LETTERS FROM MEMBERS OF 
 SIR WALTER SCOTTS FAMILY 
 
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LETTERS 
 
 HITHERTO UNPUBLISHED, WRITTEN 
 BY MEMBERS OF SIR WALTER SCOTT'S 
 FAMILY TO THEIR OLD GOVERNESS 
 
 Edited, with an Introduction and Notes, by 
 
 THE WARDEN OF WADHAM COLLEGE 
 OXFORD 
 
 1 
 
 LONDON 
 E. GRANT RICHARDS 
 
 7 CARLTON STREET, S.W. 
 1905 
 
1 e l . 
 
 N V V 
 
 
 r J 1 4 
 
LETTERS 
 
 HITHERTO UNPUBLISHED, WRITTEN 
 BY MEMBERS OF SIR WALTER SCOTTS 
 FAMILY TO THEIR OLD GOVERNESS 
 
 Edited, with an Introduction and Notes, by 
 
 THE WARDEN OF WADHAM COLLEGE 
 OXFORD 
 
 I 
 
 LONDON 
 E. GRANT RICHARDS 
 
 7 CARLTON STREET, S.W. 
 
 1905 
 
Edinburgh : T. and A. Constable, Printers to His Majesty 
 
INTRODUCTION 
 
 The letters which follow were written to 
 Miss Miliar, who was the governess of Sir 
 Walter Scott's daughters for several years 
 before 1817. She was treated by all the 
 members of the family with unvarying 
 courtesy and kindness, and became their 
 friend. The correspondence extended, as 
 these letters show, over more than twenty 
 years— from 1814 to 1837. Miss Millar 
 at her death in 1860 left the letters to 
 my aunt, in whose grandfather's family 
 she had been governess and a valued 
 friend. On my aunt's death the letters 
 came into my hands. By the kind per- 
 mission of Mr. David Chrystal, to whom 
 they now belong, I am enabled to publish 
 them. Miss Millar had parted with all 
 but one of the letters written to her by 
 Sir Walter Scott. There is nothing else 
 of his in this small collection, save a paper 
 
 A 
 
 ^ /. . > . . : - 
 
2 SCOTT LETTERS 
 
 of instructions to his daughter Sophia, 
 written probably in 1810 or 1811, when 
 she was beginning to learn history. 
 
 The letters are, most of them, about what 
 might be called trivial matters, but they 
 are bright and humorous, and go to justify 
 the saying that women, old or young, 
 excel men in letter-writing — excel them 
 in simplicity; in making much of little 
 things ; in freedom from literary airs and 
 graces ; in good nature, on the whole ; 
 in cheerfulness and other good qualities ; 
 though not in pedantic accuracy as regards 
 grammar and spelling, of which our grand- 
 mothers and great -grandmothers made 
 light. 
 
 There are other letters of a different 
 kind written in times of trial, when em- 
 barrassments, failing health, and bereave- 
 ment visited Abbotsford ; letters which 
 show the resolute endurance in trouble 
 which is the noblest form of courage, 
 that greatest of the virtues, and parent of 
 them all. 
 
 The value of the collection consists in 
 
INTRODUCTION 3 
 
 its showing that a man of genius can be 
 a good father of a family. There is no 
 contradiction in adjecto between genius 
 and duty, or even respectability, but in 
 many quarters there lingers the mis- 
 chievous superstition that a great man is 
 above duty, especially the simple duties 
 of a home. With a little ingenuity, how- 
 ever, the Ueber-Mensch might be shown to 
 be as ridiculous as the * good family man ' ; 
 less useful, and even more odious ; an ideal 
 neither realisable, nor worth realising. The 
 letters give a charming picture of an 
 affectionate and happy circle. They con- 
 firm the account given by Lockhart of 
 the relations between Sir Walter and his 
 children, and of his theory and practice in 
 the matter of their education. 
 
 ' No father ever devoted more time and 
 tender care to his offspring than he did to 
 each of his, as they successively reached 
 the age when they could listen to him, 
 and understand his talk. Like their mute 
 playmates, Camp and the greyhounds, they 
 had at all times free access to his study. 
 
4 SCOTT LETTERS 
 
 He never considered their tattle as any dis- 
 turbance ; he was always ready to answer 
 their questions, and when they, uncon- 
 scious how he was engaged, entreated him 
 to lay down his pen and tell them a story, 
 he would take them on his knee, repeat 
 a ballad or a legend, kiss them, and set 
 them down again to their marbles or nine- 
 pins, and resume his labour, as if refreshed 
 by the interruption. He considered it as 
 the highest duty as well as the sweetest 
 pleasure of a parent to be the companion 
 of his children.' 
 
 Scott's views on education are very plain 
 and practical, and much below the modern 
 standard, or above it. His sons he sent 
 to his own old school — the famous High 
 School of Edinburgh — to learn perhaps, 
 among other things, how to bear them- 
 selves bravely as he had done in desper- 
 ate ' bickers,' if bickers then there were. 
 
 In regard to his daughters, 'he had a 
 horror of boarding-schools ; never allowed 
 his girls to learn anything out of his own 
 house, and chose their governess, Miss 
 
INTRODUCTION 5 
 
 Millar, who about this time (1808) was 
 domesticated with them, and never left 
 them while they needed one, with a far 
 greater regard to her kind good temper, 
 and excellent moral and religious principles, 
 than to the measure of her attainments in 
 what are called fashionable accomplish- 
 ments. Though he regretted the irregu- 
 larity of his own education, he never 
 showed much concern about regulating 
 systematically what is usually called educa- 
 tion in the case of his own children. It 
 seemed, on the contrary, as if he attached 
 little importance to anything else, so he 
 could perceive that the young curiosity 
 was excited, the intellect, by whatever 
 springs of interest, was set in motion. He 
 detested and despised the whole generation 
 of modern children's books, in which the 
 attempt is made to convey accurate notions 
 of scientific minutiae ; delighting cordially, 
 on the other hand, in those of the preceding 
 age, which, addressing themselves chiefly 
 to the imagination, obtain through it, as 
 he believed, the best chance of stirring our 
 
6 SCOTT LETTERS 
 
 graver faculties also. He exercised the 
 memory by selecting for tasks of recita- 
 tion passages of popular verse the most 
 likely to catch the fancy of the children, 
 and gradually familiarised them with the 
 ancient history of their own country by 
 arresting attention in the course of his own 
 oral narrations on incidents and characters 
 of a similar description. His Sunday talk 
 was just such a series of biblical lessons 
 as that which we have preserved for the 
 permanent use of rising generations in the 
 Tales of a Grandfather on the early history 
 of Scotland. He had his Bible, the Old 
 Testament especially, by heart, and on 
 these days inwove the simple pathos, or 
 sublime enthusiasm of Scripture, in what- 
 ever story he was telling, with the same 
 picturesque richness as he did in his week- 
 day tales, the quaint Scotch of Pitscottie, 
 or some rude romantic old rhyme from 
 Barbour's Bruce or Blind Harry's Wallace. 
 By many external accomplishments, either 
 in girl or boy, he set little store. He 
 delighted to hear his daughters sing an old 
 
INTRODUCTION 7 
 
 ditty, or one of his own framing ; but so 
 the singer appeared to feel the spirit of 
 her ballad, he was not at all critical of the 
 technical execution. There was one thing, 
 however, on which he fixed his heart hardly 
 less than the ancient Persians of the Cyro- 
 pcedia ; like them, next to love of truth, he 
 held love of horsemanship for the prime 
 point of education. As soon as his eldest 
 girl could sit a pony, she was made the 
 regular attendant of his mountain rides ; 
 and they all, as they attained sufficient 
 strength, had the like advancement. He 
 taught them to think nothing of tumbles, 
 and habituated them to his own reck- 
 less delight in perilous fords and flooded 
 streams ; and they all imbibed in great 
 perfection his passion for horses — as well, 
 I may venture to add, as his deep rever- 
 ence for the more important article of that 
 Persian training. " Without courage," he 
 said, " there cannot be truth, and without 
 truth there can be no other virtue." ' 1 
 
 1 Vol. ii., pp. 26-28, chap. xvii. 
 
 Note. — My references are to Mr. Pollard's edition of the 
 
8 SCOTT LETTERS 
 
 Such is Lockhart's account of Scott's 
 theory and practice in regard to the educa- 
 tion of his children. They must have been 
 very happy ; happier than John Stuart 
 Mill, nearly their contemporary, who was 
 receiving an education only too systema- 
 tic and complete. They, the girls at 
 least, could look back on their childhood 
 and youth without shuddering at dismal 
 memories of irregular French verbs, pain- 
 fully learned and happily forgotten ; or of 
 dreary hours wasted in efforts to acquire 
 ' execution ' on the pianoforte. 
 
 They lived with their parents, and knew 
 them as companions. Their education was 
 a stimulating one, a training of body and 
 mind ; of all their mental faculties, not 
 merely of their memories. Do we, who 
 think or talk more about education than 
 did our forefathers, know better than they 
 
 Life, in five volumes, in Messrs. Macmillan's ' Library of 
 English Classics ' ; but for the benefit of those who possess 
 only the older editions, I have added the numbers of the 
 chapters, which are the same in all editions. The reference 
 to chapters is of course somewhat vague, but I do not regret 
 such vagueness, should it tempt or compel any one to hunt 
 through a chapter for each quotation. 
 
INTRODUCTION 9 
 
 how to bring up boys and girls ? It may 
 be said, of course, that such an education 
 demands, if it is to succeed, parents, chil- 
 dren, and surroundings of an uncommon 
 kind, and is an ideal impossible to realise. 
 Yet certain excellences in it, whether 
 attainable or not, are indispensable. But 
 the writer must refrain from pursuing the 
 many reflections suggested here. He will 
 content himself with expressing his wonder 
 whether among the children's books which 
 Scott detested were numbered the stories 
 written by Mrs. Sherwood ? Did he include 
 in his condemnation the Stoiies of Cawn- 
 jjore and the Fair child Family, or did he, 
 as children do, love the story and hate, or 
 ignore, the somewhat dreary moral lessons, 
 such, for instance, as are appended to the 
 tales of the quarrel between Henry and 
 his sisters, and of Emily's theft of dama- 
 scenes ? For Miss Edgeworth's genius he 
 had the highest admiration. ' He avowed * 
 that he should never in all likelihood have 
 thought of a Scotch novel had he not 
 
 1 Vol. ii., pp. 486-7, chap, xxxiii. 
 
10 SCOTT LETTERS 
 
 read Maria Edgeworth's exquisite pieces of 
 Irish character. " There is a richness and 
 naivete" he is reported to have said — and 
 here Scotchmen will protest — "in Irish 
 character and humour, in which the Scotch 
 are certainly defective." He therefore read 
 with much delight, and made his children 
 read, Rosamond and the Purple Jar and 
 Simple Susan ; even, perhaps, the conversa- 
 tions on scientific subjects between Harry 
 and Lucy and their father, though in the 
 character and teaching of that amazing 
 parent Scott found much room for criti- 
 cism. 1 Was Sandford and Merton read at 
 Ashestiel and Abbotsford ? and, if it was, 
 what did they think of Mr. Barlow ? One 
 chapter in that curious book Scott, and 
 perhaps his children, must have much 
 enjoyed : that in w T hich is told the story 
 of the fight between young Nash and 
 Sandford, who showed himself to be a 
 ' human boy ' for once ; cool and resolute, 
 like Dobbin in the great fight with Cuff. 
 This lapse into barbarism redeems much 
 
 1 Vol. iv., p. 314; chap, lxiii. ; and vol. v., p. 380^ chap, lxxxi. 
 
INTRODUCTION 11 
 
 in Day and his impossible hero, and miti- 
 gates the superiority of these too superior 
 persons. 
 
 Of Miss Millar the writer has an indis- 
 tinct remembrance. He was taken to see 
 her several times when she lived in Edin- 
 burgh. She was a benevolent old lady, 
 simple and kindly, fond of young people, 
 somewhat didactic, more accustomed pro- 
 bably to talk to girls than to boys, who, 
 being non-moral and unimpressionable to 
 the verge of cynicism, are not easily moved 
 by conversation meant to improve them ; 
 though they will bear much from a hostess 
 mindful of their creature comforts, who 
 presses them to eat in the hospitable, 
 though sometimes embarrassing, fashion of 
 fifty years ago. Miss Millar was a comely 
 old lady with large bright brown eyes, now 
 to the writer suggestive of that shrewdness 
 and humour which win young people. She 
 could not have been a stupid person to 
 whom her pupils wrote playful as well as 
 affectionate letters. She was devoted to 
 Sir Walter Scott, and a little afraid, surely 
 
12 SCOTT LETTERS 
 
 needlessly, of the great man. One story 
 — a true one — used to be told by her, 
 illustrative of this timorous affection. She 
 had long wished to have a lock of his 
 hair, but dared not ask for it. She obtained 
 it by an innocent stratagem, and the con- 
 nivance of the barber who came to Ashes- 
 tiel or Abbotsford to cut Sir Walter's 
 hair when Lady Scott was not able to 
 perform that office. After the operation 
 was over, and Scott had left the room, 
 Miss Millar entered it and stole — was it a 
 theft ? — some of the hair which lay on the 
 carpet. ' A bird ' — probably the barber — 
 'carried the matter.' Sir Walter heard 
 with much amusement of this second 
 'Rape of the Lock.' He sent for Miss 
 Millar and, to her confusion and delight, 
 gave her a lock of his hair cut by him- 
 self, which is now in the possession of 
 the writer. 
 
 After she left the Scott family she 
 had varying fortunes, and suffered under 
 pupils, boarders, and lodgers, comforted 
 by never-failing kindness and sympathy 
 
INTRODUCTION 13 
 
 from Abbotsford, and always cheerful and 
 courageous. The last fifteen or twenty 
 years of her life she spent in Edinburgh 
 in fairly comfortable circumstances, visited 
 by many friends, to whom she was always 
 ready to speak of her experiences, especially 
 of the happiest of them, those connected 
 with Ashestiel and Abbotsford. She died, 
 as far as the writer can recollect, in 1860, 
 when she had probably passed her eightieth 
 year. Sir Walter's appreciation of Miss 
 Millar's worth is shown by the letter 
 inserted here: it was written when the 
 effort must have cost him much, for he 
 was weak and in pain, slowly recovering 
 from a serious illness. 
 
 My Dear Miss Millar, — The recommendation 
 you ask of me is an act of such very common justice 
 that I would have sent it by return of post, had I 
 not still felt some pain in stooping to write, although 
 my general health is much improved. I can, with 
 the utmost truth, bear witness to your kind and 
 constant attention to the education of my family 
 during a space of eight or nine years, when they 
 acquired by your instructions, reading, writing, 
 arithmetic, and the elementary parts of music, and 
 of the French language. Mrs. Scott and I had 
 
14 SCOTT LETTERS 
 
 the utmost reason to be satisfied, not only with 
 your mode of teaching and the instructions which 
 you conveyed to our children, but by your very 
 iadylike and prudent conduct while we had the 
 pleasure of having you for our inmate, a circum- 
 stance which is at least of as much importance to 
 the master and mistress of a family as the extent 
 of knowledge and the facility of communicating it. 
 In short, my dear Miss Millar, as I always con- 
 sidered my children as fortunate in being under 
 the charge of a person of your good sense and 
 excellent principles, I shall always feel it a small 
 discharge of the debt which 1 owe you if I can be 
 of any service to you in your progress through 
 life, and I beg you will freely have recourse to me. 
 I will be happy to give more full explanations and 
 details of your mode of teaching to any person who 
 may wish to make further inquiries. I should have 
 mentioned the elements of drawing and the usual 
 kinds of needlework among the arts you had the 
 goodness to teach my young folk. You will perhaps 
 have observed that Walter is gazetted cornet in the 
 XVIII. Hussars. It is so difficult to get into the 
 army just now, that I reckon myself very lucky in 
 the countenance of the Commander-in-Chief, who 
 gave him a preference over many other applicants. 
 He leaves us in about a fortnight to join the 
 regiment at Cork. The girls are well, and great 
 comforts to me in my broken and twilight state of 
 health, so different from that which you remember 
 my enjoying. But God's will be done. I have 
 
INTRODUCTION 15 
 
 had my day of strength and health, having scarce 
 known illness from 15 to 48. All here join in 
 kindest love, and hope next season (if not this) you 
 will manage to pay us a visit here. You would 
 hardly know the place, and we have plenty of room, 
 in which you know we used to be rather deficient. 
 Believe me most truly, dear Miss Millar, your 
 affectionate and obliged friend and servant, 
 
 Walter Scott. 
 Abbotsfort); 8th July 1819. 
 
 The letters explain themselves, and need 
 little or no commentary. The allusions 
 to persons, places, and events, can easily 
 be understood by any lover of Scott who 
 knows his Lockhart's Life, and will refresh 
 his memory by reference to that book. 
 The letters are some of them undated, 
 and their date is a matter of inference from 
 their contents. Some allusions could be 
 intelligible only to those who possess an 
 intimate knowledge of the family history. 
 And here I wish to express my sense of 
 the kindness of the Hon. Mrs. Maxwell 
 Scott, Sir Walter's great-granddaughter, 
 who has seen these letters, and given her 
 approval of their publication. She has 
 
16 SCOTT LETTERS 
 
 expressed her pleasure and interest in 
 reading them, and has given me help, and 
 promised more, in explaining things which 
 without such help would have remained 
 obscure. But she is in no degree respon- 
 sible for errors or shortcomings due to 
 haste or ignorance on the part of the 
 writer, who neither admires, nor possesses, 
 nor, if he possessed, would display the 
 erudition which is apt to obscure a text 
 with superfluous and distracting explana- 
 tions. 
 
 He might have added much from the 
 Abbotsford Notanda of Mr. Robert Car- 
 ruthers, which are appended to the short 
 and useful memoir of Sir Walter Scott, 
 written by Mr. Robert Chambers. Car- 
 ruthers had access to the correspondence 
 and other papers of William Laidlaw, one 
 of Scott's most intimate friends. 
 
 It is an easier and more profitable task 
 than elaborate annotation to treat these 
 letters as offering us glimpses, or more 
 than glimpses, into the family life and 
 characters of their writers. Of the forty- 
 
INTRODUCTION 17 
 
 seven letters, twenty-eight were written 
 by Charlotte Sophia Scott, born in 1799 ; 
 twelve by Anne Scott, born in 1803. 
 Washington Irving 1 describes the sisters 
 as he saw them in 1817 when they were 
 young girls ; Sir Walter's — 
 
 e Imps, hardy, bold, and wild, 
 As best befits the mountain child.' 2 
 
 'As they approached, the dogs all sprang 
 forward and gambolled around them. 
 They joined us with countenances full 
 of health and glee. Sophia, the eldest, 
 was the most lively and joyous, having 
 much of her father's varied spirit in con- 
 versation, and seeming to catch excitement 
 from his words and looks ; Anne was of a 
 quieter mood, rather silent, owing in some 
 measure, no doubt, to her being some years 
 younger.' Anne was then between four- 
 teen and fifteen, an age when girls, in the 
 presence of strangers, do not speak much, 
 but think the more : she was probably 
 
 1 Vol. iii., p. 135-6, chap, xxxix. 
 
 2 Marmion, Introduction to Canto I. 
 
 B 
 
18 SCOTT LETTERS 
 
 'taking in' Washington Irving, and dis- 
 secting him with the sharp and ruthless 
 wit of clever maidens of that by no means 
 tender age. One may remark in passing 
 that Irving's ' appreciation ' of Scott is one 
 of the most genial and penetrating which 
 we have on record. 
 
 The two sisters resembled each other 
 in many respects: both were bright and 
 humorous girls, full of the high spirits of 
 youth, devoted to their father, and proud 
 of him ; comforts to him ' in sorrow, need, 
 sickness, or any other adversity.' Yet it is 
 possible to perceive, or imagine, differences 
 between them. The elder of the two, called 
 in the family Sophia to distinguish her from 
 her mother, Charlotte Margaret Scott, is 
 shown by her letters to have been thought- 
 ful, steadfast, kindly, ' douce '—to use the 
 pretty Scotch term, which can no more 
 be defined than can 'pawky' be defined, 
 that mysterious word which puzzles 
 Southerners. She must have been, dur- 
 ing the last years of her unmarried life, 
 the leader of the family. To her fell the 
 
INTRODUCTION 19 
 
 task, which in every family is tacitly 
 assigned to the fittest, of writing of 
 deaths and troubles, and all important 
 matters. To Miss Millar, the poor old 
 governess, who must have been some- 
 times troublesome, she showed inexhaust- 
 ible kindness and patience, as might have 
 been expected from her father's daughter. 
 Her gravity and commonsense were fre- 
 quently illumined by flashes of fun and 
 sarcasm. She, like Anne, had for her 
 brothers, especially for Walter, that mix- 
 ture of love, admiration, and contempt, 
 which are the notes of genuine sisterly 
 affection. In Letter v. she promises Miss 
 Millar ' the felicity of seeing your elegant 
 pupil Walter in his yeomanry dress, which 
 I can assure you he is not a little vain of.' 
 In Letter ix. she expresses her fear that 
 the cornet gazetted to the 18th Light 
 Hussars will 'die of pride and conceit 
 before he joins one of the most dashing 
 regiments in the service.' She loves 
 'dancing to the pipes every night in the 
 new dining-room,' and (v. Letter iv.) she 
 
20 SCOTT LETTERS 
 
 'only hopes she may get half as many 
 beaux in Edinburgh as she has had in 
 the country.' In letter No. vn. she shows 
 her pride in the beauty of her sister, who 
 < is grown up a handsome girl, and is much 
 admired,' and who, happily, has her faults ; 
 for she is a poor correspondent; perhaps 
 too fastidious about her writing and spell- 
 ing, for 'the fair authoress' has in her 
 sister's sight been destroying ' three differ- 
 ent epistles.' 
 
 The other side of Sophia's character is 
 shown in Letters xiii., xxv., and xxxiii. 
 She writes to her governess about her 
 engagement to Lockhart in simple and 
 womanly words, on which comment would 
 be worse than superfluous. When the 
 financial disaster came in 1826, one that 
 affected or seemed likely to affect not her 
 father and brothers and sister only, but 
 herself and her husband, she faced it with 
 admirable courage and composure. 'Worse 
 things,' she says, * may happen to a family 
 besides loss of fortune,' and adds, ' yet one 
 cannot but feel sorrow to think that such 
 
INTRODUCTION 21 
 
 a man should have to labour so hard after 
 having done so much.' Stoicism is good, 
 but tenderness is better. 
 
 She died in May 1837 'after a long ill- 
 ness.' as her husband writes, 'which she 
 bore with all. possible meekness and forti- 
 tude : of all the race she most resembled 
 her father in countenance, in temper, and 
 in manners.' 
 
 She left two children, one of whom 
 married Mr. Hope-Scott, and was the 
 mother of the Hon. Mrs. Maxwell- Scott, 
 who with her children are the only surviv- 
 ing representatives of the family which 
 entered Abbotsford in 1812. 
 
