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diff --git a/42289-0.txt b/42289-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..e663eb2 --- /dev/null +++ b/42289-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,1356 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 42289 *** + +[Illustration: Cover] + + + + + +[Frontispiece: The Gateway, Abbotsford] + + + + + +[Illustration: Title page] + + + + + + Beautiful Britain + + Abbotsford + + + + + + London + Adam & Charles Black + Soho Square W + 1912 + + + + +CONTENTS + + +CHAPTER + + I. From Cartleyhole to Abbotsford + II. The Creation of Abbotsford + III. Scott at Abbotsford + IV. The Wizard's Farewell to Abbotsford + V. The Later Abbotsford + + + +LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS + + 1. The Gateway, Abbotsford . . . . . . _Frontispiece_ + 2. The Eildon Hills and River Tweed + 3. The Cross, Melrose + 4. Sir Walter Scott's Desk and 'Elbow Chair' in the Study, Abbotsford + 5. Jedburgh Abbey + 6. Sir Walter's Sundial, Abbotsford + 7. Darnick Tower + 8. The Dining-Room, Abbotsford + 9. The Garden, Abbotsford + 10. The Entrance-Hall, Abbotsford + 11. Dryburgh Abbey + 12. Abbotsford from the River Tweed + + + + +CHAPTER I + +FROM CARTLEYHOLE TO ABBOTSFORD + +Thousands of persons from all parts of the world visit Abbotsford +annually. There is no diminution in the pilgrimage to this chief +shrine of the Border Country, nor is there likely to be. Scott's name, +and that of Abbotsford, are secure enough in the affections of men +everywhere. + +It is scarcely necessary to recall that Scott on both sides of his +house was connected with the Border Country--the 'bold bad Border' of a +day happily long dead. He would have been a reiver himself, more than +likely, and one of its nameless bards to boot, had he lived before the +Border felt the subdued spirit of modern times. A descendant of Wat of +Harden, linked to the best blood of the Border, and with every phase of +his life redolent of the Border feeling, history has had no difficulty +in claiming Sir Walter Scott as the most representative Border man the +world has seen. He was not born in the Border Country, but practically +all his life was spent there. He came to the Border a sickly, delicate +child, between his third and fourth year, and for threescore years and +one he seldom left it for any lengthened interval. Edinburgh was the +arena of much of his professional career. But he was happiest, even +amid the most crushing sorrows of his life, when within earshot of the +Tweed. There was not a blither or sunnier boyhood than Scott's at +Rosebank, where even then he was 'making' himself, and dreaming of the +days that were to be. At Ashestiel, the birthplace of the most popular +poetry of the century before Byron blazed upon the literary horizon, +his life was singularly untrammelled. Ashestiel, from being off the +beaten track perhaps, seems to have lost favour somewhat with the Scott +student. At any rate, it is not the shrine it should be, although in +several respects it is more interesting to lovers of Scott than even +Abbotsford itself. As for Abbotsford, may we not say that it is at +once the proudest, and the most stimulating, and the saddest memorial +ever associated with a man of letters? All these places, comprising +the three periods of Scott's life--Rosebank, Ashestiel, Abbotsford--lie +as close to the Tweed as can be--none of them more than a few hundred +paces from it at the outside. And when the great Borderer's task was +accomplished, where more fitly could he have rested than with the river +of his love and of his dreams singing ceaseless requiem around his last +low bed? + +It will be interesting to have a glimpse of Tweedside just as Scott +appeared upon the scene. Since his day the valley in many of its +aspects has not been without change. Even the remote uplands, long +untouched by outside influences, have not escaped the modern spirit. +The river must needs remain _in statu quo_, but the contrast between +Sir Walter's Tweedside and ours is considerable. A century of commerce +and agriculture has wrought marvels on the once bare and featureless +and uncultivated banks of the Tweed. And none would have rejoiced at +its present picturesque and prosperous condition more than Scott +himself. Of the valley as it was a hundred years since, some early +travellers give their impressions. There is the following from a +Londoner's point of view, for instance--a somewhat sombre picture, true +enough, however, of _the upper reaches_ at the time: 'About four in the +afternoon we were obliged to proceed on our journey to Moffat, a market +town, where we were informed we should meet with good lodging, which +made us ride on the more briskly, but notwithstanding all our speed, we +had such terrible stony ways and tedious miles, that when we thought we +had been near the place, we met a Scotchman, who told us we were not +got half way; this put us almost into the spleen, for we could see +nothing about us but barren mountains on the right and the River Tweed +on the left, which, running thro' the stones and rocks with a terrible +noise, seemed to us like the croaking of a Raven, or the tone of a +Screitch Owle to a dying man, so we were forced to ride on by guesse, +knowing not a step of the way.' + +At Scott's day the Tweed valley, in what are now its most luxuriant +reaches, exhibited a markedly naked and treeless character. From +Abbotsford to Norham Castle the scenery was of the openest. Here and +there 'ancestral oaks' still clumped themselves about the great houses, +with perhaps some further attempt at decorating the landscape. But +that was rare enough. Landlords had not learned the art, not to speak +of the wisdom, of tree-planting. It is only within the past hundred +years that planting has become frequent, and the modern beauty of +Tweedside emerged into being. It is said that Scott was one of the +first to popularize the planting spirit. His operations at Abbotsford +certainly induced the neighbouring proprietors to follow suit. Scott +of Gala, and the lairds of Ravenswood, Drygrange, Cowdenknowes, +Gladswood, Bemersyde, Mertoun, Eildon Hall, and Floors, all took their +lead, more or less, from Abbotsford. Arboriculture was Scott's most +passionate hobby. At least two long articles were penned by him on the +subject, and he practised the art with extraordinary diligence and +foresight. Of botany he knew little, but of trees everything. As we +shall see, not the least important part of Abbotsford's creation was +planning and perfecting that wondrous wealth of woodland--a very +network about the place, on whose full growth his eyes, alas! were not +destined to feast. 'Somebody,' he said, 'will look at them, however, +though I question that they will have the same pleasure in gazing on +the full-grown oaks that I have had in nursing the saplings.' + +Another impression of Tweedside comes to us from the pages of Lockhart. +We are dealing now with _the site of Abbotsford_ as it was about the +year 1811. Scott was tenant of Ashestiel. Here he had spent eight of +the pleasantest years of his life. But his lease was out, and the +laird himself--Scott's cousin, General Russell--was returning from +India. + +In casting about for a new abode, Scott seems at first to have thought +of Broadmeadows, on the Yarrow, then in the market, a compact little +domain which would have suited him well. Lockhart's one regret was +that Scott did not purchase Broadmeadows. Here, surrounded by large +landed proprietors, instead of a few bonnet-lairds, he would certainly +have escaped the Abbotsford 'yerd-hunger,' and changed, possibly, the +whole of his career. But the Broadmeadows Scott might have been very +different from _our Sir Walter_. Of Newark, also, close by, the scene +of the 'Lay,' he had some fancy, and would fain have fitted it up as a +residence. The ancestral home of Harden itself was proposed to him, +and indeed offered, and he would have removed thither but for its +inconvenience for shrieval duties. After all, however, there was +uppermost in Scott's mind the wish to have a house and land of his +own--to be 'laird of the cairn and the scaur,' as in the case of +Broadmeadows, or 'a Tweedside laird' at best, and later on, perhaps, to +'play the grand old feudal lord again.' Lockhart assures us that Scott +was really aiming at higher game. His ambition was to found a new +Border family, and to become head of a new branch of the Scotts, +already so dominant. He realized his ambition before he died. + +[Illustration: THE EILDON HILLS AND RIVER TWEED. Here Scott loved to +linger. "I can stand on the Eildon Hill," he said, "and point out +forty-three places in war and verse."] + +About to quit Ashestiel, therefore, his attention was directed to a +small farm-holding not far distant, on the south bank of the Tweed, +some two miles from Galashiels, and about three from Melrose. Scott +knew the spot well. It had 'long been one of peculiar interest for +him,' from the fact of the near neighbourhood of a Border battlefield, +first pointed out to him by his father. By name Newarthaugh, it was +also known as Cartleyhole, or Cartlawhole, and Cartlihole, according to +the Melrose Session Records, in which parish it was situated. The +place was tenanted for a time by Taits and Dicksons. Then it seems to +have passed into the family of Walter Turnbull, school-master of +Melrose, who disposed of it, in the year 1797, to Dr. Robert Douglas, +the enterprising and philanthropic minister of Galashiels. Why Dr. +Douglas purchased this property nobody has been able to understand. It +lay outside his parish, and was never regarded as a desirable or +dignified possession. A shrewd man of business, however, he may, like +Scott, have judged it capable of results, speculating accordingly. He +had never lived at Cartleyhole. The place was laid out in parks, and +the house, of which, curiously, Scott speaks in a recently recovered +letter as 'new and substantial,' was in occupation. The surroundings +were certainly in a deplorably neglected condition. The sole attempt +at embellishment had been limited to a strip of firs so long and so +narrow that Scott likened it to a black hair-comb. 