| 386 | LIFE OF SIR WALTER SCOTT. |
The poem of “the Field of Waterloo” was published before the end of October; the profits of the first edition being the author’s contribution to the fund raised for the relief of the widows and children of the soldiers slain in the battle. This piece appears to have disappointed those most disposed to sympathize with the author’s views and feelings. The descent is indeed heavy from his Bannockburn to his Waterloo: the presence, or all but visible reality of what his dreams cherished, seems to have overawed his imagination, and tamed it into a weak pomposity of movement. The burst of pure native enthusiasm upon the Scottish heroes that fell around the Duke of Wellington’s person, bears, however, the broadest marks of “the Mighty Minstrel.”—
“Saw gallant Miller’s fading
eye Still bent where Albyn’s standards fly, And Cameron, in the shock of steel, Die like the offspring of Lochiel,” &c.;— |
| FIELD OF WATERLOO—1815. | 387 |
|
“Or is thy soul like mountain tide,
That swelled by winter storm and shower,
Rolls down in turbulence of power,
A torrent fierce and wide;
Reft of these aids, a rill obscure,
Shrinking unnoticed, mean and poor,
Whose channel shows displayed
The wrecks of its impetuous course,
But not one symptom of the force
By which these wrecks were made!”
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The poem was the first upon a subject likely to be sufficiently hackneyed; and, having the advantage of coming out in a small cheap form—(prudently imitated from Murray’s innovation with the tales of Byron, which was the death-blow to the system of verse in quarto)—it attained rapidly a measure of circulation above what had been reached either by Rokeby or the Lord of the Isles.
Meanwhile the revision of Paul’s Letters was proceeding; and Scott had almost immediately on his return to Abbotsford concluded his
bargain for the first edition of a third novel—The Antiquary—to be published also in the approaching winter. Harold the Dauntless, too, was from time to
time taken up as the amusement of horæ
subsecivæ. As for Scott’s out of doors
occupations of that autumn, sufficient light will be thrown on them by the following
letter; from which it is seen that he had now completed a rather tedious negotiation with
an-
| 388 | LIFE OF SIR WALTER SCOTT. |
“I have been long in acknowledging your letter, my
dear friend, and yet you have not only been frequent in my thoughts, as must
always be the case, but your name has been of late familiar in my mouth as a
household word. You must know that the pinasters you had the goodness to send
me some time since, which are now fit to be set out of the nursery, have
occupied my mind as to the mode of disposing of them. Now, mark the event;
there is in the middle of what will soon be a bank of fine young wood, a
certain old gravel-pit, which is the present scene of my operations. I have
caused it to be covered with better earth, and gently altered with the spade,
so as, if possible, to give it the air of one of those accidental hollows which
the surface of a hill frequently presents. Having arranged my ground, I intend
to plant it all round with the pinasters, and other varieties of the pine
species, and in the interior I will have a rustic seat, surrounded by all kinds
of evergreen shrubs (laurels in particular), and all varieties of the holly and
cedar, and so forth, and this is to be called and entitled Joanna’s Bower. We are determined in the choice of our ornaments
by necessity, for our ground fronts (in poetic phrase) the rising sun, or, in
common language, looks to the east; and being also on the north side of the
hill—(don’t you shiver at the thought?)—why, to say truth, George Wynnos and I are both of opinion that
nothing but evergreens will flourish there; but I trust I shall convert a
present deformity into a very pretty little hobby-horsical sort of thing. It
will
| LETTER TO MISS BAILLTE—NOV. 1815. | 389 |
“I do most devoutly hope Lord Byron will succeed in his proposal of bringing out one of
your dramas; that he is your sincere admirer is only synonymous with his being
a man of genius; and he has, I am convinced, both the power and inclination to
serve the public, by availing himself of the treasures you have laid before
them. Yet I long for ‘some yet untasted spring,’ and
| 390 | LIFE OF SIR WALTER SCOTT. |
“Little
Sophia is much obliged by your kind and continued recollection:
she is an excellent good child, sufficiently sensible, very affectionate, not
without perception of character; but the gods have not made her poetical, and I
hope she will never attempt to act a part which nature has not called her to. I
am myself a poet, writing to a poetess, and therefore cannot be suspected of a
wish to degrade a talent, to which, in whatever degree I may have possessed it,
I am indebted for much happiness: but this depends only on the rare coincidence
of some talent falling in with a novelty in style and diction and conduct of
story, which suited the popular taste; and were my children to be better poets
than me, they would not be such in general estimation, simply because the
second cannot be the first, and the first (I mean in point of date) is every
thing, while others are nothing, even with more intrinsic merit. I am therefore
particularly anxious to store the heads of my young damsels with something
better than the tags
| LETTER TO MISS BAILLIE—NOV. 1815. | 391 |
There is now to be mentioned a little pageant of December 1815, which perhaps interested Abbotsford and Kaeside, not very much less than the “Field of the Cloth of Gold,” as James Ballantyne calls it, of the preceding autumn. This was no other than a football match, got up under the auspices of the Duke of Buccleuch, between the men of the Vale of Yarrow and the Burghers of Selkirk, the particulars of which will be sufficiently explained by an extract from Ballantyne’s newspaper, written, I can have no doubt, by the Sheriff of the Forest. But the part taken in this solemnity by the Ettrick Shepherd reminds me of an extraordinary epistle which Scott had received from him some months before this time, and of the account given by Hogg himself, in one of his autobiographies, of the manner in which Scott’s kindness terminated the alienation it refers to.
