BRIDE OF LAMMERMOOR, one of the products of 1819, is founded on
a remarkable narrative, connected with the marriage of Miss Janet
Dalrymple, daughter of the first Lord Stair, who, without the parental
knowledge, engaged herself to the Lord Rutherford, but who subsequently
consented to abandon her noble lover, and accept the hand of David
Dunbar, younger of Baldoon, whose suit was supported by her parents. On
the 24th August 1669, shortly after the nuptial ceremony, the bridegroom
was found in the bridal chamber lying across the threshold, frightfully
wounded and streaming with blood. On a search, the bride was discovered
in the chimney-corner, dabbled in gore, and moping as an idiot; she
survived only two weeks. The bridegroom, who recovered from his wounds,
refused to answer any questions in relation to the tragedy; he was
killed by a fall from his horse in March 1682.*
* The marriage contract of the Bride of Lammermoor has
lately been discovered at St Mary's Isle, the seat of the
Earl of Selkirk. His lordship is the representative of the
family of Dunbar of Baldoon, and has the family papers in
his possession. In arranging these he came upon the
contract. The four signatures are, David Dunbar the
bridegroom, Janet Dalrymple the bride, James Dalrymple, and
Baldoon, father of the bridegroom. James Dalrymple may have
been the bride's brother, who rode behind her to the church,
and whose dagger was used in the assault There is a little
tremor in the bride's signature.
The accompanying illustration represents Fast Castle, the original
of Wolf's Crag, of which the proprietors, the Logans and Humes, were
conspicuous in Scottish history. Margaret of England, on her way to
join her husband, James IV, at Edinburgh, lodged a night in the castle.
"Yonder is Wolf's Crag," said Ravenswood, "and whatever it still
contains is at your service, Bucklaw." The roar of the sea had long
announced their approach to the cliff, on the summit of which, like the
nest of some sea-eagle, the founder of the fortalice had perched his
eyrie. The pale moon, which had hitherto been contending with flitting
clouds, now shone out, and gave them a view of the solitary and naked
tower, situated on a projecting cliff that beetled on the German Ocean.
On three sides the rock was precipitous; on the fourth, which was
towards the land, it had been originally fenced by an artificial ditch
and drawbridge, but the latter was broken down and ruinous, and the
former had been in part filled up, so as to allow a passage for a
horseman into the narrow courtyard, encircled on two sides by low
offices and stables partly ruinous, and closed on the landward front
by a low embattled wall, while the remaining side of the quadrangle
was occupied by the tower, built of a greyish stone, glimmering in the
moonlight like the sheeted spectre of some huge giant. A wilder or
more disconsolate dwelling, it was perhaps difficult to conceive. The
sombrous and heavy sound of the billows successively dashing against
a rocky beach at a profound distance beneath, was to the ear what
the landscape was to the eye, a symbol of unvaried and monotonous
melancholy.
[Illustration: 062-063]
[Illustration: 064]
Mr Cruikshank has successfully depicted the humorous spectacle of Caleb
Balderstone snatching provisions for his master's table. Dame Lightbody
expected a number of guests to the christening of her "bit wean," when
Caleb entered. There bubbled on the bickering fire a huge caldron, while
before it revolved two spits, one loaded with a quarter of mutton,
the other with a fat goose and a brace of wild ducks. Caleb turned to
reconnoitre as the mother and grandmother hastened to attend the hero of
the evening in a remote corner. Sending one of the youthful turnspits for
"snishing," Caleb, not apprehending danger from the other, lifted up
the spit bearing the wild-fowl, put on his hat, and marched off with
the plunder. The boy at the spit was so bewildered that he became
motionless, and suffered the mutton to burn as black as a coal.