Chapter I: Front Matter (1)

Transcriber's note:

Obvious printer's errors have been corrected; all other
inconsistencies are as in the original. The author's spelling
has been retained.

Page numbers have been retained as {p.xxx}.

Page 96: The "u" in "Cadil gu lo" has a breve in the original.

Page 218: The marker for footnote 88 could not be found in the
text.

MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE OF SIR WALTER SCOTT BART.

by

JOHN GIBSON LOCKHART

In Ten Volumes

VOLUME V

Boston and New York Houghton, Mifflin and Company The Riverside Press, Cambridge MCMI

Copyright, 1901 by Houghton, Mifflin and Company All Rights Reserved

Six Hundred Copies Printed Number,

{p.v} TABLE OF CONTENTS

Chap. Page

XXXIV. Progress of The Lord of the Isles. -- Correspondence
with Mr. Joseph Train. -- Rapid completion of The Lord of
the Isles. -- "Refreshing the Machine." -- "Six Weeks at a
Christmas." -- Publication of the Poem, -- and of Guy
Mannering. -- Letters to Morritt, Terry, and John
Ballantyne. -- Anecdotes by James Ballantyne. -- Visit to
London. -- Meeting with Lord Byron. -- Dinners at Carlton
House. 1814-1815. 1

XXXV. Battle of Waterloo -- Letter of Sir Charles Bell. --
Visit to the Continent. -- Waterloo. -- Letters from
Brussels and Paris. -- Anecdotes of Scott at Paris. -- The
Duke of Wellington. -- The Emperor Alexander. -- Blücher. --
Platoff -- Party at Ermenonville, etc. -- London. -- Parting
with Lord Byron. -- Scott's Sheffield Knife. -- Return to
Abbotsford. -- Anecdotes by Mr. Skene and James Ballantyne.
1815. 39

XXXVI. Field of Waterloo published. -- Revision of Paul's
Letters, etc. -- Quarrel and Reconciliation with Hogg. --
Football Match at Carterhaugh. -- Songs on the Banner of
Buccleuch. -- Dinner at Bowhill. -- Design for a Piece of
Plate to the Sutors of Selkirk. -- Letters to the Duke of
Buccleuch, Joanna Baillie, and Mr. Morritt. 1815. 76

XXXVII. {p.vi} Publication of Paul's Letters to his
Kinsfolk. -- Guy Mannering "Terry-fied." -- Death of Major
John Scott. -- Letters to Thomas Scott. -- Publication of
The Antiquary. -- History of 1814 for the Edinburgh Annual
Register. -- Letters on the History of Scotland projected.
-- Publication of the First Tales of my Landlord by Murray
and Blackwood. -- Anecdotes by Mr. Train. -- Quarterly
Review on the Tales. -- Building at Abbotsford begun. --
Letters to Morritt, Terry, Murray, and the Ballantynes.
1816. 94

XXXVIII. Harold the Dauntless published. -- Scott aspires to
be a Baron of the Exchequer. -- Letter to the Duke of
Buccleuch concerning Poachers, etc. -- First Attack of Cramp
in the Stomach. -- Letters to Morritt, Terry, and Mrs.
Maclean Clephane. -- Story of The Doom of Devorgoil. -- John
Kemble's retirement from the Stage. -- William Laidlaw
established at Kaeside. -- Novel of Rob Roy projected. --
Letter to Southey on the Relief of the Poor, etc. -- Letter
to Lord Montagu on Hogg's Queen's Wake, and on the Death of
Frances, Lady Douglas. 1817. 135

XXXIX. Excursion to the Lennox, Glasgow, and Drumlanrig. --
Purchase of Toftfield. -- Establishment of the Ferguson
Family at Huntly Burn. -- Lines written in Illness. --
Visits of Washington Irving, Lady Byron, and Sir David
Wilkie. -- Progress of the Building at Abbotsford. --
Letters to Morritt, Terry, etc. -- Conclusion of Rob Roy.
1817. 173

XL. Rob Boy published. -- Negotiation concerning the Second
Series of Tales of my Landlord. -- Commission to search for
the {p.vii} Scottish Regalia. -- Letters to the Duke of
Buccleuch, Mr. Croker, Mr. Morritt, Mr. Murray, Mr. Maturin,
etc. -- Correspondence on Rural Affairs with Mr. Laidlaw,
and on the Buildings at Abbotsford with Mr. Terry. -- Death
of Mrs. Murray Keith and Mr. George Bullock. 1818. 202

XLI. Dinner at Mr. Home Drummond's. -- Scott's Edinburgh
Den. -- Details of his Domestic Life in Castle Street. --
His Sunday Dinners. -- His Evening Drives, etc. -- His
Conduct in the General Society of Edinburgh. -- Dinners at
John Ballantyne's Villa, and at James Ballantyne's in St.
John Street, on the appearance of a new Novel. -- Anecdotes
of the Ballantynes, and of Constable. 1818. 236

XLII. Publication of the Heart of Mid-Lothian. -- Its
Reception in Edinburgh and in England. -- Abbotsford in
October. -- Melrose Abbey, Dryburgh, etc. -- Lion-Hunters
from America. -- Tragedy of the Cherokee Lovers. -- Scott's
Dinner to the Selkirkshire Yeomen. 1818. 266

Appendix: The Durham Garland. 295

Narrative of the Life of James Annesley. 303

{p.viii} LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

WALTER SCOTT IN 1822 _Frontispiece_
From the painting by Sir Henry Raeburn, R. A., in the possession
of the Earl of Home.

MAIDA, THE SCOTTISH DEERHOUND 96
After the painting by Landseer made in 1824.

