Gradual Reestablishment of Scott's Health. -- Ivanhoe in
Progress. -- His Son Walter Joins the Eighteenth Regiment of
Hussars. -- Scott's Correspondence with Hhis Son. --
Miscellaneous Letters to Mrs. Maclean Clephane, M. W. Hartstonge,
J. G. Lockhart, John Ballantyne, John Richardson, Miss Edgeworth,
Lord Montagu, Etc. -- Abbotsford Visited by Prince Leopold of
Saxe-Coburg. -- Death of Mrs. William Erskine.
1819
Before Scott left Edinburgh, on the 12th of July, he had not only
concluded his bargain with Constable for another novel, but, as will
appear from some of his letters, made considerable progress in the
dictation of Ivanhoe.
That he already felt great confidence on the score of his health may
be inferred from his allowing his son, Walter, about the middle of the
month, to join the 18th regiment of Hussars in which he had, shortly
before, received his commission as Cornet.
Scott's letters to his son, the first of his family that left the
house, will merit henceforth a good deal of the reader's attention.
Walter was, when he thus quitted Abbotsford to try his chances in the
active world, only in the eighteenth year of his age; and the fashion
of education in Scotland is such, that he had scarcely ever slept a
night under a different roof from his parents, until this separation
occurred. He had been treated from his cradle with all the indulgence
that a man of sense can ever permit himself to show to any of his
children; and for several years he had now been his father's daily
companion in all his out-of-doors occupations and amusements. The
parting was a painful one; but Scott's ambition centred in the heir of
his name, and instead of fruitless pinings and lamentings, he
henceforth made it his constant business to keep up such a frank
correspondence with the young man as might enable himself to exert
over him, when at a distance, the gentle influence of kindness,
experience, and wisdom. The series of his letters to his son is, in my
opinion, by far the most interesting and valuable, as respects the
personal character and temper of the writer. It will easily be
supposed that, as the young officer entered fully into his father's
generous views of what their correspondence ought to be, and detailed
every little incident of his new career with the same easy confidence
as if he had been writing to a friend or elder brother not very widely
differing from himself in standing, the answers abound with opinions
on subjects with which I have no right to occupy or entertain my
readers: but I shall introduce in the prosecution of this work, as
many specimens of Scott's paternal advice as I can hope to render
generally intelligible without indelicate explanations--and more
especially such as may prove serviceable to other young persons when
first embarking under their own pilotage upon the sea of life. Scott's
manly kindness to his boy, whether he is expressing approbation or
censure of his conduct, can require no pointing out; and his practical
wisdom was of that liberal order, based on such comprehensive views of
man and the world, that I am persuaded it will often be found
available to the circumstances of their own various cases, by young
men of whatever station or profession.
I shall, nevertheless, adhere as usual to the chronological order; and
one or two miscellaneous letters must accordingly precede the first
article of his correspondence with the Cornet. He alludes, however, to
the youth's departure in the following:--
TO MRS. MACLEAN CLEPHANE OF TORLOISK.
ABBOTSFORD, July 15, 1819.
DEAR MRS. CLEPHANE,--Nothing could give me more pleasure than to
hear you are well, and thinking of looking this way. You will
find all my things in very different order from when you were
here last, and plenty of room for matron and miss, man and maid.
We have no engagements, except to Newton Don about the 20th
August--if we be alive--no unreasonable proviso in so long an
engagement. My health, however, seems in a fair way of being
perfectly restored. It is a joke to talk of any other remedy than
that forceful but most unpleasant one--_calomel_. I cannot say I
ever felt advantage from anything else; and I am perfectly
satisfied that, used as an alterative, and taken in very small
quantities for a long time, it must correct all the inaccuracies
of the biliary organs. At least it has done so in my case more
radically than I could have believed possible. I have intermitted
the regime for some days, but begin a new course next week for
precaution. Dr. Dick, of the East India Company's service, has
put me on this course of cure,[47] and says he never knew it fail
unless when the liver was irreparably injured. I believe I shall
go to Carlsbad next year. If I must go to a watering-place, I
should like one where I might hope to see and learn something new
myself, instead of being hunted down by some of the confounded
lion-catchers who haunt English spas. I have not the art of being
savage to those people, though few are more annoyed by them. I
always think of Snug the Joiner--
"----If I should as lion _come in strife_
Into such place, 't were pity on my life."
I have been delayed in answering your kind letter by Walter's
departure from us to join his regiment, the 18th Dragoons. He has
chosen a profession for which he is well suited, being of a calm
but remarkably firm temper--fond of mathematics, engineering, and
all sorts of calculation--clear-headed, and good-natured. When
you add to this a good person and good manners, with great
dexterity in horsemanship and all athletic exercises, and a
strong constitution, one hopes you have the grounds of a good
soldier. My own selfish wish would have been that he should have
followed the law; but he really had no vocation that way, wanting
the acuteness and liveliness of intellect indispensable to making
a figure in that profession. So I am satisfied all is for the
best, only I shall miss my gamekeeper and companion in my rides
and walks. But so it was, is, and must be--the young must part
from the nest, and learn to wing their own way against the storm.
I beg my best and kindest compliments to Lady Compton. Stooping
to write hurts me, or I would have sent her a few lines. As I
shall be stationary here for all this season, I shall not see
her, perhaps, for long enough. Mrs. Scott and the girls join in
best love, and I am ever, dear Mrs. Clephane, your faithful and
most obedient servant,
WALTER SCOTT.
[Footnote 47: [An interesting letter from Dr. Dick to Scott will be
found in _Familiar Letters_ (vol. ii. p. 53), in which he speaks of
their common friend, Leyden, and expresses sorrow at the tone
regarding him taken by some of the Edinburgh periodicals, which
ridiculed the idea of comparing him with Sir William Jones as a
linguist. The writer, who knew both, shows Leyden to have been in this
respect much the greater of the two. The Doctor makes light of his
efficient services in Scott's case, and says: "I have only to offer my
grateful thanks for your intended present, which, however, I must beg
leave to decline, because I am rewarded already a thousandfold, by
being allowed the honor of prescribing for you, and by being assured,
under your own hand, that you are so well.... But if you will send me
one volume of any kind, and write on it that it is from yourself, I
shall consider it a great favor. I have the vanity to wish that my son
and his descendants may have it to show as a proof that I was honored
with the friendship of the author."]]
I have had some hesitation about introducing the next letter--which
refers to the then recent publication of a sort of mock-tour in
Scotland, entitled Peter's Letters to his Kinsfolk. Nobody but a very
young and a very thoughtless person could have dreamt of putting forth
such a book; yet the Epistles of the imaginary Dr. Morris have been so
often denounced as a mere string of libels, that I think it fair to
show how much more leniently Scott judged of them at the time.
Moreover, his letter is a good specimen of the liberal courtesy with
which, on all occasions, he treated the humblest aspirants in
literature. Since I have alluded to Peter's Letters at all, I may as
well take the opportunity of adding that they were not wholly the work
of one hand.[48]
[Footnote 48: [The other hand is supposed to have been Wilson's. It is
difficult for any reader of to-day to understand why these clever and
interesting sketches of the men and manners of the Edinburgh of 1819
should have been so emphatically denounced in certain quarters. This
is not the first occasion on which Scott sent words of praise
concerning the _Letters_, which first appeared in part in _Blackwood's
Magazine_. He says of the Pleaders' portraits [John Clerk, Cranstoun,
and Jeffrey], they "are about the best I ever read, and will preserve
these three very remarkable and original men, for all of whom, however
differing in points whereon I wish we had agreed, I entertain not only
deep respect, but sincere friendship and regard."--_Familiar Letters_,
vol. ii. p. 39.]]
