J. G. Lockhart: Life of Walter Scott

Mr Ballantyne, in his Memorandum, says, that very shortly after the publication of the Lay, he found himself obliged to apply to Mr Scott for an advance of money; his own capital being inadequate for the business which had been accumulated on his press, in consequence of the reputation it had acquired for beauty and correctness of execution. Already, as we have seen, Ballantyne had received “a liberal loan;” “and now,” says he, “being compelled, maugre all delicacy, to renew my application, he candidly answered that he was not quite sure that it would be prudent for him to comply, but in order to evince his entire confidence in me, he was willing to make a suitable advance to be admitted as a third-sharer of my business.” In truth, Scott now embarked in Ballantyne’s concern almost the whole of the capital at his disposal, namely, the L.5000 which he had received for Rosebank, and which he had a few months

LIFE OF SIR WALTER SCOTT.

before designed to invest in the purchase of Broadmeadows. Dis aliter visum.

We have seen that, before he formed his contract with Ballantyne, he was in possession of such a fixed income as might have satisfied all his desires, had he not found his family increasing rapidly about him. Even as that was, with nearly if not quite L.1000 per annum, he might perhaps have retired not only from the Bar, but from Edinburgh, and settled entirely at Ashestiel or Broadmeadows, without encountering what any man of his station and habits ought to have considered as an imprudent risk. He had, however, no wish to cut himself off from the busy and intelligent society to which he had been hitherto accustomed; and resolved not to leave the bar until he should have at least used his best efforts for obtaining, in addition to his Shrievalty, one of those clerkships of the supreme court at Edinburgh, which are usually considered as honourable retirements for advocates who, at a certain standing, finally give up all hopes of reaching the dignity of the bench. “I determined,” he says, “that literature should be my staff but not my crutch, and that the profits of my literary labour, however convenient otherwise, should not, if I could help it, become necessary to my ordinary expenses. Upon such a post an author might hope to retreat, without any perceptible alteration of circumstances, whenever the time should arrive that the public grew weary of his endeavours to please, or he himself should tire of the pen. I possessed so many friends capable of assisting me in this object of ambition, that I could hardly over-rate my own prospects of obtaining the preferment to which I limited my wishes; and, in fact, I obtained, in no long period, the reversion of a situation which completely met them.”*

The forming of this commercial connexion was one of the most important steps in Scott’s life. He continued bound by it during twenty years, and its influence on his literary exertions and his worldly fortunes was productive of much good and not a little evil. Its effects were in truth so mixed and balanced during the vicissitudes of a long and vigorous career, that I at this moment doubt whether it ought, on the whole, to be considered with more of satisfaction or of regret.

Scott opened forthwith his gigantic scheme of the British Poets to Constable, who entered into it with eagerness. They found presently that Messrs Cadell and Davies, and some of the other London publishers, had a similar plan on foot, and after an unsuccessful negotiation with Mackintosh, were now actually treating with Campbell for the Biographical prefaces. Scott proposed that the Edinburgh and London houses should join in the adventure, and that the editorial task should be shared between himself and his brother poet. To this both Messrs Cadell and Mr Campbell warmly assented; but the design ultimately fell to the ground in consequence of the booksellers refusing to admit certain works which both Scott and Campbell insisted upon. Such, and from analogous causes, has been the fate of various similar schemes both before and since. But the public had no trivial compensation upon the present occasion, since the failure of the original project led Mr Campbell to prepare for the press those “Specimens of English Poetry” which he illustrated with sketches of biography and critical essays, alike honourable to his learning and taste; while Scott, Mr Foster ultimately standing off, took on himself the whole burden of a new edition, as well as biography, of Dryden. The body of booksellers mean while combined in what they still called a general edition of the English Poets, under the superintendence of one of their own Grub-street vassals, Mr Alexander Chalmers.

In his answer, Ellis says—“Longman lately informed me that you have projected a General Edition of our Poets. I expressed to him my anxiety that the booksellers, who certainly can ultimately sell what they please, should for once undertake something calculated to please intelligent readers, and that they should confine themselves to the selection of paper, types, &c. (which they possibly may understand), and by no means, interfere with the literary part of the business, which, if popularity be the object, they must leave exclusively to you. I am talking, as you perceive, about your plan, without knowing its extent, or any of its details; for these, therefore, I will wait—after confessing that, much as I wish for a corpus poetarum, edited as you would edit it, I should like still better another Minstrel Lay by the last and best Minstrel; and the general demand for the poem seems to prove that the public are of my opinion. If, however, you don’t feel disposed to take a second ride on Pegasus, why not undertake something far less infra dig. than a mere edition of our poets? Why not undertake what Gibbon once undertook—an

LIFE OF SIR WALTER SCOTT.

edition of our historians? I have never been able to look at a volume of the Benedictine edition of the early French historians without envy.”

Mr Ellis appears to have communicated all his notions on this subject to Messrs Longman, for Scott writes to Ballantyne (Ashestiel, September 5), “I have had a visit from Rees yesterday. He is anxious about a corpus historiarum, or full edition of the Chronicles of England, an immense work. I proposed to him beginning with Hollinshed, and I think the work will be secured for your press. I congratulate you on Clarendon, which, under Thomson’s direction, will be a glorious publication.”*

But to return. To Ellis himself, he says, “I have had booksellers here in the plural number. You have set little Rees’s head agog about the Chronicles, which would be an admirable work, but should, I think, be edited by an Englishman who can have access to the MSS. of Oxford and Cambridge, as one cannot trust much to the correctness of printed copies. I will, howover, consider the matter, so far as a decent edition of Hollinshed is concerned, in case my time is not other-

* An edition of Clarendon had been, it seems, contemplated by Scott’s friend, Mr Thomas Thomson.

