The Journal of Sir Walter Scott by Walter Scott

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_May_ 23, 24, _and_ 25.--Worked and exercised regularly. I do not feel
that I care twopence about the change of diet as to taste, but I feel my
strength much decayed. On horseback my spine feels remarkably sore, and
I am tired with a few miles' ride. We expect Walter coming down for the
Fife election.

* * * * *

[From May 25th to October 9th there are no dates in the Journal,
but the entry beginning "I have been very ill" must have been made
about the middle of September. "In the family circle," says Mr.
Lockhart, "he seldom spoke of his illness at all, and when he did,
it was always in a hopeful strain." "In private, to Laidlaw and
myself, his language corresponded exactly with the tone of the
Diary. He expressed his belief that the chances of recovery were
few--very few--but always added that he considered it his duty to
exert what faculties remained to him for the sake of his creditors
to the very last.--'I am very anxious,' he repeatedly said to me,
'to be done one way or other with this _Count Robert_, and a little
story about the Castle Dangerous--which also I had long in my
head--but after that I will attempt nothing more, at least not
until I have finished all the notes for the Novels,'" etc.

On the 18th July he set out in company with Mr. Lockhart to visit
Douglas Castle, St. Bride's Church and its neighbourhood, for the
purpose of verifying the scenery of _Castle Dangerous_, then partly
printed, returning on the 20th.

He finished that book and _Count Robert_ before the end of August.

In September, Mr. Lockhart, then staying at Chiefswood, and
proposing to make a run into Lanarkshire for a day or two,
mentioned overnight at Abbotsford that he intended to take his
second son, then a boy of five or six years of age, and Sir
Walter's namesake, with him on the stage-coach.

Next morning the following affectionate billet was put into his
hands:--

To J.G. LOCKHART, Esq., Chiefswood.

"DEAR DON, or Doctor Giovanni,

"Can you really be thinking of taking Wa-Wa by the coach--and I
think you said outside? Think of Johnny, and be careful of this
little man. Are you _par hazard_ something in the state of the poor
capitaine des dragons that comes in singing:--

'Comment? Parbleu! Qu'en pensez vous,
Bon gentilhomme, et pas un sous'?

"If so, remember 'Richard's himself again,' and make free use of
the enclosed cheque on Cadell for L50. He will give you the ready
as you pass through, and you can pay when I ask.

"Put horses to your carriage, and go hidalgo fashion. We shall all
have good days yet.

'And those sad days you deign to spend
With me I shall requite them all;
Sir Eustace for his friends shall send
And thank their love in Grayling Hall!'[462]

"W.S."[463]

On the 15th September he tells the Duke of Buccleuch, "I am going
to try whether the air of Naples will make an old fellow of sixty
young again."

On the 17th the old splendour of the house was revived. Col.
Glencairn Burns, son of the poet, then in Scotland, came

"To stir with joy the towers of Abbotsford."

The neighbours were assembled, and, having his son to help him, Sir
Walter did the honours of the table once more as of yore.

On the 19th the poet Wordsworth arrived, and left on the 22d.

On the 20th, Mrs. Lockhart set out for London to prepare for her
father's reception there, and on the 23d Sir Walter left Abbotsford
for London, where he arrived on the 28th.[464]]

FOOTNOTES:

[456] Falconer's _Shipwreck_, p. 162--"The Storm." 12mo ed. London,
Albion Press, 1810.

[457] Scotch Metrical Version of the 90th Psalm.

[458] On the 18th October Sir Walter sent Mr. Burn the following
inscription for the monument he had commissioned, and which now stands
in the churchyard of Irongray:--

"This stone was erected by the Author of Waverley to the memory of Helen
Walker, who died in the year of God 1791. This humble individual
practised in real life the virtues with which fiction has invested the
imaginary character of Jeanie Deans; refusing the slightest departure
from veracity, even to save the life of a sister, she nevertheless
showed her kindness and fortitude, in rescuing her from the severity of
the law, at the expense of personal exertions, which the time rendered
as difficult as the motive was laudable. Respect the grave of Poverty
when combined with the love of Truth and dear affection."

It is well known that on the publication of _Old Mortality_ many people
were offended by what was considered a caricature of the Covenanters,
and that Dr. M'Crie, the biographer of Knox, wrote a series of papers in
the _Edinburgh Christian Instructor_, which Scott affected to despise,
and said he would not read. He not only was obliged to read the
articles, but found it necessary to inspire or write an elaborate
defence of the truth of his own picture of the Covenanters in the Number
for January 1817 of the _Quarterly Review_.

