CHARLES SCOTT, T J.G. LOCKHART, Esq.,
second Son. H Son-in-Law.
E
CHARLES SCOTT, JAMES SCOTT, Esq.,
of Nesbitt, Cousin. of Nesbitt, Cousin.
B
WILLIAM SCOTT, Esq., O ROBERT RUTHERFORD, Esq.,
of Raeburn, Cousin. D W.S., Cousin.
Y
Colonel RUSSELL, . HUGH SCOTT, Esq.,
of Ashiesteel, Cousin. of Harden.
FOOT.
WILLIAM KEITH, Esq., of Edinburgh.
When all were in their places, the bearers moved slowly forward,
preceded by two mutes in long cloaks, carrying poles covered with crape;
and no sooner had the coffin passed through the double line formed by
the company than the whole broke up, and followed in a thick press.
At the head was the Rev. J. Williams, rector of the Edinburgh Academy,
dressed in his canonicals as a clergyman of the Church of England; and
on his left hand walked Mr. Cadell, the well-known publisher of the
Waverley Works. There was a solemnity as well as a simplicity in the
whole of this spectacle which we never witnessed on any former occasion.
The long-robed mutes--the body, with its devotedly-attached and
deeply-afflicted supporters and attendants--the clergyman, whose
presence indicated the Christian belief and hopes of those assembled--and
the throng of uncovered and reverential mourners stole along beneath the
tall and umbrageous trees with a silence equal to that which is believed
to accompany those visionary funerals which have their existence only in
the superstitions of our country. The ruined Abbey disclosed itself
through the trees; and we approached its western extremity, where a
considerable portion of vaulted roof still remains to protect the poet's
family place of interment, which opens to the sides in lofty Gothic
arches, and is defended by a low rail of enclosure. At one extremity
of it, a tall, thriving young cypress rears its spiral form. Creeping
plants of different kinds, "with ivy never sere," have spread themselves
very luxuriantly over every part of the Abbey. Amongst other
decorations, we observed a plum-tree, which was, perhaps, at one period,
a prisoner, chained to the solid masonry, but which having long since
been emancipated, now threw out its wild, pendant branches, laden with
purple fruit, ready to drop, as if emblematical of the ripening and
decay of human life.
In such a scene as this, then, it was, that the coffin of Sir Walter
Scott was set down on trestles placed outside the iron railing; and here
that solemn service, beginning with those words so cheering to the souls
of Christians, "I am the resurrection and the life," was solemnly read
by Mr. Williams. The manly, soldier-like features of the chief mourner,
on whom the eyes of sympathy were most naturally turned, betrayed at
intervals the powerful efforts which he made to master his emotions, as
well as the inefficiency of his exertions to do so. The other relatives
who surrounded the bier were deeply moved; and amid the crowd of weeping
friends no eye and no heart could be discovered that was not altogether
occupied in that sad and impressive ceremonial which was so soon to shut
from them for ever him who had been so long the common idol of their
admiration, and of their best affections. * * *
It was not until the harsh sound of the hammers of the workmen who were
employed to rivet those iron bars covering the grave to secure it from
violation, had begun to echo from the vaulted roof, that some of us were
called to the full conviction of the fact, that the earth had for ever
closed over that form which we were wont to love and reverence; that eye
which we had so often seen beaming with benevolence, sparkling with wit,
or lighted up with a poet's phrenzy; those lips which we had so often
seen monopolizing the attention of all listeners, or heard rolling out,
with nervous accentuation, those powerful verses with which his head was
continually teeming; and that brow, the perpetual throne of generous
expression and liberal intelligence. Overwhelmed by the conviction of
the afflicting truth, men moved away without parting salutation, singly,
slowly, and silently. Tho day began to stoop down into twilight; and we,
too, after giving a last parting survey to the spot where now repose the
remains of our Scottish Shakspeare--a spot lovely enough to induce his
sainted spirit to haunt and sanctify its shades--hastily tore ourselves
away.
[2] A celebrated stag-hound, which Sir Walter received from Glengarry.
* * * * *