ASHESTIEL—1805.

wise taken up. As for the British Poets, my plan was greatly too liberal to stand the least chance of being adopted by the trade at large, as I wished them to begin with Chaucer. The fact is, I never expected they would agree to it. The Benedictines had an infinite advantage over us in that esprit du corps which led them to set labour and expense at defiance, when the honour of the order was at stake. Would to God your English Universities, with their huge endowments and the number of learned men to whom they give competence and leisure, would but imitate the monks in their literary plans. My present employment is an edition of John Dryden’s Works, which is already gone to press. As for riding on Pegasus, depend upon it, I will never again cross him in a serious way, unless I should by some strange accident reside so long in the Highlands, and make myself master of their ancient manners, so as to paint them with some degree of accuracy in a kind of companion to the Minstrel Lay. . . . . . I am interrupted by the arrival of two gentil bachelors, whom, like the Count of Artois, I must despatch upon some adventure till dinner time. Thank Heaven, that will not be difficult, for although there are neither dragons nor boars in the vicinity, and men above six feet are not only scarce, but pacific in their habits, yet we have a curious breed of wild-cats who have eaten all Charlotte’s chickens, and against whom I have declared a war at outrance, in which the assistance of these gentes demoiseaux will be fully as valuable as that of Don Quixote to Pentalopin with the naked arm. So, if Mrs Ellis takes a fancy for cat-skin fur, now is the time.”

Already, then, he was seriously at work on Dryden. During the same summer, he drew up for the Edinburgh Review an admirable article on Todd’s Edition of Spenser; another on Godwin’s Fleetwood; a third, on

LIFE OF SIR WALTER SCOTT.

the Highland Society’s Report concerning the Poems of Ossian; a fourth, on Johnes’s Translation of Froissart; a fifth, on Colonel Thornton’s Sporting Tour—and a sixth, on some cookery books—the two last being excellent specimens of his humour. He had, besides, a constant succession of minor cares in the superintendence of multifarious works passing through the Ballantyne press. But there is yet another important item to be included in the list of his literary labours of this period. The General Preface to his Novels informs us, that “about 1805” he wrote the opening chapters of Waverley; and the second title, ’Tis Sixty Years since, selected, as he says, ”that the actual date of publication might correspond with the period in which the scene was laid,” leaves no doubt that he had begun the work so early in 1805 as to contemplate publishing it before Christmas.* He adds, in the same page, that he was induced, by the favourable reception of the Lady of the Lake, to think of giving some of his recollections of Highland scenery and customs in prose; but this is only one instance of the inaccuracy as to matters of date which pervades all those delightful Prefaces. The Lady of the Lake was not published until five years after the first chapters of Waverley were written; its success, therefore, could have had no share in suggesting the original design of a Highland novel, though no doubt it principally influenced him to take up that design after it had been long suspended, and almost forgotten. Thus early, then, had Scott meditated deeply such a portraiture of Highland manners as might “make a sort of companion” to that of the old Border life in the “Minstrel Lay;” and he had probably begun

* I have ascertained, since this page was written, that a small part of the MS. of Waverley is on paper bearing the watermark of 1805—the rest on paper of 1813.

WAVERLEY BEGUN—1805.

and suspended his Waverley, before he expressed to Ellis his feeling that he ought to reside for some considerable time in the country to be delineated, before seriously committing himself in the execution of such a task.

Ashestiel [1805].

“My dear Miss Seward,

“You recall to me some very pleasant feelings of my boyhood, when you ask my opinion of Ossian. His
54 LIFE OF SIR WALTER SCOTT.
works were first put into my hands by old Dr Blacklock, a blind poet, of whom you may have heard; he was the worthiest and kindest of human beings, and particularly delighted in encouraging the pursuits, and opening the minds, of the young people by whom he was surrounded. I, though at the period of our intimacy a very young boy, was fortunate enough to attract his notice and kindness; and if I have been at all successful in the paths of literary pursuit, I am sure I owe much of that success to the books with which he supplied me, and his own instructions. Ossian and Spenser were two books which the good old bard put into my hands, and which I devoured rather than perused. Their tales were for a long time so much my delight, that I could repeat without remorse whole cantos of the one and duans of the other; and wo to the unlucky wight who undertook to be my auditor, for in the height of my enthusiasm I was apt to disregard all hints that my recitations became tedious. It was a natural consequence of progress in taste that my fondness for these authors should experience some abatement. Ossian’s poems, in particular, have more charms for youth than for a more advanced stage. The eternal repetition of the same ideas and imagery, however beautiful in themselves, is apt to pall upon a reader whose taste has become somewhat fastidious; and, although I agree entirely with you that the question of their authenticity ought not to be confounded with that of their literary merit, yet scepticism on that head takes away their claim for indulgence as the productions of a barbarous and remote age; and, what is perhaps more natural, it destroys that feeling of reality which we should otherwise combine with our sentiments of admiration. As for the great dispute, I should be no Scottishman if I had not very attentively considered it at some period of my studies; and, indeed, I have gone
ASHESTIEL—1805. 55
some lengths in my researches, for I have beside me translations of some twenty or thirty of the unquestioned originals of Ossian’s poems. After making every allowance for the disadvantages of a literal translation, and the possible debasement which those now collected may have suffered in the great and violent change which the Highlands have undergone since the researches of Macpherson, I am compelled to admit that incalculably the greater part of the English Ossian must be ascribed to Macpherson himself, and that his whole introductions, notes, &c. &c. are an absolute tissue of forgeries.

