| LIFE OF SIR WALTER SCOTT. | 319 |
James Ballantyne, in his Memorandum, after mentioning his ready acceptance of Scott’s proposal to print the Minstrelsy, adds—“I do not believe, that even at this time, he seriously contemplated giving himself much to literature.” I confess, however, that a letter of his, addressed to Ballantyne in the spring of 1800, inclines me to question the accuracy of this impression. After alluding to an intention which he had entertained, in consequence of the delay of Lewis’s collection, to publish an edition of the ballads contained in his own little volume, entitled “Apology for Tales of Terror,” he goes on to detail plans for the future direction of his printer’s career, which were, no doubt, primarily suggested by the friendly interest he took in Ballantyne’s fortunes; but there are some hints which, considering what afterwards did take place, lead me to suspect that even thus early the writer contemplated the possibility at least of being himself very intimately connected with the result of these airdrawn schemes. The letter is as follows:
“I have your favour, since the receipt of which
| 320 | LIFE OF SIR WALTER SCOTT. |
“I have now to request your forgiveness for mentioning a plan which your friend Gillon and I have talked over together with a view as well to the public advantage as to your individual interest. It is nothing short of a migration from Kelso to this place, which I think might be effected upon a prospect of a very flattering nature.
“Three branches of printing are quite open in
Edinburgh, all of which I am well convinced you have both the ability and
inclination to unite in your person. The first is that of an editor of a
newspaper, which shall contain some thing of an uniform historical deduction of
events distinct from the farrago of detached and unconnected plagiarisms from
the London paragraphs of ‘The
Sun.’ Perhaps it might be possible (and Gillon has promised to make enquiry about it)
to treat with the proprietors of some established paper—suppose the Caledonian Mercury—and we would
all struggle to obtain for it some celebrity. To this might be added a
‘Monthly Magazine,’ and ‘Caledonian Annual Register,’ if you will; for
both of which, with the excellent literary assistance which Edinburgh at
present affords, there is a fair opening. The next object would naturally be
the execution of Session papers, the best paid work which a printer undertakes,
and of which, I dare
| LETTER TO BALLANTYNE—APRIL, 1800. | 321 |
“It appears to me that such a plan, judiciously adopted and diligently pursued, opens a fair road to an ample fortune. In the mean while, the ‘Kelso Mail’ might be so arranged as to be still a source of some advantage to you; and I dare say, if wanted, pecuniary assistance might be procured to assist you at the outset, either upon terms of a share or otherwise; but I refer you for particulars to Joseph, in whose room I am now assuming the pen, for reasons too distressing to be declared, but at which you will readily guess. I hope, at all events, you will impute my interference to any thing rather than an impertinent intermeddling with your concerns on the part of, clear sir, your obedient servant,
The Joseph Gillon here named was a
Writer to the Signet of some eminence; a man of strong abilities and genuine wit and
humour, for whom Scott, as well as
| 322 | LIFE OF SIR WALTER SCOTT. |
To return to the “Minstrelsy.”—Scott found able assistants in the completion of his design. Richard Heber (long Member of Parliament for the University of Oxford) happened to spend this winter in Edinburgh, and was welcomed, as his talents and accomplishments entitled him to be, by the cultivated society of the place. With Scott his multifarious learning, particularly his profound knowledge of the literary monuments of the middle ages, soon drew him into habits of close alliance; the stores of his library, even then extensive, were freely laid open, and his own oral commentaries were not less valuable. But through him Scott made acquaintance with a person still more qualified to give him effectual aid in this undertaking; a native of the Border from infancy, like himself, an enthusiastic lover of its legends, and who had already saturated his mind with every species of lore that could throw light upon these relics.
