B 3 332 EST LETTERS OF SIR WALTER SCOTT; ADDRESSED TO THE REV. R. POLWHELE; D. GILBERT, ESQ, FRANCIS DOUCE, ESQ. &c. &c. ACCOMPANIED BY AX AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIR OF LIEUT. -GENERAL SIR HUSSEY VIVIAN, BART. K.C.B. K.G.H. LONDON : J. b. NICHOLS AND SON, 25, PARLIAMENT STREET. 1832. ADVERTISEMENT. It will be perceived that the greater part of the present publication is a memorial of the intercourse enjoyed with Sir Walter Scott by the Rev. Mr. Polwhele. The Pub- lishers have to express their thanks to Francis Douce, Esq. for the communication of two original letters, one of them immediately connected with a subject discussed between Sir Walter and Mr. Polwhele ; and the other relating to Mr. Douce's own celebrated work, the " Illustrations of Shak- speare." To these they have ventured to append a miscel- laneous collection ; being assured that, at this period, nothing that has ever proceeded from the pen of Walter Scott will be unacceptable to the public. n 47683 V? TO JOHN GIBSON LOCKHART, ESQ. Sir, May I presume to hope that you will condescend to ac- cept with candour this very humble offering, from the • humblest of authors, as a tribute of gratitude to your DEPARTED FRIEND. The individual, who thus presumes to address you, would fain, amidst the universal pceans, lift up his voice. How feeble ! Yet, were it to resound from " one end of the earth to the other," inadequate indeed were the ap- plause to the merits of its illustrious object ! Come, then, " expressive silence ! " With the liveliest sentiments of regard for yourself, and all related and so justly dear to "that Good and Great Man," believe me Most respectfully yours, R. P. Polwhele, near Truro ; Nov. 30, 1832. INTRODUCTORY LINES. THE following introductory lines (so far as they are marked with inverted commas) formed part of a letter to Sir Walter Scott, in answer to one of his kind communica- tions to a very humble individual, who, notwithstanding the vain fancies of youth, or the garrulous egotism of old age, never trusted to his own strength — never confided in his own judgment ; but, in all his literary productions, in- variably looked up to others for assistance or support. " Yes ! I have many a ditty sung, When Hope was gay, and Fancy young ; Here, where along the glimmering lawn The blackbird's clarion thrill'd the dawn; And to the dim declining day The redbreast ponr'd her plaintive lay. " Sweet o'er the dews, how sweet the breeze Whispering thro' my infant trees — A 3 VI INTRODUCTORY LINES. My sycamores, that firm display'd (First of all the varied shade) Purpling sprays and buds between ; So large a leaf — so bright a green ; That, with a schoolboy's fond delight, I rear'd, I wooed their southern site ; As Mira to my labours lent A sister's care and sentiment ! " Her pretty flowers, that learn'd to breathe Down the gentle slope beneath, And open'd to the summer sun — The brother's mutual tendance won. And we had melody at will For every jasmine and jonquil! And we had music — such a store — We sang to every sycamore ! " Sweet, too, was our sequester'd dell : It had its grotto and a well, Fair willows and a water-fall ; An ancient beech that shelter'd all. ' Nymph of the grot' our nymph was Taste Her light, in shadowy softness, chaste; Mild as the summer's vesper-hour: Nor toil could ask a cooler bower. INTRODUCTORY LINES. Clear was our well, and running o'er ; And polish'd was its pebbled floor. To moontide beams, that pierc'd the glade, Its crisped waters sparkling play'd. Thus Innocence bids sunshine rest On the pure untroubled breast ! " And lo ! as headlong down the rock On the beach roots the torrent broke, Its broad foam flashing to the sight, It wash'd the spreading fibres white. Yet, tho' it pleas'd, yet, all the while, (Such is the world's deceitful smile,) Our hoary friend it undermin'd : Attractive thus is treachery kind. " Blest were, indeed, those fleeting years i But soon my solitary tears, Staining the crystal of my well, Drop after drop in silence fell, To speak a brother's earliest grief, — So falls the sad autumnal leaf ! " And now, to yon responsive stream Half-utter'd was Eliza's name. Lone on its banks the lover stray'd, And thither lured his charming maid ; Vill INTRODUCTORY LINES. The foliage twinkled from above, Conscious of inspiring love; The winding pathway's easy flow Waved in a gentler curve below ; Each flower assumed a softer hue, And closed its cup in balmier dew. " But 'twas my lot ere long to roam A listless exile, far from home — Far from these walls that mark my birth : To rear my unambitious hearth, Where Courtenay's turrets crown the groves, And vermeil meads that Isca loves, And, nearer to the admiring gaze, Exotic Flora's gorgeous blaze ! 'Twas then, on topographic lore, Some evil genius bade me pore ; Borne on swift steed of keen research, Hunt out a ruin or a church ; Unfold, tho' faint from wan disease, By lurid lamps, dull pedigrees ; The look of blank indifference rue, But still the thankless toil pursue, And brave the insidious critic's flame, Unrecompensed by gold or fame. INTRODUCTORY LINES. IX " Vain — vain regrets, avaunt ! The Muse Tints Life's decline with mellower hues. The grove I nurst, when yet a child, Tho' now a thicket dark and wild, Where rise my statelier sycamores, Its spirit to my soul restores : And midst the ivied boughs, I break, And listen to the hawk's shrill shriek, Flush from her nook the barn-owl gray, And chase — how pert — the painted jay. " But though long years have sped their flight, I languish for my grotto light; I languish for my water-fall, And my old beech that shadow'd all. Alas ! the flood hath ceased to roar ; And my beech-roots are blancht no more ; The green brook on its sedges sleeps ; With foxgloves shagg'd, the grotto weeps ; And one poor willow seems to join In widovv'd woe its sighs with mine ! " And thou, lov'd stream! again I court Thy mossy marge, my lone resort ; Delightful stream ! whose murmurs clear Soothe, once again, my pensive ear ; X INTRODUCTORY LINES. Tliat wanderest down thine osier'd vale, Where passion told the melting tale ; Thy twilight banks, to memory sweet, Again I tread with pilgrim feet. " Tho' not the same the scene appear, As when in youth I sauntered here, 'lis with no languid glance I see This winding path, that aspen tree ; But eager catch, at every pace, Of former joys some fading trace. " Nor do I mourn the cold regard Of sordid minds that slight the Bard, As thus, tho' care or sorrow lour, I steal from gloom a cheerful hour ; As, no mean intermeddler nigh, My boyish steps I still descry ; Still, midst my budding lilacs pale, Refresh'd their vernal promise