'The farm,' +according to Lockhart, 'consisted of a rich meadow or haugh along the +banks of the river, and about a hundred acres of undulated ground +behind, all in a neglected state, undrained, wretchedly enclosed, much +of it covered with nothing better than the native heath. The farmhouse +itself was small and poor, with a common kailyard on one flank and a +staring barn on the other; while in front appeared a filthy pond +covered with ducks and duckweed, from which the whole tenement had +derived the unharmonious designation of Clarty Hole.' + +Melrose Abbey, the most graceful and picturesque ruin in Scotland, +already so celebrated in his verse, was visible from many points in the +neighbourhood. Dryburgh was not far distant. Yonder Eildon's triple +height, sacred to so much of the supernatural in Border lore, reared +his grey crown to the skies. There, the Tweed, 'a beautiful river even +here,' flowed in front, broad and bright over a bed of milk-white +pebbles. Selkirk, his Sheriff's headquarters, was within easy reach. +He was interested in the Catrail, or Picts' Work Ditch, on the opposite +hillside, so often alluded to in his letters to Ellis; and on his own +ground were fields, and mounds, and standing-stones, whose placenames +recalled the struggle of 1526. A Roman road running down from the +Eildons to a ford on the Tweed, long used by the Abbots, the erstwhile +lords of the locality, furnished a new designation for the acres of +hungry haugh-land--'as poor and bare as Sir John Falstaff's +regiment'--upon which was destined to be reared the most venerated, and +probably the most visited shrine in the kingdom. + +On May 12, 1811, we find Scott writing to James Ballantyne: 'I have +resolved to purchase a piece of ground sufficient for a cottage and a +few fields. There are two pieces, either of which would suit me, but +both would make a very desirable property indeed, and could be had for +between £7,000 and £8,000--or either separate for about half the sum. +I have serious thoughts of one or both, and must have recourse to my +pen to make the matter easy.' By the end of June one of the pieces +passed into his hands for the sum mentioned--£4,000, half of which, +according to Scott's bad and sanguine habit, he borrowed from his +brother John, raising the remainder on the security of 'Rokeby,' as yet +unwritten. The letter to Dr. Douglas acknowledging his receipt for the +last instalment of the purchase-money has been preserved: 'I received +the discharged bill safe, which puts an end to our relation of debtor +and creditor: + + 'Now the gowd's thine, + And the land's mine. + +I am glad you have been satisfied with my manner of transacting +business, and have equal reason at least to thank you for your kindly +accommodation as to time and manner of payment. In short, I hope our +temporary connection forms a happy contradiction to the proverb, "I +lent my money to my friend; I lost my money and my friend."' A figure +of note in his day, Dr. Douglas was born at the manse of Kenmore, in +1747, and in his twenty-third year was presented to the parish of +Galashiels, where he laboured till his death in 1820. He has been +styled the Father of Galashiels. + +Galashiels, when Abbotsford came into being, was a mere thatched +hamlet. Then it could boast of not more than a dozen slated houses. +To-day there is a population of over 13,000. + + + + +CHAPTER II + +THE CREATION OF ABBOTSFORD + +The first purchase of land was close on a hundred and ten acres, half +of which were to be planted, and the remainder kept in pasture and +tillage. An ornamental cottage with a pillared porch--a print of which +is still preserved--after the style of an English vicarage, was agreed +upon, and it was here that Scott passed the first years of his +Abbotsford life. He had many correspondents during this period. +Daniel Terry, an architect turned actor, was probably his chief adviser +as to Abbotsford and its furnishings, no end of letters passing between +them. Morritt of Rokeby was much in his confidence, and Joanna +Baillie, 'our immortal Joanna,' whose 'Family Legend,' had been +produced at Edinburgh the previous year under Scott's auspices. The +plans for his house were at first of the simplest. He thus describes +them to Miss Baillie: 'My dreams about my cottage go on. My present +intention is to have only two spare bedrooms, with dressing-rooms, each +of which on a pinch will have a couch-bed; but I cannot relinquish my +Border principle of accommodating all the cousins and _duniwastles_, +who will rather sleep on chairs, and on the floor, and in the hayloft, +than be absent when folks are gathered together.' + +[Illustration: Abbotsford from the River Tweed] + +To Morritt we find him writing: 'I have fixed only two points +respecting my intended cottage--one is that it shall be in my garden, +or rather kailyard; the other, that the little drawing-room shall open +into a little conservatory, in which conservatory there shall be a +fountain. These are articles of taste which I have long since +determined upon; but I hope before a stone of my paradise is begun we +shall meet and collogue upon it'; but soon after, as an excuse for +beginning 'Rokeby,' his fourth verse romance, he says: 'I want to build +my cottage a little better than my limited finances will permit out of +my ordinary income.' Later on he tells Lord Byron that 'he is +labouring to contradict an old proverb, and make a silk purse out of a +sow's ear--namely, to convert a bare haugh and brae into a comfortable +farm'; and to Sarah Smith, a London tragic actress, he writes: +'Everybody, after abusing me for buying the ugliest place on Tweedside, +begins now to come over to my side. I think it will be pretty six or +seven years hence, whoever may come to see and enjoy, for the sweep of +the river is a very fine one of almost a mile in length, and the ground +is very unequal, and therefore well adapted for showing off trees.' +Scott, as was said, took a profound interest in tree-planting. Had he +not been able to add by purchase the neighbouring hills to his original +lands, it was said that he would have requested permission of the +owners to plant the grounds, for the mere pleasure of the occupation, +and to beautify the landscape. 'I saunter about,' he said to Lady +Abercorn, 'from nine in the morning till five at night with a plaid +about my shoulders and an immense bloodhound at my heels, and stick in +sprigs which are to become trees when I shall have no eyes to look at +them!' He had a painter's as well as a poet's eye for scenery: 'You +can have no idea of the exquisite delight of a planter,' he said; 'he +is like a painter laying on his colours--at every moment he sees his +effects coming out. There is no art or occupation comparable to this; +it is full of past, present, and future enjoyment. I look back to the +time when there was not a tree here, only bare heath; I look round and +see thousands of trees growing up, all of which--I may say almost each +of which--have received my personal attention. I remember five years +ago looking forward, with the most delighted expectation, to this very +hour, and as each year has passed the expectation has gone on +increasing. I do the same now; I anticipate what this plantation and +that one will presently be, if only taken care of, and there is not a +spot of which I do not watch the progress. Unlike building, or even +painting, or indeed any other kind of pursuit, this has no end, and is +never interrupted, but goes on from day to day and from year to year +with a perpetually augmenting interest. Farming I hate; what have I to +do with fattening and killing beasts, or raising corn only to cut it +down, and to wrangle with farmers about prices, and to be constantly at +the mercy of the seasons? There can be no such disappointments or +annoyances in planting trees.' + +[Illustration: THE CROSS, MELROSE. Believed to be the oldest "Mercat +Cross" on the border.] + +Scott left Ashestiel at Whitsunday, 1812--a rather comical 'flitting,' +according to his own account of it. 'The neighbours,' he writes to +Lady Alvanley, 'have been much delighted with the procession of my +furniture, in which old swords, bows, targets, and lances made a very +conspicuous show. A family of turkeys was accommodated within the +helmet of some _preux_ chevalier of ancient Border fame; and the very +cows, for aught I know, were bearing banners and muskets. I assure +your ladyship that this caravan, attended by a dozen of ragged, rosy +peasant children, carrying fishing-rods and spears, and leading ponies, +greyhounds, and spaniels, would, as it crossed the Tweed, have +furnished no bad subject for the pencil, and really reminded me of one +of the gypsy groups of Callot upon their march.' The year 1812 was one +of his busiest. Five days every week until the middle of July he did +Court duty at Edinburgh. Saturday evening saw him at Abbotsford. On +Monday he superintended the licking into shape of his new domicile, and +at night he was coaching it to the city. During the Court recess he +pegged away at 'Rokeby' and other work under circumstances that must +have been trying enough. 