The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction, No. 571 by Various
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Various >> The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction, No. 571
[7] Memoir in the _Athenaeum_.
By the death of Sir Walter's father, his income was increased, and
this addition, with the salary of his sheriffdom, left him more at
leisure to indulge his literary pursuits. Soon after this period,
about 1803, Sir Walter finding that his attempts in literature had
been unfavourable to his success at the bar, says:--"My profession and
I, therefore, came to stand nearly upon the footing on which honest
Slender consoled himself with having established with Mrs. Anne Page.
'There was no great love between us at the beginning, and it pleased
Heaven to decrease it on farther acquaintance!' I became sensible that
the time was come when I must either buckle myself resolutely to 'the
toil by day, the lamp by night,' renouncing all the Dalilahs of my
imagination, or bid adieu to the profession of the law, and hold
another course.
"I confess my own inclination revolted from the more severe choice,
which might have been deemed by many the wiser alternative. As my
transgressions had been numerous, my repentance must have been
signalized by unusual sacrifices. I ought to have mentioned that,
since my fourteenth or fifteenth year, my health, originally delicate,
had been extremely robust. From infancy I had laboured under the
infirmity of a severe lameness, but, as I believe is usually the case
with men of spirit who suffer under personal inconveniences of this
nature, I had, since the improvement of my health, in defiance of this
incapacitating circumstance, distinguished myself by the endurance of
toil on foot or horseback, having often walked thirty miles a-day, and
rode upwards of a hundred without stopping. In this manner I made many
pleasant journeys through parts of the country then not very
accessible, gaining more amusement and instruction than I have been
able to acquire since I have travelled in a more commodious manner. I
practised most sylvan sports also with some success and with great
delight. But these pleasures must have been all resigned, or used with
great moderation, had I determined to regain my station at the bar."
After well weighing these matters, Sir Walter resolved on quitting his
avocations in the law for literature; though he determined that
literature should be his staff but not his crutch, and that the
profits of his labour, however convenient otherwise, should not become
necessary to his ordinary expenses.
THE LAY OF THE LAST MINSTREL.
Sir Walter's secession from the law was followed by the production of
his noblest poem--_the Lay of the Last Minstrel_--the origin of which
is thus related by the author:
"The lovely young Countess of Dalkeith, afterwards Harriet, Duchess of
Buccleuch, had come to the land of her husband, with the desire of
making herself acquainted with its traditions and customs. Of course,
where all made it a pride and pleasure to gratify her wishes, she soon
heard enough of Border lore; among others, an aged gentleman of
property, near Langholm, communicated to her ladyship the story of
Gilpin Horner--a tradition in which the narrator and many more of that
county were firm believers. The young Countess, much delighted with
the legend, and the gravity and full confidence with which it was
told, enjoined it on me as a task to compose a ballad on the subject.
Of course, to hear was to obey; and thus the goblin story, objected to
by several critics as an excrescence upon the poem, was, in fact, the
occasion of its being written."
Sir Walter having composed the first two or three stanzas of the
poem--taking for his model the _Christabel_ of Coleridge--showed them
to two friends, "whose talents might have raised them to the highest
station in literature, had they not preferred exerting them in their
own profession of the law, in which they attained equal preferment."
They were more silent upon the merits of the stanzas than was
encouraging to the author; and Sir Walter, looking upon the attempt as
a failure, threw the manuscript into the fire, and thought as little
as he could of the matter. Sometime afterwards, Sir Walter meeting his
two friends, was asked how he proceeded in his romance;--they were
surprised at its fate, said they had reviewed their opinion, and
earnestly desired that Sir Walter would proceed with the composition.
He did so; and the poem was soon finished, proceeding at the rate of
about a canto per week. It was finally published in 1805, and produced
to the author 600_l._; and, to use his own words, "it may be regarded
as the first work in which the writer, who has been since so
voluminous, laid his claim to be considered as an original author." We
thus see that Sir Walter Scott was in his 34th year before he had
published an original work.
MARMION.
