p. 271.
[156] Lady Davy survived her distinguished husband for more than a quarter of a century; she died in London, May 1855.
[157] _Twelfth Night_, Act II. Sc. 3.
[158] Sir Patrick Murray of Ochtertyre, then a baron of the Court of Exchequer in Scotland; he died in June 1837.
[159] This cherished and confidential friend had been living at Kaeside from 1817, and acting as steward on the estate. Mr. Laidlaw died in Ross-shire in 1845.
Mr. Lockhart says, "I have the best reason to believe that the kind and manly character of Dandie [Dinmont in _Guy Mannering_], the gentle and delicious one of his wife, and some at least of the most picturesque peculiarities of the _menage_ at Charlieshope were filled up from Scott"s observation, years after this period [1792], of a family, with one of whose members he had, through the best part of his life, a close and affectionate connection. To those who were familiar with him, I have perhaps already sufficiently indicated the early home of his dear friend, William Laidlaw." _Life_, vol. i. p. 268. See also vol. ii. p.
59; v. pp. 210-15, 251; vii. p. 168; viii. p. 68, etc.
[160] Flax on her distaff.
[161] _The English in Italy_, 3 vols., Lond. 1825, ascribed to the Marquis of Normanby.
[162] "S.W.S." Scott, in writing of himself, often uses these three letters in playful allusion to a freak of his trusty henchman Tom Purdie, who, in his joy on hearing of the baronetcy, proceeded to mark every sheep on the estate with a large letter "S" in addition to the owner"s initials, W.S., which, according to custom, had already been stamped on their backs.
[163] Moore also felt that the morning was his happiest time for work, but he preferred "composing" in bed! He says somewhere that he would have pa.s.sed half his days in bed for the purpose of composition had he not found it too relaxing.
Macaulay, too, when engaged in his _History_, was in the habit of writing three hours before breakfast daily.
[164] I am a.s.sured by Professor Butcher that there is no such pa.s.sage in the Odyssey, but he suggests "that what Scott had in his mind was merely the Greek idea of a _waking vision_ being a true one. They spoke of it as a ?pa? opposed to an ??a?, a mere dream. These waking visions are usually said to be seen towards morning.
"In the Odyssey there are two such visions which turn out to be realities:--that of Nausicaa, Bk. vi. 20, etc., and that of Penelope, Bk. xix. 535, etc. In the former case we are told that the vision occurred just before dawn; I. 48-49, a?t??a d" ??????e?, "straightway came the Dawn," etc. In the latter, there is no special mention of the hour. The vision, however, is said to be not a dream, but a true vision which shall be accomplished (547, ??? ??a? ???" ?pa? ?s????, ? t??
tete?es???? ?sta?).
"Such pa.s.sages as these, which are frequent in Greek literature, might easily have given rise to the notion of a "matutinal inspiration," of which Scott speaks."
[165] General Sir James Steuart Denham of Coltness, Baronet, Colonel of the Scots Greys. His father, the celebrated political economist, took part in the Rebellion of 1745, and was long afterwards an exile. The reader is no doubt acquainted with "Lady Mary Wortley Montagu"s Letters"
addressed to him and his wife, Lady Frances.--J.G.L. See also Mrs.
Calderwood"s _Letters_, 8vo. Edin. 1884. Sir James died in 1839.
[166] "Had Prince Charles slept during the whole of the expedition,"
says the Chevalier Johnstone, "and allowed Lord George Murray to act for him according to his own judgment, there is every reason for supposing he would have found the crown of Great Britain on his head when he awoke."--_Memoirs of the Rebellion of 1745_, etc. 4to, p. 140. London, 1810.--J.G.L.
[167] The lines are given in _Woodstock_, with the following apology: "We observe this couplet in Fielding"s farce of _Tumbledown d.i.c.k_, founded on the same cla.s.sical story. As it was current in the time of the Commonwealth, it must have reached the author of _Tom Jones_ by tradition, for no one will suspect the present author of making the anachronism."
[168] Colonel Ra.n.a.ldson Macdonell of Glengarry. He died in January 1828.--J.G.L.
[169] "We have had Marechal Macdonald here. We had a capital account of Glengarry visiting the interior of a convent in the ancient Highland garb, and the effect of such an apparition on the nuns, who fled in all directions."--Scott to Skene, Edinburgh, 24th June 1825.
[170] No. 39 Castle Street, which had been occupied by him from 1802, when he removed from No. 10 in the same street. The situation suited him, as the houses of nearly all his friends were within a circle of a few hundred yards. For description see _Life_, vol. v. pp. 321, 333-4, etc.
[171] See below, _March_ 12.
[172] Burns"s _Dedication_ to Gavin Hamilton--
"May ne"er misfortune"s gowling bark Howl through the dwelling o" the _Clerk_."
[173]
"O born to arms! O worth in youth approved, O soft humanity in age beloved!"
--See Pope, _Epitaphs_, 9.
[174] David Monypenny had been on the Bench from 1813; he retired in 1830, and died at the age of eighty-one in 1850.
