The Life and Letters of John Gibson Lockhart
Chapter 14: 1826-32
Sir Walter Scott to John Gibson Lockhart, 19 May 1827
“Edinburgh, 19th
May 1827.
“My dear Lockhart,—It
was with great concern that I learned, by a letter from Lawrence, the loss which you and your family
have sustained by the loss of poor Richard, cut off in the midst of our reasonable hopes that he
must have attained to celebrity and distinction. I most sincerely share the
affliction of your father and mother; for you, my dear
John, I know how you must feel on this occasion. But
what is good for a bootless bene? I am a poor comforter in cases of remediless
sorrow and deprivation, as indeed who can be a good one? Our misfortunes must come, will be mourned, and
it is time and the sense that our sorrows are in vain which proves in the end
the only effectual comforter. I should wish to know the alteration, if any,
which this most melancholy event makes upon your plans, and whether it means
Sophia to remain a little longer in
London, or brings you
1 “The Boar
of the Forest called this morning to converse about
trying to get him on the pecuniary list of the Royal Society of
Literature.”—Journal, May
11, 1827. |
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| 18 | LIFE OF J. G. LOCKHART. | |
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down perhaps at the same time with her. I have a family
spare bedroom in Walker Street, and I believe the Portobello lodgings are
secured. I heard from Anne yesterday.
All well.—Yours affectionately,
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).
Lawrence Lockhart (1795-1876)
The son of the Rev. John Lockhart and younger brother of John Gibson Lockhart; he was
minister of Inchinnan (1822-60) after which he resided on the family estate at Milton
Lockhart.
Richard Dickson Lockhart (1807-1826)
The son of the Rev. John Lockhart and younger brother of John Gibson Lockhart; he was an
ensign in the 63rd Bengal Regiment, drowned in the Bay of Bengal.
Anne Scott (1803-1833)
Walter Scott's younger daughter who cared for him in his old age and died
unmarried.