Sir Walter's second poem of consequence appeared in 1808, he having
published a few ballads and lyrical pieces during the year 1806. The
publishers, emboldened by the success of _the Lay of the Last
Minstrel_, gave the author 1,000_l._ for _Marmion_. Its success was
electric, and at once wrought up the poet's reputation. In his preface
to the last edition, April, 1830, he states 36,000 copies to have been
printed between 1808 and 1825, besides a considerable sale since that
period; and the publishers were so delighted with the success, as "to
supply the author's cellars with what is always an acceptable present
to a young Scotch house-keeper--namely, a hogshead of excellent
claret."
CLERK OF SESSION.
Between the appearance of _the Lay of the Last Minstrel_ and
_Marmion_, hopes were held out to him from an influential quarter of
the reversion of the office of a Principal Clerk in the Court of
Session; and, Mr. Pitt, having expressed a wish to be of service to
the author, of _the Lay of the Last Minstrel_, Sir Walter applied for
the reversion. His desire was readily acceeded to; and, according to
Chambers, George III. is reported to have said, when he signed the
commission, that "he was happy he had it in his power to reward a man
of genius, and a person of such distinguished merit." The King had
signed the document, and the office fees alone remained to be paid,
when Mr. Pitt died, and a new and opposite ministry succeeded. Sir
Walter, however, obtained the appointment, though not from the favour
of an administration differing from himself in politics, as has been
supposed; the grant having been obtained before Mr. Fox's direction
that the appointment should be conferred as a favour coming directly
from his administration. The duties were easy, and the profits about
1,200_l._ a year, though Sir Walter, according to arrangement,
performed the former for five or six years without salary, until the
retirement of his colleague.
EDITIONS OF DRYDEN AND SWIFT.
Sir Walter's next literary labour was the editorship of the _Works of
John Dryden_, with Notes. Critical and Explanatory, and a Life of the
Author: the chief aim of which appears to be the arrangement of the
"literary productions in their succession, as actuated by, and
operating upon, the taste of an age, where they had so predominating
an influence," and the connexion of the Life of Dryden with the
history of his publications. This he accomplished within a
twelvemonth. Sir Walter subsequently edited, upon a similar plan, an
edition of the _Works of Swift_.--Neither of these works can be said
to entitle Sir Walter to high rank as a biographer.
THE LADY OF THE LAKE
Was written in 1809, and published in 1810, and was considered by the
author as the best of his poetic compositions. He appears to have
taken more than ordinary pains in its accuracy, especially in
verifying the correctness of the local circumstances of the story. In
his introduction to a late edition of the poem, he says--"I recollect,
in particular, that to ascertain whether I was telling a probable
tale, I went into Perthshire, to see whether King James could actually
have ridden from the banks of Loch Venachar to Stirling Castle within
the time supposed in the poem, and had the pleasure to satisfy myself
that it was quite practicable." The success of the poem "was certainly
so extraordinary, as to induce him for the moment to conclude, that he
had at last fixed a nail in the proverbially inconstant wheel of
Fortune, whose stability in behalf of an individual, who had so boldly
courted her favours for three successive times, had not as yet been
shaken."
ABBOTSFORD.--(_See the Cuts_.)
Since Sir Walter's appointment to the sheriffdom of Selkirkshire, he
had resided at Ashiesteel, on the banks of the Tweed, of which he was
but the tenant. He was now desirous to purchase a small estate, and
thereon build a house according to his own taste. He found a desirable
site six or seven miles farther down the Tweed, in the neighbourhood
of the public road between Melrose and Selkirk, and at nearly an equal
distance from both of those towns: it was then occupied by a little
farm onstead, which bore the name of Cartley Hole. The mansion is in
what is termed the castellated Gothic style, embosomed in flourishing
wood. It takes its name from a ford, formerly used by the monks of
Melrose, across the Tweed, which now winds amongst a rich succession
of woods and lawns. But we will borrow Mr. Allan Cunningham's
description of the estate, written during a visit to Abbotsford, in
the summer of 1831:--"On the other side of the Tweed we had a fine
view of Abbotsford, and all its policies and grounds. The whole is at
once extensive and beautiful. The fast rising woods are already
beginning to bury the house, which is none of the smallest; and the
Tweed, which runs within gun-shot of the windows, can only be
discerned here and there through the tapestry of boughs. A fine,
open-work, Gothic screen half conceals and half shows the garden, as
you stand in front of the house--(_see the Engraving_.) It was the
offspring of necessity, for it became desirable to mask an unseemly
old wall, on which are many goodly fruit-trees. What we most admired
about the estate, was the naturally useful and elegant manner in which
the great poet has laid out the plantations--first, with respect to
the bounding or enclosing line; and secondly, with regard to the
skilful distribution of the trees, both for the contrast of light and
shade, and for the protection which the strong affords to the weak.[8]
The horizontal profile of the house is fine, crowded with towers and
clustered chimneys: it looks half castle, half monastery. The
workmanship, too, is excellent: indeed we never saw such well-dressed,
cleanly, and compactly laid whinstone course and gage in our life: it
is a perfect picture."[9] "The external walls of Abbotsford, as also
the walls of the adjoining garden, are enriched with many old carved
stones, which, having originally figured in other situations, to which
they were calculated by their sculptures and inscriptions, have a very
curious effect. Among the various relics which Sir Walter has
contrived to collect, may be mentioned the door of the old Tolbooth of
Edinburgh, which, together with the hewn stones that composed the
gateway, are now made to figure in a base court at the west end of the
house."[10]
[8] Sir Walter possessed a practical as well as theoretical
knowledge of Landscape Gardening, as may be seen in a
valuable paper contributed by him to No. 47, of the
_Quarterly Review_. The details of this paper were,
however, disputed by some writers on the subject.