Few who read these pages can be unacquainted with the leading facts in the history of John Leyden.—Few can need to be reminded that this extraordinary man, born in a shepherd’s cottage in one of the wildest valleys of Roxburghshire, and of course almost entirely self-educated, had, before he attained his nineteenth
* Calling on him one day in his writing office, Scott said, “Why, Joseph, this place is as hot as an oven.” “Well,” quoth Gillon, “and isn’t it here that I make my bread?” |
| HEBER—LEYDEN—1800. | 323 |
Archibald Constable, in after life one of the most eminent of British publishers, was at this period the keeper of a small book-shop, into which few, but the poor students of Leyden’s order, had hitherto found their way. Heber, in the course of his bibliomaniacal prowlings, discovered that it contained some of
“The small old volumes, dark with tarnish’d gold,” |
| 324 | LIFE OF SIR WALTER SCOTT. |
These new friendships led to a great change in Leyden’s position, purposes, and prospects. He was
presently received into the best society of Edinburgh, where his strange, wild uncouthness
of demeanour does not seem to have at all interfered with the general appreciation of his
genius, his gigantic endowments, and really amiable virtues. Fixing his ambition on the
East, where he hoped to rival the achievements of Sir William
Jones, he at length, about the beginning of 1802, obtained the promise of
some literary appointment in the East India Company’s service; but when the time drew
near, it was discovered that the patronage of the season had been exhausted, with the
exception of one surgeon-assistant’s commission which had been with difficulty
secured for him by Mr William Dundas; who, moreover,
was obliged to inform him that, if he accepted it, he must be qualified to pass his medical
trials within six months. This news, which would have crushed any other man’s hopes
to the dust, was only a welcome fillip to the ardour of Leyden. He
that same hour grappled with a new science, in full confidence that whatever ordinary men
could do in three or four years, his energy could accomplish in as many months; took his
degree accordingly in the beginning of 1803, having just before
| JOHN LEYDEN. | 325 |
But to return: Leyden was enlisted
by Scott in the service of Lewis, and immediately contributed a ballad, called The Elf-King, to the Tales of Terror. Those highly spirited pieces, The Cout of Keildar, Lord Soulis, and The Mermaid, were furnished for the original
department of Scott’s own collection; and the Dissertation on Fairies, prefixed to its second
volume, “although arranged and digested by the editor, abounds with instances of
such curious reading as Leyden only had read, and was originally
compiled by him;” but not the least of his labours was in the collection of
the old ballads themselves. When he first conversed with Ballantyne on the subject of the proposed work, and the printer signified
his belief that a single volume of moderate size would be sufficient for the materials,
Leyden exclaimed, “Dash it, does Mr
Scott mean another thin thing like Goetz of Berlichingen? I have more than that in my head
myself: we shall turn out three or four such volumes at least.” He went to
work stoutly in the realization of these wider views. “In this labour,”
says Scott, “he was equally interested by friendship for the
editor, and by his own patriotic zeal for the honour of the Scottish borders; and both
may be judged of from the following circumstance. An interesting fragment had been
obtained of an ancient historical ballad; but the remainder, to the great disturbance
of the editor and his coadjutor, was not to be recovered. Two days afterwards, while,
the editor was sitting with some company after dinner, a sound was heard at a distance
like that of the whistling of a tempest through the torn
| 326 | LIFE OF SIR WALTER SCOTT. |
Various allusions to the progress of Leyden’s fortunes will occur in letters to be quoted hereafter. I may refer the reader, for further particulars, to the biographical sketch by Scott from which the preceding anecdote is taken. Many tributes to his memory are scattered over his friend’s other works, both prose and verse; and, above all, Scott did not forget him when exploring, three years after his death, the scenery of his “Mermaid;”
|
“Scarba’s isle, whose tortured shore
Still rings to Corrievrekan’s roar,
And lonely Colonsay;—
Scenes sung by him who sings no more:
His bright and brief career is o’er,
And mute his tuneful strains;
Quench’d is his lamp of varied lore,
That loved the light of song to pour;
A distant and a deadly shore
Has Leyden’s cold
remains!Ӡ
|
During the years 1800 and 1801, the Minstrelsy formed its editor’s chief occupation—a labour of love truly, if ever such there was; but neither this nor his sheriffship interfered with his regular attendance at the
* Essay on the Life of Leyden—Scott’s Miscellaneous Prose Works, vol. iv., p. 165. † Lord of the Isles, Canto iv. st. 11. |
| STODDART—HEBER—1800. | 327 |
Among other indications of greater ease in his circumstances, which I find in his letter-book, he writes to Heber, after his return to London in May, 1800, to request his good offices on behalf of Mrs Scott, who had “set her heart on a phæton, at once strong, and low, and handsome, and not to cost more than thirty guineas;” which combination of advantages Heber seems to have found by no means easy of attainment. The phæton was, however, discovered; and its springs must soon have been put to a sufficient trial, for this was “the first wheeled carriage that ever penetrated into Liddesdale”—namely, in August, 1800. The friendship of the Buccleuch family now placed better means of research at his disposal, and Lord Dalkeith had taken special care that there should be a band of pioneers in waiting for his orders when he reached Hermitage.
