Memoirs of the Life of Sir Walter Scott, Bart.
Walter Scott to John Ballantyne, 18 May 1813
“Printing-office, May 18th, 1813.
“After many offs and ons, and as many projets and contre-projets as the treaty of Amiens, I have at length
concluded a treaty with Constable, in
which I am sensible he has gained a great advantage;* but what could I do
amidst the disorder and pressure of so many demands? The arrival of your
long-dated bills decided my giving in, for what could James or I do with them? I trust this
sacrifice has cleared our way, but many rubs remain; nor am I, after these hard
skirmishes, so able to meet them by my proper credit.
Constable, however, will be a zealous ally; and for
the first time these many weeks I shall lay my head on a quiet pillow, for now
I do think that, by our joint exertions, we shall get well through the storm,
save Beaumont from
depreciation, get a partner in our heavy concerns, reef our topsails, and move
on securely under an easy sail. And if, on the one hand, I have sold my gold
too cheap, I have, on the other, turned my lead to gold. Brewster† and Singers‡ are the only heavy things to
which I have not given a blue eye. Had your news of Cadell’s sale§ reached us here, I could not have
harpooned my grampus so deeply as I have done, as nothing but Rokeby would have barbed the hook.
“Adieu, my dear John. I have the most sincere
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| 60 | LIFE OF SIR WALTER SCOTT. | |
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regard for you, and you may depend on my considering your
interest with quite as much attention as my own. If I have ever expressed
myself with irritation in speaking of this business, you must impute it to the
sudden, extensive, and unexpected embarrassments in which I found myself
involved all at once. If to your real goodness of heart and integrity, and to
the quickness and acuteness of your talents, you added habits of more universal
circumspection, and, above all, the courage to tell disagreeable truths to
those whom you hold in regard, I pronounce that the world never held such a man
of business. These it must be your study to add to your other good qualities.
Mean time, as some one says to Swift, I
love you with all your failings. Pray make an effort and love me with all mine.
Yours truly,
W. S.”
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 David Brewster (1781-1868)
Scottish natural philosopher and editor of the
Edinburgh
Encyclopaedia (1807-1830). He contributed to the
Literary
Gazette and invented the kaleidoscope.
Robert Cadell (1788-1849)
Edinburgh bookseller who partnered with Archibald Constable, whose daughter Elizabeth he
married in 1817. After Constable's death and the failure of Ballantyne he joined with Scott
to purchase rights to the
Waverley Novels.
Thomas Cadell the younger (1773-1836)
London bookseller, son of his better-known father; the younger Cadell entered into
partnership with William Davies in 1793. In 1802 he married Sophia Smith, sister of James
and Horace Smith of the
Rejected Addresses.
Archibald Constable (1774-1827)
Edinburgh bookseller who published the
Edinburgh Review and works
of Sir Walter Scott; he went bankrupt in 1826.
William Davies (d. 1820)
London bookseller who was assistant to the elder Thomas Cadell and partner of the
younger; he retired from the trade in 1813.
William Singer (1765-1840)
Scottish clergyman and schoolmaster educated at Marischal College; he was minister of
Wamphray (1789-94) and Kirkpatrick-Juxta (1799-1840).
Jonathan Swift (1667-1745)
Dean of St Patrick's, Scriblerian satirist, and author of
Battle of the
Books with
Tale of a Tub (1704),
Drapier
Letters (1724),
Gulliver's Travels (1726), and
A Modest Proposal (1729).