'As for the house and the poem,' he writes to +Morritt, 'there are twelve masons hammering at the one and one poor +noddle at the other.' He did not then know the luxury of a private +'den' as at Castle Street. A window corner, curtained off in the one +habitable room which served for dining-room, drawing-room, and +school-room, constituted his earliest Abbotsford study. There, amid +the hammer's incessant fall, and the hum of many voices, and constant +interruptions, he plodded on, and got through a fair amount. The +letters to Terry commence in September, 1812, and show that some little +progress had been made: 'We have got up a good garden-wall, complete +stables in the haugh, and the old farm-yard enclosed with a wall, with +some little picturesque additions in front. The new plantations have +thriven amazingly well, the acorns are coming up fast, and Tom Purdie +is the happiest and most consequential person in the world.' To Joanna +Baillie he sends this characteristic note, in the beginning of 1813: +'No sooner had I corrected the last sheet of 'Rokeby' than I escaped to +this Patmos as blithe as bird on tree, and have been ever since most +decidedly idle--that is to say with busy idleness. I have been +banking, and securing, and dyking against the river, and planting +willows, and aspens, and weeping birches. I have now laid the +foundations of a famous background of copse, with pendent trees in +front; and I have only to beg a few years to see how my colours will +come out of the canvas. Alas! who can promise that? But somebody will +take my place--and enjoy them, whether I do or no'; and in March he +adds: 'What I shall finally make of this villa work I don't know, but +in the meantime it is very entertaining'; and again: 'This little place +comes on as fast as can be reasonably hoped.' To Lady Louisa Stuart he +writes: 'We are realizing the nursery tale of the man and his wife who +lived in a vinegar bottle, for our only sitting-room is just 12 feet +square, and my Eve alleges that I am too big for our paradise.' In +October, 1813, Terry is told that 'these are no times for building,' +but in the following spring, pressing the Morritts to visit him, he +says: 'I am arranging this cottage a little more conveniently, to put +off the plague and expense of building another year, and I assure you I +expect to spare you and Mrs. Morritt a chamber in the wall, with a +dressing-room and everything handsome about you. You will not +stipulate, of course, for many square feet.' In a letter to Terry, +dated November 10, 1814--the year of 'Waverley'--further progress is +reported: 'I wish you saw Abbotsford, which begins this season to look +the whimsical, gay, odd cabin that we had chalked out. I have been +obliged to relinquish Stark's (the Edinburgh architect, who died before +the building was well begun) plan, which was greatly too expensive. So +I have made the old farm-house my _corps de logis_ with some outlying +places for kitchen, laundry, and two spare bedrooms, which run along +the east wall of the farm-court, not without some picturesque effect. +A perforated cross, the spoils of the old kirk of Galashiels, decorates +an advanced door, and looks very well.' Not much was done during the +next two years, but in November, 1816, a new set of improvements was +under consideration. Abbotsford was rapidly losing its cottage +character. The 'romance' period was begun. A notable +addition--connecting the farm-house with the line of buildings on the +right--was then agreed upon, on which Scott communicates with Terry: +'Bullock[1] will show you the plan, which I think is very ingenious, +and Blore has drawn me a very handsome elevation, both to the road and +to the river. This addition will give me a handsome boudoir opening +into the little drawing-room, and on the other side to a handsome +dining-parlour of 27 feet by 18, with three windows to the north and +one to the south, the last to be Gothic and filled with stained glass. +Besides these commodities there is a small conservatory, and a study +for myself, which we design to fit up with ornaments from Melrose +Abbey.' In the same letter he says: 'I expect to get some decorations +from the old Tolbooth of Edinburgh, particularly the copestones of the +doorway, and a niche or two. Better get a niche _from_ the Tolbooth +than a niche _in_ it to which such building operations are apt to bring +the projectors.' + + +[1] George Bullock and Edward Blore, London architects and furnishers. +Atkinson was the artist who arranged the interior of Abbotsford. + + +By July, 1817, the foundation of the existing house, which extends from +the hall westwards to the original courtyard, had been laid, and Scott +found a new source of constant occupation in watching the proceedings +of his masons. In consequence of a blunder or two during his absence, +'I perceive the necessity,' he said, 'of remaining at the helm.' To +Joanna Baillie he writes in September: 'I get on with my labours here; +my house is about to be roofed in, and a comical concern it is.' There +is some correspondence in October between Scott and Terry relative to +the tower, a leading feature of the building. Scott mentions that +(Sir) David Wilkie, who had just been his guest, 'admires the whole as +a composition, and that is high authority.' 'I agree with you that the +tower will look rather rich for the rest of the building, yet you may +be assured that, with diagonal chimneys and notched gables, it will +have a very fine effect, and is in Scotch architecture by no means +incompatible.' In the beginning of 1818, he again writes to Terry: 'I +am now anxious to complete Abbotsford. I have reason to be proud of +the finishing of my castle, for even of the tower, for which I +trembled, not a stone has been shaken by the late terrific gale which +blew a roof clean off in the neighbourhood.' Lockhart, who saw +Abbotsford for the first time in 1818, confesses that the building +presented a somewhat 'fantastic appearance,' the new and old by no +means harmonizing. He was there again in 1819, and in February, 1820, +he married Scott's daughter. In the same year Scott writes to his wife +from London, whither he had gone to receive his baronetcy: 'I have got +a delightful plan for the addition at Abbotsford which, I think, will +make it quite complete, and furnish me with a handsome library, and you +with a drawing-room and better bedroom. It will cost me a little hard +work to meet the expense, but I have been a good while idle.' The +plans for these new buildings, including the wall and gateway of the +courtyard and the graceful stone screen which divides it from the +garden, were made by Blore, although the screen--with its carvings +taken from details of stone-work at Melrose Abbey--was originally +devised by Sir Walter himself. During the winter of 1821 the new +operations were commenced. By the spring of 1822 they were in full +swing. 'It is worth while to come,' he writes to Lord Montagu, 'were +it but to see what a romance of a house I am making'; and to Terry +later on: 'The new castle is now roofing, and looks superb--in fact, a +little too good for the estate; but we must work the harder to make the +land suitable.' That same summer the place was besieged by visitors +from the South, who, after witnessing the King's reception at +Edinburgh, hastened out to see Abbotsford. In October, 1822, he writes +to his son Walter: 'My new house is quite finished as to masonry, and +we are now getting on the roof just in time to face the bad weather.' +In November, 1822, and January, 1823, there are long letters to Terry: +'The house is completely roofed. I never saw anything handsomer than +the grouping of towers, chimneys, etc., when seen at a proper +distance.' With Terry all sorts of subjects were discussed--bells, and +a projected gas installation, along with a constant enumeration of +curios and relics, on which he is urged to spare no expense. 'About +July,' Scott writes at the beginning of 1824, 'Abbotsford will, I +think, be finished, when I shall, like the old Duke of Queensberry who +built Drumlanrig, fold up the accounts in a sealed parcel, with a label +bidding "the deil pike out the een" of any of my successors that shall +open it.' By Christmas, it was completed, and with the New Year's +festivities a large and gay party celebrated the 'house-warming,' of +which Basil Hall's sprightly 'Journal,' incorporated in the 'Life,' +supplies a singularly agreeable account. But there is no room to +quote. It was a doubly joyous occasion, marking not only the +realization of Scott's long-cherished scheme as to his 'castle,' but +the engagement of his eldest son, with whom, as he must have felt at +the time, were the fortunes of the future Abbotsford. Of the year +entered so auspiciously, none dreamt what the end was to be. + +[Illustration: SIR WALTER SCOTT'S DESK AND "ELBOW CHAIR," IN THE STUDY, +ABBOTSFORD. At the desk most of the novels were written. Certainly no +other article of furniture has been so intimately associated with +Scott.] + +In the creation of Abbotsford not only was the cottage of 1812 +transformed to the castle of 1824, but the estate itself was +continually enlarging. Possession of land was a crowning passion with +Scott. He was always driving bargains, as he declared--on the wrong +side of his purse, however--with the needy, greedy cock-lairds of the +locality. 