PARTNERSHIP WITH BALLANTYNE. | 37 |
Mr Ballantyne, in his
Memorandum, says, that very shortly after the publication of the Lay, he found himself obliged to apply to Mr Scott for an advance of money; his own capital being
inadequate for the business which had been accumulated on his press, in consequence of the
reputation it had acquired for beauty and correctness of execution. Already, as we have
seen, Ballantyne had received “a liberal loan;”
“and now,” says he, “being compelled, maugre all delicacy,
to renew my application, he candidly answered that he was not quite sure that it would
be prudent for him to comply, but in order to evince his entire confidence in me, he
was willing to make a suitable advance to be admitted as a third-sharer of my
business.” In truth, Scott now embarked in
Ballantyne’s concern almost the whole of the capital at his
disposal, namely, the L.5000 which he had received for Rosebank, and which he had a few
months
38 | LIFE OF SIR WALTER SCOTT. |
I have, many pages back, hinted my suspicion that he had formed some
distant notion of such an alliance, as early as the date of Ballantyne’s projected removal from Kelso to Edinburgh; and his
Introduction to the Lay, in 1830, appears to
leave little doubt that the hope of ultimately succeeding at the Bar had waxed very faint,
before the third volume of the Minstrelsy was brought out in 1803. When that hope ultimately vanished
altogether, perhaps he himself would not have found it easy to tell. The most important of
men’s opinions, views, and projects are sometimes taken up in so very gradual a
manner, and after so many pauses of hesitation and of inward retractation, that they
themselves are at a loss to trace in retrospect all the stages through which their minds
have passed. We see plainly that Scott had never been
fond of his profession, but that, conscious of his own persevering diligence, he ascribed
his scanty success in it mainly to the prejudices of the Scotch solicitors against
employing, in weighty causes at least, any barrister supposed to be strongly imbued with
the love of literature; instancing the career of his friend Jeffrey as almost the solitary instance within his experience of such
prejudices being entirely overcome. Had Scott, to his strong sense and
dexterous ingenuity, his well-grounded knowledge of the jurisprudence of his country, and
his admirable industry, added a brisk and ready talent for debate and declamation, I can
have no doubt that his triumph over the prejudices alluded to would have been as complete
as Mr Jeffrey’s; nor in truth do I much question that, had one
really great and interesting case been submitted to his sole care and management, the
result would have been to place his professional character for skill and judgment, and
variety of resource, on so firm
PARTNERSHIP WITH BALLANTYNE. | 39 |
40 | LIFE OF SIR WALTER SCOTT. |
We have seen that, before he formed his contract with Ballantyne, he was in possession of such a fixed income as might have satisfied all his desires, had he not found his family increasing rapidly about him. Even as that was, with nearly if not quite L.1000 per annum, he might perhaps have retired not only from the Bar, but from Edinburgh, and settled entirely at Ashestiel or Broadmeadows, without encountering what any man of his station and habits ought to have considered as an imprudent risk. He had, however, no wish to cut himself off from the busy and intelligent society to which he had been hitherto accustomed; and resolved not to leave the bar until he should have at least used his best efforts for obtaining, in addition to his Shrievalty, one of those clerkships of the supreme court at Edinburgh, which are usually considered as honourable retirements for advocates who, at a certain standing, finally give up all hopes of reaching the dignity of the bench. “I determined,” he says, “that literature should be my staff but not my crutch, and that the profits of my literary labour, however convenient otherwise, should not, if I could help it, become necessary to my ordinary expenses. Upon such a post an author might hope to retreat, without any perceptible alteration of circumstances, whenever the time should arrive that the public grew weary of his endeavours to please, or he himself should tire of the pen. I possessed so many friends capable of assisting me in this object of ambition, that I could hardly over-rate my own prospects of obtaining the preferment to which I limited my wishes; and, in fact, I obtained, in no long period, the reversion of a situation which completely met them.”*
The first notice of this affair that occurs in his cor-
* Introduction to the Lay of the Last Minstrel—1830. |
PARTNERSHIP WITH BALLANTYNE. | 41 |
Mean while, his design of quitting the bar was divulged to none but those immediately necessary for the purposes of his negotiation with the Government; and the nature of his connexion with the printing company remained, I believe, not only unknown, but for some years wholly unsuspected, by any of his daily companions except Mr Erskine.
The forming of this commercial connexion was one of the most important steps in Scott’s life. He continued bound by it during twenty years, and its influence on his literary exertions and his worldly fortunes was productive of much good and not a little evil. Its effects were in truth so mixed and balanced during the vicissitudes of a long and vigorous career, that I at this moment doubt whether it ought, on the whole, to be considered with more of satisfaction or of regret.
With what zeal he proceeded in advancing the views of the new
copartnership, his correspondence bears ample evidence. The brilliant and captivating
genius, now acknowledged universally, was soon discovered by the leading booksellers of the
time to be united with such abundance of matured information in many departments, and,
42 | LIFE OF SIR WALTER SCOTT. |
LITERARY PROJECTS. | 43 |
The following is the first letter I have found of Scott to his partner. The Mr Foster mentioned in the beginning of it was a literary gentleman who had proposed to take on himself a considerable share in the annotation of some of the new editions then on the carpet—among others one of Dryden.
