J. G. Lockhart: Life of Walter Scott

In the end of 1808, a young man, by name Andrew Stewart, who had figured for some years before as a poetical contributor to the Scots Magazine, and inserted there, among other things, a set of stanzas in honour of The Last Minstrel,* was tried, and capitally convicted, on a charge of burglary. He addressed, some weeks after his sentence had been pronounced, the following letters:—

It appears that Scott, and his good-natured old friend, Mr Manners the bookseller, who happened at this time to be one of the bailies of Edinburgh, exerted their joint influence in this tailor-poet’s behalf, and with such success, that his sentence was commuted for one of transportation for life. A thin octavo pamphlet, entitled, “Poems, chiefly in the Scottish dialect, by Andrew Stewart; printed for the benefit of the Author’s Father, and sold by Manners and Miller, and A. Constable and Co., 1809,” appeared soon after the convict’s departure for Botany Bay. But as to his fortunes in that new world I possess no information. There seemed to me something so striking in the working of his feelings as expressed in his letters to Scott, that I thought the reader would forgive this little episode.

In the course of February, Mr John Ballantyne had proceeded to London, for the purpose of introducing himself to the chief publishers there in his new capacity, and especially of taking Mr Murray’s instructions respecting the Scotch management of the Quarterly Review. As soon as the spring vacation began, Scott followed him by sea. He might naturally have wished to be at hand while his new partner was forming arrangements on which so much must depend; but some

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circumstances in the procedure of the Scotch Law Commission had made the Lord Advocate request his presence at this time in town. There he and Mrs Scott took up their quarters, as usual, under the roof of their kind old friends the Dumergues; while their eldest girl enjoyed the advantage of being domesticated with the Miss Baillies at Hampstead. They staid more than two months, and this being his first visit to town since his fame had been crowned by Marmion, he was of course more than ever the object of general curiosity and attention. Mr Morritt saw much of him, both at his own house in Portland Place and elsewhere, and I transcribe a few sentences from his memoranda of the period.

“Scott,” his friend says, “more correctly than any other man I ever knew, appreciated the value of that apparently enthusiastic engouement which the world of London shows to the fashionable wonder of the year. During this sojourn of 1809, the homage paid him would have turned the head of any less gifted man of eminence. It neither altered his opinions, nor produced the affectation of despising it; on the contrary, he received it, cultivated it, and repaid it in its own coin. ‘All this is very flattering,’ he would say, ‘and very civil; and if people are amused with hearing me tell a parcel of old stories, or recite a pack of ballads to lovely young girls and gaping matrons, they are easily pleased, and a man would be very ill-natured who would not give pleasure so cheaply conferred.’ If he dined with us and found any new faces, ‘Well, do you want me to play lion to-day?’ was his usual question—‘I will roar if you like it to your heart’s content.’ He would, indeed, in such cases put forth all his inimitable powers of entertainment and day after day surprised me by their unexpected extent and variety. Then, as the party dwindled, and we were left alone, he laughed at himself, quoted, ‘yet know that I

MR MORRITT—LONDON MARCH, 1809.

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one Snug the joiner am—no lion fierce,’ &c. and was at once himself again.

The meetings with Canning, Croker, and Ellis, to which Mr Morritt alludes, were, as may be supposed, chiefly occupied with the affairs of the Quarterly

* It may amuse the reader to turn to Mr Coleridge’s own stately account of this lion-show in Grosvenor Street, in the preface to his celebrated Eclogue. There was one person present, it seems, who had been in the secret of its authorship—Sir Humphrey Davy; and no one could have enjoyed the scene more than he must have done. “At the house,” Coleridge says, “of a gentleman who, by the principles and corresponding virtues of a sincere Christian, consecrates a cultivated genius and the favourable accidents of birth, opulence, and splendid connexions, it was my good fortune to meet, in a dinner party, with more men of celebrity in science or polite literature than are commonly found collected around the same table. In the course of conversation, one of the party reminded an illustrious poet,” &c. &c.—Coleridge’s Poetical Works. Edition, 1835. Vol. I., P. 274.

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Review. The first number of that Journal appeared while Scott was in London: it contained three articles from his pen—namely, one on the Reliques of Burns; another on the Chronicle of the Cid; and a third on Sir John Carr’s Tour through Scotland. His conferences with the editor and publisher were frequent; and the latter certainly contemplated, at this time, a most close and intimate connexion with him, not only as a reviewer, but an author; and, consequently, with both the concerns of the Messrs Ballantyne. Scott continued for some time to be a very active contributor to the Quarterly Review; nor, indeed, was his connexion with it ever entirely suspended. But John Ballantyne transacted business in a fashion which soon cooled, and in no very long time dissolved, the general “alliance offensive and defensive” with Murray, which Scott had announced before leaving Edinburgh to both Southey and Ellis.

The enclosure, and the rest of the letter, refer to the private affairs of Mr Southey, in whose favour Scott had for some time back been strenuously using his interest with his friends in the Government. How well he had, while in London, read the feelings of some of those ministers towards each other, appears from various letters written upon his return to Scotland. It may be sufficient to quote part of one addressed to the distinguished author whose fortunes he was exerting himself to promote. To him Scott says (14th June),—“Mr Canning’s opportunities to serve you will soon be numerous, or they will soon be gone altogether; for he is of a different mould from some of his colleagues, and a decided foe to those half measures which I know you detest as much as I do. It is not his fault that the cause of Spain is not at this moment triumphant. This I know, and the time will come when the world will know it too.”

