Memoirs of the Life of Sir Walter Scott, Bart.
Sir Walter Scott to Thomas Scott, 23 July 1820
“Abbotsford, 23d July, 1820.
“Your letter of May, this day received, made me ![]()
| 378 | LIFE OF SIR WALTER SCOTT. | |
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truly happy, being the first I have received from you
since our dear mother’s death, and the consequent breaches which fate has
made in our family. My own health continues quite firm, at no greater sacrifice
than bidding adieu to our old and faithful friend John
Barleycorn, whose life-blood has become a little too heavy for
my stomach. I wrote to you from London concerning the very handsome manner in
which the King behaved to me in conferring
my petit titre, and also of Sophia’s intended marriage, which took
place in the end of April, as we intended. I got Walter’s leave prolonged, that he might be present, and I
assure you that, when he attended at the ceremony in full regimentals, you have
scarce seen a handsomer young man. He is about six feet and an inch, and
perfectly well made. Lockhart seems to
be every thing I could wish, and as they have enough to live easily upon for
the present, and good expectations for the future, life opens well with them.
They are to spend their vacations in a nice little cottage, in a glen belonging
to this property, with a rivulet in front, and a grove of trees on the east
side to keep away the cold wind. It is about two miles distant from this house,
and a very pleasant walk reaches to it through my plantations, which now occupy
several hundred acres. Thus there will be space enough betwixt the old man of
letters and the young one. Charles’s destination to India is adjourned till he
reaches the proper age—it seems he cannot hold a writership until he is sixteen
years old, and then is admitted to study for two years at Hertford College.
“After my own sons, my most earnest and anxious wish
will be, of course, for yours,—and with this view I have pondered well what you
say on the subject of your Walter; and
whatever line of life you may design him for, it is scarce possible but that I
can be of considerable use ![]()
| LETTER TO MR THOMAS SCOTT. | 379 |
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to him. Before fixing, however, on a point so very important, I would have you
consult the nature of the boy himself. I do not mean by this that you should
ask his opinion, because at so early an age a well bred up child naturally
takes up what is suggested to him by his parents; but I think you should
consider, with as much impartiality as a parent can, his temper, disposition,
and qualities of mind and body. It is not enough that you think there is an
opening for him in one profession rather than another,—for it were better to
sacrifice the fairest prospects of that kind than to put a boy into a line of
life for which he is not calculated. If my nephew is steady, cautious, fond of
a sedentary life and quiet pursuits, and at the same time a proficient in
arithmetic, and with a disposition towards the prosecution of its highest
branches, he cannot follow a better line than that of an accountant. It is
highly respectable—and is one in which, with attention and skill, aided by such
opportunities as I may be able to procure for him, he must ultimately succeed.
I say ultimately, because the harvest is small and the labourers numerous in
this as in other branches of our legal practice; and whoever is to dedicate
himself to them, must look for a long and laborious tract of attention ere he
reaches the reward of his labours. If I live, however, I will do all I can for
him, and see him put under a proper person, taking his ‘prentice fee,
&c., upon myself. But if, which may possibly be the case, the lad has a
decided turn for active life and adventure, is high-spirited, and impatient of
long and dry labour, with some of those feelings not unlikely to result from
having lived all his life in a camp or a barrack, do not deceive yourself, my
dear brother—you will never make him an accountant; you will never be able to
convert such a sword into a pruning-hook, merely because you think a
pruning-hook the better thing of the two. In ![]()
| 380 | LIFE OF SIR WALTER SCOTT. | |
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this
supposed case your authority and my recommendation might put him into an
accountant’s office; but it would be just to waste the earlier years of
his life in idleness, with all the temptations to dissipation which idleness
gives way to; and what sort of a place a writing chamber is you cannot but
remember. So years might wear away, and at last the youth starts off from his
profession, and becomes an adventurer too late in life, and with the
disadvantage, perhaps, of offended friends and advanced age standing in the way
of his future prospects.
“This is what I have judged fittest in my own
family, for Walter would have gone to
the bar had I liked, but I was sensible (with no small reluctance did I admit
the conviction) that I should only spoil an excellent soldier to make a poor
and undistinguished gownsman. On the same principle I shall send Charles to India, not, God knows, with my
will, for there is little chance of my living to see him return; but merely
that, judging by his disposition, I think the voyage of his life might be
otherwise lost in shallows. He has excellent parts, but they are better
calculated for intercourse with the world than for hard and patient study.