In June 1818, however, he made ample amends, and won the hearts of all
classes of his countrymen by his beautiful pictures of national
character in the _Heart of Midlothian_.

It is worth noticing also that ten years later, viz., in December 1828,
his friend Richardson having written that in the _Tales of a
Grandfather_ "You have paid a debt which you owed to the manes of the
Covenanters for the flattering picture which you drew of Claverhouse in
_Old Mortality_. His character is inconceivable to me: the atrocity of
his murder of those peasants, as undauntedly devoted to their own good
cause as himself to his, his personal (almost hangman-like)
superintendence of their executions, are wholly irreconcilable with a
chivalrous spirit, which, however scornful of the lowly, could never, in
my mind, be cruel," Scott, in reply, gave his matured opinion in the
following words:--

"As to Covenanters and Malignants, they were both a set of cruel and
bloody bigots, and had, notwithstanding, those virtues with which
bigotry is sometimes allied. Their characters were of a kind much more
picturesque than beautiful; neither had the least idea either of
toleration or humanity, so that it happens that, so far as they can be
distinguished from each other, one is tempted to hate most the party
which chances to be uppermost for the time."

[459] See Miss Ferrier's account of this visit prefixed to Mr. Bentley's
choice edition of her works, 6 vols. cr. 8vo, London, 1881.

[460] Mr. Carruthers remarks in his Abbotsford _Notanda_:--"Joanna
Baillie published a thin volume of selections from the New Testament
'regarding the nature and dignity of Jesus Christ.' The tendency of the
work was Socinian, or at least Arian, and Scott was indignant that his
friend should have meddled with such a subject. 'What had she to do with
questions of that sort?' He refused to add the book to his library and
gave it to Laidlaw."--p. 179.

[461] A long staff.

[462] See Crabbe's _Sir Eustace Grey_.

[463] _Life_, vol. x. pp. 100-1.

[464] See _Life_, vol. x. pp. 76-106.

OCTOBER.

INTERVAL.

I have been very ill, and if not quite unable to write, I have been
unfit to do so. I have wrought, however, at two Waverley things, but not
well, and, what is worse, past mending. A total prostration of bodily
strength is my chief complaint. I cannot walk half a mile. There is,
besides, some mental confusion, with the extent of which I am not
perhaps fully acquainted. I am perhaps setting. I am myself inclined to
think so, and, like a day that has been admired as a fine one, the light
of it sets down amid mists and storms. I neither regret nor fear the
approach of death if it is coming. I would compound for a little pain
instead of this heartless muddiness of mind which renders me incapable
of anything rational. The expense of my journey will be something
considerable, which I can provide against by borrowing L500 from Mr.
Gibson. To Mr. Cadell I owe already, with the cancels on these
apoplectic books, about L200, and must run it up to L500 more at least;
yet this heavy burthen would be easily borne if I were to be the Walter
Scott I once was; but the change is great. This would be nothing,
providing that I could count on these two books having a sale equal to
their predecessors; but as they do not deserve the same countenance,
they will not and cannot have such a share of favour, and I have only to
hope that they will not involve the _Waverley_, which are now selling
30,000 volumes a month, in their displeasure. Something of a Journal and
the _Reliquiae Trotcosienses_ will probably be moving articles, and I
have in short no fears in pecuniary matters. The ruin which I fear
involves that of my King and country. Well says Colin Mackenzie:--

"Shall this desolation strike thy towers alone?
No, fair Ellandonan! such ruin 'twill bring,
That the storm shall have power to unsettle the throne,
And thy fate shall be mixed with the fate of thy King."[465]

I fear that the great part of the memorialists are bartering away the
dignity of their rank by seeking to advance themselves by a job, which
is a melancholy sight. The ties between democrat and aristocrat are
sullen discontent with each other. The former are regarded as a
house-dog which has manifested incipient signs of canine madness, and is
not to be trusted. Walter came down to-day to join our party.

[_September_ 20?]--Yesterday, Wordsworth, his son [nephew[466]] and
daughter, came to see us, and we went up to Yarrow. The eldest son of
Lord Ravensworth also came to see us, with his accomplished lady. We had
a pleasant party, and to-day were left by the Liddells, _manent_ the
three Wordsworths, _cum caeteris_, a German or Hungarian Count Erdoedy, or
some such name.

