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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Memoirs of the Life of Sir Walter Scott,
+Volume 6, 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 6
+
+Author: John Gibson Lockhart
+
+Release Date: October 5, 2011 [EBook #37631]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE OF SIR ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by D. Alexander, Christine P. Travers and the
+Online Distributed Proofreading Team at 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 maintained.
+
+Superscript are marked with { }.]
+
+
+
+
+  Large-Paper Edition
+
+  LOCKHART'S
+  LIFE OF SCOTT
+
+  COPIOUSLY ANNOTATED AND ABUNDANTLY ILLUSTRATED
+
+  IN TEN VOLUMES
+
+  VOL. VI
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: WALTER SCOTT IN 1820
+
+_From the painting by Sir Thomas Lawrence_]
+
+
+
+  MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE
+  OF
+  SIR WALTER SCOTT
+  BART.
+
+  by
+
+  JOHN GIBSON LOCKHART
+
+  In Ten Volumes
+
+  VOLUME VI
+
+
+  [Illustration: Editor's logo.]
+
+
+
+
+  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,
+
+
+
+
+TABLE OF CONTENTS
+
+
+  Chap.                                                           Page
+
+  XLIII. Declining Health of Charles, Duke of Buccleuch. --
+    Letter on the Death of Queen Charlotte. -- Provincial
+    Antiquities, etc. -- Extensive Sale of Copyrights to Constable
+    & Co. -- Death of Mr. Charles Carpenter. -- Scott accepts the
+    Offer of a Baronetcy. -- He declines to renew his Application
+    for a Seat on the Exchequer Bench. -- Letters to Morritt,
+    Richardson, Miss Baillie, the Duke of Buccleuch, Lord Montagu,
+    and Captain Ferguson. -- Rob Roy played at Edinburgh. -- Letter
+    from Jedediah Cleishbotham to Mr. Charles Mackay. 1818-1819      1
+
+  XLIV. Recurrence of Scott's Illness. -- Death of the Duke of
+    Buccleuch. -- Letters to Captain Ferguson, Lord Montagu, Mr.
+    Southey, and Mr. Shortreed. -- Scott's Sufferings while
+    dictating The Bride of Lammermoor. -- Anecdotes by James
+    Ballantyne, etc. -- Appearance of the Third Series of Tales of
+    my Landlord. -- Anecdote of the Earl of Buchan. 1819            24
+
+  XLV. Gradual Reëstablishment of Scott's Health. -- Ivanhoe in
+    Progress. -- His Son Walter joins the Eighteenth Regiment of
+    Hussars. -- Scott's Correspondence with his Son. --
+    Miscellaneous Letters to Mrs. Maclean Clephane, M. W.
+    Hartstonge, J. G. Lockhart, John Ballantyne, John Richardson,
+    Miss Edgeworth, Lord Montagu, etc. -- Abbotsford visited by
+    Prince Leopold of Saxe-Coburg. -- Death of Mrs. William
+    Erskine. 1819                                                   69
+
+  XLVI. Political Alarms. -- The Radicals. -- Levies of
+    Volunteers. -- Project of the Buccleuch Legion. -- Death of
+    Scott's Mother, her Brother Dr. Rutherford, and her Sister
+    Christian. -- Letters to Lord Montagu, Mr. Thomas Scott, Cornet
+    Scott, Mr. Laidlaw, and Lady Louisa Stuart. -- Publication of
+    Ivanhoe. 1819                                                  106
+
+  XLVII. The Visionary. -- The Peel of Darnick. -- Scott's
+    Saturday Excursions to Abbotsford. -- A Sunday there in
+    February. -- Constable. -- John Ballantyne. -- Thomas Purdie,
+    etc. -- Prince Gustavus Vasa. -- Proclamation of King George
+    IV. -- Publication of The Monastery. 1820                      132
+
+  XLVIII. Scott revisits London. -- His Portrait by Lawrence, and
+    Bust by Chantrey. -- Anecdotes by Allan Cunningham. -- Letters
+    to Mrs. Scott, Laidlaw, etc. -- His Baronetcy gazetted. --
+    Marriage of his Daughter Sophia. -- Letter to "the Baron of
+    Galashiels." -- Visit of Prince Gustavus Vasa at Abbotsford. --
+    Tenders of Honorary Degrees from Oxford and Cambridge. --
+    Letter to Mr. Thomas Scott. 1820                               147
+
+  XLIX. Autumn at Abbotsford. -- Scott's Hospitality. -- Visit of
+    Sir Humphry Davy, Henry Mackenzie, Dr. Wollaston, and William
+    Stewart Rose. -- Coursing on Newark Hill. -- Salmon-fishing. --
+    The Festival at Boldside. -- The Abbotsford Hunt. -- The Kirn,
+    etc. 1820                                                      172
+
+  L. Publication of The Abbot. -- The Blair-Adam Club. -- Kelso,
+    Walton Hall, etc. -- Ballantyne's Novelists' Library. --
+    Acquittal of Queen Caroline. -- Service of the Duke of
+    Buccleuch. -- Scott elected President of the Royal Society of
+    Edinburgh. -- The Celtic Society. -- Letters to Lord Montagu,
+    Cornet Scott, Charles Scott, Allan Cunningham, etc. --
+    Kenilworth published. 1820-1821                                189
+
+  LI. Visit to London. -- Project of the Royal Society of
+    Literature. -- Affairs of the 18th Hussars. -- Marriage of
+    Captain Adam Ferguson. -- Letters to Lord Sidmouth, Lord
+    Montagu, Allan Cunningham, Mrs. Lockhart, and Cornet Scott.
+    1821                                                           219
+
+  LII. Illness and Death of John Ballantyne. -- Extract from his
+    Pocketbook. -- Letters from Blair-Adam. -- Castle-Campbell. --
+    Sir Samuel Shepherd. -- "Bailie Mackay," etc. -- Coronation of
+    George IV. -- Correspondence with James Hogg and Lord Sidmouth.
+    -- Letter on the Coronation. -- Anecdotes. -- Allan
+    Cunningham's Memoranda. -- Completion of Chantrey's Bust. 1821 241
+
+  LIII. Publication of Mr. Adolphus's Letters on the Authorship
+    of Waverley. 1821                                              267
+
+  LIV. New Buildings at Abbotsford. -- Chiefswood. -- William
+    Erskine. -- Letter to Countess Purgstall. -- Progress of The
+    Pirate. -- Franck's Northern Memoir, and Notes of Lord
+    Fountainhall, published. -- Private Letters in the Reign of
+    James I. -- Commencement of The Fortunes of Nigel. -- Second
+    Sale of Copyrights. -- Contract for "Four Works of Fiction." --
+    Enormous Profits of the Novelist, and Extravagant Projects of
+    Constable. -- The Pirate published. -- Lord Byron's Cain,
+    dedicated to Scott. -- Affair of the Beacon Newspaper. 1821    288
+
+
+
+
+LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
+
+
+                                                                  Page
+
+  WALTER SCOTT IN 1820                                  _Frontispiece_
+  From the painting by Sir Thomas Lawrence, P. R. A., in the
+  Royal Gallery, Windsor Castle.
+
+  CHARLES MACKAY AS BAILIE NICOL JARVIE                             22
+  From the painting by Sir D. Macnee, P. R. S. A., in the
+  Scottish National Portrait Gallery, Edinburgh.
+
+  ANNE RUTHERFORD, MOTHER OF SIR WALTER SCOTT                      106
+  After the painting at Abbotsford.
+
+  SOPHIA SCOTT (Mrs. J. G. LOCKHART)                               136
+  After the painting at Abbotsford by William Nicholson,
+  R. S. A.
+
+  WALTER SCOTT IN 1820                                             150
+  From the pencil sketch by Sir Francis Chantrey, R. A.
+
+  CHIEFSWOOD                                                       288
+  After the drawing by J. M. W. Turner, R. A.
+
+
+
+
+SIR WALTER SCOTT
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XLIII
+
+     Declining Health of Charles, Duke of Buccleuch. -- Letter on the
+     Death of Queen Charlotte. -- Provincial Antiquities, Etc. --
+     Extensive Sale of Copyrights to Constable and Co. -- Death of Mr.
+     Charles Carpenter. -- Scott Accepts the Offer of a Baronetcy. --
+     He Declines to Renew his Application for a Seat on the Exchequer
+     Bench. -- Letters to Morritt, Richardson, Miss Baillie, The Duke
+     of Buccleuch, Lord Montagu, and Captain Ferguson. -- Rob Roy
+     Played at Edinburgh. -- Letter from Jedediah Cleishbotham to Mr.
+     Charles Mackay.
+
+1818-1819
+
+
+I have now to introduce a melancholy subject--one of the greatest
+afflictions that ever Scott encountered. The health of Charles, Duke
+of Buccleuch was by this time beginning to give way, and Scott thought
+it his duty to intimate his very serious apprehensions to his noble
+friend's brother.
+
+
+TO THE RIGHT HON. LORD MONTAGU, DITTON PARK, WINDSOR.
+
+                                       EDINBURGH, 12th November, 1818.
+
+     MY DEAR LORD,--I am about to write to you with feelings of the
+     deepest anxiety. I have hesitated for two or three days whether I
+     should communicate to your Lordship the sincere alarm which I
+     entertain on account of the Duke's present state of health, but I
+     have come to persuade myself, that it will be discharging a part
+     of the duty which I owe to him, to mention my own most
+     distressing apprehensions. I was at the cattle-show on the 6th,
+     and executed the delegated task of toast-master, and so forth. I
+     was told by **** that the Duke is under the influence of the
+     muriatic bath, which occasions a good deal of uneasiness when the
+     medicine is in possession of the system. The Duke observed the
+     strictest diet, and remained only a short time at table, leaving
+     me to do the honors, which I did with a sorrowful heart,
+     endeavoring, however, to persuade myself that ****'s account, and
+     the natural depression of spirits incidental to his finding
+     himself unable for the time to discharge the duty to his guests,
+     which no man could do with so much grace and kindness, were
+     sufficient to account for the alteration of his manner and
+     appearance. I spent Monday with him quietly and alone, and I must
+     say that all I saw and heard was calculated to give me the
+     greatest pain. His strength is much less, his spirits lower, and
+     his general appearance far more unfavorable than when I left him
+     at Drumlanrig a few weeks before. What ****, and indeed what the
+     Duke himself, says of the medicine, may be true--but **** is very
+     sanguine, and, like all the personal physicians attached to a
+     person of such consequence, he is too much addicted to the
+     _placebo_--at least I think so--too apt to fear to give offence
+     by contradiction, or by telling that sort of truth which may
+     controvert the wishes or habits of his patient. I feel I am
+     communicating much pain to your Lordship, but I am sure that,
+     excepting yourself, there is not a man in the world whose sorrow
+     and apprehension could exceed mine in having such a task to
+     discharge; for, as your Lordship well knows, the ties which bind
+     me to your excellent brother are of a much stronger kind than
+     usually connect persons so different in rank. But the alteration
+     in voice and person, in features, and in spirits, all argue the
+     decay of natural strength, and the increase of some internal
+     disorder, which is gradually triumphing over the system. Much has
+     been done in these cases by change of climate. I hinted this to
+     the Duke at Drumlanrig, but I found his mind totally averse to
+     it. But he made some inquiries of Harden (just returned from
+     Italy), which seemed to imply that at least the idea of a winter
+     in Italy or the south of France was not altogether out of his
+     consideration. Your Lordship will consider whether he can or
+     ought to be pressed upon this point. He is partial to Scotland,
+     and feels the many high duties which bind him to it. But the air
+     of this country, with its alternations of moisture and dry frost,
+     although excellent for a healthy person, is very trying to a
+     valetudinarian.
+
+     I should not have thought of volunteering to communicate such
+     unpleasant news, but that the family do not seem alarmed. I am
+     not surprised at this, because, where the decay of health is very
+     gradual, it is more easily traced by a friend who sees the
+     patient from interval to interval, than by the affectionate eyes
+     which are daily beholding him.
+
+     Adieu, my dear Lord. God knows you will scarce read this letter
+     with more pain than I feel in writing it. But it seems
+     indispensable to me to communicate my sentiments of the Duke's
+     present situation to his nearest relation and dearest friend. His
+     life is invaluable to his country and to his family, and how dear
+     it is to his friends can only be estimated by those who know the
+     soundness of his understanding, the uprightness and truth of his
+     judgment, and the generosity and warmth of his feelings.
+
+     I am always, my dear Lord, most truly yours,
+
+                                                         WALTER SCOTT.
+
+
+Scott's letters of this and the two following months are very much
+occupied with the painful subject of the Duke of Buccleuch's health;
+but those addressed to his Grace himself are, in general, in a more
+jocose strain than usual. His friend's spirits were sinking, and he
+exerted himself in this way, in the hope of amusing the hours of
+languor at Bowhill. These letters are headed "Edinburgh Gazette
+Extraordinary," No. 1, No. 2, and so on; but they deal so much in
+laughable gossip about persons still living, that I find it difficult
+to make any extracts from them. The following paragraphs, however,
+from the Gazette of November the 20th, give a little information as to
+his own minor literary labors:--
+
+"The article on Gourgaud's Narrative[1] _is_ by a certain _Vieux
+Routier_ of your Grace's acquaintance, who would willingly have some
+military hints from you for the continuation of the article, if at any
+time you should feel disposed to amuse yourself with looking at the
+General's most marvellous performance. His lies are certainly like the
+father who begot them. Do not think that at any time the little
+trumpery intelligence this place affords can interrupt my labors,
+while it amuses your Grace. I can scribble as fast in the Court of
+Session as anywhere else, without the least loss of time or hindrance
+of business. At the same time, I cannot help laughing at the
+miscellaneous trash I have been putting out of my hand, and the
+various motives which made me undertake the jobs. An article for the
+Edinburgh Review[2]--this for the love of Jeffrey, the editor--the
+first for ten years. Do., being the article _Drama_ for the
+Encyclopædia--this for the sake of Mr. Constable, the publisher. Do.
+for the Blackwoodian Magazine--this for love of the cause I espoused.
+Do. for the Quarterly Review[3]--this for the love of myself, I
+believe, or, which is the same thing, for the love of £100, which I
+wanted for some odd purpose. As all these folks fight like dog and cat
+among themselves, my situation is much like the _Suave mare magno_,
+and so forth....
+
+[Footnote 1: Article on _General Gourgaud's Memoirs_ in _Blackwood's
+Magazine_ for November, 1818.]
+
+[Footnote 2: Article on Maturin's _Women, or Pour et Contre_.
+(_Miscellaneous Prose Works_, vol. xviii.)]
+
+[Footnote 3: Article on _Childe Harold_, Canto IV. (_Miscellaneous
+Prose Works_, vol. xvii.)]
+
+"I hope your Grace will never think of answering the Gazettes at all,
+or even replying to letters of business, until you find it quite
+convenient and easy. The Gazette will continue to appear as materials
+occur. Indeed I expect, in the end of next week, to look in upon
+Bowhill, per the Selkirk mail, about eight at night, with the hope of
+spending a day there, which will be more comfortable than at
+Abbotsford, where I should feel like a mouse below a firlot. If I find
+the Court can spare so important a person for one day, I shall order
+my pony up to meet me at Bowhill, and, supposing me to come on Friday
+night, I can easily return by the Blucher on Monday, dining and
+sleeping at Huntly Burn on the Sunday. So I shall receive all
+necessary reply in person."
+
+Good Queen Charlotte died on the 17th of this month; and in writing to
+Mr. Morritt on the 21st, Scott thus expresses what was, I believe, the
+universal feeling at the moment:--
+
+"So we have lost the old Queen. She has only had the sad prerogative
+of being kept alive by nursing for some painful weeks, whereas perhaps
+a subject might have closed the scene earlier. I fear the effect of
+this event on public manners--were there but a weight at the back of
+the drawing-room door, which would slam it in the face of w----s, its
+fall ought to be lamented; and I believe that poor Charlotte really
+adopted her rules of etiquette upon a feeling of duty. If we should
+suppose the Princess of Wales to have been at the head of the
+matronage of the land for these last ten years, what would have been
+the difference on public opinion! No man of experience will ever
+expect the breath of a court to be favorable to correct morals--_sed
+si non caste caute tamen_. One half of the mischief is done by the
+publicity of the evil, which corrupts those which are near its
+influence, and fills with disgust and apprehension those to whom it
+does not directly extend. Honest old Evelyn's account of Charles the
+Second's court presses on one's recollection, and prepares the mind
+for anxious apprehensions."
+
+Towards the end of this month Scott received from his kind friend Lord
+Sidmouth, then Secretary of State for the Home Department, the formal
+announcement of the Prince Regent's desire (which had been privately
+communicated some months earlier through the Lord Chief Commissioner
+Adam) to confer on him the rank of Baronet. When Scott first heard of
+the Regent's gracious intention, he had signified considerable
+hesitation about the prudence of his accepting any such accession of
+rank; for it had not escaped his observation, that such airy sounds,
+however modestly people may be disposed to estimate them, are apt to
+entail in the upshot additional cost upon their way of living, and to
+affect accordingly the plastic fancies, feelings, and habits of their
+children. But Lord Sidmouth's letter happened to reach him a few days
+after he had heard of the sudden death of his wife's brother, Charles
+Carpenter, who had bequeathed the reversion of his fortune to his
+sister's family; and this circumstance disposed Scott to waive his
+scruples, chiefly with a view to the professional advantage of his
+eldest son, who had by this time fixed on the life of a soldier. As is
+usually the case, the estimate of Mr. Carpenter's property transmitted
+at the time to England proved to have been an exaggerated one; as
+nearly as my present information goes, the amount was doubled. But as
+to the only question of any interest, to wit, how Scott himself felt
+on all these matters at the moment, the following letter to one whom
+he had long leaned to as a brother, will be more satisfactory than
+anything else it is in my power to quote:--
+
+
+TO J. B. S. MORRITT, ESQ., M. P., ROKEBY.
+
+                                        EDINBURGH, 7th December, 1818.
+
+     MY DEAR MORRITT,--I know you are indifferent to nothing that
+     concerns us, and therefore I take an early opportunity to
+     acquaint you with the mixture of evil and good which has very
+     lately befallen us. On Saturday last we had the advice of the
+     death of my wife's brother, Charles Carpenter, commercial
+     resident at Salem, in the Madras Establishment. This event has
+     given her great distress. She has not, that we know of, a single
+     blood-relation left in the world, for her uncle, the Chevalier de
+     la Volere,[4] colonel of a Russian regiment, is believed to have
+     been killed in the campaign of 1813. My wife has been very unwell
+     for two days, and is only now sitting up and mixing with us. She
+     has that sympathy which we are all bound to pay, but feels she
+     wants that personal interest in her sorrow which could only be
+     grounded on a personal acquaintance with the deceased.
+
+     Mr. Carpenter has, with great propriety, left his property in
+     life-rent to his wife--the capital to my children. It seems to
+     amount to about £40,000. Upwards of £30,000 is in the British
+     funds; the rest, to an uncertain value, in India. I hope this
+     prospect of independence will not make my children different from
+     that which they have usually been--docile, dutiful, and
+     affectionate. I trust it will not. At least, the first expression
+     of their feelings was honorable, for it was a unanimous wish to
+     give up all to their mother. This I explained to them was out of
+     the question; but that, if they should be in possession at any
+     time of this property, they ought, among them, to settle an
+     income of £400 or £500 on their mother for her life, to supply
+     her with a fund at her own uncontrolled disposal, for any
+     indulgence or useful purpose that might be required. Mrs. Scott
+     will stand in no need of this; but it is a pity to let kind
+     affections run to waste; and if they never have it in their power
+     to pay such a debt, their willingness to have done so will be a
+     pleasant reflection. I am Scotchman enough to hate the breaking
+     up of family ties, and the too close adherence to personal
+     property. For myself, this event makes me neither richer nor
+     poorer _directly_; but indirectly it will permit me to do
+     something for my poor brother Tom's family, besides pleasing
+     myself in "_plantings_, and _policies_, and _biggings_,"[5] with
+     a safe conscience.
+
+     There is another thing I have to whisper to your faithful ear.
+     Our fat friend, being desirous to honor Literature in my unworthy
+     person, has intimated to me, by his organ the Doctor,[6] that,
+     with consent ample and unanimous of all the potential voices of
+     all his ministers, each more happy than another of course on so
+     joyful an occasion, he proposes to dub me Baronet. It would be
+     easy saying a parcel of fine things about my contempt of rank,
+     and so forth; but although I would not have gone a step out of my
+     way to have asked, or bought, or begged or borrowed a
+     distinction, which to me personally will rather be inconvenient
+     than otherwise, yet, coming as it does directly from the source
+     of feudal honors, and as an honor, I am really gratified with
+     it;--especially as it is intimated that it is his Royal
+     Highness's pleasure to heat the oven for me expressly, without
+     waiting till he has some new _batch_ of Baronets ready in dough.
+     In plain English, I am to be gazetted _per se_. My poor friend
+     Carpenter's bequest to my family has taken away a certain degree
+     of _impecuniosity_, a necessity of saving cheese-parings and
+     candle-ends, which always looks inconsistent with any little
+     pretension to rank. But as things now stand, Advance banners in
+     the name of God and Saint Andrew. Remember, I anticipate the
+     jest, "I like not such grinning honor as Sir Walter hath."[7]
+     After all, if one must speak for himself, I have my quarters and
+     emblazonments, free of all stain but Border theft and High
+     Treason, which I hope are gentlemanlike crimes; and I hope Sir
+     Walter Scott will not sound worse than Sir Humphry Davy, though
+     my merits are as much under his, in point of utility, as can well
+     be imagined. But a name is something, and mine is the better of
+     the two. Set down this flourish to the account of national and
+     provincial pride, for you must know we have more Messieurs de
+     Sotenville[8] in our Border counties than anywhere else in the
+     Lowlands--I cannot say for the Highlands. The Duke of Buccleuch,
+     greatly to my joy, resolves to go to France for a season. Adam
+     Ferguson goes with him, to glad him by the way. Charlotte and the
+     young folks join in kind compliments.
+
+                                       Most truly yours, WALTER SCOTT.
+
+
+[Footnote 4: I know nothing of the history or fate of this gentleman,
+except that he was an ardent Royalist, and emigrated from France early
+in the Revolution.]
+
+[Footnote 5: I believe this is a quotation from some old Scotch
+chronicler on the character of King James V.]
+
+[Footnote 6: _The Doctor_ was Mr. Canning's nickname for Lord
+Sidmouth, the son of an accomplished physician, the intimate friend of
+the great Lord Chatham. Mr. Sheridan, when the Scotch Members deserted
+the Addington administration upon a trying vote, had the grace to say
+to the Premier, across the table of the House of Commons,--"Doctor!
+the Thanes fly from thee!"]
+
+[Footnote 7: Sir Walter Blunt--_1st King Henry IV._, Act V. Scene 3.]
+
+[Footnote 8: See Molière's _George Dandin_.]
+
+A few additional circumstances are given in a letter of the same week
+to Joanna Baillie. To her, after mentioning the testamentary
+provisions of Mr. Carpenter, Scott says:--
+
+
+     MY DEAR FRIEND,--I am going to tell you a little secret. I have
+     changed my mind, or rather existing circumstances have led to my
+     altering my opinions in a case of sublunary honor. I have now
+     before me Lord Sidmouth's letter, containing the Prince's
+     gracious and unsolicited intention to give me a Baronetcy. It
+     will neither make me better nor worse than I feel myself--in
+     fact it will be an incumbrance rather than otherwise; but it may
+     be of consequence to Walter, for the title is worth something in
+     the army, although not in a learned profession. The Duke of
+     Buccleuch and Scott of Harden, who, as the heads of my clan and
+     the sources of my gentry, are good judges of what I ought to do,
+     have both given me their earnest opinion to accept of an honor
+     directly derived from the source of honor, and neither begged nor
+     bought, as is the usual fashion. Several of my ancestors bore the
+     title in the seventeenth century; and were it of consequence, I
+     have no reason to be ashamed of the decent and respectable
+     persons who connect me with that period when they carried into
+     the field, like Madoc--
+
+       "The crescent, at whose gleam the _Cambrian_ oft,
+        Cursing his perilous tenure, wound his horn"--
+
+     so that, as a gentleman, I may stand on as good a footing as
+     other new creations. Respecting the reasons peculiar to myself
+     which have made the Prince show his respect for general
+     literature in my person, I cannot be a good judge, and your
+     friendly zeal will make you a partial one: the purpose is fair,
+     honorable, and creditable to the Sovereign, even though it should
+     number him among the monarchs who made blunders in literary
+     patronage. You know Pope says:--
+
+       "The Hero William, and the Martyr Charles,
+        One knighted Blackmore, and one pensioned Quarles."[9]
+
+     So let the intention sanctify the error, if there should be one
+     on this great occasion. The time of this grand affair is
+     uncertain: it is coupled with an invitation to London, which it
+     would be inconvenient to me to accept, unless it should happen
+     that I am called to come up by the affairs of poor Carpenter's
+     estate. Indeed, the prospects of my children form the principal
+     reason for a change of sentiments upon this flattering offer,
+     joined to my belief that, though I may still be a scribbler from
+     inveterate habit, I shall hardly engage again in any work of
+     consequence.
+
+     We had a delightful visit from the Richardsons, only rather too
+     short. He will give you a picture of Abbotsford, but not as it
+     exists in my mind's eye, waving with all its future honors. The
+     pinasters are thriving very well, and in a year or two more
+     Joanna's Bower will be worthy of the name. At present it is like
+     Sir Roger de Coverley's portrait, which hovered between its
+     resemblance to the good knight and to a Saracen. Now the said
+     bower has still such a resemblance to its original character of a
+     gravel pit, that it is not fit to be shown to "bairns and fools,"
+     who, according to our old canny proverb, should never see
+     half-done work; but Nature, if she works slowly, works surely,
+     and your laurels at Abbotsford will soon flourish as fair as
+     those you have won on Parnassus. I rather fear that a quantity of
+     game, which was shipped awhile ago at Inverness for the Doctor,
+     never reached him: it is rather a transitory commodity in London;
+     there were ptarmigan, grouse, and black game. I shall be grieved
+     if they have miscarried.--My health, thank God, continues as
+     strong as at any period in my life; only I think of rule and diet
+     more than I used to do, and observe as much as in me lies the
+     advice of my friendly physician, who took such kind care of me:
+     my best respects attend him, Mrs. Baillie, and Mrs. Agnes. Ever,
+     my dear friend, most faithfully yours,
+
+                                                                 W. S.
+
+
+[Footnote 9: _Imitations of Horace._ B. ii. Ep. 1. v. 386.]
+
+In the next of these letters Scott alludes, among other things, to a
+scene of innocent pleasure which I often witnessed afterwards. The
+whole of the ancient ceremonial of the _daft days_, as they are called
+in Scotland, obtained respect at Abbotsford. He said it was _uncanny_,
+and would certainly have felt it very uncomfortable, not to welcome
+the new year in the midst of his family and a few old friends, with
+the immemorial libation of a _het pint_; but of all the consecrated
+ceremonies of the time, none gave him such delight as the visit which
+he received as _Laird_ from all the children on his estate, on the
+last morning of every December--when, in the words of an obscure poet
+often quoted by him,
+
+  "The cottage bairns sing blithe and gay,
+   At the ha' door for _hogmanay_."
+
+
+TO MISS JOANNA BAILLIE, HAMPSTEAD.
+
+                                        ABBOTSFORD, 1st January, 1819.
+
+     MY DEAR FRIEND,--Many thanks for your kind letter. Ten brace of
+     ptarmigan sailed from Inverness about the 24th, directed for Dr.
+     Baillie;--if they should have reached, I hope you would seize
+     some for yourself and friends, as I learn the Doctor is on duty
+     at Windsor. I do not know the name of the vessel, but they were
+     addressed to Dr. Baillie, London, which I trust was enough, for
+     there are not _two_. The Doctor has been exercising his skill
+     upon my dear friend and chief, the Duke of Buccleuch, to whom I
+     am more attached than to any person beyond the reach of my own
+     family, and has advised him to do what, by my earnest advice, he
+     ought to have done three years ago--namely, to go to Lisbon: he
+     left this vicinity with much reluctance to go to Toulouse, but if
+     he will be advised, should not stop save in Portugal or the south
+     of Spain. The Duke is one of those retired and high-spirited men
+     who will never be known until the world asks what became of the
+     huge oak that grew on the brow of the hill, and sheltered such an
+     extent of ground. During the late distress, though his own
+     immense rents remained in arrears, and though I know he was
+     pinched for money, as all men were, but more especially the
+     possessors of entailed estates, he absented himself from London
+     in order to pay with ease to himself the laborers employed on his
+     various estates. These amounted (for I have often seen the roll
+     and helped to check it) to nine hundred and fifty men, working at
+     day wages, each of whom on a moderate average might maintain
+     three persons, since the single men have mothers, sisters, and
+     aged or very young relations to protect and assist. Indeed it is
+     wonderful how much even a small sum, comparatively, will do in
+     supporting the Scottish laborer, who is in his natural state
+     perhaps one of the best, most intelligent, and kind-hearted of
+     human beings; and in truth I have limited my other habits of
+     expense very much since I fell into the habit of employing mine
+     honest people. I wish you could have seen about a hundred
+     children, being almost entirely supported by their fathers' or
+     brothers' labor, come down yesterday to dance to the pipes, and
+     get a piece of cake and bannock, and pence apiece (no very deadly
+     largess) in honor of _hogmanay_. I declare to you, my dear
+     friend, that when I thought the poor fellows who kept these
+     children so neat, and well taught, and well behaved, were slaving
+     the whole day for eighteen-pence or twenty-pence at the most, I
+     was ashamed of their gratitude, and of their becks and bows. But,
+     after all, one does what one can, and it is better twenty
+     families should be comfortable according to their wishes and
+     habits, than half that number should be raised above their
+     situation. Besides, like Fortunio in the fairy tale, I have my
+     gifted men--the best wrestler and cudgel-player--the best runner
+     and leaper--the best shot in the little district; and as I am
+     partial to all manly and athletic exercises, these are great
+     favorites, being otherwise decent persons, and bearing their
+     faculties meekly. All this smells of sad egotism, but what can I
+     write to you about, save what is uppermost in my own thoughts:
+     and here am I, thinning old plantations and planting new ones;
+     now undoing what has been done, and now doing what I suppose no
+     one would do but myself, and accomplishing all my magical
+     transformations by the arms and legs of the aforesaid genii,
+     conjured up to my aid at eighteen-pence a day. There is no one
+     with me but my wife, to whom the change of scene and air, with
+     the facility of easy and uninterrupted exercise, is of service.
+     The young people remain in Edinburgh to look after their
+     lessons, and Walter, though passionately fond of shooting, only
+     stayed three days with us, his mind running entirely on
+     mathematics and fortification, French and German. One of the
+     excellencies of Abbotsford is very bad pens and ink; and besides,
+     this being New Year's Day, and my writing-room above the
+     servants' hall, the progress of my correspondence is a little
+     interrupted by the Piper singing Gaelic songs to the servants,
+     and their applause in consequence. Adieu, my good and indulgent
+     friend: the best influences of the New Year attend you and yours,
+     who so well deserve all that they can bring. Most affectionately
+     yours,
+
+                                                         WALTER SCOTT.
+
+
+Before quitting the year 1818, I ought to have mentioned that among
+Scott's miscellaneous occupations in its autumn, he found time to
+contribute some curious materials toward a new edition of Burt's
+Letters from the North of Scotland, which had been undertaken by his
+old acquaintance, Mr. Robert Jameson. During the winter session he
+appears to have made little progress with his novel; his painful
+seizures of cramp were again recurring frequently, and he probably
+thought it better to allow the story of Lammermoor to lie over until
+his health should be reëstablished. In the mean time he drew up a set
+of topographical and historical essays, which originally appeared in
+the successive numbers of the splendidly illustrated work, entitled
+Provincial Antiquities of Scotland.[10] But he did this merely to
+gratify his own love of the subject, and because, well or ill, he must
+be doing something. He declined all pecuniary recompense; but
+afterwards, when the success of the publication was secure, accepted
+from the proprietors some of the beautiful drawings by Turner,
+Thomson, and other artists, which had been prepared to accompany his
+text. These drawings are now in the little breakfast-room at
+Abbotsford--the same which had been constructed for his own den, and
+which I found him occupying as such in the spring of 1819.
+
+[Footnote 10: These charming essays are now reprinted in his
+_Miscellaneous Prose Works_ (Edition 1834) vol. vii.]
+
+In the course of December, 1818, he also opened an important
+negotiation with Messrs. Constable, which was completed early in the
+ensuing year. The cost of his building had, as is usual, exceeded his
+calculation; and he had both a large addition to it, and some new
+purchases of land, in view. Moreover, his eldest son had now fixed on
+the cavalry, in which service every step infers very considerable
+expense. The details of this negotiation are remarkable;--Scott
+considered himself as a very fortunate man when Constable, who at
+first offered £10,000 for all his then existing copyrights, agreed to
+give for them £12,000. Meeting a friend in the street, just after the
+deed had been executed, he said he wagered no man could guess at how
+large a price Constable had estimated his "eild kye" (cows barren from
+age). The copyrights thus transferred were, as specified in the
+instrument:--
+
+  "The said Walter Scott, Esq.'s present share, being the entire copyright,
+                            of Waverley.
+
+  Do.    do                    Guy Mannering.
+  Do.    do                    Antiquary.
+  Do.    do                    Rob Roy.
+  Do.    do                    Tales of My Landlord, 1st Series.
+  Do.    do                         do.               2d Series.
+  Do.    do                         do.               3d Series.
+  Do.    do                    Bridal of Triermain.
+  Do.    do                    Harold the Dauntless.
+  Do.    do                    Sir Tristrem.
+  Do.    do                    Roderick Collection,
+  Do.    do                    Paul's Letters.
+  Do. being one eighth of      The Lay of the Last Minstrel.
+  Do. being one half of        The Lady of the Lake.
+  Do. being one half of        Rokeby.
+  Do. being one half of        The Lord of the Isles."
+
+The instrument contained a clause binding Messrs. Constable never to
+divulge the name of the Author of Waverley during his life, under a
+penalty of £2000.
+
+I may observe, that had these booksellers fulfilled their part of this
+agreement, by paying off, prior to their insolvency in 1826, the whole
+bonds for £12,000, which they signed on the 2d of February, 1819, no
+interest in the copyrights above specified could have been expected to
+revert to the Author of Waverley: but more of this in due season.
+
+He alludes to the progress of the treaty in the following letter to
+Captain Adam Ferguson, who had, as has already appeared, left Scotland
+with the Duke of Buccleuch. His Grace hearing, when in London, that
+one of the Barons of Exchequer at Edinburgh meant speedily to resign,
+the Captain had, by his desire, written to urge on Scott the propriety
+of renewing his application for a seat on that bench; which, however,
+Scott at once refused to do. There were several reasons for this
+abstinence; among others, he thought such a promotion at this time
+would interfere with a project which he had formed of joining "the
+Chief and the Aide-de-Camp" in the course of the spring, and
+accomplishing in their society the tour of Portugal and Spain--perhaps
+of Italy also. Some such excursion had been strongly recommended to
+him by his own physicians, as the likeliest means of interrupting
+those habits of sedulous exertion at the desk, which they all regarded
+as the true source of his recent ailments, and the only serious
+obstacle to his cure; and his standing as a Clerk of Session,
+considering how largely he had labored in that capacity for infirm
+brethren, would have easily secured him a twelve-month's leave of
+absence from the Judges of his Court. But the principal motive was, as
+we shall see, his reluctance to interfere with the claims of the then
+Sheriff of Mid-Lothian, his own and Ferguson's old friend and
+schoolfellow, Sir William Rae--who, however, accepted the more
+ambitious post of Lord Advocate, in the course of the ensuing summer.
+
+
+TO CAPTAIN ADAM FERGUSON, DITTON PARK, WINDSOR.
+
+                                                   15th January, 1819.
+
+     DEAR ADAM,--Many thanks for your kind letter, this moment
+     received. I would not for the world stand in Jackie (I beg his
+     pardon, Sir John) Peartree's way.[11] He has merited the cushion
+     _en haut_, and besides he needs it. To me it would make little
+     difference in point of income. The _otium cum dignitate_, if it
+     ever come, will come as well years after this as now. Besides, I
+     am afraid the opening will be soon made, through the death of our
+     dear friend the Chief Baron, of whose health the accounts are
+     unfavorable.[12] Immediate promotion would be inconvenient to me,
+     rather than otherwise, because I have the desire, like an old
+     fool as I am, _courir un peu le monde_. I am beginning to draw
+     out from my literary commerce. Constable has offered me £10,000
+     for the copyrights of published works which have already produced
+     more than twice the sum. I stand out for £12,000. Tell this to
+     the Duke; he knows how I managed to keep the hen till the rainy
+     day was past. I will write two lines to Lord Melville, just to
+     make my bow for the present, resigning any claims I have through
+     the patronage of my kindest and best friend, for I have no other,
+     till the next opportunity. I should have been truly vexed if the
+     Duke had thought of writing about this. I don't wish to hear from
+     him till I can have his account of the lines of Torres Vedras. I
+     care so little how or where I travel, that I am not sure at all
+     whether I shall not come to Lisbon and surprise you, instead of
+     going to Italy by Switzerland; that is, providing the state of
+     Spain will allow me, without any unreasonable danger of my
+     throat, to get from Lisbon to Madrid, and thence to Gibraltar. I
+     am determined to roll a little about, for I have lost much of my
+     usual views of summer pleasure here. But I trust we shall have
+     one day the Maid of Lorn (recovered of her lameness), and Charlie
+     Stuart (reconciled to bogs), and Sibyl Grey (no longer
+     retrograde), and the Duke set up by a southern climate, and his
+     military and civil aides-de-camp, with all the rout of younkers
+     and dogs, and a brown hillside, introductory to a good dinner at
+     Bowhill or Drumlanrig, and a merry evening. Amen, and God send
+     it. As to my mouth being stopped with the froth of the title,
+     that is, as the learned Partridge says, a _non sequitur_. You
+     know the schoolboy's expedient of first asking mustard for his
+     beef, and then beef for his mustard. Now, as they put the mustard
+     on my plate, without my asking it, I shall consider myself, time
+     and place serving, as entitled to ask a slice of beef; that is to
+     say, I would do so if I cared much about it; but as it is, I
+     trust it to time and chance, which, as you, dear Adam, know, have
+     (added to the exertions of kind friends) been wonderful allies of
+     mine. People usually wish their letters to come to hand, but I
+     hope you will not receive this in Britain. I am impatient to hear
+     you have sailed. All here are well and hearty. The Baronet[13]
+     and I propose to go up to the Castle to-morrow to fix on the most
+     convenient floor of the Crown House for your mansion, in hopes
+     you will stand treat for gin-grog and Cheshire cheese on your
+     return, to reward our labor. The whole expense will fall within
+     the Treasury order, and it is important to see things made
+     convenient. I will write a long letter to the Duke to Lisbon.
+     Yours ever,
+
+                                                         WALTER SCOTT.
+
+     P. S.--No news here, but that the goodly hulk of conceit and
+     tallow, which was called Macculloch, of the Royal Hotel, Prince's
+     Street, was put to bed dead-drunk on Wednesday night, and taken
+     out the next morning dead-by-itself-dead. Mair skaith at
+     Sheriffmuir.
+
+
+[Footnote 11: _Jackie Peartree_ had, it seems, been Sir William Rae's
+nickname at the High School. He probably owed it to some exploit in an
+orchard.]
+
+[Footnote 12: The Right Honorable Robert Dundas of Arniston, Chief
+Baron of the Scotch Exchequer, died 17th June, 1819. See _post_, p.
+123.]
+
+[Footnote 13: Mr. William Clerk.]
+
+
+TO J. RICHARDSON, ESQ., FLUDYER STREET, WESTMINSTER.
+
+                                        EDINBURGH, 18th January, 1819.
+
+     MY DEAR RICHARDSON,--Many thanks for your kind letter. I own I
+     did mystify Mrs. **** a little about the report you mention; and
+     I am glad to hear the finesse succeeded.[14] She came up to me
+     with a great overflow of gratitude for the delight and pleasure,
+     and so forth, which she owed to me on account of these books.
+     Now, as she knew very well that I had never owned myself the
+     author, this was not _polite_ politeness, and she had no right to
+     force me up into a corner and compel me to tell her a word more
+     than I chose, upon a subject which concerned no one but
+     myself--and I have no notion of being pumped by any old dowager
+     Lady of Session, male or female. So I gave in dilatory defences,
+     under protestation to add and eik; for I trust, in learning a new
+     slang, you have not forgot the old. In plain words, I denied the
+     charge, and as she insisted to know who else _could_ write these
+     novels, I suggested Adam Ferguson as a person having all the
+     information and capacity necessary for that purpose. But the
+     inference that he _was_ the author was of her own deducing; and
+     thus ended her attempt, notwithstanding her having primed the
+     pump with a good dose of flattery. It is remarkable, that among
+     all my real friends to whom I did not choose to communicate this
+     matter, not one ever thought it proper or delicate to tease me
+     about it. Respecting the knighthood, I can only say, that coming
+     as it does, and I finding myself and my family in circumstances
+     which will not render the _petit titre_ ridiculous, I think there
+     would be more vanity in declining than in accepting what is
+     offered to me by the express wish of the Sovereign as a mark of
+     favor and distinction. Will you be so kind as to inquire and let
+     me know what the fees, etc., of a baronetcy amount to--for I must
+     provide myself accordingly, not knowing exactly when this same
+     title may descend upon me. I am afraid the sauce is rather smart.
+     I should like also to know what is to be done respecting
+     registration of arms and so forth. Will you make these inquiries
+     for me _sotto voce_? I should not suppose, from the persons who
+     sometimes receive this honor, that there is any inquiry about
+     descent or genealogy; mine were decent enough folks, and enjoyed
+     the honor in the seventeenth century, so I shall not be first of
+     the title; and it will sound like that of a Christian knight, as
+     Sir Sidney Smith said.
+
+     I had a letter from our immortal Joanna some fortnight since,
+     when I was enjoying myself at Abbotsford. Never was there such a
+     season, flowers springing, birds singing, grubs eating the
+     wheat--as if it was the end of May. After all, nature had a
+     grotesque and inconsistent appearance, and I could not help
+     thinking she resembled a withered beauty who persists in looking
+     youthy, and dressing conform thereto. I thought the loch should
+     have had its blue frozen surface, and russet all about it,
+     instead of an unnatural gayety of green. So much are we the
+     children of habit, that we cannot always enjoy thoroughly the
+     alterations which are most for our advantage.--They have filled
+     up the historical chair here. I own I wish it had been with our
+     friend Campbell, whose genius is such an honor to his country.
+     But he has cast anchor I suppose in the south. Your friend, Mrs.
+     Scott, was much cast down with her brother's death. His bequest
+     to my family leaves my own property much at my own disposal,
+     which is pleasant enough. I was foolish enough sometimes to be
+     vexed at the prospect of my library being sold _sub hasta_, which
+     is now less likely to happen. I always am, most truly yours,
+
+                                                         WALTER SCOTT.
+
+
+[Footnote 14: The wife of one of the Edinburgh Judges is alluded to.]
+
+On the 15th of February, 1819, Scott witnessed the first
+representation, on the Edinburgh boards, of the most meritorious and
+successful of all the _Terryfications_, though Terry himself was not the
+manufacturer. The drama of Rob Roy will never again be got up so well,
+in all its parts, as it then was by William Murray's company; the
+manager's own _Captain Thornton_ was excellent--and so was the _Dugald
+Creature_ of a Mr. Duff--there was also a good _Mattie_--(about whose
+equipment, by the bye, Scott felt such interest that he left his box
+between the acts to remind Mr. Murray that she "must have a mantle with
+her lanthorn;")--but the great and unrivalled attraction was the
+personification of _Bailie Jarvie_, by Charles Mackay, who, being
+himself a native of Glasgow, entered into the minutest peculiarities of
+the character with high _gusto_, and gave the west-country dialect in
+its most racy perfection. It was extremely diverting to watch the play
+of Scott's features during this admirable realization of his conception;
+and I must add, that the behavior of the Edinburgh audience on all such
+occasions, while the secret of the novels was preserved, reflected great
+honor on their good taste and delicacy of feeling. He seldom, in those
+days, entered his box without receiving some mark of general respect and
+admiration; but I never heard of any pretext being laid hold of to
+connect these demonstrations with the piece he had come to witness, or,
+in short, to do or say anything likely to interrupt his quiet enjoyment
+of the evening in the midst of his family and friends. The Rob Roy had a
+continued run of forty-one nights, during February and March; and it was
+played once a week, at least, for many years afterwards.[15] Mackay, of
+course, always selected it for his benefit;--and I now print from
+Scott's MS. a letter, which, no doubt, reached the mimic Bailie in the
+handwriting of one of the Ballantynes, on the first of these
+occurrences:--
+
+[Footnote 15: "Between February 15, 1819, and March 14, 1837, _Rob
+Roy_ was played in the Theatre-Royal, Edinburgh, 285 times."--_Letter
+from Mr. W. Murray._ [Nicol Jarvie remained Mr. Mackay's masterpiece,
+but his Dominie Sampson and Meg Dods in the dramas founded on _Guy
+Mannering_ and _St. Ronan's Well_ were very successful. He died in
+Glasgow in 1857.]]
+
+
+TO MR. CHARLES MACKAY, THEATRE-ROYAL, EDIN{R}.
+
+(_Private._)
+
+     FRIEND MACKAY,--My lawful occasions having brought me from my
+     residence at Gandercleuch to this great city, it was my lot to
+     fall into company with certain friends, who impetrated from me a
+     consent to behold the stage-play, which hath been framed forth of
+     an history entitled Rob (_seu potius_ Robert) Roy; which history,
+     although it existeth not in mine erudite work, entitled Tales of
+     my Landlord, hath nathless a near relation in style and structure
+     to those pleasant narrations. Wherefore, having surmounted those
+     arguments whilk were founded upon the unseemliness of a personage
+     in my place and profession appearing in an open stage-play house,
+     and having buttoned the terminations of my cravat into my bosom,
+     in order to preserve mine incognito, and indued an outer coat
+     over mine usual garments, so that the hue thereof might not
+     betray my calling, I did place myself (much elbowed by those who
+     little knew whom they did incommode) in that place of the Theatre
+     called the two-shilling gallery, and beheld the show with great
+     delectation, even from the rising of the curtain to the fall
+     thereof.
+
+[Illustration: CHARLES MACKAY
+
+_From the painting by Sir D. Macnee_]
+
+     Chiefly, my facetious friend, was I enamored of the very lively
+     representation of Bailie Nicol Jarvie, in so much that I became
+     desirous to communicate to thee my great admiration thereof,
+     nothing doubting that it will give thee satisfaction to be
+     apprised of the same. Yet further, in case thou shouldst be of
+     that numerous class of persons who set less store by good words
+     than good deeds, and understanding that there is assigned unto
+     each stage-player a special night, called a benefit (it will do
+     thee no harm to know that the phrase cometh from two Latin words,
+     _bene_ and _facio_), on which their friends and patrons show
+     forth their benevolence, I now send thee mine in the form of a
+     five-ell web (_hoc jocose_, to express a note for £5), as a meet
+     present for the Bailie, himself a weaver, and the son of a worthy
+     deacon of that craft. The which propine I send thee in token that
+     it is my purpose, business and health permitting, to occupy the
+     central place of the pit on the night of thy said beneficiary or
+     benefit.
+
+     Friend Mackay! from one, whose profession it is to teach others,
+     thou must excuse the freedom of a caution. I trust thou wilt
+     remember that, as excellence in thine art cannot be attained
+     without much labor, so neither can it be extended, or even
+     maintained, without constant and unremitted exertion; and
+     further, that the decorum of a performer's private character (and
+     it gladdeth me to hear that thine is respectable) addeth not a
+     little to the value of his public exertions.
+
+     Finally, in respect there is nothing perfect in this world,--at
+     least I have never received a wholly faultless version from the
+     very best of my pupils--I pray thee not to let Rob Roy twirl thee
+     around in the ecstasy of thy joy, in regard it oversteps the
+     limits of nature, which otherwise thou so sedulously preservest
+     in thine admirable national portraiture of Bailie Nicol
+     Jarvie.--I remain thy sincere friend and well-wisher,
+
+                                                JEDEDIAH CLEISHBOTHAM.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XLIV
+
+     Recurrence of Scott's Illness. -- Death of the Duke of Buccleuch.
+     -- Letters to Captain Ferguson, Lord Montagu, Mr. Southey, and
+     Mr. Shortreed. -- Scott's Sufferings while Dictating the Bride of
+     Lammermoor. -- Anecdotes by James Ballantyne, Etc. -- Appearance
+     of the Third Series of Tales of My Landlord. -- Anecdote of the
+     Earl of Buchan.
+
+1819
+
+
+It had been Scott's purpose to spend the Easter vacation in London,
+and receive his baronetcy; but this was prevented by the serious
+recurrence of the malady which so much alarmed his friends in the
+early part of the year 1817, and which had continued ever since to
+torment him at intervals. The subsequent correspondence will show that
+afflictions of various sorts were accumulated on his head at the same
+period:--
+
+
+TO THE LORD MONTAGU, DITTON PARK, WINDSOR.
+
+                                           EDINBURGH, 4th March, 1819.
+
+     MY DEAR LORD,--The Lord President tells me he has a letter from
+     his son, Captain Charles Hope, R. N., who had just taken leave of
+     our High Chief, upon the deck of the Liffey. He had not seen the
+     Duke for a fortnight, and was pleasingly surprised to find his
+     health and general appearance so very much improved. For my part,
+     having watched him with such unremitting attention, I feel very
+     confident in the effect of a change of air and of climate. It is
+     with great pleasure that I find the Duke has received an answer
+     from me respecting a matter about which he was anxious, and on
+     which I could make his mind quite easy. His Grace wished Adam
+     Ferguson to assist him as his confidential secretary; and with
+     all the scrupulous delicacy that belongs to his character, he did
+     not like to propose this, except through my medium as a common
+     friend. Now, I can answer for Adam, as I can for myself, that he
+     will have the highest pleasure in giving assistance in every
+     possible way the Duke can desire; and if forty years' intimacy
+     can entitle one man to speak for another, I believe the Duke can
+     find nowhere a person so highly qualified for such a confidential
+     situation. He was educated for business, understands it well, and
+     was long a military secretary;--his temper and manners your
+     Lordship can judge as well as I can, and his worth and honor are
+     of the very first water. I confess I should not be surprised if
+     the Duke should wish to continue the connection even afterwards,
+     for I have often thought that two hours' letter-writing, which is
+     his Grace's daily allowance, is rather worse than the duty of a
+     Clerk of Session, because there is no vacation. Much of this
+     might surely be saved by an intelligent friend, on whose style of
+     expression, prudence, and secrecy, his Grace could put perfect
+     reliance. Two words marked on any letter by his own hand would
+     enable such a person to refuse more or less positively--to grant
+     directly or conditionally--or, in short, to maintain the exterior
+     forms of the very troublesome and extensive correspondence which
+     his Grace's high situation entails upon him. I think it is
+     Monsieur le Duc de Saint-Simon who tells us of one of Louis
+     XIV.'s ministers _qu'il avoit la plume_--which he explains by
+     saying that it was his duty to imitate the King's handwriting so
+     closely, as to be almost undistinguishable, and make him on all
+     occasions _parler très noblement_. I wonder how the Duke gets on
+     without such a friend. In the mean time, however, I am glad I can
+     assure him of Ferguson's willing and ready assistance while
+     abroad; and I am happy to find still further that he had got that
+     assurance before they sailed, for tedious hours occur on board of
+     ship, when it will serve as a relief to talk over any of the
+     private affairs which the Duke wishes to entrust to him.
+
+     I have been very unwell from a visitation of my old enemy, the
+     cramp in my stomach, which much resembles, as I conceive, the
+     process by which _the deil_ would make one's _king's-hood_ into a
+     _spleuchan_,[16] according to the anathema of Burns.
+     Unfortunately, the opiates which the medical people think
+     indispensable to relieve spasms, bring on a habit of body which
+     has to be counteracted by medicines of a different tendency, so
+     as to produce a most disagreeable see-saw--a kind of pull-devil,
+     pull-baker contention, the field of battle being my unfortunate
+     _præcordia_. I am better to-day, and I trust shall be able to
+     dispense with these alternations. I still hope to be in London in
+     April.
+
+     I will write to the Duke regularly, for distance of place acts in
+     a contrary ratio on the mind and on the eye: trifles, instead of
+     being diminished, as in prospect, become important and
+     interesting, and therefore he shall have a budget of them. Hogg
+     is here busy with his Jacobite songs. I wish he may get
+     handsomely through, for he is profoundly ignorant of history, and
+     it is an awkward thing to read in order that you may write.[17] I
+     give him all the help I can, but he sometimes poses me. For
+     instance, he came yesterday, open mouth, inquiring what great
+     dignified clergyman had distinguished himself at
+     Killiecrankie--not exactly the scene where one would have
+     expected a churchman to shine--and I found, with some difficulty,
+     that he had mistaken Major-General Canon, called, in Kennedy's
+     Latin Song, _Canonicus Gallovidiensis_, for the canon of a
+     cathedral. _Ex ungue leonem._ Ever, my dear Lord, your truly
+     obliged and faithful
+
+                                                         WALTER SCOTT.
+
+
+[Footnote 16: _King's-Hood_--"The second of the four stomachs of
+ruminating animals." JAMIESON.--_Spleuchan_--The Gaelic name of the
+Highlander's tobacco-pouch.]
+
+[Footnote 17: "I am sure I produced two volumes of Jacobite Relics,
+such as no man in Scotland or England could have produced but myself."
+So says Hogg, _ipse_--see his _Autobiography_, 1832, p. 88. I never
+saw the Shepherd so elated as he was on the appearance of a very
+severe article on this book in the _Edinburgh Review_; for, to his
+exquisite delight, the hostile critic selected for _exceptive_
+encomium one "old Jacobite strain," namely, _Donald M'Gillavry_, which
+Hogg had fabricated the year before. Scott, too, enjoyed this joke
+almost as much as the Shepherd.]
+
+Before this letter reached Lord Montagu, his brother had sailed for
+Lisbon. The Duke of Wellington had placed his house in that capital
+(the Palace _das Necessidades_) at the Duke of Buccleuch's disposal;
+and in the affectionate care and cheerful society of Captain Ferguson,
+the invalid had every additional source of comfort that his friends
+could have wished for him. But the malady had gone too far to be
+arrested by a change of climate; and the letter which he had addressed
+to Scott, when about to embark at Portsmouth, is endorsed with these
+words: "_The last I ever received from my dear friend the Duke of
+Buccleuch.--Alas! alas!_" The principal object of this letter was to
+remind Scott of his promise to sit to Raeburn for a portrait, to be
+hung up in that favorite residence where the Duke had enjoyed most of
+his society. "My prodigious undertaking," writes his Grace, "of a west
+wing at Bowhill, is begun. A library of forty-one feet by twenty-one
+is to be added to the present drawing-room. A space for one picture is
+reserved over the fireplace, and in this warm situation I intend to
+place the Guardian of Literature. I should be happy to have my friend
+Maida appear. It is now almost proverbial, 'Walter Scott and his Dog.'
+Raeburn should be warned that I am as well acquainted with my friend's
+hands and arms as with his nose--and Vandyke was of my opinion. Many
+of R.'s works are shamefully finished--the face studied, but
+everything else neglected. This is a fair opportunity of producing
+something really worthy of his skill."
+
+I shall insert by and by Scott's answer--which never reached the
+Duke's hand--with another letter of the same date to Captain Ferguson;
+but I must first introduce one, addressed a fortnight earlier to Mr.
+Southey, who had been distressed by the accounts he received of
+Scott's health from an American traveller, Mr. George Ticknor of
+Boston--a friend, and worthy to be such, of Mr. Washington Irving.[18]
+The Poet Laureate, by the way, had adverted also to an impudent trick
+of a London bookseller, who shortly before this time announced certain
+volumes of Grub Street manufacture, as "A New Series of the Tales of
+my Landlord," and who, when John Ballantyne, as the "agent for the
+Author of Waverley," published a declaration that the volumes thus
+advertised were not from that writer's pen, met John's declaration by
+an audacious rejoinder--impeaching his authority, and asserting that
+nothing but the personal appearance in the field of the gentleman for
+whom Ballantyne pretended to act, could shake his belief that he was
+himself in the confidence of the true Simon Pure.[19] This affair gave
+considerable uneasiness at the time, and for a moment the dropping of
+Scott's mask seems to have been pronounced advisable by both
+Ballantyne and Constable. But he was not to be worked upon by such
+means as these. He calmly replied, "The author who lends himself to
+such a trick must be a blockhead--let them publish, and that will
+serve our purpose better than anything we ourselves could do." I have
+forgotten the names of the "tales," which, being published
+accordingly, fell still-born from the press. Mr. Southey had likewise
+dropped some allusions to another newspaper story of Scott's being
+seriously engaged in a dramatic work--a rumor which probably
+originated in the assistance he had lent to Terry in some of the
+recent highly popular adaptations of his novels to the purposes of the
+stage; though it is not impossible that some hint of the _Devorgoil_
+matter may have transpired. "It is reported," said the Laureate, "that
+you are about to bring forth a play, and I am greatly in hopes it may
+be true; for I am verily persuaded that in this course you might run
+as brilliant a career as you have already done in narrative--both in
+prose and rhyme;--for as for believing that you have a double in the
+field--not I! Those same powers would be equally certain of success in
+the drama, and were you to give them a dramatic direction, and reign
+for a third seven years upon the stage, you would stand alone in
+literary history. Indeed already I believe that no man ever afforded
+so much delight to so great a number of his contemporaries in this or
+in any other country. God bless you, my dear Scott, and believe me
+ever yours affectionately, R. S." Mr. Southey's letter had further
+announced his wife's safe delivery of a son; the approach of the
+conclusion of his History of Brazil; and his undertaking of the Life
+of Wesley.
+
+[Footnote 18: [In _The Life, Letters, and Journals of George Ticknor_
+will be found some interesting notes regarding his visits to Castle
+Street, and two days spent at Abbotsford in March, 1819.]]
+
+[Footnote 19: June, 1839.--A friend has sent me the following
+advertisement from an Edinburgh newspaper of 1819:--
+
+TALES OF MY LANDLORD.
+
+     "The Public are respectfully informed, that the Work announced
+     for publication under the title of 'TALES OF MY LANDLORD, Fourth
+     Series, containing _Pontefract Castle_,' is not written by the
+     Author of the First, Second, and Third Series of TALES OF MY
+     LANDLORD, of which we are the Proprietors and Publishers.
+
+                                           ARCHIBALD CONSTABLE & CO."]
+
+
+TO ROBERT SOUTHEY, ESQ., KESWICK.
+
+                                          ABBOTSFORD, 4th April, 1819.
+
+     MY DEAR SOUTHEY,--Tidings from you must be always acceptable,
+     even were the bowl in the act of breaking at the fountain--and my
+     health is at present very _totterish_. I have gone through a
+     cruel succession of spasms and sickness, which have terminated in
+     a special fit of the jaundice, so that I might sit for the image
+     of Plutus, the god of specie, so far as complexion goes. I shall
+     like our American acquaintance the better that he has sharpened
+     your remembrance of me, but he is also a wondrous fellow for
+     romantic lore and antiquarian research, considering his country.
+     I have now seen four or five well-lettered Americans, ardent in
+     pursuit of knowledge, and free from the ignorance and forward
+     presumption which distinguish many of their countrymen. I hope
+     they will inoculate their country with a love of letters, so
+     nearly allied to a desire of peace and a sense of public
+     justice--virtues to which the great Transatlantic community is
+     more strange than could be wished. Accept my best and most
+     sincere wishes for the health and strength of your latest pledge
+     of affection. When I think what you have already suffered, I can
+     imagine with what mixture of feelings this event must necessarily
+     affect you; but you need not to be told that we are in better
+     guidance than our own. I trust in God this late blessing will be
+     permanent, and inherit your talents and virtues. When I look
+     around me, and see how many men seem to make it their pride to
+     misuse high qualifications, can I be less interested than I truly
+     am in the fate of one who has uniformly dedicated his splendid
+     powers to maintaining the best interests of humanity? I am very
+     angry at the time you are to be in London, as I must be there in
+     about a fortnight, or so soon as I can shake off this depressing
+     complaint, and it would add not a little that I should meet you
+     there. My chief purpose is to put my eldest son into the army. I
+     could have wished he had chosen another profession, but have no
+     title to combat a choice which would have been my own had my
+     lameness permitted. Walter has apparently the dispositions and
+     habits fitted for the military profession, a very quiet and
+     steady temper, an attachment to mathematics and their
+     application, good sense, and uncommon personal strength and
+     activity, with address in most exercises, particularly
+     horsemanship.
+
+     --I had written thus far last week when I was interrupted, first
+     by the arrival of our friend Ticknor with Mr. Cogswell, another
+     well-accomplished Yankee--(by the bye, we have them of all sorts,
+     _e. g._, one Mr. ****, rather a fine man, whom the girls have
+     christened, with some humor, the Yankee Doodle _Dandie_). They
+     have had Tom Drum's entertainment, for I have been seized with
+     one or two successive _crises_ of my cruel malady, lasting in the
+     utmost anguish from eight to ten hours. If I had not the strength
+     of a team of horses, I could never have fought through it, and
+     through the heavy fire of medical artillery, scarce less
+     exhausting--for bleeding, blistering, calomel, and ipecacuanha
+     have gone on without intermission--while, during the agony of the
+     spasms, laudanum became necessary in the most liberal doses,
+     though inconsistent with the general treatment. I did not lose my
+     senses, because I resolved to keep them, but I thought once or
+     twice they would have gone overboard, top and top-gallant. I
+     should be a great fool, and a most ungrateful wretch, to complain
+     of such inflictions as these. My life has been, in all its
+     private and public relations, as fortunate perhaps as was ever
+     lived, up to this period; and whether pain or misfortune may lie
+     behind the dark curtain of futurity, I am already a sufficient
+     debtor to the bounty of Providence to be resigned to it. Fear is
+     an evil that has never mixed with my nature, nor has even
+     unwonted good fortune rendered my love of life tenacious; and so
+     I can look forward to the possible conclusion of these scenes of
+     agony with reasonable equanimity, and suffer chiefly through the
+     sympathetic distress of my family.
+
+     --Other ten days have passed away, for I would not send this
+     Jeremiad to tease you, while its termination seemed doubtful. For
+     the present,
+
+       "The game is done--I've won, I've won,
+        Quoth she, and whistles thrice."[20]
+
+     I am this day, for the first time, free from the relics of my
+     disorder, and, except in point of weakness, perfectly well. But
+     no broken-down hunter had ever so many sprung sinews, whelks, and
+     bruises. I am like Sancho after the doughty affair of the
+     Yanguesian Carriers, and all through the unnatural twisting of
+     the muscles under the influence of that _Goule_, the cramp. I
+     must be swathed in Goulard and Rosemary spirits--_probatum est_.
+
+     I shall not fine and renew a lease of popularity upon the
+     theatre. To write for low, ill-informed, and conceited actors,
+     whom you must please, for your success is necessarily at their
+     mercy, I cannot away with. How would you, or how do you think I
+     should relish being the object of such a letter as Kean[21] wrote
+     t'other day to a poor author, who, though a pedantic blockhead,
+     had at least the right to be treated as a gentleman by a
+     copper-laced, twopenny tearmouth, rendered mad by conceit and
+     success? Besides, if this objection were out of the way, I do not
+     think the character of the audience in London is such that one
+     could have the least pleasure in pleasing them. One half come to
+     prosecute their debaucheries, so openly that it would degrade a
+     bagnio. Another set to snooze off their beef-steaks and port
+     wine; a third are critics of the fourth column of the newspaper;
+     fashion, wit, or literature, there is not; and, on the whole, I
+     would far rather write verses for mine honest friend Punch and
+     his audience. The only thing that could tempt me to be so silly,
+     would be to assist a friend in such a degrading task who was to
+     have the whole profit and shame of it.
+
+     Have you seen decidedly the most full and methodized collection
+     of Spanish romances (ballads) published by the industry of
+     Depping (Altenburgh and Leipsic), 1817? It is quite delightful.
+     Ticknor had set me agog to see it, without affording me any hope
+     it could be had in London, when by one of these fortunate chances
+     which have often marked my life, a friend, who had been lately on
+     the Continent, came unexpectedly to inquire for me, and plucked
+     it forth _par manière de cadeau_. God prosper you, my dear
+     Southey, in your labors; but do not work too hard--_experto
+     crede_. This conclusion, as well as the confusion of my letter,
+     like the Bishop of Grenada's sermon, savors of the apoplexy. My
+     most respectful compliments attend Mrs. S.
+
+     Yours truly,
+
+                                                         WALTER SCOTT.
+
+     P. S.--I shall long to see the conclusion of the Brazil history,
+     which, as the interest comes nearer, must rise even above the
+     last noble volume. Wesley you alone can touch; but will you not
+     have the hive about you? When I was about twelve years old, I
+     heard him preach more than once, standing on a chair, in Kelso
+     churchyard. He was a most venerable figure, but his sermons were
+     vastly too colloquial for the taste of Saunders. He told many
+     excellent stories. One I remember, which he said had happened to
+     him at Edinburgh. "A drunken dragoon," said Wesley, "was
+     commencing an assertion in military fashion, G--d eternally d--n
+     me, just as I was passing. I touched the poor man on the
+     shoulder, and when he turned round fiercely, said calmly, you
+     mean _God bless you_." In the mode of telling the story he failed
+     not to make us sensible how much his patriarchal appearance, and
+     mild yet bold rebuke, overawed the soldier, who touched his hat,
+     thanked him, and, I think, came to chapel that evening.
+
+
+[Footnote 20: These lines are from Coleridge's _Ancient Mariner_.]
+
+[Footnote 21: The reader will find something about this actor's
+quarrel with Mr. Bucke, author of _The Italians_, in Barry Cornwall's
+_Life of Kean_, vol. ii. p. 178.]
+
+
+TO ROBERT SHORTREED, ESQ., SHERIFF-SUBSTITUTE, ETC., JEDBURGH.
+
+                                         ABBOTSFORD, 13th April, 1819.
+
+     DEAR BOB,--I am very desirous to procure, and as soon as
+     possible, Mrs. Shortreed's excellent receipt for making yeast.
+     The Duke of Buccleuch complains extremely of the sour yeast at
+     Lisbon as disagreeing with his stomach, and I never tasted half
+     such good bread as Mrs. Shortreed has baked at home. I am sure
+     you will be as anxious as I am that the receipt should be
+     forwarded to his Grace as soon as possible. I remember Mrs.
+     Shortreed giving a most distinct account of the whole affair. It
+     should be copied over in a very distinct hand, lest Monsieur
+     Florence makes blunders.
+
+     I am recovering from my late indisposition, but as weak as water.
+     To write these lines is a fatigue. I scarce think I can be at the
+     circuit at all--certainly only for an hour or two. So on this
+     occasion I will give Mrs. Shortreed's kind hospitality a little
+     breathing time. I am tired even with writing these few lines.
+     Yours ever,
+
+                                                     WALTER SCOTT.[22]
+
+
+[Footnote 22: "Sir Walter got not only the recipe for making bread
+from us--but likewise learnt the best mode of cutting it 'in a family
+way.' The breadboard and large knife used at Abbotsford at
+breakfast-time were adopted by Sir Walter, after seeing them 'work
+well' in our family."--_Note by Mr. Andrew Shortreed._]
+
+
+TO HIS GRACE THE DUKE OF BUCCLEUCH, ETC., LISBON.
+
+                                         ABBOTSFORD, 15th April, 1819.
+
+     MY DEAR LORD DUKE,--How very strange it seems that this should be
+     the first letter I address to your Grace, and you so long absent
+     from Scotland, and looking for all the news and nonsense of which
+     I am in general such a faithful reporter. Alas, I have been
+     ill--very--very ill--only Dr. Baillie says there is nothing of
+     consequence about my malady _except the pain_--a pretty
+     exception--said pain being intense enough to keep me roaring as
+     loud as your Grace's _ci-devant_ John of Lorn, and of, generally
+     speaking, from six to eight hours' incessant duration, only
+     varied by intervals of deadly sickness. Poor Sophia was alone
+     with me for some time, and managed a half-distracted pack of
+     servants with spirit, and sense, and presence of mind, far
+     beyond her years, never suffering her terror at seeing me in a
+     state so new to her, and so alarming, to divert her mind an
+     instant from what was fit and proper to be done. Pardon this side
+     compliment to your Grace's little Jacobite, to whom you have
+     always been so kind. If sympathy could have cured me, I should
+     not have been long ill. Gentle and simple were all equally kind,
+     and even old Tom Watson crept down from Falshope to see how I was
+     coming on, and to ejaculate "if anything ailed the Shirra, it
+     would be sair on the Duke." The only unwelcome resurrection was
+     that of old ****, whose feud with me (or rather dryness) I had
+     well hoped was immortal; but he came jinking over the moor with
+     daughters and ponies, and God knows what, to look after my
+     precious health. I cannot tolerate that man; it seems to me as if
+     I hated him for things not only past and present, but for some
+     future offence, which is as yet in the womb of fate.
+
+     I have had as many remedies sent me for cramp and jaundice as
+     would set up a quack doctor: three from Mrs. Plummer, each better
+     than the other--one at least from every gardener in the
+     neighborhood--besides all sorts of recommendations to go to
+     Cheltenham, to Harrowgate, to Jericho for aught I know. Now if
+     there is one thing I detest more than another, it is a
+     watering-place, unless a very pleasant party be previously
+     formed, when, as Tony Lumpkin says, "a gentleman may be in a
+     concatenation." The most extraordinary recipe was that of my
+     Highland piper, John Bruce, who spent a whole Sunday in selecting
+     twelve stones from twelve _south-running_ streams, with the
+     purpose that I should sleep upon them, and be whole. I caused him
+     to be told that the recipe was infallible, but that it was
+     absolutely necessary to success that the stones should be wrapt
+     up in the petticoat of a widow who had never wished to marry
+     again; upon which the piper renounced all hope of completing the
+     charm. I had need of a softer couch than Bruce had destined me,
+     for so general was the tension of the nerves all over the body,
+     although the pain of the spasms in the stomach did not suffer the
+     others to be felt, that my whole left leg was covered with
+     swelling and inflammation, arising from the unnatural action of
+     the muscles, and I had to be carried about like a child. My right
+     leg escaped better, the muscles there having less irritability,
+     owing to its lame state. Your Grace may imagine the energy of
+     pain in the nobler parts, when cramps in the extremities,
+     sufficient to produce such effects, were unnoticed by me during
+     their existence. But enough of so disagreeable a subject.
+
+     Respecting the portrait, I shall be equally proud and happy to
+     sit for it, and hope it may be so executed as to be in some
+     degree worthy of the preferment to which it is destined.[23] But
+     neither my late golden hue (for I was covered with jaundice), nor
+     my present silver complexion (looking much more like a spectre
+     than a man), will present any idea of my quondam beef-eating
+     physiognomy. I must wait till the _age of brass_, the true
+     juridical bronze of my profession, shall again appear on my
+     frontal. I hesitate a little about Raeburn, unless your Grace is
+     quite determined. He has very much to do; works just now chiefly
+     for cash, poor fellow, as he can have but a few years to make
+     money; and has twice already made a very chowder-headed person of
+     me. I should like much (always with your approbation) to try
+     Allan, who is a man of real genius, and has made one or two
+     glorious portraits, though his predilection is to the historical
+     branch of the art. We did rather a handsome thing for him,
+     considering that in Edinburgh we are neither very wealthy nor
+     great amateurs. A hundred persons subscribed ten guineas apiece
+     to raffle[24] for his fine picture of the Circassian Chief
+     selling Slaves to the Turkish Pacha--a beautiful and highly
+     poetical picture. There was another small picture added by way of
+     second prize, and, what is curious enough, the only two peers on
+     the list, Lord Wemyss and Lord Fife, both got prizes. Allan has
+     made a sketch which I shall take to town with me when I can go,
+     in hopes Lord Stafford, or some other picture-buyer, may fancy
+     it, and order a picture. The subject is the murder of Archbishop
+     Sharp on Magus Moor, prodigiously well treated. The savage
+     ferocity of the assassins, crowding one on another to strike at
+     the old prelate on his knees--contrasted with the old man's
+     figure--and that of his daughter endeavoring to interpose for his
+     protection, and withheld by a ruffian of milder mood than his
+     fellows:--the dogged fanatical severity of Rathillet's
+     countenance, who remained on horseback, witnessing, with stern
+     fanaticism, the murder he did not choose to be active in, lest it
+     should be said that he struck out of private revenge--are all
+     amazingly well combined in the sketch. I question if the artist
+     can bring them out with equal spirit in the painting which he
+     meditates.[25] Sketches give a sort of fire to the imagination of
+     the spectator, who is apt to fancy a great deal more for himself,
+     than the pencil, in the finished picture, can possibly present to
+     his eye afterwards.--Constable has offered Allan three hundred
+     pounds to make sketches for an edition of the Tales of my
+     Landlord, and other novels of that cycle, and says he will give
+     him the same sum next year, so, from being pinched enough, this
+     very deserving artist suddenly finds himself at his ease. He was
+     long at Odessa with the Duke of Richelieu, and is a very
+     entertaining person.
