[431] _The British Herald_, by Thomas Robson, 3 vols. 4to, 1830. Mr.
Lockhart says this review never was published.
[432] Mr. Andrew Lang, Sheriff and Commissary Clerk, and Clerk of Peace,
for Selkirkshire, grandfather of Mr. Andrew Lang, the accomplished poet
and man of letters of the present time. The tact and ability of the
grandfather are noticed by Sir Walter in his letter to Lord Montagu of
Oct. 3, 1819, describing Prince Leopold at Selkirk.--_Life_, vol. vi. p.
131.
[433] This proposal, resisted successfully in 1832, has since been put
in force so far as Parliament is concerned.
[434] I _Henry IV_., Act II. Sc. 3.
[435] _Taming of the Shrew_, Introd.
[436] As this is the last reference to the Ettrick Shepherd in the
Journal, it may be noted that Sir Walter, as late as March 23d, 1832,
was still desirous to promote Hogg's welfare. In writing from Naples he
says, in reference to the Shepherd's social success in London, "I am
glad Hogg has succeeded so well. I hope he will make hay while the sun
shines; but he must be aware that the Lion of this season always becomes
the Boar of the next.... I will subscribe the proper sum, _i.e._ what
you think right, for Hogg, by all means; and I pray God, keep farms and
other absurd temptations likely to beset him out of his way. He has
another chance for comfort if he will use common sense with his very
considerable genius."
[437] This expression of irritation can easily be understood after
reading the passages referred to in the twenty-ninth volume of
_Blackwood's Magazine_, pp. 30-35, and 535-544. Readers of this
_Journal_ have seen what uphill work these "Letters on Demonology" were
to the author, but the unsparing criticism of _Christopher North_ must
have appeared to the author as a very unfriendly act, more especially,
he thought, if the critic really knew the conditions under which the
book had been written.
[438] Mr. Lockhart says:--"He proposed one of the Tory resolutions in a
speech of some length, but delivered in a tone so low, and with such
hesitation in utterance, that only a few detached passages were
intelligible to the bulk of the audience."--See _Life_, vol. x. pp.
46-8.
[439] The passing of the great Reform Bill in the House of Commons on
the 22d March.
[440] His friend Richardson, who was a Whig, writes him from London on
February 14:--"What a singular feeling it was to me to find Brougham
Lord Chancellor, and Jeffrey and Cockburn in their present stations! I
am afraid that the spirit of reform goes at present beyond the limits to
which even the Government will go--and but for the large stock of good
sense and feeling which I think yet pervades the country, I should
tremble for the future."
[441] _Merry Wives_, Act I. Sc. 1.
[442] _Stulko_ or _Stulk_ (? _Stocaire_, in Irish), a word formerly in
common use among the Irish, signifying an idle, lazy, good-for-nothing
fellow.
[443] Mary Campbell, Lady Ruthven, for whom the picture was painted, was
not only the friend of Scott, but she held relations more or less close
with nearly every one famous in Art and Literature during the greater
part of the nineteenth century. No mean artist herself, and though,
perhaps, not a clever letter-writer, she had among her correspondents
some of the most brilliant men of her day. She survived all her early
friends, but had the gift of being attractive to the young, and for
three generations was the delight of their children and grandchildren.
Those who were privileged to share in the refined hospitality of Winton,
never forgot either the picturesque old house (the supposed Ravenswood
Castle of the _Bride of Lammermoor_), or its venerable mistress as she
sat of an evening in her unique drawing-room, the walls of which were
adorned with pictures of Grecian temple and landscape, her own handiwork
in days long gone by when she was styled by her friends Queen of Athens.
Her conversation, after she was ninety, was fresh and vigorous; and,
despite blindness and imperfect hearing, she kept herself well
acquainted with the affairs of the day. The last great speech in
Parliament, or the newest _bon mot_, were equally acceptable and equally
relished. Her sense of humour and fun made her, at times, forget her own
sufferings, and her splendid memory enabled her to while away many a
sleepless hour by repeating long passages from the Bible or Milton. The
former she had so much in her heart that it was scarcely possible to
believe she was not reading from the Book. Above all was her truly
divine gift of charity, the practical application of which, in her
every-day life, was only bounded by her means.