 Two days before his wife's death Lock- 
 hart (v. Letter xlv.) wrote to Miss Millar, 
 asking her to send him copies of s Sophia's 
 early letters, of which you speak so highly,' 
 in addition to the 'very welcome transcripts 
 of Sir Walter's letters to yourself which 
 he had already received. The twenty-eight 
 letters now published must have been the 
 originals of some of the copies sent to 
 Lockhart, and were used, no doubt, by 
 
22 SCOTT LETTERS 
 
 him when he wrote the Life of Scott. 
 Other letters probably, now lost, were 
 written by Sophia to Miss Millar, for 
 the correspondence, as given here, is 
 broken by long intervals, and we may 
 well believe that the 'affectionate pupil,' 
 as she often signs herself, did not allow 
 years to elapse without writing to a 
 woman who had in a remarkable degree 
 the power, which most good and simple 
 people have, of winning the regard of 
 persons superior to themselves in every 
 respect except goodness. 
 
 Anne Scott is described by her father 1 
 as ' an honest downright good Scots lass, 
 in whom I could only wish to correct a 
 spirit of satire.' He blesses her for ' prac- 
 tising Scots songs, which I take as a kind 
 compliment to my own taste, as hers leads 
 her chiefly to foreign music' The good girl 
 saw that her father ' wanted and must miss 
 her sister's peculiar talent in singing the 
 airs of their native country, which always 
 made the most pleasing impression on him.' 
 
 1 Vol. iv., p. 374, chap. lxv. 
 
INTRODUCTION 23 
 
 Lockhart in the Life, 1 writes of her as 
 * a lively rattling girl of sixteen,' and tells 
 the story of the ' egg,' and the reckless 
 audacity of ' Lady Anne ' which made her 
 father frown, and then laugh. 
 
 The twelve letters published here confirm 
 the impression given by these utterances of 
 her father and of her brother-in-law to be. 
 Anne was a ' good ' girl, and a merry one ; 
 full of the mischief which makes goodness 
 irresistible. In Letter xv. she gives play to 
 her * spirit of satire,' indicating her opinion 
 that ' ladies intellectual ' were not usually 
 extremely likeable. Nor does she spare a 
 certain Miss Ramsay, whom perhaps she 
 thought her brother inclined to admire, 
 and judged accordingly, as sisters often do. 
 In Letter xviii., where her grammar is not 
 irreproachable, she laughs at her brother 
 Charles' 'ambition to be a man'; gibes 
 at the 'great Maria,' who, though an 
 authoress, and given to talking more 
 than listening, won the liking of her young 
 critic; and concludes with some cynical 
 
 1 Vol. iii., p. 230, chap, xliii. 
 
24 SCOTT LETTERS 
 
 remarks about long engagements, wonder- 
 ing why one of the 'old Miss Fraser 
 Tytlers' and her fiance — he especially — 
 did not ' change their minds.' In Letters 
 xx. and xxn. she seems to rejoice in the 
 perversion of Agnes Hume, who is 'no 
 longer holy, nor very good, but dresses in 
 white satin and goes to balls.' But her 
 malice is the malice only of a good-natured 
 and happy girl. 
 
 Alas ! her unclouded happiness was not 
 of long duration. At the age of twenty-one 
 (v. Letter xix.) she seems to have shown 
 the first symptoms of the delicacy and weak 
 health which did not subdue her gaiety. 
 Her letters (Nos. xx. and xxn.) are full of 
 the elasticity which she inherited from her 
 father. Equally bright is the letter (No. 
 xxiv.) in which she describes her tour in 
 Ireland with her father in the autumn of 
 1825. They had a happy time in that 
 ' distressful ' country, where distress takes 
 many pleasant forms, and which is full of 
 humour and pathos, of memories of un- 
 successful heroism and wild adventure ; 
 
INTRODUCTION 25 
 
 material out of which Sir Walter, had fate 
 permitted, would surely have made an 
 Irish Waver ley or Rob Roy. 1825 was 
 the last year of nearly perfect happi- 
 ness for the Scott family. In 1826 came 
 two great calamities ; the death of Lady 
 Scott, the first gap made by death in the 
 family circle; and desperate embarrass- 
 ments of worse than poverty, of debt 
 apparently insurmountable. Yet neither 
 Anne, nor her father, nor her brothers, nor 
 her sister failed to meet misfortune bravely 
 and cheerfully. She writes more quietly, 
 now sobered by her first experience of the 
 ' changes and chances of this mortal life.' 
 In 1828 she went with her father to 
 Carlisle and Edinburgh. At Carlisle 
 she writes to Lockhart, 'Papa took me 
 with him to the Cathedral: this he had 
 often done before, but he said he must 
 stand once more on the spot where he 
 married poor mamma.' 1 The incident re- 
 calls the last lines of the ' Sad fortunes 
 of the Rev. Amos Barton,' which describe 
 
 1 Vol. v., p. 209, chap, lxxvi. 
 
26 SCOTT LETTERS 
 
 another father and daughter standing, not 
 in a cathedral, but by the dead wife's and 
 mother's grave in a dreary churchyard. 
 In Letter xxxi., after some hesitation, I 
 have allowed a passage to remain in which 
 Anne tells Miss Millar of her rejection of 
 an offer of marriage. It is an old story, and 
 to let it be told will hurt no one now. It 
 was impossible that an attractive girl, hand- 
 some, sensible, and witty, a good daughter 
 and a good sister, should have had no 
 suitors, for she was well worth the winning, 
 though not easily won. There is always 
 something pathetic about a love story 
 which comes to nothing ; in her story, the 
 ' pity of it ' lies in this, that the heroine, 
 after the twenty-third year of her short 
 life, had little happiness, though she was 
 comforted by the sense of usefulness, and 
 of duty faithfully performed under the 
 burdens of anxiety and poor health. 
 
 Her last journey with her father was to 
 Malta and Naples at the end of 1831. 
 Both of them were in quest of health and 
 strength. They did not find what they 
 
INTRODUCTION 27 
 
 sought, and returned home, he to die at 
 Abbotsford in September 1832. She was 
 with him when he died. * She never,' as her 
 brother Charles writes in Letter xxxvu., 
 ' recovered from the shock of her father's 
 death.' 'The strange and awful scenes,' 
 to which she alludes in her last letter to 
 Miss Millar, had broken her down, and 
 after a winter and spring, spent in London 
 under the loving care of her sister and 
 brother-in-law, she followed her father. 
 That she was ready to follow him we 
 know from a touching passage in the Life, 1 
 ' Her constitution had been miserably 
 shattered in the course of her long and 
 painful attendance first on her mother's 
 illness and then on her father's ; and 
 perhaps reverse of fortune, and disappoint- 
 ments of various sorts connected with that, 
 had also heavy effect. From the day of 
 Sir Walter's death, the strong stimulus of 
 duty being lost, she too often looked and 
 spoke like one 
 
 "Taking the measure of an unmade grave." 
 1 Vol. v., p. 451, chap, lxxxiv. 
 
28 SCOTT LETTERS 
 
 She died in my house in the Regent's Park 
 on the 25th of June 1833, and her remains 
 are placed in the New Cemetery in the 
 Harrow Road. The adjoining grave holds 
 those of her nephew, John Hugh Lock- 
 hart, who died on the 15th of December 
 1831, and also those of my wife Sophia.' 
 
 Sir Walter's remains lie, far away from 
 Harrow Road, 
 
 (fy&rj Iv 7TaTpiSi yatrj, 
 
 in Dryburgh Abbey, 'by the side of his 
 wife in the sepulchre of his ancestors.' 
 
 Only one letter from Lady Scott was 
 kept by Miss Millar ; a letter of a simple 
 domestic character, worth inserting for the 
 mention of the ( little people,' for its record 
 of the menu of a dinner in Scotland ninety 
 years ago, and most of all because it was 
 written by Scott's wife. It has been said 
 that she was not the wife for him. That 
 was not Scott's opinion. She has been 
 represented as a dull woman who did not 
 understand her husband, nor his greatness. 
 She can hardly have been a dull woman 
 
INTRODUCTION 29 
 
 who wrote the letters during her engage- 
 ment which are given in the Life. 1 It is 
 questionable also whether a husband and 
 wife ought to entirely understand each 
 other, and whether some room ought not 
 to be left for mystery and illusion on both 
 sides. Ought both husband and wife to be 
 persons of genius ? Surely the married life 
 of two geniuses, even of two clever persons, 
 is generally deficient in comfort and re- 
 pose, and the old Scotsman was right 
 who said that ' ae sensible partner ' (he 
 might have said ' ae genius ') * is enough in 
 the married state.' 
 
 This much is clear, that Scott loved his 
 wife dearly, and felt her death profoundly. 
 Entries in the Diary 2 from May 11 to 
 October 11, 1826, show how he missed his 
 ' thirty years' companion ' ; missed not 
 literary sympathy, but 'the affectionate 
 care which smoothed his pillow, and offered 
 condolence and assistance ' ; words which 
 
 1 Vol. i., chap. viii. 
 
 2 Vol. iv., p. 507, chap. lxx. ; and vol. v., chap. lxxi. 
 'm. 
 
30 SCOTT LETTERS 
 
 the writer would not quote but for in- 
 dignation with thoughtless chatter. His 
 daughters had the same love for one who 
 did not put herself en evidence in the 
 family history, but was none the less for 
 that a good wife and mother. 
 
 Two great men have criticised Scott 
 with much severity. Byron, with the 
 petulance of youth, when, to use his own 
 words, addressed to Scott after they be- 
 came friends, ' I was very young and very 
 angry, and, fully bent on displaying my 
 wrath and my wit, called him " Apollo's 
 venal son.'" Carlyle, with the petulance 
 which did not diminish as he grew older, 
 and which made him unjust to friend and 
 foe, and to himself, spoke of Scott as 
 actuated by no higher motive than the 
 desire to make money, become a laird, and 
 found a family ; yet with a happy incon- 
 sistency he recognises in him qualities 
 not usually co-existent with commonplace 
 ambitions. This is not the place for a 
 discussion of these criticisms. They are 
 mentioned only because, even were it con- 
 
INTRODUCTION 31 
 
 ceded that they are partly just, there can 
 be discerned between the lines of these 
 unpretending letters two ' notes ' of mag- 
 nanimity in the character of Scott, un- 
 selfishness, and heroic endurance, more 
 than endurance, a * noble cheerfulness ' and 
 indomitable energy under misfortunes 
 which would have crushed any man not 
 really great. Carlyle saw Scott's greatness 
 in the extracts from the Diary given by 
 Lockhart. The stern critic rightly calls 
 the feelings and conduct evidenced by 
 these extracts * tragical and beautiful,' and 
 speaks of Scott as one man of genius ought 
 to speak of another ; for Carlyle knew how 
 to praise what is worthy of praise, when he 
 saw it clearly, with vision undimmed by 
 biliousness, depression, and fatigue. 
 
 No one can understand Scott or do 
 justice to him who has not read his Diary. 
 Being human, he was not faultless ; but 
 every one is truly judged by his best, not 
 by his worst ; for his best is the real nature 
 of the man ; a comforting doctrine, but 
 true. Scott was most himself during the 
 
32 SCOTT LETTERS 
 
 last six years of his life. When financial 
 ruin came, in the early months of 1826, he 
 was in the fifty-fourth year of a laborious 
 life ; his health was breaking, if not broken ; 
 his eldest son and eldest daughter had left 
 Abbotsford for homes of their own; his 
 wife and beloved grandson, * Hugh Little- 
 john,' were ill, and soon to be taken from 
 him. His ruin was complete, and seemed 
 irretrievable, for he owed £130,000. Never 
 did misfortunes come to any one in heavier 
 battalions. He disdained to clear himself 
 by bankruptcy, unless it were forced upon 
 him; 1 for bankruptcy, he said, 'I should, in 
 a Court of Honour, deserve to lose my 
 spurs. God grant me health and strength, 
 and I will yet pay every man his due.' 
 Within two years he paid £40,000, made 
 by writing Woodstock, Hie Life of 
 Napoleon, The Tales of a Grandfather, 
 and The Fair Maid of Perth, and by selling 
 the copyright of his earlier works. He for- 
 gave Constable and Ballantyne, to whom 
 — and alas ! to his own carelessness — his 
 
 1 Vol. iv., p. 419, chap, lxvii. 
 
INTRODUCTION 33 
 
 ruin was due. He spent time and money 
 in helping other unfortunate men of letters, 
 some of whom had neither claim on him, 
 nor any merit of their own. 1 Though 
 he suffered from sickness, loneliness, and 
 sorrow, he kept his troubles to himself, 
 and, on public occasions, and in the society 
 of old friends, he showed himself brave 
 and serene, w r ith frequent flashes of humour 
 and almost gaiety. His indomitable hero- 
 ism was rewarded by widespread sympathy 
 and respect ; it was rewarded also by offers, 
 invariably refused, of pecuniary assistance 
 from persons of very various kinds ; from 
 6 Poor Mr. Pole, 2 the harper, who sent to 
 offer me £500 or £600, probably his all,' to 
 some unknown friend 3 who made him ' the 
 very odd anonymous offer of £30,000.' 
 
 On the day after his wife's death, 4 he 
 writes, ' I scarce know how I feel — some- 
 
 1 Vol. v., pp. 168-76, chap. lxxv. These pages are worth 
 reading for the comical story of G. H. Gordon and for other 
 reasons. 
 
 2 Vol. iv., p. 416, chap. lxvi. 
 
 3 Vol. iv., p. 435, chap, lxvii. 
 
 4 Vol. iv., p. 507, chap. lxx. 
 
 C 
 
34 SCOTT LETTERS 
 
 times as firm as the Bass Rock ; sometimes 
 as weak as the water that breaks on it.' 1 
 This alternation of depression and fortitude 
 can be traced all through the Diary, which 
 no one, unless he is blinded by literary or 
 political antagonism, can read without 
 affection and veneration for the 'real' 
 Scott. 
 
 The ' Conclusion ' in Lockhart's Life of 
 Scott is one of the best chapters in that 
 admirable book. There are explained 
 things which puzzle Scott's admirers, his 
 * dream not of personal fame,' but of long 
 distant generations rejoicing in the name 
 of ' Scott of Abbotsford ' ; his ' fatal con- 
 nection with merchandise ' ; his conceal- 
 ment of that connection, and carelessness 
 in the conduct of it; his almost extrava- 
 gant loyalty to George in. and George iv., 
 apparently incompatible with his fervent 
 Jacobitism. 
 
 1 ' His Diary shows that, in spite of the dignified 
 equanimity which characterised all his conversation with 
 mankind, he had his full share of the delicate sensibilities, 
 the mysterious ups and downs, the wayward melancholy, 
 the fantastic sunbeams of the poetical temperament.' 
 (Lockhart, vol. v., p. lo2, chap, lxxiv.) 
 
INTRODUCTION 35 
 
 It is dangerous to speculate on the dura- 
 tion of literary fame, but it seems probable 
 that the reaction, now beginning, from 
 ' psychological analysis ' and general * sub- 
 jectivity,' will, in the course of this new 
 century, raise Scott's poetry and novels 
 to even a higher place in literature than 
 was awarded to them seventy years ago. 
 Should the publication of these letters help 
 in the humblest way towards such a con- 
 summation, the writer will have had a far 
 more than adequate reward for his poor 
 performance of a pleasant duty. 
 
SCOTT LETTERS 
 
 i 
 
 Sir Walter Scott to his daughter 
 Sophia. 1 
 
 1810 (?). 
 Beneath every king's reign Papa expects 
 Sophia to write down neatly and in good 
 
 1 This undated letter, in Sir Walter's clearest and most 
 careful handwriting, was written to a child of probably ten 
 or eleven years of age, and comes first in interest as well 
 as in date of the letters here published. In it is implied, 
 if not stated, the theory of history which found expres- 
 sion in the Tales of a Grandfather, written for his daughter's 
 son sixteen or seventeen years later. Sir Walter would 
 have been impatient with any one who told him that great 
 men are the products of their age, and who talked to him 
 about laws of history, and causation, and prediction. It is 
 painful to think what he would have said about Comte and 
 Buckle and their adherents. In his view great men made 
 their age, and history was to him not a science, but a 
 romance. He was a hero-worshipper, and would have 
 agreed with Carlyle in believing that ' the history of what 
 man has accomplished in this world is the history of the 
 great men who have worked here ; they were the leaders 
 of men these great ones.' The best comment on this letter 
 is the passage quoted in the Introduction, where Lockhart 
 
 37 
 
38 SCOTT LETTERS 
 
 spelling the following particulars : Whether 
 his reign was peaceful or warlike. 
 
 If warlike, with whom he was at war ; 
 and particularly whether with his own 
 subjects or foreign nations. Also whether 
 he was victorious in battle (generally), or 
 defeated. 
 
 Whether any great alterations of govern- 
 ment took place in his reign, and what 
 they were. 
 
 Whether he was a good man or a bad. 
 
 Whether the condition of his subjects was 
 amended or became worse under his reign. 
 
 II 
 
 My dear Miss Millar, — Mr. Scott 
 finds that he has so many things to settle 
 here, and besides so 1 unable to resist the 
 
 describes Scott's lectures on history delivered to his own 
 children. Would that he were lecturing or writing now 
 for older children ! Such a wish implies no discontent with 
 the instructive lectures on history now delivered by the 
 professors in the University of Weissnichtwo. 
 
 1 The editor has not corrected the mistakes in grammar 
 or spelling which occur in some of these letters ; deficiencies 
 in both were more common a hundred years ago than now, 
 and were then, as now, compatible with intellectual and 
 
SCOTT LETTERS 39 
 
 temptation of remaining here a little longer, 
 that he has put off our return to Town for 
 Monday next, when we hope to have the 
 pleasure of seeing you, and to find you all 
 well. Will you have the goodness to tell 
 the Cook that we are to have a large party 
 to dine with us on Wednesday next ; there- 
 fore wishes she would get on Saturday, feet 
 for jelly, and meat for soup, and either a 
 Saddle or a handsome piece of Beef for the 
 bottom dish, also pallets, sweet bread, etc. 
 Will you also tell her I will bring with me 
 a Hen, Chickens, and, if I can, Ducks; 
 therefore not to bespeak any poultry or fish 
 until I come. The weather here is fine, but 
 very cold, so much so that ice may be seen 
 early in the morning, and which has done 
 much damage among the plants. Sophia 
 joins me in kindest and best wishes to you ; 
 
 moral qualities of the highest kind. It must be remembered 
 that Lady Scott was French and bilingual, and that it is 
 hard to write correctly in two languages, and not easy to 
 do so in one. Professor Hodgson has shown in his Errors 
 in the Use of English that the best English writers write 
 bad English. We must therefore pardon Lady Scott and 
 her daughters, and her husband also, for being supra gram- 
 maticam. 
 
40 SCOTT LETTERS 
 
 love to all the little people, 1 and a thousand 
 kisses, and believe me yours very sincerely, 
 M. Charlotte Scott. 
 
 Remember us to the Russells and 
 Rutherford. I hope you will be able to 
 read this scrawl I am writing in such a 
 hurry. 
 
 Wednesday, Two o'clock. 
 
 Will you tell John that I hope he will 
 amuse himself with cleaning his plate 
 stands, etc. 
 
 Abbotsford (?), June 9, 1814. 
 
 in 
 
 Abbotsford, August 3, 1817. 
 
 My dear Miss Millar, — It gave us 
 great pleasure to hear that you were upon a 
 nearer view pleased with your situation, and 
 that you found Miss Scrymegour though 
 a little spoilt a very good girl. I went 
 with Papa and Mamma upon the 12th 
 
 1 The little people are of course Walter, Anne, and 
 Charles, aged respectively about thirteen, eleven, and eight. 
 
SCOTT LETTERS 41 
 
 to Drumlanrig, Captain Adam Ferguson 1 
 went with us also. We went first to Loch 
 Lomond to visit Mr. Macdonald Buchanan, 
 and when we were there Papa and the rest 
 of the gentlemen went up to the head of 
 the Loch to see Rob Roy's cave ; none of 
 the ladies to my great mortification were 
 allowed to be of the party, as they did not 
 know but they might have had to sleep all 
 night in an ale-house which they were to 
 land at, in case they could not make out 
 Ross : 2 as it was they landed at Ross about 
 eleven o'clock, highly pleased with their 
 expedition. We went from Ross to 
 Drumlanrig round by Greenock and Largs, 
 at which last place we walked over the 
 
 1 Captain Adam Ferguson, the son of Dr. Adam Ferguson 
 (Lockhart, vol. iv., p. 41, chap, lvi.), was one of the earliest 
 and most valued of Scott's friends. ' He combined the 
 lightest and most airy temper with the best and kindest 
 disposition.' They had 'high jinks' together in their 
 youth ; a ludicrous story is told of the origin of Ferguson's 
 cognomen ' Linton.' He became Scott's neighbour in 1818, 
 and lived at Huntly Burn after his retirement from the 
 army, and became keeper of the Regalia ' to the great joy 
 of all Edinburgh.' (Vol. i., p. 43, chap. i. ; p. 162, chap. i. ; 
 vol. iii., p. 158, chap, xl.) 
 
 2 See in Lockhart's Life (vol. iii., p. 125, chap, xxxix.) 
 Scott's lines on this expedition. 
 
42 SCOTT LETTERS 
 
 ground where the battle against the Danes 
 was fought ; the remains of immense cairns 
 of stones mark the battle. I daresay you 
 will be sorry to hear that poor Mrs. 
 Laidlaw 1 is dead ; she died about two 
 months ago. Perhaps you may have heard 
 that Lady Hood is married. She married 
 a very pleasant clever man, Mr. Stewart of 
 Glasserton, who has a very good fortune ; 
 so she has dropped the ladyship, and is now 
 plain Mrs. Stewart Mackenzie : she sent 
 us gloves, cake, and favours. The new 
 house is coming on very fast ; they are 
 building the last story, and it looks beauti- 
 ful. We spend most of our time in airing 
 ourselves upon the top, and I think it will 
 be wonderful if it is finished without any 
 of us breaking our necks. Lord Somerville 
 is going to give us a boat for our Loch : 2 it 
 is to be launched to-morrow with due 
 
 1 Mother of William Laidlaw, Scott's steward or factor, 
 and valued friend. (Vol. Hi., p. 136, chap, xxxviii., and 
 Introduction.) 
 
 2 The loch was Cauldshields Loch, near the scene of 
 Thomas the Rhymer's interviews with the Queen of 
 Elfland. The boat was called ' Search No. I,' in allusion 
 to the Antiquary, chap, xxiii. (Mrs. Maxwell-Scott.) 
 
SCOTT LETTERS 43 
 
 ceremony, the noble donor and the Scotts 
 of Mertoun to be present. Mamma and 
 Papa with all of us join me in best wishes to 
 you, and believe me to remain your affec- 
 tionate pupil, 
 
 Charlotte Sophia Scott. 
 
 You must just put enough of boiling 
 water in the milk to make it sufficiently 
 warm. 
 
 Write soon. 
 
 IV 
 
 Edinburgh, November 25, 1817. 
 
