[158] For an account of this monument see Nicolson and Burns's _History
of Westmoreland and Cumberland_, vol. ii. p. 410, and "Notabilia of
Penrith," by George Watson, _C. and W. Transactions_, No. xiv.
[159] Lady Eleanor Butler and the Hon. Miss Ponsonby. An amusing account
of Sir Walter's visit to them in 1825 is given by Mr. Lockhart in the
_Life_, vol. viii. pp. 47-50.
[160] The visit to Kenilworth in 1815 is not noticed in the _Life_, but
as Scott was in London for some weeks in the spring of that year he may
have gone there on his return journey. Mr. Charles Knight, writing in
1842, says that Mr. Bonnington, the venerable occupant of the Gate
House, told him that he remembered the visit and the visitor! It was
"about twenty-five years ago"--and after examining some carving in the
interior of the Gate House and putting many suggestive questions, the
middle-aged active stranger slightly lame, and with keen grey eye,
passed through the court and remained among the ruins silent and alone
for about two hours. (_Shakspeare_, vol. i. p. 89.) The famous romance
did not appear until six years later, viz. in January 1821, and in the
autumn of that year it is somewhat singular to find that Scott and his
friend Mr. Stewart Rose are at Stratford-on-Avon writing their names on
the wall of Shakespeare's birthplace--and yet leaving Kenilworth
unvisited.--Perhaps the reason was that Mr. Stewart Rose was not in the
secret of the authorship of the Novels.
[161] In the _Annual Register_ for July 1834 is the following notice:
"Lately at Warwick Castle, aged ninety-three, Mrs. Home, for upwards of
seventy years a servant of the Warwick family. She had the privilege of
showing the Castle, by which she realised upwards of £30,000."
[162] _Merry Wives_, Act I. Sc. 1.
[163] _As You Like It_, Act II. Sc. 7.
[164] Sir Walter remained at this time six weeks in London. His eldest
son's regiment was stationed at Hampton Court; his second son had
recently taken his desk at the Foreign Office, and was living at his
sister's in Regent's Park. He had thus looked forward to a happy meeting
with all his family--but he encountered scenes of sickness and
distress.--_Life_, vol. ix. pp. 226-7.
[165] The book was published early in April under the following title:
_Chronicles of the Canongate_, Second Series, by the Author of
_Waverley_, etc., "SIC ITUR AD ASTRA" _Motto of Canongate Arms_, in
three volumes. (_St. Valentine's Day; or The Fair Maid of Perth_.)
Edinburgh: Printed for Cadell and Co., Edinburgh, and Simpkin and
Marshall, London, 1828; (at the end) Edinburgh: Printed by Ballantyne
and Co.
[166] Among the "objects that came and departed like shadows" in this
phantasmagoria of London life was a deeply interesting letter from
Thomas Carlyle, and but for the fact that it bears Sir Walter's London
address, and the post-mark of this day, one could not imagine he had
ever seen it, as it remained unacknowledged and unnoticed in either
Journal or Correspondence.
It is dated 13th April 1828; and one of the latest letters he indited
from "21 Comely Bank, Edinburgh." After advising Scott that "Goethe has
sent two medals which he is to deliver into his own hand," he gives an
extract from Goethe's letter containing a criticism on _Napoleon_, with
the apology that "it is seldom such a writer obtains such a critic," and
in conclusion he adds, "Being in this curious fashion appointed, as it
were, ambassador between two kings of poetry, I would willingly
discharge my mission with the solemnity that beseems such a business;
and naturally it must flatter my vanity and love of the marvellous to
think that by means of a foreigner whom I have never seen, I might soon
have access to my native sovereign, whom I have so often seen in public,
and so often wished that I had claim to see and know in private and near
at hand. ... Meanwhile, I abide your further orders in this matter, and
so with all the regard which belongs to one to whom I in common with
other millions owe so much, I have the honour to be, sir, most
respectfully, your servant.--T.C."
[167] William Jacob, author of _Travels in Spain_ in 1810-11, and
several works on Political Economy. Among others "some tracts concerning
the Poor Colonies instituted by the King of the Netherlands, which had
marked influence in promoting the scheme of granting small _allotments_
of land on easy terms to our cottagers; a scheme which, under the
superintendence of Lord Braybrooke and other noblemen and gentlemen in
various districts of England, appears to have been attended with most
beneficent results."--_Life_, vol. ix. p. 229. Mr. Jacob died in 1852
aged eighty-eight.
[168] The widow of his old school-fellow, the Hon. Thomas Douglas,
afterwards Earl of Selkirk.--See _Life_, vol. i. p. 77, and 208 _n_.
[169] _Ante_, p. 10. Afterwards included in her _Poetical and Dramatic
Works,_ Lond. 1851.
[170] Dr. Henry Phillpotts, consecrated Bishop of Exeter in 1830.
[171] Crabbe's _Tale of the Dumb Orators._--J.G.L.
[172] Dr. Howley, raised in 1828 to the Archbishopric of
Canterbury.--J.G.L.
[173] Translated to the see of London in 1828, where he remained until
his death in 1859.
[174] Mr. Lockhart gives an account of another dinner party at which
Coleridge distinguished himself:--"The first time I ever witnessed it
[Hook's improvisation] was at a gay young bachelor's villa near
Highgate, when the other lion was one of a very different breed, Mr.
Coleridge. Much claret had been shed before the _Ancient Mariner_
proclaimed that he could swallow no more of anything, unless it were
punch. The materials were forthwith produced; the bowl was planted
before the poet, and as he proceeded in his concoction, Hook, unbidden,
took his place at the piano. He burst into a bacchanal of egregious
luxury, every line of which had reference to the author of the _Lay
Sermons_ and the _Aids to Reflection_. The room was becoming excessively
hot: the first specimen of the new compound was handed to Hook, who
paused to quaff it, and then, exclaiming that he was stifled, flung his
glass through the window. Coleridge rose with the aspect of a benignant
patriarch and demolished another pane--the example was followed
generally--the window was a sieve in an instant--the kind host was
furthest from the mark, and his goblet made havoc of the chandelier. The
roar of laughter was drowned in Theodore's resumption of the song--and
window and chandelier and the peculiar shot of each individual destroyer
had apt, in many cases exquisitely witty, commemoration. In walking home
with Mr. Coleridge, he entertained ------ and me with a most excellent
lecture on the distinction between talent and genius, and declared that
Hook was as true a genius as Dante--_that_ was his example."--_Theodore
Hook_, Lond. 1853, p. 23-4.
[175] Johnson's _Rambler_.
[176] The County Land Tax.
[177] The Right Hon. Sir W. Alexander of Airdrie, called to the English
Bar 1782, Chief Baron 1824; died in London in his eighty-eighth year,
1842.
[178] Sir Samuel Shepherd
[179] Walter Boyd at this time was M.P. for Lymington; he had been a
banker in Paris and in London; was the author of several well-known
tracts on finance, and died in 1837.
[180] Campbell died at Boulogne in 1844, aged sixty-seven; he was buried
in Westminster, next Southey.
[181] Hor. _Epp_. ii. 2, 76.
[182] The elder Mr. Adolphus distinguished himself early in life by his
_History of the Reign of George III_.--J.G.L.