Memoirs of the Life of Sir Walter Scott, Bart.
Walter Scott to Anna Seward, [29 June 1802]
“I have some thoughts of attempting a Border ballad in the comic manner;
but I almost despair of bringing it well out. A certain Sir William Scott, from whom I am descended,
was ill-advised enough to plunder the estate of Sir
Gideon Murray of Elibank, ancestor to the present Lord Elibank. The marauder was defeated, seized,
and brought in fetters to the castle of Elibank, upon the Tweed. The
Lady Murray (agreeably to the custom of all ladies in
ancient tales) was seated on the battlements, and descried the return of her
husband with his prisoners. She immediately enquired what he meant to do with
the young Knight of Harden, which was the petit
titre of Sir William Scott.
‘Hang the robber, assuredly,’ was the answer of
Sir Gideon. ‘What!’ answered the
lady, ‘hang the ![]()
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handsome young knight of Harden
when I have three ill-favoured daughters unmarried! No, no, Sir
Gideon, we’ll force him to marry our
Meg.’ Now tradition says, that Meg Murray was the ugliest woman in the four
counties, and that she was called, in the homely dialect of the time,
meikle-mouthed Meg (I will not affront you by an
explanation).* Sir Gideon, like a good husband and tender
father, entered into his wife’s sentiments, and preferred to
Sir William the alternative of becoming his
son-in-law, or decorating with his carcase the kindly gallows of Elibank. The
lady was so very ugly, that Sir William, the handsomest
man of his time, positively refused the honour of her hand. Three days were
allowed him to make up his mind; and it was not until he found one end of a
rope made fast to his neck, and the other knitted to a sturdy oak bough, that
his resolution gave way, and he preferred an ugly wife to the literal noose. It
is said, they were afterwards a very happy couple. She had a curious hand at
pickling the beef which he stole; and, marauder as he was, he had little reason
to dread being twitted by the pawky gowk. This, either by its being perpetually
told to me when young, or by a perverted taste for such anecdotes, has always
struck me as a good subject for a comic ballad, and how happy should I be were
Miss Seward to agree in opinion with
me.
“This little tale may serve for an introduction to
some observations I have to offer upon our popular poetry. It will at least so
far disclose your correspondent’s weak side, as to induce you to make
allowance for my mode of arguing. Much of its peculiar charm is indeed, I
believe, to be attributed solely to its locality. A very
* It is commonly said that all Meg’s descendants have inherited
something of her characteristic feature. The Poet certainly was no
exception to the rule. |
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| LETTERS TO MISS SEWARD—1802. | 351 |
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commonplace and obvious
epithet, when applied to a scene which we have been accustomed to view with
pleasure, recalls to us not merely the local scenery, but a thousand little
nameless associations, which we are unable to separate or to define. In some
verses of that eccentric but admirable poet, Coleridge, he talks of ‘An old rude tale that suited well The ruins wild and hoary.’ |
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I think there are few who have not been in some degree touched with this
local sympathy. Tell a peasant an ordinary tale of robbery and murder, and
perhaps you may fail to interest him; but to excite his terrors, you assure him
it happened on the very heath he usually crosses, or to a man whose family he
has known, and you rarely meet such a mere image of Humanity as remains
entirely unmoved. I suspect it is pretty much the same with myself, and many of
my countrymen, who are charmed by the effect of local description, and
sometimes impute that effect to the poet which is produced by the recollections
and associations which his verses excite. Why else did Sir Philip Sydney feel that the tale of Percy and Douglas moved him like the sound of a
trumpet? or why is it that a Swiss sickens at hearing the famous Ranz des Vaches, to which the native of any other
country would have listened for a hundred days, without any other sensation
than ennui? I fear our poetical taste is in general much more linked with our
prejudices of birth, of education, and of habitual thinking, than our vanity
will allow us to suppose; and that, let the point of the poet’s dart be
as sharp as that of Cupid, it is the wings
lent it by the fancy and prepossessions of the gentle reader which carry it to
the mark. It may appear like great egotism to pretend to illustrate my position
from the reception which the pro-![]()
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ductions of so mere a
ballad-monger as myself have met with from the public; but I cannot help
observing that all Scotchmen prefer the Eve of St John to Glenfinlas, and most of my English friends entertain precisely an
opposite opinion. . . . I have been writing this letter by a paragraph at a
time for about a month, this being the season when we are most devoted to the ‘Drowsy bench and babbling hall.’ |
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I have the honour,” &c. &c. . . . . .
Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772-1834)
English poet and philosopher who projected
Lyrical Ballads (1798)
with William Wordsworth; author of
Biographia Literaria (1817),
On the Constitution of the Church and State (1829) and other
works.
Alexander Murray, seventh lord Elibank (1747-1820)
The son of Reverend Gideon Murray; he served in the 3rd Foot Guards before assuming the
title in 1785. He was Lord-Lieutenant Peebles-shire (1794-1820).
Sir Gideon Murray, Lord Elibank (1560 c.-1621)
Scottish judge and politician, a sometimes favorite of James I; his daughter Agnes
married Sir William Scott of Harden.
Anna Seward [the Swan of Lichfield] (1742-1809)
English poet, patron, and letter-writer; she was the center of a literary circle at
Lichfield. Her
Poetical Works, 3 vols (1810) were edited by Walter
Scott.
Sir Philip Sidney (1554-1586)
English poet, courtier, and soldier, author of the
Arcadia (1590),
Astrophel and Stella (1591) and
Apology for
Poetry (1595).