hail ; If jocund May waft life and bloom, Still see some fairy power illume The orient hills with richer light ; Still see, with fluid radiance bright. Some fairy power the pencil hold, To streak the evening cloud with gold. INTRODUCTORY LINES. XI " And if, in sooth, a wish aspires Beyond these satisfied desires ; 'Tis that my song, tho' unrefined, May not displease some kindred mind, And (haply far remote from me) That mine one generous heart may be, If Heaven to Truth and Feeling lend The last best meed in Scott, my friend!" So did I blend, in simple measure, With gladness sorrow— pain with pleasure. Such was my too aspiring song, The lowliest of the tuneful tV.iong. He, I presumed "my Friend" to call, He was alike the friend of all ! A gracious smile was mine at most, — His friendship was too proud a boast ! And now his cordial wishes seem The sweet illusion of a dream. Last-left of all the minstrel choir, Who bade me wake my trembling lyre, Eliciting a deeper tone, He, too, alas ! how lov'd ! — is gone ; And moaning to his distant bier, A ieeble shade, I linger here: XII INTRODUCTORY LINES. Here, where the dark Bolerium raves, Where oft I hail the dashing waves ; Or roam thro' caverns scoop'd on high, And heave unnoticed many a sigh, Thro' caverns fit for moody minds To chaunt, unheeded, to the winds ! Yet Fancy's witchery could impart Some comfort to an old man's heart ; As genial spirits seem'd to say, 'Midst glens and mountains far away : " String thy neglected harp anew, Nor need detraction's hissing crew, Stern glances showing hearts of flint, The jealous scowl, the satyr-squint!" Ah me ! as from among the dead, The voice is lost — the vision tied ! And scenes long past of joy and pain Come wildering o'er my aged brain ! I try to tune my harp in vain ! # R. P. * See " Lay of the Last Minstrel." LETTERS OF SIR WALTER SCOTT LETTER I. COMMUNICATION FROM MR. SCOTT (THROUGH CLE- MENT CARLYON, ESQ.) TO THE REV. R. POLWHELE, MANACCAN. dear sir, Edinburgh, Sept. 1, 1803. You will excuse my troubling you with a letter on the bare chance of giving you some trifling information with respect to Cornwall. Mr. Scott, of Edinburgh, is pre- paring to republish an old metrical romance, entitled Sir Tristrcm, the particulars of which are, that it was written by Thomas of Erceldoune, commonly called the Rhymer B Z LETTERS OF who flourished in the reign of Alexander the Third of Scotland, and is believed to have died previous to 1299. The story treats of the loves of Ysonde and Tristrem, and the scene is laid in Cornwall. The edition in question will be made from an unique copy in the Advocates' Library in Edinburgh, not for the intrinsic merit of the romance as a poetical production, which certainly would never have caused its being rescued from confinement, but as a genuine record, too valuable to remain hanging by a single thread. This sole relic of Thomas the Rhymer's muse is the oldest specimen we possess of compositions of the kind, and one of the few that can be proved decidedly of British origin. It is referred to by Robert de Brunne, in his Metrical Annals of England, (published by Hearne,) and was translated into French verse early in the 13th century, after which probably it was dilated into a prose romance in French of considerable length, in SIR WALTER SCOTT. 3 which Sir Tristrem figures as a Knight of the Round Table, whereas no mention is made of King Arthur, either by Thomas of Erceldoune or his French translator. The principal dramatis persona? are Mark King of Cornwall, Ysonde his Queen, and his nephew Sir Tristrem. Of course the story abounds in wondrous exploits ; but from the frequent references that have been made to it, and the veneration that attaches still to the memory of the author, the fiction perhaps is more closely interwoven with truth than usually happens. The topography may for the most part be ascertained at the present day, and the few exceptions fairly referable to the stroke of time, may consequently be looked upon as no inaccurate guides towards ascertaining the former existence of places now withdrawn from view. Mention is more than once made of a Cornish port of the name of Carlioun, with which perhaps the origin of our name is connected ; but b 2 4 LETTERS OF this is rather a private concern, and I con- tent myself with touching on it. If the cir- cumstance of the existence of the romance interest you at all, in the developement of your history, it will sufficiently gratify me. I need hardly add that I shall readily prose- cute any enquiries respecting it that may suggest themselves to you as of any im- portance, and I am happy in my friend Mr. Scott's permission, to say that the respect which he entertains for you as an historian, and the sympathies by which the Muses have in a peculiar degree connected you, make him anxious to assist you, should it lie in his power, in your literary pursuits. If his Minstrelsy of the Borders has fallen into your hands, of which I can hardly allow my- self to doubt, it is superfluous for me to say more of him ; if otherwise, I certainly do not incur the risk of future apologies in pointing out to you a very elegant and generally interesting specimen of the fruits of Local Attachment. SIR WALTER SCOTT. 5 Mr. Scott is desirous that our worthy His- torian of Manchester should be acquainted likewise with the high esteem in which he is held on this side of the Tweed ; nor does any one 5 I am sensible, esteem him more highly than Mr. Scott himself, which I should have been less forward in adding had he been less capable of appreciating Mr. Whitaker's merit. As my sheet admits of it, I shall subjoin the first stanza of the romance ; the rest are equally devoid of poetical merit. I was at Erceldoune, With Tomas spak y thare ; Ther herd y rede in roune, Who Tristrem gat and bare, Who was king with crown ; And who him foster'd yare ; And who was bold baroun, As their elders ware, Bi yere ; Tomas telles in tonn, This aventours as thai ware. 6 LETTERS OF With compliments to Mrs Polwhele, I remain, dear Sir, very truly yours, Cl. Carlyon. P. S. Mr. Scott's directions are, Walter- Scott, Esq. Edinburgh ; but with regard to myself I hardly know where a letter is most likely to find me for the next month to come, as my intention is to move from hence in a very few days ; probably my first fixed point will be Pembroke Hall, Cam- bridge. LETTER II. WALTER SCOTT, ESQ. TO REV. R. POLWHELE. sir, Castle-street, Edinburgh, 27 Jan. 1804. I am honoured with your letter of the 16 January, and lose no time in communicating such information about Sir Tristrem as I think may interest you. SIR WALTER SCOTT. / Tristrem (of whose real existence