 My dear Miss Millar, — Ann and I 
 return you many thanks for your very 
 pretty purses. I can assure you they came 
 in very good time, for we had just come to 
 town, and according to custom had lost 
 every thing in the shape of a purse, and 
 were reduced to the disgraceful alternative 
 of carrying our shillings (I won't say pence) 
 in our glove, to our infinite loss. Papa has 
 been very well till within a fortnight ago, 
 
U SCOTT LETTERS 
 
 when he had a severe fit of the cramp, but 
 he is now quite recovered, and I hope will 
 pass the winter without any more returns 
 of that severe complaint, 1 for you have no 
 idea of the dreadful pain of the attacks, 
 and the more so as they always come on in 
 the night. Abbotsford is looking beauti- 
 ful. The new house was just going to be 
 roofed in when I left it, so that I think that 
 by next summer we will be able to inhabit 
 it. Papa has made a great addition to his 
 property lately, for he has bought Mr. 
 Usher's place of Toftfield, which makes 
 our ground extend up to the foot of the 
 Eildon hills, and even up part of them, 
 and, besides that, there is an excellent rich 
 house upon it (that Mr. Usher had just 
 built, but had never gone into, as it is 
 hardly finished), that Capt. Ferguson and 
 his sisters are coming to live in next year, 
 so we will have a merry summer of it with 
 him so near a neighbour. We had the 
 famous Mr. AVilkie, the painter, for a 
 fortnight at Abbotsford, when Capt. 
 
 1 See Scott's letter, vol. iii. , pp. 1384), chap, xxxix. 
 
SCOTT LETTERS 45 
 
 Ferguson and his sister were with us, and 
 he made a capital picture of the whole 
 family, which he intends to finish in 
 London for the exhibition, and afterwards 
 to engrave, so we will have a print of it. 
 We are all drawn in character. Ann and 
 I as two milkmaids with pails upon our 
 heads, Papa sitting, and Capt. Ferguson 
 standing, looking for all the world like 
 an old poacher who understands his trade. 
 Papa has got us a most delightful new harp 
 from London the other day. It and the 
 stand for the books cost £119, so you may 
 think that it is a very handsome thing. We 
 had Lady Byron 1 for a day at Abbotsford. 
 She is very pretty and very melancholy. 
 We went to the Melrose and Selkirk balls, 
 besides a delightful dance at the Duke of 
 Buccleuch's, so for my part I find the 
 
 1 See Scott's letter to Miss Joanna Baillie (vol. iii. _, p. 138, 
 chap, xxxix.), a letter of importance as bearing on the Byron 
 controversy. Laidlaw gives the following description of 
 Lady Byron : ' Her ladyship is a beautiful little woman, 
 with fair hair, a fine complexion, and rather large blue eyes ; 
 face not round. She looked steadily grave, and seldom 
 smiled. I thought her mouth indicated great firmness, or 
 rather obstinacy.' (Abbotsford Notanda, p. 150.) 
 
46 SCOTT LETTERS 
 
 country far more gay than the town. I 
 believe I will go a little about this winter. 
 I only hope I may get half as many beaux 
 as I have had in the country. 
 
 I hope you will write soon, for you know 
 my penchant for receiving a letter. We 
 begin all our studies this week. Mamma, 
 Papa, Walter, Ann, and Charles, join me 
 in best love to you, and believe me to 
 remain, my dear Miss Millar, your affec- 
 tionate pupil, 
 
 Charlotte Sophia Scott. 
 
 Excuse w r riting for my sake. 
 Grandmamma, the Humes, 1 the Russels, 
 and Miss Rutherford are quite well. 
 
 1 For Scott's own account of his relationships see vol. i., 
 pp. 8-11 , chap, i., and chap, ii., pp. 49-64, for Lockhart's com- 
 ment. He came of ( decent people,' being by his mother's side 
 a Swinton, and through his father's side descended from Scott 
 of Harden, and thus connected with the house of Buccleuch. 
 Scott was proud of his gentle birth, and it deeply affected 
 his character and his views of many things : i To be a chief 
 of the soil and its people, and contemplate his children as 
 succeeding him in the same position, was with him to realise 
 one of the poetical dreams which haunted his mind.' It was 
 an ambition, not of a vulgar parvenu, but one ' grafted on 
 that ardent feeling for blood and kindred which was the 
 great redeeming element in the social life of the Middle 
 
SCOTT LETTERS 47 
 
 V 
 
 October 18, 1818. 
 
 My dear Miss Millar, — I received 
 your kind letter, and I can assure you that 
 it gave us all very great pleasure to hear 
 of your getting a good situation. Mamma 
 and Papa desire me to say that it would 
 give them very great pleasure if you could 
 spare time to come and see all our improve- 
 ments here ; if you would write to me the 
 day you can come, we would be down to 
 meet you at the toll. I can assure you 
 (though I say it that should not say it) 
 Abbotsford is well worth looking at now. 
 Do try and come here as soon as you can, 
 as we cannot expect the weather to remain 
 long as delightful as it is at present : be- 
 sides, if you come at the beginning of 
 next week you will have the supreme 
 
 Ages. There was much kindness surely in such ambition ; 
 in spite of the apparent contradiction in terms, was there 
 not really much humility about it?' Scott worshipped 
 birth and genius, not rank nor money. See a striking 
 passage in the Life, vol. iv., pp. 329-31, chap. lxiv. 
 
48 SCOTT LETTERS 
 
 felicity of seeing your elegant pupil l 
 Walter in his yeomanry dress, which, I 
 can assure you, he is not a little vain 
 of. Papa asked him lately what his 
 brilliant genius inclined him to, and he 
 declared that he would be nothing 
 but a soldier; so a soldier he is to be. 
 If you see Miss Hume before you come 
 here, be sure and give my very best 
 love to her. I daresay you will have 
 been sorry to hear that Miss Russel has 
 lost her brother Alexander. He died of 
 a fever in India ; she has been very ill in 
 consequence. Perhaps you will be so good 
 as to enquire how she does, and bring us 
 word. Dear Miss Millar, hoping to see 
 you here very soon, I reserve all my news 
 till we meet, and believe me to remain 
 your very affectionate friend, 
 
 Charlotte Sophia Scott. 
 
 1 The ' elegant pupil' was then a handsome boy of seven- 
 teen. See an account of him — of ' his muscular strength, 
 his sweet and even temper, and talents, which in the son of 
 any father but his would have been considered brilliant' — 
 in Lockhart, vol. v., p. 464, addenda to the last chapter. 
 He died childless in 1847, and with him the baronetcy 
 expired. Sophia idolised him, and ridiculed her idol, as 
 
SCOTT LETTERS 49 
 
 You will find your old friend Mr. Terry x 
 here. We dance to the pipes 2 almost every 
 night in the new dining-room. Excuse 
 this horrid writing, but the man is waiting 
 to take this up to Selkirk, that you may 
 get it a day sooner. 
 
 VI 
 
 My dear Miss Millar, — I write this 
 to let you know that we have just heard 
 of the death of Mamma's brother, Mr. 
 Carpenter : he died upon the 4th of March, 
 after an illness of about a week. You will 
 be glad to hear that he has left the whole 
 
 worshippers sometimes do. Compare Letter ix. for another 
 exhibition of the ways of sisters. 
 
 1 Daniel Terry, the 'ingenious comedian.' A charming 
 sketch of him is given by Lockhart (vol. ii., pp. 102-3, chap, 
 xix.). He was one of the many hapless men of letters to 
 whom Scott gave assistance when he was himself in need 
 and necessity. To him was due the adaptation to the stage 
 of some of the AVaverley novels, what Scott used to call 
 their ' Terrification. ' 
 
 2 The pipes to which they danced were played by a ( tall 
 and stalwart bagpiper, in complete Highland costume, 
 pacing to and fro on the green before the house.' He 
 was named c John of Skye/ and was professionally a hedger 
 and ditcher, who * only figured with the pipe and philabeg 
 on high occasions.' (Lockhart, vol. iii., pp. 219-21, chap, xlii.) 
 
 D 
 
50 SCOTT LETTERS 
 
 of his fortune to be equally divided be- 
 tween us four; that is to say, we are to 
 get full possession of it after Mrs. Car- 
 penter's death, as she is to have the 
 interest of it all during her life. He has 
 not even left a farthing to Mamma, or any 
 other person. We do not know exactly 
 how much the fortune is, but it is very 
 considerable : there is thirty thousand safe 
 in this country, and I believe that there 
 is as much, or more, in India. 1 Papa is 
 talking of going abroad in September, and 
 of taking Mamma and us four as far as 
 Geneva, there to leave us to join some 
 party, and proceed homewards by Paris, 
 while himself and Walter will proceed to 
 Italy, and from thence over to Greece; 
 but this is only a talk, though I daresay 
 it will take place, as Papa is very anxious 
 that Walter should get rid of his shy- 
 ness by going abroad before he enters 
 the Guards, as it is now settled he is to 
 go into that regiment, on account of their 
 
 1 This estimate of the fortune was much exaggerated. 
 See Lockhart, vol. iii., pp. 240-1. 
 
SCOTT LETTERS 51 
 
 not going to the East or West Indies. 
 Our uncle dying has made quite a noise 
 in the town : all the old women in the 
 town torment Papa with questions about 
 poor Mr. Carpenter's will. Papa wishes 
 that he could write the whole story over 
 the door. I hope that you will write to 
 me very soon, and let me know how you 
 like your new situation. 
 
 The Duke * is gone abroad for his health, 
 and has taken Adam Ferguson with him. 
 We hope that, if you should come to town, 
 that you will take up your quarters here. 
 
 I remain, dear Miss Millar, with best 
 love from all here, yours very affectionately, 
 
 Charlotte Sophia Scott. 
 
 39 Castle Street/ 2 
 
 Friday, December 12, 1818. 
 
 1 The Duke of Buccleuch. 
 
 2 39 North Castle Street was the house in which Scott lived 
 from 1798 down to 1826. He used it as his town house, 
 spending his vacations, and occasional holidays, at Lass- 
 wade, or Ashestiel, or Abbotsford. ' The cabin was con- 
 venient,' he writes in his Diary, March 15, 1826, ' and habit 
 had made it agreeable to me. This morning- I leave it for 
 the last time. Farewell, poor 39 — " Ha til mi tii!id"'(I 
 return no more). (Lockhart, vol. iv., p. 476, chap, lxviii.) 
 
52 SCOTT LETTERS 
 
 VII 
 
 Abbotsford, llth May 1819. 
 
 My dear Miss Millar, — I would have 
 written to you long ago, but Papa's dread- 
 ful state of health 1 for these last two 
 months has prevented me from thinking of 
 anything but himself; and at one time, 
 for nearly three weeks, there did not pass 
 one night in which we were not up, either 
 the whole night, or most part of it ; and 
 constantly wanted in his room the whole 
 day, so that what with nursing him and 
 writing for him I had not one moment 
 to myself. He is now, thank God, getting 
 quite well, and, I trust, past all danger of 
 
 1 During the whole of this year, especially in March and 
 April, Scott suffered terribly from 'a recurrence of the 
 maladies (cramp in the stomach, and jaundice) which had 
 so much alarmed his friends in the early part of the year 
 1817, and which had continued ever since to torment him 
 at intervals.' (Lockhart, chap. xliv. passim.) He was now in 
 his forty-ninth year, and twenty years of excessive literary 
 labour had brought their penalty. His health, as he writes 
 to Southey, was now 'very totterish,' but his energy and 
 industry were undiminished. It was in this year that he 
 first employed an amanuensis. The account given by 
 Lockhart (vol. iii., p. 280, chap, xliv.) of William Laidlaw's 
 performances in that capacity is well worth reading. 
 
SCOTT LETTERS 53 
 
 a relapse. For three weeks, to add to the 
 jaundice, he had the most dreadful spasms 
 in his stomach, every twenty-four hours, 
 which lasted, notwithstanding immense 
 quantities of opiates, and sometimes bleed- 
 ing, eight, nine, and ten hours at a time ; 
 and one attack remained unmoved for 
 thirty-six hours, during all which time 
 he was not five minutes free from the 
 most dreadful agony. Though we have 
 been in the country since Papa was taken 
 ill, and consequently had many incon- 
 veniences to struggle with, yet, upon the 
 whole, it was better that we were here, 
 as besides Dr. Clarkson coming every day, 
 we had his son, a very clever young man, 
 staying in the house; and what made us 
 very easy was that when Dr. Ross came 
 out, he found that everything had been 
 done that was possible. Doctor Baillie 
 also declared that he could advise nothing 
 more than what had been already done. 
 You would be much shocked at the 
 death of poor Joseph Hume ; x he died in 
 
 1 See Lockhart, vol. iii., p. 2"4, chap. xliv. Joseph Hume 
 
54 SCOTT LETTERS 
 
 five minutes; he had had a sore throat, 
 but not the very least danger apprehended, 
 so much so that they were to have com- 
 pany to dinner. He was in bed, and 
 talking to his sister, when he fell back 
 choking, and in two minutes all was 
 over. The doctors seem to think that 
 it was a sudden spasm in the throat. 
 What a dreadful loss to his family; and 
 to make it still worse, if possible, he was 
 going to be married to one of Sir John 
 Hay's daughters almost immediately. 
 Papa's dear and best friend, the Duke 
 of Buccleuch, 1 has taken leave of this life 
 
 was the only son of Mr. David Hume, Professor of Scots Law 
 ill the University of Edinburgh, whose lectures Scott had 
 attended with much profit and pleasure, when reading for 
 the bar. The Professor became Baron of the Exchequer. 
 He was a cultivated man, and seems to have been among the 
 first who penetrated the disguise of the author of Waverky, 
 arguing that ' he must be of a Jacobite family and predilec- 
 tions, a yeoman-cavalryman, and a Scottish lawyer.' The 
 Baron was a nephew of the greater David Hume, whom 
 Scott knew only by his rhymes written on a pane of glass in 
 an inn at Carlisle, 'the only rhymes the philosopher was 
 ever known to be guilty of.' (Lockhart, vol. iii., p. 31, 
 chap, xxxv.) 
 
 1 See Scott's letter in Lockhart, vol. iii., pp. 288-90, 
 chap, xliv.— the letter of one mourning the loss not of a 
 ' noble patron,' but of his friend and the chief of his clan. 
 
SCOTT LETTERS 55 
 
 upon the 20th of last month, at Lisbon, 
 where he had gone for his health, accom- 
 panied by Captain Adam Ferguson : al- 
 though Papa has been expecting that sad 
 event for some time, still it has been a 
 dreadful shock to him. The country is 
 looking quite beautiful, and we regret 
 very much being under the necessity of 
 returning to town the day after to-morrow. 
 I hope that you find your present situation 
 comfortable, and that your young charge 
 is improving as rapidly as you can wish. 
 You will be glad to hear that Walter is 
 likely to experience no inconvenience or 
 delay in getting into the army, although 
 it is such a difficult matter at present; 
 but the Duke of York says that he will 
 get over everything for Mr. Scott. Charles 
 is quite well, and doing very well at the 
 High School, which he is attending at 
 present. At some future time Papa talks 
 of putting him to some good school at 
 Geneva. We were pretty gay before we 
 left town, and had so many invitations that, 
 if we had accepted a quarter of them, we 
 
56 SCOTT LETTERS 
 
 might have been at two or three places a 
 night, but we kept on the side of modera- 
 tion. Anne is grown up a very hand- 
 some girl, 1 and is much admired : she is 
 improved very much upon the harp ; in- 
 deed, Mr. Pole says that, if she would 
 practise, she would be one of the best 
 players in town, for the time she has been 
 at it. I hope your friends the Toveys are 
 well : it must be a great pleasure to you 
 their being so near. 
 
 I hope that you will write to me very 
 soon, and believe me to remain, with best 
 love to you, in which I am joined by all 
 the family, yours ever most affectionately, 
 
 Charlotte Sophia Scot. 
 
 VIII 
 
 My dear Miss Millar, — You will 
 rejoice to hear that Papa is quite well now, 
 and the improvement has been so gradual 
 that there is no chance (at least to all 
 
 1 Anne was now sixteen, a c lively, rattling girl ' (Lockhart, 
 vol. iii., p. 230, chap, xlii.), and probably averse to steady 
 practice on the harp, or in letter- writing (see Letter vin.). 
 
SCOTT LETTERS 57 
 
 appearance) of a relapse — he has got quite 
 rid of his yellow complexion, and feels no 
 other inconvenience than a temporary 
 weakness. Both Papa and Mamma set 
 out to-day at twelve o'clock for Abbots- 
 ford, and Papa thinks that, if he feels 
 quite stout, he will not return here, but 
 send Mamma back in about a fortnight, 
 or three weeks, to arrange this house, and 
 transport us all out to Abbotsford to re- 
 main the summer. The fish arrived quite 
 safe, and were most excellent, and you 
 would have heard of their arrival long 
 ago, if you had trusted me to write 
 to you ; but after having witnessed the 
 destruction of three different epistles of 
 Anne's by the hand of the fair authoress, 
 I in despair take the pen, as you are not 
 very likely to hear often from the young 
 lady. I will write to you the very moment 
 I hear from Abbotsford, and believe me 
 to remain, in a dreadful hurry, your very 
 sincere friend, 
 
 C. Sophia Scott. 
 
 39 Castle Street, Monday, June 14, 1819. 
 
58 SCOTT LETTERS 
 
 IX 
 
 My dear Miss Millar, — I have the 
 pleasure to be able to tell you that Papa 
 is getting quite well and strong once more. 
 He had a very bad attack after I wrote 
 to you, occasioned, as we think, by the 
 fatigue of coming to the country long 
 before he was strong enough to bear the 
 journey, but now he is in the fair way of 
 complete convalescence, to which the good 
 air of Abbotsford and gentle exercise does 
 not a little contribute. You will be glad 
 to hear that Walter's commission is come 
 down, and that his name was in yester- 
 day's gazette as cornet in the 18th Light 
 Dragoons, now Hussars : he is too happy, 
 and the only thing that is to be feared is 
 his dying of pride and conceit before he 
 joins, as it is among the most dashing 
 regiments in the service. He has as yet 
 got no orders, but of course he must either 
 join or go to a military college; the 18th 
 is in Ireland. You may be sure we will 
 
SCOTT LETTERS 59 
 
 miss him very much. Anne has had a 
 very bad cough for some time, but her 
 taking warm milk in the morning since 
 she came to the country, and change of 
 air has cured it almost completely. She 
 will write very soon. Abbotsford is look- 
 ing quite beautiful just now. Mamma is 
 gone to town for a few days to super- 
 intend the packing of the carts, and to 
 bring with her for the summer Walter, 
 and the rest of the servants : we expect 
 her upon Monday. How do you like 
 the New Tales of my Laridlordl Are 
 they not excellent? I would advise you 
 to read a new book which will be out 
 soon called Peters Letters to his Kinsfolk, 1 
 being a description of the society of 
 Glasgow and Edinburgh. It is one of the 
 most clever, and at the same time rather 
 
 1 Peter's Letters to his Kinsfolk was written by Lockhart, 
 aided probably by one or more of the clever young advo- 
 cates who composed the Chaldee MS. Scott gives his 
 opinion of his future son-in-law's first book in a letter 
 written in acknowledgment of its receipt. (Lockhart, 
 vol. iii., pp. 303-4, chap, xlv.) Sophia probably knew 
 who its author was, and judged it favourably ; even more 
 favourably than the New Tales of my Landlord. 
 
60 SCOTT LETTERS 
 
 severe books that has been written for 
 ages ; this is Papa's opinion. I hope that 
 you will excuse this sad scrawl, and that 
 the good news that it contains of Papa's 
 health will be its apology ; and with most 
 sincere good wishes from all here to your- 
 self, believe me to remain ever yours most 
 affectionately, 
 
 Charlotte Sophia Scott. 
 
 Abbotsford, 5th July 1819- 
 
 Abbotsford., September 24, 1819- 
 
 My dear Miss Millar, — I had almost 
 made a vow that I would not write again 
 till I heard from you, but you have been 
 so long about it, that I can wait no longer. 
 Besides I have as great an event to relate 
 as Lady Margaret's dejeune at Tiltetude- 
 lum (Tillietudlem) : our poor house has 
 been honoured by a visit of his Royal 
 Highness Prince Leopold, 1 and I shall now 
 give you the particulars in full. 
 
 1 The Prince was Prince Leopold of Saxe-Coburg, after- 
 
SCOTT LETTERS 61 
 
 Last Friday papa received a note from 
 the Magistrates of Selkirk saying that the 
 Prince was to pass through their town at 
 twelve o'clock, on his way to Carlisle, 
 where he was to sleep, and requesting 
 him, as Sheriff, to come up and receive 
 him. Accordingly all of us, with the addi- 
 tion of Mr. and Mrs. Skene, 1 and Eliza 
 
 wards King of the Belgians. (Lockhart, vol. iii., pp. 323-5, 
 chap, xliv.) 
 
 1 The Skenes were the Skenes of Rubislaw. James Skene 
 became Scott's friend in 179G. They were drawn together 
 at first by their interest in German literature, and by other 
 common tastes, for both were antiquaries of different kinds 
 but equal enthusiasm, into an intimacy, of which writes 
 Skene, ' I shall ever think with so much pride of a friend- 
 ship so pure and cordial as to have been able to withstand 
 all the vicissitudes of nearly forty years,, without ever 
 having sustained even a casual chill from unkind thought 
 or word. 5 (Lockhart, vol. i., p. 224,, chap, viii.) The refer- 
 ences to him in the Life are numerous, and show that 
 Skene was Scott's dearest friend. In the Diary (Jan. 23, 
 1826) we can read words, perhaps not altogether just to 
 other friends who also stood by Scott in his disasters, but 
 just at least to ' the good Samaritan James Skene, the only 
 one among my numerous friends who can properly be 
 termed amicus curarum mearum, others being too busy or 
 too gay, and several being estranged by habit.' Mrs. Skene, 
 ' a most excellent person and tenderly fond of Sophia/ 
 complied with his desire that 'she should carry him to 
 renew an acquaintance which seems to have been inter- 
 rupted from the period of his youthful romance.' She 
 told Lockhart that 'a. very painful scene ensued' (vol. v., 
 
62 SCOTT LETTERS 
 
 Russell, 1 set off in a body to receive his 
 Royal Highness. We met him a mile 
 beyond Selkirk, and when Papa said that 
 Melrose was well worth his Royal Highness 
 seeing, he replied, that nothing he regretted 
 so much as the arrangements for horses, etc., 
 making it impossible for him to go so far 
 out of his route, but it would be impossible 
 for him to leave Scotland without seeing 
 Mr. Scott in his own house ; this, you 
 observe, being eight miles out of the way, 
 made it really a compliment. Figure the 
 dismay of the female part of our family 
 upon hearing this Royal resolve, not having 
 the least idea of his coming out of his 
 way to see us. We had left no orders at 
 home — time we had not an instant, as 
 his Royal Highness arrived at Abbotsford 
 the moment we did, but, wonderful to 
 
 p. 160, chap, lxxiv.), and she thought it 'highly prohahle 
 that it was on returning from this call that he committed 
 to writing the verses "To Time/' hy his early favourite, 
 which you have printed in your first volume' (vol. i., 
 p. 211, chap. vii). 
 
 1 Eliza and Jane Russell were the grand-daughters of 
 Col. Russell of Ashestiel, who married Jane Rutherford, a 
 sister of Scott's mother. 
 
