“I should have long since answered your kind letter by our friend Young, but he would tell you of my departure with our trusty and well-beloved Erskine, on a sort of a voyage to Nova Zembla. Since my return, I have fallen under the tyrannical dominion of a certain Lord of the Isles. Those Lords were famous for oppression in the days of yore, and if I can judge by the posthumous despotism exercised over me, they have not improved by their demise. The peine forte et dure is, you know, nothing in comparison to being obliged to grind verses; and so devilish repulsive is my disposition, that I can never put any wheel into constant and regular motion, till Ballantyne’s devil claps in his proofs, like the hot cinder which you Bath folks used to clap in beside an unexperienced turnspit, as a hint to be expeditious in his duty. O long life to the old hermit of Prague, who never saw pen and ink—much happier in that negative circumstance than in his alliance with the niece of King Gorboduc.
“To talk upon a blither subject, I wish you saw
Abbotsford, which begins this season to look the whimsical, gay, odd cabin that
we had chalked out. I have been obliged to relinquish Stark’s plan, which was greatly too
expensive. So I have made the old farmhouse my corps
de logis, with some outlying places for kitchen,
laundry, and two spare bed-rooms, which run along the east wall of the
farm-court, not without some picturesque effect. A perforated cross, the spoils
of the old kirk of Galashiels, decorates an advanced door, and looks very well.
This little sly bit of sacrilege has given our spare rooms the name of the chapel. I earnestly invite you to a pew there, which
you will find as
| 312 | LIFE OF SIR WALTER SCOTT. |
“I have been recommending to John Kemble (I dare say without any chance of success) to peruse a MS. Tragedy of Maturin’s, author of Montorio: it is one of those things which will either succeed greatly or be damned gloriously, for its merits are marked, deep, and striking, and its faults of a nature obnoxious to ridicule. He had our old friend Satan (none of your sneaking St John Street devils, but the archfiend himself) brought on the stage bodily. I believe I have exorcised the foul fiend—for, though in reading he was a most terrible fellow, I feared for his reception in public. The last act is ill contrived. He piddles (so to speak) through a cullender, and divides the whole horrors of the catastrophe (though God wot there are enough of them) into a kind of drippity-droppity of four or five scenes, instead of inundating the audience with them at once in the finale, with a grand ‘gardez l’eau.’ With all this, which I should say had I written the thing myself, it is grand and powerful; the language most animated and poetical; and the characters sketched with a masterly enthusiasm. Many thanks for Captain Richard Falconer.* To your kindness I owe the two
* “The Voyages, Dangerous Adventures, and Imminent Escapes of Capt. Rich. Falconer. Containing the Laws, Customs, and Manners of the Indians in America; his shipwrecks; his marrying an Indian wife; his narrow escape from the Island of Dominico, &c. Intermixed with the Voyages and Adventures of Thomas Randal, of Cork, Pilot; with his Shipwreck in the Baltick, being the only man that escap’d. His being taken by the Indians of Virginia, &c. And an Account of his Death. The Fourth Edition. London. Printed for J. Marshall, at the Bible in Gracechurch Street. 1734.” On the fly-leaf is the following note, in Scott’s handwriting:— |
| THE LORD OF THE ISLES, ETC. | 313 |
“This book I read in early youth. I am ignorant whether it is altogether fictitious and written upon De Foe’s plan, which it greatly resembles, or whether it is only an exaggerated account of the adventures of a real person. It is very scarce, for, endeavouring to add it to the other favourites of my infancy, I think I looked for it ten years to no purpose, and at last owed it to the active kindness of Mr Terry. Yet Richard Falconer’s adventures seem to have passed through several editions.” * “The Travels and Adventures of William Bingfield, Esq., containing, as surprizing a Fluctuation of Circumstances, both by Sea and Land, as ever befel one man. With An Accurate Account of the Shape, Nature, and Properties of that most furious,and amazing Animal, the Dog-Bird. Printed from his own Manuscript. With a beautiful Frontispiece. 2 Vols. 12mo. London:—Printed for E. Withers, at the Seven Stars, in Fleet Street. 1753.” On the fly-leaf of the first volume Scott has written as follows:—“I read this scarce little Voyage Imaginaire when I was about ten years old, and long after sought for a copy without being able to find a person who would so much as acknowledge having heard of William Bingfield or his Dog-birds, until the indefatigable kindness of my friend Mr Terry, of the Hay Market, made me master of this copy. I am therefore induced to think the book is of very rare occurrence.” |
| 314 | LIFE OF SIR WALTER SCOTT. |
