“Owing to my retreat to this place, I was only
honoured with your Lordship’s letter yesterday. Whatever use can be made
of my letter to stop the very ill contrived project to which it relates, will
answer the purpose for which it was written. I do not well remember the terms
in which my remonstrance to Mr Villiers was
couched, for it was positively written betwixt sleeping and waking; but your
Lordship will best judge how far the contents may be proper for his Majesty’s eye; and if the sentiments
appear a little in dishabille, there is the true apology that they were never
intended to go to Court. From more than twenty years’ intercourse with
the literary world, during which I have been more or less acquainted with every
distinguished writer of my day, and, at the same time, an accurate student of
the habits and tastes of the reading public, I am enabled to say, with a
feeling next to certainty, that the plan can only end in something very
unpleasant. At all events, his Majesty should get out of it; it is nonsense to
say or suppose that any steps have been taken which, in such a matter, can or
ought to be considered as
| 58 | LIFE OF SIR WALTER SCOTT. |
“Let men of letters fight their own way with the public, and let his Majesty, according as his own excellent taste and liberality dictate, honour with his patronage, expressed in the manner fitted to their studies and habits, those who are able to distinguish themselves, and alleviate by his bounty the distresses of such as, with acknowledged merit, may yet have been unfortunate in procuring independence. The immediate and direct favour of the Sovereign is worth the patronage of ten thousand societies. But your Lordship knows how to set all this in a better light than I can, and I would not wish the cause of letters in better hands.
“I am now in a scene changed as completely as possible
from those in which I had the great pleasure of meeting your Lordship lately,
riding through the moors on a pony, instead of traversing the streets in a
carriage, and drinking whisky-toddy with mine honest neighbours, instead of
Champagne and Burgundy. I have gained, however, in point of exact political
information; for I find we know upon Tweedside with much greater accuracy what
is done and intended in the Cabinet than ever I could learn when living with
the Ministers five days in the week. Mine honest Teviotdale friends, whom I
left in a high Queen-fever, are now
beginning to be somewhat ashamed of themselves, and
| LETTER TO LORD SIDMOUTH. | 59 |
“My best compliments attend the ladies. I ever am, my dear Lord, your truly obliged and faithful humble servant,
