Andrew Lang: The Life and Letters of John Gibson Lockhart

In the year 1828, when the claims of the Catholics for emancipation were pressing, and (in spite of Southey’s drastic proposals in the Quarterly) were about to be granted, Lockhart did not show any feverish partisanship. He was indeed, as Scott advised him to proclaim himself, “a moderate Tory.” In 1817 he confessed to a friend his detestation of Croker’s and Southey’s politics. Now he had to endure and accept them. His editorial position was never despotic. In Albemarle Street he was the most constitutional of monarchs; and this was the easier to him, as his interests and faculties were mainly literary, not political. “Alas, we are all getting old,” he wrote to Mr. Murray

LIFE OF J. G. LOCKHART.

in 1828, “and it is so difficult to whip up any interest about any subject in jaded bosoms.” His age was thirty-four, but the year 1826, and domestic misfortune, and life begun very young, had aged him already, and, with Milman, he “was excessively anxious to see new hands and new blood” in the Quarterly.1 Mr. Murray spurred the flagging energies of his elderly editor by raising his salary to £1300 a year, but £13,000 could not have made Lockhart, at least in his constitutional editorship, a keen political partisan. He hoped, on the literary side of his office, for a Life of Peterborough, and a Life of Red John of the Battles, the Argyll of Malplaquet and Sheriffmuir, from Sir Walter, who liked the themes, but never wrote the books. Nor did Lockhart extract a Naval History of Great Britain from Professor Wilson: with many other works contemplated by Wilson, this remained in the limbo of books unwritten, like the famous treatise, “Sur l’Incommodite des Commodes,” and a large library of other instructive volumes. Lockhart himself had undertaken, for Mr. Murray’s Family Library, a short “Life of Bonaparte,” a piece of hack-work, mainly abridged from Scott’s large work. It was published in 1830, and was excellent in its kind, but, of course, is superseded by the abundance of later Napoleonic literature.2

“As for Peel, he is utterly undone as an independent power in the country, and I hear Whig, Radical, and Tory speak of him uniformly with the same pity.”

“As for Peel, I own I think him playing an honest part. He has sacrificed the situation of leader of a party and every chance of elevated ambition, and exposed himself to much obloquy, loss of immediate consequence, loss of personal friendship; and for what has he sacrificed this? Not surely, opulent as he is, for the mere income of his place—not for ambition, for the fall for the time is evident. On my soul, I give him credit for making the concessions from complete conviction.

Sir Walter’s answer illustrates that view of an enlightened Press which was commonly taken in his time.

Sir Walter was never pleased with his “Anne of Geierstein, damn her,” as he frankly observed. “Anne” was, practically, the last of his works of imagination, for “Count Robert of Paris” followed a stroke of apoplexy. At this time he was reviewing Tytler’s “History of Scotland,” and Lockhart, with proper caution, asks, “Pray are you sure of the story of the Attacotti?”—Scots, ex hypothesi, whom St. Jerome accused of cannibalism.

Sir Walter answers, “I have quoted the ipsissima verba of St. Jerome. I have no doubt a trick was put on him”—a patriotic conclusion.

Lockhart tried to keep Sir Walter in good heart about “Anne of Geierstein,” and ideas were interchanged frequently about the Stuart papers. It was hoped that Lockhart, Dr. Gooch, and Sir Walter would be appointed to edit that great mass of manuscripts belonging to the exiled royal family, which, after a perfect Odyssey of romantic adventures, were now in the possession of George IV. To these the following letter of Sir Walter refers:—

The correspondence, on Lockhart’s side, is scanty in the later part of 1829. Mrs. Lockhart had written to him in London from Abbotsford, on November 1, announcing Tom Purdie’s sudden death: “I never saw papa so affected; he won’t go out, and says for the first time in his life he wishes the day over. He has sent for Mr. Laidlaw, whom we expect to-day, and hopes to make some arrangement with him to return to Kaeside; but even with that I hardly see how papa is to get over it, for Tom was everything to him. Poor Di, the dog, is in the most dreadful state of distress now they have put the body in the coffin, and they think the creature will die. The funeral takes place on Tuesday, and papa lays the head in the grave.”

Mrs. Lockhart herself was at this time suffering so much from rheumatism that she could not walk, but had to be carried by a servant named Ludlow. “The nurse gave me,” says Mrs. Lockhart, “the extraordinary intelligence that all his former mistresses had died, the last of rheumatism, and he had carried her for some years.”

“Everybody says that Peel is anxious to take the first opportunity of going to the House of Lords. . . . The King is dreaming of dressing the Guards, and afterwards all the infantry, in blue. This is the Duke of Cumberland’s Prussian nonsense.1 Chantrey gave us a laughable description, the other night, of his Majesty’s forenoon council—himself about statues, and Wardrop about the stuffing of the camelopard, on one side of the bed; the Duke of Cumberland and a tailor on the other: the King in a white cotton night-cap and a rather dirty flannel jacket, propped up with pillows, and sipping his chocolate—amidst this divan. The Duke of Wellington is announced! His Majesty gets on forthwith a black velvet cap with a gold tassel, and a grand blue silk douillette, and walks out of the bedroom to receive him in the character of George the Fourth. After half-an-hour (he had bade them all remain) he came back, and tumbled into bed again among them, to resume the blue breeks. But this is all treason.”