The Shepherd, being as usual in pecuniary straits,
| 392 | LIFE OF SIR WALTER SCOTT. |
| QUARREL WITH HOGG. | 393 |
“I think it is great nonsense for two men who are friends at heart, and who ever must be so—indeed it is not in the nature of things that they can be otherwise—should be professed enemies.
“Mr Grieve
and Mr Laidlaw, who were very severe on
me, and to whom I was obliged to show your letter, have long ago convinced me
that I mistook part of it, and that it was not me you held in such contempt,
but the opinion of the public. The idea that you might mean that (though I
still think the reading will bear either construction) has given me much pain;
for I know I answered yours intemperately, and in a mortal rage. I meant to
have enclosed yours, and begged of you to return mine, but I cannot find it,
and am sure that some one to whom I have been induced to show it, has taken it
away. However, as my troubles on that subject were never like to wear to an
end, I could no longer resist telling you that I am extremely vexed about it. I
desire not a renewal of our former intimacy,
| 394 | LIFE OF SIR WALTER SCOTT. |
“If you allow of this, pray let me know, and if you do not, let me know. Indeed, I am anxious to hear from you, for ‘as the day of trouble is with me, so shall my strength be.’ To be friends from the teeth forwards is common enough; but it strikes me that there is something still more ludicrous in the reverse of the picture, and so to be enemies—and why should I be, from the teeth forwards,
Scott’s reply was, as Hogg says, “a brief note, telling him to think no more of the business, and come to breakfast next morning.” The misunderstanding being thus closed, they appear to have counselled and co-operated together in the most cordial fashion, in disciplining their rural allies for the muster of Carterhaugh the Duke of Buccleuch’s brother-in-law, the Earl of Home, having appointed the Shepherd his Lieutenant over the Yarrow Band, while the Sheriff took under his special cognizance the Sutors, i.e. shoemakers, of Selkirk—for so the burgesses of that town have for ages styled themselves, and under that denomination their warlike prowess in days of yore has been celebrated in many an old ballad, besides the well-known one which begins with
“’Tis up wi’ the Sutors o’ Selkirk, And ’tis down wi’ the Earl of Home!” |
| FOOTBALL MATCH ON CARTERHAUGH. | 395 |
“On Monday, 4th December, there was played, upon the extensive plain of Carterhaugh, near the junction of the Ettrick and Yarrow, the greatest match at the ball which has taken place for many years. It was held by the people of the Dale of Yarrow, against those of the parish of Selkirk; the former being brought to the field by the Right Hon. the Earl of Home, and the Gallant Sutors by their Chief Magistrate, Ebenezer Clarkson, Esq. Both sides were joined by many volunteers from other parishes; and the appearance of the various parties marching from their different glens to the place of rendezvous, with pipes playing and loud acclamations, carried back the coldest imagination to the old times when the Foresters assembled with the less peaceable purpose of invading the English territory, or defending their own. The romantic character of the scenery aided the illusion, as well as the performance of a feudal ceremony previous to commencing the games.
“His Grace the Duke of
Buccleuch and Queensberry came upon the ground about 11 o’clock,
attended by his sons, the young Earl of Dalkeith and
Lord John Scott; the Countess of Home; the Ladies Ann,
Charlotte, and Isabella
Scott; Lord and Lady Montagu and family; the Hon. General Sir
Edward Stopford, K. B.; Sir John Riddell of
Riddell; Sir Alexander Don of Newton;
Mr Elliot Lockhart, member for the county;
Mr Pringle of Whytebank, younger; Mr Pringle of Torwoodlee; Captain Pringle, Royal Navy; Mr Boyd of
Broadmeadows and family; Mr Chisholm of
Chisholm; Major Pott of Todrig;
Mr Walter Scott, Sheriff of Selkirkshire, and
family,—and many other gentlemen and ladies.—The ancient banner of the
Buccleuch family, a curious and venerable relique, emblazoned with
armorial bearings, and with the word “Bellendaine” the
ancient war-cry of the clan of Scott, was then displayed, as on former
occasions when the chief took the field in person, whether for the purpose of war or sport.
