Memoirs of the Life of Sir Walter Scott, Bart.
Walter Scott to J. B. S. Morritt of Rokeby, 14 September 1814
“Edinburgh, September 14, 1814.
“‘At the end of my tour on the 22d
August’!!! Lord help us!—this comes of going to the Levant and the
Hellespont, and your Euxine, and so forth. A poor devil who goes to Nova Zembla
and Thule is treated as if he had been only walking as far as Barnard Castle or
Cauldshiel’s Loch.* I would have you to know I only returned on the 10th
current, and the most agreeable thing I found was your letter. I am sure you
must know I had need of something pleasant, for the news of
* Lord Byron
writes to Mr Moore, August 3,
1814:—“Oh! I nave had the most amusing letter from
Hogg, the Ettrick
Minstrel and Shepherd. I think very highly of him as a poet, but he
and half of these Scotch and Lake troubadours are spoilt by living
in little circles and petty coteries. London and the world is the
only place to take the conceit out of a man—in the milling phrase.
Scott, he says, is gone to
the Orkneys in a gale of wind, during which wind, he affirms, the
said Scott he is sure is not at his ease, to
say the least of it. Lord! Lord! if these home-keeping minstrels
had crossed your Atlantic or my Mediterranean, and tasted a little
open boating in a white squall—or a gale in ‘the
Gut,’—or the Bay of Biscay, with no gale at all—how it would
enliven and introduce them to a few of the sensations!—to say
nothing of an illicit amour or two upon shore, in the way of Essay
upon the Passions, beginning with simple adultery, and compounding
it as they went along.” Life and Works, vol. iii. p. 102. Lord Byron, by the
way, had written on July the 24th to Mr
Murray, “Waverley is the best and most
interesting novel I have redde since—I don’t know
when,” &c. Ibid. p. 98. |
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| LETTER TO MR MORRITT—SEPT. 14, 1814. | 291 |
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the death of
the beautiful, the kind, the affectionate, and generous Duchess of Buccleuch gave me a shock, which, to
speak God’s truth, could not have been exceeded unless by my own
family’s sustaining a similar deprivation. She was indeed a light set
upon a hill, and had all the grace which the most accomplished manners and the
most affable address could give to those virtues by which she was raised still
higher than by rank. As she always distinguished me by her regard and
confidence, and as I had many opportunities of seeing her in the active
discharge of duties in which she rather resembled a descended angel than an
earthly being, you will excuse my saying so much about my own feelings on an
occasion where sorrow has been universal. But I will drop the subject. The
survivor has displayed a strength and
firmness of mind seldom equalled, where the affection has been so strong and
mutual, and amidst the very high station and commanding fortune which so often
render self-control more difficult, because so far from being habitual. I trust
for his own sake, as well as for that of thousands to whom his life is directly
essential, and hundreds of thousands to whom his example is important, that
God, as he has given him fortitude to bear this inexpressible shock, will add
strength of constitution to support him in the struggle. He has written to me
on the occasion in a style becoming a man and a Christian, submissive to the
will of God, and willing to avail himself of the consolations which remain
among his family and friends. I am going to see him, and how we shall meet, God
knows; but though ‘an iron man of iron mould’ upon many of
the occasions of life in which I see people most affected, and a peculiar
contemner of the commonplace sorrow which I see paid to the departed, this is a
case in which my stoicism will not serve me. They both gave me reason to think
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| 292 | LIFE OF SIR WALTER SCOTT. | |
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loved me, and I returned their regard with the most
sincere attachment—the distinction of rank being, I think, set apart on all
sides. But God’s will be done. I will dwell no longer upon this subject.
It is much to learn that Mrs Morritt is
so much better, and that if I have sustained a severe wound from a quarter so
little expected, I may promise myself the happiness of your dear wife’s
recovery.
“I will shortly mention the train of our voyage,
reserving particulars till another day. We sailed from Leith and skirted the
Scottish coast, visiting the Buller of Buchan and other remarkable objects—went
to Shetland—thence to Orkney—from thence round Cape Wrath to the Hebrides,
making descents every where, where there was any thing to be seen—thence to
Lewis and the Long Island—to Skye—to Iona—and so forth, lingering among the
Hebrides as long as we could. Then we stood over to the coast of Ireland, and
visited the Giant’s Causeway and Port Rush, where Dr Richardson, the inventor (discoverer I
would say) of the celebrated fiorin grass resides. By the way, he is a
chattering charlatan, and his fiorin a mere humbug. But if he were Cicero, and his invention were potatoes, or any
thing equally useful, I should detest the recollection of the place and the
man, for it was there I learned the death of my friend. Adieu, my dear
Morritt; kind compliments to your
lady; like poor Tom, ‘I cannot
daub it farther.’ When I hear where you are, and what you are
doing, I will write you a more cheerful epistle. Poor Mackenzie, too, is gone—the brother of our
friend Lady Hood—and another Mackenzie, son to the Man of Feeling. So short time have I been
absent, and such has been the harvest of mortality among those whom I regarded.
“I will attend to your corrections in Waverley. My ![]()
| JAMES HOGG—ALTRIVE LAKE. | 293 |
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principal employment for
the autumn will be reducing the knowledge I have acquired of the localities of
the islands into scenery and stage-room for the ‘Lord of the Isles,’ of which renowned
romance I think I have repeated some portions to you. It was elder born than
Rokeby, though it gave place
to it in publishing.
“After all, scribbling is an odd propensity. I
don’t believe there is any ointment, even that of the Edinburgh Review, which can cure the infected.
Once more yours entirely,
James Hogg [The Ettrick Shepherd] (1770-1835)
Scottish autodidact, poet, and novelist; author of
The Queen's
Wake (1813) and
Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified
Sinner (1824).
Henry Mackenzie (1745-1831)
Scottish man of letters, author of
The Man of Feeling (1770) and
editor of
The Mirror (1779-80) and
The
Lounger (1785-87).
Hugh Mackenzie (1783-1814)
The fourth son of the novelist Henry Mackenzie; he was a London barrister.
William Frederick Mackenzie (1791 c.-1814)
The third son of Lt.-Gen. Francis Humberston Mackenzie, first Lord Seaforth; he was
educated at Harrow and was MP for Ross (1812-14).
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.
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.
William Richardson (1740-1820)
Irish clergyman and naturalist who published on grasses in the
Gentleman's Magazine; he was educated at Trinity College, Dublin and was rector
of Clonfeacle.
