J. G. Lockhart: Life of Walter Scott

Mr Train, in a little narrative with which he has favoured me, says, that for some years before this time he had been engaged, in alliance with a friend of his, Mr Denniston, in collecting materials for a History of Galloway; they had circulated lists of queries among the clergy and parish schoolmasters, and had thus, and by their own personal researches, accumulated “a great variety of the most excellent materials for that purpose;”

* The Mull of Cantyre.

308

LIFE OF SIR WALTER SCOTT.

but that, from the hour of his correspondence with Walter Scott, he “renounced every idea of authorship for himself,” resolving, “that thenceforth his chief pursuit should be collecting whatever he thought would be most interesting to him;” and that Mr Denniston was easily persuaded to acquiesce in the abandonment of their original design. “Upon receiving Mr Scott’s letter” (says Mr Train), “I became still more zealous in the pursuit of ancient lore, and being the first person who had attempted to collect old stories in that quarter with any view to publication, I became so noted, that even beggars, in the hope of reward, came frequently from afar to Newton-Stewart, to recite old ballads and relate old stories to me.” Erelong, Mr Train visited Scott both at Edinburgh and at Abbotsford; a true affection continued ever afterwards to be maintained between them; and this generous ally was, as the prefaces to the Waverley Novels signify, one of the earliest confidants of that series of works, and certainly the most efficient of all the author’s friends in furnishing him with materials for their composition. Nor did he confine himself to literary services; whatever portable object of antiquarian curiosity met his eye, this good man secured and treasured up with the same destination; and if ever a catalogue of the museum at Abbotsford shall appear, no single contributor, most assuredly, will fill so large a space in it as Mr Train.

The recurrence of the word Turnberry in the ballad of Elcine de Aggart, had of course suggested this application, which was dated on the 7th of November. “I had often,” says Mr Train, “when a boy, climbed the brown hills, and traversed the shores of Carrick, but I could not sufficiently remember the exact places and distances as to which Mr Scott enquired; so, immediately on receipt of his letter, I made a journey into Ayrshire to collect all the information I possibly could, and forwarded it to him on the 18th of the same month.” Among the particulars thus communicated, was the local superstition that on the anniversary of the night when Bruce landed at Turnberry from Arran, the same meteoric gleam which had attended his voyage reappeared, unfailingly, in the same quarter of the heavens. With this circumstance Scott was much struck. “Your information,” he writes on the 22d November, “was particularly interesting and acceptable, especially that which relates to the supposed preternatural appearance of the fire, &c., which I hope to make some use of.” What use he did make of it, if any reader has forgotten, will be seen by reference to stanzas 7—17 of the 5th Canto of the Poem; and the notes to the same Canto embody, with due acknowledgment, the more authentic results of Mr Train’s pilgrimage to Carrick.

I shall recur presently to this communication from Mr Train; but must pause for a moment to introduce two letters, both written in the same week with Scott’s request as to the localities of Turnberry. They both give us amusing sketches of his buoyant spirits at this period of gigantic exertion; and the first of them, which relates chiefly to Maturin’s Tragedy of Bertram, shows how he could still continue to steal time for attention to the affairs of brother authors less energetic than himself.

“Abbotsford, November 10, 1814.

“My dear Terry,

“I should have long since answered your kind letter by our friend Young, but he would tell you of my departure with our trusty and well-beloved Erskine, on a sort of a voyage to Nova Zembla. Since my return, I have fallen under the tyrannical dominion of a certain Lord of the Isles. Those Lords were famous for oppression in the days of yore, and if I can judge by the posthumous despotism exercised over me, they have not improved by their demise. The peine forte et dure is, you know, nothing in comparison to being obliged to grind verses; and so devilish repulsive is my disposition, that I can never put any wheel into constant and regular motion, till Ballantyne’s devil claps in his proofs, like the hot cinder which you Bath folks used to clap in beside an unexperienced turnspit, as a hint to be expeditious in his duty. O long life to the old hermit of Prague, who never saw pen and ink—much happier in that negative circumstance than in his alliance with the niece of King Gorboduc.

“To talk upon a blither subject, I wish you saw Abbotsford, which begins this season to look the whimsical, gay, odd cabin that we had chalked out. I have been obliged to relinquish Stark’s plan, which was greatly too expensive. So I have made the old farmhouse my corps de logis, with some outlying places for kitchen, laundry, and two spare bed-rooms, which run along the east wall of the farm-court, not without some picturesque effect. A perforated cross, the spoils of the old kirk of Galashiels, decorates an advanced door, and looks very well. This little sly bit of sacrilege has given our spare rooms the name of the chapel. I earnestly invite you to a pew there, which you will find as
312 LIFE OF SIR WALTER SCOTT.
commodious for the purpose of a nap as you have ever experienced when, under the guidance of old Mrs Smollett, you were led to St George’s, Edinburgh.

“I have been recommending to John Kemble (I dare say without any chance of success) to peruse a MS. Tragedy of Maturin’s, author of Montorio: it is one of those things which will either succeed greatly or be damned gloriously, for its merits are marked, deep, and striking, and its faults of a nature obnoxious to ridicule. He had our old friend Satan (none of your sneaking St John Street devils, but the archfiend himself) brought on the stage bodily. I believe I have exorcised the foul fiend—for, though in reading he was a most terrible fellow, I feared for his reception in public. The last act is ill contrived. He piddles (so to speak) through a cullender, and divides the whole horrors of the catastrophe (though God wot there are enough of them) into a kind of drippity-droppity of four or five scenes, instead of inundating the audience with them at once in the finale, with a grand ‘gardez l’eau.’ With all this, which I should say had I written the thing myself, it is grand and powerful; the language most animated and poetical; and the characters sketched with a masterly enthusiasm. Many thanks for Captain Richard Falconer.* To your kindness I owe the two
* “The Voyages, Dangerous Adventures, and Imminent Escapes of Capt. Rich. Falconer. Containing the Laws, Customs, and Manners of the Indians in America; his shipwrecks; his marrying an Indian wife; his narrow escape from the Island of Dominico, &c. Intermixed with the Voyages and Adventures of Thomas Randal, of Cork, Pilot; with his Shipwreck in the Baltick, being the only man that escap’d. His being taken by the Indians of Virginia, &c. And an Account of his Death. The Fourth Edition. London. Printed for J. Marshall, at the Bible in Gracechurch Street. 1734.”
On the fly-leaf is the following note, in Scott’s handwriting:—