'It rounds off the property so handsomely,' he says in one +of his letters. Once, on his friend Ferguson remarking that he had +paid what appeared to be one of his usual fabulous prices for a +particular stretch, Scott answered quite good-humouredly, 'Well, well, +it is only to me the scribbling of another volume more of nonsense.' +The first purchase was, as we have seen, the hundred odd acres of +Clarty Hole. In 1813 he made his second purchase, which consisted of +the hilly tract stretching from the Roman road near Turn-Again towards +Cauldshiels Loch, then a desolate and naked mountain mere. To have +this at one end of his property as a contrast to the Tweed at the other +'was a prospect for which hardly any sacrifice would have appeared too +much.' It cost him about £4,000. In 1815, Kaeside--Laidlaw's home--on +the heights between Abbotsford and Melrose, passed into his hands for +another £4,000, and more than doubled the domain. The house has +changed considerably since Laidlaw's halcyon days. By 1816 the estate +had grown to about 1,000 acres. In 1816 and 1817 he paid £16,000 for +the two Toftfields, altering the name of the new and unfinished mansion +to Huntlyburn, from a supposed but absolutely erroneous association +with the 'Huntlee Bankis'[2] of the Thomas the Rhymer romance. In +1820, Burnfoot, afterwards Chiefswood, and Harleyburn fell to his hands +for £2,300, and there were many minor purchases of which Lockhart takes +no notice. Scott was very anxious to acquire the estate of +Faldonside,[3] adjoining Abbotsford to the west, and actually offered +£30,000 for it, but without success. He was similarly unsuccessful +with Darnick Tower, which lay into his lands on the east, and which he +was extremely desirous of including in Abbotsford. Scott's suggestion +rather spurred the owner, John Heiton, to restore the ancient +peel-house as a retreat for his own declining days, and it is still in +excellent preservation--one of the best-preserved peels on the +Border--and a veritable museum, crammed from floor to ceiling with +curios, relics, and mementos both of the past and present. + + + +[2] The 'Huntlee Bankis' lie between Melrose and Newtown, on the +eastern slope of the Eildons, on the left side of the highway as it +bends round to the west, going towards, and within about two miles of, +Melrose. The spot is indicated by the famous Eildon Tree Stone. + +[3] The place belonged in 1566 to Andrew Ker, one of the murderers of +Rizzio. In 1574 Ker married the widow of John Knox, the Reformer. +Nicol Milne was proprietor in Scott's day. + + +[Illustration: JEDBURGH ABBEY. This grand ruin is of red sandstone, +and except that it is roofless is in excellent preservation.] + +But even 'yerd-hunger' must be satisfied, and in Scott's case there was +nothing for it save to steel the flesh against further desire. In +November, 1825, there is the following entry in his diary: 'Abbotsford +is all I can make it, so I resolve on no more building and no purchases +of land till times are quite safe.' But times were never safe again. +Abbotsford was all but within sound of the 'muffled drum.' Very +soon--December 18, 1825--Scott was to write these words: 'Sad hearts at +Darnick and in the cottages of Abbotsford. I have half resolved never +to see the place again. How could I tread my hall with such a +diminished crest! How live a poor, indebted man where I was once the +wealthy, the honoured!' And again on January 26, 1826: 'I have walked +my last on the domains I have planted, sat the last time in the halls I +have built'--reflections happily unrealized, though, as a matter of +fact, Scott was then the laird of Abbotsford in name only, and nothing +more. + +The building and furnishing of Abbotsford are estimated to have cost +over £25,000. The contract for the 1824 edifice was in the capable +hands of the Smiths of Darnick, with whom Scott was on the most cordial +terms. John Smith (the sculptor of the Wallace statue at Bemersyde) +was a singularly able craftsman, and his staff of workmen, with Adam +Paterson for foreman, were known all over the Border. For the interior +decorations--painting, papering, etc., and even for some of the +carvings and casts--Scott generally gave employment to local labour. +Much of the costlier furniture was shipped from London, but the great +bulk of the work was carried through by tradesmen in the district, +selected by Scott himself, and in whom he placed implicit confidence. +The estate, all told, must have cost at least £60,000. It extended to +1,500 acres, and the annual rental in Scott's day was only about £350. + +Such was the creation of Scott's Abbotsford, a real 'romance in stone +and lime,' to use the Frenchman's hackneyed phrase. Never had Sir +Walter deeper delight than when its walls were rising skywards, and the +dream of his youth taking steady shape by the silvery side of the +Tweed. 'I have seen much, but nothing like my ain house,' he cried--a +broken, dying man returned to Abbotsford, only to be borne forth again. +Nor has history been slow to add its Amen. + + + + +CHAPTER III + +SCOTT AT ABBOTSFORD + +Of the Abbotsford life in the seven or eight brilliant seasons +preceding the disaster of 1826 Lockhart's exquisite word-pictures are +far the finest things in the Biography. Scott's dream was now fairly +realized. He was not only a lord of acres, but a kind of mediæval +chieftain as well. His cottage was transformed to a superb mansion, +like some creation of the 'Arabian Nights,' and the whole estate, +acquired at a cost far exceeding its real value, had grown to one of +the trimmest and snuggest on Tweedside. A comparative failure at the +Bar, Scott succeeded well otherwise in his professional career. His +income from the Court Clerkship and Sheriffdom totalled £1,600, and +from other sources he had an additional £400 a year. As the most +prosperous book-producer of the period, he was netting an annual profit +of no less than £10,000. His family was grown up, and his home life, +notwithstanding some harsh things said about Lady Scott, was of the +happiest. Unliterary, and Frenchified to a degree, Charlotte Carpenter +was not the ideal helpmeet, perhaps, for a man of Scott's calibre and +temperament. But that they lived comfortably together, that she made +him an excellent wife, and that Scott was much attached to her, must be +taken for granted, else Lockhart and the others are equivocating. +There is at least one glimpse into Scott's heart which cannot savour of +hypocrisy--the occasion of her death. Some of the most touching +passages in the Diary belong to that event. As lover, husband, father, +there is no question of the acuteness with which he felt her loss who +had been his 'thirty years' companion.' Within less than six months +the two biggest blows of his life fell upon Scott. Ruined, then +widowed, his cup of grief was drained to the utmost. But before the +fatal '26 Scott's life was an eminently ideal one. Abbotsford was all +he could make it. He had reached the loftiest rung of the ladder. +Long had he been the celebrity of the hour, not in Britain only, but +throughout Europe itself. Probably no British author of his time was +more widely known, and none, it is certain, was surrounded with so many +of the material comforts. It was truly a summer fulness for Scott at +Abbotsford ere the autumn winds or the biting breath of winter had +begun to chill his cheek. + +[Illustration: SIR WALTER'S SUNDIAL, ABBOTSFORD. The dial stone in the +flower garden, inscribed with the motto "For the Night Cometh," is an +object of suggestive interest.] + +A glance at the Abbotsford life will bring us nearer Scott as a +man--and as the most lovable of men. Treading, as one does to-day, in +his very footsteps, we shall want to know how he lived there, and in +what manner the pleasant days were spent. Scott's habits at +Abbotsford, as at Ashestiel, were delightfully simple. In the country +he was a rustic of the rustics. Formality vanished to a considerable +extent when he changed his townhouse for the bracing atmosphere of the +Tweed. But always methodical in his literary operations, he never +allowed the freer life of Abbotsford to interfere with whatever tasks +he had on hand. He did not sit late into the night. As a rule, the +Abbotsford day ended for Scott by ten o'clock. He rose at five, lit +his own fire in the season, shaving and dressing with precision. +Attired generally in his green shooting-jacket, he was at his desk by +six, and hard at work till nine. About half-past nine, when the family +met for breakfast, he would enter the room 'rubbing his hands for +glee,' for by that time he had done enough, as he said, 'to break the +neck of the day's work.' After breakfast, he allowed his guests to +fill in the next couple of hours or so for themselves--fishing, +shooting, driving, or riding, with a retinue of keepers and grooms at +command. Meantime he was busy with his correspondence, or a chapter +for Ballantyne to be dispatched by the 'Blucher,' the Edinburgh and +Melrose coach, by which he himself frequently travelled to and from +Abbotsford. At noon he was 'his own man,' and among his visitors, or +felling trees with the workmen on the estate, laying wagers, and +competing with the best of them. When the weather was wet and stormy +he kept to his study for several hours during the day, that he might +have a reserve fund to draw from on good days. To his visitors he +appeared more the man of leisure than the indefatigable author +conferring pleasure on thousands. Only a careful husbanding of the +moments could have enabled him to give the greater part of afternoon +and evening to his guests. 