Before fixing himself at Ashestiel for the autumn, he

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had undertaken to have a third poem ready for publication, by John Ballantyne, by the end of the year, and probably made some progress in the composition of the Lady of the Lake. On the rising of the Court in July, he went, accompanied by Mrs Scott and his eldest daughter, to revisit the localities, so dear to him in the days of his juvenile rambling, which he had chosen for the scene of his fable. He gave a week to his old friends at Cambusmore, and ascertained, in his own person, that a good horseman, well mounted, might gallop from the shore of Loch Vennachar to the rock of Stirling within the space allotted for that purpose to FitzJames. From Cambusmore the party proceeded to Ross Priory, and, under the guidance of Mr Macdonald Buchanan, explored the islands of Loch Lomond, Arrochar, Loch Sloy, and all the scenery of a hundred desperate conflicts between the Macfarlanes, the Colquhouns, and the Clan Alpine. At Buchanan House, which is very near Ross Priory, Scott’s friends, Lady Douglas and Lady Louisa Stuart, were then visiting the Duke of Montrose; he joined them there, and read to them the Stag Chase, which he had just completed under the full influence of the genius loci.

The unfortunate brother, the blot of the family, to whom Scott alludes in this letter, had disappointed all the hopes under which his friends sent him to Jamaica. It may be remarked, as characteristic of Scott at this time, that in the various letters to Ellis concerning Daniel, he speaks of him as his relation, never as his brother; and it must also be mentioned as a circumstance suggesting that Daniel had retained, after all, some

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sense of pride, that his West Indian patron was allowed by himself to remain, to the end of their connexion, in ignorance of what his distinguished brother had thus thought fit to suppress. Mr Blackburn, in fact, never knew that Daniel was Walter Scott’s brother, until he was applied to for some information respecting him on my own behalf, after this narrative was begun. The story is shortly, that the adventurer’s habits of dissipation proved incurable; but he finally left Jamaica under a stigma which Walter Scott regarded with utter severity. Being employed in some service against a refractory or insurgent body of negroes, he had exhibited a lamentable deficiency of spirit and conduct. He returned to Scotland a dishonoured man; and though he found shelter and compassion from his mother, his brother would never see him again. Nay, when soon after, his health, shattered by dissolute indulgence, and probably the intolerable load of shame, gave way altogether, and he died as yet a young man, the poet refused either to attend his funeral or to wear mourning for him like the rest of the family. Thus sternly, when in the height and pride of his blood, could Scott, whose heart was never hardened against the distress of an enemy, recoil from the disgrace of a brother. It is a more pleasing part of my duty to add, that he spoke to me, twenty years afterwards, in terms of great and painful contrition for the austerity with which he had conducted himself on this occasion. I must add, moreover, that he took a warm interest in a natural child whom Daniel had bequeathed to his mother’s care; and after the old lady’s death, religiously supplied her place as the boy’s protector.

About this time the edition of Sir Ralph Sadler’s State Papers, &c. (3 vols. royal 4 to) was at length completed by Scott, and published by Constable; but the letters which passed between the Editor and the bookseller show

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that their personal estrangement had as yet undergone slender alteration. The collection of the Sadler papers was chiefly the work of Mr Arthur Clifford—but Scott drew up the Memoir and Notes, and superintended the printing. His account of the Life of Sadler* extends to thirty pages; and both it and his notes are written with all that lively solicitude about points of antiquarian detail, which accompanied him through so many tasks less attractive than the personal career of a distinguished statesman intimately connected with the fortunes of Mary Queen of Scots. Some volumes of the edition of Somers’s Tracts (which he had undertaken for Mr Miller and other booksellers of London two or three years before) were also published about the same period; but that compilation was not finished (13 vols. royal 4to) until 1812. His part in it (for which the booksellers paid him 1300 guineas) was diligently performed, and shows abundant traces of his sagacious understanding and graceful expression. His editorial labours on Dryden, Swift, and these other collections, were gradually storing his mind with that minute and accurate knowledge of the leading persons and events both of Scotch and English history, which made his conversation on such subjects that of one who had rather lived with than read about the departed; while, unlike other antiquaries, he always preserved the keenest interest in the transactions of his own time.

The reader has seen that during his stay in London in the spring of this year, Scott became strongly impressed with a suspicion that the Duke of Portland’s Cabinet could not much longer hold together; and the letters which have been quoted, when considered along with the actual course of subsequent events, can leave little doubt

* Republished in the Miscellaneous Prose Works, vol. iv.

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that he had gathered this impression from the tone of Mr Canning’s private conversation as to the recent management of the War Department by Lord Castlereagh. It is now known that, as early as Easter, the Secretary for Foreign Affairs had informed the head of the Government that, unless the Secretary for War and the Colonies were replaced by a more competent person, he himself must withdraw from the Ministry; that the Duke of Portland and the majority of the Cabinet concurred in the necessity of Lord Castlereagh’s removal, but pressed Mr Canning to allow the matter to lie over until the conclusion of the Parliamentary Session; that Mr Canning, reluctantly agreeing to this delay, continued to sit for some months in the same Cabinet with the colleague whose eventual dismissal had been conceded to his representation; and that when, on the 20th of September, the Duke of Portland at length informed him of Mr Canning’s resolution, with the date of its original communication to his Grace and the other Ministers, Lord Castlereagh tendered his resignation, and wrote the same day to Mr Canning, reproaching him with double dealing. “Having,” he said, “pronounced it unfit that I should remain charged with the conduct of the war, and made my situation as a Minister of the Crown dependent on your will and pleasure, you continued to sit in the same Cabinet with me, and leave me not only in the persuasion that I possessed your confidence and support as a colleague, but allowed me, in breach of every principle of good faith, both public and private, to originate and proceed in the execution of a new enterprise of the most arduous and important nature (the Walcheren Expedition) with your apparent concurrence and ostensible approbation. You were fully aware that, if my situation in the government had been disclosed to me, I could not have submitted to remain one moment in office, without

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the entire abandonment of my private honour and public duty. You knew I was deceived, and you continued to deceive me.”

