Memoirs of the Life of Sir Walter Scott, Bart.
Walter Scott to Lord Montagu of Boughton, 12 November 1819
“Abbotsford, 12th Nov. 1619.
“My dear Lord,
* * * * * * “I wish I had any news to send your
Lordship, but the best is we are all quiet here. The Galashiels weavers, both
men and masters, have made their political creed known to me, and have sworn
themselves anti-radical. They came in solemn procession, with their banners,
and my own piper at their head, whom they had borrowed for the nonce. But
320 | LIFE OF SIR WALTER SCOTT. | |
the Tweed being in flood, we could only communicate like
Wallace and Bruce across the Carron. However, two deputies came through in
the boat, and made me acquainted with their loyal purposes. The evening was
crowned with two most distinguished actions—the weavers refusing, in the most
peremptory manner, to accept of a couple of guineas to buy whisky, and the
renowned John of Skye, piper in ordinary
to the Laird of Abbotsford, no less steadily refusing a very handsome
collection, which they offered him for his minstrelsy. All this sounds very
nonsensical, but the people must be humoured and countenanced when they take
the right turn, otherwise they will be sure to take the wrong. The accounts
from the West sometimes make me wish our little
Duke five or six years older, and able to get on horseback. It
seems approaching to the old song— ‘Come fill up our cup, come fill up our can, Come saddle the horses, and call up our men, Come open the gates, and let us go free, And we’ll show them the bonnets of bonny Dundee.’ |
“I am rather too old for that work now, and I cannot
look forward to it with the sort of feeling that resembled pleasure—as I did in
my younger and more healthy days. However, I have got a good following here,
and will endeavour to keep them together till times mend.
“My respectful compliments attend Lady Montagu, and I am always, with the greatest
regard, your Lordship’s very faithful
Jane Margaret Montagu [née Douglas] (1779-1859)
The daughter of Archibald James Edward Douglas, first Baron Douglas of Douglas; in 1804
she married Henry James Montagu-Scott, second Baron Montagu, son of the third Duke of
Buccleuch.
Sir William Wallace (1272 c.-1305)
Scottish hero in the conflict with Edward I, whom he defeated at the battle of Stirling
in 1297; he was afterwards captured and brutally executed in London.