JOHN MURRAY 124
From the painting by Henry W. Pickersgill, R. A., in the
possession of John Murray, Esq.

WASHINGTON IRVING 180
After the painting by Charles Robert Leslie, R. A.

SCOTT'S HOUSE IN CASTLE STREET 250
After the drawing by J. M. W. Turner, R.A.

JOHN GIBSON LOCKHART 274
After the painting by Henry W. Pickersgill, R. A.

{p.001} CHAPTER XXXIV.

Progress of the Lord of the Isles. -- Correspondence with
Mr. Joseph Train. -- Rapid Completion of the Lord of the
Isles. -- "Refreshing the Machine." -- "Six Weeks at a
Christmas." -- Publication of the Poem, -- And of Guy
Mannering. -- Letters to Morritt, Terry, and John
Ballantyne. -- Anecdotes by James Ballantyne. -- Visit to
London. -- Meeting with Lord Byron. -- Dinners at Carlton
House.

1814-1815.

By the 11th of November, then, The Lord of the Isles had made great progress, and Scott had also authorized Ballantyne to negotiate among the booksellers for the publication of a second novel. But before I go further into these transactions, I must introduce the circumstances of Scott's first connection with an able and amiable man, whose services were of high importance to him, at this time and ever after, in the prosecution of his literary labors. Calling at Ballantyne's printing-office while Waverley was in the press, he happened to take up a proof sheet of a volume entitled "Poems, with notes illustrative of traditions in Galloway and Ayrshire, by Joseph Train, Supervisor of Excise at Newton-Stewart." The sheet contained a ballad on an Ayrshire tradition, about a certain "Witch of Carrick," whose skill in the black art was, it seems, instrumental in the destruction {p.002} of one of the scattered vessels of the Spanish Armada. The ballad begins:--

"Why gallops the palfrey with Lady Dunore?
Who drives away Turnberry's kine from the shore?
Go tell it in Carrick, and tell it in Kyle--
Although the proud Dons are now passing the Moil,[1]
On this magic clew,
That in fairyland grew,
Old Elcine de Aggart has taken in hand
To wind up their lives ere they win to our strand."

[Footnote 1: The Mull of Cantyre.]

Scott immediately wrote to the author, begging to be included in his list of subscribers for a dozen copies, and suggesting at the same time a verbal alteration in one of the stanzas of this ballad. Mr. Train acknowledged his letter with gratitude, and the little book reached him just as he was about to embark in the lighthouse yacht. He took it with him on his voyage, and, on returning home again, wrote to Mr. Train, expressing the gratification he had received from several of his metrical pieces, but still more from his notes, and requesting him, as he seemed to be enthusiastic about traditions and legends, to communicate any matters of that order connected with Galloway which he might not himself think of turning to account; "for," said Scott, "nothing interests me so much as local anecdotes; and, as the applications for charity usually conclude, the smallest donation will be thankfully accepted."

Mr. Train, in a little narrative with which he has favored me, says, that for some years before this time he had been engaged, in alliance with a friend of his, Mr. Denniston, in collecting materials for a History of Galloway; they had circulated lists of queries among the clergy and parish schoolmasters, and had thus, and by their own personal researches, accumulated "a great variety of the most excellent materials for that purpose;" but that, from the hour of his correspondence with Walter Scott, he "renounced every idea of authorship for {p.003} himself," resolving, "that thenceforth his chief pursuit should be collecting whatever he thought would be most interesting to _him_;" and that Mr. Denniston was easily persuaded to acquiesce in the abandonment of their original design. "Upon receiving Mr. Scott's letter," says Mr. Train, "I became still more zealous in the pursuit of ancient lore, and being the first person who had attempted to collect old stories in that quarter with any view to publication, I became so noted, that even beggars, in the hope of reward, came frequently from afar to Newton-Stewart, to recite old ballads and relate old stories to me." Erelong, Mr. Train visited Scott both at Edinburgh and at Abbotsford; a true affection continued ever afterwards to be maintained between them; and this generous ally was, as the prefaces to the Waverley Novels signify, one of the earliest confidants of that series of works, and certainly the most efficient of all the author's friends in furnishing him with materials for their composition. Nor did he confine himself to literary services: whatever portable object of antiquarian curiosity met his eye, this good man secured and treasured up with the same destination; and if ever a catalogue of the museum at Abbotsford shall appear, no single contributor, most assuredly, will fill so large a space in it as Mr. Train.[2]

[Footnote 2: [Joseph Train was born in 1779, at
Gilminscroft, Sorn, Ayrshire, where his father was
grieve and land-steward. The boy was apprenticed at an
early age to a weaver in Ayr, but, notwithstanding the
narrowness of his circumstances, and a very imperfect
education, he even then showed a love of learning and a
passion for antiquarian lore. From 1799 to 1802 he
served in the Ayrshire militia. While the regiment was
stationed at Inverness, he became a subscriber to
Currie's edition of Burns, and his colonel, Sir David
Hunter-Blair, seeing the volumes at the bookseller's,
was surprised to learn that they had been ordered by one
of his men. Greatly pleased thereat, Sir David had the
books handsomely bound and sent to Train, free of
charge; and later obtained for him an appointment in the
Excise in the Ayr district. He was a faithful and
efficient officer, but owing to the then prevalent
custom of giving the higher places in the Excise to
Englishmen, all Scott's efforts for the advancement of
his friend were unavailing; he remained supervisor till
he went on the retired list in 1836. In 1829 Train was
admitted a member of the Scottish Society of
Antiquaries. Though the death of Scott made a sad blank
in his life, his interest in his favorite studies
continued to the end. The latter part of his life was
spent in a cottage at Castle Douglas, where he was
visited shortly before his death by James Hannay, who
found him in a little parlor, crowded with antiquities
of interest and value,--the antiquary, "a tall old man,
with an autumnal red in his face, hale looking, and of
simple, quaint manners." (See _Household Words_, July
10, 1853.) Train's last extended works were an
_Historical and Statistical Account of the Isle of Man,
with a view of its peculiar customs and popular
superstitions_ (1845); and a study of a local religious
sect in _The Buchanites from First to Last_ (1846); but
he was an occasional contributor to various periodicals.
He died December 1, 1852.]]