Among the scanty materials for tracing Lockhart’s uneventful days, Sir Walter’s Journal fails us from July 20, 1829, to May 25, 1830. The Lockhart children had been with their grandfather, and this

1 Hence, perhaps, Mr. Weller’s obscure ejaculation, “My Proosian blue!”

LIFE OF J. G. LOCKHART.

was the crowning pleasure of poor Johnnie’s year; but Scott noticed the sad change in the child. It is plain, from the Journal in the summer of 1829, that his own energies were waning. On November 23, Mr. Cadell wrote to Sir Walter, making a very wise suggestion, that he should finish the notes and introductions to the whole of the Magnum Opus, in place of attempting a new work of fiction. “This done, my life on it, you will get all you want, and spontaneously.” Scott had only reached “Ivanhoe” in his annotations, and he had a good deal of material, in the way of historical anecdote, which had not been used. Lockhart, as his Biography of Scott shows, had great confidence in Mr. Cadell, and might, indeed, well be grateful to him were it but for this letter. It was calculated, based as it was on calculations of a strictly “business” character, to set Sir Walter’s mind entirely at rest as regards finance, and the scheme suggested was not to him laborious. Doubtless Mr. Cadell observed the waning powers, which the very disuse of the Journal indicates. But there was to be “no rest for Sir Walter but in the woollen.” His mind had taken a ply which was only strengthened by the approach of cerebral disease. He was actually dreaming his old dream, the purchase of Faldonside, interesting to him as the estate of Andrew Ker, the most ruffianly of Rizzio’s murderers, and the second husband of John Knox’s second wife. Again, he was working at his drama, “The Ayrshire Tragedy:”

SCOTT’S ILLNESS

his activity could not be abated. These causes for grave anxiety were accompanied by a severe illness of Mrs. Lockhart’s, and culminated when, on Feb. 15, 1830, Sir Walter was stricken with apoplexy, in the presence of Miss Anne Scott and Miss Violet Lockhart.

On Feb. 23, 1830, Lockhart wrote to Sir Walter, thankful for a physician’s report of his “recovery from his brief malady,” and inviting him to take a holiday in London. Either the reports had made as little as might be of the attack, or it was thought wise not to display anxiety. Lockhart referred to the Shakespeare, projected and begun in 1825, which Mr. Cadell was not enthusiastic about, while Mr. Murray was ready to take it up. Scott himself was already anxious to be at work again, and Lockhart thought that a volume for Mr. Murray’s “Family Library” would be most welcome. “I am every day more anxious to see this property established on a sure footing, because every day shows me more clearly the impossibility of the Quarterly Review being, in these days of mutation, the stepping-stone to any permanent benefits in my case, unless I chose to sacrifice its interests to mine, which it is needless to say I never could do. . . . Ministers . . . consider literary allies as worse than useless, unless they be prepared to shift at every breath, like the Courier, which, by-the-bye, such shifting has utterly ruined. . . . Would it be amusement to you to write a little tome on

LIFE OF J. G. LOCKHART.

Witchcraft? Pitcairn’s ‘Trials’ put this in my head, as the story might surely be told in a more interesting manner. I wonder who was Agnes Simpson’s poet.” (Agnes was one of the witches tried.) “Her charm—

All the souls that ever ye be,

In Goddis name I conjure ye,

seems to me very grandly done. You have a whole library De Re Magica at Abbotsford, and with David Hume’s Commentaries, and Law’s ‘Memorials,’ I think the task would not be a hard one.”

Scott’s illness, as appears from a letter written to him by Mr. Charles Scott, was, in fact, to be spoken of in the family as “a stomach attack,” from which he had “recovered” in less than a week. Indeed, by the beginning of March, Sir Walter was collecting materials, and was aided by Mr. Pitcairn;1 and by March 30 he was inquiring for Byzantine historians. “Count Robert of Paris” must have been already in his mind. On his mind, too, were jars between James Ballantyne, as printer, and

1 Mr. Pitcairn, speaking of Christian Shaw of Bargarran, the bewitched girl who later founded the Renfrew thread industry, says “the imposture was discovered.” I am entirely unacquainted with any evidence in favour of this detection.