“I have duly received your two favours—also Foster’s. He still howls about the
expense of printing, but I think we shall finally settle. His argument is that
you print too fine, alias too dear. I intend to stick to
my answer, that I know nothing of the matter; but that settle it how you and he
will, it must be printed by you, or can be no concern of mine. This gives you
an ad-
44 | LIFE OF SIR WALTER SCOTT. |
“I have imagined a very superb work. What think you of a complete edition of British Poets, ancient and modern? Johnson’s is imperfect and out of print; so is Bell’s, which is a Lilliputian thing; and Anderson’s, the most complete in point of number, is most contemptible in execution both of the editor and printer. There is a scheme for you! At least a hundred volumes, to be published at the rate of ten a-year. I cannot, however, be ready till midsummer. If the booksellers will give me a decent allowance per volume, say thirty guineas, I shall hold myself well paid on the writing hand. This is a dead secret.
“I think it quite right to let Doig* have a share of Thomson;† but he is hard and slippery, so settle your bargain fast and firm—no loop-holes! I am glad you have got some elbow-room at last. Cowan will come to, or we will find some fit place in time. If not, we must build—necessity has no law. I see nothing to hinder you from doing Tacitus with your correctness of eye, and I congratulate you on the fair prospect before us. When you have time you will make out a list of the debts to be discharged at Whitsunday, that we may see what cash we shall have in bank. Our book-keeping may be very simple—an accurate cash book and ledger is all that is necessary; and I think I know enough of the matter to assist at making the balance sheet.
“In short, with the assistance of a little cash I have
* A bookseller in Edinburgh. † A projected edition of the Works of the author of the Seasons. |
LITERARY PROJECTS. | 45 |
Scott opened forthwith his gigantic scheme of the British Poets to Constable, who entered into it with eagerness. They found presently that Messrs Cadell and Davies, and some of the other London publishers, had a similar plan on foot, and after an unsuccessful negotiation with Mackintosh, were now actually treating with Campbell for the Biographical prefaces. Scott proposed that the Edinburgh and London houses should join in the adventure, and that the editorial task should be shared between himself and his brother poet. To this both Messrs Cadell and Mr Campbell warmly assented; but the design ultimately fell to the ground in consequence of the booksellers refusing to admit certain works which both Scott and Campbell insisted upon. Such, and from analogous causes, has been the fate of various similar schemes both before and since. But the public had no trivial compensation upon the present occasion, since the failure of the original project led Mr Campbell to prepare for the press those “Specimens of English Poetry” which he illustrated with sketches of biography and critical essays, alike honourable to his learning and taste; while Scott, Mr Foster ultimately standing off, took on himself the whole burden of a new edition, as well as biography, of Dryden. The body of booksellers mean while combined in what they still called a general edition of the English Poets, under the superintendence of one of their own Grub-street vassals, Mr Alexander Chalmers.
Precisely at the time when Scott’s poetical ambition had been stimulated by the first outburst
of universal
46 | LIFE OF SIR WALTER SCOTT. |
VOLUNTEER MANIA—1805. | 47 |
“Your silence has been so long and opinionative, that I am quite authorized, as a Border ballad-monger,
to address you with a—‘Sleep you, or wake you?’ What has
become of the Romances,
which I have expected as anxiously as my neighbours around me have watched for
the rain, which was to bring the grass, which was to feed the new-calved cows,
and to as little purpose, for both Heaven and you have obstinately delayed your
favours. After idling away the spring months at Ashestiel, I am just returned
to idle away the summer here, and I have lately lighted upon rather an
interesting article in your way. If you will turn to Barbour’s Bruce (Pinkerton’s edition, p. 66), you will
find that the Lord of Lorn, seeing Bruce covering the retreat of his followers, compares him to
Gow MacMorn (Macpherson’s Gaul the son of
Morni). This similitude appears to Barbour
a disparagement, and he says, the
48 | LIFE OF SIR WALTER SCOTT. |
ASHESTIEL—1805. | 49 |
“I hope you continue to like the Lay. I have had a flattering assurance of Mr Fox’s approbation, mixed with a censure of my eulogy on the Viscount of Dundee. Although my Tory principles prevent my coinciding with his political opinions, I am very proud of his approbation in a literary sense.
