+circles, wherein most of them had from time to time mingled, and
+several of them {p.248} with distinguished success. Among such
+prosperous gentlemen, like himself past the _mezzo cammin_, Scott's
+picturesque anecdotes, rich easy humor, and gay involuntary glances of
+mother-wit, were, it is not difficult to suppose, appreciated above
+contributions of a more ambitious stamp; and no doubt his London
+_reputation de salon_ (which had by degrees risen to a high pitch,
+although he cared nothing for it) was not without its effect in
+Edinburgh. But still the old prejudice lingered on in the general
+opinion of the place, especially among the smart praters of _the
+Outer-House_, whose glimpses of the social habits of their superiors
+were likely to be rare, and their gall-bladders to be more distended
+than their purses.
+
+In truth, it was impossible to listen to Scott's oral narrations,
+whether gay or serious, or to the felicitous fun with which he parried
+absurdities of all sorts, without discovering better qualities in his
+talk than _wit_--and of a higher order; I mean especially a power of
+_vivid painting_--the true and primary sense of what is called
+_Imagination_. He was like Jaques--though not a "Melancholy Jaques;"
+and "moralized" a common topic "into a thousand similitudes."
+Shakespeare and the banished Duke would have found him "full of
+matter." He disliked mere disquisitions in Edinburgh, and prepared
+_impromptus_ in London; and puzzled the promoters of such things
+sometimes by placid silence, sometimes by broad merriment. To such men
+he seemed _commonplace_--not so to the most dexterous masters in what
+was to some of them almost a science; not so to Rose, Hallam, Moore,
+or Rogers,--to Ellis, Mackintosh, Croker, or Canning.
+
+Scott managed to give and receive such great dinners as I have been
+alluding to, at least as often as any other private gentleman in
+Edinburgh; but he very rarely accompanied his wife and daughters to
+the evening assemblies, which commonly ensued under other roofs--for
+{p.249} _early to rise_, unless in the case of spare-fed anchorites,
+takes for granted _early to bed_. When he had no dinner engagement, he
+frequently gave a few hours to the theatre; but still more frequently,
+when the weather was fine, and still more, I believe, to his own
+satisfaction, he drove out with some of his family, or a single
+friend, in an open carriage; the favorite rides being either to the
+Blackford Hills, or to Ravelston, and so home by Corstorphine; or to
+the beach of Portobello, where Peter was always instructed to keep his
+horses as near as possible to the sea. More than once, even in the
+first summer of my acquaintance with him, I had the pleasure of
+accompanying him on these evening excursions; and never did he seem to
+enjoy himself more fully than when placidly surveying, at such sunset
+or moonlight hours, either the massive outlines of his "own romantic
+town," or the tranquil expanse of its noble estuary. He delighted,
+too, in passing, when he could, through some of the quaint windings of
+the ancient city itself, now deserted, except at mid-day, by the upper
+world. How often have I seen him go a long way round about, rather
+than miss the opportunity of halting for a few minutes on the vacant
+esplanade of Holyrood, or under the darkest shadows of the Castle
+rock, where it overhangs the Grassmarket, and the huge slab that still
+marks where the gibbet of Porteous and the Covenanters had its
+station. His coachman knew him too well to move at a Jehu's pace
+amidst such scenes as these. No funeral hearse crept more leisurely
+than did his landau up the Canongate or the Cowgate; and not a queer
+tottering gable but recalled to him some long-buried memory of
+splendor or bloodshed, which, by a few words, he set before the hearer
+in the reality of life. His image is so associated in my mind with the
+antiquities of his native place, that I cannot now revisit them
+without feeling as if I were treading on his gravestone.
+
+Whatever might happen on the other evenings of the {p.250} week, he
+always dined at home on Sunday, and usually some few friends were then
+with him, but never any person with whom he stood on ceremony. These
+were, it may be readily supposed, the most agreeable of his
+entertainments. He came into the room rubbing his hands, his face
+bright and gleesome, like a boy arriving at home for the holidays, his
+Peppers and Mustards gambolling about his heels, and even the stately
+Maida grinning and wagging his tail in sympathy. Among the most
+regular guests on these happy evenings were, in my time, as had long
+before been the case, Mrs. Maclean Clephane of Torloisk (with whom he
+agreed cordially on all subjects except the authenticity of Ossian),
+and her daughters, whose guardian he had become, at their own choice.
+The eldest of them had been for some years married to the Earl Compton
+(now Marquis of Northampton), and was of course seldom in the north;
+but the others had much of the same tastes and accomplishments which
+so highly distinguished the late Lady Northampton; and Scott delighted
+especially in their proficiency in the poetry and music of their
+native isles. Mr. and Mrs. Skene of Rubislaw were frequent
+attendants--and so were the Macdonald-Buchanans of Drumakiln, whose
+eldest daughter, Isabella, was his chief favorite among all his
+_nieces_ of the Clerk's table--as was, among the _nephews_, my own
+dear friend and companion, Joseph Hume, a singularly graceful young
+man, rich in the promise of hereditary genius, but, alas, cut off in
+the early bloom of his days. The well-beloved Erskine was seldom
+absent; and very often Terry or James Ballantyne came with
+him--sometimes, though less frequently, Constable. Among other persons
+who now and then appeared at these "dinners without the silver
+dishes," as Scott called them, I may mention--to say nothing of such
+old cronies as Mr. Clerk, Mr. Thomson, and Mr. Kirkpatrick Sharpe--Sir
+Alexander Boswell of Auchinleck, who had all his father _Bozzy's_
+cleverness, good-humor, {p.251} and joviality, without one touch of
+his meaner qualities,--wrote Jenny dang the Weaver, and some other
+popular songs, which he sang capitally--and was moreover a thorough
+bibliomaniac; the late Sir Alexander Don of Newton, in all courteous
+and elegant accomplishments the model of a cavalier; and last, not
+least, William Allan, R. A., who had shortly before this time returned
+to Scotland from several years of travel in Russia and Turkey. At one
+of these plain hearty dinners, however, the company rarely exceeded
+three or four, besides the as yet undivided family.
+
+Scott had a story of a topping goldsmith on the Bridge, who prided
+himself on being the mirror of Amphitryons, and accounted for his
+success by stating that it was his invariable custom to set his own
+stomach at ease, by a beefsteak and a pint of port in his back-shop,
+half an hour before the arrival of his guests. But the host of Castle
+Street had no occasion to imitate this prudent arrangement, for his
+appetite at dinner was neither keen nor nice. Breakfast was his chief
+meal. Before that came, he had gone through the severest part of his
+day's work, and he then set to with the zeal of Crabbe's Squire
+Tovell--
+
+  "And laid at once a pound upon his plate."
+
+No fox-hunter ever prepared himself for the field by more substantial
+appliances. His table was always provided, in addition to the usually
+plentiful delicacies of a Scotch breakfast, with some solid article,
+on which he did most lusty execution--a round of beef--a pasty, such
+as made Gil Blas's eyes water--or, most welcome of all, a cold sheep's
+head, the charms of which primitive dainty he has so gallantly
+defended against the disparaging sneers of Dr. Johnson and his
+bear-leader.[109] A huge brown loaf flanked his elbow, and it was
+placed upon a broad wooden trencher, that he might cut and come again
+with the bolder knife. Often did the _Clerks' {p.252} coach_,
+commonly called among themselves _the Lively_--which trundled round
+every morning to pick up the brotherhood, and then deposited them at
+the proper minute in the Parliament Close--often did this lumbering
+hackney arrive at his door before he had fully appeased what Homer
+calls "the sacred rage of hunger;" and vociferous was the merriment of
+the learned _uncles_, when the surprised poet swung forth to join
+them, with an extemporized sandwich, that looked like a ploughman's
+luncheon, in his hand. But this robust supply would have served him in
+fact for the day. He never tasted anything more before dinner, and at
+dinner he ate almost as sparingly as Squire Tovell's niece from the
+boarding-school,--
+
+  --"Who cut the sanguine flesh in frustums fine,
+  And marvelled much to see the creatures dine."
+
+              [Footnote 109: See Croker's _Boswell_ (edit. 1831), vol.
+              iii p. 38.]
+
+The only dishes he was at all fond of were the old-fashioned ones to
+which he had been accustomed in the days of Saunders Fairford; and
+which really are excellent dishes,--such, in truth, as Scotland
+borrowed from France before Catherine de' Medici brought in her
+Italian _virtuosi_ to revolutionize the kitchen like the court. Of
+most of these, I believe, he has in the course of his novels found
+some opportunity to record his esteem. But, above all, who can forget
+that his King Jamie, amidst the splendors of Whitehall, thinks himself
+an ill-used monarch unless his first course includes _cocky-leeky_?
+
+It is a fact, which some philosophers may think worth setting down,
+that Scott's organization, as to more than one of the senses, was the
+reverse of exquisite. He had very little of what musicians call an
+ear; his smell was hardly more delicate. I have seen him stare about,
+quite unconscious of the cause, when his whole company betrayed their
+uneasiness at the approach of an overkept haunch of venison; and
+neither by the nose nor the palate could he distinguish corked wine
+from sound. He could never tell Madeira from sherry,--nay, an Oriental
+friend having sent him a butt of _sheeraz_, when he {p.253}
+remembered the circumstance some time afterwards, and called for a
+bottle to have Sir John Malcolm's opinion of its quality, it turned
+out that his butler, mistaking the label, had already served up half
+the bin as _sherry_. Port he considered as physic: he never willingly
+swallowed more than one glass of it, and was sure to anathematize a
+second, if offered, by repeating John Home's epigram:--
+
+  "Bold and erect the Caledonian stood,
+  Old was his mutton, and his claret good;
+  Let him drink port, the English statesman cried--
+  He drank the poison, and his spirit died."
+
+In truth, he liked no wines except sparkling champagne and claret; but
+even as to this last he was no connoisseur; and sincerely preferred a
+tumbler of whiskey-toddy to the most precious "liquid ruby" that ever
+flowed in the cup of a prince. He rarely took any other potation when
+quite alone with his family; but at the Sunday board he circulated the
+champagne briskly during dinner, and considered a pint of claret each
+man's fair share afterwards. I should not omit, however, that his
+Bordeaux was uniformly preceded by a small libation of the genuine
+_mountain dew_, which he poured with his own hand, _more majorum_, for
+each guest--making use for the purpose of such a multifarious
+collection of ancient Highland _quaighs_ (little cups of curiously
+dovetailed wood, inlaid with silver) as no Lowland sideboard but his
+was ever equipped with--but commonly reserving for himself one that
+was peculiarly precious in his eyes, as having travelled from
+Edinburgh to Derby in the canteen of Prince Charlie. This relic had
+been presented to "the wandering Ascanius" by some very careful
+follower, for its bottom is of glass, that he who quaffed might keep
+his eye the while upon the dirk hand of his companion.
+
+The sound of music (even, I suspect, of any sacred music but
+psalm-singing) would be considered indecorous {p.254} in the streets
+of Edinburgh on a Sunday night; so, upon the occasions I am speaking
+of, the harp was silent, and Otterburne and The Bonnie House of Airlie
+must needs be dispensed with. To make amends, after tea in the
+drawing-room, Scott usually read some favorite author for the
+amusement of his little circle; or Erskine, Ballantyne, or Terry, did
+so, at his request. He himself read aloud high poetry with far greater
+simplicity, depth, and effect, than any other man I ever heard; and in
+Macbeth or Julius Caesar, or the like, I doubt if Kemble could have
+been more impressive. Yet the changes of intonation were so gently
+managed, that he contrived to set the different interlocutors clearly
+before us, without the least approach to theatrical artifice. Not so
+the others I have mentioned; they all read cleverly and agreeably, but
+with the decided trickery of stage recitation. To them he usually gave
+the book when it was a comedy, or, indeed, any other drama than
+Shakespeare's or Joanna Baillie's. Dryden's Fables, Johnson's two
+Satires, and certain detached scenes of Beaumont and Fletcher,
+especially that in The Lover's Progress, where the ghost of the
+musical innkeeper makes his appearance, were frequently selected. Of
+the poets, his contemporaries, however, there was not one that did not
+come in for his part. In Wordsworth, his pet pieces were, I think, the
+Song for Brougham Castle, the Laodamia, and some of the early sonnets;
+in Southey, Queen Orraca, Fernando Ramirez, the Lines on the Holly
+Tree--and, of his larger poems, the Thalaba. Crabbe was perhaps, next
+to Shakespeare, the standing resource; but in those days Byron was
+pouring out his spirit fresh and full: and, if a new piece from his
+hand had appeared, it was sure to be read by Scott the Sunday evening
+afterwards, and that with such delighted emphasis as showed how
+completely the elder bard had kept all his enthusiasm for poetry at
+the pitch of youth, all his admiration of genius, free, pure, and
+unstained by the least drop of literary {p.255} jealousy. Rare and
+beautiful example of a happily constituted and virtuously disciplined
+mind and character!
+
+Very often something read aloud by himself or his friends suggested
+an old story of greater compass than would have suited a
+dinner-table--and he told it, whether serious or comical, or, as more
+frequently happened, part of both, exactly in every respect in the
+tone and style of the notes and illustrations to his novels. A great
+number of his best oral narratives have, indeed, been preserved in
+those parting lucubrations; and not a few in his letters. Yet very
+many there were of which his pen has left no record--so many, that,
+were I to task my memory, I could, I believe, recall the outlines at
+least of more than would be sufficient to occupy a couple of these
+volumes. Possibly, though well aware how little justice I could do to
+such things, rather than think of their perishing forever, and leaving
+not even a shadow behind, I may at some future day hazard the attempt.