+
+
+[Footnote 23: The position in the Library at Bowhill, originally
+destined by the late Duke of Buccleuch for a portrait that never was
+executed, is now filled by that which Raeburn painted in 1808 for
+Constable.]
+
+[Footnote 24: Three pictures were ultimately raffled for; and the
+following note, dated April the 1st, 1819, shows how keenly and
+practically Scott, almost in the crisis of his malady, could attend to
+the details of such a business:--
+
+
+TO J. G. LOCKHART, ESQ., ADVOCATE, EDINBURGH.
+
+     ... I have been dreadfully ill since I wrote to you, but I think
+     I have now got the turn fairly. It was quite time, for though the
+     doctors say the disease is not dangerous, yet I could not have
+     endured six days more agony. I have a summons from the ingenious
+     Mr. David Bridges to attend to my interests at his shop next
+     Saturday, or send some qualified person to act on my behalf. I
+     suppose that this mysterious missive alludes to the plan about
+     Allan's pictures, and at any rate I hope you will act for me. I
+     should think a raffle with dice would give more general
+     satisfaction than a lottery. Yon would be astonished what
+     unhandsome suspicions well-educated and sensible persons will
+     take into their heads, when a selfish competition awakens the
+     mean and evil passions of our nature. Let each subscriber throw
+     the dice in person or by proxy, leaving out all who throw under a
+     certain number, and let this be repeated till the number is so
+     far reduced that the three who throw highest may hold the prizes.
+     I have much to say to you, and should you spare me a day about
+     the end of next week, I trust you will find me pretty _bobbish_.
+
+                               Always yours affectionately,      W. S.
+
+
+The Mr. David Bridges here mentioned has occurred already.--See
+_ante_, vol. v. p. 262. The jokers in _Blackwood_ made him happy by
+dubbing him, "The Director-General of the Fine Arts for Scotland."--He
+says the subscribers for the Allan-Raffle were not so numerous as
+Scott had supposed. (Mr. Bridges died in November, 1840, in his 64th
+year.)]
+
+[Footnote 25: The fine picture which Allan executed is in the
+possession of Mr. Lockhart of Milton-Lockhart, and has been well
+engraved.]
+
+
+     I saw with great pleasure Wilkie's sketch of your Grace, and I
+     think when I get to town I shall coax him out of a copy, to me
+     invaluable. I hope, however, when you return, you will sit to
+     Lawrence. We should have at least one picture of your Grace from
+     the real good hand. Sooth to speak, I cannot say much for the
+     juvenile representations at Bowhill and in the library at
+     Dalkeith. Return, however, with the original features in good
+     health, and we shall not worry you about portraits. The library
+     at Bowhill will be a delightful room, and will be some
+     consolation to me who must, I fear, lose for some time the
+     comforts of the eating-room, and substitute panada and toast and
+     water for the bonny haunch and buxom bottle of claret. Truth is,
+     I must make great restrictions on my creature-comforts, at least
+     till my stomach recovers its tone and ostrich-like capacity of
+     digestion. Our spring here is slow, but not unfavorable: the
+     country looking very well, and my plantings for the season quite
+     completed. I have planted quite up two little glens, leading
+     from the Aide-de-Camp's habitation up to the little loch, and
+     expect the blessings of posterity for the shade and shelter I
+     shall leave, where, God knows, I found none.
+
+     It is doomed this letter is not to close without a request. I
+     conclude your Grace has already heard from fifty applicants that
+     the kirk of Middlebie is vacant, and I come forward as the
+     fifty-first (always barring prior engagements and better claims)
+     in behalf of George Thomson, a son of the minister of Melrose,
+     being the grinder of my boys, and therefore deeply entitled to my
+     gratitude and my good offices, as far as they can go. He is
+     nearer Parson Abraham Adams than any living creature I ever
+     saw--very learned, very religious, very simple, and extremely
+     absent. His father, till very lately, had but a sort of half
+     stipend, during the incumbency of a certain notorious Mr.
+     MacLagan, to whom he acted only as assistant. The poor devil was
+     brought to the grindstone (having had the want of precaution to
+     beget a large family), and became the very figure of a fellow who
+     used to come upon the stage to sing "Let us all be unhappy
+     together." This poor lad George was his saving angel, not only
+     educating himself, but taking on him the education of two of his
+     brothers, and maintaining them out of his own scanty pittance. He
+     is a sensible lad, and by no means a bad preacher, a stanch
+     Anti-Gallican, and orthodox in his principles. Should your Grace
+     find yourself at liberty to give countenance to this very
+     innocent and deserving creature, I need not say it will add to
+     the many favors you have conferred on me; but I hope the
+     parishioners will have also occasion to say, "Weel bobbit, George
+     of Middlebie." Your Grace's Aide-de-Camp, who knows young Thomson
+     well, will give you a better idea of him than I can do. He lost a
+     leg by an accident in his boyhood, which spoiled as bold and
+     fine-looking a grenadier as ever charged bayonet against a
+     Frenchman's throat. I think your Grace will not like him the
+     worse for having a spice of military and loyal spirit about him.
+     If you knew the poor fellow, your Grace would take uncommon
+     interest in him, were it but for the odd mixture of sense and
+     simplicity, and spirit and good morals. Somewhat too much of him.
+
+     I conclude you will go to Mafra, Cintra, or some of these places,
+     which Baretti describes so delightfully, to avoid the great
+     heats, when the Palace de las Necessidades must become rather
+     oppressive. By the bye, though it were only for the credit of the
+     name, I am happy to learn it has that useful English comfort, a
+     water-closet. I suppose the armorer of the Liffey has already put
+     it in complete repair. Your Grace sees the most secret passages
+     respecting great men cannot be hidden from their friends. There
+     is but little news here but death in the clan. Harden's sister is
+     dead--a cruel blow to Lady Die,[26] who is upwards of
+     eighty-five, and accustomed to no other society. Again, Mrs.
+     Frank Scott, his uncle's widow, is dead, unable to survive the
+     loss of two fine young men in India, her sons, whose death
+     closely followed each other. All this is sad work; but it is a
+     wicked and melancholy world we live in. God bless you, my dear,
+     dear Lord. Take great care of your health for the sake of all of
+     us. You are the breath of our nostrils, useful to thousands, and
+     to many of these thousands indispensable. I will write again very
+     soon, when I can keep my breast longer to the desk without pain,
+     for I am not yet without frequent relapses, when they souse me
+     into scalding water without a moment's delay, where I lie, as my
+     old _grieve_ Tom Purdie said last night, being called to assist
+     at the operation, "like a _haulded saumon_." I write a few lines
+     to the Aide-de-Camp, but I am afraid of putting this letter
+     beyond the bounds of Lord Montagu's frank. When I can do anything
+     for your Grace here, you know I am most pleased and happy.--Ever
+     respectfully and affectionately your Grace's
+
+                                                         WALTER SCOTT.
+
+
+[Footnote 26: See _ante_, vol. i. p. 230.]
+
+
+TO CAPTAIN ADAM FERGUSON, ETC., ETC., ETC.
+
+                                           ABBOTSFORD, April 16, 1819.
+
+     MY DEAR ADAM,--Having only been able last night to finish a long
+     letter to the Chief, I now add a few lines for the Aide-de-Camp.
+     I have had the pleasure to hear of you regularly from Jack,[27]
+     who is very regular in steering this way when packets arrive; and
+     I observe with great satisfaction that you think our good Duke's
+     health is on the mending hand. Climate must operate as an
+     alterative, and much cannot perhaps be expected from it at first.
+     Besides, the great heat must be a serious drawback. But I hope
+     you will try by and by to get away to Cintra, or some of those
+     sequestered retreats where there are shades and cascades to cool
+     the air. I have an idea the country there is eminently beautiful.
+     I am afraid the Duke has not yet been able to visit Torres
+     Vedras, but _you_ must be meeting with things everywhere to put
+     you in mind of former scenes. As for the Senhoras, I have little
+     doubt that the difference betwixt your military hard fare and
+     Florence's high sauces and jellies will make them think that time
+     has rather improved an old friend than otherwise. Apropos of
+     these ticklish subjects. I am a suitor to the Duke, with little
+     expectation of success (for I know his engagements), for the kirk
+     of Middlebie to George Thomson, the very Abraham Adams of
+     Presbytery. If the Duke mentions him to you (not otherwise) pray
+     lend him a lift. With a kirk and a manse the poor fellow might
+     get a good farmer's daughter, and beget grenadiers for his
+     Majesty's service. But as I said before, I dare say all St.
+     Hubert's black pack are in full cry upon the living, and that he
+     has little or no chance. It is something, however, to have tabled
+     him, as better may come of it another day.
+
+     All at Huntly Burn well and hearty, and most kind in their
+     attentions during our late turmoils. Bauby[28] came over to offer
+     her services as sick-nurse, and I have drunk scarce anything but
+     delicious ginger-beer of Miss Bell's brewing, since my troubles
+     commenced. They have been, to say the least, damnable; and I
+     think you would hardly know me. When I crawl out on Sibyl Grey, I
+     am the very image of Death on the pale horse--lanthorn-jawed,
+     decayed in flesh, stooping as if I meant to eat the pony's ears,
+     and unable to go above a footpace. But although I have had, and
+     must expect, frequent relapses, yet the attacks are more slight,
+     and I trust I shall mend with the good weather. Spring sets in
+     very pleasantly, and in a settled fashion. I have planted a
+     number of shrubs, etc., at Huntly Burn, and am snodding up the
+     drive of the old farmhouse, enclosing the Toftfield, and making a
+     good road from the parish road to your gate. This I tell you to
+     animate you to pick up a few seeds both of forest trees, shrubs,
+     and vegetables; we will rear them in the hot-house, and divide
+     honorably. _Avis au lecteur._ I have been a good deal entrusted
+     to the care of Sophia, who is an admirable sick-nurse. Mamma has
+     been called to town by two important avocations: to get a
+     cook--no joking matter,--and to see Charles, who was but
+     indifferent, but has recovered. You must have heard of the death
+     of Joseph Hume, David's only son. Christ! what a calamity!--just
+     entering life with the fairest prospects--full of talent, and the
+     heir of an old and considerable family--a fine career before him:
+     all this he was one day, or rather one hour--or rather in the
+     course of five minutes--so sudden was the death--and then--a heap
+     of earth. His disease is unknown; something about the heart, I
+     believe; but it had no alarming appearance, nothing worse than a
+     cold and sore throat, when convulsions came, and death ensued. It
+     is a complete smash to poor David, who had just begun to hold
+     his head up after his wife's death. But he bears it stoutly, and
+     goes about his business as usual. A woeful case. London is now
+     out of the question with me; I have no prospect of being now able
+     to stand the journey by sea or land; but the best is, I have no
+     pressing business there. The Commie[29] takes charge of Walter's
+     matters--cannot, you know, be in better hands; and Lord Melville
+     talks of gazetting _quam primum_. I will write a long letter very
+     soon, but my back, fingers, and eyes ache with these three pages.
+     All here send love and fraternity. Yours ever most truly,
+
+                                                         WALTER SCOTT.
+
+     P. S.--By the bye, old Kennedy, the tinker, swam for his life at
+     Jedburgh, and was only, by the sophisticated and timid evidence
+     of a seceding doctor, who differed from all his brethren, saved
+     from a well-deserved gibbet. He goes to botanize for fourteen
+     years. Pray tell this to the Duke, for he was
+
+       "An old soldier of the Duke's,
+        And the Duke's old soldier."
+
+     Six of his brethren, I am told, were in court, and kith and kin
+     without end. I am sorry so many of the clan are left. The cause
+     of quarrel with the murdered man was an old feud between two
+     gypsy clans, the Kennedies and Irvings, which, about forty years
+     since, gave rise to a desperate quarrel and battle on Hawick
+     Green, in which the grandfathers of both Kennedy, and Irving whom
+     he murdered, were engaged.
+
+
+[Footnote 27: Captain John Ferguson, R. N.]
+
+[Footnote 28: Bauby--_i. e._, Barbara, was a kind old housekeeper of
+the Miss Fergusons.]
+
+[Footnote 29: The Lord Chief-Commissioner Adam.]
+
+In the next of these letters there is allusion to a drama, on the
+story of The Heart of Mid-Lothian, of which Mr. Terry had transmitted
+the MS. to Abbotsford--and which ultimately proved very successful.
+Terry had, shortly before this time, become the acting manager of the
+Haymarket Theatre.
+
+
+TO D. TERRY, ESQ., HAYMARKET, LONDON.
+
+                                         ABBOTSFORD, 18th April, 1819.
+
+     DEAR TERRY,--I am able (though very weak) to answer your kind
+     inquiries. I have thought of you often, and been on the point of
+     writing or dictating a letter, but till very lately I could have
+     had little to tell you of but distress and agony, with constant
+     relapses into my unhappy malady, so that for weeks I seemed to
+     lose rather than gain ground, all food nauseating on my stomach,
+     and my clothes hanging about me like a potato-bogle,[30] with
+     from five or six to ten hours of mortal pain every third day;
+     latterly the fits have been much milder, and have at last given
+     way to the hot bath without any use of opiates; an immense point
+     gained, as they hurt my general health extremely. Conceive my
+     having taken, in the course of six or seven hours, six grains of
+     opium, three of hyoscyamus, near 200 drops of laudanum--and all
+     without any sensible relief of the agony under which I labored.
+     My stomach is now getting confirmed, and I have great hopes the
+     bout is over; it has been a dreadful set-to. I am sorry to hear
+     Mrs. Terry is complaining; you ought not to let her labor,
+     neither at Abbotsford sketches nor at anything else, but to study
+     to keep her mind amused as much as possible. As for Walter, he is
+     a shoot of an _Aik_,[31] and I have no fear of him: I hope he
+     remembers Abbotsford and his soldier namesake.
+
+     I send the MS.--I wish you had written for it earlier. My
+     touching, or even thinking of it, was out of the question; my
+     corrections would have smelled as cruelly of the cramp as the
+     Bishop of Grenada's homily did of the apoplexy. Indeed I hold
+     myself inadequate to estimate those criticisms which rest on
+     stage effect, having been of late very little of a play-going
+     person. Would to Heaven these sheets could do for you what Rob
+     Roy has done for Murray; he has absolutely netted upwards of
+     £3000: to be sure, the man who played the Bailie made a piece of
+     acting equal to whatever has been seen in the profession. For my
+     own part, I was actually electrified by the truth, spirit, and
+     humor which he threw into the part. It was the living Nicol
+     Jarvie: conceited, pragmatical, cautious, generous, proud of his
+     connection with Rob Roy, frightened for him at the same time, and
+     yet extremely desirous to interfere with him as an adviser: the
+     tone in which he seemed to give him up for a lost man after
+     having provoked him into some burst of Highland violence, "Ah
+     Rab! Rab!" was quite inimitable. I do assure you I never saw a
+     thing better played. It is like it may be his only part, for no
+     doubt the Patavinity and knowledge of the provincial character
+     may have aided him much; but still he must be a wonderful fellow;
+     and the houses he drew were tremendous.
+
+     I am truly glad you are settled in London--"a rolling
+     stone"--"the proverb is something musty:"[32] it is always
+     difficult to begin a new profession; I could have wished you
+     quartered nearer us, but we shall always hear of you. The
+     becoming stage-manager at the Haymarket I look upon as a great
+     step: well executed, it cannot but lead to something of the same
+     kind elsewhere. You must be aware of stumbling over a propensity
+     which easily besets you from the habit of not having your time
+     fully employed--I mean what the women very expressively call
+     _dawdling_. Your motto must be _Hoc age_. Do instantly whatever
+     is to be done, and take the hours of reflection or recreation
+     after business, and never before it. When a regiment is under
+     march, the rear is often thrown into confusion because the front
+     do not move steadily and without interruption. It is the same
+     thing with business. If that which is first in hand is not
+     instantly, steadily, and regularly despatched, other things
+     accumulate behind till affairs begin to press all at once, and
+     no human brain can stand the confusion: pray mind this, it is one
+     of your few weak points--ask Mrs. Terry else. A habit of the mind
+     it is which is very apt to beset men of intellect and talent,
+     especially when their time is not regularly filled up, but left
+     at their own arrangement. But it is like the ivy round the oak,
+     and ends by limiting, if it does not destroy, the power of manly
+     and necessary exertion. I must love a man so well to whom I offer
+     such a word of advice, that I will not apologize for it, but
+     expect to hear you are become as regular as a Dutch clock--hours,
+     quarters, minutes, all marked and appropriated. This is a great
+     cast in life, and must be played with all skill and caution.
+
+     We wish much to have a plan of the great bed, that we may hang up
+     the tester. Mr. Atkinson offered to have it altered or exchanged;
+     but with the expense of land-carriage and risk of damage, it is
+     not to be thought of. I enclose a letter to thank him for all his
+     kindness. I should like to have the invoice when the things are
+     shipped. I hope they will send them to Leith, and not to Berwick.
+     The plasterer has broke a pane in the armory. I enclose a sheet
+     with the size, the black lines being traced within the lead; and
+     I add a rough drawing of the arms, which are those of my mother.
+     I should like it replaced as soon as possible, for I will set the
+     expense against the careless rascal's account.
+
+     I have got a beautiful scarlet paper, inlaid with gold (rather
+     crimson than scarlet) in a present from India, which will hang
+     the parlor to a T; but we shall want some articles from town to
+     enable us to take possession of the parlor--namely, a
+     _carpet_--you mentioned a _wainscot pattern_, which would be
+     delightful--item, _grates_ for said parlor and armory--a plain
+     and unexpensive pattern, resembling that in my room (which vents
+     most admirably), and suited by half-dogs for burning wood. The
+     sideboard and chairs you have mentioned. I see Mr. Bullock
+     (George's brother) advertises his museum for sale. I wonder if a
+     good set of _real tilting_ armor could be got cheap there. James
+     Ballantyne got me one very handsome bright steel cuirassier of
+     Queen Elizabeth's time, and two less perfect, for £20--dog cheap;
+     they make a great figure in the armory. Hangings, curtains, etc.,
+     I believe we shall get as well in Edinburgh as in London; it is
+     in your joiner and cabinet work that your infinite superiority
+     lies.
+
+     Write to me if I can do aught about the play--though I fear not:
+     much will depend on Dumbiedikes, in whom Listen will be strong.
+     Sophia has been chiefly my nurse, as an indisposition of little
+     Charles called Charlotte to town. She returned yesterday with
+     him. All beg kind compliments to you and Mrs. Terry and little
+     Walter. I remain your very feeble but convalescent to command,
+
+                                                         WALTER SCOTT.
+
+     P. S.--We must not forget the case for the leaves of the table
+     while out of use; without something of the kind, I am afraid they
+     will be liable to injury, which is a pity, as they are so very
+     beautiful.[33]
+
+
+[Footnote 30: _Anglice_--Scarecrow.]
+
+[Footnote 31: _Anglice_--an Oak.]
+
+[Footnote 32: _Hamlet_, Act III. Scene 2.]
+
+[Footnote 33: The Duke of Buccleuch gave Scott some old oak-roots from
+Drumlanrig, out of which a very beautiful set of dinner-tables were
+manufactured by Messrs. Bullock.]
+
+The accounts of Scott's condition circulated in Edinburgh in the
+course of this April were so alarming, that I should not have thought
+of accepting his invitation to revisit Abbotsford, unless John
+Ballantyne had given me better tidings about the end of the
+month.[34] He informed me that his "illustrious friend" (for so both
+the Ballantynes usually spoke of him) was so much recovered as to have
+resumed his usual literary tasks, though with this difference, that he
+now, for the first time in his life, found it necessary to employ the
+hand of another. I have now before me a letter of the 8th April, in
+which Scott says to Constable: "Yesterday I began to dictate, and did
+it easily and with comfort. This is a great point, but I must proceed
+by little and little; last night I had a slight return of the enemy,
+but baffled him;"--and he again writes to the bookseller on the 11th,
+"John Ballantyne is here, and returns with copy, which my increasing
+strength permits me to hope I may now furnish regularly."
+
+[Footnote 34: [An extract from a letter of March 23 will show how warm
+a regard Scott already felt for Lockhart: "I am but just on my feet
+after a fourth very severe spasmodic affection, which held me from
+half-past six last night to half-past three this morning in a state
+little short of the extreme agony, during which time, to the infinite
+consternation of my terrified family, I waltzed with Madam Cramp to my
+own sad music.
+
+  I sighed and howl'd,
+  And groaned and growl'd,
+    A wild and wondrous sound;
+
+incapable of lying in one posture, yet unable to find any possible
+means of changing it. I thought of you amid all this agony, and of the
+great game which with your parts and principles lies before you in
+Scotland, and having been for very many years the only man of letters
+who at least stood by, if he could not support, the banner of ancient
+faith and loyalty, I was mentally bequeathing to you my baton, like
+old Douglas:--
+
+  'Take _thou_ the vanguard of the three
+    And bury me by the bracken bush,
+  That grows upon yon lily lea.'
+
+"I believe the women thought I was growing light-headed as they heard
+me repeat a rhyme apparently so little connected with my situation. I
+have much to say to you on these subjects, for which I hope we shall
+have a fit time; for, like old Sir Anthony Absolute, I hope still to
+live long and be very troublesome to you. Indeed, the surgeon could
+not help expressing his astonishment at the great strength of my
+temperament, and I think had an eye to my ribs as glorious hoops for a
+skeleton."--_Familiar Letters_, vol. ii. p. 38.]]
+
+The _copy_ (as MS. for the press is technically called) which Scott
+was thus dictating, was that of The Bride of Lammermoor, and his
+amanuenses were William Laidlaw and John Ballantyne;--of whom he
+preferred the latter, when he could be at Abbotsford, on account of
+the superior rapidity of his pen; and also because John kept his pen
+to the paper without interruption, and, though with many an arch
+twinkle in his eyes, and now and then an audible smack of his lips,
+had resolution to work on like a well-trained clerk; whereas good
+Laidlaw entered with such keen zest into the interest of the story as
+it flowed from the author's lips, that he could not suppress
+exclamations of surprise and delight--"Gude keep us a'!--the like o'
+that!--eh sirs! eh sirs!"--and so forth--which did not promote
+despatch. I have often, however, in the sequel, heard both these
+secretaries describe the astonishment with which they were equally
+affected when Scott began this experiment. The affectionate Laidlaw
+beseeching him to stop dictating, when his audible suffering filled
+every pause, "Nay, Willie," he answered, "only see that the doors are
+fast. I would fain keep all the cry as well as all the wool to
+ourselves; but as to giving over work, that can only be when I am in
+woollen." John Ballantyne told me, that after the first day he always
+took care to have a dozen of pens made before he seated himself
+opposite to the sofa on which Scott lay, and that though he often
+turned himself on his pillow with a groan of torment, he usually
+continued the sentence in the same breath. But when dialogue of
+peculiar animation was in progress, spirit seemed to triumph
+altogether over matter--he arose from his couch and walked up and down
+the room, raising and lowering his voice, and as it were acting the
+parts. It was in this fashion that Scott produced the far greater
+portion of The Bride of Lammermoor--the whole of the Legend of
+Montrose--and almost the whole of Ivanhoe. Yet, when his health was
+fairly reëstablished, he disdained to avail himself of the power of
+dictation, which he had thus put to the sharpest test, but resumed,
+and for many years resolutely adhered to, the old plan of writing
+everything with his own hand. When I once, some time afterwards,
+expressed my surprise that he did not consult his ease, and spare his
+eyesight at all events, by occasionally dictating, he answered, "I
+should as soon think of getting into a sedan chair while I can use my
+legs."
+
+On one of the envelopes in which a chapter of The Bride of Lammermoor
+reached the printer in the Canongate about this time (May 2, 1819),
+there is this note in the author's own handwriting:--
+
+
+     DEAR JAMES,--These matters will need more than your usual
+     carefulness. Look sharp--double sharp--my trust is constant in
+     thee:--
+
+       "Tarry woo, tarry woo,
+        Tarry woo is ill to spin;
+        Card it weel, card it weel,
+        Card it weel ere ye begin.
+        When 'tis carded, row'd, and spun,
+        Then the work is hafflins done;
+        But when woven, drest, and clean,
+        It may be cleading for a queen."
+
+                                                      So be it,--W. S.
+
+
+But to return: I rode out to Abbotsford with John Ballantyne towards
+the end of the spring vacation, and though he had warned me of a sad
+change in Scott's appearance, it was far beyond what I had been led to
+anticipate. He had lost a great deal of flesh--his clothes hung loose
+about him--his countenance was meagre, haggard, and of the deadliest
+yellow of the jaundice--and his hair, which a few weeks before had
+been but slightly sprinkled with gray, was now almost literally
+snow-white. His eye, however, retained its fire unquenched; indeed it
+seemed to have gained in brilliancy from the new languor of the other
+features; and he received us with all the usual cordiality, and even
+with little perceptible diminishment in the sprightliness of his
+manner. He sat at the table while we dined, but partook only of some
+rice pudding; and after the cloth was drawn, while sipping his toast
+and water, pushed round the bottles in his old style, and talked with
+easy cheerfulness of the stout battle he had fought, and which he now
+seemed to consider as won.
+
+"One day there was," he said, "when I certainly began to have great
+doubts whether the mischief was not getting at my mind--and I'll tell
+you how I tried to reassure myself on that score. I was quite unfit
+for anything like original composition; but I thought if I could turn
+an old German ballad I had been reading into decent rhymes, I might
+dismiss my worst apprehensions--and you shall see what came of the
+experiment." He then desired his daughter Sophia to fetch the MS. of
+The Noble Moringer, as it had been taken down from his dictation,
+partly by her and partly by Mr. Laidlaw, during one long and painful
+day while he lay in bed. He read it to us as it stood, and seeing that
+both Ballantyne and I were much pleased with the verses, he said he
+should copy them over,--make them a little "tighter about the
+joints,"--and give me them to be printed in the Edinburgh Annual
+Register for 1816,--to consult him about which volume had partly been
+the object of my visit; and this promise he redeemed before I left
+him.
+
+The reading of this long ballad, however (it consists of forty-three
+stanzas),[35] seemed to have exhausted him: he retired to his bedroom;
+and an hour or two after, when we were about to follow his example,
+his family were distressed by the well-known symptoms of another sharp
+recurrence of his affliction. A large dose of opium and the hot bath
+were immediately put in requisition. His good neighbor, Dr. Scott of
+Darnlee, was sent for, and soon attended; and in the course of three
+or four hours we learned that he was once more at ease. But I can
+never forget the groans which, during that space, his agony extorted
+from him. Well knowing the iron strength of his resolution, to find
+him confessing its extremity, by cries audible not only all over the
+house, but even to a considerable distance from it (for Ballantyne and
+I, after he was put into his bath, walked forth to be out of the way,
+and heard him distinctly at the bowling-green), it may be supposed
+that this was sufficiently alarming, even to my companion; how much
+more to me, who had never before listened to that voice, except in the
+gentle accents of kindness and merriment.
+
+[Footnote 35: See Scott's _Poetical Works_ (Ed. 1834), vol. vi. p. 343
+[Cambridge Ed. p. 444].]
+
+I told Ballantyne that I saw this was no time for my visit, and that I
+should start for Edinburgh again at an early hour--and begged he would
+make my apologies--in the propriety of which he acquiesced. But as I
+was dressing, about seven next morning, Scott himself tapped at my
+door, and entered, looking better I thought than at my arrival the day
+before. "Don't think of going," said he; "I feel hearty this morning,
+and if my devil does come back again, it won't be for three days at
+any rate. For the present, I want nothing to set me up except a good
+trot in the open air, to drive away the accursed vapors of the
+laudanum I was obliged to swallow last night. You have never seen
+Yarrow, and when I have finished a little job I have with Jocund
+Johnny, we shall all take horse and make a day of it." When I said
+something about a ride of twenty miles being rather a bold experiment
+after such a night, he answered that he had ridden more than forty, a
+week before, under similar circumstances, and felt nothing the worse.
+He added, that there was an election on foot, in consequence of the
+death of Sir John Riddell, of Riddell, Member of Parliament for the
+Selkirk district of Burghs, and that the bad health and absence of the
+Duke of Buccleuch rendered it quite necessary that he should make
+exertions on this occasion. "In short," said he, laughing, "I have an
+errand which I shall perform--and as I must pass Newark, you had
+better not miss the opportunity of seeing it under so excellent a
+cicerone as the old minstrel,
+
+  'Whose withered cheek and tresses grey
+   Shall yet see many a better day.'"
+
+About eleven o'clock, accordingly, he was mounted, by the help of Tom
+Purdie, upon a stanch, active cob, yclept Sibyl Grey,--exactly such a
+creature as is described in Mr. Dinmont's _Dumple_--while Ballantyne
+sprang into the saddle of noble _Old Mortality_, and we proceeded to
+the town of Selkirk, where Scott halted to do business at the
+Sheriff-Clerk's, and begged us to move onward at a gentle pace until
+he should overtake us. He came up by and by at a canter, and seemed in
+high glee with the tidings he had heard about the canvass. And so we
+rode by Philiphaugh, Carterhaugh, Bowhill, and Newark, he pouring out
+all the way his picturesque anecdotes of former times--more especially
+of the fatal field where Montrose was finally overthrown by Leslie. He
+described the battle as vividly as if he had witnessed it; the passing
+of the Ettrick at daybreak by the Covenanting General's heavy
+cuirassiers, many of them old soldiers of Gustavus Adolphus, and the
+wild confusion of the Highland host when exposed to their charge on an
+extensive _haugh_ as flat as a bowling-green. He drew us aside at
+_Slain-men's-lee_, to observe the green mound that marks the
+resting-place of the slaughtered royalists; and pointing to the
+apparently precipitous mountain, Minchmoor, over which Montrose and
+his few cavaliers escaped, mentioned that, rough as it seemed, his
+mother remembered passing it in her early days in a coach and six, on
+her way to a ball at Peebles--several footmen marching on either side
+of the carriage to prop it up, or drag it through bogs, as the case
+might require. He also gave us, with all the dramatic effect of one of
+his best chapters, the history of a worthy family who, inhabiting at
+the time of the battle a cottage on his own estate, had treated with
+particular kindness a young officer of Leslie's army quartered on them
+for a night or two before. When parting from them to join the troops,
+he took out a purse of gold, and told the good woman that he had a
+presentiment he should not see another sun set, and in that case would
+wish his money to remain in her kind hands; but, if he should survive,
+he had no doubt she would restore it honestly. The young man returned
+mortally wounded, but lingered awhile under her roof, and finally
+bequeathed to her and hers his purse and his blessing. "Such," he
+said, "was the origin of the respectable lairds of----, now my good
+neighbors."
+
+The prime object of this expedition was to talk over the politics of
+Selkirk with one of the Duke of Buccleuch's great store-farmers, who,
+as the Sheriff had learned, possessed private influence with a
+doubtful bailie or deacon among the Souters. I forget the result, if
+ever I heard it. But next morning, having, as he assured us, enjoyed a
+good night in consequence of this ride, he invited us to accompany him
+on a similar errand across Bowden Moor, and up the Valley of the Ayle;
+and when we reached a particularly bleak and dreary point of that
+journey, he informed us that he perceived in the waste below a wreath
+of smoke, which was the appointed signal that a _wavering_ Souter of
+some consequence had agreed to give him a personal interview where no
+Whiggish eyes were likely to observe them;--and so, leaving us on the
+road, he proceeded to thread his way westward, across moor and bog,
+until we lost view of him. I think a couple of hours might have passed
+before he joined us again, which was, as had been arranged, not far
+from the village of Lilliesleaf. In that place, too, he had some
+negotiation of the same sort to look after; and when he had finished
+it, he rode with us all round the ancient woods of Riddell, but would
+not go near the house; I suppose lest any of the afflicted family
+might still be there. Many were his lamentations over the catastrophe
+which had just befallen them. "They are," he said, "one of the most
+venerable races in the south of Scotland--they were here long before
+these glens had ever heard the name of Soulis or of Douglas--to say
+nothing of Buccleuch: they can show a Pope's bull of the tenth
+century, authorizing the then Riddell to marry a relation within the
+forbidden degrees. Here they have been for a thousand years at least;
+and now all the inheritance is to pass away, merely because one good
+worthy gentleman would not be contented to enjoy his horses, his
+hounds, and his bottle of claret, like thirty or forty predecessors,
+but must needs turn scientific agriculturist, take almost all his fair
+estate into his own hand, superintend for himself perhaps a hundred
+ploughs, and try every new nostrum that has been tabled by the
+quackish _improvers_ of the time. And what makes the thing ten times
+more wonderful is, that he kept day-book and ledger, and all the rest
+of it, as accurately as if he had been a cheesemonger in the
+Grassmarket." Some of the most remarkable circumstances in Scott's own
+subsequent life have made me often recall this conversation--with more
+wonder than he expressed about the ruin of the Riddells.
+
+I remember he told us a world of stories, some tragical, some comical,
+about the old lairds of this time-honored lineage; and among others,
+that of the seven Bibles and the seven bottles of ale, which he
+afterwards inserted in a note to The Bride of Lammermoor.[36] He was
+also full of anecdotes about a friend of his father's, a minister of
+Lilliesleaf, who reigned for two generations the most popular preacher
+in Teviotdale; but I forget the orator's name. When the original of
+Saunders Fairford congratulated him in his latter days on the
+undiminished authority he still maintained--every kirk in the
+neighborhood being left empty when it was known he was to mount the
+_tent_ at any country sacrament--the shrewd divine answered: "Indeed,
+Mr. Walter, I sometimes think it's vera surprising. There's aye a talk
+of this or that wonderfully gifted young man frae the college; but
+whenever I'm to be at the same _occasion_ with ony o' them, I e'en
+mount the white horse in the Revelations, and he dings them a'."
+
+[Footnote 36: "It was once the universal custom to place ale, wine, or
+some strong liquor, in the chamber of an honored guest, to assuage his
+thirst should he feel any on awakening in the night, which,
+considering that the hospitality of that period often reached excess,
+was by no means unlikely. The author has met some instances of it in
+former days, and in old-fashioned families. It was, perhaps, no poetic
+fiction that records how
+
+  'My cummer and I lay down to sleep
+   With two pint stoups at our bed feet;
+   And aye when we waken'd we drank them dry;
+   What think you o' my cummer and I?'
+
+"It is a current story in Teviotdale, that in the house of an ancient
+family of distinction, much addicted to the Presbyterian cause, a
+Bible was always put into the sleeping apartment of the guests, along
+with a bottle of strong ale. On some occasion there was a meeting of
+clergymen in the vicinity of the castle, all of whom were invited to
+dinner by the worthy Baronet, and several abode all night. According
+to the fashion of the times, seven of the reverend guests were
+allotted to one large barrack-room, which was used on such occasions
+of extended hospitality. The butler took care that the divines were
+presented, according to custom, each with a Bible and a bottle of ale.
+But after a little consultation among themselves, they are said to
+have recalled the domestic as he was leaving the apartment. 'My
+friend,' said one of the venerable guests, 'you must know, when we
+meet together as brethren, the youngest minister reads aloud a portion
+of Scripture to the rest;--only one Bible, therefore, is necessary;
+take away the other six, and in their place bring six more bottles of
+ale.'
+
+"This synod would have suited the 'hermit sage' of Johnson, who
+answered a pupil who inquired for the real road to happiness with the
+celebrated line,
+
+  'Come, my lad, and drink some beer!'"
+
+--See _The Bride of Lammermoor_, note to chap. xiv.]
+
+Thus Scott amused himself and us as we jogged homewards: and it was
+the same the following day, when (no election matters pressing) he
+rode with us to the western peak of the Eildon hills, that he might
+show me the whole panorama of his Teviotdale, and expound the
+direction of the various passes by which the ancient forayers made
+their way into England, and tell the names and the histories of many a
+monastic chapel and baronial peel, now mouldering in glens and dingles
+that escape the eye of the traveller on the highways. Among other
+objects on which he descanted with particular interest, were the ruins
+of the earliest residence of the Kerrs of Cessford, so often opposed
+in arms to his own 'chieftains of Branksome, and a desolate little
+kirk on the adjoining moor, where the Dukes of Roxburghe are still
+buried in the same vault with the hero who fell at Turn-again. Turning
+to the northward, he showed us the crags and tower of Smailholm, and
+behind it the shattered fragment of Ercildoune--and repeated some
+pretty stanzas ascribed to the last of the real wandering minstrels of
+this district, by name _Burn_:--
+
+  "Sing Erceldoune, and Cowdenknowes,
+   Where Homes had ance commanding,
+   And Drygrange, wi' the milk-white ewes,
+  'Twixt Tweed and Leader standing.
+   The bird that flees through Redpath trees
+   And Gledswood banks each morrow,
+   May chaunt and sing--_sweet Leader's haughs_
+   And _Bonny howms of Yarrow_.
+
+  "But Minstrel Burn cannot assuage
+   His grief while life endureth,
+   To see the changes of this age
+   Which fleeting time procureth;
+   For mony a place stands in hard case,
+   Where blythe folks kent nae sorrow,
+   With Homes that dwelt on Leader side,
+   And Scotts that dwelt on Yarrow."[37]
+
+[Footnote 37: [See _ante_, vol. ii. p. 114, note.]]
+
+That night he had again an attack of his cramp, but not so serious as
+the former. Next morning he was again at work with Ballantyne at an
+early hour; and when I parted from him after breakfast, he spoke
+cheerfully of being soon in Edinburgh for the usual business of his
+Court. I left him, however, with dark prognostications; and the
+circumstances of this little visit to Abbotsford have no doubt dwelt
+on my mind the more distinctly, from my having observed and listened
+to him throughout under the painful feeling that it might very
+probably be my last.
+
+On the 5th of May he received the intelligence of the death of the
+Duke of Buccleuch, which had occurred at Lisbon on the 20th April; and
+next morning he wrote as follows to his Grace's brother:--
+
+
+TO THE LORD MONTAGU, DITTON PARK.
+
+                                            ABBOTSFORD, 6th May, 1819.
+
+     MY DEAR LORD,--I heard from Lord Melville, by yesterday's post,
+     the calamitous news which your Lordship's very kind letter this
+     moment confirmed, had it required confirmation. For this
+     fortnight past, my hopes have been very faint indeed, and on
+     Wednesday, when I had occasion to go to Yarrow, and my horse
+     turned from habit to go up the avenue at Bowhill, I felt deeply
+     impressed that it was a road I should seldom travel for a long
+     time at least. To your Lordship--let me add, to myself--this is
+     an irreparable loss; for such a fund of excellent sense, high
+     principle, and perfect honor have been rarely combined in the
+     same individual. To the country the inestimable loss will be soon
+     felt, even by those who were insensible to his merits, or wished
+     to detract from them, when he was amongst us. In my opinion he
+     never recovered from his domestic calamity. He wrote to me, a few
+     days after that cruel event, a most affectionate and remarkable
+     letter, explaining his own feelings, and while he begged that I
+     would come to him, assuring me that I should find him the same he
+     would be for the future years of his life. He kept his word; but
+     I could see a grief of that calm and concentrated kind which
+     claims the hours of solitude and of night for its empire, and
+     gradually wastes the springs of life.
+
+     Among the thousand painful feelings which this melancholy event
+     had excited, I have sometimes thought of his distance from home.
+     Yet this was done with the best intention, and upon the best
+     advice, and was perhaps the sole chance which remained for
+     reëstablishment. It has pleased God that it has failed; but the
+     best means were used under the best direction, and mere mortality
+     can do no more. I am very anxious about the dear young ladies,
+     whose lives were so much devoted to their father, and shall be
+     extremely desirous of knowing how they are. The Duchess has so
+     much firmness of mind, and Lady M. so much affectionate prudence,
+     that they will want no support that example and kindness can
+     afford. To me the world seems a sort of waste without him. We had
+     many joint objects, constant intercourse, and unreserved
+     communication, so that through him and by him I took interest in
+     many things altogether out of my own sphere, and it seems to me
+     as if the horizon were narrowed and lowered around me. But God's
+     will be done; it is all that brother or friend can or dare
+     say.--I have reluctance to mention the trash which is going on
+     here. Indeed, I think little is altered since I wrote to your
+     Lordship fully, excepting that last night late, Chisholm[38]
+     arrived at Abbotsford from Lithgow, recalled by the news which
+     had somehow reached Edinburgh,--as I suspect by some
+     officiousness of ****. He left Lithgow in such a state that there
+     is no doubt he will carry that burgh, unless Pringle[39] gets
+     Selkirk. He is gone off this morning to try the possible and
+     impossible to get the single vote which he wants, or to prevail
+     on one person to stand neuter. It is possible he may succeed,
+     though this event, when it becomes generally known, will be
+     greatly against his efforts. I should care little more about the
+     matter, were it not for young Walter,[40] and for the despite I
+     feel at the success of speculations which were formed on the
+     probability of the event which has happened. Two sons of *******
+     came here yesterday, and with their father's philosophical spirit
+     of self-accommodation, established themselves for the night.
+     Betwixt them and Chisholm's noise, my head and my stomach
+     suffered so much (under the necessity of drowning feelings which
+     I could not express), that I had a return of the spasms, and I
+     felt as if a phantasmagoria was going on around me. Quiet, and
+     some indulgence of natural and solitary sorrow, have made me
+     well. To-day I will ride up to Selkirk and see the magistrates,
+     or the chief of them. It is necessary they should not think the
+     cause deserted. If it is thought proper to suspend the works at
+     Bowhill, perhaps the measure may be delayed till the decision of
+     this matter.
+
+     I am sure, my dear Lord, you will command me in all I can do. I
+     have only to regret it is so little. But to show that my
+     gratitude has survived my benefactor, would be the pride and
+     delight of my life. I never thought it possible that a man could
+     have loved another so much, where the distance of rank was so
+     very great. But why recur to things so painful? I pity poor Adam
+     Ferguson, whose affections were so much engaged by the Duke's
+     kindness, and who has with his gay temper a generous and feeling
+     heart. The election we may lose, but not our own credit, and that
+     of the family--that you may rest assured of. My best respects and
+     warmest sympathy attend the dear young ladies, and Lady Montagu.
+     I shall be anxious to know how the Duchess-Dowager does under
+     this great calamity. The poor boy--what a slippery world is
+     before him, and how early a dangerous, because a splendid, lot is
+     presented to him! But he has your personal protection. Believe
+     me, with a deep participation in your present distress, your
+     Lordship's most faithfully,
+
+                                                         WALTER SCOTT.
+
+
+[Footnote 38: Mr. Chisholm was the Tory candidate for the Selkirk
+burghs.]
+
+[Footnote 39: Mr. Pringle of Clifton, the Whig candidate.]
+
+[Footnote 40: Walter Francis, the present Duke of Buccleuch.]
+
+Scott drew up for Ballantyne's newspaper of that week the brief
+character of Charles, Duke of Buccleuch, which has since been included
+in his Prose Miscellanies (vol. iv.); and the following letter
+accompanied a copy of it to Ditton Park:--
+
+
+TO THE LORD MONTAGU, ETC., ETC., ETC.
+
+     MY DEAR LORD,--I send you the newspaper article under a different
+     cover. I have studied so much to suppress my own feelings, and
+     so to give a just, calm, and temperate view of the excellent
+     subject of our present sorrow, such as I conceive might be drawn
+     by one less partially devoted to him, that it has to my own eye a
+     cold and lifeless resemblance of an original so dear to me. But I
+     was writing to the public, and to a public less acquainted with
+     him than a few years' experience would have made them. Even his
+     own tenantry were but just arrived at the true estimation of his
+     character. I wrote, therefore, to insure credit and belief, in a
+     tone greatly under my own feelings. I have ordered twenty-five
+     copies to be put in a different shape, of which I will send your
+     Lordship twenty. It has been a painful task, but I feel it was
+     due from me. I am just favored with your letter. I beg your
+     Lordship will not write more frequently than you find quite
+     convenient, for you must have now more than enough upon you. The
+     arrangement respecting Boughton[41] is what I expected--the
+     lifeless remains will be laid where the living thoughts had long
+     been. I grieve that I shall not see the last honors, yet I hardly
+     know how I could have gone through the scene.
+
+     Nothing in the circumstances could have given me the satisfaction
+     which I receive from your Lordship's purpose of visiting
+     Scotland, and bringing down the dear young ladies, who unite so
+     many and such affecting ties upon the regard and affection of
+     every friend of the family. It will be a measure of the highest
+     necessity for the political interest of the family, and your
+     Lordship will have an opportunity of hearing much information of
+     importance, which really could not be made the subject of
+     writing. The extinction of fire on the hearths of this great
+     house would be putting out a public light and a public beacon in
+     the time of darkness and storms. Ever your most faithful
+
+                                                                 W. S.
+
+
+[Footnote 41: Boughton, in Northamptonshire. This seat came into the
+possession of Henry, Duke of Buccleuch, by his marriage with the
+daughter and heiress of John, the last Duke of Montagu, who survived
+for many years her son, Duke Charles. At Boughton, as the reader will
+see, Scott's early friend, the Duchess Harriet of Buccleuch, had been
+buried in 1814.]
+
+On the 11th of May, Scott returned to Edinburgh, and was present next
+day at the opening of the Court of Session; when all who saw him were
+as much struck as I had been at Abbotsford with the lamentable change
+his illness had produced in his appearance. He was unable to persist
+in attendance at the Clerks' Table--for several weeks afterwards I
+think he seldom if ever attempted it;--and I well remember that, when
+the Third Series of the Tales of my Landlord at length came out (which
+was on the 10th of June), he was known to be confined to bed, and the
+book was received amidst the deep general impression that we should
+see no more of that parentage. On the 13th he wrote thus to Captain
+Ferguson, who had arrived in London with the remains of the Duke of
+Buccleuch:--
+
+
+TO CAPTAIN ADAM FERGUSON, ETC., ETC., MONTAGU HOUSE, WHITEHALL.
+
+     MY DEAR ADAM,--I am sorry to say I have had another eight days'
+     visit of my disorder, which has confined me chiefly to my bed. It
+     is not attended with so much acute pain as in spring, but with
+     much sickness and weakness. It will perhaps shade off into a mild
+     chronic complaint--if it returns frequently with the same
+     violence, I shall break up by degrees, and follow my dear Chief.
+     I do not mean that there is the least cause for immediate
+     apprehension, but only that the constitution must be injured at
+     last, as well by the modes of cure, or rather of relief, as by
+     the pain. My digestion as well as my appetite are for the present
+     quite gone--a change from former days of Leith and Newhaven
+     parties. I thank God I can look at this possibility without much
+     anxiety, and without a shadow of fear.
+
+     Will you, if your time serves, undertake two little commissions
+     for me? One respects a kind promise of Lord Montagu to put George
+     Thomson's name on a list for kirk preferment. I don't like to
+     trouble him with letters--he must be overwhelmed with business,
+     and has his dear brother's punctuality in replying even to those
+     which require none. I would fain have that Scottish Abraham Adams
+     provided for if possible. My other request is, that you will, if
+     you can, see Terry, and ask him what is doing about my
+     dining-room chairs, and especially about the carpet, for I shall
+     not without them have the use of what Slender calls "mine own
+     great parlor" this season. I should write to him, but am really
+     unable. I hope you will soon come down--a sight of you would do
+     me good at the worst turn I have yet had. The Baronet[42] is very
+     kind, and comes and sits by me. Everybody likes the Regalia, and
+     I have heard of no one grudging their _hog_[43]--but you must get
+     something better. I have been writing to the Commie[44] about
+     this. He has been inexpressibly kind in Walter's matter, and the
+     Duke of York has promised an early commission. When you see our
+     friend, you can talk over this, and may perhaps save him the
+     trouble of writing particular directions what further is to be
+     done. Iago's rule, I suppose--"put money in thy purse." I wish in
+     passing you would ask how the ladies are in Piccadilly. Yours
+     ever,
+
+                                                             W. SCOTT.
+
+
+[Footnote 42: Mr. William Clerk.]
+
+[Footnote 43: A shilling.]
+
+[Footnote 44: The Lord Chief-Commissioner Adam.]
+
+The Bride of Lammermoor, and A Legend of Montrose, would have been
+read with indulgence had they needed it; for the painful circumstances
+under which they must have been produced were known wherever an
+English newspaper made its way; but I believe that, except in numerous
+typical errors, which sprung of necessity from the author's inability
+to correct any proof sheets, no one ever affected to perceive in
+either tale the slightest symptom of his malady. Dugald Dalgetty was
+placed by acclamation in the same rank with Bailie Jarvie--a
+conception equally new, just, and humorous, and worked out in all the
+details, as if it had formed the luxurious entertainment of a chair as
+easy as was ever shaken by Rabelais; and though the character of
+Montrose himself seemed hardly to have been treated so fully as the
+subject merited, the accustomed rapidity of the novelist's execution
+would have been enough to account for any such defect. Of Caleb
+Balderstone--(the hero of one of the many ludicrous delineations which
+he owed to the late Lord Haddington, a man of rare pleasantry, and one
+of the best tellers of old Scotch stories that I ever heard)--I cannot
+say that the general opinion was then, nor do I believe it ever since
+has been, very favorable. It was pronounced at the time, by more than
+one critic, a mere caricature; and though Scott himself would never in
+after-days admit this censure to be just, he allowed that "he might
+have sprinkled rather too much parsley over his chicken." But even
+that blemish, for I grant that I think it a serious one, could not
+disturb the profound interest and pathos of The Bride of
+Lammermoor--to my fancy the most pure and powerful of all the
+tragedies that Scott ever penned. The reader will be well pleased,
+however, to have, in place of any critical observations on this work,
+the following particulars of its composition from the notes which its
+printer dictated when stretched on the bed from which he well knew he
+was never to rise.
+
+
+     "The book" (says James Ballantyne) "was not only written, but
+     published, before Mr. Scott was able to rise from his bed; and he
+     assured me, that when it was first put into his hands in a
+     complete shape, he did not recollect one single incident,
+     character, or conversation it contained! He did not desire me to
+     understand, nor did I understand, that his illness had erased
+     from his memory the original incidents of the story, with which
+     he had been acquainted from his boyhood. These remained rooted
+     where they had ever been; or, to speak more explicitly, he
+     remembered the general facts of the existence of the father and
+     mother, of the son and daughter, of the rival lovers, of the
+     compulsory marriage, and the attack made by the bride upon the
+     hapless bridegroom,[45] with the general catastrophe of the
+     whole. All these things he recollected just as he did before he
+     took to his bed: but he literally recollected nothing else--not a
+     single character woven by the romancer, not one of the many
+     scenes and points of humor, nor anything with which he was
+     connected as the writer of the work. 'For a long time,' he said,
+     'I felt myself very uneasy in the course of my reading, lest I
+     should be startled by meeting something altogether glaring and
+     fantastic. However, I recollected that you had been the printer,
+     and I felt sure that you would not have permitted anything of
+     this sort to pass.' 'Well,' I said, 'upon the whole, how did you
+     like it?' 'Why,' he said, 'as a whole, I felt it monstrous gross
+     and grotesque; but still the worst of it made me laugh, and I
+     trusted the good-natured public would not be less indulgent.' I
+     do not think I ever ventured to lead to the discussion of this
+     singular phenomenon again; but you may depend upon it, that what
+     I have now said is as distinctly reported as if it had been taken
+     down in short-hand at the moment; I should not otherwise have
+     ventured to allude to the matter at all. I believe you will agree
+     with me in thinking that the history of the human mind contains
+     nothing more wonderful."
+
+
+[Footnote 45: There appeared in the _Edinburgh Evening Post_ of
+October 10, 1840, a letter dated September 5, 1823, addressed by Sir
+J. Horne Dalrymple Elphinstone, Bart., to the late Sir James Stewart
+Denham of Coltness, Bart., both descendants of the Lord President
+Stair, whose daughter was the original of the Bride of Lammermoor,
+from which it appears that, according to the traditional creed of the
+Dalrymple family, the lady's unhappy lover, Lord Rutherford, had found
+means to be secreted in the nuptial chamber, and that the wound of the
+bridegroom, Sir David Dunbar of Baldoon, was inflicted by his
+Lordship's hand. The letter in question will be appended to future
+editions of the novel.--(1841.)]
+
+Soon after Scott reappeared in the Parliament House, he came down one
+Saturday to the vaulted chambers below, where the Advocates' Library
+was then kept, to attend a meeting of the Faculty, and as the assembly
+was breaking up, he asked me to walk home with him, taking
+Ballantyne's printing-office in our way. He moved languidly, and said,
+if he were to stay in town many days, he must send for Sibyl Grey; but
+his conversation was heart-whole; and, in particular, he laughed till,
+despite his weakness, the stick was flourishing in his hand, over the
+following almost incredible specimen of that most absurd personage the
+late Earl of Buchan.
+
+Hearing one morning shortly before this time, that Scott was actually
+_in extremis_, the Earl proceeded to Castle Street, and found the
+knocker tied up. He then descended to the door in the area, and was
+there received by honest Peter Mathieson, whose face seemed to confirm
+the woeful tidings, for in truth his master was ill enough. Peter told
+his Lordship that he had the strictest orders to admit no visitor; but
+the Earl would take no denial, pushed the bashful coachman aside, and
+elbowed his way upstairs to the door of Scott's bedchamber. He had his
+fingers upon the handle before Peter could give warning to Miss Scott;
+and when she appeared to remonstrate against such an intrusion, he
+patted her on the head like a child, and persisted in his purpose of
+entering the sickroom so strenuously, that the young lady found it
+necessary to bid Peter see the Earl downstairs again, at whatever
+damage to his dignity. Peter accordingly, after trying all his
+eloquence in vain, gave the tottering, bustling, old, meddlesome
+coxcomb a single shove,--as respectful, doubt not, as a shove can ever
+be,--and he accepted that hint, and made a rapid exit. Scott,
+meanwhile, had heard the confusion, and at length it was explained to
+him; when, fearing that Peter's gripe might have injured Lord Buchan's
+feeble person, he desired James Ballantyne, who had been sitting by
+his bed, to follow the old man home--make him comprehend, if he could,
+that the family were in such bewilderment of alarm, that the ordinary
+rules of civility were out of the question--and, in fine, inquire what
+had been the object of his Lordship's intended visit. James proceeded
+forthwith to the Earl's house in George Street and found him strutting
+about his library in a towering indignation. Ballantyne's elaborate
+demonstrations of respect, however, by degrees softened him, and he
+condescended to explain himself. "I wished," said he, "to embrace
+Walter Scott before he died, and inform him that I had long considered
+it as a satisfactory circumstance that he and I were destined to rest
+together in the same place of sepulture. The principal thing, however,
+was to relieve his mind as to the arrangements of his funeral--to show
+him a plan which I had prepared for the procession--and, in a word, to
+assure him that I took upon myself the whole conduct of the ceremonial
+at Dryburgh." He then exhibited to Ballantyne a formal programme, in
+which, as may be supposed, the predominant feature was not Walter
+Scott, but David, Earl of Buchan. It had been settled, _inter alia_,
+that the said Earl was to pronounce an eulogium over the grave, after
+the fashion of French Academicians in the _Père la Chaise_.
+
+And this silliest and vainest of busybodies was the elder brother of
+Thomas and Henry Erskine! But the story is well known of his boasting
+one day to the late Duchess of Gordon of the extraordinary talents of
+his family--when her unscrupulous Grace asked him, very coolly,
+whether the wit had not come by the mother, and been all settled on
+the younger branches?
+
+Scott, as his letters to be quoted presently will show, had several
+more attacks of his disorder, and some very severe ones, during the
+autumn of 1819; nor, indeed, had it quite disappeared until about
+Christmas. But from the time of his return to Abbotsford in July, when
+he adopted the system of treatment recommended by a skilful physician
+(Dr. Dick), who had had large experience in maladies of this kind
+during his Indian life, the seizures gradually became less violent,
+and his confidence that he was ultimately to baffle the enemy remained
+unshaken.[46]
+
+[Footnote 46: ["For nearly two years he had to struggle for his life
+with that severe illness, which the natural strength of his
+constitution at length proved sufficient to throw off. With its
+disappearance, although restored to health, disappeared also much of
+his former vigor of body, activity, and power of undergoing fatigue,
+while in personal appearance he had advanced twenty years in the
+downward course of life; his hair had become bleached to pure white
+and scanty locks; the fire of his eye quenched; and his step, more
+uncertain, had lost the vigorous swinging gait with which he was used
+to proceed; in fact, old age had by many years anticipated its usual
+progress and marked how severely he had suffered."--James Skene's
+_Reminiscences_,--See _Journal_, vol. ii. p. 97, note.]]
+
+As I had no opportunity of seeing him again until he was almost
+entirely reëstablished, I shall leave the progress of his restoration
+to be collected from his correspondence. But I must not forget to set
+down what his daughter Sophia afterwards told me of his conduct upon
+one night in June, when he really did despair of himself. He then
+called his children about his bed, and took leave of them with solemn
+tenderness. After giving them, one by one, such advice as suited their
+years and characters, he added: "For myself, my dears, I am
+unconscious of ever having done any man an injury, or omitted any fair
+opportunity of doing any man a benefit. I well know that no human life
+can appear otherwise than weak and filthy in the eyes of God: but I
+rely on the merits and intercession of our Redeemer." He then laid his
+hand on their heads, and said, "God bless you! Live so that you may
+all hope to meet each other in a better place hereafter. And now leave
+me, that I may turn my face to the wall." They obeyed him; but he
+presently fell into a deep sleep; and when he awoke from it after many
+hours, the crisis of extreme danger was felt by himself, and
+pronounced by his physician, to have been overcome.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XLV
+
+     Gradual Reëstablishment of Scott's Health. -- Ivanhoe in
+     Progress. -- His Son Walter Joins the Eighteenth Regiment of
+     Hussars. -- Scott's Correspondence with Hhis Son. --
+     Miscellaneous Letters to Mrs. Maclean Clephane, M. W. Hartstonge,
+     J. G. Lockhart, John Ballantyne, John Richardson, Miss Edgeworth,
+     Lord Montagu, Etc. -- Abbotsford Visited by Prince Leopold of
+     Saxe-Coburg. -- Death of Mrs. William Erskine.
+
+1819
+
+
+Before Scott left Edinburgh, on the 12th of July, he had not only
+concluded his bargain with Constable for another novel, but, as will
+appear from some of his letters, made considerable progress in the
+dictation of Ivanhoe.
+
+That he already felt great confidence on the score of his health may
+be inferred from his allowing his son, Walter, about the middle of the
+month, to join the 18th regiment of Hussars in which he had, shortly
+before, received his commission as Cornet.
+
+Scott's letters to his son, the first of his family that left the
+house, will merit henceforth a good deal of the reader's attention.
+Walter was, when he thus quitted Abbotsford to try his chances in the
+active world, only in the eighteenth year of his age; and the fashion
+of education in Scotland is such, that he had scarcely ever slept a
+night under a different roof from his parents, until this separation
+occurred. He had been treated from his cradle with all the indulgence
+that a man of sense can ever permit himself to show to any of his
+children; and for several years he had now been his father's daily
+companion in all his out-of-doors occupations and amusements. The
+parting was a painful one; but Scott's ambition centred in the heir of
+his name, and instead of fruitless pinings and lamentings, he
+henceforth made it his constant business to keep up such a frank
+correspondence with the young man as might enable himself to exert
+over him, when at a distance, the gentle influence of kindness,
+experience, and wisdom. The series of his letters to his son is, in my
+opinion, by far the most interesting and valuable, as respects the
+personal character and temper of the writer. It will easily be
+supposed that, as the young officer entered fully into his father's
+generous views of what their correspondence ought to be, and detailed
+every little incident of his new career with the same easy confidence
+as if he had been writing to a friend or elder brother not very widely
+differing from himself in standing, the answers abound with opinions
+on subjects with which I have no right to occupy or entertain my
+readers: but I shall introduce in the prosecution of this work, as
+many specimens of Scott's paternal advice as I can hope to render
+generally intelligible without indelicate explanations--and more
+especially such as may prove serviceable to other young persons when
+first embarking under their own pilotage upon the sea of life. Scott's
+manly kindness to his boy, whether he is expressing approbation or
+censure of his conduct, can require no pointing out; and his practical
+wisdom was of that liberal order, based on such comprehensive views of
+man and the world, that I am persuaded it will often be found
+available to the circumstances of their own various cases, by young
+men of whatever station or profession.
+
+I shall, nevertheless, adhere as usual to the chronological order; and
+one or two miscellaneous letters must accordingly precede the first
+article of his correspondence with the Cornet. He alludes, however, to
+the youth's departure in the following:--
+
+
+TO MRS. MACLEAN CLEPHANE OF TORLOISK.
+
+                                            ABBOTSFORD, July 15, 1819.
+
+     DEAR MRS. CLEPHANE,--Nothing could give me more pleasure than to
+     hear you are well, and thinking of looking this way. You will
+     find all my things in very different order from when you were
+     here last, and plenty of room for matron and miss, man and maid.
+     We have no engagements, except to Newton Don about the 20th
+     August--if we be alive--no unreasonable proviso in so long an
+     engagement. My health, however, seems in a fair way of being
+     perfectly restored. It is a joke to talk of any other remedy than
+     that forceful but most unpleasant one--_calomel_. I cannot say I
+     ever felt advantage from anything else; and I am perfectly
+     satisfied that, used as an alterative, and taken in very small
+     quantities for a long time, it must correct all the inaccuracies
+     of the biliary organs. At least it has done so in my case more
+     radically than I could have believed possible. I have intermitted
+     the régime for some days, but begin a new course next week for
+     precaution. Dr. Dick, of the East India Company's service, has
+     put me on this course of cure,[47] and says he never knew it fail
+     unless when the liver was irreparably injured. I believe I shall
+     go to Carlsbad next year. If I must go to a watering-place, I
+     should like one where I might hope to see and learn something new
+     myself, instead of being hunted down by some of the confounded
+     lion-catchers who haunt English spas. I have not the art of being
+     savage to those people, though few are more annoyed by them. I
+     always think of Snug the Joiner--
+
+       "----If I should as lion _come in strife_
+        Into such place, 't were pity on my life."
+
+     I have been delayed in answering your kind letter by Walter's
+     departure from us to join his regiment, the 18th Dragoons. He has
+     chosen a profession for which he is well suited, being of a calm
+     but remarkably firm temper--fond of mathematics, engineering, and
+     all sorts of calculation--clear-headed, and good-natured. When
+     you add to this a good person and good manners, with great
+     dexterity in horsemanship and all athletic exercises, and a
+     strong constitution, one hopes you have the grounds of a good
+     soldier. My own selfish wish would have been that he should have
+     followed the law; but he really had no vocation that way, wanting
+     the acuteness and liveliness of intellect indispensable to making
+     a figure in that profession. So I am satisfied all is for the
+     best, only I shall miss my gamekeeper and companion in my rides
+     and walks. But so it was, is, and must be--the young must part
+     from the nest, and learn to wing their own way against the storm.
+
+     I beg my best and kindest compliments to Lady Compton. Stooping
+     to write hurts me, or I would have sent her a few lines. As I
+     shall be stationary here for all this season, I shall not see
+     her, perhaps, for long enough. Mrs. Scott and the girls join in
+     best love, and I am ever, dear Mrs. Clephane, your faithful and
+     most obedient servant,
+
+                                                         WALTER SCOTT.
+
+
+[Footnote 47: [An interesting letter from Dr. Dick to Scott will be
+found in _Familiar Letters_ (vol. ii. p. 53), in which he speaks of
+their common friend, Leyden, and expresses sorrow at the tone
+regarding him taken by some of the Edinburgh periodicals, which
+ridiculed the idea of comparing him with Sir William Jones as a
+linguist. The writer, who knew both, shows Leyden to have been in this
+respect much the greater of the two. The Doctor makes light of his
+efficient services in Scott's case, and says: "I have only to offer my
+grateful thanks for your intended present, which, however, I must beg
+leave to decline, because I am rewarded already a thousandfold, by
+being allowed the honor of prescribing for you, and by being assured,
+under your own hand, that you are so well.... But if you will send me
+one volume of any kind, and write on it that it is from yourself, I
+shall consider it a great favor. I have the vanity to wish that my son
+and his descendants may have it to show as a proof that I was honored
+with the friendship of the author."]]
+
+I have had some hesitation about introducing the next letter--which
+refers to the then recent publication of a sort of mock-tour in
+Scotland, entitled Peter's Letters to his Kinsfolk. Nobody but a very
+young and a very thoughtless person could have dreamt of putting forth
+such a book; yet the Epistles of the imaginary Dr. Morris have been so
+often denounced as a mere string of libels, that I think it fair to
+show how much more leniently Scott judged of them at the time.
+Moreover, his letter is a good specimen of the liberal courtesy with
+which, on all occasions, he treated the humblest aspirants in
+literature. Since I have alluded to Peter's Letters at all, I may as
+well take the opportunity of adding that they were not wholly the work
+of one hand.[48]
+
+[Footnote 48: [The other hand is supposed to have been Wilson's. It is
+difficult for any reader of to-day to understand why these clever and
+interesting sketches of the men and manners of the Edinburgh of 1819
+should have been so emphatically denounced in certain quarters. This
+is not the first occasion on which Scott sent words of praise
+concerning the _Letters_, which first appeared in part in _Blackwood's
+Magazine_. He says of the Pleaders' portraits [John Clerk, Cranstoun,
+and Jeffrey], they "are about the best I ever read, and will preserve
+these three very remarkable and original men, for all of whom, however
+differing in points whereon I wish we had agreed, I entertain not only
+deep respect, but sincere friendship and regard."--_Familiar Letters_,
+vol. ii. p. 39.]]
+
+
+TO J. G. LOCKHART, ESQ., CARNBROE HOUSE, HOLLYTOWN.
+
+                                            ABBOTSFORD, July 19, 1819.
+
+     MY DEAR SIR,--_Distinguendum est._ When I receive a book _ex
+     dono_ of the author, in the general case I offer my thanks with
+     all haste before I cut a leaf, lest peradventure I should feel
+     more awkward in doing so afterwards, when they must not only be
+     tendered for the well-printed volumes themselves, and the
+     attention which sent them my way, but moreover for the supposed
+     pleasure I have received from the contents. But with respect to
+     the learned Dr. Morris, the case is totally different, and I
+     formed the immediate resolution not to say a word about that
+     gentleman's labors without having read them at least twice
+     over--a pleasant task, which has been interrupted partly by my
+     being obliged to go down the country, partly by an invasion of
+     the Southron, in the persons of Sir John Shelley, famous on the
+     turf, and his lady. I wish Dr. Morris had been of the party,
+     chiefly for the benefit of a little Newmarket man, called
+     Cousins, whose whole ideas, similes, illustrations, etc., were
+     derived from the course and training stable. He was perfectly
+     good-humored, and I have not laughed more this many a day.
+
+     I think the Doctor has got over his ground admirably;--only the
+     general turn of the book is perhaps too favorable, both to the
+     state of our public society, and of individual character:--
+
+       "His fools have their follies so lost in a crowd
+        Of virtues and feelings, that folly grows proud."[49]
+
+     But it was, in every point of view, right to take this more
+     favorable tone, and to throw a Claude Lorraine tint over our
+     northern landscape. We cannot bear the actual bare truth, either
+     in conversation, or that which approaches nearest to
+     conversation, in a work like the Doctor's, published within the
+     circle to which it refers.
+
+     For the rest, the Doctor has fully maintained his high character
+     for force of expression, both serious and comic, and for
+     acuteness of observation--_rem acu tetigit_--and his scalpel has
+     not been idle, though his lenient hand has cut sharp and clean,
+     and poured balm into the wound. What an acquisition it would have
+     been to our general information to have had such a work written,
+     I do not say fifty, but even five-and-twenty years ago; and how
+     much of grave and gay might then have been preserved, as it were,
+     in amber, which have now mouldered away. When I think that at an
+     age not much younger than yours I knew Black, Ferguson,
+     Robertson, Erskine, Adam Smith, John Home, etc., etc., and at
+     least saw Burns, I can appreciate better than any one the value
+     of a work which, like this, would have handed them down to
+     posterity in their living colors. Dr. Morris ought, like
+     Nourjahad, to revive every half century, to record the fleeting
+     manners of the age, and the interesting features of those who
+     will be only known to posterity by their works. If I am very
+     partial to the Doctor, which I am not inclined to deny, remember
+     I have been bribed by his kind and delicate account of his visit
+     to Abbotsford. Like old Cumberland, or like my own gray cat, I
+     will e'en purr and put up my back, and enjoy his kind flattery,
+     even when I know it goes beyond my merits.
+
+     I wish you would come and spend a few days here, while this
+     delightful weather lasts. I am now so well as quite to enjoy the
+     society of my friends, instead of the woeful pickle in which I
+     was in spring, when you last favored me. It was, however, _dignus
+     vindice nodus_, for no less a deity descended to my aid than the
+     potent Mercury himself, in the shape of calomel, which I have
+     been obliged to take daily, though in small quantities, for these
+     two months past. Notwithstanding the inconveniences of this
+     remedy, I thrive upon it most marvellously, having recovered both
+     sleep and appetite; so when you incline to come this way, you
+     will find me looking pretty _bobbishly_. Yours very truly,
+
+                                                         WALTER SCOTT.
+
+
+[Footnote 49: Goldsmith's _Retaliation_.]
+
+On the same day, Scott wrote as follows to John Ballantyne, who had
+started for London, on his route to Paris in quest of articles for
+next winter's auction-room--and whose good offices he was anxious to
+engage on behalf of the Cornet, in case they should happen to be in
+the metropolis at the same time:--
+
+
+TO MR. JOHN BALLANTYNE, CARE OF MESSRS. LONGMAN & CO., LONDON.
+
+                                            ABBOTSFORD, July 19, 1819.
+
+     DEAR JOHN,--I have only to say, respecting matters here, that
+     they are all going on quietly. The first volume is very nearly
+     finished, and the whole will be out in the first or second week
+     of September. It will be well if you can report yourself in
+     Britain by that time at farthest, as something must be done on
+     the back of this same Ivanhoe.
+
+     Walter left us on Wednesday night, and will be in town by the
+     time this reaches you, looking, I fancy, very like a cow in a
+     fremd loaning.[50] He will be heard of at Miss Dumergue's. Pray
+     look after him, and help him about his purchases.
+
+     I hope you will be so successful in your foreign journey as to
+     diddle the Edinburgh folk out of some cash this winter. But don't
+     forget September, if you wish to partake the advantages thereof.
+
+     I wish you would see what good reprints of old books are come out
+     this year at Triphook's, and send me a note of them.--Yours very
+     truly,
+
+                                                             W. SCOTT.
+
+
+[Footnote 50: _Anglice_--a strange pasture.]
+
+John Ballantyne found the Cornet in London, and did for him what his
+father had requested.
+
+
+TO MR. JOHN BALLANTYNE.
+
+                                            ABBOTSFORD, July 26, 1819.
+
+     DEAR JOHN,--I have yours with the news of Walter's rattle-traps,
+     which are abominably extravagant. But there is no help for it but
+     submission. The things seem all such as cannot well be wanted.
+     How the devil they mount them to such a price, the tailors best
+     know. They say it takes _nine_ tailors to make a man--apparently,
+     one is sufficient to ruin him. We shall rub through here well
+     enough, though James is rather glumpy and dumpy--chiefly, I
+     believe, because his child is unwell. If you can make any more
+     money for me in London, good and well. I have no spare cash till
+     Ivanhoe comes forth. Yours truly,
+
+                                                             W. SCOTT.
+
+     P. S.--Enclosed are sundry letters of introduction for the
+     _ci-devant_ Laird of Gilnockie.
+
+
+TO MISS EDGEWORTH OF EDGEWORTHSTOWN.
+
+                                            ABBOTSFORD, July 21, 1819.
+
+     MY DEAR MISS EDGEWORTH,--When this shall happen to reach your
+     hands, it will be accompanied by a second edition of Walter
+     Scott, a _tall_ copy, as collectors say, and bound in Turkey
+     leather, garnished with all sorts of fur and frippery--not quite
+     so well _lettered_, however, as the old and vamped original
+     edition. In other and more intelligible phrase, the tall Cornet
+     of Hussars, whom this will introduce to you, is my eldest son,
+     who is now just leaving me to join his regiment in Ireland. I
+     have charged him, and he is himself sufficiently anxious, to
+     avoid no opportunity of making your acquaintance, as to be known
+     to the good and the wise is by far the best privilege he can
+     derive from my connection with literature. I have always felt the
+     value of having access to persons of talent and genius to be the
+     best part of a literary man's prerogative, and you will not
+     wonder, I am sure, that I should be desirous this youngster
+     should have a share of the same benefit.
