The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Journal of Sir Walter Scott, Volumes I & II.

[206] David Hinves, Mr. W. Stewart Rose's faithful and affectionate attendant, furnished Scott with some hints for his picture of Davie Gellatly in Waverley.

Mr. Lockhart tells us that Hinves was more than forty years in Mr. Rose's service; he had been a bookbinder by trade and a preacher among the Methodists.

"A sermon heard casually under a tree in the New Forest contained such touches of good feeling and broad humour that Rose promoted the preacher to be his valet on the spot. He was treated more like a friend than a servant by his master and by all his master's intimate friends. Scott presented him with all his works; and Coleridge gave him a corrected (or rather an altered) copy of Christabel with this inscription on the fly-leaf: 'Dear Hinves,—Till this book is concluded, and with it Gundimore, a poem by the same "author," accept of this corrected copy of Christabel as a small token of regard; yet such a testimonial as I would not pay to any one I did not esteem, though he were an emperor.

"'Be assured I will send you for your private library every work I have published (if there be any to be had) and whatever I shall publish. Keep steady to the FAITH. If the fountainhead be always full, the stream cannot be long empty.—Yours sincerely, S.T. COLERIDGE.

"'11 November 1816, Mudford.'"—Life, vol. iv. pp. 397-8.

Hinves died in Mr. Rose's service circa 1838, and his master followed him on the 30th April 1843, a few weeks after his friend Morritt.

[207] An analysis of these letters was published by Mr. Lockhart in the Life, vol. vi. pp. 346-386.

[208] Created Earl of Leicester in 1837.

[209] It is worth noting that Sir Walter first wrote "grasp"—and then deleted the word in favour of the technical term—"fathom."

[210] W. Withers had just published a Letter to Sir Walter Scott exposing certain fundamental errors in his late Essay on Planting,—Holt: Norfolk, 1828.

[211] A deep pool in the Tweed, in which Scott had had a singular nocturnal adventure while "burning the water" in company with Hogg and Laidlaw. Hogg records that the crazy coble went to the bottom while Scott was shouting—

"An' gin the boat were bottomless,
An' seven miles to row."

The scene was not forgotten when he came to write the twenty-sixth chapter of Guy Mannering.

[212] This refers to the splendid edition of Walton and Cotton, edited by Nicolas, and illustrated by Stothard and Inskipp, published in 1836 after nearly ten years' preparation, in two vols. large 8vo.

[213] Sir William Scott, Lord Stowell, died 28th January 1836, aged ninety.

[214] Moore writes: "On our arrival at Hampton (where we found the Wordsworths), walked about,—the whole party in the gay walk where the band plays, to the infinite delight of the Hampton blues, who were all eyes after Scott. The other scribblers not coming in for a glance. The dinner odd; but being near Scott I found it agreeable, and was delighted to see him so happy, with his tall son, the Major," etc. etc,—Diary, vol. v. p. 287.

[215] The author of Evelina died at Bath in 1840, at the age of eighty-eight. Subsequent to this meeting with Scott she published memoirs of her father, Dr. Burney (in 1832). It is stated that for her novel Camilla, published in 1796, she received a subscription of 3000 guineas, and for the Wanderer, in 1814, £1500 for the copyright. This was the year in which Waverley appeared, for the copyright of which Constable did not see his way to offer more than £700.

[216] This item refers to money which had belonged to Lady Scott's parents.

[217] It contains half of Chancellor Clarendon's famous collection—the other half is at Bothwell Castle.

[218] William Elliot Lockhart of Cleghorn and Borthwick-brae, long M.P. for Selkirkshire.

[219] Weare, Thurtell, and the rest were professed gamblers. See ante, July 10, 1826, and Life, vol. viii. p. 381.

[220] The first volume had just been published in 1828. The book was completed in 6 vols. in 1840.