+
+Let me turn, meanwhile, to some dinner-tables very different from his
+own, at which, from this time forward, I often met Scott. It is very
+true of the societies I am about to describe, that he was "among them,
+not of them;" and it is also most true that this fact was apparent in
+all the demeanor of his bibliopolical and typographical allies towards
+him whenever he visited them under their roofs--not a bit less so than
+when they were received at his own board; but still, considering how
+closely his most important worldly affairs were connected with the
+personal character of the Ballantynes, I think it a part, though
+neither a proud nor a very pleasing part, of my duty as his
+biographer, to record my reminiscences of them and their doings in
+some detail.
+
+James Ballantyne then lived in St. John Street, a row of good,
+old-fashioned, and spacious houses, adjoining the Canongate and
+Holyrood, and at no great distance from his printing establishment. He
+had married a few {p.256} years before the daughter of a wealthy
+farmer in Berwickshire--a quiet, amiable woman, of simple manners, and
+perfectly domestic habits: a group of fine young children were growing
+up about him; and he usually, if not constantly, had under his roof
+his aged mother, his and his wife's tender care of whom it was most
+pleasing to witness. As far as a stranger might judge, there could not
+be a more exemplary household, or a happier one; and I have
+occasionally met the poet in St. John Street when there were no other
+guests but Erskine, Terry, George Hogarth,[110] and another intimate
+friend or two, and when James Ballantyne was content to appear in his
+own true and best colors, the kind head of his family, the respectful
+but honest schoolfellow of Scott, the easy landlord of a plain,
+comfortable table. But when any great event was about to take place in
+the business, especially on the eve of a new novel, there were doings
+of a higher strain in St. John Street; and to be present at one of
+those scenes was truly a rich treat, even--if not especially--for
+persons who, like myself, had no more _knowledge_ than the rest of the
+world as to the authorship of Waverley. Then were congregated about
+the printer all his own literary allies, of whom a considerable number
+were by no means personally familiar with "THE GREAT UNKNOWN:"--who,
+by the way, owed to him that widely adopted title;--and He
+appeared among the rest with his usual open aspect of buoyant
+good-humor--although it was not difficult to trace, in the occasional
+play of his features, the diversion it afforded him to watch all the
+procedure of his swelling confidant, and the curious neophytes that
+surrounded the well-spread board.
+
+              [Footnote 110: George Hogarth, Esq., W. S., brother of
+              Mrs. James Ballantyne. This gentleman is now well known
+              in the literary world; especially by a History of Music,
+              of which all who understand that science speak highly.
+              [He was the father-in-law of Charles Dickens, and for
+              many years a musical and dramatic critic in London.]]
+
+The feast was, to use one of James's own favorite epithets, {p.257}
+_gorgeous_; an aldermanic display of turtle and venison, with the
+suitable accompaniments of iced punch, potent ale, and generous
+Madeira. When the cloth was drawn, the burly preses arose, with all he
+could muster of the port of John Kemble, and spouted with a sonorous
+voice the formula of Macbeth:--
+
+                                   "Fill full!
+  I drink to the general joy of the whole table!"
+
+This was followed by "The King, God bless him!" and second
+came--"Gentlemen, there is another toast which never has been nor
+shall be omitted in this house of mine--I give you the health of Mr.
+Walter Scott with three times three!" All honor having been done to
+this health, and Scott having briefly thanked the company with some
+expressions of warm affection to their host, Mrs. Ballantyne retired;
+the bottles passed round twice or thrice in the usual way; and then
+James rose once more, every vein on his brow distended, his eyes
+solemnly fixed upon vacancy, to propose, not as before in his
+stentorian key, but with "'bated breath," in the sort of whisper by
+which a stage conspirator thrills the gallery,--"_Gentlemen, a bumper
+to the immortal Author of Waverley!_" The uproar of cheering, in which
+Scott made a fashion of joining, was succeeded by deep silence, and
+then Ballantyne proceeded--
+
+  "In his Lord Burleigh look, serene and serious,
+   A something of imposing and mysterious"--
+
+to lament the obscurity in which his illustrious but too modest
+correspondent still chose to conceal himself from the plaudits of the
+world, to thank the company for the manner in which the _nominis
+umbra_ had been received, and to assure them that the Author of
+Waverley would, when informed of the circumstance, feel highly
+delighted--"the proudest hour of his life," etc., etc. The cool,
+demure fun of Scott's features during all this mummery was perfect;
+and Erskine's attempt at a gay _nonchalance_ was still more
+ludicrously meritorious. Aldiborontiphoscophornio, {p.258} however,
+bursting as he was, knew too well to allow the new novel to be made
+the subject of discussion. Its name was announced, and success to it
+crowned another cup; but after that, no more of Jedediah. To cut the
+thread, he rolled out unbidden some one of his many theatrical songs,
+in a style that would have done no dishonor to almost any
+orchestra--The Maid of Lodi--or perhaps, The Bay of Biscay, O!--or The
+Sweet Little Cherub that Sits up Aloft. Other toasts followed,
+interspersed with ditties from other performers;--old George Thomson,
+the friend of Burns, was ready, for one, with The Moorland Wedding, or
+Willie Brew'd a Peck o' Maut;--and so it went on, until Scott and
+Erskine, with any clerical or very staid personage that had chanced to
+be admitted, saw fit to withdraw. Then the scene was changed. The
+claret and olives made way for broiled bones and a mighty bowl of
+punch; and when a few glasses of the hot beverage had restored his
+powers, James opened _ore rotundo_ on the merits of the forthcoming
+romance. "One chapter, one chapter only," was the cry. After "_Nay,
+by'r Lady, nay!_" and a few more coy shifts, the proof sheets were at
+length produced, and James, with many a prefatory hem, read aloud what
+he considered as the most striking dialogue they contained.
+
+The first I heard so read was the interview between Jeanie Deans, the
+Duke of Argyle, and Queen Caroline, in Richmond Park; and
+notwithstanding some spice of the pompous tricks to which he was
+addicted, I must say he did the inimitable scene great justice. At all
+events, the effect it produced was deep and memorable, and no wonder
+that the exulting typographer's _one bumper more to Jedediah
+Cleishbotham_ preceded his parting stave, which was uniformly The Last
+Words of Marmion, executed certainly with no contemptible rivalry of
+Braham.
+
+What a different affair was a dinner, although probably including many
+of the same guests, at the junior partner's! He in those days
+retained, I think, no private {p.259} apartments attached to his
+auction-rooms in Hanover Street, over the door of which he still kept
+emblazoned "John Ballantyne and Company, Booksellers." At any rate,
+such of his entertainments as I ever saw Scott partake of, were given
+at his villa near to the Frith of Forth, by Trinity;--a retreat which
+the little man had named "Harmony Hall," and invested with an air of
+dainty voluptuous finery, contrasting strikingly enough with the
+substantial citizen-like snugness of his elder brother's domestic
+appointments. His house was surrounded by gardens so contrived as to
+seem of considerable extent, having many a shady tuft, trellised
+alley, and mysterious alcove, interspersed among their bright
+parterres. It was a fairy-like labyrinth, and there was no want of
+pretty Armidas, such as they might be, to glide half-seen among its
+mazes. The sitting-rooms opened upon gay and perfumed conservatories,
+and John's professional excursions to Paris and Brussels in quest of
+objects of _virtu_, had supplied both the temptation and the means to
+set forth the interior in a fashion that might have satisfied the most
+fastidious _petite maitresse_ of Norwood or St. Denis. John, too, was
+a married man: he had, however, erected for himself a private wing,
+the accesses to which, whether from the main building or the
+_bosquet_, were so narrow that it was physically impossible for the
+handsome and portly lady who bore his name to force her person through
+any one of them. His dinners were in all respects Parisian, for his
+wasted palate disdained such John Bull luxuries as were all in all
+with James. The piquant pasty of Strasburg or Perigord was never to
+seek; and even the _piece de resistance_ was probably a boar's head
+from Coblentz, or a turkey ready stuffed with truffles from the Palais
+Royal. The pictures scattered among John's innumerable mirrors were
+chiefly of theatrical subjects--many of them portraits of beautiful
+actresses--the same Peg Woffingtons, Bellamys, Kitty Clives, and so
+forth, that {p.260} found their way in the sequel to Charles
+Mathews's gallery at Highgate. Here that exquisite comedian's own
+mimicries and parodies were the life and soul of many a festival, and
+here, too, he gathered from his facetious host not a few of the
+richest materials for his _at homes_ and _monopolylogues_. But,
+indeed, whatever actor or singer of eminence visited Edinburgh, of the
+evenings when he did not perform several were sure to be reserved for
+Trinity. Here Braham quavered, and here Liston drolled his best--here
+Johnstone, and Murray, and Yates mixed jest and stave--here Kean
+revelled and rioted--and here the Roman Kemble often played the Greek
+from sunset to dawn. Nor did the popular _cantatrice_ or _danseuse_ of
+the time disdain to freshen her roses, after a laborious week, amidst
+these Paphian arbors of Harmony Hall.
+
+Johnny had other tastes that were equally expensive. He had a
+well-furnished stable, and followed the foxhounds whenever the cover
+was within an easy distance. His horses were all called after heroes
+in Scott's poems or novels; and at this time he usually rode up to his
+auction on a tall milk-white hunter, yclept _Old Mortality_, attended
+by a leash or two of greyhounds,--Die Vernon, Jenny Dennison, and so
+forth, by name. The featherweight himself appeared uniformly,
+hammer-in-hand, in the half-dress of some sporting club--a light gray
+frock, with emblems of the chase on its silver buttons, white cord
+breeches, and jockey-boots in Meltonian order. Yet he affected in the
+pulpit rather a grave address; and was really one of the most
+plausible and imposing of the Puff tribe. Probably Scott's presence
+overawed his ludicrous propensities; for the poet was, when sales were
+going on, almost a daily attendant in Hanover Street, and himself not
+the least energetic of the numerous competitors for Johnny's uncut
+_fifteeners_, Venetian lamps, Milanese cuirasses, and old Dutch
+cabinets. Maida, by the way, was so well aware of his master's
+{p.261} habits, that about the time when the Court of Session was
+likely to break up for the day, he might usually be seen couched in
+expectation among Johnny's own _tail_ of greyhounds at the threshold
+of the mart.
+
+It was at one of those Trinity dinners this summer that I first saw
+Constable. Being struck with his appearance, I asked Scott who he was,
+and he told me--expressing some surprise that anybody should have
+lived a winter or two in Edinburgh without knowing, by sight at least,
+a citizen whose name was so familiar to the world. I happened to say
+that I had not been prepared to find the great bookseller a man of
+such gentlemanlike and even distinguished bearing. Scott smiled, and
+answered, "Ay, Constable is indeed a grand-looking chield. He puts me
+in mind of Fielding's apology for Lady Booby--to wit, that Joseph
+Andrews had an air which, to those who had not seen many noblemen,
+would give an idea of nobility." I had not in those days been much
+initiated in the private jokes of what is called, by way of
+excellence, _the trade_, and was puzzled when Scott, in the course of
+the dinner, said to Constable, "Will your Czarish Majesty do me the
+honor to take a glass of champagne?" I asked the master of the feast
+for an explanation. "Oh!" said he, "are you so green as not to know
+that Constable long since dubbed himself _The Czar of Muscovy_, John
+Murray, _The Emperor of the West_, and Longman and his string of
+partners _The Divan_?" "And what title," I asked, "has Mr. John
+Ballantyne himself found in this new _almanach imperial_?"--"Let that
+flee stick to the wa'," quoth Johnny: "When I set up for a bookseller,
+The Crafty christened me _The Dey of Alljeers_--but he now considers
+me as next thing to dethroned." He added, "His Majesty the autocrat is
+too fond of these nicknames. One day a partner of the house of Longman
+was dining with him in the country, to settle an important piece of
+business, about which there occurred a good deal of difficulty. 'What
+fine {p.262} swans you have in your pond there!' said the Londoner,
+by way of parenthesis.--'Swans!' cried Constable; 'they are only
+geese, man. There are just five of them, if you please to observe, and
+their names are Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown.' This skit cost
+The Crafty a good bargain."
+
+It always appeared to me that James Ballantyne felt his genius rebuked
+in the presence of Constable: his manner was constrained, his smile
+servile, his hilarity elaborate. Not so with Johnny: the little fellow
+never seemed more airily frolicsome than when he capered for the
+amusement of the Czar.[111] I never, however, saw those two together,
+where, I am told, the humors of them both were exhibited to the
+richest advantage--I mean at the dinners with which Constable regaled,
+among others, his own circle of literary serfs, and when "Jocund
+Johnny" was very commonly his croupier. There are stories enough of
+practical jokes upon such occasions, some of them near akin to those
+which the author of Humphrey Clinker has thought fit to record of his
+own suburban villa, in the most diverting of young Melford's letters
+to Sir Watkin Philips. I have heard, for example, a luculent
+description of poor _Allister Campbell_, and another drudge of the
+same class, running a race after dinner for a new pair of breeches,
+which Mr. David Bridges, tailor in ordinary to this northern
+potentate,--himself a wit, a virtuoso, and the croupier on that day in
+lieu of Rigdum,--had been instructed to bring with him, and display
+before the threadbare rivals. But I had these pictures from John
+Ballantyne, and I dare say they might be overcharged. That Constable
+was a most bountiful and generous patron to the ragged tenants of Grub
+Street, there can, however, be no doubt: and as {p.263} little that
+John himself acted on all occasions by them in the same spirit, and
+this to an extent greatly beyond what prudence (if he had ever
+consulted that guide in anything) would have dictated.
+
+              [Footnote 111: "Now, John," cried Constable, one evening
+              after he had told one of his best stories, "now, John,
+              is that true?" His object evidently was, in Iago's
+              phrase, _to let down the pegs_; but Rigdum answered
+              gayly, "True, indeed! Not one word of it!--any blockhead
+              may stick to truth, my hearty--but 't is a sad hamperer
+              of genius."]
