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 tobe 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.
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 tobe 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. Heapproved, 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.
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; andsoon 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:—
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 thatBond, 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.
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 thatBond, 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.
1: Article onGeneral Gourgaud's MemoirsinBlackwood's Magazinefor November, 1818.2: Article on Maturin'sWomen, or Pour et Contre. (Miscellaneous Prose Works, vol. xviii.)3: Article onChilde Harold, Canto IV. (Miscellaneous Prose Works, vol. xvii.)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.5: I believe this is a quotation from some old Scotch chronicler on the character of King James V.6:The Doctorwas 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!"7: Sir Walter Blunt—1st King Henry IV., Act V. Scene 3.8: See Molière'sGeorge Dandin.9:Imitations of Horace.B. ii. Ep. 1. v. 386.10: These charming essays are now reprinted in hisMiscellaneous Prose Works(Edition 1834) vol. vii.11:Jackie Peartreehad, it seems, been Sir William Rae's nickname at the High School. He probably owed it to some exploit in an orchard.12: The Right Honorable Robert Dundas of Arniston, Chief Baron of the Scotch Exchequer, died 17th June, 1819. Seepost, p.123.13: Mr. William Clerk.14: The wife of one of the Edinburgh Judges is alluded to.15: "Between February 15, 1819, and March 14, 1837,Rob Roywas 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 onGuy ManneringandSt. Ronan's Wellwere very successful. He died in Glasgow in 1857.]16:King's-Hood—"The second of the four stomachs of ruminating animals."Jamieson.—Spleuchan—The Gaelic name of the Highlander's tobacco-pouch.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 hisAutobiography, 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 theEdinburgh Review; for, to his exquisite delight, the hostile critic selected forexceptiveencomium 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.18: [InThe Life, Letters, and Journals of George Ticknorwill be found some interesting notes regarding his visits to Castle Street, and two days spent at Abbotsford in March, 1819.]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, containingPontefract Castle,' is not written by the Author of the First, Second, and Third Series ofTales of my Landlord, of which we are the Proprietors and Publishers.Archibald Constable & Co."20: These lines are from Coleridge'sAncient Mariner.21: The reader will find something about this actor's quarrel with Mr. Bucke, author ofThe Italians, in Barry Cornwall'sLife of Kean, vol. ii. p. 178.22: "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.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.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 prettybobbish.Always yours affectionately,W. S.The Mr. David Bridges here mentioned has occurred already.—Seeante, vol. v. p. 262. The jokers inBlackwoodmade 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.)25: The fine picture which Allan executed is in the possession of Mr. Lockhart of Milton-Lockhart, and has been well engraved.26: Seeante, vol. i. p. 230.27: Captain John Ferguson, R. N.28: Bauby—i. e., Barbara, was a kind old housekeeper of the Miss Fergusons.29: The Lord Chief-Commissioner Adam.30:Anglice—Scarecrow.31:Anglice—an Oak.32:Hamlet, Act III. Scene 2.33: 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.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:—'Takethouthe vanguard of the threeAnd 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.]35: See Scott'sPoetical Works(Ed. 1834), vol. vi. p. 343 [Cambridge Ed. p. 444].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 sleepWith 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!'"—SeeThe Bride of Lammermoor, note to chap. xiv.37: [Seeante, vol. ii. p. 114, note.]38: Mr. Chisholm was the Tory candidate for the Selkirk burghs.39: Mr. Pringle of Clifton, the Whig candidate.40: Walter Francis, the present Duke of Buccleuch.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 1814.42: Mr. William Clerk.43: A shilling.44: The Lord Chief-Commissioner Adam.45: There appeared in theEdinburgh Evening Postof 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.)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'sReminiscences,—SeeJournal, vol. ii. p. 97, note.]47: [An interesting letter from Dr. Dick to Scott will be found inFamiliar 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."]