In his answer, Ellis
says—“Longman lately informed me
that you have projected a General Edition of our Poets. I expressed to him my anxiety
that the booksellers, who certainly can ultimately sell what they please, should for
once undertake something calculated to please intelligent readers, and that they should
confine themselves to the selection of paper, types, &c. (which they possibly may
understand), and by no means, interfere with the literary part of the business, which,
if popularity be the object, they must leave exclusively to you. I am talking, as you
perceive, about your plan, without knowing its extent, or any of its details; for
these, therefore, I will wait—after confessing that, much as I wish for a corpus poetarum, edited as you would edit it, I
should like still better another Minstrel Lay by the last and best Minstrel; and the
general demand for the poem seems to prove that the public are of my opinion. If,
however, you don’t feel disposed to take a second ride on Pegasus, why not undertake something far less
infra dig. than a mere edition of our
poets? Why not undertake what Gibbon once
undertook—an
50 | LIFE OF SIR WALTER SCOTT. |
Mr Ellis appears to have communicated all his notions on this subject to Messrs Longman, for Scott writes to Ballantyne (Ashestiel, September 5), “I have had a visit from Rees yesterday. He is anxious about a corpus historiarum, or full edition of the Chronicles of England, an immense work. I proposed to him beginning with Hollinshed, and I think the work will be secured for your press. I congratulate you on Clarendon, which, under Thomson’s direction, will be a glorious publication.”*
The printing-office in the Canongate was by this time in very great request; and the letter I have been quoting contains evidence that the partners had already found it necessary to borrow fresh capital—on the personal security, it need not be added, of Scott himself. He says, “As I have full confidence in your applying the accommodation received from Sir William Forbes in the most convenient and prudent manner, I have no hesitation to return the bonds subscribed, as you desire. This will put you in cash for great matters.”
But to return. To Ellis himself, he says, “I have had booksellers here in the plural number. You have set little Rees’s head agog about the Chronicles, which would be an admirable work, but should, I think, be edited by an Englishman who can have access to the MSS. of Oxford and Cambridge, as one cannot trust much to the correctness of printed copies. I will, howover, consider the matter, so far as a decent edition of Hollinshed is concerned, in case my time is not other-
* An edition of Clarendon had been, it seems, contemplated by Scott’s friend, Mr Thomas Thomson. |
ASHESTIEL—1805. | 51 |
Already, then, he was seriously at work on Dryden. During the same summer, he drew up for the Edinburgh Review an admirable article on Todd’s Edition of
Spenser; another on
Godwin’s Fleetwood; a third, on
52 | LIFE OF SIR WALTER SCOTT. |
* I have ascertained, since this page was written, that a small part of the MS. of Waverley is on paper bearing the watermark of 1805—the rest on paper of 1813. |
WAVERLEY BEGUN—1805. | 53 |
“Having proceeded,” he says, “as far as I think the seventh chapter, I showed my work to a critical friend, whose opinion was unfavourable; and having then some poetical reputation, I was unwilling to risk the loss of it by attempting a new style of composition. I, therefore, then threw aside the work I had commenced, without either reluctance or remonstrance. I ought to add, that though my ingenuous friend’s sentence was afterwards reversed, on an appeal to the public, it cannot be considered as any imputation on his good taste; for the specimen subjected to his criticism did not extend beyond the departure of the hero for Scotland, and consequently had not entered upon the part of the story which was finally found most interesting.” A letter to be quoted under the year 1810 will, I believe, satisfy the reader that the first critic of the opening chapters of Waverley was William Erskine.
The following letter must have been written in the course of this autumn. It is in every respect a very interesting one; but I introduce it here as illustrating the course of his reflections on Highland subjects in general, at the time when the first outlines both of the Lady of the Lake and Waverley must have been floating about in his mind:—
“You recall to me some very pleasant feelings of my
boyhood, when you ask my opinion of Ossian.
His
54 | LIFE OF SIR WALTER SCOTT. |
ASHESTIEL—1805. | 55 |
“In all the ballads I ever saw or could hear of,
Fin and Ossin are described as
natives of Ireland, although it is not unusual for the reciters sturdily to
maintain that this is a corruption of the text. In point of merit I do not
think these Gaelic poems much better than those of the Scandinavian Scalds;
they are very unequal, often very vigorous and pointed, often drivelling and
crawling in the very extremity of tenuity. The manners of the heroes are those
of Celtic savages; and I could point out twenty instances in which Macpherson has very cunningly adopted the
beginning, the names, and the leading incidents, &c. of an old tale, and
dressed it up with all those ornaments of sentiment and sentimental manners,
which first excite our surprise, and afterwards our doubt of its authenticity.
The Highlanders themselves, recognising the leading features of tales they had
heard in infancy, with here and there a tirade really taken from an old poem,
were readily seduced into becoming champions for the authenticity of the poems.
How many people, not particularly addicted to poetry, who may have heard Chevy- Chase in the nursery or at school, and never
since met with the ballad, might be imposed upon by a new Chevy-Chase, bearing no resemblance to the old one, save in here
and there a stanza
56 | LIFE OF SIR WALTER SCOTT. |
“The Highland Society have lately set about
investigating, or rather, I should say, collecting materials to defend, the
authenticity of Ossian. Those researches
have only proved that there were no real originals using that word as is
commonly understood to be found for them. The oldest tale they have found seems
to be that of Darthula; but it is perfectly
different, both in diction and story, from that of Macpherson. It is, however, a beautiful specimen of Celtic
poetry, and shows that it contains much which is worthy of preservation.
Indeed, how should it be otherwise, when we know that, till about fifty years
ago, the Highlands contained a race of hereditary poets? Is it possible to
think, that, among perhaps many hundreds, who for such a course of centuries
have founded their reputation and rank on practising the art of poetry in a
country where the scenery and manners gave such effect and interest and imagery
to their productions, there should not have been some who attained excellence?
