40 | LIFE OF SIR WALTER SCOTT. |
Within less than a month, the Black Dwarf and Old Mortality were followed by “Harold the Dauntless, by the author of the Bridal of Triermain.” This poem had been, it appears,
begun several years back; nay, part of it had been actually printed before the appearance
of Childe Harold, though that circumstance
had escaped the author’s remembrance when he penned, in 1830, his Introduction to the
Lord of the Isles; for he there says,
“I am still astonished at my having committed the gross error of selecting the
very name which Lord Byron had made so
famous.” The volume was published by Messrs Constable, and had, in those booksellers’ phrase, “considerable
success.” It has never, however, been placed on a level with Triermain; and though it contains many vigorous pictures, and splendid verses,
and here and there some happy humour,
HAROLD THE DAUNTLESS PUBLISHED. | 41 |
It is at least a curious coincidence in literary history, that, as Cervantes, driven from the stage of Madrid by the success of Lope de Vega, threw himself into prose romance, and produced, at the moment when the world considered him as silenced for ever, the Don Quixote which has outlived Lope’s two thousand triumphant dramas—so Scott, abandoning verse to Byron, should have rebounded from his fall by the only prose romances which seem to be classed with the masterpiece of Spanish genius, by the general judgment of Europe.
I shall insert two letters, in which he announces the publication of
Harold the Dauntless. In the first of
them he also mentions the light and humorous little piece entitled The Sultan of Serendib, or the Search after Happiness,
originally published in a weekly paper, after the fashion of the old Essayists, which about
this time issued from John Ballantyne’s
premises, under the appropriate name of “the Sale-Room.” The paper had slender success; and
though Scott wrote several things for it, none of them,
except this metrical essay, attracted any notice. The
Sale-Room was, in fact, a dull and hopeless concern; and I should
scarcely have thought it worth mentioning, but for the confirmation
42 | LIFE OF SIR WALTER SCOTT. |
“I hope to send you in a couple of days Harold the Dauntless, which has not turned out so good as I thought it would have done. I begin to get too old and stupid, I think, for poetry, and will certainly never again adventure on a grand scale. For amusement, and to help a little publication that is going on here, I have spun a doggrel tale called the Search after Happiness, of which I shall send a copy by post, if it is of a frankable size; if not, I can put it up with the Dauntless. Among other misfortunes of Harold is his name, but the thing was partly printed before Childe Harold was in question.
“My great and good news at present is, that the bog (that perpetual hobbyhorse) has produced a commodity of most excellent marle, and promises to be of the very last consequence to my wild ground in the neighbourhood; for nothing can equal the effect of marle as a top-dressing. Methinks (in my mind’s eye, Horatio) I see all the blue-bank, the hinny-lee, and the other provinces of my poor kingdom, waving with deep ryegrass and clover, like the meadows at Rokeby. In honest truth, it will do me yeoman’s service.
“My next good tidings are, that Jedediah carries the world before him. Six
thousand have been disposed of, and three thousand more are pressing onward,
which will be worth L.2500 to the worthy pedagogue of Gandercleuch. Some of the
Scotch Whigs, of the right old fanatical leaven, have waxed wroth with
Jedediah—
LETTER TO MORRITT—JAN. 1817. | 43 |
‘But shall we go mourn for that, my dear? The cold moon shines by night, And when we wander here and there, We then do go most right.’ |
“I presume you will be going almost immediately to London—at least all our Scotch members are requested to be at their posts, the meaning of which I cannot pretend to guess. The finances are the only ticklish matter, but there is, after all, plenty of money in the country, now that our fever-fit is a little over. In Britain, when there is the least damp upon the spirits of the public, they are exactly like people in a crowd, who take the alarm, and shoulder each other to and fro till some dozen or two of the weakest are borne down and trodden to death; whereas, if they would but have patience and remain quiet, there would be a safe and speedy end to their embarrassment. How we want Billie Pitt now to get up and give the tone to our feelings and opinions!
