“The law, you know, makes the husband answerable for
the debts of his wife, and therefore gives him a right to approach her
creditors with an offer of payment; so that, after witnessing many fruitless
and broken resolutions of my Charlotte, I am
determined, rather than she and I shall appear longer insensible of your
goodness, to intrude a few lines on you to answer the letter you honoured her
with some time ago. The secret reason of her procrastination is, I believe,
some terror of writing in English—which you know is not her native language—to
one who is as much distinguished by her command of it as by the purposes she
adapts it to. I wish we had the command of what my old friend Pitscottie calls ‘a blink of the sun
or a whip of the whirlwind,’ to transport you to this solitude
before the frost has stripped it of its leaves. It is not, indeed (even I must
confess), equal in picturesque beauty to the banks of Clyde and Evan; but it is
so sequestered, so simple, and so solitary, that it seems just to have beauty
enough to delight its inhabitants, without a single attraction for any visitor,
except those who come for its inhabitants’ sake. And in good sooth,
whenever I was tempted to envy the splendid scenery of the lakes of
Westmoreland, I always endeavoured to cure my fit of spleen by recollecting
that they attract as many idle, insipid, and indolent gazers as any
LETTER TO JOANNA BAILLIE—SEPT. 1808. | 193 |
“Time has lingered with me from day to day in expectation of being called southward; I now begin to think my journey will hardly take place till winter, or early in spring. One of the most pleasant circumstances attending it will be the opportunity to pay my homage to you, and to claim withal a certain promise concerning a certain play, of which you were so kind as to promise me a reading. I hope you do not permit indolence to lay the paring of her little finger upon you; we cannot afford the interruption to your labours which even that might occasion. And ‘what are you doing?’ your politeness will perhaps lead you to say: in answer,—Why, I am very like a certain ancient King, distinguished in the Edda, who, when Lok paid him a visit,—
‘Was twisting of collars his dogs to hold, And combing the mane of his courser bold.’ |
194 | LIFE OF SIR WALTER SCOTT. |
“P.S. I have had a visit from the author of the Poor Man’s Sabbath, whose affairs with Constable are, I hope, settled to his satisfaction. I got him a few books more than were originally stipulated, and have endeavoured to interest Lord Leven,* and through him Mr Wilberforce, and through them both the saints in general, in the success of this modest and apparently worthy man. Lord Leven has promised his exertions; and the interest of the party, if exerted, would save a work tenfold inferior in real merit. What think you of Spain? The days of William Wallace and the Cid Ruy Diaz de Bivar seem to be reviving there.”