In searching out those genuine records of the Celtic Muse, and preserving them
ASHESTIEL—1805. | 57 |
“I am not to deny that Macpherson’s inferiority in other compositions is a
presumption that he did not actually compose these poems. But we are to
consider his advantage when on his own ground. Macpherson
was a Highlander, and had his imagination fired with the charms of Celtic
poetry from his very infancy. We know, from constant experience, that most
Highlanders, after they have become complete masters of English, continue to
think in their own language; and it is to me
demonstrable that Macpherson thought almost every word of Ossian in Gaelic, although he wrote it down
in English. The specimens of his early poetry which remain are also deeply
tinged with the peculiarities of the Celtic diction and character; so that, in
fact, he might be considered as a Highland poet, even if he had not left us
some Earse translations (or originals of Ossian) unquestionably written by himself. These circumstances
gave a great advantage to him in forming the style of
Ossian, which, though exalted and modified according
to Macpherson’s own ideas of modern taste, is in
great part cut upon the model of the tales of the Sennachies and Bards. In the
translation of Homer, he
not only lost these advantages, but the circumstances on which they were
founded were a great detriment to his undertaking; for although such a dress
was appropriate and becoming for Ossian, few people cared
to see their old Grecian friend disguised in a tartan plaid and philabeg. In a
word, the style which Macpherson had formed, however
admirable in a Highland tale, was not calculated for translating Homer; and it was a great
58 | LIFE OF SIR WALTER SCOTT. |
“Thus I have given you with the utmost sincerity my creed on the great national question of Ossian; it has been formed after much deliberation and enquiry. I have had for some time thoughts of writing a Highland poem, somewhat in the style of the Lay, giving as far as I can a real picture of what that enthusiastic race actually were before the destruction of their patriarchal government. It is true I have not quite the same facilities as in describing Border manners, where I am, as they say, more at home. But to balance my comparative deficiency in knowledge of Celtic manners, you are to consider that I have from my youth delighted in all the Highland traditions which I could pick from the old Jacobites who used to frequent my father’s house; and this will, I hope, make some amends for my having less immediate opportunities of research than in the Border tales.
“Agreeably to your advice, I have actually read over
Madoc a second time, and
I confess have seen much beauty which escaped me in the first perusal. Yet (which yet, by the way, is almost as vile a
monosyllable as but) I cannot feel quite the interest I
would wish to do. The difference of character which you notice, reminds me of
what by Ben Jonson and other old
commedians were called humours, which consisted rather
in the personification of some individual passion or propensity than of an
actual individual man. Also, I cannot
ASHESTIEL—1805. | 59 |
“Believe me, I shall not be within many miles of Lichfield without paying my personal respects to you; and yet I should not do it in prudence, because I am afraid you have formed a higher opinion of me than I deserve; you would expect to see a person who had dedicated himself much to literary pursuits, and you would find me a rattle-sculled half-lawyer, half-sportsman, through whose head a regiment of horse has been exercising since he was five years old; half-educated, half-crazy, as his friends sometimes tell him; half every thing, but entirely Miss Seward’s much obliged, affectionate, and faithful servant,
His correspondence shows how largely he was exerting himself all this
while in the service of authors less fortunate than himself. James Hogg, among others, continued to occupy from time to time his
attention; and he assisted regularly and assiduously throughout this and the succeeding
year Mr Robert Jameson, an industrious and
intelligent antiquary, who had engaged in editing a collection of ancient popular ballads
before the third volume of the Minstrelsy appeared, and who
60 | LIFE OF SIR WALTER SCOTT. |
But the most agreeable of all his visitants were his own old familiar friends, and one of these has furnished me with a sketch of the autumn life of Ashestiel, of which I shall now avail myself. Scott’s invitation was in these terms:—
“I have prepared another edition of the Lay, 1500 strong, moved thereunto by
the faith, hope, and charity of the London booksellers. . . . . If you could,
in the interim, find a moment to spend here, you know the way, and the ford is
where it was; which, by the way, is more than I expected after Saturday last,
the most dreadful storm of thunder and lightning I ever witnessed. The
lightning broke repeatedly in our immediate vicinity, i.e. betwixt us and the Peel wood. Charlotte resolved to die in bed like a good Christian. The
servants said it was the preface to the end of the world, and I was the only
person that maintained my character for stoicism, which I assure you had some
merit, as I
ASHESTIEL—1805. | 61 |
Mr Skene says, “I well remember the ravages of the storm and flood described in this letter. The ford of Ashestiel was never a good one, and for some time after this it remained not a little perilous. He was himself the first to attempt the passage on his favourite black horse Captain, who had scarcely entered the river when he plunged beyond his depth, and had to swim to the other side with his burden. It requires a good horseman to swim a deep and rapid stream, but he trusted to the vigour of his steady trooper, and in spite of his lameness kept his seat manfully. A cart bringing a new kitchen range (as I believe the grate for that service is technically called) was shortly after upset in this ugly ford. The horse and cart were with difficulty got out, but the grate remained for some time in the middle of the stream to do duty as a horse-trap, and furnish subject for many a good joke when Mrs Scott happened to complain of the imperfection of her kitchen appointments.”