+
+When I visited Constable, as I often did at a period somewhat later
+than that of which I now speak, and for the most part in company with
+Scott, I found the bookseller established in a respectable country
+gentleman's seat, some six or seven miles out of Edinburgh, and doing
+the honors of it with all the ease that might have been looked for had
+he been the long-descended owner of the place; there was no foppery,
+no show, no idle luxury, but to all appearance the plain abundance and
+simple enjoyment of hereditary wealth. His conversation was manly and
+vigorous, abounding in Scotch anecdotes of the old time, which he told
+with a degree of spirit and humor only second to his great author's.
+No man could more effectually control, when he had a mind, either the
+extravagant vanity which, on too many occasions, made him ridiculous,
+or the despotic temper, which habitually held in fear and trembling
+all such as were in any sort dependent on his Czarish Majesty's
+pleasure. In him I never saw (at this period) anything but the
+unobtrusive sense and the calm courtesy of a well-bred gentleman. His
+very equipage kept up the series of contrasts between him and the two
+Ballantynes. Constable went back and forward between the town and
+Polton in a deep-hung and capacious green barouche, without any
+pretence at heraldic blazonry, drawn by a pair of sleek, black,
+long-tailed horses, and conducted by a grave old coachman in plain
+blue livery. The Printer of the Canongate drove himself and his wife
+about the streets and suburbs in a snug machine, which did not
+overburthen one powerful and steady cob; while the gay auctioneer,
+whenever he left the saddle for the box, mounted a bright
+blue dogcart, and rattled down the Newhaven road with two
+high-mettled steeds, prancing _tandem_ before him, and {p.264} most
+probably--especially if he was on his way to the races at
+Musselburgh--with some "sweet singer of Israel" flaming, with all her
+feathers, beside him. On such occasions, by the bye, Johnny sometimes
+had a French horn with him, and he played on it with good skill, and
+with an energy by no means prudent in the state of his lungs.
+
+The Sheriff told with peculiar unction the following anecdote of this
+spark. The first time he went over to pick up curiosities at Paris, it
+happened that he met, in the course of his traffickings, a certain
+brother bookseller of Edinburgh, as unlike him as one man could well
+be to another--a grave, dry Presbyterian, rigid in all his notions as
+the buckle of his wig. This precise worthy having ascertained John's
+address, went to call on him, a day or two afterwards, with the news
+of some richly illuminated missal, which he might possibly be glad to
+make prize of. On asking for his friend, a smiling _laquais de place_
+informed him that _Monsieur_ had gone out, but that _Madame_ was at
+home. Not doubting that Mrs. Ballantyne had accompanied her husband on
+his trip, he desired to pay his respects to _Madame_, and was ushered
+in accordingly. "But oh, Mr. Scott!" said, or rather groaned, the
+austere elder, on his return from this modern Babylon, "oh, Mr. Scott,
+there was nae Mrs. John yonder, but a painted Jezebel sittin' up in
+her bed, wi' a wheen impudent French limmers like hersel', and twa or
+three whiskered blackguards, takin' their collation o' knickknacks and
+champagne wine! I ran out o' the house as if I had been shot. What
+judgment will this wicked warld come to! The Lord pity us!" Scott was
+a severe enough censor in the general of such levities, but somehow,
+in the case of Rigdumfunnidos, he seemed to regard them with much the
+same toleration as the naughty tricks of a monkey in the "Jardin des
+Plantes."
+
+Why did Scott persist in mixing up all his most important {p.265}
+concerns with such people as I have been describing? I asked himself
+that question too unceremoniously at a long subsequent period, and in
+due time the reader shall see the answer I received; but it left the
+main question, to my apprehension, as much in the dark as ever. I
+shall return to the sad subject hereafter more seriously; but in the
+mean time let it suffice to say, that he was the most patient,
+long-suffering, affectionate, and charitable of mankind; that in the
+case of both the Ballantynes he could count, after all, on a
+sincerely, nay, a passionately devoted attachment to his person; that,
+with the greatest of human beings, use is in all but unconquerable
+power; and that he who so loftily tossed aside the seemingly most
+dangerous assaults of flattery, the blandishment of dames, the
+condescension of princes, the enthusiasm of crowds--had still his weak
+point, upon which two or three humble besiegers, and one unwearied,
+though most frivolous underminer, well knew how to direct their
+approaches. It was a favorite saw of his own, that the wisest of our
+race often reserve the average stock of folly to be all expended upon
+some one flagrant absurdity.
+
+
+
+
+{p.266} CHAPTER XLII.
+
+     Publication of the Heart of Mid-Lothian. -- Its Reception in
+     Edinburgh and in England. -- Abbotsford in October. --
+     Melrose Abbey, Dryburgh, etc. -- Lion-hunters from America.
+     -- Tragedy of the Cherokee Lovers. -- Scott's Dinner to the
+     Selkirkshire Yeomen.
+
+1818.
+
+
+Hoping to be forgiven for a long digression, the biographer willingly
+returns to the thread of Scott's story. The Heart of Mid-Lothian
+appeared, as has been mentioned, before the close of June, 1818, and
+among the letters which he received soon afterwards from the friends
+by this time in the secret, there is one which (though I do not
+venture to name the writer) I am tempted to take the liberty of
+quoting:[112]--
+
+              [Footnote 112: [This letter was written August 11, by
+              Lady Louisa Stuart, and it appears in its original and
+              complete form in _Familiar Letters_, vol. ii. p. 18. To
+              the end of her long life, the writer was somewhat
+              influenced by the feeling prevailing in her youth as to
+              the loss of caste suffered by women of good social
+              position who appeared in print. Writing to Mrs. Lockhart
+              after her father's death, and enclosing some of his
+              letters, Lady Louisa says: "If Mr. Lockhart wishes to
+              insert any of these, I will beg not to be named. It is
+              not that I am not proud enough of having been honored
+              with _his_ regard, but I never yet saw my name in print,
+              and hope I never shall." Mr. Lockhart evidently in part
+              overcame this objection.]]
+
+     "Now for it, dear Mr. Scott. I can speak to the purpose, as
+     I have not only read it myself, but am in a house where
+     everybody is tearing it out of each other's hands, and
+     talking of nothing else. So much for its success--the more
+     flattering, because it overcomes a prejudice. People were
+     beginning to say the author would wear himself out; it was
+     going on too {p.267} long in the same key, and no striking
+     notes could possibly be produced. On the contrary, I think
+     the interest is stronger here than in any of the former
+     ones--(always excepting my first-love Waverley)--and one may
+     congratulate you upon having effected what many have tried
+     to do, and nobody yet succeeded in, making the perfectly
+     good character the most interesting. Of late days,
+     especially since it has been the fashion to write moral and
+     even religious novels, one might almost say of some of the
+     wise good heroines, what a lively girl once said to [me] of
+     her well-meaning aunt--'Upon my word she is enough to make
+     anybody wicked.' And though beauty and talents are heaped on
+     the right side, the writer, in spite of himself, is sure to
+     put agreeableness on the wrong; the person from whose errors
+     he means you should take warning, runs away with your secret
+     partiality in the mean time. Had this very story been
+     conducted by a common hand, Effie would have attracted all
+     our concern and sympathy--Jeanie only cold approbation.
+     Whereas Jeanie, without youth, beauty, genius, warm
+     passions, or any other novel-perfection, is here our object
+     from beginning to end. This is 'inlisting the affections in
+     the cause of virtue' ten times more than ever Richardson
+     did; for whose male and female pedants, all-excelling as
+     they are, I never could care half so much as I found myself
+     inclined to do for Jeanie before I finished the first
+     volume....
+
+     "You know I tell you my opinion just as I should do to a
+     third person, and I trust the freedom is not unwelcome. I
+     was a little tired of your Edinburgh lawyers in the
+     introduction; English people in general will be more so, as
+     well as impatient of the passages alluding to Scotch law
+     throughout. Mr. Saddletree will not entertain them. The
+     latter part of the fourth volume unavoidably flags to a
+     certain degree; after Jeanie is happily settled at
+     Roseneath, we have no more to wish for. But the chief fault
+     I have to find relates to the reappearance and shocking fate
+     of the boy. I hear on all sides, 'Oh, I do not like that!' I
+     cannot say what I would have had instead; but I do not like
+     it either; it is a lame, huddled conclusion. I know you so
+     well in it, by the bye!--you grow tired yourself, want to
+     get rid of the story, and hardly care how. Sir George
+     Staunton finishes his career very fitly; he ought not to die
+     in his bed, and for Jeanie's sake one would not have him
+     hanged. {p.268} It is unnatural, though, that he should
+     ever have gone within twenty miles of the Tolbooth, or shown
+     his face in the streets of Edinburgh, or dined at a public
+     meeting, if the Lord Commissioner had been his brother. Here
+     ends my _per contra_ account. The opposite page would make
+     my letter too long if I entered equally into particulars.
+     Carlisle and Corby Castles in Waverley did not affect me
+     more deeply than the prison and trial scenes. The end of
+     poor Madge Wildfire is also most pathetic. The meeting at
+     Muschat's Cairn tremendous. Dumbiedikes and Rory Bean are
+     delightful. And I shall own that my prejudices were secretly
+     gratified by the light in which you place [Uncle] John of
+     Argyle, whom Mr. Coxe so ran down to please Lord Orford. You
+     have drawn him to the very life. I heard so much of him in
+     my youth, so many anecdotes, so often 'as the Duke of Argyle
+     used to say'--that I really believe I am almost as good a
+     judge as if I had seen and lived with him.... [My beloved
+     mother] has told me, that when she married, [in 1737, the
+     very time], he was still remarkably handsome; with manners
+     more graceful and engaging than she ever saw in any one
+     else; the most agreeable person in conversation, the best
+     teller of a story. When fifty-seven thus captivates
+     eighteen, the natural powers of pleasing must be
+     extraordinary. You have likewise colored Queen Caroline
+     exactly right--but I was bred up in another creed about Lady
+     Suffolk, of whom, as a very old deaf woman, I have some
+     faint recollection. [My mother] knew her intimately, and
+     never would allow she had been the King's mistress, though
+     she owned it was currently believed. She said he had just
+     enough liking for her to make the Queen very civil to her,
+     and very jealous and spiteful; the rest remained always
+     uncertain at most, like a similar scandal in our days, where
+     I, for one, imagine love of seeming influence on one side,
+     and love of lounging, of an easy house and a good dinner on
+     the other, to be all the criminal passions concerned.
+     However, I confess, [my mother] had that in herself which
+     made her not ready to think the worst of her fellow-women.
+
+     "Did you ever hear the history of John, Duke of Argyle's
+     marriage, and constant attachment, before and after, to a
+     woman not handsomer or much more elegant than Jeanie Deans,
+     though very unlike her in understanding? I can give it you,
+     if you {p.269} wish it, for it is at my fingers' ends. [I
+     was so much the youngest of a numerous family that I had no
+     playfellow, and for that reason listened with all my ears to
+     the grown people's conversation, most especially when my
+     mother and the friends of her youth got upon old stories;
+     nor did I lose my taste for them when I grew old enough to
+     converse with her on equal terms, and enquire into
+     particulars.] Now I am [an] ancient [tabby] myself, I should
+     be a great treasure of anecdote to anybody who had the same
+     humor,--but I meet with few who have. They read vulgar tales
+     in books, Wraxall, and so forth, what the footmen and maids
+     only gave credit to at the moment, but they desire no
+     farther information. I dare swear many of your readers never
+     heard of the Duke of Argyle before. 'Pray, who was Sir
+     Robert Walpole,' they ask me, 'and when did he live?'--or
+     perhaps--'Was not the great Lord Chatham in Queen Anne's
+     days?'[113]
+
+              [Footnote 113: In 1827, Lady Louisa wrote for Caroline,
+              Lady Scott, a great-granddaughter of the duke, _Some
+              Account of John, Duke of Argyle, and his Family_. This
+              delightful memoir was first printed (privately) in 1863.
+              It was published in 1899, in _Selections from the
+              Manuscripts of Lady Louisa Stuart_.]
+
+     "[Amongst the persons most pleased here is Lady Charlotte
+     Lindsay. She has the true North humor, and love of humor,
+     and she does enjoy it heartily. They] have, to help [them],
+     an exemplification on two legs in [their] country
+     apothecary, whom you have painted over and over without the
+     honor of knowing him; an old, dry, arguing, prosing,
+     obstinate Scotchman, very shrewd, rather sarcastic, a sturdy
+     Whig and Presbyterian, _tirant un peu sur le democrate_.
+     Your books are birdlime to him, however; he hovers about the
+     house to obtain a volume when others have done with it. I
+     long to ask him whether Douce Davie was any way _sib_ to
+     him. He acknowledges he would not _now_ go to Muschat's
+     Cairn at night for any money--he had such a horror of it
+     'sixty years ago' when a laddie. But I am come to the end of
+     my fourth page, and will not tire you with any more
+     scribbling....
+
+     "P. S.--If I had known nothing, and the whole world had told
+     me the contrary, I should have found you out in that one
+     parenthesis,--'for the man was mortal, and had been a
+     schoolmaster.'"
+
+{p.270} This letter was addressed from a great country house in the
+south[114]; and may, I presume, be accepted as a fair index of the
+instantaneous English popularity of Jeanie Deans. From the choice of
+localities, and the splendid blazoning of tragical circumstances that
+had left the strongest impression on the memory and imagination of
+every inhabitant, the reception of this tale in Edinburgh was a scene
+of all-engrossing enthusiasm, such as I never witnessed there on the
+appearance of any other literary novelty. But the admiration and
+delight were the same all over Scotland. Never before had he seized
+such really noble features of the national character as were canonized
+in the person of his homely heroine: no art had ever devised a happier
+running contrast than that of her and her sister, or interwoven a
+portraiture of lowly manners and simple virtues, with more graceful
+delineations of polished life, or with bolder shadows of terror,
+guilt, crime, remorse, madness, and all the agony of the passions.
