HE PEEL OF DARNICK. | 345 |
In the course of December, 1819, and January, 1820, Scott drew up three essays, under the title of “The Visionary,” upon certain popular
doctrines or delusions, the spread of which at this time filled with alarm, not only Tories
like him, but many persons who had been distinguished through life for their adherence to
political liberalism. These papers appeared successively in James Ballantyne’s Edinburgh Weekly Journal, and their parentage being obvious, they excited much
attention in Scotland. Scott collected them into a pamphlet, which had
also a large circulation; and I remember his showing very particular satisfaction when he
observed a mason reading it to his comrades, as they sat at their luncheon, by a new house
on Leith Walk. During January, however, his thoughts continued to be chiefly occupied with
the details of the proposed corps of Foresters; of which, I believe, it was at last
settled, as far as depended on the other gentlemen concerned in it, that he should be the
Major. He wrote and spoke on this subject with undiminished zeal, until the whole fell to
the ground in
346 | LIFE OF SIR WALTER SCOTT. |
JANUARY, 1820. | 347 |
This was a winter of uncommon severity in Scotland; and the snow lay so deep and so long as to interrupt very seriously all Scott’s country operations. I find, in his letters to Laidlaw, various paragraphs expressing the concern he took in the hardships which his poor neighbours must be suffering. Thus, on the 19th of January, he says,
“I write by the post that you may receive the enclosed, or rather subjoined, cheque for L.60, in perfect safety. This dreadful morning will probably stop Mercer.* It makes me shiver in the midst of superfluous comforts, to think of the distress of others. L.10 of the L.60 I wish you to distribute among our poorer neighbours, so as may best aid them. I mean not only the actually indigent, but those who are, in our phrase, ill off. I am sure Dr Scott— will assist you with his advice in this labour of love. I think part of the wood-money,‡ too, should be given among the Abbotstown folks if the storm keeps them off work, as is like.
* The weekly Darnick carrier. † Dr Scott of Darnlee.—See ante, p. 260. I regret to observe in the newspapers, as this page is passing through the press, the death of this very amiable, modest, and intelligent friend of Sir Walter Scott’s. ‡ Some money expected from the sale of larches. |
348 | LIFE OF SIR WALTER SCOTT. |
And again, on the 25th, he writes thus:—
“I have yours with the news of the inundation, which, it seems, has done no damage. I hope Mai will be taken care of. He should have a bed in the kitchen, and always be called in doors after it is dark, for all the kind are savage at night. Please cause Swanston to knock him up a box, and fill it with straw from time to time. I enclose a cheque for L.50 to pay accounts, &c. Do not let the poor bodies want for a L.5, or even a L.10, more or less.
‘We’ll get a blessing wi’ the lave,
And never miss’t.’*
|
In the course of this month, through the kindness of Mr Croker, Scott received from the late Earl Bathurst, then Colonial Secretary of State, the offer of an appointment in the civil service of the East India Company for his second son: and this seemed at the time too good a thing not to be gratefully accepted; though the apparently increasing prosperity of his fortunes induced him, a few years afterwards, to indulge his parental feelings by throwing it up. He thus alludes to this matter in a letter to his good old friend at Jedburgh.
“I heartily congratulate you on getting the appointment for your son William in a manner so very pleasant to your feelings, and which is, like all Whyt-
ABBOTSFORD—FEBRUARY, 1820. | 349 |
“It is very odd that almost the same thing has happened to me; for about a week ago, I was surprised by a letter, saying, that an unknown friend (who since proves to be Lord Bathurst, whom I never saw or spoke with) would give my second son a writer’s situation for India. Charles is two years too young for this appointment; but I do not think I am at liberty to decline an offer so advantageous, if it can be so arranged that, by exchange or otherwise, it can be kept open for him. Ever yours faithfully,
About the middle of February—it having been ere that time arranged that I should marry his eldest daughter in the course of the spring,—I accompanied him and part of his family on one of those flying visits to Abbotsford, with which he often indulged himself on a Saturday during term. Upon such occasions, Scott appeared at the usual hour in Court, but wearing, instead of the official suit of black, his country morning dress, green jacket and so forth, under the clerk’s gown; a license of which many gentlemen of the long robe had been accustomed to avail themselves in the days of his youth—it being then considered as the authentic badge that they were lairds as well as lawyers—but which, to use the dialect of the place, had fallen into desuetude
* “An India appointment, with the name blank, which the late Mr Pringle of Whytbank sent unsolicited, believing it might be found useful to a family where there were seven sons to provide for.”—Note, by Mr A. Shortrede. |
350 | LIFE OF SIR WALTER SCOTT. |
Next morning there appeared at breakfast John Ballantyne, who had at this time a shooting or hunting-box a few miles
off in the vale of the Leader, and with him Mr
Constable, his guest; and it being a fine clear day, as soon as Scott had read the Church service and one of Jeremy Taylor’s sermons, we all sallied out, before
noon, on a perambulation of his upland territories; Maida and
the rest of the favourites accompanying our march. At starting we were joined by the
constant henchman, Tom Purdie—and I may save myself
the trouble of any attempt to describe his appearance, for his master has given us an
inimitably true one in introducing a certain personage of his Redgauntlet:—“He
ABBOTSFORD—FEB. 1820. | 351 |
We were all delighted to see how completely Scott had recovered his bodily vigour, and none more so than Constable, who, as he puffed and panted after him up one
ravine and down another, often stopped to wipe his forehead, and remarked that “it
was not every author who should lead him such a dance.” But Purdie’s face shone with rapture as he observed how
severely the swag-bellied bookseller’s activity was tasked.
