[438] "A half-crazy sentimental person."--_Edin. Rev_. No. xxiii. p.
135.--J.G.L.
[439] Mme. de Boufflers's saying to the author of _Julie_.
[440] _Merry Wives of Windsor_, Act I. Sc. 1.--J.G.L.
[441] Mr. Sharpe was doing what he could by voice and pen to prevent the
destruction of many historic buildings in Edinburgh, which the craze for
"improvements" caused at this time. St. Giles' Church was unfortunately
left to its fate. Witness its external condition at the present day!
The immediate cause of Mr. Sharpe's letter was a hint to him from the
Court, "that one person is all-powerful in everything regarding
Scotland, I mean Sir W.S." This was not the only appeal made to Scott to
interpose, and that he had done so at least in one case effectually may
be seen by referring to Sharpe's _Letters_, vol. ii. pp. 380, 388, 389.
[442] Scott sent a biographical notice of the Duke of York to the
_Weekly Journal_ on this day. It is now included in the _Misc. Prose
Works_, vol. iv. pp. 400-416.
[443] Gifford's _Mæviad_, 12mo, Lond. 1797; Ode to Rev. John Ireland,
slightly altered.
[444] William Gifford, editor of the _Anti-Jacobin_ in 1797, and the
_Quarterly_ from 1809 to 1824. His political opponent, Leigh Hunt, wrote
of him in 1812:--
'William Gifford's a name, I think, pretty well known.
Oh! now I remember,' said Phoebus;--'ah true--
My thanks to that name are undoubtedly due.
The rod that got rid of the Cruscas and Lauras,
That plague of the butterflies saved me the horrors,
The Juvenal too stops a gap in my shelf,
At least in what Dryden has not done himself,
_And there's something which even, distaste must respect
In the self-taught example that conquered neglect_.'--_Feast of the Poets_.
[445] See _Miscell. Prose Works_, vol. iv. pp. 120-70.
[446] James Ferrier, Esq.--See p. 103, February 3. 1826.
[447] _See Midsummer Night's Dream_; a parody on Helena's
"O weary night O long and tedious night."
[448] John James Audubon was born in Louisiana in the United States in
1780, but educated in France.--Buchanan's _Life of Audubon_, p. 4.
[449] Written by Mrs. J. Johnstone, in after years editor of _Tait's
Magazine_, well known also as the author of _Meg Dods' Cookery Book_,
which Sir Walter refers to in _St. Ronan's Well_. Her sense of humour
and power of delineating character are shown in her stories and sketches
in _Tait_, and a good example of her ready wit has been told by Mr.
Alexander Russel, editor of the _Scotsman_. On a visit to Altrive Mrs.
Johnstone and her party were kindly received by the Ettrick Shepherd,
who did the honours of the district, and among other places took them to
a Fairy Well, from which he drew a glass of sparkling water. Handing it
to the lady the bard of Kilmeny said, "Hae, Mrs. Johnstone, ony merrit
wumman wha drinks a tumbler of this will hae twuns in a twalmont'!" "In
that case, Mr. Hogg," replied the lady, "I shall only take half a
tumbler."
Mrs. Johnstone died in Edinburgh in 1857.
[450] Slightly varied from the lines in _Ruth_,--Poems, vol. ii. p. 112,
Edinburgh, 1836.
[451] John Russell (a grandson of Principal Robertson), long Chief Clerk
in the Jury Court, and Treasurer to the Royal Society and the Edinburgh
Academy. He took a keen interest in education, and published in October
1855 some curious _Statistics of a Class_ [Christison's] _in the High
School_ [of Edinburgh] from 1787 to 1791, of which he had been a member.
Mr. Russell died on January 30, 1862.
[452] Leonard Horner, editor in after years of the Memoirs of his
brother Francis (2 vols. 8vo, London, 1843). He died in 1864.
[453] See _Report by the Directors to the Proprietors of the Edinburgh
Academy on the Pronunciation of Latin_, Edin. 1827. Sir Walter always
took a warm interest in the school. His speech as Chairman at the
opening ceremony, on the 1st October 1824, is quoted in the _Life_, vol.
vii. p. 268.
[454] Burnt at Edinburgh in 1670.--See Arnot's _Crim. Trials_. 4to,
Edin. 1785.
[455] Afterwards Sir John Rennie, knighted on the completion of the
Bridge.
[456] See _ante_, p. 307, and _post_, p. 359.
[457] Dr. Marshman died in 1837. See Marshman's _Lives of Carey,
Marshman, and Ward_. London, 2 vols. 8vo, 1859.
[458] John Menzies of Pitfoddels, the last of an old Aberdeenshire
family, of whom it was said that for thirty-seven years he never became
aware of distress or difficulty without exerting himself to relieve it.
In 1828 he gave the estate of Blairs, near Aberdeen, for the foundation
of the Roman Catholic College established there, and was also a
munificent benefactor to the Convent of St. Margaret, Edinburgh, opened
in 1835. Mr. Menzies died in 1843.