“You might justly think me most unmerciful, were you
to consider this letter as a provoke requiring an answer. It comes partly to
thank you twenty times for your long and most kind letter, and partly, which I
think not unnecessary, to tell you that Gala may now, I trust, be considered as quite out of danger. He
has swam for his life though, and barely saved it. It is
| 346 | LIFE OF SIR WALTER SCOTT. |
“How fate besets us in our sports and in our most
quiet domestic moments! Your lordship’s story of the lamp makes one
shudder, and I think it wonderful that Lady
Montagu felt no more bad effects from the mere terror of such an
accident; but the gentlest characters have often most real firmness. I once saw
something of the kind upon a very large scale. You may have seen at Somerset
House an immense bronze chandelier with several hundred burners, weighing three
or four tons at least. On the day previous to the public exhibition of the
paintings, the Royal Academicians are in use, as your Lordship knows, to give
an immensely large dinner-party to people of distinction, supposed to be
patrons of the art, to literary men, to amateurs in general, and the Lord knows
whom besides. I happened to be there the first time this ponderous mass of
bronze was suspended. It had been cast for his
Majesty, then Prince Regent, and he not much liking it—I am
surprised he did not, as it is very ugly indeed—had bestowed it on the Royal
Academicians. Beneath it was placed, as at Ditton, a large round table, or
rather a tier of tables, rising above each other like the shelves of a
dumb-waiter, and furnished with as many glasses, tumblers, decanters, and
| APRIL, 1824. | 347 |
“I think your Lordship will be much pleased with the fine plantation on Bowden Moor. I have found an excellent legend for the spot. It is close by the grave of an unhappy being, called Wattie Waeman (whether the last appellative was really his name, or has been given him from his melancholy fate, is uncertain), who being all for love and a little for stealing, hung himself there seventy or eighty years since (quere, where did he find a tree?) at once to revenge himself of his mistress
* This story is also told in Scott’s Essay on the Life of Kemble. See his Miscellaneous Prose Works, vol. xx. pp. 195-7. |
| 348 | LIFE OF SIR WALTER SCOTT. |
“It is quite impossible your Lordship should be satisfied with the outside view of my castle, for I reckon upon the honour of receiving your whole party, quot quot adestis, as usual, in the interior. We have plenty of room for a considerable number of friends at bed as well as board. Do not be alarmed by the report of the gas, which was quite true, but reflects no dishonour on that mode of illumination. I had calculated that fifteen hundred cubic feet of gas would tire out some five-and-twenty or thirty pair of feet of Scotch dancers, but it lasted only till six in the morning, and then, as a brave soldier does on his post, went out when burned out. Had I kept the man sitting up for an hour or two to make the gas as fast as consumed, I should have spoiled a good story.
| LETTERS TO LORD MONTAGU. | 349 |
“My hall is in the course of having all the heavy parts of my armorial collection bestowed upon it, and really, though fanciful, looks very well, and I am as busy as a bee, disposing suits of armour, battle-axes, broadswords, and all the knick-nacks I have been breaking my shins over in every corner of the house for these seven years past, in laudable order and to the best advantage.
“If Mr Blakeney be the able person that fame reports him, he will have as great a duty to perform as his ancestor at Stirling Castle;* for to keep so young a person as my chief, in his particular situation, from the inroads of follies, and worse than follies, requires as much attention and firmness as to keep Highland claymores and French engineers out of a fortified place. But there is an admirable garrison in the fortress, kind and generous feelings, and a strong sense of honour and duty which Duke Walter has by descent from his father and grandfather. God send him life and health, and I trust he will reward your Lordship’s paternal care, and fulfil my hopes. They are not of the lowest, but such as must be entertained by an old and attached friend of the family who has known him from infancy. My friend Lord John wants the extreme responsibility of his brother’s situation, and may afford to sow a few more wild oats, but I trust he will not make the crop a large one. Lord * * * and his tutor have just left us for the south, after spending three or four days with us. They could not have done worse than sending the young Viscount to Edinburgh, for though he is really an unaffected natural young man, yet it was absurd to expect that he should study hard when he had six invi-
* General Blakeney, grandfather to Lord M.’s friend, was governor of Stirling Castle in 1745. |
| 350 | LIFE OF SIR WALTER SCOTT. |
“Lady Anne is very naughty not to take care of herself, and I am not sorry she has been a little ill, that it may be a warning. I wish to hear your Lordship’s self is at Bath. I hate unformed complaints. A doctor is like Ajax—give him light and he may make battle with a disease; but, no disparagement to the Esculapian art, they are bad guessers. My kindest compliments, I had almost said love, attend Lady Isabella. We are threatened with a cruel deprivation in the loss of our friend Sir Adam, the first of men. A dog of a banker has bought his house for an investment of capital, and I fear he must trudge. Had I still had the Highland piper* in my service, who would not have refused me such a favour, I would have had him dirked to a certainty—I mean this cursed banker. As it is, I must think of some means of poisoning his hot rolls and butter, or setting his house on fire, by way of revenge. It is a real affliction. I am happy to hear of Lady Margaret’s good looks. I was one of her earliest acquaintance, and at least half her godfather, for I took the vows on me for somebody or other who, I dare say, has never thought
* John of Skye had left Abbotsford—but he soon returned. |
| LETTERS TO LORD MONTAGU. | 351 |