JAMES BALLANTYNE

Mr. Cadell, as publisher, of the Magnum Opus, the annotated Waverley Novels. For reasons which will be conspicuous later, these squabbles had their own importance in Lockhart’s history. Mr. Cadell found Ballantyne (who was much unhinged by the loss of his wife) vague, unbusiness-like, neglectful, and “feckless,” as the Scotch say, to a distressing degree. He writes a long letter about Ballantyne’s failings as a printer and manager, on April 12, 1830. “Mr. Cowan and I do everything we can to keep him right,” and many odd details are given as to James’s lack of energy. Even Scott writes, “My pity begins to give way to anger.” Now Mr. Cadell was the chief source of Lockhart’s comments on the Ballantynes as men of business, in his “Life of Scott.” It is plain that Mr. Cadell did not wait till 1838 to express his extreme dissatisfaction, a dissatisfaction which he perhaps communicated to Lockhart, though there is evidence that Lockhart attempted to discount any “personal bias.”

On May 17, Lockhart wrote to Sir Walter a letter full of the political gossip so interesting at the moment, and now so vacant. The King’s death was expected almost daily: “he expresses his earnest desire to be released.” The air was full of rumours, for the health of the prospective William IV. was far from good, and on his decease there would be a long minority. Meanwhile the Tories were all at odds, the Whigs strong and hopeful, and the era of “concessions” had begun. Of himself

LIFE OF J. G. LOCKHART.

Lockhart writes, “You will be surprised to hear that I have begun at last to make a little money,” and he mentions a sum at which a popular modern novelist would smile, though a successful man of letters in any other field but fiction would despair of attaining the amount. Probably these “golden joys” mainly accrued from Lockhart’s share in Mr. Murray’s “Family Library.” He consulted Scott about entering Parliament, attracted by the contagious excitement which arises from living in political society. But, like Hal of the Wynd, he would “fight for his own hand”—not as an item in a Tory aggregate. Sir Walter answered, approving—that is, if Lockhart were not making too sanguine an estimate of his finances on the strength of one successful year, and if he could sit as “a member entirely unfettered, and left to act according to the weal of the public, or what you conceive such.” But he must speak if he enters Parliament. “When I have heard you speak, you seemed always sufficiently up to the occasion both in words and matter, but too indifferent in the manner in which you pressed your argument. . . . If you are not considered as gravely interested in what you say, and conscious of its importance, your audience will not be so.”1

During the remainder of the summer and autumn the Lockharts remained at Chiefswood, and Will Laidlaw was installed at Kaeside. “However languid, Sir Walter’s spirits revived at seeing the children, and the greatest pleasure he had was in pacing Douce Davie through the green lanes among his woods, with them clustered about him on ponies and donkeys, while Laidlaw, the ladies, and myself walked by, and obeyed his directions about pruning and marking trees.”

But Sir Walter, to Lockhart’s regret, would toil, as of old, at his desk, and James Ballantyne, the most uncompromising of critics, no longer excited him by praise. “Why,” one is inclined to ask, “why, with Lockhart at his side, did Scott turn to Ballantyne for criticism?” The truth probably is that in Ballantyne, comparatively uneducated, and ignorant of things which one supposes everybody to know, Scott thought that he had a measure of the ordinary taste, and a judge who would never veil his actual opinion, nor “seek for a glossy periphrase.”

About this time, on September 6, I find Mr. Cadell making a formal offer for the book which he ingeniously suggested, the “Reliquiæ Trotcosienses,” anecdotes about the “gabions,” or historical curiosities of Abbotsford, including the Library. I have seen the manuscript of this fragment, and the earlier

“COUNT ROBERT”

pages, which Sir Walter tried to write with his own hand, give melancholy assurance of his temporary incapacity for any literary task. But he abandoned the “Reliquiæ,” ambitious of higher work, and took up “Count Robert of Paris,” which, as has been said, he obviously contemplated soon after his attack in February. The Journal, too, was abandoned from September 5 to December 20. Lockhart mentions a fit of apoplexy in November, and it seems a reasonable inference, from the manuscript of the “Reliquiæ,” that there had been a similar illness in September, or that Scott did not really take the “Reliquiæ” in hand till after his November illness. By November 2, Lockhart was in town again, and he asked Scott for a review of Pitcairn’s “Criminal Trials.” This was to be the last of Sir Walter’s writings in the Quarterly. Half a year before this date, in February, Scott had said to him, “I would be driven mad with idleness.” On November 10 he sent the review of Pitcairn, written in a week.

In January Lockhart invited Sir Walter to London. “Your coming would be the source of unspeakable comfort and delight to one and all of the establishment.” He added a little gossip.