Mr Skene soon discovered an important change which
had recently been made in his friend’s distribution of his time. Previously it had
been his custom, whenever professional business or social engagements occupied the middle
part of his day, to seize some hours for study after he was supposed to have retired to
bed. His physician suggested that this was very likely to aggravate his nervous headaches,
the only malady he was
62 | LIFE OF SIR WALTER SCOTT. |
ASHESTIEL—1805. | 63 |
It was another rule that every letter he received should be answered that same day. Nothing else could have enabled him to keep abreast with the flood of communications that in the sequel put his good nature to the severest test—but already the demands on him in this way also were numerous; and he included attention to them among the necessary business which must be despatched before he had a right to close his writing-box, or as he phrased it, “to say out damned spot, and be a gentleman.” In turning over his enormous mass of correspondence, I have almost invariably found some indication that, when a letter had remained more than a day or two unanswered, it had been so because he found occasion for enquiry or deliberate consideration.
I ought not to omit that in those days Scott was far too zealous a dragoon not to take a principal share in the stable duty. Before beginning his desk-work in the morning, he uniformly visited his favourite steed, and neither Captain nor Lieutenant, nor the lieutenant’s successor, Brown Adam (so called after one of the heroes of the Minstrelsy), liked to be fed except by him. The latter charger was indeed altogether intractable in other hands, though in his the most submissive of faithful allies. The moment he was bridled and saddled, it was the custom to open the stable door as a signal that his master expected him, when he immediately trotted to the side of the leaping-on-stone, of which Scott from his lameness found it convenient to make use, and stood there, silent and motionless as a rock, until he was fairly in his seat, after which he displayed his joy by neighing triumphantly through a brilliant succession of curvettings. Brown Adam never suffered himself to be backed but by his master. He broke, I believe, one groom’s arm and another’s leg in the rash attempt to tamper with his dignity.
64 | LIFE OF SIR WALTER SCOTT. |
Camp was at this time the constant parlour dog. He was very handsome, very intelligent, and naturally very fierce, but gentle as a lamb among the children. As for the more locomotive Douglas and Percy, he kept one window of his study open, whatever might be the state of the weather, that they might leap out and in as the fancy moved them. He always talked to Camp as if he understood what was said—and the animal certainly did understand not a little of it; in particular, it seemed as if he perfectly comprehended on all occasions that his master considered him as a sensible and steady friend, the greyhounds as volatile young creatures whose freaks must be borne with.
“Every day,” says Mr
Skene, “we had some hours of coursing with the greyhounds, or
riding at random over the hills, or of spearing salmon in the Tweed by sunlight: which
last sport, moreover, we often renewed at night by the help of torches. This amusement
of burning the water, as it is called, was not without some
hazard, for the large salmon generally lie in the pools, the depths of which it is not
easy to estimate with precision by torchlight,—so that not unfrequently, when the
sportsman makes a determined thrust at a fish apparently within reach, his eye has
grossly deceived him, and instead of the point of the weapon encountering the prey, he
finds himself launched with corresponding vehemence heels over head into the pool, both
spear and salmon gone, the torch thrown out by the concussion of the boat, and quenched
in the stream, while the boat itself has of course receded to some distance. I remember
the first time I accompanied our friend he went right over the gun-wale in this manner,
and had I not accidentally been close at his side, and made a successful grasp at the
skirt of his jacket as he plunged overboard, he must at least have had an awkward dive
for it. Such are the
ASHESTIEL—1805—MR SKENE. | 65 |
In all these amusements, but particularly in the burning of the water, Scott’s most regular companion at this time was John Lord Somerville, who united with many higher qualities a most enthusiastic love for such sports, and consummate address in the prosecution of them. This amiable nobleman then passed his autumns at his pretty seat of Allwyn, or the Pavilion, situated on the Tweed, some eight or nine miles below Ashestiel. They interchanged visits almost every week; and Scott did not fail to profit largely by his friend’s matured and well-known skill in every department of the science of rural economy. He always talked of him, in particular, as his master in the art of planting.
The laird of Rubislaw seldom failed to spend a part of the summer and
autumn at Ashestiel, as long as Scott remained there,
and during these visits they often gave a wider scope to their expeditions.
“Indeed,” says Mr Skene,
“there are few scenes at all celebrated either in the history, tradition, or
romance of the Border counties, which we did not explore together in the course of our
rambles. We traversed the entire vales of the Yarrow and Ettrick, with all their sweet
tributary glens, and never failed to find a hearty welcome from the farmers at whose
houses we stopped, either for dinner or for the night. He was their chief-magistrate,
extremely popular in that official capacity, and nothing could be more gratifying than
the frank and hearty reception which every where greeted our arrival, however
unexpected. The exhilarating air of the mountains, and tho healthy exercise of the day,
secured our relishing homely fare, and we found inexhaustible entertainment in the
66 | LIFE OF SIR WALTER SCOTT. |
“These excursions derived an additional zest from the
uncertainty that often attended the issue of our proceedings; for, following the game
started by the dogs, our unfailing comrades, we frequently got entangled and bewildered
among the hills, until we had to trust to mere chance for the lodging of the night.