+
+     I have had dreadful bad health for many months past, and have
+     endured more pain than I thought was consistent with life. But
+     the thread, though frail in some respects, is tough in others;
+     and here am I with renewed health, and a fair prospect of
+     regaining my strength, much exhausted by such a train of
+     suffering.
+
+     I do not know when this will reach you, my son's motions being
+     uncertain. But, find you where or when it will, it comes, dear
+     Miss Edgeworth, from the sincere admirer of your genius, and of
+     the patriotic and excellent manner in which it has always been
+     exerted. In which character I subscribe myself ever yours truly,
+
+                                                         WALTER SCOTT.
+
+
+I believe, at the time when the foregoing letter was written, Scott
+and Miss Edgeworth had never met. The next was addressed to a
+gentleman whose acquaintance the poet had formed when collecting
+materials for his edition of Swift. On that occasion Mr. Hartstonge
+was of great service to Scott--and he appears to have paid him soon
+afterwards a visit at Abbotsford. Mr. Hartstonge was an amiable and
+kind-hearted man, and enthusiastically devoted to literature; but his
+own poetical talents were undoubtedly of the sort that finds little
+favor either with gods or columns. He seems to have written shortly
+before this time to inquire about his old acquaintance's health.
+
+
+TO MATTHEW WELD HARTSTONGE, ESQ., MOLESWORTH STREET, DUBLIN.
+
+                                            ABBOTSFORD, July 21, 1819.
+
+     MY DEAR SIR,--... Fortunately at present my system is pretty
+     strong. In the mean while my family are beginning to get
+     forwards. Walter (you remember my wading into Cauldshiels Loch to
+     save his little frigate from wreck) is now a Cornet of six feet
+     two inches in your Irish 18th Hussars; the regiment is now at
+     Cork, and will probably be next removed to Dublin, so you will
+     see your old friend with a new face; be-furred, be-feathered, and
+     be-whiskered in the highest military _ton_. I have desired him to
+     call upon you, should he get to Dublin on leave, or come there
+     upon duty. I miss him here very much, for he was my companion,
+     gamekeeper, etc., etc., and when one loses one's own health and
+     strength, there are few things so pleasant as to see a son
+     enjoying both in the vigor of hope and promise. Think of this, my
+     good friend, and as you have kind affections to make some good
+     girl happy, settle yourself in life while you are young, and lay
+     up, by so doing, a stock of domestic happiness, against age or
+     bodily decay. There are many good things in life, whatever
+     satirists and misanthropes may say to the contrary; but probably
+     the best of all, next to a conscience void of offence (without
+     which, by the bye, they can hardly exist), are the quiet exercise
+     and enjoyment of the social feelings, in which we are at once
+     happy ourselves, and the cause of happiness to them who are
+     dearest to us.
+
+     I have no news to send you from hence. The addition to my house
+     is completed with battlement and bartisan, but the old cottage
+     remains hidden among creepers, until I shall have leisure--_i.
+     e._, time and money--to build the rest of my mansion--which I
+     will not do hastily, as the present is amply sufficient for
+     accommodation. Adieu, my dear sir; never reckon the degree of my
+     regard by the regularity of my correspondence, for besides the
+     vile diseases of laziness and procrastination, which have always
+     beset me, I have had of late both pain and languor sufficient to
+     justify my silence. Believe me, however, always most truly yours,
+
+                                                         WALTER SCOTT.
+
+
+The first letter the young Cornet received from his father after
+mounting his "rattle-traps" was the following:--
+
+
+TO CORNET WALTER SCOTT, 18TH HUSSARS, CORK.
+
+                                           ABBOTSFORD, August 1, 1819.
+
+     DEAR WALTER,--I was glad to find you got safe to the hospitable
+     quarters of Piccadilly, and were put on the way of achieving your
+     business well and expeditiously. You would receive a packet of
+     introductory letters by John Ballantyne, to whom I addressed
+     them.
+
+     I had a very kind letter two days ago from your Colonel.[51] Had
+     I got it sooner it would have saved some expense in London, but
+     there is no help for it now. As you are very fully provided with
+     all these appointments, you must be particular in taking care of
+     them, otherwise the expense of replacing them will be a great
+     burden. Colonel Murray seems disposed to show you much attention.
+     He is, I am told, rather a reserved man, which indeed is the
+     manner of his family. You will, therefore, be the more attentive
+     to what he says, as well as to answer all advances he may make to
+     you with cordiality and frankness; for if you be shy on the one
+     hand, and he reserved on the other, you cannot have the benefit
+     of his advice, which I hope and wish you may gain. I shall be
+     guided by his opinion respecting your allowance: he stipulates
+     that you shall have only two horses (not to be changed without
+     his consent), and on no account keep a gig. You know of old how I
+     detest that mania of driving wheel-barrows up and down, when a
+     man has a handsome horse, and can ride him. They are both foolish
+     and expensive things, and, in my opinion, are only fit for
+     English bagmen--therefore gig it not, I pray you.
+
+     In buying your horses you will be very cautious. I see Colonel
+     Murray has delicacy about assisting you directly in the
+     matter--for he says very truly that some gentlemen make a sort of
+     traffic in horse-flesh--from which his duty and inclination
+     equally lead him to steer clear. But he will take care that you
+     don't buy any that are unfit for service, as in the common course
+     they must be approved by the commandant as _chargers_. Besides
+     which, he will probably give you some private hints, of which
+     avail yourself, as there is every chance of your needing much
+     advice in this business. Two things I preach on my own
+     experience: _1st_, Never to buy an aged horse, however showy. He
+     must have done work, and, at any rate, will be unserviceable in a
+     few years. _2dly_, To buy rather when the horse is something low
+     in condition, that you may the better see all his points. Six
+     years is the oldest at which I would purchase. You will run risk
+     of being jockeyed by knowing gentlemen of your own corps parting
+     with their _experienced_ chargers to _oblige_ you. Take care of
+     this. Any good-tempered horse learns the dragoon duty in
+     wonderfully short time, and you are rider enough not to want one
+     quite broke in. Look well about you, and out into the country.
+     Excellent horses are bred all through Munster, and better have a
+     clever young one than an old regimental brute foundered by
+     repeated charges and bolts. If you see a brother-officer's horse
+     that pleases you much, and seems reasonable, look particularly
+     how he stands on his forelegs, and for that purpose see him in
+     the stable. If he shifts and shakes a little, have nothing to say
+     to him. This is the best I can advise, not doubting you will be
+     handsomely excised after all. The officer who leaves his corps
+     may be disposing of good horses, and perhaps selling reasonable.
+     One who continues will not, at least should not, part with a good
+     horse without some great advantage.
+
+     You will remain at Cork till you have learned your regimental
+     duty, and then probably be despatched to some outquarter. I need
+     not say how anxious I am that you should keep up your languages,
+     mathematics, and other studies. To have lost that which you
+     already in some degree possess--and that which we don't practise
+     we soon forget--would be a subject of unceasing regret to you
+     hereafter. You have good introductions, and don't neglect to
+     avail yourself of them. Something in this respect your name may
+     do for you--a fair advantage, if used with discretion and
+     propriety. By the way, I suspect you did not call on John
+     Richardson.
+
+     The girls were very dull after you left us; indeed the night you
+     went away, Anne had hysterics, which lasted some time. Charles
+     also was down in the mouth, and papa and mamma a little grave and
+     dejected. I would not have you think yourself of too great
+     importance neither, for the greatest personages are not always
+     long missed, and to make a bit of a parody,--
+
+       "Down falls the rain, up gets the sun,
+        Just as if Walter were not gone."
+
+     We comfort ourselves with the hopes that you are to be happy in
+     the occupation you have chosen, and in your new society. Let me
+     know if there are any well-informed men among them, though I
+     don't expect you to find out that for some time. Be civil to all,
+     till you can by degrees find out who are really best deserving.
+
+     I enclose a letter from Sophia, which doubtless contains all the
+     news. St. Boswell's Fair rained miserably, and disappointed the
+     misses. The weather has since been delightful, and harvest
+     advances fast. All here goes its old round--the habits of age do
+     not greatly change, though those of youth do. Mamma has been
+     quite well, and so have I--but I still take calomel. I was
+     obliged to drink some claret with Sir A. Don, Sir John Shelley,
+     and a funny little Newmarket quizzy, called Cousins, whom they
+     brought here with them the other day, but I was not the worse. I
+     wish you had Sir J. S. at your elbow when you are buying your
+     horses--he is a very knowing man on the turf. I like his lady
+     very much. She is perfectly feminine in her manners, has good
+     sense, and plays divinely on the harp; besides all which, she
+     shoots wild boars, and is the boldest horsewoman I ever saw. I
+     saw her at Paris ride like a lapwing, in the midst of all the
+     aide-de-camps and suite of the Duke of Wellington.
+
+     Write what your horses come to, etc. Your outfit will be an
+     expensive matter; but once settled, it will be fairly launching
+     you into life in the way you wished, and I trust you will see the
+     necessity of prudence and a gentlemanlike economy, which consists
+     chiefly in refusing one's self trifling indulgences until we can
+     easily pay for them. Once more, I beg you to be attentive to
+     Colonel Murray and to his lady. I hear of a disease among the
+     moorfowl. I suppose they are dying for grief at your departure.
+
+     Ever, my dear boy, your affectionate father,
+
+                                                         WALTER SCOTT.
+
+
+[Footnote 51: The then commandant of the 18th Hussars was
+Lieutenant-Colonel the Hon. Henry Murray, brother to the Earl of
+Mansfield.]
+
+
+TO THE SAME.
+
+                                                     7th August, 1819.
+
+     DEAR WALTER,--... I shall be curious to know how you like your
+     brother-officers, and how you dispose of your time. The drills
+     and riding-school will, of course, occupy much of your mornings
+     for some time. I trust, however, you will keep in view drawing,
+     languages, etc. It is astonishing how far even half an hour a day
+     regularly bestowed on one object, will carry a man in making
+     himself master of it. The habit of dawdling away time is easily
+     acquired, and so is that of putting every moment either to use or
+     to amusement.
+
+     You will not be hasty in forming intimacies with any of your
+     brother-officers, until you observe which of them are most
+     generally respected, and likely to prove most creditable friends.
+     It is seldom that the people who put themselves hastily forward
+     to please are those most worthy of being known. At the same time
+     you will take care to return all civility which is offered, with
+     readiness and frankness. The Italians have a proverb, which I
+     hope you have not forgot poor Pierrotti's lessons so far as not
+     to comprehend, "_Volto sciolto e pensieri stretti_." There is no
+     occasion to let any one see what you exactly think of him; and it
+     is the less prudent, as you will find reason, in all probability,
+     to change your opinion more than once.
+
+     I shall be glad to hear of your being fitted with a good servant.
+     Most of the Irish of that class are scapegraces--drink, steal,
+     and lie like the devil. If you could pick up a canny Scot, it
+     would be well. Let me know about your mess. To drink hard is none
+     of your habits; but even drinking what is called a certain
+     quantity every day, hurts the stomach, and by hereditary descent
+     yours is delicate. I believe the poor Duke of Buccleuch laid the
+     foundation of that disease which occasioned his premature death
+     in the excesses of Villars's regiment; and I am sorry and
+     ashamed to say, for your warning, that the habit of drinking
+     wine, so much practised when I was a young man, occasioned, I am
+     convinced, many of my cruel stomach complaints. You had better
+     drink a bottle of wine on any particular occasion, than sit and
+     soak and sipple at an English pint every day.
+
+     All our bipeds are well. Hamlet had an inflammatory attack, and I
+     began to think he was going mad, after the example of his great
+     namesake, but Willie Laidlaw bled him, and he has recovered.
+     Pussy is very well. Mamma, the girls, and Charlie, join in love.
+     Yours affectionately,
+
+                                                                 W. S.
+
+     P. S.--Always mention what letters of mine you have received, and
+     write to me whatever comes into your head. It is the privilege of
+     great boys when distant that they cannot tire papas by any length
+     of detail upon any subject.
+
+
+TO THE SAME.
+
+                                        ABBOTSFORD, 13th August, 1819.
+
+     MY DEAREST WALTER,--I am very much obliged to Colonel Murray for
+     the trouble he has taken on your behalf. I hope he has received
+     the letter which I wrote to him a fortnight since under Mr.
+     Freeling's cover. It enclosed a parcel of letters to you. I took
+     the liberty of asking his advice what allowance you should have
+     to assist you. You know pretty well my circumstances and your
+     own, and that I wish you to be comfortable, but not in any
+     respect extravagant; and this for your own sake, and not for that
+     of money, which I never valued very much, perhaps not so much as
+     I ought to have done. I think by speaking to Colonel Murray you
+     may get at his opinion, and I have so much trust in your honor
+     and affection as to confide in your naming your own allowance.
+     Meantime, lest the horse should starve while the grass grows, I
+     enclose a cheque upon Messrs. Coutts for £50, to accompt of your
+     first year's allowance. Your paymaster will give you the money
+     for it I dare say. You have to endorse the bill, _i. e._, write
+     your name on the back of it.
+
+     All concerned are pleased with your kind tokens of remembrance
+     from London. Mamma and I like the caricatures very much. I think,
+     however, scarce any of them shows the fancy and talent of old
+     Gilray: he became insane, I suppose by racking his brain in
+     search of extravagant ideas, and was supported in his helpless
+     condition by the woman who keeps the great print-shop in St.
+     James's Street, who had the generosity to remember that she had
+     made thousands by his labor.
+
+     Everything here goes on in the old fashion, and we are all as
+     well as possible, saving that Charles rode to Lawrence fair
+     yesterday in a private excursion, and made himself sick with
+     eating gingerbread, whereby he came to disgrace.
+
+     Sophia has your letter of the 4th, which she received yesterday.
+     The enclosed will help you to set up shop and to get and pay
+     whatever is necessary. I wish we had a touch of your hand to make
+     the parties rise in the morning, at which they show as little
+     alertness as usual.
+
+     I beg you will keep an account of money received and paid. Buy a
+     little book ruled for the purpose, for pounds, shillings, and
+     pence, and keep an account of cash received and expended. The
+     balance ought to be cash in purse, if the book is regularly kept.
+     But any very small expenses you can enter as "Sundries, £0: 3:
+     6," which saves trouble.
+
+     You will find this most satisfactory and useful. But, indeed,
+     arithmetic is indispensable to a soldier who means to rise in his
+     profession. All military movements depend upon calculation of
+     time, numbers, and distance.
+
+     Dogs all well--cat sick--supposed with eating birds in their
+     feathers. Sisters, brother, and mamma join in love to the "poor
+     wounded hussa-a-r;"--I dare say you have heard the song; if not,
+     we shall send it for the benefit of the mess. Yours
+     affectionately,
+
+                                                         WALTER SCOTT.
+
+     P. S.--Yesterday, _the 12th_, would, I suppose, produce some
+     longings after the Peel heights.
+
+
+In the following letter to Mr. Richardson, we see Scott busied about
+certain little matters of heraldic importance which had to be settled
+before his patent of baronetcy could be properly made out. He also
+alludes to two little volumes, which he edited during this autumn--the
+Memorials of the Haliburtons, a thin quarto (never published)--and the
+poems of Patrick Carey, of which he had given specimens some years
+before in the Annual Register.
+
+
+TO JOHN RICHARDSON, ESQ., FLUDYER STREET, WESTMINSTER.
+
+                                         ABBOTSFORD, 22d August, 1819.
+
+     MY DEAR RICHARDSON,--I am sorry Walter did not get to your kind
+     domicile. But he stayed but about five or six days in London, and
+     great was his haste, as you may well suppose. He had a world of
+     trinkums to get, for you know there goes as much to the
+     man-millinery of a young officer of hussars as to that of an
+     heiress on her bridal day. His complete equipage, horses not
+     included, cost about £360, and if you add a couple of blood
+     horses, it will be £200 more, besides the price of his
+     commission, for the privilege of getting the hardness of his
+     skull tried by a brick-bat at the next meeting of Radical
+     Reformers. I am not much afraid of these folks, however, because
+     I remember 1793 and 1794, when the same ideas possessed a much
+     more formidable class of the people, being received by a large
+     proportion of farmers, shopkeepers, and others, possessed of
+     substance. A mere mob will always be a fire of loose straw; but
+     it is melancholy to think of the individual mischief that may be
+     done. I did not find it quite advisable to take so long a journey
+     as London this summer. I am quite recovered; but my last attack
+     was of so dreadful a nature, that I wish to be quite insured
+     against another--_i. e._, as much as one can be insured against
+     such a circumstance--before leaving home for any length of time.
+
+     To return to the vanities of this world, from what threatened to
+     hurry me to the next: I enclose a drawing of my arms, with the
+     supporters which the heralds here assign me. Our friend Harden
+     seems to wish I would adopt one of his Mer-maidens, otherwise
+     they should be both Moors, as on the left side. I have also added
+     an impression of my seal. You can furnish Sir George Naylor with
+     as much of my genealogy as will serve the present purpose. I
+     shall lose no time in connecting myself by a general service with
+     my grand-uncle, the last Haliburton of Dryburgh Abbey, or
+     Newmains, as they call it. I spoke to the Lyon-office people in
+     Edinburgh. I find my entry there will be an easy matter, the
+     proofs being very pregnant and accessible. I would not stop for a
+     trifling expense to register my pedigree in England, as far as
+     you think may be necessary, to show that it is a decent one. My
+     ancestors were brave and honest men, and I have no reason to be
+     ashamed of them, though they were neither wealthy nor great.
+
+     As something of an antiquary and genealogist, I should not like
+     there were any mistakes in this matter, so I send you a small
+     note of my descent by my father and my paternal grandmother, with
+     a memorandum of the proofs by which they may be supported, to
+     which I might add a whole cloud of oral witnesses. I hate the
+     being suspected of fishing for a pedigree, or bolstering one up
+     with false statements. How people can bring themselves to this, I
+     cannot conceive. I send you a copy of the Haliburton MS., of
+     which I have printed twenty for the satisfaction of a few
+     friends. You can have any part of them copied in London which
+     ought to be registered. I should like if Sir George Naylor would
+     take the trouble of looking at the proofs, which are chiefly
+     extracts from the public records. I take this opportunity to send
+     you also a copy of a little amateur-book--Carey's Poems--a
+     thoroughbred Cavalier, and, I think, no bad versifier. Kind
+     compliments to Mrs. Richardson. Yours, my dear Richardson, most
+     truly,
+
+                                                         WALTER SCOTT.
+
+
+TO CORNET W. SCOTT, 18TH HUSSARS, CORK.
+
+                                      ABBOTSFORD, 4th September, 1819.
+
+     DEAR WALTER,--Your very acceptable letter of the 26th reached me
+     to-day. I had begun to be apprehensive that the draft had fallen
+     into the hands of the Philistines, but the very long calm must
+     have made the packets slow in their progress, which I suppose was
+     the occasion of the delay. Respecting the allowance, Colonel
+     Murray informs me that from £200 to £250, in addition to the pay
+     of a Cornet, ought to make a young man very comfortable. He adds,
+     which I am much pleased to hear, that your officers are, many of
+     them, men of moderate fortune, and disposed to be economical. I
+     had thought of £200 as what would suit us both, but when I see
+     the account which you very properly keep, I shall be better able
+     to determine. It must be considered that any uncommon expense, as
+     the loss of a horse or the like, may occasion an extra draft over
+     and above the allowance. I like very much your methodical
+     arrangement as to expenses; it is rather a tiresome thing at
+     first to keep an accompt of pounds, shillings, and pence, but it
+     is highly necessary, and enables one to see how the money
+     actually goes. It is, besides, a good practical way of keeping up
+     acquaintance with arithmetic, and you will soon find that the
+     principles on which all military movements turn are arithmetical,
+     and that though one may no doubt learn to do them by rote, yet to
+     _understand_ them, you must have recourse to numbers. Your
+     adjutant will explain this to you. By the way, as he is a
+     foreigner, you will have an opportunity to keep up a little of
+     your French and German. Both are highly necessary to you; the
+     knowledge of the last, with few other qualifications, made
+     several officers' fortunes last war.
+
+     I observe with pleasure you are making acquaintances among the
+     gentry, which I hope you will not drop for want of calling, etc.
+     I trust you have delivered all your recommendations, for it is an
+     affront to omit doing so, both to the person who writes them, and
+     those for whom they are designed. On the other hand, one always
+     holds their head a little better up in the world when they keep
+     good society. Lord and Lady Melville are to give you
+     recommendations when you go to Dublin. I was at Melville Castle
+     for two days, and found them both well. I was also one day at
+     Langholm Lodge to meet Lord Montagu. Possibly, among your Irish
+     friends, you may get some shooting. I shall be glad you avail
+     yourself of any such opportunities, and also that, when you get
+     your own horses, you hunt in the winter, if you be within the
+     reach of hounds. Nothing confirms a man in horsemanship so well
+     as hunting, though I do not recommend it to beginners, who are
+     apt to learn to ride like grooms. Besides the exercise,
+     field-sports make a young soldier acquainted with the country,
+     and habituate him to have a good eye for distance and for taking
+     up the _carte de pays_ in general, which is essential to all, but
+     especially to officers of light troops, who are expected to
+     display both alertness and intelligence in reporting the nature
+     of the country, being in fact the _eyes_ of the army. In every
+     point of view, field-sports are preferable to the indoors
+     amusement of a billiard-table, which is too often the
+     lounging-place for idle young officers, where there is nothing to
+     be got but a habit of throwing away time, and an acquaintance
+     with the very worst society--I mean at public billiard-rooms--for
+     unquestionably the game itself is a pretty one, when practised
+     among gentlemen, and not made a constant habit of. But public
+     billiard-tables are almost always the resort of blacklegs and
+     sharpers, and all that numerous class whom the French call
+     _chevaliers d'industrie_, and we, _knights of the whipping-post_.
+
+     I am glad you go to the anatomical lectures. An acquaintance with
+     our own very extraordinary frame is a useful branch of general
+     knowledge, and as you have some turn for drawing, it will also
+     enable you to judge of the proper mode of disposing the limbs and
+     muscles of your figures, should you prosecute the art so far. In
+     fact, there is no branch of study can come much amiss to a young
+     man, providing he does study, and very often the precise
+     occupation of the time must be trusted to taste and opportunity.
+
+     The White Boys made a great noise when I was a boy. But Ireland
+     (the more is the pity) has never been without White Boys, or
+     Right Boys, or Defenders, or Peep-of-day Boys, or some wild
+     association or another for disturbing the peace of the country.
+     We shall not be many degrees better if the Radical Reformers be
+     not checked. The Manchester Yeomen behaved very well, upsetting
+     the most immense crowd ever was seen, and notwithstanding the
+     lies in the papers, without any unnecessary violence. Mr. Hunt
+     pretends to have had several blows on his head with sabres, but
+     has no wound to show for it. I am disposed to wish he had got
+     such a one as once on a day I could have treated him to. I am apt
+     to think his politic pate would have broached no more sedition.
+
+     Miss Rutherford and Eliza Russell are now with us. We were also
+     favored with a visit of the Miss ----s, who are rather empty
+     canisters, though I dare say very good girls. Anne tired of them
+     most inhospitably. Mrs. Maclean Clephane and her two unmarried
+     daughters are now here; being, as we say, pears of another tree.
+     Your sisters seem very fond of the young ladies, and I am glad of
+     it, for they will see that a great deal of accomplishment and
+     information may be completely reconciled with liveliness, fun,
+     good-humor, and good-breeding.
+
+     All here send love. Dogs and cat are well. I dare say you have
+     heard from some other correspondent that poor Lady Wallace died
+     of an inflammation, after two days' illness. Trout[52] has
+     returned here several times, poor fellow, and seems to look for
+     you; but Henry Scott is very kind to him, and he is a great
+     favorite.
+
+     As you Hussars smoke, I will give you one of my pipes, but you
+     must let me know how I can send it safely. It is a very handsome
+     one, though not my best. I will keep my _Meerschaum_ until I make
+     my Continental tour, and then you shall have that also. I hope
+     you will get leave for a few months, and go with me. Yours very
+     affectionately,
+
+                                                         WALTER SCOTT.
+
+
+[Footnote 52: _Lady Wallace_ was a pony; _Trout_ a favorite pointer
+which the Cornet had given, at leaving home, to the young Laird of
+Harden, now the Master of Polwarth.]
+
+About this time, as the succeeding letters will show, Abbotsford had
+the honor of a short visit from Prince Leopold of Saxe-Coburg, now
+King of the Belgians. Immediately afterwards Scott heard of the death
+of Mrs. William Erskine, and repaired to Edinburgh to condole with his
+afflicted friend.[53] His allusions, meanwhile, to views of buying
+more land on Tweedside, are numerous. These speculations are explained
+in a most characteristic style to the Cornet; and we see that one of
+them was cut short by the tragical death of a _bonnet-laird_ already
+introduced to the reader's notice--namely, _Lauchie Longlegs_, the
+admired of Geoffrey Crayon.
+
+[Footnote 53: For Scott's Epitaph for Mrs. Erskine, see his _Poetical
+Works_ (Ed. 1834), vol. xi. p. 347 [Cambridge Ed. p. 447].]
+
+
+TO CORNET WALTER SCOTT, 18TH HUSSARS, CORK.
+
+                                     ABBOTSFORD, 27th September, 1819.
+
+     MY DEAR WALTER,--Your letter of the 10th gave me the pleasant
+     assurance that you are well and happy, and attending to your
+     profession. We have been jogging on here in the old fashion,
+     somewhat varied by an unexpected visit, on Friday last, from no
+     less a person than Prince Leopold. I conclude you will have all
+     the particulars of this important event from the other members
+     of the family, so I shall only say that when I mentioned the
+     number of your regiment, the Prince said he had several friends
+     in the 18th, and should now think he had one more, which was very
+     polite. By the way, I hear an excellent character of your
+     officers for regularity and gentlemanlike manners. This report
+     gives me great pleasure, for to live in bad society will deprave
+     the best manners, and to live in good will improve the worst.
+
+     I am trying a sort of bargain with neighbor Nicol Milne at
+     present. He is very desirous of parting with his estate of
+     Faldonside, and if he will be contented with a reasonable price,
+     I am equally desirous to be the purchaser. I conceive it will
+     come to about £30,000 at least. I will not agree to give a penny
+     more; and I think that sum is probably £2000 and more above its
+     actual marketable value. But then it lies extremely convenient
+     for us, and would, joined to Abbotsford, make a very
+     gentlemanlike property, worth at least £1800 or £2000 a year. I
+     can command about £10,000 of my own, and if I be spared life and
+     health, I should not fear rubbing off the rest of the price, as
+     Nicol is in no hurry for payment. As you will succeed me in my
+     landed property, I think it right to communicate my views to you.
+     I am much moved by the prospect of getting at about £2000 or
+     £3000 worth of marle, which lies on Milne's side of the loch, but
+     which can only be drained on my side, so that he can make no use
+     of it. This would make the lands of Abbotsford worth 40_s._ an
+     acre over-head, excepting the sheep farm. I am sensible I might
+     dispose of my money to more advantage, but probably to none
+     which, in the long run, would be better for you--certainly to
+     none which would be productive of so much pleasure to myself. The
+     woods are thriving, and it would be easy, at a trifling expense,
+     to restore Faldonside loch, and stock it with fish. In fact, it
+     would require but a small dam-head. By means of a little
+     judicious planting, added to what is already there, the estate
+     might be rendered one of the most beautiful in this part of
+     Scotland. Such are my present plans, my dear boy, having as much
+     your future welfare and profit in view as the immediate
+     gratification of my own wishes.
+
+     I am very sorry to tell you that poor Mrs. William Erskine is no
+     more. She was sent by the medical people on a tour to the lakes
+     of Cumberland, and was taken ill at Lowood, on Windermere.
+     Nature, much exhausted by her previous indisposition, sunk under
+     four days' illness. Her husband was with her, and two of her
+     daughters--he is much to be pitied.
+
+     Mr. Rees, the bookseller, told me he had met you in the streets
+     of Cork, and reported well of the growth of your _Schnurr-bart_.
+     I hope you know what that means. Pray write often, as the post
+     comes so slow. I keep all your letters, and am much pleased with
+     the frankness of the style. No word of your horses yet? but it is
+     better not to be impatient, and to wait for good ones. I have
+     been three times on Newark, and killed six hares each time. The
+     two young dogs are capital good.
+
+     I must not omit to tell you our old, and, I may add, our kind
+     neighbor Lauchie, has departed, or, as Tom expresses it, has been
+     fairly _flytten out o' the warld_. You know the old quarrel
+     betwixt his brother and him about the wife: in an ill-fated hour
+     Jock the brother came down to Lochbreist with a sister from
+     Edinburgh, who was determined to have her share of the
+     scolding-match; they attacked poor old Lauchie like mad folks,
+     and reviled his wife in all sort of evil language. At length his
+     passion was wrought up to a great pitch, and he answered with
+     much emotion, that if she were the greatest ---- in Edinburgh, it
+     was not their business, and as he uttered this speech, he fell
+     down on his back, and lay a dead man before them. There is little
+     doubt the violence of the agitation had broke a blood-vessel in
+     the heart or brain. A very few days since he was running up and
+     down calling for a coffin, and wishing to God he was in one; to
+     which Swanston,[54] who was present, answered, he could not apply
+     to a better hand, and he would make him one if he had a mind. He
+     has left a will of his own making, but from some informality I
+     think it will be set aside. His land cannot come into the market
+     until his girl comes of age, which, by the way, makes me more
+     able for the other bargain.... The blackcocks are very plenty. I
+     put up fourteen cocks and hens in walking up the Clappercleuch to
+     look at the wood. Do you not wish you had been on the outside
+     with your gun? Tom has kept us well supplied with game; he boasts
+     that he shot fifteen times without a miss. I shall be glad to
+     hear that you do the same on Mr. Newenham's grounds. Mamma, the
+     girls, and Charles, all join in love and affection. Believe me
+     ever, dear Walter, your affectionate father,
+
+                                                         WALTER SCOTT.
+
+
+[Footnote 54: John Swanston had then the care of the sawmill at
+Toftfield; he was one of Scott's most valued dependents, and in the
+sequel succeeded Tom Purdie as his henchman.]
+
+
+TO THE LORD MONTAGU, ETC., ETC., ETC.
+
+                                         ABBOTSFORD, 3d October, 1819.
+
+     MY DEAR LORD,--I am honored with your Buxton letter.... _Anent_
+     Prince Leopold, I only heard of his approach at eight o'clock in
+     the morning, and he was to be at Selkirk by eleven. The
+     magistrates sent to ask me to help them to receive him. It
+     occurred to me he might be coming to Melrose to see the Abbey, in
+     which case I could not avoid asking him to Abbotsford, as he must
+     pass my very door. I mentioned this to Mrs. Scott, who was lying
+     quietly in bed, and I wish you had heard the scream she gave on
+     the occasion. "What have we to offer him?"--"Wine and cake," said
+     I, thinking to make all things easy; but she ejaculated, in a
+     tone of utter despair, "Cake!! where am I to get cake?" However,
+     being partly consoled with the recollection that his visit was a
+     very improbable incident, and curiosity, as usual, proving too
+     strong for alarm, she set out with me in order not to miss a peep
+     of the great man. James Skene and his lady were with us, and we
+     gave our carriages such additional dignity as a pair of leaders
+     could add, and went to meet him in full puff. The Prince very
+     civilly told me, that, though he could not see Melrose on this
+     occasion, he wished to come to Abbotsford for an hour. New
+     despair on the part of Mrs. Scott, who began to institute a
+     domiciliary search for cold meat through the whole city of
+     Selkirk, which produced _one shoulder of cold lamb_. In the mean
+     while, his Royal Highness received the civic honors of the
+     BIRSE[55] very graciously. I had hinted to Bailie Lang,[56] that
+     it ought only to be licked _symbolically_ on the present
+     occasion; so he flourished it three times before his mouth, but
+     without touching it with his lips, and the Prince followed his
+     example as directed. Lang made an excellent speech--sensible, and
+     feeling, and well delivered. The Prince seemed much surprised at
+     this great propriety of expression and behavior in a magistrate,
+     whose people seemed such a rabble, and whose whole band of music
+     consisted in a drum and fife. He noticed to Bailie Anderson that
+     Selkirk seemed very populous in proportion to its extent. "On an
+     occasion like this it seems so," answered the Bailie,--neatly
+     enough, I thought. I question if any magistrates in the kingdom,
+     lord mayors and aldermen not excepted, could have behaved with
+     more decent and quiet good-breeding. Prince Leopold repeatedly
+     alluded to this during the time he was at Abbotsford. I do not
+     know how Mrs. Scott ultimately managed; but with broiled salmon,
+     and blackcock, and partridges, she gave him a very decent lunch;
+     and I chanced to have some very fine old hock, which was mighty
+     germane to the matter.
+
+     The Prince seems melancholy, whether naturally or from habit, I
+     do not pretend to say; but I do not remember thinking him so at
+     Paris, where I saw him frequently, then a much poorer man than
+     myself; yet he showed some humor, for, alluding to the crowds
+     that followed him everywhere, he mentioned some place where he
+     had gone out to shoot, but was afraid to proceed for fear of
+     "bagging a boy." He said he really thought of getting some
+     shooting-place in Scotland, and promised me a longer visit on his
+     return. If I had had a day's notice to have _warned the waters_,
+     we could have met him with a very respectable number of the
+     gentry; but there was no time for this, and probably he liked it
+     better as it was. There was only young Clifton who could have
+     come, and he was shy and cubbish, and would not, though requested
+     by the Selkirk people. He was perhaps ashamed to march through
+     Coventry with them. It hung often and sadly on my mind that _he_
+     was wanting who could and would have received him like a Prince
+     indeed; and yet the meeting betwixt them, had they been fated to
+     meet, would have been a very sad one. I think I have now given
+     your Lordship a very full, true, and particular account of our
+     royal visit, unmatched even by that of King Charles at the Castle
+     of Tillietudlem. That we did not speak of it for more than a week
+     after it happened, and that that emphatic monosyllable, _The
+     Prince_, is not heard amongst us more than ten times a day, is,
+     on the whole, to the credit of my family's understanding. The
+     piper is the only one whose brain he seems to have endangered;
+     for, as the Prince said he preferred him to any he had heard in
+     the Highlands--(which, by the way, shows his Royal Highness knows
+     nothing of the matter)--the fellow seems to have become incapable
+     of his ordinary occupation as a forester, and has cut stick and
+     stem without remorse to the tune of _Phail Phranse_, _i. e._, the
+     Prince's Welcome.
+
+     I am just going to the head-court with Donaldson, and go a day
+     sooner to exhume certain old monuments of the Rutherfords at
+     Jedburgh. Edgerstone[57] is to meet me at Jedburgh for this
+     research, and then we shall go up with him to dinner. My best
+     respects attend Lady Montagu. I wish this letter may reach you on
+     a more lively day than it is written in, for it requires little
+     to add to its dulness. Tweed is coming down very fast, the first
+     time this summer. Believe me, my dear Lord, most truly yours,
+
+                                                         WALTER SCOTT.
+
+
+[Footnote 55: See _ante_, vol. v. p. 88.]
+
+[Footnote 56: Scott's good friend, Mr. Andrew Lang, Sheriff-Clerk for
+Selkirkshire, was then chief magistrate of the county town. [He was
+the grandfather of the accomplished man of letters who bears his
+name.]]
+
+[Footnote 57: The late John Rutherford of Edgerstone, long M. P. for
+Roxburghshire, was a person of high worth, and universally esteemed.
+Scott used to say Edgerstone was his _beau ideal_ of the character of
+a country gentleman. He was, I believe, the head of the once great and
+powerful clan of Rutherford.]
+
+
+TO W. SCOTT, ESQ., 18TH HUSSARS, CORK.
+
+                                       ABBOTSFORD, 14th October, 1819.
+
+     DEAR WALTER,--I had your last letter, and am very glad you find
+     pleasant society. Mrs. Dundas of Arniston is so good as to send
+     you some introductions, which you will deliver as soon as
+     possible. You will be now in some degree accustomed to meet with
+     strangers, and to form your estimate of their character and
+     manners. I hope, in the mean time, the French and German are
+     attended to; please to mention in your next letter what you are
+     reading, and in what languages. The hours of youth, my dear
+     Walter, are too precious to be spent all in gayety. We must lay
+     up in that period when our spirit is active, and our memory
+     strong, the stores of information which are not only to
+     facilitate our progress through life, but to amuse and interest
+     us in our later stage of existence. I very often think what an
+     unhappy person I should have been, if I had not done something
+     more or less towards improving my understanding when I was at
+     your age; and I never reflect, without severe self-condemnation,
+     on the opportunities of acquiring knowledge which I either
+     trifled with, or altogether neglected. I hope you will be wiser
+     than I have been, and experience less of that self-reproach.
+
+     My last acquainted you with Mrs. Erskine's death, and I grieve to
+     say we have just received intelligence that our kind neighbor and
+     good friend Lord Somerville is at the very last gasp. His disease
+     is a dysentery, and the symptoms, as his brother writes to Mr.
+     Samuel Somerville, are mortal. He is at Vevay, upon his road, I
+     suppose, to Italy, where he had purposed spending the winter. His
+     death, for I understand nothing else can be expected, will be
+     another severe loss to me; for he was a kind, good friend, and at
+     my time of day men do not readily take to new associates. I must
+     own this has been one of the most melancholy years I ever passed.
+     The poor Duke, who loved me so well--Mrs. Erskine--Lord
+     Somerville--not to mention others with whom I was less intimate,
+     make it one year of mourning. I should not forget the Chief
+     Baron, who, though from ill health we met of late seldom, was
+     always my dear friend, and indeed very early benefactor. I must
+     look forwards to seeing in your success and respectability, and
+     in the affection and active improvement of all of you, those
+     pleasures which are narrowed by the death of my contemporaries.
+     Men cannot form new intimacies at my period of life, but must be
+     happy or otherwise according to the good fortune and good conduct
+     of those near relatives who rise around them.
+
+     I wish much to know if you are lucky in a servant. Trust him with
+     as little cash as possible, and keep short accounts. Many a good
+     servant is spoiled by neglecting this simple precaution. The man
+     is tempted to some expense of his own, gives way to it, and then
+     has to make it up by a system of overcharge and peculation; and
+     thus mischief begins, and the carelessness of the master makes a
+     rogue out of an honest lad, and cheats himself into the bargain.
+
+     I have a letter from your uncle Tom, telling me his eldest
+     daughter is to be forthwith married to a Captain Huxley of his
+     own regiment. As he has had a full opportunity of being
+     acquainted with the young gentleman, and approves of the match, I
+     have to hope that it will be a happy one. I fear there is no
+     great fortune in the case on either side, which is to be
+     regretted.
+
+     Of domestic affairs I have little to tell you. The harvest has
+     been excellent, the weather delightful; but this I must often
+     have repeated. To-day I was thinning out fir-trees in the
+     thicket, and the men were quite exhausted with the heat, and I
+     myself, though only marking the trees, felt the exercise
+     sufficiently warm. The wood is thriving delightfully. On the 28th
+     we are to have a dance in honor of your birthday. I wish you
+     could look in upon us for the day at least--only I am afraid we
+     could not part with you when it was over, and so you would be in
+     the guise of Cinderella, when she outstayed her time at the ball,
+     and all her finery returned into its original base materials.
+     Talking of balls, the girls would tell you the Melrose hop, where
+     mamma presided, went off well.
+
+     I expect poor Erskine and his daughter next week, or the week
+     after. I went into town to see him--and found him bearing his
+     great loss with his natural gentleness and patience. But he was
+     sufficiently distressed, as he has great reason to be. I also
+     expect Lord and Lady Melville here very soon. Sir William Rae
+     (now Lord Advocate) and his lady came to us on Saturday. On
+     Sunday Maida walked with us, and in jumping the paling at the
+     Greentongue park contrived to hang himself up by the hind leg. He
+     howled at first, but seeing us making towards him he stopped
+     crying, and waved his tail, by way of signal, it was supposed,
+     for assistance. He sustained no material injury, though his leg
+     was strangely twisted into the bars, and he was nearly hanging
+     by it. He showed great gratitude, in his way, to his deliverers.
+     This is a long letter, and little in it; but that is nothing
+     extraordinary. All send best love--and I am ever, dear Walter,
+     your affectionate father,
+
+                                                         WALTER SCOTT.
+
+
+TO THOMAS SCOTT, ESQ., PAYMASTER, 70th REGIMENT, CANADA.
+
+                                       ABBOTSFORD, 16th October, 1819.
+
+     DEAR TOM,--I received yesterday your very acceptable letter,
+     containing the news of Jessie's approaching marriage, in which,
+     as a match agreeable to her mother and you, and relieving your
+     minds from some of the anxious prospects which haunt those of
+     parents, I take the most sincere interest. Before this reaches
+     you the event will probably have taken place. Meantime, I enclose
+     a letter to the bride or wife, as the case may happen to be. I
+     have sent a small token of good-will to ballast my good wishes,
+     which you will please to value for the young lady, that she may
+     employ it as most convenient or agreeable to her. A little more
+     fortune would perhaps have done the young folks no harm; but
+     Captain Huxley, being such as you describe him, will have every
+     chance of getting forward in his profession; and the happiest
+     marriages are often those in which there is, at first, occasion
+     for prudence and economy. I do certainly feel a little of the
+     surprise which you hint at, for time flies over our heads one
+     scarce marks how, and children become marriageable ere we
+     consider them as out of the nursery. My eldest son, Walter, has
+     also wedded himself--but it is to a regiment of hussars. He is at
+     present a cornet in the 18th, and quartered in Cork barracks. He
+     is capital at most exercises, but particularly as a horseman. I
+     do not intend he shall remain in the cavalry, however, but shall
+     get him into the line when he is capable of promotion. Since he
+     has chosen this profession, I shall be desirous that he follows
+     it out in good earnest, and that can only be done by getting into
+     the infantry.
+
+     My late severe illness has prevented my going up to London to
+     receive the honor which the Prince Regent has announced his
+     intention to inflict upon me. My present intention is, if I
+     continue as well as I have been, to go up about Christmas to get
+     this affair over. My health was restored (I trust permanently) by
+     the use of calomel, a very severe and painful remedy, especially
+     in my exhausted state of body, but it has proved a radical one.
+     By the way, _Radical_ is a word in very bad odor here, being used
+     to denote a set of blackguards a hundred times more mischievous
+     and absurd than our old friends in 1794 and 1795. You will learn
+     enough of the doings of the _Radical Reformers_ from the papers.
+     In Scotland we are quiet enough, excepting in the manufacturing
+     districts, and we are in very good hands, as Sir William Rae, our
+     old commander, is Lord Advocate. Rae has been here two or three
+     days, and left me yesterday; he is the old man, sensible,
+     cool-headed, and firm, always thinking of his duty, never of
+     himself. He inquired kindly after you, and I think will be
+     disposed to serve you, should an opportunity offer. Poor William
+     Erskine has lost his excellent wife, after a long and wasting
+     illness. She died at Lowood on Windermere, he having been
+     recommended to take her upon a tour about three weeks before her
+     death. I own I should scarce forgive a physician who should
+     contrive to give me this addition to family distress. I went to
+     town last week to see him, and found him, upon the whole, much
+     better than I expected. I saw my mother on the same occasion,
+     admirably well indeed. She is greatly better than this time two
+     years, when she rather quacked herself a little too much. I have
+     sent your letter to our mother, and will not fail to transmit to
+     our other friends the agreeable news of your daughter's
+     settlement. Our cousin, Sir Harry Macdougal, is marrying his
+     eldest daughter to Sir Thomas Brisbane, a very good match on
+     both sides. I have been paying a visit on the occasion, which
+     suspends my closing this letter. I hope to hear very soon from
+     you. Respecting our silence, I, like a ghost, only waited to be
+     spoken to, and you may depend on me as a regular correspondent,
+     when you find time to be one yourself. Charlotte and the girls
+     join in kind love to Mrs. Scott and all the family. I should like
+     to know what you mean to do with young Walter, and whether I can
+     assist you in that matter. Believe me, dear Tom, ever your
+     affectionate brother,
+
+                                                             W. SCOTT.
+
+
+TO DANIEL TERRY, ESQ., LONDON.
+
+                                        ABBOTSFORD, November 10, 1819.
+
+     MY DEAR TERRY,--I should be very sorry if you thought the
+     interest I take in you and yours so slight as not to render your
+     last letter extremely interesting. We have all our various
+     combats to fight in this best of all possible worlds, and, like
+     brave fellow-soldiers, ought to assist one another as much as
+     possible. I have little doubt, that if God spares me till my
+     little namesake be fit to take up his share of the burden, I may
+     have interest enough to be of great advantage to him in the
+     entrance of life. In the present state of your own profession,
+     you would not willingly, I suppose, choose him to follow it; and,
+     as it is very seductive to young people of a lively temper and
+     good taste for the art, you should, I think, consider early how
+     you mean to dispose of little Walter, with a view, that is, to
+     the future line of life which you would wish him to adopt. Mrs.
+     Terry has not the good health which all who know her amiable
+     disposition and fine accomplishments would anxiously wish her;
+     yet, with impaired health and the caution which it renders
+     necessary, we have very frequently instances of the utmost verge
+     of existence being attained, while robust strength is cut off in
+     the middle career. So you must be of good heart, and hope the
+     best in this as in other cases of a like affecting nature. I go
+     to town on Monday, and will forward under Mr. Freeling's cover as
+     much of Ivanhoe as is finished in print. It is completed, but in
+     the hands of a very slow transcriber; when I can collect it, I
+     will send you the MS., which you will please to keep secret from
+     every eye. I think this will give a start, if it be worth taking,
+     of about a month, for the work will be out on the 20th of
+     December. It is certainly possible to adapt it to the stage, but
+     the expense of scenery and decorations would be great, this being
+     a tale of chivalry, not of character. There is a tale in
+     existence, by dramatizing which, I am certain, a most powerful
+     effect might be produced: it is called Undine, and I believe has
+     been translated into French by Mademoiselle Montolieu, and into
+     English from her version: do read it, and tell me your opinion:
+     in German the character of Undine is exquisite. The only
+     objection is, that the catastrophe is unhappy, but this might be
+     altered. I hope to be in London for ten days the end of next
+     month; and so good-by for the present, being in great haste, most
+     truly yours,
+
+                                                             W. SCOTT.
+
+
+I conclude this chapter with a letter written two or three days before
+Scott quitted Abbotsford for the winter session. It is addressed to
+his friend Hartstonge, who had taken the opportunity of the renewal of
+Scott's correspondence to solicit his opinion and assistance touching
+a MS. drama; and the reader will be diverted with the style in which
+the amiable tragedian is treated to his _quietus_:--
+
+
+TO MATTHEW WELD HARTSTONGE, ESQ., DUBLIN.
+
+                                      ABBOTSFORD, 11th November, 1819.
+
+     MY DEAR SIR,--I was duly favored with your packet, containing the
+     play, as well as your very kind letter. I will endeavor (though
+     extremely unwilling to offer criticism on most occasions) to meet
+     your confidence with perfect frankness. I do not consider the
+     Tragedy as likely to make that favorable impression on the public
+     which I would wish that the performance of a friend should
+     effect--and I by no means recommend to you to hazard it upon the
+     boards. In other compositions, the neglect of the world takes
+     nothing from the merit of the author; but there is something
+     ludicrous in being _affiché_ as the author of an unsuccessful
+     play. Besides, you entail on yourself the great and eternal
+     plague of altering and retrenching to please the humors of
+     performers, who are, speaking generally, extremely ignorant, and
+     capricious in proportion. These are not vexations to be
+     voluntarily undertaken; and the truth is, that in the present day
+     there is only one reason which seems to me adequate for the
+     encountering the plague of trying to please a set of conceited
+     performers and a very motley audience,--I mean the want of money,
+     from which, fortunately, you are exempted. It is very true that
+     some day or other a great dramatic genius may arise to strike out
+     a new path; but I fear till this happens no great effect will be
+     produced by treading in the old one. The reign of Tragedy seems
+     to be over, and the very considerable poetical abilities which
+     have been lately applied to it, have failed to revive it. Should
+     the public ever be indulged with small theatres adapted to the
+     hours of the better ranks in life, the dramatic art may recover;
+     at present it is in abeyance--and I do therefore advise you in
+     all sincerity to keep the Tragedy (which I return under cover)
+     safe under your own charge. Pray think of this as one of the most
+     unpleasant offices of friendship--and be not angry with me for
+     having been very frank, upon an occasion when frankness may be
+     more useful than altogether palatable.
+
+     I am much obliged to you for your kind intentions towards my
+     young Hussar. We have not heard from him for three weeks. I
+     believe he is making out a meditated visit to Killarney. I am
+     just leaving the country for Edinburgh, to attend my duty in the
+     courts; but the badness of the weather in some measure reconciles
+     me to the unpleasant change. I have the pleasure to continue the
+     most satisfactory accounts of my health; it is, to external
+     appearance, as strong as in my strongest days--indeed, after I
+     took once more to Sancho's favorite occupations of eating and
+     sleeping, I recovered my losses wonderfully. Very truly yours,
+
+                                                         WALTER SCOTT.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XLVI
+
+     Political Alarms. -- The Radicals. -- Levies of Volunteers. --
+     Project of the Buccleuch Legion. -- Death of Scott's Mother, her
+     Brother Dr. Rutherford, and her Sister Christian. -- Letters to
+     Lord Montagu, Mr. Thomas Scott, Cornet Scott, Mr. Laidlaw, and
+     Lady Louisa Stuart. -- Publication of Ivanhoe.
+
+1819
+
+
+[Illustration: ANNE RUTHERFORD (MOTHER OF SIR WALTER SCOTT)
+
+_After the painting at Abbotsford_]
+
+Towards the winter of 1819 there prevailed a spirit of alarming
+insubordination among the mining population of Northumberland and the
+weavers of the West of Scotland; and Scott was particularly gratified
+with finding that his own neighbors at Galashiels had escaped the
+contagion. There can be little doubt that this exemption was
+principally owing to the personal influence and authority of the Laird
+of Abbotsford and Sheriff of the Forest; but the people of Galashiels
+were also fortunate in the qualities of their own beneficent
+landlords, Mr. Scott of Gala, and Mr. Pringle of Torwoodlee. The
+progress of the western _Reformers_ by degrees led even the most
+important Whigs in that district to exert themselves in the
+organization of volunteer regiments, both mounted and dismounted; and,
+when it became generally suspected that Glasgow and Paisley maintained
+a dangerous correspondence with the refractory colliers of
+Northumberland--Scott, and his friends the Lairds of Torwoodlee and
+Gala, determined to avail themselves of the loyalty and spirit of the
+men of Ettrick and Teviotdale, and proposed first raising a company
+of sharpshooters among their own immediate neighbors, and
+afterwards--this plan receiving every encouragement--a legion or
+brigade upon a large scale, to be called the Buccleuch Legion. During
+November and December, 1819, these matters formed the chief daily care
+and occupation of the author of Ivanhoe; and though he was still
+obliged to dictate most of the chapters of his novel, we shall see
+that, in case it should be necessary for the projected levy of
+Foresters to march upon Tynedale, he was prepared to place himself at
+their head.
+
+He had again intended, as soon as he should have finished Ivanhoe, to
+proceed to London, and receive his baronetcy; but as that affair had
+been crossed at Easter by his own illness, so at Christmas it was
+again obliged to be put off in consequence of a heavy series of
+domestic afflictions. Within one week Scott lost his excellent mother,
+his uncle Dr. Daniel Rutherford, Professor of Botany in the University
+of Edinburgh--and their sister, Christian Rutherford, already often
+mentioned as one of the dearest and most esteemed of all his friends
+and connections.
+
+The following letters require no further introduction or comment:--
+
+
+TO THE LORD MONTAGU, BUXTON.
+
+                                      ABBOTSFORD, 12th November, 1819.
+
+     MY DEAR LORD,--... I wish I had any news to send your Lordship;
+     but the best is, we are all quiet here. The Galashiels weavers,
+     both men and masters, have made their political creed known to
+     me, and have sworn themselves anti-radical. They came in solemn
+     procession, with their banners, and my own piper at their head,
+     whom they had borrowed for the nonce. But the Tweed being in
+     flood, we could only communicate like Wallace and Bruce across
+     the Carron. However, two deputies came through in the boat, and
+     made me acquainted with their loyal purposes. The evening was
+     crowned with two most distinguished actions--the weavers
+     refusing, in the most peremptory manner, to accept of a couple of
+     guineas to buy whiskey, and the renowned John of Skye, piper in
+     ordinary to the Laird of Abbotsford, no less steadily refusing a
+     very handsome collection, which they offered him for his
+     minstrelsy. All this sounds very nonsensical, but the people must
+     be humored and countenanced when they take the right turn,
+     otherwise they will be sure to take the wrong. The accounts from
+     the West sometimes make me wish our little Duke five or six years
+     older, and able to get on horseback. It seems approaching to the
+     old song--
+
+       "Come fill up our cup, come fill up our can,
+        Come saddle the horses, and call up our men,
+        Come open the gates, and let us go free,
+        And we'll show them the bonnets of bonny Dundee."[58]
+
+     I am rather too old for that work now, and I cannot look forward
+     to it with the sort of feeling that resembled pleasure--as I did
+     in my younger and more healthy days. However, I have got a good
+     following here, and will endeavor to keep them together till
+     times mend.
+
+     My respectful compliments attend Lady Montagu, and I am always,
+     with the greatest regard, your Lordship's very faithful
+
+                                                         WALTER SCOTT.
+
+
+[Footnote 58: See Scott's _Poetical Works_, vol. xii. p. 195
+[Cambridge Ed. p. 485].]
+
+
+TO CORNET WALTER SCOTT, 18TH HUSSARS.
+
+                                       EDINBURGH, 13th November, 1819.
+
+     DEAR WALTER,--I am much surprised and rather hurt at not hearing
+     from you for so long a while. You ought to remember that, however
+     pleasantly the time may be passing with you, we at home have some
+     right to expect that a part of it (a very small part will serve
+     the turn) should be dedicated, were it but for the sake of
+     propriety, to let us know what you are about. I cannot say I
+     shall be flattered by finding myself under the necessity of again
+     complaining of neglect. To write once a week, to one or other of
+     us, is no great sacrifice, and it is what I earnestly pray you to
+     do.
+
+     We are to have great doings in Edinburgh this winter. No less
+     than Prince Gustavus of Sweden is to pass the season here, and do
+     what Princes call studying. He is but half a Prince either, for
+     this Northern Star is somewhat shorn of his beams. His father
+     was, you know, dethroned by Buonaparte, at least by the influence
+     of his arms, and one of his generals, Bernadotte, made heir of
+     the Swedish throne in his stead. But this youngster, I suppose,
+     has his own dreams of royalty, for he is nephew to the Emperor of
+     Russia (by the mother's side), and that is a likely connection to
+     be of use to him, should the Swedish nobles get rid of
+     Bernadotte, as it is said they wish to do. Lord Melville has
+     recommended the said Prince particularly to my attention, though
+     I do not see how I can do much for him.
+
+     I have just achieved my grand remove from Abbotsford to
+     Edinburgh--a motion which you know I do not make with great
+     satisfaction. We had the Abbotsford hunt last week. The company
+     was small, as the newspapers say, but select, and we had
+     excellent sport, killing eight hares. We coursed on Gala's
+     ground, and he was with us. The dinner went off with its usual
+     alacrity, but we wanted you and Sally to ride and mark for us.
+
+     I enclose another letter from Mrs. Dundas of Arniston. I am
+     afraid you have been careless in not delivering those I formerly
+     forwarded, because in one of them, which Mrs. Dundas got from a
+     friend, there was enclosed a draft for some money. I beg you will
+     be particular in delivering any letters entrusted to you, because
+     though the good-nature of the writers may induce them to write to
+     be of service to you, yet it is possible that they may, as in
+     this instance, add things which are otherwise of importance to
+     their correspondents. It is probable that you may have picked up
+     among your military friends the idea that the mess of a regiment
+     is all in all sufficient to itself; but when you see a little of
+     the world you will be satisfied that none but pedants--for there
+     is pedantry in all professions--herd exclusively together, and
+     that those who do so are laughed at in real good company. This
+     you may take on the authority of one who has seen more of life
+     and society, in all its various gradations, from the highest to
+     the lowest, than a whole hussar regimental mess, and who would be
+     much pleased by knowing that you reap the benefit of an
+     experience which has raised him from being a person of small
+     consideration to the honor of being father of an officer of
+     hussars. I therefore enclose another letter from the same kind
+     friend, of which I pray you to avail yourself. In fact, those
+     officers who associate entirely among themselves see and know no
+     more of the world than their messman, and get conceited and
+     disagreeable by neglecting the opportunities offered for
+     enlarging their understanding. Every distinguished soldier whom I
+     have known, and I have known many, was a man of the world, and
+     accustomed to general society.
+
+     To sweeten my lecture, I have to inform you that, this being
+     quarter-day, I have a remittance of £50 to send you whenever you
+     are pleased to let me know it will be acceptable--for, like a
+     ghost, I will not speak again till I am spoken to.
+
+     I wish you not to avail yourself of your leave of absence this
+     winter, because, if my health continues good, I shall endeavor to
+     go on the Continent next summer, and should be very desirous to
+     have you with me; therefore, I beg you to look after your French
+     and German. We had a visit from a very fine fellow indeed at
+     Abbotsford,--Sir Thomas Brisbane, who long commanded a brigade in
+     the Peninsula. He is very scientific, but bores no one with it,
+     being at the same time a well-informed man on all subjects, and
+     particularly alert in his own profession, and willing to talk
+     about what he has seen. Sir Harry Hay Macdougal, whose eldest
+     daughter he is to marry, brought him to Abbotsford on a sort of
+     wedding visit, as we are cousins according to the old fashion of
+     country kin; Beardie, of whom Sir Harry has a beautiful picture,
+     being a son of an Isabel Macdougal, who was, I fancy, grand-aunt
+     to Sir Harry.
+
+     Once more, my dear Walter, write more frequently, and do not
+     allow yourself to think that the first neglect in correspondence
+     I have ever had to complain of has been on your part. I hope you
+     have received the Meerschaum pipe.--I remain your affectionate
+     father,
+
+                                                         WALTER SCOTT.
+
+
+TO THE SAME.
+
+                                         EDINBURGH, 3d December, 1819.
+
+     MY DEAR WALTER,--I hope your servant proves careful and trusty.
+     Pray let me know this. At any rate, do not trust him a bit
+     further than you can help it, for in buying anything you will get
+     it much cheaper yourself than he will. We are now settled for the
+     winter; that is, all of them excepting myself, who must soon look
+     southwards. On Saturday we had a grand visitor, _i. e._, the
+     Crown Prince of Sweden, under the name of Count Itterburg. His
+     travelling companion or tutor is Baron de Polier, a Swiss of
+     eminence in literature and rank. They took a long look at King
+     Charles XII., who, you cannot have forgotten, keeps his post over
+     the dining-room chimney; and we were all struck with the
+     resemblance betwixt old Ironhead, as the janissaries called him,
+     and his descendant. The said descendant is a very fine lad, with
+     very soft and mild manners, and we passed the day very
+     pleasantly. They were much diverted with Captain Adam,[59] who
+     outdid his usual outdoings, and, like the Barber of Bagdad,
+     danced the dance and sung the song of every person he spoke of.
+
+     I am concerned I cannot give a very pleasant account of things
+     here. Glasgow is in a terrible state. The Radicals had a plan to
+     seize on 1000 stand of arms, as well as a depôt of ammunition,
+     which had been sent from Edinburgh Castle for the use of the
+     volunteers. The Commander-in-Chief, Sir Thomas Bradford, went to
+     Glasgow in person, and the whole city was occupied with patrols
+     of horse and foot, to deter them from the meditated attack on the
+     barracks. The arms were then delivered to the volunteers, who are
+     said to be 4000 on paper; how many effective and trustworthy, I
+     know not. But it was a new sight in Scotland on a Sunday to see
+     all the inhabitants in arms, soldiers patrolling the streets, and
+     the utmost precaution of military service exacted and observed in
+     an apparently peaceful city.
+
+     The Old Blue Regiment of volunteers was again summoned together
+     yesterday. They did not muster very numerous, and looked most of
+     them a little _ancient_. However, they are getting recruits fast,
+     and then the veterans may fall out of the ranks. The
+     Commander-in-Chief has told the President that he may soon be
+     obliged to leave the charge of the Castle to these armed
+     citizens. This looks serious. The President[60] made one of the
+     most eloquent addresses that ever was heard, to the Old Blues.
+     The Highland Chiefs have offered to raise their clans, and march
+     them to any point in Scotland where their services shall be
+     required. To be sure, the Glasgow folks would be a little
+     surprised at the arrival of Dugald Dhu, "brogues an' brochan an'
+     a'." I shall, I think, bid Ballantyne send you a copy of his
+     weekly paper, which often contains things you would like to see,
+     and will keep you in mind of Old Scotland.
+
+     They are embodying a troop of cavalry in Edinburgh--nice young
+     men and good horses. They have paid me the compliment to make me
+     an honorary member of the corps, as my days of active service
+     have been long over. Pray take care, however, of my sabre, in
+     case the time comes which must turn out all.
+
+     I have almost settled that, if things look moderately tranquil in
+     Britain in spring and summer, I will go abroad, and take Charles,
+     with the purpose of leaving him, for two or three years, at the
+     famous institution of Fellenborg, near Berne, of which I hear
+     very highly. Two of Fraser Tytler's sons are there, and he makes
+     a very favorable report of the whole establishment. I think that
+     such a residence abroad will not only make him well acquainted
+     with French and German, as indeed he will hear nothing else, but
+     also prevent his becoming an Edinburgh _petit-maître_ of fourteen
+     or fifteen, which he could otherwise scarce avoid. I mentioned to
+     you that I should be particularly glad to get you leave of
+     absence, providing it does not interfere with your duty, in order
+     that you may go with us. If I have cash enough, I will also take
+     your sister and mamma, and you might return home with them by
+     Paris, in case I went on to Italy. All this is doubtful, but I
+     think it is almost certain that Charles and I go, and hope to
+     have you with us. This will be probably about July next, and I
+     wish you particularly to keep it in view. If these dark prospects
+     become darker, which God forbid! neither you nor I will have it
+     in our power to leave the post to which duty calls us.
+
+     Mamma and the girls are quite well, and so is Master Charles, who
+     is of course more magnificent, as being the only specimen of
+     youthhead at home. He has got an old broadsword hanging up at his
+     bed-head, which, to be the more ready for service, hath no
+     sheath. To this I understand we are to trust for our defence
+     against the Radicals. Anne (notwithstanding the assurance) is so
+     much afraid of the disaffected, that last night, returning with
+     Sophia from Portobello, where they had been dancing with the
+     Scotts of Harden, she saw a Radical in every man that the
+     carriage passed. Sophia is of course wise and philosophical, and
+     mamma has not yet been able to conceive why we do not catch and
+     hang the whole of them, untried and unconvicted. Amidst all their
+     various emotions, they join in best love to you; and I always am
+     very truly yours,
+
+                                                             W. SCOTT.
+
+     P. S.--I shall set off for London on the 25th.
+
+
+[Footnote 59: Sir Adam Ferguson.]
+
+[Footnote 60: The Right Honorable Charles Hope, Lord President of the
+Court of Session, was Colonel-commandant of the Old Blues, or First
+Regiment of Edinburgh Volunteers.]
+
+
+TO THE SAME.
+
+                                       EDINBURGH, 17th December, 1819.
+
+     MY DEAR WALTER,--I have a train of most melancholy news to
+     acquaint you with. On Saturday I saw your grandmother perfectly
+     well, and on Sunday the girls drank tea with her, when the good
+     old lady was more than usually in spirits; and, as if she had
+     wished to impress many things on their memory, told over a number
+     of her old stories with her usual alertness and vivacity. On
+     Monday she had an indisposition, which proved to be a paralytic
+     affection, and on Tuesday she was speechless, and had lost the
+     power of one side, without any hope of recovery, although she may
+     linger some days. But what is very remarkable, and no less
+     shocking, Dr. Rutherford, who attended his sister in perfect
+     health upon Tuesday, died himself upon the Wednesday morning. He
+     had breakfasted without intimating the least illness, and was
+     dressed to go out, and particularly to visit my mother, when he
+     sunk backwards, and died in his daughter Anne's arms, almost
+     without a groan. To add to this melancholy list, our poor friend,
+     Miss Christie, is despaired of. She was much affected by my
+     mother's fatal indisposition, but does not know as yet of her
+     brother's death.
+
+     Dr. Rutherford was a very ingenious as well as an excellent man,
+     more of a gentleman than his profession too often are, for he
+     could not take the back-stairs mode of rising in it, otherwise he
+     might have been much more wealthy. He ought to have had the
+     Chemistry class, as he was one of the best chemists in
+     Europe;[61] but superior interest assigned it to another, who,
+     though a neat experimentalist, is not to be compared to poor
+     Daniel for originality of genius. Since you knew him, his health
+     was broken and his spirits dejected, which may be traced to the
+     loss of his eldest son on board an East Indiaman, and also, I
+     think, to a slight paralytic touch which he had some years ago.
+
+     To all this domestic distress I have to add the fearful and
+     unsettled state of the country. All the regular troops are gone
+     to Glasgow. The Mid-Lothian Yeomanry and other corps of
+     volunteers went there on Monday, and about 5000 men occupied the
+     town. In the mean while, we were under considerable apprehension
+     here, the Castle being left in the charge of the city volunteers
+     and a few veterans.
+
+     All our corner, high and low, is loyal. Torwoodlee, Gala, and I,
+     have offered to raise a corps, to be called the Loyal Foresters,
+     to act anywhere south of the Forth. If matters get worse, I will
+     ask leave of absence for you from the Commander-in-Chief, because
+     your presence will be materially useful to levy men, and you can
+     only be idle where you are, unless Ireland should be disturbed.
+     Your old corps of the Selkirkshire Yeomanry have been under
+     orders, and expect to be sent either to Dumfries or Carlisle.
+     Berwick is dismantled, and they are removing the stores, cannon,
+     etc., from one of the strongest places here, for I defy the devil
+     to pass the bridge at Berwick, if reasonably well kept by 100
+     men. But there is a spirit of consternation implied in many of
+     the orders, which, _entre nous_, I like worse than what I see or
+     know of the circumstances which infer real danger. For myself I
+     am too old to fight, but nobody is too old to die, like a man of
+     virtue and honor, in defence of the principles he has always
+     maintained.
+
+     I would have you to keep yourself ready to return here suddenly,
+     in case the Duke of York should permit your temporary services in
+     your own country, which, if things grow worse, I will certainly
+     ask. The fearful thing is the secret and steady silence observed
+     by the Radicals in all they do. Yet, without anything like
+     effective arms or useful discipline, without money and without a
+     commissariat, what can they do, but, according to their favorite
+     toast, have blood and plunder? Mamma and the girls, as well as
+     Charles, send kind love. Your affectionate father,
+
+                                                         WALTER SCOTT.
+
+
+[Footnote 61: "The subject of his _Thesis_ is singular, and entitles
+Rutherford to rank very high among the chemical philosophers of modern
+times. Its title is _De Aere Mephitico_, etc.--It is universally
+admitted that Dr. Rutherford first discovered this gas--the reputation
+of his discovery being speedily spread through Europe, his character
+as a chemist of the first eminence was firmly established, and much
+was augured from a young man in his twenty-second year having
+distinguished himself so remarkably."--Bower's _History of the
+University of Edinburgh_, vol. iii. (1830), pp. 260, 261.]
+
+
+TO MR. WILLIAM LAIDLAW, KAESIDE.
+
+                                         EDINBURGH, December 20, 1819.
+
+     MY DEAR WILLIE,--Distress has been very busy with me since I
+     wrote to you. I have lost, in the course of one week, my valued
+     relations, Dr. and Miss Rutherford--happy in this, that neither
+     knew of the other's dissolution. My dear mother has offered me
+     deeper subject of affliction, having been struck with the palsy,
+     and being now in such a state that I scarce hope to see her
+     again.
+
+     But the strange times compel me, under this pressure of domestic
+     distress, to attend to public business. I find Mr. Scott of Gala
+     agrees with me in thinking we should appeal at this crisis to the
+     good sense and loyalty of the lower orders, and we have resolved
+     to break the ice, and be the first in the Lowlands, so far as I
+     have yet heard of, to invite our laborers and those over whom
+     circumstances and fortune give us influence, to rise with us in
+     arms, and share our fate. You know, as well as any one, that I
+     have always spent twice the income of my property in giving work
+     to my neighbors, and I hope they will not be behind the
+     Galashiels people, who are very zealous. Gala and I go hand in
+     hand, and propose to raise at least a company each of men, to be
+     drilled as sharpshooters or infantry, which will be a lively and
+     interesting amusement for the young fellows. The dress we propose
+     to be as simple, and at the same time as serviceable, as
+     possible;--a jacket and trousers of Galashiels gray cloth, and a
+     smart bonnet with a small feather, or, to save even that expense,
+     a sprig of holly. And we will have shooting at the mark, and
+     prizes, and fun, and a little whiskey, and daily pay when on duty
+     or drill. I beg of you, dear Willie, to communicate my wish to
+     all who have received a good turn at my hand, or may expect one,
+     or may be desirous of doing me one--(for I should be sorry
+     Darnick and Brigend were beat)--and to all other free and honest
+     fellows who will take share with me on this occasion. I do not
+     wish to take any command farther than such as shall entitle me to
+     go with the corps, for I wish it to be distinctly understood
+     that, in whatever capacity, _I go with them_, and take a share in
+     good or bad as it casts up. I cannot doubt that I will have your
+     support, and I hope you will use all your enthusiasm in our
+     behalf. Morrison volunteers as our engineer. Those who I think
+     should be spoke to are the following, among the higher class:--
+
+     John Usher.[62] He should be lieutenant, or his son ensign.
+
+     Sam Somerville.[63] I will speak to him--he may be lieutenant,
+     if Usher declines; but I think, in that case, Usher should give
+     us his son.
+
+     Young Nicol Milne[64] is rather young, but I will offer to his
+     father to take him in.
+
+     Harper[65] is a _sine qua non_. Tell him I depend on him for the
+     honor of Darnick. I should propose to him to take a gallant
+     halbert.
+
+     Adam Ferguson thinks you should be our adjutant. John Ferguson I
+     propose for captain. He is steady, right bold, and has seen much
+     fire. The auld captain will help us in one shape or other. For
+     myself, I know not what they propose to make of me, but it cannot
+     be anything very active. However, I should like to have a steady
+     quiet horse, drilled to stand fire well, and if he has these
+     properties, no matter how stupid, so he does not stumble. In this
+     case the price of such a horse will be no object.
+
+     These, my dear friend, are your beating orders. I would propose
+     to raise about sixty men, and not to take old men. John the
+     Turk[66] will be a capital corporal; and I hope in general that
+     all my young fellows will go with me, leaving the older men to go
+     through necessary labor. Sound Tom what he would like. I think,
+     perhaps, he would prefer managing matters at home in your absence
+     and mine at drill.
+
+     John of Skye is cock-a-hoop upon the occasion, and I suppose has
+     made fifty blunders about it by this time. You must warn Tom
+     Jamieson, Gordon Winness, John Swanston (who will carry off all
+     the prizes at shooting), Davidson, and so forth.
+
+     If you think it necessary, a little handbill might be
+     circulated. But it may be better to see if Government will accept
+     our services; and I think, in the situation of the country, when
+     work is scarce, and we offer pay for their playing themselves, we
+     should have choice of men. But I would urge no one to do what he
+     did not like.
+
+     The very precarious state of my poor mother detains me here, and
+     makes me devolve this troublesome duty upon you. All you have to
+     do, however, is to sound the men, and mark down those who seem
+     zealous. They will perhaps have to fight with the pitmen and
+     colliers of Northumberland for defence of their firesides, for
+     these literal _blackguards_ are got beyond the management of
+     their own people. And if such is the case, better keep them from
+     coming into Scotland, than encounter the mischief they might do
+     there.
+
+     Yours always most truly,
+
+                                                         WALTER SCOTT.
+
+
+[Footnote 62: Mr. Usher has already been mentioned as Scott's
+predecessor in the property of Toftfield. He now resided near those
+lands, and was Scott's tenant on the greater part of them.]
+
+[Footnote 63: Samuel Somerville, W. S. (a son of the historian of
+Queen Anne), had a pretty villa at Lowood, on the Tweed, immediately
+opposite the seat of his relation, Lord Somerville, of whose estate he
+had the management.]
+
+[Footnote 64: Nicol Milne, Esq. (now advocate), eldest son of the
+Laird of Faldonside.]
+
+[Footnote 65: Harper, keeper of a little inn at Darnick, was a gallant
+and spirited yeoman--uniformly the gainer of the prizes at every
+contest of strength and agility in that district.]
