[507] Sir William Gell styles him "Archbishop," and adds that at this
time he was in his ninetieth year. Can this prelate be Rogers's "Good
Old Cardinal," who told the pleasant tale of the _Bag of Gold_, and is
immortalised by the pencil of Landseer seated at table _en famille_ with
three of his velvet favourites? See _Italy_, fcp. 8vo, 1838, p. 302.
[508] This is the last notice in the Journal by Sir Walter of his dear
friend. James Skene of Rubislaw died at Frewen Hall, Oxford, in 1864, in
his ninetieth year. His faculties remained unimpaired throughout his
serene and beautiful old age, until the end was very near--then, one
evening his daughter found him with a look of inexpressible delight on
his face, when he said to her "I have had such a great pleasure! Scott
has been here--he came from a long distance to see me, he has been
sitting with me at the fireside talking over our happy recollections of
the past...." Two or three days later he followed his well loved friend
into the unseen world--gently and calmly like a child falling asleep he
passed away in perfect peace.
[509] John Hugh Lockhart died December 15, 1831.
[510] Sir W. Gell relates that an old English manuscript of the Romance
of Sir Bevis of Hampton, existing in Naples, had attracted Scott's
attention, and he resolved to make a copy of it.
The transcript is now in the Library at Abbotsford, under the title,
_Old English Romances_, transcribed from MSS. in the Royal Library at
Naples, by Sticchini, 2 vols. sm. 8vo.
[511] See Appendix v. for Mr. Andrew Lang's letter on this subject.
[512] The forty-shilling gold piece coined by James V. of Scotland.
[513] Sword-blades of peculiar excellence bearing the name of this maker
have been known in Scotland since the reign of James IV.
[514] Altered from Wordsworth.
[515] The editor of _Reliquiæ Antiquæ_ (2 vols. 8vo, London, 1843),
writing ten years after this visit, says, that "The Chevalier de
Licteriis [Chief Librarian in the Royal Library] showed him the
manuscript, and well remembered his drawing Sir Walter's attention to it
in 1832."
[516] Sir W. Gell records that on the morning he received the good news
he called upon him and said he felt quite relieved by his letters, and
added, "I could never have slept straight in my coffin till I had
satisfied every claim against me; and now," turning to a favourite dog
that was with them in the carriage he said, "My poor boy, I shall have
my house and my estate round it free, and I may keep my dogs as big and
as many as I choose without fear of reproach."--_Life_, vol. X. p. 160.
[517] Viz, Faldonside, an estate adjacent to Abbotsford which Scott had
long wished to possess. As far back as November 1817 he wrote a friend:
"My neighbour, Nicol Milne, is mighty desirous I should buy, at a mighty
high rate, some land between me and the lake which lies mighty
convenient, but I am mighty determined to give nothing more than the
value, so that it is likely to end like the old proverb, _Ex Nichilo
Nichil fit_."