“As I take up this letter to finish the same, I hear the Prince Regent has been attacked and fired at. Since he was not hurt (for I should be sincerely sorry for my fat friend), I see nothing but good luck to result from this assault. It will make him a good manageable boy, and, I think, secure you a quiet Session of Parliament. Adieu, my dear Morritt, God bless you. Let me know if the gimcracks come safe—I mean the book, &c. Ever yours,
44 | LIFE OF SIR WALTER SCOTT. |
“This accompanies Harold the Dauntless. I
thought once I should have made it something clever, but it turned vapid upon
my imagination; and I finished it at last with hurry and impatience. Nobody
knows, that has not tried the feverish trade of poetry, how much it depends
upon mood and whim: I don’t wonder, that, in dismissing all the other
deities of Paganism, the Muse should have been retained by common consent; for,
in sober reality, writing good verses seems to depend upon something separate
from the volition of the author. I sometimes think my fingers set up for
themselves, independent of my head; for twenty times I have begun a thing on a
certain plan, and never in my life adhered to it (in a work of imagination,
that is) for half an hour together. I would hardly write this sort of
egotistical trash to any one but yourself, yet it is very true for all that.
What my kind correspondent had anticipated on account of Jedediah’s effusions, has actually taken
place; and the author of a very good
life of Knox has, I
understand, made a most energetic attack, upon the score that the old
Covenanters are not treated with decorum. I have not read it, and certainly
never shall. I really think there is nothing in the book that is not very fair
and legitimate subject of raillery; and I own I have my suspicions of that very
susceptible devotion which so readily takes offence: such men should not read
books of amusement; but do they suppose, because they are virtuous, and choose
to be thought outrageously so, ‘there shall be no cakes and
ale?’—‘Ay, by our lady, and ginger shall be hot in the
mouth too.’ As for the consequences to the author, they can only
affect his fortune or his temper—the former, such as it is, has been
LETTER TO LADY L. STUART. | 45 |
‘Sleep, Philo,
untouch’d, on my peaceable shelf, Nor take it amiss that so little I heed thee; I’ve no malice at thee, and some love for myself— Then why should I answer, since first I must read thee?’ |
“So you are getting finely on in London. I own I am
very glad of it. I am glad the banditti act like banditti, because it will make
men of property look round them in time. This country is very like the toys
which folks buy for children, and which, tumble them about in any way the
urchins will, are always brought
46 | LIFE OF SIR WALTER SCOTT. |
“Ministers have acted most sillily in breaking up the burgher volunteers in large towns. On the contrary, the service should have been made coercive. Such men have a moral effect upon the minds of the populace, besides their actual force, and are so much interested in keeping good order, that you may always rely on them, especially as a corps, in which there is necessarily a common spirit of union and confidence. But all this is nonsense again, quoth my Uncle Toby to himself.—Adieu, my dear Lady Louisa; my sincere good wishes always attend you.
Not to disturb the narrative of his literary proceedings, I have deferred
until now the mention of an attempt which Scott made
during the winter of 1816-1817, to exchange his seat at the Clerk’s table for one on
the bench of the Scotch Court of Exchequer. It had often occurred to me, in the most
prosperous years of his life, that such a situation would have suited him better in every
respect than that which he held, and that his never attaining a promotion, which the
Scottish public would have considered so naturally due to his character and services,
reflected little honour on his political allies. But at the period when I was entitled to
hint this to him, he appeared to have made up his mind that the rank of Clerk of Session
was more compatible than that of a Supreme Judge with the habits of a literary man, who was
perpetually publishing, and whose writings were generally of the imaginative order. I had
also witnessed the zeal with which he seconded the
EXCHEQUER BENCH. | 47 |
“Your Grace has been so much my constant and kind
friend and patron through the course of my life, that I trust I need no apology
for thrusting upon your consideration some ulterior views, which have been
suggested to me by my friends, and which I will either endeavour to prosecute,
time and place serving, or lay aside all thoughts of, as they appear to your
Grace feasible, and likely to be forwarded by your patronage. It has been
suggested to me, in a word, that there would be no impropriety in my being put
in nomination as a candidate for the situation of a Baron of Exchequer, when a
vacancy shall take place. The difference of the
48 | LIFE OF SIR WALTER SCOTT. |
* The late Right Honourable Robert Dundas of Arniston, Chief Baron of the Scotch Exchequer; one of Scott’s earliest and kindest friends in that distinguished family. |
LETTER TO THE DUKE OF BUCCLEUCH. | 49 |
The following letter, to the same noble friend, contains a slight allusion to this affair of the Barony; but I insert it for a better reason. The Duke had, it seems, been much annoyed by some depredations on his game in the district of Ettrick Water; and more so by the ill use which some boys from Selkirk made of his liberality, in allowing the people of that town free access to his beautiful walks on the banks of the Yarrow, adjoining Newark and Bowhill. The Duke’s forester, by name Thomas Hudson, had recommended rigorous measures with reference to both these classes of offenders, and the Sheriff was of course called into council:
“I have been thinking anxiously about the
disagreeable affair of Tom Hudson, and the impudent
ingratitude of the Selkirk rising generation, and I will take the usual liberty
your friendship permits me, of saying what occurs to me on each subject.