We arrived in London [September 28,] after a long and painful journey,
the weakness of my limbs palpably increasing, and the physic prescribed
making me weaker every day. Lockhart, poor fellow, is as attentive as
possible, and I have, thank God, no pain whatever; could the end be as
easy it would be too happy. I fancy the instances of Euthanasia are not
very uncommon. Instances there certainly are among the learned and the
unlearned--Dr.

Black, Tom Purdie. I should wish, if it please God, to sleep off in
such a quiet way; but we must take what Fate sends. I have not warm
hopes of being myself again.

Wordsworth and his daughter, a fine girl, were with us on the last day.
I tried to write in her diary, and made an ill-favoured botch--no help
for it. "Stitches will wear, and ill ones will out," as the tailor
says.[467]

[_October_ 8, London.]--The King has located me on board the _Barham_,
with my suite, consisting of my eldest son, youngest daughter, and
perhaps my daughter-in-law, which, with poor Charles, will make a goodly
tail. I fancy the head of this tail cuts a poor figure, scarce able to
stir about.

The town is in a foam with politics. The report is that the Lords will
throw out the Bill, and now, morning of 8th October, I learn it is
quoited downstairs like a shovel-board shilling, with a plague to it, as
the most uncalled-for attack upon a free constitution, under which men
lived happily, which ever was ventured in my day. Well, it would have
been pleasing to have had some share in so great a victory, yet even now
I am glad I have been quiet. I believe I should only have made a bad
figure. Well, I will have time enough to think of all this.

_October_ 9.--The report to-day is that the Chancellor[468] will unite
with the Duke of Wellington and Sir Robert Peel to bring in a Bill of
his own concocting, modified to the taste of the other two, with which
some think they will be satisfied. This is not very unlikely, for Lord
Brougham has been displeased with not having been admitted to Lord John
Russell's task of bill-drawing. He is a man of unbounded ambition, as
well as unbounded talent and [uncertain] temper. There have been hosts
of people here, particularly the Duke of Buccleuch, to ask me to the
christening of his son and heir, when the King stands godfather. I am
asked as an ally and friend of the family, which makes the compliment
greater. Singular that I should have stood godfather to this Duke
himself, representing some great man.

_October_ 10.--Yesterday we dined alone, so I had an opportunity of
speaking seriously to John; but I fear procrastination. It is the cry of
Friar Bacon's Brazen head, _time is--time was_; but the time may soon
come--_time shall be no more_. The Whigs are not very bold, not much
above a hundred met to support Lord Grey to the last. Their resolutions
are moderate, probably because they could not have carried stronger. I
went to breakfast at Sir Robert Henry Inglis', and coming home about
twelve found the mob rising in the Regent's Park, and roaring for Reform
as rationally as a party of Angusshire cattle would have done.

Sophia seemed to act as the jolly host in the play. "These are my
windows," and, shutting the shutters, "let them batter--I care not
serving the good Duke of Norfolk." After a time they passed out of our
sight, hurrying doubtless to seek a more active scene of reformation. As
the night closed, the citizens who had hitherto contented themselves
with shouting, became more active, and when it grew dark set forth to
make work for the glaziers.

_October_ 11, _Tuesday_.--We set out in the morning to breakfast with
Lady Gifford. We passed several glorious specimens of the last night's
feats of the reformers. The Duke of Newcastle's and Lord Dudley's houses
were sufficiently broken. The maidens, however, had resisted, and from
the top of the house with coals, which had greatly embarrassed the
assembled mob. Surely if the people are determined on using a right so
questionable, and the Government resolved to consider it as too sacred
to be resisted, some modes of resistance might be resorted to of a
character more ludicrous than firearms,--coals, for example, scalding
oil, boiling water, or some other mode of defence against a sudden
attack. We breakfasted with a very pleasant party at Lady Gifford's. I
was particularly happy to meet Lord Sidmouth; at seventy-five, he tells
me, as much in health and spirits as at sixty. I also met Captain Basil
Hall, to whom I owe so much for promoting my retreat in so easy a
manner. I found my appointment to the _Barham_ had been pointed out by
Captain Henry Duncan, R.N., as being a measure which would be
particularly agreeable to the officers of the service. This is too high
a compliment. In returning I called to see the repairs at Lambeth, which
are proceeding under the able direction of Blore, who met me there. They
are in the best Gothic taste, and executed at the expense of a large
sum, to be secured by way of mortgage, payable in fifty years; each
incumbent within the time paying a proportion of about L4000 a year. I
was pleased to see this splendour of church architecture returning
again.