{p.004} His first considerable communication, after he had formed the unselfish determination above mentioned, consisted of a collection of anecdotes concerning the Galloway gypsies, and "a local story of an astrologer, who calling at a farmhouse at the moment when the goodwife was in travail, had, it was said, predicted the future fortune of the child, almost in the words placed in the mouth of John MacKinlay, in the Introduction to Guy Mannering." Scott told him, in reply, that the story of the astrologer reminded him of "one he had heard in his youth;" that is to say, as the Introduction explains, from this MacKinlay; but Mr. Train has, since his friend's death, recovered a rude _Durham_ ballad, which in fact contains a great deal more of the main fable of Guy Mannering than either his own written, or MacKinlay's oral edition of the _Gallovidian_ anecdote had conveyed; and--possessing, as I do, numberless evidences of the haste with which Scott drew up his beautiful Prefaces and Introductions of 1829, 1830, and 1831--I am strongly inclined to think that he must in his boyhood have read the Durham Broadside or Chapbook itself--as well as heard the old serving-man's Scottish version of it.

However this may have been, Scott's answer to Mr. Train proceeded in these words:--

I am now to solicit a favor, which I think your interest
{p.005} in Scottish antiquities will induce you readily to
comply with. I am very desirous to have some account of the
present state of _Turnberry Castle_--whether any vestiges of
it remain--what is the appearance of the ground--the names
of the neighboring places--and, above all, what are the
traditions of the place (if any) concerning its memorable
surprise by Bruce, upon his return from the coast of
Ireland, in the commencement of the brilliant part of his
career. The purpose of this is to furnish some hints for
notes to a work in which I am now engaged, and I need not
say I will have great pleasure in mentioning the source from
which I derive my information. I have only to add, with the
modest importunity of a lazy correspondent, that the sooner
you oblige me with an answer (if you can assist me on the
subject), the greater will the obligation be on me, who am
already your obliged humble servant,

W. SCOTT.

The recurrence of the word _Turnberry_, in the ballad of Elcine de Aggart, had of course suggested this application, which was dated on the 7th of November. "I had often," says Mr. Train, "when a boy, climbed the brown hills, and traversed the shores of Carrick, but I could not sufficiently remember the exact places and distances as to which Mr. Scott inquired; so, immediately on receipt of his letter, I made a journey into Ayrshire to collect all the information I possibly could, and forwarded it to him on the 18th of the same month." Among the particulars thus communicated, was the local superstition, that on the anniversary of the night when Bruce landed at Turnberry from Arran, the same meteoric gleam which had attended his voyage reappeared, unfailingly, in the same quarter of the heavens. With this circumstance Scott was much struck. "Your information," he writes on the 22d November, "was particularly interesting and acceptable, especially that which {p.006} relates to the supposed preternatural appearance of the fire, etc., which I hope to make some use of." What use he did make of it, if any reader has forgotten, will be seen by reference to stanzas 7-17 of the 5th Canto of the Poem; and the notes to the same Canto embody, with due acknowledgment, the more authentic results of Mr. Train's pilgrimage to Carrick.

I shall recur presently to this communication from Mr. Train; but must pause for a moment to introduce two letters, both written in the same week with Scott's request as to the localities of Turnberry. They both give us amusing sketches of his buoyant spirits at this period of gigantic exertion;--and the first of them, which relates chiefly to Maturin's Tragedy of Bertram, shows how he could still contrive to steal time for attention to the affairs of brother authors less energetic than himself.

TO DANIEL TERRY, ESQ.

ABBOTSFORD, November 10, 1814.

MY DEAR TERRY,--I should have long since answered your kind
letter by our friend Young, but he would tell you of my
departure with our trusty and well-beloved Erskine, on a
sort of a voyage to Nova Zembla. Since my return, I have
fallen under the tyrannical dominion of a certain Lord of
the Isles. Those Lords were famous for oppression in the
days of yore, and if I can judge by the posthumous despotism
exercised over me, they have not improved by their demise.
The _peine forte et dure_ is, you know, nothing in
comparison to being obliged to grind verses; and so devilish
repulsive is my disposition, that I can never put my wheel
into constant and regular motion, till Ballantyne's devil
claps in his proofs, like the hot cinder which you Bath
folks used to clap in beside an unexperienced turnspit, as a
hint to be expeditious in his duty. O long life to the old
hermit of Prague, who never saw pen and ink!--much happier
in {p.007} that negative circumstance than in his alliance
with the niece of King Gorboduc.

To talk upon a blither subject, I wish you saw Abbotsford,
which begins this season to look the whimsical, gay, odd
cabin, that we had chalked out. I have been obliged to
relinquish Stark's plan, which was greatly too expensive. So
I have made the old farmhouse my _corps de logis_, with some
outlying places for kitchen, laundry, and two spare
bedrooms, which run along the east wall of the farm-court,
not without some picturesque effect. A perforated cross, the
spoils of the old kirk of Galashiels, decorates an advanced
door, and looks very well. This little sly bit of sacrilege
has given our spare rooms the name of _the chapel_. I
earnestly invite you to a _pew_ there, which you will find
as commodious for the purpose of a nap as you have ever
experienced when, under the guidance of old Mrs. Smollett,
you were led to St. George's, Edinburgh.