[221] About this time Miss Anne Scott wrote to Mrs. Lockhart: "Early in the morning, before we started, papa took me with him to the Cathedral. This he had done often before; but he said he must stand once more on the spot where he married poor mamma. After that we went to the Castle, where a new showman went through the old trick of pointing out Fergus MacIvor's very dungeon. Peveril said, 'Indeed, are you quite sure, sir?' And on being told there could be no doubt, was troubled with a fit of coughing, which ended in a laugh. The man seemed exceeding indignant; so, when papa moved on, I whispered who it was. I wish you had seen the man's start, and how he stared and bowed as he parted from us; and then rammed his keys into his pocket and went off at a hand-gallop to warn the rest of the garrison. But the carriage was ready, and we escaped a row."—Life, vol. ix. pp. 256-7.

[222] See The Doom of Devorgoil: A Melo-Drama. Auchendrane: or the Ayrshire Tragedy. Published by Cadell in 8vo. 1830.

[223] Referring to the uniform edition of the Waverley Novels in 48 vols., which began to be issued in June 1829. The great cost of the publication naturally caused the Trustees much anxiety at this period.

[224] Ante, p. 120, February 2d.

[225] Natali Corri, born in Italy, but settled in Edinburgh, where, among other schemes, he tried to set up an Italian opera. In conjunction with a brother he published several musical works. He died at Trieste in 1823.

[226] See Act II. Sc. 2. The Italian family's morning call.

[227]

"And thou, gentle Dame, who must bear to thy grief
For thy clan and thy country the cares of a Chief,
Whom brief rolling moons, in six changes have left
Of thy husband, and father, and brethren bereft;
To thine ear of affection how sad is the hail
That salutes thee, the heir of the line of Kintail."
Poetical Works, vol. viii. p. 394.

Mary, daughter of Francis, Lord Seaforth, was born in Ross-shire in 1784, married, at Barbadoes in 1804, Sir Samuel Hood, and left a widow in 1814. She married again, in 1817, Mr. J.A. Stewart, who assumed the name of Mackenzie. Mrs. Stewart Mackenzie died at Brahan Castle in 1862; her funeral was one of the largest ever witnessed in the North.

[228] Patrick James Stevenson was licensed in 1825, and ordained in 1828.—Scott's Fasti, vol. vi. p. 746.

[229] Ramsay's Tea-table Miscellany (1795), vol. i. p. 125.

[231] Now called Wellhouse Tower.

[232] Milton's Paradise Lost, Bk. i.

[233] See Cases in Court of Session, vol. vii. S. p. 527.

[234] John Graham, who afterwards assumed the name of Gilbert; born 1794, died 1866.

He was at this time painting Sir Walter for the Royal Society of Edinburgh. When the portrait was finished it was placed in the rooms of the Society, where it still hangs. The artist retained in his own collection a duplicate, with some slight variations, which his widow presented to the National Portrait Gallery, London, in 1867.

[235] Sir Walter, in common with the majority of his contemporaries, evidently believed that Dr. Robert Knox was partly responsible for the West Port atrocities, but it is only just to the memory of the talented anatomist to say that an independent and influential committee, after a careful examination, reported on March 13th, 1829, that there was no evidence showing that he or his assistants knew that murder had been committed, but the committee thought that more care should have been exercised in the reception of the bodies at the Anatomical Class-room.

Lord Cockburn, who was one of the counsel at the trial of Burke, in writing of these events, remarks: "All our anatomists incurred a most unjust and very alarming, though not an unnatural, odium; Dr. Knox in particular, against whom not only the anger of the populace, but the condemnation of more intelligent persons, was specially directed. But, tried in reference to the invariable and the necessary practice of the profession, our anatomists were spotlessly correct, and Knox the most correct of them all."

At this date Dr. Knox was the most popular teacher in the Medical School at Edinburgh, and as his class-room could not contain more than a third of his students, he had to deliver his lectures twice or thrice daily. The odium attached to his name might have been removed in time had his personal character stood as high as his professional ability, but though he remained in Edinburgh until 1841 he never recovered his position there, and for the last twenty years of his life this once brilliant teacher subsisted as best he could in London by his pen, and as an itinerant lecturer. He died in 1862.