SCOTT LETTERS 63 
 
 relate, for it really seemed like enchant- 
 ment, in about three-quarters of an hour, 
 we were able to place him, as the news- 
 papers express these things, to an elegant 
 collation. He was, or seemed to be, truly 
 pleased with everything, and said, on 
 departing, how happy he should be if Papa 
 would receive him, upon his return to 
 Scotland, for a longer visit, but, as he was 
 situated with regard to time, he would not 
 take any of the few moments he could 
 call his own from the pleasure of Mr. 
 Walter Scott's company, though it was 
 to see Melrose. He staid two hours with 
 us, and, even if he had not been a prince, 
 or had such an interesting and melancholy 
 history, he must have gained every person's 
 love by his unaffected and pleasant manners 
 — he is as like as possible his print. I 
 forget if I told you that Walter has joined 
 his regiment, the 18th Hussars, at Cork : 
 he left us in July. We hear very often 
 from him, and he writes (what I should 
 not have expected, as he has had no prac- 
 tice) most capital letters. He has apart- 
 
64 SCOTT LETTERS 
 
 ments at the Barracks, and writes a most 
 amusing account of his house keeping. 
 It is said that the regiment's next quarters 
 will be Dublin, so I do not think we will see 
 Walter for a couple of years : you may be 
 sure we miss him very very much. Charles 
 is still at home, and, I believe, is to 
 be at the High School in winter; after- 
 wards Papa thinks of sending him to some 
 school abroad. Papa is in perfect health ; 
 indeed I never saw him better, even in 
 his days of health : he has given Anne and 
 me the most beautiful new poney between 
 us ; it is a bright bay with a long black 
 tail that reaches the ground ; we call her 
 Queen Mab. You will be sorry to hear 
 that poor old Lady Wallace 1 died the 
 other day, to the distress of the whole 
 family. Poor Mrs. William Erskine 2 died 
 
 1 Lady Wallace was a pony. To the Scotts all their 
 ' lower animals/ their dogs and horses at least, were on the 
 level of human beings, and treated as members of the 
 family. The last direction which Scott, when leaving 
 Abbotsford for Italy, gave Laidlaw, was to take care of the 
 dogs, and keep them separate should there be occasion for 
 quarrel. 
 
 2 Mrs. William Erskine was the ' excellent wife' of William 
 
SCOTT LETTERS 65 
 
 a fortnight ago in Cumberland, where they 
 had taken her for her health, which has 
 been declining for long : what a dreadful 
 loss she will be to her family. So Catherine 
 
 Hume 1 is really married to Doctor ? 
 
 I think it is the very best thing she could 
 do, for he is a very good and a very sensible 
 young man, and most likely to put any 
 nonsense out of her head. We were very 
 anxious to be in town for the musical 
 festival, but I do not think we will be 
 able to make it out, but we will be in 
 Edinburgh for certain upon the 12th of 
 November. Miss Rutherford and Eliza 
 Russell have been staying nearly six weeks 
 with us ; they left us yesterday, and I am 
 happy to say that the former seemed a 
 good deal better for her visit. I believe 
 
 Erskine, afterwards Lord Kineddar : she died at Lowood on 
 Windermere. (Lockhart, vol. iii., pp. 321, 329, chap, xlv.) 
 Her husband was an intimate friend of Scott's, and his 
 1 literary referee ' ; a trusted adviser, whose ( refined taste 
 and gentle manners rendered his critical alliance highly 
 valuable.' (Lockhart, vol. i., p. 378, chap, xiii.) 
 
 1 This young lady, who was to be improved by marriage, 
 was the sister of Agnes Hume (see Letters xx. and xxu.) 
 and of Joseph Hume (see Letter vu.). 
 
 E 
 
6G SCOTT LETTERS 
 
 that there is some little change for the 
 better upon Jane Russell. All here join 
 me in best wishes and best love to you, 
 and believe me to remain yours truly 
 affectionately, 
 
 Charlotte Sophia Scott. 
 
 XI 
 
 My dear Miss Millar,— You will be 
 much shocked to hear of the severe family 
 losses we have met with in this last fort- 
 night — we have lost in that short space 
 of time our uncle and aunt (the Doctor 
 and Miss Rutherford) 1 and poor Grand- 
 mamma. 2 
 
 Grandmamma was seized about a fort- 
 
 1 Doctor Rutherford and Miss Christian Rutherford were 
 the brother and sister of Scott's mother, and therefore 
 grand-uncle and grand-aunt of Sophia. She uses the terms 
 e uncle ' and ' aunt ' with no real inaccuracy, or with the 
 inaccuracy only of affection, identifying her father and 
 herself. See Scott's letters to his brother, and to Lady 
 Louisa Stewart, for an account of the losses in the year 
 (1819) of dear friends and relations, losses which had made 
 him 'bankrupt in Society.' (Lockhart, vol. iii., pp. 347-53, 
 chap, xlvi.) 
 
 2 Scott's mother, Anne Rutherford, was the eldest 
 daughter of Dr. John Rutherford, Professor of Medicine in 
 
SCOTT LETTERS 67 
 
 night ago with palsy, and lingered for 
 about ten days, not suffering, but from 
 
 the University of Edinburgh, and grand-daughter of Sir 
 John Swinton of Svvinton whose family ' for antiquity and 
 honourable alliances may rank with any in Britain.' She 
 transmitted to her favourite son her pride in long descent, 
 e a light and happy temper of mind, and a strong turn to 
 study poetry and works of imagination. She was sincerely 
 devout, but her religion was, as became her sex, of a cast 
 less austere than his father's/ It was tempered by c a turn 
 for literature quite uncommon among the ladies of the 
 time.' Under her encouragement Scott, at the age of seven, 
 read aloud Shakespeare's plays and the Arabian Nights- in 
 the family circle ; and even acted plays occasionally in the 
 dining-room after the lessons of the day were over, taking 
 among other parts that of the Duke of Gloucester in 
 Richard III., on the ground e that the limp would do well 
 enough to represent the hump.' She was a great genea- 
 logist like all Scottish ladies of gentle birth, and like them, 
 or most of them, a Jacobite. She was fond of telling the 
 story of Murray of Broughton's teacup, which her husband 
 ' tossed out upon the pavement.' Her husband, though of 
 sterner mould, resembled her in many ways. His face wore 
 f an expression of sweetness of temper which was not fal- 
 lacious ; his manners were rather formal, but full of genuine 
 kindness, especially when exercising the duties of hospi- 
 tality.' Like his son, in matters of business, he conducted 
 himself with the simplicity of Uncle Toby. He too, his 
 son suspects, ' when immured in his solitary room, and 
 supposed to be immersed in professional researches,' was 
 engaged, not with Tasso and Ariosto, but with authors of 
 works partly of fiction of another kind, Spottiswoode and 
 Knox. f In political principles he was a steady friend to 
 freedom, with a bias, however, to the monarchical part of 
 our constitution,' no doubt a Jacobite whose ' feelings were 
 contrary to his opinions,' as were his son's about Mary 
 
68 SCOTT LETTERS 
 
 the first deprived of speech and the use of 
 one side, so that we thought it a great 
 mercy when she was released, as it was too 
 evident she never could get round. The 
 day after she was taken ill her brother the 
 doctor was seeing her, to all appearance 
 in perfect health, but upon the followiiig 
 morning, as he was waiting for the carriage, 
 he dropped down quite dead with gout in 
 the stomach. Of course his death was not 
 told to Miss Rutherford, or Grandmamma, 
 and there was no occasion for it, as she 
 died the morning after. 1 think that 
 there is hardly another instance of two 
 sisters and a brother dying within a few 
 days of each other, and none of them 
 knowing of the others' death. Poor Miss 
 Russell 1 has been very ill, but we trust 
 that, now all is over, she will in time 
 recover. We heard from Walter the other 
 
 Queen of Scots. It is an interesting and frequently debated 
 question, whether great men i take after' their fathers or 
 their mothers ; Scott seems to have taken after both to 
 some degree, but most after his mother. (Lockhart, vol. i., 
 chaps, i. and ii.) 
 1 See note 1, p. G2. 
 
SCOTT LETTERS 69 
 
 day. He was quite well and very busy. 
 Of course all this will prevent Papa's going 
 to London till March, 1 as he could not go 
 to Court in such deep mourning as he 
 must wear for his mother. Papa is going 
 along with Scott of Gala 2 to raise a corps of 
 sharp shooters at Abbotsford, and he finds 
 that, instead of only raising a couple of 
 hundred men, he could as easily raise twice 
 as many — in short he has at present a 
 military fever, I should rather say phrensy, 
 as he can talk of nothing else but his 
 corps. 3 
 
 1 Scott went to London in March 1820, ' for the purpose of 
 receiving his baronetcy, which he had been prevented from 
 doing in the spring of the preceding year by his own illness, 
 and again at Christmas by accumulated family afflictions.' 
 (Lockhart, vol. iii., p. 371, chap, xlviii.) 
 
 2 John Scott of Gala, his kinsman and neighbour, who 
 went with him to see the field of Waterloo in 1815. (Lock- 
 hart, vol. iii., p. 4, chap, xxxv.) Major Scott met Scott 
 in London in 1881, when he was on his way to Naples, and 
 has recorded some pathetic reminiscences of the change in 
 his appearance, and of mental and physical decay. 
 
 3 The political condition of the West of Scotland, then 
 alarming enough, though the danger was exaggerated by 
 ridiculous reports, excited in Scott the ' phrensy ' men- 
 tioned here. He was ' a fighting man ' and a strong anti- 
 revolutionist ; as ready to meet the ' Radicals,' as he had 
 been ready to meet the French fifteen or twenty years 
 before, when ' Walter Scott was Paymaster, Quartermaster, 
 
70 SCOTT LETTERS 
 
 I will write very soon, but am very busy 
 at this moment, and believe me to remain 
 most affectionately yours, 
 
 C. Sophia Scott. 
 
 39 Castle Street, 
 Wednesday, December 29, 1819- 
 
 Poor Grandmamma is buried to-day. 
 
 and Secretary of the Midlothian Yeomanry Cavalry Corps. 
 He "writes to his son Walter, in December 1819, a humorous 
 account of ' Master Charles, the only specimen of youthful 
 manhood at home, sleeping with an old broadsword hanging 
 up at his bed head, which, to be the more ready for service, 
 hath no sheath.' It was ready for service against the band 
 of Western Radicals who had ' a plan to seize on a thousand 
 stand of arms, as well as a depot of ammunition in Edin- 
 burgh Castle,' and against the fifty thousand pitmen and 
 colliers of Northumberland, who were reported to be ready 
 to join the Glasgow rebels. It is easy for us, after the 
 event, to laugh at these alarms ; but those who remembered 
 the French Revolution, distant from them only a quarter 
 of a century, may be excused for feeling some anxiety. 
 Distress and discontent prevailed not in Glasgow only, but 
 in London, Birmingham, and Manchester. It was not 
 known, at least to the Tories of those days, that there were 
 other methods of meeting nascent revolution than • a whiff 
 of grape shot.' A passage may here be quoted which throws 
 light on the characters of Lady Scott and her two daughters. 
 i Anne is so much afraid of the disaffected that last night, 
 returning with Sophia from Portobello, where they had 
 been dancing with the Scotts of Harden, she saw a Radical 
 in every man that the carriage passed. Sophia is of course 
 wise and philosophical, and Mamma has not yet been able 
 
SCOTT LETTERS 71 
 
 XII 
 
 My dear Miss Millar, — I received 
 your kind letter, and you see am not very 
 long in answering it, although I have little 
 or nothing to write about, having been 
 living very very quiet. I am quite 
 ashamed to say, in answer to your en- 
 quiries concerning my Italian studies, 
 that at present they are quite at a stop, 
 and, although with the new year I made 
 the customary good resolutions, still the 
 new leaf remains to turn ; whenever that 
 great event takes place I will let you 
 know ; in the mean time you must let 
 me know how you come on, and if you 
 find it easy. We heard from Walter the 
 other day ; he was well, and hoped to meet 
 Papa in London upon the 12th of March, 
 and to come down here along with him to 
 pay us a visit : you may be sure how happy 
 we are at the thoughts of seeing him again 
 among us. There has been new views 
 
 to conceive why we do not catch and hang the whole of 
 them untried and unconvicted. (Lockhart, vol. iii., p. 341, 
 chap, xlvi.) 
 
72 SCOTT LETTERS 
 
 with regard to Charles, which I think 
 will give you pain, as it has done me. 
 Papa has got the offer of a writership in 
 India for him, 1 which is the sure way of 
 making money, as the moment they touch 
 Indian Shore they get 5 hundred a year, 
 and, if they are at all industrious, may 
 make any money. Such an offer as this 
 Papa does not think his duty to refuse, 
 more especially as Charles, though ex- 
 tremely clever, is also extremely idle, and 
 it would be quite out of the question to 
 expect he would turn out a good lawyer 
 in this town, with so many opportunities of 
 seeing and being in company, and so little 
 taste for studying to the purpose. How- 
 ever, if he does go, it will not be for three 
 years, and many things may happen before 
 that passes over ; besides, with the recom- 
 mendations he can get, if he is in the 
 least industrious, he may come home in 
 
 1 'Through the kindness of Mr. Croker, Scott received 
 from the late Earl Bathurst, then Colonial Secretary of 
 State, the offer of an appointment in the Civil Service of 
 the East India Company for his second son. (Lockhart, 
 vol. iii., p. 3G1, chap, xlvii.) 
 
SCOTT LETTERS 73 
 
 two years with a very handsome fortune, 
 whereas at the bar many a lawyer is only 
 beginning after that space of time to be 
 making 2 hundred a year, and that with 
 much toil. I must say that it needs many 
 many good reasons to make one consent 
 to parting with a brother for so long a 
 time. You will be very very sorry to hear 
 that poor Eliza Russell is no more; she 
 died yesterday morning of a sort of nervous 
 low fever, brought on at first from exces- 
 sive fatigue in attending her aunt. I do 
 not think it possible that Anne and Jane 
 will survive many weeks, or even days, 
 they are both in such a state, Jane de- 
 prived of speech and the use of her limbs, 
 and Anne lying almost quite [helpless] 1 
 from fatigue and anxiety. 
 
 I hope that you will write soon, and 
 believe me to remain yours most affec- 
 tionately, 
 
 Charlotte Sophia Scott. 
 
 39 Castle Street, 
 Friday, January 21, 1820. 
 
 1 Blank in the original. 
 
74 SCOTT LETTERS 
 
 XIII 
 
 My dear Miss Millar, — I received 
 your kind letter two evenings since, 1 and 
 answer it thus soon, as I wish to be the 
 first to tell you that I have at last made 
 up my mind to marry Mr. Lockhart, and 
 I know how sincerely you interest yourself 
 in anything that may happen to me, and 
 how affectionate your wishes are for my 
 happiness. Anything that I may say to 
 prepossess you in his favour, in the present 
 state of my feelings towards him, might 
 appear to you overdrawn, but Papa has the 
 highest opinion of him, and his opinion is 
 worth all the world to me. That I might 
 have made a much higher marriage in point 
 of rank and wealth I have little doubt, but 
 I am not one who can be persuaded that 
 
 1 This letter is not dated. It must have been written 
 soon after the middle of February 1820, when, as Lockhart 
 writes (vol. Hi., p. 3(52, chap, xlvii.), ' it was arranged that I 
 should marry his (Scott's) daughter in the course of the 
 spring.' The marriage took place in Castle Street on 
 April 29, 1820, 'more Scotico in the evening.' It would 
 be impertinent to offer any comments on this letter, beyond 
 the remark that it shows Sophia's affection for her old 
 governess. 
 
SCOTT LETTERS 75 
 
 happiness can depend upon these two 
 alone. I hope that you will be in town 
 sometime soon, that I might introduce 
 you to Lockhart, as I am sure, at least I 
 hope, that you will like him. Papa goes 
 to London in March, and expects to be 
 down before the end of April, and to 
 bring Walter with him. I am very sorry 
 to hear that Miss Tovey is so unwell, but 
 would fain hope that the fine weather 
 coming in may be of service to her. Poor 
 Miss Russell is rather better, but still in a 
 deplorable state of health. Miss Anne is a 
 little stronger : if they could but get well 
 enough to be removed to some other house, 
 it would be a great step towards their re- 
 covery, as everything puts them in mind of 
 the friends they have lost. 
 
 Papa and Mamma, Anne and Charles, 
 join me in best love to you, and believe 
 me, my dear Miss Millar, ever to remain 
 yours most affectionately, 
 
 Charlotte Sophia Scott. 
 
 39 Castle Street, 
 Sunday morning. 
 
76 SCOTT LETTERS 
 
 XIV 
 
 May 1820 (P). 1 
 
 My dear Miss Millar, — Mr. Lockhart 
 and myself have arrived this moment 
 here to remain all night, and I could not 
 possibly pass through Stirling without 
 making an attempt to see you. Would 
 you then, when you receive this, put on 
 your hat and come to the inn and see me. 
 
 I remain, dear Miss Millar, your affec- 
 tionate friend and pupil, 
 
 C. Sophia Lockhart. 
 
 Wednesday evening. 
 
 xv 
 
 ABBOTSFORDj 
 
 4 November. 2 
 
 My dear Miss Millar, — Papa has had 
 a letter from Mrs. Bolton, who seems to 
 
 1 This letter also is undated ; it may have been written 
 soon after Sophia's marriage. She is still Miss Millar's 
 pupil ; but any inference as to date is doubtful, for five 
 years later Mrs. Lockhart is still Miss Millar's pupil. (See 
 Letter xxi.) 
 
 2 Between the dates of this and of the thirteenth letter 
 many things had happened. Scott had become ' Sir Walter.' 
 1 The baronetcy was conferred on him, not in consequence 
 
SCOTT LETTERS 77 
 
 be quite uncertain whether you accepted 
 her proposal or not, so Papa thinks you 
 had better let Mrs. Bolton know by writing 
 to her yourself. Charles left us some 
 weeks ago to a school in South Wales. 
 Mr. Williams 1 is the name of his master; he 
 
 of any ministerial suggestion, but by the King personally, 
 and of his own unsolicited motion, and when the poet kissed 
 his hand, he said to him, ' ' 1 shall always reflect with pleasure 
 on Sir Walter Scott's having been the first creation of my 
 reign.'" After his baronetcy was gazetted on April 2nd 
 he hurried home, for he was anxious to have his daughter 
 married before the unlucky month of May began. (Lockhart, 
 vol. iii., pp. 376-8, chap, xlvii.) Soon after his daughter's 
 marriage he received from Oxford and from Cambridge the 
 offer of the honorary degree of Doctor in Civil Law, an 
 offer which, to his regret, he was not then, nor afterwards, 
 able to accept. He perhaps, as well as Lady Scott, was 
 ' quite tired of people ' before the end of that hospitable 
 summer and autumn, though the genial host concealed 
 his weariness. 
 
 This is the first of Anne Scott's letters published in 
 this collection, and shows that ' spirit of satire' which, 
 five years later, her father affected to deplore in the 
 ' honest downright good Scots lass.' She was now nearly 
 eighteen, an age at which clever girls find their tongues, 
 and use them freely. Who Miss Ramsay was I have not 
 inquired : the epithet applied to her may have been con- 
 tributed by Walter, but the gloss is likely to have been 
 Anne's. 
 
 1 Mr. Williams, Vicar of Lampeter and Archdeacon, was 
 four years later appointed Rector of the Edinburgh 
 Academy. He had been Lockhart's intimate friend and 
 companion at Oxford. (Vol. iii. ^ p. 420, chap. 1.) 
 
78 SCOTT LETTERS 
 
 is strongly recommended by Lockhart and 
 
 Mr. (?). I was very sorry to part 
 
 with him, but it will be of so much con- 
 sequence to himself to be from home, that 
 it would be wrong to wish for him to 
 remain. Sophia and Lockhart spent six 
 weeks here this summer ; she went to 
 Edinburgh a short time ago, in which part 
 of the world we will see her soon, as we 
 leave this in a few days. Lord and Lady 
 Compton left us yesterday ; also the Miss 
 Baillies. I like Miss Joana Baillie ex- 
 tremely ; no one would ever guess by her 
 behaviour that she was an authoress. Sir 
 Alexander Don and a great pack of people 
 come here to-day ; Mamma is quite tired 
 of people, as we have never been alone all 
 the summer. Mr. and Mrs. Skene have 
 gone abroad for a year or two. Miss Skene 1 
 paid us a visit this summer and is still the 
 
 1 Miss Skene was the daughter of James Skene of 
 Rubislaw. She lived at Oxford for the last thirty years of 
 her long life,, and was known there for her good works. 
 She was a Scots lady of the highest type, combining kindli- 
 ness with shrewdness, the terror of impostors, and a wise 
 helper of all who deserved help. 
 
SCOTT LETTERS 79 
 
 same. We had a letter from Walter the 
 other day ; he is quite well and very gay 
 in Dublin, as he has got in the first set. 
 He saw Miss Ramsay, still, though very 
 much against her will, a blooming Virgin. 
 I must now conclude my epistle : I hope 
 you will write to me soon. Papa and 
 Mamma unite in best love, and believe me 
 to remain yours affectionately, 
 
 Anne Scott. 
 
 P.S.— Direct to Mrs. Bolton, East India 
 College, Hertford. 
 
 1820. 
 
 XVI 
 
 49 (Great) King Street (Edinburgh), 
 Monday morning, March 26, 1821. 
 
 My dear Miss Millar, — I am afraid 
 you must have thought me very unkind 
 never to have answered your kind letter of 
 enquiry that I received so very long ago, 
 but you will cease to be angry when I tell 
 you that this is only the second time I 
 
80 SCOTT LETTERS 
 
 have taken up the pen since I was confined, 
 and for two months before. In spite of all 
 my bad health before, I think you would 
 say that my little boy l is as pretty a baby as 
 you ever saw, and, what is still better, he is 
 very healthy. Papa has not returned from 
 London where he went to see my aunt 
 Carpenter, who wished much to return to 
 
 1 The little boy was John Hugh Lockhart, the ( Hugh 
 Littlejohn' of the Tales of a Grandfather. There are few, if 
 any, passages in Sir Walter's Diary more pathetic than 
 those in which he writes of his sorrow for the sufferings and 
 approaching death of his beloved grandson, whose health 
 began to fail in 1825, and who died in 1831. 'The poor 
 child's voice,' Sir Walter writes, ' was day and night in his 
 ear.' He speaks of him as ( a child almost too good for this 
 world ; beautiful in features, and, though spoiled by every 
 one, having one of the sweetest tempers, as well as the quickest 
 intellect, I ever saw; a sense of humour quite extraordinary 
 in a child ; and, owing to the general notice which was 
 taken of him, a great deal more information than suited his 
 hours.' Johnnie must have reminded him of another gifted 
 and short-lived child, whom, years before, he used to carry 
 to and from Castle Street in his plaid, ' Pet Marjorie,' 
 authoress of an inimitable poem on a domestic tragedy. To 
 his affection for Hugh Littlejohn we owe a history which 
 may not be scientific, and might have been condemned by 
 Lord Acton, had he criticised it, along with Carlyle's French 
 Revolution, and Froude's and Macaulay's histories. Sir 
 Walter would have been e justified' in good company; but, 
 if called up for judgment, he would probably have been 
 pardoned, as a grandfather. (Lockhart, vol. iv., p. 487, 
 chap, lxx.) 
 
SCOTT LETTERS 81 
 
 Scotland with him, but she is in such 
 indifferent health that Dr. Baillie will not 
 hear of her moving till summer, and Papa 
 is to be with us about the beginning of 
 next month. We are very anxious for his 
 arrival, as the baby is not to be christened 
 till he comes. I hope that we are to see 
 you sometime soon in Edinburgh ; is there 
 any chance of it ? After Papa has been 
 here, and as soon as I am strong enough, 
 Lockhart, myself, and the baby, are going 
 to Germiston for a fortnight, but must be 
 back at the terrible moving time, as we 
 have bought a most capital house from 
 top to bottom in Northumberland Street. 
 Charles is quite well, and likes his master 
 very much. Walter is still in Ireland, and 
 at present has the command of a small 
 detachment at Cappoquin in the county of 
 Waterford. Lockhart joins me in best 
 wishes to you, and believe me, dear Miss 
 Millar, to remain very affectionately yours, 
 
 Charlotte Sophia Lockhart. 
 