TO J. G. LOCKHART, ESQ., CARNBROE HOUSE, HOLLYTOWN.
ABBOTSFORD, July 19, 1819.
MY DEAR SIR,--_Distinguendum est._ When I receive a book _ex
dono_ of the author, in the general case I offer my thanks with
all haste before I cut a leaf, lest peradventure I should feel
more awkward in doing so afterwards, when they must not only be
tendered for the well-printed volumes themselves, and the
attention which sent them my way, but moreover for the supposed
pleasure I have received from the contents. But with respect to
the learned Dr. Morris, the case is totally different, and I
formed the immediate resolution not to say a word about that
gentleman's labors without having read them at least twice
over--a pleasant task, which has been interrupted partly by my
being obliged to go down the country, partly by an invasion of
the Southron, in the persons of Sir John Shelley, famous on the
turf, and his lady. I wish Dr. Morris had been of the party,
chiefly for the benefit of a little Newmarket man, called
Cousins, whose whole ideas, similes, illustrations, etc., were
derived from the course and training stable. He was perfectly
good-humored, and I have not laughed more this many a day.
I think the Doctor has got over his ground admirably;--only the
general turn of the book is perhaps too favorable, both to the
state of our public society, and of individual character:--
"His fools have their follies so lost in a crowd
Of virtues and feelings, that folly grows proud."[49]
But it was, in every point of view, right to take this more
favorable tone, and to throw a Claude Lorraine tint over our
northern landscape. We cannot bear the actual bare truth, either
in conversation, or that which approaches nearest to
conversation, in a work like the Doctor's, published within the
circle to which it refers.
For the rest, the Doctor has fully maintained his high character
for force of expression, both serious and comic, and for
acuteness of observation--_rem acu tetigit_--and his scalpel has
not been idle, though his lenient hand has cut sharp and clean,
and poured balm into the wound. What an acquisition it would have
been to our general information to have had such a work written,
I do not say fifty, but even five-and-twenty years ago; and how
much of grave and gay might then have been preserved, as it were,
in amber, which have now mouldered away. When I think that at an
age not much younger than yours I knew Black, Ferguson,
Robertson, Erskine, Adam Smith, John Home, etc., etc., and at
least saw Burns, I can appreciate better than any one the value
of a work which, like this, would have handed them down to
posterity in their living colors. Dr. Morris ought, like
Nourjahad, to revive every half century, to record the fleeting
manners of the age, and the interesting features of those who
will be only known to posterity by their works. If I am very
partial to the Doctor, which I am not inclined to deny, remember
I have been bribed by his kind and delicate account of his visit
to Abbotsford. Like old Cumberland, or like my own gray cat, I
will e'en purr and put up my back, and enjoy his kind flattery,
even when I know it goes beyond my merits.
I wish you would come and spend a few days here, while this
delightful weather lasts. I am now so well as quite to enjoy the
society of my friends, instead of the woeful pickle in which I
was in spring, when you last favored me. It was, however, _dignus
vindice nodus_, for no less a deity descended to my aid than the
potent Mercury himself, in the shape of calomel, which I have
been obliged to take daily, though in small quantities, for these
two months past. Notwithstanding the inconveniences of this
remedy, I thrive upon it most marvellously, having recovered both
sleep and appetite; so when you incline to come this way, you
will find me looking pretty _bobbishly_. Yours very truly,
WALTER SCOTT.
[Footnote 49: Goldsmith's _Retaliation_.]
On the same day, Scott wrote as follows to John Ballantyne, who had
started for London, on his route to Paris in quest of articles for
next winter's auction-room--and whose good offices he was anxious to
engage on behalf of the Cornet, in case they should happen to be in
the metropolis at the same time:--
TO MR. JOHN BALLANTYNE, CARE OF MESSRS. LONGMAN & CO., LONDON.
ABBOTSFORD, July 19, 1819.
DEAR JOHN,--I have only to say, respecting matters here, that
they are all going on quietly. The first volume is very nearly
finished, and the whole will be out in the first or second week
of September. It will be well if you can report yourself in
Britain by that time at farthest, as something must be done on
the back of this same Ivanhoe.
Walter left us on Wednesday night, and will be in town by the
time this reaches you, looking, I fancy, very like a cow in a
fremd loaning.[50] He will be heard of at Miss Dumergue's. Pray
look after him, and help him about his purchases.
I hope you will be so successful in your foreign journey as to
diddle the Edinburgh folk out of some cash this winter. But don't
forget September, if you wish to partake the advantages thereof.
I wish you would see what good reprints of old books are come out
this year at Triphook's, and send me a note of them.--Yours very
truly,
W. SCOTT.
[Footnote 50: _Anglice_--a strange pasture.]
John Ballantyne found the Cornet in London, and did for him what his
father had requested.
TO MR. JOHN BALLANTYNE.
ABBOTSFORD, July 26, 1819.
DEAR JOHN,--I have yours with the news of Walter's rattle-traps,
which are abominably extravagant. But there is no help for it but
submission. The things seem all such as cannot well be wanted.
How the devil they mount them to such a price, the tailors best
know. They say it takes _nine_ tailors to make a man--apparently,
one is sufficient to ruin him. We shall rub through here well
enough, though James is rather glumpy and dumpy--chiefly, I
believe, because his child is unwell. If you can make any more
money for me in London, good and well. I have no spare cash till
Ivanhoe comes forth. Yours truly,
W. SCOTT.
P. S.--Enclosed are sundry letters of introduction for the
_ci-devant_ Laird of Gilnockie.
TO MISS EDGEWORTH OF EDGEWORTHSTOWN.
ABBOTSFORD, July 21, 1819.
MY DEAR MISS EDGEWORTH,--When this shall happen to reach your
hands, it will be accompanied by a second edition of Walter
Scott, a _tall_ copy, as collectors say, and bound in Turkey
leather, garnished with all sorts of fur and frippery--not quite
so well _lettered_, however, as the old and vamped original
edition. In other and more intelligible phrase, the tall Cornet
of Hussars, whom this will introduce to you, is my eldest son,
who is now just leaving me to join his regiment in Ireland. I
have charged him, and he is himself sufficiently anxious, to
avoid no opportunity of making your acquaintance, as to be known
to the good and the wise is by far the best privilege he can
derive from my connection with literature. I have always felt the
value of having access to persons of talent and genius to be the
best part of a literary man's prerogative, and you will not
wonder, I am sure, that I should be desirous this youngster
should have a share of the same benefit.
I have had dreadful bad health for many months past, and have
endured more pain than I thought was consistent with life. But
the thread, though frail in some respects, is tough in others;
and here am I with renewed health, and a fair prospect of
regaining my strength, much exhausted by such a train of
suffering.
I do not know when this will reach you, my son's motions being
uncertain. But, find you where or when it will, it comes, dear
Miss Edgeworth, from the sincere admirer of your genius, and of
the patriotic and excellent manner in which it has always been
exerted. In which character I subscribe myself ever yours truly,
WALTER SCOTT.