Though he had not given up Lasswade, his sheriffship now made it necessary for him that he should be
* The account of this Tour was published in 1801. |
| 328 | LIFE OF SIR WALTER SCOTT. |
James Hogg had spent ten years of his life in the
service of Mr Laidlaw’s father, but although
his own
| LAIDLAW—HOGG. | 329 |
| 330 | LIFE OF SIR WALTER SCOTT. |
Scott opened in the same year a correspondence with the
venerable Bishop of Dromore, who seems, however, to
have done little more than express a warm interest in an undertaking so nearly resembling
that which will ever keep his own name in remembrance. He had more success in his
applications to a more unpromising quarter namely, with Joseph
Ritson, the ancient and virulent assailant of Bishop
Percy’s editorial character. This narrow-minded, sour, and dogmatical
little word-catcher had hated the very name of a Scotsman, and was utterly incapable of
sympathizing with any of the higher views of his new correspondent. Yet the bland courtesy
of Scott disarmed even this half-crazy pedant; and he communicated the
stores of his really valuable learning in a manner that seems to have greatly surprised all
who had hitherto held any intercourse with him on antiquarian topics. It astonished, above
all, the late amiable and elegant George Ellis,
whose acquaintance was about the same time opened to Scott through
their common friend Heber. Mr
Ellis was now busily engaged in collecting the materials for his charming
works, entitled Specimens of Ancient English
Poetry, and Specimens of Ancient
English Romance. The correspondence between him and Scott
soon came to be constant. They met personally, not long after the correspondence had
commenced, conceived for each other a cordial respect and affection, and continued on a
footing of almost brotherly intimacy ever after. To this valuable alliance
Scott owed, among other advantages, his early and ready admission
to the acquaintance and familiarity of Ellis’s bosom friend, his
coadjutor in
| GEORGE ELLIS—1801. | 331 |
The first letter of Scott to Ellis is dated March 27, 1801, and begins thus:—“Sir, as I feel myself highly flattered by your enquiries, I lose no time in answering them to the best of my ability. Your eminence in the literary world, and the warm praises of our mutual friend Heber, had made me long wish for an opportunity of being known to you. I enclose the first sheet of Sir Tristrem, that you may not so much rely upon my opinion as upon that which a specimen of the style and versification may enable your better judgment to form for itself. . . . These pages are transcribed by Leyden, an excellent young man, of uncommon talents, patronised by Heber, and who is of the utmost assistance to my literary undertakings.”
As Scott’s edition of Sir Tristrem did not appear until May 1804,
and he and Leyden were busy with the Border
Minstrelsy when his correspondence with Ellis
commenced, this early indication of his labours on the former work may require explanation.
The truth is, that both Scott and Leyden, having
eagerly arrived at the belief, from which neither of them ever permitted himself to falter,
that the “Sir Tristrem” of the Auchinleck MS., was
virtually, if not literally, the production of Thomas the
Rhymer, laird of Ercildoune, in Berwickshire, who flourished at the close of
the thirteenth century—the original intention had been to give it, not only a place, but a
very prominent one, in the “Minstrelsy of
the Scottish Border.” The doubts and difficulties which
Ellis suggested, however, though they did not shake
Scott in his opinion as to the parentage of the romance, induced
researches which occupied so much time, and gave birth to notes so bulky, that he
eventually found it expedient first to pass it over in
| 332 | LIFE OF SIR WALTER SCOTT. |
I must not swell these pages By transcribing the entire correspondence of Scott and Ellis, the greater part of which consists of minute antiquarian discussion which could hardly interest the general reader; but I shall, give such extracts as seem to throw light on Scott’s personal history during this period.