[236] King John, Act iv. So. 2.

[237] Archibald, second Lord Douglas, who died in 1844.

[238] John Greenshields, self-taught sculptor. See Life, vol. ix. p. 281-288. He died at the age of forty in 1835.

[239] As You Like It, Act II. Sc. 3.

[240] Sir Henry Seton Steuart's work on Planting was reviewed by Scott in the Quarterly.—See Misc. Prose Works, vol. xxi. Sir H. Steuart died in March 1836.

[241] See letter in Life, vol. ix. pp. 281-287.

[242] Originally published in London in 8vo, 1764. This contemplated edition does not appear to have been printed.

[243] Ante, p. 118 n.

[244] As You Like It, Act II. Sc. 3.

[245] See Beaumont and Fletcher, Knight of the Burning Pestle, Act I. Sc. 3.

[246]
Coelo supinas si tuleris manus
Nascente luna, rustica Phidyle, etc.

Hor. Lib. iii Od. 23.—J.G.L.

[247] This letter, brimful of anecdote, is printed in Croker's Correspondence, vol. ii. pp. 28-34.

[248] As You Like It, Act II. Sc. 7.

[249] Sir Walter had written to Mr. Lockhart on October 26th, 1828, on hearing of an impending article in the Quarterly, the following letter:—

"I cannot repress the strong desire I have to express my regret at some parts of your kind letter just received. I shall lament most truly a purple article at this moment, when a strong, plain, moderate statement, not railing at Catholics and their religion, but reprobating the conduct of the Irish Catholics, and pointing out the necessary effects which that conduct must have on the Catholic Question, would have a powerful effect, and might really serve king and country. Nothing the agitators desire so much as to render the broil general, as a quarrel between Catholic and Protestant; nothing so essential to the Protestant cause as to confine it to its real causes. Southey, as much a fanatic as e'er a Catholic of them all, will, I fear, pass this most necessary landmark of debate. I like his person, admire his genius, and respect his immense erudition, but—non omnia. In point of reasoning and political judgment he is a perfect Harpado—nothing better than a wild bull. The circumstances require the interference of vir gravis pietate et moribus, and you bring it a Highland piper to blow a Highland charge, the more mischievous that it possesses much wild power of inflaming the passions.

"Your idea that you must give Southey his swing in this matter or he will quit the Review,—this is just a pilot saying, If I do not give the helm to such a passenger he will quit the ship. Let him quit and be d—d.

"My own confidence is, you know, entirely in the D. As Bruce said to the Lord of the Isles at Bannockburn, 'My faith is constant in thee.' Now a hurly-burly charge may derange his line of battle, and therein be of the most fatal consequence. For God's sake avail yourself of the communication I opened while in town, and do not act without it. Send this to the D. of W. If you will, he will appreciate the motives that dictate it. If he approves of a calm, moderate, but firm statement, stating the unreasonable course pursued by the Catholics as the great impediment to their own wishes, write such an article yourself; no one can make a more impressive appeal to common sense than you can.

"The circumstances of the times are—must be—an apology for disappointing Southey. But nothing can be an apology for indulging him at the expense of aggravating public disturbance, which, for one, I see with great apprehension.

"It has not yet come our length; those [to] whom you allude ought certainly to be served, but the D. is best judge how they may be best served. If the D. says nothing on the subject you can slip your Derwentwater greyhound if you like. I write hastily, but most anxiously. ... I repeat that I think it possible to put the Catholic Question as it now stands in a light which the most zealous of their supporters in this country cannot but consider as fair, while the result would be that the Question should not be granted at all under such guarantees; but I think this is scarce to be done by inflaming the topic with all mutual virulence of polemical discussion."