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 theLetters, which first appeared in part inBlackwood'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.]49: Goldsmith'sRetaliation.50:Anglice—a strange pasture.51: The then commandant of the 18th Hussars was Lieutenant-Colonel the Hon. Henry Murray, brother to the Earl of Mansfield.52:Lady Wallacewas a pony;Trouta favorite pointer which the Cornet had given, at leaving home, to the young Laird of Harden, now the Master of Polwarth.53: For Scott's Epitaph for Mrs. Erskine, see hisPoetical Works(Ed. 1834), vol. xi. p. 347 [Cambridge Ed. p. 447].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.55: Seeante, vol. v. p. 88.56: 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.]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 hisbeau idealof the character of a country gentleman. He was, I believe, the head of the once great and powerful clan of Rutherford.58: See Scott'sPoetical Works, vol. xii. p. 195 [Cambridge Ed. p. 485].59: Sir Adam Ferguson.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.61: "The subject of hisThesisis singular, and entitles Rutherford to rank very high among the chemical philosophers of modern times. Its title isDe 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'sHistory of the University of Edinburgh, vol. iii. (1830), pp. 260, 261.62: 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.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.64: Nicol Milne, Esq. (now advocate), eldest son of the Laird of Faldonside.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.66: One of Scott's foresters—thus designated as being, in all senses of the word, agallantfellow.67: St. John's Chapel.68: Robert Rutherford, Esq., W. S., son to the Professor of Botany.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.70: This was a ridiculously exaggerated report of that period of alarm.71: [Lady Louisa's letter was written January 16, 1820, and can be found inFamiliar Letters, vol. ii. p. 71. In it she says:—"Everybody in this house has been reading an odd new kind of a book calledIvanhoe, 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."]72:Lines on the Death of Mr. Robert Levett.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.74: SeeIvanhoe, end of chap. xliv.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 whenIvanhoeappeared.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 theCentury Magazinefor September, 1882.]76: The weekly Darnick carrier.77: Dr. Scott of Darnlee.—Seeante, vol. v. p. 277. This very amiable, modest, and intelligent friend of Sir Walter Scott's died in 1837.78: Some money expected from the sale of larches.79: Burns—Lines to a Mouse.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.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 playRob 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, andWaverleyand theAntiquary, 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.]82: [Mr. Skene, in hisReminiscences, 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."—SeeJournal, vol. ii. p. 318, note.]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 afish(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 finefish, Tom."—"Oo, aye, Sir," quoth Tom, "it's a bonny grilse." "Agrilse, Tom!" says Mr. R., "it's as heavy asalmonas 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, yearea meikle fish, mon—and a meiklefule, 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 theNorth British Reviewfor November, 1864. The scene was not Abbotsford, but Ashestiel, in September, 1810.]84: The funeral of George III. at Windsor: the young Duke of Buccleuch was at this time at Eton.85: Ebenezer Clarkson, Esq., a surgeon of distinguished skill at Selkirk, and through life a trusty friend and crony of the Sheriff's.86: A distinguished Whig friend.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.]88:Much Ado about Nothing, Act III. Scene 3.89: [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 anétourdi) 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 calledBlackwood'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.]90: The general election was going on.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.]92: The late Duke of Gordon.93: See Goldsmith'sCitizen of the World, No. 105.94: [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 theTestimonium(prefacing the seventh volume ofBlackwood), 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 ofMaga, 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'sLife 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 ofretenuebecoming 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 theTestimonium. 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 theMaga; 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 inFamiliar Letters, vol. ii. p. 86.]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 ofPalladio—which he owed, I believe, to a song inBlackwood's Magazine. The good Bailie had been at the High School with Sir Walter, and their friendly intercourse was never interrupted but by death.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 houseThe wind has blown away to other towers.'"—Scott to Lady Abercorn—Familiar Letters, vol. ii. p. 75.]97: Here ended Vol. IV. of the Original Edition.