THE LORD OF THE ISLES, ETC. 313
“books in the world I most longed to see, not so much for their intrinsic merits, as because they bring back with vivid associations the sentiments of my childhood—I might almost say infancy. Nothing ever disturbed my feelings more than when, sitting by the old oak table, my aunt, Lady Raeburn, used to read the lamentable catastrophe of the ship’s departing without Captain Falconer, in consequence of the whole party making free with lime-punch on the eve of its being launched. This and Captain Bingfield,* I much wished to read once more, and I owe the possession of both to your kindness. Every body that I see talks highly of your steady interest with the public, wherewith, as I never doubted of it, I am pleased but not surprised. We are just now leaving this for the winter: the children went
“This book I read in early youth. I am ignorant whether it is altogether fictitious and written upon De Foe’s plan, which it greatly resembles, or whether it is only an exaggerated account of the adventures of a real person. It is very scarce, for, endeavouring to add it to the other favourites of my infancy, I think I looked for it ten years to no purpose, and at last owed it to the active kindness of Mr Terry. Yet Richard Falconer’s adventures seem to have passed through several editions.”
* “The Travels and Adventures of William Bingfield, Esq., containing, as surprizing a Fluctuation of Circumstances, both by Sea and Land, as ever befel one man. With An Accurate Account of the Shape, Nature, and Properties of that most furious,and amazing Animal, the Dog-Bird. Printed from his own Manuscript. With a beautiful Frontispiece. 2 Vols. 12mo. London:—Printed for E. Withers, at the Seven Stars, in Fleet Street. 1753.” On the fly-leaf of the first volume Scott has written as follows:—“I read this scarce little Voyage Imaginaire when I was about ten years old, and long after sought for a copy without being able to find a person who would so much as acknowledge having heard of William Bingfield or his Dog-birds, until the indefatigable kindness of my friend Mr Terry, of the Hay Market, made me master of this copy. I am therefore induced to think the book is of very rare occurrence.”

314 LIFE OF SIR WALTER SCOTT.
yesterday. Tom Purdie, Finella, and the greyhounds, all in excellent health; the latter have not been hunted this season!!! Can add nothing more to excite your admiration. Mrs Scott sends her kind compliments.

W. Scott.”

Well might he describe himself as being hard at work with his Lord of the Isles. The date of Ballantyne’s letter to Miss Edgeworth (November 11), in which he mentions the third Canto as completed; that of the communication from Mr Train (November 18), on which so much of Canto fifth was grounded; and that of a note from Scott to Ballantyne (December 16, 1814), announcing that he had sent the last stanza of the poem: these dates, taken together, afford conclusive evidence of the fiery rapidity with which the three last Cantos of the Lord of the Isles were composed.

He writes, on the 25th December, to Constable that he “had corrected the last proofs, and was setting out for Abbotsford to refresh the machine.” And in what did his refreshment of the machine consist? Besides having written within this year the greater part (almost

316

LIFE OF SIR WALTER SCOTT.

I believe the whole) of the Life of Swift—Waverley—and the Lord of the Isles—he had given two essays to the Encyclopædia Supplement, and published, with an Introduction and notes, one of the most curious pieces of family history ever produced to the world, on which he laboured with more than usual zeal and diligence, from his warm affection for the noble representative of its author. This inimitable “Memorie of the Somervilles” came out in October; and it was speedily followed by an annotated reprint of the strange old treatise, entitled “Rowland’s letting off the humours of the blood in the head vein, 1611.” He had also kept up his private correspondence on a scale which I believe never to have been exemplified in the case of any other person who wrote continually for the press—except, perhaps, Voltaire; and, to say nothing of strictly professional duties, he had, as a vast heap of documents now before me proves, superintended from day to day, except during his Hebridean voyage, the still perplexed concerns of the Ballantynes, with a watchful assiduity that might have done credit to the most diligent of tradesmen. The “machine” might truly require “refreshment.”

It was, as has been seen, on the 7th of November that Scott acknowledged the receipt of that communication from Mr Train which included the story of the Galloway astrologer. There can be no doubt that this story recalled to his mind, if not the Durham ballad, the similar but more detailed corruption of it which he had heard told by his father’s servant, John M’Kinlay, in the days of George’s Square and Green Breeks, and which he has preserved in the introduction to Guy Mannering, as the groundwork of that tale. It has been shown that the three last Cantos of the Lord of the Isles were written between the 11th of November and the 25th of December; and it is therefore scarcely to

LORD OF THE ISLES—GUY MANNERING.

317

be supposed that any part of this novel had been penned before he thus talked of “refreshing the machine.” It is quite certain that when James Ballantyne wrote to Miss Edgeworth on the 11th November, he could not have seen one page of Guy Mannering, since he in that letter announces that the new novel of his nameless friend would depict manners more ancient than those of 1745. And yet it is equally certain that before the Lord of the Isles “was published, which took place on the 18th of January, 1815, two volumes of Guy Mannering had been not only written and copied by an amanuensis, but printed.

“Edinburgh, 19th January, 1815.