The banner was delivered by Lady Ann Scott to Master Walter Scott, younger of Abbotsford, who attended
suitably mounted and armed, and riding over the field, displaying it to the sound of the
war-pipes, and amid
| 396 | LIFE OF SIR WALTER SCOTT. |
“The ball was thrown up between the parties by the Duke of Buccleuch, and the first game was gained, after a severe conflict of an hour and a half duration, by the Selkirk men. The second game was still more severely contested, and after a close and stubborn struggle of more than three hours, with various fortune, and much display of strength and agility on both sides, was at length carried by the Yarrow men. The ball should then have been thrown up a third time, but considerable difficulty occurred in arranging the voluntary auxiliaries from other parishes, so as to make the match equal; and, as the day began to close, it was found impossible to bring the strife to an issue, by playing a decisive game.
“Both parties, therefore, parted with equal
honours, but, before they left the ground, the Sheriff threw up his hat, and in Lord Dalkeith’s name and his own, challenged the Yarrow
men, on the part of the Sutors, to a match to be played upon the first convenient
opportunity, with 100 picked men only on each side. The challenge was mutually accepted by
Lord Home, on his own part, and for Lord John Scott, and was received with acclamation by the
players on both sides. The principal gentlemen present took part with one side or other,
except the Duke of Buccleuch, who remains neutral.
Great play is expected, and all bets are to be paid by the losers to the poor of the
winning parish. We cannot dismiss the subject without giving our highest commendation to
the Earl of Home, and to Mr
Clarkson, for the attention which they showed in promoting the spirit and
good order of the day. For the players themselves, it was impossible to see a finer set of
active and athletic young fellows than appeared on the field. But what we chiefly admired
in their conduct was, that though several hundreds in number, exceedingly keen for their
respective parties, and engaged in so rough and animated a contest, they maintained the
most perfect good humour, and showed how unnecessary it is to discourage manly and athletic
exercises among the common people, under pretext of maintaining subordination and good
order. We have only to regret, that the great concourse of spectators rendered it difficult
to mention the names of
| FOOTBALL MATCH ON CARTERHAUGH. | 397 |
“The Selkirk party wore slips of fir as their mark of distinction—the Yarrow men, sprigs of heath.
“Refreshments were distributed to the players by the Duke of Buccleuch’s domestics, in a booth erected for the purpose; and no persons were allowed to sell ale or spirits on the field.
“In the evening there was a dance at the Duke’s hunting-seat at Bowhill, attended by the nobility and gentry who had witnessed the sport of the day; and the fascination of Gow’s violin and band detained them in the dancing-room till the dawn of the winter morning.”
The newspaper then gives the songs above alluded to—viz., Scott’s “Lifting of the Banner:”—
“From the brown crest of Newark its summons extending, Our signal is waving in smoke and in flame, And each Forester blythe, from his mountain descending, Bounds light o’er the heather to join in the game; Then up with the Banner! let forest winds fan her! She has blazed over Ettrick eight ages and more; In sport we’ll attend her, in battle defend her, With heart and with hand, like our Fathers before,” &c.* |
“And hast thou here, like hermit grey, Thy mystic characters unroll’d, O’er peaceful revellers to play, Thou emblem of the days of old?” “All hail! memorial of the brave, The liegeman’s pride, the Border’s awe! May thy grey pennon never wave On sterner field than Carterhaugh!” &c. |
I have no doubt the Sheriff of the Forest was a prouder
* See Poetical Works, (Edit. 1834) vol. xi. p. 312. |
| 398 | LIFE OF SIR WALTER SCOTT. |
It appears from the account of this football match in the Edinburgh Journal, that Scott took a lead in proposing a renewal of the contest. This,
however, never occurred; and that it ought not to do so, had probably occurred from the
first to the Duke of Buccleuch, who
| FOOTBALL MATCH—DEC. 1815. | 399 |
When Mr Washington Irving visited Scott two years afterwards at Abbotsford, he told his American friend that “the old feuds and local interests, and revelries and animosities of the Scotch, still slept in their ashes, and might easily be roused; their hereditary feeling for names was still great; it was not always safe to have even the game of football between villages;—the old clannish spirit was too apt to break out.”*
The good Duke of Buccleuch’s solitary exemption from these heats of Carterhaugh, might read a significant lesson to minor politicians of all parties on more important scenes. In pursuance of the same peace-making spirit, he appears to have been desirous of doing something gratifying to the men of the town of Selkirk, who had on this occasion taken the field against his Yarrow tenantry. His Grace consulted Scott about the design of a piece of plate to be presented to their community; and his letter on this weighty subject must not be omitted in the memoirs of a Sheriff of Selkirk:
“I have proceeded in my commission about the cup. It will be a very handsome one. But I am still puzzled to dispose of the birse† in a becoming manner.