Respecting the shooting, the crime is highly punishable, and we will omit no
enquiries to discover the individuals guilty. Charles Erskine, who is a good police officer, will be
sufficiently active. I know my friend and kinsman, Mr
Scott of Harden, feels very anxious to oblige your Grace, and I
have little doubt that if you will have the goodness to mention to him this
unpleasant circumstance, he would be anxious to put his game under such
regula-
50 | LIFE OF SIR WALTER SCOTT. |
‘Let that be done which Mat doth say’ ‘Yea,’ quoth the Earl, ‘but not
to-day.’ |
“I know hardly any thing more exasperating than the
conduct of the little blackguards, and it will be easy to discover and make an
example of the biggest and most insolent. In the mean while, my dear Lord,
pardon my requesting you will take no general or sweeping resolution as to the
Selkirk folks. Your Grace lives near them—your residence, both from your direct
beneficence, and the indirect advantages which they derive from that residence,
is of the utmost consequence; and they must be made sensible that all these
advantages are endangered by the very violent and brutal conduct of their
children. But I think your Grace will be inclined to follow this up only for
the purpose of correction, not for that of requital. They are so much beneath
you, and so much in your power, that this would be unworthy of you—especially
LETTER TO THE DUKE OF BUCCLEUCH. | 51 |
“I am taking leave of Abbotsford multum gemens, and have been just giving
directions for planting upon Turnagain, When shall we
eat a cold luncheon there, and look at the view, and root up the monster in his
abyss?
52 | LIFE OF SIR WALTER SCOTT. |
While the abortive negotiation as to the Exchequer was still pending, Scott was visited, for the first time since his childish years, with a painful illness, which proved the harbinger of a series of attacks, all nearly of the same kind, continued at short intervals during more than two years. Various letters, already introduced, have indicated how widely his habits of life when in Edinburgh differed from those of Abbotsford. They at all times did so to a great extent; but he had pushed his liberties with a most robust constitution to a perilous extreme while the affairs of the Ballantynes were labouring, and he was now to pay the penalty.
