The year 1815 may be considered as, for Scott’s peaceful tenor of life, an eventful one. That which followed
has left almost its only traces in the successive appearance of nine volumes, which attest
the prodigal genius, and hardly less astonishing industry of the man. Early in January were
published Paul’s Letters to his
Kinsfolk, of which I need not now say more than that they were received with lively
curiosity, and gene-
2 | LIFE OF SIR WALTER SCOTT. |
Mr Terry produced in the spring of 1816 a dramatic piece, entitled, “Guy Mannering,” which met with great success on the London boards, and still continues to be a favourite with the theatrical public; what share the novelist himself had in this first specimen of what he used to call “the art of Terryfying” I cannot exactly say; but his correspondence shows that the pretty song of the Lullaby* was not his only contribution to it; and I infer that he had taken the trouble to modify the plot, and re-arrange, for stage purposes, a considerable part of the original dialogue. The casual risk of discovery, through the introduction of the song which had, in the mean time, been communicated to one of his humble dependents, the late Alexander Campbell, editor of Albyn’s Anthology (commonly known at Abbotsford as, by way of excellence, “The Dunniewassail,”) and Scott’s suggestions on that difficulty, will amuse the reader of the following letter:
“I give you joy of your promotion to the dignity of an householder, and heartily wish you all the success you so well deserve, to answer the approaching enlarge-
See Scott’s Poetical Works, (Edit. 1834), vol. xi., p. 317. |
GUY MANNERING “TERRY-FIED.” | 3 |
4 | LIFE OF SIR WALTER SCOTT. |
“I have got from my friend Glengarry the noblest dog ever seen on the Border since Johnnie Armstrong’s time. He is between the wolf and deer greyhound, about six feet long from the tip of the nose to the tail, and high and strong in proportion: he is quite gentle, and a great favourite: tell Will. Erskine he will eat off his plate without being at the trouble to put a paw on the table or chair. I showed him to Matthews, who dined one day in Castle Street before I came here, where, except for Mrs S., I am like unto
‘The spirit who dwelleth by himself, In the land of mist and snow’— |
LETTER TO TERRY APRIL, 1816. | 5 |
“P.S.—On consideration, and comparing difficulties, I think I will settle with Campbell to take my name from the verses, as they stand in his collection. The verses themselves I cannot take away without imprudent explanations; and as they go to other music, and stand without any name, they will probably not be noticed, so you need give yourself no farther trouble on the score. I should like to see my copy: pray send it to the post-office, under cover to Mr Freeling, whose unlimited privilege is at my service on all occasions.”
Early in May appeared the novel of “the Antiquary,” which seems to have been begun a little before the close of 1815. It came out at a moment of domestic distress.
Throughout the year 1815 Major John Scott had been drooping. He died on the 8th of May, 1816; and I extract the letter in which this event was announced to Mr Thomas Scott by his only surviving brother.
“This brings you the melancholy news of our brother
John’s concluding his long and
lingering illness by death, upon Thursday last. We had thought it impos-
6 | LIFE OF SIR WALTER SCOTT. |
* The late Mr Hay Donaldson, W.S.—an intimate friend of both Thomas and Walter Scott, and Mr Macculloch of Ardwell, the brother of Mrs Thomas Scott. |
DEATH OF MAJOR JOHN SCOTT—MAY, 1816. | 7 |
A few days afterwards, he hands to Mr Thomas Scott a formal statement of pecuniary affairs; the result of which was, that the Major had left something not much under L.6000. Major Scott, from all I have heard, was a sober, sedate bachelor, of dull mind and frugal tastes, who, after his retirement from the army, divided his time between his mother’s primitive fireside, and the society of a few whist-playing brother officers, that met for an evening rubber at Fortune’s tavern. But, making every allowance for his retired and thrifty habits, I infer that the payments made to each of the three brothers out of their father’s estate must have, prior to 1816, amounted to L.5000. From the letter conveying this statement (29th May), I extract a few sentences:—
“ . . . . . Should the possession of this sum, and
the certainty that you must, according to the course of nature, in a short
space of years succeed to a similar sum of L.3000 belonging to our mother,
induce you to turn your thoughts to Scotland, I shall be most happy to forward
your views with any influence I may possess; and I have little doubt that,
sooner or later, something may be done. But, unfortunately, every avenue is now
choked with applicants, whose claims are very strong; for the number of
disbanded officers, and public servants dismissed in consequence of Parliament
turning restive and refusing the income-tax, is great and increasing. Economy
is the order of the day, and I assure you they are shaving properly close. It
would, no doubt, be comparatively easy to get you a better situation where you
are, but then it is bidding farewell to your country, at least for a long time,
and separating your children from all knowledge of those with whom they are
naturally connected. I shall anxiously expect to
8 | LIFE OF SIR WALTER SCOTT. |
The letter in which Scott communicated his brother’s death to Mr Morritt, gives us his own original opinion of The Antiquary. It has also some remarks on the separation of Lord and Lady Byron and the “domestic verses” of the noble poet.