* Irving’s Abbotsford and Newstead, 1835, p. 40. † A birse, or bunch of hog’s bristles, forms the cognizance of the sutors. When a new burgess is admitted into their community, the birse passes round with the cup of welcome, and every elder brother dips it into the wine, and draws it through his mouth, before it reaches the happy neophyte, who of course pays it similar respect. |
| 400 | LIFE OF SIR WALTER SCOTT. |
“P.S.—Under another cover, which I have just
re-
| CUP FOR THE SUTORS OF SELKIRK. | 401 |
|
‘The sutor ga’e the sow a kiss;
Grumph! quo’ the sow, it’s a’ for my
birss.’”
|
Some weeks before the year 1815 closed, Mr Morritt sustained the heaviest of domestic afflictions; and several letters on that sad subject had passed between Rokeby and Abbotsford, before the date of the following:—
“While you know what satisfaction it would have given me to have seen you here, I am very sensible of the more weighty reasons which you urge for preferring to stay at Rokeby for some time. I only hope you will remember that Scotland has claims on you, whenever you shall find your own mind so far at ease as to permit you to look abroad for consolation; and if it should happen that you thought of being here about our time of vacation, I have my time then entirely at my own command, and I need not say, that as much of it as could in any manner of way contribute to your amusement, is most heartily at yours. I have myself at present the melancholy task of watching the declining health of my elder brother, Major Scott, whom, I think, you have seen.
| 402 | LIFE OF SIR WALTER SCOTT. |
“My literary occupation is getting through the
press the Letters of Paul, of
whose lucubrations I trust soon to send you a copy. As the observations of a
bystander, perhaps you will find some amusement in them, especially as I had
some channels of information not accessible to every one. The recess of our
courts, which takes place to-morrow, for three weeks, will give me ample time
to complete this job, and also the second volume of Triermain, which is nearly finished,—a strange
rude story, founded partly on the ancient northern traditions respecting the
Berserkers, whose peculiar habits, and fits of martial frenzy, make such a
figure in the Sagas. I shall then set myself seriously to the Antiquary, of which I have only
a very general sketch at present; but when once I get my pen to the paper it
will walk fast enough. I am sometimes tempted to leave it alone, and try
whether it will not write as well without the assistance of my head as with it.
A hopeful prospect for the reader. In the mean while, the snow, which is now
falling so fast as to make it dubious when this letter may reach Rokeby, is
likely to forward these important avocations, by keeping me a constant resident
in Edinburgh, in lieu of my plan of going to Abbotsford, where I had a number
of schemes in hand in the way of planting and improving. I believe I told you I
have made a considerable addition to my little farm, and extended my domains
towards a wild lake, which I have a good prospect of acquiring also. It has a
sort of legendary fame; for the persuasion of the solitary shepherds who
approach its banks, is, that it is tenanted by a very large amphibious animal,
called by them a water-bull, and which several of them pretend to have seen. As
his dimensions greatly exceed those of an otter, I am tempted to think with
Trinculo, ‘This is the devil,
and no monster.’ But, after all, is it not strange, that as to
almost all
| THE CAULDSHIELS LOCH. | 403 |
“About a fortnight ago, we had a great foot-ball match in Selkirkshire, when the Duke of Buccleuch raised his banner (a very curious and ancient pennon) in great form. Your friend Walter was banner-bearer, dressed like a forester of old, in green, with a green bonnet, and an eagle feather in it; and, as he was well mounted, and rode handsomely over the field, he was much admired by all his clansmen.
“I have thrown these trifles together, without much
hope that they will afford you amusement; but I know you will wish to know what
I am about, and I have but trifles to send to those friends who interest
themselves about a trifler. My present employment is watching, from time to
time, the progress of a stupid cause, in order to be ready to reduce the
sentence into writing, when the court shall have decided whether
Gordon of Kenmore or MacMichan of
Meikleforthhead be the superior of the lands of Tarschrechan and
Dalbrattie, and entitled to the feudal casualities payable forth thereof, which
may amount to twopence sterling, once in half a-dozen of years. Marry, sir,
they make part of a freehold quali-
| 404 | LIFE OF SIR WALTER SCOTT. |
This letter is dated the 22d of December. On the 26th, John Ballantyne, being then at Abbotsford, writes to Messrs Constable: “Paul is all in hand;” and an envelope, addressed to James Ballantyne on the 29th, has preserved another little fragment of Scott’s playful doggrell:
|
“Dear James—I’m done, thank God,
with the long yarns
Of the most prosy of Apostles—Paul;
And now advance, sweet Heathen of
Monkbarns,
Step out, old quizz, as fast as I can scrawl.”
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