Memoirs of the Life of Sir Walter Scott, Bart.
Sir Walter Scott to Daniel Terry, 10 November 1822
“Abbotsford, Nov. 10th, 1822.
“I got all the plans safe, and they are delightful.
The library ceiling will be superb, and we have plenty of ornaments for it
without repeating one of those in the eating-room. The plan of shelves is also
excellent, and will, I think, for a long time suffice my collection. The
brasses for the shelves I like—but not the price: the notched ones, after all,
do very well. I have had three grand hawls since I last wrote to you. The
pulpit, repentance-stool, King’s seat, and God knows how much of carved
wainscot, from the kirk of Dunfermline,* enough to coat the hall to the height
of seven feet:—supposing it boarded above, for hanging guns, old portraits,
intermixed with armour, &c.—it will be a superb entrance-gallery: this is
hawl the first. Hawl second is twenty-four pieces of the most splendid Chinese
paper, twelve feet high by four wide, a present from my cousin Hugh Scott,† enough to finish the
drawing-room and two bed-rooms. Hawl third is a quantity of what is called
Jamaica cedar-wood, enough for fitting up both the drawing-room and the
library, including the presses, shelves, &c.: the wood is finely pencilled
and most beautiful, something like the colour of gingerbread; it costs very
little more than oak, works much easier, and is never touched by vermin of any
kind. I sent Mr Atkinson a specimen, but
it was from the plain end of the plank: the interior is finely waved and
variegated. Your kind and unremitting exertions in our favour will soon plenish
the drawing-
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room. Thus we at present stand. We have
a fine old English cabinet, with china, &c.—and two superb elbow-chairs,
the gift of Constable, carved most
magnificently, with groups of children, fruit, and flowers, in the Italian
taste: they came from Rome, and are much admired. It seems to me that the
mirror you mention, being framed in carved box, would answer admirably well
with the chairs, which are of the same material. The mirror should, I presume,
be placed over the drawing-room chimney-piece; and opposite to it I mean to put
an antique table of mosaic marbles, to support Chantrey’s bust. A good sofa would be desirable, and so
would the tapestry-screen, if really fresh and beautiful; but as much of our
furniture will be a little antiquated, one would not run too much into that
taste in so small an apartment. For the library I have the old oak chairs now
in the little armoury, eight in number, and we might add one or two pair of the
ebony chairs you mention. I should think this enough, for many seats in such a
room must impede access to the books; and I don’t mean the library to be
on ordinary occasions a public room. Perhaps the tapestry-screen would suit
better here than in the drawing-room. I have one library table here, and shall
have another made for atlases and prints. For the hall I have four chairs of
black oak. In other matters we can make it out well enough. In fact, it is my
object rather to keep under my new accommodations at first, both to avoid
immediate outlay, and that I may leave room for pretty things which may occur
hereafter. I would to Heaven I could take a cruize with you through the
brokers, which would be the pleasantest affair possible, only I am afraid I
should make a losing voyage of it. Mr Atkinson has missed
a little my idea of the oratory, fitting it up entirely as a bookcase, whereas
I should like to have had recesses for curiosities—for the ![]()
| 236 | LIFE OF SIR WALTER SCOTT. | |
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Bruce’s skull*—for a crucifix, &c.
&c.—in short, a little cabinet instead of a book-closet. Four sides of
books would be perfectly sufficient; the other four, so far as not occupied by
door or window, should be arranged tastefully for antiquities, &c., like
the inside of an antique cabinet, with drawers, and shottles, and funny little
arches. The oak screen dropped as from the clouds: it is most acceptable; I
might have guessed there was only one kind friend so ready to supply hay to my
hobby-horse. You have my views in these matters and your own taste; and I will
send the needful when you apprise me of the amount
total. Where things are not quite satisfactory, it is better to wait a while on
every account, for the amusement is over when one has room for nothing more.
The house is completely roofed, &c., and looks worthy of Mrs Terry’s painting. I never saw any
thing handsomer than the grouping of towers, chimneys, &c. upon the roof,
when seen at a proper distance.
“Once more, let me wish you joy of your professional
success. I can judge, by a thousand minute items, of the advance you make with
the public, just as I can of the gradual progress of my trees, because I am
interested in both events. You may say, like Burke, you were not ‘coaxed and dandled into
eminence,’ but have fought your way gallantly, shown your
passport at every barrier, and been always a step in advance, without a single
retrograde movement. Every one wishes to advance rapidly, but when the desired
position is gained, it is far more easily maintained by him whose ascent has
been gradual, and whose favour is founded not on the unreasonable expectations
entertained from one or two seasons, but from an habitual experience of the
power of pleasing
* A cast of the skull of King
Robert the Bruce, made when his tomb was discovered
during some repairs of Dunfermline Abbey, in 1819. |
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during several years. You say not a
word of poor Wattles. I hope little Miss
has not put his nose out of joint entirely.
“I have not been very well—a whoreson thickness of
blood, and a depression of spirits arising from the loss of friends (to whom I
am now to add poor Wedderburne), have
annoyed me much; and Peveril
will, I fear, smell of the apoplexy. I propose a good rally, however, and hope
it will be a powerful effect. My idea is, entre
nous, a Scotch archer in the French King’s guard,
tempore
Louis XI., the most picturesque of all
times.—Always yours very faithfully,
William Atkinson (1774-1839)
English architect who worked at Sir Walter Scott's Abbotsford; he published
Views of Picturesque Cottages (1805).
Edmund Burke (1729-1797)
Irish politician and opposition leader in Parliament, author of
On the
Sublime and Beautiful (1757) and
Reflections on the Revolution
in France (1790).
Sir Francis Leggatt Chantrey (1781-1841)
English sculptor who worked as a statuary from 1804; he employed the poet Allan
Cunningham in his studio from 1814. He was knighted in 1835.
Archibald Constable (1774-1827)
Edinburgh bookseller who published the
Edinburgh Review and works
of Sir Walter Scott; he went bankrupt in 1826.
Hugh Scott of Draycott (1777-1852)
The son of Walter Scott of Raeburn; he was a naval captain in the service of the East
India Company.
Daniel Terry (1789-1829)
English actor; after a career in provincial theater made his London debut in 1812. A
close friend of Walter Scott, he performed in theatrical adaptations of Scott's
novels.
Elizabeth Wemyss Terry [née Nasmyth] (1793-1862)
Painter and wife of Walter Scott's friend Daniel Terry; after the death of her first
husband she married the lexicographer Charles Richardson (1775-1865) in 1835.
Walter Scott Terry (1816-1842)
The son of the actor Daniel Terry; he was a lieutenant in the Bombay Artillery, mortally
wounded fighting at the Khyber Pass. Walter Scott was his godfather.
James Wedderburn (1782-1822)
Scottish advocate (1803); he was Solicitor-General for Scotland (1816-22).