“In all the ballads I ever saw or could hear of, Fin and Ossin are described as natives of Ireland, although it is not unusual for the reciters sturdily to maintain that this is a corruption of the text. In point of merit I do not think these Gaelic poems much better than those of the Scandinavian Scalds; they are very unequal, often very vigorous and pointed, often drivelling and crawling in the very extremity of tenuity. The manners of the heroes are those of Celtic savages; and I could point out twenty instances in which Macpherson has very cunningly adopted the beginning, the names, and the leading incidents, &c. of an old tale, and dressed it up with all those ornaments of sentiment and sentimental manners, which first excite our surprise, and afterwards our doubt of its authenticity. The Highlanders themselves, recognising the leading features of tales they had heard in infancy, with here and there a tirade really taken from an old poem, were readily seduced into becoming champions for the authenticity of the poems. How many people, not particularly addicted to poetry, who may have heard Chevy- Chase in the nursery or at school, and never since met with the ballad, might be imposed upon by a new Chevy-Chase, bearing no resemblance to the old one, save in here and there a stanza
56 LIFE OF SIR WALTER SCOTT.
or an incident? Besides, there is something in the severe judgment passed on my countrymen—‘that if they do not prefer Scotland to truth, they will always prefer it to enquiry.’ When once the Highlanders had adopted the poems of Ossian as an article of national faith, you would far sooner have got them to disavow the Scripture than to abandon a line of the contested tales. Only they all allow that Macpherson’s translation is very unfaithful, and some pretend to say inferior to the original; by which they can only mean, if they mean any thing, that they miss the charms of the rhythm and vernacular idiom, which pleases the Gaelic natives; for in the real attributes of poetry Macpherson’s version is far superior to any I ever saw of the fragments which he seems to have used.

“The Highland Society have lately set about investigating, or rather, I should say, collecting materials to defend, the authenticity of Ossian. Those researches have only proved that there were no real originals using that word as is commonly understood to be found for them. The oldest tale they have found seems to be that of Darthula; but it is perfectly different, both in diction and story, from that of Macpherson. It is, however, a beautiful specimen of Celtic poetry, and shows that it contains much which is worthy of preservation. Indeed, how should it be otherwise, when we know that, till about fifty years ago, the Highlands contained a race of hereditary poets? Is it possible to think, that, among perhaps many hundreds, who for such a course of centuries have founded their reputation and rank on practising the art of poetry in a country where the scenery and manners gave such effect and interest and imagery to their productions, there should not have been some who attained excellence? In searching out those genuine records of the Celtic Muse, and preserving them
ASHESTIEL—1805. 57
from oblivion, with all the curious information which they must doubtless contain, I humbly think our Highland antiquaries would merit better of their country, than by confining their researches to the fantastic pursuit of a chimera.

“I am not to deny that Macpherson’s inferiority in other compositions is a presumption that he did not actually compose these poems. But we are to consider his advantage when on his own ground. Macpherson was a Highlander, and had his imagination fired with the charms of Celtic poetry from his very infancy. We know, from constant experience, that most Highlanders, after they have become complete masters of English, continue to think in their own language; and it is to me demonstrable that Macpherson thought almost every word of Ossian in Gaelic, although he wrote it down in English. The specimens of his early poetry which remain are also deeply tinged with the peculiarities of the Celtic diction and character; so that, in fact, he might be considered as a Highland poet, even if he had not left us some Earse translations (or originals of Ossian) unquestionably written by himself. These circumstances gave a great advantage to him in forming the style of Ossian, which, though exalted and modified according to Macpherson’s own ideas of modern taste, is in great part cut upon the model of the tales of the Sennachies and Bards. In the translation of Homer, he not only lost these advantages, but the circumstances on which they were founded were a great detriment to his undertaking; for although such a dress was appropriate and becoming for Ossian, few people cared to see their old Grecian friend disguised in a tartan plaid and philabeg. In a word, the style which Macpherson had formed, however admirable in a Highland tale, was not calculated for translating Homer; and it was a great
58 LIFE OF SIR WALTER SCOTT.
mistake in him, excited, however, by the general applause his first work received, to suppose that there was any thing homogeneous betwixt his own ideas and those of Homer. Macpherson, in his way, was certainly a man of high talents, and his poetic powers as honourable to his country, as the use which he made of them, and I fear his personal character in other respects, was a discredit to it.

“Thus I have given you with the utmost sincerity my creed on the great national question of Ossian; it has been formed after much deliberation and enquiry. I have had for some time thoughts of writing a Highland poem, somewhat in the style of the Lay, giving as far as I can a real picture of what that enthusiastic race actually were before the destruction of their patriarchal government. It is true I have not quite the same facilities as in describing Border manners, where I am, as they say, more at home. But to balance my comparative deficiency in knowledge of Celtic manners, you are to consider that I have from my youth delighted in all the Highland traditions which I could pick from the old Jacobites who used to frequent my father’s house; and this will, I hope, make some amends for my having less immediate opportunities of research than in the Border tales.

“Agreeably to your advice, I have actually read over Madoc a second time, and I confess have seen much beauty which escaped me in the first perusal. Yet (which yet, by the way, is almost as vile a monosyllable as but) I cannot feel quite the interest I would wish to do. The difference of character which you notice, reminds me of what by Ben Jonson and other old commedians were called humours, which consisted rather in the personification of some individual passion or propensity than of an actual individual man. Also, I cannot
ASHESTIEL—1805. 59
give up my objection that what was strictly true of Columbus, becomes an unpleasant falsehood when told of some one else. Suppose I was to write a fictitious book of travels, I should certainly do ill to copy exactly the incidents which befel Mungo Park or Bruce of Kinnaird. What was true of them would incontestably prove at once the falsehood and plagiarism of my supposed journal. It is not but what the incidents are natural—but it is their having already happened which strikes us when they are transferred to imaginary persons. Could any one bear the story of a second city being taken by a wooden horse?