+
+              [Footnote 114: [Sheffield Place, the seat of Lord
+              Sheffield, the friend and editor of Gibbon.]]
+
+In the introduction and notes to The Heart of Mid-Lothian, drawn up in
+1830, we are presented with details concerning the suggestion of the
+main plot, and the chief historical incidents made use of, to which I
+can add nothing of any moment.
+
+The 12th of July restored the author as usual to the supervision of
+his trees and carpenters; but he had already told the Ballantynes that
+the story which he had found it impossible to include in the recent
+series of Jedediah should be forthwith taken up as the opening one of
+a third; and instructed John to embrace the first favorable
+opportunity of offering Constable the publication of this, on the
+footing of 10,000 copies again forming the first edition; but now at
+length without any more stipulations connected with the unfortunate
+"old stock" of the Hanover Street Company.
+
+{p.271} Before he settled himself to his work, however, he made a
+little tour of the favorite description with his wife and
+children--halting for a few days at Drumlanrig, thence crossing the
+Border to Carlisle and Rokeby, and returning by way of Alnwick. On the
+17th August he writes thus to John Ballantyne from Drumlanrig: "This
+is heavenly weather, and I am making the most of it, as I shall have a
+laborious autumn before me. I may say of my head and fingers as the
+farmer of his mare, when he indulged her with an extra feed,--
+
+  'Ye ken that Maggie winna sleep
+   For that or Simmer.'
+
+We have taken our own horses with us, and I have my pony, and ride
+when I find it convenient."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The following seems to have been among the first letters he wrote
+after his return:--
+
+     TO J. B. S. MORRITT, ESQ., M. P., ROKEBY.
+
+                                        ABBOTSFORD, 10th September, 1818.
+
+     MY DEAR MORRITT,--We have been cruising to and fro since we
+     left your land of woods and streams. Lord Melville wished me
+     to come and stay two days with him at Melville Castle, which
+     has broken in upon my time a little, and interrupted my
+     purpose of telling you as how we arrived safe at Abbotsford,
+     without a drop of rain, thus completing a tour of three
+     weeks in the same fine weather in which we commenced it--a
+     thing which never fell to my lot before. Captain Ferguson is
+     inducted into the office of Keeper of the Regalia, to the
+     great joy, I think, of all Edinburgh. He has entered upon a
+     farm (of eleven acres) in consequence of this advancement,
+     for you know it is a general rule, that whenever a Scotsman
+     gets his head _above water_, he immediately turns it to
+     _land_. As he has already taken all the advice of all the
+     _notables_ in and about the good village of Darnick, we
+     expect to see his farm look like a tailor's {p.272} book of
+     patterns, a snip of every several opinion which he has
+     received occupying its appropriate corner. He is truly what
+     the French call _un drole de corps_.
+
+     I wish you would allow your coachman to look out for me
+     among your neighbors a couple of young colts (rising three
+     would be the best age) that would match for a carriage some
+     two years hence. I have plenty of grass for them in the mean
+     while, and should never know the expense of their keep at
+     Abbotsford. He seemed to think he could pick them up at from
+     L25 to L30, which would make an immense saving hereafter.
+     Peter Matheson and he had arranged some sort of plan of this
+     kind. For a pair of very ordinary carriage-horses in
+     Edinburgh they ask L140 or more; so it is worth while to be
+     a little provident. Even then you only get one good horse,
+     the other being usually a brute. Pray you excuse all this
+     palaver,--
+
+          "These little things are great to little men."
+
+     Our harvest is almost all in, but as farmers always grumble
+     about something, they are now growling about the lightness
+     of the crop. All the young part of our household are wrapt
+     up in uncertainty concerning the Queen's illness--for--if
+     her Majesty parts cable, there will be no Forest Ball, and
+     that is a terrible prospect. On Wednesday (when no post
+     arrives from London) Lord Melville chanced to receive a
+     letter with a black seal by express, and as it was of course
+     argued to contain the expected intelligence of poor
+     Charlotte, it sold a good many ells of black cloth and
+     stuffs before it was ascertained to contain no such
+     information. Surely this came within the line of high
+     treason, being an imagining of the Queen's death.
+
+     Ever yours truly,
+
+                                        Walter SCOTT.
+
+     P. S.--Once more _anent_ the colts. I am indifferent about
+     color; but, _caeteris paribus_, would prefer black or brown,
+     to bright bay or gray. I mention two off--as {p.273} the
+     age at which they can be best judged of by the buyer.
+
+Of the same date I find written in pencil, on what must have been the
+envelope of some sheriff's-process, this note, addressed to Mr.
+Charles Erskine, the Sheriff-Substitute of Selkirkshire:--
+
+                                        September 10, 1818.
+
+     DEAR CHARLES,--I have read these papers with all attention
+     this morning--but think you will agree with me that there
+     must be an Eke to the Condescendence. Order the Eke against
+     next day.--Tom leaves with this packet a blackcock, and
+     (more's the pity) a gray hen. Yours,
+
+                                        W. S.
+
+And again he thus writes by post to James Ballantyne:
+
+                                        ABBOTSFORD, September 10, 1818.
+
+     DEAR JAMES,--I am quite satisfied with what has been done as
+     to the London bills. I am glad the presses move. I have been
+     interrupted sadly since my return by tourist gazers. This
+     day a confounded pair of Cambridge boys have robbed me of
+     two good hours, and you of a sheet of copy--though whether a
+     good sheet or no, deponent saith not. The story is a dismal
+     one, and I doubt sometimes whether it will bear working out
+     to much length after all. Query, if I shall make it so
+     effective in two volumes as my mother does in her quarter of
+     an hour's crack by the fireside? But _nil desperandum_. You
+     shall have a bunch to-morrow or next day--and when the
+     proofs come in, my pen must and shall step out. By the bye,
+     I want a supply of pens--and ditto of ink. Adieu for the
+     present, for I must go over to Toftfield, to give orders
+     _anent_ the dam and the footpath, and see _item_ as to what
+     should be done _anent_ steps at the Rhymer's Waterfall,
+     which I think may be made to turn out a decent bit of a
+     linn, as would set True Thomas his worth and dignity. Ever
+     yours,
+
+                                        W. S.
+
+{p.274} It must, I think, be allowed that these careless scraps, when
+combined, give a curious picture of the man who was brooding over the
+first chapters of The Bride of Lammermoor. One of his visitors of that
+month was Mr. R. Cadell, who was of course in all the secrets of the
+house of Constable; and observing how his host was harassed with
+lion-hunters, and what a number of hours he spent daily in the company
+of his work-people, he expressed, during one of their walks, his
+wonder that Scott should ever be able to write books at all while in
+the country. "I know," he said, "that you contrive to get a few hours
+in your own room, and that may do for the mere pen-work; but when is
+it that you think?" "Oh," said Scott, "I lie _simmering_ over things
+for an hour or so before I get up--and there's the time I am dressing
+to overhaul my half-sleeping, half-waking _projet de chapitre_--and
+when I get the paper before me, it commonly runs off pretty
+easily.--Besides, I often take a doze in the plantations, and while
+Tom marks out a dyke or a drain as I have directed, one's fancy may be
+running its ain riggs in some other world."
+
+It was in the month following that I first saw Abbotsford. He invited
+my friend John Wilson (now Professor of Moral Philosophy at Edinburgh)
+and myself to visit him for a day or two on our return from an
+excursion to Mr. Wilson's beautiful villa on the Lake of Windermere,
+but named the particular day (October 8) on which it would be most
+convenient for him to receive us; and we discovered on our arrival
+that he had fixed it from a good-natured motive. We found him walking
+in one of his plantations, at no great distance from the house, with
+five or six young people, and his friends Lord Melville and Captain
+Ferguson. Having presented us to the First Lord of the Admiralty, he
+fell back a little and said, "I am glad you came to-day, for I thought
+it might be of use to you both, some time or other, to be known to my
+old schoolfellow here, who is, and I hope {p.275} will long continue
+to be, the great giver of good things in the Parliament House. I trust
+you have had enough of certain pranks with your friend Ebony, and if
+so, Lord Melville will have too much sense to remember them."[115] We
+then walked round the plantation, as yet in a very young state, and
+came back to the house by a formidable work which he was constructing
+for the defence of his _haugh_ against the wintry violences of the
+Tweed; and he discoursed for some time with keen interest upon the
+comparative merits of different methods of embankment, but stopped now
+and then to give us the advantage of any point of view in which his
+new building on the eminence above pleased his eye. It had a fantastic
+appearance--being but a fragment of the existing edifice--and not at
+all harmonizing in its outline with "Mother Retford's" original
+tenement to the eastward. Scott, however, expatiated _con amore_ on
+the rapidity with which, being chiefly of darkish granite, it was
+assuming a "time-honored" aspect. Ferguson, with a grave and
+respectful look, observed, "Yes, it really has much the air of some
+old fastness hard by the river Jordan." This allusion to the Chaldee
+MS., already quoted, in the manufacture of which Ferguson fancied
+Wilson and myself to have had a share, gave rise to a burst of
+laughter among Scott's merry young folks and their companions, while
+he himself drew in his nether lip, and rebuked the Captain with
+"Toots, Adam! toots, Adam!" He then returned to his embankment, and
+described how a former one had been entirely swept away in one night's
+flood. But the Captain was ready with another verse of the Chaldee
+MS., and groaned out, by way of echo, "Verily my fine gold hath
+perished!" Whereupon the "Great Magician" elevated his huge oaken
+staff as if to {p.276} lay it on the waggish soldier's back--but
+flourished it gayly over his own head, and laughed louder than the
+youngest of the company. As we walked and talked, the Pepper and
+Mustard terriers kept snuffing about among the bushes and heather near
+us, and started every five minutes a hare, which scudded away before
+them and the ponderous staghound Maida--the Sheriff and all his tail
+hollowing and cheering, in perfect confidence that the dogs could do
+no more harm to poor puss than the venerable tom-cat, Hinse of
+Hinsfeldt, who pursued the vain chase with the rest.
+
+              [Footnote 115: _Ebony_ was Mr. Blackwood's own usual
+              designation in the _jeux d'esprit_ of his young
+              Magazine, in many of which the persons thus addressed by
+              Scott were conjoint culprits. They both were then, as
+              may be inferred, sweeping the boards of the Parliament
+              House as "briefless barristers."]
+
+At length we drew near _Peterhouse_, and found sober Peter himself,
+and his brother-in-law, the facetious factotum Tom Purdie,
+superintending, pipe in mouth, three or four sturdy laborers busy in
+laying down the turf for a bowling-green. "I have planted hollies all
+round it, you see," said Scott, "and laid out an arbor on the
+right-hand side for the laird; and here I mean to have a game at bowls
+after dinner every day in fine weather--for I take that to have been
+among the indispensables of our old _vie de chateau_." But I must not
+forget the reason he gave me some time afterwards for having fixed on
+that spot for his bowling-green. "In truth," he then said, "I wished
+to have a smooth walk, and a canny seat for myself within ear-shot of
+Peter's evening psalm." The coachman was a devout Presbyterian, and
+many a time have I in after-years accompanied Scott on his evening
+stroll, when the principal object was to enjoy, from the
+bowling-green, the unfailing melody of this good man's family
+worship--and heard him repeat, as Peter's manly voice led the humble
+choir within, that beautiful stanza of Burns's Saturday Night:--
+
+  "They chaunt their artless notes in simple guise;
+   They tune their hearts, by far the noblest aim," etc.
+
+It was near the dinner-hour before we reached the house, and presently
+I saw assembled a larger company than I should have fancied to be at
+all compatible with {p.277} the existing accommodations of the place;
+but it turned out that Captain Ferguson, and the friends whom I have
+not as yet mentioned, were to find quarters elsewhere for the night.
+His younger brother, Captain John Ferguson of the Royal Navy (a
+favorite lieutenant of Lord Nelson's), had come over from Huntly Burn;
+there were present, also, Mr. Scott of Gala, whose residence is within
+an easy distance; Sir Henry Hay Macdougal of Mackerstoun, an old
+baronet, with gay, lively, and highly polished manners, related in the
+same degree to both Gala and the Sheriff; Sir Alexander Don, the
+member for Roxburghshire, whose elegant social qualities have been
+alluded to in the preceding chapter; and Dr. Scott of Darnlee, a
+modest and intelligent gentleman, who having realized a fortune in the
+East India Company's medical service, had settled within two or three
+miles of Abbotsford, and, though no longer practising his profession,
+had kindly employed all the resources of his skill in the endeavor to
+counteract his neighbor's recent liability to attacks of cramp. Our
+host and one or two others appeared, as was in those days a common
+fashion with country gentlemen, in the lieutenancy uniform of their
+county. How fourteen or fifteen people contrived to be seated in the
+then dining-room of Abbotsford I know not--for it seemed quite full
+enough when it contained only eight or ten; but so it was--nor, as Sir
+Harry Macdougal's fat valet, warned by former experience, did not join
+the train of attendants, was there any perceptible difficulty in the
+detail of the arrangements. Everything about the dinner was, as
+the phrase runs, in excellent style; and in particular the _potage
+a la Meg Merrilies_, announced as an attempt to imitate a device
+of the Duke of Buccleuch's celebrated cook,--by name Monsieur
+Florence,--seemed, to those at least who were better acquainted with
+the Kaim of Derncleugh than with the _cuisine_ of Bowhill,[116] a very
+laudable specimen of the art. {p.278} The champagne circulated
+nimbly--and I never was present at a gayer dinner. It had advanced a
+little beyond the soup when it received an accompaniment which would
+not, perhaps, have improved the satisfaction of southern guests, had
+any such been present. A tall and stalwart bagpiper, in complete
+Highland costume, appeared pacing to and fro on the green before the
+house, and the window being open, it seemed as if he might as well
+have been straining his lungs within the parlor. At a pause of his
+strenuous performance, Scott took occasion to explain that _John of
+Skye_ was a recent acquisition to the rising hamlet of Abbotstown;
+that the man was a capital hedger and ditcher, and only figured with
+the pipe and philabeg on high occasions in the after-part of the day;
+"but indeed," he added, laughing, "I fear John will soon be
+discovering that the hook and mattock are unfavorable to his chanter
+hand." When the cloth was drawn, and the never-failing salver of
+_quaighs_ introduced, John of Skye, upon some well-known signal,
+entered the room, but _en militaire_, without removing his bonnet, and
+taking his station behind the landlord, received from his hand the
+largest of the Celtic bickers brimful of Glenlivet. The man saluted
+the company in his own dialect, tipped off the contents (probably a
+quarter of an English pint of raw aqua vitae) at a gulp, wheeled about
+as solemnly as if the whole ceremony had been a movement on parade,
+and forthwith recommenced his pibrochs and gatherings, which continued
+until long after the ladies had left the table, and the autumnal moon
+was streaming in upon us so brightly as to dim the candles.
