ABBOTSFORD
'O bear me back to all to Memory dear,
'Twill to my faded brow be health restored
To feel the breeze that waves the woods of Abbotsford.'
[Illustration: ABBOTSFORD FROM THE RIVER TWEED]
'Within that pile _he_ dwelt whose ardent soul
Filled with bright dreams, and aspirations high,
And boundless knowledge, wonder-chained the whole
Of human kind, but turned its glorious eye
Of love on Caledon's bleak hills and cloudy sky.'
ABBOTSFORD
PAINTED BY
WILLIAM SMITH, JR.
DESCRIBED BY
W. S. CROCKETT
MINISTER OF TWEEDSMUIR; AUTHOR OF 'THE SCOTT COUNTRY,' ETC.
WITH
TWENTY FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS
IN COLOUR
[Illustration]
LONDON
ADAM AND CHARLES BLACK
1905
TO
SIR WALTER'S SUCCESSORS
AT
ABBOTSFORD,
THE HON. MRS. MAXWELL SCOTT,
HIS GREAT-GRANDDAUGHTER,
AND
WALTER MAXWELL SCOTT,
GREAT-GREAT-GRANDSON,
THESE CHAPTERS ARE DEDICATED.
Preface
Abbotsford merits a volume in the present series will be readily
conceded. In preparing the letterpress I have found myself, not
unnaturally, playing to some extent the part of a biographer, and
in this I have generally followed Lockhart, always the ultimate
authority on Sir Walter. A number of fresh facts, however, will
be found here and there throughout the work. Mrs. Maxwell Scott
has kindly read the proof of 'The Later Abbotsford,' and for the
'Treasures' chapter I am indebted somewhat to her admirable little
'Catalogue,' which no visitor to Scott's home should miss.
W. S. CROCKETT.
THE MANSE,
TWEEDSMUIR,
_June 15, 1905_.
Contents
CHAPTER I
PAGE
INTRODUCTORY 1
CHAPTER II
FROM CARTLEYHOLE TO ABBOTSFORD 9
CHAPTER III
THE CREATION OF ABBOTSFORD 27
CHAPTER IV
SCOTT AT ABBOTSFORD 47
CHAPTER V
AN ABBOTSFORD BEAD-ROLL 75
CHAPTER VI
THE WIZARD'S FAREWELL TO ABBOTSFORD 103
CHAPTER VII
LOCKHART AND ABBOTSFORD 123
CHAPTER VIII
THE LATER ABBOTSFORD 149
CHAPTER IX
THE TREASURES OF ABBOTSFORD 165
CHAPTER X
AROUND ABBOTSFORD 207
INDEX 220
List of Illustrations
1. Abbotsford from the River Tweed _Frontispiece_
FACING PAGE
2. The Cross, Melrose 8
3. The Abbey, Melrose 24
4. The Gateway, Abbotsford 38
5. Darnick Tower 42
6. Sandyknowe Tower 80
7. Cauldshiels Loch 92
8. The Rhymer's Glen 98
9. Melrose Abbey from the Meadows 106
10. Jedburgh Abbey 112
11. Leaderfoot Bridge 122
12. The Eildon Hills and River Tweed 134
13. Chiefswood 140
14. The Garden, Abbotsford 160
15. Sir Walter's Dial, Abbotsford 172
16. Sir Walter Scott's Desk and 'Elbow-chair' in the
Study, Abbotsford 178
17. The Entrance Hall, Abbotsford 200
18. The Dining-room, Abbotsford 204
19. Dryburgh Abbey 216
20. Kelso Abbey and Bridge 218
INTRODUCTORY
CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTORY
Last year (1904) no fewer than seven thousand persons from all
parts of the world visited Abbotsford.[1] There is no diminution in
the annual pilgrimage to this chief shrine of the Border Country,
nor is there likely to be. Scott's name, and that of Abbotsford,
are secure enough in the affections of men everywhere. Whilst many
would rejoice to see Sir Walter's home on a different footing
from a patriotic point of view--less of a shilling show-house
for one thing--there is no reason to quarrel with the present
arrangements, which, likely enough, are the best under existing
conditions. The order of viewing the various rooms, however, might
well be improved, the public permitted to linger over them a little
more leisurely, and also to see something of the exterior of the
building. That many ardent Scott worshippers who flock yearly
to Abbotsford would welcome a more ample opportunity for study
and reflection within its charmed enclosure goes without saying.
