Memoirs of the Life of Sir Walter Scott, Bart.
George Canning to Walter Scott, 24 July 1825
“Combe Wood, July 24, 1825.
“My dear Sir,
“A pretty severe indisposition has prevented me from
sooner acknowledging your kind letter; and now I fear that I shall not be able
to accomplish my visit
62 | LIFE OF SIR WALTER SCOTT. | |
to Scotland this year. Although I
shall be, for the last fortnight of August, at no great distance from the
Borders, my time is so limited that I cannot reckon upon getting farther.
“I rejoice to see that my countrymen (for, though I
was accidentally born in London, I consider myself an Irishman) have so well
known the value of the honour which you are paying to them.
“By the way, if you landed at Liverpool on your
return, could you find a better road to the north than through the Lake
country? You would find me (from about the 10th of August) and Charles Ellis* at my friend Mr Bolton’s, on the Banks of Windermere,
where I can promise you as kind, though not so noisy a welcome, as that which
you have just experienced; and where our friend the Professor (who is Admiral of the Lake) would fit out all his
flotilla, and fire as many of his guns as are not painted ones, in honour of
your arrival.—Yours, my dear sir, very sincerely,
John Bolton (1756-1837)
Of Storrs Hall, Windermere; originally a Liverpool slave-trader, he was a West-India
merchant, philanthropist and friend of George Canning.
George Canning (1770-1827)
Tory statesman; he was foreign minister (1807-1809) and prime minister (1827); a
supporter of Greek independence and Catholic emancipation.
Charles Augustus Ellis, second baron Seaford (1799-1868)
The son of Charles Rose Ellis; after education at Eton and military he was service
under-secretary of state for foreign affairs under Canning (1824-26) and a career
diplomat.
John Wilson [Christopher North] (1785-1854)
Scottish poet and Tory essayist, the chief writer for the “Noctes Ambrosianae” in
Blackwood's Magazine and professor of moral philosophy at Edinburgh
University (1820).