I cannot persuade myself to doubt) was nephew to Mark King of Cornwall. He is said to have slain in single combat Morough of Ireland, and by his success in that duel to have deli- vered Cornwall from a tribute which that kingdom paid to Angus King of Leinster. Tristrem was desperately wounded by the Irish warrior's poisoned sword, and was obliged to go to Dublin, to be cured in the country where the venom had been con- fected. Ysonde, or Ysende, daughter of Angus, accomplished his cure, but had nearly put him to death upon discovering that he was the person who had slain her uncle. Tristrem returned to Cornwall, and spoke so highly in praise of the beautiful Ysonde, that Mark sent him to demand her in marriage. This was a perilous ad- venture for Sir Tristrem, but by conquering a dragon, or, as other authorities bear, by assisting King Angus in battle, his embassy O LETTERS OF became successful, and Ysonde was delivered into his hands, to be conveyed to Cornwall. But the Queen of Ireland had given an at- tendant damsel a philtre, or aphrodisiac, to be presented to Mark and Ysonde on their bridal night. Unfortunately, the young couple, while at sea, drank this beverage without being aware of its effects. The consequence was the intrigue betwixt Tris- treni and Ysonde, which was very famous in the middle ages. The romance is occupied in describing the artifices of the lovers to escape the observation of Mark, the counter- plots of the courtiers, jealous of Tristrem's favour, and the uxorious credulity of the King of Cornwall, who is always imposed upon, and always fluctuating betwixt doubt and confidence. At length he banishes Tristrem from his court, who retires to Brit- tanye (Bretagne), where he marries another Ysonde, daughter of the Duke of that British settlement. From a vivid recollection of his SIR WALTER SCOTT. V first attachment he neglects his bride, and, returning to Cornwall in various disguises, renews his intrigue with the wife of his uncle. At length, while in Brittanye, he is engaged in a perilous adventure, in which he receives an arrow in his old wound. No one can cure the gangrene but the Queen of Cornwall, and Tristrem dispatches a mes- senger entreating her to come to his relief. The confident of his passion is directed if his embassy be successful to hoist a white sail upon his return, and if otherwise a black one. Ysonde of Brittanye, the wife of Tristrem, overhears these instructions, and on the return of the vessel with her rival on board, fired with jealousy, she tells her husband falsely that the sails are black. Tristrem concluding himself abandoned by Ysonde of Cornwall, throws himself back and dies. Meantime the Queen lands and hastens to the succour of her lover — finding b 5 10 LETTERS OF him dead she throws herself on the body, and dies also. This is the outline of the story of Tris- trem, so much celebrated in ancient times. As early as the eleventh century his famous sword is said to have been found in the grave of a King of the Lombards. The loves of Tristrem and Ysonde are alluded to in the songs of the King of Navarre, who flourished about 1226, and also in Chretien de Troyes, who died about 1200. During the 13th century Thomas of Erceldoune, Earls- town in Berwickshire, called the Rhymer, composed a metrical history of their amours. He certainly died previous to 1299. His work is quoted by Robert de Brunne with very high encomium. For some account of this extraordinary personage I venture to refer you to a compilation of ballads, enti- tled, the Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border, v. II. p. 262, where I have endeavoured to trace his history. It is his metrical romance SIR WALTER SCOTT. 11 which I am publishing, not from a Scottish manuscript of coeval date, but from an English manuscript apparently written dur- ing the minority of Edward III. The tran- scriber quotes Tomas as his authority, and professes to tell the tale of Sir Tristrem as it was told to him by the author. The stanza is very peculiar, and the language concise to obscurity ; in short what Robert de Brunne called, in speaking of Sir Tris- trem, " queinte Inglis," not to be generally understood even at the time when it was written. The names are all of British, or, if you please, Cornish derivation, as Morgan, Riis, Brengwain, Urgan, Meriadoc, &c. Tomas of Erceldoune lived precisely upon the Borders of what had been the kingdom of Strath Cluyd ; and. though himself an English author, naturally adopted from his British neighbours a story of such fame. Perhaps he might himself be utriusque lin- guae doctor, and a translator of British Bards. 12 LETTERS OF It happens by a most fortunate coinci- dence, that Mr. Douce, with whose literary fame and antiquarian researches you are probably acquainted, possesses two frag- ments of a metrical history of Sir Tristrem in the French, or I should rather say in the Romance language. One of them refers ex- pressly to Tomas as the best authority upon the history of Tristrem, though he informs us that other minstrels told the story somewhat differently. All the incidents of these frag- ments occur in my manuscript, though much more concisely narrated in the latter. The language resembles that of Mademoiselle Marie. Tintagel Castle is mentioned as Mark's residence, a fairy castle which was not always visible. In Tomas's Romance the capital of Cornwall is called Caerlioun, as I apprehend Castrum Leonense, the chief town of the inundated district of Lionesse, from which Sir Tristrem took his surname. The English and French poems throw great light upon each other. SIR WALTER SCOTT. 13 When the art of reading became more common, the books of chivalry were re- duced into prose, the art of the minstrel being less frequently exercised. Tristrem shared this fate, and his short story was swelled into a large folio now before me, beautifully printed at Paris in 1514. In this work the story of Tristrem is engrafted upon that of King Arthur, the romance of the Round Table being then at the height of popularity. Many circumstances are added which do not occur in the metrical copies. It is here that the heresy concerning the cow- ardice of the Cornish nation first appears ; there is not the least allusion to it in the ancient poems, and it is merely introduced to give effect to some comic adventures in which Mark (le roy coux) is very roughly handled, and to others in which certain knights, presuming upon the universal pol- troonery of the Cornish, attack Tristrem, and according to the vulgar phrase " catch a 14 LETTERS OF Tartar." This volume is stated to be com- piled by Luce, Lord of the castle of Gast, near Salisbury, a name perhaps fictitious. But Luce, if that was his real name, is not singular in chusing the history of Tristrem for the groundwork of his folio. There are two immense manuscripts on the same sub- ject in the Duke of Roxburghe's Library, and one in the National Library at Paris, and probably many others. The Morte Arthur which you mention, is a book of still less authority than the Paris folio. It is not a history of the Cornish hero in particular ; but a bundle of extracts made by Sir T. Mallory, from the French romances of the Table Round, as Sir Lancelot du Lac, and the other folios printed on that subject at Paris in the beginning of the 16th century. It is therefore of no authority whatever, being merely the shadow of a shade, an awkward abridgement of prose romances, themselves founded on the more ancient SIR WALTER SCOTT. 