The Life and Letters of John Gibson Lockhart
Chapter 13: 1826
Sir Walter Scott to John Gibson Lockhart, 26 January 1826
The letters of Sir
Walter to Lockhart at
this
1 “Life,” iv. 99-102.
2 Ibid., iv. 120.
3 Ibid., iv. 102. |
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time, when so many anxieties pressed
hard on both of them, mainly repeat reflections already published in the
“Life,” or in the complete edition of
Scott’s Journal. A little
extract may be made from a letter of January 26, 1826. Scott mentions his
design of taking lodgings, or rooms in a Club. “What a relief it would
have been to have had one of your attics, and to have seen affectionate
faces at your daily meal, which must now be solitary enough. . . . As for
myself, I look with perfect firmness and calmness on the life before me,
and though I have no delight in the circumstances which have led me to
adopt it, yet in respect of the life itself I like it well.
“I shall have Abbotsford to walk about in, Tom to lead me, and a pony to carry me. We
will keep Pete” (the coachman)
“and the old horses, if by any sacrifice it is possible; and study must
be at once my amusement and my business, as indeed it has always been. For I
never knew the day that I would have given up literature for ten times my late
income.
“I am afraid you will suffer about the Shakespeare; but surely you will have
retention on the book so far as it has gone, for recompense of your labour.
“I am, with kindest compliments to Sophia and good
and kind wishes to poor Johnnie, very truly and affectionately yours,
“Do not let Johnnie forget poor old Ha papa. ![]()
| 396 | LIFE OF J. G. LOCKHART. | |
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Talking of the
Review, can you help me to the place where is found
the curious passage about the pickling the quarters of criminals,
tempore Caroli
secundi, and the blow-out which the hangman
gave on the occasion? It was the
Retrospective Review, perhaps.
“I am sorry to send away an unsatisfactory
letter; but I think you would be glad to know that I feel as firm as the
Eildon hill, though a little cloudy about the head now and then, like him.
My mind tells me I will get above these things in two or three
years.”
John Gibson Lockhart (1794-1854)
Editor of the
Quarterly Review (1825-1853); son-in-law of Walter
Scott and author of the
Life of Scott 5 vols (1838).
John Hugh Lockhart (1821-1831)
The first child of John Gibson Lockhart and his wife Sophia, for whom Sir Walter Scott
wrote
Tales of a Grandfather (1828-1831).
Thomas Purdie (1767-1829)
Sir Walter Scott's forester; they originally met when Purdie was brought before Sheriff
Scott on charges of poaching.
The Quarterly Review. (1809-1967). Published by John Murray, the
Quarterly was instigated by Walter
Scott as a Tory rival to the
Edinburgh Review. It was edited by
William Gifford to 1824, and by John Gibson Lockhart from 1826 to 1853.
The Retrospective Review. 16 vols (1820-1828). A quarterly edited by Henry Southern (first series) and Harris Nicholas (second
series).