“I have been occupied of late with scenes of domestic
distress, my poor brother, Major John
Scott, having last week closed a life which wasting disease had
long rendered burthensome. His death, under all the circumstances, cannot be
termed a subject of deep affliction; and though we were always on fraternal
terms of mutual kindness and good-will, yet our habits of life, our taste for
society and circles of friends were so totally
DEATH OF MAJOR SCOTT. | 9 |
“Nothing can give me more pleasure than the prospect of seeing you in September, which will suit our motions perfectly well. I trust I shall have an opportunity to introduce you to some of our glens which you have not yet seen. But I hope we shall have some mild weather before that time, for we are now in the seventh month of winter, which almost leads me to suppose that we shall see no summer this season. As for spring, that is past praying for. In the month of November last, people were skating in the neighbourhood of Edinburgh; and now, in the middle of May, the snow is lying white on Arthur’s Seat, and on the range of the Pentlands. It is really fearful, and the sheep are perishing by scores. Jam satis terræ nivis, &c. may well be taken up as the song of eighteen hundred and sixteen.
10 | LIFE OF SIR WALTER SCOTT. |
“So Lord Byron’s romance seems to be concluded for one while and it is surely time, after he has announced, or rather they themselves have announced, half a dozen blackguard newspaper editors, to have been his confidants on the occasion. Surely it is a strange thirst of public fame that seeks such a road to it. But Lord Byron, with high genius and many points of a noble and generous feeling, has Childe Harolded himself, and outlawed himself, into too great a resemblance with the pictures of his imagination. He has one excuse, however, and it is a sad one. I have been reckoned to make a good hit enough at a pirate, or an outlaw, or a smuggling bandit; but I cannot say I was ever so much enchanted with my work as to think of carrying off a drift of my neighbour’s sheep, or half a dozen of his milk cows. Only I remember, in the rough times, having a scheme with the Duke of Buccleuch, that when the worst came to the worst, we should repair Hermitage Castle, and live, like Robin Hood and his merry men, at the expense of all round us. But this presupposed a grand bouleversement of society. In the mean while, I think my noble friend is something like my old peacock, who chooses to bivouac apart from his lady, and sit below my bedroom window, to keep me awake with his screeching lamentation. Only I own he is not equal in melody to Lord Byron, for Fare-thee-well—and if for ever, &c., is a very sweet dirge indeed. After all, C’est genie mal logé, and that’s all that can be said about it.
“I am quite reconciled to your opinions on the
income-tax, and am not at all in despair at the prospect of keeping L.200
a-year in my pocket, since the ministers can fadge without it. But their
throwing the helve after the hatchet, and giving up the malt-duty because they
had lost the other, was droll enough. After all, our fat
LETTER TO MORRITT—MAY, 1816. | 11 |
“I sent you, some time since, the Antiquary. It is not so interesting as its predecessors—the period did not admit of so much romantic situation. But it has been more fortunate than any of them in the sale, for 6000 went off in the first six days, and it is now at press again; which is very flattering to the unknown author. Another incognito proposes immediately to resume the second volume of Triermain, which is at present in the state of the Bear and Fiddle. Adieu, dear Morritt. Ever yours,
Speaking of his third novel in a letter of the same date to Terry, Scott says, “It wants the romance of Waverley and the adventure of Guy Mannering; and yet there is some salvation about it, for if a man will paint from nature, he will be likely to amuse those who are daily looking at it.”