Adventures of this sort were quite to his taste, and the more for the perplexities
which on such occasions befell our attendant squires, mine a lanky Savoyard, his a
portly Scotch butler, both of them uncommonly
bad horsemen, and both equally sensitive about their personal dignity, which the
ruggedness of the ground often made it a matter of some difficulty for either of them
to maintain, but more especially for my poor foreigner, whose seat resembled that of a
pair of compasses astride. Scott’s heavy
lumbering beauffetier had provided himself
against the mountain showers with a huge cloak, which, when the
ASHESTIEL—MR SKENE. | 67 |
“One of our earliest expeditions was to visit the wild scenery
of the mountainous tract above Moffat, including the cascade of the ‘Grey
Mare’s Tail,’ and the dark tarn called ‘Loch Skene.’ In our
ascent to the lake we got completely bewildered in the thick fog which generally
envelopes the rugged features of that lonely region; and, as we were groping through
the maze of bogs, the ground gave way, and down went horse and horsemen pell-mell into
a slough of peaty mud and black water, out of which, entangled as we were with our
plaids and floundering nags, it was no easy matter to get extricated. Indeed, unless we
had prudently left our gallant steeds at a farm-house below, and borrowed hill ponies
for the occasion, the result might have been worse than laughable. As it was, we rose
like the spirits of the bog, covered cap-à-pie with slime, to free themselves from which, our wily
ponies took to
68 | LIFE OF SIR WALTER SCOTT. |
“It was also in the course of this excursion that we encountered that amusing personage introduced into Guy Mannering as ‘Tod Gabbie,’ though the appellation by which he was known in the neighbourhood was ‘Tod Willie.’ He was one of those itinerants who gain a subsistence among the moorland farmers by relieving them of foxes, polecats, and the like depredators—a half-witted, stuttering, and most original creature.
“Having explored all the wonders of Moffatdale, we turned
ourselves towards Blackhouse Tower, to visit Scott’s worthy acquaintances the Laidlaws, and
reached it after a long and intricate ride, having been again led off our course by the
greyhounds, who had been seduced by a strange dog that joined company, to engage in
full pursuit upon the tract of what we presumed to be either a fox or a roe-deer. The
chase was protracted and perplexing, from the mist that skirted the hill tops; but at
length we reached the scene of slaughter, and were much distressed to find that a
stately old he-goat had been the victim. He seemed to have fought a stout battle for
ASHESTIEL—MR SKENE. | 69 |
“Sir Adam Fergusson and the Ettrick Shepherd were of the party that explored Loch Skene and hunted the unfortunate he-goat.
“I need not tell you that Saint Mary’s Loch, and the Loch
of the Lowes, were among the most favourite scenes of our excursions, as his fondness
for them continued to his last days, and we have both visited them many times together
in his company. I may say the same of the Teviot, and the Aill, Borthwick-water, and
the lonely towers of Buccleuch and Harden, Minto, Roxburgh, Gilnockie, &c. I think
it was either in 1805 or 1806 that I first explored the Borthwick with him, when on our
way to pass a week at Langholm with Lord and
Lady Dalkeith, upon which occasion the
otter-hunt, so well described in Guy
Mannering, was got up by our noble host; and I can never forget the delight
with which Scott observed the enthusiasm of the
high-spirited yeomen, who had assembled in multitudes to partake the sport of their
dear young chief, well mounted, and dashing about from rock to rock with a reckless
ardour which recalled the alacrity of their forefathers in follow-
70 | LIFE OF SIR WALTER SCOTT. |
“Whatever the banks of the Tweed from its source to its termination, presented of interest, we frequently visited; and I do verily believe there is not a single ford in the whole course of that river which we have not traversed together. He had an amazing fondness for fords, and was not a little adventurous in plunging through, whatever might be the state of the flood, and this even though there happened to be a bridge in view. If it seemed possible to scramble through, he scorned to go ten yards about, and in fact preferred the ford; and it is to be remarked, that most of the heroes of his tales seem to have been endued with similar propensities—even the White Lady of Avenel delights in the ford. He sometimes even attempted them on foot, though his lameness interfered considerably with his progress among the slippery stones. Upon one occasion of this sort I was assisting him through the Ettrick, and we had both got upon the same tottering stone in the middle of the stream, when some story about a kelpie occurring to him, he must needs stop and tell it with all his usual vivacity—and then, laughing heartily at his own joke, he slipped his foot, or the stone shuffled beneath him, and down he went headlong into the pool, pulling me after him. We escaped, however, with no worse than a thorough drenching and the loss of his stick, which floated down the river, and he was as ready as ever for a similar exploit before his clothes were half dried upon his back.”