The result was a duel on the morning of the 21st, in which Mr Canning was attended by Mr Charles Ellis (now Lord Seaford) as his second. Mr Canning, at the second fire, was severely wounded in the thigh, while his antagonist, had a narrow escape, a button on the lapel of his coat having been shot off. In consequence of this quarrel, both Lord Castlereagh and Mr Canning retired from office; their example was followed by the Duke of Portland himself; and after fruitless negotiations with Lords Grey and Grenville, Mr Percival became First Lord of the Treasury, as well as Chancellor of the Exchequer; while the Marquis Wellesley took the Seals of the Foreign Department, and Lord Liverpool removed from the Home Office to that which Lord Castlereagh had occupied. There were some other changes, but Scott’s friend, Mr R. Dundas (now Lord Melville), remained in his place at the head of the Board of Control.

I could not quote more largely from these political letters without trespassing against the feelings of dis-

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tinguished individuals still alive. I believe the extracts which I have given are sufficient to illustrate the sagacity with which Scott had at that early period apprehended the dangers to which the political career of Mr Canning was exposed, by the jealousy of the old Tory aristocracy on the one hand, and the insidious flatteries of Whig intriguers on the other. Even in communications which he must have known would pass under Mr Canning’s own eye, I think we may trace something of the lurking suspicion, that a propensity to tamper with intrigue might eventually develope itself in that great statesman’s otherwise noble character. In after years he certainly expressed himself concerning the quarrel of 1809 as if, on a cool retrospect, he considered the “harebrained Irishman” to have been much more sinned against than sinning; but his original impressions on this point had of course been modified by the subsequent lives of the two antagonists—as, indeed, his correspondence will be found to confess. I willingly turn from Scott’s politics to some other matters, which about this time occupied a large share of his thoughts.

Another graceful and intelligent performer in whom he took a special interest, and of whom he saw a great

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deal in his private circle, was Miss Smith, afterwards Mrs Bartley. But at the period of which I am now treating, his principal theatrical intimacy was with John Philip Kemble, and his sister Mrs Siddons, both of whom he appears to have often met at Lord Abercorn’s villa near Stanmore, during his spring visits to London after the first establishment of his poetical celebrity. Of John Kemble’s personal character and manners, he has recorded his impressions in a pleasing reviewal of Mr Boaden’s Memoir.* The great tragedian’s love of black-letter learning, especially of dramatic antiquities, afforded a strong bond of fellowship; and I have heard Scott say that the only man who ever seduced him into very deep potations in his middle life was Kemble. He was frequently at Ashestiel, and the “fat Scotch butler,” whom Mr Skene has described to us, by name John Macbeth, made sore complaints of the bad hours kept on such occasions in one of the most regular of households; but the watchings of the night were not more grievous to “Cousin Macbeth,” as Kemble called the honest beauffetier, than were the hazards and fatigues of the morning to the representative of the Scotch usurper. Kemble’s miseries during a rough gallop were quite as grotesque as those of his namesake, and it must be owned that species of distress was one from the contemplation of which his host could never derive any thing but amusement.

It was this intercourse which led Scott to exert himself very strenuously, when some change in the administration of the Edinburgh stage became necessary—(I believe in 1808),—to prevail on Mr Henry Siddons, the nephew of Kemble, to undertake the lease and management. Such an arrangement would, he expected, induce both Kemble and his sister to be more in Scotland than hitherto; and what he had seen of young Siddons himself led him to prognosticate a great improvement in the whole conduct of the northern stage. His wishes were at length accomplished in the summer of 1809. On this occasion he purchased a share, and became one of the acting trustees for the general body of proprietors; and thenceforth, during a long series of years, he continued to take a very lively concern in the proceedings of the Edinburgh company. In this he was plentifully encouraged by his domestic camarilla; for his wife had all a Frenchwoman’s passion for the

* John Kemble’s most familiar table-talk often flowed into blank verse; and so indeed did his sister’s. Scott (who was a capital mimic) often repeated her tragic exclamation to a footboy during a dinner at Ashestiel,

“You’ve brought me water, boy,—I asked for beer.”

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spectacle; and the elder of the two Ballantynes (both equally devoted to the company of players) was a regular newspaper critic of theatrical affairs, and in that capacity had already attained a measure of authority supremely gratifying to himself.

The first new play produced by Henry Siddons was the Family Legend of Joanna Baillie. This was, I believe, the first of her dramas that ever underwent the test of representation in her native kingdom; and Scott appears to have exerted himself most indefatiga.bly in its behalf. He was consulted about all the minutiæ of costume, attended every rehearsal, and supplied the prologue. The play was better received than any other which the gifted authoress has since subjected to the same experiment; and how ardently Scott enjoyed its success will appear from a few specimens of the many letters which he addressed to his friend on the occasion.

The Family Legend had a continuous run of fourteen nights, and was soon afterwards printed and published by the Ballantynes.

The theatrical critic alluded to in the last of these letters was the elder of those brothers; the newspaper in which his lucubrations then appeared was the Edinburgh Evening Courant; and so it continued until 1817, when the Edinburgh Weekly Journal was purchased by the printing company in the Canongate; ever after which period it was edited by the prominent member of that firm, and from time to time was the vehicle of many fugitive pieces by the unseen partner.