After a little pause of hesitation, The Antiquary attained popularity not inferior to Guy Mannering; and,
* Shortly after Beau Brummell (immortalized in Don Juan) fell into disgrace with the Prince Regent, and was dismissed from the society of Carlton House, he was riding with another gentleman in the Park, when the Prince met them. His Royal Highness stopt to speak to Brummell’s companion—the Beau continued to jog on—and when the other dandy rejoined him, asked with an air of sovereign indifference, “Who is your fat friend?” Such, at least, was the story that went the round of the newspapers at the time, and highly tickled Scott’s fancy. I have heard that nobody enjoyed so much as the Prince of Wales himself an earlier specimen of the Beau’s assurance. Taking offence at some part of His Royal Highness’s conduct or demeanour, “Upon my word,” observed Mr Brummell, “if this kind of thing goes on, I shall be obliged to cut Wales, and bring the old King into fashion.” |
12 | LIFE OF SIR WALTER SCOTT. |
But laying this, which might have been little more than a good-humoured
pleasantry, out of the question, there is assuredly no one of all his works on which more
of his own early associations have left their image. Of those early associations, as his
full-grown tastes were all the progeny, so his genius, in all its happiest efforts, was the
“Recording Angel;” and when George
Constable first expounded his “Gabions” to the child that
THE ANTIQUARY—MAY, 1816. | 13 |
“Weel may the boatie row, and better may she speed, O weel may the boatie row that wins the bairns’ bread”— |
Considered by itself, without reference to these sources of personal interest, this novel seems to me to possess, almost throughout, in common with its two predecessors, a kind of simple unsought charm, which the subsequent works of the series hardly reached, save in occasional snatches:—like them it is, in all its humbler and softer scenes, the transcript of actual Scottish life, as observed by the man himself. And I think it must also be allowed that he has nowhere displayed his highest art, that of skilful contrast, in greater perfection. Even the tragic romance of Waverley does not set off its Macwheebles and Callum Begs better than the oddities of Jonathan Oldbuck and his circle are relieved, on the one hand, by the stately gloom of the Glenallans, on the other, by the stern affliction of the poor fisherman, who, when discovered repairing the “auld black bitch o’ a boat” in which his boy had been lost, and congratulated by his visiter on being capable of the exertion, makes answer, “And what would you have me to do, unless I wanted to see four children starve, because one is drowned? it’s weel wi you gentles, that can sit in the house wi’ handkerchers at your een, when ye lose a friend; but the like o’ us maun to our wark again, if our hearts were beating as hard as my hammer.”
It may be worth noting, that it was in correcting the
14 | LIFE OF SIR WALTER SCOTT. |
Unlike, I believe, most men, whenever Scott neared the end of one composition, his spirits seem to have caught a
new spring of buoyancy, and before the last sheet was sent from his desk, he had crowded
his brain with the imagination of another fiction. The Antiquary was published, as we have seen, in May,
but by the beginning of April he had already opened to the Ballantynes
the plan of the first Tales of my Landlord;
and—to say nothing of Harold the Dauntless,
which he began shortly after the Bridal of
Triermain was finished, and which he seems to have kept before him for two years
as a congenial plaything, to be taken up whenever the coach brought no proof-sheets to jog
him as to serious matters—he had also, before this time, undertaken to write the historical
department of the Register for 1814. Mr Southey had, for reasons upon which I do not enter,
discontinued his services to that work; and it was now doubly necessary, after trying for
one year a less eminent hand, that if the work were not to be dropped altogether, some
strenuous exertion should be made to sustain its character. Scott had
not yet collected the materials requisite for his historical sketch of
TALES OF MY LANDLORD PROJECTED. | 15 |
The Antiquary had been published by Constable, but I presume that, in addition to the usual stipulations, he had been again, on that occasion, solicited to relieve John Ballantyne and Co.’s stock to an extent which he did not find quite convenient; and at all events he had, though I know not on what grounds, shown a considerable reluctance of late to employ James Ballantyne and Co. as printers. One or other of these impediments is alluded to in a note of Scott’s, which, though undated, has been pasted into John Ballantyne’s private letterbook among the documents of the period in question. It is in these words:
“I have seen the great swab, who is supple as a glove, and will do all, which some interpret nothing. However, we shall do well enough.