“My dear Morritt,

“I have been very foolishly putting off my writing until I should have time for a good long epistle; and it is astonishing what a number of trifles have interfered to prevent my commencing on a great scale. The last of these has been rather of an extraordinary kind, for your little friend Walter has chose to make himself the town-talk, by taking what seemed to be the small-pox, despite of vaccination in infancy, and inoculation with the variolous matter thereafter, which last I resorted to by way of making assurance double sure. The medical gentleman who attended him is of opinion that he has had the real small-pox, but it shall never be averred by me—for the catastrophe of Tom Thumb is enough to deter any thinking person from entering into a feud with the cows. Walter is quite well again, which was the principal matter I was interested in. We had very nearly been in a bad scrape, for I had fixed the Monday
318 LIFE OF SIR WALTER SCOTT.
on which he sickened, to take him with me for the Christmas vacation to Abbotsford. It is probable that he would not have pleaded headach when there was such a party in view, especially as we were to shoot wild-ducks one day together at Cauldshiels Loch; and what the consequence of such a journey might have been, God alone knows.

“I am clear of the Lord of the Isles, and I trust you have your copy. It closes my poetic labours upon an extended scale: but I daresay I shall always be dabbling in rhyme until the solve senescentem. I have directed the copy to be sent to Portland Place. I want to shake myself free of Waverley, and accordingly have made a considerable exertion to finish an odd little tale within such time as will mistify the public, I trust—unless they suppose me to be Briareus. Two volumes are already printed, and the only persons in my confidence, W. Erskine, and Ballantyne, are of opinion that it is much more interesting than Waverley. It is a tale of private life, and only varied by the perilous exploits of smugglers and excisemen. The success of Waverley has given me a spare hundred or two, which I have resolved to spend in London this spring, bringing up Charlotte and Sophia with me. I do not forget my English friends—but I fear they will forget me, unless I show face now and then. My correspondence gradually drops, as must happen when people do not meet; and I long to see Ellis, Heber, Gifford, and one or two more. I do not include Mrs Morritt and you, because we are much nearer neighbours, and within a whoop and a holla in comparison. I think we should come up by sea, if I were not a little afraid of Charlotte being startled by the March winds—for our vacation begins 12th March.

“You will have heard of poor Caberfae’s death?
LETTER TO MORRITT—JAN. 1815. 319
What a pity it is he should have outlived his promising young representative. His state was truly pitiable—all his fine faculties lost in paralytic imbecility, and yet not so entirely so, but that he perceived his deprivation as in a glass darkly. Sometimes he was fretful and anxious because he did not see his son; sometimes he expostulated and complained that his boy had been allowed to die without his seeing him; and sometimes, in a less clouded state of intellect, he was sensible of, and lamented his loss in its full extent. These, indeed, are the ‘fears of the brave and follies of the wise,’ which sadden and humiliate the lingering hours of prolonged existence. Our friend Lady Hood will now be Caberfae herself. She has the spirit of a chieftainess in every drop of her blood, but there are few situations in which the cleverest women are so apt to be imposed upon as in the management of landed property, more especially of an Highland estate. I do fear the accomplishment of the prophecy, that when there should be a deaf Caberfae, the house was to fall.*

* Francis Lord Seaforth died 11th January, 1815, in his 60th year, having outlived four sons, all of high promise. His title died with him, and he was succeeded in his estates by his daughter, Lady Hood, now the Hon. Mrs Stewart Mackenzie of Seaforth. See some verses on Lord Seaforth’s death, in Scott’s Poetical Works, vol. viii. p. 392, Edit. 1834. The Celtic designation of the chief of the clan MacKenzie, Caberfae, means Staghead, the bearing of the family. The prophecy which Scott alludes to in this letter, is also mentioned by Sir Humphry Davy in one of his Journals; (see his Life, by Dr Davy, vol. ii., p. 72) and it was, if the account be correct, a most extraordinary one, for it connected the fall of the house of Seaforth not only with the appearance of a deaf Caberfae, but with the contemporaneous appearance of various different physical misfortunes in several of the other great Highland chiefs; all of which are said and were certainly believed both by Scott and Davy—to have actually occurred within the memory of the generation that has not yet passed away. Mr Morritt can testify thus far—

320

LIFE OF SIR WALTER SCOTT.

“I am delighted to find Mrs Morritt is recovering health and strength—better walking on the beach at Worthing than on the plainstanes of Prince’s Street, for the weather is very severe here indeed. I trust Mrs M. will, in her milder climate, lay in such a stock of health and strength as may enable you to face the north in Autumn. I have got the nicest crib for you possible, just about twelve feet square, and in the harmonious vicinity of a piggery. You never saw so minute an establishment,—but it has all that we wish for, and all our friends will care about; and we long to see you there. Charlotte sends the kindest remembrances to Mrs Morritt.

“As for politics, I have thought little about them lately; the high and exciting interest is so completely subsided, that the wine is upon the lees. As for America, we have so managed as to give her the appearance of triumph, and what is worse, encouragement to resume the war upon a more favourable opportunity. It was our business to have given them a fearful memento that the babe unborn should have remembered; but, having missed this opportunity, I believe that this country would submit with great reluctance to continue a war, for which there is really no specific object. As for the continental monarchs, there is no guessing what the folly of Kings and Ministers may do; but, God knows! would any of them look at home, enough is to be done which might strengthen and improve their dominions in a different manner than by mere extension. I trust Ministers will go out rather than be engaged in war again, upon any account. If France is wise (I have no fear that any superfluous feeling of humanity will stand
that he “heard the prophecy quoted in the Highlands at a time when Lord Seaforth had two sons both alive and in good health—So that it certainly was not made après coup.”

AFFAIRS OF THE BALLANTYNES. 321
in the way), she will send 10,000 of her most refractory troops to fight with Christophe and the yellow fever in the Island of St Domingo, and then I presume they may sit down in quiet at home.

“But my sheet grows to an end, and so does the pleading of the learned counsel, who is thumping the poor bar as I write. He hems twice. Forward, sweet Orator Higgins!—at least till I sign myself, dear Morritt, yours most truly,

Walter Scott.”

Guy Mannering was published on the 24th of February that is exactly two months after the Lord of the Isles was dismissed from the author’s desk; and making but a narrow allowance for the operations of the transcriber, printer, bookseller, &c., I think the dates I have gathered together, confirm the accuracy of what I have often heard Scott say, that his second novel “was the work of six weeks at a Christmas.” Such was his recipe “for refreshing the machine.”