[250] Henry VI. Act I. Sc. 4.

[251] John Gilpin.

[252] The Picture of Scotland by Robert Chambers, author of Traditions of Edinburgh, etc., 8vo, 1829.

[253] Mr. Skene remarks that at this time "Sir Walter was engaged in the composition of the Novel of Anne of Geierstein, for which purpose he wished to see a paper which I had some time before contributed to the Memoirs of the Society of Antiquaries on the subject of the Secret Tribunals of Germany, and upon which, accordingly, he grounded the scene in the novel. Upon his describing to me the scheme which he had formed for that work, I suggested to him that he might with advantage connect the history of René, king of Provence, which would lead to many interesting topographical details which my residence in that country would enable me to supply, besides the opportunity of illustrating so eccentric a character as 'le bon roi René,' full of traits which were admirably suited to Sir Walter's graphic style of illustration, and that he could besides introduce the ceremonies of the Fête Dieu with great advantage, as I had fortunately seen its revival the first time it was celebrated after the interruption of the revolution. He liked the idea much, and, accordingly, a Journal which I had written during my residence in Provence, with a volume of accompanying drawings and Papon's History of Provence was forthwith sent for, and the whole dénouement of the story of Anne o/Geierstein was changed, and the Provence part woven into it, in the form in which it ultimately came forth."—Reminiscences.

[254] This learned gentleman died in his house, 34 Moray Place, Edinburgh, on the 30th August 1838, aged eighty-two. He had filled various important situations with great ability during his long life:—Sheriff of Berwick and West Lothian, Professor of Scots Law in the University, and afterwards a Baron of Exchequer, which latter office he held till the abolition of the court in 1830. He is best remembered by his work on the Criminal Law of Scotland, published in 1797. He bequeathed his uncle the historian's correspondence with Rousseau and other distinguished foreigners to the Royal Society of Edinburgh.

[255] Published in four volumes, 8vo, 1829. Fauche-Borel, an agent of the Bourbons, had just died. The book is still in the Abbotsford library.

[256] Ancient Metrical Tales, edited by Rev. C.H. Hartshorne. 8vo London, 1829.

[257] The Right Hon. William Dundas, born 1762, died 1845; appointed Lord Clerk Register in 1821.

[258] Ben Jonson, Every Man in his Humour, Act I. Sc. 4.

[259] For notices of this gigantic cannon see ante, vol. i. p. 43, and post, pp. 247-8; also Life, vol. vii. pp. 86-87.

[260] Some of these fine drawings have been engraved for Colonel Tod's Travels in Western India. Lond., 4to, 1839.—J.G.L.

[261] Molière, L'Amour Médecin, Act I. Sc. 1 (joaillier for orfévre).

[262] The following extract from a letter by Wilkie shows how willingly he had responded to Scott's request:—

7 TERRACE, KENSINGTON,
LONDON, Jan. 1829.

"DEAR SIR WALTER,—I pass over all those disastrous events that have arrived to us both since our last, as you justly call it, melancholy parting, to assure you how delighted I shall be if I can in the most inconsiderable degree assist in the illustrations of the great work, which we all hope may lighten or remove that load of troubles by which your noble spirit is at this time beset; considering it as only repaying a debt of obligation which you yourself have laid upon me when, with an unseen hand in the Antiquary, you took me up and claimed me, the humble painter of domestic sorrow, as your countryman."

[263] See Lear, Act IV. Sc. 1.

[264] Richard III., Act IV. Sc. 2.

[265] See letter to George Forbes from Sir Walter, dated Dec. 18th, 1830.—Life, vol. X. pp. 19-20.

[266] Widow of Francis, Lord Seaforth, last Baron of Kintail, and mother of the Hon. Mrs. Stewart Mackenzie.

[267] A sportive association of young athletes. Hogg, I think, was their Poet Laureate.—J.G.L.