Constable had been admitted, almost from, the
beginning, into the secret of the Novels and for that, among other
reasons, it would have been desirable for the Novelist to have him continue the publisher
without interruption; but Scott was led to suspect, that
if he were called upon to conclude a bargain for a fourth novel before the third had made
its appearance, his scruples as to the matter of printing might at
least protract the treaty; and why
16 | LIFE OF SIR WALTER SCOTT. |
He was ever and anon pulled up with a momentary misgiving, and resolved
that the latest acquisition should be the last, until he could get rid entirely of
“John Ballantyne and Co.”; but John Ballantyne was, from the utter lightness of his mind,
his incapacity to look a day before him, and his eager impatience to enjoy the passing
hour, the very last man in the world who could, under such circumstances, have been a
serviceable agent. Moreover John, too, had his professional ambition;
he was naturally proud of his connexion, however secondary, with the publication of these
works and this connexion, though subordinate, was still very profitable; he must have
suspected, that should his name disappear altogether from the list
TALES OF MY LANDLORD. | 17 |
“’Twill be wearing awa’, John, Like snaw-wreaths when it’s thaw, John,”
&c. &c. &c. |
I am very sorry, in a word, to confess my conviction that John Ballantyne, however volatile and light-headed, acted
at this period with cunning selfishness, both by Scott
and by Constable. He well knew that it was to
Constable alone that his firm had more than once owed its escape
from utter ruin and dishonour; and he must also have known, that had a fair,
straightforward effort been made for that purpose, after the triumphant career of the Waverley series had once commenced,
nothing could have been more easy than to bring all the affairs of his “back-stock,
&c.,” to a complete close, byentering into a distinct and candid treaty on that
subject, in connexion with the future works of the great Novelist, either with
Constable or with any other first-rate house in the trade. But
John, foreseeing that, were that unhappy concern quite out of the
field, he must himself subside into a mere subordinate member of
18 | LIFE OF SIR WALTER SCOTT. |
It was resolved, accordingly, to offer the risk and half profits of the first edition of another new novel or rather collection of novels not to Messrs Constable, but to Mr Murray of Albemarle Street, and Mr Blackwood, who was then Murray’s agent in Scotland; but it was at the same time resolved, partly because Scott wished to try another experiment on the public sagacity, but partly also, no question, from the wish to spare Constable’s feelings, that the title-page of the “Tales of my Landlord” should not bear the magical words “by the Author of Waverley.” The facility with which both Murray and Blackwood embraced such a proposal, as no untried novelist, being sane, could have dreamt of hazarding, shows that neither of them had any doubt as to the identity of the author. They both considered the withholding of the avowal on the forthcoming title-page as likely to check very much the first success of the book; but they were both eager to prevent Constable’s acquiring a sort of prescriptive right to publish for the unrivalled novelist, and willing to disturb his tenure at this additional, and as they thought it, wholly unnecessary risk.
TALES OF MY LANDLORD—1816. | 19 |
How sharply the unseen parent watched this first negotiation of his Jedediah Cleishbotham, will appear from one of his letters:
“James has made one or two important mistakes in the bargain with Murray and Blackwood. Briefly as follows:
“1stly. Having only authority from me to promise 6000 copies, he proposes they shall have the copyright for ever. I will see their noses cheese first.
“2dly. He proposes I shall have twelve months’ bills—I have always got six. However, I would not stand on that.
“3dly. He talks of volumes being put into the publishers’ hands to consider and decide on. No such thing; a bare perusal at St John Street* only.