+
+[Footnote 66: One of Scott's foresters--thus designated as being, in
+all senses of the word, a _gallant_ fellow.]
+
+
+TO THOMAS SCOTT, ESQ., 70th REGIMENT, KINGSTON, CANADA.
+
+                                        EDINBURGH, 22d December, 1819.
+
+     MY DEAR TOM,--I wrote you about ten days since, stating that we
+     were all well here. In that very short space a change so sudden
+     and so universal has taken place among your friends here, that I
+     have to communicate to you a most miserable catalogue of losses.
+     Our dear mother was on Sunday the 12th December in all her usual
+     strength and alertness of mind. I had seen and conversed with her
+     on the Saturday preceding, and never saw her better in my life of
+     late years. My two daughters drank tea with her on Sunday, when
+     she was uncommonly lively, telling them a number of stories, and
+     being in rather unusual spirits, probably from the degree of
+     excitation which sometimes is remarked to precede a paralytic
+     affection. In the course of Monday she received that fatal
+     summons, which at first seemed slight; but in the night betwixt
+     Monday and Tuesday our mother lost the use both of speech and of
+     one side. Since that time she has lain in bed constantly, yet so
+     sensible as to see me and express her earnest blessing on all of
+     us. The power of speech is totally lost; nor is there any hope,
+     at her advanced age, that the scene can last long. Probably a few
+     hours will terminate it. At any rate, life is not to be wished,
+     even for our nearest and dearest, in those circumstances. But
+     this heavy calamity was only the commencement of our family
+     losses. Dr. Rutherford, who had seemed perfectly well, and had
+     visited my mother upon Tuesday the 14th, was suddenly affected
+     with gout in his stomach, or some disease equally rapid, on
+     Wednesday the 15th, and, without a moment's warning or complaint,
+     fell down a dead man, almost without a single groan. You are
+     aware of his fondness for animals: he was just stroking his cat
+     after eating his breakfast, as usual, when, without more warning
+     than a half-uttered exclamation, he sunk on the ground, and died
+     in the arms of his daughter Anne. Though the Doctor had no formed
+     complaint, yet I have thought him looking poorly for some months;
+     and though there was no failure whatever in intellect, or
+     anything which approached it, yet his memory was not so good; and
+     I thought he paused during the last time he attended me, and had
+     difficulty in recollecting the precise terms of his recipe.
+     Certainly there was a great decay of outward strength. We were
+     very anxious about the effect this fatal news was likely to
+     produce on the mind and decayed health of our aunt, Miss C.
+     Rutherford, and resolved, as her health had been gradually
+     falling off ever since she returned from Abbotsford, that she
+     should never learn anything of it until it was impossible to
+     conceal it longer. But God had so ordered it that she was never
+     to know the loss she had sustained, and which she would have felt
+     so deeply. On Friday the 17th December, the second day after her
+     brother's death, she expired, without a groan and without
+     suffering, about six in the morning. And so we lost an excellent
+     and warm-hearted relation, one of the few women I ever knew
+     whose strength of mental faculties enabled her, at a mature
+     period of life, to supply the defects of an imperfect education.
+     It is a most uncommon and afflicting circumstance, that a brother
+     and two sisters should be taken ill the same day--that two of
+     them should die, without any rational possibility of the
+     survivance of the third--and that no one of the three could be
+     affected by learning the loss of the other. The Doctor was buried
+     on Monday the 20th, and Miss Rutherford this day (Wednesday the
+     22d), in the burial-place adjoining to and surrounding one of the
+     new Episcopal chapels,[67] where Robert Rutherford[68] had
+     purchased a burial-ground of some extent, and parted with one
+     half to the Russells. It is surrounded with a very high wall, and
+     all the separate burial-grounds (five, I think, in number) are
+     separated by party-walls going down to the depth of twelve feet,
+     so as to prevent the possibility either of encroachment, or of
+     disturbing the relics of the dead. I have purchased one half of
+     Miss Russell's interest in this sad spot, moved by its extreme
+     seclusion, privacy, and security. When poor Jack was buried in
+     the Greyfriars' Churchyard, where my father and Anne lie,[69] I
+     thought their graves more encroached upon than I liked to
+     witness; and in this new place I intend to lay our poor mother
+     when the scene shall close; so that the brother and the two
+     sisters, whose fate has been so very closely entwined in death,
+     may not be divided in the grave,--and this I hope you will
+     approve of.
+
+     _Thursday, December 23d._--My mother still lingers this morning,
+     and as her constitution is so excellent, she may perhaps continue
+     to exist some time, or till another stroke. It is a great
+     consolation that she is perfectly easy. All her affairs of every
+     sort have been very long arranged for this great change, and
+     with the assistance of Donaldson and Macculloch, you may depend,
+     when the event takes place, that your interest will be attended
+     to most pointedly.--I hope our civil tumults here are like to be
+     ended by the measures of Parliament. I mentioned in my last that
+     Kinloch of Kinloch was to be tried for sedition. He has forfeited
+     his bail, and was yesterday laid under outlawry for
+     non-appearance. Our neighbors in Northumberland are in a
+     deplorable state; upwards of 50,000 blackguards are ready to rise
+     between Tyne and Wear.[70] On the other hand, the Scottish
+     frontiers are steady and loyal, and arming fast. Scott of Gala
+     and I have offered 200 men, all fine strapping young fellows, and
+     good marksmen, willing to go anywhere with us. We could easily
+     double the number. So the necessity of the times has made me get
+     on horseback once more. Our mother has at different times been
+     perfectly conscious of her situation, and knew every one, though
+     totally unable to speak. She seemed to take a very affectionate
+     farewell of me the last time I saw her, which was the day before
+     yesterday; and as she was much agitated, Dr. Keith advised I
+     should not see her again, unless she seemed to desire it, which
+     hitherto she has not done. She sleeps constantly, and will
+     probably be so removed. Our family sends love to yours. Yours
+     most affectionately:--
+
+                                                         WALTER SCOTT.
+
+
+[Footnote 67: St. John's Chapel.]
+
+[Footnote 68: Robert Rutherford, Esq., W. S., son to the Professor of
+Botany.]
+
+[Footnote 69: "Our family heretofore buried in the Greyfriars'
+Churchyard, close by the entrance to Heriot's Hospital, and on the
+southern or left-hand side as you pass from the churchyard."--_MS.
+Memorandum._]
+
+[Footnote 70: This was a ridiculously exaggerated report of that
+period of alarm.]
+
+Scott's excellent mother died on the 24th December--the day after he
+closed the foregoing letter to his brother.
+
+On the 18th, in the midst of these accumulated afflictions, the
+romance of Ivanhoe made its appearance. The date has been torn from
+the following letter, but it was evidently written while all these
+events were fresh and recent:--
+
+
+TO THE LADY LOUISA STUART, DITTON PARK, WINDSOR.
+
+     DEAR LADY LOUISA,--I am favored with your letter from Ditton, and
+     am glad you found anything to entertain you in Ivanhoe.[71]
+     Novelty is what this giddy-paced time demands imperiously, and I
+     certainly studied as much as I could to get out of the old beaten
+     track, leaving those who like to keep the road, which I have
+     rutted pretty well. I have had a terrible time of it this year,
+     with the loss of dear friends and near relations; it is almost
+     fearful to count up my losses, as they make me bankrupt in
+     society. My brother-in-law; our never-to-be-enough regretted
+     Duke; Lord Chief Baron, my early, kind, and constant friend, who
+     took me up when I was a young fellow of little mark or
+     likelihood; the wife of my intimate friend William Erskine; the
+     only son of my friend David Hume, a youth of great promise, and
+     just entering into life, who had grown up under my eye from
+     childhood; my excellent mother; and, within a few days, her
+     surviving brother and sister. My mother was the only one of these
+     whose death was the natural consequence of very advanced life.
+     And our sorrows are not at an end. A sister of my mother's, Mrs.
+     Russell of Ashestiel, long deceased, had left (besides several
+     sons, of whom only one now survives and is in India) three
+     daughters, who lived with her youngest sister, Miss Rutherford,
+     and were in the closest habits of intimacy with us. The eldest of
+     these girls, and a most excellent creature she is, was in summer
+     so much shocked by the sudden news of the death of one of the
+     brothers I have mentioned, that she was deprived of the use of
+     her limbs by an affection either nervous or paralytic. She was
+     slowly recovering from this afflicting and helpless situation,
+     when the sudden fate of her aunts and uncle, particularly of her
+     who had acted as a mother to the family, brought on a new shock;
+     and though perfectly possessed of her mind, she has never since
+     been able to utter a word. Her youngest sister, a girl of one or
+     two and twenty, was so much shocked by this scene of accumulated
+     distress, that she was taken very ill, and having suppressed and
+     concealed her disorder, relief came too late, and she has been
+     taken from us also. She died in the arms of the elder sister,
+     helpless as I have described her; and to separate the half dead
+     from the actual corpse was the most melancholy thing possible.
+     You can hardly conceive, dear Lady Louisa, the melancholy feeling
+     of seeing the place of last repose belonging to the devoted
+     family open four times within so short a space, and to meet the
+     same group of sorrowing friends and relations on the same
+     sorrowful occasion. Looking back on those whom I have lost, all
+     well known to me excepting my brother-in-law, whom I could only
+     judge of by the general report in his favor, I can scarce
+     conceive a group possessing more real worth and amiable
+     qualities, not to mention talents and accomplishments. I have
+     never felt so truly what Johnson says so well,--
+
+       "Condemn'd to Hope's delusive mine,
+          As on we toil from day to day,
+        By sudden blasts, or slow decline,
+          Our social comforts drop away."[72]
+
+     I am not sure whether it was your Ladyship, or the poor Duchess
+     of Buccleuch, who met my mother once, and flattered me by being
+     so much pleased with the good old lady. She had a mind peculiarly
+     well stored with much acquired information and natural talent,
+     and as she was very old, and had an excellent memory, she could
+     draw without the least exaggeration or affectation the most
+     striking pictures of the past age. If I have been able to do
+     anything in the way of painting the past times, it is very much
+     from the studies with which she presented me. She connected a
+     long period of time with the present generation, for she
+     remembered, and had often spoken with, a person who perfectly
+     recollected the battle of Dunbar, and Oliver Cromwell's
+     subsequent entry into Edinburgh. She preserved her faculties to
+     the very day before her final illness; for our friends Mr. and
+     Mrs. Scott of Harden visited her on the Sunday; and, coming to
+     our house after, were expressing their surprise at the alertness
+     of her mind, and the pleasure which she had in talking over both
+     ancient and modern events. She had told them with great accuracy
+     the real story of the Bride of Lammermuir, and pointed out
+     wherein it differed from the novel. She had all the names of the
+     parties, and detailed (for she was a great genealogist) their
+     connection with existing families. On the subsequent Monday she
+     was struck with a paralytic affection, suffered little, and that
+     with the utmost patience; and what was God's reward, and a great
+     one to her innocent and benevolent life, she never knew that her
+     brother and sister, the last thirty years younger than herself,
+     had trodden the dark path before her. She was a strict economist,
+     which she said enabled her to be liberal; out of her little
+     income of about £300 a year, she bestowed at least a third in
+     well-chosen charities, and with the rest lived like a
+     gentlewoman, and even with hospitality more general than seemed
+     to suit her age; yet I could never prevail on her to accept of
+     any assistance. You cannot conceive how affecting it was to me to
+     see the little preparations of presents which she had assorted
+     for the New Year--for she was a great observer of the old
+     fashions of her period--and to think that the kind heart was cold
+     which delighted in all these acts of kindly affection. I should
+     apologize, I believe, for troubling your ladyship with these
+     melancholy details; but you would not thank me for a letter
+     written with constraint, and my mind is at present very full of
+     this sad subject, though I scarce know any one to whom I would
+     venture to say so much. I hear no good news of Lady Anne, though
+     Lord Montagu writes cautiously. The weather is now turning
+     milder, and may, I hope, be favorable to her complaint. After my
+     own family, my thought most frequently turns to these orphans,
+     whose parents I loved and respected so much.--I am always, dear
+     Lady Louisa, your very respectful and obliged
+
+                                                         WALTER SCOTT.
+
+
+[Footnote 71: [Lady Louisa's letter was written January 16, 1820, and
+can be found in _Familiar Letters_, vol. ii. p. 71. In it she says:--
+
+"Everybody in this house has been reading an odd new kind of a book
+called _Ivanhoe_, and nobody, as far as I have observed, has willingly
+laid it down again till finished. By this, I conclude that its success
+will be fully equal to that of its predecessors, notwithstanding it
+has quite abandoned their ground and ploughed up a field hitherto
+untouched. The interest of it, indeed, is most powerful; few things in
+prose or verse seize upon one's mind so strongly, or are read with
+such breathless eagerness, as the storming of the castle, related by
+Rebecca, and her trial at Templestowe. Few characters ever were so
+forcibly painted as hers: the Jew, too, the Templar, the courtly
+knight De Bracy, the wavering, inconstant wickedness of John, are all
+worthy of Shakespeare. I must not omit paying my tribute to Cedric,
+that worthy forefather of the genuine English country gentleman....
+And according to what has been alleged against the author in some
+other instances, the hero and the heroine are the people one cares
+least about. But provided one does but care enough about somebody, it
+is all one to me; and I think the cavil is like that against Milton
+for making the Devil his hero."]]
+
+[Footnote 72: _Lines on the Death of Mr. Robert Levett._]
+
+There is in the library at Abbotsford a fine copy of Baskerville's
+folio Bible, two volumes, printed at Cambridge in 1763; and there
+appears on the blank leaf, in the trembling handwriting of Scott's
+mother, this inscription: "_To my dear son, Walter Scott, from his
+affectionate mother, Anne Rutherford,--January 1st, 1819._" Under
+these words her son has written as follows: "This Bible was the gift
+of my grandfather Dr. John Rutherford, to my mother, and presented by
+her to me; being, alas, the last gift which I was to receive from that
+excellent parent, and, as I verily believe, the thing which she most
+loved in the world,--not only in humble veneration of the sacred
+contents, but as the dearest pledge of her father's affection to her.
+As such she gave it to me; and as such I bequeath it to those who may
+represent me--charging them carefully to preserve the same, in memory
+of those to whom it has belonged. 1820."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+If literary success could have either filled Scott's head or hardened
+his heart, we should have no such letters as those of December, 1819.
+Ivanhoe was received throughout England with a more clamorous delight
+than any of the Scotch novels had been. The volumes (three in number)
+were now, for the first time, of the post 8vo form, with a finer paper
+than hitherto, the press-work much more elegant, and the price
+accordingly raised from eight shillings the volume to ten; yet the
+copies sold in this original shape were twelve thousand.
+
+I ought to have mentioned sooner, that the original intention was to
+bring out Ivanhoe as the production of a new hand, and that, to assist
+this impression, the work was printed in a size and manner unlike the
+preceding ones; but Constable, when the day of publication approached,
+remonstrated against this experiment, and it was accordingly
+abandoned.
+
+The reader has already been told that Scott dictated the greater part
+of this romance. The portion of the MS. which is his own, appears,
+however, not only as well and firmly executed as that of any of the
+Tales of my Landlord, but distinguished by having still fewer erasures
+and interlineations, and also by being in a smaller hand. The fragment
+is beautiful to look at--many pages together without one
+alteration.[73] It is, I suppose, superfluous to add, that in no
+instance did Scott rewrite his prose before sending it to the press.
+Whatever may have been the case with his poetry, the world uniformly
+received the _prima cura_ of the novelist.
+
+[Footnote 73: Three of these MS. pages were a fair day's work in the
+author's estimation--equal to fifteen or sixteen of the original
+impression.]
+
+As a work of art, Ivanhoe is perhaps the first of all Scott's
+efforts, whether in prose or in verse; nor have the strength and
+splendor of his imagination been displayed to higher advantage than in
+some of the scenes of this romance. But I believe that no reader who
+is capable of thoroughly comprehending the author's Scotch character
+and Scotch dialogue will ever place even Ivanhoe, as a work of genius,
+on the same level with Waverley, Guy Mannering, or The Heart of
+Mid-Lothian.
+
+There is, to me, something so remarkably characteristic of Scott's
+mind and manner in a particular passage of the Introduction, which he
+penned ten years afterwards for this work, that I must be pardoned for
+extracting it here. He says: "The character of the fair Jewess found
+so much favor in the eyes of some fair readers, that the writer was
+censured, because, when arranging the fates of the characters of the
+drama, he had not assigned the hand of Wilfred to Rebecca, rather than
+the less interesting Rowena. But, not to mention that the prejudices
+of the age rendered such a union almost impossible, the author may, in
+passing, observe that he thinks a character of a highly virtuous and
+lofty stamp is degraded rather than exalted by an attempt to reward
+virtue with temporal prosperity. Such is not the recompense which
+Providence has deemed worthy of suffering merit; and it is a dangerous
+and fatal doctrine to teach young persons, the most common readers of
+romance, that rectitude of conduct and of principle are either
+naturally allied with, or adequately rewarded by, the gratification of
+our passions, or attainment of our wishes. In a word, if a virtuous
+and self-denied character is dismissed with temporal wealth,
+greatness, rank, or the indulgence of such a rashly formed or
+ill-assorted passion as that of Rebecca for Ivanhoe, the reader will
+be apt to say, verily Virtue has had its reward. But a glance on the
+great picture of life will show that the duties of self-denial, and
+the sacrifice of passion to principle, are seldom thus remunerated;
+and that the internal consciousness of their high-minded discharge of
+duty produces on their own reflections a more adequate recompense, in
+the form of that peace which the world cannot give or take away."
+
+The introduction of the charming Jewess and her father originated, I
+find, in a conversation that Scott held with his friend Skene during
+the severest season of his bodily sufferings in the early part of this
+year. "Mr. Skene," says that gentleman's wife, "sitting by his
+bedside, and trying to amuse him as well as he could in the intervals
+of pain, happened to get on the subject of the Jews, as he had
+observed them when he spent some time in Germany in his youth. Their
+situation had naturally made a strong impression; for in those days
+they retained their own dress and manners entire, and were treated
+with considerable austerity by their Christian neighbors, being still
+locked up at night in their own quarter by great gates; and Mr. Skene,
+partly in seriousness, but partly from the mere wish to turn his mind
+at the moment upon something that might occupy and divert it,
+suggested that a group of Jews would be an interesting feature if he
+could contrive to bring them into his next novel." Upon the appearance
+of Ivanhoe, he reminded Mr. Skene of this conversation, and said, "You
+will find this book owes not a little to your German reminiscences."
+Mrs. Skene adds: "Dining with us one day, not long before Ivanhoe was
+begun, something that was mentioned led him to describe the sudden
+death of an advocate of his acquaintance, a Mr. Elphinstone, which
+occurred in the _Outer-house_ soon after he was called to the Bar. It
+was, he said, no wonder that it had left a vivid impression on his
+mind, for it was the first sudden death he ever witnessed; and he now
+related it so as to make us all feel as if we had the scene passing
+before our eyes. In the death of the Templar in Ivanhoe, I recognized
+the very picture--I believe I may safely say the very words."[74]
+
+[Footnote 74: See _Ivanhoe_, end of chap. xliv.]
+
+By the way, before Ivanhoe made its appearance, I had myself been
+formally admitted to the author's secret; but had he favored me with
+no such confidence, it would have been impossible for me to doubt that
+I had been present some months before at the conversation which
+suggested, and indeed supplied all the materials of, one of its most
+amusing chapters. I allude to that in which our Saxon terms for
+animals in the field, and our Norman equivalents for them as they
+appear on the table, and so on, are explained and commented on. All
+this Scott owed to the after-dinner talk one day in Castle Street of
+his old friend Mr. William Clerk,--who, among other elegant pursuits,
+has cultivated the science of philology very deeply.[75]
+
+[Footnote 75: [It is said that the character of Rebecca was suggested
+to Scott by Washington Irving's description of Rebecca Gratz of
+Philadelphia, a lady belonging to a Jewish family of high position in
+that city, with whom Irving was intimate. Miss Gratz had been a friend
+of his betrothed, Matilda Hoffman, and in her youth had loved
+devotedly a man in every way worthy of her, but the difference of
+religion made their union impossible. During a conversation with
+Scott, Irving spoke with much feeling of Rebecca Gratz, of her
+extraordinary beauty, of her adherence to her faith under most trying
+circumstances, of her nobility, distinction, and loveliness of
+character, and her untiring zeal in works of charity, greatly
+interesting his host, as the guest recalled when _Ivanhoe_ appeared.
+
+Rebecca Gratz died in 1869 in her eighty-ninth year. A sketch of her,
+with a portrait after a miniature by Malbone, was published in the
+_Century Magazine_ for September, 1882.]]
+
+I cannot conclude this chapter without observing that the publication
+of Ivanhoe marks the most brilliant epoch in Scott's history as the
+literary favorite of his contemporaries. With the novel which he next
+put forth, the immediate sale of these works began gradually to
+decline; and though, even when that had reached its lowest declension,
+it was still far above the most ambitious dreams of any other
+novelist, yet the publishers were afraid the announcement of anything
+like a falling-off might cast a damp over the spirits of the author.
+He was allowed to remain, for several years, under the impression
+that whatever novel he threw off commanded at once the old triumphant
+sale of ten or twelve thousand, and was afterwards, when included in
+the collective edition, to be circulated in that shape also as widely
+as Waverley or Ivanhoe. In my opinion, it would have been very unwise
+in the booksellers to give Scott any unfavorable tidings upon such
+subjects after the commencement of the malady which proved fatal to
+him,--for that from the first shook his mind; but I think they took a
+false measure of the man when they hesitated to tell him exactly how
+the matter stood, throughout 1820 and the three or four following
+years, when his intellect was as vigorous as it ever had been, and his
+heart as courageous; and I regret their scruples (among other
+reasons), because the years now mentioned were the most costly ones in
+his life; and for every twelvemonth in which any man allows himself,
+or is encouraged by others, to proceed in a course of unwise
+expenditure, it becomes proportionably more difficult for him to pull
+up when the mistake is at length detected or recognized.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XLVII
+
+     The Visionary. -- The Peel of Darnick. -- Scott's Saturday
+     Excursions to Abbotsford. -- A Sunday there in February. --
+     Constable. -- John Ballantyne. -- Thomas Purdie, Etc. -- Prince
+     Gustavus Vasa. -- Proclamation of King George IV. -- Publication
+     of the Monastery.
+
+1820
+
+
+In the course of December, 1819 and January, 1820, Scott drew up three
+essays, under the title of The Visionary, upon certain popular
+doctrines or delusions, the spread of which at this time filled with
+alarm, not only Tories like him, but many persons who had been
+distinguished through life for their adherence to political
+liberalism. These papers appeared successively in James Ballantyne's
+Edinburgh Weekly Journal, and their parentage being obvious, they
+excited much attention in Scotland. Scott collected them into a
+pamphlet, which had also a large circulation; and I remember his
+showing very particular satisfaction when he observed a mason reading
+it to his comrades, as they sat at their dinner, by a new house on
+Leith Walk. During January, however, his thoughts continued to be
+chiefly occupied with the details of the proposed corps of Foresters;
+of which, I believe it was at last settled, as far as depended on the
+other gentlemen concerned in it, that he should be the Major. He wrote
+and spoke on this subject with undiminished zeal, until the whole fell
+to the ground in consequence of the Government's ultimately declining
+to take on itself any part of the expense; a refusal which must have
+been fatal to any such project when the Duke of Buccleuch was a minor.
+He felt the disappointment keenly; but, in the mean time, the hearty
+alacrity with which his neighbors of all classes gave in their
+adhesion had afforded him much pleasure, and, as regarded his own
+immediate dependents, served to rivet the bonds of affection and
+confidence, which were to the end maintained between him and them.
+Darnick had been especially ardent in the cause, and he thenceforth
+considered its volunteers as persons whose individual fortunes closely
+concerned him. I could fill many a page with the letters which he
+wrote at subsequent periods, with the view of promoting the success of
+these spirited young fellows in their various departments of industry:
+they were proud of their patron, as may be supposed, and he was highly
+gratified, as well as amused, when he learned that--while the rest of
+the world were talking of "The Great Unknown"--his usual _sobriquet_
+among these villagers was "The Duke of Darnick." Already his
+possessions almost encircled this picturesque and thriving hamlet; and
+there were few things on which he had more strongly fixed his fancy
+than acquiring a sort of symbol of seigniory there, by becoming the
+purchaser of a certain then ruinous tower that predominated, with a
+few coeval trees, over the farmhouses and cottages of his _ducal_
+vassals. A letter, previously quoted, contains an allusion to this
+Peelhouse of Darnick; which is moreover exactly described in the novel
+which he had now in hand--The Monastery. The interest Scott seemed to
+take in the Peel awakened, however, the pride of its hereditary
+proprietor: and when that worthy person, who had made some money by
+trade in Edinburgh, resolved on fitting it up for the evening retreat
+of his own life, _his Grace of Darnick_ was too happy to waive his
+pretensions.
+
+This was a winter of uncommon severity in Scotland; and the snow lay
+so deep and so long as to interrupt very seriously all Scott's
+country operations. I find, in his letters to Laidlaw, various
+paragraphs expressing the concern he took in the hardships which his
+poor neighbors must be suffering. Thus, on the 19th of January, he
+says:--
+
+
+     DEAR WILLIE,--I write by the post that you may receive the
+     enclosed, or rather subjoined, cheque for £60, in perfect safety.
+     This dreadful morning will probably stop Mercer.[76] It makes me
+     shiver in the midst of superfluous comforts to think of the
+     distress of others. £10 of the £60 I wish you to distribute among
+     our poorer neighbors, so as may best aid them. I mean not only
+     the actually indigent, but those who are, in our phrase, _ill
+     aff._ I am sure Dr. Scott[77] will assist you with his advice in
+     this labor of love. I think part of the wood-money,[78] too,
+     should be given among the Abbotstown folks if the storm keeps
+     them off work, as is like. Yours truly,
+
+                                                         WALTER SCOTT.
+
+     Deep, deep snow lying here. How do the goodwife and bairns? The
+     little bodies will be half-buried in snow-drift.
+
+
+[Footnote 76: The weekly Darnick carrier.]
+
+[Footnote 77: Dr. Scott of Darnlee.--See _ante_, vol. v. p. 277. This
+very amiable, modest, and intelligent friend of Sir Walter Scott's
+died in 1837.]
+
+[Footnote 78: Some money expected from the sale of larches.]
+
+And again, on the 25th, he writes thus:--
+
+
+     DEAR WILLIE,--I have yours with the news of the inundation,
+     which, it seems, has done no damage. I hope _Mai_ will be taken
+     care of. He should have a bed in the kitchen, and always be
+     called indoors after it is dark, for all the kind are savage at
+     night. Please cause Swanston to knock him up a box, and fill it
+     with straw from time to time. I enclose a cheque for £50 to pay
+     accounts, etc. Do not let the poor bodies want for a £5, or even
+     a £10, more or less;--
+
+       "We'll get a blessing wi' the lave,
+        And never miss 't."[79]
+
+     Yours,
+
+                                                                 W. S.
+
+
+[Footnote 79: Burns--_Lines to a Mouse._]
+
+In the course of this month, through the kindness of Mr. Croker, Scott
+received from the late Earl Bathurst, then Colonial Secretary of
+State, the offer of an appointment in the civil service of the East
+India Company for his second son: and this seemed at the time too good
+a thing not to be gratefully accepted; though the apparently
+increasing prosperity of his fortunes induced him, a few years
+afterwards, to indulge his parental feelings by throwing it up. He
+thus alludes to this matter in a letter to his good old friend at
+Jedburgh:--
+
+
+TO ROBERT SHORTREED, ESQ., SHERIFF-SUBSTITUTE OF ROXBURGHSHIRE,
+JEDBURGH.
+
+                                        EDINBURGH, 19th January, 1820.
+
+     MY DEAR SIR,--I heartily congratulate you on getting the
+     appointment for your son William in a manner so very pleasant to
+     your feelings, and which is, like all Whytbank does, considerate,
+     friendly, and generous.[80] I am not aware that I have any
+     friends at Calcutta, but if you think letters to Sir John Malcolm
+     and Lieut.-Colonel Russell would serve my young friend, he shall
+     have my best commendations to them.
+
+     It is very odd that almost the same thing has happened to me; for
+     about a week ago I was surprised by a letter, saying that an
+     unknown friend (who since proves to be Lord Bathurst, whom I
+     never saw or spoke with) would give my second son a Writer's
+     situation for India. Charles is two years too young for this
+     appointment; but I do not think I am at liberty to decline an
+     offer so advantageous, if it can be so arranged that, by
+     exchange or otherwise, it can be kept open for him. Ever yours
+     faithfully,
+
+                                                         WALTER SCOTT.
+
+
+[Footnote 80: "An India appointment, with the name blank, which the
+late Mr. Pringle of Whytbank sent unsolicited, believing it might be
+found useful to a family where there were seven sons to provide
+for."--_Note by Mr. A. Shortreed._]
+
+[Illustration: SOPHIA SCOTT (MRS. J. G. LOCKHART)
+
+_After the painting by William Nicholson_]
+
+About the middle of February--it having been ere that time arranged
+that I should marry his eldest daughter[81] in the course of the
+spring--I accompanied him and part of his family on one of those
+flying visits to Abbotsford, with which he often indulged himself on a
+Saturday during term. Upon such occasions Scott appeared at the usual
+hour in Court, but wearing, instead of the official suit of black, his
+country morning dress--green jacket and so forth--under the clerk's
+gown; a license of which many gentlemen of the long robe had been
+accustomed to avail themselves in the days of his youth--it being then
+considered as the authentic badge that they were lairds as well as
+lawyers--but which, to use the dialect of the place, had fallen into
+_desuetude_ before I knew the Parliament House. He was, I think, one
+of the two or three, or at most the half dozen, who still adhered to
+this privilege of their order; and it has now, in all likelihood,
+become quite obsolete, like the ancient custom, a part of the same
+system, for all Scotch barristers to appear without gowns or wigs, and
+in colored clothes, when upon circuit. At noon, when the Court broke
+up, Peter Mathieson was sure to be in attendance in the Parliament
+Close, and five minutes after, the gown had been tossed off, and
+Scott, rubbing his hands for glee, was under weigh for Tweedside. On
+this occasion, he was, of course, in mourning; but I have thought it
+worth while to preserve the circumstance of his usual Saturday's
+costume. As we proceeded, he talked without reserve of the novel of
+The Monastery, of which he had the first volume with him; and
+mentioned, what he had probably forgotten when he wrote the
+Introduction of 1830, that a good deal of that volume had been
+composed before he concluded Ivanhoe. "It was a relief," he said, "to
+interlay the scenery most familiar to me with the strange world for
+which I had to draw so much on imagination."
+
+[Footnote 81: [Of Miss Scott, not long before her marriage, Mr. George
+Ticknor writes:--
+
+"Sophia Scott is a remarkable girl, with great simplicity and
+naturalness of manners, full of enthusiasm, with tact in everything, a
+lover of old ballads, a Jacobite, and, in short, in all respects, such
+a daughter as Scott ought to have and ought to be proud of. And he is
+proud of her, as I saw again and again when he could not conceal it.
+
+"One evening, after dinner, he told her to take her harp and play five
+or six ballads he mentioned to her, as a specimen of the different
+ages of Scottish music. I hardly ever heard anything of the kind that
+moved me so much. And yet, I imagine, many sing better; but I never
+saw such an air and manner, such spirit and feeling, such decision and
+power.... I was so much excited that I turned round to Mr. Scott and
+said to him, probably with great emphasis, 'I never heard anything so
+fine;' and he, seeing how involuntarily I had said it, caught me by
+the hand, and replied, very earnestly, 'Everybody says so, sir,' but
+added in an instant, blushing a little, 'but I must not be too vain of
+her.'
+
+"I was struck, too, with another little trait in her character and
+his, that exhibited itself the same evening. Lady Hume asked her to
+play _Rob Roy_, an old ballad. A good many persons were present, and
+she felt a little embarrassed by the recollection of how much her
+father's name had been mentioned in connection with this strange
+Highlander's; but, as upon all occasions, she took the most direct
+means to settle her difficulties; ... she ran across the room to her
+father, and, blushing pretty deeply, whispered to him. 'Yes, my dear,'
+he said, loud enough to be heard, 'play it, to be sure, if you are
+asked, and _Waverley_ and the _Antiquary_, too, if there be any such
+ballads.' ... She is as perfectly right-minded as I ever saw one so
+young, and, indeed, perhaps right-mindedness is the prevailing feature
+in her character."--_Life of George Ticknor_, vol. i. pp. 281, 283.]]
+
+Next morning there appeared at breakfast John Ballantyne, who had at
+this time a shooting or hunting box a few miles off, in the vale of
+the Leader, and with him Mr. Constable, his guest; and it being a fine
+clear day, as soon as Scott had read the Church service and one of
+Jeremy Taylor's sermons, we all sallied out, before noon, on a
+perambulation of his upland territories; Maida and the rest of the
+favorites accompanying our march. At starting we were joined by the
+constant henchman, Tom Purdie--and I may save myself the trouble of
+any attempt to describe his appearance, for his master has given us
+an inimitably true one in introducing a certain personage of his
+Redgauntlet: "He was, perhaps, sixty years old; yet his brow was not
+much furrowed, and his jet black hair was only grizzled, not whitened,
+by the advance of age. All his motions spoke strength unabated; and,
+though rather undersized, he had very broad shoulders, was
+square-made, thin-flanked, and apparently combined in his frame
+muscular strength and activity; the last somewhat impaired, perhaps,
+by years, but the first remaining in full vigor. A hard and harsh
+countenance; eyes far sunk under projecting eyebrows, which were
+grizzled like his hair: a wide mouth, furnished from ear to ear with a
+range of unimpaired teeth of uncommon whiteness, and a size and
+breadth which might have become the jaws of an ogre, completed this
+delightful portrait." Equip this figure in Scott's cast-off green
+jacket, white hat and drab trousers; and imagine that years of kind
+treatment, comfort, and the honest consequence of a confidential
+_grieve_, had softened away much of the hardness and harshness
+originally impressed on the visage by anxious penury and the sinister
+habits of a _black-fisher_,--and the Tom Purdie of 1820 stands before
+us.
+
+We were all delighted to see how completely Scott had recovered his
+bodily vigor, and none more so than Constable, who, as he puffed and
+panted after him up one ravine and down another, often stopped to wipe
+his forehead, and remarked that "it was not every author who should
+lead him such a dance." But Purdie's face shone with rapture as he
+observed how severely the swag-bellied bookseller's activity was
+tasked. Scott exclaiming exultingly, though perhaps for the tenth
+time, "This will be a glorious spring for our trees, Tom!"--"You may
+say that, Shirra," quoth Tom,--and then lingering a moment for
+Constable--"My certy," he added, scratching his head, "and I think it
+will be a grand season for _our buiks_ too." But indeed Tom always
+talked of _our buiks_ as if they had been as regular products of the
+soil as _our aits_ and _our birks_.[82] Having threaded, first the
+Haxelcleugh, and then the Rhymer's Glen, we arrived at Huntly Burn,
+where the hospitality of the kind _Weird-Sisters_, as Scott called the
+Miss Fergusons, reanimated our exhausted Bibliopoles, and gave them
+courage to extend their walk a little further down the same famous
+brook. Here there was a small cottage in a very sequestered situation,
+by making some little additions to which Scott thought it might be
+converted into a suitable summer residence for his daughter and future
+son-in-law. The details of that plan were soon settled--it was agreed
+on all hands that a sweeter scene of seclusion could not be fancied.
+He repeated some verses of Rogers's Wish, which paint the spot:--
+
+  "Mine be a cot beside the hill--
+   A bee-hive's hum shall soothe my ear;
+   A willowy brook that turns a mill,
+   With many a fall shall linger near:" etc.
+
+[Footnote 82: [Mr. Skene, in his _Reminiscences_, says of Tom
+Purdie:--
+
+"He used to talk of Sir Walter's publications as our books, and said
+that the reading of them was the greatest comfort to him, for whenever
+he was off his sleep, which sometimes happened, he had only to take
+one of the novels, and before he read two pages it was sure to set him
+asleep. Tom, with the usual shrewdness common to his countrymen in
+that class of life, joined a quaintness and drollery in his notions
+and mode of expressing himself that was very amusing; he was familiar,
+but at the same time perfectly respectful, although he was sometimes
+tempted to deal sharp cuts, particularly at Sir Adam Ferguson, whom he
+seemed to take a pleasure in assailing. When Sir Walter obtained the
+honor of knighthood for Sir Adam, upon the plea of his being Custodier
+of the Regalia of Scotland, Tom was very indignant, because, he said,
+'It would take some of the shine out of us,' meaning Sir Walter.... He
+was remarkably fastidious in his care of the Library, and it was
+exceedingly amusing to see a clodhopper (for he was always in the garb
+of a ploughman) moving about in the splendid apartment, scrutinizing
+the state of the books, putting derangement to rights, remonstrating
+when he observed anything that indicated carelessness."--See
+_Journal_, vol. ii. p. 318, note.]]
+
+But when he came to the stanza,--
+
+  "And Lucy at her wheel shall sing,
+   In russet-gown and apron blue,"
+
+he departed from the text, adding,--
+
+  "But if Bluestockings here you bring,
+   The Great Unknown won't dine with you."
+
+Johnny Ballantyne, a projector to the core, was particularly zealous
+about this embryo establishment. Foreseeing that he should have had
+walking enough ere he reached Huntly Burn, his dapper little Newmarket
+groom had been ordered to fetch Old Mortality thither, and now,
+mounted on his fine hunter, he capered about us, looking pallid and
+emaciated as a ghost, but as gay and cheerful as ever, and would fain
+have been permitted to ride over hedge and ditch to mark out the
+proper line of the future avenue. Scott admonished him that the
+country-people, if they saw him at such work, would take the whole
+party for heathens; and clapping spurs to his horse, he left us. "The
+deil's in the body," quoth Tom Purdie; "he'll be ower every _yett_
+atween this and Turn-again, though it be the Lord's day. I wadna
+wonder if he were to be _ceeted_ before the Session." "Be sure, Tam,"
+cries Constable, "that ye egg on the Dominie to blaw up his father--I
+wouldna grudge a hundred miles o' gait to see the ne'er-do-weel on the
+stool, and neither, I'll be sworn, would the Sheriff."--"Na, na,"
+quoth the Sheriff; "we'll let sleeping dogs be, Tam."
+
+As we walked homeward, Scott, being a little fatigued, laid his left
+hand on Tom's shoulder, and leaned heavily for support, chatting to
+his "Sunday pony," as he called the affectionate fellow, just as
+freely as with the rest of the party, and Tom put in his word shrewdly
+and manfully, and grinned and grunted whenever the joke chanced to be
+within his apprehension. It was easy to see that his heart swelled
+within him from the moment that the Sheriff got his collar in his
+gripe.
+
+There arose a little dispute between them about what tree or trees
+ought to be cut down in a hedge-row that we passed, and Scott seemed
+somewhat ruffled with finding that some previous hints of his on that
+head had not been attended to. When we got into motion again, his
+hand was on Constable's shoulder--and Tom dropped a pace or two to the
+rear, until we approached a gate, when he jumped forward and opened
+it. "Give us a pinch of your snuff, Tom," quoth the Sheriff. Tom's
+mull was produced, and the hand resumed its position. I was much
+diverted with Tom's behavior when we at length reached Abbotsford.
+There were some garden chairs on the green in front of the cottage
+porch. Scott sat down on one of them to enjoy the view of his new
+tower as it gleamed in the sunset, and Constable and I did the like.
+Mr. Purdie remained lounging near us for a few minutes, and then asked
+the Sheriff "to speak a word." They withdrew together into the
+garden--and Scott presently rejoined us with a particularly comical
+expression of face. As soon as Tom was out of sight, he said--"Will ye
+guess what he has been saying, now?--Well, this is a great
+satisfaction! Tom assures me that he has thought the matter over, and
+_will take my advice_ about the thinning of that clump behind Captain
+Ferguson's."[83]
+
+[Footnote 83: I am obliged to my friend Mr. Scott of Gala for
+reminding me of the following trait of Tom Purdie. The first time Mr.
+John Richardson of Fludyer Street came to Abbotsford, Tom (who took
+him for a Southron) was sent to attend upon him while he tried for a
+_fish_ (_i. e._, a salmon) in the neighborhood of Melrose Bridge. As
+they walked thither, Tom boasted grandly of the size of the fish he
+had himself caught there, evidently giving the stranger no credit for
+much skill in the Waltonian craft. By and by, however, Richardson, who
+is an admirable angler, hooked a vigorous fellow, and after a
+beautiful exhibition of the art, landed him in safety. "A fine _fish_,
+Tom."--"Oo, aye, Sir," quoth Tom, "it's a bonny grilse." "A _grilse_,
+Tom!" says Mr. R., "it's as heavy a _salmon_ as the heaviest you were
+telling me about." Tom showed his teeth in a smile of bitter
+incredulity; but while they were still debating, Lord Somerville's
+fisherman came up with scales in his basket, and Richardson insisted
+on having his victim weighed. The result was triumphant for the
+captor. "Weel," says Tom, letting the salmon drop on the turf, "weel,
+ye _are_ a meikle fish, mon--and a meikle _fule_, too" (he added in a
+lower key), "to let yoursell be kilt by an Englander."--(1839.)
+
+[Mr. Richardson's own account of this incident can be found in the
+memorial sketch of him in the _North British Review_ for November,
+1864. The scene was not Abbotsford, but Ashestiel, in September,
+1810.]]
+
+I must not forget that, whoever might be at Abbotsford, Tom always
+appeared at his master's elbow on Sunday, when dinner was over, and
+drank long life to the Laird and the Lady and all the good company, in
+a quaigh of whiskey, or a tumbler of wine, according to his fancy. I
+believe Scott has somewhere expressed in print his satisfaction that,
+among all the changes of our manners, the ancient freedom of personal
+intercourse may still be indulged between a master and an
+_out-of-doors_ servant; but in truth he kept by the old fashion even
+with domestic servants, to an extent which I have hardly seen
+practised by any other gentleman. He conversed with his coachman if he
+sat by him, as he often did on the box--with his footman, if he
+happened to be in the rumble; and when there was any very young lad in
+the household, he held it a point of duty to see that his employments
+were so arranged as to leave time for advancing his education, made
+him bring his copy-book once a week to the library, and examined him
+as to all that he was doing. Indeed he did not confine this humanity
+to his own people. Any steady servant of a friend of his was soon
+considered as a sort of friend too, and was sure to have a kind little
+colloquy to himself at coming and going. With all this, Scott was a
+very rigid enforcer of discipline--contrived to make it thoroughly
+understood by all about him, that they must do their part by him as he
+did his by them; and the result was happy. I never knew any man so
+well served as he was--so carefully, so respectfully, and so silently;
+and I cannot help doubting if, in any department of human operations,
+real kindness ever compromised real dignity.
+
+In a letter, already quoted, there occurs some mention of the Prince
+Gustavus Vasa, who was spending this winter in Edinburgh, and his
+Royal Highness's accomplished attendant, the Baron Polier. I met them
+frequently in Castle Street, and remember as especially interesting
+the first evening that they dined there. The only portrait in Scott's
+Edinburgh dining-room was one of Charles XII. of Sweden, and he was
+struck, as indeed every one must have been, with the remarkable
+resemblance which the exiled Prince's air and features presented to
+the hero of his race. Young Gustavus, on his part, hung with keen and
+melancholy enthusiasm on Scott's anecdotes of the expedition of
+Charles Edward Stewart.--The Prince, accompanied by Scott and myself,
+witnessed the ceremonial of the proclamation of King George IV. on the
+2d of February at the Cross of Edinburgh, from a window over Mr.
+Constable's shop in the High Street; and on that occasion, also, the
+air of sadness that mixed in his features with eager curiosity was
+very affecting. Scott explained all the details to him, not without
+many lamentations over the barbarity of the Auld Reekie bailies, who
+had removed the beautiful Gothic Cross itself, for the sake of
+widening the thoroughfare. The weather was fine, the sun shone bright;
+and the antique tabards of the heralds, the trumpet notes of _God save
+the King_, and the hearty cheerings of the immense uncovered multitude
+that filled the noble old street, produced altogether a scene of great
+splendor and solemnity. The Royal Exile surveyed it with a flushed
+cheek and a watery eye, and Scott, observing his emotion, withdrew
+with me to another window, whispering: "Poor lad! poor lad! God help
+him." Later in the season, the Prince spent a few days at Abbotsford;
+but I have said enough to explain some allusions in the next letter to
+Lord Montagu, in which Scott also adverts to several public events of
+January and February, 1820,--the assassination of the Duke of Berri,
+the death of King George III., the general election which followed the
+royal demise, and its more unhappy consequence, the reagitation of the
+old disagreement between George IV. and his wife, who, as soon as she
+learned his accession to the throne, announced her resolution of
+returning from the Continent (where she had been leading for some
+years a wandering life), and asserting her rights as Queen. The Tory
+gentleman, in whose canvass of the Selkirk boroughs Scott was now
+earnestly concerned, was his worthy friend, Mr. Henry Monteith of
+Carstairs, who ultimately carried the election.
+
+
+TO THE LORD MONTAGU, ETC., DITTON PARK.
+
+                                        EDINBURGH, 22d February, 1820.
+
+     MY DEAR LORD,--I have nothing to say, except that Selkirk has
+     declared decidedly for Monteith, and that his calling and
+     election seem to be sure. Roxburghshire is right and tight.
+     Harden will not stir for Berwickshire. In short, within my sphere
+     of observation, there is nothing which need make you regret your
+     personal absence; and I hope my dear young namesake and chief
+     will not find his influence abated while he is unable to head it
+     himself. It is but little I can do, but it shall always be done
+     with a good will--and merits no thanks, for I owe much more to
+     his father's memory than ever I can pay a tittle of. I often
+     think what he would have said or wished, and, within my limited
+     sphere, _that_ will always be a rule to me while I have the means
+     of advancing in any respect the interest of his son;--certainly,
+     if anything could increase this desire, it would be the banner
+     being at present in your Lordship's hand. I can do little but
+     look out ahead, but that is always something. When I look back on
+     the house of Buccleuch, as I once knew it, it is a sad
+     retrospect. But we must look forward, and hope for the young
+     blossom of so goodly a tree. I think your Lordship judged quite
+     right in carrying Walter in his place to the funeral.[84] He will
+     long remember it, and may survive many occasions of the same
+     kind, to all human appearance.--Here is a horrid business of the
+     Duke de Berri. It was first told me yesterday by Count Itterburg
+     (_i. e._, Prince Gustavus of Sweden, son of the ex-King), who
+     comes to see me very often. No fairy tale could match the
+     extravagance of such a tale being told to a private Scotch
+     gentleman by such a narrator, his own grandfather having perished
+     in the same manner. But our age has been one of complete
+     revolution, baffling all argument and expectation. As to the King
+     and Queen, or, to use the abbreviation of an old Jacobite of my
+     acquaintance, who, not loving to hear them so called at full
+     length, and yet desirous to have the newspapers read to him,
+     commanded these words always to be pronounced as the letters K.
+     and Q.--I say then, as to the K. and the Q., I venture to think,
+     that whichever strikes the first blow will lose the battle. The
+     sound, well-judging, and well-principled body of the people will
+     be much shocked at the stirring such a hateful and disgraceful
+     question. If the K. urges it unprovoked, the public feeling will
+     put him in the wrong; if he lets her alone, her own imprudence,
+     and that of her hot-headed adviser Harry Brougham, will push on
+     the discussion; and, take a fool's word for it, as Sancho says,
+     the country will never bear her coming back, foul with the
+     various kinds of infamy she has been stained with, to force
+     herself into the throne. On the whole, it is a discussion most
+     devoutly to be deprecated by those who wish well to the Royal
+     family.
+
+     Now for a very different subject. I have a report that there is
+     found on the farm of Melsington, in a bog, the limb of a bronze
+     figure, full size, with a spur on the heel. This has been
+     reported to Mr. Riddell, as Commissioner, and to me as Antiquary
+     in chief, on the estate. I wish your Lordship would permit it to
+     be sent provisionally to Abbotsford, and also allow me, if it
+     shall seem really curious, to make search for the rest of the
+     statue. Clarkson[85] has sent me a curious account of it; and
+     that a Roman statue (for such it seems) of that size should be
+     found in so wild a place, has something very irritating to the
+     curiosity. I do not of course desire to have anything more than
+     the opportunity of examining the relique. It may be the
+     foundation of a set of bronzes, if stout Lord Walter should turn
+     to _virtu_.
+
+     Always, my dear Lord, most truly yours,
+
+                                                         WALTER SCOTT.
+
+
+[Footnote 84: The funeral of George III. at Windsor: the young Duke of
+Buccleuch was at this time at Eton.]
+
+[Footnote 85: Ebenezer Clarkson, Esq., a surgeon of distinguished
+skill at Selkirk, and through life a trusty friend and crony of the
+Sheriff's.]
+
+The novel of The Monastery was published by Messrs. Longman and
+Company in the beginning of March. It appeared, not in the post 8vo
+form of Ivanhoe, but in three volumes 12mo, like the earlier works of
+the series. In fact, a few sheets of The Monastery had been printed
+before Scott agreed to let Ivanhoe have "By the Author of Waverley" on
+its title-page; and the different shapes of the two books belonged to
+the abortive scheme of passing off "Mr. Laurence Templeton" as a
+hitherto unheard-of candidate for literary success.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XLVIII
+
+     Scott Revisits London. -- His Portrait by Lawrence, and Bust by
+     Chantrey. -- Anecdotes by Allan Cunningham. -- Letters to Mrs. Scott,
+     Laidlaw, Etc. -- His Baronetcy Gazetted. -- Marriage of his Daughter
+     Sophia. -- Letter to "The Baron of Galashiels." -- Visit of Prince
+     Gustavus Vasa at Abbotsford. -- Tenders of Honorary Degrees from
+     Oxford and Cambridge. -- Letter to Mr. Thomas Scott.
+
+1820
+
+
+At the rising of his Court on the 12th of March, Scott proceeded to
+London, for the purpose of receiving his baronetcy, which he had been
+prevented from doing in the spring of the preceding year by his own
+illness, and again at Christmas by accumulated family afflictions. On
+his arrival in town, his son, the Cornet, met him; and they both
+established themselves at Miss Dumergue's.
+
+One of his first visitors was Sir Thomas Lawrence, who informed him
+that the King had resolved to adorn the great gallery, then in
+progress at Windsor Castle, with portraits by his hand of his
+Majesty's most distinguished contemporaries; all the reigning monarchs
+of Europe, and their chief ministers and generals, had already sat for
+this purpose: on the same walls the King desired to see exhibited
+those of his own subjects who had attained the highest honors of
+literature and science--and it was his pleasure that this series
+should commence with Walter Scott. The portrait was of course begun
+immediately, and the head was finished before Scott left town. Sir
+Thomas has caught and fixed with admirable skill one of the loftiest
+expressions of Scott's countenance at the proudest period of his life:
+to the perfect truth of the representation, every one who ever
+surprised him in the act of composition at his desk, will bear
+witness. The expression, however, was one with which many who had seen
+the man often were not familiar; and it was extremely unfortunate that
+Sir Thomas filled in the figure from a separate sketch after he had
+quitted London. When I first saw the head, I thought nothing could be
+better; but there was an evident change for the worse when the picture
+appeared in its finished state--for the rest of the person had been
+done on a different scale, and this neglect of proportion takes
+considerably from the majestic effect which the head itself, and
+especially the mighty pile of forehead, had in nature. I hope one day
+to see a good engraving of the head alone, as I first saw it floating
+on a dark sea of canvas.
+
+Lawrence told me, several years afterwards, that, in his opinion, the
+two greatest men he had painted were the Duke of Wellington and Sir
+Walter Scott; "and it was odd," said he, "that they both chose usually
+the same hour for sitting--seven in the morning. They were both as
+patient sitters as I ever had. Scott, however, was, in my case at
+least, a very difficult subject. I had selected what struck me as his
+noblest look; but when he was in the chair before me, he talked away
+on all sorts of subjects in his usual style, so that it cost me great
+pains to bring him back to solemnity, when I had to attend to anything
+beyond the outline of a subordinate feature. I soon found that the
+surest recipe was to say something that would lead him to recite a bit
+of poetry. I used to introduce, by hook or by crook, a few lines of
+Campbell or Byron--he was sure to take up the passage where I left it,
+or _cap_ it by something better--and then, when he was, as Dryden
+says of one of his heroes,--
+
+  'Made up of three parts fire--so full of heaven
+   It sparkled at his eyes'--
+
+then was my time--and I made the best use I could of it. The hardest
+day's work I had with him was once when *****[86] accompanied him to
+my painting room. ***** was in particularly gay spirits, and nothing
+would serve him but keeping both artist and sitter in a perpetual
+state of merriment by anecdote upon anecdote about poor Sheridan. The
+anecdotes were mostly in themselves black enough--but the style of the
+_conteur_ was irresistibly quaint and comical. When Scott came next,
+he said he was ashamed of himself for laughing so much as he listened
+to them; 'for truly,' quoth he, 'if the tithe was fact, ***** might
+have said to Sherry--as Lord Braxfield once said to an eloquent
+culprit at the Bar--"Ye 're a vera clever chiel', man, but ye wad be
+nane the waur o' a hanging."'"
+
+[Footnote 86: A distinguished Whig friend.]
+
+It was also during this visit to London that Scott sat to Mr. (now Sir
+Francis) Chantrey for that bust which alone preserves for posterity
+the cast of expression most fondly remembered by all who ever mingled
+in his domestic circle. Chantrey's request that Scott would sit to him
+was communicated through Mr. Allan Cunningham, then (as now) employed
+as Clerk of the Works in our great Sculptor's establishment. Mr.
+Cunningham, in his early days, when gaining his bread as a stonemason
+in Nithsdale, made a pilgrimage on foot into Edinburgh, for the sole
+purpose of seeing the author of Marmion as he passed along the street.
+He was now in possession of a celebrity of his own, and had mentioned
+to his patron his purpose of calling on Scott to thank him for some
+kind message he had received, through a common friend, on the subject
+of those Remains of Nithsdale and Galloway Song, which first made his
+poetical talents known to the public. Chantrey embraced this
+opportunity of conveying to Scott his own long-cherished ambition of
+modelling his head; and Scott at once assented to the flattering
+proposal. "It was about nine in the morning," says Mr. Cunningham,
+"that I sent in my card to him at Miss Dumergue's in Piccadilly. It
+had not been gone a minute, when I heard a quick heavy step coming,
+and in he came, holding out both hands, as was his custom, and saying,
+as he pressed mine, 'Allan Cunningham, I am glad to see you.' I said
+something," continues Mr. C., "about the pleasure I felt in touching
+the hand that had charmed me so much. He moved his hand, and with one
+of his comic smiles, said, 'Ay--and a big brown hand it is.' I was a
+little abashed at first: Scott saw it, and soon put me at my ease; he
+had the power--I had almost called it the art, but art it was not--of
+winning one's heart and restoring one's confidence beyond any man I
+ever met." Then ensued a little conversation, in which Scott
+complimented Allan on his ballads, and urged him to try some work of
+more consequence, quoting Burns's words, "for dear auld Scotland's
+sake;" but being engaged to breakfast in a distant part of the town,
+he presently dismissed his visitor, promising to appear next day at an
+early hour, and submit himself to Mr. Chantrey's inspection.
+
+[Illustration: WALTER SCOTT IN 1820
+
+_The Chantrey Bust_]
+
+Chantrey's purpose had been the same as Lawrence's--to seize a
+poetical phasis of Scott's countenance; and he proceeded to model the
+head as looking upwards, gravely and solemnly. The talk that passed,
+meantime, had equally amused and gratified both, and fortunately, at
+parting, Chantrey requested that Scott would come and breakfast with
+him next morning before they recommenced operations in the studio.
+Scott accepted the invitation, and when he arrived again in Ecclestone
+Street, found two or three acquaintances assembled to meet him,--among
+others, his old friend Richard Heber. The breakfast was, as any party
+in Sir Francis Chantrey's house is sure to be, a gay and joyous
+one, and not having seen Heber in particular for several years,
+Scott's spirits were unusually excited by the presence of an intimate
+associate of his youthful days. I transcribe what follows from Mr.
+Cunningham's Memorandum:--
+
+
+     "Heber made many inquiries about old friends in Edinburgh, and
+     old books and old houses, and reminded the other of their early
+     socialities. 'Ay,' said Mr. Scott, 'I remember we once dined out
+     together, and sat so late that when we came away the night and
+     day were so neatly balanced, that we resolved to walk about till
+     sunrise. The moon was not down, however, and we took advantage of
+     her Ladyship's lantern, and climbed to the top of Arthur's Seat;
+     when we came down we had a rare appetite for breakfast.'--'I
+     remember it well,' said Heber; 'Edinburgh was a wild place in
+     those days,--it abounded in clubs--convivial clubs.'--'Yes,'
+     replied Mr. Scott, 'and abounds still; but the conversation is
+     calmer, and there are no such sallies now as might be heard in
+     other times. One club, I remember, was infested with two Kemps,
+     father and son; when the old man had done speaking, the young one
+     began,--and before he grew weary, the father was refreshed, and
+     took up the song. John Clerk, during a pause, was called on for a
+     stave; he immediately struck up, in a psalm-singing tone, and
+     electrified the club with a verse which sticks like a burr to my
+     memory,--
+
+      "Now, God Almighty judge James Kemp,
+         And likewise his son John,
+       And hang them over Hell in hemp,
+         And burn them in brimstone."'--
+
+     "In the midst of the mirth which this specimen of psalmody
+     raised, John (commonly called _Jack_) Fuller, the member for
+     Surrey, and standing jester of the House of Commons, came in.
+     Heber, who was well acquainted with the free and joyous character
+     of that worthy, began to lead him out by relating some festive
+     anecdotes: Fuller growled approbation, and indulged us with some
+     of his odd sallies; things which he assured us 'were damned good,
+     and true too, which was better.' Mr. Scott, who was standing when
+     Fuller came in, eyed him at first with a look grave and
+     considerate; but as the stream of conversation flowed, his keen
+     eye twinkled brighter and brighter; his stature increased, for he
+     drew himself up, and seemed to take the measure of the hoary
+     joker, body and soul. An hour or two of social chat had meanwhile
+     induced Mr. Chantrey to alter his views as to the bust, and when
+     Mr. Scott left us, he said to me privately, 'This will never
+     do--I shall never be able to please myself with a perfectly
+     serene expression. I must try his conversational look, take him
+     when about to break out into some sly funny old story.' As
+     Chantrey said this, he took a string, cut off the head of the
+     bust, put it into its present position, touched the eyes and the
+     mouth slightly, and wrought such a transformation upon it, that
+     when Scott came to his third sitting, he smiled and said,--'Ay,
+     ye're mair like yoursel now!--Why, Mr. Chantrey, no witch of old
+     ever performed such cantrips with clay as this.'"[87]
+
+
+[Footnote 87: [Mr. C. R. Leslie, himself the painter of an admirable
+portrait of Scott, says of Chantrey's work:--
+
+"Of the many portraits of him, Chantrey's bust is, to my mind, the
+most perfect; ... the gentle turn of the head, inclined a little
+forwards and down, and the lurking humor in the eye and about the
+mouth, are Scott's own. Chantrey watched Sir Walter in company, and
+invited him to breakfast previous to the sittings, and by these means
+caught the expression that was most characteristic."--_Leslie's
+Autobiographical Recollections._]]
+
+These sittings were seven in number; but when Scott revisited London a
+year afterwards, he gave Chantrey several more, the bust being by that
+time in marble. Allan Cunningham, when he called to bid him farewell,
+as he was about to leave town on the present occasion, found him in
+court dress, preparing to kiss hands at the Levee, on being gazetted
+as Baronet. "He seemed anything but at his ease," says Cunningham, "in
+that strange attire; he was like one in armor--the stiff cut of the
+coat--the large shining buttons and buckles--the lace ruffles--the
+queue--the sword--and the cocked hat, formed a picture at which I
+could not forbear smiling. He surveyed himself in the glass for a
+moment, and burst into a hearty laugh. 'O Allan,' he said, 'O Allan,
+what creatures we must make of ourselves in obedience to Madam
+Etiquette! Seest thou not, I say, what a deformed thief this fashion
+is? how giddily she turns about all the hot bloods between fourteen
+and five-and-thirty?'"[88]
+
+[Footnote 88: _Much Ado about Nothing_, Act III. Scene 3.]
+
+Scott's baronetcy was conferred on him, not in consequence of any
+Ministerial suggestion, but by the King personally, and of his own
+unsolicited motion; and when the poet kissed his hand, he said to him,
+"I shall always reflect with pleasure on Sir Walter Scott's having
+been the first creation of my reign."
+
+The Gazette announcing his new dignity was dated March 30, and
+published on the 2d of April, 1820; and the Baronet, as soon
+afterwards as he could get away from Lawrence, set out on his return
+to the North; for he had such respect for the ancient prejudice (a
+classical as well as a Scottish one) against marrying in May, that he
+was anxious to have the ceremony in which his daughter was concerned
+over before that unlucky month should commence.[89] It is needless to
+say, that during this stay in London he had again experienced, in its
+fullest measure, the enthusiasm of all ranks of his acquaintance; and
+I shall now transcribe a few paragraphs from domestic letters, which
+will show, among other things, how glad he was when the hour came that
+restored him to his ordinary course of life.
+
+[Footnote 89: [On March 15 Scott had written to Lady Abercorn: "Sophia
+is going to be married, and to a young man of uncommon talents,--indeed
+of as promising a character as I know. He is highly accomplished, a
+beautiful poet and fine draughtsman, and, what is better, of a most
+honorable and gentlemanlike disposition. He is handsome besides, and I
+like everything about him, except that he is more grave and retired than
+I (who have been all my life something of an _étourdi_) like
+particularly, but it is better than the opposite extreme. In point of
+situation they have enough to live upon, and 'the world for the
+winning.' ... Your Ladyship will see some beautiful lines of his writing
+in the last number of a very clever periodical publication called
+_Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine_. The verses are in an essay on the
+ballad poetry of the Spaniards, which he illustrates by some beautiful
+translations which--to speak truth--are much finer than the
+originals.... The youngster's name is John Gibson Lockhart; he comes of
+a good Lanarkshire family, and is very well connected. His father is a
+clergyman."
+
+Two months later, in a letter to Morritt, Sir Walter says:--
+
+"To me, as it seems neither of my sons have a strong literary turn,
+the society of a son-in-law possessed of learning and talent must be a
+very great acquisition, and relieve me from some anxiety with respect
+to a valuable part of my fortune, consisting of copyrights, etc.,
+which, though advantageous in my lifetime, might have been less so at
+my decease, unless under the management of a person acquainted with
+the nature of such property. All I have to fear on Lockhart's part, is
+a certain rashness, which I trust has been the effect of youth and
+high spirits, joined to lack of good advice, as he seems perfectly
+good-humored and very docile. So I trust your little friend Sophia,
+who I know has an interest in your bosom, has a very fair chance for
+such happiness as this motley world can afford."--_Familiar Letters_,
+vol. ii. pp. 73, 77.]]
+
+
+TO MRS. SCOTT, 39 CASTLE STREET, EDINBURGH.
+
+                                         PICCADILLY, 20th March, 1820.
+
+     MY DEAR CHARLOTTE,--I have got a delightful plan for the addition
+     at Abb----, which I think will make it quite complete, and
+     furnish me with a handsome library, and you with a drawing-room
+     and better bedroom, with good bedrooms for company, etc. It will
+     cost me a little hard work to meet the expense, but I have been a
+     good while idle. I hope to leave this town early next week, and
+     shall hasten back with great delight to my own household gods.
+
+     I hope this will find you from under Dr. Ross's charge. I expect
+     to see you quite in beauty when I come down, for I assure you I
+     have been coaxed by very pretty ladies here, and look for merry
+     faces at home. My picture comes on, and will be a grand thing,
+     but the sitting is a great bore. Chantrey's bust is one of the
+     finest things he ever did. It is quite the fashion to go to see
+     it--there's for you. Yours, my dearest love, with the most
+     sincere affection,
+
+                                                         WALTER SCOTT.
+
+
+TO THE SAME.
+
+                                                 PICCADILLY, March 27.
+
+     MY DEAR CHARLOTTE,--I have the pleasure to say that Lord Sidmouth
+     has promised to dismiss me in all my honors by the 30th, so that
+     I can easily be with you by the end of April; and you and Sophia
+     may easily select the 28th, 29th, or 30th, for the ceremony. I
+     have been much fêted here, as usual, and had a very quiet dinner
+     at Mr. Arbuthnot's yesterday with the Duke of Wellington, where
+     Walter heard the great Lord in all his glory talk of war and
+     Waterloo. Here is a hellish--yes, literally a hellish bustle. My
+     head turns round with it. The whole mob of the Middlesex
+     blackguards pass through Piccadilly twice a day, and almost drive
+     me mad with their noise and vociferation.[90] Pray do, my dear
+     Charlotte, write soon. You know those at a distance are always
+     anxious to hear from home. I beg you to say what would give you
+     pleasure that I could bring from this place, and whether you want
+     anything from Mrs. Arthur for yourself, Sophia, or Anne; also
+     what would please little Charles. You know you may stretch a
+     point on this occasion. Richardson says your honors will be
+     gazetted on Saturday; certainly very soon, as the King, I
+     believe, has signed the warrant. When, or how I shall see him, is
+     not determined, but I suppose I shall have to go to Brighton. My
+     best love attends the girls, little Charles, and all the
+     quadrupeds.
+
+     I conclude that the marriage will take place in Castle Street,
+     and want to know where they go, etc. All this you will have to
+     settle without my wise head; but I shall be terribly critical--so
+     see you do all right. I am always, dearest Charlotte, most
+     affectionately yours,
+
+                                                         WALTER SCOTT.
+
+    (_For the Lady Scott of Abbotsford--to be._)
+
+
+[Footnote 90: The general election was going on.]
+
+
+TO MR. JAMES BALLANTYNE, PRINTER, ST. JOHN'S STREET, EDINBURGH.
+
+                                            96 PICCADILLY, 28th March.
+
+     DEAR JAMES,--I am much obliged by your attentive letter.
+     Unquestionably Longman and Co. sell their books at subscription
+     price, because they have the first of the market, and only one
+     third of the books; so that, as they say with us, "let them care
+     that come ahint." This I knew and foresaw, and the ragings of the
+     booksellers, considerably aggravated by the displeasure of
+     Constable and his house, are ridiculous enough; and as to their
+     injuring the work, if it have a principle of locomotion in it,
+     they cannot stop it--if it has not, they cannot make it move. I
+     care not a bent twopence about their quarrels; only I say now, as
+     I always said, that Constable's management is best, both for
+     himself and the author; and, had we not been controlled by the
+     narrowness of discount, I would put nothing past him. I agree
+     with the public in thinking the work not very interesting; but it
+     was written with as much care as the others--that is, with no
+     care at all; and,
+
+      "If it is na weil bobbit, we'll bobb it again."
+
+     On these points I am Atlas. I cannot write much in this bustle of
+     engagements, with Sir Francis's mob holloing under the windows. I
+     find that even this light composition demands a certain degree of
+     silence, and I might as well live in a cotton-mill. Lord Sidmouth
+     tells me I will obtain leave to quit London by the 30th, which
+     will be delightful news, for I find I cannot bear late hours and
+     great society so well as formerly; and yet it is a fine thing to
+     hear politics talked of by Ministers of State, and war discussed
+     by the Duke of Wellington.[91]
+
+
+[Footnote 91: [Soon after his return, Scott writes to Morritt:--
+
+"London I thought incredibly tiresome; I wanted my sheet anchors,--you
+and poor George Ellis,--by whom I could ride at quiet moorings without
+mixing entirely in the general vortex. The great lion--great in every
+sense--was the gigantic Belzoni, the handsomest man (for a giant) I
+ever saw or could suppose to myself. He is said completely to have
+overawed the Arabs, your old friends, by his great strength, height,
+and energy. I had one delightful evening in company with the Duke of
+Wellington, and heard him fight over Waterloo and his other battles
+with the greatest good-humor. It is odd, he says, that the most
+distinct writer on military affairs whose labors he has perused is
+James II., in the warlike details given in his own Memoirs. I have not
+read over these Memoirs lately, but I think I do not recollect much to
+justify the eulogium of so great a master."--_Familiar Letters_, vol.
+ii. p. 77.]]
+
+
+     My occasions here will require that John or you send me two notes
+     payable at Coutts's for £300 each, at two and three months' date.
+     I will write to Constable for one at £350, which will settle my
+     affairs here--which, with fees and other matters, come, as you
+     may think, pretty heavy. Let the bills be drawn payable at
+     Coutts's, and sent without delay. I will receive them safe if
+     sent under Mr. Freeling's cover. Mention particularly what you
+     are doing, for now is your time to push miscellaneous work. Pray
+     take great notice of inaccuracies in the Novels. They are very,
+     very many--some mine, I dare say--but all such as you may and
+     ought to correct. If you would call on William Erskine (who is
+     your well-wisher, and a little mortified he never sees you), he
+     would point out some of them.
+
+     Do you ever see Lockhart? You should consult him on every doubt
+     where you would refer to me if present. Yours very truly,
+
+                                                                 W. S.
+
+     You say nothing of John, yet I am anxious about him.
+
+
+TO MR. LAIDLAW, KAESIDE, MELROSE.
+
+                                                LONDON, April 2, 1820.
+
+     DEAR WILLIE,--I had the great pleasure of your letter, which
+     carries me back to my own braes, which I love so dearly, out of
+     this place of bustle and politics. When I can see my Master--and
+     thank him for many acts of favor--I think I will bid adieu to
+     London forever; for neither the hours nor the society suit me so
+     well as a few years since. There is too much necessity for
+     exertion, too much brilliancy and excitation from morning till
+     night.
+
+     I am glad the sheep are away, though at a loss. I should think
+     the weather rather too dry for planting, judging by what we have
+     here. Do not let Tom go on sticking in plants to no
+     purpose--better put in firs in a rainy week in August. Give my
+     service to him. I expect to be at Edinburgh in the end of this
+     month, and to get a week at Abbotsford before the Session sits
+     down. I think you are right to be in no hurry to let Broomielees.
+     There seems no complaint of wanting money here just now, so I
+     hope things will come round.
+
+     Ever yours truly,
+
+                                                         WALTER SCOTT.
+
+
+TO MISS SCOTT, CASTLE STREET, EDINBURGH.
+
+                                                LONDON, April 3, 1820.
+
+     DEAR SOPHIA,--I have no letter from any one at home excepting
+     Lockhart, and he only says you are all well; and I trust it is
+     so. I have seen most of my old friends, who are a little the
+     worse for the wear, like myself. A five years' march down the
+     wrong side of the hill tells more than ten on the right side. Our
+     good friends here are kind as kind can be, and no frumps. They
+     lecture the Cornet a little, which he takes with becoming
+     deference and good-humor. There is a certain veil of Flanders
+     lace floating in the wind for a certain occasion, from a certain
+     godmother, but that is more than a dead secret.
+
+     We had a very merry day yesterday at Lord Melville's, where we
+     found Lord Huntly[92] and other friends, and had a bumper to the
+     new Baronet, whose name was Gazetted that evening. Lady Huntly
+     plays Scotch tunes like a Highland angel. She ran a set of
+     variations on "Kenmure's on and awa'," which I told her were
+     enough to raise a whole country-side. I never in my life heard
+     such fire thrown into that sort of music. I am now laying anchors
+     to windward, as John Ferguson says, to get Walter's leave
+     extended. We saw the Duke of York, who was very civil, but wants
+     altogether the courtesy of the King. I have had a very gracious
+     message from the King. He is expected up very soon, so I don't go
+     to Brighton, which is so far good. I fear his health is not
+     strong. Meanwhile all goes forward for the Coronation. The
+     expense of the robes for the peers may amount to £400 apiece. All
+     the ermine is bought up at the most extravagant prices. I hear so
+     much of it, that I really think, like Beau Tibbs,[93] I shall be
+     tempted to come up and see it, if possible. Indeed, I don't see
+     why I should not stay here, as I seem to be forgotten at home.
+     The people here are like to smother me with kindness, so why
+     should I be in a great hurry to leave them?
+
+     I write, wishing to know what I could bring Anne and you and
+     mamma down, that would be acceptable; and I shall be much obliged
+     to you to put me up to that matter. To little Charles also I
+     promised something, and I wish to know what he would like. I hope
+     he pays attention to Mr. Thomson, to whom remember my best
+     compliments. I hope to get something for him soon.
+
+     To-day I go to spend my Sabbath quietly with Joanna Baillie and
+     John Richardson, at Hampstead. The long Cornet goes with me. I
+     have kept him amongst the seniors; nevertheless he seems pretty
+     well amused. He is certainly one of the best-conditioned lads I
+     ever saw, in point of temper.