82 SCOTT LETTERS 
 
 XVII 
 
 Chiefswood, 1 Melrose, 
 Sunday, 
 
 My deah Miss Millar, — I am truly 
 sorry to hear you have been so very un- 
 comfortable with Mrs. Eules, but, as it was 
 the case, I think you did quite right in 
 leaving her as soon as possible, and we 
 must hope for better luck another time. I 
 think you should write to ask your friends 
 to enquire for you, and Mrs. Ross 2 amongst 
 the rest, as she is very likely to hear of 
 
 1 Chiefswood was a cottage near Melrose, where Lockhart 
 and his wife took up their residence in the summer of 1821 ; 
 the first of several seasons which they rememhered as the 
 happiest in their lives. It was within easy reach of Abbots- 
 ford, and Sir Walter used to stay there while he superin- 
 tended the completion of the stately house which was to 
 take the place of the farm-house which stood ' on the scene 
 of Kerr of Cessford's slaughter.' (Lockhart, vol. ii., p. 176, 
 chap, xxiii.) 
 
 2 Mrs. Ross was the Catherine Hume of Letter x. ; now 
 much improved with ' all nonsense put out of her head ' 
 by the ' sensible young man' whom she had married. Dr. 
 and Mrs. Ross visited Sir Walter a few weeks before his 
 death. With some difficulty he recognised the doctor, but 
 on hearing Mrs. Ross's voice exclaimed at once * Isn't that 
 Kate Hume?' (Lockhart, vol. v., p. 425, chap, lxxxiii.) 
 
SCOTT LETTERS 83 
 
 something that may suit, and you have not 
 a more sincere friend. I will write to her 
 soon myself, and will mention you in it, but 
 I think you should write yourself. The 
 Humes have gone a little tour to England, 
 but will be home soon. Mrs. Ross is to be 
 quite stationary in George Street this sum- 
 mer, and herself and little girl are quite 
 well and strong; indeed I never saw her 
 looking better. I wish much you had been 
 in Edinburgh during the King's visit, 1 as, 
 independent of the feeling that the old 
 Halls at Holyrood were lighted up again 
 after a lapse of so many years, the two 
 processions were quite magnificent, and 
 
 1 The King came to Edinburgh on August 15, 1822. The 
 Cardinal of York was dead, and the stoutest Jacobites 
 transferred their allegiance from the Stuarts to the House of 
 Hanover ; some of them reluctantly, for the only member 
 of that house who had touched the soil of Scotland, was l the 
 cruel conqueror of Culloden, the "butcher" Cumberland.' 
 Sir Walter held that George iv. acquired a title to the 
 Throne, dc jure, on the death of the last descendant of 
 James vu. of Scotland ; and welcomed his King with an 
 enthusiasm which has provoked both sneers and laughter. 
 For a defence of his loyalty to one who was in part a Stuart, 
 see Lockhart, chaps, lxvi. and lxxxiv. Sir Walter laughed 
 himself at the fate of the glass out of which his Majesty had 
 drunk his health. 
 
84 SCOTT LETTERS 
 
 all conducted with such order. We met, 
 though every part of the streets were 
 crowded to excess, and, what appeared 
 very remarkable, every person well dressed. 1 
 The King said to Papa that ' Never King 
 was better received by his people, and 
 never King felt it more.' He said he never 
 was so happy in his life, and goes back with 
 a very grand idea of his Scottish subjects. 
 He wrote a letter to Papa expressing how 
 very much he was pleased, and thanking 
 him in the most handsome manner for the 
 trouble he had taken. 
 
 Brother Walter did not come home, as 
 there was not time for him, but Charles 
 was so fortunate as to be down for the 
 holidays, and remained during the whole 
 fun ; he and cousin Walter acted the part 
 of pages to Sir Alex. Keith in the two 
 processions, and performed their parts to 
 admiration. Charles is grown very tall, and 
 looked quite beautiful in his page's dress. 
 
 We came out here four days ago, and 
 
 1 The reader may interpret and amend this obscure 
 passage as he pleases. 
 
SCOTT LETTERS 85 
 
 remain till the 12th of November. All 
 this gaiety has cut up our summer very 
 much. Papa and Mamma only came to 
 Abbotsford the day before yesterday. The 
 new house at Abbotsford is up to the top 
 story and really is quite a palace. 
 
 Baby is quite well, and walks quite 
 stoutly now. Let me hear from you very 
 soon, and, if I can do anything to forward 
 your views, let me know. I shall be upon 
 the look out, but have a bad chance of 
 hearing anything suitable here. With 
 most affectionate love, believe me to 
 remain very affectionately yours, 
 
 C. Sophia Lockhart. 
 
 September 3, 1822. 
 
 XVIII 
 
 Abbotsford, 
 Monday, 8th September 1823. 1 
 
 My dear Miss Millar, — Many thanks 
 to you for your letter ; it gave us all great 
 
 1 This letter was written soon after e one of the happiest 
 months of Scott's life' and of his family's. Anne, now 
 
86 SCOTT LETTERS 
 
 pleasure to know that you were so com- 
 fortable with your friend Mrs. Bathurst. 
 We have had a great many people staying 
 here this summer, and amongst others the 
 Miss Edgeworths. I like Miss E. very 
 much, though she talks a great deal, and 
 does not care to hear others talk. There 
 was a dreadful scene at parting. 1 The great 
 Maria nearly went into fits ; she had taken 
 such a fancy to us all. Her sisters were 
 very nice girls, both clever, and one very 
 pretty. There is here at present a gentle- 
 man who has been farther in Greece than 
 any Englishman has been known to go, 
 and has been present at the dread - 
 
 nearly twenty, is full of girlish fun and paiadox. Her 
 utterances explain themselves. She had, by this time, 
 considerable experience of the world and of society of 
 various kinds ; far more at least than is usually within 
 the reach of girls of her age ; and was a keen observer, 
 humorous and malicious in the French, but not in the 
 English sense, as her later letters show. 
 
 1 Miss Edgeworth ' never saw Abbotsford again during 
 his (Sir Walter's) life.' In Lockhart (vol. iii., pp. 120-35, 
 chap, lix.) there is a description of Miss Edgeworth's visit, and 
 of one paid by ' another honoured and welcome guest,' Mr. 
 J. L. Adolphus, which gives a charming picture of Sir 
 Walter and his family at this happy time. Anne's letter 
 adds something to the picture of the ' great Maria.' 
 
SCOTT LETTERS 87 
 
 ful massacres of the Greeks, and saw a 
 hundred of the most beautiful Turkish 
 women drowned. A most blessed country 
 to live in. This happy man was also a 
 long time a prisoner of the Arabs. 
 
 We had a very happy family party for a 
 month this summer, as both my brothers 
 and my cousin 1 were here, and the Lock- 
 harts, but I am sorry to say that they 
 have now all gone. Walter to Sandhurst, 
 Charles to Wales, and my cousin to Addis- 
 combe. I do not think you would know 
 Charles ; he has grown so tall, and is really 
 like what he is so ambitious to be, a man. 
 Him and his dear friend, William Surtees, 2 
 left us about a week ago. Walter has had 
 another return of ague, but is now quite 
 well, and likes Sandhurst very much in- 
 
 1 Walter, son of Thomas Scott, third brother of Sir 
 Walter. Thomas Scott was once thought to be the author 
 of Waverley. He was e a man of infinite humour and excel- 
 lent parts/ but could not have written Waverley.' (Lockhart, 
 vol. i., p. 10, chap, i., and vol. iii., pp. 386-90, chap, xlviii.) 
 
 2 William Surtees, a school-fellow of Charles Scott's at 
 Lampeter and his chief friend at Oxford, son of Surtees of 
 Mainsforth, a learned antiquarian and an early and dear 
 friend of Sir Walter's. (Lockhart, vol. iii., p. 520, chap, liv., 
 and vol. ii., p. 12G, chap, xx.) 
 
88 SCOTT LETTERS 
 
 deed. I suppose Mrs. Bathurst's son is 
 also in the senior department. Lockhart 
 and Sophia are quite well, and as for little 
 Johnny, he has grown so stout and so 
 healthy, ever since he has got all his teeth. 
 He was very very ill in the early part of 
 the summer; indeed we were very much 
 alarmed about him, so you may think what 
 pleasure it gives us to see him so much 
 improved in health, Johnny is in a fair 
 way to be spoilt. Were you not very sorry 
 to hear of poor John Macdonald's death ? x 
 There is only one son left, who is in very 
 bad health ; so you may think what great 
 distress the poor Macdonalds are in ; be- 
 sides, poor John was such a favourite with 
 all his family. We had all the Buccleuch 
 family here the other day, and Lady 
 Todella's 2 intended bridegroom, the Hon. 
 Capt. Cust. I must own I was a little 
 
 1 Possibly a son of the Laird of Staffa, whom Sir Walter 
 visited in 1810, on his first voyage to the Hebrides. 
 (Lockhart, vol. ii., p. 133, chap, xxi.) 
 
 2 ' Lady Todella,' a charming name, due to my copyist, 
 was Lady Isabella, as Mrs. Maxwell-Scott informs me. I 
 have had the name thus printed, as being very creditable to 
 its author. 
 
SCOTT LETTERS 89 
 
 surprised when I first saw him, as he is 
 oldish, very plain, and looks as if he could 
 be cross. The young Duke has grown 
 much taller and stronger; he is really a 
 very delightful young man. As for Lady 
 Anne, she has grown quite a beauty. A 
 new set of teeth has improved her to such 
 a degree that Miss Russel finds herself a 
 good deal better. She is at Lucia just 
 now. One of the old Miss Fraser Tytlers 
 has married a cousin of her own. They 
 will be very poor, but it is all they have, as 
 they have been engaged for eleven years. 
 I wonder they did not change their 
 minds. I am sure I would, particularly if 
 I was the gentleman. Now I must really 
 stop. 1 Papa and Mamma beg to be kindly 
 remembered to you, and believe me, my 
 dear Miss Millar, to remain yours affec- 
 tionately, 
 
 Anne Scott. 
 
 I am sorry I have no news for you, but 
 I am afraid that I must invent, if I was to 
 
 1 Yes, indeed. 
 
90 SCOTT LETTERS 
 
 attempt to tell any news. Except, by the 
 bye, that Abbotsford is lighted with Gas. 
 You can have no idea how beautiful it 
 looks ; but the first time that Mrs. Bathurst 
 goes to Scotland you must come and spend 
 some time here, and you will see Abbots- 
 ford much changed. We have got into the 
 new drawing-room, and also into some of 
 the bedrooms. I must now conclude. I 
 am afraid that you will not be able to read 
 this, as I write it in such haste. I hope 
 you will write soon, and tell us how you 
 are coming on. Sophia intends writing to 
 you very soon. I gave her your letter, you 
 will be happy to hear. 
 
 XIX 
 
 Abbotsford, 
 March 10, 1824. 
 
 My dear Miss Millar, — I am quite 
 ashamed when I think of the time that has 
 elapsed since I have received your letter, 
 particularly as Sophia wished me to return 
 
SCOTT LETTERS 91 
 
 you her very best thanks for the cap you 
 were so good as to send her, and, though 
 she has been so unfortunate as to lose the 
 poor little baby it was intended for, yet 
 nevertheless she is very sensible of your 
 kindness in thinking of her. I am sure 
 you will be happy to hear that she is now 
 quite well, and has recovered both her 
 health and spirits. Lockhart goes to 
 London immediately, and Sophia and 
 Johnny are to come here. Poor little 
 Johnny has been very ill all winter, but is 
 now a great deal better, and the medical 
 people have now no fear for him, though 
 very great care will be required for a long 
 time before he regains his strength. Walter 
 was with us for six weeks at Christmas, 
 and Charles has just come down from 
 Oxford, where he has been entering his 
 name. 1 He remains with us till October, 
 when he returns to Oxford. Papa finds 
 Walter much improved in his studies, and 
 is quite delighted with him. I think you 
 would find him much changed, as he has 
 
 1 At Brasenose College. 
 
92 SCOTT LETTERS 
 
 grown very tall and stout. Edinburgh has 
 been very gay. I went out a great deal. 
 We had a very gay ball given by thirty 
 Bachelors : it was a Fancy one, and a great 
 many people went in character ; I however 
 did not. Charles Sharpe * was admirable ; 
 he went as his Grandfather, and Lord 
 Castlereagh as a Caucasian. By the bye, 
 Lord Castlereagh is a person that all Edin- 
 burgh is running after just now. He has 
 spent the winter there by way of attending 
 the classes, or rather the balls, and as he is 
 very handsome, very good-humoured, and 
 very fond of dancing and flirting, you may 
 think that he is a great favourite. Mrs. 
 Ross is quite well, and has recovered her 
 fit of goodness, and as for Agnes, the last 
 time I saw her she was in blue satin with a 
 silver flower in her hair, and had even some 
 thoughts of going to the Bachelors' Ball. 
 Is Mrs. Bathurst gone to Bath? I am 
 afraid that you will find it dull at North 
 
 1 Charles Kirpatrick Sharpe, the wit,, antiquary, artist, 
 ' minor ' poet, and man of fashion, whom Sir Walter de- 
 scribes in his Diary, November 20, 1825. (Lockhart, vol. iv., 
 pp. 351-2, chap, lxv.) He was a Scottish Horace Walpole. 
 
SCOTT LETTERS 93 
 
 Creek, particularly as you say the neigh- 
 bourhood is disagreeable, for, though the 
 country is very delightful in summer, yet 
 in winter it is very sombre, unless one has 
 society. However, I am quite glad to get 
 out here, as I am quite tired of dissipa- 
 tion ; besides, I have really been far from 
 well 1 this winter with constant colds, and, 
 what is more wearing out than anything, 
 constant toothache. I do not know if I 
 told you that my aunt, Mrs. Thomas Scott, 
 and my cousins have been in Scotland for 
 six months. They have been of course a 
 great deal at Abbotsford, and I like my 
 cousins very much. Anne, the eldest, is not 
 handsome, but what one would call very 
 comely ; she is a very sensible and well-in- 
 formed girl. Eliza 2 is a very nice little 
 girl, and will, I think, be very pretty. As 
 
 1 Alas ! her health was failing, though she was still 
 bright and cheerful. 
 
 2 About this cousin Eliza, Mrs. Maxwell-Scott writes : 
 ' My cousin, Baroness von Appell (grand-daughter of Sir 
 Walter's brother Thomas), will be one of those most in- 
 terested in these letters. Her mother was the Eliza men- 
 tioned by my great-aunt Anne in one letter, and was a most 
 clever and delightful old lady, whose reading aloud of 
 Emma is one of the remembrances of my girlhood. ' 
 
94 SCOTT LETTERS 
 
 for Mrs. Thomas Scott, she has been every- 
 thing that is kind and agreeable, but heaven 
 knows how long it will last. I have no 
 news for you, neither Births or marriages. 
 We are very busy painting the house just 
 now, and Papa will soon have the pleasure 
 of removing the Books to the new Library. 
 The Pringles of Haining and Yair 1 are all 
 flourishing, and so are all the Fergusons. 
 I must now conclude. Papa and Mamma 
 desire to be kindly remembered to you, 
 and believe me to remain, my dear Miss 
 Millar, yours affectionately, 
 
 A. Scott. 
 
 XX 
 
 Wednesday, 23rd Xorembe}* 1824, 
 Castle Street. 
 
 My dear Miss Millar, — Many thanks 
 to you for your letter. I should have 
 written to you before this, but I very 
 
 1 Yair lay a few miles down the Tweed from Ashestiel. 
 The Pringles were intimate friends of the Scotts. 
 
SCOTT LETTERS 95 
 
 foolishly lost your address. We have 
 been here for rather more than a week, and 
 I think I never saw Papa and Mamma in 
 better health than they are at present. 
 Sophia, I am sorry to say, had an attack 
 of inflammation about two months ago, 
 and, though she is quite well, yet it has 
 left her thin, and apt to catch cold on the 
 least change of weather ; however, I trust 
 that with great care she will soon be quite 
 well. As for Johnny, he is as well as 
 possible, and has not had for many months 
 those alarming attacks of fever which he 
 was so subject to, and he is, I assure you, a 
 great beauty, 1 and as great a wit. He 
 makes Lockhart very idle, for he does 
 nothing but play with him all day, and 
 teach him all sort of absurd speeches. 
 Charles is at Oxford, very important as 
 you may suppose, as this is his first term. 
 He says he likes Oxford very much. 
 Walter's examination takes place at Sand- 
 hurst next month. He comes down here 
 immediately after, but whether he is to 
 
 1 See note ou p. 80. 
 
96 SCOTT LETTERS 
 
 get a troop in his Regiment, or to go as 
 Aid de Camp to Sir Frederick Adam, I 
 do not know, as he cannot make up his 
 mind which is best. Papa has gone to-day 
 to attend poor Mrs. Rutherford's funeral, 
 who died very suddenly last week. 1 She 
 made herself very unhappy the last few 
 years by her very peevish, unhappy, 
 temper. I should think it must be rather 
 a relief than otherwise, her death to her 
 daughters. What a dreadful fire has been 
 in Edinburgh, but I suppose you have 
 read it all in the newspapers. Lockhart 
 was out a day and night with the yeo- 
 manry, and though he kept his spirits up by 
 pouring spirits dozen, he was very ill after- 
 wards from fatigue. It must have been an 
 awful sight, the burning of the Church. 
 The people here insist that it was all owing 
 to Dr. Brunton having subscribed to the 
 Musical Festival. 2 There has been the 
 
 1 Anne's grand-aunt. 
 
 - Dr. Brunton, it was thought, had brought on himself a 
 'judgment' for having subscribed to so questionable an 
 amusement as a musical festival. The old abhorrence of 
 sports and pleasures, described in Old Mortality, was not 
 
SCOTT LETTERS 97 
 
 most magnificent subscriptions here for 
 the poor people who have been burnt out, 
 so that they will be richer for their burn- 
 ing. I am sorry to hear that you do not 
 like the part of the country you are in, and 
 also that you find it necessary to change 
 your situation. I hope you will come to 
 Scotland before you fix yourself in another. 
 I think you will find a great change in 
 Abbotsford. The library and drawing- 
 room are now finished and furnished, and 
 are both magnificent. The entrance Hall 
 is very large, and fitted up with armour 
 and painted glass. It really is very strik- 
 ing. We had a very great many people 
 here this last summer. Lady Compton 
 and her children spent some weeks with 
 us. She is, if possible, improved in her 
 musical studies since her residence abroad, 
 but we have had an immense deal of good 
 music this last year, and have got such a 
 magnificent piano, which stands in the 
 
 extinct, though waning, in the Edinburgh of eighty years 
 ago. Compare ' Jupiter' Carlyle's account of the con- 
 demnation pronounced by the ' strict party' on another 
 ( Moderate ' clergyman, the author of Douglas. 
 
 G 
 
98 SCOTT LETTERS 
 
 library, which is a most admirable music- 
 room. I saw the Humes yesterday look- 
 ing remarkably well. Agnes is no longer 
 holy and wears a white silk bonnet. As for 
 Mrs. Ross, she has had so many children 
 she really has not time to be good. Edin- 
 burgh is very dull just now. There is 
 nothing going on. I shall be glad when 
 Christmas comes, when we go to Abbots- 
 ford, and are to be very gay and have a 
 large party in the house. 1 
 
 The Lockharts are to be with us, and 
 my aunt and cousins, Mrs. Thomas Scott's 
 family. They really are very nice girls, 
 and one of them is very pretty, and I 
 think that our good friends, the Miss 
 Russells, helped to make up stories of 
 Mrs. Thomas Scott, who appears to me to 
 be a very agreeable good-natured person. 2 I 
 am afraid that you will not be able to read 
 this horrid scrawl. I write in great haste, 
 as I am engaged to spend a quiet day 
 
 1 For an account given by Captain Basil Hall of this 
 Christmas party, see Lockhart, vol. iv., pp. 192-232, chap. lxi. 
 
 2 The fears shown in Letter xix. as to the duration of Mrs. 
 Scott's kindness and good nature had been proved groundless. 
 
SCOTT LETTERS 99 
 
 with Lady Alvanley 1 and her daughters, 
 who have just come to town, and I wish 
 not to lose a day's post. Sophia means to 
 write to you very soon. I hope you will 
 not be long in writing, and tell us if you 
 have settled any plan for the future. 
 Papa and Mamma desire to be kindly 
 remembered to you, and believe me, my 
 dear Miss Millar, to remain yours very 
 sincerely, 
 
 Anne Scott. 
 
 XXI 
 
 My dear Miss Millar, — You must 
 excuse these very few lines, as I have so 
 very much to write just now, but I wish to 
 be the very first to inform you of brother 
 Walter's approaching marriage with a 
 niece of Lady Ferguson, Miss Jobson of 
 
 1 Lady Alvanley , wife of the statesman and the wit. She 
 died a few weeks later than the date of this letter. The 
 arrangements for her funeral devolved on Sir Walter. She 
 was buried in the Chapel of Holyrood, the service being 
 performed by Mr. (afterwards Dean) Ramsay, who read the 
 service also at the funeral of Lady Scott. (Lockhart, vol. iv., 
 p. 510, chap, lxx.) 
 
100 SCOTT LETTERS 
 
 Lochore in Fife. 1 The young lady is 
 everything we could wish for, very pretty, 
 sensible, and has about two thousand a 
 year, no bad thing for a young soldier. 
 Papa and Mamma are quite delighted at 
 the match, and one of them would have 
 written, but they are so busy they have 
 time for nothing. The marriage takes 
 place almost immediately, on account of 
 Walter's leave of absence being very 
 limited, and they leave this for Cork, 
 where Walter's regiment is stationed at 
 present. I will write whenever the cere- 
 mony is over more fully, but have only 
 now time to say we are all well and happy, 
 and remain your very affectionate pupil, 
 C. Sophia Lockhart. 
 
 25 North Street, Edinburgh, 
 20th January 1825. 
 
 1 'The pretty heiress of Lochore.' The marriage was 
 arranged at the Christmas party mentioned in the last 
 letter. See Lockhart, vol. iv., p. 233, chap, lxii., and later, 
 in the same chapter, Sir Walter's affectionate and humorous 
 letters to his new daughter. 
 
SCOTT LETTERS 101 
 
 XXII 
 
 Abbotsford, 
 Monday morning, April 10, 1825. 
 
 My dear Miss Millar, — Many thanks 
 to you for your letter. I have not forgot 
 your request of getting letters from Papa, 
 and I told him of it, but he says that he is 
 afraid that his acquaintances in London 
 are not of the sort that would do you any 
 good ; and except a very good-natured, 
 clever Welsh lady, whose husband is high 
 in the Church, he knows of no other. But 
 pray write when the time comes that you 
 wish for the letters, and perhaps he will be 
 able to think of some other ladies. 
 