+
+              [Footnote 116: I understand that this now celebrated
+              soup was _extemporized_ by M. Florence on Scott's first
+              visit to Bowhill after the publication of _Guy
+              Mannering_. Florence had _served_--and Scott having on
+              some sporting party made his personal acquaintance, he
+              used often afterwards to gratify the poet's military
+              propensities by sending up magnificent representations
+              in pastry, of citadels taken by the Emperor, etc.]
+
+I had never before seen Scott in such buoyant spirits as he showed
+this evening--and I never saw him in {p.279} higher afterwards; and
+no wonder, for this was the first time that he, Lord Melville, and
+Adam Ferguson, daily companions at the High School of Edinburgh, and
+partners in many joyous scenes of the early volunteer period, had met
+since the commencement of what I may call the serious part of any of
+their lives. The great poet and novelist was receiving them under his
+own roof, when his fame was at its _acme_, and his fortune seemed
+culminating to about a corresponding height--and the generous
+exuberance of his hilarity might have overflowed without moving the
+spleen of a Cynic. Old stories of _the Yards_ and _the Cross-causeway_
+were relieved by sketches of real warfare, such as none but Ferguson
+(or Charles Mathews, had he been a soldier) could ever have given; and
+they toasted the memory of _Green-breeks_ and the health of _the Beau_
+with equal devotion.
+
+When we rose from table, Scott proposed that we should all ascend his
+western turret, to enjoy a moonlight view of the valley. The younger
+part of his company were too happy to do so: some of the seniors, who
+had tried the thing before, found pretexts for hanging back. The
+stairs were dark, narrow, and steep; but the Sheriff piloted the way,
+and at length there were as many on the top as it could well afford
+footing for. Nothing could be more lovely than the panorama; all the
+harsher and more naked features being lost in the delicious moonlight;
+the Tweed and the Gala winding and sparkling beneath our feet; and the
+distant ruins of Melrose appearing, as if carved of alabaster, under
+the black mass of the Eildons. The poet, leaning on his battlement,
+seemed to hang over the beautiful vision as if he had never seen it
+before. "If I live," he exclaimed, "I will build me a higher tower,
+with a more spacious platform, and a staircase better fitted for an
+old fellow's scrambling." The piper was heard re-tuning his instrument
+below, and he called to him for Lochaber no More. John of Skye obeyed,
+and as the music rose, softened by {p.280} the distance, Scott
+repeated in a low key the melancholy words of the song of exile.
+
+On descending from the tower, the whole company were assembled in the
+new dining-room, which was still under the hands of the carpenters,
+but had been brilliantly illuminated for the occasion. Mr. Bruce took
+his station, and old and young danced reels to his melodious
+accompaniment until they were weary, while Scott and the Dominie
+looked on with gladsome faces, and beat time now and then, the one
+with his staff, the other with his wooden leg. A tray with mulled wine
+and whiskey punch was then introduced, and Lord Melville proposed a
+bumper, with all the honors, to the _Roof-tree_. Captain Ferguson
+having sung Johnnie Cope, called on the young ladies for Kenmure's On
+and Awa'; and our host then insisted that the whole party should join,
+standing in a circle hand-in-hand _more majorum_, in the hearty chorus
+of
+
+  "Weel may we a' be,
+   Ill may we never see,
+   God bless the king and the gude companie!"
+
+--which being duly performed, all dispersed. Such was _the handsel_
+(for Scott protested against its being considered as _the
+house-heating_) of the new Abbotsford.
+
+When I began this chapter, I thought it would be a short one, but it
+is surprising how, when one digs into his memory, the smallest details
+of a scene that was interesting at the time, shall by degrees come to
+light again. I now recall, as if I had seen and heard them yesterday,
+the looks and words of eighteen years ago. Awakening between six and
+seven next morning, I heard Scott's voice close to me, and looking out
+of the little latticed window of the then detached cottage called _the
+chapel_, saw him and Tom Purdie pacing together on the green before
+the door, in earnest deliberation over what seemed to be a rude daub
+of a drawing; and every time they approached my end of their parade, I
+was sure to {p.281} catch the words _Blue Bank_. It turned out in the
+course of the day, that a field of clay near Toftfield went by this
+name, and that the draining of it was one of the chief operations then
+in hand. My friend Wilson meanwhile, who lodged also in the chapel,
+tapped at my door, and asked me to rise and take a walk with him by
+the river, for he had some angling project in his head. He went out
+and joined in the consultation about the Blue Bank, while I was
+dressing; presently Scott hailed me at the casement, and said he had
+observed a volume of a new edition of Goethe on my table--would I lend
+it him for a little? He carried off the volume accordingly, and
+retreated with it to his den. It contained the Faust, and, I believe,
+in a more complete shape than he had before seen that masterpiece of
+his old favorite. When we met at breakfast, a couple of hours after,
+he was full of the poem--dwelt with enthusiasm on the airy beauty of
+its lyrics, the terrible pathos of the scene before the _Mater
+Dolorosa_, and the deep skill shown in the various subtle shadings of
+character between Mephistopheles and poor Margaret. He remarked,
+however, of the Introduction (which I suspect was new to him), that
+blood would out--that, consummate artist as he was, Goethe was a
+German, and that nobody but a German would ever have provoked a
+comparison with the Book of Job, "the grandest poem that ever was
+written." He added, that he suspected the end of the story had been
+left _in obscuro_, from despair to match the closing scene of our own
+Marlowe's Doctor Faustus. Mr. Wilson mentioned a report that Coleridge
+was engaged on a translation of the Faust. "I hope it is so," said
+Scott; "Coleridge made Schiller's Wallenstein far finer than he found
+it, and so he will do by this. No man has all the resources of poetry
+in such profusion, but he cannot manage them so as to bring out
+anything of his own on a large scale at all worthy of his genius. He
+is like a lump of coal rich with gas, which lies expending itself in
+puffs and {p.282} gleams, unless some shrewd body will clap it into a
+cast-iron box, and compel the compressed element to do itself justice.
+His fancy and diction would have long ago placed him above all his
+contemporaries, had they been under the direction of a sound judgment
+and a steady will.[117] I don't now expect a great original poem from
+Coleridge, but he might easily make a sort of fame for himself as a
+poetical translator,--that would be a thing completely unique and _sui
+generis_."
+
+              [Footnote 117: In the Introduction to _The Lay of the
+              Last Minstrel_, 1830, Sir Walter says: "Were I ever to
+              take the unbecoming freedom of censuring a man of Mr.
+              Coleridge's extraordinary talents, it would be on
+              account of the caprice and indolence with which he has
+              thrown from him, as in mere wantonness, those unfinished
+              scraps of poetry, which, like the Torso of antiquity,
+              defy the skill of his poetical brethren to complete
+              them. The charming fragments which the author abandons
+              to their fate are surely too valuable to be treated like
+              the proofs of careless engravers, the sweepings of whose
+              studios often make the fortune of some painstaking
+              collector." And in a note to _The Abbot_, alluding to
+              Coleridge's beautiful and tantalizing fragment of
+              _Christabel_, he adds: "Has not our own imaginative poet
+              cause to fear that future ages will desire to summon him
+              from his place of rest, as Milton longed
+
+                  'To call up him who left half told
+                   The story of Cambuscan bold'?"]
+
+While this criticism proceeded, Scott was cutting away at his brown
+loaf and a plate of kippered salmon, in a style which strongly
+reminded me of Dandie Dinmont's luncheon at Mump's Hall; nor was his
+German topic at all the predominant one. On the contrary, the
+sentences which have dwelt on my memory dropt from him now and then,
+in the pauses, as it were, of his main talk;--for though he could not
+help recurring, ever and anon, to the subject, it would have been
+quite out of his way to make any literary matter the chief theme of
+his conversation, when there was a single person present who was not
+likely to feel much interested in its discussion.--How often have I
+heard him quote on such occasions Mr. Vellum's advice to the butler in
+Addison's excellent play of The Drummer: "Your conjuror, John, is
+indeed a twofold personage--but he _eats and drinks like other
+people_!"
+
+{p.283} I may, however, take this opportunity of observing, that
+nothing could have been more absurdly unfounded than the statement
+which I have seen repeated in various sketches of his Life and
+Manners, that he habitually abstained from conversation on literary
+topics. In point of fact, there were no topics on which he talked more
+openly or more earnestly; but he, when in society, lived and talked
+for the persons with whom he found himself surrounded, and if he did
+not always choose to enlarge upon the subjects which his companions
+for the time suggested, it was simply because he thought or fancied
+that these had selected, out of deference or flattery, subjects about
+which they really cared little more than they knew. I have already
+repeated, over and again, my conviction that Scott considered
+literature, _per se_, as a thing of far inferior importance to the
+high concerns of political or practical life; but it would be too
+ridiculous to question that literature nevertheless engrossed, at all
+times and seasons, the greater part of his own interest and
+reflection: nor can it be doubted that his general preference of the
+society of men engaged in the active business of the world, rather
+than that of, so-called, literary people, was grounded substantially
+on his feeling that literature, worthy of the name, was more likely to
+be fed and nourished by the converse of the former than by that of the
+latter class.
+
+Before breakfast was over, the post-bag arrived, and its contents were
+so numerous, that Lord Melville asked Scott what election was on
+hand--not doubting that there must be some very particular reason for
+such a shoal of letters. He answered that it was much the same most
+days, and added, "though no one has kinder friends in the franking
+line, and though Freeling and Croker especially are always ready to
+stretch the point of privilege in my favor, I am nevertheless a fair
+contributor to the revenue, for I think my bill for letters seldom
+comes under L150 a year; and as to coach-parcels, they {p.284} are a
+perfect ruination." He then told with high merriment a disaster that
+had lately befallen him. "One morning last spring," he said, "I opened
+a huge lump of a despatch, without looking how it was addressed, never
+doubting that it had travelled under some omnipotent frank like the
+First Lord of the Admiralty's, when, lo and behold, the contents
+proved to be a MS. play, by a young lady of New York, who kindly
+requested me to read and correct it, equip it with prologue and
+epilogue, procure for it a favorable reception from the manager of
+Drury Lane, and make Murray or Constable bleed handsomely for the
+copyright; and on inspecting the cover, I found that I had been
+charged five pounds odd for the postage. This was bad enough--but
+there was no help, so I groaned and submitted. A fortnight or so
+after, another packet, of not less formidable bulk, arrived, and I was
+absent enough to break its seal, too, without examination. Conceive my
+horror when out jumped the same identical tragedy of The Cherokee
+Lovers, with a second epistle from the authoress, stating that, as the
+winds had been boisterous, she feared the vessel entrusted with her
+former communication might have foundered, and therefore judged it
+prudent to forward a duplicate."
+
+Scott said he must retire to answer his letters, but that the sociable
+and the ponies would be at the door by one o'clock, when he proposed
+to show Melrose and Dryburgh to Lady Melville and any of the rest of
+the party that chose to accompany them; adding that his son Walter
+would lead anybody who preferred a gun to the likeliest place for a
+blackcock, and that Charlie Purdie (Tom's brother) would attend upon
+Mr. Wilson, and whoever else chose to try a cast of the salmon-rod. He
+withdrew when all this was arranged, and appeared at the time
+appointed, with perhaps a dozen letters sealed for the post, and a
+coach-parcel addressed to James Ballantyne, which he dropt at the
+turnpike-gate as we drove to Melrose. Seeing it picked up by a dirty
+urchin, and carried {p.285} into a hedge pot-house, where
+half-a-dozen nondescript wayfarers were smoking and tippling, I could
+not but wonder that it had not been the fate of some one of those
+innumerable packets to fall into unscrupulous hands, and betray the
+grand secret. That very morning we had seen two post-chaises drawn up
+at his gate, and the enthusiastic travellers, seemingly decent
+tradesmen and their families, who must have been packed in a manner
+worthy of Mrs. Gilpin, lounging about to catch a glimpse of him at his
+going forth. But it was impossible in those days to pass between
+Melrose and Abbotsford without encountering some odd figure, armed
+with a sketch-book, evidently bent on a peep at the Great Unknown; and
+it must be allowed that many of these pedestrians looked as if they
+might have thought it very excusable to make prize, by hook or by
+crook, of a MS. chapter of the Tales of my Landlord.
