“I am glad your Lordship likes Cranbourne Chase: if you had not, I
should have been mortified in my self-conceit, for I thought you were exactly
the person to relish it. If you bind it, pray insert at the beginning or end
two or three leaves of blank paper, that I may insert some excellent anecdotes
of the learned author, which I got from good authority. His debût in the sporting line was shooting an old cat, for which
| 188 | LIFE OF SIR WALTER SCOTT. |
“I expect to be at Abbotsford for two days about the 18th, that I may hold a little jollification with the inhabitants of Melrose and neighbourhood, who always have a gaudeamus, like honest men, on the anniversary of Waterloo. I shall then see what is doing at the Abbey. I am very tenaciously disposed to think, that when the expense of scaffolding, &c. is incurred, it would be very desirable to complete the thing by covering the arch with lead, which will secure it for 500 years. I doubt compositions standing our evil climate; and then the old story of vegetation taking place among the stones comes round again, and twenty years put it in as much danger as before. To be sure the lead will not look so picturesque as cement, but then the preservation will be complete and effectual.
“The fire in Bewly forest reminds me of a pine wood in Strathspey taking fire, which threatened the most destructive consequences to the extensive forests of the Laird of Grant. He sent the fiery cross (there peculiarly appropriate, and the last time, it is said, that it was used) through Glen-Urquhart and all its dependencies, and assembled 500 Highlanders with axes, who could only stop the conflagration by cutting a gap of 500 yards in width betwixt the burning wood and the rest of the forest. This occurred about 1770, and must have been a most tremendous scene.
“Adam Ferguson
and I spent Saturday, Sunday, and Monday last in scouring the country with the
Chief Baron and Chief Commissioner in search of old castles,
crosses, and so forth; and the pleasant weather rendered the excursion
delightful. The beasts of Reformers have
| LETTER TO D. TERRY. | 189 |
“I shall be delighted to hear that Lady Charlotte’s bridal has taken place;* and as doubtless she destines a pair of gloves to one of her oldest friends and well-wishers, I hope her Ladyship will not allow the awful prospect before her to put out of her recollection that I have the largest pair of hands almost in Scotland (now that Hugh Warrender is gone), and that if there be seven-leagued gloves, as once there were seven-leagued boots, they will be most ‘germain to the matter.’ My respectful compliments to the bride-elect and her sisters, to Lady Montagu, and your own young ladies. I have scarce room to add that I always am your Lordship’s very faithful