The first serious alarm occurred towards the close of a merry dinner party in Castle Street (on the 5th of March), when Scott suddenly sustained such exquisite torture from cramp in the stomach, that his masculine powers of endurance gave way, and he retired from the room with a scream of agony which electrified his guests. This scene was often repeated, as we shall see presently. His friends in Edinburgh continued all that spring in great anxiety on his account. Scarcely, however, had the first symptoms yielded to severe medical treatment, than he is found to have beguiled the intervals of his suffering by planning a dramatic piece on a story supplied to him by one of Train’s communications, which he desired to present to Terry on behalf of the actor’s first-born son, who had been christened by the name of Walter Scott Terry.*
* This young gentleman is now an officer in the East India Company’s army. |
STORY OF THE BARON OF PLENTON. | 53 |
“I am now able to write to you on your own affairs, though still as weak as water from the operations of the medical faculty, who, I think, treated me as a recusant to their authority, and having me once at advantage, were determined I should not have strength to rebel again in a hurry. After all, I believe it was touch and go; and considering how much I have to do for my own family and others, my elegy might have been that of the Auld Man’s Mare—
‘The peats and turf are all to lead, What ail’d the beast to die?’ |
54 | LIFE OF SIR WALTER SCOTT. |
THE BARON OF PLENTON. | 55 |
56 | LIFE OF SIR WALTER SCOTT. |
“Such is the tale, of which the incidents seem new, and the interest capable of being rendered striking; the story admits of the highest degree of decoration, both by poetry, music, and scenery, and I propose (in behalf of my godson) to take some pains in dramatizing it. As thus you shall play John, as you can speak a little Scotch; I will make him what the Baron of Bradwardine would have been in his circumstances, and he shall be alternately ludicrous from his family pride and prejudices, contrasted with his poverty, and respectable from his just and independent tone of feeling and character. I think Scotland is entitled to have something on the stage to balance Macklin’s two worthies.* You understand the dialect will be only tinged with the national dialect—not that the baron is to speak broad Scotch, while all the others talk English. His wife and he shall have one child, a daughter, suitored unto by the conceited young parson or schoolmaster of
* Sir Archy Mac-Sarcasm and Sir Pertinax MacSycophant. |
ILLNESS—MARCH, 1817. | 57 |
About the time when this letter was written, a newspaper paragraph having excited the apprehension of two—or I should say three—of his dearest friends that his life was in actual danger, Scott wrote to them as follows—
“I hasten to acquaint you that I am in the land of
life, and thriving, though I have had a slight shake, and still feel the
consequences of medical treatment. I had
58 | LIFE OF SIR WALTER SCOTT. |
‘The lion bold, which the lamb doth hold—’ |
‘The lily health outvies the grape’s bright ray, And life is dearer than the usquebæ—’ |
ILLNESS—MARCH, 1817. | 59 |
“I am obliged to break off hastily. I trust I shall be able to get over the Fell in the end of summer, which will rejoice me much, for the sound of the woods of Rokeby is lovely in mine ear. Ever yours,
“Here comes to let you know you had nearly seen the
last sight of me, unless I had come to visit you on my red beam, like one of
Fingal’s heroes, which, Ossianic
as you are, I trow you would readily dispense with. The cause was a cramp in my
stomach, which, after various painful visits, as if it had been sent by
Prospero, and had mistaken me for
Caliban, at length chose to conclude by
setting fire to its lodging, like the Frenchmen as they retreated through
Russia, and placed me in as proper a state of inflammation as if I had had the
whole Spafields’ committee in my unfortunate stomach. Then bleeding and
blistering was the word; and they bled and blistered till they left me neither
skin nor blood. However, they beat off the foul fiend, and I am bound to praise
the bridge which carried me over. I am still very totterish, and very giddy,
kept to panada, or rather to porridge, for I spurned at all foreign slops, and
adhered to our ancient oatmeal manufacture. But I have no apprehension of any
return of the serious
60 | LIFE OF SIR WALTER SCOTT. |
“I much approve of your going to Italy by sea; indeed it is the only way you ought to think of it. I am only sorry you are going to leave us for a while; but indeed the isle of Mull might be Florence to me in respect of separation, and cannot be quite Florence to you, since Lady Compton is not there. I lately heard her mentioned in a company where my interest in her was not known, as one of the very few English ladies now in Italy whom their acquirements, conduct, and mode of managing time, induce that part of foreign society, whose approbation is valuable, to consider with high respect and esteem. This I think is very likely; for, whatever folks say of foreigners, those of good education and high rank among them, must have a supreme contempt for the frivolous, dissatisfied, empty, gad-about manners of many of our modern belles. And we may say among ourselves, that there are few upon whom high accomplishments and information sit more gracefully.