Having thus sent one son abroad from my family, and being about to send off the
other in due time, you will not, I am sure, think that I can mean disregard to
your parental feelings in stating what I can do for your Walter. Should his temper and character
incline for active life, I think I can promise to get him a cadetship in the
East India Company’s service; so soon as he has had the necessary
education, I will be at the expense of his equipment and passage-money; and
when he reaches India, there he is completely provided, secure of a competence
if he lives, and with great chance of a fortune if he thrives. I am aware this
would be a hard pull at Mrs
Scott’s feelings and yours; but recollect your fortune is
small, ![]()
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and the demands on it numerous,
and pagodas and rupees are no bad things. I can get Walter
the first introductions, and if he behaves himself as becomes your son, and my
nephew, I have friends enough in India, and of the highest class, to ensure his
success, even his rapid success—always supposing my recommendations to be
seconded by his own conduct. If, therefore, the youth has any thing of your own
spirit, for God’s sake do not condemn him to a drudgery which he will
never submit to and remember, to sacrifice his fortune to your fondness will be
sadly mistaken affection. As matters stand, unhappily you must be separated;
and considering the advantages of India, the mere circumstance of distance is
completely counterbalanced. Health is what will naturally occur to
Mrs Scott; but the climate of India is now well
understood, and those who attend to ordinary precaution live as healthy as in
Britain. And so I have said my say. Most heartily will I do my best in any way
you may ultimately decide for; and as the decision really ought to turn on the
boy’s temper and disposition, you must be a better judge by far than any
one else. But if he should resemble his father and uncle in certain indolent
habits, I fear he will make a better subject for an animating life of
enterprise than for the technical labour of an accountant’s desk. There
is no occasion, fortunately, for forming any hasty resolution. When you send
him here I will do all that is in my power to stand in the place of a father to
him, and you may fully rely on my care and tenderness. If he should ultimately
stay at Edinburgh, as both my own boys leave me, I am sure I shall have great
pleasure in having the nearest in blood after them with me. Pray send him as
soon as you can, for at his age, and under imperfect opportunities of
education, he must have a ![]()
| 382 | LIFE OF SIR WALTER SCOTT. | |
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good deal to make up. I wish I
could be of the same use to you which I am sure I can be to your son.
“Of public news I have little to send. The papers
will tell you the issue of the Radical row for the present. The yeomanry
behaved most gallantly. There is in Edinburgh a squadron as fine as ours was,
all young men, and zealous soldiers. They made the western campaign with the
greatest spirit, and had some hard and fatiguing duty, long night-marches,
surprises of the enemy, and so forth, but no fight, for the whole Radical plot
went to the devil when it came to gun and sword. Scarce any blood was shed,
except in a trifling skirmish at Bonnymuir, near Carron. The rebels were behind
a wall, and fired on ten hussars and as many yeomen—the latter under command of
a son of James Davidson, W.S. The
cavalry cleared the wall, and made them prisoners to a man. The commission of
Oyer and Terminer is now busy trying them and others. The Edinburgh young men
showed great spirit; all took arms, and my daughters say (I was in London at
the time), that not a feasible-looking beau was to be had for love or money.
Several were like old Beardie; they
would not shave their moustaches till the Radicals were put down, and returned
with most awful whiskers. Lockhart is
one of the cavalry, and a very good troop. It is high to hear these young
fellows talk of the Raid of Airdrie, the trot of Kilmarnock, and so on, like so
many moss-troopers. The Queen is making
an awful bustle, and though by all accounts her conduct has been most abandoned
and beastly, she has got the whole mob for her partisans, who call her injured
innocence, and what not. She has courage enough to dare the worst, and a most
decided desire to be revenged of him, which, by the way, can scarce be wondered
at. If she had as many followers of high as of ![]()
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low degree (in proportion), and funds to equip them, I
should not be surprised to see her fat bottom in a pair of buckskins, and at
the head of an army—God mend all. The things said of her are beyond all usual
profligacy. Nobody of any fashion visits her. I think myself monstrously well
clear of London and its intrigues, when I look round my green fields, and
recollect I have little to do, but to ——‘make my grass mow, And my apple tree grow.’ |
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“I beg my kind love to Mrs Huxley. I have a very acceptable letter from her, and I
trust to retain the place she promises me in her remembrance. Sophia will be happy to hear from uncle
Tom, when Uncle
Tom has so much leisure. My best compliments attend your wife
and daughters, not forgetting Major
Huxley and Walter. My
dear Tom, it will be a happy moment when circumstances
shall permit us a meeting on this side Jordan, as Tabitha says, to talk over old stories, and lay new plans. So
many things have fallen out which I had set my heart upon strongly, that I
trust this may happen amongst others. Believe me, yours very affectionately,
Queen Caroline of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel (1768-1821)
Married the Prince of Wales in 1795 and separated in 1796; her husband instituted
unsuccessful divorce proceedings in 1820 when she refused to surrender her rights as
queen.
John James Davidson (1797-1821)
Son of James Davidson; he was a Scottish Writer to the Signet (1821).
Jesse Huxley [née Scott] (1800-1870)
The daughter of Walter Scott's younger brother Thomas; she married Captain Thomas Huxley
of the 70th Foot in 1819.
Thomas Huxley (d. 1826)
Military officer in Canada, the husband of Sir Walter Scott's niece Jesse Scott; he died
a suicide.
John Gibson Lockhart (1794-1854)
Editor of the
Quarterly Review (1825-1853); son-in-law of Walter
Scott and author of the
Life of Scott 5 vols (1838).
Charles Scott (1805-1841)
The younger son of Sir Walter Scott; educated at Oxford, he pursued a career in diplomacy
and died in Tehran.
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 [Beardie] (1653-1729)
Walter Scott's great-grandfather, son of Walter Scott, first laird of Raeburn. He was a
Jacobite said to have let his beard grow in mourning for the demise of the Stuarts.
Sir Walter Scott, second baronet (1801-1847)
The elder son and heir of Sir Walter Scott; he was cornet in the 18th Hussars (1816),
captain (1825), lieut.-col. (1839). In the words of Maria Edgeworth, he was
“excessively shy, very handsome, not at all literary.”
Walter Scott (1807-1876)
Sir Walter Scott's nephew and ward, the son of Thomas Scott; he was a military officer
and served in the East India Company.