[9] Communicated to No. 199, of _The Athenaeum_. The mansion
was built from designs by Atkinson. Sir Walter may,
however, be termed the amateur architect of the pile, and
this may somewhat explain its irregularities. We have been
told that the earliest design of Abbotsford was furnished
by the late Mr. Terry, the comedian, who was an intimate
friend of Sir Walter, and originally an architect by
profession. His widow, one of the Nasmyths, has painted a
clever View of Abbotsford, from the opposite bank of the
Tweed; which is engraved in No. 427, of _The Mirror_.
[10] Picture of Scotland, by Chambers.
[Illustration: (_Armoury_.)]
It would occupy a whole sheet to describe the _interior_ of the
mansion; so that we select only two apartments, as graphic memorials
of the lamented owner. First, is the _Armoury_, (from a coloured
lithograph, published by Ackermann)--an arched apartment, with a
richly-blazoned window, and the walls filled all over with smaller
pieces of armour and weapons, such as swords, firelocks, spears,
arrows, darts, daggers, &c. These relics will be found enumerated in a
description of Abbotsford, in _the Anniversary_, quoted in vol. xv. of
the _Mirror_. The second of the _interiors_ is the poet's _Study_--a
room about twenty-five feet square by twenty feet high, containing of
what is properly called furniture, nothing but a small writing-table
and an antique arm-chair. On either side of the fire-place various
pieces of armour are hung on the wall; but, there are no books, save
the contents of a light gallery, which runs round three sides of the
room, and is reached by a hanging stair of carved oak in one corner.
There are only two portraits--an original of the beautiful and
melancholy head of Claverhouse, and a small full-length of Rob Roy.
Various little antique cabinets stand about the room; and in one
corner is a collection of really useful weapons--those of the forest
craft, to wit--axes and bills, &c. Over the fire-place, too, are some
Highland claymores clustered round a target. There is only one window,
pierced in a very thick wall, so that the place is rather sombre.
[Illustration: (_Study_.)]
ROKEBY, AND MINOR POEMS.
After the publication of _the Lady of the Lake_, Sir Walter's poetical
reputation began to wane. In 1811, appeared _Don Roderick_; and in
1813, _Rokeby_; both of which were unsuccessful; and the _Lord of the
Isles_ followed with no better fortune. In short, Sir Walter perceived
that the tide of popularity was turning, and he wisely changed with
the public taste. The subjects of these poems were neither so
striking, nor the versification so attractive, as in his earlier
poems. The poet himself attributes their failure to the manner or
style losing its charms of novelty, and the harmony becoming tiresome
and ordinary; his measure and manner were imitated by other writers,
and, above all Byron had just appeared as a serious candidate in the
first canto of _Childe Harold_; so that Sir Walter with exemplary
candour confesses that "the original inventor and his invention must
have fallen into contempt, if he had not found out another road to
public favour." We shall therefore now part with his poetic fame, and
proceed in the more gratifying task of glancing at his splendid
successes in prose fiction.
WAVERLEY.