In one of these letters there occurs, for the first time, the name of a person who soon obtained a large share of Scott’s regard and confidence—the late ingenious comedian, Mr Daniel Terry. He had received a good education, and been regularly trained as an architect; but abandoned that profession, at an early period of life, for the stage, and was now beginning to attract attention as a va-

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luable and efficient actor in Henry Siddons’s new company at Edinburgh. Already he and the Ballantynes were constant companions, and through his familiarity with them, Scott had abundant opportunities of appreciating his many excellent and agreeable qualities. He had the manners and feelings of a gentleman. Like John Kemble, he was deeply skilled in the old literature of the drama, and he rivalled Scott’s own enthusiasm for the antiquities of vertu. Their epistolary correspondence in after days was frequent, and will supply me with many illustrations of Scott’s minor tastes and habits. As their letters lie before me, they appear as if they had all been penned by the same hand. Terry’s idolatry of his new friend induced him to imitate his writing so zealously, that Scott used to say, if he were called on to swear to any document, the utmost he could venture to attest would be, that it was either in his own hand or in Terry’s. The actor, perhaps unconsciously, mimicked him in other matters with hardly inferior pertinacity. His small lively features had acquired, before I knew him, a truly ludicrous cast of Scott’s graver expression; he had taught his tiny eyebrow the very trick of the poet’s meditative frown; and to crown all, he so habitually affected his tone and accent that, though a native of Bath, a stranger could hardly have doubted he must be a Scotchman. These things afforded Scott and all their mutual acquaintances much diversion; but perhaps no Stoic could have helped being secretly gratified by seeing a clever and sensible man convert himself into a living type and symbol of admiration.

Mathews’s mirthful caricature of Terry’s sober mimicry of Scott was one of the richest extravaganzas of his social hours; but indeed I have often seen this Proteus dramatize the whole Ballantyne group with equal success while Rigdumfunnidos screamed with delight, and Aldiborontiphoscophornio faintly chuckled, and the Sheriff, gently smiling, pushed round his decanters.

Miss Seward died in March, 1809. She bequeathed her poetry to Scott, with an injunction to publish it speedily, and prefix a sketch of her life; while she made her letters (of which she had kept copies) the property of Mr Constable, in the assurance that due regard for his own interests would forthwith place the whole collection before the admiring world. Scott superintended accordingly the edition of the lady’s verses, which was published in three volumes in August, 1810, by John Ballantyne and Co.; and Constable lost no time in announcing her correspondence, which appeared a year later, in six volumes. The following letter alludes to these productions, as well as a comedy by Mr Henry Siddons, which he had recently brought out on the Edinburgh stage; and lastly, to the Lady of the Lake, the printing of which had by this time made great progress.

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Henry Addington, first viscount Sidmouth [The Doctor] (1757-1844) A political disciple of William Pitt, he was Speaker of the House of Commons, 1789-1801, and prime minister, 1801-1804.

John Armstrong of Gilnockie (d. 1530) Scottish border baron and outlaw, the subject of the ballad “Johnie Armstrang.”

Agnes Baillie (1760-1861) The daughter of the Scottish cleric James Baillie and elder sister of the poet Joanna Baillie with whom she lived in Hampstead for many decades.

Joanna Baillie (1762-1851) Scottish poet and dramatist whose Plays on the Passions (1798-1812) were much admired, especially the gothic De Montfort, produced at Drury Lane in 1800.

James Ballantyne (1772-1833) Edinburgh printer in partnership with his younger brother John; the company failed in the financial collapse of 1826.

John Ballantyne (1774-1821) Edinburgh publisher and literary agent for Walter Scott; he was the younger brother of the printer James Ballantyne.

Sarah Bartley [née Williamson] (1783-1850) English tragic actress who made her London debut at Covent Garden in 1805; in 1814 she married the actor George Bartley (1782?-1858).

Francis Beaumont (1585-1616) English playwright, often in collaboration with John Fletcher; author of The Knight of the Burning Pestle (1607).

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John Blackburn (1756-1840) Glasgow merchant in the West India trade; he was a mutual friend of Walter Scott and George Ellis.

James Boaden (1762-1839) English playwrite and biographer; he was editor of The Oracle (1789) and published biographies of John Philip Kemble (1825), Sarah Siddons (1827), and Dorothy Jordan (1831).

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Sir Francis Burdett, fifth baronet (1770-1844) Whig MP for Westminster (1807-1837) who was imprisoned on political charges in 1810 and again in 1820; in the 1830s he voted with the Conservatives.

George Gordon Byron, sixth Baron Byron (1788-1824) The author of Childe Harold and Don Juan.

George Campbell (1719-1796) Principal of Marischal College (1759-92) and professor of divinity (1771-92); he answered David Hume in A Dissertation on Miracles (1762).

George Canning (1770-1827) Tory statesman; he was foreign minister (1807-1809) and prime minister (1827); a supporter of Greek independence and Catholic emancipation.

Sir John Carr (1772-1832) English travel writer educated at Rugby School who, beginning with The Stranger in Paris (1803), published popular volumes on Ireland, Holland, Scotland, and Spain.

Arthur Clifford (1777-1830) English antiquary and writer educated at the English College at Douai; an associate of Walter Scott, he edited the Sadler Papers (1809) and published Tixall Poetry (1813).

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Archibald Campbell Colquhoun (1754-1820) Originally Campbell; he was Lord Advocate (1807) and MP for Elgin (1807-10) and Dumbartonshire (1810-20); he was a friend of Walter Scott.

Archibald Constable (1774-1827) Edinburgh bookseller who published the Edinburgh Review and works of Sir Walter Scott; he went bankrupt in 1826.

William Coulter (1760-1810) Originally a stocking-weaver, he was Lord Provost of Edinburgh (1808-10).