“John Kemble
is here to take leave, acting over all his great characters, and with all the
spirit of his best years. He played Coriolanus last night (the first time I have ventured out),
fully as well as I ever saw him; and you know what a complete model he is of
the Roman. He has made a great reformation in his habits; given up wine, which
he used to swallow by pailfulls,—and renewed his youth like the eagles. He
seems to me always to play best those characters in which there is a
predominating tinge of some over-mastering passion, or acquired habit of acting
and speaking, colouring the whole man. The patrician pride of Coriolanus, the stoicism of Brutus and Cato, the rapid and hurried ve-
JOHN KEMBLE—1817. | 61 |
On the 29th of March, 1817, John Philip Kemble, after going through the round of his chief parts, to the delight of the Edinburgh audience, took his final leave of them as Macbeth, and in the costume of that character delivered a farewell address, penned for him by Scott.*
* See Poetical Works, vol. xi. p. 348. Scott’s Farewell for Kemble first appeared in “The Sale-Room,” for April 5th, 1817; and in the introductory note, James Ballantyne says,—“The character fixed upon, with happy propriety, for Kemble’s closing scene, was Macbeth. He had laboured under a severe cold for a few days before, but on the memorable night the physical annoyance yielded to the energy of his mind. ‘He was,’ he said, in the Green-room, immediately before the curtain rose, ‘determined to leave behind him the most perfect specimen of his art which he had ever shown;’ and his success was complete. ‘At the moment of the tyrant’s death |
62 | LIFE OF SIR WALTER SCOTT. |
Shortly before this time Mr William Laidlaw had met with misfortunes, which rendered it necessary for him to give up the lease of a farm, on which he had been for some years settled, in Mid-Lothian. He was now anxiously looking about him for some new establishment, and it occurred to Scott that it might be mutually advantageous, as well as agreeable, if his excellent friend would consent to come and occupy a house on his property, and endeavour, under his guidance, to make such literary exertions as might raise his income to an amount adequate for his comfort. The prospect of obtaining such a neighbour was, no doubt, the more welcome to “Abbotsford and Kaeside,” from its opening at this period of fluctuating health; and Laidlaw, who had for twenty years loved and revered him, considered the proposal
the curtain fell by the universal acclamation of the audience. The applauses were vehement and prolonged; they ceased were resumed—rose again—were reiterated—and again were hushed. In a few minutes the curtain ascended, and Mr Kemble came forward in the dress of Macbeth (the audience by a consentaneous movement rising to receive him), to deliver his farewell.” ... “Mr Kemble delivered the lines with exquisite beauty, and with an effect that was evidenced by the tears and sobs of many of the audience. His own emotions were very conspicuous. When his farewell was closed he lingered long on the stage, as if unable to retire. The house again stood up, and cheered him with the waving of hats and long shouts of applause.” |
WILLIAM LAIDLAW—1817. | 63 |
Scott’s notes to him at this time afford a truly charming picture of thoughtful and respectful delicacy on both sides. Mr Laidlaw, for example, appears to have hinted that he feared his friend, in making the proposal as to the house at Kaeside, might have perhaps in some degree overlooked the feelings of “Laird Moss,” who, having sold his land several months before, had as yet continued to occupy his old homestead. Scott answers:—
“Nothing can give me more pleasure than the prospect of your making yourself comfortable at Kaeside till some good thing casts up. I have not put Mr Moss to
* Mr Laidlaw has not published many verses; but his song of “Lucy’s Flitting”—a simple and pathetic picture of a poor Ettrick maiden’s feelings in leaving a service where she had been happy—has long been and must ever be a favourite with all who understand the delicacies of the Scottish dialect, and the manners of the district in which the scene is laid. |
64 | LIFE OF SIR WALTER SCOTT. |