—(1839.)98:"There were the six Miss Rawbolds—pretty dears!All song and sentiment; whose hearts were setLess on a convent than a coronet."Don Juan, canto xiii. st. 85.99: [William Hyde Wollaston, the distinguished physiologist, chemist, and physicist.]100:Hogsignifies 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 ofhis"Family Name:"—"Perhaps some shepherd on Lincolnian plains,In manners guileless as his own sweet flocks,Received it first amid the merry mocksAnd arch allusions of his fellow swains."101: SeePoetical Works, vol. xi. pp 334, 335 [Cambridge Ed. p. 467].102: Essay on Landscape Gardening,Miscellaneous Prose Works, vol. xxi. p. 77.103: Adolphus'sLetters to Heber, p. 13.104: Seeante, vol. v. p. 34.105: The good Chief-Commissioner makes a little mistake here—aPhocabeing, not a porpoise, but aSeal.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 oldtrue 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.]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.]108:Finette—a spaniel of Lady Scott's.109:Urisk[Ourisque]—a small terrier of the long silky-haired Kintail breed.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.111:Punchhad been borrowing fromYoung Rapid, in theCure for the Heart-ache.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 1821.113: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'sTom Thumb.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.115: Mr. Robert Cadell, of the house of Constable, had this year conveyed Charles Scott from Abbotsford to Lampeter.116: Sir Walter's cousin, a son of his uncle Thomas. Seeante, vol. i. p. 62.117: ["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'sReminiscences of Sir Walter Scott.]118: The late Thomas Elliot Ogilvie, Esq., of Chesters, in Roxburghshire—one of Sir Walter's good friends among his country neighbors.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 forKenilworth, 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 enjoyKenilworthquite 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.]120: Mungo was a favorite Newfoundland dog.121: Mrs. Lockhart's maid.122: This letter was followed by a copy of General Jomini's celebrated work.123: The third Earl (of the Villierses) died in 1838.124:1st King Henry IV.Act III. Scene 1.125: The Rev. John Graham is known as the author of aHistory of the Siege of Londonderry, Annals of Ireland, and various political tracts. Sir Walter Scott publishedGwynne's Memoirs, with a Preface, etc., in 1822.126: 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, representingpartof 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.)127: Ballad of the Marchioness of Douglas, "O waly, waly, up yon bank!" etc.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.129:Kentis the shepherd's staff—Colleyhis dog. Scott alludes to the old song of theLea Rig,—"Nae herds wi' kent and colley there," etc.130: Scott's schoolfellow, the Right Hon. D. Boyle.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, publishedLetters from Spain in 1856 and 1857. He also wrote a number of clever metricaljeux d'esprit. He was engaged in completing his father'sHistory of England under George III.at the time of his death in 1862.]132:King Lear, Act III. Scene 4.133: [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 whenPeverilwas 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."—SeeMemoir of Charles Mayne Young, pp. 88-96.]134: The 4th vol. of the original edition was published in July—the 5th (of which this was the sixth chapter) in October, 1837.135: 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 theDenkmahl, to which it refers, is, however, sufficient evidence that I ought to have said 1821.136: [Lady Louisa in her letter, written in 1826, after speaking of the delight which theLiveshad given to some of her friends, tells of their being induced, by something said of Mackenzie, to read aloudThe 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 theNouvelle Héloïsewas 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.—SeeSelections from the Manuscripts of Lady Louisa Stuart, pp. 233-236.]137: [Two of Sir Walter's friends were to assist him in thesePrivate 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, andJournal, vol. ii. p. 473.]138: "The death of therascalsort 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!"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."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.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.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."143: This hedger had got the title of Captain, in memory of his gallantry at somerow.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.)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.)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 hisMemorials, pp. 392-399, will be found an account of the affair, as viewed by a distinguished member of that party.]
1: Article onGeneral Gourgaud's MemoirsinBlackwood's Magazinefor November, 1818.
2: Article on Maturin'sWomen, or Pour et Contre. (Miscellaneous Prose Works, vol. xviii.)
3: Article onChilde Harold, Canto IV. (Miscellaneous Prose Works, vol. xvii.)