“Moore is undergoing a pleasant course of regimen under Leigh Hunt’s care. The Cockney revenges himself for Moore’s abuse of his vulgarity in the second volume of Byron’s ‘Life,’ by pub-

LIFE OF J. G. LOCKHART.

lishing in a daily paper of his—modestly yclept the Tatler—bushel on bushel of Tommy’s early letters to himself, in which encomiums are lavished on the man and his writings, such as it is impossible to read without convulsions of laughter. This was in the days of libelling the Regent, when they were sworn confederates. By-the-bye, there is one shabby thing: Moore, writing from Lord Moira’s seat in the country, says nothing can ever efface his sense of gratitude; but he must confess that his patron deserves, on public grounds, to be well basted in such a paper as the Examiner, which Tommy calls the paragon of all papers,” &c, &c

Through the distracted spring of 1831, Lockhart, who attended the debates on Reform, kept sending bulletins to Sir Walter. These, though they contain the reflections of an acute observer, add little to what is already known. Laidlaw warned Lockhart that politics and fear of change were the worst things on which he could write about to Scott, in his shattered health. Lockhart wished Scott to come to London for medical advice, and the society of his family; Mrs. Lockhart and the children would visit Abbotsford in spring. “Croker has had the whooping-cough,” writes Lockhart on February 28, “but will be in the House to-morrow and speak: he had better have written, for he has neither manner nor character to win or command attention in the House.” Croker, however, astonished his party by his harangue on the Bill as

“CROKEY”

affecting Scotland. In these years, at least, his relations with Lockhart were decidedly those of alliance, in the Quarterly, rather than of friendship. Neither Lockhart nor Sir Walter then trusted Croker. From Croker, in any case, Lockhart got much of the political gossip with which he entertained or depressed Sir Walter. On all sides he “witnessed a deep and bitter fierceness, such as never met my observation before.”

On February 22, Lockhart announced a visit of his family to Abbotsford in May: he would follow as soon as possible, and trusted that Scott would come to him in October, as he dreaded a winter at Abbotsford, far from the very best medical advice.

“We were at Mrs. Baring’s on Saturday evening,” Lockhart writes. “The Duke came in, having just heard the news of these Paris rows, and told Sir J. Shelley war was ready now. Old Talleyrand was there, looking as if dug out of a mummy pit. . . . The story of the Citizen King having remarked, on rising from his dinner table, ‘The weight of a crown is not a nothing,’ and his son Nemours ejaculating thereon, ‘Particularly when it is not one’s own’—is, I hear, quite true. . . . If it be true that Lafayette and Soult are now forming a Cabinet, no doubt a Republic will be the next thing, and so on, God knows through how many changes, to Henri V.”—who made il gran rifiuto.

On March 1, Lockhart was “disgusted with the

LIFE OF J. G. LOCKHART.

juvenile namby-pamby style of Lord John Russell’s method of announcing ‘the scheme of Reform.’” Joseph Hume said, in his high brazen note, “I’m not that ill-satisfied with the scheme.” On March 2, “there was no good speaking, except young Macaulay’s on the Whig side.” Out of doors, “the defensive party is doing absolutely nothing.” This is the burden of his letters; but a characteristic anecdote of an author is given.

“Sotheby has published his trashy ‘Iliad’ in two mortal tomes. He came in, two or three days ago, when Phillpots, Mackintosh, Sharpe, and some others were all sitting round the fire at the Athenæum, talking over the debate of the night before. ‘Well,’ said Phillpots, ‘Well, Mr. Sotheby, what do you say to all this?’ ‘Why,’ he responded, ‘you are very good to be so much interested. Murray says, considering the excitement about other things, the sale is really not amiss.’”

On April 16, Lockhart announces the death-blow to all work on the Stuart papers. “Croker, by his mean suggestions in one of the Reports of the original Commission (which I never saw until the second had been issued), seems to have done everything to throw cold water on the affair—entering into calculations as to what booksellers would give the Crown, &c, &c, estimating the proper remuneration for editorship—in a word, furnishing any Government with sufficient pretext for that

WATT’S EXPERIMENT

shabbiness to which all Governments are naturally inclined.1

Lockhart seems to have been in a democratic mood, without asking the pretty obvious democratic question, “What is the use of maintaining blown-up boobies?”

Mrs. Lockhart writes: “I used to think it was both selfish and wrong, my marrying; but when I hear papa talk of you, and see the comfort you are to him, dear Lockhart, I feel I can never be grateful enough to you.”1

From this date, Lockhart’s letters to Scott are not included in the volumes of Sir Walter’s correspondence. From this point, too (May 10, 1831), Lockhart tells the tale of his own life as far as it was blended with that of the great man now mortally smitten.2 The narrative could only be spoiled by abridgment. The pages in which he describes Scott’s daily sorrows; his struggles with “Count Robert of Paris,” condemned by Cadell and Ballantyne; the sad matter of the disturbances

1 But few quotations from Mrs. Lockhart’s many letters have been made here, because they are almost always occupied with domestic matters, and especially with the health of Johnnie. They are all, like Lockhart’s letters to his wife, proofs of the most complete trust and affection on either side, in this happiest of marriages, as far as love can make life happy, in despite of many grave anxieties and sorrows. The beautiful lines in which Homer describes a perfect wedlock, constantly recur to the reader’s mind (“Odyssey,” vi. 180-185).

2 “Life,” x. 66-106.