Lord Mahon, a very amiable as well as a clever young man, comes to
dinner with Mr. Croker; Lady Louisa Stuart in the afternoon, or, more
properly, at night.

_October_ 12.--Misty morning--looks like a yellow fog, which is the
curse of London. I would hardly take my share of it for a share of its
wealth and its curiosity--a vile double-distilled fog of the most
intolerable kind. Children scarce stirring yet, but baby and the Macaw
beginning their Macaw notes. Among other feats of the mob on Monday, a
gentleman who saw the onslaught told me two men got on Lord
Londonderry's carriage and struck him; the chief constable came to the
rescue and belaboured the rascals, who ran and roared. I should have
liked to have seen the onslaught--Dry beating, and plenty of it, is a
great operator of a reform among these gentry. At the same time Lord
Londonderry is a brain-sick man, very unlike his brother. He
horsewhipped a sentinel under arms at Vienna for obeying his _consigne_,
which was madness. On the other side all seems to be prepared. Heavy
bodies of the police are stationed in all the squares and places
supporting each other regularly. The men themselves say that their
numbers amount to 3000, and that they are supported by troops in still
greater numbers, so that the Conservative force is sufficiently strong.
Four o'clock--a letter from the Duke saying the party is put off by
command of the King, and probably the day will be put off until the
Duke's return from Scotland, so our hopes of seeing the fine ceremony
are all ended.

_October_ 13.--_Nocte pluit tota_--an excellent recipe for a mob, so
they have been quiet accordingly, as we are informed. Two or three other
wet nights would do much to weary them out with inactivity. Milman, whom
I remember a fine gentlemanlike young man, dined here yesterday. He says
the fires have never ceased in his country, but that the oppressions and
sufferings occasioned by the poor's rates are very great, and there is
no persuading the English farmer that an amended system is comfortable
both for rich and poor. The plan of ministers is to keep their places
maugre Peers and Commons both, while they have the countenance of the
crown; but if a Prince shelters, by authority of the prerogative,
ministers against the will of the other authority of the state, does he
not quit the defence which supposes he can do no wrong? This doctrine
would make a curious change of parties. Will they attempt to legitimize
the Fitz Clarences? God forbid! Yet it may end in that,--it would be
Paris all over. The family is said to have popular qualities. Then what
would be the remedy? Marry! seize on the person of the Princess
Victoria, carrying her north and setting up the banner of England with
the Duke of W. as dictator! Well, I am too old to fight, and therefore
should keep the windy side of the law; besides, I shall be buried before
times come to a decision. In the meantime the King dare not go to stand
godfather to the son of one of his most powerful peers, a party of his
own making, lest his loving subjects pull the house about the ears of
his noble host and the company invited to meet him. Their loyalty has a
pleasant way of displaying itself. I will go to Westminster after
breakfast and see what people are saying, and whether the _Barham_ is
likely to sail, or whether its course is not altered to the coast of the
Low Countries instead of the Mediterranean.

_October_ 14.--Tried to walk to Lady Louisa Stuart's, but took a little
vertigo and came back. Much disturbed by a letter from Walter. He is
like to be sent on an obnoxious service with very inadequate force,
little prospect of thanks if he does his duty, and much of blame if he
is unable to accomplish it. I have little doubt he will ware his
mother's calf-skin on them.

The manufacturing districts are in great danger. London seems pretty
secure. Sent off the revise of introduction to Mr. Cadell.[469]

_October_ 16.--A letter from Walter with better news. He has been at
hard-heads with the rogues and come off with advantage; in short,
practised with success the art of drawing two souls out of one
weaver.[470] All seems quiet now, and I suppose the Major will get his
leave as proposed. Two ladies--[one] Byron's Mary Chaworth--have been
frightened to death while the mob tore the dying creatures from their
beds and proposed to throw them into the flames, drank the wine,
destroyed the furniture, and committed other excesses of a
jacquerie.[471] They have been put down, however, by a strong force of
yeomanry and regulars. Walter says the soldiers fired over the people's
heads, whereas if they had levelled low, the bullets must have told more
among the multitude. I cannot approve of this, for in such cases
severity is ultimate mercy.[472] However, if they have made a
sufficient impression to be striking--why, enough is as good as a feast.