“Then for omissions—It is not stipulated that we supply the paper and print of successive editions. This must be nailed, and not left to understanding. Secondly, I will have London bills as well as Blackwood’s.
“If they agree to these conditions, good and well. If they demur, Constable must be instantly tried; giving half to the Longmans, and we drawing on them for that moiety, or Constable lodging their bill in our hands. You will understand it is a four volume touch—a work totally different in style and structure from the others; a new cast, in short, of the net which has hitherto made miraculous draughts. I do not limit you to terms, because I think you will make them better than I can do. But he must do more than others, since
* James Ballantyne’s dwelling-house was in this street, adjoining the Canongate of Edinburgh. |
20 | LIFE OF SIR WALTER SCOTT. |
“P.S.—I think Constable should jump at this affair; for I believe the work will be very popular.”
Messrs Murray and Blackwood agreed to all the author’s conditions here expressed. They also relieved John Ballantyne and Co. of stock to the value of L.500; and at least Mr Murray must, moreover, have subsequently consented to anticipate the period of his payments. At all events, I find, in a letter of Scott’s, dated in the subsequent August, this new echo of the old advice:—
“I have the pleasure to enclose Murray’s acceptances. I earnestly recommend to you to push realizing as much as you can.
‘Consider weel, gude man,
We hae but borrowed gear;
The horse that I ride on,
It is John
Murray’s mear.’
|
I know not how much of the tale of the Black Dwarf had been seen by Blackwood, in St John Street, before
TALES OF MY LANDLORD—1816. | 21 |
22 | LIFE OF SIR WALTER SCOTT. |
“I have received Blackwood’s impudent letter. G—— d—— his soul! Tell him
and his coadjutor that I
BLACKWOOD AND THE BLACK DWARF. | 23 |
This, and a few other documents referring to the same business, did not come into my hands until both Ballantyne and Blackwood were no more: and it is not surprising that Mr Murray’s recollection, if (which I much doubt) he had been at all consulted about it, should not, at this distance of time, preserve any traces of its details. “I remember nothing,” he writes to me, “but that one of the very proudest days of my life was that on which I published the first Tales of my Landlord; and a vague notion that I owed the dropping of my connexion with the Great Novelist to some trashy disputes between Blackwood and the Ballantynes.”
While these volumes were in progress, Scott found time to make an excursion into Perthshire and Dumbartonshire, for the sake of showing the scenery, made famous in the Lady of the Lake and Waverley, to his wife’s old friends Miss Dumergue and Mrs Sarah Nicolson,* who had never before been in Scotland. The account which he gives of these ladies’ visit at Abbotsford, and this little tour, in a letter to Mr Morritt, shows the “Black Hussar of Literature” in his gentler and more habitual mood.
“I have not had a moment’s kindly leisure to answer your kind letter, and to tell how delighted I shall be to see you in this least of all possible dwellings, but
* The sister of Miss Jane Nicolson.—See vol. i, ante, pp. 268, 372. |
24 | LIFE OF SIR WALTER SCOTT. |
LETTER TO MORRITT—AUG. 1816. | 25 |
“In you I expect a guest of a different calibre; and
I think (barring downright rain) I can promise you some sport of one kind or
other. We have a good deal of game about us; and Walter, to whom I have resigned my gun and license, will be an
excellent attendant. He brought in six brace of moorfowl on the 12th, which had
(si fas est diceri) its own
effect in softening the minds of our guests towards this unhappy climate. In
other respects things look melancholy enough here. Corn is, however, rising;
and the poor have plenty of work, and wages which, though greatly inferior to
what they had when hands were scarce, assort perfectly well with the present
state of the markets. Most folks try to live as much on their own produce as
they can, by way of fighting off distress; and though speculating farmers and
landlords must suffer, I think the temporary ague-fit will, on the whole, be
advantageous to the country. It will check that inordinate and unbecoming
spirit of expense, or rather extravagance, which was poisoning all classes, and
bring us back to the sober virtues of our ancestors. It will also have the
effect of teaching the landed interest, that their connexion with their farmers
should be of a nature more intimate than that of mere payment and receipt of
rent, and that the largest offerer for a lease is often the person least
entitled to be prefer-
26 | LIFE OF SIR WALTER SCOTT. |
In October, 1816, appeared the Edinburgh Annual Register, containing Scott’s historical sketch of the year 1814—a composition which would occupy two such volumes as the reader now has in his hand. Though executed with extraordinary rapidity, the sketch is as clear as spirited; but I need say no more of it here, as the author travels mostly over the same ground again in his Life of Napoleon.