He had before this time made considerable progress in another historical sketch (that of the year 1815) for the Edinburgh Annual Register; and the first literary labour which he provided for Laidlaw, appears to have been arranging for the same volume a set of newspaper articles, usually printed under the head of Chronicle, to which were appended some little extracts of new books of travels, and the like miscellanies. The Edinburgh Monthly Magazine, subsequently known by the name of its projector, Blackwood, commenced in April of this year; and one of its editors, Mr Thomas Pringle, being a Teviotdale man and an old acquaintance of Laidlaw’s, offered to the latter the care of its Chronicle department also,—not perhaps without calculating that, in case Laidlaw’s connexion with the new journal should become at all a strict one, Scott would be induced to give it occasionally the benefit of his own literary assistance. He accordingly did not write—being unwell at the time—but dictated to Pringle a collection of anecdotes concerning Scottish gypsies, which attracted a good deal of notice;* and, I
* These anecdotes were subsequently inserted in the Introduction to Guy Mannering. |
WILLIAM LAIDLAW—1817 | 65 |
“I enclose you ‘rare guerdon,’ better than remuneration,—namely, a cheque for L.25, for the Chronicle part of the Register. The incidents selected should have some reference to amusement as well as information, and may be occasionally abridged in the narration; but, after all, paste and scissors form your principal materials. You must look out for two or three good original articles; and, if you would read and take pains to abridge one or two curious books of travels, I would send out the volumes. Could I once get the head of the concern fairly round before the wind again, I am sure I could make it L.100 a-year to you. In the present instance it will be at least L.50. Yours truly,
66 | LIFE OF SIR WALTER SCOTT. |
“I send you Adam’s and Riley’s Travels. You will observe I don’t want a review of the books, or a detail of these persons’ adventures, but merely a short article expressing the light, direct or doubtful, which they have thrown on the interior of Africa. ‘Recent Discoveries in Africa,’ will be a proper title. I hope to find you materially amended, or rather quite stout, when I come out on Saturday. I am quite well this morning. Yours, in haste,
“P.S.—I add Mariner’s Tonga Islands and Campbell’s Voyage. Pray, take great care of them, as I am a coxcomb about my books, and hate specks or spots. Take care of yourself, and want for nothing that Abbotsford can furnish.”
These notes have carried us down to the middle of the year. But I must now turn to some others which show that before Whitsuntide, when Laidlaw settled at Kaeside, negotiations were on foot respecting another novel.
“I have a good subject for a work of fiction
in petto. What do you think Constable would give for a smell of it? You
ran away without taking leave the other morning, or I wished to have spoken to
you about it. I don’t mean a continuation of Jedediah, because there might be some delicacy
in putting that by the
ROB ROY PROJECTED—MAY, 1817. | 67 |
“I shall be much obliged to you to come here with Constable on Monday, as he proposes a visit, and it will save time. By the way, you must attend that the usual quantity of stock is included in the arrangement—that is L.600 for 6000 copies. My sum is L.1700, payable in May a round advance, by’r Lady, but I think I am entitled to it, considering what I have twined off hitherto on such occasions.
“I make a point on your coming with Constable, health allowing. Yours truly,
The result of this meeting is indicated in a note scribbled by John Ballantyne at the bottom of the foregoing letter, before it was seen by his brother the printer.
“I am this moment returned from Abbotsford, with entire and full success. Wish me joy. I shall gain above L.600—Constable taking my share of stock also. The title is Rob Roy by the author of Waverley!!! Keep this letter for me.
68 | LIFE OF SIR WALTER SCOTT. |
On the same page there is written, in fresher ink, which marks, no doubt, the time when John pasted it into his collection of private papers now before me—
”N.B—I did gain above L.1200—J. B.”
The title of this novel was suggested by Constable, and he told me years afterwards the difficulty he had to get it adopted by the author. “What!” said he, “Mr Accoucheur, must you be setting up for Mr Sponsor too?—but let’s hear it.” Constable said the name of the real hero would be the best possible name for the book. “Nay,” answered Scott, “never let me have to write up to a name. You well know I have generally adopted a title that told nothing.”—The bookseller, however, persevered; and after the trio had dined, these scruples gave way.