About this time Mr and Mrs Scott made
a short excursion to the Lakes of Cumberland and Westmoreland, and visited some of their
finest scenery, in company with Mr Wordsworth. I
have found no written nar-
EXCURSION TO CUMBERLAND—1805. | 71 |
After leaving Mr Wordsworth, Scott carried his wife to spend a few days at Gilsland, among the scenes where they had first met; and his reception by the company at the wells was such as to make him look back with something of regret, as well as of satisfaction, to the change that had occurred in his circumstances since 1797. They were, however, enjoying themselves much
* See notice prefixed to the song— “I climbed the dark brow of the mighty Helvellyn,” &c., in Scott’s Poetical Works, edit. 1834, vol. i., 370; and compare the lines,
|
72 | LIFE OF SIR WALTER SCOTT. |
By the way, it was during his fiery ride from Gilsland to Dalkeith, on the occasion above mentioned, that he composed his Bard’s Incantation, first published six years afterwards in the Edinburgh Annual Register:—
“The forest of Glenmore is drear, It is all of black pine and the dark oak-tree,” &c.— |
Shortly after he was re-established at Ashestiel, he was visited there by Mr Southey; this being, I believe,
* See Note “Alarm of Invasion,” Antiquary, vol. ii. p. 338. |
ALARM OF INVASION—1805. | 73 |
“More than a month has glided away in this busy solitude, and yet I have never sat down to answer your kind letter. I have only to plead a horror of pen and ink with which this country, in fine weather (and ours has been most beautiful) regularly affects me. In recompense, I ride, walk, fish, course, eat and drink, with might and main from morning to night. I could have wished sincerely you had come to Reged this year to partake her rural amusements;—the only comfort I have is, that your visit would have been over, and now I look forward to it as a pleasure to come. I shall be infinitely obliged to you for your advice and assistance in the course of Dryden. I fear little can be procured for a Life beyond what Malone has compiled, but certainly his facts may be rather better told and arranged. I am at present busy with the dramatic department. This undertaking will make my being in London in spring a matter of absolute necessity.
“And now let me tell you of a discovery which I have made, or rather which Robert Jameson has made, in copying the MS. of ‘True Thomas and the Queen of Elfland,’ in the Lincoln cathedral. The queen at parting, bestows the gifts of harping and carping upon the prophet, and mark his reply—
‘To harp and carp, Tomas, where so ever ye gen— Tomas, take thou these with thee.’— ‘Harping,’ he said, ‘ken I nane, For Tong is chefe of mynstrelsie.’ |
74 | LIFE OF SIR WALTER SCOTT. |
“Another curiosity was brought here a few days ago by
Mr Southey the poet, who favoured me
with a visit on his way to Edinburgh. It was a MS. containing sundry metrical
romances, and other poetical compositions, in the northern dialect, apparently
written about the middle of the 15th century. I had not time to make an
analysis of its contents, but some of them seem highly valuable. There is a
tale of Sir Gowther, said to be a Breton Lay,
which partly resembles the history of Robert the
Devil, the hero being begot in the same way; and partly that of
Robert of Sicily, the penance imposed on
Sir Gowther being the same, as he kept
table with the hounds, and was discovered by a dumb lady to be the stranger
knight who had assisted her father the emperor in his wars. There is also a MS.
of Sir Isanbras; item a poem called Sir Amadas not Amadis of
Gaul, but a courteous knight who, being reduced to poverty, travels to
conceal his distress, and gives the wreck of his fortune to purchase the rites
of burial for a deceased knight, who had been refused them by the obduracy of
his creditors. The rest of the story is the same with that of Jean de Calais, in the Bibliothèque Bleue, and with a vulgar
ballad called the Factor’s Garland. Moreover
there is a merry tale of hunting a hare, as performed by a set of country
clowns, with their mastiffs, and curs with ‘short legs and never a
tail.’ The disgraces and blunders of these ignorant sportsmen
must have afforded infinite mirth at the table of a feudal baron,
ASHESTIEL—1805. | 75 |
Mr Ellis, in his answer, says, “Heber will, I dare say, be of service to you in your present undertaking, if indeed you want any assistance, which I very much doubt; because it appears to me that the best edition, which could now be given of Dryden, would be one which should unite accuracy of text and a handsome appearance, with good critical notes. Quoad Malone—I should think Ritson himself, could he rise from the dead, would be puzzled to sift out a single additional anecdote of the poet’s life; but to abridge Malone,—and to render his narrative terse, elegant, and intelligible, would be a great obligation conferred on the purchasers (I will not say the readers, because I have
* Ellis had mentioned, in a recent letter, Heber’s buying wines to the value of L.1100 at some sale he happened to attend this autumn. |
76 | LIFE OF SIR WALTER SCOTT. |
ASHESTIEL—1805. | 77 |
Scott’s letter in reply opens thus:
“I will not castrate John Dryden.