Scott exclaiming exultingly, though perhaps for the tenth time,
“This will be a glorious spring for our trees,
Tom!”—“You may say that. Sheriff,”
quoth Tom,—and then lingering a moment for
Constable—“My certy,” he added, scratching his
head, “and I think it
352 | LIFE OF SIR WALTER SCOTT. |
“Mine be a cot beside the hill— A bee-hive’s hum shall soothe my ear; A willowy brook that turns a mill, With many a fall shall linger near:” &c. |
“And Lucy at her
wheel shall sing, In russet-gown and apron blue,” |
“But if Bluestockings here you bring, The Great Unknown
won’t dine with you.” |
Johnny Ballantyne, a projector to the core, was
particularly zealous about this embryo establishment. Foreseeing that he should have had
walking enough ere he reached Huntly Burn, his dapper little Newmarket groom had been
ordered to fetch Old Mortality thither, and now, mounted on his
fine hunter, he capered about us, looking pallid and emaciated as a ghost, but as gay
TOM PURDIE. | 353 |
As we walked homeward, Scott, being a little fatigued, laid his left hand on Tom’s shoulder and leaned heavily for support, chatting to his “Sunday poney,” as he called the affectionate fellow, just as freely as with the rest of the party, and Tom put in his word shrewdly and manfully, and grinned and grunted whenever the joke chanced to be within his apprehension. It was easy to see that his heart swelled within him from the moment that the Sheriff got his collar in his gripe.
There arose a little dispute between them about what tree or trees
ought to be cut down in a hedgerow that we passed, and Scott seemed somewhat ruffled with finding that some previous hints of his
on that head had not been attended to. When we got into motion again, his hand was on
Constable’s shoulder and Tom dropped a pace or two to the rear, until we approached
a gate, when he jumped forward and opened it. “Give us a pinch of your snuff,
Tom,” quoth the
Sheriff—Tom’s mull was produced, and the hand resumed its
position. I was much diverted with Tom’s behaviour when we at
length
354 | LIFE OF SIR WALTER SCOTT. |
I must not forget that, whoever might be at Abbotsford, Tom always appeared at his master’s elbow on Sunday,
when dinner was over, and drank long life to the Laird and the Lady and all the good
company, in a quaigh of whisky, or a tumbler of wine, according to his fancy. I believe
Scott has somewhere expressed in. print his
satisfaction that, among all the changes of our manners, the ancient freedom of personal
intercourse may still be indulged between a master and an out-of-doors’ servant; but in truth he kept by the old fashion even with
domestic servants, to an extent which I have hardly seen practised by any other gentleman.
He conversed with his coachman if he sat by him, as he often did, on the box with his
footman, if he happened to be in the rumble; and when there was any very young lad in the
household, he held it a point of duty to see that his employments were so arranged as to
leave time for advancing his education, made him bring his copybook once a-week to the
library, and examined him as to all that he was doing. Indeed he did not confine this
humanity to his own people. Any steady servant of a
PRINCE GUSTAVUS VASA. | 355 |
In a letter, already quoted, there occurs some mention of the Prince Gustavus Vasa, who was spending this winter in
Edinburgh, and his Royal Highness’s accomplished attendant, the Baron
Polier. I met them frequently in Castle Street, and remember as especially
interesting the first evening that they dined there. The only portrait in
Scott’s Edinburgh dining room was one of Charles XII. of Sweden, and he was struck, as indeed every
one must have been, with the remarkable resemblance which the exiled Prince’s air and
features presented to the hero of his race. Young Gustavus, on his
part, hung with keen and melancholy enthusiasm on Scott’s
anecdotes of the expedition of Charles Edward
Stewart. The Prince, accompanied by Scott and myself,
witnessed the ceremonial of the proclamation of King George
IV. on the 2d of February at the Cross of Edinburgh, from a window over
Mr Constable’s shop in the High Street;
and on that occasion also the air of sadness, that mixed in his features with eager
curiosity, was very affecting. Scott explained all the
details to him, not without many lamentations over the barbarity of the Auld Reekie
bailies, who had removed the beautiful Gothic Cross itself, for the sake of widening the
thoroughfare. The weather was fine, the sun shone bright; and the antique tabards
356 | LIFE OF SIR WALTER SCOTT. |
“I have nothing to say, except that Selkirk has
declared decidedly for Monteith, and
that his calling and election seem to be sure. Roxburghshire is right and
tight. Harden will not stir for
Berwickshire. In short, within my sphere of observation, there is nothing which
need make you regret your personal absence; and I
LETTER TO LORD MONTAGU. | 357 |
* The funeral of George III. at Windsor: the young Duke of Buccleuch was at this time at Eton. |
358 | LIFE OF SIR WALTER SCOTT. |
“Now for a very different subject. I have a report that there is found on the farm of Melsington, in a bog, the limb of a bronze figure, full size, with a spur on the heel. This has been reported to Mr Riddell, as Commissioner, and to me as Antiquary in chief, on the estate. I wish your lordship would permit it to be sent provisionally to Abbotsford, and also allow me, if it shall seem really curious, to make search for the rest of the statue. Clarkson* has sent me a curious account of it; and that a Roman statue, for such it seems, of that size should be found in so wild a place, has something very irritating to the curiosity. I do not of course desire to have any thing more than the opportunity of examining the relique. It may be the foundation of a set of bronzes, if stout Lord Walter should turn to virtu.
“Always my dear Lord, most truly yours,
The novel of the Monastery was published, by Messrs
* Ebenezer Clarkson, Esq., a surgeon of distinguished skill at Selkirk, and through life a trusty friend and crony of the Sheriff’s. |
THE MONASTERY—MARCH, 1820. | 359 |
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