_June_ 11.--I was kept at Court by a hearing till near three. Then sat to Mr. Graham for an hour and a half. When I came home, behold a letter from Mr. Murray, very handsomely yielding up the fourth share of _Marmion_, which he possessed.[338] Afterwards we went to the theatre, where St. Ronan"s Well was capitally acted by Murray and the Bailie,--the part of Clara Mowbray being heavy for want of Mrs. Siddons.
Poor old Mrs. Renaud, once the celebrated Mrs. Powell, took leave of the stage. As I was going to bed at twelve at night, in came R.P.Gillies like a tobacco cask. I shook him off with some difficulty, pleading my having been lately ill, but he is to call to-morrow morning.
_June_ 12.--Gillies made his appearance. I told him frankly I thought he conducted his affairs too irregularly for any one to a.s.sist him, and I could not in charity advise any one to encourage subscriptions, but that I should subscribe myself, so I made over to him about 50, which the _Foreign Review_ owes me, and I will grow hard-hearted and do no more. I was not long in the Court, but I had to look at the controversy about the descent of the Douglas family, then I went to Cadell and found him still c.o.c.k-a-hoop. He has raised the edition to 17,000, a monstrous number, yet he thinks it will clear the 20,000, but we must be quiet in case people jalouse the failure of the plates. I called on Lady J.S.[339] When I came home I was sleepy and over-walked. By the way, I sat till Graham finished my picture.[340] I fell fast asleep before dinner, and slept for an hour. After dinner I wrote to Walter, Charles, Lockhart, and John Murray, and took a screed of my novel; so concluded the evening idly enough.
_June_ 13.--We hear of Sophia"s motions. She is to set sail by steam-boat on the 16th, Tuesday, and Charles is to make a run down with her. But, alas! my poor Johnnie is, I fear, come to lay his bones in his native land. Sophia can no longer disguise it from herself, that as his strength weakens the disease increases. The poor child is so much bent on coming to see Abbotsford and grandpapa, that it would be cruel not to comply with his wish--and if affliction comes, we will bear it best together.
"Not more the schoolboy who expires Far from his native home desires To see some friend"s familiar face, Or meet a parent"s last embrace."
It must be all as G.o.d wills it. Perhaps his native air may be of service.
More news from Cadell. He deems it necessary to carry up the edition to 20,000.
[_Abbotsford._]--This day was fixed for a start to Abbotsford, where we arrived about six o"clock, evening. To my thinking, I never saw a prettier place; and even the trees and flowers seemed to say to me, We are your own again. But I must not let imagination jade me thus. It would be to make disappointment doubly bitter: and, G.o.d knows, I have in my child"s family matter enough to check any exuberant joy.
_June 14_.--A delicious day--threatening rain; but with the languid and affecting manner in which beauty demands sympathy when about to weep. I wandered about the banks and braes all morning, and got home about three, and saw everything in tolerable order, excepting that there was a good number of branches left in the walks. There is a great number of trees cut, and bark collected. Colonel Ferguson dined with us, and spent the afternoon.
_June_ 15.--Another charming day. Up and despatched packets for Ballantyne and Cadell; neither of them was furiously to the purpose, but I had a humour to be alert. I walked over to Huntly Burn, and round by Chiefswood and Janeswood, where I saw Captain Hamilton. He is busy finishing his Peninsular campaigns.[341] He will not be cut out by Napier, whose work has a strong party cast; and being, besides, purely abstract and professional, to the public seems very dull. I read General Miller"s account of the South American War.[342] I liked it the better that Basil Hall brought the author to breakfast with me in Edinburgh. A fine, tall, military figure, his left hand withered like the prophet"s gourd, and plenty of scars on him. There have been rare doings in that vast continent; but the strife is too distant, the country too unknown, to have the effect upon the imagination which European wars produce.
This evening I indulged in the _far niente_--a rare event with me, but which I enjoy proportionally.
_June_ 16.--Made up parcel for Dr. Lardner; and now I propose to set forth my memoranda of Byron for Moore"s acceptance, which ought in civility to have been done long since.[343] I will have a walk, however, in the first place.
I did not get on with Byron so far as I expected--began it though, and that is always something. I went to see the woods at Huntly Burn, and Mars Lea, etc. Met Captain Hamilton, who tells me a shocking thing. Two Messrs. Stirling of Drumpellier came here and dined one day, and seemed spirited young men. The younger is murdered by pirates. An Indian vessel in which he sailed was boarded by these miscreants, who behaved most brutally; and he, offering resistance I suppose, was shockingly mangled and flung into the sea. He was afterwards taken up alive, but died soon after. Such horrid accidents lie in wait for those whom we see "all joyous and unthinking,"[344] sweeping along the course of life; and what end may be waiting ourselves? Who can tell?
_June_ 17.--Must take my leave of sweet Abbotsford, and my leisure hour, my eve of repose. To go to town will take up the morning.
_[Edinburgh.]_--We set out about eleven o"clock, got to Edinburgh about four, where I dined with Baron Clerk and a few Exchequer friends--Lord Chief Baron, Sir Patrick Murray, Sir Henry Jardine, etc. etc.