“Believe me, I shall not be within many miles of Lichfield without paying my personal respects to you; and yet I should not do it in prudence, because I am afraid you have formed a higher opinion of me than I deserve; you would expect to see a person who had dedicated himself much to literary pursuits, and you would find me a rattle-sculled half-lawyer, half-sportsman, through whose head a regiment of horse has been exercising since he was five years old; half-educated, half-crazy, as his friends sometimes tell him; half every thing, but entirely Miss Seward’s much obliged, affectionate, and faithful servant,

Walter Scott.”

Mr Skene says, “I well remember the ravages of the storm and flood described in this letter. The ford of Ashestiel was never a good one, and for some time after this it remained not a little perilous. He was himself the first to attempt the passage on his favourite black horse Captain, who had scarcely entered the river when he plunged beyond his depth, and had to swim to the other side with his burden. It requires a good horseman to swim a deep and rapid stream, but he trusted to the vigour of his steady trooper, and in spite of his lameness kept his seat manfully. A cart bringing a new kitchen range (as I believe the grate for that service is technically called) was shortly after upset in this ugly ford. The horse and cart were with difficulty got out, but the grate remained for some time in the middle of the stream to do duty as a horse-trap, and furnish subject for many a good joke when Mrs Scott happened to complain of the imperfection of her kitchen appointments.”

I ought not to omit that in those days Scott was far too zealous a dragoon not to take a principal share in the stable duty. Before beginning his desk-work in the morning, he uniformly visited his favourite steed, and neither Captain nor Lieutenant, nor the lieutenant’s successor, Brown Adam (so called after one of the heroes of the Minstrelsy), liked to be fed except by him. The latter charger was indeed altogether intractable in other hands, though in his the most submissive of faithful allies. The moment he was bridled and saddled, it was the custom to open the stable door as a signal that his master expected him, when he immediately trotted to the side of the leaping-on-stone, of which Scott from his lameness found it convenient to make use, and stood there, silent and motionless as a rock, until he was fairly in his seat, after which he displayed his joy by neighing triumphantly through a brilliant succession of curvettings. Brown Adam never suffered himself to be backed but by his master. He broke, I believe, one groom’s arm and another’s leg in the rash attempt to tamper with his dignity.

“Every day,” says Mr Skene, “we had some hours of coursing with the greyhounds, or riding at random over the hills, or of spearing salmon in the Tweed by sunlight: which last sport, moreover, we often renewed at night by the help of torches. This amusement of burning the water, as it is called, was not without some hazard, for the large salmon generally lie in the pools, the depths of which it is not easy to estimate with precision by torchlight,—so that not unfrequently, when the sportsman makes a determined thrust at a fish apparently within reach, his eye has grossly deceived him, and instead of the point of the weapon encountering the prey, he finds himself launched with corresponding vehemence heels over head into the pool, both spear and salmon gone, the torch thrown out by the concussion of the boat, and quenched in the stream, while the boat itself has of course receded to some distance. I remember the first time I accompanied our friend he went right over the gun-wale in this manner, and had I not accidentally been close at his side, and made a successful grasp at the skirt of his jacket as he plunged overboard, he must at least have had an awkward dive for it. Such are the

ASHESTIEL—1805—MR SKENE.

contingencies of burning the water. The pleasures consist in being penetrated with cold and wet, having your shins broken against the stones in the dark, and perhaps mastering one fish out of every twenty you take aim at.”

In all these amusements, but particularly in the burning of the water, Scott’s most regular companion at this time was John Lord Somerville, who united with many higher qualities a most enthusiastic love for such sports, and consummate address in the prosecution of them. This amiable nobleman then passed his autumns at his pretty seat of Allwyn, or the Pavilion, situated on the Tweed, some eight or nine miles below Ashestiel. They interchanged visits almost every week; and Scott did not fail to profit largely by his friend’s matured and well-known skill in every department of the science of rural economy. He always talked of him, in particular, as his master in the art of planting.

About this time Mr and Mrs Scott made a short excursion to the Lakes of Cumberland and Westmoreland, and visited some of their finest scenery, in company with Mr Wordsworth. I have found no written nar-

EXCURSION TO CUMBERLAND—1805.

rative of this little tour, but I have often heard Scott speak with enthusiastic delight of the reception he met with in the humble cottage which his brother poet then inhabited on the banks of Grasmere; and at least one of the days they spent together was destined to furnish a theme for the verse of each, namely, that which they gave to the ascent of Helvellyn, where, in the course of the preceding spring, a young gentleman having lost his way and perished by falling over a precipice, his remains were discovered, three months afterwards, still watched by “a faithful terrier-bitch, his constant attendant during frequent rambles among the wilds.”* This day they were accompanied by an illustrious philosopher, who was also a true poet and might have been one of the greatest of poets had he chosen; and I have heard Mr Wordsworth say, that it would be difficult to express the feelings with which he, who so often had climbed Helvellyn alone, found himself standing on its summit with two such men as Scott and Davy.

Mr Ellis, in his answer, says, “Heber will, I dare say, be of service to you in your present undertaking, if indeed you want any assistance, which I very much doubt; because it appears to me that the best edition, which could now be given of Dryden, would be one which should unite accuracy of text and a handsome appearance, with good critical notes. Quoad Malone—I should think Ritson himself, could he rise from the dead, would be puzzled to sift out a single additional anecdote of the poet’s life; but to abridge Malone,—and to render his narrative terse, elegant, and intelligible, would be a great obligation conferred on the purchasers (I will not say the readers, because I have

* Ellis had mentioned, in a recent letter, Heber’s buying wines to the value of L.1100 at some sale he happened to attend this autumn.