'I know,' said Cadell, the publisher, once +to him, 'that you contrive to get a few hours in your own room, and +that may do for the mere pen-work, but when is it that you think?' +'Oh,' said Scott, 'I lie simmering over things for an hour or so before +I get up, and there's the time I am dressing to overhaul my +half-sleeping, half-waking _projet de chapitre_, and when I get the +paper before me it commonly runs off pretty easily. Besides, I often +take a dose in the plantations, and while Tom marks out a dyke or a +drain as I have directed, one's fancy may be running its ain riggs in +some other world.' His maxim was never to be doing nothing, and in +making the most of the opportunities, he served both himself and his +friends. Lockhart's reminiscences of the Abbotsford life, so +delightfully vivid, convey better than anything else something of the +ideal charm of Scott and his circle. But to Lockhart all may go on +their own account, since lack of space forbids more than a mere +quotation. + +[Illustration: DARNICK TOWER. One of the best preserved Peels on the +border. Open to the public and well worth a visit.] + +The Abbotsford Hunt, one of the enjoyable annual outings--a coursing +match on an extensive scale--affords material for Lockhart's best vein, +especially the Hunt dinner, which for many of the neighbouring yeomen +and farmers was _the_ event of the year. 'The company were seldom +under thirty in number, and sometimes they exceeded forty. The feast +was such as suited the occasion--a baron of beef, roasted, at the foot +of the table, a salted round at the head, while tureens of hare-soup, +hotchpotch, and cockieleekie extended down the centre, and such light +articles as geese, turkeys, an entire sucking-pig, a singed sheep's +head, and the unfailing haggis were set forth by way of side-dishes. +Black-cock and moor-fowl, snipe, black and white puddings, and pyramids +of pancakes, formed the second course. Ale was the favourite beverage +during dinner, but there was plenty of port and sherry for those whose +stomachs they suited. The quaighs of Glenlivet were filled brimful, +and tossed off as if they held water. The wine decanters made a few +rounds of the table, but the hints for hot punch and toddy soon became +clamorous. Two or three bowls were introduced and placed under the +supervision of experienced manufacturers--one of these being usually +the Ettrick Shepherd--and then the business of the evening commenced in +good earnest. The faces shone and glowed like those at Camacho's +wedding; the chairman told his richest stories of old rural life, +Lowland or Highland; Ferguson and humbler heroes fought their +Peninsular battles o'er again; the stalwart Dandie Dinmonts lugged out +their last winter's snow-storm, the parish scandal, perhaps, or the +dexterous bargain of the Northumberland tryst. Every man was knocked +down for the song that he sung best, or took most pleasure in singing. +Shortreed gave "Dick o' the Cow," or "Now Liddesdale has ridden a +raid"; his son Thomas shone without a rival in the "Douglas Tragedy" +and the "Twa Corbies"; a weather-beaten, stiff-bearded veteran, +"Captain" Ormiston, had the primitive pastoral of "Cowdenknowes" in +sweet perfection. Hogg produced the "Women Folk," or "The Kye comes +Hame," and, in spite of many grinding notes, contrived to make +everybody delighted, whether with the fun or the pathos of his ballad. +The Melrose doctor sang in spirited style some of Moore's masterpieces. +A couple of retired sailors joined in "Bold Admiral Duncan," and the +gallant croupier crowned the last bowl with "Ale, good ale, thou art my +darling." And so it proceeded until some worthy, who had fifteen or +twenty miles to ride, began to insinuate that his wife and bairns would +be getting sorely anxious about the fords, and the Dumpies and Hoddins +were at last heard neighing at the gate, and it was voted that the hour +had come for _doch an dorrach_, the stirrup-cup, a bumper all round of +the unmitigated mountain dew. How they all contrived to get home in +safety Heaven only knows, but I never heard of any serious accident +except upon one occasion, when James Hogg made a bet at starting that +he would leap over his wall-eyed pony as she stood, and broke his nose +in this experiment of o'ervaulting ambition. One comely good-wife, far +off among the hills, amused Sir Walter by telling him the next time he +passed her homestead after one of these jolly doings, what her +husband's first words were when he alighted at his own door--"Ailie, my +woman, I'm ready for my bed; and oh, lass, I wish I could sleep for a +towmont, for there's only ae thing in this warld worth living for, and +that's the Abbotsford Hunt."' + +Nor was the good old custom of the Kirn omitted at Abbotsford. Every +autumn, before proceeding to Edinburgh, Scott gave a 'Harvest Home,' to +which all the tenantry and their friends--as many as the barn could +hold--were invited. Sir Walter and his family were present during the +first part of the evening, to dispense the good things and say a few +words of farewell. Old and young danced from sunset to sunrise, to the +skirling of John o' Skye's pipes, or the strains of some 'Wandering +Willie's' fiddle, the laird having his private joke for every old wife +or 'gausie carle,' his arch compliment for the ear of every bonnie +lass, and his hand and his blessing for the head of every little Eppie +Daidle from Abbotstown or Broomielees. Hogmanay, and the immemorial +customs of the New Year, as celebrated in Scotland--now fast dying +out--obtained full respect at Abbotsford. Scott said it was uncanny, +and would certainly have felt it very uncomfortable not to welcome the +New Year in the midst of his family and a few cronies in the orthodox +fashion. But nothing gave him such delight as the visit which he +received as laird from all the children on his estate on the last +morning of the year, when, as he was fond of quoting: + + 'The cottage bairns sing blythe and gay + At the ha' door for hogmanay.' + + +The words and form of the drama exist in various versions in every part +of the Border Country, almost every parish possessing its own +rendering. The _dramatis personæ_, three or four in number, sometimes +even five, arrayed in fantastic fashion, proceeded from house to house, +generally contenting themselves with the kitchen for an arena, where +the performance was carried through in presence of the entire +household. 'Galations' (not 'Goloshin') is the title of the play. +Some account of it will be found in Chambers' 'Popular Rhymes of +Scotland,' and in Maidment's scarce pamphlet on the subject (1835). + +From what has been said, it is not difficult to imagine the ideal +relationship existing between Scott and his dependents at Abbotsford. +They were surely the happiest retainers and domestics in the world. +How considerate he was in the matter of dwellings, for instance! He +realized that he owed them a distinct duty in diffusing as much comfort +and security into their lives as possible. They were not mere goods +and chattels, but beings of flesh and blood, with human sympathies like +himself. And he treated them as such. Amid the severities of winter, +some of his Edinburgh notes to Laidlaw are perfect little gems of their +kind: 'This dreadful weather will probably stop Mercer (the weekly +carrier). It makes me shiver in the midst of superfluous comforts to +think of the distress of others. I wish you to distribute £10 amongst +our poorer neighbours so as may best aid them. I mean not only the +actually indigent, but those who are, in our phrase, _ill off_. I am +sure Dr. Scott (of Darnlee) will assist you with his advice in this +labour of love. I think part of the wood-money, too, should be given +among the Abbotstown folks if the storm keeps them off work, as is +like.' And again: 'If you can devise any means by which hands can be +beneficially employed at Abbotsford, I could turn £50 or £100 extra +into service. If it made the poor and industrious people a little +easier, I should have more pleasure in it than any money I ever spent +in my life.' 'I think of my rooks amongst this snowstorm, also of the +birds, and not a little of the poor. For benefit of the former, I hope +Peggy throws out the crumbs, and a cornsheaf or two for the game, if +placed where poachers could not come at them. For the poor people I +wish you to distribute £5 or so among the neighbouring poor who may be +in distress, and see that our own folks are tolerably well off.' 'Do +not let the poor bodies want for a £5, or even a £10, more or less'-- + + 'We'll get a blessing wi' the lave, + And never miss 't.' + +Socially, the bond between Scott and his servants was a characteristic +object-lesson. 