15 metrical lais and gests, I suppose, how- ever, Gibbon had not Mallory's authority for his observation ; which he probably derived from the elegant abridgement of Sir Tris- trem (I mean of the prose folio) published by Tressan, in " Extracts des Romans de la Chevalerie." I would willingly add to this scrambling letter a specimen of the romance of Tomas of Erceldoune ; but I am deterred by the hope of soon having it in my power to send the book itself, which is in the press. I fear that in wishing fully to gratify your curiosity I have been guilty of conferring much tediousness upon you ; but, as it is possible I may have omitted some of the very particulars you wished to know, I have only to add that it will give me the highest pleasure to satisfy, as far as I am able, any of Mr. Polwhele's enquiries, to whose literary and poetical fame our northern capital is no stranger. On my part I am curious to know 10 LETTERS OF if any recollection of Sir Tristrem (so me- morable elsewhere) subsists in his native county, whether by tradition or in the names of places. Also whether tradition or history points at the existence of such a place as Carlioun, which Tomas thus de- scribes : Tristrem's schip was yare, He asked his benisoun, The haven he gan out frere, It hight Carlioun ; Nyen woukes and mare, He hohled up and doun, A winde to vvil him bare, To a stede ther him was boun Neighe hand, Deivelin hight the toun, An haven in Ireland. 1 may just add that Tristrem is described as a celebrated musician and chess-player, and as the first who laid down regular rules for hunting. I beg to be kindly remembered to Mr. Carlyon, to whom I am much obliged for giving me an opportunity to subscribe SIR WALTER SCOTT. 17 myself, Sir, your most obedient humble servant, Walter Scott. P. S. Do you not conceive it possible that the name of our friend Carlyoris family, which I understand is of original Cornish extraction, may have been derived from the lost Caerlionn ? LETTER III. TO FRANCIS DOUCE, ESQ. F.S.A. sir, Edinburgh, Castle-street, May 7, ISOi. The warm recollection of your kindness, during my short stay in London, would have induced me to find out some means of ac- knowledgment, however trifling, even if the volume which I have now the honour to re- quest you to accept had not derived a great share of any interest it may be found to pos- sess, from the curious fragments upon the same subject which you so liberally com- 18 LETTERS OF municated to me. I hope that in both points of view, the copy of Sir Tristrem now sent will be thought deserving of a place among your literary treasures. It is one of twelve thrown off, without a castra- tion which I adopted in the rest of the edi- tion, against my own opinion, and in com- pliance with that of some respectable friends : for I can by no means think that the coarse- ness of an ancient romance is so dangerous to the, public as the mongrel and inflamma- tory sentimentality of a modern novelist. By honouring with your acceptance a " Tristrem entier," you will greatly oblige, Sir, your most obedient humble servant, Walter Scott. LETTER IV. TO DAVIES GILBERT, ESQ. Sir, Edinburgh, 29M Jan 1808. Ill availing myself of your kind offices to transmit the inclosed to Mr. Polwhele, I SIR WALTER SCOTT. 19 should be very ungrateful did I omit to make my best acknowledgments to you for the favourable opinion which you have been pleased to express of my literary attempts. I have been labouring (at least working) upon another legend connected with the Battle of Flodden : I have only to wish that it may experience half the kindness with which its predecessor was received, and will be particularly happy should it be the case in your instance. I am, Sir, your obliged humble servant, Walter Scott. LETTER V. TO THE REV. R. POLWHELE. dear sir, AsheUiel by Selkirk, 21 July, 1808. Owing to my residence in London for these some months past, I did not receive your letter till my return to Edinburgh 20 LETTERS OF about a fortnight ago, since which time I have been overwhelmed with the professional duty that had been accumulating during my absence. I consider it as no slight favour that vou are willing to entrust to me the task of re- viewing my early and great favourite the beautiful poem on Local Attachment, and I will write to Mr. Gilford, our chief com- mander, offering my services. The only ob- jection I can foresee is the poem having been for some time printed ; but it has been cus- tomary of late years to get over this. I will at the same time mention to Mr. G. your obliging offer of assistance, which I do not doubt he will consider as highly valuable. It may be necessary to say, however, that I my- self have no voice in the management of the Quarterly Review, and am only a sincere well-wisher and occasional contributor to the work. The management is in much better hands ; but I am sure Mr. Gifford will SIR WALTER SCOTT. 21 be as sensible of the value of your co-opera- tion as I should be in his situation. Believe me, dear Sir, your much obliged truly faithful humble servant, Walter Scott. A writer, signing himself Alcaens, in one of the public prints, observes, that " in the ' Lay of the last Minstrel,' there is an evident imitation of the 1 Local Attachment ;' which, however, Walter Scott has had the ingenuousness to acknowledge. The latter poem opens with the following stanza : ' Breathes there a spirit in this ample orb That owns affection for no fav'rite clime ; Such as the sordid passions ne'er absorb, Glowing in gen'rous hearts, unchill'd by time ? Is it — ye sophists ! say — a venial crime To damp the love of home with scornful mirth ? Though, led by scientific views sublime, Ye range, with various search, the realms of earth, — Seeks no returning sigh the region of your birth ?' " The sixth canto of the ' Lay' opens thus: ' Breathes there a man, with soul so dead, Who never to himself hath said, This is my own — my native land ?' 