"ABBOTSFORD, 16 _January_ 1831."
[418] Sir W. alludes to Mrs. Piozzi's Tale of _The Three
Warnings_.--J.G.L.
[419] _Macbeth_, Act I. Sc. 3.
[420] Eccles. xii. 3.
[421] Crabbe's _Borough_, Letter xiii.--J.G.L.
[422] See _Pirate_.
[423] The deer-hound Bran which was presented by Macpherson of Cluny;
Nimrod was Glengarry's gift.--See letter to Miss Edgeworth, printed in
_Life_, vol. ix. p. 345.
[424] I _Henry IV_., Act II. Sc. 3.
[425] No. 1 Castle Street.
[426] "His host perceived that he was unfit for any company but the
quietest, and had sometimes one old friend, Mr. Thomson, Mr. Clerk, or
Mr. Skene to dinner, but no more. He seemed glad to see them, but they
all observed him with pain. He never took the lead in conversation, and
often remained altogether silent. In the mornings he wrote usually for
several hours at _Count Robert_; and Mr. Cadell remembers in particular,
that on Ballantyne's reminding him that a motto was wanted for one of
the chapters already finished, he looked out for a moment at the gloomy
weather, and penned these lines--
'The storm increases--'tis no sunny shower,
Foster'd in the moist breast of March or April,
Or such as parched summer cools his lips with.
Heaven's windows are flung wide; the inmost deeps
Call in hoarse greeting one upon another;
On comes the flood in all its foaming horrors,
And where's the dyke shall stop it?'"--_The Deluge--a Poem_.
--_Life_, vol. x. p. 37.
[427] A skilful mechanist, who, by a clever piece of handiwork, gave Sir
Walter great relief, but only for a brief period.--_Life_, vol. x, p.
38.