On rising from table, according to Constable, they sallied out to the green before the door of the cottage,
and all in the highest spirits enjoyed the fine May evening. John Ballantyne, hopping up and down in his glee, exclaimed, “is
Rob’s gun here, Mr Scott; would you object to my trying the auld barrel
with a few dejoy?” “Nay,
Mr Puff,” said Scott, “it would burst and blow
you to the devil before your time.” “Johnny, my man,” said
Constable, “what the mischief puts drawing at sight into
your head?” Scott laughed heartily at this innuendo; and
then observing that the little man felt somewhat sore, called attention to the notes of a
bird in the adjoining shrubbery. “And by the by,” said he, as they
continued listening, “’tis a long time, Johnny, since
we have had the Cobbler of Kelso.” Mr Puff forthwith jumped up on a mass of
stone, and seating himself in the proper attitude of one working with his awl, began a
favourite interlude, mimicking a certain son of Crispin, at whose stall Scott and he had often
ROB ROY PROJECTED. | 69 |
Scott himself had probably exceeded that evening the three glasses of wine sanctioned by his Sangrados. “I never,” said Constable, “had found him so disposed to be communicative about what he meant to do. Though he had had a return of his illness but the day before, he continued for an hour or more to walk backwards and forwards on the green, talking and laughing—he told us he was sure he should make a hit in a Glasgow weaver, whom he would ravel up with Rob; and fairly outshone the Cobbler, in an extempore dialogue between the bailie and the cateran—something not unlike what the book gives us as passing in the Glasgow tolbooth.”
Mr Puff might well exult in the “full and entire
success” of this trip to Abbotsford. His friend had made it a sine qua non in the bargain with Constable, that he should have a third share in the
bookseller’s moiety of the copyright and though Johnny had no more trouble about the publishing or selling of Rob Roy than his own Cobbler of Kelso, this
stipulation had secured him a bonus of L.1200, before two years
70 | LIFE OF SIR WALTER SCOTT. |
The same week Scott received Southey’s celebrated letter to Mr William Smith, M.P. for Norwich. The poet of Keswick had also forwarded to him somewhat earlier his Pilgrimage to Waterloo, which piece contains a touching allusion to the affliction the author had recently sustained in the death of a fine boy. Scott’s letter on this occasion was as follows:—
“I have been a strangely negligent correspondent for
some months past, more especially as I have had you rarely out of my thoughts,
for I think you will hardly doubt of my sincere sympathy in events which have
happened since I have written. I shed sincere tears over the Pilgrimage to Waterloo. But in the
crucible of human life, the purest gold is tried by the strongest heat, and I
can only hope for the continuance of your present family blessings to one so
well formed to enjoy the pure happiness they afford. My health has, of late,
been very indifferent. I was very nearly succumbing under a violent
inflammatory attack, and still feel the effects of the necessary treatment. I
believe
LETTER TO SOUTHEY—MAY, 1817. | 71 |
* Scott’s meeting with this Mr Smith occurred at the table of his friend and colleague, Hector Macdonald Buchanan. The company, except Scott and Smith, were all, like their hospitable landlord, Highlanders. |
72 | LIFE OF SIR WALTER SCOTT. |
“I am at present writing at our head-court of freeholders—a set of quiet, unpretending, but sound-judging country gentlemen, and whose opinions may be very well taken as a fair specimen of those men of sense and honour, who are not likely to be dazzled by literary talent, which lies out of their beat, and who, therefore, cannot be of partial counsel in the cause; and I never heard an opinion more generally, and evenwarmly expressed, than that your triumphant vindication brands Smith as a slanderer in all time coming. I think you may not be displeased to know this, because what men of keen feelings and literary pursuits must have felt cannot be unknown to you, and you may not have the same access to know the impression made upon the general class of society.
“I have to thank you for the continuation of the
History of Brazil one of
your gigantic labours; the fruit of a mind so active, yet so patient of labour.
I am not yet far advanced in the second volume, reserving it usually for my
hour’s amusement in the evening, as children keep their dainties for
bonne bouche: but as far as I
have come, it possesses all the interest of the commencement, though a more
faithless and worthless set
LETTER TO SOUTHEY—MAY, 1817. | 73 |
“I am glad to see you are turning your mind to the
state of the poor. Should you enter into details on the subject of the best
mode of assisting them, I would be happy to tell you the few observations I
have made—not on a very small scale neither, considering my fortune, for I have
kept about thirty of the labourers in my neighbourhood in constant employment
this winter. This I do not call charity, because they executed some extensive
plantations and other works, which I could never have got done so cheaply, and
which I always intended one day to do. But neither was it altogether selfish on
my part, because I was putting myself to inconvenience in incurring the expense
of several years at once, and certainly would not have done so, but to serve
mine honest neighbours, who were likely to want work but for such exertion.