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Thomas Dermody (1775-1802) Prolific Irish poet whose early promise a child prodigy went unfulfilled; after the publication of James Grant Raymond's 1806 biography he became a type of the wastrel bard.

Lady Frances Douglas [née Scott] (1750-1817) The daughter of Francis Scott, earl of Dalkeith (1721-1750); in 1783 she became the second wife of Archibald, Lord Douglas. She resided at Bothwell Castle and was the friend of Sir Walter Scott and other literati.

Lady Lucy Douglas [née Graham] (1751-1780) The daughter of William Graham, second Duke of Montrose; in 1771 she married Archibald James Edward Douglas, first Baron Douglas of Douglas

Charles Dumergue (1768-1852) Of York Place, Portman Square; he was surgeon-dentist to the royal family and a friend of Sir Walter Scott, who was godfather to one of his children.

Henry Dundas, first viscount Melville (1742-1811) Scottish politician, president of the board of control (1793-1801), secretary of war (1794-1801); first lord of the Admiralty (1804-05).

Robert Saunders Dundas, second viscount Melville (1771-1851) Son of the first viscount (d. 1811); he was keeper of the signet for Scotland, MP, president of the board of control, and first lord of the Admiralty (1812-27).

Keith Dunlop (1772-1858) The fourth daughter of John Dunlop of Dunlop. She was an acquaintance of Walter Scott. She was the “blooming Keith” of Burns's “New Year's Day” (1790).

Maria Edgeworth (1768-1849) Irish novelist; author of Castle Rackrent (1800) Belinda (1801), The Absentee (1812) and Ormond (1817).

Charles Rose Ellis, first baron Seaford (1771-1845) English MP; he was the cousin of George Ellis and friend of George Canning, who had him created Lord Seaford in 1826. He had been Canning's second in the 1809 duel with Castlereagh.

George Ellis (1753-1815) English antiquary and critic, editor of Specimens of Early English Poets (1790), friend of Walter Scott.

Desiderus Erasmus (1466-1536) Dutch humanist; author of The Praise of Folly (1511).

Robert Fergusson (1750-1774) Scottish poet renowned for his Scots verse first published in the Weekly Magazine; he was memorialized by Robert Burns.

John Fletcher (1579-1625) English playwright, author of The Faithful Shepherdess (1610) and of some fifteen plays in collaboration with Francis Beaumont.

Samuel Foote (1721-1777) English actor and playwright; author of The Nabob (1772).

Sir William Forbes of Pitsligo, sixth baronet (1739-1806) Edinburgh banker, benefactor, and biographer of his friend James Beattie.

William Gifford (1756-1826) Poet, scholar, and editor who began as a shoemaker's apprentice; after Oxford he published The Baviad (1794), The Maeviad (1795), and The Satires of Juvenal translated (1802) before becoming the founding editor of the Quarterly Review (1809-24).

James Graham, third duke of Montrose (1755-1836) Son of the second duke whom he succeeded in 1790; he was educated at Trinity College, Cambridge and was MP for Richmond (1780-84) and Great Bedwin (1784-90) and was lord justice general for Scotland from 1795.

William Wyndham Grenville, baron Grenville (1759-1834) Educated at Eton and Christ Church, Oxford, he was a moderate Whig MP, foreign secretary (1791-1801), and leader and first lord of the treasury in the “All the Talents” ministry (1806-1807). He was chancellor of Oxford University (1810).

Charles Grey, second earl Grey (1764-1845) Whig statesman and lover of the Duchess of Devonshire; the second son of the first earl (d. 1807), he was prime minister (1831-34).

Anne Jane Hamilton, marchioness of Abercorn [née Gore] (1763-1827) Daughter of the earl of Arran; in 1783 she married Henry Hatton (d. 1793), in 1800 John James Hamilton, first marquess of Hamilton. She entertained literary figures at her villa at Stanmore, among them Lady Morgan.

John James Hamilton, first marquess of Abercorn (1756-1818) Tory MP, Knight of the Garter, and friend of Walter Scott; educated at Harrow and Pembroke College, Cambridge, he was created marquess of Abercorn in 1790.

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George Home of Wedderburn and Paxton (1734-1820) The son of Alexander Home of Sardenfield; he was Writer to the Signet (1763) and the Principal Clerk of Session (1781-1812) Walter Scott replaced.

William Howley, archbishop of Canterbury (1766-1848) Educated at Winchester and New College, Oxford, he was regius professor of Divinity (1809-13), bishop of London (1813-28), and archbishop of Canterbury (1828-48).

Francis Jeffrey, Lord Jeffrey (1773-1850) Scottish barrister, Whig MP, and co-founder and editor of the Edinburgh Review (1802-29). As a reviewer he was the implacable foe of the Lake School of poetry.

Robert Banks Jenkinson, second earl of Liverpool (1770-1828) The son of the first earl (d. 1808); he was Tory prime minister, 1812-1827, succeeding Spencer Percival.

Samuel Johnson (1709-1784) English man of letters, among many other works he edited A Dictionary of the English Language (1755) and Shakespeare (1765), and wrote Lives of the Poets (1779-81).

John Philip Kemble (1757-1823) English actor renowned for his Shakespearean roles; he was manager of Drury Lane (1783-1802) and Covent Garden (1803-1808).

William Laidlaw (1779-1845) The early friend of James Hogg and Sir Walter Scott's steward and amanuensis.

Sophia Lockhart [née Scott] (1799-1837) Walter Scott's eldest daughter, who married John Gibson Lockhart in 1820.

Thomas Norton Longman (1771-1842) A leading London publisher whose authors included Southey, Wordsworth, Scott, and Moore.

James M'Beith (1818 fl.) Walter Scott's servant, who became insane in 1818.