I believe, at the time when the foregoing letter was written, Scott
and Miss Edgeworth had never met. The next was addressed to a
gentleman whose acquaintance the poet had formed when collecting
materials for his edition of Swift. On that occasion Mr. Hartstonge
was of great service to Scott--and he appears to have paid him soon
afterwards a visit at Abbotsford. Mr. Hartstonge was an amiable and
kind-hearted man, and enthusiastically devoted to literature; but his
own poetical talents were undoubtedly of the sort that finds little
favor either with gods or columns. He seems to have written shortly
before this time to inquire about his old acquaintance's health.
TO MATTHEW WELD HARTSTONGE, ESQ., MOLESWORTH STREET, DUBLIN.
ABBOTSFORD, July 21, 1819.
MY DEAR SIR,--... Fortunately at present my system is pretty
strong. In the mean while my family are beginning to get
forwards. Walter (you remember my wading into Cauldshiels Loch to
save his little frigate from wreck) is now a Cornet of six feet
two inches in your Irish 18th Hussars; the regiment is now at
Cork, and will probably be next removed to Dublin, so you will
see your old friend with a new face; be-furred, be-feathered, and
be-whiskered in the highest military _ton_. I have desired him to
call upon you, should he get to Dublin on leave, or come there
upon duty. I miss him here very much, for he was my companion,
gamekeeper, etc., etc., and when one loses one's own health and
strength, there are few things so pleasant as to see a son
enjoying both in the vigor of hope and promise. Think of this, my
good friend, and as you have kind affections to make some good
girl happy, settle yourself in life while you are young, and lay
up, by so doing, a stock of domestic happiness, against age or
bodily decay. There are many good things in life, whatever
satirists and misanthropes may say to the contrary; but probably
the best of all, next to a conscience void of offence (without
which, by the bye, they can hardly exist), are the quiet exercise
and enjoyment of the social feelings, in which we are at once
happy ourselves, and the cause of happiness to them who are
dearest to us.
I have no news to send you from hence. The addition to my house
is completed with battlement and bartisan, but the old cottage
remains hidden among creepers, until I shall have leisure--_i.
e._, time and money--to build the rest of my mansion--which I
will not do hastily, as the present is amply sufficient for
accommodation. Adieu, my dear sir; never reckon the degree of my
regard by the regularity of my correspondence, for besides the
vile diseases of laziness and procrastination, which have always
beset me, I have had of late both pain and languor sufficient to
justify my silence. Believe me, however, always most truly yours,
WALTER SCOTT.
The first letter the young Cornet received from his father after
mounting his "rattle-traps" was the following:--
TO CORNET WALTER SCOTT, 18TH HUSSARS, CORK.
ABBOTSFORD, August 1, 1819.
DEAR WALTER,--I was glad to find you got safe to the hospitable
quarters of Piccadilly, and were put on the way of achieving your
business well and expeditiously. You would receive a packet of
introductory letters by John Ballantyne, to whom I addressed
them.
I had a very kind letter two days ago from your Colonel.[51] Had
I got it sooner it would have saved some expense in London, but
there is no help for it now. As you are very fully provided with
all these appointments, you must be particular in taking care of
them, otherwise the expense of replacing them will be a great
burden. Colonel Murray seems disposed to show you much attention.
He is, I am told, rather a reserved man, which indeed is the
manner of his family. You will, therefore, be the more attentive
to what he says, as well as to answer all advances he may make to
you with cordiality and frankness; for if you be shy on the one
hand, and he reserved on the other, you cannot have the benefit
of his advice, which I hope and wish you may gain. I shall be
guided by his opinion respecting your allowance: he stipulates
that you shall have only two horses (not to be changed without
his consent), and on no account keep a gig. You know of old how I
detest that mania of driving wheel-barrows up and down, when a
man has a handsome horse, and can ride him. They are both foolish
and expensive things, and, in my opinion, are only fit for
English bagmen--therefore gig it not, I pray you.
In buying your horses you will be very cautious. I see Colonel
Murray has delicacy about assisting you directly in the
matter--for he says very truly that some gentlemen make a sort of
traffic in horse-flesh--from which his duty and inclination
equally lead him to steer clear. But he will take care that you
don't buy any that are unfit for service, as in the common course
they must be approved by the commandant as _chargers_. Besides
which, he will probably give you some private hints, of which
avail yourself, as there is every chance of your needing much
advice in this business. Two things I preach on my own
experience: _1st_, Never to buy an aged horse, however showy. He
must have done work, and, at any rate, will be unserviceable in a
few years. _2dly_, To buy rather when the horse is something low
in condition, that you may the better see all his points. Six
years is the oldest at which I would purchase. You will run risk
of being jockeyed by knowing gentlemen of your own corps parting
with their _experienced_ chargers to _oblige_ you. Take care of
this. Any good-tempered horse learns the dragoon duty in
wonderfully short time, and you are rider enough not to want one
quite broke in. Look well about you, and out into the country.
Excellent horses are bred all through Munster, and better have a
clever young one than an old regimental brute foundered by
repeated charges and bolts. If you see a brother-officer's horse
that pleases you much, and seems reasonable, look particularly
how he stands on his forelegs, and for that purpose see him in
the stable. If he shifts and shakes a little, have nothing to say
to him. This is the best I can advise, not doubting you will be
handsomely excised after all. The officer who leaves his corps
may be disposing of good horses, and perhaps selling reasonable.
One who continues will not, at least should not, part with a good
horse without some great advantage.
You will remain at Cork till you have learned your regimental
duty, and then probably be despatched to some outquarter. I need
not say how anxious I am that you should keep up your languages,
mathematics, and other studies. To have lost that which you
already in some degree possess--and that which we don't practise
we soon forget--would be a subject of unceasing regret to you
hereafter. You have good introductions, and don't neglect to
avail yourself of them. Something in this respect your name may
do for you--a fair advantage, if used with discretion and
propriety. By the way, I suspect you did not call on John
Richardson.
The girls were very dull after you left us; indeed the night you
went away, Anne had hysterics, which lasted some time. Charles
also was down in the mouth, and papa and mamma a little grave and
dejected. I would not have you think yourself of too great
importance neither, for the greatest personages are not always
long missed, and to make a bit of a parody,--
"Down falls the rain, up gets the sun,
Just as if Walter were not gone."
We comfort ourselves with the hopes that you are to be happy in
the occupation you have chosen, and in your new society. Let me
know if there are any well-informed men among them, though I
don't expect you to find out that for some time. Be civil to all,
till you can by degrees find out who are really best deserving.
I enclose a letter from Sophia, which doubtless contains all the
news. St. Boswell's Fair rained miserably, and disappointed the
misses. The weather has since been delightful, and harvest
advances fast. All here goes its old round--the habits of age do
not greatly change, though those of youth do. Mamma has been
quite well, and so have I--but I still take calomel. I was
obliged to drink some claret with Sir A. Don, Sir John Shelley,
and a funny little Newmarket quizzy, called Cousins, whom they
brought here with them the other day, but I was not the worse. I
wish you had Sir J. S. at your elbow when you are buying your
horses--he is a very knowing man on the turf. I like his lady
very much. She is perfectly feminine in her manners, has good
sense, and plays divinely on the harp; besides all which, she
shoots wild boars, and is the boldest horsewoman I ever saw. I
saw her at Paris ride like a lapwing, in the midst of all the
aide-de-camps and suite of the Duke of Wellington.
Write what your horses come to, etc. Your outfit will be an
expensive matter; but once settled, it will be fairly launching
you into life in the way you wished, and I trust you will see the
necessity of prudence and a gentlemanlike economy, which consists
chiefly in refusing one's self trifling indulgences until we can
easily pay for them. Once more, I beg you to be attentive to
Colonel Murray and to his lady. I hear of a disease among the
moorfowl. I suppose they are dying for grief at your departure.