'He speaks to us,' said one, 'as if we were blood +relations.' Like Swift, he maintained that an affectionate and +faithful servant should always be considered in the character of a +humble friend. Even the household domestics 'stayed on' year after +year. Some of them grew grey in his service. One or two died. He had +always several pensioners beside him. Abbotsford was like a little +happy world of its own--the most emphatic exception to the cynic's +rule. Scott was 'a hero and a gentleman' to those who knew him most +intimately in the common and disillusionizing routine of domestic life. + +In reading Lockhart, one feels that, aristocrat as Scott was, familiar +with the nobility and literary lions of the time, he was most at home, +and happiest, perhaps, in the fellowship of commoner men, such as +Laidlaw, and Purdie, and John Usher, and James Hogg, who were knit to +him as soul to soul. Of some of these he declared that they had become +almost an integral part of his existence. We know how life was +inexpressibly changed for Scott minus Tom Purdie, and to dispense with +Laidlaw, when that had become absolutely necessary, was as the iron +entering his soul. The most perfect pen-portraits in Lockhart are +those of Purdie (the Cristal Nixon of 'Redgauntlet'), that faithful +factotum and friend for whom he mourned as a brother; and 'dear Willie' +Laidlaw, betwixt whom and Scott the most charming of all master and +servant correspondence passed; and 'auld Pepe'--Peter Mathieson, his +coachman, a wondrously devoted soul, content to set himself in the +plough-stilts, and do the most menial duties, rather than quit +Abbotsford at its darkest. John Swanston, too, Purdie's successor, and +Dalgleish, the butler, occupy exalted niches in the temple of humble +and honest worth and sweet sacrificing service for a dear master's sake +who was much more than master to them all. Purdie's grave, close to +Melrose Abbey, with a modest stone erected by Sir Walter Scott, is +probably the most visited of the 'graves of the common people' almost +anywhere. It is eighty-three years since, apparently in the fullest +enjoyment of health and vigour, he bowed his head one evening on the +table, and dropped asleep--for ever. Laidlaw lies at Contin amid the +Highland solitudes. But few from Tweedside have beheld the green turf +beneath which his loyal heart has been long resting, or read the simple +inscription on the white marble that marks a spot so sacred to all +lovers of Abbotsford and Sir Walter. + + 'Here lie the remains of William Laidlaw, + Born at Blackhouse in Yarrow, + November, 1780. Died at Contin, May 18, 1845.' + + +No account of the Abbotsford life can fail to take notice of the +extraordinary number of visitors, who, even at that early date, flocked +to the shrine of Sir Walter. The year 1825, as has been said, must be +regarded as the high-water mark in the splendours of Abbotsford. From +the dawn of 'Waverley,' but particularly the period immediately +preceding the crash, Abbotsford was the most sought-after house in the +kingdom. It was seldom without its quota of guests. 'Like a cried +fair,' Scott described it on one occasion. 'A hotel widout de pay,' +was Lady Scott's more matter-of-fact comparison. What a profoundly +interesting and curious record a register of visitors to Abbotsford +would have been! + +[Illustration: THE DINING-ROOM, ABBOTSFORD. "His own great parlour" is +not open to the public. It was the first room of any pretension that +Scott built at Abbotsford.] + +Scott's first really distinguished visitor from the other side of the +Atlantic was Washington Irving. He was there in August, 1817, whilst +the building operations were in progress. Following Irving, came Lady +Byron for one day only. Though Scott met Byron in London, and they +frequently corresponded, Lord Byron was never at Abbotsford. In that +same year Sir David Wilkie visited Scott to paint his picture, the +'Abbotsford Family.' Sir Humphry Davy was another visitor. One of the +most welcome of all was Miss Edgeworth, who stayed for a fortnight in +1823. Tom Moore came in 1825, and in 1829 Mrs. Hemans, visiting the +Hamiltons at Chiefswood, was daily at Abbotsford. Susan Ferrier, +author of 'Marriage' and 'Inheritance,' visited Scott twice. +Wordsworth, greatest name of all, was the last. He arrived on +September 21, 1831, and two days later Scott, a broken invalid, left +for the Continent. + +To the list of Scott's intimate friends, based on the Biography, Thomas +Faed's picture, 'Scott and his Literary Friends,'[1] offers a good +index. The piece is purely imaginary, for the persons represented were +never all at Abbotsford at the same time, two of them, indeed--Crabbe +and Campbell--never having seen it. Scott is represented as reading +the manuscript of a new novel; on his right, Henry Mackenzie, his +oldest literary friend, occupies the place of honour. Hogg, the +intentest figure in the group, sits at Scott's feet to the left. Kit +North's leonine head and shoulders lean across the back of a chair. +Next come Crabbe and Lockhart--at the centre of the table--together +with Wordsworth and Francis (afterwards Lord) Jeffrey. Sir Adam +Ferguson, a bosom cronie, cross-legged, his military boots recalling +Peninsular days and the reading of the 'Lady of the Lake' to his +comrades in the lines of Torres Vedras, immediately faces Scott. +Behind him, Moore and Campbell sit opposite each other. At the end of +the table are the printers Constable and Ballantyne, and at their back, +standing, the painters Allan and Wilkie. Thomas Thomson, Deputy Clerk +Register, is on the extreme left, and Sir Humphry Davy is examining a +sword-hilt. A second and smaller copy of Faed's picture (in the +Woodlands Park collection, Bradford) substitutes Lord Byron and +Washington Irving for Constable and Ballantyne. Allan, Davy, and +Thomson are also omitted. The artist might well have introduced +Scott's lady literary friends, Joanna Baillie and Maria Edgeworth, and +it is a pity that Laidlaw has been left out. + + +[1] In the possession of Captain Dennistoun of Golfhill. The picture +has been frequently on exhibition, and frequently engraved. + + +Whilst, however, Abbotsford was a kind of ever open door to an +unparalleled variety of guests, there was another and a much larger +company constantly invading its precincts--the great army of the +uninvited. Such interruptions were a constant source of worry to +Scott. Some came furnished with letters of introduction from friends +for whose sake Scott received them cordially, and treated them kindly. +Others had no introduction at all, but, pencil and note-book in hand, +took the most impertinent liberties with the place and its occupants. +On returning to Abbotsford upon one occasion, Lockhart recalls how +Scott and he found Mrs. Scott and her daughters doing penance under the +merciless curiosity of a couple of tourists, who had been with her for +some hours. It turned out after all that there were no letters of +introduction to be produced, as she had supposed, and Scott, signifying +that his hour for dinner approached, added that, as he gathered they +meant to walk to Melrose, he could not trespass further on their time. +The two lion-hunters seemed quite unprepared for this abrupt escape. +But there was about Scott, in perfection, when he chose to exert it, +the power of civil repulsion. He bowed the overwhelmed originals to +the door, and on re-entering the parlour, found Mrs. Scott complaining +very indignantly that they had gone so far as to pull out their +note-book and beg an exact account, not only of his age, but of her +own. Scott, already half relenting, laughed heartily at this misery, +afterwards saying, 'Hang the Yahoos, Charlotte, but we should have bid +them stay dinner.' 'Devil a bit,' quoth Captain Ferguson, who had come +over from Huntlyburn, 'they were quite in a mistake, I could see. The +one asked Madame whether she deigned to call her new house Tully Veolan +or Tillietudlem, and the other, when Maida happened to lay his head +against the window, exclaimed, "_Pro-di-gi-ous!_"' 'Well, well, +Skipper,' was the reply, 'for a' that, the loons would hae been nane +the waur o' their kail.' + +[Illustration: THE GARDEN, ABBOTSFORD. The Courtyard was (in Mr. Hope +Scott's time) planted as a flower garden, with clipped yews at the +corners of the ornamental grass-plots, and beds all ablaze with summer +Bowers.] + +Much has been written of Scott and his dogs--not the least important +part of the establishment. All true poets, from Homer downwards, have +loved dogs. Scott was seldom without a 'tail' at his heels. His +special favourites, Camp and Maida (the Bevis of 'Woodstock'), are as +well-known as himself. Both were frequently painted by Raeburn and +others. When Camp died at Castle Street, Scott excused himself from a +dinner-party on account of 'the death of a dear old friend'--a fine +compliment to the canine tribe--a finer index to the heart of the man. +Scott looked upon his dogs as companions, 'not as the brute, but the +mute creation.' He loved them for their marvellously human traits, and +we know how they reciprocated his affection. He was always caring for +them. 'Be very careful of the dogs,' was his last request to Laidlaw +on the eve of setting out for Italy. And when, close on a year +afterwards, he returned so deadly stricken, it was his dogs fondling +about him which for the most part resuscitated the sense of 'home, +sweet home.' + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +THE WIZARD'S FAREWELL TO ABBOTSFORD + +On March 5, 1817, at Castle Street, in the midst of a merry +dinner-party, Scott was seized with a sudden illness--the first since +his childhood. The illness lasted a week, and was more serious than +had been anticipated. It was, indeed, the first of a series of such +paroxysms, which for years visited him periodically, and from which he +never absolutely recovered. + +Lockhart parted on one occasion with 'dark prognostications' that it +was for the last time. Scott, too, despaired of himself. Calling his +children about his bed, he said: 'For myself, my dears, I am +unconscious of ever having done any man an injury, or omitted any fair +opportunity of doing any man a benefit. I well know that no human life +can appear otherwise than weak and filthy in the eyes of God; but I +rely on the merits and intercession of our Redeemer.' 