The first of the author's
long trails of light descending down,
had its origin in a desire to story the ancient traditions and noble
spirit of the Highlands, aided by the author's early recollections of
their scenery and customs; in short, to effect in prose what he had so
triumphantly achieved in the poem of _the Lady of the Lake_. The
author's own account will be read with interest:--"It was with some
idea of this kind, that, about the year 1805, I threw together about
one-third part of the first volume of Waverley. It was advertised to
be published by the late Mr. John Ballantyne, under the name of
'Waverley,' or ''Tis Fifty Years since,'--a title afterwards altered
to ''Tis Sixty Years since,' that the actual date of publication might
be made to correspond with the period in which the scene was laid.
Having proceeded as far, I think, as the seventh chapter, I showed my
work to a critical friend, whose opinion was unfavourable, and having
some poetical reputation, I was unwilling to risk the loss of it by
attempting a new style of composition. I therefore threw aside the
work I had commenced, without either reluctance or remonstrance. This
portion of the manuscript was laid aside in the drawers of an old
writing desk, which, on my first coming to reside at Abbotsford in
1811, was placed in a lumber garret, and entirely forgotten. Thus,
though I sometimes, among other literary avocations, turned my
thoughts to the continuation of the romance which I had commenced,
yet, as I could not find what I had already written, after searching
such repositories as were within my reach, and was too indolent to
attempt to write it anew from memory. I as often laid aside all
thoughts of that nature."
The success of Miss Edgeworth's delineations of Irish life, and the
author's completion of Mr. Strutt's romance of _Queen Hoo Hall_, in
1808, again drew his attention to _Waverley_. Accident threw the lost
sheets in his way, while searching an old writing-desk for some
fishing-tackle for a friend. The long-lost manuscript presented
itself, and "he immediately set to work to complete it, according to
his original purpose." Among other unfounded reports, it has been
said, that the copyright was, during the book's progress through the
press, offered for sale to various booksellers in London at a very
inconsiderable price. This was not the case. Messrs. Constable and
Cadell, who published the work, were the only persons acquainted with
the contents of the publication, and they offered a large sum for it,
while in the course of printing, which, however, was declined, the
author not choosing to part with the copyright. Waverley was published
in 1814: its progress was for some time slow, but, after two or three
months its popularity began to spread, and, in a short time about
12,000 copies were disposed of. The name of the author was kept secret
from his desire to publish the work "as an experiment on the public
taste. Mr. Ballantyne, who printed the novel, alone corresponded with
the author; the original manuscript was transcribed under Mr.
Ballantyne's eye, by confidential persons; nor was there an instance
of treachery during the many years in which these precautions were
resorted to, although various individuals were employed at different
times. Double proof sheets were regularly printed off. One was
forwarded to the author by Mr. Ballantyne, and the alterations which
it received were, by his own hand, copied upon the other proof-sheet
for the use of the printers, so that even the corrected proofs of the
author were never seen in the printing-office; and thus the curiosity
of such eager inquirers as made the most minute investigation was
entirely at fault."[11]
[11] Abridged from the General Preface, &c.
OTHER NOVELS.
The success of _Waverley_ led to the production of that series of
works, by which the author established himself "as the greatest master
in a department of literature, to which he has given a lustre
previously unknown;--in which he stands confessedly unrivalled, and
not approached, even within moderate limits, except, among
predecessors, by Cervantes, and among contemporaries, by the author of
_Anastasius_." We shall merely enumerate these works, with the date of
their publication, and, as a point of kindred interest, the sums for
which the original manuscripts, in the hand-writing of Sir Walter,
were sold in the autumn of last year. Of the merits of these
productions it would be idle to attempt to speak in our narrow space;
but, for a finely graphic paper, (probably the last written previously
to the author's death,) on the literary claims of Sir Walter Scott, as
a novelist, we may refer the reader to No. 109 of the _Edinburgh
Review_.
Year of Orig. MS.