“I should long ago have acknowledged your instructive letter, but I have been wandering about in the wilds of Liddesdale and Ettrick Forest, in search of additional materials for the Border Minstrelsy. I cannot, however, boast much of my success. One of our best reciters has turned religious in his later days, and finds out that old songs are unlawful. If so, then, as Falstaff says, is many an acquaintance of mine damned. I now send you an accurate analysis of Sir Tristrem. Philo-Tomas, whoever he was, must surely have been an Englishman; when his hero joins battle with Moraunt, he exclaims,
God help Tristrem the Knight, He fought for Ingland.’ |
| CORRESPONDENCE WITH ELLIS—1801. | 333 |
“Leyden has taken up a most absurd resolution to go to Africa on a journey of discovery. Will you have the goodness to beg Heber to write to him seriously on so ridiculous a plan, which can promise nothing either pleasant or profitable. I am certain he would get a church in Scotland with a little patience and prudence, and it gives me great pain to see a valuable young man of uncommon genius and acquirements fairly throw himself away. Yours truly,
|
* I believe it was Mr Canning that had, on some occasion when Ellis talked of his antiquarian hobby-horse, exclaimed, “Hobby, truly! yours is an elephant.” |
| 334 | LIFE OF SIR WALTER SCOTT. |
. . . “I congratulate you upon the health of your
elephants—as an additional mouthful of provender for them, pray observe that
the tale of Sir Gawain’s Foul Ladie, in Percy’s Reliques, is
originally Scaldic, as you will see in the history of Hrolfe Kraka, edited by
Torfæus from the ancient Sagas
regarding that prince. I think I could give you some more crumbs of information
were I at home; but I am at present discharging the duties of quartermaster to
a regiment of volunteer cavalry—an office altogether inconsistent with romance;
for where do you read that Sir Tristrem
weighed out hay and corn; that Sir Launcelot du
Lac distributed billets; or that any Knight of the Round Table
condescended to higgle about a truss of straw? Such things were left for our
degenerate days, when no warder sounds his horn from the barbican as the
preux chevalier approaches to
claim hospitality. Bugles indeed we have; but it is only to scream us out of
bed at five in the morning—hospitality such as the seneschals of Don Quixote’s castles were wont to offer
him—and all to troopers, to whom, for valour eke and courtesy, Major Sturgeon himself might yield the palm. In
the midst of this scene of motley confusion, I long, like the hart for
water-brooks, for the arrival of your grande opus. The
nature of your researches animates me to proceed in mine (though of a much more
limited and local nature), even as iron sharpeneth iron. I am in utter despair
about some of the hunting terms in ‘Sir Tristrem.’ There is no copy of
Lady Juliana Berners’ work in
Scotland, and I would move heaven and earth to get a sight of it. But as I fear
this is utterly impossible, I must have recourse to your friendly assistance,
and communicate a set of doubts and queries,
| LETTERS TO ELLIS—1801. | 335 |
“A heavy family misfortune, the loss of an only sister in the prime of life, has prevented, for some time, my proposed communication regarding the hunting terms of ‘Sir Tristrem.’ I now enclose the passage, accurately copied, with such explanations as occur to myself, subject always to your correction and better judgment. . . . . . I have as yet had only a glance of The Specimens. Thomson, to whom Heber intrusted them, had left them to follow him from London in a certain trunk, which has never yet arrived. I should have quarrelled with him excessively for making so little allowance for my impatience, had it not been that a violent epidemic fever, to which I owe the loss already mentioned, has threatened also to deprive me, in his person, of one of my dearest friends, and the Scottish literary world of one of its most promising members.
“Some prospect seems to open for getting Leyden out to India, under the patronage of Mackintosh, who goes as chief of the intended academical establishment at Calcutta. That he is highly qualified for acting a distinguished part in any literary undertaking will be readily granted; nor do I think Mr Mackintosh will meet with many half so likely to be useful in the proposed institution. The extent and versatility of his talents would soon raise him to his level, even although he were at first to go out in a subordinate department. If it be in your power to second his application, I rely upon Heber’s interest with you to induce you to do so.”
| 336 | LIFE OF SIR WALTER SCOTT. |
. . . “I am infinitely obliged to you, indeed, for your interference in behalf of our Leyden, who, I am sure, will do credit to your patronage, and may be of essential service to the proposed mission. What a difference from broiling himself, or getting himself literally broiled, in Africa. ‘Que diable vouloit-il faire dans cette galère?’ . . . His brother is a fine lad, and is likely to enjoy some advantages which he wanted—I mean by being more early introduced into society. I have intermitted his transcript of ‘Merlin,’ and set him to work on ‘Otuel,’ of which I send a specimen.” . . .