'God bless you!' +he again said to each of them, laying his hand on their heads. 'Live +so that you may all hope to meet each other in a better place +hereafter.' Presently he fell into a profound slumber, and on awaking, +the crisis was seen to be over. A gradual re-establishment of health +followed. Of the 'Bride of Lammermoor,' and 'Ivanhoe,' written under +the most adverse circumstances, whilst he still suffered acutely, one +is surprised to find both romances in the very front rank of his +creations. He was under opiates, more or less, when the 'Bride' was on +the stocks, dictating nearly the whole of it to Laidlaw and John +Ballantyne. It is a most curious fact psychologically, for of its +characters, scenes, humour, and all that connected him with the +authorship of the story, he recollected nothing. A more extraordinary +incident literature has not known.[1] But work which cut him short in +the end was the saving of his life in this instance. The mind was a +constant conquest over the weaker physical framework. 'It is my +conviction,' he declared to Gillies, 'that by a little more hearty +application you might forget, and lose altogether, the irritable +sensations of an invalid, and I don't, in this instance, preach what I +have not endeavoured to practise. Be assured that if pain could have +prevented my application to literary labour, not a page of "Ivanhoe" +would have been written; for, from beginning to end of that production, +which has been a good deal praised, I was never free from suffering. +It might have borne a motto somewhat analogous to the inscription which +Frederick the Great's predecessor used to affix to his attempts at +portrait-painting when he had the gout: "Fredericus I., _in tormentis +pinxit_." Now, if I had given way to mere feelings and ceased to work, +it is a question whether the disorder might not have taken deeper root, +and become incurable. The best way is, if possible, to triumph over +disease by setting it at defiance, somewhat on the same principle as +one avoids being stung by boldly grasping a nettle.' + + +[1] Dickens had a somewhat similar experience, though not, of course, +to the like extent. + + +[Illustration: THE ENTRANCE HALL, ABBOTSFORD. A spacious apartment, 40 +feet by 20 feet, panelled to the height of 7 feet with dark oak from +Dunfermline Abbey.] + +By 1820 he was enjoying tolerably good health, with no cramp +recurrences for a time. But in 1823, when busy with 'Peveril,' an +arresting hand laid itself upon Scott in the shape of a slight stroke +of apoplexy. As a matter of fact, and as Lockhart suspected, this was +only one of several such shocks which he had been carefully concealing. +'"Peveril" will, I fear, smell of the apoplexy,' he afterwards +admitted. Hence, no doubt, 'Peveril's' dulness. He rallied, +notwithstanding, and up to Christmas, 1825, his health was excellent. +But from 1826--the year of his crowning sorrows--the record of Scott's +life reads like a long martyrdom. Rheumatism, hallucinations, strange +memory lapses, began to steal from Scott all the little joy that was +left. On February 5, 1830, the blow fell which, like Damocles' sword, +had been hanging over him for years. It fell with unmistakable +meaning. It was his first real paralytic seizure--long dreaded, long +expected. On his return from the Parliament House, in his usual +health, he found an old friend waiting to consult him about a memoir of +her father which he had promised to revise for the press. Whilst +examining the MS. the stroke came, a slight contortion passing over his +features. In a minute or two he rose, staggered to the drawing-room, +where were Miss Anne Scott and Miss Lockhart, but fell to the floor +speechless and insensible. A surgeon quickly at hand cupped him, after +the old-fashioned treatment for such complaints. By night, speech had +returned, and in a day or two he had resumed his Court duties. But he +was never the same again. People in general did not remark any +difference. Doctors and patient, however, knew well enough that it was +the beginning of the end. Both his parents had succumbed to paralysis, +and 'considering the terrible violence and agitation and exertion,' +says Lockhart, 'to which he had been subjected during the four +preceding years, the only wonder is that this blow was deferred so +long; there can be none that it was soon followed by others.' + +Still he plodded on. Even with half a brain he should not 'lag +superfluous on the stage.' And heedless of innumerable warnings, he +was at his desk day after day, writing and dictating by turns. He now +resigned his Clerkship, on an £800 a year allowance, surrendered his +Edinburgh house, and settled permanently at Abbotsford, lonely and +desolate, an old man before his time, but indomitable to the core. +There he commenced 'Count Robert of Paris,' the penultimate of his +published tales. But the mighty machinery of his mind moved not as of +yore. Like Samson, his strength had departed. He was now as other +men. By November he suffered from a second stroke, and wrote in his +Diary for January: 'Very indifferent, with more awkward feelings than I +can well bear up against. My voice sunk, and my head strangely +confused.' But a worse shock was coming. Cadell pronounced the +'Count' a complete failure. Yet he struggled to recast it. To crown +all, he went to the 'hustings'--a hardened anti-Reform Billite. At +Jedburgh, as Lockhart tells, the crowd saluted him with blasphemous +shouts of 'Burke Sir Walter!'[2]--the unkindest cut of all, which +haunted him to the end. By July he had begun 'Castle Dangerous,' and +in the middle of the month, accompanied by Lockhart, he started for +Lanarkshire to refresh his memory for the setting of his new story. +They ascended the Tweed by Yair, Ashestiel, Elibank, Innerleithen, +Peebles, Biggar, places all dear to his heart and celebrated in his +writings. Crowds turned out to welcome him. Everywhere he was +received with acclamation and the deepest respect. At Douglas the +travellers inspected the old Castle, the ruin of St. Bride's, with the +monuments and tombs of the 'most heroic and powerful family in Scottish +annals.' At Milton-Lockhart, the seat of Lockhart's brother, Scott met +his old friend Borthwickbrae. Both were paralytics. Each saw his own +case mirrored in the other. They had a joyous--too joyous a meeting, +with startling results to the older invalid. On returning to Cleghorn, +another shock laid him low, and he was despaired of. When the news +reached Scott, he was bent on getting home at once. 'No, William,' he +said to his host, urging him to remain, 'this is a sad warning; I must +home to work while it is called to-day, for the night cometh when no +man can work. I put that text many years ago on my dial-stone, but it +often preached in vain.' + + +[2] The Burke and Hare murders were recent. + + +Returned, he finished 'Count Robert' and 'Castle Dangerous.' Both +novels were really the fruit of a paralytic brain. The 'Magnum +Opus,'[3] too, proposed by Cadell (a huge success), engaged much of his +attention. But Sir Walter's work was done. At length, doctors' +treatment doing him little good, from his constant determination to be +at his desk, it was decided, not without difficulty, that Scott should +spend the winter of 1831 in Italy, where his son Charles was attached +to the British Legation at Naples. On September 22 all was in +readiness. A round of touching adieus, one or two gatherings of old +friends, the final instructions to Laidlaw, and Scott quitted +Abbotsford practically for ever. He returned, to be sure, but more a +dead man than a living one. Of his journey to London (meeting many +friends) there is no need to write, nor of the Italian tour--Malta, +Naples, Rome, Florence, Venice--for which, no matter the brilliance of +their associations, he exhibited but a mere passive interest. His +heart was in the homeland. + + +[3] A reissue of the Poetry, with biographical prefaces, and a uniform +reprint of the Novels, each introduced by an account of the hints on +which it had been founded, and illustrated throughout by historical and +antiquarian annotations. + + +By June 13, London was again reached, and in the St. James's Hotel, +Jermyn Street (now demolished), he lay for three weeks in a state of +supreme stupor. Allan Cunningham tells of the extraordinary interest +and sympathy which Scott's illness evoked. Walking home late one +night, he found a number of working men standing at the corner of +Jermyn Street, one of whom asked him, as if there had been only one +deathbed in London: 'Do you know, sir, if this is the street where he +is lying?' 'Abbotsford!' was his cry in the more lucid intervals that +came to him. On July 7 he was carried on board the _James Watt_ +steamer, accompanied by Lockhart, Cadell, a medical man--Dr. Thomas +Watson--and his two daughters. The Forth was reached on the 9th, and +the next two days--the last in his 'own romantic town'--were passed, as +all the voyage had been, in a condition of absolute unconsciousness. +On the 11th, at a very early hour of the morning, Scott was lifted into +his carriage for the final journey homewards. During the first part of +the drive he remained torpid, until the veil lifted somewhat at Gala +Water. Strange that, after oblivion so profound and prolonged, he +should open his eyes and regain a measure of consciousness just here, +amid landscapes the most familiar to him in the world. Some good angel +must have touched him then. A mere coincidence! Perhaps! But there +are more things in heaven and earth than are dreamt of in our +philosophy. 