Francis Humberston Mackenzie, baron Seaforth (1754-1815) Scottish military officer, MP for Ross-shire (1784-90, 1795-96) and governor of Barbados; he was given his title in 1797 for services to the Pitt administration.

Henry Mackenzie (1745-1831) Scottish man of letters, author of The Man of Feeling (1770) and editor of The Mirror (1779-80) and The Lounger (1785-87).

James Macpherson (1736-1796) Scottish poet who attributed his adaptations of Gaelic poetry to the blind bard Ossian; author of the prose epics Fingal (1761) and Temora (1763).

Alexander Manners (d. 1825) Edinburgh bookseller in partnership with Robert Miller from 1794 to 1825. He was an acquaintance of Walter Scott.

Queen Mary of Scotland (1542-1587) The controversial queen of Scotland (1561-1567) who found a number of champions in the romantic era; Sir Walter Scott treats her sympathetically in The Abbott (1820).

Charles Mathews (1776-1835) Comic actor at the Haymarket and Covent Garden theaters; from 1818 he gave a series of performances under the title of Mr. Mathews at Home.

William Richard Beckford Miller (1769-1844) Albemarle-Street bookseller; he began publishing in 1790; shortly after he rejected Byron's Childe Harold in 1811 his stock and premises were purchased by John Murray.

Sir John Moore (1761-1809) A hero of the Peninsular Campaign, killed at the Battle of Corunna; he was the son of Dr. John Moore, the author of Zeluco.

John Bacon Sawrey Morritt of Rokeby (1771-1843) Of Rokeby, classical scholar, close friend of Sir Walter Scott, and member of the Society of Dilettanti.

John Murray II (1778-1843) The second John Murray began the Quarterly Review in 1809 and published works by Scott, Byron, Austen, Crabbe, and other literary notables.

Emperor Napoleon I (1769-1821) Military leader, First Consul (1799), and Emperor of the French (1804), after his abdication he was exiled to Elba (1814); after his defeat at Waterloo he was exiled to St. Helena (1815).

Samuel Parr (1747-1825) English schoolmaster, scholar, and book collector whose strident politics and assertive personality involved him in a long series of quarrels.

James Paull (1778-1808) East India trader who was MP for Newtown (1805) and twice stood unsuccessfully for Westminster; he died a suicide.

Spencer Perceval (1762-1812) English statesman; chancellor of the exchequer (1807), succeeded the Duke of Portland as prime minister (1809); he was assassinated in the House of Commons.

William Pitt the younger (1759-1806) The second son of William Pitt, earl of Chatham (1708-1778); he was Tory prime minister 1783-1801.

Sir Ralph Sadler (1507-1587) English diplomat in the service of Thomas Cromwell; he was afterwards one of the commissioners treating with Mary Queen of Scots.

Scipio Africanus (236 BC-183 BC) He defeated Hannibal in the Second Punic War at the battle of Zama.

Charles William Henry Montagu- Scott, fourth duke of Buccleuch (1772-1819) Son of the third duke and friend of Walter Scott; he was a Tory MP before succeeding to the title in 1812.

Daniel Scott (1776 c.-1806) The dissolute younger brother of Sir Walter Scott who emigrated to Jamaica in 1804.

John Scott (1769-1816) Walter Scott's elder brother who served in the 73rd Regiment before retiring to Edinburgh in 1810.

Lady Margaret Charlotte Scott [née Carpenter] (1770-1826) The impoverished daughter of French parents who married Walter Scott in 1797.

Sir Walter Scott, baronet (1771-1832) Scottish poet, novelist, antiquary, biographer, editor, and sheriff.

Sir Walter Scott, second baronet (1801-1847) The elder son and heir of Sir Walter Scott; he was cornet in the 18th Hussars (1816), captain (1825), lieut.-col. (1839). In the words of Maria Edgeworth, he was “excessively shy, very handsome, not at all literary.”

William Scott (1800 c.-1869) The illegitimate child of Daniel Scott and Carrie Lamb, supported by his uncle Sir Walter Scott; he emigrated to Canada in 1828.

Anna Seward [the Swan of Lichfield] (1742-1809) English poet, patron, and letter-writer; she was the center of a literary circle at Lichfield. Her Poetical Works, 3 vols (1810) were edited by Walter Scott.

William Shakespeare (1564-1616) The Bard of Avon.

Henry Siddons (1774-1815) English actor and playwright, the son of the actress Sarah Siddons; with the assistance of Walter Scott he obtained patent of the Edinburgh Theatre Royal in 1809.

Sarah Siddons [née Kemble] (1755-1831) English tragic actress, sister of John Philip Kemble, famous roles as Desdemona, Lady Macbeth, and Ophelia. She retired from the stage in 1812.

James Skene of Rubislaw (1775-1864) A life-long friend of Sir Walter Scott, who dedicated a canto of Marmion to him.

Tobias Smollett (1721-1771) Scottish physician and man of letters; author of the novels Roderick Random (1747) and Humphry Clinker (1771).

William Sotheby (1757-1833) English man of letters; after Harrow he joined the dragoons, married well, and published Poems (1790) and became a prolific poet and translator, prominent in literary society.

Robert Southey (1774-1843) Poet laureate and man of letters whose contemporary reputation depended upon his prose works, among them the Life of Nelson, 2 vols (1813), History of the Peninsular War, 3 vols (1823-32) and The Doctor, 7 vols (1834-47).

Andrew Stewart (1786 c.-1809 fl.) Edinburgh tailor and poet convicted with his brother Robert and one other of robbing Peter More, calico glazer in Edinburgh. Walter Scott arranged for his sentence to be reduced to transportation.