“TAKE THOU THE VANGUARD”

at Hawick and Jedburgh; the beginning of “Castle Dangerous”; the pilgrimage past Yair, Ashestiel, Traquair (haunted ground), to the tombs of the Douglasses; the warning given by Borthwickbrae’s sudden death after meeting Sir Walter at Milton Lockhart;—these pages surpass all other achievements of biography. The restrained regret, the silent affection, the sorrow stoically yet sweetly borne, remind us, indeed, of lines in the “Agricola” of Tacitus. But that masterpiece did not, and could not, exhibit the perfection of romance, the high and passionate strain of this chapter of Lockhart’s, which has no rival except in the most exalted poetry. Indeed, the piece is an epitome of all Scott’s life. We see him here as the humourist; as “the Shirra”; for the last time at Milton Lockhart as the boon companion; as the antiquary; above all, as the poet who “with half his heart inhabits other worlds,” and lives in other times. And for this once, he is beheld by human eye “as his companions in the meridian vigour of his life never saw him,” when “the softer and gentler emotions trembled to the surface” of his nature.

Another, who watched Sir Walter on that day, was to make the same journey, and, dying, was to lean from the carriage and gaze on these same dear scenes of youth and happiness. It is his pen that records Scott’s last hours, with a tenderness and a delicate self-control unsurpassed in literature, so that, however often we may have studied the immortal pages, we read them with dim eyes. Strangely, indeed, were Scott’s final experiences to be echoed in those of Lockhart. The very words which Sir Walter spoke “in the last extreme of feebleness,” namely, “Lockhart, I may have but a minute to speak to you. My dear, be a good man, be virtuous, be religious, be a good man;” these words were to reverberate in almost the last letter of Lockhart to his beloved daughter.

During Sir Walter’s absence, another sorrow, long looked for, had befallen those whom he loved. On December 15, 1831, Lockhart wrote to his father:—

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John Leycester Adolphus (1794-1862) The son of the historian; educated at Merchant Taylors' School and St John's College, Oxford, he was a barrister of the Inner Temple. In Letters to Richard Heber (1821) he demonstrated that the Waverley Novels were written by Walter Scott.

Francis Atterbury, bishop of Rochester (1663-1732) The high-church bishop of Rochester; he was imprisoned in the Tower in 1720 for his Jacobite associations and spent his later years in France.

James Ballantyne (1772-1833) Edinburgh printer in partnership with his younger brother John; the company failed in the financial collapse of 1826.

Lady Augusta Baring [née Brudenell] (1810-1853) The daughter of the sixth earl of Cardigan; in 1827 she married the MP Henry Bingham Baring of the banking family.

James Browne (1793-1841) Educated at University of St Andrews and King's College, Aberdeen, he edited the Caledonian Mercury (1827) and wrote for the Edinburgh Review.

James Glencairn Burns (1794-1865) The younger son of Robert Burns, a major in the service of the East India Company.

George Gordon Byron, sixth Baron Byron (1788-1824) The author of Childe Harold and Don Juan.

Robert Cadell (1788-1849) Edinburgh bookseller who partnered with Archibald Constable, whose daughter Elizabeth he married in 1817. After Constable's death and the failure of Ballantyne he joined with Scott to purchase rights to the Waverley Novels.

John Campbell, second duke of Argyll (1680-1743) Scottish Whig who led the government army at the Battle of Sheriffmuir; he appears as a character in Scott's Heart of Midlothian (1818).

Henri comte de Chambord (1820-1883) Son of Charles Ferdinand, duc de Berry (1778-1820) and pretender to the French throne.

Charles Edward [Bonnie Prince Charlie] (1720-1788) The eldest son of James Francis Edward (1688-1766), the Old Pretender; his adventures in the rebellion of 1745 became a matter of legend.

Sir Francis Leggatt Chantrey (1781-1841) English sculptor who worked as a statuary from 1804; he employed the poet Allan Cunningham in his studio from 1814. He was knighted in 1835.

Archibald Constable (1774-1827) Edinburgh bookseller who published the Edinburgh Review and works of Sir Walter Scott; he went bankrupt in 1826.

Constantine I (272 c.-337) Roman emperor who convened the Council of Nicea (325) and moved the imperial capital to Constantinople.

Alexander Cowan (1775-1859) Scottish paper-manufacturer; he was trustee for Archibald Constable's bankrupt estate.

John Wilson Croker (1780-1857) Secretary of the Admiralty (1810) and writer for the Quarterly Review; he edited an elaborate edition of Boswell's Life of Johnson (1831).

Sir Humphry Davy, baronet (1778-1829) English chemist and physicist, inventor of the safety lamp; in Bristol he knew Cottle, Wordsworth, Coleridge, and Southey; he was president of the Royal Society (1820).

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Sir Adam Ferguson (1771-1855) Son of the philosopher and classmate and friend of Sir Walter Scott; he served in the Peninsular Campaign under Wellington, afterwards living on his estate in Dumfriesshire.

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Edward Gibbon (1737-1794) Author of The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (1776-1788).