Upon receiving this letter, John Ballantyne suggested to Scott that he should be allowed to offer, not only the new novel, but the next edition of Waverley, to Longman, Murray, or Blackwood—in the hope that the prospect of being let in to the profits of the already established favourite, would overcome effectually the hesitation of one or other of these houses about venturing on the encumbrance which Constable seemed to shrink from with such pertinacity; but upon this ingenious proposition Scott at once set his veto.

Both Mr Murray, and Longman’s partner, Mr Rees, were in Scotland about this time; and the former at least paid Scott a visit at Abbotsford. Of course, however, whatever propositions they may have made, were received by one or other of the Ballantynes. The result was, that the house of Longman undertook Guy Mannering on the terms dictated by Scott—namely, granting bills for L.1500, and relieving John Ballantyne and Company of stock to the extent of L.500 more; and Constable’s first information of the transaction was from Messrs Longman themselves, when they, in compliance with Scott’s wish as signified in the letter last quoted, offered him a share in the edition which they had purchased. With one or two exceptions, originating in circumstances nearly similar, the house of Constable published all the subsequent series of the Waverley Novels.

I must not, however, forget that The Lord of the

THE LORD OF THE ISLES CRITICISED.

325

Isles was published a month before Guy Mannering. The poem was received with an interest much heightened by the recent and growing success of the mysterious Waverley. Its appearance, so rapidly following that novel, and accompanied with the announcement of another prose tale, just about to be published, by the same hand, puzzled and confounded the mob of dulness.* The more sagacious few said to themselves—Scott is making one serious effort more in his old line, and by this it will be determined whether he does or does not altogether renounce that for his new one.

If January brought the writer of this letter “disappointment,” there was abundant consolation in store for February, 1815. Guy Mannering was received with eager curiosity, and pronounced by acclamation fully worthy to share the honours of Waverley. The easy transparent flow of its style; the beautiful simplicity, and here and there the wild solemn magnificence of its sketches of scenery; the rapid, ever-heightening interest of the narrative; the unaffected kindliness of feeling, the manly purity of thought, every where mingled with a gentle humour and a homely sagacity; but above all, the rich variety and skilful contrast of characters and manners, at once fresh in fiction and stamped with the unforgeable seal of truth and nature: these were charms that spoke to every heart and mind; and the few murmurs of pedantic criticism were lost in the voice of general delight, which never fails to welcome the invention that introduces to the sympathy of imagination a new group of immortal realities.

The first edition was, like that of Waverley, in three little volumes, with a humility of paper and printing which the meanest novelist would now disdain to imitate; the price a guinea. The 2000 copies of which it consisted were sold the day after the publication; and within three months came a second and a third impression, making together 5000 copies more. The sale, before those novels began to be collected, had reached nearly 10,000; and since then (to say nothing of foreign reprints of the text, and myriads of translations into every tongue of Europe) the domestic sale has amounted to 50,000.

And now took place James Ballantyne’s “mighty consummation of the meeting of the two bards.” Scott’s own account of it, in a letter to Mr Moore, must be in the hands of most of my readers; yet I think it ought also to find a place here.

“It was” (says Scott) “in the spring of 1815 that, chancing to be in London, I had the advantage of a personal introduction to Lord Byron. Report had prepared me to meet a man of peculiar habits and a quick temper, and I had some doubts whether we were likely to suit each other in society. I was most agreeably disappointed in this respect. I found Lord Byron in the highest degree courteous, and even kind. We met for an hour or two almost daily, in Mr Murray’s drawingroom, and found a great deal to say to each other. We also met frequently in parties and evening society, so that for about two months I had the advantage of a considerable intimacy with this distinguished individual. Our sentiments agreed a good deal, except upon the subjects of religion and politics, upon neither of which I was inclined to believe that Lord Byron entertained very fixed opinions. I remember saying to him, that I really thought that if he lived a few years he would alter his sentiments. He answered, rather sharply, ‘I suppose you are one of those who prophesy I shall turn Methodist.’ I replied, ‘No—I don’t expect your conversion to be of such an ordinary kind. I would rather look to see you retreat upon the Catholic faith, and distinguish yourself by the austerity of your penances. The species of religion to which you must, or may, one day attach yourself, must exercise a strong power on the imagination.’ He smiled gravely, and seemed to allow I might be right.

“On politics, he used sometimes to express a high, strain of what is now called Liberalism; but it appeared to me that the pleasure it afforded him, as a vehicle for displaying his wit and satire against individuals in office,
336 LIFE OF SIR WALTER SCOTT.
was at the bottom of this habit of thinking, rather than any real conviction of the political principles on which he talked. He was certainly proud of his rank and ancient family, and, in that respect, as much an aristocrat as was consistent with good sense and good breeding. Some disgusts, how adopted I know not, seemed to me to have given this peculiar (and, as it appeared to me) contradictory cast of mind: but, at heart, I would have termed Byron a patrician on principle.

“Lord Byron’s reading did not seem to me to have been very extensive either in poetry or history. Having the advantage of him in that respect, and possessing a good competent share of such reading as is little read, I was sometimes able to put under his eye objects which had for him the interest of novelty. I remember particularly repeating to him the fine poem of Hardyknute, an imitation of the old Scottish ballad, with which he was so much affected, that some one who was in the same apartment asked me what I could possibly have been telling Byron by which he was so much agitated.

“I saw Byron for the last time in 1815, after I returned from France. He dined, or lunched, with me at Long’s, in Bond Street. I never saw him so full of gaiety and good-humour, to which the presence of Mr Mathews, the comedian, added not a little. Poor Terry was also present. After one of the gayest parties I ever was present at, my fellow-traveller, Mr Scott of Gala, and I set off for Scotland, and I never saw Lord Byron again. Several letters passed between us—one perhaps every half year. Like the old heroes in Homer, we exchanged gifts. I gave Byron a beautiful dagger mounted with gold, which had been the property of the redoubted Elfi Bey. But I was to play the part of Diomed in the Iliad, for Byron sent me, some time after, a large sepulchral vase of silver. It was full of dead
LETTER ON LORD BYRON. 337
men’s bones, and had inscriptions on two sides of the base. One ran thus: ‘The bones contained in this urn were found in certain ancient sepulchres within the long walls of Athens, in the month of February, 1811.’ The other face bears the lines of Juvenal—‘Expende—quot libras in duce summo invenies?—Mors sola fatetur quantula sint hominum corpuscula.’