Scott’s correspondence proves, that during this
autumn he had received many English guests besides the good spinsters of Piccadilly and
Mr Morritt. I regret to add, it also proves that
he had continued all the while to be annoyed with calls for money from John Ballantyne; yet before the 12th of November called
him to Edinburgh, he appears to have nearly finished the first “Tales of my Landlord.” He had, moreover, concluded a
nego-
LETTER TO TERRY—NOV. 1816. | 27 |
“I have been shockingly negligent in acknowledging
your repeated favours; but it so happened, that I have had very little to say,
with a great deal to do; so that I trusted to your kindness to forgive my
apparent want of kindness, and indisputable lack of punctuality. You will
readily suppose that I have heard with great satisfaction of the prosperity of
your household, particularly of the good health of my little namesake and his
mother. Godmothers of yore used to be fairies; and though only a godfather, I
think of sending you, one day, a fairy gift—a little drama, namely, which, if the
audience be indulgent, may be of use to him. Of course, you will stand
godfather to it yourself: it is yet only in embryo—a sort of poetical Hans in Kelder—nor am I sure when I can bring him
forth; not for this season, at any rate. You will receive, in the course of a
few days, my late whereabouts in four volumes: there are
two tales the last of which I really prefer to any fictitious narrative I have
yet been able to produce—the first is wish-washy enough. The subject of the
second tale lies among the old Scottish Cameronians—nay, I’ll
28 | LIFE OF SIR WALTER SCOTT. |
LETTER TO TERRY—NOVEMBER, 1816. | 29 |
“Do not let Mrs Terry think of the windows till little Wat is duly cared after.† I am informed by Mr Blore that he is a fine thriving fellow, very like papa. About my armorial bearings: I will send you a correct drawing of them as soon as I can get hold of Blore; namely—of the scutcheons of my grandsires on each side, and my own. I could detail them in the jargon of heraldry, but it is better to speak to your eyes by translating them into coloured drawings, as the sublime science of armory has fallen into some neglect of late years, with
* A cast from the monumental effigy at Stratford-upon-Avon—now in the library at Abbotsford was the gift of Mr George Bullock, long distinguished in London as a collector of curiosities for sale, and honourably so by his “Mexican Museum” which formed during several years a popular exhibition throughout the country. This ingenious man was, as the reader will see in the sequel, a great favourite with Scott. † Mrs Terry had offered the services of her elegant pencil in designing some windows of painted glass for Scott’s armoury, &c. |
30 | LIFE OF SIR WALTER SCOTT. |
“I was very sorry I had no opportunity of showing attention to your friend Mr Abbot, not being in town at the time. I grieve to say, that neither the genius of Kean, nor the charms of Miss O’Neill could bring me from the hill-side and the sweet society of Tom Purdie. All our family are very well—Walter as tall nearly as I am, fishing salmon and shooting moor-fowl and black-cock, in good style; the girls growing up, and, as yet, not losing their simplicity of character; little Charles excellent at play, and not deficient at learning, when the young dog will take pains. Abbotsford is looking pretty at last, and the planting is making some show. I have now several hundred acres thereof, running out as far as beyond the lake. We observe with great pleasure the steady rise which you make in public opinion, and expect, one day, to hail you stage-manager. Believe me, my dear Terry, always very much your?,
On the first of December the first series of the Tales of my Landlord appeared, and notwithstanding the silence of the title-page, and the change of publishers, and the attempt which had certainly been made to vary the style both of delineation and of language, all doubts whether they were or were not from the same hand with Waverley had worn themselves out before the lapse of a week. The enthusiasm of their reception among the highest literary circles of London may be gathered from the following letter:—