From my observation, I am inclined greatly to doubt the salutary effect of the
scheme generally adopted in Edinburgh and elsewhere for relieving the poor. At
Edinburgh, they are employed on public works at so much a-day—tenpence, I
believe, or one shilling, with an advance to those who have families. This rate
is fixed below that of ordinary wages, in order that no person may be employed
but those who really cannot find work elsewhere. But it is attended with this
bad effect, that the people regard it partly as charity, which is
humiliating,—and partly as an imposition, in taking their labour below its
usual saleable value; to
74 | LIFE OF SIR WALTER SCOTT. |
LETTER TO SOUTHEY—MAY, 1817. | 75 |
“I have still a word to say about the poor of our own parish of Parnassus. I have been applied to by a very worthy friend, Mr Scott of Sinton, in behalf of an unfortunate Mr Gilmour, who, it seems, has expended a little fortune in printing, upon his own account, poems which, from the sample I saw, seem exactly to answer the description of Dean Swift’s country house—
‘Too bad for a blessing, too good for a curse, I wish from my soul they were better or worse.” |
About this time Hogg took
possession of Altrive Lake, and some of his friends in Edinburgh set on foot a subscription
edition of his Queen’s Wake (at a
guinea each copy), in the hope of thus raising a sum adequate to the stocking of the little
farm. The following letter
76 | LIFE OF SIR WALTER SCOTT. |
“I am honoured with your letter, and will not fail
to take care that the Shepherd profits by your kind intentions, and those of
Lady Montagu. This is a scheme which I
did not devise, for I fear it will end in disappointment, but for which I have
done, and will do all I possibly can. There is an old saying of the
seamen’s, ‘every man is not born to be a boatswain,’ and I
think I have heard of men born under a sixpenny planet, and doomed never to be
worth a groat. I fear something of this vile sixpenny influence had gleamed in
at the cottage window when poor Hogg
first came squeaking into the world. All that he made by his original book he
ventured on a flock of sheep to drive into the Highlands to a farm he had taken
there, but of which he could not get possession, so that all the stock was
ruined and sold to disadvantage. Then he tried another farm, which proved too
dear, so that he fairly broke upon it. Then put forth divers publications,
which had little sale and brought him accordingly few pence, though some
praise. Then came this Queen’s
Wake, by which he might and ought to have made from L.100 to
L.200—for there were, I think, three editions—when lo! his bookseller turned
bankrupt, and paid him never a penny. The Duke has now, with his wonted
generosity, given him a cosie bield, and the object of the present attack upon
the public, is to get if possible as much cash together as will stock it. But
no one has loose guineas now to give to poor poets, and I greatly doubt the
scheme succeeding,
LETTER TO LORD MONTAGU. | 77 |
“You cannot doubt the sincere interest I take in Lady Montagu’s health. I was very glad to learn from the Duke, that the late melancholy event had produced no permanent effect on her constitution, as I know how much her heart must have suffered.* I saw our regretted friend for the last time at the Theatre, and made many schemes to be at Bothwell this next July. But thus the world glides from us, and those we most love and honour are withdrawn from the stage before us. I know not why it was that among the few for whom I had so much respectful regard, I never had associated
* Lady Montagu was the daughter of the late Lord Douglas by his first marriage with Lady Lucy Grahame, daughter of the second Duke of Montrose. |
78 | LIFE OF SIR WALTER SCOTT. |
* Lord Montagu’s house at Ditton Park, near Windsor, had recently been destroyed by fire and the ruins revealed some niches with antique candlesticks, &c., belonging to a domestic chapel that had been converted to other purposes from the time, I believe, of Henry VIII. |
JUNE 8TH, 1817. | 79 |
“I am making considerable plantations (that is considering), being greatly encouraged by the progress of those I formerly laid out. Read the veracious Gulliver’s account of the Windsor Forest of Lilliput, and you will have some idea of the solemn gloom of my Druid shades.
* Mr Atkinson, of St John’s Wood, was the architect of Lord Montagu’s new mansion at Ditton, as well as the artist ultimately employed, in arranging Scott’s interior at Abbotsford. |
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