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.
5: I believe this is a quotation from some old Scotch chronicler on the character of King James V.
6:The Doctorwas 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!"
7: Sir Walter Blunt—1st King Henry IV., Act V. Scene 3.
8: See Molière'sGeorge Dandin.
9:Imitations of Horace.B. ii. Ep. 1. v. 386.
10: These charming essays are now reprinted in hisMiscellaneous Prose Works(Edition 1834) vol. vii.
11:Jackie Peartreehad, it seems, been Sir William Rae's nickname at the High School. He probably owed it to some exploit in an orchard.
12: The Right Honorable Robert Dundas of Arniston, Chief Baron of the Scotch Exchequer, died 17th June, 1819. Seepost, p.123.
13: Mr. William Clerk.
14: The wife of one of the Edinburgh Judges is alluded to.
15: "Between February 15, 1819, and March 14, 1837,Rob Roywas 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 onGuy ManneringandSt. Ronan's Wellwere very successful. He died in Glasgow in 1857.]
16:King's-Hood—"The second of the four stomachs of ruminating animals."Jamieson.—Spleuchan—The Gaelic name of the Highlander's tobacco-pouch.
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 hisAutobiography, 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 theEdinburgh Review; for, to his exquisite delight, the hostile critic selected forexceptiveencomium 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.
18: [InThe Life, Letters, and Journals of George Ticknorwill be found some interesting notes regarding his visits to Castle Street, and two days spent at Abbotsford in March, 1819.]
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, containingPontefract Castle,' is not written by the Author of the First, Second, and Third Series ofTales of my Landlord, of which we are the Proprietors and Publishers.Archibald Constable & Co."
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, containingPontefract Castle,' is not written by the Author of the First, Second, and Third Series ofTales of my Landlord, of which we are the Proprietors and Publishers.
Archibald Constable & Co."
20: These lines are from Coleridge'sAncient Mariner.
21: The reader will find something about this actor's quarrel with Mr. Bucke, author ofThe Italians, in Barry Cornwall'sLife of Kean, vol. ii. p. 178.
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.
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.
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 prettybobbish.Always yours affectionately,W. S.
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 prettybobbish.
Always yours affectionately,
W. S.
The Mr. David Bridges here mentioned has occurred already.—Seeante, vol. v. p. 262. The jokers inBlackwoodmade 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.)
25: The fine picture which Allan executed is in the possession of Mr. Lockhart of Milton-Lockhart, and has been well engraved.
26: Seeante, vol. i. p. 230.
27: Captain John Ferguson, R. N.
28: Bauby—i. e., Barbara, was a kind old housekeeper of the Miss Fergusons.
29: The Lord Chief-Commissioner Adam.
30:Anglice—Scarecrow.
31:Anglice—an Oak.
32:Hamlet, Act III. Scene 2.
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.
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:—
'Takethouthe vanguard of the threeAnd 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.]
35: See Scott'sPoetical Works(Ed. 1834), vol. vi. p. 343 [Cambridge Ed. p. 444].
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 sleepWith 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!'"
—SeeThe Bride of Lammermoor, note to chap. xiv.
37: [Seeante, vol. ii. p. 114, note.]
38: Mr. Chisholm was the Tory candidate for the Selkirk burghs.
39: Mr. Pringle of Clifton, the Whig candidate.
40: Walter Francis, the present Duke of Buccleuch.
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.
42: Mr. William Clerk.
43: A shilling.
44: The Lord Chief-Commissioner Adam.
45: There appeared in theEdinburgh Evening Postof 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.)
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'sReminiscences,—SeeJournal, vol. ii. p. 97, note.]
47: [An interesting letter from Dr. Dick to Scott will be found inFamiliar 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."]
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 theLetters, which first appeared in part inBlackwood'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.]
49: Goldsmith'sRetaliation.
50:Anglice—a strange pasture.