Ever, my dear boy, your affectionate father,
WALTER SCOTT.
[Footnote 51: The then commandant of the 18th Hussars was
Lieutenant-Colonel the Hon. Henry Murray, brother to the Earl of
Mansfield.]
TO THE SAME.
7th August, 1819.
DEAR WALTER,--... I shall be curious to know how you like your
brother-officers, and how you dispose of your time. The drills
and riding-school will, of course, occupy much of your mornings
for some time. I trust, however, you will keep in view drawing,
languages, etc. It is astonishing how far even half an hour a day
regularly bestowed on one object, will carry a man in making
himself master of it. The habit of dawdling away time is easily
acquired, and so is that of putting every moment either to use or
to amusement.
You will not be hasty in forming intimacies with any of your
brother-officers, until you observe which of them are most
generally respected, and likely to prove most creditable friends.
It is seldom that the people who put themselves hastily forward
to please are those most worthy of being known. At the same time
you will take care to return all civility which is offered, with
readiness and frankness. The Italians have a proverb, which I
hope you have not forgot poor Pierrotti's lessons so far as not
to comprehend, "_Volto sciolto e pensieri stretti_." There is no
occasion to let any one see what you exactly think of him; and it
is the less prudent, as you will find reason, in all probability,
to change your opinion more than once.
I shall be glad to hear of your being fitted with a good servant.
Most of the Irish of that class are scapegraces--drink, steal,
and lie like the devil. If you could pick up a canny Scot, it
would be well. Let me know about your mess. To drink hard is none
of your habits; but even drinking what is called a certain
quantity every day, hurts the stomach, and by hereditary descent
yours is delicate. I believe the poor Duke of Buccleuch laid the
foundation of that disease which occasioned his premature death
in the excesses of Villars's regiment; and I am sorry and
ashamed to say, for your warning, that the habit of drinking
wine, so much practised when I was a young man, occasioned, I am
convinced, many of my cruel stomach complaints. You had better
drink a bottle of wine on any particular occasion, than sit and
soak and sipple at an English pint every day.
All our bipeds are well. Hamlet had an inflammatory attack, and I
began to think he was going mad, after the example of his great
namesake, but Willie Laidlaw bled him, and he has recovered.
Pussy is very well. Mamma, the girls, and Charlie, join in love.
Yours affectionately,
W. S.
P. S.--Always mention what letters of mine you have received, and
write to me whatever comes into your head. It is the privilege of
great boys when distant that they cannot tire papas by any length
of detail upon any subject.
TO THE SAME.
ABBOTSFORD, 13th August, 1819.
MY DEAREST WALTER,--I am very much obliged to Colonel Murray for
the trouble he has taken on your behalf. I hope he has received
the letter which I wrote to him a fortnight since under Mr.
Freeling's cover. It enclosed a parcel of letters to you. I took
the liberty of asking his advice what allowance you should have
to assist you. You know pretty well my circumstances and your
own, and that I wish you to be comfortable, but not in any
respect extravagant; and this for your own sake, and not for that
of money, which I never valued very much, perhaps not so much as
I ought to have done. I think by speaking to Colonel Murray you
may get at his opinion, and I have so much trust in your honor
and affection as to confide in your naming your own allowance.
Meantime, lest the horse should starve while the grass grows, I
enclose a cheque upon Messrs. Coutts for L50, to accompt of your
first year's allowance. Your paymaster will give you the money
for it I dare say. You have to endorse the bill, _i. e._, write
your name on the back of it.
All concerned are pleased with your kind tokens of remembrance
from London. Mamma and I like the caricatures very much. I think,
however, scarce any of them shows the fancy and talent of old
Gilray: he became insane, I suppose by racking his brain in
search of extravagant ideas, and was supported in his helpless
condition by the woman who keeps the great print-shop in St.
James's Street, who had the generosity to remember that she had
made thousands by his labor.
Everything here goes on in the old fashion, and we are all as
well as possible, saving that Charles rode to Lawrence fair
yesterday in a private excursion, and made himself sick with
eating gingerbread, whereby he came to disgrace.
Sophia has your letter of the 4th, which she received yesterday.
The enclosed will help you to set up shop and to get and pay
whatever is necessary. I wish we had a touch of your hand to make
the parties rise in the morning, at which they show as little
alertness as usual.
I beg you will keep an account of money received and paid. Buy a
little book ruled for the purpose, for pounds, shillings, and
pence, and keep an account of cash received and expended. The
balance ought to be cash in purse, if the book is regularly kept.
But any very small expenses you can enter as "Sundries, L0: 3:
6," which saves trouble.
You will find this most satisfactory and useful. But, indeed,
arithmetic is indispensable to a soldier who means to rise in his
profession. All military movements depend upon calculation of
time, numbers, and distance.
Dogs all well--cat sick--supposed with eating birds in their
feathers. Sisters, brother, and mamma join in love to the "poor
wounded hussa-a-r;"--I dare say you have heard the song; if not,
we shall send it for the benefit of the mess. Yours
affectionately,
WALTER SCOTT.
P. S.--Yesterday, _the 12th_, would, I suppose, produce some
longings after the Peel heights.
In the following letter to Mr. Richardson, we see Scott busied about
certain little matters of heraldic importance which had to be settled
before his patent of baronetcy could be properly made out. He also
alludes to two little volumes, which he edited during this autumn--the
Memorials of the Haliburtons, a thin quarto (never published)--and the
poems of Patrick Carey, of which he had given specimens some years
before in the Annual Register.
TO JOHN RICHARDSON, ESQ., FLUDYER STREET, WESTMINSTER.
ABBOTSFORD, 22d August, 1819.
MY DEAR RICHARDSON,--I am sorry Walter did not get to your kind
domicile. But he stayed but about five or six days in London, and
great was his haste, as you may well suppose. He had a world of
trinkums to get, for you know there goes as much to the
man-millinery of a young officer of hussars as to that of an
heiress on her bridal day. His complete equipage, horses not
included, cost about L360, and if you add a couple of blood
horses, it will be L200 more, besides the price of his
commission, for the privilege of getting the hardness of his
skull tried by a brick-bat at the next meeting of Radical
Reformers. I am not much afraid of these folks, however, because
I remember 1793 and 1794, when the same ideas possessed a much
more formidable class of the people, being received by a large
proportion of farmers, shopkeepers, and others, possessed of
substance. A mere mob will always be a fire of loose straw; but
it is melancholy to think of the individual mischief that may be
done. I did not find it quite advisable to take so long a journey
as London this summer. I am quite recovered; but my last attack
was of so dreadful a nature, that I wish to be quite insured
against another--_i. e._, as much as one can be insured against
such a circumstance--before leaving home for any length of time.
To return to the vanities of this world, from what threatened to
hurry me to the next: I enclose a drawing of my arms, with the
supporters which the heralds here assign me. Our friend Harden
seems to wish I would adopt one of his Mer-maidens, otherwise
they should be both Moors, as on the left side. I have also added
an impression of my seal. You can furnish Sir George Naylor with
as much of my genealogy as will serve the present purpose. I
shall lose no time in connecting myself by a general service with
my grand-uncle, the last Haliburton of Dryburgh Abbey, or
Newmains, as they call it. I spoke to the Lyon-office people in
Edinburgh. I find my entry there will be an easy matter, the
proofs being very pregnant and accessible. I would not stop for a
trifling expense to register my pedigree in England, as far as
you think may be necessary, to show that it is a decent one. My
ancestors were brave and honest men, and I have no reason to be
ashamed of them, though they were neither wealthy nor great.