22 LETTERS OF Whose heart hath ne'er within him burned As home his footsteps he hath turned From wandering on a foreign strand ? ' " In a note on this passage, Scott says, 'the In- fluence of Local Attachment has been so exquisitely painted by my friend, Mr. Pohvhele, in the poem which bears that title, as might well have dispensed with the more feeble attempt of any contemporary poet. To the reader who has not been so fortunate as to meet with this philosophical and poetical detail of the nature and operations of the love of our country, the following brief extract cannot fail to be acceptable : ' Yes ! Home still charms : and he, who, clad in fur, His rapid rein-deer drives o'er plains of snow, Would rather to the same wild tracts recur, That various life had marked with joy or woe, Than wander where the spicy breezes blow, To kiss the hyacinths of Azza's hair ; — Rather than where luxuriant summers glow, To the white mosses of his hills repair, And bid his antler train the simple banquet share.' " Perhaps the above poem is more read in Scot- land than in Cornwall. In a masterly criticism on the c Living Poets of Great Britain,' (where the wri- ter is extremely cautious of admitting those into his exhibition who do not deserve the name of poets), the ' Local Attachment' is spoken of very favourably. SIR WALTER SCOTT. 23 'Among those poems,' says the reviewer, 'which have not received their due share of public attention, we are disposed to reckon Mr. Polwhele's ' Influ- ence of- Local Attachment,' which contains some passages of great beauty." See Edinburgh Annual Register, 1808. " That an author is better known at a distance than at home, is a fact which is still more strikingly exemplified in the fate of a little poem entitled the ' Unsexed Females.' A large edition of this pro- duction was sold by Cobbett, in America, before a single copy of it, perhaps, had made its way into a Cornish library ! "August 1817. alcjEus." The writer, who thus assumed the signature of Alcceus, was a physician of high eminence. But he no longer exists among us ; to search (if any human intelligence could search) into the deep arcana of that mysterious disease, with which all around are at this moment threatened or afflicted ! Of the poem in question, I was some time since employed in correcting it for a new edition, and had interwo- ven in the MS. the following (and many other) stanzas : ***** " But, oh! if torn from all we value most, The inevitable doom be ours, to seek A country distant from our own dear coast ■ If fortune bear us, where with carnage reek 24 LETTERS OF Gaunt wolves that emulate the vulture's beak ; 'Tis not from battle-fields with fear we start: We feel the vital strings asunder break, When from the scene ' so native to our heart' — When from our earliest love our boding sorrows part. "There, where the blossom'd bough, the berried bush, (Snapt, and by yester winds hurl'd down the steep,) Gleams thro' subsiding waves ; where oft would rush The thunder-torrent with terrific sweep; Poor peasant ! in thy southern hollow deep, That casement, kiss'd by pearly grapes, was thine From simple childhood ! — But I see thee weep, Snatcht from thy cottage, thy coeval vine, As close about thy home thy first pure pleasures twine. " There, in the transience of a rainbow shower, Now darksome, now with various lustre clear, Glistens the lattice of that Gothic tower ! And hark ! how pleasant to the pensive ear Its mellow music ! Down yon watery meer, Hark ! how the stealing sweetness sinks away ! 'Midst sad adieus, alas ! the boding fear Flutters around those pinnacles so gray ; And faint Hope lingers there, and looks with fond delay. M Perhaps, more duteous than the vulgar tribe, Thy virtue bade thee cling, when life was new, To thy loved sire attacht — without a bribe ! Lo, kind affection to thy parent true, SIR WALTER SCOTT. 2.5 There bore thee, where the wholesome cresses grew, Or to the elder bourne, the hurtle nook — Or to the yellow pear, the plum's rich blue, — Or, with thy pitcher to the limpid brook, — Or, to the dame, whose imps each thumbs his blister'd book. " Perhaps a lover's, from its living bed Yon cavern'd rock a softer tale may tell ! The pine-tree, that above its mantle spread, And bade to Eve's fresh breeze its whispers swell ; And from the mossy roof the meek hare-bell — All — all — (tho' mark'd with slight regard before) Ask from thy feeling a distinct farewell ! And, yearning, thou wilt number o'er and o'er The pebbles, red or white, that pave the gleamy floor. ***** " Such were the ideas which electric ran Thro' Xenophon's dishearten'd troops, when bright A prospect of the sea surpris'd the van, Now as they gain'd the sacred mountain's height, ' The sea ! the sea !' they shouted with delight ; And sparkled quick in every eye the tear ! Each o'er the billows strain'd his aching sight; And, as ' The sea !' re-echoed from the rear, Already seem'd to grasp the Home his soul held dear." Here, who but in sorrow could imagine the dying Poet of " The Lay" returning with all pos- sible expedition to his native country, — and ap- C 26 LETTERS OF proaching Abbotsford with a momentary renovation of strength and spirits ? Descending the vale, at the bottom of which the prospect of Abbotsford first opens, " it was found difficult to keep him quiet in his carriage ; so anxious was he to rear himself up, to catch an early glimpse of his beloved scene." !*• LETTER VI. TO THE REV. R. POLWHELE. my dear sir, Edinburgh, 11 Oct. 1810. This accompanies a set of poor Miss Seward's Poems, which I hope you will have the kindness to accept. Another cover will convey to you my three poems, which I regret to find have not reached you. Miss Seward left the greater part of her correspondence to Mr. Constable, of Edin- burgh, who is I believe taking measures to publish them. It is very extensive, occu- pying many folio MSS., for she kept a copy of almost every letter which she wrote. SIR WALTER SCOTT. 