+
+Scott showed us the ruins of Melrose in detail; and as we proceeded to
+Dryburgh, descanted learnedly and sagaciously on the good effects
+which must have attended the erection of so many great monastic
+establishments in a district so peculiarly exposed to the inroads of
+the English in the days of the Border wars. "They were now and then
+violated," he said, "as their aspect to this hour bears witness; but
+for once that they suffered, any lay property similarly situated must
+have been _harried_ a dozen times. The bold Dacres, Liddells, and
+Howards, that could get easy absolution at York or Durham for any
+ordinary breach of a truce with the Scots, would have had _to dree a
+heavy dole_ had they confessed plundering from the fat brothers, of
+the same order perhaps, whose lines had fallen to them on the wrong
+side of the Cheviot." He enlarged, too, on the heavy penalty which the
+Crown of Scotland had paid for its rash acquiescence in the wholesale
+robbery of the Church at the Reformation. "The proportion of the soil
+in the hands of the clergy had," he said, "been very great--too great
+to be {p.286} continued. If we may judge by their share in the public
+burdens, they must have had nearly a third of the land in their
+possession. But this vast wealth was now distributed among a turbulent
+nobility, too powerful before; and the Stuarts soon found, that in the
+bishops and lord abbots they had lost the only means of balancing
+their factions, so as to turn the scale in favor of law and order; and
+by and by the haughty barons themselves, who had scrambled for the
+worldly spoil of the church, found that the spiritual influence had
+been concentrated in hands as haughty as their own, and connected with
+no feelings likely to buttress their order any more than the Crown--a
+new and sterner monkery, under a different name, and essentially
+plebeian. Presently the Scotch were on the verge of republicanism, in
+state as well as kirk, and I have sometimes thought it was only the
+accession of King Jamie to the throne of England that could have given
+monarchy a chance of prolonging its existence here." One of his
+friends asked what he supposed might have been the annual revenue of
+the abbey of Melrose in its best day. He answered that he suspected,
+if all the sources of their income were now in clever hands, the
+produce could hardly be under L100,000 a year; and added: "Making
+every allowance for modern improvements, there can be no question that
+the sixty brothers of Melrose divided a princely rental. The superiors
+were often men of very high birth, and the great majority of the rest
+were younger brothers of gentlemen's families. I fancy they may have
+been, on the whole, pretty near akin to your Fellows of All
+Souls--who, according to their statute, must be _bene nati, bene
+vestiti, et mediocriter docti_. They had a good house in Edinburgh,
+where, no doubt, my lord abbot and his chaplains maintained a
+hospitable table during the sittings of Parliament." Some one
+regretted that we had no lively picture of the enormous revolution in
+manners that must have followed the downfall of the ancient Church in
+{p.287} Scotland. He observed that there were, he fancied, materials
+enough for constructing such a one, but that they were mostly
+scattered in records--"of which," said he, "who knows anything to the
+purpose except Tom Thomson and John Riddell? It is common to laugh at
+such researches, but they pay the good brains that meddle with
+them;--and had Thomson been as diligent in setting down his
+discoveries as he has been in making them, he might, long before this
+time of day, have placed himself on a level with Ducange or Camden.
+The change in the country-side," he continued, "must indeed have been
+terrific; but it does not seem to have been felt very severely by a
+certain Boniface of St. Andrews, for when somebody asked him, on the
+subsidence of the storm, what he thought of all that had
+occurred,--'Why,' answered mine host, 'it comes to this, that the
+moder_au_tor sits in my meikle chair, where the dean sat before, and
+in place of calling for the third stoup of Bordeaux, bids Jenny bring
+ben anither bowl of toddy.'"
+
+At Dryburgh, Scott pointed out to us the sepulchral aisle of his
+Haliburton ancestors, and said he hoped, in God's appointed time, to
+lay his bones among their dust. The spot was, even then, a
+sufficiently interesting and impressive one; but I shall not say more
+of it at present.
+
+On returning to Abbotsford, we found Mrs. Scott and her daughters
+doing penance under the merciless curiosity of a couple of tourists
+who had arrived from Selkirk soon after we set out for Melrose. They
+were rich specimens--tall, lanky young men, both of them rigged out in
+new jackets and trousers of the Macgregor tartan; the one, as they had
+revealed, being a lawyer, the other a Unitarian preacher, from New
+England. These gentlemen, when told on their arrival that Mr. Scott
+was not at home, had shown such signs of impatience, that the servant
+took it for granted they must have serious business, and asked if they
+would wish to speak a word with his {p.288} lady. They grasped at
+this, and so conducted themselves in the interview, that Mrs. Scott
+never doubted they had brought letters of introduction to her husband,
+and invited them accordingly to partake of her luncheon. They had been
+walking about the house and grounds with her and her daughters ever
+since that time, and appeared at the porch, when the Sheriff and his
+party returned to dinner, as if they had been already fairly enrolled
+on his visiting list. For the moment, he too was taken in--he fancied
+that his wife must have received and opened their credentials--and
+shook hands with them with courteous cordiality. But Mrs. Scott, with
+all her overflowing good-nature, was a sharp observer; and she, before
+a minute had elapsed, interrupted the ecstatic compliments of the
+strangers, by reminding them that her husband would be glad to have
+the letters of the friends who had been so good as to write by them.
+It then turned out that there were no letters to be produced--and
+Scott, signifying that his hour for dinner approached, added, that as
+he supposed they meant to walk to Melrose, he could not trespass
+further on their time. The two lion-hunters seemed quite unprepared
+for this abrupt escape. But there was about Scott, in perfection, when
+he chose to exert it, the power of civil repulsion; he bowed the
+overwhelmed originals to his door, and on reentering the parlor, found
+Mrs. Scott complaining very indignantly that they had gone so far as
+to pull out their note-book, and beg an exact account, not only of his
+age--but of her own. Scott, already half relenting, laughed heartily
+at this misery. He observed, however, that, "if he were to take in all
+the world, he had better put up a sign-post at once,--
+
+  'Porter, ale, and British spirits,
+   Painted bright between twa trees;'[118]
+
+and that no traveller of respectability could ever be at a loss for
+such an introduction as would insure his best {p.289} hospitality."
+Still he was not quite pleased with what had happened--and as we were
+about to pass, half an hour afterwards, from the drawing-room to the
+dining-room, he said to his wife, "Hang the Yahoos, Charlotte--but we
+should have bid them stay dinner." "Devil a bit," quoth Captain John
+Ferguson, who had again come over from Huntly Burn, and had been
+latterly assisting the lady to amuse her Americans, "Devil a bit, my
+dear,--they were quite in a mistake, I could see. The one asked Madame
+whether she deigned to call her new house Tully-Veolan or
+Tillietudlem; and the other, when Maida happened to lay his nose
+against the window, exclaimed _pro-di-gi-ous_! In short, they
+evidently meant all their humbug not for you, but for the culprit of
+Waverley, and the rest of that there rubbish." "Well, well, Skipper,"
+was the reply, "for a' that, the loons would hae been nane the waur o'
+their kail."
+
+              [Footnote 118: Macneill's _Will and Jean_.]
+
+From this banter it may be inferred that the younger Ferguson had not
+as yet been told the Waverley secret--which to any of that house could
+never have been any mystery. Probably this, or some similar occasion
+soon afterwards, led to his formal initiation; for during the many
+subsequent years that the veil was kept on, I used to admire the tact
+with which, when in their topmost high-jinks humor, both "Captain
+John" and "The Auld Captain" eschewed any the most distant allusion to
+the affair.
+
+And this reminds me, that at the period of which I am writing, none of
+Scott's own family, except of course his wife, had the advantage in
+that matter of the Skipper. Some of them, too, were apt, like him, so
+long as no regular confidence had been reposed in them, to avail
+themselves of the author's reserve for their own sport among friends.
+Thus one morning, just as Scott was opening the door of the parlor,
+the rest of the party being already seated at the breakfast-table, the
+Dominie was in the act of helping himself to an egg, marked with
+{p.290} a peculiar hieroglyphic by Mrs. Thomas Purdie, upon which
+Anne Scott, then a lively rattling girl of sixteen, lisped out,
+"That's a mysterious-looking egg, Mr. Thomson--what if it should have
+been meant for _the Great Unknown_?" Ere the Dominie could reply, her
+father advanced to the foot of the table, and having seated himself
+and deposited his stick on the carpet beside him, with a sort of
+whispered whistle--"What's that Lady Anne's[119] saying?" quoth he; "I
+thought it had been well known that the _keelavined_ egg must be a
+soft one for _the Sherra_." And so he took his egg, and while all
+smiled in silence, poor Anne said gayly, in the midst of her blushes,
+"Upon my word, papa, I thought Mr. John Ballantyne might have been
+expected." This allusion to Johnny's glory in being considered as the
+accredited representative of Jedediah Cleishbotham produced a
+laugh,--at which the Sheriff frowned--and then laughed too.
+
+              [Footnote 119: When playing, in childhood, with the
+              young ladies of the Buccleuch family, she had been
+              overheard saying to her namesake Lady Anne Scott, "Well,
+              I do wish I were Lady Anne too--it is so much prettier
+              than Miss;" thenceforth she was commonly addressed in
+              the family by the coveted title.]
+
+I remember nothing particular about our second day's dinner, except
+that it was then I first met my dear and honored friend William
+Laidlaw. The evening passed rather more quietly than the preceding
+one. Instead of the dance in the new dining-room, we had a succession
+of old ballads sung to the harp and guitar by the young ladies of the
+house; and Scott, when they seemed to have done enough, found some
+reason for taking down a volume of Crabbe, and read us one of his
+favorite tales,--
+
+  "Grave Jonas Kindred, Sibyl Kindred's sire,
+   Was six feet high, and looked six inches higher," etc.
+
+But jollity revived in full vigor when the supper-tray was introduced;
+and to cap all merriment, Captain Ferguson dismissed us with The Laird
+of Cockpen. Lord and Lady Melville were to return to Melville Castle
+next {p.291} morning, and Mr. Wilson and I happened to mention that
+we were engaged to dine and sleep at the seat of my friend and
+relation, Mr. Pringle of Torwoodlee, on our way to Edinburgh. Scott
+immediately said that he would send word in the morning to the Laird,
+that he and Adam Ferguson meant to accompany us--such being the
+unceremonious style in which country neighbors in Scotland visit each
+other. Next day, accordingly, we all rode over together to Mr.
+Pringle's beautiful seat--the "distant Torwoodlee" of The Lay of the
+Last Minstrel, but distant not above five or six miles from
+Abbotsford--coursing hares as we proceeded, but inspecting the
+antiquities of the _Catrail_ to the interruption of our sport. We had
+another joyous evening at Torwoodlee. Scott and Ferguson returned home
+at night, and the morning after, as Wilson and I mounted for
+Edinburgh, our kind old host, his sides still sore with laughter,
+remarked that "the Sheriff and the Captain together were too much for
+any company."
+
+There was much talk between the Sheriff and Mr. Pringle about the
+Selkirkshire Yeomanry Cavalry, of which the latter had been the
+original commandant. Young Walter Scott had been for a year or more
+Cornet in the corps, and his father was consulting Torwoodlee about an
+entertainment which he meant to give them on his son's approaching
+birthday. It was then that the new dining-room was to be first
+_heated_ in good earnest; and Scott very kindly pressed Wilson and
+myself, at parting, to return for the occasion--which, however, we
+found it impossible to do. The reader must therefore be satisfied with
+what is said about it in one of the following letters:--
+
+     TO J. B. S. MORRITT, ESQ., M. P., ROKEBY.
+
+                                        ABBOTSFORD, 5th November, 1818.
+
+     MY DEAR MORRITT,--Many thanks for your kind letter of 29th
+     October. The matter of the colts being as {p.292} you
+     state, I shall let it lie over until next year, and then
+     avail myself of your being in the neighborhood to get a good
+     pair of four-year-olds, since it would be unnecessary to buy
+     them a year younger, and incur all the risks of disease and
+     accident, unless they could have been had at a proportional
+     under-value.
+
+     * * * * * * leaves us this morning after a visit of about a
+     week. He improves on acquaintance, and especially seems so
+     pleased with everything, that it would be very hard to
+     quarrel with him. Certainly, as the Frenchman said, _il a un
+     grand talent pour le silence_. I take the opportunity of his
+     servant going direct to Rokeby to charge him with this
+     letter, and a plaid which my daughters entreat you to accept
+     of as a token of their _warm_ good wishes. Seriously you
+     will find it a good bosom friend in an easterly wind, a
+     black frost, or when your country avocations lead you to
+     face a _dry wap of snow_. I find it by far the lightest and
+     most comfortable integument which I can use upon such
+     occasions.
+
+     We had a grand jollification here last week;--the whole
+     troop of Forest Yeomanry dining with us. I assure you the
+     scene was gay and even grand, with glittering sabres, waving
+     standards, and screaming bagpipes; and that it might not
+     lack spectators of taste, who should arrive in the midst of
+     the hurricane, but Lord and Lady Compton, whose presence
+     gave a great zest to the whole affair. Everything went off
+     very well, and as cavalry have the great advantage over
+     infantry, that their _legs_ never get drunk, they retired in
+     decent disorder about ten o'clock. I was glad to see Lord
+     and Lady Compton so very comfortable, and surrounded with so
+     fine a family, the natural bond of mutual regard and
+     affection. She has got very jolly, but otherwise has
+     improved on her travels. I had a long chat with her, and was
+     happy to find her quite contented and pleased with the lot
+     she has drawn in life. It is a brilliant one in many
+     respects, to be sure; but still I have seen the story of the
+     poor {p.293} woman, who, after all rational subjects of
+     distress had been successively remedied, tormented herself
+     about the screaming of a neighbor's peacock--I say, I have
+     seen this so often realized in actual life, that I am more
+     afraid of my friends making themselves uncomfortable, who
+     have only imaginary evils to indulge, than I am for the
+     peace of those who, battling magnanimously with real
+     inconvenience and danger, find a remedy in the very force of
+     the exertions to which their lot compels them.