I have been recommending to John Kemble (I dare say without
any chance of success) to peruse a MS. Tragedy of Maturin's
author of Montorio: it is one of those things which will
either succeed greatly or be damned gloriously, for its
merits are marked, deep, and striking, and its faults of a
nature obnoxious to ridicule. He had our old friend Satan
(none of your sneaking St. John Street devils, but the
arch-fiend himself) brought on the stage bodily. I believe I
have exorcised the foul fiend--for, though in reading he was
a most terrible fellow, I feared for his reception in
public. The last act is ill contrived. He piddles (so to
speak) through a cullender, and divides the whole horrors of
the catastrophe (though God wot there are enough of them)
into a kind of drippity-droppity of four or five scenes,
instead of inundating the audience with them at once in the
finale, with a grand "_gardez l'eau_." With all this, which
I should say had I written the thing myself, it is grand and
powerful; the language most animated and poetical; and the
characters {p.008} sketched with a masterly enthusiasm.
Many thanks for Captain Richard Falconer.[3] To your
kindness I owe the two books in the world I most longed to
see, not so much for their intrinsic merits, as because they
bring back with vivid associations the sentiments of my
childhood--I might almost say infancy. Nothing ever
disturbed my feelings more than when, sitting by the old oak
table, my aunt, Lady Raeburn, used to read the lamentable
catastrophe of the ship's departing without Captain
Falconer, in consequence of the whole party making free with
lime-punch on the eve of its being launched. This and
Captain Bingfield,[4] I much wished {p.009} to read once
more, and I owe the possession of both to your kindness.
Everybody that I see talks highly of your steady interest
with the public, wherewith, as I never doubted of it, I am
pleased but not surprised. We are just now leaving this for
the winter: the children went yesterday. Tom Purdie,
Finella, and the greyhounds, all in excellent health; the
latter have not been hunted this season!!! Can add nothing
more to excite your admiration. Mrs. Scott sends her kind
compliments.

W. SCOTT.

[Footnote 3: "_The Voyages, Dangerous Adventures, and
Imminent Escapes of Capt. Rich. Falconer._ Containing
the Laws, Customs, and Manners of the Indians in
America; his shipwrecks; his marrying an Indian wife;
his narrow escape from the Island of Dominico, etc.
Intermixed with the Voyages and Adventures of Thomas
Randal, of Cork, Pilot; with his Shipwreck in the
Baltick, being the only man that escap'd. His being
taken by the Indians of Virginia, etc. And an Account of
his Death. The Fourth Edition. London. Printed for J.
Marshall, at the Bible in Gracechurch Street. 1734."

On the fly-leaf is the following note, in Scott's
handwriting: "This book I read in early youth. I am
ignorant whether it is altogether fictitious and written
upon De Foe's plan, which it greatly resembles, or
whether it is only an exaggerated account of the
adventures of a real person. It is very scarce, for,
endeavoring to add it to the other favorites of my
infancy, I think I looked for it ten years to no
purpose, and at last owed it to the active kindness of
Mr. Terry. Yet Richard Falconer's adventures seem to
have passed through several editions."]

[Footnote 4: "_The Travels and Adventures of William
Bingfield, Esq._, containing, as surprizing a
Fluctuation of Circumstances, both by Sea and Land, as
ever befel one man. With an Accurate Account of the
Shape, Nature, and Properties of that most furious, and
amazing Animal, the Dog-Bird. Printed from his own
Manuscript. With a beautiful Frontispiece. 2 vols. 12mo.
London: Printed for E. Withers, at the Seven Stars, in
Fleet Street. 1753." On the fly-leaf of the first volume
Scott has written as follows: "I read this scarce little
_Voyage Imaginaire_ when I was about ten years old, and
long after sought for a copy without being able to find
a person who would so much as acknowledge having heard
of William Bingfield or his Dog-birds, until the
indefatigable kindness of my friend Mr. Terry, of the
Haymarket, made me master of this copy. I am therefore
induced to think the book is of very rare occurrence."
[In consequence of these Notes, both Falconer and
Bingfield have been recently reprinted in
London.--(1839.)]]

The following, dated a day after, refers to some lines which Mr. Morritt had sent him from Worthing.

TO J. B. S. MORRITT, ESQ., M. P., WORTHING.

ABBOTSFORD, November 11, 1814.

MY DEAR MORRITT,--I had your kind letter with the beautiful
verses. May the Muse meet you often on the verge of the sea
or among your own woods of Rokeby! May you have spirits to
profit by her visits (and that implies all good wishes for
the continuance of Mrs. M.'s convalescence), and may I
often, by the fruits of your inspiration, have my share of
pleasure! My Muse is a Tyranness, and not a Christian queen,
and compels me to attend to longs and shorts, and I know not
what, when, God wot, I had rather be planting evergreens by
my new old fountain. You must know that, like the complaint
of a fine young boy who was complimented by a stranger on
his being a smart fellow, "I am sair halded down by _the
bubbly jock_." In other words, the turkey cock, at the head
of a family of some forty or fifty infidels, lays waste all
my shrubs. In vain I remonstrate with Charlotte upon these
occasions; she is in league with the hen-wife, the natural
protectress of these pirates; and I have only the inhuman
consolation that I may one day, like a cannibal, eat up my
enemies. This is but dull fun, but what else have I to tell
you about? It {p.010} would be worse if, like Justice
Shallow's Davy, I should consult you upon sowing down the
headland with wheat. My literary tormentor is a certain Lord
of the Isles, famed for his tyranny of yore, and not
unjustly. I am bothering some tale of him I have had long by
me into a sort of romance. I think you will like it: it is
Scottified up to the teeth, and somehow I feel myself like
the liberated chiefs of the Rolliad, "who boast their native
philabeg restored." I believe the frolics one can cut in
this loose garb are all set down by you Sassenachs to the
real agility of the wearer, and not the brave, free, and
independent character of his clothing. It is, in a word, the
real Highland fling, and no one is supposed able to dance it
but a native. I always thought that epithet of Gallia
_Braccata_ implied subjugation, and was never surprised at
Cæsar's easy conquests, considering that his Labienus and
all his merry men wore, as we say, bottomless breeks.