“To these I have added a third inscription, in these words ‘The gift of Lord Byron to Walter Scott.’* There was a letter with this vase, more valuable to me than the gift itself, from the kindness with which the donor expressed himself towards me. I left it naturally in the urn with the bones; but it is now missing. As the theft was not of a nature to be practised by a mere domestic, I am compelled to suspect the inhospitality of some individual of higher station, most gratuitously exercised certainly, since, after what I have here said, no one will probably choose to boast of possessing this literary curiosity.

“We had a good deal of laughing, I remember, on what the public might be supposed to think, or say, concerning the gloomy and ominous nature of our mutual gifts.

“I think I can add little more to my recollections of Byron. He was often melancholy—almost gloomy. When I observed him in this humour, I used either to
* Mr Murray had, at the time of giving the vase, suggested to Lord Byron, that it would increase the value of the gift to add some such inscription; but the noble poet answered modestly:—
“April 9, 1815.
“Dear Murray—I have a great objection to your proposition about inscribing the vase—which is, that it would appear ostentatious on my part; and of course I must send it as it is, without any alteration. Yours ever, Byron.”

338 LIFE OF SIR WALTER SCOTT.
wait till it went off of its own accord, or till some natural and easy mode occurred of leading him into conversation, when the shadows almost always left his countenance, like the mist rising from a landscape. In conversation he was very animated.

“I met with him very frequently in society; our mutual acquaintances doing me the honour to think that he liked to meet with me. Some very agreeable parties I can recollect particularly one at Sir George Beaumont’s—where the amiable landlord had assembled some persons distinguished for talent. Of these I need only mention the late Sir Humphry Davy, whose talents for literature were as remarkable as his empire over science. Mr Richard Sharpe and Mr Rogers were also present.

“I think I also remarked in Byron’s temper starts of suspicion, when he seemed to pause and consider whether there had not been a secret, and perhaps offensive, meaning in something casually said to him. In this case, I also judged it best to let his mind, like a troubled spring, work itself clear, which it did in a minute or two. I was considerably older, you will recollect, than my noble friend, and had no reason to fear his misconstruing my sentiments towards him, nor had I ever the slightest reason to doubt that they were kindly returned on his part. If I had occasion to be mortified by the display of genius which threw into the shade such pretensions as I was then supposed to possess, I might console myself that, in my own case, the materials of mental happiness had been mingled in a greater proportion.

“I rummage my brains in vain for what often rushes into my head unbidden—little traits and sayings which recall his looks, manner, tone, and gestures; and I have always continued to think that a crisis of life was arrived in which a new career of fame was opened to him, and
LETTER TO LORD BYRON. 339
that had he been permitted to start upon it, he would have obliterated the memory of such parts of his life as friends would wish to forget.”

I have nothing to add to this interesting passage, except that Joanna Baillie’s tragedy of The Family Legend being performed at one of the theatres during Scott’s stay in town, Lord Byron accompanied the authoress and Mr and Mrs Scott to witness the representation; and that the vase with the Attic bones appears to have been sent to Scott very soon after his arrival in London, not, as Mr Moore had gathered from the hasty diction of his “Reminiscences,” at some “subsequent period of their acquaintance.” This is sufficiently proved by the following note:

It was also in the spring of 1815 that Scott had, for the first time, the honour of being presented to the Prince Regent. His Royal Highness had (as has been seen from a letter to Joanna Baillie, already quoted) signified, more than a year before this time, his wish that the poet should revisit London—and, on reading his Edinburgh Address in particular, he said to Mr Dundas, that “Walter Scott’s charming behaviour about the laureateship had made him doubly desirous of seeing him at Carlton-House.” More lately, on receiving a copy of the Lord of the Isles, his Royal Highness’s librarian had been commanded to write to him in these terms:—

The Regent, as was his custom with those he most delighted to honour, uniformly addressed the poet, even at their first dinner, by his Christian name, “Walter.”

Before he returned to Edinburgh, on the 22d of May, the Regent sent him a gold snuff-box, set in brilliants, with a medallion of his Royal Highness’s head on the lid, “as a testimony” (writes Mr Adam, in transmitting it) “of the high opinion his Royal Highness entertains of your genius and merit.”

I transcribe what follows, from James Ballantyne’s Memoranda:—“After Mr Scott’s first interview with his Sovereign, one or two intimate friends took the liberty of enquiring, what judgment he had formed of the Regent’s talents? He declined giving any definite answer—but repeated, that ‘he was the first gentleman he had seen—certainly the first English gentleman of his day; there was something about him which, independently of the prestige, the “divinity,” which hedges a King, marked him as standing entirely by himself; but as to his abilities, spoken of as distinct from his charming manners, how could any one form a fair judgment of that man who introduced whatever subject he chose, discussed it just as long as he chose, and dismissed it when he chose?’”

Ballantyne adds, “What I have now to say is more important, not only in itself, but as it will enable you to give a final contradiction to an injurious report which has been in circulation; viz. that the Regent asked him

THE PRINCE REGENT.

345

as to the authorship of Waverley, and received a distinct and solemn denial. I took the bold freedom of requesting to know from him whether his Royal Highness had questioned him on that subject, and what had been his answer. He glanced at me with a look of wild surprise, and said, ‘What answer I might have made to such a question, put to me by my sovereign, perhaps I do not, or rather perhaps I do know; but I was never put to the test. He is far too well-bred a man ever to put so ill-bred a question.’”

