Memoirs of the Life of Sir Walter Scott, Bart.
Walter Scott to George Ellis, 14 September 1809
This gentleman’s affairs are again alluded to in a letter to
Ellis, dated Ashestiel, September
14:—“I do not write to whet a purpose that is not blunted, but to express
my anxious wishes that your kind endeavours may succeed while it is called to-day, for, by all tokens, it will soon be yesterday with this Ministry. And they ![]()
| ASHESTIEL—SEPTEMBER, 1809. | 253 |
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well deserve it, for
crossing, jostling, and hampering the measures of the only man among them fit
to be intrusted with the salvation of the country. The spring-tide may for
ought I know, break in this next session of Parliament. There is an evil fate
upon us in all we do at home and abroad, else why should the conqueror of Talavera be retreating from the
field of his glory at a moment when, by all reasonable calculation, he should
have been the soul and mover of a combined army of 150,000 English, Spaniards,
and Portuguese? And why should Gifford
employ himself at home in the thriftless exercise of correction, as if
Mercury, instead of stretching to a
race himself, were to amuse himself with starting a bedrid cripple, and making
a pair of crutches for him with his own hand? Much might have been done, and
may yet be done; but we are not yet in the right way. Is there no one among you
who can throw a Congreve rocket among the gerunds and supines of that model of
pedants, Dr Philopatris Parr? I
understand your foreign lingos too little to attempt it, but pretty things
might be said upon the memorable tureen which he begged of Lord Somebody, whom
he afterwards, wished to prove to be mad. For example, I would adopt some of
the leading phrases of independent, high-souled,
contentus parvo, and so forth, with which he is
bespattered in the Edinburgh, and declare it our
opinion, that, if indulged with the three wishes of Prior’s tale, he would answer, like
the heroine Corisca— ‘A ladle to my silver dish Is all I want, is all I wish.’ |
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I did not review Miss Edgeworth, nor do I think it all well done; at least, it
falls below my opinion of that lady’s merits. Indeed, I have contributed
nothing to the last Review, and am, therefore, according to all rules, ![]()
| 254 | LIFE OF SIR WALTER SCOTT. | |
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the more entitled to criticise it freely. The conclusion
of the article on Sir John Moore is transcendently written; and
I think I can venture to say, ‘aut Erasmus, aut
Diabolus’ Your sugar-cake is very far from being a
heavy bon-bon; but there I think we stop. The Missionaries, though
very good, is on a subject rather stale, and much of the rest is absolute
wading.
“As an excuse for my own indolence, I have been in
the Highlands for some time past; and who should I meet there, of all fowls in
the air, but your friend Mr Blackburn,
to whom I was so much obliged for the care he took of my late unfortunate relative, at your friendly
request. The recognition was unfortunately made just when I was leaving the
country, and as he was in a gig, and I on the driving-seat of a carriage, the
place of meeting a narrow Highland road, which looked as if forty patent
ploughs had furrowed it, we had not time or space for so long a greeting as we
could have wished. He has a capital good house on the banks of the Leven, about
three miles below its discharge from the lake, and very near the classical spot
where Matthew Bramble and his whole family
were conducted by Smollett, and where
Smollett himself was born. There is a new inducement
for you to come to Caledon. Your health, thank God, is now no impediment; and I
am told sugar and rum excel even whisky, so your purse must be proportionally
distended.”
John Blackburn (1756-1840)
Glasgow merchant in the West India trade; he was a mutual friend of Walter Scott and
George Ellis.
Maria Edgeworth (1768-1849)
Irish novelist; author of
Castle Rackrent (1800)
Belinda (1801),
The Absentee (1812) and
Ormond (1817).
George Ellis (1753-1815)
English antiquary and critic, editor of
Specimens of Early English
Poets (1790), friend of Walter Scott.
William Gifford (1756-1826)
Poet, scholar, and editor who began as a shoemaker's apprentice; after Oxford he
published
The Baviad (1794),
The Maeviad
(1795), and
The Satires of Juvenal translated (1802) before becoming
the founding editor of the
Quarterly Review (1809-24).
Sir John Moore (1761-1809)
A hero of the Peninsular Campaign, killed at the Battle of Corunna; he was the son of Dr.
John Moore, the author of
Zeluco.
Samuel Parr (1747-1825)
English schoolmaster, scholar, and book collector whose strident politics and assertive
personality involved him in a long series of quarrels.
Daniel Scott (1776 c.-1806)
The dissolute younger brother of Sir Walter Scott who emigrated to Jamaica in
1804.
Tobias Smollett (1721-1771)
Scottish physician and man of letters; author of the novels
Roderick
Random (1747) and
Humphry Clinker (1771).
Robert Southey (1774-1843)
Poet laureate and man of letters whose contemporary reputation depended upon his prose
works, among them the
Life of Nelson, 2 vols (1813),
History of the Peninsular War, 3 vols (1823-32) and
The Doctor, 7 vols (1834-47).