[268]

Mair spier na, no fear na,
Auld age ne'er mind a feg;
The last o't, the warst o't.
Is only for to beg.—BURNS'S Ep. to Davie.

[269] Tempest, Act IV. Sc. 1. (Stephano).

[270] This gentleman was a favourite with Sir Walter—a special point of communion being the antiquities of the British drama. He was Provost of Edinburgh in 1816-17, and again in 1822, and the king gracefully surprised him by proposing his health at the civic banquet in the Parliament House, as "Sir William Arbuthnot, Baronet."—J.G.L.

[271] John Hope, afterwards Lord Justice-Clerk.

[272] Narrative of a Journey through the Upper Provinces of India, 2 vols. 4to, 1828.

[273] Old Ballad (known as "Marie Hamilton") quoted by Burns in a letter to Mrs. Dunlop regarding Falconer, author of The Shipwreck.—Currie's Burns, vol. ii. p. 290.

[274] See Quart. Rev., Nov. 1829, or Misc. Prose Works, xxi. 152-198.

[275] George Dempster of Skibo, one of the few men connecting Scott with this generation, died in Edinburgh on the 6th of February 1889. This accomplished Scottish gentleman had for many years made his home at Ormiston, where, in the old mansion-house, rich in associations of Knox, Wishart, and Buchanan, he was the gracious host to a large circle of friends.

[276] Pope's Moral Essays, iii.

[277] Ante, vol. i. p. 312, n.

[278] Mr. Lockhart says, writing in 1839:—"This head may still be seen over a laboratory at No. 100 South Bridge, Edinburgh. [It has since been removed.] N.B. There is a tradition that the venerable bust in question was once dislodged by 'Colonel Grogg' and some of his companions, and waggishly placed in a very inappropriate position."

[279] Fenimore Cooper told Scott that the Princess had had Sir Walter's portrait engraved in 1827 from the picture taken in Paris. [Mme. Mirbel's miniature?]

[280] See Sheridan's Critic.

[281] Lord Corehouse's brother.

[282] Room may be made for part of one of the letters received by this morning's mail, in which, after much interesting family detail, his son-in-law describes the duel which took place between the Duke of Wellington and Lord Winchelsea:—"There is no reason to expect a duel every day, and all has been very quiet since Saturday.—The letter was utterly forgotten till this recalled it to remembrance. Ergo, there was no sort of call on the Duke after beating Buonaparte to go to war with a booby. But he could not stand the fling at the fair. His correspondence seems admirable every way, and the whole affair was gone through in excellent taste,—the Duke and Hardinge trotting out, the two peaceful lords rumbling down in a coach and four. The Duke had no half-pence and was followed and bothered for some time by the tollman on Battersea Bridge, when Hardinge fished out some silver or a groom came up. There were various market gardeners on the road, who, when Lord Winchelsea's equipage stopped, stopped also and looked on. One of them advised a turn up with nature's weapons. The moment all was done the Duke clapped spars to his horse and was back in Downing Street within the two hours, breakfasted, and off to Windsor, where he transacted business for an hour or so, and then said, 'By-the-by, I was forgetting I have had a field-day with Lord W. this morning.' They say the King rowed Arthur much for exposing himself at such a crisis."

[283] Art of Preserving Health, book ii.

[284] George Ramsay, Earl of Dalhousie, had just been appointed Commander-in-Chief in the East Indies; which office he held till 1832. He died in 1838.

[285] Merchant of Venice, Act I. Sc. 1.

[286] Son of Lord Medwyn. Mr. Forbes had lately returned from Italy, where he had had as travelling companion Mr. Cleasby, and it was owing to Mr. Forbes's recommendation that Mr. Cleasby came to Edinburgh to pursue his studies. Mr. Forbes possessed a fine tenor voice, and his favourite songs at that time were the Neapolitan and Calabrian canzonetti, to which Sir Walter alludes under April 4.

