Memoirs of the Life of Sir Walter Scott, Bart.
Walter Scott to the Duke of Buccleuch, 8 September 1814
“Glasgow, Sept. 8, 1814.
“My dear Lord Duke,
“I take the earliest opportunity, after landing, to
discharge a task so distressing to me, that I find reluctance and fear even in
making the attempt, and for the first time address so kind and generous a
friend without either comfort and confidence in myself, or the power of
offering a single word of consolation to his affliction. I learned the late
calamitous news (which indeed no preparation could have greatly mitigated)
quite unexpectedly, when upon the Irish coast; nor could the shock of an
earthquake have affected me in the same proportion. Since that time I have been
detained at sea, thinking of nothing but what has happened, and of the painful
duty I am now to perform. If the deepest interest in this inexpressible loss
could qualify me for expressing myself upon a subject so distressing, I know
few whose attachment and respect for the lamented object of our sorrows can, or ought to exceed my own, for never
was more attractive kindness and condescension displayed by one of her sphere,
or returned with deeper and more heartfelt gratitude by one in my own. But
selfish regret and sorrow, while they claim a painful and unavailing as-![]()
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cendance, cannot drown the recollection of the virtues
lost to the world, just when their scene of acting had opened wider, and to her
family when the prospect of their speedy entry upon life rendered her precept
and example peculiarly important. And such an example! for of all whom I have
ever seen, in whatever rank, she possessed most the power of rendering virtue
lovelycombining purity of feeling and soundness of judgment with a
sweetness and affability which won the affections of all who had the happiness
of approaching her. And this is the partner of whom it has been God’s
pleasure to deprive your Grace, and the friend for whom I now sorrow, and shall
sorrow while I can remember any thing. The recollection of her excellencies can
but add bitterness, at least in the first pangs of calamity, yet it is
impossible to forbear the topic: it runs to my pen as to my thoughts, till I
almost call in question, for an instant, the Eternal Wisdom which has so early
summoned her from this wretched world, where pain and grief and sorrow is our
portion, to join those to whom her virtues, while upon earth, gave her so
strong a resemblance. Would to God I could say, be
comforted; but I feel every common topic of consolation must be, for
the time at least, even an irritation to affliction. Grieve, then, my dear
Lord, or I should say my dear and much honoured friend, for sorrow for the time
levels the highest distinctions of rank; but do not grieve as those who have no
hope. I know the last earthly thoughts of the departed sharer of your joys and
sorrows must have been for your Grace and the dear pledges she has left to your
care. Do not, for their sake, suffer grief to take that exclusive possession
which disclaims care for the living, and is not only useless to the dead, but
is what their wishes would have most earnestly deprecated. To time, and to God,
whose are both time and eternity, belongs ![]()
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the office of future consolation;
it is enough to require from the sufferer under such a dispensation to bear his
burthen of sorrow with fortitude, and to resist those feelings which prompt us
to believe that that which is galling and grievous is therefore altogether
beyond our strength to support. Most bitterly do I regret some levity which I
fear must have reached you when your distress was most poignant, and most
dearly have I paid for venturing to anticipate the time which is not ours,
since I received these deplorable news at the very moment when I was collecting
some trifles that I thought might give satisfaction to the person whom I so
highly honoured, and who, among her numerous excellencies, never failed to seem
pleased with what she knew was meant to afford her pleasure.
“But I must break off, and have perhaps already
written too much. I learn by a letter from Mrs
Scott, this day received, that your Grace is at
Bowhillin the beginning of next weekI will be in the vicinity
and when your Grace can receive me without additional pain, I shall have the
honour of waiting upon you. I remain, with the deepest sympathy, my Lord Duke,
your Grace’s truly distressed and most grateful servant,