FIRST TALES OF MY LANDLORD PUBLISHED. | 31 |
“Although I dare not address you as the author of certain ‘Tales’ (which, however, must be written either by Walter Scott or the Devil), yet nothing can restrain me from thinking it is to your influence with the author that I am indebted for the essential honour of being one of their publishers, and I must intrude upon you to offer my most hearty thanks—not divided, but doubled—alike for my worldly gain therein, and for the great acquisition of professional reputation which their publication has already procured me. I believe I might, under any oath that could be proposed, swear that I never experienced such unmixed pleasure as the reading of this exquisite work has afforded me; and if you could see me, as the author’s literary chamberlain, receiving the unanimous and vehement praises of every one who has read it, and the curses of those whose needs my scanty supply could not satisfy, you might judge of the sincerity with which I now entreat you to assure him of the most complete success. Lord Holland said, when I asked his opinion—‘Opinion! We did not one of us go to bed last night—nothing slept but my gout.’ Frere, Hallam, Boswell,* Lord Glenbervie, William Lamb,† all agree that it surpasses all the other novels. Gifford’s estimate is increased at every reperusal. Heber says there are only two men in the world—Walter Scott and Lord Byron. Between you you have given existence to a third. Ever your faithful servant,
* The late James Boswell, Esq., of the Temple—second son of Bozzy. † The Honourable William Lamb—now Lord Melbourne. |
32 | LIFE OF SIR WALTER SCOTT. |
To this cordial effusion Scott returned the following answer. It was necessary, since he had fairly resolved against compromising his incognito, that he should be prepared not only to repel the impertinent curiosity of strangers, but to evade the proffered congratulations of overflowing kindness. He contrived, however, to do so, on this and all similar occasions, in a style of equivoque which could never be seriously misunderstood:—
“I give you heartily joy of the success of the Tales, although I do not claim that
paternal interest in them which my friends do me the credit to assign me. I
assure you I have never read a volume of them until they were printed, and can
only join with the rest of the world in applauding the true and striking
portraits which they present of old Scottish manners. I do not expect implicit
reliance to be placed on my disavowal, because I know very well that he who is
disposed not to own a work must necessarily deny it, and that otherwise his
secret would be at the mercy of all who choose to ask the question, since
silence in such a case must always pass for consent, or rather assent. But I
have a mode of convincing you that I am perfectly serious in my denial—pretty
similar to that by which Solomon
distinguished the fictitious from the real mother—and that is, by reviewing the
work, which I take to be an operation equal to that of quartering the child.
But this is only on condition I can have Mr
Erskine’s assistance, who admires the work greatly more
than I do, though I think the painting of the second tale both true and powerful. I knew
Old Mortality very well; his name
was Pater-
LETTER TO MURRAY—DEC. 1816. | 33 |
“Constable wrote to me about two months since, desirous of having a new edition of Paul; but not hearing from you, I conclude you are still on hand. Longman’s people had then only sixty copies.
“Kind compliments to Heber, whom I expected at Abbotsford this summer; also to Mr Croker and all your four o’clock visitors. I am just going to Abbotsford to make a small addition to my premises there. I have now about 700 acres, thanks to the booksellers and the discerning public. Yours truly,
“P.S. I have much to ask about Lord Byron, if I had time. The third canto of the Childe is inimitable. Of the last poems, there are one or two which indicate rather an irregular play of imagination.* What a pity that a man of such exquisite genius will not be contented to be happy on the ordinary terms! I declare my heart bleeds when I think of him, self-banished from the country to which he is an honour.”