 Papa, Mamma, and I have been living 
 for about a month here very quietly. We 
 have the most beautiful weather that ever 
 was seen. It is quite summer, and there 
 is large plots of hyacinths and jonquils in 
 full blow before the door. We are not 
 a little anxious to hear of Walter and his 
 bride's arrival in Ireland, but I daresay that 
 
1G2 K.COTT LETTERS 
 
 letters have been lost. I have scarcely 
 seen my new sister, but by all accounts 
 she is very amiable and appears very happy. 
 We had a letter from Charles, who is 
 staying at Stowe at the Duke of Bucking- 
 ham's. How he has got there heaven 
 knows. His letter was full of what the 
 Duke said to him and what he said to the 
 Duke. My cousin Walter is at Chatham, 
 and gives Papa much satisfaction with the 
 manner he has gone on with his studies. 
 Mrs. Scott has gone with her two 
 daughters to Cheltenham, to live for some 
 time with a brother of hers. You will be 
 surprised to hear that the Miss Russells 
 are really coming to live at Ashestiel. 
 Colonel Russell, they say, is on his way 
 home by land, and is to meet them in 
 Italy. I can scarcely believe that he is 
 so near home, for he has so often disap- 
 pointed them. I went to see poor Mrs. 
 Charles Erskine 1 to-day, and found her 
 very ill. I never saw a person so altered 
 
 1 The wife of Charles Erskine, Sheriff-Substitute of 
 Selkirkshire. 
 
SCOTT LETTERS 103 
 
 as she is by grief, and the widow's dress 
 makes her look even worse. She will 
 not suffer in her income by her husband's 
 death, for he died very rich. Your friends 
 the Humes are quite well. Agnes is no 
 longer good. 1 She dresses in white satin, 
 and goes to Balls, and as for Mrs. Ross, 
 she is so occupied with her children and 
 her own very indifferent health, that she 
 scarcely goes to church once a Sunday. 
 Our old friend and sinner, Miss Skene, is 
 just the same. She is looking about for a 
 companion to go to Paris with, and from 
 thence to Italy, to bask for some time 
 under an Italian sky. I am sorry I have 
 no news for you, not even my marriage, 
 which, I am told, is fixed for next week, 
 to a very rich Mr. Henderson, who has 
 bought Eldon Hall; and now, as I have 
 not even seen the bridegroom, it is a 
 little hard to have so foolish a report sent 
 about. Even Papa is not believed when 
 
 1 This is the third criticism of the Humes and their 
 backslidings. Did Anne and Sophia like them? The 
 good Miss Skene also, it is hinted, was not impeccable. 
 
104 SCOTT LETTERS 
 
 he denies it, for he is always told that if 
 I do not marry Mr. Henderson, I must 
 marry Major Norman Pringle, whom we 
 used to call the elegant major long ago. 
 Talking of elegant people, we have Sir 
 Alex. Don, 1 a pattern of Domestic happiness. 
 His wife is just going to be confined, and 
 he stays always at home to take care of 
 her. We had a most beautiful Fancy Ball 
 a few weeks ago in Edinburgh, where I 
 appeared in a most beautiful Spanish dress. 
 I was so fortunate as to be intimate with 
 a Spanish lady, who gave me one of her 
 dresses to have one made by. It was very 
 magnificent, black and gold, with a long 
 black veil. My friend, the Donna, was 
 quite pleased with my appearance in it. 
 
 1 Sir Alexander Don of Newtown (Letter xv.) was a man 
 of fashion much connected with the turf, and somewhat of 
 a spendthrift. Sir Walter lived in { much friendship with 
 him/ despite their different habits, for his manners were 
 extremely pleasing, and he had a taste for literature and 
 the fine arts — '& most accomplished gentleman.' His 
 indolence prevented him from turning his real abilities 
 ' towards acquiring the distinction he might have attained.' 
 (Lockhart, vol. iv., p. 498, chap. Ixx.) He was the father of 
 an actor of some distinction known in London more than 
 forty years ago. 
 
SCOTT LETTERS 105 
 
 Lockhart and Sophia are in Edinburgh, 
 and there is no chance of our seeing them 
 till May, when we return to town to 
 remain till July, when Papa talks of going 
 to Ireland for a few weeks, where I shall 
 certainly go with him. I must now conclude 
 this horrid scrawl. I depend on your 
 writing and letting me know when you 
 wish for letters. Is there any chance of 
 your coming to Scotland this summer? 
 You will find us in high order, and amidst 
 other improvements, we have got a most 
 admirable Pianoforte. Papa and Mamma 
 desire to be kindly remembered to you, 
 and believe me, my dear Miss Millar, to 
 remain yours affectionately, 
 
 A. Scott. 
 
 XXIII 
 
 25 North Street, Edinburgh, 
 April 24, 1825. 
 
 My dear Miss Millar, — I would have 
 written long since to you, but have been 
 
106 SCOTT LETTERS 
 
 prevented first by being unwell myself 
 with an attack which, when it comes on, 
 makes me unfit for anything ; and, lastly, 
 my poor little Johnny has been very unwell 
 for a fortnight with fever and cough. The 
 cough was so violent that the doctor was 
 suspicious that itwas Hooping-cough, which 
 we had flattered ourselves he had had over, 
 but, as within these four days it has left 
 him, we think it had been only the Influ- 
 enza, which is raging among young and 
 old. Just now he is so much better that 
 I am going to set out with him to-morrow 
 to the west country, to remain at Germis- 
 ton for three weeks, and I hope the 
 change of air will restore him quite. He 
 is grown very tall, and speaks, I rejoice 
 to say, rather more intelligibly than when 
 you heard him last. He puts me very 
 much in mind of brother Charles in every- 
 thing. We heard from Walter and his 
 lady the other day. They are now in the 
 Dublin Barracks, the regiment having left 
 Cork a fortnight after they joined it. She 
 seems to like her new mode of life very 
 
SCOTT LETTERS 107 
 
 much, and a great change it must be 
 following a regiment, from living in the 
 most humdrum manner with her mother, 
 and never seeing a soul. I think you will 
 like her very much, for she is really a very 
 sensible nice young woman. 
 
 Charles is by this time returned to Ox- 
 ford, after having spent the Easter holi- 
 days among his English friends. Among 
 the rest, he had found his way to the Duke 
 of Buckingham's, for he is the one of 
 the family that is always making great 
 friends. Papa, Mamma, and Anne have 
 been at Abbotsford since the 12th of 
 March. I wrote to Anne to remind her 
 of the letters you wish, and should think 
 by this time you must have heard from 
 her, unless she has been very lazy. I am 
 sorry you are going to leave Mrs. Bathurst's 
 family, as you seem attached to her, and 
 it is such a chance finding a comfortable 
 family to live with, but you must know 
 best, and have some very good reason for 
 doing it. I think your Kensington plan 
 a very good one, for you are much more 
 
108 SCOTT LETTERS 
 
 likely to hear of something that will suit 
 in England. Here the fashion is to send 
 the children to all kind of classes, with 
 a nursery governess to attend them, till 
 thirteen or fourteen, and then send them 
 to a French or English School. I will 
 write however if anything should cast up, 
 and hope to hear from you soon. With 
 best love, believe me ever to remain your 
 affectionate friend, 
 
 C. Sophia Lockhart. 
 
 XXIV 
 
 ABBOTSFORD, 
 
 Sunday night, [October T\ 1825. 
 
 My dear Miss Millar, — I found your 
 letter here on my return from the Ednes, 
 and meant to have answered it much 
 sooner, but we have had so many people 
 here, that I have never had a moment's 
 time to myself, particularly as Mamma 
 has not been very well, and had to keep 
 her own room a good deal, so all the 
 trouble of entertaining visitors has fallen 
 
SCOTT LETTERS 109 
 
 on me. Mamma desires me to say that 
 she believes she is indebted to Mr. 
 Thistlewaite for a quantity of game that 
 came to her from the Highlands. Mamma 
 begs that you will have the kindness to 
 thank him for it. Our tour to Ireland 1 
 
 1 The tour to Ireland, Wales, and the English Lakes was 
 made in July and August. A full account of it is given in 
 Lockhart, vol. iv., pp. 280-313, chap, lxiii. Sir Walter was 
 accompanied by Anne and his son-in-law, whose description 
 of their expedition is charming in itself, and valuable as 
 throwing light on the social and political condition of Ire- 
 land in 1825. For the travellers those seven or eight 
 weeks were the last of unclouded happiness which they 
 were to enjoy; the calamities of 1826 — that annee terrible 
 in the history of the Scott family — were fast approach- 
 ing. 
 
 Lockhart modestly disclaims any intention of discussing 
 ' vexed questions of politics and administration,' but in Ire- 
 land these questions lie on the surface, and ' he who runs 
 may read.' He says that he will note e particulars more 
 immediately connected with the person of Scott,' and few 
 pages of his book tell us more about Scott's geniality and 
 boyish spirits, and vivid interest in the beauties of Nature, 
 and in the history and inhabitants of any country in which 
 he travelled. He received in Ireland the heartiest welcome 
 from high and low ; from the Lord-Lieutenant to the poorest 
 'struggler,' a word which he well said ' deserves to be 
 classical.' At Dublin they were joined by Captain and 
 Mrs. Scott, and with them visited the Edgeworths at Edge- 
 worthstown, and saw what made Sir Walter say that 'to 
 talk of the misery of Ireland, at this time, is to speak of the 
 illness of a malade imaginaire.' The real misery of Ireland 
 
110 SCOTT LETTERS 
 
 is now so old a story that I can only 
 say I was delighted with it, and shall 
 always consider the time I spent there as 
 the happiest time I ever spent. We were 
 a week at the Lakes, and paid a visit 
 to Mr. Bolton, where we met with Mr. 
 Canning, with whom I was quite de- 
 lighted. Then we proceeded to Lowther 
 Castle, to pay a visit of some days. It 
 is a most magnificent place, and I liked 
 the Lonsdale family extremely. When 
 we returned we found Sophia and Johnny 
 much the better of the quiet life they 
 led in our absence. In short, dear little 
 
 he saw in Kerry, and it depressed even his buoyant spirits. 
 His depression, however, was frequently relieved by displays 
 of Irish wit and cheerfulness, which much delighted him, 
 and which he often f capped ' with Scotch stories, good for 
 the Englishmen to read who accept the dictum of Sydney 
 Smith. Why did Sir Walter not write a novel about 
 Ireland, which he liked or loved so well ? 
 
 From Ireland they went to Wales, and thence to Winder- 
 mere, where Christopher North entertained them, and they 
 saw Wordsworth and Canning, the latter ( looking poorly, 
 and an old man : he had not long to live. At Keswick they 
 saw Southey f in his unrivalled library,' and after visiting 
 Lord and Lady Lonsdale, returned to Abbotsford on Sep- 
 tember 1. They must have looked back, in the sad years 
 which followed, with fond regret to that happy time. 
 
SCOTT LETTERS 111 
 
 Johnny is quite a different creature, and 
 I fain would hope that all anxiety on 
 his account is now over. 
 
 The Miss Russells are returned in good 
 health and much better spirits than I ever 
 expected to see them in. Jane walks and 
 speaks quite well. They are now staying 
 at Yair, but are very soon coming here, 
 when I shall be truly happy to see them. 
 Charles is at home just now, and begs to 
 be kindly remembered to you. He does 
 nothing but wage war with the Blackcock 
 and Partridges. He was making a tour 
 in the Highlands for some weeks, and re- 
 turned highly delighted with them. As 
 for Walter, he is quite a sober married 
 man, never dines at mess, to the great 
 surprise of his brother officers, but remains 
 quietly at home with his wife. They went 
 with us to Kilarny, and also Miss Edge- 
 worth and her sister, when we met with 
 no adventures. Though everybody tried 
 to persuade us not to go so far South, 
 yet, though we even travelled very late at 
 night, yet everything was quite quiet, and. 
 
112 SCOTT LETTERS 
 
 except the places where the doors were 
 open all night, and the beggars slept in 
 the passage, the accommodation was very 
 tolerable, and we were well repaid by the 
 Lakes at Kilarny, which are quite mag- 
 nificent. On our return we went through 
 Wales, which is very beautiful, and the 
 quiet and want of beggars made a most 
 agreeable variety from Ireland, where there 
 is great noise and many beggars. We 
 spent a few hours with Lady Eleanor 
 Butler and Miss Ponsonby, 1 who are two 
 very absurd-looking old ladies, dressed like 
 old gentlemen, in habits made like a man's 
 coat, and their hair cut quite short, and 
 powdered. They seem extremely fond of 
 scandal, and know everybody's death or 
 marriage. Lockhart's brother has given 
 his family great pleasure by the bride he 
 has chosen, who is very amiable, and has 
 twelve thousand pounds. Poor Mrs. Lock- 
 hart was in great distress at parting with 
 one of her sons, who has just sailed for 
 
 1 For a full account of the ' Ladies of Llangollen,' see 
 Lockhart's letter (vol. iii., pp. 308-10, chap, lxiii.). 
 
SCOTT LETTERS 113 
 
 India, so the marriage of Laurance has 
 done her a great deal of good. By the 
 bye, we were very unlucky at not seeing 
 Mrs. Fry's brother, I forget his name, and 
 Lady Harriet. We were from home, and 
 they just left their letter of introduction, 
 and went on South. Is Lady Harriet as 
 handsome as her brother Ld. Erroll, and 
 her sisters, who are quite beautiful ? Sophia 
 and Lockhart are at Chiefs wood just now, 
 but we see them every day. I am very 
 glad to hear that you like your situation, 
 and the young ladies being grown up must 
 be companions to you, which must make 
 it very pleasant. We have two very 
 pleasant visitors just now, Lady Ravens- 
 worth and her son Mr. Liddell ; they are 
 both very accomplished, and unaffected, 
 which makes them very pleasant to their 
 friends. I must now conclude, having 
 only left myself room to remain yours 
 affectionately, 
 
 Anne Scott. 
 
 I hope you will write soon, and tell us 
 
 H 
 
114 SCOTT LETTERS 
 
 how you are going on. Pray excuse this 
 horrid scrawl, as I have written this in a 
 great hurry, as I must go to play the 
 agreeable to Lady Ravensworth. Mamma 
 and Papa beg to be remembered to you. 
 
 XXV 
 
 1826. 1 
 
 My dear Miss Millar, — You must 
 not think I have been neglectful of 
 
 1 This letter is undated : it was written probably in the 
 February of this sad year. The writer shows herself her 
 father's daughter — steadfast and hopeful, 'equal to either 
 fortune.' She does not underrate the calamity, but sees 
 that it means ' a future life of study and labour ' for her 
 father, ' who has done so much.' A few months before the 
 date of this letter, on November 20, 1825, Sir Walter had 
 begun his Diary, or Journal, entitled, Sir Walter Scott of 
 Abbotsford, Bart., his Gumal. On the title-page he adds, as 
 a footnote to 'Gurnal,' 'A hard word, so spelt on the 
 authority of Miss Sophia Scott, now Mrs. Lockhart.' 
 (Lockhart, vol. iv., p. 349, chap, lxv.) 
 
 The Journal is the noblest of Sir Walter's works, and 
 shows the real character of the man. No one, surely, can 
 read that record of unflinching energy and heroism, of 
 troubles keenly felt but bravely met, without feeling en- 
 couraged and strengthened to meet troubles of his own. 
 
 The Journal was kept without interruption for six years, 
 till his departure for Italy in 1831. It begins cheerily, and 
 
SCOTT LETTERS 115 
 
 you. I had not been here a fortnight 
 when I found out your residence in Con- 
 naught Terrace, called, and was told it 
 was uncertain when you were to be in 
 town. Since that the many disagreeable 
 things that have happened amongst us 
 have prevented my writing to you. You 
 must have seen by the papers, Constable 
 the bookseller, and through him, Mr. Bal- 
 lantyne's failure, and am sure you will 
 grieve to hear that Papa has lost the 
 greater part of his hard-worked-for for- 
 
 the entries are minute and full : it ends with a good- 
 humoured, if somewhat testy, paternal complaint of the 
 girls ( breaking loose ' and talking politics— then a dangerous 
 subject— in all weathers, and in all sorts of company ; and 
 making slaves of the naval officers at Portsmouth. 
 
 From the Journal, and from chapters lxiv. and lxv. of 
 Lockhart's Life, can be gathered an account of the causes 
 and nature of the financial disaster which ruined Sir 
 Walter's life, and of the means by which he half-cleared 
 himself of a debt of £130,000, by labours which broke and 
 killed him. He died for a point of honour, as became a 
 noble gentleman. Abbotsford was saved: ' poor 39' was 
 sold. It is impossible, within the limits of a note, to give 
 even an outline of the circumstances which led to the failure 
 of Constable and Ballantyne. The commercial crisis of 
 1825, the reckless daring of Constable, the carelessness of 
 Ballantyne, and, it must be added, Scott's own negligence, 
 are sufficient explanations. 
 
116 SCOTT LETTERS 
 
 tune by these sad events. Abbotsford, 
 we trust, will remain, but the house in 
 Castle Street is to be sold, and Mamma 
 and Anne mean to reside constantly in 
 the country ; Papa only going to Edin- 
 burgh when his professional duties call 
 him, and then living in lodgings. Though 
 many worse things may happen to a family 
 besides loss of fortune, yet one cannot 
 but feel sorrow to think that such a man 
 should have to labour so hard after hav- 
 ing done so much. As for Lockhart and 
 myself, the smash has also taken what 
 we could ill afford, and I only wish what 
 you congratulate me upon were true. He 
 has no Government appointment what- 
 ever, and came up to be the Editor of 
 the Quarterly Review, and we only hope 
 some good thing may turn up in time. 
 Meanwhile we have taken this house, 
 furnished, till next December, I having 
 the pleasant prospect of a confinement 
 before me this May. Johnny has been 
 extremely delicate from the effects of the 
 Hooping-Cough, which he had last May, 
 
SCOTT LETTERS 117 
 
 but I trust the fine weather and milder 
 climate will have a good effect upon him. 
 The spring months here are so different 
 from Scotland. You may well think how 
 sad I was to leave home, and now, after 
 all this sad business, how much more 
 anxious I feel that we were all together, 
 though everything in the long run may 
 turn out for the best. I fain hope that 
 the report, for as yet it is but a report, 
 of Walters Regiment going to India, 1 may 
 turn out untrue, as it would be a great 
 distress to us his going, which he would 
 do. Charles is still at Oxford, and must 
 remain there some years longer, I believe. 
 Papa, Mamma, and Anne are in the very 
 best possible spirits. Papa nothing can 
 shake, and he looks forward with the 
 greatest confidence to what must be a 
 future life of study and labour, to make 
 up what is gone of his fortune, and he 
 has the sympathy of the whole kingdom. 
 Let me hear from you soon, and 
 
 1 Walter did not go to India till seven years after his 
 father's death. 
 
118 SCOTT LETTERS 
 
 believe me ever to remain yours very 
 affectionately, 
 
 C. Sophia Lockhart. 
 
 25 Pall Mall, 
 Monday. 
 
 XXVI 
 
 May 19, 1826. 
 Abbotsford, Friday morning. 
 
 My dear Miss Millar, — I should 
 have written to you before this, but was 
 not able. All is over now, and poor 
 Mamma left this place for ever last Mon- 
 day. 1 She had been ill for many months, 
 but for the last two was confined to her 
 room. Still, though great danger was 
 apprehended, it was not the opinion of 
 the medical men that it would be so 
 sudden. Poor Papa was obliged to leave 
 her, to attend his duty in Edinburgh. 
 Two days after his departure, she got 
 
 1 See Journal, May 15 to May 30; Lockhart, vol. iv., 
 pp. 507-14, chap, lxx., passages to he read, not quoted. 
 Sir Walter dearly loved the wife, who, literary gossips with 
 strange impertinence tell us, was not good enough for him. 
 He found her good enough. 
 
SCOTT LETTERS 119 
 
 much worse and suffered very great pain 
 indeed ; for the three last days it was so 
 very terrible that I thank God that I was 
 the only one of her family with her. 
 Dr. Clarkson agreed with me in not 
 sending for Papa till all was over, as it 
 would have only hurt him, and poor 
 Mamma was sensible to nothing but pain. 
 About five in the morning she fell asleep, 
 and so gentle were her last moments, that 
 I thought she was still asleep when it was 
 all over. You can have no idea, my dear 
 Miss Millar, what a blessing I felt it to 
 be. Had Mamma died in one of those 
 fits of agony, I never could have borne it. 
 Papa, thank God, is quite well, and both 
 of my brothers have been here, but were 
 obliged to leave us to-day. Poor Walter, 
 whom we did not expect, arrived at a 
 dreadful moment, just when the funeral 
 service had begun. He had travelled in 
 great haste from Ireland, and has suffered 
 much from the shock. When I was 
 allowed to see him on Tuesday he was 
 so pale and thin I could scarcely have 
 
120 SCOTT LETTERS 
 
 known him. I see you do not know that 
 Sophia has been confined for more than a 
 month. We have had the satisfaction of 
 hearing that, though much distressed, she 
 has not suffered in her health. She is now 
 at Brighton, for the health of poor Johnnie, 
 for it has been one of the distresses of this 
 melancholy year, poor Johnnie's health, 
 which is very precarious. He is, however, 
 much the better of the sea air, and we 
 hear better accounts of his health every 
 day. I trust the youngest boy, Walter 
 Scott, will be stronger. I hope to see 
 Sophia at Brighton in July. Papa was 
 obliged to go to London, and Dr. Clarkson 
 recommends change of air for me, as I 
 have not been well for a long time, 1 and 
 the dreadful shock I received has made 
 me very weak and nervous, but I now feel 
 the fine weather doing me good, and I am 
 
 1 See Letter xxxvn. It is doubtful whether Anne ever 
 fully recovered from the shock of losing her mother, any 
 more than she did from the shock of her father's death. 
 She had not the firmness of Sophia, and had been ailing; 
 for some time. (See Letter xix., and Lockhart, vol. iii., 
 pp. 507-H, chap, lxix.) 
 
SCOTT LETTERS 121 
 
 sure in some weeks I will be as well as 
 possible. Papa leaves here for Edinburgh 
 to-morrow, but my cousin, Anne Scott, 
 who arrived, to my great delight, a few 
 days ago, and I, will remain here for the 
 few weeks he must be away. Is there no 
 chance, my dear Miss Millar, of your being 
 in Scotland ? We shall be at Abbotsford, 
 I trust, in the middle of August, to receive 
 my brother and his wife ; so I hope, if you 
 are able, you will pay us a visit. Charles 
 will also be down with us, and you will 
 find your old friends, the Miss Russells, 
 settled at Ashestiel, so I think you cannot 
 do better than come here this summer. 
 I am afraid you will not be able to read 
 this, as I can scarcely hold my pen, but I 
 did not like to delay answering your kind 
 enquiries any longer. Papa and I unite in 
 kind regards, and believe me with much 
 esteem to remain yours affectionately, 
 
 Anne Scott. 
 