LIFE OF SIR WALTER SCOTT.

doubts whether they exist in the plural number) of his very laborious compilation. The late Dr Warton, you may have heard, had a project of editing Dryden à la Hurd; that is to say, upon the same principle as the castrated edition of Cowley. His reason was that Dryden, having written for bread, became of necessity a most voluminous author, and poured forth more nonsense of indecency, particularly in his theatrical compositions, than almost any scribbler in that scribbling age. Hence, although his transcendent genius frequently breaks out, and marks the hand of the master, his comedies seem, by a tacit but general consent, to have been condemned to oblivion; and his tragedies, being printed in such bad company, have shared the same fate. But Dr W. conceived that, by a judicious selection of these, together with his fables and prose works, it would be possible to exhibit him in a much more advantageous light than by a republication of the whole mass of his writings. Whether the Doctor (who, by the way, was by no means scrupulously chaste and delicate, as you will be aware from his edition of Pope) had taken a just view of the subject, you know better than I; but I must own that the announcement of a general edition of Dryden gave me some little alarm. However, if you can suggest the sort of assistance you are desirous of receiving, I shall be happy to do what I can to promote your views. . . . . . . And so you are not disposed to nibble at the bait I throw out! Nothing but ‘a decent edition of Hollinshed?’ I confess that my project chiefly related to the later historical works respecting this country—to the union of Gall, Twisden, Camden, Leibnitz, &c. &c., leaving the Chronicles, properly so called, to shift for themselves. . . . . . . I am ignorant when you are to be in Edinburgh, and in that ignorance have not desired Blackburn, who is now at Glasgow, to call on you. He

ASHESTIEL—1805.

has the best practical understanding I have ever met with, and I vouch that you would be much pleased with his acquaintance. And so for the present God bless you. G. E.”

Mr Ellis, in his next letter, says:—“I will not disturb you by contesting any part of your ingenious apology for your intended complete edition of Dryden, whose genius I venerate as much as you do, and whose negligences, as he was not rich enough to doom them to oblivion in his own lifetime, it is perhaps incumbent on his editor to transmit to the latest posterity. Most certainly I am not so squeamish as to quarrel with him for his immodesty on any moral pretence. Licentiousness in writing, when accompanied by wit, as in the case of Prior, La Fontaine, &c., is never likely to excite any passion, because every passion is serious; and the grave epistle of Eloisa is more likely to do moral mischief and convey infection to love-sick damsels, than five hundred stories of Hans Carvel and Paulo Purgante; but whatever is in point of expression vulgar—whatever disgusts the taste—whatever might have been written by any fool, and is therefore unworthy of Dryden—whatever might have been suppressed, without exciting a moment’s regret in the mind of any of his admirers—ought, in my opinion, to be suppressed by any editor who should be disposed to make an appeal to the public taste upon the subject; because a man who was perhaps the best poet and best prose writer in the language—but it is foolish to say so much, after promising to say nothing. Indeed I own myself guilty of possessing all his works in a very indifferent edition, and I shall certainly purchase a better one whenever you put it in my power. With regard to your competitors, I feel perfectly at my ease, because I am convinced that though you should generously furnish them with all the materials, they would not know how to use them: non cuivis hominum contingit to write critical notes that any one will read.” Alluding to the regret which Scott had expressed some time before at the shortness of his visit

LIFE OF SIR WALTER SCOTT.

to the libraries of Oxford, Ellis says, in another of these letters—“A library is like a butcher’s shop: it contains plenty of meat, but it is all raw; no person living—(Leyden’s breakfast was only a tour de force to astonish Ritson, and I except the Abyssinians, whom I never saw)—can find a meal in it, till some good cook (suppose yourself) comes in and says, ‘Sir, I see by your looks that you are hungry; I know your taste—be patient for a moment, and you shall be satisfied that you have an excellent appetite.’”

I shall not transcribe the mass of letters which Scott received from various other literary friends whose assistance he invoked in the preparation of his edition of Dryden; but among them there occurs one so admirable, that I cannot refuse myself the pleasure of introducing it, more especially as the views which it opens harmonize as remarkably with some, as they differ from others, of those which Scott himself ultimately expressed respecting the poetical character of his illustrious author.

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Alexander Chalmers (1759-1834) Scottish-born man of letters; educated at Marischal College, he produced editions of the British Essayists (1802-1803), the English Poets (1810), and compiled the General Biographical Dictionary (1812-1817).

Geoffrey Chaucer (1340 c.-1400) English Poet, the author of The Canterbury Tales (1390 c.).

Christopher Columbus (1451 c.-1506) Genoese seaman who discovered the new world in 1492.

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

William Crowe (1745-1829) English poet educated at Winchester and New College Oxford; he was rector of Alton Barnes, Wiltshire; he is remember for his descriptive poem Lewesdon Hill (1788). He corresponded with Samuel Rogers.

William Davies (d. 1820) London bookseller who was assistant to the elder Thomas Cadell and partner of the younger; he retired from the trade in 1813.

Sir Humphry Davy, baronet (1778-1829) English chemist and physicist, inventor of the safety lamp; in Bristol he knew Cottle, Wordsworth, Coleridge, and Southey; he was president of the Royal Society (1820).

Sylvester Doig (d. 1818) Edinburgh bookseller.

John Dryden (1631-1700) English poet laureate, dramatist, and critic; author of Of Dramatick Poesie (1667), Absalom and Achitophel (1681), Alexander's Feast; or the Power of Musique (1697), The Works of Virgil translated into English Verse (1697), and Fables (1700).

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).

Anne Ellis [née Parker] (1773 c.-1862) The daughter of Admiral Sir Peter Parker; in 1800 she married the antiquary George Ellis of Sunninghill.