27 I will be much obliged to you to send your valued publications under cover to Mr. Freeling, or to John Wilson Croker, Esq. either of whom will forward them in safety. As I know you are a great master of northern lore, and interested in all that be- longs to it, I am anxious to bespeak your interest in favour of a publication intended to illustrate these studies. It is a quarto volume entitled Northern Antiquities, to be published by the Ballantynes of Edinburgh, for Messrs. Weber and Robert Jameson. May I hope that you will, either for this or the next volume, favour us with a commu- nication ? The subject (provided it be con- nected with antiquities) is entirely at your choice. I wished to add to the packet I transmit for your acceptance, a copy of Sir Tristrem, in whom as a hero of Cornwall you must doubtless be interested ; but the edition is entirely out of print. I am very glad indeed you like the Lady c 2 28 LETTERS OF of the Lake ; hut, if you knew how much I admire your poem on Local Attachment, you would not have threatened me with so ter- rible a compliment as that of laying down your own harp. Believe me, my dear Sir, very truly, your much obliged, Walter Scott. P. S. Some time ago (several years now) I met with two very pleasant young men from Cornwall, Mr. Carl yon and Mr. Collins ; to the former of whom I was in- debted for the honor of being introduced to your notice. When you favour me with a line, I should like much to know how they have fared in life, which they were then about to enter upon. 1 have read Miss Seward's Letters with great sa- tisfaction. With her scenes in general I am but little acquainted : but I am well acquainted with many of her characters. In the first volume of the Letters, Miss Hannah More and "the Bristol Milkmaid" are introduced. I SIR WALTER SCOTT. 29 know something of this transaction. Miss H. More treated Lactilla contumeliously — I mean, as a poet would treat a poet : — but infinitely superior was Lactilla's poetry to Miss Hannah's ! In the second volume is printed, very incorrectly, a lyric effusion which, though a mere trifle, I have reprinted (not cum omnibus erroribus) at pp. 647 and 6'-V8 of my "Traditions and Recollections." In the fifth volume, Miss Seward, addressing Mr. Cary, says, — " Several of the simply beautiful and touching parts in Shenstone's charming Pastorals, have been laughably travestied." This burlesque appears in the " Devon and Cornwall Poets." It is ostensibly my old friend Major Drewe's. Had I told Miss Seward, that the ridicule which has thus raised her indignation, was started and pursued by the Major and myself, over a bottle of claret, my name would never, perhaps, have occurred in the list of her honoured friends. P- LETTER VII. TO THE REV. R. POLWHELE. my dear sir, Edinburgh, 15 Oct. 1810. I had the pleasure to write to you yester- day under the frank of Mr. Croker of the 30 LETTERS OF Admiralty, forwarding a set of Miss Seward's works. But as I am uncertain whether this parcel may not reach you first, I trouble you with these few lines, to say that I enclose the Poems which you ought to have had long ago. I am sorry the Marmion does not rank with the others ; but by some whim of the proprietors they have put it in the pre- sent shape, and I cannot find an octavo copy. The volumes you so kindly destine me, will reach me safely if sent under cover to J. Wilson Croker, Esq. Secretary to the Admiralty. Referring myself for other matters to my former letter, I am ever yours truly, W. Scott. Archdeacon Nares was much pleased with my re- view of " Marmion," in the British Critic. P. SIR WALTER SCOTT. 31 LETTER VIII. TO REV. R. POLWHELE, KENWYN. my dear sir, Marlowe House, 30 Dec. 1810. It was very late this season before I got to Edinburgh, and consequently before I had the pleasure of receiving your valued present, on which I have been making my Christmas cheer ever since, until an ancient and hereditary engagement brought me here to spend the holidays with my chief, the Laird of Harden. I should be very ungrateful in- deed, if I longer delayed the acknoweldg- ment of the pleasure I have received from the re-perusal of the " Local Attachment," and the " Old English Gentleman ;" which, I take great credit to my taste in boasting, have been long favourites of mine, as well as from reading the other curious and interesting volumes with which I had yet to form an acquaintance. I have never had the good 32 LETTERS OF fortune to see topographical labours con- ducted at once with the accuracy of the antiquary and the elegance of the man of general literature, until you were so kind as to send me your county histories ; which, under a title not very inviting beyond the bounds of the provinces described, contain so much interesting to the general reader, and essential to the purpose of the English historian. You have furnished a folio and an octavo shelf in my little bookroom, with treasures which I shall often resort to with double pleasure, as pledges of the kindness of the ingenious author. I wrote to Gifford about three weeks ago, mentioning my wish to take up the " Local Attachment." But he answers me that the present number is filled up ; and in case he does not make room for me in the next, I must seek another corner for my critique, and I have cast my eyes upon the Edinburgh Annual Register, but I will wait to see what SIR WALTER SCOTT. 33 our Generalissimo says about his next num- ber. I shall not be sorry if he still declines my criticism, because I think I can weave it into a tolerably independent article, for the Register aforesaid. Our " Northern Antiquities," as we have ventured to christen a quarto undertaken by Mr. Weber and Mr. R. Jamieson, both friends of mine, are to contain a great deal of Teutonic lore. Much of the first volume is occupied by an account, rather protracted I fear, of the Heldenbuck, a series of ro- mances, referring to the history of Attila and Theodoric, and therefore very curious. Theodoric was to the Germans what King- Arthur was to the English, and Charlemagne to the French Romancers — a leading King and champion, who assembled at his court a body of chivalrous Knights, whose various adventures furnish the theme of the various cantos of this very curious work. This is executed by Henry Weber, who is c 5 34 LETTERS OF skin-deep in all that respects ancient Teuto- nic poetry, and it is perfectly new to the English Antiquary. Jamieson gives some translations from the Kiempe Visis, a collec- tion of Heroic Ballads, published in Den- mark, about the end of the sixteenth cen- tury. Their curiosity consists in a great measure in the curious relation they bear to the popular ballads of England and Scotland. Then I have promised to translate some Swiss war songs and other scraps of poetry. In short, our plan is entirely miscellaneous, and embraces any thing curious that is allied to the study of history, or more particularly to that of poetry. This is our plan, my good friend, and if you have any thing lying by you which you would intrust to this motley caravan, we will be much honoured. But I hope soon to send you the first volume, when you will judge how far we deserve your countenance. I will take care you have it so soon as published, and perhaps you may SIR WALTER SCOTT. 