There is a strange story about town of ghost-seeing vouched by Lord
Prudhoe, a near relation of the Duke of Northumberland, and whom I know
as an honourable man. A colonel described as a cool-headed sensible man
of worth and honour, Palgrave, who dined with us yesterday, told us
twice over the story as vouched by Lord Prudhoe, and Lockhart gave us
Colonel Felix's edition, which coincided exactly. I will endeavour to
extract the essence of both. While at Grand Cairo they were attracted by
the report of a physician who could do the most singular magical feats,
and was in the habit not only of relieving the living, but calling up
the dead. This sage was the member of a tribe in the interior part of
Africa. They were some time (two years) in finding him out, for he by no
means pressed himself on the curious, nor did he on the other hand avoid
them; but when he came to Grand Cairo readily agreed to gratify them by
a sight of his wonders. The scenes exhibited were not visible to the
operator himself, nor to the person for whose satisfaction they were
called up, but, as in the case of Dr. Dee and other adepts, by means of
a viewer, an ignorant Nubian boy, whom, to prevent imposition, the
English gentlemen selected for the purpose, and, as they thought,
without any risk of imposture by confederacy betwixt him and the
physician. The process was as follows:--A black square was drawn in the
palm of the boy's hand, or rather a kind of pentacle with an Arabic
character inscribed at each angle. The figures evoked were seen through
this space as if the substance of the hand had been removed. Magic
rites, and particularly perfumes, were liberally resorted to. After
some fumigation the magician declared that they could not proceed until
the seven flags should become visible. The boy declared he saw nothing,
then said he saw a flag, then two; often hesitated at the number for a
certain time, and on several occasions the spell did not work and the
operation went no further, but in general the boy saw the seven flags
through the aperture in his hand. The magician then said they must call
the Sultan, and the boy said he saw a splendid tent fixed, surrounded by
immense hosts, Eblis no doubt, and his angels. The person evoked was
then named, and appeared accordingly. The only indispensable requisite
was that he was named speedily, for the Sultan did not like to be kept
waiting. Accordingly, William Shakespeare being named, the boy declared
that he saw a Frank in a dress which he described as that of the reign
of Elizabeth or her successor, having a singular countenance, a high
forehead, and a very little beard. Another time a brother of the Colonel
was named. The boy said he saw a Frank in his uniform dress and a black
groom behind him leading a superb horse. The dress was a red jacket and
white pantaloons; and the principal figure turning round, the boy
announced that he wanted his arm, as was the case with Felix's brother.
The ceremony was repeated fourteen times; successfully in twelve
instances, and in two it failed from non-appearance of the seven banners
in the first instance. The apparent frankness of the operator was not
the least surprising part of the affair. He made no mystery, said he
possessed this power by inheritance, as a family gift; yet that he could
teach it, and was willing to do so, for no enormous sum--nay, one which
seemed very moderate. I think two gentlemen embraced the offer. One of
them is dead and the other still abroad. The sage also took a price for
the exhibition of his skill, but it was a moderate one, being regulated
by the extent of the perfumes consumed in the ceremony.

There remains much more to ask I understood the witnesses do not like to
bother about, which is very natural. One would like to know a little
more of the Sultan, of the care taken to secure the fidelity of the boy
who was the viewer and on whom so much depended; whether another sage
practising the same feat, as it was said to be hereditary, was ever
known to practise in the city. The truth of a story irreconcilable with
the common course of nature must depend on cross-examination. If we
should find, while at Malta, that we had an opportunity of expiscating
this matter, though at the expense of a voyage to Alexandria, it would
hardly deter me.[473] The girls go to the Chapel Royal this morning at
St. James's. A visit from the Honourable John Forbes, son of my old and
early friend Lord Forbes, who is our fellow-passenger. The ship expects
presently to go to sea. I was very glad to see this young officer and
to hear his news. Drummond and I have been Mends from our infancy.

_October_ 17.--The morning beautiful. To-day I go to look after the
transcripts in the Museum and have a card to see a set of chessmen[474]
thrown up by the sea on the coast of Scotland, which were offered to
sale for L100. The King, Queen, Knights, etc., were in the costume of
the 14th century, the substance ivory or rather the tusk of the morse,
somewhat injured by the salt water in which they had been immersed for
some time.