Memoirs of the Life of Sir Walter Scott, Bart.
Sir Walter Scott to John Gibson Lockhart, 14 July 1828
“Abbotsford, July 14, 1828
“My dear L.
“I wrote myself blind and sick last week about ![]()
| LETTER TO J. G. LOCKHART, ESQ.—1828. | 147 |
![]()
* * * * † God forgive me for
having thought it possible that a schoolmaster should be out and out a rational
being. I have a letter from Terry—but
written by his poor wife—his former one
was sadly scrawled. I hope he may yet get better—but I suspect the shot has
gone near the heart. ‘O what a world of worlds were it, Would sorrow, pain, and sickness spare it, And aye a rowth roast-beef and claret; Syne wha would starve?’ |
![]()
“If it be true that Longman and Co. have offered L.1000 for a history of Ireland,
Scotland must stand at fifty per cent discount, for they lately offered me
L.500 for one of the latter country, which of course I declined. I have also
had Murray’s request to do some
biography for his new undertaking.‡ But I really can’t think of any
Life I could easily do, excepting Queen
Mary’s, and that I decidedly would not do, because my
opinion, in point of fact, is contrary both to the popular feeling and to my
own. I see, by the by, that your Life of Burns is going to press again, and therefore send you a few
letters which may be of use to you. In one of them (to that singular old
curmudgeon, Lady Winifred Constable) you
will see he plays high Jacobite, and, on that account, it is curious; though I
imagine his Jacobitism, like my own, belonged to the fancy rather than the
reason. He was, however, a great Pittite down to a certain period. There were
some passing stupid verses in the papers, attacking and defending his satire on
a certain preacher,
† These letters, chiefly addressed to
Sir Walter’s excellent friend, James Heywood Markland, Esq. (Editor
of the Chester Mysteries), were on a delicate subject connected with
the incipient arrangements of King’s College, London. ‡ Mr
Murray of Albemarle Street was at this time projecting
his Family Library, one of the many imitations of Constable’s last scheme. |
![]()
![]()
| 148 | LIFE OF SIR WALTER SCOTT. | |
![]()
whom he termed ‘an unco calf.’ In one of
them occurred these lines in vituperation of the adversary— ‘A Whig, I guess. But Rab’s a Tory, An gies us mony a funny story.’ |
![]()
“This was in 1787—Ever yours,
Robert Burns (1759-1796)
Scottish poet and song collector; author of
Poems, chiefly in the
Scottish Dialect (1786).
Archibald Constable (1774-1827)
Edinburgh bookseller who published the
Edinburgh Review and works
of Sir Walter Scott; he went bankrupt in 1826.
Lady Winifred Constable [née Maxwell] (1734 c.-1801)
The daughter of the Jacobite William Maxwell, Earl of Nithsdale; in 1758 she married
William Haggerston Constable. She corresponded with Robert Burns
Thomas Norton Longman (1771-1842)
A leading London publisher whose authors included Southey, Wordsworth, Scott, and
Moore.
James Heywood Markland (1788-1864)
Of the Inner Temple, book collector and antiquary; he contributed to
Censuria Literaria and
Archaeologia and was a member of
the Roxburghe Club.
Queen Mary of Scotland (1542-1587)
The controversial queen of Scotland (1561-1567) who found a number of champions in the
romantic era; Sir Walter Scott treats her sympathetically in
The
Abbott (1820).
John Murray II (1778-1843)
The second John Murray began the
Quarterly Review in 1809 and
published works by Scott, Byron, Austen, Crabbe, and other literary notables.
Daniel Terry (1789-1829)
English actor; after a career in provincial theater made his London debut in 1812. A
close friend of Walter Scott, he performed in theatrical adaptations of Scott's
novels.
Elizabeth Wemyss Terry [née Nasmyth] (1793-1862)
Painter and wife of Walter Scott's friend Daniel Terry; after the death of her first
husband she married the lexicographer Charles Richardson (1775-1865) in 1835.
John Williams (1792-1858)
Classical scholar educated at Balliol College, Oxford; he was a classmate of John Gibson
Lockhart and friend of Sir Walter Scott, whose son he tutored, and rector of the Edinburgh
Academy (1824-27, 1829-47).