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

William Erskine, Lord Kinneder (1768-1822) The son of an episcopal clergyman of the same name, he was a Scottish advocate and a close friend and literary advisor to Sir Walter Scott.

Sir Adam Ferguson (1771-1855) Son of the philosopher and classmate and friend of Sir Walter Scott; he served in the Peninsular Campaign under Wellington, afterwards living on his estate in Dumfriesshire.

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

Sir William Forbes of Pitsligo, seventh baronet (1773-1828) Edinburgh banker, the son of Walter Scott's friend William Forbes, sixth baronet of Pitsligo (1739-1806). In 1797 he married Scott's early love, Williamina Belsches.

Edward Forster (1769-1828) Clergyman and writer, educated under Samuel Parr; he was a popular London preacher who was elected FRS and FSA. He produced illustrated volumes of classics and published anonymously Occasional Amusements (1809).

Charles James Fox (1749-1806) Whig statesman and the leader of the Whig opposition in Parliament after his falling-out with Edmund Burke.

Edward Gibbon (1737-1794) Author of The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (1776-1788).

William Godwin (1756-1836) English novelist and political philosopher; author of An Inquiry concerning the Principles of Political Justice (1793) and Caleb Williams (1794); in 1797 he married Mary Wollstonecraft.

John Graham of Claverhouse, first viscount of Dundee (1648 c.-1689) Scottish military officer and Stuart supporter made Viscount Dundee by James II; he was mortally wounded at the battle of Killiecrankie.

Flora Hastings, sixth countess of Loudoun [née Mure-Campbell] (1754-1826) The daughter of James Mure-Campbell, fifth earl of Loudoun and countess in her own right; in 1804 she married Francis Rawdon, earl of Moira.

Francis Rawdon Hastings, first marquess of Hastings (1754-1826) Educated at Harrow and University College, Oxford, he was a Whig statesman and improvident intimate of the Prince of Wales; he succeeded to the earldom in 1793.

Richard Heber (1774-1833) English book collector, he was the elder half-brother of the poet Reginald Heber and the friend of Walter Scott: member of the Roxburghe Club and MP for Oxford 1821-1826.

James Hogg [The Ettrick Shepherd] (1770-1835) Scottish autodidact, poet, and novelist; author of The Queen's Wake (1813) and Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner (1824).

Raphael Holinshed (1525 c.-1580 c.) English historian; published Chronicles of England, Scotland, and Ireland (1577), the source for several of Shakespeare's history plays.

Homer (850 BC fl.) Poet of the Iliad and Odyssey.

Richard Hurd, bishop of Worcester (1720-1808) Bishop of Worcester (1781) and highly-regarded scholar-critic; editor of Horace's Ars Poetica (1749), author of Moral and Political Dialogues (1759), and Letters on Chivalry and Romance (1762). He was the friend and editor of Bishop William Warburton.

Edward Hyde, first earl of Clarendon (1609-1674) Edward Hyde, first earl of Clarendon (1609-1674) English statesman and historian; author of History of the Rebellion (1702-1704).

Robert Jamieson (1772-1844) Scottish schoolmaster and antiquary educated at King's College Aberdeen; an associate of Walter Scott, he published Popular Ballads and Songs, from Tradition, Manuscript, and Scarce Editions, 2 vols (1806).

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.

Thomas Johnes (1748-1816) Educated at Eton, Shrewsbury, and Edinburgh University, he was an agricultural improver and translator of medieval French; Richard Payne Knight was his cousin.

Ben Jonson (1572-1637) English dramatist, critic, and epigrammatist, friend of William Shakespeare and John Donne.

Jean de La Fontaine (1621-1695) French poet whose Fables were first translated into English in 1734.

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

Gottfried Wilhelm von Leibnitz (1646-1716) German philosopher and mathematician; author of Monadology (1714) and Principles of Nature and Grace (1714).

John Leyden (1775-1811) Scottish antiquary, poet, and orientalist who assisted Walter Scott in compiling the Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border.

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.

Sir James Mackintosh (1765-1832) Scottish philosopher and man of letters who defended the French Revolution in Vindiciae Gallicae (1791); he was Recorder of Bombay (1803-1812) and MP for Knaresborough (1819-32).

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).

Edmond Malone (1741-1812) Irish literary scholar; member of Johnson's Literary Club (1782); edited the Works of Shakespeare (1790) and left substantial materials for the notable variorum Shakespeare, 21 vols (1821).

Philip Massinger (1583-1649) Jacobean playwright; author of A New Way to Pay Old Debts (1625); his works were edited by William Gifford (1805, 1813).

Thomas Moore (1779-1852) Irish poet and biographer, author of the Irish Melodies (1807-34), The Fudge Family in Paris (1818), and Lalla Rookh (1817); he was Byron's close friend and designated biographer.

Ossian (250 fl.) Legendary blind bard of Gaelic story to whom James Macpherson attributed his poems Fingal and Temora.

Mungo Park (1771-1806) Scottish explorer who published Travels in the interior Districts of Africa (1799).

Alexander Pope (1688-1744) English poet and satirist; author of The Rape of the Lock (1714) and The Dunciad (1728).

James Pringle of Torwoodlee (d. 1840) The friend and neighbor of Walter Scott; he was educated at Cambridge and Leyden, succeeded his uncle as laird in 1780, and was vice-lieutenant of Selkirkshire.

Matthew Prior (1664-1721) English poet and statesman successful in both comic and serious verse collected in Poems on Several Occasions (1718).

Owen Rees (1770-1837) London bookseller; he was the partner of Thomas Norton Longman and friend of the poet Thomas Moore.

Joseph Ritson (1752-1803) English antiquary and editor remembered as much for his quarrelsome temperament as for his contributions to literary history.