+
+     I understand you and Anne have gone through the ceremony of
+     confirmation. Pray write immediately, and let me know how you are
+     all going on, and what you would like to have, all of you. You
+     know how much I would like to please you.
+
+     Yours, most affectionately,
+
+                                                         WALTER SCOTT.
+
+
+[Footnote 92: The late Duke of Gordon.]
+
+[Footnote 93: See Goldsmith's _Citizen of the World_, No. 105.]
+
+While Scott remained in London, the Professorship of Moral Philosophy
+in the University of Edinburgh became vacant by the death of Dr.
+Thomas Brown; and among others who proposed themselves as candidates
+to fill it, was the author of the Isle of Palms. He was opposed in
+the Town Council (who are the patrons of most of the Edinburgh
+Chairs), on various pretences, but solely, in fact, on party
+grounds,--certain humorous political pieces having much exacerbated
+the Whigs of the North against him; and I therefore wrote to Scott,
+requesting him to animate the Tory Ministers in his behalf. Sir Walter
+did so, and Mr. Wilson's canvass was successful.[94] The answer to my
+communication was in these terms:--
+
+[Footnote 94: [This academic struggle was as fiercely contested as
+though it had been a political contest, which in truth it was.
+Lockhart celebrated Wilson's victory in the _Testimonium_ (prefacing
+the seventh volume of _Blackwood_), thus keeping alive the passion of
+the hour. In July Scott wrote to his son-in-law, and through him to
+Wilson, a letter which is especially interesting, as showing the
+writer's attitude in regard to the personalities of _Maga_, which his
+political opponents were inclined to believe had at least his tacit
+approval. The letter, from which these extracts are taken, will be
+found in Lang's _Life of Lockhart_ (vol. i. pp. 239-245), where it was
+published for the first time:--
+
+... "I am sure our friend has been taught the danger of giving way to
+high spirits in mixed society, where there is some one always ready to
+laugh at the joke and to put it into his pocket to throw in the
+jester's face on some future occasion. It is plain Wilson must have
+walked the course had he been cautious in selecting the friends of his
+lighter hours, and now, clothed with philosophical dignity, his
+friends will really expect he should be on his guard in this respect,
+and add to his talents and amiable disposition the proper degree of
+_retenue_ becoming a moral teacher. Try to express all this to him in
+your own way, and believe that, as I have said it from the best
+motives, so I would wish it conveyed in the most delicate terms, as
+from one who equally honors Wilson's genius and loves his benevolent,
+ardent, and amiable disposition, but who would willingly see them
+mingled with the caution which leaves calumny no pin to hang her
+infamous accusations upon.
+
+"For the reasons above mentioned I wish you had not published the
+_Testimonium_. It is very clever, but descends to too low game. If
+Jeffrey or Cranstoun, or any of the dignitaries, chose to fight such
+skirmishes, there would be some credit in it; but I do not like to see
+you turn out as a sharpshooter with ****. 'What does thou drawn among
+these heartless hinds?' ... I have hitherto avoided saying anything on
+this subject, though some little turn towards personal satire is, I
+think, the only drawback to your great and powerful talents, and I
+think I may have hinted as much to you. But I wished to see how this
+matter of Wilson's would turn, before making a clean breast upon this
+subject. It might have so happened that you could not handsomely or
+kindly have avoided a share in his defence, if the enemy had
+prevailed, and where friendship, or country, or any strong call
+demands the use of satiric talent, I hope I should neither fear risk
+myself or desire a friend to shun it. But now that he has triumphed, I
+think it would be bad taste to cry out,--
+
+  'Strike up our drums--pursue the scattered stray.'
+
+Besides, the natural consequence of his new situation must be his
+relinquishing his share in these compositions--at least, he will
+injure himself in the opinion of many friends, and expose himself to a
+continuation of galling and vexatious disputes to the embittering of
+his life, should he do otherwise. In that case I really hope you will
+pause before you undertake to be the Boaz of the _Maga_; I mean in the
+personal and satirical department, when the Jachin has seceded.
+
+"Besides all other objections of personal enemies, personal quarrels,
+constant obloquy, and all uncharitableness, such an occupation will
+fritter away your talents, hurt your reputation both as a lawyer and a
+literary man, and waste away your time in what at best will be but a
+monthly wonder. What has been done in this department will be very
+well as a frolic of young men, but let it suffice, 'the gambol has
+been shown'--the frequent repetition will lose its effect even as
+pleasantry, for Peter Pindar, the sharpest of personal satirists,
+wrote himself down, and wrote himself out, and is forgotten....
+
+"Revere yourself, my dear boy, and think you were born to do your
+country better service than in this species of warfare. I make no
+apology (I am sure you will require none) for speaking plainly what my
+anxious affection dictates. As the old warrior says, 'May the name of
+Mevni be forgotten among the people, and may they only say, Behold the
+father of Gaul.' I wish you to have the benefit of my experience
+without purchasing it; and be assured, that the consciousness of
+attaining complete superiority over your calumniators and enemies by
+the force of your general character, is worth a dozen of triumphs over
+them by the force of wit and raillery. I am sure Sophia, as much as
+she can or ought to form any judgment respecting the line of conduct
+you have to pursue in your new character of a man married and settled,
+will be of my opinion in this matter, and that you will consider her
+happiness and your own, together with the respectability of both, by
+giving what I have said your anxious consideration."
+
+Lockhart's reply to this letter, expressing gratitude, and promising
+amendment, can be found in _Familiar Letters_, vol. ii. p. 86.]]
+
+
+TO J. G. LOCKHART, ESQ., GREAT KING STREET, EDINBURGH.
+
+                                             LONDON, 30th March, 1820.
+
+     DEAR LOCKHART,--I have yours of the Sunday morning, which has
+     been terribly long of coming. There needed no apology for
+     mentioning anything in which I could be of service to Wilson;
+     and, so far as good words and good wishes _here_ can do, I think
+     he will be successful; but the battle must be fought in
+     Edinburgh. You are aware that the only point of exception to
+     Wilson may be, that, with the fire of genius, he has possessed
+     some of its eccentricities; but, did he ever approach to those of
+     Henry Brougham, who is the god of Whiggish idolatry? If the high
+     and rare qualities with which he is invested are to be thrown
+     aside as useless, because they may be clouded by a few grains of
+     dust which he can blow aside at pleasure, it is less a punishment
+     on Mr. Wilson than on the country. I have little doubt he would
+     consider success in this weighty matter as a pledge for binding
+     down his acute and powerful mind to more regular labor than
+     circumstances have hitherto required of him, for indeed, without
+     doing so, the appointment could in no point of view answer his
+     purpose. He must stretch to the oar for his own credit, as well
+     as that of his friends; and if he does so, there can be no doubt
+     that his efforts will be doubly blessed, in reference both to
+     himself and to public utility. He must make every friend he can
+     amongst the Council. Palladio Johnstone should not be omitted. If
+     my wife canvasses him, she may do some good.[95]
+
+     You must, of course, recommend to Wilson great temper in his
+     canvass--for wrath will do no good. After all, he must leave off
+     sack, purge and live cleanly as a gentleman ought to do;
+     otherwise people will compare his present ambition to that of Sir
+     Terry O'Fag, when he wished to become a judge. "Our pleasant
+     follies are made the whips to scourge us," as Lear says; for
+     otherwise, what could possibly stand in the way of his
+     nomination? I trust it will take place, and give him the
+     consistence and steadiness which are all he wants to make him
+     the first man of the age.
+
+     I am very angry with Castle Street--not a soul has written me,
+     save yourself, since I came to London.
+
+     Yours very truly,
+
+                                                         WALTER SCOTT.
+
+
+[Footnote 95: Mr. Robert Johnstone, a grocer on a large scale on the
+North Bridge of Edinburgh, and long one of the leading Bailies, was
+about this time the prominent patron of some architectural novelties
+in Auld Reekie, which had found no favor with Scott;--hence his
+prænomen of _Palladio_--which he owed, I believe, to a song in
+_Blackwood's Magazine_. The good Bailie had been at the High School
+with Sir Walter, and their friendly intercourse was never interrupted
+but by death.]
+
+Sir Walter, accompanied by the Cornet, reached Edinburgh late in
+April, and on the 29th of that month he gave me the hand of his
+daughter Sophia. The wedding, _more Scotico_, took place in the
+evening; and adhering on all such occasions to ancient modes of
+observance with the same punctiliousness which he mentions as
+distinguishing his worthy father, he gave a jolly supper afterwards to
+all the friends and connections of the young couple.[96]
+
+[Footnote 96: ["On Friday evening I gave away Sophia to Mr.
+Lockhart.... I own my house seems lonely to me since she left us, but
+that is a natural feeling, which will soon wear off. I have every
+reason to think I have consulted her happiness in the match, as became
+the father of a most attached and dutiful daughter, who never in her
+life gave me five minutes' vexation. In the mean time the words run
+strangely in my ear:--
+
+  'Ah me! the flower and blossom of my house
+   The wind has blown away to other towers.'"
+
+     --Scott to Lady Abercorn--_Familiar Letters_, vol. ii. p. 75.]]
+
+His excursions to Tweedside during Term-time were, with very rare
+exceptions, of the sort which I have described in the preceding
+chapter; but he departed from his rule about this time in honor of the
+Swedish Prince, who had expressed a wish to see Abbotsford before
+leaving Scotland, and assembled a number of his friends and neighbors
+to meet his Royal Highness. Of the invitations which he distributed on
+this occasion, I insert one specimen--that addressed to Mr. Scott of
+Gala:--
+
+  _To the Baron of Galashiels
+  The Knight of Abbotsford sends greeting._
+
+     Trusty and well-beloved,--Whereas Gustavus, Prince Royal of
+     Sweden, proposeth to honor our poor house of Abbotsford with his
+     presence on Thursday next, and to repose himself there for
+     certain days, We do heartily pray you, out of the love and
+     kindness which is and shall abide betwixt us, to be aiding to us
+     at this conjuncture, and to repair to Abbotsford with your lady,
+     either upon Thursday or Friday, as may best suit your convenience
+     and pleasure, looking for no denial at your hands. Which loving
+     countenance we will, with all thankfulness, return to you at your
+     mansion of Gala. The hour of appearance being five o'clock, we
+     request you to be then and there present, as you love the honor
+     of the name; and so advance banners in the name of God and St.
+     Andrew.
+
+                                                         WALTER SCOTT.
+
+     Given at EDINBURGH,
+     20th May, 1820.
+
+
+The visit of Count Itterburg is alluded to in this letter to the
+Cornet, who had now rejoined his regiment in Ireland. It appears that
+on reaching headquarters he had found a charger _hors de combat_.
+
+
+TO WALTER SCOTT, ESQ., 18TH HUSSARS, CORK.
+
+                                          CASTLE STREET, May 31, 1820.
+
+     DEAR WALTER,--I enclose the cheque for the allowance; pray take
+     care to get good notes in exchange. You had better speak to the
+     gentleman whom Lord Shannon introduced you to, for, when banks
+     take a-breaking, it seldom stops with the first who go. I am very
+     sorry for your loss. You must be economical for a while, and
+     bring yourself round again, for at this moment I cannot so well
+     assist as I will do by and by. So do not buy anything but what
+     you _need_.
+
+     I was at Abbotsford for three days last week, to receive Count
+     Itterburg, who seemed very happy while with us, and was much
+     affected when he took his leave. I am sorry for him--his
+     situation is a very particular one, and his feelings appear to be
+     of the kindest order. When he took leave of me, he presented me
+     with a beautiful seal, with all our new blazonries cut on a fine
+     amethyst; and what I thought the prettiest part, on one side of
+     the setting is cut my name, on the other the Prince's--_Gustaf_.
+     He is to travel through Ireland, and will probably be at Cork.
+     You will, of course, ask the Count and Baron to mess, and offer
+     all civilities in your power, in which, I dare say, Colonel
+     Murray will readily join. They intend to inquire after you.
+
+     I have bought the land adjoining to the Burnfoot cottage, so that
+     we now march with the Duke of Buccleuch all the way round that
+     course. It cost me £2300--but there is a great deal of valuable
+     fir planting, which you may remember; fine roosting for the black
+     game. Still I think it is £200 too dear, but Mr. Laidlaw thinks
+     it can be made worth the money, and it rounds the property off
+     very handsomely. You cannot but remember the ground; it lies
+     under the Eildon, east of the Chargelaw.
+
+     Mamma, Anne, and Charles are all well. Sophia has been
+     complaining of a return of her old sprain. I told her Lockhart
+     would return her on our hands as not being sound wind and limb.
+
+     I beg you to look at your French, and have it much at heart that
+     you should study German. Believe me, always affectionately yours,
+
+                                                         WALTER SCOTT.
+
+
+In May, 1820, Scott received from both the English Universities the
+highest compliment which it was in their power to offer him. The
+Vice-Chancellors of Oxford and Cambridge communicated to him, in the
+same week, their request that he would attend at the approaching
+Commemorations, and accept the honorary degree of Doctor in Civil Law.
+It was impossible for him to leave Scotland again that season; and on
+various subsequent renewals of the same flattering proposition from
+either body, he was prevented, by similar circumstances, from
+availing himself of their distinguished kindness.
+
+In the course of a few months, Scott's family arrangements had
+undergone, as we have seen, considerable alteration. Meanwhile he
+continued anxious to be allowed to adopt, as it were, the only son of
+his brother Thomas; and the letter, in consequence of which that
+promising youth was at last committed to his charge, contains so much
+matter likely to interest parents and guardians, that, though long, I
+cannot curtail it.
+
+
+TO THOMAS SCOTT, ESQ., PAYMASTER 70th REGIMENT.
+
+                                           ABBOTSFORD, 23d July, 1820.
+
+     MY DEAR TOM,--Your letter of May, this day received, made me
+     truly happy, being the first I have received from you since our
+     dear mother's death, and the consequent breaches which fate has
+     made in our family. My own health continues quite firm, at no
+     greater sacrifice than bidding adieu to our old and faithful
+     friend John Barleycorn, whose life-blood has become a little too
+     heavy for my stomach. I wrote to you from London concerning the
+     very handsome manner in which the King behaved to me in
+     conferring my _petit titre_, and also of Sophia's intended
+     marriage, which took place in the end of April, as we intended. I
+     got Walter's leave prolonged, that he might be present, and I
+     assure you, that when he attended the ceremony in full
+     regimentals, you have scarce seen a handsomer young man. He is
+     about six feet and an inch, and perfectly well made. Lockhart
+     seems to be everything I could wish,--and as they have enough to
+     live easily upon for the present, and good expectations for the
+     future, life opens well with them. They are to spend their
+     vacations in a nice little cottage, in a glen belonging to this
+     property, with a rivulet in front, and a grove of trees on the
+     east side to keep away the cold wind. It is about two miles
+     distant from this house, and a very pleasant walk reaches to it
+     through my plantations, which now occupy several hundred acres.
+     Thus there will be space enough betwixt the old man of letters
+     and the young one. Charles's destination to India is adjourned
+     till he reaches the proper age: it seems he cannot hold a
+     Writership until he is sixteen years old, and then is admitted to
+     study for two years at Hertford College.
+
+     After my own sons, my most earnest and anxious wish will be, of
+     course, for yours,--and with this view I have pondered well what
+     you say on the subject of your Walter; and whatever line of life
+     you may design him for, it is scarce possible but that I can be
+     of considerable use to him. Before fixing, however, on a point so
+     very important, I would have you consult the nature of the boy
+     himself. I do not mean by this that you should ask his opinion,
+     because at so early an age a well bred up child naturally takes
+     up what is suggested to him by his parents; but I think you
+     should consider, with as much impartiality as a parent can, his
+     temper, disposition, and qualities of mind and body. It is not
+     enough that you think there is an opening for him in one
+     profession rather than another,--for it were better to sacrifice
+     the fairest prospects of that kind than to put a boy into a line
+     of life for which he is not calculated. If my nephew is steady,
+     cautious, fond of a sedentary life and quiet pursuits, and at the
+     same time a proficient in arithmetic, and with a disposition
+     towards the prosecution of its highest branches, he cannot follow
+     a better line than that of an accountant. It is highly
+     respectable--and is one in which, with attention and skill, aided
+     by such opportunities as I may be able to procure for him, he
+     must ultimately succeed. I say ultimately--because the harvest is
+     small and the laborers numerous in this as in other branches of
+     our legal practice; and whoever is to dedicate himself to them,
+     must look for a long and laborious tract of attention ere he
+     reaches the reward of his labors. If I live, however, I will do
+     all I can for him, and see him put under a proper person, taking
+     his 'prentice fee, etc., upon myself. But if, which may possibly
+     be the case, the lad has a decided turn for active life and
+     adventure, is high-spirited, and impatient of long and dry labor,
+     with some of those feelings not unlikely to result from having
+     lived all his life in a camp or a barrack, do not deceive
+     yourself, my dear brother--you will never make him an accountant;
+     you will never be able to convert such a sword into a
+     pruning-hook, merely because you think a pruning-hook the better
+     thing of the two. In this supposed case, your authority and my
+     recommendation might put him into an accountant's office; but it
+     would be just to waste the earlier years of his life in idleness,
+     with all the temptations to dissipation which idleness gives way
+     to; and what sort of a place a writing-chamber is, you cannot but
+     remember. So years might wear away, and at last the youth starts
+     off from his profession, and becomes an adventurer too late in
+     life, and with the disadvantage, perhaps, of offended friends and
+     advanced age standing in the way of his future prospects.
+
+     This is what I have judged fittest in my own family, for Walter
+     would have gone to the Bar had I liked; but I was sensible (with
+     no small reluctance did I admit the conviction) that I should
+     only spoil an excellent soldier to make a poor and
+     undistinguished gownsman. On the same principle I shall send
+     Charles to India,--not, God knows, with my will, for there is
+     little chance of my living to see him return; but merely that,
+     judging by his disposition, I think the voyage of his life might
+     be otherwise lost in shallows. He has excellent parts, but they
+     are better calculated for intercourse with the world than for
+     hard and patient study. Having thus sent one son abroad from my
+     family, and being about to send off the other in due time, you
+     will not, I am sure, think that I can mean disregard to your
+     parental feelings in stating what I can do for your Walter.
+     Should his temper and character incline for active life, I think
+     I can promise to get him a cadetship in the East India Company's
+     service; so soon as he has had the necessary education, I will
+     be at the expense of his equipment and passage-money; and when he
+     reaches India, there he is completely provided, secure of a
+     competence if he lives, and with great chance of a fortune if he
+     thrives. I am aware this would be a hard pull at Mrs. Scott's
+     feelings and yours; but recollect, your fortune is small, and the
+     demands on it numerous, and pagodas and rupees are no bad things.
+     I can get Walter the first introductions, and if he behaves
+     himself as becomes your son, and my nephew, I have friends enough
+     in India, and of the highest class, to insure his success, even
+     his rapid success--always supposing my recommendations to be
+     seconded by his own conduct. If, therefore, the youth has
+     anything of your own spirit, for God's sake do not condemn him to
+     a drudgery which he will never submit to--and remember, to
+     sacrifice his fortune to your fondness will be sadly mistaken
+     affection. As matters stand, unhappily you must be separated; and
+     considering the advantages of India, the mere circumstance of
+     distance is completely counterbalanced. Health is what will
+     naturally occur to Mrs. Scott; but the climate of India is now
+     well understood, and those who attend to ordinary precautions
+     live as healthy as in Britain. And so I have said my say. Most
+     heartily will I do my best in any way you may ultimately decide
+     for; and as the decision really ought to turn on the boy's temper
+     and disposition, you must be a better judge by far than any one
+     else. But if he should resemble his father and uncle in certain
+     indolent habits, I fear he will make a better subject for an
+     animating life of enterprise than for the technical labor of an
+     accountant's desk. There is no occasion, fortunately, for forming
+     any hasty resolution. When you send him here, I will do all that
+     is in my power to stand in the place of a father to him, and you
+     may fully rely on my care and tenderness. If he should ultimately
+     stay at Edinburgh, as both my own boys leave me, I am sure I
+     shall have great pleasure in having the nearest in blood after
+     them with me. Pray send him as soon as you can, for at his age,
+     and under imperfect opportunities of education, he must have a
+     good deal to make up. I wish I could be of the same use to you
+     which I am sure I can be to your son.
+
+     Of public news I have little to send. The papers will tell you
+     the issue of the Radical row for the present. The yeomanry
+     behaved most gallantly. There is in Edinburgh a squadron as fine
+     as ours was--all young men, and zealous soldiers. They made the
+     western campaign with the greatest spirit, and had some hard and
+     fatiguing duty, long night-marches, surprises of the enemy, and
+     so forth, but no fight, for the whole Radical plot went to the
+     devil when it came to gun and sword. Scarce any blood was shed,
+     except in a trifling skirmish at Bonnymuir, near Carron. The
+     rebels were behind a wall, and fired on ten hussars and as many
+     yeomen--the latter under command of a son of James Davidson, W.
+     S. The cavalry cleared the wall, and made them prisoners to a
+     man. The Commission of Oyer and Terminer is now busy trying them
+     and others. The Edinburgh young men showed great spirit; all took
+     arms, and my daughters say (I was in London at the time) that not
+     a feasible-looking beau was to be had for love or money. Several
+     were like old Beardie; they would not shave their moustaches till
+     the Radicals were put down, and returned with most awful
+     whiskers. Lockhart is one of the cavalry, and a very good
+     trooper. It is high to hear these young fellows talk of the Raid
+     of Airdrie, the trot of Kilmarnock, and so on, like so many
+     moss-troopers.
+
+     The Queen is making an awful bustle, and though by all accounts
+     her conduct has been most abandoned and beastly, she has got the
+     whole mob for her partisans, who call her injured innocence, and
+     what not. She has courage enough to dare the worst, and a most
+     decided desire to be revenged of _him_, which, by the way, can
+     scarce be wondered at. If she had as many followers of high as
+     of low degree (in proportion), and funds to equip them, I should
+     not be surprised to see her fat bottom in a pair of buckskins,
+     and at the head of an army--God mend all. The things said of her
+     are beyond all usual profligacy. Nobody of any fashion visits
+     her. I think myself monstrously well clear of London and its
+     intrigues, when I look round my green fields, and recollect I
+     have little to do, but to
+
+       ----"make my grass mow,
+       And my apple-tree grow."
+
+     I beg my kind love to Mrs. Huxley. I have a very acceptable
+     letter from her, and I trust to retain the place she promises me
+     in her remembrance. Sophia will be happy to hear from Uncle Tom,
+     when Uncle Tom has so much leisure. My best compliments attend
+     your wife and daughters, not forgetting Major Huxley and Walter.
+     My dear Tom, it will be a happy moment when circumstances shall
+     permit us a meeting on this side Jordan, as Tabitha says, to talk
+     over old stories, and lay new plans. So many things have fallen
+     out which I had set my heart upon strongly, that I trust this may
+     happen amongst others.--Believe me, yours very affectionately,
+
+                                                     WALTER SCOTT.[97]
+
+
+[Footnote 97: Here ended Vol. IV. of the Original Edition.--(1839.)]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XLIX
+
+     Autumn at Abbotsford. -- Scott's Hospitality. -- Visit of Sir
+     Humphry Davy, Henry Mackenzie, Dr. Wollaston, and William Stewart
+     Rose. -- Coursing on Newark Hill. -- Salmon-fishing. -- The
+     Festival at Boldside. -- The Abbotsford Hunt. -- The Kirn, Etc.
+
+1820
+
+
+About the middle of August, my wife and I went to Abbotsford; and we
+remained there for several weeks, during which I became familiarized
+to Sir Walter Scott's mode of existence in the country. It was
+necessary to observe it, day after day, for a considerable period,
+before one could believe that such was, during nearly half the year,
+the routine of life with the most productive author of his age. The
+humblest person who stayed merely for a short visit, must have
+departed with the impression that what he witnessed was an occasional
+variety; that Scott's courtesy prompted him to break in upon his
+habits when he had a stranger to amuse; but that it was physically
+impossible that the man who was writing the Waverley romances at the
+rate of nearly twelve volumes in the year, could continue, week after
+week, and month after month, to devote all but a hardly perceptible
+fraction of his mornings to out-of-doors occupations, and the whole of
+his evenings to the entertainment of a constantly varying circle of
+guests.
+
+The hospitality of his afternoons must alone have been enough to
+exhaust the energies of almost any man; for his visitors did not
+mean, like those of country-houses in general, to enjoy the landlord's
+good cheer and amuse each other; but the far greater proportion
+arrived from a distance, for the sole sake of the Poet and Novelist
+himself, whose person they had never before seen, and whose voice they
+might never again have any opportunity of hearing. No other villa in
+Europe was ever resorted to from the same motives, and to anything
+like the same extent, except Ferney; and Voltaire never dreamt of
+being visible to his _hunters_, except for a brief space of the
+day;--few of them even dined with him, and none of them seem to have
+slept under his roof. Scott's establishment, on the contrary,
+resembled in every particular that of the affluent idler, who, because
+he has inherited, or would fain transmit, political influence in some
+province, keeps open house--receives as many as he has room for, and
+sees their apartments occupied, as soon as they vacate them, by
+another troop of the same description. Even on gentlemen guiltless of
+inkshed, the exercise of hospitality upon this sort of scale is found
+to impose a heavy tax; few of them, nowadays, think of maintaining it
+for any large portion of the year: very few indeed below the highest
+rank of the nobility--in whose case there is usually a staff of
+led-captains, led-chaplains, servile dandies, and semi-professional
+talkers and jokers from London, to take the chief part of the burden.
+Now, Scott had often in his mouth the pithy verses,--
+
+  "Conversation is but carving:--
+   Give no more to every guest,
+   Than he's able to digest;
+   Give him always of the prime,
+   And but little at a time;
+   Carve to all but just enough,
+   Let them neither starve nor stuff,
+  _And that you may have your due,
+   Let your neighbors carve for you:_"--
+
+and he, in his own familiar circle always, and in other circles where
+it was possible, furnished a happy exemplification of these rules and
+regulations of the Dean of St. Patrick's. But the same sense and
+benevolence which dictated adhesion to them among his old friends and
+acquaintance, rendered it necessary to break them when he was
+receiving strangers of the class I have described above at Abbotsford:
+he felt that their coming was the best homage they could pay to his
+celebrity, and that it would have been as uncourteous in him not to
+give them their fill of his talk, as it would be in your every-day
+lord of manors to make his casual guests welcome indeed to his
+venison, but keep his grouse-shooting for his immediate allies and
+dependents.
+
+Every now and then he received some stranger who was not indisposed to
+take his part in the _carving_; and how good-humoredly he surrendered
+the lion's share to any one that seemed to covet it--with what perfect
+placidity he submitted to be bored even by bores of the first water,
+must have excited the admiration of many besides the daily observers
+of his proceedings. I have heard a spruce Senior Wrangler lecture him
+for half an evening on the niceties of the Greek epigram; I have heard
+the poorest of all parliamentary blunderers try to detail to him the
+_pros_ and _cons_ of what he called the _Truck System_; and in either
+case the same bland eye watched the lips of the tormentor. But, with
+such ludicrous exceptions, Scott was the one object of the Abbotsford
+pilgrims; and evening followed evening only to show him exerting, for
+their amusement, more of animal spirits, to say nothing of
+intellectual vigor, than would have been considered by any other man
+in the company as sufficient for the whole expenditure of a week's
+existence. Yet this was not the chief marvel; he talked of things that
+interested himself, because he knew that by doing so he should give
+most pleasure to his guests. But how vast was the range of subjects on
+which he could talk with unaffected zeal; and with what admirable
+delicacy of instinctive politeness did he select his topic according
+to the peculiar history, study, pursuits, or social habits of the
+stranger!--How beautifully he varied his style of letter-writing,
+according to the character and situation of his multifarious
+correspondents, the reader has already been enabled to judge; but to
+carry the same system into practice _at sight_--to manage utter
+strangers, of many and widely different classes, in the same fashion,
+and with the same effect--called for a quickness of observation, and
+fertility of resource, such as no description can convey the slightest
+notion of to those who never witnessed the thing for themselves. And
+all this was done without approach to the unmanly trickery of what is
+called _catching the tone_ of the person one converses with. Scott
+took the subject on which he thought such a man or woman would like
+best to hear him speak--but not to handle it in their way, or in any
+way but what was completely, and most simply his own;--not to flatter
+them by embellishing, with the illustration of his genius, the views
+and opinions which they were supposed to entertain,--but to let his
+genius play out its own variations, for his own delight and theirs, as
+freely and easily, and with as endless a multiplicity of delicious
+novelties, as ever the magic of Beethoven or Mozart could fling over
+the few primitive notes of a village air.
+
+It is the custom in some, perhaps in many country-houses, to keep a
+register of the guests, and I have often regretted that nothing of the
+sort was ever attempted at Abbotsford. It would have been a curious
+record--especially if so contrived (as I have seen done) that the
+names of each day should, by their arrangement on the page, indicate
+the exact order in which the company sat at dinner. It would hardly, I
+believe, be too much to affirm, that Sir Walter Scott entertained,
+under his roof, in the course of the seven or eight brilliant seasons
+when his prosperity was at its height, as many persons of distinction
+in rank, in politics, in art, in literature, and in science, as the
+most princely nobleman of his age ever did in the like space of
+time.--I turned over, since I wrote the preceding sentence, Mr.
+Lodge's compendium of the British Peerage, and on summing up the
+titles which suggested _to myself_ some reminiscence of this kind, I
+found them nearly as one out of six.--I fancy it is not beyond the
+mark to add, that of the eminent foreigners who visited our island
+within this period, a moiety crossed the Channel mainly in consequence
+of the interest with which his writings had invested Scotland--and
+that the hope of beholding the man under his own roof was the crowning
+motive with half that moiety. As for countrymen of his own, like him
+ennobled, in the higher sense of that word, by the display of their
+intellectual energies, if any one such contemporary can be pointed out
+as having crossed the Tweed, and yet not spent a day at Abbotsford, I
+shall be surprised.
+
+It is needless to add, that Sir Walter was familiarly known, long
+before the days I am speaking of, to almost all the nobility and
+higher gentry of Scotland; and consequently, that there seldom wanted
+a fair proportion of them to assist him in doing the honors of his
+country. It is still more superfluous to say so respecting the heads
+of his own profession at Edinburgh: _Sibi et amicis_--Abbotsford was
+their villa whenever they pleased to resort to it, and few of them
+were ever absent from it long. He lived meanwhile in a constant
+interchange of easy visits with the gentlemen's families of Teviotdale
+and the Forest; so that, mixed up with his superfine admirers of the
+Mayfair breed, his staring worshippers from foreign parts, and his
+quick-witted coevals of the Parliament House--there was found
+generally some hearty homespun laird, with his dame--the young laird,
+a bashful bumpkin, perhaps, whose ideas did not soar beyond his gun
+and pointer--or perhaps a little pseudo-dandy, for whom the Kelso
+race-course and the Jedburgh ball were "Life," and "the World;" and
+not forgetting a brace of "Miss Rawbolds,"[98] in whom, as their mamma
+prognosticated, some of Sir Walter's young Waverleys or Osbaldistones
+might peradventure discover a Flora MacIvor or a Die Vernon. To
+complete the _olla podrida_, we must remember that no old
+acquaintance, or family connections, however remote their actual
+station or style of manners from his own, were forgotten or lost sight
+of. He had some, even near relations, who, except when they visited
+him, rarely, if ever, found admittance to what the haughty dialect of
+the upper world is pleased to designate exclusively as _society_.
+These were welcome guests, let who might be under that roof; and it
+was the same with many a worthy citizen of Edinburgh, habitually
+moving in the obscurest of circles, who had been in the same class
+with Scott at the High School, or his fellow-apprentice when he was
+proud of earning threepence a page by the use of his pen. To dwell on
+nothing else, it was surely a beautiful perfection of real universal
+humanity and politeness, that could enable this great and good man to
+blend guests so multifarious in one group, and contrive to make them
+all equally happy with him, with themselves, and with each other.
+
+[Footnote 98:
+
+  "There were the six Miss Rawbolds--pretty dears!
+   All song and sentiment; whose hearts were set
+   Less on a convent than a coronet."
+
+                    _Don Juan_, canto xiii. st. 85.]
+
+I remember saying to William Allan one morning as the whole party
+mustered before the porch after breakfast, "A faithful sketch of what
+you at this moment see would be more interesting a hundred years
+hence, than the grandest so-called historical picture that you will
+ever exhibit at Somerset House;" and my friend agreed with me so
+cordially, that I often wondered afterwards he had not attempted to
+realize the suggestion. The subject ought, however, to have been
+treated conjointly by him (or Wilkie) and Edwin Landseer. It was a
+clear, bright September morning, with a sharpness in the air that
+doubled the animating influence of the sunshine, and all was in
+readiness for a grand coursing-match on Newark Hill. The only guest
+who had chalked out other sport for himself was the stanchest of
+anglers, Mr. Rose;--but he, too, was there on his _shelty_, armed with
+his salmon-rod and landing-net, and attended by his humorous squire
+Hinves, and Charlie Purdie, a brother of Tom, in those days the most
+celebrated fisherman of the district. This little group of Waltonians,
+bound for Lord Somerville's preserve, remained lounging about to
+witness the start of the main cavalcade. Sir Walter, mounted on Sibyl,
+was marshalling the order of procession with a huge hunting-whip; and
+among a dozen frolicsome youths and maidens, who seemed disposed to
+laugh at all discipline, appeared, each on horseback, each as eager as
+the youngest sportsman in the troop, Sir Humphry Davy, Dr. Wollaston,
+and the patriarch of Scottish belles-lettres, Henry Mackenzie. The Man
+of Feeling, however, was persuaded with some difficulty to resign his
+steed for the present to his faithful negro follower, and to join Lady
+Scott in the sociable, until we should reach the ground of our
+_battue_. Laidlaw, on a long-tailed wiry Highlander, yclept _Hoddin
+Grey_, which carried him nimbly and stoutly, although his feet almost
+touched the ground as he sat, was the adjutant. But the most
+picturesque figure was the illustrious inventor of the safety-lamp. He
+had come for his favorite sport of angling, and had been practising it
+successfully with Rose, his travelling companion, for two or three
+days preceding this, but he had not prepared for coursing fields, or
+had left Charlie Purdie's troop for Sir Walter's on a sudden thought;
+and his fisherman's costume--a brown hat with flexible brims,
+surrounded with line upon line, and innumerable fly-hooks--jack-boots
+worthy of a Dutch smuggler, and a fustian surtout dabbled with the
+blood of salmon, made a fine contrast with the smart jackets,
+white-cord breeches, and well-polished jockey-boots of the less
+distinguished cavaliers about him. Dr. Wollaston was in black, and,
+with his noble serene dignity of countenance, might have passed for a
+sporting archbishop.[99] Mr. Mackenzie, at this time in the
+seventy-sixth year of his age, with a white hat turned up with green,
+green spectacles, green jacket, and long brown leathern gaiters
+buttoned upon his nether anatomy, wore a dog-whistle round his neck,
+and had all over the air of as resolute a devotee as the gay Captain
+of Huntly Burn. Tom Purdie and his subalterns had preceded us by a few
+hours with all the greyhounds that could be collected at Abbotsford,
+Darnick, and Melrose; but the giant Maida had remained as his master's
+orderly, and now gambolled about Sibyl Grey, barking for mere joy like
+a spaniel puppy.
+
+[Footnote 99: [William Hyde Wollaston, the distinguished physiologist,
+chemist, and physicist.]]
+
+The order of march had been all settled, and the sociable was just
+getting under weigh, when _the Lady Anne_ broke from the line,
+screaming with laughter, and exclaimed, "Papa, papa, I knew you could
+never think of going without your pet." Scott looked round, and I
+rather think there was a blush as well as a smile upon his face, when
+he perceived a little black pig frisking about his pony, and evidently
+a self-elected addition to the party of the day. He tried to look
+stern, and cracked his whip at the creature, but was in a moment
+obliged to join in the general cheers. Poor piggy soon found a strap
+round its neck, and was dragged into the background:--Scott, watching
+the retreat, repeated with mock pathos the first verse of an old
+pastoral song,--
+
+  "What will I do gin my hoggie[100] die?
+     My joy, my pride, my hoggie!
+   My only beast, I had nae mae,
+     And wow! but I was vogie!"
+
+--the cheers were redoubled--and the squadron moved on.
+
+[Footnote 100: _Hog_ signifies in the Scotch dialect a young sheep
+that has never been shorn. Hence, no doubt, the name of the Poet of
+Ettrick--derived from a long line of shepherds. Mr. Charles Lamb,
+however, in one of his sonnets suggests this pretty origin of _his_
+"Family Name:"--
+
+  "Perhaps some shepherd on Lincolnian plains,
+   In manners guileless as his own sweet flocks,
+   Received it first amid the merry mocks
+   And arch allusions of his fellow swains."]
+
+This pig had taken--nobody could tell how--a most sentimental
+attachment to Scott, and was constantly urging its pretensions to be
+admitted a regular member of his _tail_ along with the greyhounds and
+terriers; but, indeed, I remember him suffering another summer under
+the same sort of pertinacity on the part of an affectionate hen. I
+leave the explanation for philosophers--but such were the facts. I
+have too much respect for the vulgarly calumniated donkey to name him
+in the same category of pets with the pig and the hen; but a year or
+two after this time, my wife used to drive a couple of these animals
+in a little garden chair, and whenever her father appeared at the door
+of our cottage, we were sure to see Hannah More and Lady Morgan (as
+Anne Scott had wickedly christened them) trotting from their pasture
+to lay their noses over the paling, and, as Washington Irving says of
+the old white-haired hedger with the Parisian snuff-box, "to have a
+pleasant crack wi' the laird."
+
+But to return to our _chasse_. On reaching Newark Castle, we found
+Lady Scott, her eldest daughter, and the venerable Mackenzie, all
+busily engaged in unpacking a basket that had been placed in their
+carriage, and arranging the luncheon it contained upon the mossy rocks
+overhanging the bed of the Yarrow. When such of the company as chose
+had partaken of this refection, the Man of Feeling resumed his pony,
+and all ascended the mountain, duly marshalled at proper distances, so
+as to beat in a broad line over the heather, Sir Walter directing the
+movement from the right wing--towards Blackandro. Davy, next to whom
+I chanced to be riding, laid his whip about the fern like an
+experienced hand, but cracked many a joke, too, upon his own
+jack-boots, and surveying the long eager battalion of bushrangers,
+exclaimed, "Good heavens! is it thus that I visit the scenery of The
+Lay of the Last Minstrel?" He then kept muttering to himself, as his
+glowing eye (the finest and brightest that I ever saw) ran over the
+landscape, some of those beautiful lines from the _Conclusion_ of the
+Lay:--
+
+                   ---- "But still,
+  When summer smiled on sweet Bowhill,
+  And July's eve, with balmy breath,
+  Waved the blue-bells on Newark heath,
+  When throstles sung in Hareheadshaw,
+  And corn was green on Carterhaugh,
+  And flourished, broad, Blackandro's oak,
+  The aged harper's soul awoke," etc.
+
+Mackenzie, spectacled though he was, saw the first sitting hare, gave
+the word to slip the dogs, and spurred after them like a boy. All the
+seniors, indeed, did well as long as the course was upwards, but when
+puss took down the declivity, they halted and breathed themselves upon
+the knoll--cheering gayly, however, the young people, who dashed at
+full speed past and below them. Coursing on such a mountain is not
+like the same sport over a set of fine English pastures. There were
+gulfs to be avoided and bogs enough to be threaded--many a stiff nag
+stuck fast--many a bold rider measured his length among the
+peat-hags--and another stranger to the ground besides Davy plunged
+neck-deep into a treacherous well-head, which, till they were
+floundering in it, had borne all the appearance of a piece of delicate
+green turf. When Sir Humphry emerged from his involuntary bath, his
+habiliments garnished with mud, slime, and mangled water-cresses, Sir
+Walter received him with a triumphant _encore!_ But the philosopher
+had his revenge, for joining soon afterwards in a brisk gallop, Scott
+put Sibyl Grey to a leap beyond her prowess, and lay humbled in the
+ditch, while Davy, who was better mounted, cleared it and him at a
+bound. Happily there was little damage done--but no one was sorry that
+the sociable had been detained at the foot of the hill.
+
+I have seen Sir Humphry in many places, and in company of many
+different descriptions; but never to such advantage as at Abbotsford.
+His host and he delighted in each other, and the modesty of their
+mutual admiration was a memorable spectacle. Davy was by nature a
+poet--and Scott, though anything but a philosopher in the modern sense
+of that term, might, I think it very likely, have pursued the study of
+physical science with zeal and success, had he happened to fall in
+with such an instructor as Sir Humphry would have been to him, in his
+early life. Each strove to make the other talk--and they did so in
+turn more charmingly than I ever heard either on any other occasion
+whatsoever. Scott in his romantic narratives touched a deeper chord of
+feeling than usual, when he had such a listener as Davy; and Davy,
+when induced to open his views upon any question of scientific
+interest in Scott's presence, did so with a degree of clear energetic
+eloquence, and with a flow of imagery and illustration, of which
+neither his habitual tone of table-talk (least of all in London), nor
+any of his prose writings (except, indeed, the posthumous Consolations
+of Travel) could suggest an adequate notion. I say his prose
+writings--for who that has read his sublime quatrains on the doctrine
+of Spinoza can doubt that he might have united, if he had pleased, in
+some great didactic poem, the vigorous ratiocination of Dryden and the
+moral majesty of Wordsworth? I remember William Laidlaw whispering to
+me, one night, when their "rapt talk" had kept the circle round the
+fire until long after the usual bedtime of Abbotsford: "Gude preserve
+us! this is a very superior occasion! Eh, sirs!" he added, cocking his
+eye like a bird, "I wonder if Shakespeare and Bacon ever met to screw
+ilk other up?"
+
+Since I have touched on the subject of Sir Walter's autumnal
+diversions in these his later years, I may as well notice here two
+annual festivals, when sport was made his pretext for assembling his
+rural neighbors about him--days eagerly anticipated, and fondly
+remembered by many. One was a solemn bout of salmon-fishing for the
+neighboring gentry and their families, instituted originally, I
+believe, by Lord Somerville, but now, in his absence, conducted and
+presided over by the Sheriff. Charles Purdie, already mentioned, had
+charge (partly as lessee) of the salmon-fisheries for three or four
+miles of the Tweed, including all the water attached to the lands of
+Abbotsford, Gala, and Allwyn; and this festival had been established
+with a view, besides other considerations, of recompensing him for the
+attention he always bestowed on any of the lairds or their visitors
+that chose to fish, either from the banks or the boat, within his
+jurisdiction. His selection of the day, and other precautions,
+generally secured an abundance of sport for the great anniversary; and
+then the whole party assembled to regale on the newly caught prey,
+boiled, grilled, and roasted in every variety of preparation, beneath
+a grand old ash, adjoining Charlie's cottage at Boldside, on the
+northern margin of the Tweed, about a mile above Abbotsford. This
+banquet took place earlier in the day or later, according to
+circumstances; but it often lasted till the harvest moon shone on the
+lovely scene and its revellers. These formed groups that would have
+done no discredit to Watteau--and a still better hand has painted the
+background in the Introduction to The Monastery: "On the opposite bank
+of the Tweed might be seen the remains of ancient enclosures,
+surrounded by sycamores and ash-trees of considerable size. These had
+once formed the crofts or arable ground of a village, now reduced to a
+single hut, the abode of a fisherman, who also manages a ferry. The
+cottages, even the church which once existed there, have sunk into
+vestiges hardly to be traced without visiting the spot, the
+inhabitants having gradually withdrawn to the more prosperous town of
+Galashiels, which has risen into consideration within two miles of
+their neighborhood. Superstitious eld, however, has tenanted the
+deserted grove with aërial beings, to supply the want of the mortal
+tenants who have deserted it. The ruined and abandoned churchyard of
+Boldside has been long believed to be haunted by the Fairies, and the
+deep broad current of the Tweed, wheeling in moonlight round the foot
+of the steep bank, with the number of trees originally planted for
+shelter round the fields of the cottagers, but now presenting the
+effect of scattered and detached groves, fill up the idea which one
+would form in imagination for a scene that Oberon and Queen Mab might
+love to revel in. There are evenings when the spectator might believe,
+with Father Chaucer, that the
+
+  ----'Queen of Faëry,
+  With harp, and pipe, and symphony,
+  Were dwelling in the place.'"
+
+Sometimes the evening closed with a "burning of the water;" and then
+the Sheriff, though now not so agile as when he practised that rough
+sport in the early times of Ashestiel, was sure to be one of the party
+in the boat,--held a torch, or perhaps took the helm,--and seemed to
+enjoy the whole thing as heartily as the youngest of his company,--
+
+  "'T is blithe along the midnight tide,
+   With stalwart arm the boat to guide--
+   On high the dazzling blaze to rear,
+   And heedful plunge the barbed spear;
+   Rock, wood, and scaur, emerging bright,
+   Fling on the stream their ruddy light,
+   And from the bank our band appears
+   Like Genii armed with fiery spears."[101]
+
+[Footnote 101: See _Poetical Works_, vol. xi. pp 334, 335 [Cambridge
+Ed. p. 467].]
+
+The other "superior occasion" came later in the season; the 28th of
+October, the birthday of Sir Walter's eldest son, was, I think, that
+usually selected for _the Abbotsford Hunt_. This was a coursing-field on
+a large scale, including, with as many of the young gentry as pleased to
+attend, all Scott's personal favorites among the yeomen and farmers of
+the surrounding country. The Sheriff always took the field, but latterly
+devolved the command upon his good friend Mr. John Usher, the ex-laird
+of Toftfield; and he could not have had a more skilful or a
+better-humored lieutenant. The hunt took place either on the moors above
+the Cauldshiels Loch, or over some of the hills on the estate of Gala,
+and we had commonly, ere we returned, hares enough to supply the wife of
+every farmer that attended, with soup for a week following. The whole
+then dined at Abbotsford, the Sheriff in the chair, Adam Ferguson
+croupier, and Dominie Thomson, of course, chaplain. George, by the way,
+was himself an eager partaker in the preliminary sport; and now he would
+favor us with a grace, in Burns's phrase, "as long as my arm," beginning
+with thanks to the Almighty, who had given man dominion over the fowls
+of the air, and the beasts of the field, and expatiating on this text
+with so luculent a commentary, that Scott, who had been fumbling with
+his spoon long before he reached his Amen, could not help exclaiming as
+he sat down, "Well done, Mr. George! I think we've had everything but
+the view holla!" The company, whose onset had been thus deferred, were
+seldom, I think, under thirty in number, and sometimes they exceeded
+forty. The feast was such as suited the occasion--a baron of beef,
+roasted, at the foot of the table, a salted round at the head, while
+tureens of hare-soup, hotchpotch, and cocky-leeky, extended down the
+centre, and such light articles as geese, turkeys, entire sucking-pigs,
+a singed sheep's head, and the unfailing haggis, were set forth by way
+of side dishes. Blackcock and moorfowl, bushels of snipe, _black
+puddings_, _white puddings_, and pyramids of pancakes, formed the
+second course. Ale was the favorite beverage during dinner, but there
+was plenty of port and sherry for those whose stomachs they suited. The
+quaighs of Glenlivet were filled brimful, and tossed off as if they held
+water. The wine decanters made a few rounds of the table, but the hints
+for hot punch and toddy soon became clamorous. Two or three bowls were
+introduced, and placed under the supervision of experienced
+manufacturers,--one of these being usually the Ettrick Shepherd,--and
+then the business of the evening commenced in good earnest. The faces
+shone and glowed like those at Camacho's wedding: the chairman told his
+richest stories of old rural life, Lowland or Highland; Ferguson and
+humbler heroes fought their peninsular battles o'er again; the stalwart
+Dandie Dinmonts lugged out their last winter's snowstorm, the parish
+scandal, perhaps, or the dexterous bargain of the Northumberland
+_tryste_; and every man was knocked down for the song that he sung best,
+or took most pleasure in singing. Sheriff-Substitute Shortreed (a
+cheerful, hearty, little man, with a sparkling eye and a most infectious
+laugh) gave us Dick o' the Cow, or Now Liddesdale has ridden a Raid; his
+son Thomas (Sir Walter's assiduous disciple and assistant in Border
+Heraldry and Genealogy) shone without a rival in The Douglas Tragedy and
+The Twa Corbies; a weather-beaten, stiff-bearded veteran, _Captain_
+Ormistoun, as he was called (though I doubt if his rank was recognized
+at the Horse-Guards), had the primitive pastoral of Cowdenknowes in
+sweet perfection; Hogg produced The Women Folk, or The Kye comes Hame;
+and, in spite of many grinding notes, contrived to make everybody
+delighted, whether with the fun or the pathos of his ballad; the Melrose
+doctor sang in spirited style some of Moore's masterpieces; a couple of
+retired sailors joined in Bould Admiral Duncan upon the High Sea;--and
+the gallant croupier crowned the last bowl with Ale, good Ale, thou art
+my Darling! Imagine some smart Parisian _savant_--some dreamy pedant of
+Halle or Heidelberg--a brace of stray young Lords from Oxford or
+Cambridge, or perhaps their prim college tutors, planted here and there
+amidst these rustic wassailers--this being their first vision of the
+author of Marmion and Ivanhoe, and he appearing as heartily at home in
+the scene as if he had been a veritable _Dandie_ himself--his face
+radiant, his laugh gay as childhood, his chorus always ready. And so it
+proceeded until some worthy, who had fifteen or twenty miles to ride
+home, began to insinuate that his wife and bairns would be getting
+sorely anxious about the fords, and the Dumples and Hoddins were at last
+heard neighing at the gate, and it was voted that the hour had come for
+_doch an dorrach_--the stirrup-cup--to wit, a bumper all round of the
+unmitigated _mountain dew_. How they all contrived to get home in
+safety, Heaven only knows--but I never heard of any serious accident
+except upon one occasion, when James Hogg made a bet at starting that he
+would leap over his wall-eyed pony as she stood, and broke his nose in
+this experiment of "o'ervaulting ambition." One comely goodwife, far off
+among the hills, amused Sir Walter by telling him, the next time he
+passed her homestead after one of these jolly doings, what her husband's
+first words were when he alighted at his own door: "Ailie, my woman, I'm
+ready for my bed, and oh lass (he gallantly added), I wish I could sleep
+for a towmont, for there's only ae thing in this warld worth living for,
+and that's the Abbotsford Hunt!"
+
+It may well be supposed that the President of the Boldside Festival
+and the Abbotsford Hunt did not omit the good old custom of _the
+Kirn_. Every November, before quitting the country for Edinburgh, he
+gave a _harvest-home_, on the most approved model of former days, to
+all the peasantry on his estate, their friends and kindred, and as
+many poor neighbors besides as his barn could hold. Here old and
+young danced from sunset to sunrise,--John of Skye's bagpipe being
+relieved at intervals by the violin of some Wandering Willie;--and the
+laird and all his family were present during the early part of the
+evening--he and his wife to distribute the contents of the first tub
+of whiskey-punch, and his young people to take their due share in the
+endless reels and hornpipes of the earthen floor. As Mr. Morritt has
+said of him as he appeared at Laird Nippy's kirn of earlier days, "To
+witness the cordiality of his reception might have unbent a
+misanthrope." He had his private joke for every old wife or "gausie
+carle," his arch compliment for the ear of every bonny lass, and his
+hand and his blessing for the head of every little _Eppie Daidle_ from
+Abbotstown or Broomielees.
+
+"The notable paradox," he says in one of the most charming of his
+essays, "that the residence of a proprietor upon his estate is of as
+little consequence as the bodily presence of a stockholder upon
+Exchange, has, we believe, been renounced. At least, as in the case of
+the Duchess of Suffolk's relationship to her own child, the vulgar
+continue to be of opinion that there is some difference in favor of
+the next hamlet and village, and even of the vicinage in general, when
+the squire spends his rents at the manor-house, instead of cutting a
+figure in France or Italy. A celebrated politician used to say he
+would willingly bring in one bill to make poaching felony, another to
+encourage the breed of foxes, and a third to revive the decayed
+amusements of cock-fighting and bullbaiting--that he would make, in
+short, any sacrifice to the humors and prejudices of the country
+gentlemen, in their most extravagant form, provided only he could
+prevail upon them to 'dwell in their own houses, be the patrons of
+their own tenantry, and the fathers of their own children.'"[102]
+
+[Footnote 102: Essay on Landscape Gardening, _Miscellaneous Prose
+Works_, vol. xxi. p. 77.]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER L
+
+     Publication of the Abbot. -- The Blair-Adam Club. -- Kelso,
+     Walton Hall, Etc. -- Ballantyne's Novelists' Library. --
+     Acquittal of Queen Caroline. -- Service of the Duke of Buccleuch.
+     -- Scott Elected President of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. --
+     The Celtic Society. -- Letters to Lord Montagu, Cornet Scott,
+     Charles Scott, Allan Cunningham, Etc. -- Kenilworth Published.
+
+1820-1821
+
+
+In the September of 1820, Longman, in conjunction with Constable,
+published The Abbot--the continuation, to a certain extent, of The
+Monastery, of which I barely mentioned the appearance under the
+preceding March. I had nothing of any consequence to add to the
+information which the subsequent Introduction affords us respecting
+the composition and fate of the former of these novels. It was
+considered as a failure--the first of the series on which any such
+sentence was pronounced;--nor have I much to allege in favor of the
+White Lady of Avenel, generally criticised as the primary blot--or of
+Sir Piercie Shafton, who was loudly, though not quite so generally,
+condemned. In either case, considered separately, he seems to have
+erred from dwelling (in the German taste) on materials that might have
+done very well for a rapid sketch. The phantom, with whom we have
+leisure to become familiar, is sure to fail--even the witch of Endor
+is contented with a momentary appearance and five syllables of the
+shade she evokes. And we may say the same of any grotesque absurdity
+in human manners. Scott might have considered with advantage how
+lightly and briefly Shakespeare introduces _his_ Euphuism--though
+actually the prevalent humor of the hour when he was writing. But
+perhaps these errors might have attracted little notice had the
+novelist been successful in finding some reconciling medium capable of
+giving consistence and harmony to his naturally incongruous materials.
+"These," said one of his ablest critics, "are joined--but they refuse
+to blend. Nothing can be more poetical in conception, and sometimes in
+language, than the fiction of the White Maid of Avenel; but when this
+ethereal personage, who rides on the cloud which 'for Araby is
+bound'--who is
+
+  'Something between heaven and hell,
+   Something that neither stood nor fell,'
+
+whose existence is linked by an awful and mysterious destiny to the
+fortunes of a decaying family; when such a being as this descends to
+clownish pranks, and promotes a frivolous jest about a tailor's
+bodkin, the course of our sympathies is rudely arrested, and we feel
+as if the author had put upon us the old-fashioned pleasantry of
+selling a bargain."[103]
+
+[Footnote 103: Adolphus's _Letters to Heber_, p. 13.]
+
+The beautiful natural scenery, and the sterling Scotch characters and
+manners introduced in The Monastery are, however, sufficient to redeem
+even these mistakes; and, indeed, I am inclined to believe that it
+will ultimately occupy a securer place than some romances enjoying
+hitherto a far higher reputation, in which he makes no use of Scottish
+materials.
+
+Sir Walter himself thought well of The Abbot when he had finished it.
+When he sent me a complete copy I found on a slip of paper at the
+beginning of volume first, these two lines from Tom Crib's Memorial to
+Congress:--
+
+  "Up he rose in a funk, lapped a toothful of brandy,
+   And _to it_ again!--any odds upon Sandy!"--
+
+and whatever ground he had been supposed to lose in The Monastery,
+part at least of it was regained by this tale, and especially by its
+most graceful and pathetic portraiture of Mary Stuart. "The Castle of
+Lochleven," says the Chief-Commissioner Adam, "is seen at every turn
+from the northern side of Blair-Adam. This castle, renowned and
+attractive above all the others in my neighborhood, became an object
+of much increased attention, and a theme of constant conversation,
+after the author of Waverley had, by his inimitable power of
+delineating character--by his creative poetic fancy in representing
+scenes of varied interest--and by the splendor of his romantic
+descriptions, infused a more diversified and a deeper tone of feeling
+into the history of Queen Mary's captivity and escape."
+
+I have introduced this quotation from a little book privately printed
+for the amiable Judge's own family and familiar friends, because Sir
+Walter owned to myself at the time, that the idea of The Abbot had
+arisen in his mind during a visit to Blair-Adam. In the pages of the
+tale itself, indeed, the beautiful localities of that estate are
+distinctly mentioned, with an allusion to the virtues and manners that
+adorn its mansion, such as must have been intended to satisfy the
+possessor (if he could have had any doubts on the subject) as to the
+authorship of those novels.
+
+The Right Honorable William Adam (who must pardon my mentioning him
+here as the only man I ever knew that rivalled Sir Walter Scott in
+uniform graciousness of _bonhomie_ and gentleness of humor)[104] was
+appointed, in 1815, to the Presidency of the Court for Jury Trial in
+Civil Cases, then instituted in Scotland, and he thenceforth spent a
+great part of his time at his paternal seat in Kinross-shire. Here,
+about midsummer, 1816, he received a visit from his near relation
+William Clerk, Adam Ferguson, his hereditary friend and especial
+favorite, and their lifelong intimate, Scott. They remained with him
+for two or three days, in the course of which they were all so much
+delighted with their host, and he with them, that it was resolved to
+reassemble the party, with a few additions, at the same season of
+every following year. This was the origin of the Blair-Adam Club, the
+regular members of which were in number nine; namely, the four already
+named--the Chief-Commissioner's son, Admiral Sir Charles Adam--his
+son-in-law, the late Mr. Anstruther Thomson of Charleton, in
+Fifeshire--Mr. Thomas Thomson, the Deputy-Register of Scotland--his
+brother, the Rev. John Thomson, minister of Duddingston, who, though a
+most diligent and affectionate parish priest, has found leisure to
+make himself one of the first masters of the British School of
+Landscape Painting--and the Right Hon. Sir Samuel Shepherd, who, after
+filling with high distinction the office of Attorney-General in
+England, became Chief Baron of the Court of Exchequer in Scotland,
+shortly after the third anniversary of this brotherhood, into which he
+was immediately welcomed with unanimous cordiality. They usually
+contrived to meet on a Friday; spent the Saturday in a ride to some
+scene of historical interest within an easy distance; enjoyed a quiet
+Sunday at home--"duly attending divine worship at the Kirk of Cleish
+(not Cleishbotham)"--gave Monday morning to another antiquarian
+excursion, and returned to Edinburgh in time for the Courts of
+Tuesday. From 1816 to 1831 inclusive, Sir Walter was a constant
+attendant at these meetings. He visited in this way Castle Campbell,
+Magus Moor, Falkland, Dunfermline, St. Andrews, and many other scenes
+of ancient celebrity: to one of those trips we must ascribe his
+dramatic sketch of Macduff's Cross--and to that of the dog-days of
+1819, we owe the weightier obligation of The Abbot.
+
+[Footnote 104: See _ante_, vol. v. p. 34.]
+
+I expect an easy forgiveness for introducing from the _liber
+rarissimus_ of Blair-Adam the page that belongs to that particular
+meeting--which, though less numerous than usual, is recorded as having
+been "most pleasing and delightful." "There were," writes the
+President, "only five of us; the Chief Baron, Sir Walter, Mr. Clerk,
+Charles Adam, and myself. The weather was sultry, almost beyond
+bearing. We did not stir beyond the bounds of the pleasure-ground,
+indeed not far from the vicinity of the house; wandering from one
+shady place to another, lolling upon the grass, or sitting upon
+prostrate trees not yet carried away by the purchaser. Our
+conversation was constant, though tranquil; and what might be expected
+from Mr. Clerk, who is a superior converser, and whose mind is stored
+with knowledge; and from Sir Walter Scott, who has let the public know
+what his powers are. Our talk was of all sorts (except of _beeves_).
+Besides a display of their historic knowledge, at once extensive and
+correct, they touched frequently on the pleasing reminiscences of
+their early days. Shepherd and I could not go back to those periods;
+but we could trace our own intimacy and constant friendship for more
+than forty years back, when in 1783 we began our professional pursuits
+on the Circuit. So that if Scott could describe, with inconceivable
+humor, their doings at Mr. Murray's of Simprim, when emerging from
+boyhood; when he, and Murray, and Clerk, and Adam Ferguson, acted
+plays in the schoolroom (Simprim making the dominie bear his
+part)--when Ferguson was prompter, orchestra, and audience--and as
+Scott said, representing the whole pit, kicked up an 'O. P.' row by
+anticipation; and many other such recollections--Shepherd and I could
+tell of our Circuit fooleries, as old Fielding (the son of the great
+novelist) called them--of the Circuit songs which Will Fielding made
+and sung,--and of the grave Sir William Grant (then a briefless
+barrister), ycleped by Fielding the Chevalier Grant, bearing his part
+in those fooleries, enjoying all our pranks with great zest, and who
+talked of them with delight to his dying day. When the conversation
+took a graver tone, and turned upon literary subjects, the Chief-Baron
+took a great share in it; for notwithstanding his infirmity of
+deafness, he is a most pleasing and agreeable converser, and readily
+picks up what is passing; and having a classical mind and classical
+information, gives a pleasing, gentlemanly, and well-informed tone to
+general conversation.--Before I bring these recollections of our
+social and cheerful doings to a close, let me observe, that there was
+a characteristic feature attending them, which it would be injustice
+to the individuals who composed our parties not to mention. The whole
+set of us were addicted to take a full share of conversation, and to
+discuss every subject that occurred with sufficient keenness. The
+topics were multifarious, and the opinions of course various; but
+during the whole time of our intercourse, for so many years, four days
+at a time, and always together, except when we were asleep, there
+never was the least tendency, on any occasion, to any unruly debate,
+nor to anything that deviated from the pure delight of social
+intercourse."
+
+The Chief-Commissioner adds the following particulars in his
+appendix:--
+
+
+     "Our return from Blair-Adam (after the first meeting of the Club)
+     was very early on a Tuesday morning, that we might reach the
+     Courts by nine o'clock. An occurrence took place near the Hawes'
+     Inn, which left little doubt upon my mind that Sir Walter Scott
+     was the author of Waverley, of Guy Mannering, and of The
+     Antiquary, his only novels then published. The morning was
+     prodigiously fine, and the sea as smooth as glass. Sir Walter and
+     I were standing on the beach, enjoying the prospect; the other
+     gentlemen were not come from the boat. The porpoises were rising
+     in great numbers, when Sir Walter said to me, 'Look at them, how
+     they are showing themselves; what fine fellows they are! I have
+     the greatest respect for them: I would as soon kill a man as a
+     phoca.' I could not conceive that the same idea could occur to
+     two men respecting this animal, and set down that it could only
+     be Sir Walter Scott who made the phoca have the better of the
+     battle with the Antiquary's nephew, Captain M'Intyre.[105]
+
+     "Soon after, another occurrence quite confirmed me as to the
+     authorship of the novels. On that visit to Blair-Adam, in course
+     of conversation, I mentioned an anecdote about Wilkie, the author
+     of The Epigoniad, who was but a formal poet, but whose
+     conversation was most amusing, and full of fancy. Having heard
+     much of him in my family, where he had been very intimate, I
+     went, when quite a lad, to St. Andrews, where he was a Professor,
+     for the purpose of visiting him. I had scarcely let him know who
+     I was, when he said, 'Mr. William, were you ever in this place
+     before?' I said, no. 'Then, sir, you must go and look at Regulus'
+     Tower,--no doubt you will have something of an eye of an
+     architect about you;--walk up to it at an angle, advance and
+     recede until you get to see it at its proper distance, and come
+     back and tell me whether you ever saw anything so beautiful in
+     building: till I saw that tower and studied it, I thought the
+     beauty of architecture had consisted in curly-wurlies, but now I
+     find it consists in symmetry and proportion.' In the following
+     winter Rob Roy was published, and there I read that the Cathedral
+     of Glasgow was 'a respectable Gothic structure, without any
+     _curly-wurlies_.'
+
+     "But what confirmed, and was certainly meant to disclose to me
+     the author (and that in a very elegant manner), was the mention
+     of the Kiery Craigs--a picturesque piece of scenery in the
+     grounds of Blair-Adam--as being in the vicinity of Kelty Bridge,
+     the _howf_ of Auchtermuchty, the Kinross carrier.--It was only an
+     intimate friend of the family, in the habit of coming to
+     Blair-Adam, who could know anything of the Kiery Craigs or its
+     name; and both the scenery and the name had attractions for Sir
+     Walter.
+
+     "At our first meeting after the publication of The Abbot, when
+     the party was assembled on the top of the rock, the Chief-Baron
+     Shepherd, looking Sir Walter full in the face, and stamping his
+     staff on the ground, said, 'Now, Sir Walter, I think we be upon
+     the top of the Kiery _Craggs_.' Sir Walter preserved profound
+     silence; but there was a conscious looking down, and a
+     considerable elongation of his upper lip."
+
+
+[Footnote 105: The good Chief-Commissioner makes a little mistake
+here--a _Phoca_ being, not a porpoise, but a _Seal_.]
+
+Since I have obtained permission to quote from this private volume, I
+may as well mention that I was partly moved to ask that favor, by the
+author's own confession that his "Blair-Adam, from 1733 to 1834,"
+originated in a suggestion of Scott's. "It was," says the Judge, "on a
+fine Sunday, lying on the grassy summit of Bennarty, above its craggy
+brow, that Sir Walter said, looking first at the flat expanse of
+Kinross-shire (on the south side of the Ochils), and then at the space
+which Blair-Adam fills between the hill of Drumglow (the highest of
+the Cleish hills) and the valley of Lochore, 'What an extraordinary
+thing it is, that here to the north so little appears to have been
+done, when there are so many proprietors to work upon it; and to the
+south, here is a district of country entirely made by the efforts of
+one family, in three generations, and one of them amongst us in the
+full enjoyment of what has been done by his two predecessors and
+himself. Blair-Adam, as I have always heard, had a wild, uncomely, and
+unhospitable appearance, before its improvements were begun. It would
+be most curious to record in writing its original state, and trace its
+gradual progress to its present condition.'" Upon this suggestion,
+enforced by the approbation of the other members present, the
+President of the Blair-Adam Club commenced arranging the materials for
+what constitutes a most instructive as well as entertaining history of
+the agricultural and arboricultural progress of his domains, in the
+course of a hundred years, under his grandfather, his father (the
+celebrated architect), and himself. And Sir Walter had only suggested
+to his friend of Kinross-shire what he was resolved to put into
+practice with regard to his own improvements on Tweedside; for he
+begun at precisely the same period to keep a regular Journal of all
+his rural transactions, under the title of Sylva Abbotsfordiensis.
+
+For reasons, as we have seen, connected with the affairs of the
+Ballantynes, Messrs. Longman published the first edition of The
+Monastery; and similar circumstances induced Sir Walter to associate
+this house with that of Constable in the succeeding novel. Constable
+disliked its title, and would fain have had The Nunnery instead: but
+Scott stuck to his Abbot. The bookseller grumbled a little, but was
+soothed by the author's reception of his request that Queen Elizabeth
+might be brought into the field in his next romance, as a companion to
+the Mary Stuart of The Abbot.[106] Scott would not indeed indulge him
+with the choice of the particular period of Elizabeth's reign,
+indicated in the proposed title of The Armada; but expressed his
+willingness to take up his own old favorite, the legend of Meikle's
+ballad. He wished to call the novel, like the ballad, Cumnor-Hall, but
+in further deference to Constable's wishes, substituted Kenilworth.
+John Ballantyne objected to this title, and told Constable the result
+would be "something worthy of the kennel;" but Constable had all
+reason to be satisfied with the child of his christening. His partner,
+Mr. Cadell, says: "His vanity boiled over so much at this time, on
+having his suggestion gone into, that when in his high moods, he used
+to stalk up and down his room, and exclaim, 'By G--, I am all but the
+author of the Waverley Novels!'" Constable's bibliographical
+knowledge, however, it is but fair to say, was really of most
+essential service to Scott upon many of these occasions; and his
+letter (now before me) proposing the subject of The Armada, furnished
+the Novelist with such a catalogue of materials for the illustration
+of the period as may, probably enough, have called forth some very
+energetic expression of thankfulness.
+
+[Footnote 106: [Scott writes in December to Lady Louisa Stuart: "I do
+not design any scandal about Queen Bess, whom I admire much, although,
+like an old _true blue_, I have malice against her on Queen Mary's
+account. But I think I shall be very fair. The story is the tragedy of
+Leicester's first wife, and I have made it, as far as my facilities
+would permit, 'a pleasant tragedy, stuffed with most pitiful
+mirth.'"--_Familiar Letters_, vol. ii. p. 102.]]
+
+Scott's kindness secured for John Ballantyne the usual interest in the
+profits of Kenilworth, the last of his great works in which this
+friend was to have any concern. I have already mentioned the obvious
+drooping of his health and strength; and a document, to be introduced
+presently, will show that John himself had occasional glimpses, at
+least, of his danger, before the close of 1819. Nevertheless, his
+spirits continued, at the time of which I am now treating, to be in
+general as high as ever;--nay, it was now, after his maladies had
+taken a very serious shape, and it was hardly possible to look on him
+without anticipating a speedy termination of his career, that the gay
+hopeful spirit of the shattered and trembling invalid led him to
+plunge into a new stream of costly indulgence. It was an amiable point
+in his character that he had always retained a tender fondness for his
+native place. He had now taken up the ambition of rivalling his
+illustrious friend, in some sort, by providing himself with a summer
+retirement amidst the scenery of his boyhood; and it need not be
+doubted, at the same time, that in erecting a villa at Kelso, he
+anticipated and calculated on substantial advantages from its vicinity
+to Abbotsford.
+
+One fine day of this autumn I accompanied Sir Walter to inspect the
+progress of this edifice, which was to have the title of Walton Hall.
+John had purchased two or three old houses of two stories in height,
+with notched gables and thatched roofs, near the end of the long
+original street of Kelso, and not far from the gateway of the Duke of
+Roxburghe's magnificent park, with their small gardens and paddocks
+running down to the margin of the Tweed. He had already fitted up
+convenient bachelor's lodgings in one of the primitive tenements, and
+converted the others into a goodly range of stabling, and was now
+watching the completion of his new _corps de logis_ behind, which
+included a handsome entrance-hall, or saloon, destined to have old
+Piscator's bust, on a stand, in the centre, and to be embellished all
+round with emblems of his sport. Behind this were spacious rooms
+overlooking the little _pleasance_, which was to be laid out somewhat
+in the Italian style, with ornamental steps, a fountain and _jet
+d'eau_, and a broad terrace hanging over the river, and commanding an
+extensive view of perhaps the most beautiful landscape in Scotland. In
+these new dominions John received us with pride and hilarity; and we
+then walked with him over this pretty town, lounged away an hour among
+the ruins of the Abbey, and closed our perambulation with _the
+Garden_, where Scott had spent some of the happiest of his early
+summers, and where he pointed out with sorrowful eyes the site of the
+Platanus under which he first read Percy's Reliques. Returning to
+John's villa, we dined gayly, _al fresco_, by the side of his
+fountain; and after not a few bumpers to the prosperity of Walton
+Hall, he mounted Old Mortality, and escorted us for several miles on
+our ride homewards. It was this day that, overflowing with kindly
+zeal, Scott revived one of the long-forgotten projects of their early
+connection in business, and offered his services as editor of a
+Novelists' Library, to be printed and published for the sole benefit
+of his host. The offer was eagerly embraced, and when, two or three
+mornings afterwards John returned Sir Walter's visit, he had put into
+his hands the MS. of that admirable life of Fielding, which was
+followed at brief intervals, as the arrangements of the projected work
+required, by others of Smollett, Richardson, Defoe, Sterne, Johnson,
+Goldsmith, Le Sage, Horace Walpole, Cumberland, Mrs. Radcliffe,
+Charles Johnstone, Clara Reeve, Charlotte Smith, and Robert Bage. The
+publication of the first volume of Ballantyne's Novelists' Library did
+not take place, however, until February, 1821; and the series was
+closed soon after the proprietor's death in the ensuing summer. In
+spite of the charming prefaces, in which Scott combines all the
+graces of his easy narrative with a perpetual stream of deep and
+gentle wisdom in commenting on the tempers and fortunes of his best
+predecessors in novel literature, and also with expositions of his own
+critical views, which prove how profoundly he had investigated the
+principles and practice of those masters before he struck out a new
+path for himself--in spite of these delightful and valuable essays,
+the publication was not prosperous. Constable, after Ballantyne's
+death, would willingly have resumed the scheme. But Scott had by that
+time convinced himself that it was in vain to expect much success for
+a collection so bulky and miscellaneous, and which must of necessity
+include a large proportion of matter, condemned by the purity, whether
+real or affected, of modern taste. He could hardly have failed to
+perceive, on reflection, that his own novels, already constituting an
+extensive library of fiction, in which no purist could pretend to
+discover danger for the morals of youth, had in fact superseded the
+works of less strait-laced days in the only permanently and solidly
+profitable market for books of this order. He at all events declined
+Constable's proposition for renewing and extending this attempt. What
+he did, was done gratuitously for John Ballantyne's sake; and I have
+dwelt on it thus long, because, as the reader will perceive by and by,
+it was so done during (with one exception) the very busiest period of
+Scott's literary life.