+
+     I sympathize with you for the _dole_ which you are _dreeing_
+     under the inflictions of your honest proser. Of all the
+     boring machines ever devised, your regular and determined
+     story-teller is the most peremptory and powerful in his
+     operations. This is a rainy day, and my present infliction
+     is an idle cousin, a great amateur of the pipes, who is
+     performing incessantly in the next room for the benefit of a
+     probationary minstrel, whose pipes scream _a la distance_,
+     as the young hoarse cock-chicken imitates the gallant and
+     triumphant screech of a veteran Sir Chanticleer. Yours
+     affectionately,
+
+                                        W. SCOTT.
+
+
+
+
+{p.295} APPENDIX
+
+
+THE DURHAM GARLAND
+
+IN THREE PARTS
+
+[The following is the _Garland_ referred to at pages 4 and 26, in
+connection with the novel of Guy Mannering. The ballad was taken down
+from the recitation of Mrs. Young of Castle-Douglas, who, as her
+family informed Mr. Train, had long been in the habit of repeating it
+over to them once in the year, in order that it might not escape from
+her memory.]
+
+
+PART I
+
+    1
+
+    A worthy Lord of birth and state,
+    Who did in Durham live of late--
+    But I will not declare his name,
+    By reason of his birth and fame.
+
+    2
+
+    This Lord he did a-hunting go;
+    If you the truth of all would know,
+    He had indeed a noble train,
+    Of Lords and Knights and Gentlemen.
+
+    3
+
+    This noble Lord he left the train
+    Of Lords and Knights and Gentlemen;
+    And hearing not the horn to blow,
+    He could not tell which way to go.
+
+    4
+
+    But he did wander to and fro,
+    Being weary, likewise full of woe:
+    At last Dame Fortune was so kind
+    That he the Keeper's house did find.
+
+    {p.296} 5
+
+    He went and knocked at the door,
+    He thought it was so late an hour.
+    The Forester did let him in,
+    And kindly entertained him.
+
+    6
+
+    About the middle of the night,
+    When as the stars did shine most bright,
+    This Lord was in a sad surprise,
+    Being wakened by a fearful noise.
+
+    7
+
+    Then he did rise and call with speed,
+    To know the reason then indeed,
+    Of all that shrieking and those cries
+    Which did disturb his weary eyes.
+
+    8
+
+    "I'm sorry, Sir," the Keeper said,
+    "That you should be so much afraid;
+    But I do hope all will be well,
+    For my wife she is in travail."
+
+    9
+
+    The noble Lord was learned and wise,
+    To know the Planets in the skies.
+    He saw one evil Planet reign,
+    He called the Forester again.
+
+    10
+
+    He gave him then to understand,
+    He'd have the Midwife hold her hand;
+    But he was answered by the maid,
+    "My Mistress is delivered."
+
+    11
+
+    At one o'clock that very morn,
+    A lovely infant there was born;
+    It was indeed a charming boy,
+    Which brought the man and wife much joy.
+
+    12
+
+    The Lord was generous, kind, and free,
+    And proffered Godfather to be;
+    The Goodman thanked him heartily
+    For his goodwill and courtesy.
+
+    {p.297} 13
+
+    A parson was sent for with speed,
+    For to baptize the child indeed;
+    And after that, as I heard say,
+    In mirth and joy they spent the day.
+
+    14
+
+    This Lord did noble presents give,
+    Which all the servants did receive.
+    They prayed God to enrich his store,
+    For they never had so much before.
+
+    15
+
+    And likewise to the child he gave
+    A present noble, rich, and brave;
+    It was a charming cabinet,
+    That was with pearls and jewels set.
+
+    16
+
+    And within it was a chain of gold,
+    Would dazzle eyes for to behold;
+    A richer gift, as I may say,
+    Was not beheld this many a day.
+
+    17
+
+    He charged his father faithfully,
+    That he himself would keep the key,
+    Until the child could write and read--
+    And then to give him it indeed;--
+
+    18
+
+    "Pray do not open it at all
+    Whatever should on you befall;
+    For it may do my godson good,
+    If it be rightly understood."
+
+    19
+
+    This Lord did not declare his name,
+    Nor yet the place from whence he came,
+    But secretly he did depart,
+    And left them grieved to the heart.
+
+
+PART II
+
+    1
+
+    The second part I now unfold,
+    As true a story as e'er was told,
+    {p.298} Concerning of a lovely child,
+    Who was obedient, sweet, and mild.
+
+    2
+
+    This child did take his learning so,
+    If you the truth of all would know,
+    At eleven years of age indeed,
+    Both Greek and Latin he could read.
+
+    3
+
+    Then thinking of his cabinet,
+    That was with pearls and jewels set,
+    He asked his father for the key,
+    Which he gave him right speedily;
+
+    4
+
+    And when he did the same unlock,
+    He was with great amazement struck
+    When he the riches did behold,
+    And likewise saw the chain of gold.
+
+    5
+
+    But searching farther he did find
+    A paper which disturbed his mind,
+    That was within the cabinet,
+    In Greek and Latin it was writ.
+
+    6
+
+    _My child, serve God that is on high,
+    And pray to him incessantly;
+    Obey your parents, love your king,
+    That nothing may your conscience sting._
+
+    7
+
+    _At seven years hence your fate will be,
+    You must be hanged upon a tree;
+    Then pray to God both night and day,
+    To let that hour pass away._
+
+    8
+
+    When he these woeful lines did read,
+    He with a sigh did say indeed,
+    "If hanging be my destiny,
+    My parents shall not see me die;
+
+    9
+
+    "For I will wander to and fro,
+    I'll go where I no one do know;
+    But first I'll ask my parents' leave,
+    In hopes their blessing to receive."
+
+    {p.299} 10
+
+    Then locking up his cabinet,
+    He went from his own chamber straight
+    Unto his only parents dear,
+    Beseeching them with many a tear
+
+    11
+
+    That they would grant what he would have--
+    "But first your blessing I do crave,
+    And beg you'll let me go away,
+    'T will do me good another day."
+
+    12
+
+    *  *  *  *  *
+    *  *  *  *  *
+    "And if I live I will return,
+    When seven years are past and gone."
+
+    13
+
+    Both man and wife did then reply,
+    "I fear, my son, that we shall die;
+    If we should yield to let you go,
+    Our aged hearts would break with woe."
+
+    14
+
+    But he entreated eagerly,
+    While they were forced to comply,
+    And give consent to let him go,
+    But where, alas! they did not know.
+
+    15
+
+    In the third part you soon shall find,
+    That fortune was to him most kind,
+    And after many dangers past,
+    He came to Durham at the last.
+
+
+PART III
+
+  1
+
+  He went by chance, as I heard say,
+  To that same house that very day
+  In which his Godfather did dwell;
+  But mind what luck to him befell--
+
+  2
+
+  This child did crave a service there,
+  On which came out his Godfather,
+  {p.300} And seeing him a pretty youth,
+  He took him for his Page in truth.
+
+  3
+
+  Then in this place he pleased so well,
+  That 'bove the rest he bore the bell;
+  This child so well the Lord did please,
+  He raised him higher by degrees.
+
+  4
+
+  He made him Butler sure indeed,
+  And then his Steward with all speed,
+  Which made the other servants spite,
+  And envy him both day and night.
+
+  5
+
+  He was never false unto his trust,
+  But proved ever true and just;
+  And to the Lord did hourly pray
+  To guide him still both night and day.
+
+  6
+
+  In this place, plainly it appears,
+  He lived the space of seven years;
+  His parents then he thought upon,
+  And of his promise to return.
+
+  7
+
+  Then humbly of his Lord did crave,
+  That he his free consent might have
+  To go and see his parents dear,
+  He had not seen this many a year.
+
+  8
+
+  Then having leave, away he went,
+  Not dreaming of the false intent
+  That was contrived against him then
+  By wicked, false, deceitful men.
+
+  9
+
+  They had in his portmanteau put
+  This noble Lord's fine golden cup;
+  That when the Lord at dinner was,
+  The cup was missed as come to pass.
+
+  10
+
+  "Where can it be?" this Lord did say,
+  "We had it here but yesterday."
+  {p.301} The Butler then replied with speed,
+  "If you will hear the truth indeed.
+
+  11
+
+  "Your darling Steward which is gone,
+  With feathered nest away is flown;
+  I'll warrant you he has that, and more
+  That doth belong unto your store."
+
+  12
+
+  "No," says this Lord, "that cannot be,
+  For I have tried his honesty;"
+  "Then," said the Cook, "my Lord, I die
+  Upon a tree full ten feet high."
+
+  13
+
+  Then hearing what these men did say,
+  He sent a messenger that day,
+  To take him with a hue and cry,
+  And bring him back immediately.
+
+  14
+
+  They searched his portmanteau with speed,
+  In which they found the cup indeed;
+  Then was he struck with sad surprise,
+  He could not well believe his eyes.
+
+  15
+
+  The assizes then were drawing nigh,
+  And he was tried and doomed to die;
+  And his injured innocence
+  Could nothing say in his defense.
+
+  16
+
+  But going to the Gallows tree,
+  On which he thought to hanged be
+  He clapped his hands upon his breast,
+  And thus in tears these words exprest:--
+
+  17
+
+  "Blind Fortune will be Fortune still,
+  I see, let man do what he will;
+  For though this day I needs must die,
+  I am not guilty--no, not I."
+
+  18
+
+  This noble Lord was in amaze,
+  He stood and did with wonder gaze;
+  {p.302} Then he spoke out with words so mild,--
+  "What mean you by that saying, Child?"
+
+  19
+
+  "Will that your Lordship," then said he,
+  "Grant one day's full reprieve for me,
+  A dismal story I'll relate,
+  Concerning of my wretched fate."
+
+  20
+
+  "Speak up, my Child," this Lord did say,
+  "I say you shall not die this day--
+  And if I find you innocent,
+  I'll crown your days with sweet content."
+
+  21
+
+  He told him all his dangers past,
+  He had gone through from first to last,
+  He fetched the chain and cabinet,
+  Likewise the paper that was writ.
+
+  22
+
+  When that this noble Lord did see,
+  He ran to him most eagerly,
+  And in his arms did him embrace,
+  Repeating of those words in haste.--
+
+  23
+
+  "My Child, my Child, how blessed am I
+  Thou art innocent, and shalt not die;
+  For I'm indeed thy Godfather,
+  And thou wast born in fair Yorkshire.
+
+  24
+
+  "I have indeed one daughter dear,
+  Which is indeed my only heir;
+  And I will give her unto thee,
+  And crown you with felicity."
+
+  25
+
+  So then the Butler and the Cook
+  ('Twas them that stole the golden cup)
+  Confessed their faults immediately,
+  And for it died deservedly.
+
+  26
+
+  This goodly youth, as I do hear,
+  Thus raised, sent for his parents dear,
+  Who did rejoice their Child to see--
+  And so I end my Tragedy.
+
+
+
+
+{p.303} NARRATIVE OF THE LIFE OF JAMES ANNESLEY.
+
+(See NOTE, p. 26.)
+
+
+"Lord and Lady Altham, of Dunmain, in the county of Wexford, had been
+for many years married and childless, when, in the year 1715, their
+warmest hopes and wishes were realized by the birth of an heir to
+their estates and title. On that joyful evening the hospitality of the
+house of Dunmain was claimed by a young gentleman travelling from
+Dublin, named 'Master Richard Fitzgerald,' who joined Lord Altham and
+his household in drinking the healths of the 'lady in the straw,' and
+the long expected heir, in the customary groaning drink. It does not
+appear that Master Fitzgerald was learned in astrology, or practised
+any branch of the 'Black art,' or that he used any spell with
+reference to the infant more potent than these hearty libations and
+sincere good wishes for his future prosperity. Next day, before
+leaving the hospitable mansion, the little hero of this tale was
+presented to the stranger, who 'kissed him, and gave the nurse
+half-a-guinea.'
+
+"Of Fitzgerald we have only to add, that he entered the army and
+became a distinguished officer in the service of the queen of Hungary,
+and that twenty-eight years afterwards he returned to Ireland to
+assist in recovering for his former infantile friend the estates and
+titles of his ancestors, which had been for many years iniquitously
+withheld from him.
+
+"Lord and Lady Altham lived unhappily together, and a separation took
+place soon after the birth of their son. Her Ladyship, shamefully
+neglected by her husband, resided in England during the remainder of
+her life, and from disease and poverty was reduced to a state of
+extreme imbecility both of body and mind.
+
+"James Annesley, the infant son of this unhappy mother, was entrusted,
+by Lord Altham, to the charge of a woman of indifferent character,
+named Joan or Juggy Landy. Juggy was a dependent of the family, and
+lived in a cabin on the estate, about a quarter of a mile from the
+house of Dunmain. This hut is described as a 'despicable place,
+without any furniture except a pot, two or three trenchers, a couple
+of straw {p.304} beds on the floor,' and 'with only a bush to draw in
+and out for a door.' Thus humbly and inauspiciously was the boy reared
+under the care of a nurse, who, however unfortunate or guilty, appears
+to have lavished upon her young charge the most affectionate
+attention. From some unexplained cause, however, Juggy Landy incurred
+the displeasure of Lord Altham, who took the boy from her, and ordered
+his groom to 'horsewhip her,' and 'to set the dogs upon her,' when she
+persisted in hovering about the premises to obtain a sight of her
+former charge.
+
+"Lord Altham now removed with his son to Dublin where he appears to
+have entered upon a career of the most dissipated and profligate
+conduct. We find him reduced to extreme pecuniary embarrassment, and
+his property became a prey to low and abandoned associates; one of
+whom, a Miss Kennedy, he ultimately endeavored to introduce to society
+as his wife. This worthless woman must have obtained great ascendancy
+over his Lordship, as she was enabled to drive James Annesley from his
+father's protection, and the poor boy became a houseless vagabond,
+wandering about the streets of Dublin, and procuring a scanty and
+precarious subsistence 'by running of errands and holding gentlemen's
+horses.'