“My literary amusements have of late been much
retarded and interrupted, partly by professional avocations, and partly by
removing to a house newly furnished, where it will be some time before I can
get my few books put into order, or clear the premises of painters and workmen;
not to mention that these worthies do not nowadays proceed upon the plan of
Solomon’s architects, whose saws and hammers
were not heard, but rather upon the more ancient system of the builders of
Babel. To augment this confusion, my wife has fixed upon this time as proper to
present me with a fine chopping boy, whose pipe, being of the shrillest, is
heard amid the storm, like a boatswain’s whistle in a gale of wind. These
various causes of confusion have also interrupted the labours of young
Leyden on your behalf; but he has
again resumed the task of transcribing ‘Arthour,’ of which I once again transmit a part. I have to
acknowledge, with the deepest sense of gratitude, the beautiful analysis of
Mr Douce’s Fragments, which
throws great light upon the romance of Sir Tristan.
In arranging that, I have anticipated your
| LETTERS TO ELLIS—1801. | 337 |
“I am glad that Mrs Ellis and you have derived any amusement from the House of Aspen. It is a very hurried dramatic sketch; and the fifth act, as you remark, would require a total revisal previous to representation or publication. At one time I certainly thought, with my friends, that it might have ranked well enough by the side of the Castle Spectre, Bluebeard, and the other drum and trumpet exhibitions of the day; but the ‘Plays of the Passions’* have put me entirely out of conceit with my Germanized brat; and should I ever again attempt dramatic composition, I would endeavour after the genuine old English model . . . . . . The publication of ‘The Complaynt’† is delayed. It is a work of multifarious lore. I am truly anxious about Leyden’s Indian journey, which seems to hang fire. Mr William Dundas was so good as to promise me his interest to get him appointed secretary to the Institution;‡ but whether he has succeeded or not, I have not yet learned. The various kinds of distress under which literary men, I mean such as have no other profession than letters, must labour, in a commercial country, is a great disgrace to society. I own to you I always tremble for the fate of genius when left to its own exertions, which, however powerful, are usually, by some bizarre dispensation of nature, useful to every one but themselves. If Heber could learn by Mackintosh, whether
* The first volume of Joanna Baillie’s “Plays of the Passions” appeared in 1798. Vol. II. followed in 1802. † “The Complaynt of Scotland, written in 1548; with a Preliminary Dissertation and Glossary, by John Leyden,” was published by Constable in January, 1802. ‡ A proposed Institution for purposes of Education at Calcutta. |
| 338 | LIFE OF SIR WALTER SCOTT. |
. . . “Your favour arrived just as I was sitting down to write to you, with a sheet or two of ‘King Arthur.’ I fear, from a letter which I have received from Mr William Dundas, that the Indian establishment is tottering, and will probably fall. Leyden has therefore been induced to turn his mind to some other mode of making his way to the East; and proposes taking his degree as a physician and surgeon, with the hope of getting an appointment in the Company’s Service as surgeon. If the Institution goes forward, his having secured this step will not prevent his being attached to it; at the same time that it will afford him a provision independent of what seems to be a very precarious establishment. Mr Dundas has promised to exert himself. . . . I have just returned from the hospitable halls of Hamilton, where I have spent the Christmas.” . . . . .