+
+Shortly before Scott wrote the following letters, he had placed his
+second son (at this time in his fifteenth year) under the care of the
+Reverend John Williams, who had been my intimate friend and companion
+at Oxford, with a view of preparing him for that University.[107] Mr.
+Williams was then Vicar of Lampeter, in Cardiganshire, and the high
+satisfaction with which his care of Charles Scott inspired Sir Walter,
+induced several other Scotch gentlemen of distinction by and by to
+send their sons also to his Welsh parsonage; the result of which
+northern connections was important to the fortunes of one of the most
+accurate and extensive scholars and most skilful teachers of the
+present time.
+
+[Footnote 107: [Writing to Lady Louisa Stuart, December 14, Scott
+says: "My youngest son, who is very clever and very idle, I have sent
+to a learned clergyman ... to get more thoroughly grounded in
+classical learning. For two years Mr. Williams has undertaken to speak
+with him in Latin, and, as everybody else talks Welsh, he will have
+nobody to show off his miscellaneous information to, and thus a main
+obstacle to his improvement will be removed. It would be a pity any
+stumbling-block were left for him to break his shins over, for he has
+a most active mind and a good disposition."--_Familiar Letters_, vol.
+ii. p. 103.]]
+
+
+TO WALTER SCOTT, ESQ., 18TH HUSSARS, CORK.
+
+                                       EDINBURGH, 14th November, 1820.
+
+     MY DEAR WALTER,--I send you a cheque on Coutts for your quarter's
+     allowance. I hope you manage your cash like a person of
+     discretion--above all, avoid the card-tables of ancient dowagers.
+     Always remember that my fortune, however much my efforts may
+     increase it, and although I am improving it for your benefit, not
+     for any that can accrue in my own time,--yet never can be more
+     than a decent independence, and therefore will make a poor figure
+     unless managed with good sense, moderation, and prudence--which
+     are habits easily acquired in youth, while habitual extravagance
+     is a fault very difficult to be afterwards corrected.
+
+     We came to town yesterday, and bade adieu to Abbotsford for the
+     season. Fife,[108] to mamma's great surprise and scandal, chose
+     to stay at Abbotsford with Mai, and plainly denied to follow the
+     carriage--so our canine establishment in Castle Street is reduced
+     to little Ury.[109] We spent two days at Arniston, on the
+     road,--and on coming here, found Sophia as nicely and orderly
+     settled in her house as if she had been a married woman these
+     five years. I believe she is very happy--perhaps unusually so,
+     for her wishes are moderate, and all seem anxious to please her.
+     She is preparing in due time for the arrival of a little
+     stranger, who will make you an uncle, and me (God help me!) a
+     grandpapa.
+
+     The Round Towers you mention are very curious, and seem to have
+     been built, as the Irish hackney-coachman said of the Martello
+     one at the Black Rock, "to puzzle posterity." There are two of
+     them in Scotland--both excellent pieces of architecture; one at
+     Brechin, built quite close to the old church, so as to appear
+     united with it, but in fact it is quite detached from the church,
+     and sways from it in a high wind, when it vibrates like a
+     lighthouse. The other is at Abernethy in Perthshire--said to have
+     been the capital city of the Picts. I am glad to see you observe
+     objects of interest and curiosity, because otherwise a man may
+     travel over the universe without acquiring any more knowledge
+     than his horse does.
+
+     We had our hunt, and our jollification after it, on last
+     Wednesday. It went off in great style, although I felt a little
+     sorry at having neither Charles nor you in the field. By the way,
+     Charles seems most admirably settled. I had a most sensible
+     letter on the subject from Mr. Williams, who appears to have
+     taken great pains, and to have formed a very just conception both
+     of his merits and foibles. When I have an opportunity, I will
+     hand you his letter; for it will entertain you, it is so correct
+     a picture of Monsieur Charles.
+
+     Dominie Thomson has gone to a Mrs. Dennistoun, of Colgrain, to
+     drill her youngsters. I am afraid he will find a change; but I
+     hope to have a nook open to him by and by--as a sort of retreat
+     or harbor on his lee. Adieu, my dear--always believe me your
+     affectionate father,
+
+                                                         WALTER SCOTT.
+
+
+[Footnote 108: _Finette_--a spaniel of Lady Scott's.]
+
+[Footnote 109: _Urisk_ [Ourisque]--a small terrier of the long
+silky-haired Kintail breed.]
+
+
+TO MR. CHARLES SCOTT.
+
+_Care of the Rev. John Williams, Lampeter._
+
+                                       EDINBURGH, 14th November, 1820.
+
+     MY DEAR BOY CHARLES,--Your letters made us all very happy, and I
+     trust you are now comfortably settled and plying your task hard.
+     Mr. Williams will probably ground you more perfectly in the
+     grammar of the classical languages than has hitherto been done,
+     and this you will at first find but dry work. But there are many
+     indispensable reasons why you must bestow the utmost attention
+     upon it. A perfect knowledge of the classical languages has been
+     fixed upon, and not without good reason, as the mark of a
+     well-educated young man; and though people may have scrambled
+     into distinction without it, it is always with the greatest
+     difficulty, just like climbing over a wall, instead of giving
+     your ticket at the door. Perhaps you may think another proof of a
+     youth's talents might have been adopted; but what good will arise
+     from your thinking so, if the general practice of society has
+     fixed on this particular branch of knowledge as the criterion?
+     Wheat or barley were as good grain, I suppose, as _sesamum_; but
+     it was only to _sesamum_ that the talisman gave way, and the rock
+     opened; and it is equally certain that, if you are not a
+     well-founded grammatical scholar in Greek and Latin, you will in
+     vain present other qualifications to distinction. Besides, the
+     study of grammar, from its very asperities, is calculated to
+     teach youth that patient labor which is necessary to the useful
+     exertion of the understanding upon every other branch of
+     knowledge; and your great deficiency is want of steadiness and of
+     resolute application to the dry as well as the interesting parts
+     of your learning. But exerting yourself, as I have no doubt you
+     will do, under the direction of so learned a man and so excellent
+     a teacher as Mr. Williams, and being without the temptations to
+     idleness which occurred at home, I have every reason to believe
+     that to your natural quickness you will presently add such a
+     _habit_ of application and steadiness, as will make you a
+     respected member of society, perhaps a distinguished one. It is
+     very probable that the whole success of your future life may
+     depend on the manner in which you employ _the next two years_;
+     and I am therefore most anxious you should fully avail yourself
+     of the opportunities now afforded you.
+
+     You must not be too much disconcerted with the apparent dryness
+     of your immediate studies. Language is the great mark by which
+     man is distinguished from the beasts, and a strict acquaintance
+     with the manner in which it is composed becomes, as you follow it
+     a little way, one of the most curious and interesting exercises
+     of the intellect.
+
+     We had our grand hunt on Wednesday last, a fine day, and plenty
+     of sport. We hunted all over Huntly wood, and so on to Halidon
+     and Prieston--saw twelve hares, and killed six, having very hard
+     runs, and tiring three packs of grews completely. In absence of
+     Walter and you, Stenhouse the horse-couper led the field, and
+     rode as if he had been a piece of his horse, sweltering like a
+     wild-drake all through Marriage-Moss, at a motion betwixt
+     swimming and riding. One unlucky accident befell;--Queen Mab, who
+     was bestrode by Captain Adam, lifted up her heels against Mr.
+     Craig of Galashiels,[110] whose leg she greeted with a thump like
+     a pistol-shot, while by the same movement she very nearly sent
+     the noble Captain over her ears. Mr. Craig was helped from horse,
+     but would not permit his boot to be drawn off, protesting he
+     would faint if he saw the bone of his leg sticking through the
+     stocking. Some thought he was reluctant to exhibit his legs in
+     their primitive and unclothed simplicity, in respect they have an
+     unhappy resemblance to a pair of tongs. As for the Captain, he
+     declared that if the accident had happened _in action_, the
+     surgeon and drum-boys would have had off, not his _boot_ only,
+     but his _leg to boot_, before he could have uttered a
+     remonstrance. At length Gala and I prevailed to have the boot
+     drawn, and to my great joy I found the damage was not serious,
+     though the pain must have been severe.
+
+     On Saturday we left Abbotsford, and dined and spent Sunday at
+     Arniston, where we had many inquiries after you from Robert
+     Dundas, who was so kind to you last year.
+
+     I must conclude for the present, requesting your earnest pursuit
+     of such branches of study as Mr. Williams recommends. In a short
+     time, as you begin to comprehend the subjects you are learning,
+     you will find the path turn smoother, and that which at present
+     seems wrapped up in an inextricable labyrinth of thorns and
+     briers, will at once become easy and attractive.--Always, dear
+     Charlie, your affectionate father,
+
+                                                                 W. S.
+
+
+[Footnote 110: Mr. George Craig, factor to the laird of Gala, and
+manager of a little branch bank at Galashiels. This worthy man was one
+of the regular members of the Abbotsford Hunt.]
+
+On the same day Scott wrote as follows to the manly and amiable author
+of Sir Marmaduke Maxwell, who had shortly before sent the MS. of that
+romantic drama to Abbotsford for his inspection:--
+
+
+TO MR. ALLAN CUNNINGHAM.
+
+_Care of F. Chantrey, Esq., R. A., London._
+
+                                       EDINBURGH, 14th November, 1820.
+
+     MY DEAR ALLAN,--I have been meditating a long letter to you for
+     many weeks past; but company, and rural business, and rural
+     sports, are very unfavorable to writing letters. I have now a
+     double reason for writing, for I have to thank you for sending me
+     in safety a beautiful specimen of our English Michael's talents
+     in the cast of my venerable friend Mr. Watt: it is a most
+     striking resemblance, with all that living character which we are
+     apt to think life itself alone can exhibit. I hope Mr. Chantrey
+     does not permit his distinguished skill either to remain
+     unexercised, or to be lavished exclusively on subjects of little
+     interest. I would like to see him engaged on some subject of
+     importance completely adapted to the purpose of his chisel, and
+     demanding its highest powers. Pray remember me to him most
+     kindly.
+
+     I have perused twice your curious and interesting manuscript.
+     Many parts of the poetry are eminently beautiful, though I fear
+     the great length of the piece, and some obscurity of the plot,
+     would render it unfit for dramatic representation. There is also
+     a fine tone of supernatural impulse spread over the whole action,
+     which I think a common audience would not be likely to adopt or
+     comprehend--though I own that to me it has a very powerful
+     effect. Speaking of dramatic composition in general, I think it
+     is almost essential (though the rule be most difficult in
+     practice) that the plot, or business of the piece, should advance
+     with every line that is spoken. The fact is, the drama is
+     addressed chiefly to the eyes, and as much as can be, by any
+     possibility, represented on the stage, should neither be told nor
+     described. Of the miscellaneous part of a large audience, many do
+     not understand, nay, many cannot hear, either narrative or
+     description, but are solely intent upon the action exhibited. It
+     is, I conceive, for this reason that very bad plays, written by
+     performers themselves, often contrive to get through, and not
+     without applause; while others, immeasurably superior in point of
+     poetical merit, fail, merely because the author is not
+     sufficiently possessed of the trick of the scene, or enough aware
+     of the importance of a maxim pronounced by no less a performer
+     than Punch himself--(at least he was the last authority from whom
+     I heard it),--_Push on, keep moving!_[111] Now, in your very
+     ingenious dramatic effort, the interest not only stands still,
+     but sometimes retrogrades. It contains, notwithstanding, many
+     passages of eminent beauty,--many specimens of most interesting
+     dialogue; and, on the whole, if it is not fitted for the modern
+     stage, I am not sure that its very imperfections do not render it
+     more fit for the closet, for we certainly do not always read with
+     the greatest pleasure those plays which act best.
+
+     If, however, you should at any time wish to become a candidate
+     for dramatic laurels, I would advise you, in the first place, to
+     consult some professional person of judgment and taste. I should
+     regard friend Terry as an excellent Mentor, and I believe he
+     would concur with me in recommending that at least one third of
+     the drama be retrenched, that the plot should be rendered
+     simpler, and the motives more obvious, and I think the powerful
+     language and many of the situations might then have their full
+     effect upon the audience. I am uncertain if I have made myself
+     sufficiently understood; but I would say, for example, that it is
+     ill explained by what means Comyn and his gang, who land as
+     shipwrecked men, become at once possessed of the old lord's
+     domains, merely by killing and taking possession. I am aware of
+     what you mean--namely, that being attached to the then rulers, he
+     is supported in his ill-acquired power by their authority. But
+     this is imperfectly brought out, and escaped me at the first
+     reading. The superstitious motives, also, which induced the
+     shepherds to delay their vengeance, are not likely to be
+     intelligible to the generality of the hearers. It would seem more
+     probable that the young Baron should have led his faithful
+     vassals to avenge the death of his parents; and it has escaped me
+     what prevents him from taking this direct and natural course.
+     Besides it is, I believe, a rule (and it seems a good one) that
+     one single interest, to which every other is subordinate, should
+     occupy the whole play,--each separate object having just the
+     effect of a mill-dam, sluicing off a certain portion of the
+     sympathy, which should move on with increasing force and rapidity
+     to the catastrophe. Now, in your work, there are several divided
+     points of interest; there is the murder of the old Baron--the
+     escape of his wife--that of his son--the loss of his bride--the
+     villainous artifices of Comyn to possess himself of her
+     person--and, finally, the fall of Comyn, and acceleration of the
+     vengeance due to his crimes. I am sure your own excellent sense,
+     which I admire as much as I do your genius, will give me credit
+     for my frankness in these matters; I only know, that I do not
+     know many persons on whose performances I would venture to offer
+     so much criticism.
+
+     I will return the manuscript under Mr. Freeling's Post-Office
+     cover, and I hope it will reach you safe.--Adieu, my leal and
+     esteemed friend--yours truly,
+
+                                                         WALTER SCOTT.
+
+
+[Footnote 111: _Punch_ had been borrowing from _Young Rapid_, in the
+_Cure for the Heart-ache_.]
+
+Shortly afterwards, Mr. Cunningham, thanking his critic, said he had
+not yet received back his MS.; but that he hoped the delay had been
+occasioned by Sir Walter's communication of it to some friend of
+theatrical experience. He also mentioned his having undertaken a
+collection of The Songs of Scotland, with notes. The answer was in
+these terms:--
+
+
+TO MR. ALLAN CUNNINGHAM.
+
+     MY DEAR ALLAN,--It was as you supposed--I detained your
+     manuscript to read it over with Terry. The plot appears to Terry,
+     as to me, ill-combined, which is a great defect in a drama,
+     though less perceptible in the closet than on the stage. Still,
+     if the mind can be kept upon one unbroken course of interest, the
+     effect even in perusal is more gratifying. I have always
+     considered this as the great secret in dramatic poetry, and
+     conceive it one of the most difficult exercises of the invention
+     possible, to conduct a story through five acts, developing it
+     gradually in every scene, so as to keep up the attention, yet
+     never till the very conclusion permitting the nature of the
+     catastrophe to become visible,--and all the while to accompany
+     this by the necessary delineation of character and beauty of
+     language. I am glad, however, that you mean to preserve in some
+     permanent form your very curious drama, which, if not altogether
+     fitted for the stage, cannot be read without very much and very
+     deep interest.
+
+     I am glad you are about Scottish song. No man--not Robert Burns
+     himself--has contributed more beautiful effusions to enrich it.
+     Here and there I would pluck a flower from your Posy to give what
+     remains an effect of greater simplicity; but luxuriance can only
+     be the fault of genius, and many of your songs are, I think,
+     unmatched. I would instance, It's Hame and it's Hame, which my
+     daughter Mrs. Lockhart sings with such uncommon effect. You
+     cannot do anything either in the way of original composition, or
+     collection, or criticism, that will not be highly acceptable to
+     all who are worth pleasing in the Scottish public--and I pray you
+     to proceed with it.
+
+     Remember me kindly to Chantrey. I am happy my effigy is to go
+     with that of Wordsworth,[112] for (differing from him in very
+     many points of taste) I do not know a man more to be venerated
+     for uprightness of heart and loftiness of genius. Why he will
+     sometimes choose to crawl upon all fours, when God has given him
+     so noble a countenance to lift to heaven, I am as little able to
+     account for, as for his quarrelling (as you tell me) with the
+     wrinkles which time and meditation have stamped his brow withal.
+
+     I am obliged to conclude hastily, having long letters to
+     write--God wot upon very different subjects. I pray my kind
+     respects to Mrs. Chantrey.--Believe me, dear Allan, very truly
+     yours, etc.,
+
+                                                         WALTER SCOTT.
+
+
+[Footnote 112: Mr. Cunningham had told Scott that Chantrey's bust of
+Wordsworth (another of his noblest works) was also to be produced at
+the Royal Academy's Exhibition for 1821.]
+
+The following letter touches on the dropping of the Bill which had
+been introduced by Government for the purpose of degrading the consort
+of George the Fourth; the riotous rejoicings of the Edinburgh mob on
+that occasion; and Scott's acquiescence in the request of the
+guardians of the young Duke of Buccleuch, that he should act as
+chancellor of the jury about to _serve_ his grace _heir_ (as the law
+phrase goes) to the Scottish estates of his family.
+
+
+TO THE LORD MONTAGU.
+
+                                       EDINBURGH, 30th November, 1820.
+
+     MY DEAR LORD,--I had your letter some time since, and have now to
+     congratulate you on your two months' spell of labor-in-vain duty
+     being at length at an end. The old sign of the Labor-in-vain
+     Tavern was a fellow attempting to scrub a black-a-moor white; but
+     the present difficulty seems to lie in showing that one _is_
+     black. Truly, I congratulate the country on the issue; for, since
+     the days of Queen Dollalolla[113] and the _Rumti-iddity_ chorus
+     in Tom Thumb, never was there so jolly a representative of
+     royalty. A good ballad might be made, by way of parody, on Gay's
+     Jonathan Wild,--
+
+       "Her Majesty's trial has set us at ease,
+        And every wife round me may kiss if she please."
+
+     We had the Marquis of Bute and Francis Jeffrey, very brilliant in
+     George Street, and I think one grocer besides. I was hard
+     threatened by letter, but I caused my servant to say in the
+     quarter where I thought the threatening came from, that I should
+     suffer my windows to be broken like a Christian, but if anything
+     else was attempted, I should become as great a heathen as the Dey
+     of Algiers. We were passed over, but many houses were terribly
+     _Cossaqué_, as was the phrase in Paris in 1814 and 1815. The next
+     night, being, like true Scotsmen, wise behind the hand, the
+     bailies had a sufficient force sufficiently arranged, and put
+     down every attempt to riot. If the same precautions had been
+     taken before, the town would have been saved some disgrace, and
+     the loss of at least £1000 worth of property.--Hay Donaldson[114]
+     is getting stout again, and up to the throat in business; there
+     is no getting a word out of him that does not smell of parchment
+     and special service. He asked me, as it is to be a mere _law_
+     service, to act as chancellor on the Duke's inquest, which
+     honorable office I will of course undertake with great
+     willingness, and discharge--I mean the _hospitable_ part of
+     it--to the best of my power. I think you are right to avoid a
+     more extended service, as £1000 certainly would not clear the
+     expense, as you would have to dine at least four counties, and as
+     sweetly sing, with Duke Wharton on Chevy Chase,
+
+                       "Pity it were
+         So much good wine to spill,
+       As these bold freeholders would drink,
+         Before they had their fill."
+
+     I hope we shall all live to see our young baron take his own
+     chair, and feast the land in his own way. Ever your Lordship's
+     most truly faithful
+
+                                                         WALTER SCOTT.
+
+     P. S.--In the illumination row, young Romilly was knocked down
+     and robbed by the mob, just while he was in the act of declaiming
+     on the impropriety of having constables and volunteers to
+     interfere with the harmless mirth of the people.
+
+
+[Footnote 113:
+
+  _Queen._--"What though I now am half-seas o'er,
+                   I scorn to baulk this bout;
+                 Of stiff rack-punch fetch bowls a score,
+                   'Fore George, I'll see them out!
+
+  _Chorus._--"Rumti-iddity, row, row, row,
+                  If we'd a good sup, we'd take it now."
+
+  Fielding's _Tom Thumb_.]
+
+[Footnote 114: This gentleman, Scott's friend and confidential
+solicitor, had obtained (I believe), on his recommendation, the legal
+management of the Buccleuch affairs in Scotland.]
+
+
+TO MR. CHARLES SCOTT.
+
+_Care of the Rev. John Williams, Lampeter._
+
+                                       EDINBURGH, 19th December, 1820.
+
+     MY DEAR CHARLES,--We begin to be afraid that, in improving your
+     head, you have lost the use of your fingers, or got so deep into
+     the Greek and Latin grammar, that you have forgotten how to
+     express yourself in your own language. To ease our anxious minds
+     in these important doubts, we beg you will write as soon as
+     possible, and give us a full account of your proceedings, as I do
+     not approve of long intervals of silence, or think that you need
+     to stand very rigorously upon the exchange of letters, especially
+     as mine are so much the longest.
+
+     I rely upon it that you are now working hard in the classical
+     mine, getting out the rubbish as fast as you can, and preparing
+     yourself to collect the ore. I cannot too much impress upon your
+     mind that _labor_ is the condition which God has imposed on us in
+     every station of life--there is nothing worth having, that can be
+     had without it, from the bread which the peasant wins with the
+     sweat of his brow, to the sports by which the rich man must get
+     rid of his ennui. The only difference betwixt them is, that the
+     poor man labors to get a dinner to his appetite, the rich man to
+     get an appetite to his dinner. As for knowledge, it can no more
+     be planted in the human mind without labor, than a field of wheat
+     can be produced without the previous use of the plough. There is
+     indeed this great difference, that chance or circumstances may so
+     cause it that another shall reap what the farmer sows; but no man
+     can be deprived, whether by accident or misfortune, of the fruits
+     of his own studies; and the liberal and extended acquisitions of
+     knowledge which he makes are all for his own use. Labor, my dear
+     boy, therefore, and improve the time. In youth our steps are
+     light, and our minds are ductile, and knowledge is easily laid
+     up; but if we neglect our spring, our summers will be useless and
+     contemptible, our harvest will be chaff, and the winter of our
+     old age unrespected and desolate.
+
+     It is now Christmas-tide, and it comes sadly round to me as
+     reminding me of your excellent grandmother, who was taken from us
+     last year at this time. Do you, my dear Charles, pay attention
+     to the wishes of your parents while they are with you, that you
+     may have no self-reproach when you think of them at a future
+     period.
+
+     You hear the Welsh spoken much about you, and if you can pick it
+     up without interfering with more important labors, it will be
+     worth while. I suppose you can easily get a grammar and
+     dictionary. It is, you know, the language spoken by the Britons
+     before the invasion of the Anglo-Saxons, who brought in the
+     principal ingredients of our present language, called from thence
+     English. It was afterwards, however, much mingled with Norman
+     French, the language of William the Conqueror and his followers;
+     so if you can pick up a little of the Cambro-British speech, it
+     will qualify you hereafter to be a good philologist, should your
+     genius turn towards languages. Pray, have you yet learned who
+     Howel Dha was?--Glendower you are well acquainted with by reading
+     Shakespeare. The wild mysterious barbaric grandeur with which he
+     has invested that chieftain has often struck me as very fine. I
+     wish we had some more of him.
+
+     We are all well here, and I hope to get to Abbotsford for a few
+     days--they cannot be many--in the ensuing vacation, when I trust
+     to see the planting has got well forward. All are well here, and
+     Mr. Cadell[115] is come back, and gives a pleasant account of
+     your journey. Let me hear from you very soon, and tell me if you
+     expect any _skating_, and whether there is any ice in Wales. I
+     presume there will be a merry Christmas, and beg my best wishes
+     on the subject to Mr. Williams, his sister, and family. The
+     Lockharts dine with us, and the Scotts of Harden, James
+     Scott[116] with his pipes, and I hope Captain Adam. We will
+     remember your health in a glass of claret just about _six_
+     o'clock at night; so that you will know exactly (allowing for
+     variation of time) what we are doing at the same moment.
+
+     But I think I have written quite enough to a young Welshman, who
+     has forgot all his Scots kith, kin, and allies. Mamma and Anne
+     send many loves. Walter came like a shadow, and so
+     departed--after about ten days' stay. The effect was quite
+     dramatic, for the door was flung open as we were about to go down
+     to dinner, and Turner announced _Captain Scott_. We could not
+     conceive who was meant, when in walked Walter as large as life.
+     He is positively a new edition of the Irish giant.--I beg my kind
+     respects to Mr. Williams. At his leisure I should be happy to
+     have a line from him.--I am, my dear little boy, always your
+     affectionate father,
+
+                                                         WALTER SCOTT.
+
+
+[Footnote 115: Mr. Robert Cadell, of the house of Constable, had this
+year conveyed Charles Scott from Abbotsford to Lampeter.]
+
+[Footnote 116: Sir Walter's cousin, a son of his uncle Thomas. See
+_ante_, vol. i. p. 62.]
+
+The next letter contains a brief allusion to an affair, which in the
+life of any other man of letters would have deserved to be considered
+as of some consequence. The late Sir James Hall of Dunglass resigned,
+in November, 1820, the Presidency of the Royal Society of Edinburgh;
+and the Fellows, though they had on all former occasions selected a
+man of science to fill that post, paid Sir Walter the compliment of
+unanimously requesting him to be Sir James's successor in it. He felt
+and expressed a natural hesitation about accepting this honor--which
+at first sight seemed like invading the proper department of another
+order of scholars. But when it was urged upon him that the Society is
+really a double one,--embracing a section for literature as well as
+one of science,--and that it was only due to the former to let it
+occasionally supply the chief of the whole body,--Scott acquiesced in
+the flattering proposal; and his gentle skill was found effective, so
+long as he held the Chair, in maintaining and strengthening the tone
+of good feeling and good manners which can alone render the meetings
+of such a Society either agreeable or useful. The new President
+himself soon began to take a lively interest in many of their
+discussions--those at least which pointed to any discovery of
+practical use;--and he by and by added some eminent men of science,
+with whom his acquaintance had hitherto been slight, to the list of
+his most valued friends: I may mention in particular Doctor, now Sir
+David, Brewster.
+
+Sir Walter also alludes to an institution of a far different
+description,--that called "The Celtic Society of Edinburgh;" a club
+established mainly for the patronage of ancient Highland manners and
+customs, especially the use of "the Garb of Old Gaul"--though part of
+their funds have always been applied to the really important object of
+extending education in the wilder districts of the north. At their
+annual meetings Scott was, as may be supposed, a regular attendant. He
+appeared, as in duty bound, in the costume of the Fraternity, and was
+usually followed by "John of Skye," in a still more complete, or
+rather incomplete, style of equipment.
+
+
+TO THE LORD MONTAGU, DITTON PARK.
+
+                                        EDINBURGH, 17th January, 1821.
+
+     MY DEAR LORD,--We had a tight day of it on Monday last, both dry
+     and wet. The dry part was as dry as may be, consisting in
+     rehearsing the whole lands of the Buccleuch estate for five
+     mortal hours, although Donaldson had kindly selected a clerk
+     whose tongue went over baronies, lordships, and regalities, at as
+     high a rate of top speed as ever Eclipse displayed in clearing
+     the course at Newmarket. The evening went off very
+     well--considering that while looking forward with the natural
+     feelings of hope and expectation on behalf of our young friend,
+     most of us who were present could not help casting looks of sad
+     remembrance on the days we had seen. However, we did very well,
+     and I kept the chair till eleven, when we had coffee, and
+     departed, "no very fou, but gaily yet."[117] Besides the law
+     gentlemen, and immediate agents of the family, I picked up on my
+     own account Tom Ogilvie,[118] Sir Harry Hay Macdougal, Harden and
+     his son, Gala, and Captain John Ferguson, whom I asked as from
+     myself, stating that the party was to be quite private. I suppose
+     there was no harm in this, and it helped us well on. I believe
+     your nephew and my young chief enters life with as favorable
+     auspices as could well attend him, for to few youths can attach
+     so many good wishes, and _none_ can look back to more estimable
+     examples both in his father and grandfather. I think he will
+     succeed to the warm and social affections of his relatives,
+     which, if they sometimes occasion pain to those who possess them,
+     contain also the purest sources of happiness as well as of
+     virtue.
+
+     Our late Pitt meeting amounted to about 800, a most tremendous
+     multitude. I had charge of a separate room, containing a
+     detachment of about 250, and gained a headache of two days, by
+     roaring to them for five or six hours almost incessantly. The
+     Foxites had also a very numerous meeting,--500 at least, but sad
+     scamps. We had a most formidable band of young men, almost all
+     born gentlemen and zealous proselytes. We shall now begin to
+     look anxiously to London for news. I suppose they will go by the
+     ears in the House of Commons: but I trust Ministers will have a
+     great majority. If not, they should go out, and let the others
+     make the best of it with their acquitted Queen, who will be a
+     ticklish card in their hand, for she is by nature _intrigante_
+     more ways than one. The loss of Canning is a serious
+     disadvantage; many of our friends have good talents and good
+     taste; but I think he alone has that higher order of parts which
+     we call genius. I wish he had had more prudence to guide it. He
+     has been a most unlucky politician. Adieu. Best love to all at
+     Ditton, and great respect withal. My best compliments attend my
+     young chief, now seated, to use an Oriental phrase, upon the
+     _Musnud_. I am almost knocked up with public meetings, for the
+     triple Hecate was a joke to my plurality of offices this week. On
+     Friday I had my Pittite stewardship;--on Monday my
+     chancellorship;--yesterday my presidentship of the Royal Society;
+     for I had a meeting of that learned body at my house last night,
+     where mulled wine and punch were manufactured and consumed
+     according to the latest philosophical discoveries. Besides all
+     this, I have before my eyes the terrors of a certain Highland
+     Association, who dine bonneted and _kilted_ in the old fashion
+     (all save myself, of course), and armed to the teeth. This is
+     rather severe service; but men who wear broadswords, dirks, and
+     pistols, are not to be neglected in these days; and the Gael are
+     very loyal lads, so it is as well to keep up an influence with
+     them. Once more, my dear Lord, farewell, and believe me always
+     most truly yours,
+
+                                                         WALTER SCOTT.
+
+
+[Footnote 117: ["It was often remarked as a proof that they [the
+novels] were all Sir Walter's, that he was never known to refer to
+them, though they were the constant topic of conversation in every
+company at the time. I recollect, however, one striking instance to
+the contrary. In the month of January, 1821, a dinner was given in the
+Waterloo Rooms, Edinburgh, to a large party of gentlemen, to celebrate
+the serving Heir, as it is called in Scotland, of a young gentleman,
+to the large estates of his ancestors. Sir Walter having been
+Chancellor of the Inquest, also presided at the dinner, and after the
+usual toasts on such occasions, he rose, and, with a smiling face,
+spoke to the following effect: 'Gentlemen, I dare say you have read of
+a man called Dandie Dinmont, and his dogs. He had old Pepper and old
+Mustard, and young Pepper and young Mustard, and little Pepper and
+little Mustard; but he used to say that "beast or body, education
+should aye be minded; a dog is good for nothing until it has been weel
+entered; I have always had my dogs weel entered." Now, gentlemen, I am
+sure [the Duke] has been weel entered, and if you please we shall
+drink to the health of his guardians.'"--Gibson's _Reminiscences of
+Sir Walter Scott_.]]
+
+[Footnote 118: The late Thomas Elliot Ogilvie, Esq., of Chesters, in
+Roxburghshire--one of Sir Walter's good friends among his country
+neighbors.]
+
+In the course of the riotous week commemorated in the preceding
+letter, appeared Kenilworth, in three volumes post 8vo, like Ivanhoe,
+which form was adhered to with all the subsequent novels of the
+series. Kenilworth was one of the most successful of them all at the
+time of publication; and it continues, and, I doubt not, will ever
+continue to be placed in the very highest rank of prose fiction.[119]
+The rich variety of character, and scenery, and incident in this
+novel, has never indeed been surpassed; nor, with the one exception of
+The Bride of Lammermoor, has Scott bequeathed us a deeper and more
+affecting tragedy than that of Amy Robsart.
+
+[Footnote 119: [Mr. Morritt writes to Scott, January 28, 1821: "I feel
+that I am leaving Rokeby in your debt, and before I set out for town,
+amongst other things I have to settle, I may as well discharge my
+account by paying you a reasonable and no small return of thanks for
+_Kenilworth_, which was duly delivered, read, re-read, and thumbed
+with great delight by our fireside. You know, when I first heard that
+Queen Elizabeth was to be brought forward as a heroine of a novel, how
+I trembled for her reputation. Well knowing your not over-affectionate
+regard for that flower of maidenhood, I dreaded lest all her venerable
+admirers on this side of the Tweed would have been driven to despair
+by a portrait of her Majesty after the manner of Mr. Sharpe's
+ingenious sketches. The author, however, has been so very fair, and
+has allowed her so many of her real historical merits, that I think he
+really has, like Squire Western, a fair right to demand that we should
+at least allow her to have been a b----. I am not sure that I do not
+like and enjoy _Kenilworth_ quite as much as any of its predecessors.
+I think it peculiarly happy in the variety and facility of its
+portraits, and the story is so interesting, and so out of the track of
+the common sources of novel interest, that perhaps I like it better
+from its having so little of the commonplace heroes and heroines who
+adorn all other tales of the sort."--_Familiar Letters_, vol. ii. p.
+107.]]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER LI
+
+     Visit to London. -- Project of the Royal Society of Literature.
+     -- Affairs of the 18th Hussars. -- Marriage of Captain Adam
+     Ferguson. -- Letters to Lord Sidmouth, Lord Montagu, Allan
+     Cunningham, Mrs. Lockhart, and Cornet Scott.
+
+1821
+
+
+Before the end of January, 1821, Scott went to London at the request
+of the other Clerks of Session, that he might watch over the progress
+of an Act of Parliament, designed to relieve them from a considerable
+part of their drudgery, in attesting recorded deeds by signature;--and
+his stay was prolonged until near the beginning of the Summer term of
+his Court. His letters while in London are mostly to his own family,
+and on strictly domestic topics; but I shall extract a few of them,
+chiefly (for reasons which I have already sufficiently intimated)
+those addressed to his son the Cornet. I need not trespass on the
+reader's attention by any attempt to explain in detail the matters to
+which these letters refer. It will be seen that Sir Walter had heard
+some rumors of irregularity in the interior of the 18th Hussars; and
+that the consequent interference of the then Commander of the Forces
+in Ireland, the late Sir David Baird, had been received in anything
+but a spirit of humility. The reports that reached Scott proved to
+have been most absurdly exaggerated; but nevertheless his observations
+on them seem well worth quoting. It so happened that the 18th was one
+of several regiments about to be reduced at this time; and as soon as
+that event took place, Cornet Scott was sent to travel in Germany,
+with a view to his improvement in the science of his profession. He
+afterwards spent a brief period, for the same purpose, in the Royal
+Military College of Sandhurst; and erelong he obtained a commission as
+lieutenant in the 15th or King's Hussars, in which distinguished corps
+his father lived to see him Major.
+
+It will also be seen, that during this visit to London Sir Walter was
+released from considerable anxiety on account of his daughter Sophia,
+whom he had left in a weak state of health at Edinburgh, by the
+intelligence of her safe accouchement of a boy,--John Hugh Lockhart,
+the "Hugh Littlejohn" of the Tales of a Grandfather. The approaching
+marriage of Captain, now Sir Adam Ferguson, to which some jocular
+allusions occur, may be classed with these objects of family interest;
+and that event was the source of unmixed satisfaction to Scott, as it
+did not interrupt his enjoyment of his old friend's society in the
+country; for the Captain, though he then pitched a tent for himself,
+did so at a very short distance from Huntly Burn. I believe the
+ensuing extracts will need no further commentary.
+
+
+TO MRS. LOCKHART, GREAT KING STREET, EDINBURGH.
+
+                                       DITTON PARK, February 18, 1821.
+
+     MY DEAREST SOPHIA,--I received as much pleasure, and was relieved
+     from as much anxiety, as ever I felt in my life, by Lockhart's
+     kind note, which acquainted me with the happy period that has
+     been put to your suffering, and, as I hope and trust, to the
+     complaints which occasioned it. You are now, my dearest girl,
+     beginning a new course of pleasures, anxieties, and duties, and
+     the best I can wish for you is, that your little boy may prove
+     the same dutiful and affectionate child which you have always
+     been to me, and that God may give him a sound and healthy mind,
+     with a good constitution of body--the greatest blessings which
+     this earth can bestow. Pray be extremely careful of yourself for
+     some time. Young women are apt to injure their health by thinking
+     themselves well too soon. I beg you to be cautious in this
+     respect.
+
+     The news of the young stranger's arrival was most joyfully
+     received here, and his health and yours toasted in a bumper. Lady
+     Anne is quite well, and Isabella also; and Lady Charlotte, who
+     has rejoined them, is a most beautiful creature indeed. This
+     place is all light and splendor, compared to London, where I was
+     forced to use candles till ten o'clock at least. I have a gay
+     time of it. To-morrow I return to town, and dine with old
+     Sotheby; on Tuesday with the Duke of Wellington; Wednesday with
+     Croker, and so on. Love to L., the Captain, and the Violet, and
+     give your bantling a kiss extraordinary for Grandpapa. I hope
+     Mungo[120] approves of the child, for that is a serious point.
+     There are no dogs in the hotel where I lodge, but a tolerably
+     conversible cat, who eats a mess of cream with me in the morning.
+     The little chief and his brother have come over from Eton to see
+     me, so I must break off.--I am, my dear love, most affectionately
+     yours,
+
+                                                         WALTER SCOTT.
+
+
+[Footnote 120: Mungo was a favorite Newfoundland dog.]
+
+
+TO WALTER SCOTT, ESQ., PORTOBELLO BARRACKS, DUBLIN.
+
+                                        WATERLOO HOTEL, Jermyn Street,
+                                                    February 19, 1821.
+
+     MY DEAR WALTER,--I have just received your letter. I send you a
+     draft for £50, which you must make go as far as you can.
+
+     There is what I have no doubt is a very idle report here, of your
+     paying rather marked attention to one young lady in particular. I
+     beg you would do nothing that can justify such a rumor, as it
+     would excite my _highest displeasure_ should you either entangle
+     yourself or any other person. I am, and have always been, quite
+     frank with you, and beg you will be equally so with me. One
+     should, in justice to the young women they live with, be very
+     cautious not to give the least countenance to such rumors. They
+     are not easily avoided, but are always highly prejudicial to the
+     parties concerned; and what begins in folly ends in serious
+     misery--_avis au lecteur._
+
+     Believe me, dear Cornet, your affectionate father,
+
+                                                         WALTER SCOTT.
+
+     P. S.--I wish you could pick me up the Irish lilt of a tune to
+     "Patrick Fleming." The song begins,--
+
+       "Patrick Fleming was a gallant soldier,
+        He carried his musket over his shoulder.
+        When I cock my pistol, when I draw my raper,
+        I make them stand in awe of me, for I am a taker.
+                                                Falala," etc.
+
+     From another verse in the same song, it seems the hero was in
+     such a predicament as your own:--
+
+       "If you be Peter Fleming, as I suppose you be, sir,
+        We are three pedlars walking on so free, sir.
+        We are three pedlars a-walking on to Dublin,
+        With nothing in our pockets to pay for our lodging.
+                                                Falala," etc.
+
+
+TO WALTER SCOTT, ESQ., 18TH HUSSARS, CAPPOQUIN.
+
+                                             LONDON, 17th March, 1821.
+
+     MY DEAR COMMANDANT OF CAPPOQUIN,--Wishing you joy of your new
+     government, these are to inform you that I am still in London.
+     The late aspersion on your regiment induced me to protract my
+     stay here, with a view to see the Duke of York on your behalf,
+     which I did yesterday. His Royal Highness expressed himself most
+     obligingly disposed, and promised to consider what could best be
+     done to forward your military education. I told him frankly, that
+     in giving you to the King's service I had done all that was in my
+     power to show our attachment to his Majesty and the country which
+     had been so kind to me, and that it was my utmost ambition that
+     you should render yourself capable of serving them both well. He
+     said he would give the affair his particular consideration, and
+     see whether he could put you on the establishment at Sandhurst,
+     without any violent infringement on the rules; and hinted that he
+     would make an exception to the rule of seniority of standing and
+     priority of application in your favor when an opportunity occurs.
+
+     From H. R. H.'s very kind expressions, I have little doubt you
+     will have more than justice done you in the patronage necessary
+     to facilitate your course through life; but it must be by your
+     own exertions, my dearest boy, that you must render yourself
+     qualified to avail yourself of the opportunities which you may
+     have offered to you. Work, therefore, as hard as you can, and do
+     not be discontented for want of assistance of masters, etc.,
+     because the knowledge which we acquire by our own unaided
+     efforts, is much more tenaciously retained by the memory, while
+     the exertion necessary to gain it strengthens the understanding.
+     At the same time, I would inquire whether there may not be some
+     Catholic priest, or Protestant clergyman, or scholar of any
+     description, who, for love or money, would give you a little
+     assistance occasionally. Such persons are to be found almost
+     everywhere; not professed teachers, but capable of smoothing the
+     road to a willing student. Let me earnestly recommend in your
+     reading to keep fast to particular hours, and suffer no one thing
+     to encroach on the other.
+
+     Charles's last letter was uncommonly steady, and prepared me for
+     one from Mr. Williams, in which he expresses satisfaction with
+     his attention, and with his progress in learning, in a much
+     stronger degree than formerly. This is truly comfortable, and may
+     relieve me from the necessity of sending the poor boy to India.
+
+     All in Edinburgh are quite well, and no fears exist, saving those
+     of little Catherine[121] for the baby, lest the fairies take it
+     away before the christening. I will send some books to you from
+     hence, if I can find means to transmit them. I should like you to
+     read with care the campaigns of Buonaparte, which have been
+     written in French with much science.[122]
+
+     I hope, indeed I am sure, I need not remind you to be very
+     attentive to your duty. You have but a small charge, but it is a
+     charge, and rashness or carelessness may lead to discredit in the
+     commandant of Cappoquin, as well as in a field-marshal. In the
+     exercise of your duty, be tender of the lower classes; and as you
+     are strong, be merciful. In this you will do your master good
+     service, for show me the manners of the man, and I will judge
+     those of the master.
+
+     In your present situation, it may be interesting to you to know
+     that the bill for Catholic Emancipation will pass the Commons
+     without doubt, and very probably the Peers also, unless the
+     Spiritual Lords make a great rally. Nobody here cares much about
+     it, and if it does not pass this year, it will the next, without
+     doubt.
+
+     Among other improvements, I wish you would amend your hand. It is
+     a deplorable scratch, and far the worst of the family. Charles
+     writes a firm good hand in comparison.
+
+     You may address your next to Abbotsford, where I long to be,
+     being heartily tired of fine company and fine living, from dukes
+     and duchesses, down to turbot and plovers' eggs. It is very well
+     for a while, but to be kept at it makes one feel like a poodle
+     dog compelled to stand forever on his hind legs.--Most
+     affectionately yours,
+
+                                                         WALTER SCOTT.
+
+
+[Footnote 121: Mrs. Lockhart's maid.]
+
+[Footnote 122: This letter was followed by a copy of General Jomini's
+celebrated work.]
+
+During this visit to London, Sir Walter appears to have been consulted
+by several persons in authority as to the project of a Society of
+Literature, for which the King's patronage had been solicited, and
+which was established soon afterwards--though on a scale less
+extensive than had been proposed at the outset. He expressed his views
+on this subject in writing at considerable length to his friend the
+Hon. John Villiers (afterwards Earl of Clarendon);[123] but of that
+letter, described to me as a most admirable one, I have as yet failed
+to recover a copy. I have little doubt that both the letter in
+question, and the following, addressed, soon after his arrival at
+Abbotsford, to the then Secretary of State for the Home Department,
+were placed in the hands of the King; but it seems probable, that
+whatever his Majesty may have thought of Scott's representations, he
+considered himself as already, in some measure, pledged to countenance
+the projected academy.
+
+[Footnote 123: The third Earl (of the Villierses) died in 1838.]
+
+
+TO THE RIGHT HON. THE LORD VISCOUNT SIDMOUTH, ETC., ETC., ETC.,
+WHITEHALL.
+
+                                           ABBOTSFORD, April 20, 1821.
+
+     MY DEAR LORD,--Owing to my retreat to this place, I was only
+     honored with your Lordship's letter yesterday. Whatever use can
+     be made of my letter to stop the very ill-contrived project to
+     which it relates, will answer the purpose for which it was
+     written. I do not well remember the terms in which my
+     remonstrance to Mr. Villiers was couched, for it was positively
+     written betwixt sleeping and waking; but your Lordship will best
+     judge how far the contents may be proper for his Majesty's eye;
+     and if the sentiments appear a little in dishabille, there is the
+     true apology that they were never intended to go to Court. From
+     more than twenty years' intercourse with the literary world,
+     during which I have been more or less acquainted with every
+     distinguished writer of my day, and, at the same time, an
+     accurate student of the habits and tastes of the reading public,
+     I am enabled to say, with a feeling next to certainty, that the
+     plan can only end in something very unpleasant. At all events,
+     his Majesty should get out of it; it is nonsense to say or
+     suppose that any steps have been taken which, in such a matter,
+     can or ought to be considered as irrevocable. The fact is, that
+     nobody knows as yet how far the matter has gone beyond the
+     _projet_ of some well-meaning but misjudging persons, and the
+     whole thing is asleep and forgotten so far as the public is
+     concerned. The Spanish proverb says, "God help me from my
+     friends, and I will keep myself from my enemies;" and there is
+     much sense in it; for the zeal of misjudging adherents often
+     contrives, as in the present case, to turn to matter of reproach
+     the noblest feelings on the part of a sovereign.
+
+     Let men of letters fight their own way with the public, and let
+     his Majesty, according as his own excellent taste and liberality
+     dictate, honor with his patronage, expressed in the manner fitted
+     to their studies and habits, those who are able to distinguish
+     themselves, and alleviate by his bounty the distresses of such
+     as, with acknowledged merit, may yet have been unfortunate in
+     procuring independence. The immediate and direct favor of the
+     Sovereign is worth the patronage of ten thousand societies. But
+     your Lordship knows how to set all this in a better light than I
+     can, and I would not wish the cause of letters in better hands.
+
+     I am now in a scene changed as completely as possible from those
+     in which I had the great pleasure of meeting your Lordship
+     lately, riding through the moors on a pony, instead of traversing
+     the streets in a carriage, and drinking whiskey-toddy with mine
+     honest neighbors, instead of Champagne and Burgundy. I have
+     gained, however, in point of exact political information; for I
+     find we know upon Tweedside with much greater accuracy what is
+     done and intended in the Cabinet, than ever I could learn when
+     living with the Ministers five days in the week. Mine honest
+     Teviotdale friends, whom I left in a high Queen-fever, are now
+     beginning to be somewhat ashamed of themselves, and to make as
+     great advances towards retracting their opinion as they are ever
+     known to do, which amounts to this: "God judge me, Sir W----, the
+     King's no been so dooms far wrong after a' in yon Queen's job
+     like;" which, being interpreted, signifies, "We will fight for
+     the King to the death." I do not know how it was in other places;
+     but I never saw so sudden and violent a delusion possess the
+     minds of men in my life, even those of sensible, steady,
+     well-intentioned fellows, that would fight knee-deep against the
+     Radicals. It is well over, thank God.
+
+     My best compliments attend the ladies. I ever am, my dear Lord,
+     your truly obliged and faithful humble servant,
+
+                                                         WALTER SCOTT.
+
+
+I have thought it right to insert the preceding letter, because it
+indicates with sufficient distinctness what Scott's opinions always
+were as to a subject on which, from his experience and position, he
+must have reflected very seriously. In how far the results of the
+establishment of the Royal Society of Literature have tended to
+confirm or to weaken the weight of his authority on these matters, I
+do not presume to have formed any judgment. He received, about the
+same time, a volume of poetry by Allan Cunningham, which included the
+drama of Sir Marmaduke Maxwell; and I am happy to quote his letter of
+acknowledgment to that high-spirited and independent author in the
+same page with the foregoing monition to the dispensers of patronage.
+
+
+TO MR. ALLAN CUNNINGHAM, ECCLESTONE STREET, PIMLICO.
+
+                                               ABBOTSFORD, 27th April.
+
+     DEAR ALLAN,--Accept my kind thanks for your little modest volume,
+     received two days since. I was acquainted with most of the
+     pieces, and yet I perused them all with renewed pleasure, and
+     especially my old friend Sir Marmaduke with his new face, and by
+     the assistance of an April sun, which is at length, after many a
+     rough blast, beginning to smile on us. The drama has, in my
+     conception, more poetical conception and poetical expression in
+     it, than most of our modern compositions. Perhaps, indeed, it
+     occasionally sins even in the richness of poetical expression;
+     for the language of passion, though bold and figurative, is brief
+     and concise at the same time. But what would, in acting, be a
+     more serious objection, is the complicated nature of the plot,
+     which is very obscure. I hope you will make another dramatic
+     attempt; and, in that case, I would strongly recommend that you
+     should previously make a model or skeleton of your incidents,
+     dividing them regularly into scenes and acts, so as to insure the
+     dependence of one circumstance upon another, and the simplicity
+     and union of your whole story. The common class of readers, and
+     more especially of spectators, are thick-skulled enough, and can
+     hardly comprehend what they see and hear, unless they are hemmed
+     in, and guided to the sense at every turn.
+
+     The unities of time and place have always appeared to me
+     fopperies, as far as they require close observance of the French
+     rules. Still, the nearer you can come to them, it is always, no
+     doubt, the better, because your action will be more probable. But
+     the unity of action--I mean that continuity which unites every
+     scene with the other, and makes the catastrophe the natural and
+     probable result of all that has gone before--seems to me a
+     critical rule which cannot safely be dispensed with. Without such
+     a regular deduction of incidents, men's attention becomes
+     distracted, and the most beautiful language, if at all listened
+     to, creates no interest, and is out of place. I would give, as an
+     example, the suddenly entertained and as suddenly abandoned
+     jealousy of Sir Marmaduke (p. 85), as a useless excrescence in
+     the action of the drama.
+
+     I am very much unaccustomed to offer criticism, and when I do so,
+     it is because I believe in my soul that I am endeavoring to pluck
+     away the weeds which hide flowers well worthy of cultivation. In
+     your case, the richness of your language, and fertility of your
+     imagination, are the snares against which I would warn you. If
+     the one had been poor, and the other costive, I would never have
+     made remarks which could never do good, while they only gave
+     pain. Did you ever read Savage's beautiful poem of The Wanderer?
+     If not, do so, and you will see the fault which, I think,
+     attaches to Lord Maxwell--a want of distinct precision and
+     intelligibility about the story, which counteracts, especially
+     with ordinary readers, the effect of beautiful and forcible
+     diction, poetical imagery, and animated description.
+
+     All this freedom you will excuse, I know, on the part of one who
+     has the truest respect for the manly independence of character
+     which rests for its support on honest industry, instead of
+     indulging the foolish fastidiousness formerly supposed to be
+     essential to the poetical temperament, and which has induced some
+     men of real talents to become coxcombs--some to become sots--some
+     to plunge themselves into want--others into the equal miseries of
+     dependence, merely because, forsooth, they were men of genius,
+     and wise above the ordinary, and, I say, the manly duties of
+     human life.
+
+       "I'd rather be a kitten, and cry, Mew!"[124]
+
+     than write the best poetry in the world on condition of laying
+     aside common sense in the ordinary transactions and business of
+     the world; and therefore, dear Allan, I wish much the better to
+     the Muse whom you meet by the fireside in your hours of leisure
+     when you have played your part manfully through a day of labor. I
+     should like to see her making those hours also a little
+     profitable. Perhaps something of the dramatic romance, if you
+     could hit on a good subject, and combine the scenes well, might
+     answer. A beautiful thing with appropriate music, scenes, etc.,
+     might be woven out of the Mermaid of Galloway.
+
+     When there is any chance of Mr. Chantrey coming this way, I hope
+     you will let me know; and if you come with him, so much the
+     better. I like him as much for his manners as for his genius.
+
+      "He is a man without a clagg;
+       His heart is frank without a flaw."
+
+     This is a horrible long letter for so vile a correspondent as I
+     am. Once more, my best thanks for the little volume, and believe
+     me yours truly,
+
+                                                         WALTER SCOTT.
+
+
+[Footnote 124: _1st King Henry IV._ Act III. Scene 1.]
+
+I now return to Sir Walter's correspondence with the Cornet at
+Cappoquin.
+
+
+TO WALTER SCOTT, ESQ., 18TH HUSSARS.
+
+                                           ABBOTSFORD, April 21, 1821.
+
+     MY DEAR WALTER,--...A democrat in any situation is but a silly
+     sort of fellow, but a democratical soldier is worse than an
+     ordinary traitor by ten thousand degrees, as he forgets his
+     military honor, and is faithless to the master whose bread he
+     eats. Three distinguished heroes of this class have arisen in my
+     time--Lord Edward Fitzgerald, Colonel Despard, and Captain
+     Thistlewood--and, with the contempt and abhorrence of all men,
+     they died the death of infamy and guilt. If a man of honor is
+     unhappy enough to entertain opinions inconsistent with the
+     service in which he finds himself, it is his duty at once to
+     resign his commission; in acting otherwise, he disgraces himself
+     forever.... The reports are very strange, also, with respect to
+     the private conduct of certain officers.... Gentlemen maintain
+     their characters even in following their most licentious
+     pleasures, otherwise they resemble the very scavengers in the
+     streets.... I had written you a long letter on other subjects,
+     but these circumstances have altered my plans, as well as given
+     me great uneasiness on account of the effects which the society
+     you have been keeping may have had on your principles, both
+     political and moral. Be very frank with me on this subject. I
+     have a title to expect perfect sincerity, having always treated
+     you with openness on my part.
+
+     Pray write immediately, and at length.--I remain your
+     affectionate father,
+
+                                                         WALTER SCOTT.
+
+
+TO THE SAME.
+
+                                           ABBOTSFORD, April 28, 1821.
+
+     DEAR WALTER,--... The great point in the mean while is to acquire
+     such preliminary information as may render you qualified to
+     profit by Sandhurst when you get thither. Amongst my
+     acquaintance, the men of greatest information have been those who
+     seemed but indifferently situated for the acquisition of it, but
+     who exerted themselves in proportion to the infrequency of their
+     opportunities.
+
+     The noble Captain Ferguson was married on Monday last. I was
+     present at the bridal, and I assure you the like hath not been
+     seen since the days of Lesmahago. Like his prototype, the Captain
+     advanced in a jaunty military step, with a kind of leer on his
+     face that seemed to quiz the whole affair. You should write to
+     your brother sportsman and soldier, and wish the veteran joy of
+     his entrance into the band of Benedicts. Odd enough that I should
+     christen a grandchild and attend the wedding of a contemporary
+     within two days of each other. I have sent John of Skye with Tom,
+     and all the rabblement which they can collect, to play the pipes,
+     shout, and fire guns below the Captain's windows this morning;
+     and I am just going over to hover about on my pony, and witness
+     their reception. The happy pair returned to Huntly Burn on
+     Saturday; but yesterday being Sunday, we permitted them to enjoy
+     their pillows in quiet. This morning they must not expect to get
+     off so well. Pray write soon, and give me the history of your
+     still-huntings, etc.--Ever yours affectionately,
+
+                                                             W. SCOTT.
+
+
+TO CHARLES SCOTT, ESQ.
+
+_Care of the Rev. Mr. Williams, Lampeter._
+
+                                            ABBOTSFORD, 9th May, 1821.
+
+     MY DEAR CHARLES,--I am glad to find, by your letter just
+     received, that you are reading Tacitus with some relish. His
+     style is rather quaint and enigmatical, which makes it difficult
+     to the student; but then his pages are filled with such admirable
+     apothegms and maxims of political wisdom, as infer the deepest
+     knowledge of human nature; and it is particularly necessary that
+     any one who may have views as a public speaker should be master
+     of his works, as there is neither ancient nor modern who affords
+     such a selection of admirable quotations. You should exercise
+     yourself frequently in trying to make translations of the
+     passages which most strike you, trying to invest the sense of
+     Tacitus in as good English as you can. This will answer the
+     double purpose of making yourself familiar with the Latin author,
+     and giving you the command of your own language, which no person
+     will ever have who does not study English composition in early
+     life.... I conclude somewhat abruptly, having trees to cut, and
+     saucy Tom watching me like a Calmuck with the axe in his hand.
+
+     Yours affectionately,
+
+                                                             W. SCOTT.
+
+
+TO WALTER SCOTT, ESQ., 18TH HUSSARS, CAPPOQUIN.
+
+                                           ABBOTSFORD, 10th May, 1821.
+
+     DEAR WALTER,--I wrote yesterday, but I am induced immediately to
+     answer your letter, because I think you expect from it an effect
+     upon my mind different from what it produces. A man may be
+     violent and outrageous in his liquor, but wine seldom makes a
+     gentleman a blackguard, or instigates a loyal man to utter
+     sedition. Wine unveils the passions and throws away restraint,
+     but it does not create habits or opinions which did not
+     previously exist in the mind. Besides, what sort of defence is
+     this of intemperance? I suppose if a private commits riot, or is
+     disobedient in his cups, his officers do not admit whiskey to be
+     an excuse. I have seen enough of that sort of society where
+     habitual indulgence drowned at last every distinction between
+     what is worthy and unworthy,--and I have seen young men with the
+     fairest prospects, turn out degraded miserable outcasts before
+     their life was half spent, merely from soaking and sotting, and
+     the bad habits these naturally lead to. You tell me *** and ***
+     frequent good society, and are well received in it; and I am very
+     glad to hear this is the case. But such stories as these will
+     soon occasion their seclusion from the _best_ company. There may
+     remain, indeed, a large enough circle, where ladies, who are
+     either desirous to fill their rooms or to marry their daughters,
+     will continue to receive any young man in a showy uniform,
+     however irregular in private life; but if these cannot be called
+     _bad_ company, they are certainly anything but _very good_, and
+     the facility of access makes the _entrée_ of little consequence.
+
+     I mentioned in my last that you were to continue in the 18th
+     until the regiment went to India, and that I trusted you would
+     get the step within the twelve months that the corps yet remains
+     in Europe, which will make your exchange easier. But it is of far
+     more importance that you learn to command yourself, than that you
+     should be raised higher in commanding others. It gives me pain to
+     write to you in terms of censure, but _my duty_ must be done,
+     else I cannot expect you to do _yours_. All here are well, and
+     send love.--I am your affectionate father,
+
+                                                         WALTER SCOTT.
+
+
+TO THE SAME.
+
+                                            EDINBURGH, 15th May, 1821.
+
+     DEAR WALTER,--I have your letter of May 6th, to which it is
+     unnecessary to reply very particularly. I would only insinuate to
+     you that the _lawyers_ and _gossips_ of Edinburgh, whom your
+     military politeness handsomely classes together in writing to a
+     lawyer, know and care as little about the 18th as they do about
+     the 19th, 20th, or 21st, or any other regimental number which
+     does not happen for the time to be at Piershill, or in the
+     Castle. Do not fall into the error and pedantry of young military
+     men, who, living much together, are apt to think themselves and
+     their actions the subject of much talk and rumor among the public
+     at large.--I will transcribe Fielding's account of such a person,
+     whom he met with on his voyage to Lisbon, which will give two or
+     three hours' excellent amusement when you choose to peruse it:--
+
+         "In his conversation it is true there was something
+         military enough, as it consisted chiefly of oaths, and of
+         the great actions and wise sayings of Jack, Will, and Tom
+         of _ours_, a phrase eternally in his mouth, and he seemed
+         to conclude that it conveyed to all the officers such a
+         degree of public notoriety and importance that it entitled
+         him, like the head of a profession, or a first minister,
+         to be the subject of conversation amongst those who had
+         not the least personal acquaintance with him."
+
+     Avoid this silly narrowness of mind, my dear boy, which only
+     makes men be looked on in the world with ridicule and contempt.
+     Lawyer and gossip as I may be, I suppose you will allow I have
+     seen something of life in most of its varieties; as much at least
+     as if I had been, like you, eighteen months in a cavalry
+     regiment, or, like Beau Jackson in Roderick Random, had cruised
+     for half a year in the chops of the Channel. Now, I have never
+     remarked any one, be he soldier, or divine, or lawyer, that was
+     exclusively attached to the narrow habits of his own profession,
+     but what such person became a great twaddle in good society,
+     besides, what is of much more importance, becoming narrow-minded,
+     and ignorant of all general information.
+
+     That this letter may not be unacceptable in all its parts, I
+     enclose your allowance without stopping anything for the hackney.
+     Take notice, however, my dear Walter, that this is to last you
+     till midsummer.--We came from Abbotsford yesterday, and left all
+     well, excepting that Mr. Laidlaw lost his youngest child, an
+     infant, very unexpectedly. We found Sophia, Lockhart, and their
+     child in good health, and all send love.
+
+     I remain your affectionate father,
+
+                                                         WALTER SCOTT.
+
+
+TO WALTER SCOTT, ESQ., 18TH HUSSARS.
+
+                                            EDINBURGH, 26th May, 1821.
+
+     MY DEAR WALTER,--I see you are of the mind of the irritable
+     prophet Jonah, who persisted in maintaining "he did well to be
+     angry," even when disputing with Omnipotence. I am aware that Sir
+     David is considered as a severe and ill-tempered man; and I
+     remember a story that, when report came to Europe that Tippoo's
+     prisoners (of whom Baird was one) were chained together two and
+     two, his mother said, "God pity the poor lad that's chained to
+     _our Davie_." But though it may be very true that he may have
+     acted towards you with caprice and severity, yet you are always
+     to remember,--1st, That in becoming a soldier you have subjected
+     yourself to the caprice and severity of superior officers, and
+     have no comfort except in contemplating the prospect of
+     commanding others in your turn. In the mean while, you have in
+     most cases no remedy so useful as patience and submission. But,
+     _2dly_, As you seem disposed to admit that you yourselves have
+     been partly to blame, I submit to you, that in turning the
+     magnifying end of the telescope on Sir D.'s faults, and the
+     diminishing one on your own, you take the least useful mode of
+     considering the matter. By studying _his_ errors, you can acquire
+     no knowledge that will be useful to you till you become
+     Commander-in-Chief in Ireland,--whereas, by reflecting on _your
+     own_, Cornet Scott and his companions may reap some immediate
+     moral advantage. Your fine of a dozen of claret, upon any one who
+     shall introduce females into your mess in future, reminds me of
+     the rule of a country club, that whoever "behaved ungenteel"
+     should be fined in a pot of porter. Seriously, I think there was
+     bad taste in the style of the forfeiture.
+
+     I am well pleased with your map, which is very businesslike.
+     There was a great battle fought between the English and native
+     Irish near the Blackwater, in which the former were defeated, and
+     Bagenal the Knight-Marshal killed. Is there any remembrance of
+     this upon the spot? There is a clergyman in Lismore, Mr. John
+     Graham--originally, that is by descent, a Borderer. He lately
+     sent me a manuscript which I intend to publish, and I wrote to
+     him enclosing a cheque on Coutts. I wish you could ascertain if
+     he received my letter safe. You can call upon him with my
+     compliments. You need only say I was desirous to know if he had
+     received a letter from me lately. The manuscript was written by a
+     certain Mr. Gwynne, a Welsh loyalist in the great Civil War, and
+     afterwards an officer in the guards of Charles II. This will be
+     an object for a ride to you.[125]
+
+     I presided last night at the dinner of the Celtic Society, "all
+     plaided and plumed in their tartan array," and such jumping,
+     skipping, and screaming you never saw. Chief-Baron Shepherd dined
+     with us, and was very much pleased with the extreme enthusiasm of
+     the Gael when liberated from the thraldom of breeches. You were
+     voted a member by acclamation, which will cost me a tartan dress
+     for your long limbs when you come here. If the King takes
+     Scotland in coming or going to Ireland (as has been talked of), I
+     expect to get you leave to come over.--I remain your affectionate
+     father,
+
+                                                         WALTER SCOTT.
+
+     P. S.--I beg you will not take it into your wise noddle that I
+     will act either hastily or unadvisedly in your matters. I have
+     been more successful in life than most people, and know well how
+     much success depends, first upon desert, and then on knowledge of
+     the _carte de pays_.
+
+
+[Footnote 125: The Rev. John Graham is known as the author of a
+_History of the Siege of Londonderry, Annals of Ireland_, and various
+political tracts. Sir Walter Scott published _Gwynne's Memoirs_, with
+a Preface, etc., in 1822.]
+
+The following letter begins with an allusion to a visit which Captain
+Ferguson, his bride, and his youngest sister, Miss Margaret Ferguson,
+had been paying at Ditton Park:--
+
+
+TO THE LORD MONTAGU, ETC., ETC.
+
+                                            EDINBURGH, 21st May, 1821.
+
+     MY DEAR LORD,--I was much diverted with the account of Adam and
+     Eve's visit to Ditton, which, with its surrounding moat, might
+     make no bad emblem of Eden, but for the absence of snakes and
+     fiends. He is a very singular fellow; for, with all his humor and
+     knowledge of the world, he by nature is a remarkably shy and
+     modest man, and more afraid of the possibility of intrusion than
+     would occur to any one who only sees him in the full stream of
+     society. His sister Margaret is extremely like him in the turn of
+     thought and of humor, and he has two others who are as great
+     curiosities in their way. The eldest is a complete old maid, with
+     all the gravity and shyness of the character, but not a grain of
+     its bad humor or spleen; on the contrary, she is one of the
+     kindest and most motherly creatures in the world. The second,
+     Mary, was in her day a very pretty girl; but her person became
+     deformed, and she has the sharpness of features with which that
+     circumstance is sometimes attended. She rises very early in the
+     morning, and roams over all my wild land in the neighborhood,
+     wearing the most complicated pile of handkerchiefs of different
+     colors on her head, and a stick double her own height in her
+     hand, attended by two dogs, whose powers of yelping are truly
+     terrific. With such garb and accompaniments, she has very nearly
+     established the character in the neighborhood of being _something
+     no canny_--and the urchins of Melrose and Darnick are frightened
+     from gathering hazel-nuts and cutting wands in my cleugh, by the
+     fear of meeting _the daft lady_. With all this quizzicality, I do
+     not believe there ever existed a family with so much mutual
+     affection and such an overflow of benevolence to all around them,
+     from men and women down to hedge-sparrows and lame ass-colts,
+     more than one of which they have taken under their direct and
+     special protection.
+
+     I am sorry there should be occasion for caution in the case of
+     little Duke Walter, but it is most lucky that the necessity is
+     early and closely attended to. How many actual valetudinarians
+     have outlived all their robust contemporaries, and attained the
+     utmost verge of human life, without ever having enjoyed what is
+     usually called high health. This is taking the very worst view of
+     the case, and supposing the constitution habitually delicate. But
+     how often has the strongest and best confirmed health succeeded
+     to a delicate childhood--and such, I trust, will be the Duke's
+     case. I cannot help thinking that this temporary recess from Eton
+     may be made subservient to Walter's improvement in general
+     literature, and particularly in historical knowledge. The habit
+     of reading useful, and at the same time entertaining books of
+     history, is often acquired during the retirement which delicate
+     health in convalescence imposes on us. I remember we touched on
+     this point at Ditton; and I think again, that though classical
+     learning be the _Shibboleth_ by which we judge, generally
+     speaking, of the proficiency of the youthful scholar, yet, when
+     this has been too exclusively and pedantically impressed on his
+     mind as the one thing needful, he very often finds he has
+     entirely a new course of study to commence, just at the time when
+     life is opening all its busy or gay scenes before him, and when
+     study of any kind becomes irksome.
+
+     For this species of instruction I do not so much approve of tasks
+     and set hours for serious reading, as of the plan of endeavoring
+     to give a taste for history to the youths themselves, and
+     suffering them to gratify it in their own way, and at their own
+     time. For this reason I would not be very scrupulous what books
+     they began with, or whether they began at the middle or end. The
+     knowledge which we acquire of free will and by spontaneous
+     exertion, is like food eaten with appetite--it digests well, and
+     benefits the system ten times more than the double cramming of an
+     alderman. If a boy's attention can be drawn in conversation to
+     any interesting point of history, and the book is pointed out to
+     him where he will find the particulars conveyed in a lively
+     manner, he reads the passage with so much pleasure that he very
+     naturally recurs to the book at the first unoccupied moment, to
+     try if he cannot pick more amusement out of it; and when once a
+     lad gets the spirit of information, he goes on himself with
+     little trouble but that of selecting for him the best and most
+     agreeable books. I think Walter has naturally some turn for
+     history and historical anecdote, and would be disposed to read as
+     much as could be wished in that most useful line of
+     knowledge;--for in the eminent situation he is destined to by his
+     birth, acquaintance with the history and institutions of his
+     country, and her relative position with respect to others, is a
+     _sine qua non_ to his discharging its duties with propriety. All
+     this is extremely like prosing, so I will harp on that string no
+     longer.
+
+     Kind compliments to all at Ditton; you say nothing of your own
+     rheumatism. I am here for the session, unless the wind should
+     blow me south to see the coronation, and I think 800 miles rather
+     a long journey to see a show.
+
+     I am always, my dear Lord,
+
+     Yours very affectionately,
+
+                                                         WALTER SCOTT.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER LII
+
+     Illness and Death of John Ballantyne. -- Extract from his
+     Pocketbook. -- Letters from Blair-Adam. -- Castle-Campbell. --
+     Sir Samuel Shepherd. -- "Bailie Mackay," Etc. -- Coronation of
+     George IV. -- Correspondence with James Hogg and Lord Sidmouth.
+     -- Letter on the Coronation. -- Anecdotes. -- Allan Cunningham's
+     Memoranda. -- Completion of Chantrey's Bust.
+
+1821
+
+
+On the 4th of June, Scott, being then on one of his short Sessional
+visits to Abbotsford, received the painful intelligence that his
+friend John Ballantyne's maladies had begun to assume an aspect of
+serious and even immediate danger. The elder brother made the
+communication in these terms:--
+
+
+TO SIR WALTER SCOTT, BART., OF ABBOTSFORD, MELROSE.
+
+                                     EDINBURGH, Sunday, 3d June, 1821.
+
+     DEAR SIR,--I have this morning had a most heart-breaking letter
+     from poor John, from which the following is an extract. You will
+     judge how it has affected me, who, with all his peculiarities of
+     temper, love him very much. He says,--
+
+     "A spitting of blood has commenced, and you may guess the
+     situation into which I am plunged. We are all accustomed to
+     consider death as certainly inevitable; but his obvious approach
+     is assuredly the most detestable and abhorrent feeling to which
+     human nature can be subject."
+
+     This is truly doleful. There is something in it more absolutely
+     bitter to my heart than what I have otherwise suffered. I look
+     back to my mother's peaceful rest, and to my infant's
+     blessedness--if life be not the extinguishable worthless spark
+     which I cannot think it--but here, cut off in the very middle of
+     life, with good means and strong powers of enjoying it, and
+     nothing but reluctance and repining at the close--I say the truth
+     when I say that I would joyfully part with my right arm to avert
+     the approaching result. Pardon this, dear sir; my heart and soul
+     are heavy within me.
+
+     . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
+
+     With the deepest respect and gratitude,
+
+                                                                 J. B.
+
+
+At the date of this letter, the invalid was in Roxburghshire; but he
+came to Edinburgh a day or two afterwards, and died there on the 16th
+of the same month. I accompanied Sir Walter when one of their last
+interviews took place, and John's deathbed was a thing not to be
+forgotten. We sat by him for perhaps an hour, and I think half that
+space was occupied with his predictions of a speedy end, and details
+of his last will, which he had just been executing, and which lay on
+his coverlid; the other half being given, five minutes or so at a
+time, to questions and remarks, which intimated that the hope of life
+was still flickering before him--nay, that his interest in all its
+concerns remained eager. The proof sheets of a volume of his
+Novelists' Library lay also by his pillow; and he passed from them to
+his will, and then back to them, as by jerks and starts the unwonted
+veil of gloom closed upon his imagination, or was withdrawn again. He
+had, as he said, left his great friend and patron £2000 towards the
+completion of the new library at Abbotsford,--and the spirit of the
+auctioneer virtuoso flashed up as he began to describe what would, he
+thought, be the best style and arrangement of the bookshelves. He was
+interrupted by an agony of asthma, which left him with hardly any
+signs of life; and ultimately he did expire in a fit of the same kind.