I ought not to have omitted, that during Scott’s residence in London, in April 1815, he lost one of the English friends, to a meeting with whom he had looked forward with the highest pleasure. Mr George Ellis died on the 15th of that month, at his seat of Sunninghill. This threw a cloud over what would otherwise have been a period of unmixed enjoyment. Mr Canning penned the epitaph for that dearest of his friends; but he submitted it to Scott’s consideration before it was engraved.

≪ PREV

NEXT ≫

William Adam (1751-1839) Scottish barrister, Whig MP (1784-1812) and ally of Charles James Fox (whom he once wounded in a duel); he was privy councillor (1815) and a friend of Sir Walter Scott.

Emperor Alexander I of Russia (1777-1825) Following the assassination of his father he was tsar of Russia (1801-25).

Aristides [the Just] (530 c.-468 BC) Athenian statesman who apportioned the contributions to the Delian League.

Joanna Baillie (1762-1851) Scottish poet and dramatist whose Plays on the Passions (1798-1812) were much admired, especially the gothic De Montfort, produced at Drury Lane in 1800.

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

John Ballantyne (1774-1821) Edinburgh publisher and literary agent for Walter Scott; he was the younger brother of the printer James Ballantyne.

Sir George Howland Beaumont, seventh baronet (1753-1827) Art collector, painter, and one of the founders of the National Gallery; he was an acquaintance of Johnson and Reynolds, Scott, Wordsworth, and Byron.

William Blackwood (1776-1834) Edinburgh bookseller; he began business 1804 and for a time was John Murray's Scottish agent. He launched Blackwood's Magazine in 1817.

Gebhard Leberecht Blücher (1742-1819) Prussian general who fought for the allies at Leipzig and Waterloo.

John Braham (1777 c.-1856) English tenor who began his career at the Covent Garden and Drury Lane theaters; he assisted Isaac Nathan in setting Byron's Hebrew Melodies.

Robert I, king of Scots [Robert the Bruce] (1274-1329) The Scottish national hero who defeated Edward II at Bannockburn.

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

Gaius Julius Caesar (100 BC-44 BC) Roman statesman, general, and author of the Gallic Wars.

George Canning (1770-1827) Tory statesman; he was foreign minister (1807-1809) and prime minister (1827); a supporter of Greek independence and Catholic emancipation.

Henry Christophe, king of Haiti (1767-1820) Haitian revolutionary; having fought under Toussaint Louverture he was proclaimed king of Haiti in 1811.

James Stanier Clarke (1765 c.-1834) Naval chaplain and librarian to the Prince of Wales; author of Naufragia, or, Historical Memoirs of Shipwrecks, 2 vols (1805) and The Life of Admiral Lord Nelson, 2 vols (1809); he corresponded with Jane Austen.

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

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).

John Davy (1790-1868) The younger brother and biographer of Humphry Davy; he was educated at Edinburgh University and was a military physician and writer.

Daniel Defoe (1660-1731) English novelist and miscellaneous writer; author of Robinson Crusoe (1719), Moll Flanders (1722) and Roxanna (1724).

James Murray Denniston (1770-1857) Of Creetown, author of Legends of Galloway (1825) and friend of the poet Joseph Train; he was Captain in the Galloway militia. He is buried in Anwoth Old Kirkyard.

James Duff, fourth earl of Fife (1776-1857) Son of the third earl (d. 1811); after study at Westminster and Oxford he fought at the Battle of Talavera, was Major-General in the Spanish Army, and was Tory MP for Banffshire (1818-27).

Sophia Dumergue (1768-1831) Daughter of Charles Francis Dumergue (1740-1814), dentist to the Prince of Wales; she was a friend of Walter Scott and godmother to his daughter Sophia.

Robert Saunders Dundas, second viscount Melville (1771-1851) Son of the first viscount (d. 1811); he was keeper of the signet for Scotland, MP, president of the board of control, and first lord of the Admiralty (1812-27).

William Dundas (1762-1845) The nephew of Viscount Melville; he was a Pittite MP for Anstruther (1794-96), Tain (1796-1802), Sutherlandshire (1802-08), Elgin (1810-12), and Edinburgh (1812-31).

Maria Edgeworth (1768-1849) Irish novelist; author of Castle Rackrent (1800) Belinda (1801), The Absentee (1812) and Ormond (1817).

Elfi Bey (d. 1807) Egyptian Mameluke (1802-03) supported by the British.

George Ellis (1753-1815) English antiquary and critic, editor of Specimens of Early English Poets (1790), friend of Walter Scott.

Charles Erskine of Shielfield (1771-1825) Scottish Writer to the Signet; he was baron balie of Melrose and sheriff-substitute of Selkirkshire under Walter Scott.

William Erskine, Lord Kinneder (1768-1822) The son of an episcopal clergyman of the same name, he was a Scottish advocate and a close friend and literary advisor to Sir Walter Scott.

Frederick Augustus, Duke of York (1763-1827) He was commander-in-chief of the Army, 1798-1809, until his removal on account of the scandal involving his mistress Mary Anne Clarke.

King George IV of Great Britain (1762-1830) Prince Regent (1811-20) and King of Great Britain (1820-1830).

William Gifford (1756-1826) Poet, scholar, and editor who began as a shoemaker's apprentice; after Oxford he published The Baviad (1794), The Maeviad (1795), and The Satires of Juvenal translated (1802) before becoming the founding editor of the Quarterly Review (1809-24).

Alexander Gordon, fourth duke of Gordon (1743-1827) Byron's godfather and the husband of Jane, Duchess of Gordon, one of London's most prominent hostesses.

Richard Heber (1774-1833) English book collector, he was the elder half-brother of the poet Reginald Heber and the friend of Walter Scott: member of the Roxburghe Club and MP for Oxford 1821-1826.

Homer (850 BC fl.) Poet of the Iliad and Odyssey.

Juvenal (110 AD fl.) Roman satirist noted, in contrast to Horace, for his angry manner.