“I have been silent but not idle. The Transcript of
King Arthur is at length finished, being a
fragment of about 7000 lines. Let me know how I shall transmit a parcel
containing it, with the Complaynt and the Border Ballads, of which I expect every day
to receive some copies. I think you will be disappointed in the Ballads. I have
as yet touched very little on the more remote antiquities of the Border, which,
indeed, my songs, all comparatively modern, did not lead me to discuss. Some
scattered herbage, however, the elephants may perhaps
| THE MINSTRELSY—1802. | 339 |
“I hope that long ere this you
have received the Ballads,
and that they have afforded you some amusement. I hope, also, that the threatened third volume will be more interesting to
Mrs Ellis than the dry antiquarian
detail of the two first could prove. I hope, moreover, that I shall have the
pleasure of seeing you soon, as some circumstances seem not so much to call me
to London, as to furnish me with a decent apology for coming up sometime this
spring; and I long particularly to say, that I know my friend Mr Ellis
by sight as well as intimately. I
am glad you have seen the Marquess of Lorn,
whom I have met frequently at the house of his charming sister, Lady Charlotte Campbell, whom, I am sure, if
you are acquainted with her, you must admire as much as I do. Her Grace of Gordon, a great admirer of yours,
spent some days here lately, and, like Lord Lorn, was
highly entertained with an account of our friendship à la distance. I do not, nor did I ever, intend to
fob you off with twenty or thirty
| 340 | LIFE OF SIR WALTER SCOTT. |
The preceding extracts are picked out of letters, mostly very long ones, in which Scott discusses questions of antiquarian interest, suggested sometimes by Ellis, and sometimes by the course of his own researches among the MSS. of the Advocates’ Library. The passages which I have transcribed appear sufficient to give the reader a distinct notion of the tenour of Scott’s life while his first considerable work was in progress through the press. In fact, they place before us in a vivid light the chief features of a character which, by this time, was completely formed and settled—which had passed unmoved through the first blandishments of worldly applause, and which no subsequent trials of that sort could ever shake from its early balance:—His calm delight in his own pursuits—the patriotic enthusiasm which mingled with all the best of his literary efforts; his modesty as to his own general merits, combined with a certain dogged resolution to maintain his own first view of a subject, however assailed; his readiness to interrupt his own tasks by any drudgery by which he could assist those of a friend; his steady and determined watchfulness over the struggling fortunes of young genius and worth.
The reader has seen that he spent the Christmas of 1801 at Hamilton
Palace, in Lanarkshire. To Lady Anne Hamilton he had
been introduced by her half-
| CADYOW CASTLE THOMAS—CAMPBELL—1802. | 341 |
Not long before this piece began to be handed about in Edinburgh, Thomas Campbell had made his appearance there, and at once seized a high place in the literary world by his ‘Pleasures of Hope.’ Among the most eager to welcome him had been Scott; and I find the brother-bard thus expressing himself concerning the MS. of Cadyow:—
“The verses of Cadyow Castle are perpetually ringing in my imagination
‘Where mightiest of the beasts of chase That roam in woody Caledon, Crashing the forest in his race, The mountain bull comes thundering on—’ |
Reeking from the recent deed, He dashed his carbine on the ground.’ |
| 342 | LIFE OF SIR WALTER SCOTT. |
Scott finished his Cadyow Castle before the last sheets of the second volume of his “Minstrelsy” had passed through the press; but “the two volumes,” as Ballantyne says, “were already full to overflowing;” so it was reserved for the “threatened third.” The two volumes appeared in the course of January, 1802, from the respectable house of Cadell and Davies, in the Strand; and, owing to the cold reception of Lewis’s “Tales of Wonder,” which had come forth a year earlier, these may be said to have first introduced Scott as an original writer to the English public.
In his Remarks on the
Imitation of Popular Poetry, he says: “Owing to the failure of the
vehicle I had chosen, my first efforts to present myself before the public as an
original writer proved as vain as those by which I had previously endeavoured to
distinguish myself as a translator. Like Lord Home,
however, at the Battle of Flodden, I did so far well, that I was able to stand and save
myself; and amidst the general depreciation of the ‘Tales of Wonder,’ my small share of the
obnoxious publication was dismissed without censure, and in some cases obtained praise
from the critics. The consequences of my escape made me naturally more daring, and I
attempted, in my own name, a collection of ballads of various kinds, both ancient and
modern, to be connected by the common tie of relation to the Border districts in which
I had collected them. The edition was curious, as being the first example of a work
printed by
| THE MINSTRELSY PUBLISHED—1802. | 343 |
The first edition of volumes I. and II. of the Minstrelsy consisted of eight hundred copies, fifty of which were on large paper. One of the embellishments was a view of Hermitage castle, the history of which is rather curious. Scott executed a rough sketch of it during the last of his “Liddesdale raids” with Shortreed, standing for that purpose for an hour or more up to his middle in the snow. Nothing can be ruder than the performance, which I have now before me; but his friend William Clerk made a better drawing from it, and from his a third and further improved copy was done by Hugh Williams, the elegant artist, afterwards known as “Greek Williams.” Scott used to say the oddest thing of all was, that the engraving, founded on the labours of three draughtsmen, one of whom could not draw a straight line, and the two others had never seen the place meant to be represented, was nevertheless pronounced by the natives of Liddesdale to give a very fair notion of the ruins of Hermitage.