Ever yours,

W. S.

Well might he describe himself as being hard at work with his Lord of the Isles. The date of Ballantyne's letter to Miss Edgeworth (November 11), in which he mentions the third Canto as completed; that of the communication from Mr. Train (November 18), on which so much of Canto Fifth was grounded; and that of a note from Scott to Ballantyne (December 16, 1814), announcing that he had sent the last stanza of the poem: these dates, taken together, afford conclusive evidence of the fiery rapidity with which the three last Cantos of The Lord of the Isles were composed.

He writes, on the 25th December, to Constable that he "had corrected the last proofs, and was setting out for Abbotsford to refresh the machine." And in what did his refreshment of the machine consist? Besides having written within this year the greater part (almost, I believe, the whole) of the Life of Swift--Waverley--and {p.011} The Lord of the Isles--he had given two essays to the Encyclopædia Supplement, and published, with an Introduction and notes, one of the most curious pieces of family history ever produced to the world, on which he labored with more than usual zeal and diligence, from his warm affection for the noble representative of its author. This inimitable Memorie of the Somervilles came out in October; and it was speedily followed by an annotated reprint of the strange old treatise, entitled "Rowland's letting off the humours of the blood in the head vein, 1611." He had also kept up his private correspondence on a scale which I believe never to have been exemplified in the case of any other person who wrote continually for the press--except, perhaps, Voltaire; and, to say nothing of strictly professional duties, he had, as a vast heap of documents now before me proves, superintended from day to day, except during his Hebridean voyage, the still perplexed concerns of the Ballantynes, with a watchful assiduity that might have done credit to the most diligent of tradesmen. The "machine" might truly require "refreshment."

It was, as has been seen, on the 7th of November that Scott acknowledged the receipt of that communication from Mr. Train which included the story of the Galloway astrologer. There can be no doubt that this story recalled to his mind, if not the Durham ballad, the similar but more detailed corruption of it which he had heard told by his father's servant, John MacKinlay, in the days of George's Square and Green-breeks, and which he has preserved in the introduction to Guy Mannering, as the groundwork of that tale. It has been shown that the three last Cantos of The Lord of the Isles were written between the 11th of November and the 25th of December; and it is therefore scarcely to be supposed that any part of this novel had been penned before he thus talked of "refreshing the machine." It is quite certain that when James Ballantyne wrote to Miss Edgeworth on the {p.012} 11th November, he could not have seen one page of Guy Mannering, since he in that letter announces that the new novel of his nameless friend would depict manners _more ancient_ than those of 1745. And yet it is equally certain, that before The Lord of the Isles was _published_, which took place on the 18th of January, 1815, two volumes of Guy Mannering had been not only written and copied by an amanuensis, but printed.

Scott thus writes to Morritt, in sending him his copy of The Lord of the Isles:--

TO J. B. S. MORRITT, ESQ., M. P., WORTHING.

EDINBURGH, 19th January, 1815.

MY DEAR MORRITT,--I have been very foolishly putting off my
writing until I should have time for a good long epistle;
and it is astonishing what a number of trifles have
interfered to prevent my commencing on a great scale. The
last of these has been rather of an extraordinary kind, for
your little friend Walter has chose to make himself the town
talk, by taking what seemed to be the small-pox, despite of
vaccination in infancy, and inoculation with the variolous
matter thereafter, which last I resorted to by way of making
assurance double sure. The medical gentleman who attended
him is of opinion that he _has_ had the real small-pox, but
it shall never be averred by me--for the catastrophe of Tom
Thumb is enough to deter any thinking person from entering
into a feud with the cows. Walter is quite well again, which
was the principal matter I was interested in. We had very
nearly been in a bad scrape, for I had fixed the Monday on
which he sickened, to take him with me for the Christmas
vacation to Abbotsford. It is probable that he would not
have pleaded headache when there was such a party in view,
especially as we were to shoot wild ducks one day together
at Cauldshiels Loch; and what the consequence of such a
journey might have been, God alone knows.

{p.013} I am clear of The Lord of the Isles, and I trust you
have your copy. It closes my poetic labors upon an extended
scale: but I dare say I shall always be dabbling in rhyme
until the _solve senescentem_. I have directed the copy to
be sent to Portland Place. I want to shake myself free of
Waverley, and accordingly have made a considerable exertion
to finish an odd little tale within such time as will
mystify the public, I trust--unless they suppose me to be
Briareus. Two volumes are already printed, and the only
persons in my confidence, W. Erskine and Ballantyne, are of
opinion that it is much more interesting than Waverley. It
is a tale of private life, and only varied by the perilous
exploits of smugglers and excisemen. The success of Waverley
has given me a spare hundred or two, which I have resolved
to spend in London this spring, bringing up Charlotte and
Sophia with me. I do not forget my English friends--but I
fear they will forget me, unless I show face now and then.
My correspondence gradually drops, as must happen when
people do not meet; and I long to see Ellis, Heber, Gifford,
and one or two more. I do not include Mrs. Morritt and you,
because we are much nearer neighbors, and within a whoop and
a holla in comparison. I think we should come up by sea, if
I were not a little afraid of Charlotte being startled by
the March winds--for our vacation begins 12th March.