35 like to review it for the Quarterly. I have little share in it, excepting my wish to pro- mote the interest of the prime conductors, whose knowledge is rather more extensive than their financial resources. I am very glad to hear that Drs. Collins and Carlyon are well, and settled in their native country. Though I have little chance of ever meeting them again, I cannot easily forget the agreeable hours their society afforded me at our chance meeting on the hills of Selkirkshire. Believe me, my dear Sir, with the best wishes of this season, your obliged and grate- ful humble servant, Walter Scott, The gentlemen whom this letter celebrates, were indeed congenial spirits. One of them (my excellent relation, Dr. Collins) is "gone hence, to be no more seen !" But the other, we hope, will be long spared to us ; from affluence, talent, and science, a distinguished member of a grateful com- munity. P- 36 LETTERS OF LETTER IX. TO THE REV. R. POLWHELE, KENWYN, TRURO. my dear sir, Edinburgh, July 3, 1811. I should be very ungrateful indeed, if in distributing the few copies I have retained of the inclosed drum and trumpet thing, I should forget to request your kind accept- ance of it, especially as I am sure you will applaud the purpose, and pardon imperfec- tions in the execution. I am so busy making up all my little parcels, that I have only a moment to add that I hope this will find you as well as I wish you. Believe me, dear Sir, your truly obliged, Walter Scott. "The Vision of Don Roderick." With one of the "private copies" of which fifty only were printed, I was presented by the benevo- lent author. It was often insinuated, during the publication of SIR WALTER SCOTT. 37 his poems in the ballad style, that Scott had not " that eagle wing" to carry him above the ballad song. How false ! The Introduction in the Spen- serian stanza, has an inimitable grandeur ; and be- fore the whole Poem, Beattie's Minstrel " hides his diminished head." P. LETTER X. TO THE REV. R. POLWHELE, KENWYN, TRURO. dear sir, Edinburgh, 1st Dec. 1811. I received yours, when I was in the very bustle of leaving Ashiestiel, which has been my summer residence (and a very sweet one) for these eight years past. It was not, how- ever, for a distant migration, as I was only re- moving to a small property of my own about five miles lower down the Tweed. Now, al- though, with true masculine indifference, I leave to my better half the care of furniture and china, yet there are such things as books and papers, not to mention broad-swords and 38 LETTERS OF targets, battle-axes and helmets, guns, pis- tols, and dirks, the care of which devolved upon me, besides the bustle of ten thousand directions, to be given in one breath of time, concerning ten thousand queries, carefully reserved for that parting moment, by those who might as well have made them six months before. Besides, I really wished to be here, and consult with my friends and publishers, the Messrs. Ballantynes, before answering the most material part of your letter. They will esteem themselves happy and proud to publish any thing of yours, and to observe the strictest incognito so long as you think that necessary. They only hesi- tate upon the scruple of its not being an original work, but a continuation of one al- ready before the public ; one or two attempts of the same kind having already been made unsuccessfully. I told them I thought the title-page might be so moulded, as not to express the poem to be a continuation of SIR WALTER SCOTT. 39 Beattie's work, and that that explanation might be reserved for the preface or intro- duction. As this was an experiment, they proposed the terms should be those of shar- ing profits with the author — they being at the expense of print and paper. I can an- swer for their dealing honourably and justly, having already had occasion to know their mode of conducting business thoroughly well. With respect to the work itself, I believe Beattie says, in some of his letters, that he did intend the Minstrel to play the part of Tyrteeus in some invasion of his country. But I conceive one reason of his deserting the task he had so beautifully commenced, was the persuasion that he had given his hero an education and tone of feeling inconsistent with the plan he had laid down for his subse- quent exploits ; and I entirely agree with you, that vour termination of Edwin's history will be much more natural and pleasing than that intended by the author himself. 40 LETTERS OF The MS. may be sent under cover to Mr. Croker or to Mr. Freeling. I will have the utmost pleasure in attending to its progress through the press, and doing all in my power to give it celebrity. I was under the necessity of making the Ballantynes my confidents as to the name of the author, for they would not listen to any proposal from an unknown Scottish bard, as such effusions have not of late been very fortunate. I flatter myself you will not think less of the caution, when I assure you your name smoothed all diffi- culties, as they are both readers of poetry, and no strangers to the " Local Attachment." Believe me, dear Sir, I esteem myself ho- noured in the confidence you repose in me ; and that I am very much your faithful servant, Walter Scott. S[R WALTER SCOTT. 41 LETTER XL TO THE REV. R. POLWHELE, KENWYN, TRURO. my dear sir, Abbotsford, 29 Feb. 1812. Your favour, and soon after your poem, reached me here when I was busy in planting, ditching, and fencing a kingdom, like that of Virgil's Melibaeus, of about one hundred acres. I immediately sent your poem to Ballantyne, without the least intimation whence it comes. But I greatly doubt his venturing on the publication, nor can I much urge him to it. The disputes of the Huttonians and Wernerians, though they occasioned, it is said, the damning of a tra- gedy in Edinburgh last month, have not agitated our northern Athens in any degree like the disputes between the Bellonians and Lancastrians. The Bishop of Meath, some time a resident with us, preached against the Lancastrian system in our Episcopal chapel. 42 LETTERS OF The Rev. Sir Henry Moncrieff, a Scottish Baronet, and leader of the stricter sect of the Presbyterians, replied in a thundering discourse of an hour and a half in length. Now, every body being engaged on one side or the other, I believe no one will care to bring forth a poem which laughs at both. As for me, upon whom the suspicion of au- thorship would probably attach, I say with Mrs. Quickly, " I will never put my finger in the fire, and need not ! indeed no, la !" I shall be in Edinburgh in the course of a week, and learn the publishers' determina- tion ; and if it be as I anticipate, I will find means to return the MS. safely under an office frank. I like the poetry very much, and much of the sentiment also, being distinctly of opi- nion that the actual power of reading, whe- ther English or Latin or Greek, acquired at school, is of little consequence compared to the habits of discipline and attention ne- SIR WALTER SCOTT. 