+Scott was visibly and profoundly shaken by this scene and its sequel.
+As we stood together a few days afterwards, while they were smoothing
+the turf over John's remains in the Canongate Churchyard, the heavens,
+which had been dark and slaty, cleared up suddenly, and the midsummer
+sun shone forth in his strength. Scott, ever awake to the "skiey
+influences," cast his eye along the overhanging line of the Calton
+Hill, with its gleaming walls and towers, and then turning to the
+grave again, "I feel," he whispered in my ear, "I feel as if there
+would be less sunshine for me from this day forth."
+
+As we walked homewards, Scott told me, among other favorable traits of
+his friend, one little story which I must not omit. He remarked one
+day to a poor student of divinity attending his auction, that he
+looked as if he were in bad health. The young man assented with a
+sigh. "Come," said Ballantyne, "I think I ken the secret of a sort of
+draft that would relieve you--particularly," he added, handing him a
+cheque for £5 or £10--"particularly, my dear, if taken upon an empty
+stomach."
+
+John died in his elder brother's house in St. John Street; a
+circumstance which it gives me pleasure to record, as it confirms the
+impression of their affectionate feelings towards each other at this
+time, which the reader must have derived from James's letter to Scott
+last quoted. Their confidence and cordiality had undergone
+considerable interruption in the latter part of John's life; but the
+close was in all respects fraternal.
+
+A year and a half before John's exit,--namely, on the last day of
+1819,--he happened to lay his hand on an old pocketbook, which roused
+his reflections, and he filled two or three of its pages with a brief
+summary of the most active part of his life, which I think it due to
+his character, as well as Sir Walter Scott's, to transcribe in this
+place.
+
+     "31st Dec., 1819. In moving a bed from the fireplace to-day
+     upstairs, I found an old memorandum-book, which enables me to
+     trace the following recollections of _this day_, the last of the
+     year.
+
+     "1801. A shopkeeper in Kelso; at this period my difficulties had
+     not begun in business; was well, happy, and 27 years old; new
+     then in a connection which afterwards gave me great pain, but can
+     never be forgotten.
+
+     "1802. 28 old: In Kelso as before--could scarcely be
+     happier--hunted, shot, kept ****'s company, and neglected
+     business, the fruits whereof I soon found.
+
+     "1803. 29: Still fortunate, and happy from same cause. James in
+     Edinburgh thriving as a printer. When I was ennuied at home,
+     visited him. Business neglected every way.
+
+     "1804. 30: Material change; getting into difficulties; all wrong,
+     and changes in every way approaching.
+
+     "1805. 31: All consummated; health miserable all summer and ****
+     designated in an erased mem., _the scoundrel_. I yet recollect
+     the cause--can I ever forget it? My furniture, goods, etc., sold
+     at Kelso, previous to my going to Edinburgh to become my
+     brother's clerk; whither I _did_ go, for which God be praised
+     eternally, on Friday, 3d January, 1806, on £200 a year. My
+     effects at Kelso, with labor, paid my debts, and left me
+     penniless.
+
+     "From this period till 1808. 34: I continued in this
+     situation--then the scheme of a bookselling concern in Hanover
+     Street was adopted, which I was to manage; it was £300 a year,
+     and one fourth of the profits besides.
+
+     "1809. 35: Already the business in Hanover Street getting into
+     difficulty, from our ignorance of its nature, and most
+     extravagant and foolish advances from its funds to the printing
+     concern. I ought to have resisted this, but I was thoughtless,
+     although not young, or rather reckless, and lived on as long as I
+     could make ends meet.
+
+     "1810. 36: Bills increasing--the destructive system of
+     accommodations adopted.
+
+     "1811. 37: Bills increased to a most fearful degree. Sir Wm.
+     Forbes and Co. shut their account. No bank would discount with
+     us, and everything leading to irretrievable failure.
+
+     "1812. 38: The first partner stepped in, at a crisis so
+     tremendous, that it shakes my soul to think of it. By the most
+     consummate wisdom, and resolution, and unheard-of exertions, he
+     put things in a train that finally (so early as 1817) paid even
+     himself (who ultimately became the sole creditor of the house)
+     _in full_, with a balance of a thousand pounds.
+
+     "1813. 39: In business as a literary auctioneer in Prince's
+     Street; from which period to the present I have got gradually
+     forward, both in that line and as third of a partner of the works
+     of the Author of Waverley, so that I am now, at 45, worth about
+     (I owe £2000) £5000, with, however, alas, many changes--my strong
+     constitution much broken; my father and mother dead, and James
+     estranged--the chief enjoyment and glory of my life being the
+     possession of the friendship and confidence of the greatest of
+     men."
+
+In communicating John's death to the Cornet, Sir Walter says: "I have
+had a very great loss in poor John Ballantyne, who is gone, after a
+long illness. He persisted to the very last in endeavoring to take
+exercise, in which he was often imprudent, and was up and dressed the
+very morning before his death. In his will the grateful creature has
+left me a legacy of £2000, life-rented, however, by his wife; and the
+rest of his little fortune goes betwixt his two brothers. I shall miss
+him very much, both in business, and as an easy and lively companion,
+who was eternally active and obliging in whatever I had to do."
+
+I am sorry to take leave of John Ballantyne with the remark, that his
+last will was a document of the same class with too many of his
+_states_ and _calendars_. So far from having £2000 to bequeath to Sir
+Walter, he died as he had lived, ignorant of the situation of his
+affairs, and deep in debt.[126]
+
+[Footnote 126: No specimen of John's inaccuracy as to
+business-statements could be pointed out more extraordinary than his
+assertion in the above sketch of his career, that the bookselling
+concern, of which he had had the management, was finally wound up with
+a balance of £1000 in favor of the first partner. At the time he
+refers to (1817), John's name was on floating bills to the extent of
+at least £10,000, representing _part_ of the debt which had been
+accumulated on the bookselling house, and which, on its dissolution,
+was assumed by the printing company in the Canongate.--(1839.)]
+
+The two following letters, written at Blair-Adam, where the Club
+were, as usual, assembled for the dog-days, have been selected from
+among several which Scott at this time addressed to his friends in the
+South, with the view of promoting Mr. Mackay's success in his _début_
+on the London boards as Bailie Jarvie.
+
+
+TO MISS JOANNA BAILLIE, HAMPSTEAD.
+
+     The immediate motive of my writing to you, my dearest friend, is
+     to make Mrs. Agnes and you aware that a Scots performer, called
+     Mackay, is going up to London to play Bailie Nicol Jarvie for a
+     single night at Covent Garden, and to beg you of all dear loves
+     to go and see him; for, taking him in that single character, I am
+     not sure I ever saw anything in my life possessing so much truth
+     and comic effect at the same time: he is completely the personage
+     of the drama, the purse-proud consequential magistrate, humane
+     and irritable in the same moment, and the true Scotsman in every
+     turn of thought and action; his variety of feelings towards Rob
+     Roy, whom he likes, and fears, and despises, and admires, and
+     pities all at once, is exceedingly well expressed. In short, I
+     never saw a part better sustained, certainly; I pray you to
+     collect a party of Scotch friends to see it. I have written to
+     Sotheby to the same purpose, but I doubt whether the exhibition
+     will prove as satisfactory to those who do not know the original
+     from which the resemblance is taken. I observe the English demand
+     (as is natural) broad caricature in the depicting of national
+     peculiarities: they did so as to the Irish till Jack Johnstone
+     taught them better, and at first I should fear Mackay's reality
+     will seem less ludicrous than Liston's humorous extravagances. So
+     let it not be said that a dramatic genius of Scotland wanted the
+     countenance and protection of Joanna Baillie: the Doctor and Mrs.
+     Baillie will be much diverted if they go also, but somebody said
+     to me that they were out of town. The man, I am told, is
+     perfectly respectable in his life and habits, and consequently
+     deserves encouragement every way. There is a great difference
+     betwixt his _bailie_ and all his other performances: one would
+     think the part made for him, and him for the part--and yet I may
+     do the poor fellow injustice, and what we here consider as a
+     falling off may arise from our identifying Mackay so completely
+     with the worthy Glasgow magistrate, that recollections of Nicol
+     Jarvie intrude upon us at every corner, and mar the
+     personification of any other part which he may represent for the
+     time.
+
+     I am here for a couple of days with our Chief-Commissioner, late
+     Willie Adam, and we had yesterday a delightful stroll to
+     Castle-Campbell, the Rumbling Brig, Cauldron Linns, etc. The
+     scenes are most romantic, and I know not by what fatality it has
+     been, that living within a step of them, I never visited any of
+     them before. We had Sir Samuel Shepherd with us, a most
+     delightful person, but with too much English fidgetiness about
+     him for crags and precipices,--perpetually afraid that rocks
+     would give way under his weight which had over-brow'd the torrent
+     for ages, and that good well-rooted trees, moored so as to resist
+     ten thousand tempests, would fall because he grasped one of their
+     branches; he must certainly be a firm believer in the simile of
+     the lover of your native land, who complains,--
+
+       "I leant my back unto an aik,
+        I thought it was a trusty tree,
+        But first it bow'd and then it brake," etc., etc., etc.[127]
+
+     Certes these Southrons lack much the habits of the wood and
+     wilderness,--for here is a man of taste and genius, a fine
+     scholar and a most interesting companion, haunted with fears that
+     would be entertained by no shopkeeper from the Luckenbooths or
+     the Saut Market. A sort of _Cockneyism_ of one kind or another
+     pervades their men of professional habits, whereas every
+     Scotchman, with very few exceptions, holds country exercises of
+     all kinds to be part of his nature, and is ready to become a
+     traveller, or even a soldier on the slightest possible notice.
+     The habits of the moorfowl shooting, salmon-fishing, and so
+     forth, may keep this much up among the gentry, a name which our
+     pride and pedigree extend so much wider than in England; and it
+     is worth notice that these amusements, being cheap and tolerably
+     easy come at by all the petty dunniewassals, have a more general
+     influence on the national character than fox-hunting, which is
+     confined to those who can mount and keep a horse worth at least
+     100 guineas. But still this hardly explains the general and wide
+     difference betwixt the countries in this particular. Happen how
+     it will, the advantage is much in favor of Scotland: it is true
+     that it contributes to prevent our producing such very
+     accomplished lawyers, divines, or artisans[128] as when the whole
+     mind is bent with undivided attention upon attaining one branch
+     of knowledge,--but it gives a strong and muscular character to
+     the people in general, and saves men from all sorts of causeless
+     fears and flutterings of the heart, which give quite as much
+     misery as if there were real cause for entertaining apprehension.
+     This is not furiously to the purpose of my letter, which, after
+     recommending Monsieur Mackay, was to tell you that we are all
+     well and happy. Sophia is getting stout and pretty, and is one of
+     the wisest and most important little mammas that can be seen
+     anywhere. Her bower is _bigged in gude green wood_, and we went
+     last Saturday in a body to enjoy it, and to consult about
+     furniture; and we have got the road stopt which led up the hill,
+     so it is now quite solitary and approached through a grove of
+     trees, actual well-grown trees, not Lilliputian forests like
+     those of Abbotsford. The season is dreadfully backward. Our ashes
+     and oaks are not yet in leaf, and will not be, I think, in
+     anything like full foliage this year, such is the rigor of the
+     east winds.--Always, my dear and much respected friend, most
+     affectionately yours,
+
+                                                             W. SCOTT.
+
+     BLAIR-ADAM, 11 June, 1821,
+     In full sight of Lochleven.
+
+     P. S.--Pray read, or have read to you by Mrs. Agnes, The Annals
+     of the Parish. Mr. Galt wrote the worst tragedies ever seen, and
+     has now written a most excellent novel, if it can be called so.
+
+
+[Footnote 127: Ballad of the Marchioness of Douglas, "O waly, waly, up
+yon bank!" etc.]
+
+[Footnote 128: The great engineer, James Watt, of Birmingham--in whose
+talk Scott took much delight--told him, that though hundreds probably
+of his northern countrymen had sought employment at his establishment,
+he never could get one of them to become a first-rate artisan. "Many
+of them," said he, "were too good for that, and rose to be valuable
+clerks and book-keepers; but those incapable of this sort of
+advancement had always the same insuperable aversion to toiling so
+long at any one point of mechanism as to gain the highest wages among
+the workmen." I have no doubt Sir Walter was thinking of Mr. Watt's
+remark when he wrote the sentence in the text.]
+
+
+TO THE LORD MONTAGU, ETC., ETC., LONDON.
+
+                                            BLAIR-ADAM, June 11, 1821.
+
+     MY DEAR LORD,--There is a man going up from Edinburgh to play one
+     night at Covent Garden, whom, as having the very unusual power of
+     presenting on the stage a complete Scotsman, I am very desirous
+     you should see. He plays Bailie Nicol Jarvie in Rob Roy, but with
+     a degree of national truth and understanding, which makes the
+     part equal to anything I have ever seen on the stage, and I have
+     seen all the best comedians for these forty years. I wish much,
+     if you continue in town till he comes up, that you would get into
+     some private box and take a look of him. Sincerely, it is a real
+     treat--the English will not enjoy it, for it is not broad enough,
+     or sufficiently caricatured for their apprehensions, but to a
+     Scotsman it is inimitable, and you have the Glasgow Bailie before
+     you, with all his bustling conceit and importance, his real
+     benevolence, and his irritable habits. He will want in London a
+     fellow who, in the character of the Highland turnkey, held the
+     backhand to him admirably well. I know how difficult it is for
+     folks of condition to get to the theatre, but this is worth an
+     exertion,--and, besides, the poor man (who I understand is very
+     respectable in private life) will be, to use an admirable simile
+     (by which one of your father's farmers persuaded the Duke to go
+     to hear his son, a probationer in divinity, preach his first
+     sermon in the town of Ayr), _like a cow in a fremd loaning_, and
+     glad of Scots countenance.
+
+     I am glad the Duke's cold is better--his stomach will not be put
+     to those trials which ours underwent in our youth, when deep
+     drinking was the fashion. I hope he will always be aware,
+     however, that his is not a strong one.
+
+     Campbell's Lives of the Admirals is an admirable book, and I
+     would advise your Lordship e'en to redeem your pledge to the Duke
+     on some rainy day. You do not run the risk from the perusal which
+     my poor mother apprehended. She always alleged it sent her eldest
+     son to the navy, and did not see with indifference any of her
+     younger olive branches engaged with Campbell except myself, who
+     stood in no danger of the cockpit or quarterdeck. I would not
+     swear for Lord John though. Your Lordship's tutor was just such a
+     well-meaning person as mine, who used to take from me old Lindsay
+     of Pitscottie, and set me down to get by heart Rollin's infernal
+     list of the Shepherd Kings, whose hard names could have done no
+     good to any one on earth, unless he had wished to raise the
+     devil, and lacked language to conjure with.--Always, my dear
+     Lord, most truly yours,
+
+                                                         WALTER SCOTT.
+
+
+The coronation of George IV., preparations for which were (as has been
+seen) in active progress by March, 1820, had been deferred, in
+consequence of the unhappy affair of the Queen's Trial. The 19th of
+July, 1821, was now announced for this solemnity, and Sir Walter
+resolved to be among the spectators. It occurred to him that if the
+Ettrick Shepherd were to accompany him, and produce some memorial of
+the scene likely to catch the popular ear in Scotland, good service
+might thus be done to the cause of loyalty. But this was not his only
+consideration. Hogg had married a handsome and most estimable young
+woman, a good deal above his own original rank in life, the year
+before; and expecting with her a dowry of £1000, he had forthwith
+revived the grand ambition of an earlier day, and become a candidate
+for an extensive farm on the Buccleuch estate, at a short distance
+from Altrive Lake. Various friends, supposing his worldly
+circumstances to be much improved, had supported his application, and
+Lord Montagu had received it in a manner for which the Shepherd's
+letters to Scott express much gratitude. Misfortune pursued the
+Shepherd--the unforeseen bankruptcy of his wife's father interrupted
+the stocking of the sheep-walk; and the arable part of the new
+possession was sadly mismanaged by himself. Scott hoped that a visit
+to London, and a coronation poem, or pamphlet, might end in some
+pension or post that would relieve these difficulties, and he wrote to
+Hogg, urging him to come to Edinburgh, and embark with him for the
+great city. Not doubting that this proposal would be eagerly accepted,
+he, when writing to Lord Sidmouth, to ask a place for himself in the
+Hall and Abbey of Westminster, mentioned that Hogg was to be his
+companion, and begged suitable accommodation for him also. Lord
+Sidmouth, being overwhelmed with business connected with the
+approaching pageant, answered by the pen of the Under-Secretary of
+State, Mr. Hobhouse, that Sir Walter's wishes, both as to himself and
+the Shepherd, should be gratified, _provided_ they would both dine
+with him the day after the coronation, in Richmond Park, "where," says
+the letter before me, "his Lordship will invite the Duke of York and a
+few other Jacobites to meet you." All this being made known to the
+tenant of Mount-Benger, he wrote to Scott, as he says, "with the tear
+in his eye," to signify, that if he went to London he must miss
+attending the great annual Border fair, held on St. Boswell's Green,
+in Roxburghshire, on the 18th of every July; and that his absence from
+that meeting so soon after entering upon business as a store-farmer,
+would be considered by his new compeers as highly imprudent and
+discreditable. "In short," James concludes, "the thing is impossible.
+But as there is no man in his Majesty's dominions admires his great
+talents for government, and the energy and dignity of his
+administration, so much as I do, I will write something at home, and
+endeavor to give it you before you start." The Shepherd probably
+expected that these pretty compliments would reach the royal ear; but
+however that may have been, his own Muse turned a deaf ear to him--at
+least I never heard of anything that he wrote on this occasion.
+
+Scott embarked without him, on board a new steamship called The City
+of Edinburgh, which, as he suggested to the master, ought rather to
+have been christened The New Reekie. This vessel was that described
+and lauded in the following letter:--
+
+
+TO THE LORD MONTAGU, ETC., ETC.
+
+                                              EDINBURGH, July 1, 1821.
+
+     MY DEAR LORD,--I write just now to thank you for your letter. I
+     have been on board the steamship, and am so delighted with it,
+     that I think I shall put myself aboard for the coronation. It
+     runs at nine knots an hour (_me ipso teste_) against wind and
+     tide, with a deck as long as a frigate's to walk upon, and to
+     sleep on also, if you like, as I have always preferred a cloak
+     and a mattress to these crowded cabins. This reconciles the speed
+     and certainty of the mail-coach with the ease and convenience of
+     being on shipboard. So I really think I will run up to see the
+     grandee show, and run down again. I scorn to mention economy,
+     though the expense is not one fifth, and that is something in
+     hard times, especially to me, who, to choose, would always rather
+     travel in a public conveyance, than with my domestic's good
+     company in a po-chay.
+
+     But now comes the news of news. I have been instigating the great
+     Caledonian Boar, James Hogg, to undertake a similar trip--with
+     the view of turning an honest penny, to help out his stocking, by
+     writing some sort of Shepherd's Letters, or the like, to put the
+     honest Scots bodies up to this whole affair. I am trying with
+     Lord Sidmouth to get him a place among the newspaper gentry to
+     see the ceremony. It is seriously worth while to get such a
+     popular view of the whole as he will probably hit off.
+
+     I have another view for this poor fellow. You have heard of the
+     Royal Literary Society, and how they propose to distribute solid
+     pudding, _alias_ pensions, to men of genius. It is, I think, a
+     very problematical matter, whether it will do the good which is
+     intended; but if they do mean to select worthy objects of
+     encouragement, I really know nobody that has a better or an equal
+     claim to poor Hogg. Our friend Villiers takes a great charge of
+     this matter, and good-naturedly forgave my stating to him a
+     number of objections to the first concoction, which was to have
+     been something resembling the French Academy. It has now been
+     much modified. Perhaps there may be some means fallen upon, with
+     your Lordship's assistance, of placing Hogg under Mr. Villiers's
+     view. I would have done so myself, but only I have battled the
+     point against the whole establishment so keenly, that it would be
+     too bad to bring forward a protégé of my own to take advantage of
+     it. They intended at one time to give pensions of about £100 a
+     year to thirty persons. I know not where they could find half a
+     dozen with such pretensions as the Shepherd's.
+
+     There will be risk of his being lost in London, or kidnapped by
+     some of those ladies who open literary _menageries_ for the
+     reception of _lions_. I should like to see him at a rout of
+     blue-stockings. I intend to recommend him to the protection of
+     John Murray the bookseller; and I hope he will come equipped with
+     plaid, kent, and colley.[129]
+
+     I wish to heaven Lord Melville would either keep the Admiralty,
+     or in Hogg's phrase,--
+
+           "O I would eagerly press him
+       The keys of the _east_ to require,"--
+
+     for truly the Board of Control is the Corn Chest for Scotland,
+     where we poor gentry must send our younger sons, as we send our
+     black cattle to the south.--Ever most truly yours,
+
+                                                         WALTER SCOTT.
+
+
+[Footnote 129: _Kent_ is the shepherd's staff--_Colley_ his dog. Scott
+alludes to the old song of the _Lea Rig_,--
+
+"Nae herds wi' kent and colley there," etc.]
+
+From London, on the day after the coronation, Sir Walter addressed a
+letter descriptive of the ceremonial to his friend James Ballantyne,
+who published it in his newspaper. It has been since reprinted--but
+not in any collection of Scott's own writings; and I therefore insert
+it here. It will probably possess considerable interest for the
+student of English history and manners in future times; for the
+coronation of George the Fourth's successor was conducted on a vastly
+inferior scale of splendor and expense--and the precedent of
+curtailment in any such matters is now seldom neglected.
+
+
+TO THE EDITOR OF THE EDINBURGH WEEKLY JOURNAL.
+
+                                                LONDON, July 20, 1821.
+
+     SIR,--I refer you to the daily papers for the details of the
+     great National Solemnity which we witnessed yesterday, and will
+     hold my promise absolved by sending a few general remarks upon
+     what I saw with surprise amounting to astonishment, and which I
+     shall never forget. It is, indeed, impossible to conceive a
+     ceremony more august and imposing in all its parts, and more
+     calculated to make the deepest impression both on the eye and on
+     the feelings. The most minute attention must have been bestowed
+     to arrange all the subordinate parts in harmony with the rest; so
+     that, amongst so much antiquated ceremonial, imposing singular
+     dresses, duties, and characters, upon persons accustomed to move
+     in the ordinary routine of society, nothing occurred either
+     awkward or ludicrous which could mar the general effect of the
+     solemnity. Considering that it is but one step from the sublime
+     to the ridiculous, I own I consider it as surprising that the
+     whole ceremonial of the day should have passed away without the
+     slightest circumstance which could derange the general tone of
+     solemn feeling which was suited to the occasion.
+
+     You must have heard a full account of the only disagreeable event
+     of the day. I mean the attempt of the misguided lady, who has
+     lately furnished so many topics of discussion, to intrude herself
+     upon a ceremonial, where, not being in her proper place, to be
+     present in any other must have been voluntary degradation. That
+     matter is a fire of straw which has now burnt to the very embers,
+     and those who try to blow it into life again will only blacken
+     their hands and noses, like mischievous children dabbling among
+     the ashes of a bonfire. It seems singular, that being determined
+     to be present at all hazards, this unfortunate personage should
+     not have procured a Peer's ticket, which, I presume, would have
+     insured her admittance. I willingly pass to pleasanter matters.
+
+     The effect of the scene in the Abbey was beyond measure
+     magnificent. Imagine long galleries stretched among the aisles of
+     that venerable and august pile--those which rise above the altar
+     pealing back their echoes to a full and magnificent choir of
+     music--those which occupied the sides filled even to crowding
+     with all that Britain has of beautiful and distinguished, and the
+     cross-gallery most appropriately occupied by the Westminster
+     schoolboys, in their white surplices, many of whom might on that
+     day receive impressions never to be lost during the rest of their
+     lives. Imagine this, I say, and then add the spectacle upon the
+     floor,--the altar surrounded by the Fathers of the Church, the
+     King encircled by the Nobility of the land and the Counsellors of
+     his throne, and by warriors wearing the honored marks of
+     distinction bought by many a glorious danger;--add to this the
+     rich spectacle of the aisles crowded with waving plumage, and
+     coronets, and caps of honor, and the sun, which brightened and
+     saddened as if on purpose, now beaming in full lustre on the rich
+     and varied assemblage, and now darting a solitary ray, which
+     catched, as it passed, the glittering folds of a banner, or the
+     edge of a group of battle-axes or partizans, and then rested full
+     on some fair form, "the cynosure of neighboring eyes," whose
+     circlet of diamonds glistened under its influence. Imagine all
+     this, and then tell me if I have made my journey of four hundred
+     miles to little purpose. I do not love your _cui bono_ men, and
+     therefore I will not be pleased if you ask me in the damping tone
+     of sullen philosophy, what good all this has done the spectators.
+     If we restrict life to its real animal wants and necessities, we
+     shall indeed be satisfied with "food, clothes, and fire;" but
+     Divine Providence, who widened our sources of enjoyment beyond
+     those of the animal creation, never meant that we should bound
+     our wishes within such narrow limits; and I shrewdly suspect that
+     those _non est tanti_ gentlefolks only depreciate the natural and
+     unaffected pleasure which men like me receive from sights of
+     splendor and sounds of harmony, either because they would seem
+     wiser than their simple neighbors at the expense of being less
+     happy, or because the mere pleasure of the sight and sound is
+     connected with associations of a deeper kind, to which they are
+     unwilling to yield themselves.
+
+     Leaving these gentlemen to enjoy their own wisdom, I still more
+     pity those, if there be any, who (being unable to detect a peg on
+     which to hang a laugh) sneer coldly at this solemn festival, and
+     are rather disposed to dwell on the expense which attends it,
+     than on the generous feelings which it ought to awaken. The
+     expense, so far as it is national, has gone directly and
+     instantly to the encouragement of the British manufacturer and
+     mechanic; and so far as it is personal to the persons of rank
+     attendant upon the Coronation, it operates as a tax upon wealth
+     and consideration for the benefit of poverty and industry; a tax
+     willingly paid by the one class, and not the less acceptable to
+     the other because it adds a happy holiday to the monotony of a
+     life of labor.
+
+     But there were better things to reward my pilgrimage than the
+     mere pleasures of the eye and ear; for it was impossible, without
+     the deepest veneration, to behold the voluntary and solemn
+     interchange of vows betwixt the King and his assembled People,
+     whilst he, on the one hand, called God Almighty to witness his
+     resolution to maintain their laws and privileges, whilst they
+     called, at the same moment, on the Divine Being, to bear witness
+     that they accepted him for their liege Sovereign, and pledged to
+     him their love and their duty. I cannot describe to you the
+     effect produced by the solemn, yet strange mixture of the words
+     of Scripture, with the shouts and acclamations of the assembled
+     multitude, as they answered to the voice of the Prelate, who
+     demanded of them whether they acknowledged as their Monarch the
+     Prince who claimed the sovereignty in their presence. It was
+     peculiarly delightful to see the King receive from the royal
+     brethren, but in particular from the Duke of York, the fraternal
+     kiss in which they acknowledged their sovereign. There was an
+     honest tenderness, an affectionate and sincere reverence in the
+     embrace interchanged betwixt the Duke of York and his Majesty,
+     that approached almost to a caress, and impressed all present
+     with the electrical conviction, that the nearest to the throne in
+     blood was the nearest also in affection. I never heard plaudits
+     given more from the heart than those that were thundered upon the
+     royal brethren when they were thus pressed to each other's
+     bosoms,--it was an emotion of natural kindness, which, bursting
+     out amidst ceremonial grandeur, found an answer in every British
+     bosom. The King seemed much affected at this and one or two other
+     parts of the ceremonial, even so much so as to excite some alarm
+     among those who saw him as nearly as I did. He completely
+     recovered himself, however, and bore (generally speaking) the
+     fatigue of the day very well. I learn from one near his person,
+     that he roused himself with great energy, even when most
+     oppressed with heat and fatigue, when any of the more interesting
+     parts of the ceremony were to be performed, or when anything
+     occurred which excited his personal and immediate attention. When
+     presiding at the banquet, amid the long line of his Nobles, he
+     looked "every inch a King;" and nothing could exceed the grace
+     with which he accepted and returned the various acts of homage
+     rendered to him in the course of that long day.
+
+     It was also a very gratifying spectacle to those who think like
+     me, to behold the Duke of Devonshire and most of the
+     distinguished Whig nobility assembled round the throne on this
+     occasion; giving an open testimony that the differences of
+     political opinions are only skin-deep wounds, which assume at
+     times an angry appearance, but have no real effect on the
+     wholesome constitution of the country.
+
+     If you ask me to distinguish who bore him best, and appeared most
+     to sustain the character we annex to the assistants in such a
+     solemnity, I have no hesitation to name Lord Londonderry, who, in
+     the magnificent robes of the Garter, with the cap and high plume
+     of the order, walked alone, and by his fine face and majestic
+     person formed an adequate representative of the order of Edward
+     III., the costume of which was worn by his Lordship only. The
+     Duke of Wellington, with all his laurels, moved and looked
+     deserving the baton, which was never grasped by so worthy a hand.
+     The Marquis of Anglesea showed the most exquisite grace in
+     managing his horse, notwithstanding the want of his limb, which
+     he left at Waterloo. I never saw so fine a bridle-hand in my
+     life, and I am rather a judge of "noble horsemanship." Lord
+     Howard's horse was worse bitted than those of the two former
+     noblemen, but not so much so as to derange the ceremony of
+     retiring back out of the Hall.
+
+     The Champion was performed (as of right) by young Dymocke, a
+     fine-looking youth, but bearing, perhaps, a little too much the
+     appearance of a maiden-knight to be the challenger of the world
+     in a King's behalf. He threw down his gauntlet, however, with
+     becoming manhood, and showed as much horsemanship as the crowd of
+     knights and squires around him would permit to be exhibited. His
+     armor was in good taste, but his shield was out of all propriety,
+     being a round _rondache_, or Highland target, a defensive weapon
+     which it would have been impossible to use on horseback, instead
+     of being a three-corner'd, or _heater-shield_, which in time of
+     the tilt was suspended round the neck. Pardon this antiquarian
+     scruple, which, you may believe, occurred to few but myself. On
+     the whole, this striking part of the exhibition somewhat
+     disappointed me, for I would have had the Champion less
+     embarrassed by his assistants, and at liberty to put his horse on
+     the _grand pas_. And yet the young Lord of Scrivelsbaye looked
+     and behaved extremely well.
+
+     Returning to the subject of costume, I could not but admire what
+     I had previously been disposed much to criticise,--I mean the
+     fancy dress of the Privy-Councillors, which was of white and blue
+     satin, with trunk-hose and mantles, after the fashion of Queen
+     Elizabeth's time. Separately, so gay a garb had an odd effect on
+     the persons of elderly or ill-made men; but when the whole was
+     thrown into one general body, all these discrepancies
+     disappeared, and you no more observed the particular manner or
+     appearance of an individual, than you do that of a soldier in the
+     battalion which marches past you. The whole was so completely
+     harmonized in actual coloring, as well as in association, with
+     the general mass of gay and gorgeous and antique dress which
+     floated before the eye, that it was next to impossible to attend
+     to the effect of individual figures. Yet a Scotsman will detect a
+     Scotsman amongst the most crowded assemblage, and I must say that
+     the Lord Justice-Clerk of Scotland[130] showed to as great
+     advantage in his robes of Privy-Councillor, as any by whom that
+     splendid dress was worn on this great occasion. The common
+     Court-dress used by the Privy-Councillors at the last coronation
+     must have had a poor effect in comparison of the present, which
+     formed a gradation in the scale of gorgeous ornament, from the
+     unwieldy splendor of the heralds, who glowed like huge masses of
+     cloth of gold and silver, to the more chastened robes and ermine
+     of the Peers. I must not forget the effect produced by the Peers
+     placing their coronets on their heads, which was really august.
+
+     The box assigned to the foreign Ambassadors presented a most
+     brilliant effect, and was perfectly in a blaze with diamonds.
+     When the sunshine lighted on Prince Esterhazy, in particular, he
+     glimmered like a galaxy. I cannot learn positively if he had on
+     that renowned coat which has visited all the courts of Europe
+     save ours, and is said to be worth £100,000, or some such trifle,
+     and which costs the Prince £100 or two every time he puts it on,
+     as he is sure to lose pearls to that amount. This was a hussar
+     dress, but splendid in the last degree; perhaps too fine for good
+     taste--at least it would have appeared so anywhere else. Beside
+     the Prince sat a good-humored lass, who seemed all eyes and ears
+     (his daughter-in-law, I believe), who wore as many diamonds as if
+     they had been Bristol stones. An honest Persian was also a
+     remarkable figure, from the dogged and imperturbable gravity with
+     which he looked on the whole scene, without ever moving a limb or
+     a muscle during the space of four hours. Like Sir Wilful Witwoud,
+     I cannot find that your Persian is orthodox; for if he scorned
+     everything else, there was a Mahometan paradise extended on his
+     right hand along the seats which were occupied by the peeresses
+     and their daughters, which the Prophet himself might have looked
+     on with emotion. I have seldom seen so many elegant and beautiful
+     girls as sat mingled among the noble matronage of the land; and
+     the waving plumage of feathers, which made the universal
+     head-dress, had the most appropriate effect in setting off their
+     charms.
+
+     I must not omit that the foreigners, who are apt to consider us
+     as a nation _en frac_, and without the usual ceremonials of dress
+     and distinction, were utterly astonished and delighted to see the
+     revival of feudal dresses and feudal grandeur when the occasion
+     demanded it, and that in a degree of splendor which they averred
+     they had never seen paralleled in Europe.
+
+     The duties of service at the Banquet, and of attendance in
+     general, were performed by pages drest very elegantly in Henri
+     Quatre coats of scarlet, with gold lace, blue sashes, white silk
+     hose, and white rosettes. There were also marshal's-men for
+     keeping order, who wore a similar dress, but of blue, and having
+     white sashes. Both departments were filled up almost entirely by
+     young gentlemen, many of them of the very first condition, who
+     took these menial characters to gain admission to the show. When
+     I saw many of my young acquaintance thus attending upon their
+     fathers and kinsmen, the Peers, Knights, and so forth, I could
+     not help thinking of Crabbe's lines, with a little alteration:--
+
+       'T was schooling pride to see the menial wait,
+       Smile on his father, and receive his plate.
+
+     It must be owned, however, that they proved but indifferent
+     valets, and were very apt, like the clown in the pantomime, to
+     eat the cheer they should have handed to their masters, and to
+     play other _tours de page_, which reminded me of the caution of
+     our proverb "not to man yourself with your kin." The Peers, for
+     example, had only a cold collation, while the Aldermen of London
+     feasted on venison and turtle; and similar errors necessarily
+     befell others in the confusion of the evening. But these slight
+     mistakes, which indeed were not known till afterwards, had not
+     the slightest effect on the general grandeur of the scene.
+
+     I did not see the procession between the Abbey and Hall. In the
+     morning a few voices called _Queen! Queen!_ as Lord Londonderry
+     passed, and even when the Sovereign appeared. But these were only
+     signals for the loud and reiterated acclamations in which these
+     tones of discontent were completely drowned. In the return, no
+     one dissonant voice intimated the least dissent from the shouts
+     of gratulation which poured from every quarter; and certainly
+     never Monarch received a more general welcome from his assembled
+     subjects.
+
+     You will have from others full accounts of the variety of
+     entertainments provided for John Bull in the Parks, the River, in
+     the Theatres, and elsewhere. Nothing was to be seen or heard but
+     sounds of pleasure and festivity; and whoever saw the scene at
+     any one spot, was convinced that the whole population was
+     assembled there, while others found a similar concourse of
+     revellers in every different point. It is computed that about
+     _five hundred thousand people_ shared in the Festival in one way
+     or another; and you may imagine the excellent disposition by
+     which the people were animated, when I tell you, that, excepting
+     a few windows broken by a small bodyguard of ragamuffins, who
+     were in immediate attendance on the Great Lady in the morning,
+     not the slightest political violence occurred to disturb the
+     general harmony--and that the assembled populace seemed to be
+     universally actuated by the spirit of the day--loyalty, namely,
+     and good-humor. Nothing occurred to damp those happy
+     dispositions; the weather was most propitious, and the
+     arrangements so perfect, that no accident of any kind is reported
+     as having taken place.--And so concluded the coronation of GEORGE
+     IV., whom GOD long preserve. Those who witnessed it have seen a
+     scene calculated to raise the country in their opinion, and to
+     throw into the shade all scenes of similar magnificence, from the
+     Field of the Cloth of Gold down to the present day. I remain,
+     your obedient servant,
+
+                                                       AN EYE-WITNESS.
+
+
+[Footnote 130: Scott's schoolfellow, the Right Hon. D. Boyle.]
+
+At the close of this brilliant scene, Scott received a mark of homage
+to his genius which delighted him not less than Laird Nippy's
+reverence for the _Sheriff's Knoll_, and the Sheffield cutler's dear
+acquisition of his signature on a visiting ticket. Missing his
+carriage, he had to return home on foot from Westminster, after the
+banquet--that is to say, between two or three o'clock in the
+morning;--when he and a young gentleman his companion found themselves
+locked in the crowd, somewhere near Whitehall, and the bustle and
+tumult were such that his friend was afraid some accident might happen
+to the lame limb. A space for the dignitaries was kept clear at that
+point by the Scots Greys. Sir Walter addressed a sergeant of this
+celebrated regiment, begging to be allowed to pass by him into the
+open ground in the middle of the street. The man answered shortly,
+that his orders were strict--that the thing was impossible. While he
+was endeavoring to persuade the sergeant to relent, some new wave of
+turbulence approached from behind, and his young companion exclaimed
+in a loud voice, "Take care, Sir Walter Scott, take care!" The
+stalwart dragoon, on hearing the name, said, "What! Sir Walter Scott?
+He shall get through anyhow!" He then addressed the soldiers near him:
+"Make room, men, for Sir Walter Scott, our illustrious countryman!"
+The men answered, "Sir Walter Scott!--God bless him!"--and he was in a
+moment within the guarded line of safety.
+
+I shall now take another extract from the _memoranda_ with which I
+have been favored by my friend Allan Cunningham. After the particulars
+formerly quoted about Scott's sitting to Chantrey in the spring of
+1820, he proceeds as follows:--
+
+
+     "I saw Sir Walter again, when he attended the coronation, in
+     1821. In the mean time his bust had been wrought in marble, and
+     the sculptor desired to take the advantage of his visit to
+     communicate such touches of expression or lineament as the new
+     material rendered necessary. This was done with a happiness of
+     eye and hand almost magical: for five hours did the poet sit, or
+     stand, or walk, while Chantrey's chisel was passed again and
+     again over the marble, adding something at every touch.
+
+     "'Well, Allan,' he said, when he saw me at this last sitting,
+     'were you at the coronation? it was a splendid sight.'--'No, Sir
+     Walter,' I answered, 'places were dear and ill to get: I am told
+     it was a magnificent scene: but having seen the procession of
+     King Crispin at Dumfries, I was satisfied.' I said this with a
+     smile: Scott took it as I meant it, and laughed heartily. 'That's
+     not a bit better than Hogg,' he said. 'He stood balancing the
+     matter whether to go to the coronation or the fair of Saint
+     Boswell--and the fair carried it.'
+
+     "During this conversation, Mr. Bolton the engineer came in.
+     Something like a cold acknowledgment passed between the poet and
+     him. On his passing into an inner room, Scott said, 'I am afraid
+     Mr. Bolton has not forgot a little passage that once took place
+     between us. We met in a public company, and in reply to the
+     remark of some one, he said, "That's like the old saying,--in
+     every quarter of the world you will find a Scot, a rat, and a
+     Newcastle grindstone." This touched my Scotch spirit, and I said,
+     "Mr. Bolton, you should have added--_and a Brummagem button_."
+     There was a laugh at this, and Mr. Bolton replied, "We make
+     something better in Birmingham than buttons--we make
+     steam-engines, sir."
+
+     "'I like Bolton,' thus continued Sir Walter; 'he is a brave
+     man,--and who can dislike the brave? He showed this on a
+     remarkable occasion. He had engaged to coin for some foreign
+     prince a large quantity of gold. This was found out by some
+     desperadoes, who resolved to rob the premises, and as a
+     preliminary step tried to bribe the porter. The porter was an
+     honest fellow,--he told Bolton that he was offered a hundred
+     pounds to be blind and deaf next night. "Take the money," was the
+     answer, "and I shall protect the place." Midnight came--the gates
+     opened as if by magic--the interior doors, secured with patent
+     locks, opened as of their own accord--and three men with dark
+     lanterns entered and went straight to the gold. Bolton had
+     prepared some flax steeped in turpentine--he dropt fire upon it,
+     a sudden light filled all the place, and with his assistants, he
+     rushed forward on the robbers,--the leader saw in a moment he was
+     betrayed, turned on the porter, and shooting him dead, burst
+     through all obstruction, and with an ingot of gold in his hand,
+     scaled the wall and escaped.'
+
+     "'That is quite a romance in robbing,' I said;--and I had nearly
+     said more, for the cavern scene and death of Meg Merrilies rose
+     in my mind;--perhaps the mind of Sir Walter was taking the
+     direction of the Solway too, for he said, 'How long have you been
+     from Nithsdale?'--'A dozen years.' 'Then you will remember it
+     well. I was a visitor there in my youth; my brother was at
+     Closeburn school, and there I found Creehope Linn, a scene ever
+     present to my fancy. It is at once fearful and beautiful. The
+     stream jumps down from the moorlands, saws its way into the
+     freestone rock of a hundred feet deep, and, in escaping to the
+     plain, performs a thousand vagaries. In one part it has actually
+     shaped out a little chapel,--the peasants call it the Sutors'
+     Chair. There are sculptures on the sides of the linn too, not
+     such as Mr. Chantrey casts, but etchings scraped in with a knife
+     perhaps, or a harrow-tooth.'--'Did you ever hear,' said Sir
+     Walter, 'of Patrick Maxwell, who, taken prisoner by the King's
+     troops, escaped from them on his way to Edinburgh, by flinging
+     himself into that dreadful linn on Moffat water, called the
+     Douglasses' Beef-tub?'--'Frequently,' I answered; 'the country
+     abounds with anecdotes of those days: the popular feeling
+     sympathizes with the poor Jacobites, and has recorded its
+     sentiments in many a tale and many a verse.'--'The Ettrick
+     Shepherd has collected not a few of those things,' said Scott,
+     'and I suppose many snatches of song may yet be found.'--_C._ 'I
+     have gathered many such things myself, Sir Walter, and as I still
+     propose to make a collection of all Scottish songs of poetic
+     merit, I shall work up many of my stray verses and curious
+     anecdotes in the notes.'--_S._ 'I am glad that you are about such
+     a thing; any help which I can give you, you may command; ask me
+     any questions, no matter how many, I shall answer them if I can.
+     Don't be timid in your selection; our ancestors fought boldly,
+     spoke boldly, and sang boldly too. I can help you to an old
+     characteristic ditty not yet in print:--
+
+       "There dwalt a man into the wast,
+          And O gin he was cruel,
+        For on his bridal night at e'en
+          He gat up and grat for gruel.
+
+       "They brought to him a gude sheep's head,
+          A bason, and a towel;
+        Gar take thae whim-whams far frae me,
+          I winna want my gruel."'
+
+     "_C._--'I never heard that verse before: the hero seems related
+     to the bridegroom of Nithsdale,--
+
+       "The bridegroom grat as the sun gade down,
+        The bridegroom grat as the sun gade down;
+        To ony man I'll gie a hunder marks sae free,
+        This night that will bed wi' a bride for me."'
+
+     "_S._--'A cowardly loon enough. I know of many crumbs and
+     fragments of verse which will be useful to your work; the Border
+     was once peopled with poets, for every one that could fight could
+     make ballads, some of them of great power and pathos. Some such
+     people as the minstrels were living less than a century
+     ago.'--_C._ 'I knew a man, the last of a race of district
+     tale-tellers, who used to boast of the golden days of his youth,
+     and say, that the world, with all its knowledge, was grown
+     sixpence a day worse for him.'--_S._ 'How was that? how did he
+     make his living?--by telling tales, or singing ballads?'--_C._
+     'By both: he had a devout tale for the old, and a merry song for
+     the young; he was a sort of beggar.'--_S._ 'Out upon thee,
+     Allan--dost thou call that begging? Why, man, we make our bread
+     by story-telling, and honest bread it is.'"
+
+
+I ought not to close this extract without observing that Sir F.
+Chantrey presented the original bust, of which Mr. Cunningham speaks,
+to Sir Walter himself; by whose remotest descendants it will
+undoubtedly be held in additional honor on that account. The poet had
+the further gratification of learning that three copies were executed
+in marble before the original quitted the studio: One for Windsor
+Castle--a second for Apsley House--and a third for the friendly
+sculptor's own private collection. The casts of this bust have since
+been multiplied beyond perhaps any example whatever.
+
+Sir Walter returned to Scotland in company with his friend William
+Stewart Rose; and they took the way by Stratford-upon-Avon, where, on
+the wall of the room in which Shakespeare is supposed to have been
+born, the autograph of these pilgrims may still, I believe, be
+traced.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER LIII
+
+PUBLICATION OF MR. ADOLPHUS'S LETTERS ON THE AUTHORSHIP OF WAVERLEY
+
+1821
+
+
+During Scott's visit to London in July, 1821, there appeared a work
+which was read with eager curiosity and delight by the public--with
+much private diversion besides by his friends--and which he himself
+must have gone through with a very odd mixture of emotions. I allude
+to the volume entitled "Letters to Richard Heber, Esq., containing
+critical remarks on the series of novels beginning with Waverley, and
+an attempt to ascertain their author;" which was soon known to have
+been penned by Mr. John Leycester Adolphus, a distinguished alumnus of
+the University then represented in Parliament by Sir Walter's early
+friend Heber.[131] Previously to the publication of these letters, the
+opinion that Scott was the author of Waverley had indeed become well
+settled in the English, to say nothing of the Scottish mind; a great
+variety of circumstances, external as well as internal, had by degrees
+coöperated to its general establishment: yet there were not wanting
+persons who still dissented, or at least affected to dissent from it.
+It was reserved for the enthusiastic industry, and admirable ingenuity
+of this juvenile academic, to set the question at rest by an
+accumulation of critical evidence which no sophistry could evade, and
+yet produced in a style of such high-bred delicacy, that it was
+impossible for the hitherto "veiled prophet" to take the slightest
+offence with the hand that had forever abolished his disguise. The
+only sceptical scruple that survived this exposition was extinguished
+in due time by Scott's avowal of the _sole and unassisted_ authorship
+of his novels; and now Mr. Adolphus's Letters have shared the fate of
+other elaborate arguments, the thesis of which has ceased to be
+controverted. Hereafter, I am persuaded, his volume will be revived
+for its own sake;--but, in the mean time, regarding it merely as
+forming, by its original effect, an epoch in Scott's history, I think
+it my duty to mark my sense of its importance in that point of view,
+by transcribing the writer's own summary of its
+
+CONTENTS.
+
+     "LETTER I.--Introduction--General reasons for believing the
+     novels to have been written by the author of Marmion.
+
+     "LETTER II.--Resemblance between the novelist and poet in their
+     tastes, studies, and habits of life, as illustrated by their
+     works--Both Scotchmen--Habitual residents in
+     Edinburgh--Poets--Antiquaries--German and Spanish scholars--Equal
+     in classical attainment--Deeply read in British
+     history--Lawyers--Fond of field sports--Of dogs--Acquainted with
+     most manly exercises--Lovers of military subjects--The novelist
+     apparently not a soldier.
+
+     "LETTER III.--The novelist is, like the poet, a man of good
+     society--His stories never betray forgetfulness of honorable
+     principles, or ignorance of good manners--Spirited pictures of
+     gentlemanly character--Colonel Mannering--Judicious treatment of
+     elevated historical personages--The novelist quotes and praises
+     most contemporary poets, except the author of Marmion--Instances
+     in which the poet has appeared to slight his own unacknowledged,
+     but afterwards avowed productions.
+
+     "LETTER IV.--Comparison of the works themselves--All
+     distinguished by good morals and good sense--The latter
+     particularly shown in the management of character--Prose
+     style--Its general features--Plainness and facility--Grave
+     banter--Manner of telling a short
+     story--Negligence--Scotticisms--Great propriety and correctness
+     occasionally, and sometimes unusual sweetness.
+
+     "LETTER V.--Dialogue in the novels and poems--Neat colloquial
+     turns in the former, such as cannot be expected in romantic
+     poetry--Happy adaptation of dialogue to character, whether merely
+     natural, or artificially modified, as by profession, local
+     habits, etc.--Faults of dialogue, as connected with character of
+     speakers--Quaintness of language and thought--Bookish air in
+     conversation--Historical personages alluding to their own
+     celebrated acts and sayings--Unsuccessful attempts at broad
+     vulgarity--Beauties of composition peculiar to the
+     dialogue--Terseness and spirit--These qualities well displayed in
+     quarrels; but not in scenes of polished raillery--Eloquence.
+
+     "LETTER VI.--The poetry of the author of Marmion generally
+     characterized--His habits of composition and turn of mind as a
+     poet, compared with those of the novelist--Their descriptions
+     simply conceived and composed, without abstruse and far-fetched
+     circumstances or refined comments--Great advantage derived by
+     both from accidental combinations of images, and the association
+     of objects in the mind with persons, events, etc.--Distinctness
+     and liveliness of effect in narrative and description--Narrative
+     usually picturesque or dramatic, or both--Distinctness, etc., of
+     effect, produced in various ways--Striking pictures of
+     individuals--Their persons, dress, etc.--Descriptions sometimes
+     too obviously picturesque--Subjects for painters--Effects of
+     light frequently noticed and finely described--Both writers excel
+     in grand and complicated scenes--Among detached and occasional
+     ornaments, the similes particularly noticed--Their frequency and
+     beauty--Similes and metaphors sometimes quaint, and pursued too
+     far.
+
+     "LETTER VII.--Stories of the two writers compared--These are
+     generally connected with true history, and have their scene laid
+     in a real place--Local peculiarities diligently attended
+     to--Instances in which the novelist and poet have celebrated the
+     same places--they frequently describe these as seen by a
+     traveller (the hero or some other principal personage) for the
+     first time--Dramatic mode of relating story--Soliloquies--Some
+     scenes degenerate into melodrame--Lyrical pieces introduced
+     sometimes too theatrically--Comparative unimportance of
+     heroes--Various causes of this fault--Heroes rejected by ladies,
+     and marrying others whom they had before slighted--Personal
+     struggle between a civilized and a barbarous hero--Characters
+     resembling each other--Female portraits in general--Fathers and
+     daughters--Characters in Paul's Letters--Wycliffe and
+     Risingham--Glossin and Hatteraick--Other characters
+     compared--Long periods of time abruptly passed over--Surprises,
+     unexpected discoveries, etc.--These sometimes too forced and
+     artificial--Frequent recourse to the marvellous--Dreams well
+     described--Living persons mistaken for spectres--Deaths of
+     Burley, Risingham, and Rashleigh.
+
+     "LETTER VIII.--Comparison of particular
+     passages--Descriptions--Miscellaneous thoughts--Instances in
+     which the two writers have resorted to the same sources of
+     information, and borrowed the same incidents, etc.--Same authors
+     quoted by both--The poet, like the novelist, fond of mentioning
+     his contemporaries, whether as private friends or as men publicly
+     distinguished--Author of Marmion never notices the Author of
+     Waverley (see Letter III.)--Both delight in frequently
+     introducing an antiquated or fantastic dialect--Peculiarities of
+     expression common to both writers--Conclusion."
+
+[Footnote 131: [John Leycester Adolphus, son of John Adolphus, eminent
+as a barrister and the author of various historical works, was born in
+1795, and was educated at Merchant Taylors', and St. John's College,
+Oxford, where in 1814 he gained the Newdigate prize for English verse.
+He held a reputable position in his father's profession, and, beside
+the work described in the text, published _Letters from Spain in 1856
+and 1857_. He also wrote a number of clever metrical _jeux d'esprit_.
+He was engaged in completing his father's _History of England under
+George III._ at the time of his death in 1862.]]
+
+I wish I had space for extracting copious specimens of the felicity
+with which Mr. Adolphus works out these various points of his problem.
+As it is, I must be contented with a narrow selection--and I shall
+take two or three of the passages which seem to me to connect
+themselves most naturally with the main purpose of my own compilation.
+
+
+     "A thorough knowledge and statesmanlike understanding of the
+     domestic history and politics of Britain at various and distant
+     periods; a familiar acquaintance with the manners and prevailing
+     spirit of former generations, and with the characters and habits
+     of their most distinguished men, are of themselves no cheap or
+     common attainments; and it is rare indeed to find them united
+     with a strong original genius, and great brilliancy of
+     imagination. We know, however, that the towering poet of Flodden
+     Field is also the diligent editor of Swift and Dryden, of Lord
+     Somers's Tracts, and of Sir Ralph Sadler's State Papers; that in
+     these and other parts of his literary career he has necessarily
+     plunged deep into the study of British history, biography, and
+     antiquities, and that the talent and activity which he brought to
+     these researches have been warmly seconded by the zeal and
+     liberality of those who possessed the amplest and rarest sources
+     of information. 'The Muse found him,' as he himself said long
+     ago, 'engaged in the pursuit of historical and traditional
+     antiquities, and the excursions which he has made in her company
+     have been of a nature which increases his attachment to his
+     original study.' Are we then to suppose that another writer has
+     combined the same powers of fancy with the same spirit of
+     investigation, the same perseverance, and the same good fortune?
+     and shall we not rather believe, that the labor employed in the
+     illustration of Dryden has helped to fertilize the invention
+     which produced Montrose and Old Mortality?...
+
+     "However it may militate against the supposition of his being a
+     poet, I cannot suppress my opinion, that our novelist is a 'man
+     of law.' He deals out the peculiar terms and phrases of that
+     science (as practised in Scotland) with a freedom and confidence
+     beyond the reach of any uninitiated person. If ever, in the
+     progress of his narrative, a legal topic presents itself (which
+     very frequently happens), he neither declines the subject, nor
+     timidly slurs it over, but enters as largely and formally into
+     all its technicalities, as if the case were actually 'before the
+     fifteen.' The manners, humors, and professional _bavardage_ of
+     lawyers, are sketched with all the ease and familiarity which
+     result from habitual observation. In fact, the subject of law,
+     which is a stumbling-block to others, is to the present writer a
+     spot of repose; upon this theme he lounges and gossips, he is
+     _discinctus et soleatus_, and, at times, almost forgets that when
+     an author finds himself at home and perfectly at ease, he is in
+     great danger of falling asleep.--If, then, my inferences are
+     correct, the unknown writer who was just now proved to be an
+     excellent poet, must also be pronounced a follower of the law:
+     the combination is so unusual, at least on this side of the
+     Tweed, that, as Juvenal says on a different occasion--
+
+                             ... 'bimembri
+        Hoc monstrum puero, vel mirandis sub aratro
+        Piscibus inventis, et foetæ comparo mulsæ.'
+
+     Nature has indeed presented us with one such prodigy in the
+     author of Marmion; and it is probable, that in the author of
+     Waverley, we only see the same specimen under a different aspect;
+     for, however sportive the goddess may be, she has too much wit
+     and invention to wear out a frolic by many repetitions....
+
+     "A striking characteristic of both writers is their ardent love
+     of rural sports, and all manly and robust exercises.--But the
+     importance given to the canine race in these works ought to be
+     noted as a characteristic feature by itself. I have seen some
+     drawings by a Swiss artist, who was called the Raphael of cats;
+     and either of the writers before us might, by a similar phrase,
+     be called the Wilkie of dogs. Is it necessary to justify such a
+     compliment by examples? Call Yarrow, or Lufra, or poor Fangs,
+     Colonel Mannering's Plato, Henry Morton's Elphin, or Hobbie
+     Elliot's Kilbuck, or Wolfe of Avenel Castle:--see Fitz-James's
+     hounds returning from the pursuit of the lost stag--
+
+        'Back limped with slow and crippled pace
+         The sulky leaders of the chase'--
+
+     or swimming after the boat which carries their Master--
+
+        'With heads erect and whimpering cry
+         The hounds behind their passage ply.'
+
+     See Captain Clutterbuck's dog _quizzing_ him when he missed a
+     bird, or the scene of 'mutual explanation and remonstrance'
+     between 'the venerable patriarchs old Pepper and Mustard,' and
+     Henry Bertram's rough terrier Wasp. If these instances are not
+     sufficient, turn to the English bloodhound assailing the young
+     Buccleuch,--
+
+        'And hark! and hark! the deep-mouthed bark
+             Comes nigher still and nigher;
+         Bursts on the path a dark blood-hound,
+         His tawny muzzle tracked the ground,
+             And his red eye shot fire.
+         Soon as the wildered child saw he,
+         He flew at him right furiouslie....
+         I ween you would have seen with joy
+         The bearing of the gallant boy....
+         So fierce he struck, the dog, afraid,
+         At cautious distance hoarsely bayed,
+         But still in act to spring.'
+
+     Or Lord Ronald's deerhounds, in the haunted forest of
+     Glenfinlas,--
+
+        'Within an hour return'd each hound;
+           In rush'd the rousers of the deer;
+         They howl'd in melancholy sound,
+           Then closely couch beside the seer....
+         Sudden the hounds erect their ears,
+           And sudden cease their moaning howl;
+         Close press'd to Moy, they mark their fears
+           By shivering limbs and stifled growl.
+         Untouch'd the harp began to ring,
+           As softly, slowly, oped the door,' etc.
+
+     Or look at Cedric the Saxon, in his antique hall, attended by his
+     greyhounds and slowhounds, and the terriers which 'waited with
+     impatience the arrival of the supper; but, with the sagacious
+     knowledge of physiognomy peculiar to their race, forbore to
+     intrude upon the moody silence of their master.' To complete the
+     picture, 'One grisly old wolf-dog alone, with the liberty of an
+     indulged favorite, had planted himself close by the chair of
+     state, and occasionally ventured to solicit notice by putting his
+     large hairy head upon his master's knee, or pushing his nose into
+     his hand. Even he was repelled by the stern command, "Down,
+     Balder, down! I am not in the humor for foolery."'
+
+     "Another animated sketch occurs in the way of simile:--'The
+     interview between Ratcliffe and Sharpitlaw had an aspect
+     different from all these. They sate for five minutes silent, on
+     opposite sides of a small table, and looked fixedly at each
+     other, with a sharp, knowing, and alert cast of countenance, not
+     unmingled with an inclination to laugh, and resembled, more than
+     anything else, two dogs, who, preparing for a game at romps, are
+     seen to crouch down, and remain in that posture for a little
+     time, watching each other's movements, and waiting which shall
+     begin the game.'
+
+     "Let me point out a still more amusing study of canine life:
+     'While the Antiquary was in full declamation, Juno, who held him
+     in awe, according to the remarkable instinct by which dogs
+     instantly discover those who like or dislike them, had peeped
+     several times into the room, and, encountering nothing very
+     forbidding in his aspect, had at length presumed to introduce her
+     full person, and finally, becoming bold by impunity, she actually
+     ate up Mr. Oldbuck's toast, as, looking first at one, then at
+     another of his audience, he repeated with self-complacence,--
+
+           "'Weave the warp, and weave the woof.'--
+
+     You remember the passage in the Fatal Sisters, which, by the way,
+     is not so fine as in the original--But, hey-day! my toast has
+     vanished! I see which way--Ah, thou type of womankind, no wonder
+     they take offence at thy generic appellation!"--(So saying, he
+     shook his fist at Juno, who scoured out of the parlor.)'
+
+     "In short, throughout these works, wherever it is possible for a
+     dog to contribute in any way to the effect of a scene, we find
+     there the very dog that was required, in his proper place and
+     attitude. In Branksome Hall, when the feast was over,--
+
+        'The stag-hounds, weary with the chase,
+           Lay stretched upon the rushy floor,
+         And urged, in dreams, the forest race
+           From Teviot-stone to Eskdale-moor.'
+
+     The gentle Margaret, when she steals secretly from the castle,
+
+        'Pats the shaggy blood-hound
+         As he rouses him up from his lair.'
+
+     When Waverley visits the Baron of Bradwardine, in his concealment
+     at Janet Gellatley's, Ban and Buscar play their parts in every
+     point with perfect discretion; and in the joyous company that
+     assembles at Little Veolan, on the Baron's enlargement, these
+     honest animals are found 'stuffed to the throat with food, in the
+     liberality of Macwheeble's joy,' and 'snoring on the floor.' In
+     the perilous adventure of Henry Bertram, at Portanferry gaol, the
+     action would lose half its interest, without the by-play of
+     little Wasp. At the funeral ceremony of Duncraggan (in The Lady
+     of the Lake), a principal mourner is
+
+        ----'Stumah, who, the bier beside,
+        His master's corpse with wonder eyed;
+        Poor Stumah! whom his least halloo
+        Could send like lightning o'er the dew.'
+
+     Ellen Douglas smiled (or did not smile)
+
+        ----'to see the stately drake,
+        Lead forth his fleet upon the lake,
+        While her vexed spaniel from the beach,
+        Bayed at the prize beyond his reach.'
+
+     "I will close this growing catalogue of examples with one of the
+     most elegant descriptions that ever sprang from a poet's fancy:--
+
+        'Delightful praise! like summer rose,
+         That brighter in the dew-drop glows,
+         The bashful maiden's cheek appeared,
+         For Douglas spoke, and Malcolm heard.
+         The flush of shame-faced joy to hide,
+         The hounds, the hawk, her cares divide;
+         The loved caresses of the maid
+         The dogs with crouch and whimper paid;
+         And, at her whistle, on her hand,
+         The falcon took his favorite stand,
+         Closed his dark wing, relaxed his eye,
+         Nor, though unhooded, sought to fly.'
+         . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
+
+     "Their passion for martial subjects, and their success in
+     treating them, form a conspicuous point of resemblance between
+     the novelist and poet. No writer has appeared in our age (and few
+     have ever existed) who could vie with the author of Marmion in
+     describing battles and marches, and all the terrible grandeur of
+     war, except the author of Waverley. Nor is there any man of
+     original genius and powerful inventive talent as conversant with
+     the military character, and as well schooled in tactics, as the
+     author of Waverley, except the author of Marmion. Both seem to
+     exult in camps, and to warm at the approach of a soldier. In
+     every warlike scene that awes and agitates, or dazzles and
+     inspires, the poet triumphs; but where any effect is to be
+     produced by dwelling on the minutiæ of military habits and
+     discipline, or exhibiting the blended hues of individual humor
+     and professional peculiarity, as they present themselves in the
+     mess-room or the guard-room, every advantage is on the side of
+     the novelist. I might illustrate this position by tracing all the
+     gradations of character marked out in the novels, from the Baron
+     of Bradwardine to Tom Halliday: but the examples are too well
+     known to require enumeration, and too generally admired to stand
+     in need of panegyric. Both writers, then, must have bestowed a
+     greater attention on military subjects, and have mixed more
+     frequently in the society of soldiers, than is usual with persons
+     not educated to the profession of arms.
+
+     "It may be asked, why we should take for granted that the writer
+     of these novels is not himself a member of the military
+     profession? The conjecture is a little improbable if we have been
+     right in concluding that the minuteness and multiplicity of our
+     author's legal details are the fruit of his own study and
+     practice, although the same person may certainly, at different
+     periods of life, put on the helmet and the wig, the gorget and
+     the band; attend courts and lie in trenches; head a charge and
+     lead a cause. I cannot help suspecting, however (it is with the
+     greatest diffidence I venture the remark), that in those warlike
+     recitals which so strongly interest the great body of readers, an
+     army critic would discover several particulars that savor more of
+     the amateur than of the practised campaigner. It is not from any
+     technical improprieties (if such exist) that I derive this
+     observation, but, on the contrary, from a too great minuteness
+     and over-curious diligence, at times perceptible in the military
+     details; which, amidst a seeming fluency and familiarity, betray,
+     I think, here and there, the lurking vestiges of labor and
+     contrivance, like the marks of pickaxes in an artificial grotto.
+     The accounts of operations in the field, if not more
+     circumstantial than a professional author would have made them,
+     are occasionally circumstantial on points which such an author
+     would have thought it idle to dwell upon. A writer who derived
+     his knowledge of war from experience would, no doubt, like the
+     Author of Waverley, delight in shaping out imaginary manoeuvres,
+     or in filling up the traditional outline of those martial
+     enterprises and conflicts, which have found a place in history;
+     perhaps, too, he would dwell on these parts of his narrative a
+     little longer than was strictly necessary; but in describing (for
+     example) the advance of a party of soldiers, threatened by an
+     ambuscade, he would scarcely think it worth while to relate at
+     large that the captain 're-formed his line of march, commanded
+     his soldiers to unsling their firelocks and fix their bayonets,
+     and formed an advanced and rear-guard, each consisting of a
+     non-commissioned officer and two privates, who received strict
+     orders to keep an alert look-out:' or that when the enemy
+     appeared, 'he ordered the rear-guard to join the centre, and both
+     to close up to the advance, doubling his files, so as to occupy
+     with his column the whole practicable part of the road,' etc.
+     Again, in representing a defeated corps retiring and pressed by
+     the enemy, he would probably never think of recording (as our
+     novelist does in his incomparable narrative of the engagement at
+     Drumclog) that the commanding officer gave such directions as
+     these: 'Let Allan form the regiment, and do you two retreat up
+     the hill in two bodies, each halting alternately as the other
+     falls back. I'll keep the rogues in check with the rear-guard,
+     making a stand and facing from time to time.' I do not offer
+     these observations for the purpose of depreciating a series of
+     military pictures, which have never been surpassed in richness,
+     animation, and distinctness; I will own, too, that such details
+     as I have pointed out are the fittest that could be selected for
+     the generality of novel-readers; I merely contend, that a writer
+     practically acquainted with war would either have passed over
+     these circumstances as too common to require particular mention,
+     or if he had thought it necessary to enlarge upon these, would
+     have dwelt with proportionate minuteness on incidents of a less
+     ordinary kind, which the recollections of a soldier would have
+     readily supplied, and his imagination would have rested on with
+     complacency. He would, in short, have left as little undone for
+     the military, as the present author has for the legal part of his
+     narratives. But the most ingenious writer who attempts to
+     discourse with technical familiarity on arts or pursuits with
+     which he is not habitually conversant, will too surely fall into
+     a superfluous particularity on common and trivial points,
+     proportioned to his deficiency in those nicer details which imply
+     practical knowledge....
+
+        "'The prince of darkness is a gentleman.'[132]
+
+     "Another point of resemblance between the author of Waverley and
+     him of Flodden Field is, that both are unquestionably men of good
+     society. Of the anonymous writer I infer this from his works; of
+     the poet it is unnecessary to deduce such a character from his
+     writings, because they are not anonymous. I am the more inclined
+     to dwell upon this merit in the novelist, on account of its
+     rarity; for among the whole multitude of authors, well or ill
+     educated, who devote themselves to poetry or to narrative or
+     dramatic fiction, how few there are who give any proof in their
+     works, of the refined taste, the instinctive sense of propriety,
+     the clear spirit of honor, nay, of the familiar acquaintance with
+     conventional forms of good-breeding, which are essential to the
+     character of a gentleman! Even of the small number who, in a
+     certain degree, possess these qualifications, how rarely do we
+     find one who can so conduct his fable, and so order his dialogue
+     throughout, that nothing shall be found either repugnant to
+     honorable feelings, or inconsistent with polished manners! How
+     constantly, even in the best works of fiction, are we disgusted
+     with such offences against all generous principle, as the reading
+     of letters by those for whom they were not intended; taking
+     advantage of accidents to overhear private conversation;
+     revealing what in honor should have remained secret; plotting
+     against men as enemies, and at the same time making use of their
+     services; dishonest practices on the passions or sensibilities of
+     women by their admirers; falsehoods, not always indirect; and an
+     endless variety of low artifices, which appear to be thought
+     quite legitimate if carried on through subordinate agents. And
+     all these knaveries are assigned to characters which the reader
+     is expected to honor with his sympathy, or at least to receive
+     into favor before the story concludes.
+
+     "The sins against propriety in manners are as frequent and as
+     glaring. I do not speak of the hoyden vivacity, harlot
+     tenderness, and dancing-school affability, with which vulgar
+     novel-writers always deck out their countesses and
+     _principessas_, chevaliers, dukes, and marquises; but it would be
+     easy to produce, from authors of a better class, abundant
+     instances of bookish and laborious pleasantry, of pert and
+     insipid gossip or mere slang, the wrecks, perhaps, of an obsolete
+     fashionable dialect, set down as the brilliant conversation of a
+     witty and elegant society; incredible outrages on the common
+     decorum of life, represented as traits of eccentric humor;
+     familiar raillery pushed to downright rudeness; affectation or
+     ill-breeding over-colored so as to become insupportable
+     insolence; extravagant rants on the most delicate topics indulged
+     in before all the world; expressions freely interchanged between
+     gentlemen, which, by the customs of that class, are neither used
+     nor tolerated; and quarrels carried on most bombastically and
+     abusively, even to mortal defiance, without a thought bestowed
+     upon the numbers, sex, nerves, or discretion of the bystanders.
+
+     "You will perceive, that in recapitulating the offences of other
+     writers, I have pronounced an indirect eulogium on the Author of
+     Waverley. No man, I think, has a clearer view of what is just and
+     honorable in principle and conduct, or possesses in a higher
+     degree that elegant taste, and that chivalrous generosity of
+     feeling, which, united with exact judgment, give an author the
+     power of comprehending and expressing, not merely the right and
+     fit, but the graceful and exalted in human action. As an
+     illustration of these remarks, a somewhat homely one perhaps, let
+     me call to your recollection the incident, so wild and
+     extravagant in itself, of Sir Piercie Shafton's elopement with
+     the miller's daughter. In the address and feeling with which the
+     author has displayed the high-minded delicacy of Queen
+     Elizabeth's courtier to the unguarded village nymph, in his brief
+     reflections arising out of this part of the narrative, and indeed
+     in his whole conception and management of the adventure, I do not
+     know whether the moralist or the gentleman is most to be admired:
+     it is impossible to praise too warmly either the sound taste, or
+     the virtuous sentiment which have imparted so much grace and
+     interest to such a hazardous episode.
+
+     "It may, I think, be generally affirmed, on a review of all the
+     six-and-thirty volumes, in which this author has related the
+     adventures of some twenty or more heroes and heroines (without
+     counting second-rate personages), that there is not an unhandsome
+     action or degrading sentiment recorded of any person who is
+     recommended to the full esteem of the reader. To be blameless on
+     this head is one of the strongest proofs a writer can give of
+     honorable principles implanted by education and refreshed by good
+     society.
+
+     "The correctness in morals is scarcely more remarkable than the
+     refinement and propriety in manners, by which these novels are
+     distinguished. Where the character of a gentleman is introduced,
+     we generally find it supported without affectation or constraint,
+     and often with so much truth, animation, and dignity, that we
+     forget ourselves into a longing to behold and converse with the
+     accomplished creature of imagination. It is true that the
+     volatile and elegant man of wit and pleasure, and the gracefully
+     fantastic _petite-maîtresse_, are a species of character scarcely
+     ever attempted, and even the few sketches we meet with in this
+     style are not worthy of so great a master. But the aristocratic
+     country gentleman, the ancient lady of quality, the gallant
+     cavalier, the punctilious young soldier, and the jocund veteran,
+     whose high mind is mellowed, not subdued by years, are drawn with
+     matchless vigor, grace, and refinement. There is, in all these
+     creations, a spirit of gentility, not merely of that negative
+     kind which avoids giving offence, but of a strong, commanding,
+     and pervading quality, blending unimpaired with the richest humor
+     and wildest eccentricity, and communicating an interest and an
+     air of originality to characters which, without it, would be
+     wearisome and insipid, or would fade into commonplace. In
+     Waverley, for example, if it were not for this powerful charm,
+     the severe but warm-hearted Major Melville and the generous
+     Colonel Talbot would become mere ordinary machines for carrying
+     on the plot, and Sir Everard, the hero of an episode that might
+     be coveted by Mackenzie, would encounter the frowns of every
+     impatient reader, for unprofitably retarding the story at its
+     outset.