As something of an antiquary and genealogist, I should not like
there were any mistakes in this matter, so I send you a small
note of my descent by my father and my paternal grandmother, with
a memorandum of the proofs by which they may be supported, to
which I might add a whole cloud of oral witnesses. I hate the
being suspected of fishing for a pedigree, or bolstering one up
with false statements. How people can bring themselves to this, I
cannot conceive. I send you a copy of the Haliburton MS., of
which I have printed twenty for the satisfaction of a few
friends. You can have any part of them copied in London which
ought to be registered. I should like if Sir George Naylor would
take the trouble of looking at the proofs, which are chiefly
extracts from the public records. I take this opportunity to send
you also a copy of a little amateur-book--Carey's Poems--a
thoroughbred Cavalier, and, I think, no bad versifier. Kind
compliments to Mrs. Richardson. Yours, my dear Richardson, most
truly,
WALTER SCOTT.
TO CORNET W. SCOTT, 18TH HUSSARS, CORK.
ABBOTSFORD, 4th September, 1819.
DEAR WALTER,--Your very acceptable letter of the 26th reached me
to-day. I had begun to be apprehensive that the draft had fallen
into the hands of the Philistines, but the very long calm must
have made the packets slow in their progress, which I suppose was
the occasion of the delay. Respecting the allowance, Colonel
Murray informs me that from L200 to L250, in addition to the pay
of a Cornet, ought to make a young man very comfortable. He adds,
which I am much pleased to hear, that your officers are, many of
them, men of moderate fortune, and disposed to be economical. I
had thought of L200 as what would suit us both, but when I see
the account which you very properly keep, I shall be better able
to determine. It must be considered that any uncommon expense, as
the loss of a horse or the like, may occasion an extra draft over
and above the allowance. I like very much your methodical
arrangement as to expenses; it is rather a tiresome thing at
first to keep an accompt of pounds, shillings, and pence, but it
is highly necessary, and enables one to see how the money
actually goes. It is, besides, a good practical way of keeping up
acquaintance with arithmetic, and you will soon find that the
principles on which all military movements turn are arithmetical,
and that though one may no doubt learn to do them by rote, yet to
_understand_ them, you must have recourse to numbers. Your
adjutant will explain this to you. By the way, as he is a
foreigner, you will have an opportunity to keep up a little of
your French and German. Both are highly necessary to you; the
knowledge of the last, with few other qualifications, made
several officers' fortunes last war.
I observe with pleasure you are making acquaintances among the
gentry, which I hope you will not drop for want of calling, etc.
I trust you have delivered all your recommendations, for it is an
affront to omit doing so, both to the person who writes them, and
those for whom they are designed. On the other hand, one always
holds their head a little better up in the world when they keep
good society. Lord and Lady Melville are to give you
recommendations when you go to Dublin. I was at Melville Castle
for two days, and found them both well. I was also one day at
Langholm Lodge to meet Lord Montagu. Possibly, among your Irish
friends, you may get some shooting. I shall be glad you avail
yourself of any such opportunities, and also that, when you get
your own horses, you hunt in the winter, if you be within the
reach of hounds. Nothing confirms a man in horsemanship so well
as hunting, though I do not recommend it to beginners, who are
apt to learn to ride like grooms. Besides the exercise,
field-sports make a young soldier acquainted with the country,
and habituate him to have a good eye for distance and for taking
up the _carte de pays_ in general, which is essential to all, but
especially to officers of light troops, who are expected to
display both alertness and intelligence in reporting the nature
of the country, being in fact the _eyes_ of the army. In every
point of view, field-sports are preferable to the indoors
amusement of a billiard-table, which is too often the
lounging-place for idle young officers, where there is nothing to
be got but a habit of throwing away time, and an acquaintance
with the very worst society--I mean at public billiard-rooms--for
unquestionably the game itself is a pretty one, when practised
among gentlemen, and not made a constant habit of. But public
billiard-tables are almost always the resort of blacklegs and
sharpers, and all that numerous class whom the French call
_chevaliers d'industrie_, and we, _knights of the whipping-post_.
I am glad you go to the anatomical lectures. An acquaintance with
our own very extraordinary frame is a useful branch of general
knowledge, and as you have some turn for drawing, it will also
enable you to judge of the proper mode of disposing the limbs and
muscles of your figures, should you prosecute the art so far. In
fact, there is no branch of study can come much amiss to a young
man, providing he does study, and very often the precise
occupation of the time must be trusted to taste and opportunity.
The White Boys made a great noise when I was a boy. But Ireland
(the more is the pity) has never been without White Boys, or
Right Boys, or Defenders, or Peep-of-day Boys, or some wild
association or another for disturbing the peace of the country.
We shall not be many degrees better if the Radical Reformers be
not checked. The Manchester Yeomen behaved very well, upsetting
the most immense crowd ever was seen, and notwithstanding the
lies in the papers, without any unnecessary violence. Mr. Hunt
pretends to have had several blows on his head with sabres, but
has no wound to show for it. I am disposed to wish he had got
such a one as once on a day I could have treated him to. I am apt
to think his politic pate would have broached no more sedition.
Miss Rutherford and Eliza Russell are now with us. We were also
favored with a visit of the Miss ----s, who are rather empty
canisters, though I dare say very good girls. Anne tired of them
most inhospitably. Mrs. Maclean Clephane and her two unmarried
daughters are now here; being, as we say, pears of another tree.
Your sisters seem very fond of the young ladies, and I am glad of
it, for they will see that a great deal of accomplishment and
information may be completely reconciled with liveliness, fun,
good-humor, and good-breeding.
All here send love. Dogs and cat are well. I dare say you have
heard from some other correspondent that poor Lady Wallace died
of an inflammation, after two days' illness. Trout[52] has
returned here several times, poor fellow, and seems to look for
you; but Henry Scott is very kind to him, and he is a great
favorite.
As you Hussars smoke, I will give you one of my pipes, but you
must let me know how I can send it safely. It is a very handsome
one, though not my best. I will keep my _Meerschaum_ until I make
my Continental tour, and then you shall have that also. I hope
you will get leave for a few months, and go with me. Yours very
affectionately,
WALTER SCOTT.
[Footnote 52: _Lady Wallace_ was a pony; _Trout_ a favorite pointer
which the Cornet had given, at leaving home, to the young Laird of
Harden, now the Master of Polwarth.]
About this time, as the succeeding letters will show, Abbotsford had
the honor of a short visit from Prince Leopold of Saxe-Coburg, now
King of the Belgians. Immediately afterwards Scott heard of the death
of Mrs. William Erskine, and repaired to Edinburgh to condole with his
afflicted friend.[53] His allusions, meanwhile, to views of buying
more land on Tweedside, are numerous. These speculations are explained
in a most characteristic style to the Cornet; and we see that one of
them was cut short by the tragical death of a _bonnet-laird_ already
introduced to the reader's notice--namely, _Lauchie Longlegs_, the
admired of Geoffrey Crayon.
[Footnote 53: For Scott's Epitaph for Mrs. Erskine, see his _Poetical
Works_ (Ed. 1834), vol. xi. p. 347 [Cambridge Ed. p. 447].]