Publication. sold in
Novels. Vols. 1831, for
L. s.
Waverley 3 1814 18 0
Guy Mannering 3 1815 27 10
The Antiquary* 3 1816 42 0
Tales of My Landlord 4 1st ser. 1816 33 0
Rob Roy* 3 1818 50 0
Tales of My Landlord 4 2nd ser. 1818
Tales of My Landlord 4 3rd ser. 1819 14 14
Ivanhoe 3 1820 12 0
The Monastery* 3 1820 18 18
The Abbot 3 1820 14 0
Kenilworth 3 1821 17 0
The Pirate 3 1822 12 0
The Fortunes of Nigel 3 1822 16 16
Peveril of the Peak* 3 1823 42 0
Quentin Durward 3 1823
St. Ronan's Well 3 1824
Redgauntlet 3 1824
Tales of the Crusaders 4 1825
Woodstock 3 1826
Chronicles of the Canongate 2 1st ser. 1827
Chronicles of the Canongate 3 2nd ser. 1828
Anne of Gerstein 3 1829
Tales of My Landlord 4 4th ser. 1831
Making in all, 73 volumes, within 17 years.
(Those marked * were alone perfect.)
MISCELLANEOUS WORKS.
To particularize Sir Walter's contributions to periodical literature
would occupy considerable space. He wrote a few papers in the early
numbers of the _Edinburgh Review_, and several in the _Quarterly
Review_, especially during the last ten volumes of that journal, of
which his son-in-law, Mr. Lockhart, is the accredited editor. Sir
Walter likewise contributed the articles Chivalry, Drama, and Romance
to the sixth edition of the _Encyclopaedia Britannica_. _Paul's
Letters to his Kinsfolk_, the fruits of Sir Walter's tour through
France and Belgium, in 1815, were published anonymously; and the
_Field of Waterloo_, a poem, appeared about the same time. We may also
here mention his dramatic poem of _Halidon Hill_, which appeared in
1822; and two dramas, _the Doom of Devergoil_ and _Auchindrane_, in
1830--neither of which works excited more than temporary attention.
Sir Walter likewise contributed a _History of Scotland_, in two
volumes, to Dr. Lardner's _Cabinet Cyclopaedia_, in 1830; and in the
same year a volume on _Demonology and Witchcraft_, to Mr. Murray's
_Family Library_: both which works, of course, had a circulation
co-extensively with the series of which they form portions. We may
here notice a juvenile History of Scotland, in three series, or nine
volumes, under the title of _Tales of a Grandfather_, affectionately
addressed to his grandchild, the eldest son of Mr. Lockhart, as Hugh
Littlejohn, Esq.
ABBOTSFORD--BARONETCY.
The large sums received by Sir Walter for the copyright of his earlier
works had enabled him to expend nearly one hundred thousand pounds
upon Abbotsford, so as to make it his "proper mansion, house, and
home, the theatre of his hospitality, the seat of self-fruition, the
comfortablest part of his own life, the noblest of his son's
inheritance, a kind of private princedom, and, according to the degree
of the master, decently and delightfully adorned."[12] Here Sir Walter
lived in dignified enjoyment of his well-earned fortune, during the
summer and autumn, and was visited by distinguished persons from
nearly all parts of the world. He unostentatiously opened his treasury
of relics to all visitors, and his affability spread far and wide. He
usually devoted three hours in the morning, from six or seven o'clock,
to composition, his customary quota being a sheet daily. He passed the
remainder of the day in the pleasurable occupations of a country
life--as in superintending the improvements of the mansion, and the
planting and disposal of the grounds of Abbotsford; or, as Walpole
said of John Evelyn, "unfolding the perfection of the works of the
Creator, and assisting the imperfection of the minute works of the
creature;" so as to render Abbotsford as Evelyn describes his own dear
Wotton, "large and ancient (for there is an air of assumed antiquity
in Abbotsford), suitable to those hospitable times, and so sweetly
environed with those delicious streams and venerable woods, as in the
judgment of strangers as well as Englishmen, it may be compared to one
of the most pleasant seats in the nation, most tempting to a great
person and a wanton purse, to render it conspicuous: it has rising
grounds, meadows, woods, and water in abundance."[13]
[12] Sir Henry Wootton's _Elements of Architecture_.
[13] Evelyn's _Diary_.
In 1820, the poet of _Marmion_ was created a baronet, by George IV.,
but a few weeks after his accession--it being the first baronetcy
conferred by the King, and standing alone in the _Gazette_ which
announced the honour. In 1822, Sir Walter distinguished himself in the
loyal reception of the King, on his visit to Scotland; and soon
afterwards the Baronet was appointed a deputy-lieutenant for the
county of Roxburgh.