Of course, as being still a private residence, there are obvious
difficulties in the way of such easier access. But probably that
may come by-and-by.
The best preparation for a visit to Abbotsford is a course of
Lockhart. There is no more faithful account of the place, from
its purchase to the high-water mark of Scott's happiness there
and the troubled years preceding the end. From at least 1820, and
irrespective of his London life, Lockhart was Scott's companion
and confidant at Abbotsford. Seldom has the fellowship of letters
shown a friendship so strong and true. It was sympathy other than
that of a son-in-law which Lockhart brought to the writing of his
great Biography, and which has made it one of the masterpieces of
literature. Never, surely, was a great man more fortunate in his
life-story than Scott at the hands of Lockhart, one of the most
maligned and misunderstood men of his day, indeed, but a kindly,
lovable soul withal. To understand Abbotsford, it is a necessity
that one should study the life of its originator and owner, with
whose name, notwithstanding any subsequent occupation, the
'romance in stone and lime' is indissolubly connected.
In Scott's earliest association with Abbotsford, or, rather, with
the site on which Abbotsford stands, is there not theme alike for
painter and poet? Lockhart tells how Scott used to relate that,
travelling in boyhood with his father from Selkirk to Melrose, the
old man desired the carriage to halt at the foot of an eminence,
and said: 'We must get out here, Walter, and see a thing quite in
your line.' His father then conducted him to a rude stone[2] on the
edge of an acclivity about half a mile from the Tweed, at which
spot the last great clan-battle of the Borders was fought between
Scotts and Kers for the possession of King James V., the young
Prince himself being a spectator of the contest. From a child Scott
had exhibited a marked precocity for Border history and Border lore
in general, and even then, as a boy, there were few to excel him
as a story-teller. The printed page was in the dim distance, but
already he could command an audience no less wonder-struck with
that fair silver tongue of his, which in the budding Edinburgh
days won him the heart of Mrs. Alison Cockburn and her coterie. We
may be sure that the elder Walter had a more than average pride
in the boy's tastes and promise for the future, nor would the
opportunity be lacking by which these were encouraged and enriched.
The road between Selkirk and Melrose has other memories, recalled,
doubtless, that day as they drove along, but to a boy whose mind
seemed ever bent on
'Old, unhappy, far-off things,
And battles long ago,'
the near neighbourhood of a Border battle-field was quite an event.
Hence the picture of Scott and his father surveying the spot where,
in the year 1526,
'gallant Cessford's heart-blood dear
Reeked on dark Elliot's Border spear,'
might well lend inspiration for some artist's canvas. For there
is more in the subject than the mere suggestion of a future great
author touching for the first time the land to be immortalized
by his genius. Were it that only, we should have an endless
succession of canvases; but it is the suggestiveness of strongest
personal association rather. Comparatively few recollect the
incident which appealed so to Scott, both in his boyhood and later
life. But everybody knows that practically all the arena of that
fateful struggle--most of the landscape on which his youthful
vision long and rapturously rested--by-and-by became his own
possession. We may suppose that at least a quarter of a century lay
between that day and the purchase of his first hundred acres as
Laird of Abbotsford, and the gradual growth, almost year by year,
of the lands of Abbotsford, still holds a big place in the popular
imagination. As a battle scene, it was significant of his own
career. What conquests were these fields not again to witness--and
what defeats! What heroism of the pen, no less noble than that of
the sword! What determination in the face of fearful odds to do his
best at Duty's call, no less honoured and no less magnificent in
achievement than the doughtiest deed of arms in ancient or modern
days! That Abbotsford should attract its tens of thousands from all
ends of the earth was to be expected after such a strenuous life as
Scott's. Human nature must always pay homage at the shrine of the
truly great, and if it be true that no writer has given pleasure
to vaster multitudes, and that never has the life of his country
been so well limned as by this master-hand, it will be equally true
of Abbotsford that it will never want those to whom everything
about it and its very dust is dear.
[Illustration: THE CROSS, MELROSE]
'And thou hast stood--how strange the story!--
In Melrose Square seven hundred years or more:
Saw the gray Abbey in its pomp and glory--
Looked round on hill and valley long before
Men gave up being mosstroopers and reivers,
And settled down as shopkeepers and weavers!
FROM CARTLEYHOLE TO ABBOTSFORD