TO CORNET WALTER SCOTT, 18TH HUSSARS, CORK.
ABBOTSFORD, 27th September, 1819.
MY DEAR WALTER,--Your letter of the 10th gave me the pleasant
assurance that you are well and happy, and attending to your
profession. We have been jogging on here in the old fashion,
somewhat varied by an unexpected visit, on Friday last, from no
less a person than Prince Leopold. I conclude you will have all
the particulars of this important event from the other members
of the family, so I shall only say that when I mentioned the
number of your regiment, the Prince said he had several friends
in the 18th, and should now think he had one more, which was very
polite. By the way, I hear an excellent character of your
officers for regularity and gentlemanlike manners. This report
gives me great pleasure, for to live in bad society will deprave
the best manners, and to live in good will improve the worst.
I am trying a sort of bargain with neighbor Nicol Milne at
present. He is very desirous of parting with his estate of
Faldonside, and if he will be contented with a reasonable price,
I am equally desirous to be the purchaser. I conceive it will
come to about L30,000 at least. I will not agree to give a penny
more; and I think that sum is probably L2000 and more above its
actual marketable value. But then it lies extremely convenient
for us, and would, joined to Abbotsford, make a very
gentlemanlike property, worth at least L1800 or L2000 a year. I
can command about L10,000 of my own, and if I be spared life and
health, I should not fear rubbing off the rest of the price, as
Nicol is in no hurry for payment. As you will succeed me in my
landed property, I think it right to communicate my views to you.
I am much moved by the prospect of getting at about L2000 or
L3000 worth of marle, which lies on Milne's side of the loch, but
which can only be drained on my side, so that he can make no use
of it. This would make the lands of Abbotsford worth 40_s._ an
acre over-head, excepting the sheep farm. I am sensible I might
dispose of my money to more advantage, but probably to none
which, in the long run, would be better for you--certainly to
none which would be productive of so much pleasure to myself. The
woods are thriving, and it would be easy, at a trifling expense,
to restore Faldonside loch, and stock it with fish. In fact, it
would require but a small dam-head. By means of a little
judicious planting, added to what is already there, the estate
might be rendered one of the most beautiful in this part of
Scotland. Such are my present plans, my dear boy, having as much
your future welfare and profit in view as the immediate
gratification of my own wishes.
I am very sorry to tell you that poor Mrs. William Erskine is no
more. She was sent by the medical people on a tour to the lakes
of Cumberland, and was taken ill at Lowood, on Windermere.
Nature, much exhausted by her previous indisposition, sunk under
four days' illness. Her husband was with her, and two of her
daughters--he is much to be pitied.
Mr. Rees, the bookseller, told me he had met you in the streets
of Cork, and reported well of the growth of your _Schnurr-bart_.
I hope you know what that means. Pray write often, as the post
comes so slow. I keep all your letters, and am much pleased with
the frankness of the style. No word of your horses yet? but it is
better not to be impatient, and to wait for good ones. I have
been three times on Newark, and killed six hares each time. The
two young dogs are capital good.
I must not omit to tell you our old, and, I may add, our kind
neighbor Lauchie, has departed, or, as Tom expresses it, has been
fairly _flytten out o' the warld_. You know the old quarrel
betwixt his brother and him about the wife: in an ill-fated hour
Jock the brother came down to Lochbreist with a sister from
Edinburgh, who was determined to have her share of the
scolding-match; they attacked poor old Lauchie like mad folks,
and reviled his wife in all sort of evil language. At length his
passion was wrought up to a great pitch, and he answered with
much emotion, that if she were the greatest ---- in Edinburgh, it
was not their business, and as he uttered this speech, he fell
down on his back, and lay a dead man before them. There is little
doubt the violence of the agitation had broke a blood-vessel in
the heart or brain. A very few days since he was running up and
down calling for a coffin, and wishing to God he was in one; to
which Swanston,[54] who was present, answered, he could not apply
to a better hand, and he would make him one if he had a mind. He
has left a will of his own making, but from some informality I
think it will be set aside. His land cannot come into the market
until his girl comes of age, which, by the way, makes me more
able for the other bargain.... The blackcocks are very plenty. I
put up fourteen cocks and hens in walking up the Clappercleuch to
look at the wood. Do you not wish you had been on the outside
with your gun? Tom has kept us well supplied with game; he boasts
that he shot fifteen times without a miss. I shall be glad to
hear that you do the same on Mr. Newenham's grounds. Mamma, the
girls, and Charles, all join in love and affection. Believe me
ever, dear Walter, your affectionate father,
WALTER SCOTT.
[Footnote 54: John Swanston had then the care of the sawmill at
Toftfield; he was one of Scott's most valued dependents, and in the
sequel succeeded Tom Purdie as his henchman.]
TO THE LORD MONTAGU, ETC., ETC., ETC.
ABBOTSFORD, 3d October, 1819.
MY DEAR LORD,--I am honored with your Buxton letter.... _Anent_
Prince Leopold, I only heard of his approach at eight o'clock in
the morning, and he was to be at Selkirk by eleven. The
magistrates sent to ask me to help them to receive him. It
occurred to me he might be coming to Melrose to see the Abbey, in
which case I could not avoid asking him to Abbotsford, as he must
pass my very door. I mentioned this to Mrs. Scott, who was lying
quietly in bed, and I wish you had heard the scream she gave on
the occasion. "What have we to offer him?"--"Wine and cake," said
I, thinking to make all things easy; but she ejaculated, in a
tone of utter despair, "Cake!! where am I to get cake?" However,
being partly consoled with the recollection that his visit was a
very improbable incident, and curiosity, as usual, proving too
strong for alarm, she set out with me in order not to miss a peep
of the great man. James Skene and his lady were with us, and we
gave our carriages such additional dignity as a pair of leaders
could add, and went to meet him in full puff. The Prince very
civilly told me, that, though he could not see Melrose on this
occasion, he wished to come to Abbotsford for an hour. New
despair on the part of Mrs. Scott, who began to institute a
domiciliary search for cold meat through the whole city of
Selkirk, which produced _one shoulder of cold lamb_. In the mean
while, his Royal Highness received the civic honors of the
BIRSE[55] very graciously. I had hinted to Bailie Lang,[56] that
it ought only to be licked _symbolically_ on the present
occasion; so he flourished it three times before his mouth, but
without touching it with his lips, and the Prince followed his
example as directed. Lang made an excellent speech--sensible, and
feeling, and well delivered. The Prince seemed much surprised at
this great propriety of expression and behavior in a magistrate,
whose people seemed such a rabble, and whose whole band of music
consisted in a drum and fife. He noticed to Bailie Anderson that
Selkirk seemed very populous in proportion to its extent. "On an
occasion like this it seems so," answered the Bailie,--neatly
enough, I thought. I question if any magistrates in the kingdom,
lord mayors and aldermen not excepted, could have behaved with
more decent and quiet good-breeding. Prince Leopold repeatedly
alluded to this during the time he was at Abbotsford. I do not
know how Mrs. Scott ultimately managed; but with broiled salmon,
and blackcock, and partridges, she gave him a very decent lunch;
and I chanced to have some very fine old hock, which was mighty
germane to the matter.