You will have heard of poor Caberfae's death? What a pity it
is he should have outlived his promising young
representative. His state was truly pitiable--all his fine
faculties lost in paralytic imbecility, and yet not so
entirely so but that he perceived his deprivation as in a
glass darkly. Sometimes he was fretful and anxious because
he did not see his son; sometimes he expostulated and
complained that his boy had been allowed to die without his
seeing him; and sometimes, in a less clouded state of
intellect, he was sensible of, and lamented his loss in its
full extent. These, indeed, are {p.014} the "fears of the
brave, and follies of the wise,"[5] which sadden and
humiliate the lingering hours of prolonged existence. Our
friend Lady Hood will now be Caberfae herself. She has the
spirit of a chieftainess in every drop of her blood, but
there are few situations in which the cleverest women are so
apt to be imposed upon as in the management of landed
property, more especially of an Highland estate. I do fear
the accomplishment of the prophecy, that when there should
be a deaf Caberfae, the house was to fall.[6]

[Footnote 5: Johnson's _Vanity of Human Wishes_.]

[Footnote 6: Francis, Lord Seaforth, died 11th January,
1815, in his 60th year, having outlived four sons, all
of high promise. His title died with him, and he was
succeeded in his estates by his daughter, Lady Hood, now
the Hon. Mrs. Stewart-Mackenzie of Seaforth.--See some
verses on Lord Seaforth's death, in Scott's _Poetical
Works_, vol. viii. p. 392 [Cambridge Ed. p. 419]. The
Celtic designation of the chief of the clan MacKenzie,
_Caberfae_, means _Staghead_, the bearing of the family.
The prophecy which Scott alludes to in this letter is
also mentioned by Sir Humphry Davy in one of his
Journals (see his _Life_, by Dr. Davy, vol. ii. p.
72),--and it was, if the account be correct, a most
extraordinary one, for it connected the fall of the
house of Seaforth not only with the appearance of a deaf
_Caberfae_, but with the contemporaneous appearance of
various different physical misfortunes in several of the
other great Highland chiefs; all of which are said--and
were certainly believed both by Scott and Davy--to have
actually occurred within the memory of the generation
that has not yet passed away. Mr. Morritt can testify
thus far--that he "heard the prophecy quoted in the
Highlands at a time when Lord Seaforth had two sons both
alive and in good health--so that it certainly was not
made _après coup_." [Mrs. Stewart-Mackenzie died at
Brahan Castle in 1862, in her 79th year. "Her funeral
was one of the largest ever witnessed in the North." The
Seaforth estates passed to the eldest of her three
sons.]]

I am delighted to find Mrs. Morritt is recovering health and
strength--better walking on the beach at Worthing than on
the _plainstanes_ of Prince's Street, for the weather is
very severe here indeed. I trust Mrs. M. will, in her milder
climate, lay in such a stock of health and strength as may
enable you to face the north in Autumn. I have got the
nicest crib for you possible, just about twelve feet square,
and in the harmonious vicinity of a piggery. You never saw
so minute an establishment,--but {p.015} it has all that we
wish for, and all our friends will care about; and we long
to see you there. Charlotte sends the kindest remembrances
to Mrs. Morritt.

As for politics, I have thought little about them lately;
the high and exciting interest is so completely subsided,
that the wine is upon the lees. As for America, we have so
managed as to give her the appearance of triumph, and what
is worse, encouragement to resume the war upon a more
favorable opportunity. It was our business to have given
them a fearful memento that the babe unborn should have
remembered; but, having missed this opportunity, I believe
that this country would submit with great reluctance to
continue a war, for which there is really no specific
object. As for the Continental monarchs, there is no
guessing what the folly of Kings and Ministers may do; but
God knows! would any of them look at home, enough is to be
done which might strengthen and improve their dominions in a
different manner than by mere extension. I trust Ministers
will go out rather than be engaged in war again, upon any
account. If France is wise (I have no fear that any
superfluous feeling of humanity will stand in the way), she
will send 10,000 of her most refractory troops to fight with
Christophe and the yellow fever in the Island of St.
Domingo, and then I presume they may sit down in quiet at
home.

But my sheet grows to an end, and so does the pleading of
the learned counsel, who is thumping the poor bar as I
write. He hems twice. Forward, sweet Orator Higgins!--at
least till I sign myself, dear Morritt,

Yours most truly,

Walter SCOTT.

Guy Mannering was published on the 24th of February--that is, exactly two months after The Lord of the Isles {p.016} was dismissed from the author's desk; and--making but a narrow allowance for the operations of the transcriber, printer, bookseller, etc., I think the dates I have gathered together confirm the accuracy of what I have often heard Scott say, that his second novel "was the work of six weeks at a Christmas." Such was his recipe "for refreshing the machine."

I am sorry to have to add, that this severity of labor, like the repetition of it which had such deplorable effects at a later period of his life, was the result of his anxiety to acquit himself of obligations arising out of his connection with the commercial speculations of the Ballantynes. The approach of Christmas, 1814, brought with it the prospect of such a recurrence of difficulties about the discount of John's bills, as to render it absolutely necessary that Scott should either apply again for assistance to his private friends, or task his literary powers with some such extravagant effort as has now been recorded. The great object, which was still to get rid of the heavy stock that had been accumulated before the storm of May, 1813, at length determined the chief partner to break up, as soon as possible, the concern which his own sanguine rashness, and the gross irregularities of his mercurial lieutenant, had so lamentably perplexed; but Constable, having already enabled the firm to avoid public exposure more than once, was not now, any more than when he made his contract for The Lord of the Isles, disposed to burden himself with an additional load of Weber's Beaumont and Fletcher, and other almost as unsalable books. While they were still in hopes of overcoming his scruples, it happened that a worthy friend of Scott's, the late Mr. Charles Erskine, his sheriff-substitute in Selkirkshire, had immediate occasion for a sum of money which he had some time before advanced, at Scott's personal request, to the firm of John Ballantyne and Company; and on receiving his application, Scott wrote as follows:--

{p.017} TO MR. JOHN BALLANTYNE, BOOKSELLER, EDINBURGH.