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.

Harriet Katherine Scott, duchess of Buccleuch [née Townshend] (1773-1814) The daughter of Thomas Townshend, first Viscount Sydney of St. Leonards; in 1795 she married Charles William Henry Montagu-Scott, fourth Duke of Buccleuch.

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

Thomas Scott (1774-1823) The younger brother of Walter Scott rumored to have written Waverley; after working in the family legal business he was an officer in the Manx Fencibles (1806-10) and Paymaster of the 70th Foot (1812-14). He died in Canada.

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

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.

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

John Somers, baron Somers (1651-1716) Whig politician, member of the Kit-Kat Club, friend of Addison, Steele, and Swift; he was lord chancellor (1697).

John Southey Somerville, fifteenth Lord Somerville (1765-1819) Educated at Harrow and St John's College, Cambridge, he succeeded his father in 1796 and was a courtier, Scottish representative peer, and friend of Walter Scott.

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).

Edmund Spenser (1552 c.-1599) English poet, author of The Shepheards Calender (1579) and The Faerie Queene (1590, 1596).

Jonathan Swift (1667-1745) Dean of St Patrick's, Scriblerian satirist, and author of Battle of the Books with Tale of a Tub (1704), Drapier Letters (1724), Gulliver's Travels (1726), and A Modest Proposal (1729).

Publius Cornelius Tacitus (56 c.-117 c.) Roman historian; author of 18 books of Annals and 12 books of Histories.

Thomas of Erceldoune (1220 c.-1297 c.) Scottish poet and prophet; author (or supposed author) of the romance, Sir Tristrem.

James Thomson (1700-1748) Anglo-Scottish poet and playwright; while his descriptive poem, The Seasons (1726-30), was perhaps the most popular poem of the eighteenth century, the poets tended to admire more his Spenserian burlesque, The Castle of Indolence (1748).

Thomas Thomson (1768-1852) Scottish lawyer and man of letters; he was one of the projectors of the Edinburgh Review and succeeded Sir Walter Scott as president of the Bannatyne Club (1832-52).

Thomas Thomson (1773-1852) Friend of James Mill and professor of chemistry at the University of Glasgow; he contributed to the Quarterly Review.

Thomas Thornton (1752-1823) Sportsman, reviver of falconry, and dissolute character; he spent his latter years living in France.

Sir Roger Twysden, second baronet (1597-1672) English antiquary, magistrate, and Royalist MP; he published Historiae Anglicanae Scriptores Decem (1652).

Virgil (70 BC-19 BC) Roman epic poet; author of Eclogues, Georgics, and the Aenead.

Joseph Warton (1722-1800) English poet and literary critic; headmaster of Winchester School (1766-1800); author of An Essay on the Writings and Genius of Pope (1756, 1782).

William Wordsworth (1770-1850) With Coleridge, author of Lyrical Ballads (1798), Wordsworth survived his early unpopularity to succeed Robert Southey as poet laureate in 1843.

Edinburgh Annual Register. 19 vols (1808-1826). Edited by Walter Scott; it was a perennial money-sink for the Ballantyne concern.

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.

Robert Anderson (1749-1830) The Works of the British Poets: with Prefaces, Biographical and Critical. 13 vols (London: J. & A. Arch, 1795). With original prefaces by Robert Anderson. An additional volume was published in 1807.

La Bibliothèque bleue, entièrement refondue et considérablement augmentée. 3 vols (Liège: 1787).

John Barbour (1330 c.-1395) The Bruce. (1375). Barbour's early Scots poem on Robert the Bruce was printed several times in the eighteenth century, including a 1790 volume edited by John Pinkerton.

John Bell (1745-1831) Bell's Edition: the Poets of Great Britain complete from Chaucer to Churchill. 65 vols (London: John Bell, 1777-1780). An inexpensive, small-format edition competing with Johnson's edition of the British poets.

Thomas Campbell (1777-1844) Specimens of the British Poets: with Biographical and Critical Notices, and an Essay on English Poetry. 7 vols (London: Murray, 1819). Campbell's prefatory remarks sparked the “Pope Controversy” between advocates of the classical and romantic schools in English poetry.

John Dryden (1631-1700) Absalom and Achitophel: a Poem. (London: J. T., 1681). A on the political ambitions of Shaftesbury and Monmouth.

John Dryden (1631-1700) Fables Ancient and Modern; translated into Verse, from Homer, Ovid, Boccace, & Chaucer: with Original Poems. (London: Jacob Tonson, 1700). Dryden's last major work.

John Dryden (1631-1700) The Hind and the Panther. A Poem, in Three Parts. (London: Jacob Tonson, 1687). A theological allegory.

John Dryden (1631-1700) “Palamon and Arcite” in Fables Ancient and Modern; translated into Verse. (London: Jacob Tonson, 1700). Adapted from Chaucer.

George Ellis (1753-1815) Specimens of Early English Metrical Romances, chiefly written during the early part of the Fourteenth Century. 3 vols (London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, and Orme, 1805).

William Godwin (1756-1836) Fleetwood: or, the new Man of Feeling. 3 vols (London: Richard Phillips, 1805).

Richard Hurd, bishop of Worcester (1720-1808) Select Works of Mr. A. Cowley. With a Pref. and Notes. 2 vols (London: T. Cadell, 1772). The text selected and modernized by Richard Hurd.

Thomas Johnes (1748-1816) Sir John Froissart's Chronicles of England, France, Spain, and the adjoining Countries, from the latter part of the Reign of Edward II. to the Coronation of Henry IV: Newly translated from the French Editions, with Variations and Additions from many celebrated MSS. 12 vols (London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, and Orme, 1805-1806). Long the standard translation.