John Hulbert Glover (d. 1860) He was appointed assistant to F. A. Barnard, librarian to the King's Library, about 1818, and was afterwards a librarian at the British Library, and at Windsor Castle (1836).

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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).

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David Hume (1757-1838) The nephew of the philosopher; he was educated at University of Edinburgh and Glasgow University and was a member of the Speculative Society, professor of Scots law in the University of Edinburgh, and baron of the exchequer. He contributed to The Mirror and The Lounger.

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James Henry Leigh Hunt (1784-1859) English poet, journalist, and man of letters; editor of The Examiner and The Liberal; friend of Byron, Keats, and Shelley.

King James VII and II (1633-1701) Son of Charles I; he was king of England and Scotland 1685-88, forced from office during the Glorious Revolution.

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Sir William Knighton, first baronet (1776-1836) Royal physician and secretary to George IV; in 1822 he succeeded Sir Benjamin Bloomfield as keeper of the privy purse.

John Knox (1514 c.-1572) The founder of Presbyterianism in Scotland.

Gilbert du Motier, marquis de Lafayette (1757-1834) French aristocrat and general in the American war of Independence.

William Laidlaw (1779-1845) The early friend of James Hogg and Sir Walter Scott's steward and amanuensis.

Charles Lamb [Elia] (1775-1834) English essayist and boyhood friend of Coleridge at Christ's Hospital; author of Essays of Elia published in the London Magazine (collected 1823, 1833) and other works.

Robert Law (d. 1686 c.) Scottish field preacher whose memoirs were published in 1818.

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).

Sophia Lockhart [née Scott] (1799-1837) Walter Scott's eldest daughter, who married John Gibson Lockhart in 1820.

Violet Lockhart (1801-1849) The second daughter of the Rev. John Lockhart and younger sister of John Gibson Lockhart; she died unmarried.

Walter Scott Lockhart (1826-1853) The younger son of John Gibson Lockhart and his wife Sophia; a military officer, he inherited Abbotsford in 1847.

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Thomas Babington Macaulay, baron Macaulay (1800-1859) English poet, critic, and historian, author of The History of England from the Accession of James the Second, 5 vols (1849-61).

Sir James Mackintosh (1765-1832) Scottish philosopher and man of letters who defended the French Revolution in Vindiciae Gallicae (1791); he was Recorder of Bombay (1803-1812) and MP for Knaresborough (1819-32).

John Maitland, duke of Lauderdale (1616-1682) Royalist peer and supporter of Charles II who was secretary for Scottish Affairs (16600-80), created a duke in 1672.

Henry Hart Milman (1791-1868) Educated at Eton and Brasenose College, Oxford, he was a poet, historian and dean of St Paul's (1849) who wrote for the Quarterly Review.

Michel de Montaigne (1533-1592) French writer and moralist, magistrate and mayor of Bordeaux (1581-85); he was the author of Essais (1580, 1595).

Thomas Moore (1779-1852) Irish poet and biographer, author of the Irish Melodies (1807-34), The Fudge Family in Paris (1818), and Lalla Rookh (1817); he was Byron's close friend and designated biographer.

Charles Mordaunt, third earl of Peterborough (1658 c.-1735) English admiral, general, and diplomat; late in life he was intimate with Pope and Swift.

John Bacon Sawrey Morritt of Rokeby (1771-1843) Of Rokeby, classical scholar, close friend of Sir Walter Scott, and member of the Society of Dilettanti.

John Murray II (1778-1843) The second John Murray began the Quarterly Review in 1809 and published works by Scott, Byron, Austen, Crabbe, and other literary notables.

Louis-Charles-Philippe Raphaël d'Orleans, duc de Nemours (1814-1896) The second son of the future King Louis-Philippe I of France; he lived in England after the revolution of 1848.

Sir Robert Peel, second baronet (1788-1850) Byron's schoolmate at Harrow, afterwards prime minister from 1834-1835 and 1841-1846.

Henry Phillpotts, bishop of Exeter (1778-1869) High-church Tory clergyman and controversialist opposed to Catholic emancipation; he was dean of Chester (1828) and bishop of Exeter (1830).

Robert Pitcairn (1793-1855) Scottish antiquary who did research for Walter Scott and the Bannatyne Club.

Joseph Planta (1787-1847) The son of the librarian of the same name; he was educated at Eton, served in the Foreign Office (1803-27), held political offices, and was Tory MP for Hastings (1827-35, 1837-44).

Thomas Purdie (1767-1829) Sir Walter Scott's forester; they originally met when Purdie was brought before Sheriff Scott on charges of poaching.

David Riccio (1533 c.-1566) Secretary and advisor to Mary Queen of Scots, murdered in her presence by Darnley and his allies.

Samuel Rogers (1763-1855) English poet, banker, and aesthete, author of the ever-popular Pleasures of Memory (1792), Columbus (1810), Jaqueline (1814), and Italy (1822-28).