43 eessarily acquired in the course of regular study. I fear many of the short-hand acqui- sitions will be found " in fancy ripe, in rea- son rotten." After all, however, this applies chiefly to the easier and higher classes ; for, as to the lower, we are to consider the sav- ing of time in learning as the means of teaching many who otherwise would not learn at all. So I quietly subscribe to both schools, and give my name to neither. I trust the charlatanism of both systems will subside into something useful. I have no good opinion of either of the cham- pions. Lancaster is a mountebank ; and there is a certain lawsuit depending in our courts here between Dr. Bell and his wife, which puts him in a very questionable point of view. Believe me, dear Sir, yours ever truly, W. Scott. 44 LETTERS OF " The Deserted Village-School," a poem, was printed with the following mottoes : " The Athenians, we know, in the decline of their state, spent their time in nothing else but either to tell or to hear some new thing. In this respect, we fall but little short of that refined people. Hence all those corruptions in literature : hence all those disco- veries in the education of youth." (Bishop Porteus.) " Plus habet ostentationis quam operis. (Quintihan.) " Cito prudentes, cito omnis officii capaces et cu- riosi." (Seneca.) at Edinburgh, by James Ballantyne and Co., for John Ballantyne and Co., Edinburgh ; and Long- man, Hurst, Rees, Orrne, and Brown, London ; in 1812. P. LETTER XII. TO THE REV. MR. POLWHELE, KENWYN, TRURO. my dear sir, Abbotsford, 10 Sept. 1812. Nothing but my present residence being so distant from the Ballantynes, prevented my immediately satisfying you on the sub- ject of the " Minstrel." I have been led from day to day to expect one or both of them SIR WALTER SCOTT. 45 here, but did not see them till a few days since. I find from the state of my own transactions with them, that they are not disposed in the present state of mercantile credit, to publish any thing for which they are not under actual engagements. The facility of commercial discounts has been narrowed from nine and ten to three months, which of course obliges all prudent adven- turers who have not the means of extending their capital, to meet the inconvenience by retrenching their trade. To this, therefore, the Muse must give way for the present, so far at least as Edinburgh is concerned. This is the real state of the case ; otherwise, independent of the merit of the performance itself, vour name alone would have been sufficient to recommend any thing to a pub- lisher in Scotland. But at present there is nothing to be done. I have a poem on the stocks myself ; but shall find some difficulty in getting it launched, at least in the way I 46 LETTERS OF expected, and must make considerable sacri- fices to the pressure of the times. I am busy here beautifying a farm which nothing but the influence of Local Attach- ment could greatly recommend, unless a Christian wished to practise at once the virtues of faith, hope, and charity, for it requires the whole to judge of it favourably, its present state being altogether unpromising. It has, however, about a mile of Tweedside, and that is a sufficient recommendation to a Borderer. I am delighted to hear of the good success of Drs. Carlyon and Collins, who struck me as young men of great pro- mise, and likely to make a good figure in life. Adieu, my dear Sir. So soon as I go to Edinburgh, which will be next month or the beginning of November at furthest, I will transmit to you the MS. Should you wish to have it sooner, and will direct to Messrs. Ballantyne's, they will attend to your in- structions. SIR WALTER SCOTT. 47 Believe me, my dear Sir, very much your faithful humble servant, Walter Scott. LETTER XIII. TO THE REV. R. POLWHELE, KENWYN, TRURO. my dear sir, Edinburgh, 16 Nov. 1812. I regret most extremely that my absence from Edinburgh should have occasioned the delay of which you most justly complain, but which, not having been here for six months, I had it not in my power to pre- vent. I only returned the day before yester- day, and have been since engaged in official attendance on the election of our Scottish Peers, where we are returning officers. I will not delay a moment returning the MS. As I have no criticism to offer, which can, in the slightest degree, affect your feelings, I can have no hesitation to state the only circum- 48 LETTERS OF stance which, I think, may possibly interfere with the popularity of "The Minstrel;" which is, its being founded upon the plan of another poet, which has been long before the public in the shape of a fragment. In read- ing a fragment, the mind naturally forms some sketch of its probable conclusion, and is more or less displeased, however un- reasonably, with a conclusion which shocks and departs from its own preconceptions ; and it is to this feeling that I am tempted to ascribe the failure of almost all attempts, which I can recollect, to continue a well- known poem or story. But, although this is, in my opinion, a radical objection to the plan you have adopted, yet your plan is car- ried on with so much poetical spirit and ta- lent, that it would never have weighed with me in advising that the publication of the poem should be delayed ; and, had matters stood with my friendly booksellers as they did this time twelvemonth, I am certain they SIR WALTER SCOTT. 49 would have considered the adventure as a very favourable speculation. But the state of the commercial world, in every branch, is at pre- sent such as necessarily compels all prudent persons rather to get rid of the stock now on their hands, than to make additions to it even under the most favourable circum- stances. I have not seen the bibliopolists since I came to town, but will call in upon them to-day, to get your valuable manuscript, and to enquire into the progress of the " Village School." Ballantynes. On coming here, I find the manuscript has been sent, which I regret, as I would certainly have gone over it with more atten- tion than in my former cursory view. I send the " Lay" to ballast this scrawl, and am ever yours most truly, Walter Scott. 50 LETTERS OF LETTER XIV. TO THE REV. R. POLWIIELE, KENWYN, TRURO. mv dear sir, Abbotsford, 2 Aug. 1813. Your letter has had a most weary dance after me through the North of England, where I have been rambling: a