Robert Stewart, viscount Castlereagh (1769-1822) British statesman who was foreign secretary (1812-1822). He fought a duel with George Canning in 1809 and died a suicide in 1822.

Lady Louisa Stuart (1757-1851) The youngest child of John Stuart, third earl of Bute; she corresponded with Sir Walter Scott. Several volumes of her writings and memoirs were published after her death.

Daniel Terry (1789-1829) English actor; after a career in provincial theater made his London debut in 1812. A close friend of Walter Scott, he performed in theatrical adaptations of Scott's novels.

George Tierney (1761-1830) Whig MP and opposition leader whose political pragmatism made him suspect in the eyes of his party; he fought a bloodless duel with Pitt in 1798. He is the “Friend of Humanity” in Canning and Frere's “The Needy Knife-Grinder.”

Nicholas Walton (1734 c.-1810) Of Newcastle; one of the receivers of the revenue of Greenwich Hospital. In 1809 Robert Southey considering applying for his office.

Gwyllym Lloyd Wardle (1762-1833) Military officer and MP for Okehampton (1807-1811); with the assistance of the courtesan Mary Anne Clarke he forced the resignation of the Duke of York as commander-in-chief. She later turned on Wardle, who retired to Italy where he died.

Arthur Wellesley, first duke of Wellington (1769-1852) Soldier and statesman; commander in the Peninsular Campaign (1809-1813), he defeated Napoleon at Waterloo and was prime minister (1828-1830).

Richard Wellesley, first marquess Wellesley (1760-1842) The son of Garret Wesley (1735-1781) and elder brother of the Duke of Wellington; he was Whig MP, Governor-general of Bengal (1797-1805), Foreign Secretary (1809-12), and Lord-lieutenant of Ireland (1821-28); he was created Marquess Wellesley in 1799.

John Wolcot [Peter Pindar] (1738-1819) English satirist who made his reputation by ridiculing the Royal Academicians and the royal family.

Charles Mayne Young (1777-1856) English Shakespearean actor who began his professional career in 1798; he was admired in Hamlet. He was a friend of Sir Walter Scott.

Edinburgh Evening Courant. (1718-). An Edinburgh newspaper originally published thrice weekly; it was edited by George Houy (1826-27) and David Buchanan (1827-48).

The Edinburgh Weekly Journal. (1798-). Published by William Brown; at one time it was edited by James Ballantyne.

The Edinburgh Review, or Critical Journal. (1802-1929). Founded by Francis Jeffery, Sydney Smith, and Henry Brougham, the Edinburgh Review was for decades a principal organ of Whig opinion in Britain.

The Quarterly Review. (1809-1967). Published by John Murray, the Quarterly was instigated by Walter Scott as a Tory rival to the Edinburgh Review. It was edited by William Gifford to 1824, and by John Gibson Lockhart from 1826 to 1853.

The Scots Magazine. 65 vols (1739-1803). Continued as The Scots Magazine and Edinburgh Literary Miscellany (1804-17) and The Edinburgh Magazine and Literary Miscellany (1817-26).

Joanna Baillie (1762-1851) The Family Legend: a Tragedy. (Edinburgh: John Ballantyne and Co., 1810). Henry Mackenzie wrote a prologue, Walter Scott an epilogue for the Edinburgh performance.

Francis Beaumont (1585-1616) The Knight of the Burning Pestle. (London: Walter Burre, 1613). Reprinted 1635.

James Boaden (1762-1839) Memoirs of the Life of John Philip Kemble, esq., including a History of the Stage, from the Time of Garrick to the Present Period. 2 vols (London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, Brown and Green, 1825).

Robert Burns (1759-1796) Reliques of Robert Burns: consisting chiefly of original Letters, Poems, and Critical Observations on Scottish Songs. (London: T. Cadell, and W. Davies, 1808). Edited by R. H. Cromek.

George Gordon Byron, sixth Baron Byron (1788-1824) English Bards and Scotch Reviewers. (London: Cawthorn, 1809). Byron's revisions ended with the third edition in 1810; he later attempted to suppress his pointed satire on the literary establishment.

George Gordon Byron, sixth Baron Byron (1788-1824) Hours of Idleness, a Series of Poems, original and translated. (Newark: S. and J. Ridge, 1807). Byron's first published volume.

Sir John Carr (1772-1832) Caledonian Sketches, or, a Tour through Scotland in 1807. (London: Mathews and Leigh, 1809).

Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772-1834) “Fire, Famine, and Slaughter. A War Eclogue” in Morning Post. (8 January 1798). A satire on the younger Pitt signed “Laberius.”

Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772-1834) Poetical Works. 3 vols (London: W. Pickering, 1835).

George Ellis (1753-1815) “Pamphlets on West India Affairs” in Quarterly Review. Vol. 2 No. 3 (August 1809): 1-24.

George Ellis (1753-1815) “Spanish Affairs” in Quarterly Review. Vol. 2 No. 3 (August 1809): 203-34. A review of James Moore, A Narrative of the Campaign of the British Army in Spain; written with George Canning.

Sir William Forbes of Pitsligo, sixth baronet (1739-1806) An Account of the Life and Writings of James Beattie, including many of his Original Letters. (Edinburgh: Archibald Constable and Co., 1807). The standard life of James Beattie.

Matthew Prior (1664-1721) “The Ladle” in Poetical Miscellanies: the Fifth Part. Containing a Collection of Original Poems, with several new Translations. (London: Jacob Tonson, 1704). First published in this Tonson miscellany.

Sir Walter Scott, baronet (1771-1832) “Caledonian Sketches” in Quarterly Review. Vol. 1 No. 1 (February 1809): 178-93. A review of Sir John Carr's volume; William Gifford contributed to the article.