John Russell, first earl Russell (1792-1878) English statesman, son of John Russell sixth duke of Bedford (1766-1839); he was author of Essay on the English Constitution (1821) and Memoirs of the Affairs of Europe (1824) and was Prime Minister (1865-66).

Anne Scott (1803-1833) Walter Scott's younger daughter who cared for him in his old age and died unmarried.

Charles Scott (1805-1841) The younger son of Sir Walter Scott; educated at Oxford, he pursued a career in diplomacy and died in Tehran.

Sir Walter Scott, baronet (1771-1832) Scottish poet, novelist, antiquary, biographer, editor, and sheriff.

William Shakespeare (1564-1616) The Bard of Avon.

Richard Sharp [Conversation Sharp] (1759-1835) English merchant, Whig MP, and member of the Holland House set; he published Letters and Essays in Poetry and Prose (1834).

Christian Shaw (1685 c.-1737 fl.) As a girl she accused several persons of witchcraft who were sent to their death in 1697; as an adult she founded the thread industry in Paisley.

Sir John Shelley, sixth baronet (1772-1852) The son of Sir John Shelley of Michelgrove; educated at Eton, he served in the Coldstream Guards and was patronized by the Duke of York; he was a Whig MP for Helston (1806) and a Tory MP for Lewes (1816-31).

Nicholas Soult (1769-1851) Marshal of France and commander in the Peninsular War.

Robert Southey (1774-1843) Poet laureate and man of letters whose contemporary reputation depended upon his prose works, among them the Life of Nelson, 2 vols (1813), History of the Peninsular War, 3 vols (1823-32) and The Doctor, 7 vols (1834-47).

Publius Cornelius Tacitus (56 c.-117 c.) Roman historian; author of 18 books of Annals and 12 books of Histories.

Charles Maurice de Talleyrand-Périgord (1754-1838) French diplomat; he was foreign minister under Napoleon.

Joseph Mallord William Turner (1775-1851) English landscape and history painter who left his collection to the National Gallery and Tate Gallery.

Patrick Fraser Tytler (1791-1849) Sottish barrister, son of Alexander Fraser Tytler; he published The Life of the Admirable Crichton (1819), History of Scotland (1828-43), and other works.

James Wardrop (1782-1869) Educated at Edinburgh high school, he was appointed surgeon the Prince Regent in 1818, succeeding Astley Cooper as surgeon-in-ordinary to the king in 1828.

Arthur Wellesley, first duke of Wellington (1769-1852) Soldier and statesman; commander in the Peninsular Campaign (1809-1813), he defeated Napoleon at Waterloo and was prime minister (1828-1830).

William IV, king of Great Britain (1765-1837) Son of George III, who succeeded his brother as King of England (1830-37).

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).

William Wordsworth (1770-1850) With Coleridge, author of Lyrical Ballads (1798), Wordsworth survived his early unpopularity to succeed Robert Southey as poet laureate in 1843.

The Courier. (1792-1842). A London evening newspaper; the original proprietor was James Perry; Daniel Stuart, Peter Street, and William Mudford were editors; among the contributors were Samuel Taylor Coleridge and John Galt.

The Examiner. (1808-1881). Founded by John and Leigh Hunt, this weekly paper divided its attention between literary matters and radical politics; William Hazlitt was among its regular contributors.

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.

James Browne (1793-1841) History of the Highlands & of the Highland Clans. 4 vols (Glasgow: Fullarton, 1834-1838).

John Wilson Croker (1780-1857) The Life of Samuel Johnson, including a Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides. A new Edition, with numerous Additions and Notes. 5 vols (London: J. Murray, 1831). Boswell's Life of Johnson with new material by John Wilson Croker.

Edward Gibbon (1737-1794) The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. 6 vols (London: Strahan and Cadell, 1776-1783). In Childe Harold Byron described the sceptical Gibbon as “Sapping a solemn creed with solemn sneer.”

Homer (850 BC fl.) The Odyssey. (800 BC c.). A Greek epic poem which in the romantic era was usually read in the translation by Alexander Pope.

David Hume (1757-1838) Commentaries on the Law of Scotland, respecting Crimes. 2 vols (Edinburgh: Bell & Bradfrete, 1819).

James Henry Leigh Hunt (1784-1859) The Tatler. 5 vols (London: J. Onwhyn, 1830-1832). A collection of periodical essays originally issued daily, then three times a week.

Charles Lamb [Elia] (1775-1834) “Dream-Children: a Reverie” in London Magazine. Vol. 5 (January 1822): 21-23. Reprinted in Essays of Elia.

Robert Law (d. 1686 c.) Memorialls, or, the Memorable Things that fell out witin this Island of Brittain from 1638 to 1684. (Edinburgh: A. Constable, 1818). Edited by Charles Kirkpatrick Sharpe.

John Gibson Lockhart (1794-1854) The History of Napoleon Buonaparte. 2 vols (London: J. Murray, 1829). The first volumes in Murray's Family Library.