122 SCOTT LETTERS 
 
 XXVII 
 
 25 Pall Mall, 
 5th November 1826. 
 
 My dear Miss Millar,— I was very 
 sorry indeed to have missed you on your 
 return from Scotland, particularly as we 
 came up to town only a few days after you 
 had called. Lockhart and myself enjoyed 
 our little excursion very much indeed. We 
 went over from Brighton to Dieppe ; then, 
 after spending a day at Rouen, got to 
 Paris, where we remained about ten days, 
 seeing everything we could in that short 
 time, and, I assure you, we were not idle ; 
 and returned by Boulogne to Dover. 
 Since we brought John here I have not 
 thought him looking so well, and in con- 
 sequence have sent him and his nurse to 
 pay a visit to a relation of Lockhart's a 
 few miles from town, for a fortnight. By 
 that time a house we have taken on 
 Wimbledon Common for the winter months 
 will be ready to receive us, as we mean, 
 for John's health, to live in the country, 
 
SCOTT LETTERS 123 
 
 and have only a lodging in town, where 
 Mr. Lockhart may have letters and papers 
 sent, and where we can remain a few days 
 at, when we are engaged in town. Papa 
 and Anne, after remaining a week with us, 
 went to Paris last Thursday week. 1 We 
 expect them back in a few days, though I 
 much fear their stay will be very short, the 
 weary Parliament House requiring Papa's 
 presence in Edinburgh. I think I never 
 saw Papa in better health, and his spirits 
 quite wonderful. He dined with the King 
 at Windsor the day after he arrived, and 
 met with a most gracious reception. You 
 ask me about my Baby Walter. 2 I assure 
 you he is one of the stoutest fellows for 
 
 1 They left Dover on October 26, and spent about a 
 week in Paris, where the French were i literally out- 
 rageous in their civilities.' The object of Sir Walter's 
 journey was to collect additional materials for the Life of 
 Napoleon, now nearly finished. He probably also wished to 
 give Anne and himself a change of scene and surroundings, 
 for the summer in desolate Abbotsford must have been a 
 sad one. The change seems to have done both of the 
 travellers good. It was followed by a visit to Charles 
 at Brasenose, which recalled to Sir Walter the memories 
 of twenty-five years back, when he first saw Oxford. 
 (Lockhart, vol. v., pp. 51-76, chap. Ixxii.) 
 
 2 Baby Walter, born 1827, became a soldier, a cornet of 
 
124 SCOTT LETTERS 
 
 his months you ever saw : is thought very 
 good looking. John is certainly much 
 stronger, and altogether better than he 
 was, and I fain hope patience and care will 
 yet make him grow a stout boy : he is still 
 kept almost entirely in a horizontal position, 
 but as he has grown very tall, and has the 
 best possible spirits, I have every hope of 
 his doing well under Mr. Shaw's care. 
 With regard to Jessy Hoy, I have not 
 the very least remembrance of such a 
 name, though it may happen, seeing so 
 many people at Abbotsford, we may have 
 forgot, Anne's memory on the subject 
 being the same as mine. If you write 
 to me after the 17th of December, address 
 to the care of John Murray, Esq., Albe- 
 marle Street, as we shall have left this 
 house, and I do not know the Wimbledon 
 address. Mr. Lockhart joins me in best 
 compliments, and believe me to remain 
 very affectionately yours, 
 
 C. Sophia Lockhart. 
 
 dragoons, and died, unmarried, in 1853. He succeeded to 
 his uncle's estates, but not to the baronetcy, which became 
 extinct on the death of the second Sir Walter in 1847. 
 
SCOTT LETTERS 125 
 
 I was quite glad to hear from Anne 
 you felt so comfortable in your present 
 situation. 
 
 XXVIII 
 
 Abbotsford, 
 Sunday morning, August 1827. 
 
 My dear Miss Millar, — I take a great 
 deal of shame to myself at not having 
 written to you before. 
 
 I received your letter last night, and am 
 very sorry indeed to hear that you are to 
 leave Mr. . 
 
 Have you any idea of coming down to 
 Scotland ? I hope if you do, that you will 
 pay us a visit ; we shall be at home all the 
 Autumn, and it will give Papa and myself 
 much pleasure to see you here. 
 
 In regard to your wish about another 
 situation, I have written this morning to 
 a most active, bustling, good-natured 
 woman, a Mrs. Hughes. Dr. Hughes is 
 one of the residents at St. Paul's. She is 
 so fond of Papa that she would do any- 
 
126 SCOTT LETTERS 
 
 thing, or take any trouble, for him, and as 
 she is in good society in London, and a 
 dear friend of the Duchess of Buckingham, 
 she might be in the way of hearing of 
 something that might suit you. Mrs. 
 Murray wished a lady to educate her 
 children, but that, I am sure, would never 
 suit ; she is such a disagreeable person. 
 
 We are a very happy family party just 
 now ; Charles and the Lockharts are here. 
 Sophia is quite well ; she will remain 
 with us till the end of October. The 
 children are both here. Johnnie, I am 
 truly happy to say, is a very great deal 
 better, indeed in point of health he is as 
 well as possible, and the doctors say 
 that, when he grows up, the deformity of 
 the spine will never be discovered. The 
 youngest boy is a perfect beauty, and, what 
 is better, is very healthy. Charles is quite 
 well; he has taken his degree at Oxford, 
 and, I suppose, will get some situation in 
 the Diplomatic Line. 1 We have been 
 
 1 Charles Scott, ' whose spotless worth tenderly endeared 
 him to the few who knew him intimately, and whose in- 
 
SCOTT LETTERS 127 
 
 much shocked at the death of poor Mr. 
 Canning; 1 he was a very old friend of 
 Papas, and he feels his loss very deeply. 
 
 dustry and accuracy were warmly acknowledged by his 
 professional superiors/ was appointed to a clerkship in the 
 Foreign Office in 1827;, and in 1831 was attached to the 
 embassy at Naples, where he received his father on his visit 
 there. In 1841 he accompanied Sir John McNeill on a 
 mission to the Court of Persia, and died of fever at Teheran, 
 almost immediately on his arrival there, in October 1841, 
 in his thirty-sixth year, six years before his elder brother. 
 (Lockhart, ' Addenda' to the Life.) 
 
 1 Canning died on August 8, 1827. The news of his 
 death reached Abbotsford on August 10, and under date 
 August 11 is entered in Scott's Journal his * appreciation ' 
 of Canning, 'the witty, the accomplished, the ambitious.' 
 Under date April 17, 1828, he relates a strange story, 
 difficult to believe, about Canning's conversion from revolu- 
 tionary opinions to the Anti-Jacobin faith. Scott, though a 
 high Tory, and, at the end of his life, a bitter one, yet 
 shows in 1827 that he perceived the necessity of some con- 
 cessions to the Whigs and Democrats. He writes : ' There 
 are repairs in the structure of our constitution which ought 
 to be made at this season, and without which the people 
 will not long be silent : a pure Whig administration would 
 probably play the devil, by attempting a thorough repair.' 
 Till his nerves and judgment were impaired by overwork 
 and trouble, he held the most rational of political creeds, 
 though he would probably have scorned the name Liberal 
 Conservative, had it been invented in his time. His hatred 
 of revolution and his aristocratic sentiments were controlled 
 by a strong sense of justice, affection for the f lower' classes, 
 as he would certainly have called them, knowledge of 
 their virtues as well as of their faults, and by great practical 
 sagacity ; for he was a man of affairs, and did not live in a 
 
128 SCOTT LETTERS 
 
 You have the Duchess of St. Alban's 
 near you, I suppose. How does the poor 
 little Duke look ? She sent Papa a most 
 magnificent gold inkstand. 
 
 I daresay the marriage will turn out very 
 well, for, though he is a great fool, yet he 
 is very good-natured. Now, my dear Miss 
 Millar, I must conclude, as the carriage is 
 at the door. We have had a great deal of 
 company, and the house is quite full. 
 I do not know what I am writing, as there 
 is a Russian, General YarminofF, talking 
 half french and half english to me, while 
 Papa and the other gentlemen are talking 
 Politicks, to say nothing of the screams of 
 Master Walter, whom Lockhart has put 
 on my chair. All this must be my excuse 
 
 dreamland of abstractions, poetical or political. Adolphus 
 writes (Lockhart, vol. v., p. 346, chap, lxxx.) that in his 
 earlier days ' Sir Walter could look manfully and philo- 
 sophically at those changes in the aspect of society which 
 time and the progress, well or ill-directed, of the human 
 mind were uncontrollably working out, though the innova- 
 tions might not in some of their results accord with his own 
 tastes and opinions.' He wrote and spoke in favour of 
 Catholic Emancipation in 1829 (vol. v., p. 239, chap, lxxvii.). 
 Two years later he was pelted and cursed by the mob of 
 Jedburgh for his strenuous opposition to the Reform Bill. 
 
SCOTT LETTERS 129 
 
 for this wretched scrawl. I hope to hear 
 soon from you, and with kindest regards 
 from Sophia, Papa, and Lockhart, believe 
 me to remain yours affectionately, 
 
 A. Scott. 
 
 Sophia has been also bit with the french 
 mania, for she has a french nursery-maid 
 for the little boys. 
 
 I should write to the Scotch Lady Gray, 
 as she is a person who is likely to know 
 what would suit you. 
 
 XXIX 
 
 My dear Miss Millar, j — I have only 
 an instant to tell you I wrote, the minute I 
 received your letter, to an English friend, 
 that I thought would be likely to be of use 
 to you, and have just received an answer 
 from her, wishing your present address for 
 a friend of hers, a Mrs. Twining, Clapham 
 Common, who is in want of a person to 
 
 1 This letter is worth publishing as showing Sophia's 
 inexhaustible kindness and patience in dealing with Miss 
 Millar's frequent appeals for help in troubl \ 
 
 I 
 
130 SCOTT LETTERS 
 
 instruct her young ladies, who are very 
 delicate. This I have sent her by this 
 post, so you may expect to hear from Mrs. 
 Twining in a day or two, and I hope her 
 situation will be such as you will like. My 
 friend desires me to tell you a more amiable 
 person does not exist than Mrs. Twining, 
 or one who more completely considers the 
 happiness or comfort of all under her roof. 
 We are all well here, but I must conclude 
 in haste not to lose a post. Believe me to 
 remain very sincerely yours, 
 
 C. Sophia Lockhart. 
 
 Abbotsford, 
 Thursday, September 26, 1827. 
 
 XXX 
 
 My dear Miss Millar, — Thank you 
 very much for your kind enquiries. I am 
 much better now, but suffered a good deal 
 from a cold ; however, Dr. Ross has quite 
 set vie up again. We have been leading a 
 most solitary life. Papa is very busy, and, 
 
SCOTT LETTERS 131 
 
 I think, in bad spirits about the state of 
 the times, and he does nothing when he 
 does speak but croak about them. 1 I miss 
 the Lockharts and my brothers very much, 
 but they are all well and happy, which is 
 a great comfort. The Lockharts are in 
 London, and Johnny has gone to a day 
 school a few doors from Sophia. It is to 
 a gentleman who educates boys for Eton. 
 Johnny delights in the school, and they 
 
 1 See note 1, p. 127. All things were ' against him.' The 
 State, he thought, was on the brink of ruin ; his health 
 was much broken by two attacks, though slight, of apoplexy 
 in the spring and autumn of the year ; and he had become 
 conscious of the failure of his powers. He was 'shaking 
 hands with death,' to use his own words ; not afraid of death 
 so much as of the fate of Swift and Marlborough, should he 
 linger on 'a driveller and a show. 5 One thing had greatly 
 cheered him. At a meeting of his trustees and creditors 
 held on December 17, it was announced that his debt was 
 reduced to £54,000 ; in five years he had made, largely by 
 the work which had shattered his health, about £70,000. 
 His creditors passed the following resolution : ' That Sir 
 Walter Scott be requested to accept of his furniture, plate, 
 linens, paintings, library, and curiosities of every description, 
 as the best means the creditors have of expressing their very 
 high sense of his most honourable conduct, and in grateful 
 acknowledgment for the unparalleled and most successful 
 exertions he has made and continues to make for them.' 
 He accepted the offer, the only offer of assistance he had not 
 rejected, in a modest, half-pathetic, half-humorous letter of 
 great dignity. (Lockhart, vol. v., pp. 298-99, chap, lxxix.) 
 
132 SCOTT LETTERS 
 
 say it is surprising how much he has learnt, 
 poor little fellow. Little Walter also goes 
 for an hour(?), but he treads the path of 
 learning with slow stejis, having only learnt 
 after many lessons to spell so. Baby, I am 
 ashamed to say, has got on before him in 
 her learning at home with the Nurse. 
 
 My brother Walter is distinguishing 
 himself in getting hold of the incendiaries, 
 etc., etc., at Birmingham, where he is quar- 
 tered, and I think the active life he leads 
 does him good, as we hear of no cough or 
 no complaint of any sort. Charley is at 
 Naples; he is attache to our Embassy 
 there, and the Ambassador is so kind to 
 him. He has given him rooms in his 
 Palazzo ; in short, nothing can be happier 
 than Charley, and the warm climate has 
 quite cured his rheumatism. 
 
 You did not say if you still think of 
 changing your present quiet mode of life. 
 I hope you will pay us a visit here soon, that 
 is to say, if you don't object to our absolute 
 solitude. We have only an engagement 
 at Mertoun for a few days on the first of 
 
SCOTT LETTERS 133 
 
 January ; after that time we shall be most 
 happy to see you. I find my cousin Henry 
 Scott 1 has gone without giving me a frank 
 for this, so I shall send it as it is, and 
 believe me to remain yours affectionately, 
 
 Anne Scott. 
 
 Abbotsford, 
 Wednesday, 
 
 [November or December ?] 1830. 
 
 XXXI 
 
 My dear Miss Millar, — I can't think 
 how such storms rise. There has been no 
 such, or nothing of that sort, though God 
 knows there has been distress enough. 
 
 Papa has had another attack of apo- 
 plexy, 2 and now, though quite well, and 
 almost the same as when you saw him, the 
 
 1 Henry Francis Scott, younger of Harden, M.P. for 
 Roxburghshire, and Anue's cousin in the wide Scottish 
 sense. 
 
 2 This attack occurred on April 16. It ' was greatly 
 more severe than any that had gone before it.' Anne's 
 words are almost the same as those in which her father 
 records this illness in his Diary. (Lockhart, vol. v., 
 pp. 326-7, chap, lxxx.) 
 
134 SCOTT LETTERS 
 
 frequent occurrence of that dangerous 
 complaint of course must make us very 
 uneasy. He was in great danger one 
 night, and I sent for Dr. Abercrombie, 
 who came immediately. He did nothing, 
 however, as he found Dr. Clarkson had 
 done everything that was right, but en- 
 forced upon him the necessity there is of 
 living very low. Dr. A. says Papas con- 
 stitution is so excellent that he may live 
 twenty years, if he will only take care of 
 himself. At present he lives on soup, 
 porridge, bread, etc., etc., but no meat, or 
 nothing stronger than water to drink. 
 
 Walter arrived last night, which is a 
 great comfort to me, and I expect Sophia 
 and two children upon Tuesday by the 
 steamboat. Lockhart is standing for some 
 Borough or other, but we have not heard 
 if he has gained his election. I wish my 
 letter could reach you in time to take a 
 walk to the Pier, and see Sophia arrive, but 
 I fear it will be too late. She comes by 
 the Soho Steam Packet. It will be a 
 great pleasure indeed for me to see the 
 
SCOTT LETTERS 135 
 
 children again. I am much better myself. 
 Dr. Abercrombie complimented me much 
 on my improvement, notwithstanding I 
 had been up three nights, but one can 
 do a great deal when one is well. 
 
 By the way, I must tell you, my dear 
 Miss Millar, that after mature deliberation 
 
 I rejected my little / but he has got 
 
 over it, and is going to be married, which 
 I am glad of, to a lady with a great deal of 
 money, which I found afterwards would 
 be very necessary, so I am sure it will 
 all be for the best. I need not say don't 
 mention this. 
 
 I have not done so, even to Walter and 
 Sophia, as I don't think it fair to a gentle- 
 man who has paid you what he considers 
 as great a compliment as he can pay. The 
 country is beginning to look so very pretty. 
 I hope you will come and pay us a visit in 
 summer, and that you will find us in a 
 happier state than we were when you were 
 here, or, I am sorry to say, now. 
 
 Still I trust in God this may also pass 
 
 1 See Introduction. 
 
136 SCOTT LETTERS 
 
 away. I have had a miserable anxious 
 time of it. 
 
 The Russell's were well when I saw 
 
 them, and Ferguson 's much the same. 
 
 Will you tell everybody Papa is much 
 better. They make such horrid reports I 
 thought it better to tell you the truth 
 about apoplexy, but it will be better not 
 to mention it. Many people have lived 
 after more frequent and worse attacks than 
 Papa's. I have written this in great haste, 
 so do excuse it. I shall be glad to hear 
 from you again, and was most happy to 
 hear Mrs. Ross was better. I was much 
 alarmed about her. Yours very affection- 
 ately, A. Scott, 
 
 Abbotsford, 
 Sunday, May 3, 1831. 
 
 XXXII 
 
 24 Sussex Place, Regent's Park, 
 10th January 1832. 
 
 My dear Miss Millar, — Many thanks 
 for your kind enquiries. We have both 
 
SCOTT LETTERS 137 
 
 been much shocked, but are now as well 
 as you would expect us to be after all we 
 have gone through. To add to it all, the 
 Baby, as she still is called, fell on the stairs 
 a week ago, and broke her arm under the 
 elbow; it was set the same evening, and 
 she is doing as well as possible, no fever, 
 and as merry as possible ; but you may 
 think what a sad fright it gave us, par- 
 ticularly when nerves were far from strong, 
 I heard yesterday from Charles, who is at 
 Naples. He says the Barharn with Papa, 
 Anne, and Walter was arrived in the bay, 
 but, from the strict quarantine, he was 
 only allowed to row round the ship, and 
 see them on deck. They were all well, had 
 remained three weeks at Malta, and been 
 five days on their voyage to Naples. They 
 were to be released from quarantine in a 
 few days, so I hope to receive letters 
 very soon. I have every hope change of 
 scene and climate will do both Papa and 
 Anne good : another winter at Abbotsford 
 would never have done for them : already 
 Papa is much the better of his voyage. I 
 
138 SCOTT LETTERS 
 
 wish you saw my Walter now ; he is grown 
 very tall, and as handsome as ever. I 
 cannot say much for his learning as yet : 
 he is begun to learn to read, but you know 
 I am no friend to early tuition, and he is 
 not six till the middle of April. We have 
 no plans fixed for next summer, but if we 
 come, I shall take care to let you know. 
 With all kind wishes from us both, believe 
 me to remain yours very affectionately, 
 
 C. Sophia Lockhart. 1 
 
 1 In Lockhart (vol. v., pp. 352-417, chaps, lxxx. and 
 lxxxi.) an account is given of the last — not quite the last — 
 days at Abbotsford ; of Sir Walter's voyage to Malta and 
 Naples in the Barham, a King's ship placed at his disposal 
 by the Admiralty ; of his visit to Rome, Florence, and 
 Venice, and return to England by a route which took him 
 through the Tyrol, and down the Rhine from Mayence. 
 After an absence of seven months, he reached England on 
 the 13th of June in a ' hopeless state of mind and body.' 
 About four weeks later he was taken to Abbotsford, at his 
 own earnest request. The return to his beloved home 
 revived him for a time. i I have seen much,' he said, ' but 
 nothing like my ain house.' He lingered on for two months, 
 suffering, apparently, no bodily pain ; his mind, though hope- 
 lessly obscured, appeared when there was any symptom 
 of consciousness to be dwelling on serious and solemn 
 things. He often murmured to himself stanzas of the e Dies 
 Iras,' and of 'Stabat mater dolorosa.' On September 21 he 
 died, literally falling asleep. 
 
 Lockhart's description of the last year of Sir Walter's 
 
SCOTT LETTERS 139 
 
 XXXIII 
 
 St. James's Hotel, Jermyn Street, 
 Saturday, June 30, 1832. 
 
 My dear Miss Millar, — My poor father 
 continues in the same hopeless state of 
 mind and body, and indeed we pray the 
 sad scene may soon close, as the physician 
 gives us no hope of his recovery, though 
 
 life is inexpressibly pathetic, the pathos heightened by the 
 gallant struggle he maintained against pain, depression, 
 and increasing infirmity. Chapters lxxx. and lxxxi. are 
 full of incidents of varied interest, moving alternately 
 laughter and tears, or something very like them; giving 
 glimpses of light on foreign society, and the condition of 
 Italy seventy years ago, and the modes of travelling in 
 those leisurely times. We can read in these chapters of 
 Wordsworth's last visit to Scott, the occasion of ' Yarrow 
 revisited,' and of the exquisite sonnet beginning ' A trouble, 
 not of clouds or weeping rain,' and ending with the charge 
 to the winds of ocean to f waft to soft Parthenope' him 
 with whom went the ' might of the whole world's good 
 wishes.' Scott's mind dwelt much on the parallel between 
 himself and his brother novelists, Fielding and Smollett, 
 who had been driven abroad by declining health ; an 
 ominous parallel. Wordsworth ' expressed his regret that 
 neither of those great masters of romance appeared to have 
 been surrounded with any due marks of respect in the 
 close of life.' It was not so with Scott. No great man 
 was ever received in any country with an affectionate en- 
 thusiasm like that with which Sir Walter was received in 
 Italy. Voltaire, indeed, made a triumphant entry into 
 
140 SCOTT LETTERS 
 
 his extreme strength of body may make 
 his case a lingering one. Should he ever 
 be able to be moved from the bed he now 
 is on, we shall bring him down to Abbots- 
 ford, and I shall accompany him ; his case 
 is one no Physician can calculate on an 
 hour or a year, and, could you see him, 
 you would, like his family, pray the latter 
 might not be the great man's portion. 
 Anne has suffered much, and is in a very 
 delicate state of health, 1 and till all this 
 is over we cannot expect much improve- 
 ment. 
 
 Paris, but he must have had there bitter enemies as well 
 as devoted friends. Sir Walter had no enemies in Rome 
 or Naples. The Barham, in which Sir Walter, his eldest 
 son, and his daughter Anne sailed, was one of the smartest 
 ships in the service. One smiles to read that ' the officers 
 of the ship thought Sir Walter must gain more addition 
 to his fame from having been a passenger on board the 
 Barham than they, or she, could possibly receive even from 
 having taken on board such a guest.' 
 
 It is significant that Sir Walter took but a languid interest 
 in classical antiquities. He called Pompeii ' The City of the 
 Dead,' and was moved only by the sight of memorials of 
 feudal times, of 'battles long ago' between knights and 
 Saracens, and of the romance of the Middle Ages ; by the 
 memorials also which he saw in Rome of a later romance, 
 the story of the Stuarts. 
 
 1 See Letter xxxvn. 
 
SCOTT LETTERS 141 
 
 Both Charles and Walter are here, and 
 we are thankful we are all together, in a 
 first-rate quiet Hotel, with the best medical 
 assistance London can give. 
 
 Excuse shaking hand and haste, as Papa 
 has no nurses but his children night and 
 day, and believe me to remain your friend, 
 C. Sophia Lockhart. 
 
 XXXIV 
 
 My dear Miss Millar, — You will have 
 seen the melancholy termination of our 
 journey by the newspapers, which in this 
 instance tell the truth. 
 