The Prince seems melancholy, whether naturally or from habit, I
do not pretend to say; but I do not remember thinking him so at
Paris, where I saw him frequently, then a much poorer man than
myself; yet he showed some humor, for, alluding to the crowds
that followed him everywhere, he mentioned some place where he
had gone out to shoot, but was afraid to proceed for fear of
"bagging a boy." He said he really thought of getting some
shooting-place in Scotland, and promised me a longer visit on his
return. If I had had a day's notice to have _warned the waters_,
we could have met him with a very respectable number of the
gentry; but there was no time for this, and probably he liked it
better as it was. There was only young Clifton who could have
come, and he was shy and cubbish, and would not, though requested
by the Selkirk people. He was perhaps ashamed to march through
Coventry with them. It hung often and sadly on my mind that _he_
was wanting who could and would have received him like a Prince
indeed; and yet the meeting betwixt them, had they been fated to
meet, would have been a very sad one. I think I have now given
your Lordship a very full, true, and particular account of our
royal visit, unmatched even by that of King Charles at the Castle
of Tillietudlem. That we did not speak of it for more than a week
after it happened, and that that emphatic monosyllable, _The
Prince_, is not heard amongst us more than ten times a day, is,
on the whole, to the credit of my family's understanding. The
piper is the only one whose brain he seems to have endangered;
for, as the Prince said he preferred him to any he had heard in
the Highlands--(which, by the way, shows his Royal Highness knows
nothing of the matter)--the fellow seems to have become incapable
of his ordinary occupation as a forester, and has cut stick and
stem without remorse to the tune of _Phail Phranse_, _i. e._, the
Prince's Welcome.
I am just going to the head-court with Donaldson, and go a day
sooner to exhume certain old monuments of the Rutherfords at
Jedburgh. Edgerstone[57] is to meet me at Jedburgh for this
research, and then we shall go up with him to dinner. My best
respects attend Lady Montagu. I wish this letter may reach you on
a more lively day than it is written in, for it requires little
to add to its dulness. Tweed is coming down very fast, the first
time this summer. Believe me, my dear Lord, most truly yours,
WALTER SCOTT.
[Footnote 55: See _ante_, vol. v. p. 88.]
[Footnote 56: Scott's good friend, Mr. Andrew Lang, Sheriff-Clerk for
Selkirkshire, was then chief magistrate of the county town. [He was
the grandfather of the accomplished man of letters who bears his
name.]]
[Footnote 57: The late John Rutherford of Edgerstone, long M. P. for
Roxburghshire, was a person of high worth, and universally esteemed.
Scott used to say Edgerstone was his _beau ideal_ of the character of
a country gentleman. He was, I believe, the head of the once great and
powerful clan of Rutherford.]
TO W. SCOTT, ESQ., 18TH HUSSARS, CORK.
ABBOTSFORD, 14th October, 1819.
DEAR WALTER,--I had your last letter, and am very glad you find
pleasant society. Mrs. Dundas of Arniston is so good as to send
you some introductions, which you will deliver as soon as
possible. You will be now in some degree accustomed to meet with
strangers, and to form your estimate of their character and
manners. I hope, in the mean time, the French and German are
attended to; please to mention in your next letter what you are
reading, and in what languages. The hours of youth, my dear
Walter, are too precious to be spent all in gayety. We must lay
up in that period when our spirit is active, and our memory
strong, the stores of information which are not only to
facilitate our progress through life, but to amuse and interest
us in our later stage of existence. I very often think what an
unhappy person I should have been, if I had not done something
more or less towards improving my understanding when I was at
your age; and I never reflect, without severe self-condemnation,
on the opportunities of acquiring knowledge which I either
trifled with, or altogether neglected. I hope you will be wiser
than I have been, and experience less of that self-reproach.
My last acquainted you with Mrs. Erskine's death, and I grieve to
say we have just received intelligence that our kind neighbor and
good friend Lord Somerville is at the very last gasp. His disease
is a dysentery, and the symptoms, as his brother writes to Mr.
Samuel Somerville, are mortal. He is at Vevay, upon his road, I
suppose, to Italy, where he had purposed spending the winter. His
death, for I understand nothing else can be expected, will be
another severe loss to me; for he was a kind, good friend, and at
my time of day men do not readily take to new associates. I must
own this has been one of the most melancholy years I ever passed.
The poor Duke, who loved me so well--Mrs. Erskine--Lord
Somerville--not to mention others with whom I was less intimate,
make it one year of mourning. I should not forget the Chief
Baron, who, though from ill health we met of late seldom, was
always my dear friend, and indeed very early benefactor. I must
look forwards to seeing in your success and respectability, and
in the affection and active improvement of all of you, those
pleasures which are narrowed by the death of my contemporaries.
Men cannot form new intimacies at my period of life, but must be
happy or otherwise according to the good fortune and good conduct
of those near relatives who rise around them.
I wish much to know if you are lucky in a servant. Trust him with
as little cash as possible, and keep short accounts. Many a good
servant is spoiled by neglecting this simple precaution. The man
is tempted to some expense of his own, gives way to it, and then
has to make it up by a system of overcharge and peculation; and
thus mischief begins, and the carelessness of the master makes a
rogue out of an honest lad, and cheats himself into the bargain.
I have a letter from your uncle Tom, telling me his eldest
daughter is to be forthwith married to a Captain Huxley of his
own regiment. As he has had a full opportunity of being
acquainted with the young gentleman, and approves of the match, I
have to hope that it will be a happy one. I fear there is no
great fortune in the case on either side, which is to be
regretted.
Of domestic affairs I have little to tell you. The harvest has
been excellent, the weather delightful; but this I must often
have repeated. To-day I was thinning out fir-trees in the
thicket, and the men were quite exhausted with the heat, and I
myself, though only marking the trees, felt the exercise
sufficiently warm. The wood is thriving delightfully. On the 28th
we are to have a dance in honor of your birthday. I wish you
could look in upon us for the day at least--only I am afraid we
could not part with you when it was over, and so you would be in
the guise of Cinderella, when she outstayed her time at the ball,
and all her finery returned into its original base materials.
Talking of balls, the girls would tell you the Melrose hop, where
mamma presided, went off well.
I expect poor Erskine and his daughter next week, or the week
after. I went into town to see him--and found him bearing his
great loss with his natural gentleness and patience. But he was
sufficiently distressed, as he has great reason to be. I also
expect Lord and Lady Melville here very soon. Sir William Rae
(now Lord Advocate) and his lady came to us on Saturday. On
Sunday Maida walked with us, and in jumping the paling at the
Greentongue park contrived to hang himself up by the hind leg. He
howled at first, but seeing us making towards him he stopped
crying, and waved his tail, by way of signal, it was supposed,
for assistance. He sustained no material injury, though his leg
was strangely twisted into the bars, and he was nearly hanging
by it. He showed great gratitude, in his way, to his deliverers.
This is a long letter, and little in it; but that is nothing
extraordinary. All send best love--and I am ever, dear Walter,
your affectionate father,
WALTER SCOTT.
TO THOMAS SCOTT, ESQ., PAYMASTER, 70th REGIMENT, CANADA.
ABBOTSFORD, 16th October, 1819.
