“I am much indebted to your Lordship for your kind
and friendly letter: and much gratified by the Prince
Regent’s good opinion of my literary attempts. I know so
little of courts or princes, that any success I may have had in hitting off the
Stuarts is, I am afraid, owing to a little old Jacobite leaven which I sucked
in with the numerous traditionary tales that amused my infancy. It is a
fortunate thing for the Prince himself that he has
| CORRESPONDENCE WITH LORD BYRON. | 403 |
“I hope your Lordship intends to give us more of
Childe Harold. I was
delighted that my friend Jeffrey—for
such, in despite of many a feud, literary and political, I always esteem
him—has made so handsomely the amende
honorable for not having discovered in the bud the merits of
the flower; and I am happy to understand that the retractation so handsomely
made was received with equal liberality. These circumstances may perhaps some
day lead you to revisit Scotland, which has a maternal claim upon you, and I
need not say what pleasure I should have in returning my personal thanks for
the honour you have done me. I am labouring here to contradict an old proverb,
and make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear, namely, to convert a bare haugh and brae, of about 100
acres, into a comfortable farm. Now, although I am living in a gardener’s
hut, and although the adjacent ruins of Melrose have little to tempt one who
has seen those of Athens, yet, should you take a tour which is so fashionable
at this season, I should be very happy to have an opportunity of introducing
you to any thing remarkable in my fatherland. My neighbour, Lord Somerville, would, I am sure, readily
supply the accommodations which I want, unless you prefer a couch in a closet,
which is the utmost hospitality I have at present to offer. The fair, or shall
I say the sage, Apreece that was, Lady Davy that is, is soon to show us how much
science she leads captive in Sir
Humphrey; so your Lordship sees, as the citizen’s wife says in
the farce—‘Threadneedle Street has some charms,’ since they
procure us such celebrated visitants. As for me, I would rather cross-question
your Lordship about the outside of Parnassus, than learn the nature of the
contents of all the other mountains in the world. Pray,
| 404 | LIFE OF SIR WALTER SCOTT. |
“A wise man said—or, if not, I, who am no wise man, now say, that there is no surer mark of regard than when your correspondent ventures to write nonsense to you. Having, therefore, like Dogberry, bestowed all my tediousness upon your Lordship, you are to conclude that I have given you a convincing proof that I am very much your Lordship’s obliged and very faithful servant,