ABBOTSFORD, October 14, 1814.

DEAR JOHN,--Charles Erskine wishes his money, as he has made
a purchase of land. This is a new perplexity--for paid he
must be forthwith--as his advance was friendly and
confidential. I do not at this moment see how it is to be
raised, but believe I shall find means. In the mean while,
it will be necessary to propitiate the Leviathans of
Paternoster Row. My idea is, that you or James should write
to them to the following effect: That a novel is offered you
by the Author of Waverley; that the author is desirous it
should be out before Mr. Scott's poem, or as soon thereafter
as possible; and that having resolved, as they are aware, to
relinquish publishing, you only wish to avail yourselves of
this offer to the extent of helping off some of your stock.
I leave it to you to consider whether you should condescend
on any particular work to offer them as bread to their
butter--or on any particular amount--as £500. One thing must
be provided, that Constable shares to the extent of the
Scottish sale--they, however, managing. My reason for
letting them have this scent of roast meat is, in case it
should be necessary for us to apply to them to renew bills
in December. Yours,

W. S.

Upon receiving this letter, John Ballantyne suggested to Scott that he should be allowed to offer, not only the new novel, but the next edition of Waverley, to Longman, Murray, or Blackwood--in the hope that the prospect of being let in to the profits of the already established favorite, would overcome effectually the hesitation of one or other of these houses about venturing on the encumbrance which Constable seemed to shrink from with such pertinacity; but upon this ingenious proposition Scott at once set his _veto_. He writes (October 17, 1814):--

{p.018} DEAR JOHN,--

Your expedients are all wretched, as far as regards me. I
never will give Constable, or any one, room to say I have
broken my word with him in the slightest degree. If I lose
everything else, I will at least keep my honor unblemished;
and I do hold myself bound in honor to offer him a Waverley,
while he shall continue to comply with the conditions
annexed. I intend the new novel to operate as something more
permanent than a mere accommodation; and if I can but be
permitted to do so, I will print it before it is sold to any
one, and then propose, first to Constable and
Longman--second, to Murray and Blackwood--to take the whole
at such a rate as will give them one half of the fair
profits; granting acceptances which, upon an edition of
3000, which we shall be quite authorized to print, will
amount to an immediate command of £1500; and to this we may
couple the condition, that they must take £500 or £600 of
the old stock. I own I am not solicitous to deal with
Constable alone, nor am I at all bound to offer him the new
novel on any terms; but he, knowing of the intention, may
expect to be treated with, at least, although it is possible
we may not deal. However, if Murray and Blackwood were to
come forward with any handsome proposal as to the stock, I
should certainly have no objection to James's giving the
pledge of the Author of W. for his next work. You are like
the crane in the fable, when you boast of not having got
anything from the business; you may thank God that it did
not bite your head off. Would to God I were at let-a-be for
let-a-be;--but you have done your best, and so must I.

Yours truly,

W. S.

Both Mr. Murray, and Longman's partner, Mr. Rees, were in Scotland about this time; and the former at least paid Scott a visit at Abbotsford. Of course, however, whatever propositions they may have made were received by one or other of the Ballantynes. The result was, {p.019} that the house of Longman undertook Guy Mannering on the terms dictated by Scott--namely, granting bills for £1500, and relieving John Ballantyne and Company of stock to the extent of £500 more; and Constable's first information of the transaction was from Messrs. Longman themselves, when they, in compliance with Scott's wish, as signified in the letter last quoted, offered him a share in the edition which they had purchased. With one or two exceptions, originating in circumstances nearly similar, the house of Constable published all the subsequent series of the Waverley Novels.

I must not, however, forget that The Lord of the Isles was published a month before Guy Mannering. The poem was received with an interest much heightened by the recent and growing success of the mysterious Waverley. Its appearance, so rapidly following that novel, and accompanied with the announcement of another prose tale, just about to be published, by the same hand, puzzled and confounded the mob of dulness.[7] The more sagacious few said to themselves--Scott is making one serious effort more in his old line, and by this it will be determined whether he does or does not altogether renounce that for his new one.

[Footnote 7: John Ballantyne put forth the following
paragraph in the _Scots Magazine_ of December, 1814:--

"Mr. Scott's poem of _The Lord of the Isles_ will appear
early in January. The Author of _Waverley_ is about to
amuse the public with a new novel, in three volumes,
entitled _Guy Mannering_."]

The Edinburgh Review on The Lord of the Isles begins with,--

"Here is another genuine Lay of the Great Minstrel, with all
his characteristic faults, beauties, and irregularities. The
same glow of coloring--the same energy of narration--the
same amplitude of description are conspicuous--with the same
still more characteristic disdain of puny graces and small
originalities--the true poetical hardihood, in the strength
of which he urges on his Pegasus fearlessly through dense
and rare, and aiming gallantly at the great ends of truth
and effect, {p.020} stoops but rarely to study the means by
which they are to be attained; avails himself without
scruple of common sentiments and common images wherever they
seem fitted for his purpose; and is original by the very
boldness of his borrowing, and impressive by his disregard
of epigram and emphasis."

