Memoirs of the Life of Sir Walter Scott, Bart.
Sir Walter Scott to John Gibson Lockhart, 30 October 1828
“October 30, 1828.
“I have a sad affliction in the death of poor
Sir William Forbes. You loved him
well, I know, but it is impossible that you should enter into all my feelings
on this occasion. My heart bleeds for his children. God help all!
“Your scruples about doing an epitome of the Life of Bony, for the Family
Library that is to be, are a great deal over delicate. My book in nine thick
volumes can never fill the place which our friend Murray wants you to fill, and which, if you don’t, some
one else will right soon. Moreover, you took much pains in helping me when I
was beginning my task, which I afterwards greatly regretted that Constable had no means of remunerating, as no
doubt he intended, when you were giving him so much good advice in laying down
his grand plans about the Miscellany. By all means do what the Emperor asks. He
is what Emperor Nap. was not, much a
gentleman, and, knowing our footing in all things, would not have proposed any
thing that ought to have excited scruples on your side. Alas, poor
Crafty! Do you remember his exultation when my
Bony affair was first proposed? Good God, I see him as
he then was at this moment—how he swelled and rolled and reddened, and
outblarneyed all blarney! Well, so be it. I hope
‘After life’s fitful fever he sleeps well.’* |
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But he has cost me many a toilsome dreary day, and drearier night, and
will cost me more yet.
“I am getting very unlocomotive—something like
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an old cabinet that looks well enough
in its own corner, but will scarce bear wheeling about even to be dusted. But
my work has been advancing gaily, or at least rapidly nevertheless, all this
harvest. Master Littlejohn will soon
have three more tomes in his hand, and the Swiss story too will be ready early in the year.
I shall send you Vol. I. with wee
Johnnie’s affair. Fat
James, as usual, has bored and bothered me with his criticisms,
many of which, however, may have turned to good. At first my not having been in
Switzerland was a devil of a poser for him—but had I not the honour of an
intimate personal acquaintance with every pass in the Highlands; and if that
were not enough, had I not seen pictures and prints galore? I told him I supposed he was becoming a geologist, and afraid
of my misrepresenting the strata of some rock on which I
had to perch my Maid of the Mist, but that he should be too good a Christian to
join those humbugging sages, confound them, who are all tarred with the same
stick as Mr Whiston— ‘Who proved as sure as God’s in Gloster, That Moses was a grand impostor;’* |
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and that at any rate I had no mind to rival the accuracy of the traveller,
I forget who, that begins his chapter on Athens with a disquisition on the formation of the Acropolis Rock. Mademoiselle de Geierstein, is now, however, in a
fair way—I mean of being married and a’ the lave o’t, and I of
having her ladyship off my hands. I have also twined off a world of not bad
balaam in the way of notes, &c., for my Magnum,
which if we could but manage the artists decently, might soon be afloat, and
will, I do think, do wonders for my extrication. I have no other news to
trouble you ![]()
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| 156 | LIFE OF SIR WALTER SCOTT. | |
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with. It is possible the Quarterly may be quite right to take the
Anti-Catholic line so strongly; but I greatly doubt the prudence of the thing,
for I am convinced the question must and will be carried very soon, whoever may
or may not be Minister; and as to the Duke of
Wellington, my faith is constant, that there is no other man
living who can work out the salvation of this country. I take some credit to
myself for having foreseen his greatness, before many would believe him to be
any thing out of the ordinary line of clever officers. He is such a man as
Europe has not seen since Julius Cæsar;
and if Spain had had the brains to make him king, that country might have been
one of the first of the world before his death. Ever affectionately yours,
James Ballantyne (1772-1833)
Edinburgh printer in partnership with his younger brother John; the company failed in the
financial collapse of 1826.
Archibald Constable (1774-1827)
Edinburgh bookseller who published the
Edinburgh Review and works
of Sir Walter Scott; he went bankrupt in 1826.
John Gibson Lockhart (1794-1854)
Editor of the
Quarterly Review (1825-1853); son-in-law of Walter
Scott and author of the
Life of Scott 5 vols (1838).
John Hugh Lockhart (1821-1831)
The first child of John Gibson Lockhart and his wife Sophia, for whom Sir Walter Scott
wrote
Tales of a Grandfather (1828-1831).
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.
Emperor Napoleon I (1769-1821)
Military leader, First Consul (1799), and Emperor of the French (1804), after his
abdication he was exiled to Elba (1814); after his defeat at Waterloo he was exiled to St.
Helena (1815).
Jonathan Swift (1667-1745)
Dean of St Patrick's, Scriblerian satirist, and author of
Battle of the
Books with
Tale of a Tub (1704),
Drapier
Letters (1724),
Gulliver's Travels (1726), and
A Modest Proposal (1729).
William Whiston (1667-1752)
English divine who succeeded Isaac Newton as the Lucasian Professor at Cambridge; author
of
New Theory of the Earth (1696); with his brother George he
published a Latin translation of the
Patmut iwn Hayots by the
Armenian historian Mosis Khorenaci (1736).
The Quarterly Review. (1809-1967). Published by John Murray, the
Quarterly was instigated by Walter
Scott as a Tory rival to the
Edinburgh Review. It was edited by
William Gifford to 1824, and by John Gibson Lockhart from 1826 to 1853.