_June_ 18.--Corrected proofs for Dr. Dionysius Lardner. Cadell came to breakfast. Poor fellow, he looks like one who had been overworked; and the difficulty of keeping paper-makers up to printers, printers up to draughtsmen, artists to engravers, and the whole party to time, requires the utmost exertion. He has actually ordered new plates, although the steel ones which we employ are supposed to throw off 30,000 without injury. But I doubt something of this. Well, since they will buckle fortune on our back we must bear it scholarly and wisely.[345] I went to Court. Called on my return on J.B. and Cadell. At home I set to correct _Ivanhoe_. I had twenty other things more pressing; but, after all, these novels deserve a preference. Poor Terry is totally prostrated by a paralytic affection. Continuance of existence not to be wished for.
To-morrow I expect Sophia and her family by steam.
_June_ 19.--Sophia, and Charles who acted as her escort, arrived at nine o"clock morning, fresh from the steamboat. They were in excellent health--also the little boy and girl; but poor Johnnie seems very much changed indeed, and I should not be surprised if the scene shortly closes. There is obviously a great alteration in strength and features.
At dinner we had our family chat on a scale that I had not enjoyed for many years. The Skenes supped with us.
_June_ 20.--Corrected proof-sheets in the morning for Dr. Lardner. Then I had the duty of the Court to perform.
As I came home I recommended young Shortreed to Mr. Cadell for a printing job now and then when Ballantyne is over-loaded, which Mr.
Cadell promised accordingly.
Lady Anna Maria Elliot"s company at dinner. Helped on our family party, and pa.s.sed the evening pleasantly enough, my anxiety considering.
_June_ 21.--A very wet Sunday. I employed it to good purpose, bestowing much labour on the History, ten pages of which are now finished. Were it not for the precarious health of poor Johnnie I would be most happy in this reunion with my family, but, poor child, this is a terrible drawback.
_June_ 22.--I keep working, though interruptedly. But the heat in the midst of the day makes me flag and grow irresistibly drowsy. Mr. and Mrs. Skene came to supper this evening. Skene has engaged himself in drawing ill.u.s.trations to be etched by himself for _Waverley_. I wish it may do.[346]
_June_ 23.--I was detained in the Court till half-past [three]. Captain William Lockhart dined with Skene. The Captain"s kind nature had brought him to Edinburgh to meet his sister-in-law.
_June_ 24.--I was detained late in the Court, but still had time to go with Adam Wilson and call upon a gentlemanlike East Indian officer, called Colonel Francklin, who appears an intelligent and respectable man. He writes the History of Captain Thomas,[347] a person of the condition of a common seaman, who raised himself to the rank of a native prince, and for some time waged a successful war with the powers around him. The work must be entertaining.
_June_ 25.--Finished correcting proofs for Tales, 3d Series. The Court was over soon, but I was much exhausted. On the return home quite sleepy and past work. I looked in on Cadell, whose hand is in his housewife"s cap, driving and pushing to get all the works forward in due order, and cursing the delays of artists and engravers. I own I wish we had not hampered ourselves with such causes of delay.
_June_ 26.--Mr. Ellis, missionary from the South Sea Islands, breakfasted, introduced by Mr. Fletcher, minister of the parish of Stepney.
Mr. Ellis"s account of the progress of civilisation, as connected with religion, is very interesting. Knowledge of every kind is diffused--reading, writing, printing, abundantly common. Polygamy abolished. Idolatry is put down; the priests, won over by the chiefs, dividing among them the consecrated lands which belonged to their temples. Great part of the population are still without religion, but willing to be instructed. Wars are become infrequent; and there is in each state a sort of representative body, or senate, who are a check on the despotism of the chief. All this has come hand in hand with religion. Mr. Ellis tells me that the missionaries of different sects avoided carefully letting the natives know that there were points of disunion between them. Not so some Jesuits who had lately arrived, and who taught their own ritual as the only true one. Mr. Ellis described their poetry to me, and gave some examples; it had an Ossianic character, and was composed of metaphor. He gave me a small collection of hymns printed in the islands. If this gentleman is sincere, which I have no doubt of, he is an ill.u.s.trious character. He was just about to return to the Friendly Islands, having come here for his wife"s health.
[_Blairadam._]--After the Court we set off (the two Thomsons and I) for Blair-Adam, where we held our Macduff Club for the twelfth anniversary.
We met the Chief Baron, Lord Sydney Osborne, Will Clerk, the merry knight Sir Adam Ferguson, with our venerable host the Lord Chief Commissioner, and merry men were we.
_June_ 27.--I ought not, where merry men convene, to omit our jovial son of Neptune, Admiral Adam. The morning proving delightful, we set out for the object of the day, which was Falkland. We pa.s.sed through Loch.o.r.e, but without stopping, and saw on the road eastward, two or three places, as Balbedie, Strathendry, and some others known to me by name. Also we went through the town of Leslie, and saw what remains of the celebrated rendezvous of rustic gallantry called Christ"s Kirk on the Green.[348]
It is now cut up with houses, one of the most hideous of which is a new church, having the very worst and most offensive kind of Venetian windows. This, I am told, has replaced a quiet lowly little Gothic building, coeval, perhaps, with the royal poet who celebrated the spot.
