Memoirs of the Life of Sir Walter Scott, Bart.
Walter Scott to Joanna Baillie, 10 December 1812
“Edinburgh, 10th Dec. 1813.
“Many thanks, my dear friend, for your kind token
of remembrance, which I yesterday received. I ought to blush, if I had grace
enough left, at my long and ungenerous silence: but what shall I say? The habit
of procrastination, which had always more or less a dominion over me, does not
relax its sway as I grow older and less willing to take up the pen. I have not
written to dear Ellis this age,—yet
there is not a day that I do not think of you and him, and one or two other
friends in your southern land. I am very glad the whisky came safe: do not
stint so laudable an admiration for the liquor of Caledonia, for I have plenty
of right good and sound Highland Ferintosh, and I can always find an
opportunity of sending you up a bottle.
“We are here almost mad with the redemption of
Holland, which has an instant and gratifying effect on the trade of Leith, and
indeed all along the east coast of ![]()
| LETTER TO JOANNA BAlLLIE. | 103 |
![]()
Scotland. About L.100,000 worth of various
commodities, which had been dormant in cellars and warehouses, was sold the
first day the news arrived, and Orange ribbons and Orange Boven was the order
of the day among all ranks. It is a most miraculous revivification which it has
been our fate to witness. Though of a tolerably sanguine temper, I had fairly
adjourned all hopes and expectations of the kind till another generation: the
same power, however, that opened the windows of heaven and the fountains of the
great deep, has been pleased to close them, and to cause his wind to blow upon
the face of the waters, so that we may look out from the ark of our
preservation and behold the reappearance of the mountain crests, and old,
beloved, and well-known landmarks, which we had deemed swallowed up for ever in
the abyss: the dove with the olive branch would complete the simile, but of
that I see little hope. Buonaparte is that
desperate gambler, who will not rise while he has a stake left; and, indeed, to
be King of France would be a poor pettifogging enterprise, after having been
almost Emperor of the World. I think he will drive things on, till the fickle
and impatient people over whom he rules get tired of him and shake him out of
the saddle. Some circumstances seem to intimate his having become jealous of
the Senate; and indeed any thing like a representative body, however
imperfectly constructed, becomes dangerous to a tottering tyranny. The sword
displayed on both frontiers may, like that brandished across the road of
Balaam, terrify even dumb and irrational subjection
into utterance: but enough of politics, though now a more cheerful subject than
they have been for many years past.
“I have had a strong temptation to go to the
Continent this Christmas; and should certainly have done ![]()
| 104 | LIFE OF SIR WALTER SCOTT. | |
![]()
so, had I been sure of getting from Amsterdam to Frankfort, where, as I know
Lord Aberdeen and Lord Cathcart, I might expect a welcome. But
notwithstanding my earnest desire to see the allied armies cross the Rhine,
which I suppose must be one of the grandest military spectacles in the world, I
should like to know that the roads were tolerably secure, and the means of
getting forward attainable. In Spring, however, if no unfortunate change takes
place, I trust to visit the camp of the allies, and see all the pomp and power
and circumstance of war, which I have so often imagined, and sometimes
attempted to embody in verse. Johnnie
Richardson is a good, honourable, kind-hearted little fellow as
lives in the world, with a pretty taste for poetry, which he has wisely kept
under subjection to the occupation of drawing briefs and revising conveyances.
It is a great good fortune to him to be in your neighbourhood, as he is an
idolator of genius, and where could he offer up his worship so justly? And I am
sure you will like him, for he is really ‘officious, innocent,
sincere.’* Terry, I hope,
will get on well; he is industrious, and zealous for the honour of his art.
Ventidius must have been an excellent
part for him, hovering between tragedy and comedy, which is precisely what will
suit him. We have a woful want of him here, both in public and private, for he
was one of the most easy and quiet chimney-corner companions that I have had
for these two or three years past.
“I am very glad if any thing I have written to you
could give pleasure to Miss Edgeworth,
though I am sure it will fall very short of the respect which I have for
![]()
![]()
| LETTER TO JOANNA BAILLIE—DEC. 1813. | 105 |
![]()
her brilliant
talents. I always write to you à la
volée, and trust implicitly to your kindness and
judgment upon all occasions where you may choose to communicate any part of my
letters.* As to the taxing men, I must battle them as I can: they are worse
than the great Emathian conqueror, who ‘bade spare The house of Pindarus, when
temple and tower Went to the ground.’ |
![]()
Your pinasters are coming up gallantly in the nursery-bed at Abbotsford. I
trust to pay the whole establishment a Christmas visit, which will be, as
Robinson Crusoe says of his glass of
rum, ‘to mine exceeding refreshment.’ All Edinburgh have
been on tiptoe to see Madame de Stael,
but she is now not likely to honour us with a visit, at which I cannot prevail
on myself to be very sorry; for as I tired of some of her works, I am afraid I
should disgrace my taste by tiring of the authoress too. All my little people
are very well, learning, with great pain and diligence, much which they will
have forgotten altogether, or nearly so, in the course of twelve years hence;
but the habit of learning is something in itself, even when the lessons are
forgotten.
“I must not omit to tell you that a friend of mine,
with whom that metal is more plenty than with me, has given me some gold mohurs
to be converted into a ring for enchasing King
Charles’ hair; but this is not to be done until I get to
London, and get a very handsome pattern. Ever, most truly and sincerely, yours,
Alexander the Great (356 BC-323 BC)
Macedonian conqueror; the son of Philip II, he was king of Macedon, 336-323 BC.
Joanna Baillie (1762-1851)
Scottish poet and dramatist whose
Plays on the Passions
(1798-1812) were much admired, especially the gothic
De Montfort,
produced at Drury Lane in 1800.
King Charles I of England (1600-1649)
The son of James VI and I; as king of England (1625-1649) he contended with Parliament;
he was revered as a martyr after his execution.
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.
George Hamilton- Gordon, fourth earl of Aberdeen (1784-1860)
Harrow-educated Scottish philhellene who founded the Athenian Society and was elected to
the Society of Dilettanti (1805); he was foreign secretary (1841-1846) and prime minister
(1852-55).
Emperor Napoleon I (1769-1821)
Military leader, First Consul (1799), and Emperor of the French (1804), after his
abdication he was exiled to Elba (1814); after his defeat at Waterloo he was exiled to St.
Helena (1815).
Pindar (522 BC c.-443 BC)
Greek lyric poet who celebrated athletic victories in elaborate odes that became models
for intricate and often elliptical odes in English.
John Richardson of Kirklands (1780-1864)
Scottish lawyer and parliamentary solicitor in London from 1806; he was Thomas Campbell's
legal advisor and a friend of Sir Walter Scott.
Germaine de Staël (1766-1817)
French woman of letters; author of the novel
Corinne, ou L'Italie
(1807) and
De l'Allemagne (1811); banned from Paris by Napoleon, she
spent her later years living in Germany, Britain, and Switzerland.
Daniel Terry (1789-1829)
English actor; after a career in provincial theater made his London debut in 1812. A
close friend of Walter Scott, he performed in theatrical adaptations of Scott's
novels.