John Philip Kemble (1757-1823) English actor renowned for his Shakespearean roles; he was manager of Drury Lane (1783-1802) and Covent Garden (1803-1808).

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

Thomas Norton Longman (1771-1842) A leading London publisher whose authors included Southey, Wordsworth, Scott, and Moore.

Francis Humberston Mackenzie, baron Seaforth (1754-1815) Scottish military officer, MP for Ross-shire (1784-90, 1795-96) and governor of Barbados; he was given his title in 1797 for services to the Pitt administration.

Lady Mary Frederica Elizabeth Mackenzie [née Mackenzie] (1783-1862) The daughter and heir (1815) of Francis Mackenzie, Lord Seaforth; in 1804 she married Admiral Samuel Hood, and in 1817 J. A. Stewart. She was a friend of Sir Walter Scott.

Robert MacQueen, Lord Braxfield (1722-1799) Scottish judge; he was admitted to the Faculty in 1744 and was lord justice clerk, 1788. He had a reputation as a “hanging judge.”

Charles Mathews (1776-1835) Comic actor at the Haymarket and Covent Garden theaters; from 1818 he gave a series of performances under the title of Mr. Mathews at Home.

Charles Robert Maturin (1780-1824) Anglo-Irish clergyman, novelist, and playwright patronized by Walter Scott; author of the tragedy Betram (1816) and the novel Melmoth the Wanderer (1820).

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.

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.

Katherine Morritt [née Stanley] (d. 1815) The daughter of the Reverend Thomas Stanley, rector of Winwick in Lancashire; in 1803 she married John Morritt of Rokeby.

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.

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

Owen Rees (1770-1837) London bookseller; he was the partner of Thomas Norton Longman and friend of the poet Thomas Moore.

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).

Jean Scott [née Scott] (1737-1828) The third daughter of Robert Scott of Sandyknowe; in 1772 she married Walter Scott, fifth laird of Raeburn. She was Sir Walter Scott's aunt.

John Scott of Gala (1790-1840) Scottish laird and lifelong friend of Walter Scott; they traveled together to Waterloo in 1815.

Lady Margaret Charlotte Scott [née Carpenter] (1770-1826) The impoverished daughter of French parents who married Walter Scott in 1797.

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

Sir Walter Scott, second baronet (1801-1847) The elder son and heir of Sir Walter Scott; he was cornet in the 18th Hussars (1816), captain (1825), lieut.-col. (1839). In the words of Maria Edgeworth, he was “excessively shy, very handsome, not at all literary.”

Francis Charles Seymour-Conway, third marquess of Hertford (1777-1842) The son of the second marquess (d. 1822); he was a gambler, bon vivant, art collector, and friend of the Prince Regent. He was Castlereagh's second in the 1809 duel with George Canning.

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).

William Stark (1770-1813) Glasgow architect employed by Walter Scott for some of the original work at Abbotsford.

Daniel Terry (1789-1829) English actor; after a career in provincial theater made his London debut in 1812. A close friend of Walter Scott, he performed in theatrical adaptations of Scott's novels.

Joseph Train (1779-1852) Scottish poet, antiquary, and exciseman patronized by Sir Walter Scott; he contributed anecdotes to John Gibson Lockhart's biography of Robert Burns.

Voltaire (1694-1778) French historian and man of letters; author of, among many other works, The Age of Louis XIV (1751) and Candide (1759).

Henry William Weber (1783-1818) The son of a Moravian father and English mother, he published an edition of the works of John Ford and Beaumont and Fletcher; after working as an editorial assistant to Walter Scott he spent his latter years in a lunatic asylum.

Charles Mayne Young (1777-1856) English Shakespearean actor who began his professional career in 1798; he was admired in Hamlet. He was a friend of Sir Walter Scott.

Morning Post. (1772-1937). A large-circulation London daily that published verse by many of the prominent poets of the romantic era. John Taylor (1750–1826), Daniel Stuart (1766-1846), and Nicholas Byrne (d. 1833) were among its editors.

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.

The Scots Magazine. 65 vols (1739-1803). Continued as The Scots Magazine and Edinburgh Literary Miscellany (1804-17) and The Edinburgh Magazine and Literary Miscellany (1817-26).

Criticisms on the Rolliad. (London: James Ridgway, 1785). A very successful collection of political parodies with notes variorum; the addresses, composed in the manner of the popular poets of the day, are put into the mouths of the popular politicians of the day.

“The Durham Garland” in Guy Mannering, or, the Astrologer. 3 vols (Edinburgh: Ballantyne, 1815). A source for Scott's novel, the ballad was collected by the poet Joseph Train from a Mrs. Young.

Encyclopædia Britannica; or, a Dictionary of Arts and Sciences, compiled upon a new plan. 3 vols (Edinburgh: Colin Macfarquhar, 1771). 3 vols, 1768-1771, ed. William Smellie; 10 vols, 1777–1784, ed. James Tytler; 18 vols, 1788–1797, ed. Colin Macfarquhar and George Gleig; supplement to 3rd, 2 vols, 1801; 20 vols, 1801–1809, ed. James Millar; 20 vols, 1817, ed. James Millar; supplement to 5th, 6 vols, 1816–1824, ed. Macvey Napier; 20 vols, 1820–1823, ed. Charles Maclaren; 21 vols, 1830–1842, ed. Macvey Napier and James Browne.

The Travels and Adventures of William Bingfield, Esq.: containing, as surprizing a Fluctation of Circumstances, both by Sea and Land, as ever befel one Man. 2 vols (London: W. Withers, 1753).

Joanna Baillie (1762-1851) The Family Legend: a Tragedy. (Edinburgh: John Ballantyne and Co., 1810). Henry Mackenzie wrote a prologue, Walter Scott an epilogue for the Edinburgh performance.

Francis Beaumont (1585-1616) The Works of Beaumont and Fletcher, in Fourteen Volumes: with an Introduction and Explanatory Notes. 14 vols (London: F. C. and J. Rivington, 1812). Edited by Henry Weber; the edition was not successful.