[175] Parody on Moore"s _Minstrel Boy_.--J.G.L.
[176] "Le Pas de la Fontaine des Pleurs."--_Chroniques Nationales_.
[177] This hint was taken up in _Count Robert of Paris_.--J.G.L.
[178] James Ballantyne gives an interesting account of an interview a dozen years before this time, when "Tom Telltruth" had a somewhat delicate task to perform:--
"_The Lord of the Isles_ was by far the least popular of the series, and Mr. Scott was very prompt at making such discoveries. In about a week after its publication he took me into his library, and asked me what the people were saying about _The Lord of the Isles_. I hesitated, much in the same manner that Gil Blas might be supposed to do when a similar question was put by the Archbishop of Grenada, but he very speedily brought the matter to a point--"Come, speak out, my good fellow, what has put it in your head to be on ceremony with me? But the result is in one word--disappointment!" My silence admitted his inference to its fullest extent. His countenance certainly did look rather blank for a few seconds (for it is a singular fact, that before the public, or rather the booksellers, gave _their_ decision he no more knew whether he had written well or ill, than whether a die, which he threw out of a box, was to turn out a sise or an ace). However, he almost instantly resumed his spirits and expressed his wonder rather that his popularity had lasted so long, than that it should have given way at last. At length, with a perfectly cheerful manner, he said, "Well, well, James, but you know we must not droop--for you know we can"t and won"t give over--we must just try something else, and the question is, what it"s to be?" Nor was it any wonder he spoke thus, for he could not fail to be unconsciously conscious, if I dare use such a term, of his own gigantic, and as yet undeveloped, powers, and was somewhat under forty years old.
I am by no means sure whether he then alluded to _Waverley_, as if he had mentioned it to me for the first time, for my memory has greatly failed me touching this, or whether he alluded to it, as in fact appears to have been the case, as having been commenced and laid aside several years before, but I well recollect that he consulted me with his usual openness and candour respecting his probability of succeeding as a novelist, and I confess my expectations were not very sanguine. He saw this and said, "Well, I don"t see why I should not succeed as well as other people. Come, faint heart never won fair lady--let us try." I remember when the work was put into my hands, I could not get myself to think much, of the Waverley Honour scenes, but to my shame be it spoken, when he had reached the exquisite scenes of Scottish manners at Tully-Veolan, I thought them, and p.r.o.nounced them, vulgar! When the success of the book so utterly knocked me down as a man of taste, all that the good-natured Author observed was, "Well, I really thought you might be wrong about the Scotch. Why, Burns had already attracted universal attention to all about Scotland, and I confess I could not see why I should not be able to keep the flame alive, merely because I wrote in prose in place of rhyme.""--_Memorandum_.
[179] This was a club-house on the London plan, in Princes Street [No.
54], a little eastward from the Mound. On its dissolution soon afterwards, Sir W. was elected by acclamation into the elder Society, called the _New Club_, who had then their house in St. Andrew Square [No. 3], and since 1837 in Princes Street [No. 85].
[180] Mr. Skene"s house was No. 126 Princes Street. Scott"s written answer has been preserved:--
"MY DEAR SKENE,--A thousand thanks for your kind proposal. But I am a solitary monster by temper, and must necessarily couch in a den of my own. I should not, I a.s.sure you, have made any ceremony in accepting your offer had it at all been like to suit me.
"But I must make an arrangement which is to last for years, and perhaps for my lifetime; therefore the sooner I place myself on my footing it will be so much the better.--Always, dear Skene, your obliged and faithful, W. SCOTT."
[181] Pope"s _Imitation of Horace_, Bk. ii Sat. 6.--J.G.L.
[182] These Letters appeared in the _Edinburgh Weekly Journal_ in February and March 1826. "They were then collected into a pamphlet, and ran through numerous editions; in the subsequent discussions in Parliament, they were frequently referred to; and although an elaborate answer by the then Secretary of the Admiralty, Mr. Croker, attracted much notice, and was, by the Government of the time, expected to neutralise the effect of the northern lucubrations--the proposed measure, as regarded Scotland, was ultimately abandoned, and that result was universally ascribed to Malachi Malagrowther."--Scott"s _Misc.
Works_, vol. xxi.
[183] _Winter"s Tale_, Act iv. Sc. 2, slightly altered.
[184] The late Mr. Williamson of Cardrona in Peeblesshire, was a strange humorist, of whom Sir Walter told many stories. The allusion here is to the anecdote of the _Leetle Anderson_ in the first of _Malachi_"s Epistles.:--See Scott"s _Prose Miscellanies_, vol. xxi. p.
289.--_J.G.L._
[185] _The Omen_, by Galt, had just been published.--See Sir Walter"s review of this novel in the _Miscellaneous Prose Works_, vol. xviii. p.
333. John Gait died at Greenock in April 1839.--J.G.L.
[186] "A Letter from Malachi Malagrowther, Esq., to the Editor of the _Edinburgh Weekly Journal_, on the proposed Change of Currency, and other late alterations as they affect, or are intended to affect, the Kingdom of Scotland. 8 vo, Edin. 1826."