51: The then commandant of the 18th Hussars was Lieutenant-Colonel the Hon. Henry Murray, brother to the Earl of Mansfield.
52:Lady Wallacewas a pony;Trouta favorite pointer which the Cornet had given, at leaving home, to the young Laird of Harden, now the Master of Polwarth.
53: For Scott's Epitaph for Mrs. Erskine, see hisPoetical Works(Ed. 1834), vol. xi. p. 347 [Cambridge Ed. p. 447].
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.
55: Seeante, vol. v. p. 88.
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.]
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 hisbeau idealof the character of a country gentleman. He was, I believe, the head of the once great and powerful clan of Rutherford.
58: See Scott'sPoetical Works, vol. xii. p. 195 [Cambridge Ed. p. 485].
59: Sir Adam Ferguson.
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.
61: "The subject of hisThesisis singular, and entitles Rutherford to rank very high among the chemical philosophers of modern times. Its title isDe 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'sHistory of the University of Edinburgh, vol. iii. (1830), pp. 260, 261.
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.
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.
64: Nicol Milne, Esq. (now advocate), eldest son of the Laird of Faldonside.
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.
66: One of Scott's foresters—thus designated as being, in all senses of the word, agallantfellow.
67: St. John's Chapel.
68: Robert Rutherford, Esq., W. S., son to the Professor of Botany.
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.
70: This was a ridiculously exaggerated report of that period of alarm.
71: [Lady Louisa's letter was written January 16, 1820, and can be found inFamiliar Letters, vol. ii. p. 71. In it she says:—
"Everybody in this house has been reading an odd new kind of a book calledIvanhoe, 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."]
72:Lines on the Death of Mr. Robert Levett.
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.
74: SeeIvanhoe, end of chap. xliv.
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 whenIvanhoeappeared.
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 theCentury Magazinefor September, 1882.]
76: The weekly Darnick carrier.
77: Dr. Scott of Darnlee.—Seeante, vol. v. p. 277. This very amiable, modest, and intelligent friend of Sir Walter Scott's died in 1837.
78: Some money expected from the sale of larches.
79: Burns—Lines to a Mouse.
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.
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 playRob 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, andWaverleyand theAntiquary, 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.]
82: [Mr. Skene, in hisReminiscences, 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."—SeeJournal, vol. ii. p. 318, note.]
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 afish(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 finefish, Tom."—"Oo, aye, Sir," quoth Tom, "it's a bonny grilse." "Agrilse, Tom!" says Mr. R., "it's as heavy asalmonas 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, yearea meikle fish, mon—and a meiklefule, 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 theNorth British Reviewfor November, 1864. The scene was not Abbotsford, but Ashestiel, in September, 1810.]
84: The funeral of George III. at Windsor: the young Duke of Buccleuch was at this time at Eton.
85: Ebenezer Clarkson, Esq., a surgeon of distinguished skill at Selkirk, and through life a trusty friend and crony of the Sheriff's.
86: A distinguished Whig friend.
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.]
88:Much Ado about Nothing, Act III. Scene 3.
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 anétourdi) 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 calledBlackwood'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.]
90: The general election was going on.
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.]
92: The late Duke of Gordon.
93: See Goldsmith'sCitizen of the World, No. 105.
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 theTestimonium(prefacing the seventh volume ofBlackwood), 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 ofMaga, 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'sLife 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 ofretenuebecoming 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 theTestimonium. 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 theMaga; 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 inFamiliar Letters, vol. ii. p. 86.]
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 ofPalladio—which he owed, I believe, to a song inBlackwood's Magazine. The good Bailie had been at the High School with Sir Walter, and their friendly intercourse was never interrupted but by death.
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 houseThe wind has blown away to other towers.'"
—Scott to Lady Abercorn—Familiar Letters, vol. ii. p. 75.]
97: Here ended Vol. IV. of the Original Edition.—(1839.)
98:
"There were the six Miss Rawbolds—pretty dears!All song and sentiment; whose hearts were setLess on a convent than a coronet."Don Juan, canto xiii. st. 85.