William Thomas Beckford (1760-1844) An Arabian Tale, from an unpublished Manuscript: with Notes critical and explanatory [Vathek]. (London: J. Johnson, 1786). Anonymously published in the translation by Samuel Henley who contributed the notes; first published in the original French in 1791 as Les caprices et les malheurs du calife Vathek, traduit de l’arabe.

George Gordon Byron, sixth Baron Byron (1788-1824) The Bride of Abydos, a Turkish Tale. (London: J. Murray, 1813). Two cantos, in octosyllabic verse; the "bride" is Zuleika, who loves Selim.

George Gordon Byron, sixth Baron Byron (1788-1824) Childe Harold's Pilgrimage: a Romaunt. (London: John Murray, 1812-1818). A burlesque topographical poem in Spenserian stanzas; Cantos I-II were published in 1812, III in 1816, and IV in 1818.

George Gordon Byron, sixth Baron Byron (1788-1824) The Giaour, a Fragment of a Turkish Tale. (London: John Murray, 1813). The first of Byron's oriental tales.

George Gordon Byron, sixth Baron Byron (1788-1824) “Parisina: a Poem” in The Siege of Corinth, a Poem; Parisina: a Poem. (London: Murray, 1816). A tale of incest founded on an incident recorded in Gibbon's Antiquities of the House of Brunswick.

William Rufus Chetwood (d. 1766) The Voyages, Dangerous Adventures, and Imminent Escapes of Captain Richard Falconer containing the Laws, Customs, and Manners of the Indians of America. (London: W. Chetwood, 1720). A novel.

John Davy (1790-1868) Memoirs of the Life of Sir Humphry Davy, Bart.. 2 vols (London: Longman, Rees, Orme, Brown, Green & Longman, 1836). By the younger brother of Humphry Davy.

George Ellis (1753-1815) “Scott's Lord of the Isles” in Quarterly Review. Vol. 13 No. 26 (July 1815): 287-309. The Quarterly Review Archive marks the attribution as not certain.

Homer (850 BC fl.) The Iliad. (800 BC c.). The tale of Troy, generally read in the translation by Alexander Pope.

Francis Jeffrey, Lord Jeffrey (1773-1850) “Scott's Lord of the Isles” in Edinburgh Review. Vol. 24 (February 1815): 273-294.

Alain-René Lesage (1668-1747) The History and Adventures of Gil Blas of Santillane. 3 vols (London: 1725). The French original was published in three parts between 1715 and 1735.

Charles Robert Maturin (1780-1824) Bertram, or, the Castle of St. Aldobrand: a Tragedy in Five Acts. (London: J. Murray, 1816). A Byronic drama produced with great success by Edmund Kean at Drury Lane.

Charles Robert Maturin (1780-1824) Fatal Revenge; or, the Family of Montorio. A Romance. 3 vols (London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, and Orme, 1807). There were two New York editions.

Samuel Rowlands (1628 fl.) The Letting of Humours Blood in the Head-Vaine. (London: W. White, 1611). A collections of satires.

Sir Walter Scott, baronet (1771-1832) Guy Mannering, or, the Astrologer. 3 vols (Edinburgh: Ballantyne, 1815). The second of Scott's historical novels, published only a few months after Waverley.

Sir Walter Scott, baronet (1771-1832) The Lady of the Lake: a Poem. (Edinburgh: John Ballantyne, 1810). A metrical romance set in the Highlands, often regarded as Scott's most successful poem.

Sir Walter Scott, baronet (1771-1832) The Lay of the Last Minstrel: a Poem. (London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, and Orme, 1805). The first of Scott's metrical romances, the Lay recounts the love of Margaret of Branksome for Henry of Cranstoun during a sixteenth-century border raid.

Sir Walter Scott, baronet (1771-1832) “Life of Jonathan Swift” in The Works of Jonathan Swift, D.D.: containing additional Letters, Tracts, and Poems, not hitherto published; with Notes, and a Life of the Author. 19 vols (Edinburgh: Archibald Constable and Co., 1814).

Sir Walter Scott, baronet (1771-1832) The Lord of the Isles: a Poem. (Edinburgh: A. Constable and Co., 1815). A metrical romance in six cantos.

Sir Walter Scott, baronet (1771-1832) Marmion; a Tale of Flodden Field. (Edinburgh: Constable, 1808). A narrative poem set in the sixteenth century; the six cantos are introduced by epistles addressed to William Stewart Rose, James Marriot, William Erskine, James Skene, George Ellis, and Richard Heber.

Sir Walter Scott, baronet (1771-1832) Poetical Works. 12 vols (Edinburgh: R. Cadell, 1833-34).

Sir Walter Scott, baronet (1771-1832) Rokeby; a Poem. (Edinburgh: John Ballantyne, 1813). A tale in six cantos related to the Battle of Marston Moor.

Sir Walter Scott, baronet (1771-1832) “The Search after Happiness; or the Quest of Sultaun Solimaun. (In imitation of Byron)” in The Sale Room . No. 5 (1 February 1817). Reprinted in the Edinburgh Annual Register.

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.

James Somerville, twelfth Lord Somerville (1632-1693) Memorie of the Somervilles: being a History of the Baronial House of Somerville. 2 vols (Edinburgh: J. Ballantyne, 1815). Edited by Walter Scott.

Joseph Train (1779-1852) Strains of the Mountain Muse. (Edinburgh: G. Goldie, 1814).

Elizabeth Wardlaw, Lady Wardlaw [née Halket] (1677-1727) Hardyknute, a Fragment. (Edinburgh: James Watson, 1719). The ballad relates the battle between Haco, king of Norway, and Alexander III of Scotland; the first publication was anonymous.

INFORMATION FROM TEI HEADER

Source Description:

Author: Lockhart, J. G. (John Gibson), 1794-1854

Title: Memoirs of the Life of Sir Walter Scott, Bart. 7 vols (Edinburgh: Robert Cadell, 1837).

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