Samuel Johnson (1709-1784) The Works of the English Poets. With Prefaces, biographical and critical. 10 vols (1779-1781). The Lives, originally written as prefaces to a collection of English poets, were also published separately.

James Macpherson (1736-1796) The Iliad of Homer, translated by James Macpherson. 2 vols (London: T. Becket and P. A. De Hondt, 1773). A prose translation in the manner of the Ossian poems.

James Macpherson (1736-1796) The Works of Ossian, the Son of Fingal: translated from the Galic Language. 2 vols (London: T. Becket and P. A. Dehondt, 1765). The first collected edition of the poems of Ossian.

John Pinkerton [Robert Heron] (1758-1826) The Bruce; or, the History of Robert I. King of Scotland. Written in Scotish Verse by John Barbour. The first genuine edition, published from a MS. dated 1489; with Notes and a Glossary by J. Pinkerton. 3 vols (London: G. Nicol, 1790). Edited by John Pinkerton.

Alexander Pope (1688-1744) “Eloisa to Abelard” in The Works of Mr. Alexander Pope. (London: Jacob Tonson and Bernard Lintot, 1717). A heroic epistle that Joseph Warton uncharacteristically admired.

Alexander Pope (1688-1744) The Works of Alexander Pope, Esq. In Nine Volumes Complete. With his last Corrections, Additions, and Improvements. Published by Mr. Warburton. 9 vols (London: J. and P. Knapton, H. Lintot, J. and R. Tonson, and S. Draper, 1751).

Matthew Prior (1664-1721) “Hans Carvel” in A Collection of Poems. (London: Daniel Brown, 1701).

Matthew Prior (1664-1721) “Paulo Purgante and his Wife: an Honest, but a Simple Pair” in Poems on Several Occasions. (London: Jacob Tonson, 1709).

Sir Walter Scott, baronet (1771-1832) The Antiquary. 3 vols (Edinburgh: Constable, 1816). The third of Scott's historical novels; the “antiquary” is Jonathan Oldbuck, laird of Monkbarns.

Sir Walter Scott, baronet (1771-1832) “The Bard's Incantation” in Edinburgh Annual Register. (Edinburgh: 1808). Eight stanzas signed “Walter Scott” and dated 1804.

Sir Walter Scott, baronet (1771-1832) “Colonel Thornton's Sporting Tour” in Edinburgh Review. Vol. 5 (January 1805): 398-405.

Sir Walter Scott, baronet (1771-1832) “Godwin's Fleetwood: a Novel” in Edinburgh Review. Vol. 6 (April 1805): 182-193.

Sir Walter Scott, baronet (1771-1832) “Godwin's Life of Chaucer” in Edinburgh Review. Vol. 3 (January 1804): 437-452.

Sir Walter Scott, baronet (1771-1832) Guy Mannering, or, the Astrologer. 3 vols (Edinburgh: Ballantyne, 1815). The second of Scott's historical novels, published only a few months after Waverley.

Sir Walter Scott, baronet (1771-1832) “Johnes's translation of Froissart” in Edinburgh Review. Vol. 5 (January 1805): 347-362.

Sir Walter Scott, baronet (1771-1832) “John de Lancaster” in Quarterly Review. Vol. 1 No. 2 (May 1809): 337-48. A review of the novel by Richard Cumberland.

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) “Laing's Edition of Macpherson” in Edinburgh Review. Vol. 6 (July 1805): 429-462.

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) Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border, consisting of Historical and Romantic Ballads, collected in the Southern Counties of Scotland, with a few of modern date, founded upon Local Tradition. 3 vols (Edinburgh: Longman and Rees, 1802-1803). A collection of border ballads collected by Walter Scott with extensive introductions and notes, modeled on Percy's Reliques of Ancient English Poetry.

Sir Walter Scott, baronet (1771-1832) “The New Practice of Cookery, Etc.” in Edinburgh Review. Vol. 6 (July 1805): 350-357.

Sir Walter Scott, baronet (1771-1832) The Old Mortality. 4 vols (Blackwood, 1816). A tale of the political and theological conflicts in seventeenth-century Scotland offended many Presbyterians. It was published with The Black Dwarf.

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

Sir Walter Scott, baronet (1771-1832) “Todd's Edition of Spenser” in Edinburgh Review. Vol. 7 (October 1805): 203-217.

Sir Walter Scott, baronet (1771-1832) Waverley: or, 'Tis Sixty Years Since. 3 vols (Edinburgh: Constable, 1814). Scott's first historical novel, set against the backdrop of the Jacobite rising of 1745.

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

Robert Southey (1774-1843) Madoc. (London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, and Orme, 1805). A verse romance relating the legendary adventures of a Welsh prince in Wales and pre-Columbian America.

James Thomson (1700-1748) The Seasons. (London: 1726-1730). A cycle of blank verse descriptive poems reprinted throughout the nineteenth century, often in illustrated editions.

Thomas Thornton (1752-1823) A Sporting Tour through various parts of France, in the year 1802, including a concise Description of the Sporting Establishments, Mode of Hunting, and other Field-amusements, as practised in that Country, with General Observations on the Arts, Sciences, Agriculture, Husbandry, and Commerce, Strictures on the Customs and Manners of the French People, with a View of the Comparative Advantages of Sporting in France and England, in a Series of Letters to the Right Hon. the Earl of Darlington. 2 vols (London: Longman, Hurst, Rees and Orme, 1806).

William Wordsworth (1770-1850) “To —, on Her First Ascent to the Summit of Helvellyn” in The River Duddon: a Series of Sonnets; Vaudracour and Julia: and other Poems; to which is annexed, a topographical Description of the country of the Lakes, in the north of England. (London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, 1820). The blank in the title stands for “Miss Blackett.”

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