Memoirs of the Life of Sir Walter Scott, Bart.
Walter Scott to Thomas Scott, 22 December 1819
“Edinburgh, 22d December, 1819.
“I wrote you about ten days since, stating that we
were all well here. In that very short space a change so sudden and so
universal has taken place among your friends here, that I have to communicate
to you a most miserable catalogue of losses. Our dear mother was on Sunday the 12th December in all
her usual strength and alertness of mind. I had seen and conversed with her on
the Saturday preceding, and never saw her better in my life of late years. My
two daughters drank tea with her on Sunday, when she was uncommonly lively,
telling them a number of stories, and being in rather unusual spirits, probably
from the degree of excitation which sometimes is remarked to precede a
paralytic affection. In the course of Monday she re-![]()
![]()
ceived that fatal summons, which at first seemed
slight; but in the night betwixt Monday and Tuesday our mother lost the use
both of speech and of one side. Since that time she has lain in bed constantly,
yet so sensible as to see me and express her earnest blessing on all of us. The
power of speech is totally lost; nor is there any hope at her advanced age,
that the scene can last long. Probably a few hours will terminate it. At any
rate, life is not to be wished, even for our nearest and dearest, in those
circumstances. But this heavy calamity was only the commencement of our family
losses. Dr Rutherford, who had seemed
perfectly well, and had visited my mother upon Tuesday the 14th, was suddenly
affected with gout in his stomach, or some disease equally rapid, on Wednesday
the 15th, and without a moment’s warning or complaint, fell down a dead
man, almost without a single groan. You are aware of his fondness for animals;
he was just stroking his cat after eating his breakfast, as usual, when,
without more warning than a half-uttered exclamation, he sunk on the ground,
and died in the arms of his daughter Anne. Though the
Doctor had no formed complaint, yet I have thought him looking poorly for some
months; and though there was no failure whatever in intellect, or any thing
which approached it, yet his memory was not so good, and I thought he paused
during the last time he attended me, and had difficulty in recollecting the
precise terms of his recipe. Certainly there was a great decay of outward
strength. We were very anxious about the effect this fatal news was likely to
produce on the mind and decayed health of our aunt, Miss C. Rutherford, and resolved, as her health had been
gradually falling off ever since she returned from Abbotsford, that she should
never learn any thing of it until it was impossible to conceal it longer. But
God had so ordered ![]()
| 334 | LIFE OF SIR WALTER SCOTT. | |
![]()
it that she was never to know the loss
she had sustained, and which she would have felt so deeply. On Friday the 17th
December, the second day after her brother’s death, she expired, without
a groan and without suffering, about six in the morning. And so we lost an
excellent and warm-hearted relation, one of the few women I ever knew whose
strength of mental faculties enabled her, at a mature period of life, to supply
the defects of an imperfect education. It is a most uncommon and afflicting
circumstance, that a brother and two sisters should be taken ill the same
day—that two of them should die without any rational possibility of the
survivance of the third—and that no one of the three could be affected by
learning the loss of the other. The Doctor was buried on Monday 20th, and
Miss Rutherford this day (Wednesday 22d), in the
burial place adjoining to and surrounding one of the new Episcopal chapels,*
where Robert Rutherford† had
purchased a burial ground of some extent, and parted with one half to the
Russells. It is surrounded with a very high wall, and
all the separate burial grounds, five I think in number, are separated by party
walls going down to the depth of twelve feet, so as to prevent the possibility
either of encroachment, or of disturbing the relics of the dead. I have
purchased one half of Miss
Russell’s interest in this sad spot, moved by its extreme
seclusion, privacy, and security. When poor Jack was buried in the Greyfriars’ churchyard, where my
father and Anne lie, if I thought their graves more
encroached upon than I * St John’s Chapel. † Robert
Rutherford, Esq., W.S., son to the Professor of Botany. ‡ “Our family heretofore buried in
the Grey Friar’s Churchyard, close by the entrance to
Heriot’s Hospital, and on the southern or left-hand side as
you pass from the churchyard.”—MS.
Memorandum. |
![]()
![]()
| LETTER TO THOMAS SCOTT. | 335 |
![]()
liked to witness; and in this
new place I intend to lay our poor mother when the scene shall close; so that
the brother and the two sisters, whose fate has been so very closely entwined
in death may not be divided in the grave,—and this I hope you will approve of.
