Memoir of John Murray
John Gibson Lockhart to John Murray, 19 September 1831
Chiefswood, September 19th, 1831.
In consequence of my sister-in-law, Annie Scott, being taken unwell, with frequent
fainting fits, the result, no ![]()
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doubt of over anxieties of
late, I have been obliged to let my wife and children depart by
to-morrow’s steamer without me, and I remain to attend to Sir Walter thro’ his land progress, which
will begin on Friday, and end, I hope well, on Wednesday. If this should give
any inconvenience to you, God knows I regret it, and God knows also I
couldn’t do otherwise without exposing Sir W. and his daughter to a
feeling that I had not done my duty to them. On the whole, public affairs seem
to be so dark that I am inclined to think our best course, in the Quarterly,
may turn out to have been and to be, that of not again appearing until the fate
of this Bill has been quite settled. My wife will, if you are in town, be much
rejoiced with a visit; and if you write to me, so as to catch me at Rokeby
Park, Greta Bridge, next Saturday, ’tis well.
Yours,
P.S.—But I see Rokeby Park would not do. I shall
be at Major Scott’s, 15th
Hussars, Nottingham, on Monday night.
John Gibson Lockhart (1794-1854)
Editor of the
Quarterly Review (1825-1853); son-in-law of Walter
Scott and author of the
Life of Scott 5 vols (1838).
John Murray II (1778-1843)
The second John Murray began the
Quarterly Review in 1809 and
published works by Scott, Byron, Austen, Crabbe, and other literary notables.
Anne Scott (1803-1833)
Walter Scott's younger daughter who cared for him in his old age and died
unmarried.
Sir Walter Scott, second baronet (1801-1847)
The elder son and heir of Sir Walter Scott; he was cornet in the 18th Hussars (1816),
captain (1825), lieut.-col. (1839). In the words of Maria Edgeworth, he was
“excessively shy, very handsome, not at all literary.”
The Quarterly Review. (1809-1967). Published by John Murray, the
Quarterly was instigated by Walter
Scott as a Tory rival to the
Edinburgh Review. It was edited by
William Gifford to 1824, and by John Gibson Lockhart from 1826 to 1853.