"There were the six Miss Rawbolds—pretty dears!All song and sentiment; whose hearts were setLess on a convent than a coronet."
Don Juan, canto xiii. st. 85.
99: [William Hyde Wollaston, the distinguished physiologist, chemist, and physicist.]
100:Hogsignifies 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 ofhis"Family Name:"—
"Perhaps some shepherd on Lincolnian plains,In manners guileless as his own sweet flocks,Received it first amid the merry mocksAnd arch allusions of his fellow swains."
101: SeePoetical Works, vol. xi. pp 334, 335 [Cambridge Ed. p. 467].
102: Essay on Landscape Gardening,Miscellaneous Prose Works, vol. xxi. p. 77.
103: Adolphus'sLetters to Heber, p. 13.
104: Seeante, vol. v. p. 34.
105: The good Chief-Commissioner makes a little mistake here—aPhocabeing, not a porpoise, but aSeal.
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 oldtrue 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.]
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.]
108:Finette—a spaniel of Lady Scott's.
109:Urisk[Ourisque]—a small terrier of the long silky-haired Kintail breed.
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.
111:Punchhad been borrowing fromYoung Rapid, in theCure for the Heart-ache.
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.
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'sTom Thumb.
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'sTom Thumb.
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.
115: Mr. Robert Cadell, of the house of Constable, had this year conveyed Charles Scott from Abbotsford to Lampeter.
116: Sir Walter's cousin, a son of his uncle Thomas. Seeante, vol. i. p. 62.
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'sReminiscences of Sir Walter Scott.]
118: The late Thomas Elliot Ogilvie, Esq., of Chesters, in Roxburghshire—one of Sir Walter's good friends among his country neighbors.
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 forKenilworth, 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 enjoyKenilworthquite 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.]
120: Mungo was a favorite Newfoundland dog.
121: Mrs. Lockhart's maid.
122: This letter was followed by a copy of General Jomini's celebrated work.
123: The third Earl (of the Villierses) died in 1838.
124:1st King Henry IV.Act III. Scene 1.
125: The Rev. John Graham is known as the author of aHistory of the Siege of Londonderry, Annals of Ireland, and various political tracts. Sir Walter Scott publishedGwynne's Memoirs, with a Preface, etc., in 1822.
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, representingpartof 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.)
127: Ballad of the Marchioness of Douglas, "O waly, waly, up yon bank!" etc.
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.
129:Kentis the shepherd's staff—Colleyhis dog. Scott alludes to the old song of theLea Rig,—
"Nae herds wi' kent and colley there," etc.
130: Scott's schoolfellow, the Right Hon. D. Boyle.
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, publishedLetters from Spain in 1856 and 1857. He also wrote a number of clever metricaljeux d'esprit. He was engaged in completing his father'sHistory of England under George III.at the time of his death in 1862.]
132:King Lear, Act III. Scene 4.
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 whenPeverilwas 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."—SeeMemoir of Charles Mayne Young, pp. 88-96.]
134: The 4th vol. of the original edition was published in July—the 5th (of which this was the sixth chapter) in October, 1837.
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 theDenkmahl, to which it refers, is, however, sufficient evidence that I ought to have said 1821.
136: [Lady Louisa in her letter, written in 1826, after speaking of the delight which theLiveshad given to some of her friends, tells of their being induced, by something said of Mackenzie, to read aloudThe 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 theNouvelle Héloïsewas 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.—SeeSelections from the Manuscripts of Lady Louisa Stuart, pp. 233-236.]
137: [Two of Sir Walter's friends were to assist him in thesePrivate 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, andJournal, vol. ii. p. 473.]
138: "The death of therascalsort 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!"
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."
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.
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.
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."
143: This hedger had got the title of Captain, in memory of his gallantry at somerow.
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.)
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.)
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 hisMemorials, pp. 392-399, will be found an account of the affair, as viewed by a distinguished member of that party.]