Sir Walter Scott, baronet (1771-1832) “Chronicle of the Cid” in Quarterly Review. Vol. 1 No. 1 (February 1809): 134-53. A review of Southey's translation.

Sir Walter Scott, baronet (1771-1832) A Collection of scarce and valuable Tracts, on the most interesting and entertaining Subjects: but chiefly such as relate to the History and Constitution of these Kingdoms. Selected from an infinite number in print and manuscript, in the Royal, Cotton, Sion, and other public, as well as private Libraries; particularly that of the late Lord Somers. 13 vols (London: T. Cadell, W. Davies, 1809-1815). Edited by Sir Walter Scott.

Sir Walter Scott, baronet (1771-1832) The Lady of the Lake: a Poem. (Edinburgh: John Ballantyne, 1810). A metrical romance set in the Highlands, often regarded as Scott's most successful poem.

Sir Walter Scott, baronet (1771-1832) The Lay of the Last Minstrel: a Poem. (London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, and Orme, 1805). The first of Scott's metrical romances, the Lay recounts the love of Margaret of Branksome for Henry of Cranstoun during a sixteenth-century border raid.

Sir Walter Scott, baronet (1771-1832) “Life of John Kemble” in Quarterly Review. Vol. 34 No. 93 (June 1826): 197-248. A review of James Boaden's biography.

Sir Walter Scott, baronet (1771-1832) “Life of Sir Ralph Sadler” in The State Papers and Letters of Sir Ralph Sadler, Knight-banneret. 2 vols (Edinburgh: A. Constable and Co., 1809).

Sir Walter Scott, baronet (1771-1832) Marmion; a Tale of Flodden Field. (Edinburgh: Constable, 1808). A narrative poem set in the sixteenth century; the six cantos are introduced by epistles addressed to William Stewart Rose, James Marriot, William Erskine, James Skene, George Ellis, and Richard Heber.

Sir Walter Scott, baronet (1771-1832) The Miscellaneous Prose Works of Sir Walter Scott, bart.. 28 vols (Edinburgh: R. Cadell, 1834-40). An earlier edition in six volumes had been published in Scott's lifetime.

Sir Walter Scott, baronet (1771-1832) Poetical Works. 12 vols (Edinburgh: R. Cadell, 1833-34).

Sir Walter Scott, baronet (1771-1832) “Reliques of Robert Burns” in Quarterly Review. Vol. 1 No. 1 (February 1809): 19-36. A review of Cromek's volume.

Sir Walter Scott, baronet (1771-1832) Rokeby; a Poem. (Edinburgh: John Ballantyne, 1813). A tale in six cantos related to the Battle of Marston Moor.

Sir Walter Scott, baronet (1771-1832) The State Papers and Letters of Sir Ralph Sadler, Knight-banneret. 2 vols (Edinburgh: A. Constable and Co., 1809). By Sir Ralph Sadler, (1507-1587) edited by Arthur Clifford and with a preface and notes by Walter Scott.

Sir Walter Scott, baronet (1771-1832) The Works of John Dryden, now first collected. 18 vols (W. Miller, 1808).

Sir Walter Scott, baronet (1771-1832) The Works of Jonathan Swift, D.D.: containing additional Letters, Tracts, and Poems, not hitherto published; with Notes, and a Life of the Author. 19 vols (Edinburgh: Archibald Constable and Co., 1814). Edited by Walter Scott; a revised edition was issued in 1823.

Anna Seward [the Swan of Lichfield] (1742-1809) Letters of Anna Seward: written between the Years 1784 and 1807. 6 vols (Edinburgh: A. Constable and Co., 1811). With a preface by Archibald Constable.

Anna Seward [the Swan of Lichfield] (1742-1809) The Poetical Works of Anna Seward; with Extracts from her Literary Correspondence. 3 vols (Edinburgh: J. Ballantyne and Co., 1810). Edited by Walter Scott.

Sydney Smith (1771-1845) “Dr. Parr's Spital Sermon” in Edinburgh Review. Vol. 1 (October 1802): 18-24.

Robert Southey (1774-1843) Chronicle of the Cid, from the Spanish. (London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, and Orme, 1808). The Spanish original (from a twelfth-century work) was first published in 1544.

Robert Southey (1774-1843) “Transactions of the Missionary Society in the South Sea Islands” in Quarterly Review. Vol. 2 No. 3 (August 1809): 24-61. Robert Southey claims this review in his Life and Correspondence.

Henry John Stephen (1787-1864) “Edgeworth, Tales of Fashionable Life” in Quarterly Review. Vol. 3 (August 1809): 146-54. With additions by William Gifford.

Andrew Stewart (1786 c.-1809 fl.) Poems chiefly in the Scottish Dialect. (Edinburgh: 1809).

John Wolcot [Peter Pindar] (1738-1819) Bozzy and Piozzi, or the British Biographers: a Town Eclogue. (London: G. Kearsley, 1786). One of the most popular of the many satires published by “Peter Pindar.”

INFORMATION FROM TEI HEADER

Source Description:

Author: Lockhart, J. G. (John Gibson), 1794-1854

Title: Memoirs of the Life of Sir Walter Scott, Bart. 7 vols (Edinburgh: Robert Cadell, 1837).

Electronic Edition:

Series: Lord Byron and his Times: http://lordbyron.org

Encoding Description: Any dashes occurring in line breaks have been removed. Obvious and unambiguous compositors’ errors have been silently corrected.

Markup and editing by: David Hill Radcliffe

Completed January 2011

Publication Statement:

Publisher: Center for Applied Technologies in the Humanities, Virginia Tech

Availability: Published under Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License