“Thursday, December 23d.—My mother
still lingers this morning, and as her constitution is so excellent, she may
perhaps continue to exist some time, or till another stroke. It is a great
consolation that she is perfectly easy. All her affairs of every sort have been
very long arranged for this great change, and with the assistance of Donaldson and Macculloch, you may depend, when the event takes place, that
your interest will be attended to most pointedly. I hope our civil tumults here
are like to be ended by the measures of Parliament. I mentioned in my last that
Kinloch of Kinloch was to be tried
for sedition. He has forfeited his bail, and was yesterday laid under outlawry
for non-appearance. Our neighbours in Northumberland are in a deplorable state;
upwards of 50,000 blackguards are ready to rise between Tyne and Wear.* On the
other hand, the Scottish frontiers are steady and loyal, and arming fast.
Scott of Gala and I have offered 200
men, all fine strapping young fellows, and good marksmen, willing to go any
where with us. We could easily double the number. So the necessity of the times
has made me get on horseback once more. Our mother has at different times been
perfectly conscious of her situation, and knew every one, though totally unable
to speak. She seemed to take a very affectionate farewell of me the last time I
saw her, which was the day before yesterday; and as she was much agitated,
Dr Keith advised I should not see
her again unless she seemed to desire it, which
* This was a ridiculous exaggerated report of that
period of alarm. |
![]()
![]()
| 336 | LIFE OF SIR WALTER SCOTT. | |
![]()
hitherto she has not done. She sleeps constantly, and
will probably be so removed. Our family sends love to yours. Yours most
affectionately,
Hay Donaldson (d. 1822)
Writer to the Signet; he was the third son of Hay Donaldson (d. 1802) and Walter Scott's
friend and confidential solicitor.
James Keith (1783-1863)
Scottish surgeon educated at Edinburgh University (MD 1804); he was physician to the Deaf
and Dumb Institution, and a relation of Sir Walter Scott.
George Kinloch of Kinloch (1775-1833)
The son of Captain George Oliphant Kinloch; after inheriting the family estate he adopted
radical views and was charged with sedition after a speech made in connection with the
Peterloo massacre. He was MP for Dundee (1833).
James Murray MacCulloch of Ardwall (1768-1857)
Scottish landowner, son of David MacCulloch (d. 1794); he succeeded his brother Edward in
1796; his sister married Walter Scott's brother Thomas.
Elizabeth Janet Russell (1791-1820)
The daughter of William Russell of Ashiestiel, and first cousin of Walter Scott; she died
unmarried.
Christian Rutherford (1759-1819)
The daughter of Professor John Rutherford by his second wife; she was the half-sister of
Anne, mother of Sir Walter Scott (who referred to her as “Miss Critty”).
Daniel Rutherford (1749-1819)
Scottish physician and botanist, the son of Professor John Rutherford; after study at
Edinburgh University he was physician-in-ordinary to the Royal Infirmary (1791). He was Sir
Walter Scott's uncle.
Robert Rutherford (1790-1866)
Son of the physician Daniel Rutherford, and Sir Walter Scott's cousin. He was Writer to
the Signet (1815) and Deputy Keeper of the Abbey of Holyrood.
Anne Scott [née Rutherford] (1739 c.-1819)
Walter Scott's mother, the daughter of Professor John Rutherford who married Walter Scott
senior in 1755.
Anne Scott (1772-1801)
Walter Scott's younger and only sister; an earlier sister of the same name had died in
childhood.
John Scott (1769-1816)
Walter Scott's elder brother who served in the 73rd Regiment before retiring to Edinburgh
in 1810.
John Scott of Gala (1790-1840)
Scottish laird and lifelong friend of Walter Scott; they traveled together to Waterloo in
1815.
Thomas Scott (1774-1823)
The younger brother of Walter Scott rumored to have written
Waverley; after working in the family legal business he was an officer in the
Manx Fencibles (1806-10) and Paymaster of the 70th Foot (1812-14). He died in
Canada.
Walter Scott (1729-1799)
Walter Scott's father, son of Robert Scott of Sandyknowe; he was Writer to the Signet in
Edinburgh.