The edition was exhausted in the course of the year, and the terms of
publication having been that Scott should have half the
clear profits, his share was exactly £78, 10s.—a sum which certainly could not have
repaid him for the actual expenditure incurred in the collection
| 344 | LIFE OF SIR WALTER SCOTT. |
I shall transcribe the letter in which Mr George Ellis acknowledges the receipt of his copy of the book.
“The volumes are arrived, and I have been devouring
them, not as a pig does a parcel of grains (by which simile you will judge that
I must be brewing, as indeed I am), putting in its snout, shutting its eyes,
and swallowing as fast as it can without consideration—but as a schoolboy does
a piece of gingerbread; nibbling a little bit here, and a little bit there,
smacking his lips, surveying the number of square inches which still remain for
his gratification, endeavouring to look it into larger dimensions, and making
at every mouthful a tacit vow to protract his enjoyment by restraining his
appetite. Now, therefore—but no! I must first assure you on the part of
Mrs E. that if you cannot, or will
not come to England soon, she must gratify her curiosity and gratitude, by
setting off for Scotland, though at the risk of being tempted to pull caps with
Mrs Scott when she arrives at the end of
her journey. Next, I must request you to convey to Mr Leyden my very sincere acknowledgment for his part of the
precious parcel. How truly vexatious that such a man should embark, not for the
‘fines
Atticæ,’ but for those of Asia; that the Genius of
Scotland, instead of a poor Complaint, and an address in the style of
‘Navis, quæ tibi creditum debes Virgilium—reddas incolumem, precor,’ should
not interfere to
| THE MINSTRELSY—LETTER FROM ELLIS. | 345 |
“You will not, of course, expect that I should as yet give you any thing like an opinion, as a critic, of your volumes; first, because you have thrown into my throat a cate of such magnitude that Cerberus, who had three throats, could not have swallowed a third part of it without shutting his eyes; and secondly, because, although I have gone a little farther than George Nicol the bookseller, who cannot cease exclaiming, “What a beautiful book!” and is distracted with jealousy of your Kelso Bulmer, yet, as I said before, I have not been able yet to digest a great deal of your ‘Border Minstrelsy.’ I have, however, taken such a survey as satisfies me that your plan is neither too comprehensive nor too contracted; that the parts are properly distinct; and that they are (to preserve the painter’s metaphor) made out just as they ought to be. Your introductory chapter is, I think, particularly good; and I was much pleased, although a little surprised, at finding that it was made to serve as a recueil des pièces justificatives to your view of the state of manners among your Borderers, which I venture to say will be more thumbed than any part of the volume.
“You will easily believe that I cast many an anxious
look for the annunciation of ‘Sir Tristrem,’ and will not be surprised that I was at first
rather disappointed at not finding any thing like a solemn engagement to
produce him to the world within some fixed and limited period. Upon reflection,
however, I really think you have judged wisely, and that you have best promoted
the interests of literature, by sending, as the harbinger of the
‘Knight of Leonais,’ a
collection which
| 346 | LIFE OF SIR WALTER SCOTT. |
I might fill many pages by transcribing similar letters from persons of
acknowledged discernment in this branch of literature; John Duke
of Roxburgh is among the number, and he conveys also a complimentary message
from the late Earl Spencer; Pinkerton issues his decree of approbation as ex
cathedrâ; Chalmers
overflows with heartier praise; and even Joseph
Ritson extols his presentation copy as “the most valuable literary
treasure in his possession.” There follows enough of female admiration to
have been dangerous for another man; a score of fine ladies contend who shall be the most
extravagant in encomium—and as many professed blue stockings come after; among, or rather
above the rest, Anna Seward, “the
Swan of Lichfield,” who laments that her “bright
luminary,” Darwin, does not survive to
partake her raptures;—observes, that “in the Border Ballads the first strong rays
of the Delphic orb
| THE MINSTRELSY—1802. | 347 |
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