I would as soon castrate my own father, as I believe Jupiter did of yore. What would you say to any man who would
castrate Shakspeare, or Massinger, or Beaumont and Fletcher? I
don’t say but that it may be very proper to select correct passages for
the use of boarding-schools and colleges, being sensible no improper ideas can
be suggested in these seminaries, unless they are intruded or smuggled under
the beards and ruffs of our old dramatists. But in making an edition of a man
of genius’s works for libraries and collections, and such I conceive a
complete edition of Dryden to be, I must give my author as
I find him, and will not tear out the page, even to get rid of the blot, little
as I like it. Are not the pages of Swift, and even of Pope,
larded with indecency, and often of the most disgusting kind, and do we not see
them upon all shelves and dressing-tables, and in all boudoirs? Is not
Prior the most indecent of
tale-tellers, not even excepting La
Fontaine, and how often do we see his works in female hands? In
fact, it is not passages of ludicrous indelicacy that corrupt the manners of a
people—it is the sonnets which a prurient genius like Master Little sings virginibus putrisque—it is the sentimental slang, half
lewd, half methodistic, that debauches the understanding, inflames the sleeping
passions, and prepares the reader to give way as soon as a tempter appears. At
the same time, I am not at all happy when I peruse some of
Dryden’s comedies: they are very stupid, as well
as indelicate; sometimes, however, there is a con-
78 | LIFE OF SIR WALTER SCOTT. |
“I have written a long letter to Rees, recommending an edition of our historians, both Latin and English; but I have great hesitation whether to undertake much of it myself. What I can I certainly will do; but I should feel particularly delighted if you would join forces with me, when I think we might do the business to purpose. Do, Lord love you, think of this grande opus.
“I have not been so fortunate as to hear of Mr Blackburn. I am afraid poor Daniel has been very idly employed—Cælum non animum. I am glad you still retain the purpose of visiting Reged. If you live on mutton and game, we can feast you; for, as one wittily said, I am not the hare with many friends, but the friend with many hares.—W. S.”
DRYDEN—1805. | 79 |
Mr Ellis, in his next letter, says:—“I will
not disturb you by contesting any part of your ingenious apology for your intended
complete edition of Dryden, whose genius
I venerate as much as you do, and whose negligences, as he was not rich enough to doom
them to oblivion in his own lifetime, it is perhaps incumbent on his editor to transmit
to the latest posterity. Most certainly I am not so squeamish as to quarrel with him
for his immodesty on any moral pretence. Licentiousness in writing, when accompanied by
wit, as in the case of Prior, La Fontaine, &c., is never likely to excite any
passion, because every passion is serious; and the grave epistle of Eloisa is more likely to do moral
mischief and convey infection to love-sick damsels, than five hundred stories of Hans Carvel and Paulo Purgante; but whatever is in point of
expression vulgar—whatever disgusts the taste—whatever might have been written by any
fool, and is therefore unworthy of Dryden—whatever might have been suppressed, without exciting a
moment’s regret in the mind of any of his admirers—ought, in my opinion, to be
suppressed by any editor who should be disposed to make an appeal to the public taste
upon the subject; because a man who was perhaps the best poet and best prose writer in
the language—but it is foolish to say so much, after promising to say nothing. Indeed I
own myself guilty of possessing all his works in a very
indifferent edition, and I shall certainly purchase a better one whenever you put it in
my power. With regard to your competitors, I feel perfectly at my ease, because I am
convinced that though you should generously furnish them with all the materials, they
would not know how to use them: non cuivis hominum
contingit to write critical notes that any one will
read.” Alluding to the regret which Scott had
expressed some time before at the shortness of his visit
80 | LIFE OF SIR WALTER SCOTT. |
I shall not transcribe the mass of letters which Scott received from various other literary friends whose assistance he invoked in the preparation of his edition of Dryden; but among them there occurs one so admirable, that I cannot refuse myself the pleasure of introducing it, more especially as the views which it opens harmonize as remarkably with some, as they differ from others, of those which Scott himself ultimately expressed respecting the poetical character of his illustrious author.
. . . “I was much pleased to hear of your engagement
with Dryden: not that he is, as a poet,
any great favourite of mine: I admire his talents and genius highly, but his is
not a poetical genius. The only qualities I can find in
Dryden that are essentially
poetical, are a certain ardour and impetuosity of mind, with an excellent ear.
It may seem strange that I do not add to this, great command of language: That he certainly has, and of such language, too, as it
is most desirable that a poet should possess, or rather that he should not be
without. But it is not language that is, in the highest sense of the word,
poetical, being neither of the imagi-
DRYDEN—1805. | 81 |
“But too much of this; I am glad that you are to be his editor. His political and satirical pieces may be greatly benefited by illustration, and even absolutely require it. A correct text is the first object of an editor—then such notes as explain difficult or obscure passages; and lastly, which is much less important, notes pointing out authors to whom the poet has been indebted, not in the fiddling way of phrase here and phrase there—(which is detestable as a general practice)—but where he has had essential obligations either as to matter or manner.
“If I can be of any use to you, do not fail to apply
to me. One thing I may take the liberty to suggest, which is, when you come to
the fables, might it not be
advisable to print the whole of the tales of Boccace in a smaller type in the original language? If this
should look too much like swelling a book, I should certainly make such
extracts as would show where Dryden has
most strikingly improved upon, or fallen below, his ori-
82 | LIFE OF SIR WALTER SCOTT. |
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