John Gibson Lockhart (1794-1854) Memoirs of the Life of Sir Walter Scott, bart.. 7 vols (Edinburgh: R. Cadell, 1837-38).

Thomas Moore (1779-1852) Letters and Journals of Lord Byron with Notices of his Life. 2 vols (London: Murray, 1830). The first authorized collection of Byron's letters and journals.

Robert Pitcairn (1793-1855) Criminal Trials and other Proceedings before the High Court of Justiciary in Scotland. 10 vols (Edinburgh: W. Tait, 1829-1833).

Sir Walter Scott, baronet (1771-1832) Anne of Geierstein: or, the Maiden of the Mist. 3 vols (Edinburgh: Cadell and Co., 1829).

Sir Walter Scott, baronet (1771-1832) “Auchindrane or, the Ayrshire Tragedy” in The Doom of Devorgoil: a Melo-drama; Auchindrane or, the Ayrshire Tragedy. (Edinburgh: Cadell, 1830). On gothic themes.

Sir Walter Scott, baronet (1771-1832) “Castle Dangerous” in Tales of my Landlord. (Edinburgh: 1816-31). The fourth and last novel in the series.

Sir Walter Scott, baronet (1771-1832) “Count Robert of Paris” in Tales of my Landlord. (Edinburgh: 1816-31). The third novel in the series.

Sir Walter Scott, baronet (1771-1832) The Fortunes of Nigel. 3 vols (Edinburgh: A. Constable, 1822).

Sir Walter Scott, baronet (1771-1832) Ivanhoe: a Romance. 3 vols (Edinburgh: Constable, 1820). A tale of the crusades.

Sir Walter Scott, baronet (1771-1832) Journal: from the original ms. at Abbotsford. 2 vols (Edinburgh: D. Douglas, 1890). Edited by David Douglas; extensive excerpts had been previously published in Lockhart's biography of Scott.

Sir Walter Scott, baronet (1771-1832) Kenilworth: a Romance. 3 vols (Edinburgh: A. Constable and Co., 1821). A tale of Queen Elizabeth and the Earl of Leicester.

Sir Walter Scott, baronet (1771-1832) Letters on Demonology and Witchcraft, addressed to John Gibson Lockhart. (London: John Murray, 1830). Published as the sixteenth volume in Murray's Family Library.

Sir Walter Scott, baronet (1771-1832) The Life of Napoleon Buonaparte, Emperor of the French. With a preliminary View of the French Revolution. 9 vols (London: Longman, Rees, Orme, Brown, & Green, 1827).

Sir Walter Scott, baronet (1771-1832) “On Ornamental Plantations and Landscape Gardening” in Quarterly Review. Vol. 37 (March 1828): 303-344.

Sir Walter Scott, baronet (1771-1832) “Pitcairn's Ancient Criminal Trials of Scotland” in Quarterly Review. Vol. 44 (February 1831): 438-75.

Sir Walter Scott, baronet (1771-1832) “Salmonia, or Days of Fly-Fishing” in Quarterly Review. Vol. 38 (October 1828): 503-535. A review of the book by Sir Humphry Davy.

Sir Walter Scott, baronet (1771-1832) Tales of a Grandfather; being Stories taken from Scottish History. 3 vols (Edinburgh: Cadell and Co., 1828-1831). Written for juvenile readers; a fourth series was published in 1831.

Sir Walter Scott, baronet (1771-1832) Waverley: or, 'Tis Sixty Years Since. 3 vols (Edinburgh: Constable, 1814). Scott's first historical novel, set against the backdrop of the Jacobite rising of 1745.

Sir Walter Scott, baronet (1771-1832) Waverley Novels. 48 vols (Edinburgh: Cadell & Co., 1829-33). The Magnum Opus edition, with the author's revisions and new prefaces. Collected editions began appearing in 1820.

Samuel Smiles (1812-1904) A Publisher and His Friends: Memoir and Correspondence of the late John Murray, with an Account of the Origin and Progress of the House, 1768-1843. 2 vols (London: John Murray, 1891).

William Sotheby (1757-1833) The Iliad of Homer. 2 vols (London: John Murray, 1831).

Publius Cornelius Tacitus (56 c.-117 c.) Agricola. (1st c.). A life of the governor of Roman Britain.

Patrick Fraser Tytler (1791-1849) History of Scotland. 9 vols (Edinburgh: William Tait, 1828-1843).

INFORMATION FROM TEI HEADER

Source Description:

Author: Lang, Andrew, 1844-1912

Title: The Life and Letters of John Gibson Lockhart (London: John C. Nimmo, 1897).

Electronic Edition:

Series: Lord Byron and his Times: http://lordbyron.org

Encoding Description: Any dashes occurring in line breaks have been removed. Obvious and unambiguous compositors’ errors have been silently corrected.

Markup and editing by: David Hill Radcliffe

Completed January 2011

Publication Statement:

Publisher: Center for Applied Technologies in the Humanities, Virginia Tech

Availability: Published under Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License