[287] Mr. Lockhart's own account of the overture is sufficiently amusing and characteristic of the men and the times:—

"I had not time to write more than a line the other day under Croker's cover, having received it just at post time. He sent for me; I found him in his nightcap at the Admiralty, colded badly, but in audacious spirits. His business was this. The Duke of W[ellingto]n finds himself without one newspaper he can depend on. He wishes to buy up some evening print, such as the dull Star; and could I do anything for it? I said I was as well inclined to serve the Duke as he could be, but it must be in other fashion. He then said he agreed with me—but there was a second question: Could I find them an editor, and undertake to communicate between them and him—in short, save the Treasury the inconvenience of maintaining an avowed intercourse with the Newspaper press? He said he himself had for some years done this—then others. I said I would endeavour to think of a man for their turn and would call on him soon again.

"I have considered the matter at leisure, and resolve to have nothing to do with it. They CAN only want me as a writer. Any understrapper M.P. would do well enough for carrying hints to a newspaper office, and I will not, even to secure the Duke, mix myself up with the newspapers. That work it is which has damned Croker, and I can't afford to sacrifice the advantage which I feel I have gained in these later years by abstaining altogether from partisan scribbling, or to subject the Quarterly to risk of damage. The truth is, I don't admire, after all that has come and gone, being applied to through the medium of friend Crokey. I hope you will approve of my resolution."

[288] Peel, in writing to Scott, says, "The mention of your name [in Parliament] as attached to the Edinburgh petition was received with loud cheers."

[289] Richard Cleasby, afterwards the well-known scholar who spent many years in gathering materials for an Icelandic Dictionary. Mr. Cleasby died in 1847, but the work he had planned was not published until 1874, when it appeared under the editorship of Mr. Vigfusson,^[A] assisted by Sir George Dasent.

[290] Bickerstaff's Padlock, Act I. Sc. 6.

[A] An Icelandic-English Dictionary based on the MS. collections of the late Richard Cleasby, enlarged and completed by G. Vigfusson. 4to, Oxford, 1874.

[291] Don Quixote, Pt. I. Bk. II. Cap. 2.

[292] Friends of Joanna Baillie's and John Richardson's.

[293] This must have been an unusual experience for the head of a family that considered itself to be the oldest in Christendom. Their château contained, it was said, two pictures: one of the Deluge, in which Noah is represented going into the Ark, carrying under his arm a small trunk, on which was written "Papiers de la maison de Lévis;" the other a portrait of the founder of the house bowing reverently to the Virgin, who is made to say, "Couvrez-vous, mon cousin."—See Walpole's Letters. The book referred to by Sir Walter is The Carbonaro: a Piedmontese Tale, by the Duke de Lévis. 2 vols. London, 1829.

[294] No. 152—May, 1829.

[295] Burns's Lines to a Mouse: "a daimen-icker in a thrave," that is, an ear of corn out of two dozen sheaves.

[296] John, Duke of Argyll and Greenwich.

[297] These biographies, intended for The Family Library, were never written.

[298] Romeo and Juliet, Act v. Sc. 1.

[299]

"When I think on the world's pelf
May the shame fa' and the blethrie o 't."
Burden of old Scottish Song.

[300] That these afternoon rambles with the dogs were not always so tranquil may be gathered from an incident described by Mr. Adolphus, in which an unsuspecting cat at a cottage door was demolished by Nimrod in one of his gambols.—Life, vol. ix. p. 362. This deer-hound was an old offender. Sir Walter tells his friend Richardson, à propos of a story he had just heard of Joanna Baillie's cat having worried a dog: "It is just like her mistress, who beats the male race of authors out of the pit in describing the higher passions that are more proper to their sex than hers. Alack-a-day! my poor cat Hinse, my acquaintance, and in some sort my friend of fifteen years, was snapped at even by the paynim Nimrod. What could I say to him but what Brantôme said to some ferrailleur who had been too successful in a duel, 'Ah! mon grand ami, vous avez tué mon autre grand ami.'"