The conclusion of the contemporaneous article in the Quarterly Review is as follows:--

"The many beautiful passages which we have extracted from
the poem, combined with the brief remarks subjoined to each
canto, will sufficiently show, that although The Lord of the
Isles is not likely to add very much to the reputation of
Mr. Scott, yet this must be imputed rather to the greatness
of his previous reputation, than to the absolute inferiority
of the poem itself. Unfortunately, its merits are merely
incidental, while its defects are mixed up with the very
elements of the poem. But it is not in the power of Mr.
Scott to write with tameness; be the subject what it will
(and he could not easily have chosen one more
impracticable), he impresses upon whatever scenes he
describes so much movement and activity,--he infuses into
his narrative such a flow of life, and, if we may so express
ourselves, of animal spirits, that without satisfying the
judgment, or moving the feelings, or elevating the mind, or
even very greatly interesting the curiosity, he is able to
seize upon, and, as it were, exhilarate the imagination of
his readers, in a manner which is often truly unaccountable.
This quality Mr. Scott possesses in an admirable degree; and
supposing that he had no other object in view than to
convince the world of the great poetical powers with which
he is gifted, the poem before us would be quite sufficient
for his purpose. But this is of very inferior importance to
the public; what they want is a good poem, and, as
experience has shown, this can only be constructed upon a
solid foundation of taste, and judgment, and meditation."

These passages appear to me to condense the result of deliberate and candid reflection, and I have therefore quoted them. The most important remarks of either Essayist on the details of the plot and execution are annexed to the last edition of the poem; and show such an {p.021} exact coincidence of judgment in two masters of their calling, as had not hitherto been exemplified in the professional criticism of his metrical romances. The defects which both point out are, I presume, but too completely explained by the preceding statement of the rapidity with which this, the last of those great performances, had been thrown off; nor do I see that either Reviewer has failed to do sufficient justice to the beauties which redeem the imperfections of The Lord of the Isles--except as regards the whole character of Bruce, its real hero, and the picture of the battle of Bannockburn, which, now that one can compare these works from something like the same point of view, does not appear to me in the slightest particular inferior to the Flodden of Marmion.

This poem is now, I believe, about as popular as Rokeby; but it has never reached the same station in general favor with the Lay, Marmion, or The Lady of the Lake. The first edition of 1800 copies in quarto was, however, rapidly disposed of, and the separate editions in 8vo, which ensued before his poetical works were collected, amounted together to 12,250 copies. This, in the case of almost any other author, would have been splendid success; but as compared with what he had previously experienced, even in his Rokeby, and still more so as compared with the enormous circulation at once attained by Lord Byron's early tales, which were then following each other in almost breathless succession, the falling off was decided. One evening, some days after the poem had been published, Scott requested James Ballantyne to call on him, and the printer found him alone in his library, working at the third volume of Guy Mannering. I give what follows from Ballantyne's Memoranda:--

"'Well, James,' he said, 'I have given you a week--what are
people saying about The Lord of the Isles?' I hesitated a
little, after the fashion of Gil Blas, but he speedily
brought the matter to a point. 'Come,' he said, 'speak out,
my good {p.022} fellow; what has put it into your head to
be on so much ceremony _with me_ all of a sudden? But, I see
how it is, the result is given in one
word--_Disappointment_.' My silence admitted his inference
to the fullest extent. His countenance certainly did look
rather blank for a few seconds; in truth, he had been wholly
unprepared for the event; for it is a singular fact, that
before the public, or rather the booksellers, had given
their decision, he no more knew whether he had written well
or ill, than whether a die thrown out of a box was to turn
up a size or an ace. However, he instantly resumed his
spirits, and expressed his wonder rather that his poetical
popularity should have lasted so long, than that it should
have now at last given way. At length he said, with perfect
cheerfulness, 'Well, well, James, so be it--but you know we
must not droop, for we can't afford to give over. Since one
line has failed, we must just stick to something else:'--and
so he dismissed me and resumed his novel."

Ballantyne concludes the anecdote in these words:--

"He spoke thus, probably unaware of the undiscovered wonders
then slumbering in his mind. Yet still he could not but have
felt that the production of a few poems was nothing in
comparison of what must be in reserve for him, for he was at
this time scarcely more than forty.[8] An evening or two
after, I called again on him, and found on the table a copy
of The Giaour, which he seemed to have been reading. Having
an enthusiastic young lady in my house, I asked him if I
might carry the book home with me, but chancing to glance on
the autograph blazon, '_To the Monarch of Parnassus from one
of his subjects_,' instantly retracted my request, and said
I had not observed Lord Byron's inscription before. 'What
inscription?' said he; 'oh yes, I had forgot, but
inscription or no inscription, you are equally welcome.' I
again took it up, and he continued, 'James, Byron hits the
mark where I don't even pretend to fledge my arrow.' At this
time he had never seen Byron, but I knew he meant soon to be
in London, when, no doubt, the mighty consummation of the
meeting of the two bards would be accomplished; and I
ventured to say that he must be looking forward to it with
some interest. His countenance {p.023} became fixed, and he
answered impressively, 'Oh, of course.' In a minute or two
afterwards he rose from his chair, paced the room at a very
rapid rate, which was his practice in certain moods of mind,
then made a dead halt, and bursting into an extravaganza of
laughter, 'James,' cried he, 'I'll tell you what Byron
should say to me when we are about to accost each other,--

[Footnote 8: He was not forty-four till August, 1815.]

"Art thou the man whom men famed Grizzle call?"

And then how germane would be my answer,--

"Art thou the still more famed Tom Thumb the small?"'

"This," says the printer, "is a specimen of his peculiar
humor; it kept him full of mirth for the rest of the
evening."