Next we went to Falkland, where we found Mr. Howden, factor of Mr.
Tyndall Bruce, waiting to show us the palace.
Falkland has most interesting remains. A double entrance-tower, and a side building running east from it, is roofed, and in some degree habitable; a corresponding building running northward from the eastern corner is totally ruinous, having been destroyed by fire. The architecture is highly ornamented, in the style of the Palace at Stirling. Niches with statues, with projections, cornices, etc, are lavished throughout. Many cornice medallions exhibited such heads as those procured from the King"s room at Stirling, the originals, perhaps, being the same. The repeated cypher of James V. and Mary of Guise attest the builder of this part of the palace. When complete it had been a quadrangle. There is as much of it as remained when Slezer published his drawings. Some part of the interior has been made what is called habitable, that is, a half-dozen of bad rooms have been gotten out of it. Am clear in my own mind a ruin should be protected, but never repaired. The proprietor has a beautiful place called Nut-hill, within ten minutes" walk of Falkland, and commanding some fine views of it and of the Lomond Hill. This should be the residence. But Mr. Bruce and his predecessor, my old professor, John Bruce,[349] deserve great credit for their attention to prevent dilapidation, which was doing its work fast upon the ancient palace. The only remarkable apartment was a large and well-proportioned gallery with a painted roof--_tempore Jacobi s.e.xti_--and built after his succession to the throne of England. I noticed a curious thing,--a hollow column concealed the rope which rung the Castle bell, keeping it safe from injury and interruption.
The town of Falkland is old, with very narrow streets. The arrival of two carriages and a gig was an event important enough to turn out the whole population. They are said to be less industrious, more dissipated, and readier to become soldiers than their neighbours. So long a court retains its influence!
We dined at Wellfield with my Mend George Cheape, with whom I rode in the cavalry some thirty years ago. Much mirth and good wine made us return in capital tune. The Chief Baron and Admiral Adam did not go on this trip. When we returned it was time to go to bed by a candle.
_June_ 28.--Being Sunday, we lounged about in the neighbourhood of the crags called Kiery Craigs, etc. The Sheriff-subst.i.tute of Kinross came to dinner, and brought a gold signet[350] which had been found in that town. It was very neat work, about the size of a shilling. It bore in a shield the arms of Scotland and England, _parti per pale_, those of Scotland occupying the dexter side. The shield is of the heater or triangular shape. There is no crown nor legend of any kind; a slip of gold folds upwards on the back of the hinge, and makes the handle neatly enough. It is too well wrought for David II."s time, and James IV. is the only monarch of the Scottish line who, marrying a daughter of England, may carry the arms of both countries _parti per pale._ Mr.
Skelton is the name of the present possessor.
Two reported discoveries. One, that the blaeberry shrub contains the tanning quality as four to one compared to the oak--which may be of great importance, as it grows so commonly on our moors.
The other, that the cutting of an apple-tree, or other fruit-tree, may be preserved by sticking it into a potato and planting both together.
Curious, if true.
_June_ 29 _[Edinburgh]._--We dined together at Blair-Adam, having walked in the woods in the morning, and seen a beautiful new walk made through the woody hill behind the house. In a fine evening, after an early dinner, our party returned to Edinburgh, and there each dispersed to his several home and resting-place. I had the pleasure of finding my family all well, except Johnnie.
_June_ 30.--After my short sniff of country air, here am I again at the receipt of custom. The sale with Longman & Co., for stock and copyrights of my [Poetical] Works, is completed, for 7000, at dates from twelve to thirty-six months. There are many sets out of which we may be able to clear the money, and then we shall make something to clear the copyright. I am sure this may be done, and that the bargain will prove a good one in the long run.
Dined at home with my family, whom, as they disperse to-morrow, I have dedicated the evening to.
FOOTNOTES:
[328] The first volume had just been issued with a dedication to the King. The series was completed in 48 vols., published at the beginning of each month, between 1829-33, and the circulation went on increasing until it reached 35,000 monthly.
[329] Theatre Royal, Edinburgh, which stood at that time in Shakespeare Square, the site of the present General Post-Office.
[330] Mr. Lockhart remarks that, besides the usual allowance of rheumatism, and other lesser ailments, Sir Walter had an attack that season of a nature which gave his family great alarm, and which for some days he himself regarded with the darkest prognostications. After some weeks, during which he complained of headache and nervous irritation, certain haemorrhages indicated the sort of relief required, and he obtained it from copious cupping.--_Life_, vol. ix. p. 327-8.
[331] See _infra_, p. 299.
[332] _The Beaux"s Stratagem_, Farquhar.
[333] Through the courtesy of Miss d.i.c.k Lauder I am enabled to give the letter referred to:--