 The medical people, finding nothing of 
 avail, have sent us down to Scotland, and, 
 thank God, we arrived here yesterday. 
 Poor Papa bore the journey wonderfully 
 well, and though he was unconscious of 
 being here yesterday, to-day he knew 
 W. Laidlaw, 1 and was sensible he was in 
 
 1 He recognised Laidlaw, and, ' resting his eye on him, 
 said, " Ha ! Willie Laidlaw ! O man, how often have I 
 thought of you ! " ' There is some variation between Lock- 
 
142 SCOTT LETTERS 
 
 the Hall. Should it please God to prolong 
 his life, he is far better here, and for my 
 sister and myself it is such a comfort, 
 
 Lockhart is with us also. They are both 
 wonderfully well, and so am I, though I 
 suffered at first from the great rapidity 
 with which we travelled from Rome. I 
 write these few lines in his room, and it is 
 near four in the morning, which must be 
 my excuse for their being so ill written, as 
 I am very sleepy ; but I was sure you 
 would be anxious, so think it better to 
 write little than none, and ever believe 
 
 hart's and Laidlavv's accounts of this recognition, but they 
 are essentially the same. (Lockhart, vol. v., p. 422, chap, 
 lxxxiii. , and Abbot sford Notanda, adjinem), William Laidlaw 
 knew Scott for thirty years, and saw more of him and in 
 more varied ways than did any other of his friends. He 
 was himself no mean poet ; a Border man, who helped Scott 
 in collecting ballads for the Minstrelsy, managed his estates, 
 and was his amanuensis, sometimes his literary critic, after 
 the beginning of 1819. There are many interesting things 
 in the Abbotsford Notanda ; descriptions of Scott's abound- 
 ing gaiety in his youth, a gaiety which he never entirely 
 lost ; of his strength and activity shown in rambles and 
 climbs with Laidlaw and the Ettrick Shepherd ; of his 
 personal appearance, his massive and athletic frame despite 
 of the lame leg ; of his long upper lip, and of the look in 
 his eyes, dreamy, shrewd, humorous, warlike, in his different 
 moods. 
 
SCOTT LETTERS 143 
 
 me, my dear Miss Millar, to remain yours 
 affectionately, Anne Scott. 
 
 Abbotsford, 14th July, 1832. 
 
 xxxv 
 
 Abbotsford, 
 September 21, 1832. 
 
 My dear Miss Millar, — You will be 
 distressed to hear that my poor father 
 died here this afternoon at one o'clock, 
 without much apparent suffering. 
 
 Sophia bears up very well, and Anne, 
 tho' much shocked, will, I trust, in time be 
 calmer. Very truly yours, 
 
 Charles Scott. 
 
 XXXVI 
 
 My dear Miss Millar, — I would have 
 written to you before this, but indeed I 
 was quite unable. And even now I can- 
 not dwell on the past without great pain, 
 and I know how much you must have 
 felt for him who is gone, and how kindly 
 
144 SCOTT LETTERS 
 
 you do for us. I am at present staying 
 with Sophia, and will remain with her till 
 the end of winter, at least that is my 
 present plan. Both Lockhart and Sophia 
 are quite well, and so are the children, 1 
 who are such a comfort and amusement. 
 I see the newspapers announced we were 
 staying at Rokeby Park. We were only 
 there for a few hours on our way up. 
 There were papers to be signed, etc., etc. 
 We came up to town a different road from 
 what we used to do, and I was very much 
 pleased with the Cathedral at York, which 
 I had never seen before. I had meant at 
 first to have come up by the steamboat, 
 and then I would have seen you. but I 
 dreaded even passing through Edinburgh. 
 I fear it will be long before I visit Scot- 
 land again, and I do regret many friends 
 I have left there, particularly the Miss 
 Russells, who were very kind indeed to 
 me during our dreadful distress. If it is 
 
 1 Hugh Littlejohn had passed away on December 15, 
 1331. There were only two children now in Lockhart's 
 house, Walter and Charlotte. 
 
SCOTT LETTERS 145 
 
 not troublesome to you, I wish you would 
 write to me and say what your plans are, 
 but I suppose you will not stir from home 
 till your poor mother's better. What a 
 wretched year this has been for sickness 
 and distress in every way, and when I 
 look back to it, I can scarcely believe it 
 possible I have gone through so many 
 strange and awful scenes. This day last 
 year we embarked for Malta, and had every 
 hope that change of climate would restore 
 him to health, but that was not Gods 
 will ; and now, my dear Miss Millar, I must 
 conclude this hurried letter. Lockhart is 
 wanting me to help him about putting 
 up some books, and is very impatient. 
 Both him and Sophia desire to unite with 
 me in kind regards to you, and ever be- 
 lieve me to remain affectionately yours, 
 
 Anne Scott. 
 
 Friday morning, October 19, 1832, 
 24* Sussex Place, Regent's Park. 
 
 K 
 
146 SCOTT LETTERS 
 
 XXXVII 
 
 24 Sussex Place, 
 June 26, 1833. 
 
 My dear Miss Millar, — I am sure you 
 will be truly distressed to hear that we 
 have lost your friend and pupil Ann, who 
 died here yesterday morning at 11 o'clock. 
 
 Poor Ann had latterly been very deli- 
 cate, and, I think, never recovered the 
 shock of my father's death. She had been 
 complaining and in bed for some time, but 
 the medical men foresaw no danger, till 
 about 10 days ago, when she was seized 
 with brain fever which terminated fatally. 
 
 Sophia bears this severe blow with firm- 
 ness and resignation. Walter has not yet 
 come from Ireland. I am with great truth 
 very sincerely yours, 
 
 Charles Scott. 
 
 XXXVIII 
 
 Ramsgate, 4 Spencer Place, 
 July 16, 1833. 
 
 My dear Miss Millar, — Your kind 
 
SCOTT LETTERS 147 
 
 letter followed me here, where the Doctors 
 ordered me for change of air and warm 
 sea-bathing, and we have taken the house 
 for a month or two, should we like to 
 remain, but the address to Sussex Place 
 will find me always wherever I may be. 
 God knows the change was very necessary 
 after the great shock I have received, and 
 time alone can reconcile, or indeed make 
 me feel she is gone, for it is difficult to 
 believe it, so sudden the danger was at 
 last, although she was ill all winter; but 
 I must think it was the beginning of 
 the brain fever, which was her end. She 
 never suffered any pain, and for the last 
 four days was in a stupor ; before that, 
 hardly was sensible from the first. I 
 was alarmed, and had all the physicians in 
 town, and they were hopeless from the 
 first of perfect recovery of her senses, even 
 if her youth and strength of constitution 
 had brought her through, and God knows 
 that would have been worse than death. 
 The children are well, and enjoy the sea- 
 bathing very much indeed, and I am already 
 
148 SCOTT LETTERS 
 
 much the better for it. This is a very nice 
 place, and we have the great comfort of not 
 knowing a soul, with the exception of old 
 Coleridge, the poet, who lives near; and, 
 if we like to look at the Continent, there 
 are steam boats every hour. I hope you 
 are doing well, and have got some boarders. 
 I fear it will be long ere I have heart to 
 be in Scotland again. Charles is gone 
 into Wales for a month to see some of his 
 old school friends ; he was a great deal 
 better in health than I have seen him for 
 long. Walter is quartered at Kilkenny : he 
 got leave for the funeral, but was recalled to 
 Ireland the day after. God bless you, dear 
 Miss Millar. Your affectionate friend, 
 
 C. Sophia Lockhart. 
 
 XXXIX 
 
 24 Sussex Place, Regent's Park, 
 20th February 1834. 
 
 My dear Miss Millar, — I write you a 
 few hurried lines by Mr. William Lock- 
 
SCOTT LETTERS 149 
 
 hart, who goes to Edinburgh upon busi- 
 ness. My husband lost his poor mother 
 last month after a long illness ; he only 
 was in Scotland for the funeral, having 
 been obliged to return here upon business. 
 The children are in high form, stouter 
 than they have been any winter before. 
 We are talking of sending Walter to 
 school after Easter, but can hardly bear 
 the thought of parting with him. The 
 little girl is really getting very pretty, and 
 is very clever. Brother Walter has been 
 here, for a few days only, being obliged to 
 return to Ireland to take the command of 
 
 the regiment upon Lord 's dismissal. 
 
 I am sorry to say this does him no good ; 
 harm indeed, as it is a rule in the ser- 
 vice no officer in a regiment can rise by 
 his Colonel being dismissed by a Court 
 Martial ; * however, he has been so highly 
 
 1 Lockhart ( f Addenda ' to the Life, vol. v., p. 464) writes: 
 f His answers when examined as a witness before a cele- 
 brated Court Martial in 1834 were universally admired.' 
 His promotion came later when in 1839 i he proceeded to 
 Madras as Lieutenant-Colonel of the loth flussars, and 
 subsequently commanded that regiment. He was beloved 
 
150 SCOTT LETTERS 
 
 praised for his conduct and temper on the 
 occasion, I hope some time hence he may 
 have an opportunity of being promoted. 
 Charles, for him, has been pretty well this 
 winter, although worked very hard at the 
 Foreign Office, Sunday and Saturday all 
 the same ; he hardly is able to dine with 
 me. I do not know what our summer 
 plans will be : if we remain in this house a 
 little painting and papering will be neces- 
 sary, and will oblige me to go out of town 
 for a couple of months, but where I do not 
 know, and it will depend upon many cir- 
 cumstances. Miss Macdonald Buchanan 
 has been staying some time with me this 
 winter, to my great delight, but since her 
 return to Edinburgh has had the scarlet 
 fever, poor soul. Let me hear what you 
 are about, and believe me to remain yours 
 in haste, 
 
 Sophia Lockhart. 
 
 and esteeined in it by officers and men as much, I believe, 
 as any gentleman ever was in any corps of the British army, 
 and there was no officer of his rank who stood higher in the 
 opinion of the heads of his profession. * (Lockhart, ibidem. ) 
 
SCOTT LETTERS 151 
 
 XL 
 
 24 Sussex Place, Regent's Park, 
 
 7th December 1834. 
 
 My dear Miss Millar,— I am sorry 
 to hear so indifferent an account of your 
 boarder, and the more so, as I fear I can 
 give you no assistance in the matter. The 
 Countess Duchess of Sutherland, for such 
 she styles herself, is not in town, or, if she 
 were, 1 could hardly take the liberty of 
 interfering in her family arrangements ; it 
 must be done by a mutual friend, or a 
 relative of both parties, and were it done, 
 I fear, if she is so flighty as you represent 
 her, all would not do. I was very sorry to 
 miss you, but hope another year to return, 
 should a general election take place, of 
 which there is every prospect. A month 
 hence Lockhart will have to make a run 
 down to Roxboroughshire to vote, but I 
 should not think will have time to visit 
 Edinburgh. I shall remain here quietly. 
 We enjoyed our little tour in Scotland, 
 and six weeks we spent at Rokeby on our 
 
152 SCOTT LETTERS 
 
 return, very much, and it did us all a world 
 of good. We found our house quite 
 beautiful, all new painted and papered ; 
 it is a dreadful operation to anticipate, but 
 so comfortable when done. Walter has 
 returned to school, which is better than a 
 mile from this. He lives there, but comes 
 home every Saturday, and returns Sunday 
 evening; he likes it much, and grows a 
 stout boy, and very handsome. Charlotte 
 also goes across the street to a ladies' school 
 for a few hours a day, and gets on very 
 well ; she is very clever, and will be very 
 pretty. I wish I could have shown you 
 both, but Inverleith Place was such a dis- 
 tance. I saw few or none of my friends 
 the few days I was in town. Charles is 
 in town, hard-worked at the Foreign 
 Office; I hope amidst all these changes 
 something may turn up good for him. I 
 think he is in better health than I have 
 before seen him this winter. Walter is 
 stationed at Dublin with his regiment, 
 and, as the Colonel is absent on leave, 
 there is no chance of his coming over this 
 
SCOTT LETTERS 153 
 
 winter. I am almost ashamed to send a 
 letter with no news, but none is here. Peel 
 is expected to-day, or may have arrived 
 last night, and then the fate of the Tory 
 side will be decided ; should the Ultras 
 join Sir Robert, he will do, but if a split 
 takes place, all is over; he will not have 
 six months' reign. 1 
 
 I trust to hear you have a more promis- 
 ing boarder than Miss Stuart, and shall be 
 most glad to hear from you. Meantime I 
 always am very affectionately yours, 
 
 C. Sophia Lockhart. 
 XLI 
 
 24 Sussex Place, 
 14-th April 1835. 
 
 My deaii Miss Millar, — Being so far 
 from the spot, I feel it almost impossible 
 to form an opinion as to what you should 
 do about your house. I think, were I 
 
 1 Sophia proved herself a prophetess, and capable of 
 ' intelligent anticipation.' The position of her husband as 
 Editor of the Quarterly Review must have given her access 
 to much political information. 
 
154 SCOTT LETTERS 
 
 you, I should run no risk, unless you had 
 the promise of more stationary and richer 
 lodgers than Miss Stuart. I have been so 
 long from Edinburgh, I feel I know no- 
 body there, and hardly the ways, and fear 
 I can be of no use, however willing. If 
 you indeed could get some young people 
 who were to be educated, it might answer, 
 but I know of none at present wanting 
 that accommodation. I believe Walter 
 hopes to get leave for a month, and spend 
 it at Abbotsford, but there is not the very 
 least chance of our being there, or in Scot- 
 land, this year. We shall only be absent 
 from London the six weeks of little 
 Walter's holidays, and these will be spent 
 at the seaside, likely at Boulogne. The 
 pain of seeing Abbotsford in its changed 
 state would be so great, that I now fancy 
 nothing would tempt me to visit it again, 
 not a creature left in the neighbourhood 
 I knew, except poor Margaret Ferguson, 
 and the poor soul is not very sane. Our 
 children are stronger this year than usual ; 
 Walter, a great tall boy, will be nine years 
 
SCOTT LETTERS 155 
 
 old this week : he is at school near us, but 
 returns home every Saturday and Sunday. 
 Charlotte also spends a few hours every 
 day at a ladies' school close by, and both 
 are doing as well as possible at their 
 studies, and the best possible children. 
 Charles is in the Foreign Office ; as usual 
 very busy, but in better health this spring 
 than the former ones, it being always a 
 trying time of the year to him. It has 
 been a very unhealthy winter ; fevers, small- 
 pox, and all sorts of bad things raging, and 
 nobody escaping Influenza. The Skenes 
 are at Leamington for the health of their 
 second daughter, who now is going to get 
 well. I shall be glad to hear what you 
 determine to do, and remain, dear Miss 
 Millar, very affectionately yours, 
 
 C. Sophia Lockhart. 
 
 XLII 
 
 My dear Miss Millar, — I write to you 
 only a few lines to assure you I shall, 
 should I hear of anything that I think 
 
156 SCOTT LETTERS 
 
 would suit you here, let you know, but I 
 fear I am not likely. The fashion is here 
 so decidedly to send girls to schools when- 
 ever they cease to be quite children ; and 
 there is a good reason for it in London. 
 Residents' children are so much better in 
 the neighbourhood of town than in town 
 itself, and families (I speak generally of* 
 those I know) employ, whilst children are 
 young, a daily governess, which would 
 never suit you in any respect, and, unless 
 a certain bargain were made, would be a 
 great risk. I can only again say, should I 
 hear of anything likely, I shall let you 
 know. Our plans are quite undecided for 
 the summer, but I think we shall a month 
 hence go to the seaside, where unknown. 
 Lockhart, I am sorry to say, has had a bad 
 attack of Lumbago, which has made him 
 look thin and worn, but a little sea air, or, 
 what is better for him, his going abroad 
 for a month and leaving me and the 
 children by the seaside in this neighbour- 
 hood, will, I trust, quite set him up. The 
 children are quite well — Walter at school 
 
SCOTT LETTERS 157 
 
 and Charlotte going to a ladies' school 
 across the street for a few hours a day. 
 Walter only comes home Saturday, and 
 remains until Sunday evening at home. 
 Charles has been unwell, but this very 
 cold weather is death to rheumatic people, 
 and he has been better this season than 
 he has ever been before in England. 
 Walter is in Ireland, and I hardly think 
 will be in Scotland this year. Let me 
 hear from you should you close with any- 
 thing that will suit you. Our address 
 here will find us wherever we go, and 
 believe me to remain yours very sincerely, 
 
 C. Sophia Lockhart. 
 
 24- Sussex Place, Regent's Park, 
 1st June 1835. 
 
 XLIII 
 
 24 Sussex Place, Regent's Park, 
 30th March 1836. 
 
 My dear Miss Millar, — I take this 
 private opportunity of writing you a few 
 lines to express my pleasure at receiving 
 
158 SCOTT LETTERS 
 
 your letter that you were fairly domiciled 
 at Charleton. I had a long letter from 
 Miss Adam on the subject, and feel sure 
 you cannot fail to be comfortable with any 
 relation of such good people. With regard 
 to our being in Scotland this summer, it is 
 likely, and I am determined, if we do, to 
 pay a visit to Blair Adam, so shall, I hope, 
 be able to see you. Our children are well 
 in health, and have got over winter without 
 hardly a cold, and, partial though I must 
 be, 1 think you will be much pleased with 
 them in all respects. Walter is very tall, 
 all his curls cut off, which is distressing ; 
 but, in spite of having lost the beauty of 
 childhood, and not attained that of boy- 
 hood, he is a boy no one can overlook, 
 and every day, more and more reminds 
 me of my father. He is getting well on 
 at school, and, if spared to us, will never 
 have cost an anxiety, except for health, 
 for a more honourable high-spirited child 
 never lived. Both have this character, 
 and I am sure you would be delighted 
 with them. Walter 1 expect to-day from 
 
SCOTT LETTERS 159 
 
 school for Easter week, and we are all very 
 happy. Charles has suffered very much 
 this winter from violent inflammation in 
 his eyes, but is better, and returned to 
 his work at the Foreign Office. He thinks 
 himself better now in health than before 
 the attack, but it has been long and very 
 severe. Walter is with his regiment in 
 Ireland. There is a report that they will 
 be ordered to India next year ; perhaps it 
 would be the best thing that could happen 
 to either of my brothers, but it would be 
 a sad parting. And now, dear Miss 
 Millar, I must not lose my opportunity 
 of sending you these few lines, and con- 
 clude in haste, remaining very sincerely 
 
 yours 
 
 C. Sophia Lockhart 
 
 XLIV 
 
 63 Grande Rue, Boulogne-sur-Mer, 
 1th August 1836. 
 
 My dear Miss Millar, — Your letter 
 was forwarded to me here, where we have 
 
160 SCOTT LETTERS 
 
 been a month, and I believe shall remain 
 till the middle or end of October. Walter 
 was so ill in London, a sort of influenza 
 followed by low fever, that the Dr. 
 ordered us to the seaside without losing a 
 day, and we liked this place so much last 
 year that we determined to return, the 
 short distance (only twelve hours' sail from 
 London) being a very great inducement. 
 It has had the desired effect, for Walter 
 gets stronger every day, and swims in the 
 sea; in short, one would not believe he 
 had been ill. Charlotte also thrives, and 
 we all feel much stronger of the sea- 
 bathing. I am very sorry to hear you are 
 again in want of a situation, and think 
 Mrs. Thomson should have mentioned, be- 
 fore she engaged you, her probable plan on 
 Miss Thomson's recovery. I am quite out 
 of the way here of hearing of anything, 
 not knowing anybody, but you may depend 
 upon my writing to you, should anything 
 by chance turn up I think would suit you. 
 The weather here was cold and unsettled 
 for a fortnight, but is now quite beautiful, 
 
SCOTT LETTERS 161 
 
 and so warm. I hear that my brother 
 Walter and his wife are to be at Abbots- 
 ford upon the 20th of this month, to remain 
 a month. He wishes us all much to join 
 him there, but Charles has had his holidays, 
 and will get no farther leave, and I being 
 here makes it out of the question. It may 
 be Mr. Lockhart may go down for a few 
 days, as he has some business, but that 
 will only be if he can spare the time. At 
 any time, if you address to me Sussex 
 Place, it will be forwarded, and most truly 
 happy shall I be to hear you have heard 
 of anything comfortable. With all good 
 wishes, believe me to remain very affection- 
 ately yours, 
 
 C. Sophia Lockhart. 
 
 XLV 
 
 London, 
 May 15, 1837. 
 
 Dear Miss Millar, — I know how very 
 sincerely you will sympathise with me 
 when I tell you that your friend Sophia 
 continues, as she has been for more than 
 
 L 
 
162 SCOTT LETTERS 
 
 two months past, in a very dangerous state. 
 Indeed there is, I fear, but the most 
 slender chance of her recovery. My only 
 comfort at present is that she does not 
 suffer much pain, but all through this long- 
 illness nothing could have been more com- 
 plete than her sweetness, and patience, 
 and thankfulness. 
 
 I received a little while ago your very 
 welcome transcripts of Sir Walter's letters 
 to yourself, and let me say that it would 
 afford me a great tho' melancholy satis- 
 faction to possess similar copies of Sophia's 
 early letters, of which you speak so 
 highly. 1 
 
 Be assured that, should anything likely 
 to suit your views come under my notice, 
 I shall not fail, for her sake and for your 
 own, to do my best for your service. And 
 believe me ever very truly yours, 
 
 J. G. Lockhart. 
 
 1 It is certain, in my opinion, that some at least of the 
 letters in this collection were transcribed, and the copies 
 sent to Lockhart, and used by him when he wrote the Life. 
 Verbal coincidences are sufficient proof that they were part 
 of his materials. 
 
SCOTT LETTERS 163 
 
 XLVI 
 
 Sussex Place, London, 
 May 17, 1837. 
 
 Dear Miss Millar, — I grieve to inform 
 you that we have lost your old friend and 
 pupil, my sister Sophia, who died this morn- 
 ing at 3 o'clock, after an illness of 3 months. 
 
 I send this to Mr. Cadell, trusting that 
 he knows your address. I am always very 
 truly yours, Charles Scott. 
 
 XLVII 1 
 
 Leeds Barracks, 
 December 18, 1837. 
 
 Dear Miss Millar, — I got your letter 
 this morning, and have written to Lady 
 Scott, who is at Mr. Ritchie's, 68 Constitu- 
 tion Street, Leith, mentioning your wishes, 
 and should she hear of anything likely to 
 suit you, she will not fail to acquaint you. 
 I had the great pleasure of spending nearly 
 
 1 On the last few letters published here little or no 
 annotation has been made. They are either too sacred for 
 comment, or written about matters of simple family history 
 which need no explanation. The annotator feels — to com- 
 pare small things with great, small, that is, in authorship, 
 though not in subject — as Thackeray felt when he finished 
 The Newcomes, and, as if he were parting from friends, said 
 good-bye to Laura and Arthur, and Ethel and Clive. 
 
164 SCOTT LETTERS 
 
 three months at Abbotsford, the first long 
 period of leave that I have been able to 
 spend there, since I left it in 1818, and, 
 although living only in a corner of it, still 
 it was a great luxury to be there at all. 
 There is a great deal of excitement and 
 bad feeling through all this Riding about 
 the New Poor Laws, which keep us in 
 constant hot water, as, whenever a meeting 
 is held, troops are moved up, and concen- 
 trated, and this takes place very frequently; 
 so whether I shall be able to fulfil my 
 intentions of being in Edinburgh early 
 next month for a little or not, is still very 
 doubtful ; should I, however, succeed in 
 getting away, I shall not fail in calling 
 upon you. The most warlike sound of 
 6 Pots off' strikes upon my ear, and warns 
 me to conclude, if I wish to come in for 
 fish and soup. I remain therefore in haste 
 yours truly, Walter Scott. 
 
 Printed by T. and A. Constable, Printers to His Majesty 
 at the Edinburgh University Press 
 
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