+
+     "But without dwelling on minor instances, I will refer you at
+     once to the character of Colonel Mannering, as one of the most
+     striking representations I am acquainted with, of a gentleman in
+     feelings and in manners, in habits, taste, predilections; nay, if
+     the expression may be ventured, a gentleman even in prejudices,
+     passions, and caprices. Had it been less than all I have
+     described; had any refinement, any nicety of touch, been wanting,
+     the whole portrait must have been coarse, common, and repulsive,
+     hardly distinguishable from the moody father and domineering
+     chieftain of every hackneyed romance-writer. But it was no vulgar
+     hand that drew the lineaments of Colonel Mannering: no ordinary
+     mind could have conceived that exquisite combination of sternness
+     and sensibility, injurious haughtiness and chivalrous courtesy;
+     the promptitude, decision, and imperious spirit of a military
+     disciplinarian; the romantic caprices of an untamable enthusiast;
+     generosity impatient of limit or impediment; pride scourged but
+     not subdued by remorse; and a cherished philosophical severity,
+     maintaining ineffectual conflicts with native tenderness and
+     constitutional irritability. Supposing that it had entered into
+     the thoughts of an inferior writer to describe a temper of mind
+     at once impetuous, kind, arrogant, affectionate, stern,
+     sensitive, deliberate, fanciful; supposing even that he had had
+     the skill to combine these different qualities harmoniously and
+     naturally,--yet how could he have attained the Shakespearean
+     felicity of those delicate and unambitious touches, by which this
+     author shapes and chisels out individual character from general
+     nature, and imparts a distinct personality to the creature of his
+     invention? Such are (for example) the slight tinge of
+     superstition, contracted by the romantic young Astrologer in his
+     adventure at Ellangowan, not wholly effaced in maturer life, and
+     extending itself by contagion to the mind of his daughter," etc.,
+     etc.
+
+
+[Footnote 132: _King Lear_, Act III. Scene 4.]
+
+It would have gratified Mr. Adolphus could he have known when he
+penned these pages a circumstance which the reperusal of them brings
+to my memory. When Guy Mannering was first published, the Ettrick
+Shepherd said to Professor Wilson, "I have done wi' doubts now.
+Colonel Mannering is just Walter Scott, painted by himself." This was
+repeated to James Ballantyne, and he again mentioned it to Scott--who
+smiled in approbation of the Shepherd's shrewdness, and often
+afterwards, when the printer expressed an opinion in which he could
+not concur, would cut him short with, "James--James--you'll find that
+Colonel Mannering has laid down the law on this point."--I resume my
+extract:--
+
+
+     "All the productions I am acquainted with, both of the poet and
+     of the prose writer, recommend themselves by a native piety and
+     goodness, not generally predominant in modern works of
+     imagination; and which, where they do appear, are too often
+     disfigured by eccentricity, pretension, or bad taste. In the
+     works before us there is a constant tendency to promote the
+     desire of excellence in ourselves, and the love of it in our
+     neighbors, by making us think honorably of our general nature.
+     Whatever kindly or charitable affection, whatever principle of
+     manly and honest ambition exists within us, is roused and
+     stimulated by the perusal of these writings; our passions are won
+     to the cause of justice, purity, and self-denial; and the old,
+     indissoluble ties that bind us to country, kindred, and
+     birthplace, appear to strengthen as we read, and brace themselves
+     more firmly about the heart and imagination. Both writers,
+     although peculiarly happy in their conception of all chivalrous
+     and romantic excellencies, are still more distinguished by their
+     deep and true feeling and expressive delineation of the graces
+     and virtues proper to domestic life. The gallant, elevated, and
+     punctilious character which a Frenchman contemplates in speaking
+     of '_un honnête homme_,' is singularly combined, in these
+     authors, with the genial, homely good qualities that win from a
+     Caledonian the exclamation of 'honest man!' But the crown of
+     their merits, as virtuous and moral writers, is the manly and
+     exemplary spirit with which, upon all seasonable occasions, they
+     pay honor and homage to religion, ascribing to it its just
+     preëminence among the causes of human happiness, and dwelling on
+     it as the only certain source of pure and elevated thoughts, and
+     upright, benevolent, and magnanimous actions.
+
+     "This, then, is common to the books of both writers,--that they
+     furnish a direct and distinguished contrast to the atrabilious
+     gloom of some modern works of genius, and the wanton, but not
+     artless levity of others. They yield a memorable, I trust an
+     immortal, accession to the evidences of a truth not always
+     fashionable in literature, that the mind of man may put forth all
+     its bold luxuriance of original thought, strong feeling, and
+     vivid imagination, without being loosed from any sacred and
+     social bond, or pruned of any legitimate affection; and that the
+     Muse is indeed a 'heavenly goddess,' and not a graceless, lawless
+     runagate,
+
+        '[Greek: aphrêtôr, athemistos, anestios].'
+
+     "Good sense, the sure foundation of excellence in all the arts,
+     is another leading characteristic of these productions. Assuming
+     the author of Waverley and the author of Marmion to be the same
+     person, it would be difficult in our times to find a second
+     equally free from affectation, prejudice, and every other
+     distortion or depravity of judgment, whether arising from
+     ignorance, weakness, or corruption of morals. It is astonishing
+     that so voluminous and successful a writer should so seldom be
+     betrayed into any of those 'fantastic tricks' which, in such a
+     man, make 'the angels weep,' and (_è converso_) the critics
+     laugh. He adopts no fashionable cant, colloquial, philosophical,
+     or literary; he takes no delight in being unintelligible; he does
+     not amuse himself by throwing out those fine sentimental and
+     metaphysical threads which float upon the air, and tease and
+     tickle the passengers, but present no palpable substance to their
+     grasp; he aims at no beauties that 'scorn the eye of vulgar
+     light;' he is no dealer in paradoxes; no affecter of new
+     doctrines in taste or morals; he has no eccentric sympathies or
+     antipathies; no maudlin philanthropy, or impertinent cynicism; no
+     nondescript hobby-horse; and with all his matchless energy and
+     originality of mind, he is content to admire popular books, and
+     enjoy popular pleasures; to cherish those opinions which
+     experience has sanctioned; to reverence those institutions which
+     antiquity has hallowed; and to enjoy, admire, cherish, and
+     reverence all these with the same plainness, simplicity, and
+     sincerity as our ancestors did of old.
+
+     . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
+
+     "I cannot help dwelling for a moment on the great similarity of
+     manner apparent in the female portraits of the two writers. The
+     pictures of their heroines are executed with a peculiar fineness,
+     delicacy, and minuteness of touch, and with a care at times
+     almost amounting to timidity, so that they generally appear more
+     highly finished, but less boldly and strikingly thrown out, than
+     the figures with which they are surrounded. Their elegance and
+     purity are always admirable, and are happily combined, in most
+     instances, with unaffected ease and natural spirit. Strong
+     practical sense is their most prevailing characteristic,
+     unaccompanied by any repulsive air of selfishness, pedantry, or
+     unfeminine harshness. Few writers have ever evinced, in so strong
+     a degree as the authors of Marmion and Waverley, that manly
+     regard, and dignified but enthusiastic devotion, which may be
+     expressed by the term loyalty to the fair sex, the honorable
+     attribute of chivalrous and romantic ages. If they touch on the
+     faults of womankind, their satire is playful, not contemptuous;
+     and their acquaintance with female manners, graces, and foibles,
+     is apparently drawn, not from libertine experience, but from the
+     guileless familiarity of domestic life.
+
+     "Of all human ties and connections there is none so frequently
+     brought in view, or adorned with so many touches of the most
+     affecting eloquence by both these writers, as the pure and tender
+     relation of father and daughter. Douglas and Ellen in The Lady of
+     the Lake will immediately occur to you as a distinguished
+     example. Their mutual affection and solicitude; their pride in
+     each other's excellencies; the parent's regret of the obscurity
+     to which fate has doomed his child; and the daughter's
+     self-devotion to her father's welfare and safety, constitute the
+     highest interest of the poem, and that which is most uniformly
+     sustained; nor does this or any other romance of the same author
+     contain a finer stroke of passion than the overboiling of
+     Douglas's wrath, when, mixed as a stranger with the crowd at
+     Stirling, he sees his daughter's favorite Lufra chastised by the
+     royal huntsman.
+
+     "In Rokeby, the filial attachment and duteous anxieties of
+     Matilda form the leading feature of her character, and the chief
+     source of her distresses. The intercourse between King Arthur and
+     his daughter Gyneth, in The Bridal of Triermain, is neither long,
+     nor altogether amicable; but the monarch's feelings on first
+     beholding that beautiful 'slip of wilderness,' and his manner of
+     receiving her before the queen and court, are too forcibly and
+     naturally described to be omitted in this enumeration.
+
+     "Of all the novels, there are at most but two or three in which a
+     fond father and affectionate daughter may not be pointed out
+     among the principal characters, and in which the main interest of
+     many scenes does not arise out of that paternal and filial
+     relation. What a beautiful display of natural feeling, under
+     every turn of circumstances that can render the situations of
+     child and parent agonizing or delightful, runs through the
+     history of David Deans and his two daughters! How affecting is
+     the tale of Leicester's unhappy Countess, after we have seen her
+     forsaken father consuming away with moody sorrow in his joyless
+     manor-house! How exquisite are the grouping and contrast of
+     Isaac, the kind but sordid Jew, and his heroic Rebecca, of the
+     buckram Baron of Bradwardine and the sensitive Rose, the reserved
+     but ardent Mannering, and the flighty coquette Julia! In The
+     Antiquary, and Bride of Lammermoor, anxiety is raised to the most
+     painful height by the spectacle of father and daughter exposed
+     together to imminent and frightful peril. The heroines in Rob Roy
+     and The Black Dwarf are duteous and devoted daughters, the one of
+     an unfortunate, the other of an unworthy parent. In the whole
+     story of Kenilworth there is nothing that more strongly indicates
+     a master-hand than the paternal carefulness and apprehensions of
+     the churl Foster; and among the most striking scenes in A Legend
+     of Montrose is that in which Sir Duncan Campbell is attracted by
+     an obscure yearning of the heart toward his unknown child, the
+     supposed orphan of Darlinvarach."
+
+
+I must not attempt to follow out Mr. Adolphus in his most ingenious
+tracings of petty coincidences in thought, and, above all, in
+expression, between the poet of Marmion and the novelist of Waverley.
+His apology for the minuteness of his detail in that part of his work
+is, however, too graceful to be omitted: "It cannot, I think, appear
+frivolous or irrelevant, in the inquiry we are pursuing, to dwell on
+these minute coincidences. Unimportant indeed they are if looked upon
+as subjects of direct criticism; but considered with reference to our
+present purpose, they resemble those light substances which, floating
+on the trackless sea, discover the true setting of some mighty
+current: they are the buoyant driftwood which betrays the hidden
+communication of two great poetic oceans."
+
+I conclude with re-quoting a fragment from one of the quaint tracts of
+Sir Thomas Urquhart. The following is the epigraph of Mr. Adolphus's
+5th Letter:--
+
+
+     "O with how great liveliness did he represent the conditions of
+     all manner of men! From the overweening monarch to the peevish
+     swaine, through all intermediate degrees of the superficial
+     courtier or proud warrior, dissembling churchman, doting old man,
+     cozening lawyer, lying traveler, covetous merchant, rude seaman,
+     pedantick scolar, the amorous shepheard, envious artisan,
+     vain-glorious master, and tricky servant;----He had all the
+     jeers, squibs, flouts, buls, quips, taunts, whims, jests,
+     clinches, gybes, mokes, jerks, with all the several kinds of
+     equivocations and other sophistical captions, that could properly
+     be adapted to the person by whose representation he intended to
+     inveagle the company into a fit of mirth!"
+
+
+I have it not in my power to produce the letter in which Scott
+conveyed to Heber his opinion of this work. I know, however, that it
+ended with a request that he should present Mr. Adolphus with his
+thanks for the handsome terms in which his poetical efforts had been
+spoken of throughout, and request him, in the name of the _author of
+Marmion_, not to revisit Scotland without reserving a day for
+Abbotsford; and the _Eidolon_ of the author of _Waverley_ was made, a
+few months afterwards, to speak as follows in the Introduction to The
+Fortunes of Nigel: "These letters to the member for the University of
+Oxford show the wit, genius, and delicacy of the author, which I
+heartily wish to see engaged on a subject of more importance; and
+show, besides, that the preservation of my character of _incognito_
+has engaged early talent in the discussion of a curious question of
+evidence. But a cause, however ingeniously pleaded, is not therefore
+gained. You may remember the neatly wrought chain of circumstantial
+evidence, so artificially brought forward to prove Sir Philip
+Francis's title to the Letters of Junius, seemed at first
+irrefragable; yet the influence of the reasoning has passed away, and
+Junius, in the general opinion, is as much unknown as ever. But on
+this subject I will not be soothed or provoked into saying one word
+more. To say who I am not, would be one step towards saying who I am;
+and as I desire not, any more than a certain Justice of Peace
+mentioned by Shenstone, the noise or report such things make in the
+world, I shall continue to be silent on a subject which, in my
+opinion, is very undeserving the noise that has been made about it,
+and still more unworthy of the serious employment of such ingenuity as
+has been displayed by the young letter-writer."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER LIV
+
+     New Buildings at Abbotsford. -- Chiefswood. -- William Erskine.
+     -- Letter to Countess Purgstall. -- Progress of the Pirate. --
+     Franck's Northern Memoir, and Notes of Lord Fountainhall,
+     Published. -- Private Letters in the Reign of James I. --
+     Commencement of the Fortunes of Nigel. -- Second Sale of
+     Copyrights. -- Contract for "Four Works of Fiction." -- Enormous
+     Profits of the Novelist, and Extravagant Projects of Constable.
+     -- The Pirate Published. -- Lord Byron's Cain, Dedicated to
+     Scott. -- Affair of the Beacon Newspaper.
+
+1821
+
+
+[Illustration: CHIEFSWOOD
+
+_After the drawing by J. M. W. Turner_]
+
+When Sir Walter returned from London, he brought with him the detailed
+plans of Mr. Atkinson for the completion of his house at Abbotsford;
+which, however, did not extend to the gateway or the beautiful screen
+between the court and the garden--for these graceful parts of the
+general design were conceptions of his own, reduced to shape by the
+skill of the Messrs. Smith of Darnick. It would not, indeed, be easy
+for me to apportion rightly the constituent members of the whole
+edifice;--throughout there were numberless consultations with Mr.
+Blore, Mr. Terry, and Mr. Skene, as well as with Mr. Atkinson--and the
+actual builders placed considerable inventive talents, as well as
+admirable workmanship, at the service of their friendly employer.
+Every preparation was now made by them, and the foundations might
+have been set about without farther delay; but he was very
+reluctant to authorize the demolition of the rustic porch of the old
+cottage, with its luxuriant overgrowth of roses and jessamines; and,
+in short, could not make up his mind to sign the death-warrant of this
+favorite bower until winter had robbed it of its beauties. He then
+made an excursion from Edinburgh, on purpose to be present at its
+downfall--saved as many of the creepers as seemed likely to survive
+removal, and planted them with his own hands about a somewhat similar
+porch, erected expressly for their reception, at his daughter Sophia's
+little cottage of Chiefswood.
+
+There my wife and I spent this summer and autumn of 1821--the first of
+several seasons, which will ever dwell on my memory as the happiest of
+my life. We were near enough Abbotsford to partake as often as we
+liked of its brilliant society; yet could do so without being exposed
+to the worry and exhaustion of spirit which the daily reception of
+newcomers entailed upon all the family except Sir Walter himself. But,
+in truth, even he was not always proof against the annoyances
+connected with such a style of open-house-keeping. Even his temper
+sunk sometimes under the solemn applauses of learned dulness, the
+vapid raptures of painted and periwigged dowagers, the horse-leech
+avidity with which underbred foreigners urged their questions, and the
+pompous simpers of condescending magnates. When sore beset at home in
+this way, he would every now and then discover that he had some very
+particular business to attend to on an outlying part of his estate,
+and craving the indulgence of his guests overnight, appear at the
+cabin in the glen before its inhabitants were astir in the morning.
+The clatter of Sibyl Grey's hoofs, the yelping of Mustard and Spice,
+and his own joyous shout of _reveillée_ under our windows, were the
+signal that he had burst his toils, and meant for that day to "take
+his ease in his inn." On descending, he was to be found seated with
+all his dogs and ours about him, under a spreading ash that
+overshadowed half the bank between the cottage and the brook, pointing
+the edge of his woodman's axe for himself, and listening to Tom
+Purdie's lecture touching the plantation that most needed thinning.
+After breakfast, he would take possession of a dressing-room upstairs,
+and write a chapter of The Pirate; and then, having made up and
+despatched his packet for Mr. Ballantyne, away to join Purdie wherever
+the foresters were at work--and sometimes to labor among them as
+strenuously as John Swanston himself--until it was time either to
+rejoin his own party at Abbotsford, or the quiet circle of the
+cottage.--When his guests were few and friendly, he often made them
+come over and meet him at Chiefswood in a body towards evening;[133]
+and surely he never appeared to more amiable advantage than when
+helping his young people with their little arrangements upon such
+occasions. He was ready with all sorts of devices to supply the wants
+of a narrow establishment; he used to delight particularly in sinking
+the wine in a well under the _brae_ ere he went out, and hauling up
+the basket just before dinner was announced--this primitive process
+being, he said, what he had always practised when a young housekeeper;
+and in his opinion far superior in its results to any application of
+ice; and, in the same spirit, whenever the weather was sufficiently
+genial, he voted for dining out of doors altogether, which at once
+got rid of the inconvenience of very small rooms, and made it natural
+and easy for the gentlemen to help the ladies, so that the paucity of
+servants went for nothing. Mr. Rose used to amuse himself with
+likening the scene and the party to the closing act of one of those
+little French dramas, where "Monsieur le Comte" and "Madame la
+Comtesse" appear feasting at a village bridal under the trees; but in
+truth, our "M. le Comte" was only trying to live over again for a few
+simple hours his own old life of Lasswade.
+
+[Footnote 133: [Among the friendly visitors at this time was Mr.
+Charles Young, who brought with him his son. The latter in his diary
+sketches, not without some vivid touches, the days spent at
+Abbotsford. One slight incident connected with Scott's greeting of his
+guests may be noted. On hearing the lad's Christian name, he exclaimed
+with emphasis, "Why, whom is he called after?" On being told that the
+name was in memory of the boy's mother, Julia Anne, he replied, "Well,
+it is a capital name for a novel, I must say;" a remark which Julian
+Young naturally recalled when _Peveril_ was published. The Youngs also
+visited Chiefswood, and the youthful diarist was much impressed by
+Lockhart's strikingly handsome face, while "his deference and
+attention to his father-in-law were delightful to witness."--See
+_Memoir of Charles Mayne Young_, pp. 88-96.]]
+
+When circumstances permitted, he usually spent one evening at least in
+the week at our little cottage; and almost as frequently he did the
+like with the Fergusons, to whose table he could bring chance
+visitors, when he pleased, with equal freedom as to his daughter's.
+Indeed it seemed to be much a matter of chance, any fine day when
+there had been no alarming invasion of the Southron, whether the three
+families (which, in fact, made but one) should dine at Abbotsford,
+Huntly Burn, or at Chiefswood; and at none of them was the party
+considered quite complete, unless it included also Mr. Laidlaw. Death
+has laid a heavy hand upon that circle--as happy a circle I believe as
+ever met. Bright eyes now closed in dust, gay voices forever silenced,
+seem to haunt me as I write. With three exceptions, they are all gone.
+Even since the last of these volumes[134] was finished, she whom I may
+now sadly record as, next to Sir Walter himself, the chief ornament
+and delight at all those simple meetings--she to whose love I owed my
+own place in them--Scott's eldest daughter, the one of all his
+children who in countenance, mind, and manners, most resembled
+himself, and who indeed was as like him in all things as a gentle
+innocent woman can ever be to a great man deeply tried and skilled in
+the struggles and perplexities of active life--she, too, is no more.
+And in the very hour that saw her laid in her grave, the only other
+female survivor, her dearest friend Margaret Ferguson, breathed her
+last also.--But enough--and more than I intended--I must resume the
+story of Abbotsford.
+
+[Footnote 134: The 4th vol. of the original edition was published in
+July--the 5th (of which this was the sixth chapter) in October, 1837.]
+
+During several weeks of that delightful summer, Scott had under his
+roof Mr. William Erskine and two of his daughters; this being, I
+believe, their first visit to Tweedside since the death of Mrs.
+Erskine in September, 1819. He had probably made a point of having his
+friend with him at this particular time, because he was desirous of
+having the benefit of his advice and corrections from day to day as he
+advanced in the composition of The Pirate--with the localities of
+which romance the Sheriff of Orkney and Zetland was of course
+thoroughly familiar. At all events, the constant and eager delight
+with which Erskine watched the progress of the tale has left a deep
+impression on my memory; and indeed I heard so many of its chapters
+first read from the MS. by him, that I can never open the book now
+without thinking I hear his voice. Sir Walter used to give him at
+breakfast the pages he had written that morning; and very commonly,
+while he was again at work in his study, Erskine would walk over to
+Chiefswood, that he might have the pleasure of reading them aloud to
+my wife and me under our favorite tree, before the packet had to be
+sealed up for the printer, or rather for the transcriber in Edinburgh.
+I cannot paint the delight and the pride with which he acquitted
+himself on such occasions. The little artifice of his manner was
+merely superficial, and was wholly forgotten as tender affection and
+admiration, fresh as the impulses of childhood, glistened in his eye,
+and trembled in his voice.
+
+This reminds me that I have not yet attempted any sketch of the person
+and manners of Scott's most intimate friend. Their case was no
+contradiction to the old saying, that the most attached comrades are
+often very unlike each other in character and temperament. The mere
+physical contrast was as strong as could well be, and this is not
+unworthy of notice here; for Erskine was, I think, the only man in
+whose society Scott took great pleasure, during the more vigorous part
+of his life, that had neither constitution nor inclination for any of
+the rough bodily exercises in which he himself delighted. The
+Counsellor (as Scott always called him) was a little man of feeble
+make, who seemed unhappy when his pony got beyond a footpace, and had
+never, I should suppose, addicted himself to any out-of-doors sport
+whatever. He would, I fancy, have as soon thought of slaying his own
+mutton as of handling a fowling-piece: he used to shudder when he saw
+a party equipped for coursing, as if murder were in the wind; but the
+cool meditative angler was in his eyes the abomination of
+abominations. His small elegant features, hectic cheek, and soft hazel
+eyes, were the index of the quick sensitive gentle spirit within. He
+had the warm heart of a woman, her generous enthusiasm, and some of
+her weaknesses. A beautiful landscape, or a fine strain of music,
+would send the tears rolling down his cheek; and though capable, I
+have no doubt, of exhibiting, had his duty called him to do so, the
+highest spirit of a hero or a martyr, he had very little command over
+his nerves amidst circumstances such as men of ordinary mould (to say
+nothing of iron fabrics like Scott's) regard with indifference. He
+would dismount to lead his horse down what his friend hardly perceived
+to be a descent at all; grew pale at a precipice; and, unlike the
+White Lady of Avenel, would go a long way round for a bridge.
+
+Erskine had as yet been rather unfortunate in his professional career,
+and thought a sheriffship by no means the kind of advancement due to
+his merits, and which his connections might naturally have secured for
+him. These circumstances had at the time when I first observed him
+tinged his demeanor; he had come to intermingle a certain wayward
+snappishness now and then with his forensic exhibitions, and in
+private seemed inclined (though altogether incapable of abandoning the
+Tory party) to say bitter things of people in high places; but with
+these exceptions, never was benevolence towards all the human race
+more lively and overflowing than his evidently was, even when he
+considered himself as one who had reason to complain of his luck in
+the world. Now, however, these little asperities had disappeared; one
+great real grief had cast its shadow over him, and submissive to the
+chastisement of heaven, he had no longer any thoughts for the petty
+misusage of mankind. Scott's apprehension was, that his ambition was
+extinguished with his resentment; and he was now using every endeavor,
+in connection with their common friend the Lord Advocate Rae, to
+procure for Erskine that long-coveted seat on the bench, about which
+the subdued widower himself had ceased to occupy his mind. By and by
+these views were realized to Scott's high satisfaction, and for a
+brief season with the happiest effect on Erskine's own spirits;--but I
+shall not anticipate the sequel.
+
+Meanwhile he shrunk from the collisions of general society in
+Edinburgh, and lived almost exclusively in his own little circle of
+intimates. His conversation, though somewhat precise and finical on
+the first impression, was rich in knowledge. His literary ambition,
+active and aspiring at the outset, had long before this time merged in
+his profound veneration for Scott; but he still read a great deal, and
+did so as much I believe with a view to assisting Scott by hints and
+suggestions, as for his own amusement. He had much of his friend's
+tact in extracting the picturesque from old, and, generally speaking,
+dull books; and in bringing out his stores he often showed a great
+deal of quaint humor and sly wit.
+
+Scott, on his side, respected, trusted, and loved him, much as an
+affectionate husband does the wife who gave him her heart in youth,
+and thinks his thoughts rather than her own in the evening of life; he
+soothed, cheered, and sustained Erskine habitually. I do not believe a
+more entire and perfect confidence ever subsisted than theirs was and
+always had been in each other; and to one who had duly observed the
+creeping jealousies of human nature, it might perhaps seem doubtful on
+which side the balance of real nobility of heart and character, as
+displayed in their connection at the time of which I am speaking,
+ought to be cast.
+
+Among the common friends of their young days, of whom they both
+delighted to speak--and always spoke with warm and equal
+affection--was the sister of their friend Cranstoun, the confidant of
+Scott's first unfortunate love, whom neither had now seen for a period
+of more than twenty years. This lady had undergone domestic
+afflictions more than sufficient to have crushed almost any spirit but
+her own. Her husband, the Count Purgstall, had died some years before
+this time, leaving her an only son, a youth of the most amiable
+disposition, and possessing abilities which, had he lived to develop
+them, must have secured for him a high station in the annals of
+genius. This hope of her eyes, the last heir of an illustrious
+lineage, followed his father to the tomb in the nineteenth year of his
+age. The desolate Countess was urged by her family in Scotland to
+return, after this bereavement, to her native country; but she had
+vowed to her son on his deathbed, that one day her dust should be
+mingled with his; and no argument could induce her to depart from the
+resolution of remaining in solitary Styria. By her desire, a valued
+friend of the house of Purgstall, who had been born and bred up on
+their estates, the celebrated Orientalist, Joseph von Hammer, compiled
+a little memoir of The Two Last Counts of Purgstall, which he put
+forth, in January, 1821, under the title of Denkmahl, or Monument; and
+of this work the Countess sent a copy to Sir Walter (with whom her
+correspondence had been during several years suspended), by the hands
+of her eldest brother, Mr. Henry Cranstoun, who had been visiting her
+in Styria, and who at this time occupied a villa within a few miles of
+Abbotsford. Scott's letter of acknowledgment never reached her; and
+indeed I doubt if it was ever despatched. He appears to have meditated
+a set of consolatory verses for its conclusion, and the Muse not
+answering his call at the moment, I suspect he had allowed the sheet,
+which I now transcribe, to fall aside and be lost sight of among his
+multifarious masses of MS.
+
+
+TO THE COUNTESS PURGSTALL, ETC., ETC.
+
+     MY DEAR AND MUCH-VALUED FRIEND,--You cannot imagine how much I
+     was interested and affected by receiving your token of your kind
+     recollection, after the interval of so many years. Your brother
+     Henry breakfasted with me yesterday, and gave me the letter and
+     the book, which served me as a matter of much melancholy
+     reflection for many hours.
+
+     Hardly anything makes the mind recoil so much upon itself, as the
+     being suddenly and strongly recalled to times long past, and that
+     by the voice of one whom we have so much loved and respected. Do
+     not think I have ever forgotten you, or the many happy days I
+     passed in Frederick Street, in society which fate has separated
+     so far, and for so many years.
+
+     The little volume was particularly acceptable to me, as it
+     acquainted me with many circumstances, of which distance and
+     imperfect communication had either left me entirely ignorant, or
+     had transmitted only inaccurate information.
+
+     Alas, my dear friend, what can the utmost efforts of friendship
+     offer you, beyond the sympathy which, however sincere, must sound
+     like an empty compliment in the ear of affliction? God knows with
+     what willingness I would undertake anything which might afford
+     you the melancholy consolation of knowing how much your old and
+     early friend interests himself in the sad event which has so
+     deeply wounded your peace of mind. The verses, therefore, which
+     conclude this letter, must not be weighed according to their
+     intrinsic value, for the more inadequate they are to express the
+     feelings they would fain convey, the more they show the author's
+     anxious wish to do what may be grateful to you.
+
+     In truth, I have long given up poetry. I have had my day with the
+     public; and being no great believer in poetical immortality, I
+     was very well pleased to rise a winner, without continuing the
+     game till I was beggared of any credit I had acquired. Besides, I
+     felt the prudence of giving way before the more forcible and
+     powerful genius of Byron. If I were either greedy, or jealous of
+     poetical fame--and both are strangers to my nature--I might
+     comfort myself with the thought, that I would hesitate to strip
+     myself to the contest so fearlessly as Byron does; or to command
+     the wonder and terror of the public, by exhibiting, in my own
+     person, the sublime attitude of the dying gladiator. But with the
+     old frankness of twenty years since, I will fairly own, that this
+     same delicacy of mine may arise more from conscious want of vigor
+     and inferiority, than from a delicate dislike to the nature of
+     the conflict. At any rate, there is a time for everything, and
+     without swearing oaths to it, I think my time for poetry has gone
+     by.
+
+     My health suffered horridly last year, I think from over-labor
+     and excitation; and though it is now apparently restored to its
+     usual tone, yet during the long and painful disorder (spasms in
+     the stomach) and the frightful process of cure, by a prolonged
+     use of calomel, I learned that my frame was made of flesh, and
+     not of iron--a conviction which I will long keep in remembrance,
+     and avoid any occupation so laborious and agitating as poetry
+     must be, to be worth anything.
+
+     In this humor I often think of passing a few weeks on the
+     Continent--a summer vacation if I can--and of course my
+     attraction to Gratz would be very strong. I fear this is the only
+     chance of our meeting in this world--we, who once saw each other
+     daily! for I understand from George and Henry that there is
+     little chance of your coming here. And when I look around me, and
+     consider how many changes you would see in feature, form, and
+     fashion, amongst all you knew and loved; and how much, no sudden
+     squall, or violent tempest, but the slow and gradual progress of
+     life's long voyage, has severed all the gallant fellowships whom
+     you left spreading their sails to the morning breeze, I really am
+     not sure that you would have much pleasure.
+
+     The gay and wild romance of life is over with all of us. The
+     real, dull, and stern history of humanity has made a far greater
+     progress over our heads; and age, dark and unlovely, has laid his
+     crutch over the stoutest fellow's shoulders. One thing your old
+     society may boast, that they have all run their course with
+     honor, and almost all with distinction; and the brother suppers
+     of Frederick Street have certainly made a very considerable
+     figure in the world, as was to be expected from her talents under
+     whose auspices they were assembled.
+
+     One of the most pleasant sights which you would see in Scotland,
+     as it now stands, would be your brother George in possession of
+     the most beautiful and romantic place in Clydesdale--Corehouse. I
+     have promised often to go out with him, and assist him with my
+     deep experience as a planter and landscape gardener. I promise
+     you my oaks will outlast my laurels; and I pique myself more upon
+     my compositions for manure than on any other compositions
+     whatsoever to which I was ever accessary. But so much does
+     business of one sort or other engage us both, that we never have
+     been able to fix a time which suited us both; and with the utmost
+     wish to make out the party, perhaps we never may.
+
+     This is a melancholy letter, but it is chiefly so from the sad
+     tone of yours--who have had such real disasters to lament--while
+     mine is only the humorous sadness, which a retrospect on human
+     life is sure to produce on the most prosperous. For my own course
+     of life, I have only to be ashamed of its prosperity, and afraid
+     of its termination; for I have little reason, arguing on the
+     doctrine of chances, to hope that the same good fortune will
+     attend me forever. I have had an affectionate and promising
+     family, many friends, few unfriends, and, I think, no
+     enemies--and more of fame and fortune than mere literature ever
+     procured for a man before.
+
+     I dwell among my own people, and have many whose happiness is
+     dependent on me, and which I study to the best of my power. I
+     trust my temper, which you know is by nature good and easy, has
+     not been spoiled by flattery or prosperity; and therefore I have
+     escaped entirely that irritability of disposition which I think
+     is planted, like the slave in the poet's chariot, to prevent his
+     enjoying his triumph.
+
+     Should things, therefore, change with me--and in these times, or
+     indeed in any times, such change is to be apprehended--I trust I
+     shall be able to surrender these adventitious advantages, as I
+     would my upper dress, as something extremely comfortable, but
+     which I can make shift to do without.[135]...
+
+
+[Footnote 135: In communicating this letter to my friend Captain Hall,
+when he was engaged in his Account of a Visit to Madame de Purgstall
+during the last months of her life, I suggested to him, in consequence
+of an expression about Scott's health, that it must have been written
+in 1820. The date of the _Denkmahl_, to which it refers, is, however,
+sufficient evidence that I ought to have said 1821.]
+
+As I may have no occasion hereafter to allude to the early friend with
+whose sorrows Scott thus sympathized amidst the meridian splendors of
+his own worldly career, I may take this opportunity of mentioning,
+that Captain Basil Hall's conjecture, of her having been the original
+of Diana Vernon, appeared to myself from the first chimerical; and
+that I have since heard those who knew her best in the days of her
+intercourse with Sir Walter, express the same opinion in the most
+decided manner. But to return.
+
+While The Pirate was advancing under Mr. Erskine's eye, Scott had even
+more than the usual allowance of minor literary operations on hand. He
+edited a reprint of a curious old book, called Franck's Northern
+Memoir, and the Contemplative Angler; and he also prepared for the
+press a volume published soon after, under the title of "Chronological
+Notes on Scottish Affairs, 1680 to 1701, from the Diary of Lord
+Fountainhall." The professional writings of that celebrated old lawyer
+had been much in his hands from his early years, on account of the
+incidental light which they throw on the events of a most memorable
+period in Scottish history: and he seems to have contemplated some
+more considerable selection from his remains, but to have dropped
+these intentions, on being given to understand that they might
+interfere with those of Lord Fountainhall's accomplished
+representative, the present Sir Thomas Dick Lauder, Baronet. It is,
+however, to be regretted that Sir Thomas's promise of a Life of his
+eminent ancestor has not yet been redeemed.
+
+In August appeared the volume of the Novelists' Library containing
+Scott's Life of Smollett; and it being now ascertained that John
+Ballantyne had died a debtor, the editor offered to proceed with this
+series of prefaces, on the footing that the whole profits of the work
+should go to his widow. Mr. Constable, whose health was now beginning
+to break, had gone southwards in quest of more genial air, and was at
+Hastings when he heard of this proposition. He immediately wrote to
+me, entreating me to represent to Sir Walter that the undertaking,
+having been coldly received at first, was unlikely to grow in favor if
+continued on the same plan--that in his opinion the bulk of the
+volumes, and the small type of their text, had been unwisely chosen,
+for a work of mere entertainment, and could only be suitable for one
+of reference; that Ballantyne's Novelists' Library, therefore, ought
+to be stopped at once, and another in a lighter shape, to range with
+the late collected edition of the first series of the Waverley
+Romances, announced with his own name as publisher, and Scott's as
+editor. He proposed at the same time to commence the issue of a Select
+Library of English Poetry, with prefaces and a few notes by the same
+hand; and calculating that each of these collections should extend to
+twenty-five volumes, and that the publication of both might be
+concluded within two years--"the writing of the prefaces, etc.,
+forming perhaps an occasional relief from more important labors"!--the
+bookseller offered to pay their editor in all the sum of £6000: a
+small portion of which sum, as he hinted, would undoubtedly be more
+than Mrs. John Ballantyne could ever hope to derive from the
+prosecution of her husband's last publishing adventure. Various causes
+combined to prevent the realization of these magnificent projects.
+Scott now, as at the beginning of his career of speculation, had views
+about what a collection of English Poetry should be, in which even
+Constable could not, on consideration, be made to concur; and I have
+already explained the coldness with which he regarded further attempts
+upon our Elder Novelists. The Ballantyne Library crept on to the tenth
+volume, and was then dropped abruptly; and the double negotiation with
+Constable was never renewed.
+
+Lady Louisa Stuart had not, I fancy, read Scott's Lives of the
+Novelists until, some years after this time, they were collected into
+two little piratical duodecimos by a Parisian bookseller; and on her
+then expressing her admiration of them, together with her astonishment
+that the speculation of which they formed a part should have attracted
+little notice of any sort, he answered as follows: "I am delighted
+they afford any entertainment, for they are rather flimsily written,
+being done merely to oblige a friend: they were yoked to a great,
+ill-conditioned, lubberly, double-columned book, which they were as
+useful to tug along as a set of fleas would be to draw a mail-coach.
+It is very difficult to answer your Ladyship's curious question
+concerning change of taste; but whether in young or old, it takes
+place insensibly without the parties being aware of it.[136] A
+grand-aunt of my own, Mrs. Keith of Ravelston,--who was a person of
+some condition, being a daughter of Sir John Swinton of
+Swinton,--lived with unabated vigor of intellect to a very advanced
+age. She was very fond of reading, and enjoyed it to the last of her
+long life. One day she asked me, when we happened to be alone
+together, whether I had ever seen Mrs. Behn's novels?--I confessed the
+charge.--Whether I could get her a sight of them?--I said, with some
+hesitation, I believed I could; but that I did not think she would
+like either the manners, or the language, which approached too near
+that of Charles II.'s time to be quite proper reading. 'Nevertheless,'
+said the good old lady, 'I remember them being so much admired, and
+being so much interested in them myself, that I wish to look at them
+again.' To hear was to obey. So I sent Mrs. Aphra Behn, curiously
+sealed up, with 'private and confidential' on the packet, to my gay
+old grand-aunt. The next time I saw her afterwards, she gave me back
+Aphra, properly wrapped up, with nearly these words: 'Take back your
+bonny Mrs. Behn; and, if you will take my advice, put her in the
+fire, for I found it impossible to get through the very first novel.
+But is it not,' she said, 'a very odd thing that I, an old woman of
+eighty and upwards, sitting alone, feel myself ashamed to read a book
+which, sixty years ago, I have heard read aloud for the amusement of
+large circles, consisting of the first and most creditable society in
+London?' This, of course, was owing to the gradual improvement of the
+national taste and delicacy. The change that brings into and throws
+out of fashion particular styles of composition, is something of the
+same kind. It does not signify what the greater or less merit of the
+book is;--the reader, as Tony Lumpkin says, must be in a concatenation
+accordingly--the fashion, or the general taste, must have prepared him
+to be pleased, or put him on his guard against it. It is much like
+dress. If Clarissa should appear before a modern party in her lace
+ruffles and head-dress, or Lovelace in his wig, however genteelly
+powdered, I am afraid they would make no conquests; the fashion which
+makes conquests of us in other respects, is very powerful in literary
+composition, and adds to the effect of some works, while in others it
+forms their sole merit."
+
+[Footnote 136: [Lady Louisa in her letter, written in 1826, after
+speaking of the delight which the _Lives_ had given to some of her
+friends, tells of their being induced, by something said of Mackenzie,
+to read aloud _The Man of Feeling_. The experiment failed sadly, the
+(supposedly) finest touches only causing laughter. And yet the writer
+could remember when the book had been read with rapture and many
+tears. In her girlhood the _Nouvelle Héloïse_ was the prohibited book
+which all young persons longed to read. Now she finds that if it falls
+in their way, it interests them not at all. So she propounds the
+question which Sir Walter tries to answer.--See _Selections from the
+Manuscripts of Lady Louisa Stuart_, pp. 233-236.]]
+
+Among other miscellaneous work of this autumn, Scott amused some
+leisure hours with writing a series of Private Letters, supposed to
+have been discovered in the repositories of a Noble English Family,
+and giving a picture of manners in town and country during the early
+part of the reign of James I. These letters were printed as fast as he
+penned them, in a handsome quarto form, and he furnished the margin
+with a running commentary of notes, drawn up in the character of a
+disappointed chaplain, a keen Whig, or rather Radical, overflowing on
+all occasions with spleen against Monarchy and Aristocracy. When the
+printing had reached the 72d page, however, he was told candidly by
+Erskine, by James Ballantyne, and also by myself, that, however clever
+his imitation of the epistolary style of the period in question, he
+was throwing away in these letters the materials of as good a romance
+as he had ever penned; and a few days afterwards he said to
+me--patting Sibyl's neck till she danced under him,--"You were all
+quite right: if the letters had passed for genuine they would have
+found favor only with a few musty antiquaries, and if the joke were
+detected, there was not story enough to carry it off. I shall burn the
+sheets, and give you Bonny King Jamie and all his tail in the old
+shape, as soon as I can get Captain Goffe within view of the gallows."
+
+Such was the origin of The Fortunes of Nigel. As one set of the
+uncompleted Letters has been preserved, I shall here insert a specimen
+of them, in which the reader will easily recognize the germ of more
+than one scene of the novel.[137]
+
+[Footnote 137: [Two of Sir Walter's friends were to assist him in
+these _Private Letters_. On June 16 he writes to Mr. Morritt: "Pray,
+my good Lord of Rokeby, be my very gracious good lord, and think of
+our pirated letters. It will be an admirable amusement for you, and I
+hold you accountable for two or three academical epistles of the
+period, full of thumping quotations of Greek and Latin in order to
+explain what needs no explanation, and fortify sentiments which are
+indisputable." In another letter, one of his last, written to Lockhart
+from Naples in the spring of 1832, Scott says: "You may remember a
+work in which our dear and accomplished friend, Lady Louisa,
+condescended to take an oar, and which she handled most admirably. It
+is a supposed set of extracts ... from a collection in James VI.'s
+time, the costume admirably preserved, and like the fashionable wigs
+more natural than one's own hair."--_Familiar Letters_, vol. ii. p.
+120, and _Journal_, vol. ii. p. 473.]]
+
+
+JENKIN HARMAN TO THE LORD ----.
+
+     MY LORD,--Towching this new mishappe of Sir Thomas, whereof your
+     Lordshippe makes querie of me, I wolde hartilie that I could,
+     truth and my bounden dutie alweys firste satisfied, make suche
+     answer as were fullie pleasaunte to me to write, or unto your
+     Lordshippe to reade. But what remedy? young men will have
+     stirring bloodes; and the courtier-like gallants of the time will
+     be gamesome and dangerous, as they have beene in dayes past. I
+     think your Lordshippe is so wise as to caste one eye backe to
+     your own more juvenile time, whilest you looke forward with the
+     other upon this mischaunce, which, upon my lyfe, will be founde
+     to be no otherwise harmful to Sir Thomas than as it shews him an
+     hastie Hotspur of the day, suddenlie checking at whatsoever may
+     seem to smirche his honour. As I am a trew man, and your
+     Lordship's poore kinsman and bounden servant, I think ther lives
+     not a gentleman more trew to his friende than Sir Thomas; and
+     although ye be but brothers uterine, yet so dearly doth he holde
+     your favour, that his father, were the gode knight alyve, should
+     not have more swaye with him than shalle your Lordship; and,
+     also, it is no kindly part to sow discord betwene brethrene; for,
+     as the holy Psalmist saythe, "_Ecce quam bonum et quam jucundum
+     habitare fratres_," etc. And moreover, it needes not to tell your
+     Lordshippe that Sir Thomas is suddene in his anger; and it was
+     but on Wednesday last that he said to me, with moche
+     distemperature,--Master Jenkin, I be tolde that ye meddle and
+     make betwene me and my Lorde my brother; wherfore, take this for
+     feyr warninge, that when I shall fynde you so dooyng, I will
+     incontinent put my dager to the hilte in you:--and this was
+     spoken with all earnestness of visage and actioun, grasping of
+     his poinard's handle, as one who wolde presentlie make his words
+     good. Surely, my Lord, it is not fair carriage toward you pore
+     kinsman if anie out of your house make such reports of me, and of
+     that which I have written to you in sympleness of herte, and in
+     obedience to your commandemente, which is my law on this matter.
+     Truely, my Lord, I wolde this was well looked to, otherweys my
+     rewarde for trew service might be to handsell with my herte's
+     blode the steel of a Milan poignado. Natheless, I will procede
+     with my mater, fal back fal edge, trustyng all utterly in the
+     singleness of my integretie, and in your Lordshippe's
+     discretioun.
+
+     My Lorde, the braule which hath befallen chaunced this waye, and
+     not otherwise. It hap'd that one Raines, the master of the
+     ordinarie where his honour Sir Thomas eteth well nie dailie (when
+     he is not in attendance at courte, wherein he is perchance more
+     slacke than were wise), shoulde assemble some of the beste who
+     haunte his house, havyng diet ther for money. The purpose, as
+     shewn forthe, was to tast a new piece of choice wyne, and ther
+     Sir Thomas must nedes be, or the purpos holdes not, and the
+     Alicant becometh Bastard. Wel, my Lord, dice ther wer and music,
+     lustie helthes and dizzie braines,--some saye fair ladyes also,
+     of which I know nought, save that suche cockatrices hatch wher
+     such cockes of the game do haunt. Alweys ther was revel and
+     wassail enow and to spare. Now it chaunced, that whilst one
+     Dutton, of Graie's-Inn, an Essex man, held the dice, Sir Thomas
+     fillethe a fulle carouse to the helth of the fair Ladie
+     Elizabeth. Trulie, my Lord, I cannot blame his devotioun to so
+     fair a saint, though I may wish the chapel for his adoration had
+     been better chosen, and the companie more suitable; _sed respice
+     finem_. The pledge being given, and alle men on foote, aye, and
+     some on knee, to drink the same, young Philip Darcy, a near
+     kinsman of my Lorde's, or so callyng himself, takes on him to
+     check at the helthe, askyng Sir Thomas if he were willinge to
+     drink the same in a Venetian glasse? the mening of whiche hard
+     sentence your Lordshippe shal esilie construe. Whereupon Sir
+     Thomas, your Lordshippe's brother, somewhat shrewishly demanded
+     whether that were his game or his earnest; to which demaunde the
+     uther answers recklessly as he that wolde not be brow-beaten,
+     that Sir Thomas might take it for game or ernest as him listed.
+     Whereupon your Lordshippe's brother, throwing down withal the
+     woodcocke's bill, with which, as the fashioun goes, he was
+     picking his teeth, answered redily, he cared not that for his
+     game or ernest, for that neither were worth a bean. A small
+     matter this to make such a storie, for presentlie young Darcie up
+     with the wine-pot in which they had assaid the freshe hogshede,
+     and heveth it at Sir Thomas, which vessel missing of the mark it
+     was aym'd at, encountreth the hede of Master Dutton, when the
+     outside of the flaggon did that which peradventure the inside had
+     accomplish'd somewhat later in the evening, and stretcheth him on
+     the flore; and then the crie arose, and you might see twenty
+     swords oute at once, and none rightly knowing wherfor. And the
+     groomes and valets, who waited in the street and in the kitchen,
+     and who, as seldom failes, had been as besy with the beer as
+     their masters with the wine, presentlie fell at odds, and betoke
+     themselves to their weapones; so ther was bouncing of bucklers,
+     and bandying of blades, instede of clattering of quart pottles,
+     and chiming of harpis and fiddles. At length comes the wache,
+     and, as oft happens in the like affraies, alle men join ageynst
+     them, and they are beten bak: An honest man, David Booth,
+     constable of the night, and a chandler by trade, is sorely hurt.
+     The crie rises of Prentices, prentices, Clubs, clubs, for word
+     went that the court-gallants and the Graie's-Inn men had
+     murther'd a citizen; all mene take the street, and the whole ward
+     is uppe, none well knowing why. Menewhile our gallants had the
+     lucke and sense to disperse their company, some getting them into
+     the Temple, the gates wherof were presentlie shut to prevent
+     pursuite I warrant, and some taking boat as they might; water
+     thus saving whom wyne hath endaunger'd. The Alderman of the ward,
+     worthy Master Danvelt, with Master Deputy, and others of repute,
+     bestow'd themselves not a litel to compose the tumult, and so al
+     past over for the evening.
+
+     My Lord, this is the hole of the mater, so far as my earnest and
+     anxious serch had therein, as well for the sake of my
+     blode-relation to your honourable house, as frome affectioun to
+     my kinsman Sir Thomas, and especiallie in humble obedience to
+     your regarded commandes. As for other offence given by Sir
+     Thomas, whereof idle bruites are current, as that he should have
+     call'd Master Darcie a codshead or an woodcocke, I can lerne of
+     no such termes, nor any nere to them, only that when he said he
+     cared not for his game or ernest, he flung down the woodcock's
+     bill, to which it may be there was sticking a part of the head,
+     though my informant saithe otherwise; and he stode so close by
+     Sir Thomas, that he herde the quart-pot whissel as it flew
+     betwixt there too hedes. Of damage done among the better sort,
+     there is not muche; some cuts and thrusts ther wer, that had
+     their sequents in blood and woundes, but none dedlie. Of the
+     rascal sort, one fellowe is kill'd, and sundrie hurt. Hob Hilton,
+     your brother's grome, for life a maymed man, having a slash over
+     the right hande, for faulte of a gauntlet.--Marry he has been a
+     brave knave and a sturdie: and if it pleses your goode
+     Lordshippe, I fynd he wolde gladlie be preferr'd when tym is
+     fitting, to the office of bedle. He hath a burlie frame, and
+     scare-babe visage; he shall do wel enoughe in such charge, though
+     lackyng the use of four fingers.[138] The hurtyng of the
+     constabel is a worse matter; as also the anger that is between
+     the courtiers and Graie's-Inn men; so that yf close hede be not
+     given, I doubt me we shall here of more _Gesto Graiorum_. Thei
+     will not be persuaded but that the quarrel betwixt Sir Thomas and
+     young Darcie was simulate; and that Master Button's hurte wes
+     wilful; whereas, on my lyfe, it will not be founde so.
+
+     The counseyl hath taen the matter up, and I here H. M. spoke many
+     things gravely and solidly, and as one who taketh to hert such
+     unhappie chaunces, both against brauling and drinking. Sir
+     Thomas, with others, hath put in plegge to be forthcoming; and so
+     strictly taken up was the unhappie mater of the Scots Lord,[139]
+     that if Booth shulde die, which God forefend, there might be a
+     fereful reckoning: For one cityzen sayeth, I trust falslie, he
+     saw Sir Thomas draw back his hand, having in it a drawn sword,
+     just as the constabel felle. It seems but too constant, that thei
+     were within but short space of ech other when his unhappy chaunce
+     befel. My Lord, it is not for me to saie what course your
+     Lordshippe should steer in this storm, onlie that the Lord
+     Chansellour's gode worde wil, as resen is, do yeoman's service.
+     Schulde it come to fine or imprisonment, as is to be fered, why
+     should not your Lordshippe cast the weyght into the balance for
+     that restraint which goode Sir Thomas must nedes bear himself,
+     rather than for such penalty as must nedes pinche the purses of
+     his frendes. Your Lordship always knoweth best; but surely the
+     yonge knyght hath but litel reson to expect that you shulde
+     further engage yourself in such bondes as might be necessary to
+     bring this fine unto the Chequer. Nether have wise men helde it
+     unfit that heated bloode be coold by sequestration for a space
+     from temptation. There is dout, moreover, whether he may not hold
+     himself bounden, according to the forme of faythe which such
+     gallants and stirring spirits profess, to have further meeting
+     with Master Philip Darcie, or this same Dutton, or with bothe, on
+     this rare dependence of an woodcocke's hede, and a quart-pot;
+     certeynly, methoughte, the last tym we met, and when he bare
+     himself towards me, as I have premonish'd your Lordshippe, that
+     he was fitter for quiet residence under safe keeping, than for a
+     free walk amongst peceful men.
+
+     And thus, my Lord, ye have the whole mater before you; trew ye
+     shall find it,--my dutie demands it,--unpleasing, I cannot amende
+     it: But I truste neither more evil _in esse_ nor _in posse_, than
+     I have set forth as above. From one who is ever your Lordshippe's
+     most bounden to command, etc.--J. H.
+
+
+[Footnote 138: "The death of the _rascal_ sort is mentioned as he
+would have commemorated that of a dog; and his readiest plan of
+providing for a profligate menial, is to place him in superintendence
+of the unhappy poor, over whom his fierce looks and rough demeanor are
+to supply the means of authority, which his arm can no longer enforce
+by actual violence!"]
+
+[Footnote 139: "Perhaps the case of Lord Sanquhar. His Lordship had
+the misfortune to be hanged, for causing a poor fencing-master to be
+assassinated, which seems the unhappy matter alluded to."]
+
+I think it must have been about the middle of October that he dropped
+the scheme of this fictitious correspondence. I well remember the
+morning that he began The Fortunes of Nigel. The day being destined
+for Newark Hill, I went over to Abbotsford before breakfast, and found
+Mr. Terry (who had been staying there for some time) walking about
+with his friend's master-mason (John Smith), of whose proceedings he
+took a fatherly charge, as he might well do, since the plan of the
+building had been in a considerable measure the work of his own taste.
+While Terry and I were chatting, Scott came out, bare-headed, with a
+bunch of MS. in his hand, and said, "Well, lads, I've laid the keel of
+a new lugger this morning--here it is--be off to the waterside, and
+let me hear how you like it." Terry took the papers, and walking up
+and down by the river, read to me the first chapter of Nigel. He
+expressed great delight with the animated opening, and especially with
+the contrast between its thorough stir of London life, and a chapter
+about Norna of the Fitful-head, in the third volume of The Pirate,
+which had been given to him in a similar manner the morning before. I
+could see that (according to the Sheriff's phrase) _he smelt roast
+meat_; here there was every prospect of a fine field for the art of
+_Terryfication_. The actor, when our host met us returning from the
+haugh, did not fail to express his opinion that the new novel would be
+of this quality. Sir Walter, as he took the MS. from his hand, eyed
+him with a gay smile, in which genuine benevolence mingled with mock
+exultation, and then throwing himself into an attitude of comical
+dignity, he rolled out, in the tones of John Kemble, one of the
+loftiest bursts of Ben Jonson's Mammon:--
+
+  "Come on, sir. Now you set your foot on shore
+  In _Novo orbe_--
+  ----------------Pertinax, my Surly,[140]
+  Again I say to thee aloud, Be rich,
+  This day thou shalt have ingots."
+
+[Footnote 140: The fun of this application of "my Surly" will not
+escape any one who remembers the kind and good-humored Terry's power
+of assuming a peculiarly saturnine aspect. This queer grimness of look
+was invaluable to the comedian in several of his best parts; and in
+private he often called it up when his heart was most cheerful.]
+
+This was another period of "refreshing the machine." Early in
+November, I find Sir Walter writing thus to Constable's partner, Mr.
+Cadell: "I want two books, Malcolm's London Redivivus, or some such
+name, and Derham's Artificial Clock-maker." [The reader of Nigel will
+understand these requests.] "All good luck to you, commercially and
+otherwise. I am grown a shabby letter-writer, for my eyes are not so
+young as they were, and I grudge everything that does not go to
+press." Such a feeling must often have been present with him; yet I
+can find no period when he grudged writing a letter that might by
+possibility be of use to any of his family or friends, and I must
+quote one of the many which about this very time reached his second
+son.
+
+
+TO MR. CHARLES SCOTT.
+
+_Care of the Rev. Mr. Williams, Lampeter._
+
+                                                  21st November, 1821.
+
+     MY DEAR CHARLES,--I had the pleasure of your letter two days
+     since, being the first symptom of your being alive and well which
+     I have had _directly_ since you left Abbotsford. I beg you will
+     be more frequent in your communications, which must always be
+     desirable when you are at such a distance. I am very glad to hear
+     you are attending closely to make up lost time. Sport is a good
+     thing both for health and pastime; but you must never allow it to
+     interfere with serious study. You have, my dear boy, your own
+     fortune to make, with better assistance of every kind than I had
+     when the world first opened on me; and I assure you that had I
+     not given some attention to learning (I have often regretted
+     that, from want of opportunity, indifferent health, and some
+     indolence, I did not do all I might have done), my own situation,
+     and the advantages which I may be able to procure for you, would
+     have been very much bounded. Consider, therefore, study as the
+     principal object. Many men have read and written their way to
+     independence and fame; but no man ever gained it by exclusive
+     attention to exercises or to pleasures of any sort. You do not
+     say anything of your friend Mr. Surtees,[141] who I hope is well.
+     We all remember him with much affection, and should be sorry to
+     think we were forgotten.
+
+     Our Abbotsford Hunt went off extremely well. We killed seven
+     hares, I think, and our dogs behaved very well. A large party
+     dined, and we sat down about twenty-five at table. Every
+     gentleman present sung a song, _tant bien que mal_, excepting
+     Walter, Lockhart, and I myself. I believe I should add the
+     melancholy Jaques, Mr. Waugh, who, on this occasion, however, was
+     not melancholy.[142] In short, we had a very merry and sociable
+     party.
+
+     There is, I think, no news here. The hedger, Captain
+     Davidson,[143] has had a bad accident, and injured his leg much
+     by the fall of a large stone. I am very anxious about him as a
+     faithful and honest servant. Every one else at Abbotsford, horses
+     and dogs included, are in great preservation.
+
+     You ask me about reading history. You are quite right to read
+     Clarendon--his style is a little long-winded; but, on the other
+     hand, his characters may match those of the ancient historians,
+     and one thinks they would know the very men if you were to meet
+     them in society. Few English writers have the same precision,
+     either in describing the actors in great scenes, or the deeds
+     which they performed. He was, you are aware, himself deeply
+     engaged in the scenes which he depicts, and therefore colors them
+     with the individual feeling, and sometimes, doubtless, with the
+     partiality of a partisan. Yet I think he is, on the whole, a fair
+     writer; for though he always endeavors to excuse King Charles,
+     yet he points out his mistakes and errors, which certainly are
+     neither few nor of slight consequence. Some of his history
+     regards the country in which you are now a resident; and you will
+     find that much of the fate of that Great Civil War turned on the
+     successful resistance made by the city of Gloucester, and the
+     relief of that place by the Earl of Essex, by means of the
+     trained bands of London,--a sort of force resembling our local
+     militia or volunteers. They are the subject of ridicule in all
+     the plays and poems of the time; yet the sort of practice of arms
+     which they had acquired, enabled them to withstand the charge of
+     Prince Rupert and his gallant cavalry, who were then foiled for
+     the first time. Read, my dear Charles, read, and read that which
+     is useful. Man only differs from birds and beasts, because he has
+     the means of availing himself of the knowledge acquired by his
+     predecessors. The swallow builds the same nest which its father
+     and mother built; and the sparrow does not improve by the
+     experience of its parents. The son of the learned pig, if it had
+     one, would be a mere brute, fit only to make bacon of. It is not
+     so with the human race. Our ancestors lodged in caves and
+     wigwams, where we construct palaces for the rich, and comfortable
+     dwellings for the poor; and why is this--but because our eye is
+     enabled to look back upon the past, to improve upon our
+     ancestors' improvements, and to avoid their errors? This can only
+     be done by studying history, and comparing it with passing
+     events. God has given you a strong memory, and the power of
+     understanding that which you give your mind to with
+     attention--but all the advantage to be derived from these
+     qualities must depend on your own determination to avail yourself
+     of them, and improve them to the uttermost. That you should do
+     so, will be the greatest satisfaction I can receive in my
+     advanced life, and when my thoughts must be entirely turned on
+     the success of my children. Write to me more frequently, and
+     mention your studies particularly, and I will on my side be a
+     good correspondent.
+
+     I beg my compliments to Mr. and Mrs. Williams. I have left no
+     room to sign myself your affectionate father,
+
+                                                                 W. S.
+
+
+[Footnote 141: Mr. Villiers Surtees, a schoolfellow of Charles Scott's
+at Lampeter, had spent the vacation of this year at Abbotsford. He is
+now one of the Supreme Judges at the Mauritius.]
+
+[Footnote 142: Mr. Waugh was a retired West Indian, of very dolorous
+aspect, who had settled at Melrose, built a large house there,
+surrounded it and his garden with a huge wall, and seldom emerged from
+his own precincts except upon the grand occasion of the Abbotsford
+Hunt. The villagers called him "the Melancholy Man"--and considered
+him as already "dreein' his dole for doings amang the poor niggers."]
+
+[Footnote 143: This hedger had got the title of Captain, in memory of
+his gallantry at some _row_.]
+
+To return to business and Messrs. Constable.--Sir Walter concluded,
+before he went to town in November, another negotiation of importance
+with this house. They agreed to give for the remaining copyright of
+the four novels published between December, 1819, and January,
+1821--to wit, Ivanhoe, The Monastery, The Abbot, and Kenilworth--the
+sum of five thousand guineas. The stipulation about not revealing the
+author's name, under a penalty of £2000, was repeated. By these four
+novels, the fruits of scarcely more than twelve months' labor, he had
+already cleared at least £10,000 before this bargain was completed.
+They, like their predecessors, were now issued in a collective shape,
+under the title of "Historical Romances, by the Author of Waverley."
+
+I cannot pretend to guess what the actual state of Scott's pecuniary
+affairs was at the time when John Ballantyne's death relieved them
+from one great source of complication and difficulty. But I have said
+enough to satisfy every reader, that when he began the second, and
+far the larger division of his building at Abbotsford, he must have
+contemplated the utmost sum it could cost him as a mere trifle in
+relation to the resources at his command. He must have reckoned on
+clearing £30,000 at least in the course of a couple of years by the
+novels written within such a period. The publisher of his Tales, who
+best knew how they were produced, and what they brought of gross
+profit, and who must have had the strongest interest in keeping the
+author's name untarnished by any risk or reputation of failure, would
+willingly, as we have seen, have given him £6000 more within a space
+of two years for works of a less serious sort, likely to be despatched
+at leisure hours, without at all interfering with the main
+manufacture. But alas, even this was not all. Messrs. Constable had
+such faith in the prospective fertility of his imagination, that they
+were by this time quite ready to sign bargains and grant bills for
+novels and romances to be produced hereafter, but of which the
+subjects and the names were alike unknown to them and to the man from
+whose pen they were to proceed.[144] A forgotten satirist well says,--
+
+  "The active principle within
+   Works on some brains the effect of gin;"
+
+but in his case, every external influence combined to stir the flame,
+and swell the intoxication of restless exuberant energy. His allies
+knew, indeed, what he did not, that the sale of his novels was rather
+less than it had been in the days of Ivanhoe; and hints had sometimes
+been dropped to him that it might be well to try the effect of a
+pause. But he always thought--and James Ballantyne had decidedly the
+same opinion--that his best things were those which he threw off the
+most easily and swiftly; and it was no wonder that his booksellers,
+seeing how immeasurably even his worst excelled in popularity, as in
+merit, any other person's best, should have shrunk from the experiment
+of a decisive damper. On the contrary, they might be excused for from
+time to time flattering themselves that if the books sold at a less
+rate, this might be counterpoised by still greater rapidity of
+production. They could not make up their minds to cast the peerless
+vessel adrift; and, in short, after every little whisper of prudential
+misgiving, echoed the unfailing burden of Ballantyne's song--to push
+on, hoisting more and more sail as the wind lulled.
+
+[Footnote 144: Mr. Cadell says: "This device for raising the wind was
+the only real legacy left by John Ballantyne to his generous friend;
+it was invented to make up for the bad book stock of the Hanover
+Street concern, which supplied so much good money for the passing
+hour."--(1848.)]
+
+He was as eager to do as they could be to suggest--and this I well
+knew at the time. I had, however, no notion, until all his
+correspondence lay before me, of the extent to which he had permitted
+himself thus early to build on the chances of life, health, and
+continued popularity. Before The Fortunes of Nigel issued from the
+press, Scott had exchanged instruments, and received his bookseller's
+bills, for no less than four "works of fiction"--not one of them
+otherwise described in the deeds of agreement--to be produced in
+unbroken succession, each of them to fill at least three volumes, but
+with proper saving clauses as to increase of copy-money, in case any
+of them should run to four. And within two years all this anticipation
+had been wiped off by Peveril of the Peak, Quentin Durward, St.
+Ronan's Well, and Redgauntlet; and the new castle was by that time
+complete, and overflowing with all its splendor; but by that time the
+end also was approaching!
+
+The splendid romance of The Pirate was published in the beginning of
+December, 1821; and the wild freshness of its atmosphere, the
+beautiful contrast of Minna and Brenda, and the exquisitely drawn
+character of Captain Cleveland, found the reception which they
+deserved. The work was analyzed with remarkable care in the Quarterly
+Review, by a critic second to few, either in the manly heartiness of
+his sympathy with the felicities of genius, or in the honest acuteness
+of his censure in cases of negligence and confusion. This was the
+second of a series of articles in that Journal, conceived and executed
+in a tone widely different from those given to Waverley, Guy
+Mannering, and The Antiquary. I fancy Mr. Gifford had become convinced
+that he had made a grievous mistake in this matter, before he
+acquiesced in Scott's proposal about "quartering the child" in
+January, 1816; and if he was fortunate in finding a contributor able
+and willing to treat the rest of Father Jedediah's progeny with
+excellent skill, and in a spirit more accordant with the just and
+general sentiments of the public, we must also recognize a pleasing
+and honorable trait of character in the frankness with which the
+recluse and often despotic editor now delegated the pen to Mr. Senior.
+
+On the 13th December, Sir Walter received a copy of Cain, as yet
+unpublished, from Lord Byron's bookseller, who had been instructed to
+ask whether he had any objection to having the "Mystery" dedicated to
+him. He replied in these words:--
+
+
+TO JOHN MURRAY, ESQ., ALBEMARLE STREET, LONDON.
+
+                                       EDINBURGH, 17th December, 1821.
+
+     MY DEAR SIR,--I accept with feelings of great obligation the
+     flattering proposal of Lord Byron to prefix my name to the very
+     grand and tremendous drama of Cain. I may be partial to it, and
+     you will allow I have cause; but I do not know that his Muse has
+     ever taken so lofty a flight amid her former soarings. He has
+     certainly matched Milton on his own ground. Some part of the
+     language is bold, and may shock one class of readers, whose tone
+     will be adopted by others out of affectation or envy. But then
+     they must condemn the Paradise Lost, if they have a mind to be
+     consistent. The fiendlike reasoning and bold blasphemy of the
+     fiend and of his pupil lead exactly to the point which was to be
+     expected--the commission of the first murder, and the ruin and
+     despair of the perpetrator.
+
+     I do not see how any one can accuse the author himself of
+     Manichæism. The devil takes the language of that sect, doubtless;
+     because, not being able to deny the existence of the Good
+     Principle, he endeavors to exalt himself--the Evil Principle--to
+     a seeming equality with the Good; but such arguments, in the
+     mouth of such a being, can only be used to deceive and to betray.
+     Lord Byron might have made this more evident, by placing in the
+     mouth of Adam, or of some good and protecting spirit, the reasons
+     which render the existence of moral evil consistent with the
+     general benevolence of the Deity. The great key to the mystery
+     is, perhaps, the imperfection of our own faculties, which see and
+     feel strongly the partial evils which press upon us, but know too
+     little of the general system of the universe, to be aware how the
+     existence of these is to be reconciled with the benevolence of
+     the great Creator.--Ever yours truly,
+
+                                                         WALTER SCOTT.
+
+
+In some preceding narratives of Sir Walter Scott's Life, I find the
+principal feature for 1821 to be an affair of which I have as yet said
+nothing; and which, notwithstanding the examples I have before me, I
+must be excused for treating on a scale commensurate with his real
+share and interest therein. I allude to an unfortunate newspaper, by
+name The Beacon, which began to be published in Edinburgh in January,
+1821, and was abruptly discontinued in the August of the same year. It
+originated in the alarm with which the Edinburgh Tories contemplated
+the progress of Radical doctrines during the agitation of the Queen's
+business in 1820--and the want of any adequate counteraction on the
+part of the Ministerial newspapers in the north. James Ballantyne had
+on that occasion swerved from his banner--and by so doing given not a
+little offence to Scott. He approved, therefore, of the project of a
+new Weekly Journal, to be conducted by some steadier hand;[145] and
+when it was proposed to raise the requisite capital for the
+speculation by private subscription, expressed his willingness to
+contribute whatever sum should be named by other gentlemen of his
+standing. This was accepted of course; but every part of the advice
+with which the only man in the whole conclave that understood a jot
+about such things coupled his tender of alliance, was departed from in
+practice. No experienced and responsible editor of the sort he pointed
+out as indispensable was secured; the violence of disaffected spleen
+was encountered by a vein of satire which seemed more fierce than
+frolicsome; the Law Officers of the Crown, whom he had most
+strenuously cautioned against any participation in the concern, were
+rash enough to commit themselves in it; the subscribers, like true
+Scotchmen, in place of paying down their money, and thinking no more
+of that part of the matter, chose to put their names to a bond of
+security on which the sum-total was to be advanced by bankers; and
+thus, by their own over-caution as to a few pounds, laid the
+foundation for a long train of humiliating distresses and disgraces;
+and finally, when the rude drollery of the young hot bloods to whom
+they had entrusted the editorship of their paper, produced its natural
+consequences, and the ferment of Whig indignation began to boil over
+upon the dignified patrons of what was denounced as a systematic
+scheme of calumny and defamation--these seniors shrunk from the
+dilemma as rashly as they had plunged into it, and instead of
+compelling the juvenile allies to adopt a more prudent course, and
+gradually give the journal a tone worthy of open approbation, they,
+at the first blush of personal difficulty, left their instruments in
+the lurch, and, without even consulting Scott, ordered the Beacon to
+be extinguished at an hour's notice.
+
+[Footnote 145: It has been asserted, since this work first appeared,
+that the editorship of the proposed journal was offered to Ballantyne,
+and declined by him. If so, he had no doubt found the offer
+accompanied with a requisition of political pledges, which he could
+not grant.--(1839.)]
+
+A more pitiable mass of blunder and imbecility was never heaped
+together than the whole of this affair exhibited; and from a very
+early period Scott was so disgusted with it, that he never even saw
+the newspaper, of which Whigs and Radicals believed, or affected to
+believe, that the conduct and management were in some degree at least
+under his dictation. The results were lamentable: the Beacon was made
+the subject of Parliamentary discussion, from which the then heads of
+Scotch Toryism did not escape in any very consolatory plight; but
+above all, the Beacon bequeathed its rancor and rashness, though not
+its ability, to a Glasgow paper of similar form and pretensions,
+entitled The Sentinel. By that organ the personal quarrels of the
+Beacon were taken up and pursued with relentless industry; and
+finally, the Glasgow editors disagreeing, some moment of angry
+confusion betrayed a box of MSS., by which the late Sir Alexander
+Boswell of Auchinleck was revealed as the writer of certain truculent
+enough pasquinades. A leading Edinburgh Whig, who had been pilloried
+in one or more of these, challenged Boswell--and the Baronet fell in
+as miserable a quarrel as ever cost the blood of a high-spirited
+gentleman.[146]
+
+This tragedy occurred in the early part of 1822; and soon afterwards
+followed those debates on the whole business in the House of Commons,
+for which, if any reader feels curiosity about them, I refer him to
+the Parliamentary Histories of the time. A single extract from one of
+Scott's letters to a member of the then Government in London will be
+sufficient for my purpose; and abundantly confirm what I have said as
+to his personal part in the affairs of the Beacon:--
+
+[Footnote 146: [James Stuart of Dunearn was Boswell's opponent.
+Lockhart in writing to Scott of Sir Alexander's death [March 27] adds:
+"I hope I need not say how cordially I enter into the hope you
+express, that this bloody lesson may be a sufficient and lasting one.
+I can never be sufficiently grateful for the advice which kept me from
+having any hand in all these newspaper skirmishes. Wilson also is
+totally free from any concern in any of them, and for this I am sure
+he also feels himself chiefly indebted to your counsel."--_Familiar
+Letters_, vol. ii. p. 137. Stuart's trial took place on June 10, and
+his acquittal was hailed as a triumph by the Whigs. Lord Cockburn was
+one of Stuart's counsel, and in his _Memorials_, pp. 392-399, will be
+found an account of the affair, as viewed by a distinguished member of
+that party.]]
+
+
+TO J. W. CROKER, ESQ., ADMIRALTY.
+
+     MY DEAR CROKER,--... I had the fate of Cassandra in the Beacon
+     matter from beginning to end. I endeavored in vain to impress on
+     them the necessity of having an editor who was really up to the
+     business, and could mix spirit with discretion--one of those
+     "gentlemen of the press," who understand the exact lengths to
+     which they can go in their vocation. Then I wished them, in place
+     of that _Bond_, to have each thrown down his hundred pounds, and
+     never inquired more about it--and lastly, I exclaimed against the
+     Crown Counsel being at all concerned. In the two first
+     remonstrances I was not listened to--in the last I thought myself
+     successful, and it was not till long afterwards that I heard they
+     had actually subscribed the Bond. Then the hasty renunciation of
+     the thing, as if we had been doing something very atrocious, put
+     me mad altogether. The younger brethren, too, allege that they
+     are put into the front of the fight, and deserted on the first
+     pinch; and on my word I cannot say the accusation is altogether
+     false, though I have been doing my best to mediate betwixt the
+     parties, and keep the peace if possible. The fact is, it is a
+     blasted business, and will continue long to have bad
+     consequences.--Yours in all love and kindness,
+
+                                                         WALTER SCOTT.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Memoirs of the Life of Sir Walter
+Scott, Volume 6, by John Gibson Lockhart
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