The Life and Letters of John Gibson Lockhart
Chapter 14: 1826-32
Sir Walter Scott to John Gibson Lockhart, [May 1827]
“I do not know which of my bad parts, as Benedict says, the Royal Society of Literature
have fallen in love with me for, or whether it is for the whole politic state
of evil—but here comes an official communication to tell me it is for my
whole bodily Balaam.3 You must attend and take the
medal for me. I will write of course a proper answer, but you must pay some
smart touch and go compliments at
1 A sentence, not very tactful, in which
Lockhart declared that
Hogg was not the
“boozing buffoon” of the “Noctes Ambrosianæ,”
was meant to help him with “The Gaffers and Gammers of the
Royal Literary Society.” A reply, in Wilson’s manner, occupies twelve
pages of “Noctes Ambrosianæ”
(iii. 178-190). This affair will be elucidated later. The Quarterly is
distinguished from its Editor, and Hogg is made to
speak of “a heart fu’ o’ everlastin’
gratitude to John Gibson Lockhart and
Sir Walter Scott.” 2 Journal, i. 390, 391. 3 “Balaam” meant feeble
“copy,” in the slang of Blackwood’s. |
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the reception. I wish anything could be done with
the Gaffers or Gammers of literature on behalf of Hogg, who is like, I fear, to need it more than ever, and is,
besides, as headstrong as any of his fourfooted namesakes. He might make a good
thing of the farm even yet, if he would let it lie in grass instead of keeping
three ploughs and six horses to raise corn on the top of Mount Bengerlaw. I
will do anything for him except becoming myself one of the cuddies.
“I have some curious untouched matter respecting
Burns, which I send you enclosed. I
hope you will go on with that piece of biography.
“I enclose a letter from Mr. Catterwawl”
(Cattermole?), “or whatever
his name is, and have promised that you shall attend on my part, time and place
within mentioned, so ‘Follow this lord, and see you mock him
not.’ My article on Home
is finished, all but the Rebellion part, and will reach you
presently.—Yours truly,
“Kindest love to Sophia, Johnnie, and
little Walter. I shall certainly
take your hint of converting the medal of the Honorificatudinitatibus into something useful. Anne seems to wish a substantial bread
basket for dinner, or to hold rolls for breakfast.
Sophia will know best, and may make some inquiry
when in London. For my part I should like a salver as well.”
Robert Burns (1759-1796)
Scottish poet and song collector; author of
Poems, chiefly in the
Scottish Dialect (1786).
Richard Cattermole (1795 c.-1858)
Clergyman and editor of historical works; he was secretary to the Royal Society of
Literature and published
The Literature of the Church of England, 2
vols (1844).
James Hogg [The Ettrick Shepherd] (1770-1835)
Scottish autodidact, poet, and novelist; author of
The Queen's
Wake (1813) and
Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified
Sinner (1824).
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).
Walter Scott Lockhart (1826-1853)
The younger son of John Gibson Lockhart and his wife Sophia; a military officer, he
inherited Abbotsford in 1847.
Anne Scott (1803-1833)
Walter Scott's younger daughter who cared for him in his old age and died
unmarried.
John Wilson [Christopher North] (1785-1854)
Scottish poet and Tory essayist, the chief writer for the “Noctes Ambrosianae” in
Blackwood's Magazine and professor of moral philosophy at Edinburgh
University (1820).
Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine. (1817-1980). Begun as the
Edinburgh Monthly Magazine,
Blackwood's assumed the name of its proprietor, William Blackwood after the sixth
number. Blackwood was the nominal editor until 1834.