DEAR TOM,--I received yesterday your very acceptable letter,
containing the news of Jessie's approaching marriage, in which,
as a match agreeable to her mother and you, and relieving your
minds from some of the anxious prospects which haunt those of
parents, I take the most sincere interest. Before this reaches
you the event will probably have taken place. Meantime, I enclose
a letter to the bride or wife, as the case may happen to be. I
have sent a small token of good-will to ballast my good wishes,
which you will please to value for the young lady, that she may
employ it as most convenient or agreeable to her. A little more
fortune would perhaps have done the young folks no harm; but
Captain Huxley, being such as you describe him, will have every
chance of getting forward in his profession; and the happiest
marriages are often those in which there is, at first, occasion
for prudence and economy. I do certainly feel a little of the
surprise which you hint at, for time flies over our heads one
scarce marks how, and children become marriageable ere we
consider them as out of the nursery. My eldest son, Walter, has
also wedded himself--but it is to a regiment of hussars. He is at
present a cornet in the 18th, and quartered in Cork barracks. He
is capital at most exercises, but particularly as a horseman. I
do not intend he shall remain in the cavalry, however, but shall
get him into the line when he is capable of promotion. Since he
has chosen this profession, I shall be desirous that he follows
it out in good earnest, and that can only be done by getting into
the infantry.
My late severe illness has prevented my going up to London to
receive the honor which the Prince Regent has announced his
intention to inflict upon me. My present intention is, if I
continue as well as I have been, to go up about Christmas to get
this affair over. My health was restored (I trust permanently) by
the use of calomel, a very severe and painful remedy, especially
in my exhausted state of body, but it has proved a radical one.
By the way, _Radical_ is a word in very bad odor here, being used
to denote a set of blackguards a hundred times more mischievous
and absurd than our old friends in 1794 and 1795. You will learn
enough of the doings of the _Radical Reformers_ from the papers.
In Scotland we are quiet enough, excepting in the manufacturing
districts, and we are in very good hands, as Sir William Rae, our
old commander, is Lord Advocate. Rae has been here two or three
days, and left me yesterday; he is the old man, sensible,
cool-headed, and firm, always thinking of his duty, never of
himself. He inquired kindly after you, and I think will be
disposed to serve you, should an opportunity offer. Poor William
Erskine has lost his excellent wife, after a long and wasting
illness. She died at Lowood on Windermere, he having been
recommended to take her upon a tour about three weeks before her
death. I own I should scarce forgive a physician who should
contrive to give me this addition to family distress. I went to
town last week to see him, and found him, upon the whole, much
better than I expected. I saw my mother on the same occasion,
admirably well indeed. She is greatly better than this time two
years, when she rather quacked herself a little too much. I have
sent your letter to our mother, and will not fail to transmit to
our other friends the agreeable news of your daughter's
settlement. Our cousin, Sir Harry Macdougal, is marrying his
eldest daughter to Sir Thomas Brisbane, a very good match on
both sides. I have been paying a visit on the occasion, which
suspends my closing this letter. I hope to hear very soon from
you. Respecting our silence, I, like a ghost, only waited to be
spoken to, and you may depend on me as a regular correspondent,
when you find time to be one yourself. Charlotte and the girls
join in kind love to Mrs. Scott and all the family. I should like
to know what you mean to do with young Walter, and whether I can
assist you in that matter. Believe me, dear Tom, ever your
affectionate brother,
W. SCOTT.
TO DANIEL TERRY, ESQ., LONDON.
ABBOTSFORD, November 10, 1819.
MY DEAR TERRY,--I should be very sorry if you thought the
interest I take in you and yours so slight as not to render your
last letter extremely interesting. We have all our various
combats to fight in this best of all possible worlds, and, like
brave fellow-soldiers, ought to assist one another as much as
possible. I have little doubt, that if God spares me till my
little namesake be fit to take up his share of the burden, I may
have interest enough to be of great advantage to him in the
entrance of life. In the present state of your own profession,
you would not willingly, I suppose, choose him to follow it; and,
as it is very seductive to young people of a lively temper and
good taste for the art, you should, I think, consider early how
you mean to dispose of little Walter, with a view, that is, to
the future line of life which you would wish him to adopt. Mrs.
Terry has not the good health which all who know her amiable
disposition and fine accomplishments would anxiously wish her;
yet, with impaired health and the caution which it renders
necessary, we have very frequently instances of the utmost verge
of existence being attained, while robust strength is cut off in
the middle career. So you must be of good heart, and hope the
best in this as in other cases of a like affecting nature. I go
to town on Monday, and will forward under Mr. Freeling's cover as
much of Ivanhoe as is finished in print. It is completed, but in
the hands of a very slow transcriber; when I can collect it, I
will send you the MS., which you will please to keep secret from
every eye. I think this will give a start, if it be worth taking,
of about a month, for the work will be out on the 20th of
December. It is certainly possible to adapt it to the stage, but
the expense of scenery and decorations would be great, this being
a tale of chivalry, not of character. There is a tale in
existence, by dramatizing which, I am certain, a most powerful
effect might be produced: it is called Undine, and I believe has
been translated into French by Mademoiselle Montolieu, and into
English from her version: do read it, and tell me your opinion:
in German the character of Undine is exquisite. The only
objection is, that the catastrophe is unhappy, but this might be
altered. I hope to be in London for ten days the end of next
month; and so good-by for the present, being in great haste, most
truly yours,
W. SCOTT.
I conclude this chapter with a letter written two or three days before
Scott quitted Abbotsford for the winter session. It is addressed to
his friend Hartstonge, who had taken the opportunity of the renewal of
Scott's correspondence to solicit his opinion and assistance touching
a MS. drama; and the reader will be diverted with the style in which
the amiable tragedian is treated to his _quietus_:--
TO MATTHEW WELD HARTSTONGE, ESQ., DUBLIN.
ABBOTSFORD, 11th November, 1819.
MY DEAR SIR,--I was duly favored with your packet, containing the
play, as well as your very kind letter. I will endeavor (though
extremely unwilling to offer criticism on most occasions) to meet
your confidence with perfect frankness. I do not consider the
Tragedy as likely to make that favorable impression on the public
which I would wish that the performance of a friend should
effect--and I by no means recommend to you to hazard it upon the
boards. In other compositions, the neglect of the world takes
nothing from the merit of the author; but there is something
ludicrous in being _affiche_ as the author of an unsuccessful
play. Besides, you entail on yourself the great and eternal
plague of altering and retrenching to please the humors of
performers, who are, speaking generally, extremely ignorant, and
capricious in proportion. These are not vexations to be
voluntarily undertaken; and the truth is, that in the present day
there is only one reason which seems to me adequate for the
encountering the plague of trying to please a set of conceited
performers and a very motley audience,--I mean the want of money,
from which, fortunately, you are exempted. It is very true that
some day or other a great dramatic genius may arise to strike out
a new path; but I fear till this happens no great effect will be
produced by treading in the old one. The reign of Tragedy seems
to be over, and the very considerable poetical abilities which
have been lately applied to it, have failed to revive it. Should
the public ever be indulged with small theatres adapted to the
hours of the better ranks in life, the dramatic art may recover;
at present it is in abeyance--and I do therefore advise you in
all sincerity to keep the Tragedy (which I return under cover)
safe under your own charge. Pray think of this as one of the most
unpleasant offices of friendship--and be not angry with me for
having been very frank, upon an occasion when frankness may be
more useful than altogether palatable.
I am much obliged to you for your kind intentions towards my
young Hussar. We have not heard from him for three weeks. I
believe he is making out a meditated visit to Killarney. I am
just leaving the country for Edinburgh, to attend my duty in the
courts; but the badness of the weather in some measure reconciles
me to the unpleasant change. I have the pleasure to continue the
most satisfactory accounts of my health; it is, to external
appearance, as strong as in my strongest days--indeed, after I
took once more to Sancho's favorite occupations of eating and
sleeping, I recovered my losses wonderfully. Very truly yours,
WALTER SCOTT.