+
+"Meantime Lord Altham's pecuniary difficulties had so increased as to
+induce him to endeavor to borrow money on his reversionary interest in
+the estates of the Earl of Anglesey, to whom he was heir-at-law. In
+this scheme he was joined by his brother Captain Annesley, and they
+jointly succeeded in procuring several small sums of money. But as
+James Annesley would have proved an important legal impediment to
+these transactions, he was represented to some parties to be dead; and
+where his existence could not be denied, he was asserted to be the
+natural son of his Lordship and of Juggy Landy.
+
+"Lord Altham died in the year 1727, 'so miserably poor that he was
+actually buried at the public expense.' His brother Captain Annesley
+attended the funeral as chief mourner, and assumed the title of Baron
+Altham, but when he claimed to have this title registered he was
+refused by the king-at-arms, 'on account of his nephew being reported
+still alive, and for want of the honorary fees.' Ultimately, however,
+by means {p.305} which are stated to have been 'well known and
+obvious,' he succeeded in procuring his registration.
+
+"But there was another and a more sincere mourner at the funeral of
+Lord Altham than the successful inheritor of his title: a poor boy of
+twelve years of age, half naked, bareheaded and barefooted, and
+wearing, as the most important part of his dress, an old yellow livery
+waistcoat,[120] followed at a humble distance, and wept over his
+father's grave. Young Annesley was speedily recognized by his uncle,
+who forcibly drove him from the place, but not before the boy had made
+himself known to several old servants of his father, who were
+attending the corpse of their late lord to the tomb.
+
+              [Footnote 120: _Vide_ "Green-breeks" in the General
+              Introduction to the _Waverley Novels_. Surely _Yellow
+              Waistcoat_ was his prototype.]
+
+"The usurper now commenced a series of attempts to obtain possession
+of his nephew's person, for the purpose of transporting him beyond
+seas, or otherwise ridding himself of so formidable a rival. For some
+time, however, these endeavors were frustrated, principally through
+the gallantry of a brave and kind-hearted butcher, named Purcel, who,
+having compassion upon the boy's destitute state, took him into his
+house and hospitably maintained him for a considerable time; and on
+one occasion, when he was assailed by a numerous party of his uncle's
+emissaries, Purcel placed the boy between his legs, and stoutly
+defending him with his cudgel, resisted their utmost efforts, and
+succeeded in rescuing his young charge.
+
+"After having escaped from many attempts of the same kind, Annesley
+was at length kidnapped in the streets of Dublin, dragged by his uncle
+and a party of hired ruffians to a boat, and carried on board a vessel
+in the river, which immediately sailed with our hero for America,
+where, on his arrival, he was apprenticed as a plantation slave, and
+in this condition he remained for the succeeding thirteen years.
+
+"During his absence his uncle, on the demise of the Earl of Anglesey,
+quietly succeeded to that title and immense wealth.
+
+"While forcibly detained in the plantations, Annesley suffered many
+severe hardships and privations, particularly in his frequent
+unsuccessful attempts to escape. Among other incidents which befell
+him, he incurred the deadly hatred of one master, in consequence of a
+suspected intrigue with his wife--a {p.306} charge from which he was
+afterwards honorably acquitted. The daughter of a second master became
+affectionately attached to him; but it does not appear that this
+regard was reciprocal. And finally, in effecting his escape, he fell
+into the hands of some hostile negroes, who stabbed him severely in
+various places; from the effects of which cruelty he did not recover
+for several months.
+
+"At the end of thirteen years, Annesley, who had now attained the age
+of twenty-five, succeeded in reaching Jamaica in a merchant vessel,
+and he immediately volunteered himself as a private sailor on board a
+man-of-war. Here he was at once identified by several officers; and
+Admiral Vernon, who was then in command of the British West India
+fleet, wrote home an account of the case to the Duke of Newcastle (the
+Premier), and, 'in the mean time, supplied him with clothes and money,
+and treated him with the respect and attention which his rank
+demanded.'
+
+"The Earl of Anglesey no sooner heard of these transactions on board
+the fleet, than he used every effort to keep possession of his usurped
+title and property, and 'the most eminent lawyers within the English
+and Irish bars were retained to defend a cause, the prosecution of
+which was not as yet even threatened.'
+
+"On Annesley's arrival in Dublin, 'several servants who had lived with
+his father came from the country to see him. They knew him at first
+sight, and some of them fell on their knees to thank heaven for his
+preservation,--embraced his legs, and shed tears of joy for his
+return.'
+
+"Lord Anglesey became so much alarmed at the probable result of the
+now threatened trial, that he expressed his intention to make a
+compromise with the claimant, renounce the title, and retire into
+France; and with this view he commenced learning the French language.
+But this resolution was given up, in consequence of an occurrence
+which encouraged the flattering hope that his opponent would be
+speedily and most effectually disposed of.
+
+"After his arrival in England, Annesley unfortunately occasioned the
+death of a man by the accidental discharge of a fowling-piece which he
+was in the act of carrying. Though there could not exist a doubt of
+his innocence from all intention {p.307} of such a deed, the
+circumstance offered too good a chance to be lost sight of by his
+uncle, who employed an attorney named Gifford, and with his assistance
+used every effort at the coroner's inquest, and the subsequent trial,
+to bring about a verdict of murder. In this, however, he did not
+succeed, although 'he practised all the unfair means that could be
+invented to procure the removal of the prisoner to Newgate from the
+healthy gaol to which he had been at first committed;' and 'the Earl
+even appeared in person on the bench, endeavoring to intimidate and
+browbeat the witnesses, and to inveigle the prisoner into destructive
+confessions.' Annesley was honorably acquitted, after his uncle had
+expended nearly one thousand pounds on the prosecution.
+
+"The trial between James Annesley, Esq., and Richard, Earl of
+Anglesey, before the Right Honorable the Lord Chief Justice and other
+Barons of the Exchequer, commenced on the 11th November, 1743, and was
+continued for thirteen days. The defendant's counsel examined an
+immense number of witnesses in an attempt to prove that Annesley was
+the illegitimate son of the late Baron Altham. The Jury found for the
+plaintiff; but it did not prove sufficient to recover his title and
+estates: for his uncle 'had recourse to every device the law allowed,
+and his powerful interest procured a writ of error which set aside the
+verdict.' Before another trial could be brought about, Annesley died
+without male issue, and Lord Anglesey consequently remained in
+undisturbed possession.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+"It is presumed that the points of resemblance between the leading
+incidents in the life of this unfortunate young nobleman and the
+adventures of Henry Bertram in Guy Mannering, are so evident as to
+require neither comment nor enumeration to make them apparent to the
+most cursory reader of the Novel. The addition of a very few other
+circumstances will, it is believed, amount to a proof of the identity
+of the two stories.
+
+
+
+
+END OF VOLUME FIVE
+
+
+
+***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE OF SIR WALTER
+SCOTT, VOLUME V (OF 10)***
+
+
+******* This file should be named 24498.txt or 24498.zip *******
+
+
+This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:
+http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/2/4/4/9/24498
+
+
+
+Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions
+will be renamed.
+
+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.  Special rules,
+set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to
+copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to
+protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark.  Project
+Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you
+charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission.  If you
+do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the
+rules is very easy.  You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose
+such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and
+research.  They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do
+practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks.  Redistribution is
+subject to the trademark license, especially commercial
+redistribution.
+
+
+
+*** START: FULL LICENSE ***
+
+THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE
+PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK
+
+To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free
+distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work
+(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project
+Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project
+Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at
+http://www.gutenberg.org/license).
+
+
+Section 1.  General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic works
+
+1.A.  By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to
+and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property
+(trademark/copyright) agreement.  If you do not agree to abide by all
+the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy
+all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession.
+If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the
+terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or
+entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8.
+
+1.B.  "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark.  It may only be
+used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who
+agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement.  There are a few
+things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works
+even without complying with the full terms of this agreement.  See
+paragraph 1.C below.  There are a lot of things you can do with Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement
+and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works.  See paragraph 1.E below.
+
+1.C.  The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation"
+or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic works.  Nearly all the individual works in the
+collection are in the public domain in the United States.  If an
+individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are
+located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from
+copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative
+works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg
+are removed.  Of course, we hope that you will support the Project
+Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by
+freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of
+this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with
+the work.  You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by
+keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project
+Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others.
+
+1.D.  The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern
+what you can do with this work.  Copyright laws in most countries are in
+a constant state of change.  If you are outside the United States, check
+the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement
+before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or
+creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project
+Gutenberg-tm work.  The Foundation makes no representations concerning
+the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United
+States.
+
+1.E.  Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg:
+
+1.E.1.  The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate
+access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently
+whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the
+phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project
+Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed,
+copied or distributed:
+
+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 www.gutenberg.org
+
+1.E.2.  If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived
+from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is
+posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied
+and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees
+or charges.  If you are redistributing or providing access to a work
+with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the
+work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1
+through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the
+Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or
+1.E.9.
+
+1.E.3.  If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted
+with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution
+must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional
+terms imposed by the copyright holder.  Additional terms will be linked
+to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the
+permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work.
+
+1.E.4.  Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this
+work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm.
+
+1.E.5.  Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this
+electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without
+prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with
+active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm License.
+
+1.E.6.  You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary,
+compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any
+word processing or hypertext form.  However, if you provide access to or
+distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than
+"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version
+posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org),
+you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a
+copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon
+request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other
+form.  Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1.
+
+1.E.7.  Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying,
+performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works
+unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9.
+
+1.E.8.  You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing
+access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided
+that
+
+- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from
+     the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method
+     you already use to calculate your applicable taxes.  The fee is
+     owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he
+     has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the
+     Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation.  Royalty payments
+     must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you
+     prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax
+     returns.  Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and
+     sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the
+     address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to
+     the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation."
+
+- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies
+     you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he
+     does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+     License.  You must require such a user to return or
+     destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium
+     and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of
+     Project Gutenberg-tm works.
+
+- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any
+     money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the
+     electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days
+     of receipt of the work.
+
+- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free
+     distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works.
+
+1.E.9.  If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set
+forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from
+both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael
+Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark.  Contact the
+Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below.
+
+1.F.
+
+1.F.1.  Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable
+effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread
+public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm
+collection.  Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain
+"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or
+corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual
+property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a
+computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by
+your equipment.
+
+1.F.2.  LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right
+of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all
+liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal
+fees.  YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT
+LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE
+PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH F3.  YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE
+TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE
+LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR
+INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH
+DAMAGE.
+
+1.F.3.  LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a
+defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can
+receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a
+written explanation to the person you received the work from.  If you
+received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with
+your written explanation.  The person or entity that provided you with
+the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a
+refund.  If you received the work electronically, the person or entity
+providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to
+receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund.  If the second copy
+is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further
+opportunities to fix the problem.
+
+1.F.4.  Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth
+in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS', WITH NO OTHER
+WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO
+WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE.
+
+1.F.5.  Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied
+warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages.
+If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the
+law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be
+interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by
+the applicable state law.  The invalidity or unenforceability of any
+provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions.
+
+1.F.6.  INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the
+trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone
+providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance
+with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production,
+promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works,
+harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees,
+that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do
+or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm
+work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any
+Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause.
+
+
+Section  2.  Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of
+electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers
+including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers.  It exists
+because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from
+people in all walks of life.
+
+Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the
+assistance they need, is critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's
+goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will
+remain freely available for generations to come.  In 2001, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure
+and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations.
+To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation
+and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4
+and the Foundation web page at http://www.gutenberg.org/fundraising/pglaf.
+
+
+Section 3.  Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive
+Foundation
+
+The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit
+501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the
+state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal
+Revenue Service.  The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification
+number is 64-6221541.  Contributions to the Project Gutenberg
+Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent
+permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws.
+
+The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S.
+Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered
+throughout numerous locations.  Its business office is located at
+809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email
+business@pglaf.org.  Email contact links and up to date contact
+information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official
+page at http://www.gutenberg.org/about/contact
+
+For additional contact information:
+     Dr. Gregory B. Newby
+     Chief Executive and Director
+     gbnewby@pglaf.org
+
+Section 4.  Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg
+Literary Archive Foundation
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide
+spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of
+increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be
+freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest
+array of equipment including outdated equipment.  Many small donations
+($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt
+status with the IRS.
+
+The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating
+charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United
+States.  Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a
+considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up
+with these requirements.  We do not solicit donations in locations
+where we have not received written confirmation of compliance.  To
+SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any
+particular state visit http://www.gutenberg.org/fundraising/donate
+
+While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we
+have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition
+against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who
+approach us with offers to donate.
+
+International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make
+any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from
+outside the United States.  U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff.
+
+Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation
+methods and addresses.  Donations are accepted in a number of other
+ways including checks, online payments and credit card donations.
+To donate, please visit:
+http://www.gutenberg.org/fundraising/donate
+
+
+Section 5.  General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works.
+
+Professor Michael S. Hart is the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm
+concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared
+with anyone.  For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project
+Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support.
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed
+editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S.
+unless a copyright notice is included.  Thus, we do not necessarily
+keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition.
+
+Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility:
+
+     http://www.gutenberg.org
+
+This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm,
+including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary
+Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to
+subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks.
+
diff --git a/24498.zip b/24498.zip
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..619c353
--- /dev/null
+++ b/24498.zip
diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..6312041
--- /dev/null
+++ b/LICENSE.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,11 @@
+This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements,
+metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be
+in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES.
+
+Procedures for determining public domain status are described in
+the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org.
+
+No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in
+jurisdictions other than the United States. Anyone seeking to utilize
+this eBook outside of the United States should confirm copyright
+status under the laws that apply to them.
diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..90d9a04
--- /dev/null
+++ b/README.md
@@ -0,0 +1,2 @@
+Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for
+eBook #24498 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/24498)