Mr Murray, gladly embracing this offer of an article for his journal on the Tales of My Landlord, begged Scott to take a wider scope, and, dropping all respect for the idea of a divided parentage, to place together any materials he might have for the illustration of the Waverley Novels in general; he suggested, in particular, that,
* Parisina—The Dream—and the “Domestic Pieces,” had been recently published. |
34 | LIFE OF SIR WALTER SCOTT. |
* Since I have mentioned this reviewal, I may as well, to avoid recurrence to it, express here my conviction, that Erskine, not Scott, was the author of the critical estimate of the Waverley novels which it embraces although for the purpose of mystification Scott had taken the trouble to transcribe the paragraphs in which that estimate is contained. At the same time I cannot but add that, had Scott really been the sole author of this reviewal, he need not have incurred the severe censure which has been applied to his supposed conduct in the matter. After all, his judgment of his own works must have been allowed to be not above, but very far under the mark; and the whole affair would, I think, have been considered by every candid person exactly as the letter about Solomon and the rival mothers was by Murray, Gifford, and “the four o’clock visitors” of Albemarle Street—as a good joke. A better joke certainly than the allusion to the report of Thomas Scott being the real author of |
QUARTERLY REVIEW—TALES OF MY LANDLORD. | 35 |
Before the first Tales of my Landlord were six weeks’ old, two editions of 2000 copies disappeared, and a third of 2000 was put to press; but notwithstanding this rapid success, which was still farther continued, and the friendly relations which always subsisted between the author and Mr Murray, circumstances ere long occurred which carried the publication of the work into the hands of Messrs Constable.
The author’s answer to Dr M’Crie, and his Introduction of 1830, have exhausted the historical materials on which he constructed his Old Mortality; and the origin of the Black Dwarf, as to the conclusion of which story he appears on reflection to have completely adopted the opinion of honest Blackwood, has already been sufficiently illustrated by an anecdote of his early wanderings in Tweeddale. The latter tale, however imperfect, and unworthy as a work of art to be placed high in the catalogue of his productions, derives a singular interest from its delineation of the dark feelings so often connected with physical deformity; feelings which appear to have diffused their shadow over the whole genius of Byron and which, but for this single picture, we
Waverley, at the close of the article, was never penned; and I think it includes a confession over which a misanthrope might have chuckled:—“We intended here to conclude this long article, when a strong report reached us of certain Transatlantic confessions, which, if genuine (though of this we know nothing), assign a different author to these volumes than the party suspected by our Scottish correspondents. Yet a critic may be excused seizing upon the nearest suspicious person, on the principle happily expressed by Claverhouse, in a letter to the Earl of Linlithgow. He had been, it seems, in search of a gifted weaver, who used to hold forth at conventicles: ‘I sent for the webster (weaver), they brought in his brother for him: though he, may be, cannot preach like his brother, I doubt not but he is as well-principled as he, wherefore I thought it would be no great fault to give him the trouble to go to jail with the rest!’”—Miscellaneous Prose Works, Vol. xix, Pp. 85-6. |
36 | LIFE OF SIR WALTER SCOTT. |
TALES OF MY LANDLORD. | 37 |
I have disclaimed the power of farther illustrating its historical
groundworks, but I am enabled by Mr Train’s
kindness to give some interesting additions to Scott’s own account of this novel as a composition. The generous
Supervisor visited him in Edinburgh in May 1816, a few days after the publication of the
Antiquary, carrying with him several
relics which he wished to present to his collection, among others a purse that had belonged
to Rob Roy; and also a fresh heap of traditionary
gleanings, which he had gathered among the tale-tellers of his district. One of these last
was in the shape of a letter to Mr Train from a Mr
Broadfoot, “schoolmaster at the clachan of Penningham, and author of
the celebrated song of the Hills of Galloway”—with which I
confess myself unacquainted. Broadfoot had facetiously signed his
communication, Clashbottom—“a professional appellation, derived,”
says Mr Train, “from the use of the birch, and by which he
was usually addressed among his companions, who assembled, not at the Wallace Inn of
Gandercleuch, but at the sign of the Shoulder of Mutton in Newton-Stewart.”
Scott received these gifts with benignity, and invited the
friendly donor to breakfast next morning. He found him at work in his library, and surveyed
with enthusiastic curiosity the furniture of the room, especially its only picture, a
portrait of Graham of Claverhouse.
Train expressed the surprise with which every one who had known
Dundee only in
38 | LIFE OF SIR WALTER SCOTT. |
The original design for the First Series of
Jedediah
TALES OF MY LANDLORD. | 39 |
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