Your correspondent A. J. DUNKIN (Vol. viii., p. 622.) asks who was the
author of the couplet,--
"Oh! for a blast of that dread horn,
On Fontarabian echoes borne."
In reply to which Query you refer him to the juvenile efforts of Frank
Osbaldiston in the delightful novel of _Rob Roy_.
You might have referred him likewise to a corresponding passage in the
sixth canto of _Marmion_, sec. xxxiii., from which the accomplished poet
and novelist repeated _inadvertently_ his own verses:
"O for a blast of that _dread_ horn,
On Fontarabian echoes borne,
That to King Charles did come," &c.
I say "inadvertently" from any own knowledge. A few months after the
well-known occurrence at a public dinner in Edinburgh, when Sir W. Scott
openly declared himself the author of the _Waverley Novels_, the writer of
these lines was staying at Abbotsford on a visit. On one occasion, when
walking with Sir Walter about his grounds, I led the conversation to his
late revelations; and while expressing some wonder at the length of time
during which the secret of the authorship had been kept, I ventured to say
that I for one had never felt the smallest doubt upon the matter, but that
the intrinsic evidence of these several works, acknowledged and
unacknowledged, had long ago convinced me that they were written by one and
the same author. Among other points I quoted _the very lines in question_
from the elegy on the death of the Black Prince in _Rob Roy_, which I
reminded Sir Walter might also be found in their sixth canto of _Marmion_.
"Ah! indeed," he replied, with his natural expression of comic gravity,
"that _was very careless_ of me! I did not think I should have committed
such a blunder!"
We kept up the like strain of conversation during the whole ramble, with a
good deal of harmless pleasantry. In the course of our walk Sir Walter
stopped at a particular point, and leaning on his staff like his own
"Antiquary," he pointed out some ancient earth-works, whose undulating
surface indicated the traces of a Roman or Pictish encampment. "There,"
said he, "you {73} will perceive the remains of a very good camp." "Yes,
Sir," said I, in the words of Lovel, "I do see something _like a ditch
indistinctly marked_." Sir Walter burst into a hearty fit of laughter,
saying, "Ay, my friends do call it the _Kairn of Kimprunes_."
I trust your readers will forgive me for recording these trivialities; but
MR. DUNKIN'S Query recalled them to my mind so forcibly after the lapse of
many years, that I venture to obtrude them upon your notice.
Before I conclude this paper, I may be permitted to make reference to a
series of letters addressed to Richard Heber, Esq., M.P., by Mr. Adolphus,
son of the historian of the reign of George III. In the conversation
referred to, Sir Walter Scott mentioned these letters in terms of high
approbation,--terms not undeserved; for a more elegant, ingenious, and
convincing piece of literary criticism never issued from the press.
At that time I had not seen it; but in reference to the passage in
question, the coincidence of which in the poem and the romance has not
escaped the critic's acuteness, Mr. Adolphus makes the following remarks:
"A refined speculator might perhaps conceive that so glaring a
repetition could not be the effect of inadvertence, but that the
novelist, induced by some transient whim or caprice, had intentionally
appropriated the verses of his great cotemporary. I cannot, however,
imagine any motive for such a proceeding, more especially as it must
appear somewhat unhandsome to take possession of another man's lines
for the mere purpose of exhibiting them in a ridiculous light. Nor does
it seem to me at all unlikely that the author of _Marmion_, supposing
him to be also the author of _Rob Roy_, should have _unconsciously
repeated himself_ in this instance, for we find him more than once
apologising in his avowed works for having, in the haste of
composition, snatched up expressions, and even whole lines, of other
writers."
The anecdote above recorded proves the justice and refinement of the
critic's speculation.