'Gala Water, surely--Buckholm--Torwoodlee,' he murmured. +When he saw the Eildons-- + + 'Three crests against the saffron sky, + Beyond the purple plain, + The kind remembered melody + Of Tweed once more again'-- + +he became greatly excited, and in crossing Melrose Bridge, his 'nearest +Rialto,' as he called it, he could hardly be kept in the carriage. +Abbotsford, a mile ahead, was soon reached. Laidlaw--a big lump in his +throat, we may be sure--was waiting at the door, and assisted to carry +his dying master and friend to the dining-room, where his bed had been +prepared. He sat bewildered for a moment or two, then, resting his +eyes on Laidlaw, as if trying to recollect, said immediately, 'Ha, +Willie Laidlaw! O man, how often have I thought of _you_!' By this +time his dogs were around his chair, fawning on him, and licking his +hands. Then, indeed, he knew where he was. Between sobs and tears he +tried to speak to them, and to stroke them as of yore. But the body, +no less than the brain, was exhausted, and gentle sleep closed his +eyelids, like a tired child, once more in his own Abbotsford. He +lingered for some weeks, alternating between cloud and sunshine--mostly +cloud. One day the longing for his desk seized him, and he was wheeled +studywards, but the palsied fingers refused their office, and he sank +back, assured at last that the sceptre had departed. Lockhart and +Laidlaw were now his constant attendants. Both read to him from the +New Testament. 'There is but one Book,' Scott said, and it 'comforted' +him to listen to its soothing and hope-inspiring utterances. Then the +cloud became denser. At last delirium and delusion prostrated him, and +he grew daily feebler. Now he thought himself administering justice as +the Selkirkshire 'Shirra'; anon he was giving Tom Purdie orders anent +trees. Sometimes, his fancy was in Jedburgh, and the words, 'Burke Sir +Walter,' escaped him in a dolorous tone. Then he would repeat snatches +from Isaiah, or the Book of Job, or some grand rugged verse torn off +from the Scottish Psalms, or a strain sublimer still from the Romish +Litany: + + 'Dies irae, dies ilia, + Solvet saeclum in favilla.' + +'As I was dressing on the morning of September 17,' says Lockhart, +'Nicolson came into my room and told me that his master had awoke in a +state of composure and consciousness, and wished to see me immediately. +I found him entirely himself, though in the last extreme of feebleness. +His eye was clear and calm--every trace of the wild fire of delirium +extinguished. "Lockhart," he said, "I may have but a minute to speak +to you. My dear, be a good man--be virtuous--be religious--be a good +man. Nothing else will give you any comfort when you come to lie +here." He paused, and I said: "Shall I send for Sophia and Anne?" +"No," said he, "don't disturb them. Poor souls! I know they were up +all night. God bless you all." With this he sunk into a very tranquil +sleep, and, indeed, he scarcely afterwards gave any sign of +consciousness, except for an instant on the arrival of his sons. About +half-past one p.m., on September 21, Sir Walter Scott breathed his +last, in the presence of all his children. It was a beautiful day--so +warm that every window was wide open, and so perfectly still that the +sound of all others most delicious to his ear, the gentle ripple of the +Tweed over its pebbles, was distinctly audible as we knelt around the +bed, and his eldest son kissed and closed his eyes.' + +[Illustration: DRYBURGH ABBEY. Which, if it cannot boast the +architectural glories of Melrose, far surpasses it for queenly +situation.] + +He died a month after completing his sixty-first year. On December 7, +1825, almost seven years earlier, we find him taking a survey of his +own health in relation to the ages reached by his parents and other +members of the family, and then setting down in his Diary the result of +his calculations, 'Square the odds, and good-night, Sir Walter, about +sixty. I care not, if I leave my name unstained and my family property +settled. _Sat est vixisse_.' His prophecy was fulfilled. He lived +just a year--but a year of gradual death--beyond his anticipations. +His wish, too, was fulfilled; for he died practically free of debt. +The sale of his works, the insurance of his life, and a sum advanced by +Cadell, completely cleared his engagements. The copyrights purchased +by Cadell were afterwards sold to Messrs. Adam and Charles Black, who +therefore hold the exact text of the works. + +On September 26--a Wednesday--Sir Walter was buried. Services at +Abbotsford, after the simple fashion of the Scottish Kirk, were +conducted by the Revs. Principal Baird, of Edinburgh University, Dr. +Dickson, of St. Cuthbert's, and the minister of Melrose. The courtyard +and all the precincts of Abbotsford were crowded with uncovered +spectators as the procession (over a mile in length) was arranged. And +as it advanced through Darnick and Melrose, and the villages on the +route, the whole population appeared at their doors in like manner, +almost all in black. From Darnick Tower a broad crape banner waved in +the wind, and the Abbey bell at Melrose rang a muffled peel. Thence +there is a somewhat steep ascent to Gladswood and Bemersyde. On the +crest of the road overlooking the 'beautiful bend' the hearse came to a +curious halt, at the very spot where Scott was accustomed to rein up +his horses. It was no 'accident,' as Lockhart imagines. For one of +the horses was Sir Walter's own, and must have borne him many a time +hither. Peter Mathieson, Laidlaw, and others of Scott's servants +carried the plain black coffin to the grave within St. Mary's aisle, at +Dryburgh, where it was lowered by his two sons, his son-in-law, and six +of his cousins. And thus the remains of Sir Walter Scott--our Scottish +Shakespeare--were laid by the side of his wife in the sepulchre of his +fathers. + + + + +CHAPTER V + +THE LATER ABBOTSFORD + +Sir Walter's Abbotsford, as we saw, was completed in 1824. For the +next thirty years there was practically no alteration on the place. At +Scott's death the second Sir Walter came into possession. He does not +appear to have lived at Abbotsford after 1832, and indeed for many +years previous his time had been spent almost entirely with his +regiment, the 15th Hussars, of which, at his father's death, he was +Major. He died childless, as his brother did also, and Abbotsford +passed to Walter Scott Lockhart, son of Scott's elder daughter, who had +married J. G. Lockhart. On his death, in 1853, his only sister +Charlotte, married to James Robert Hope, Q.C., came into possession, +and she and her husband assumed the name of Scott. + +Abbotsford had been sadly neglected since Scott's death in 1832, and +everything needed restoration. But Mr. Hope Scott did wonders. +Between the years 1855 and 1857 he built a new west wing to the house, +consisting of a Chapel, hall, drawing-room, boudoir, and a suite of +bedrooms. The old kitchen was turned into a linen-room, and a long +range of new kitchen offices facing the Tweed was erected, which +materially raised the elevation of Scott's edifice, and improved the +appearance of the whole pile as seen from the river. An ingenious +tourist access was also arranged, with other internal alterations. +Outside, the grounds and gardens were completely overhauled, the +overgrown plantations thinned, and the old favourite walks cleaned and +kept as Scott himself would have wished. In the lifetime of the Great +Magician the ground on which he fixed his abode was nearly on a level +with the highway running along the south front, and wayfarers could +survey the whole domain by looking over the hedge. A high embankment +was now thrown up on the road-front of Abbotsford, the road itself +shifted several yards back, the avenue lengthened, a lodge built, and +the new mound covered with a choice variety of timber, which has now +grown into one of the most pleasing features of the Abbotsford +approach. The courtyard was at the same time planted as a +flower-garden, with clipped yews at the corners of the ornamental +grass-plots, and beds all ablaze with summer flowers. The terraces, on +the north, so rich and velvety, date from this period. + +Most visitors to Abbotsford have the impression that Sir Walter was +responsible for every part of the present edifice, whereas it is at +least a third larger from that of Scott's day. + +On the death of Mr. Hope Scott (his wife having pre-deceased him), +their only living child, the sole surviving descendant of Sir Walter, +Mary Monica Hope Scott, came into possession. In 1874 she married the +Hon. Joseph Constable-Maxwell, third son of the eleventh Baron Herries +of Terregles. Thus direct descendants of the maker of Abbotsford still +reign there in the person of his great-granddaughter and her children. + +There are two methods of reaching Abbotsford--by rail to Galashiels, +thence to Abbotsford Ferry Station on the Selkirk line, alighting at +which and crossing the Tweed, a delightful tree-shaded walk of about a +mile brings us to the house. But the more popular method is to make +the journey from Melrose, three miles distant. The way lies between +delicious green fields and bits of woodland--a pleasant country road, +exposed somewhat, despite smiling hedgerows on either side. The road +teems with reminiscences of the Romancist. Out from the grey town, +with its orchards and picturesque gardens, the Waverley Hydropathic is +passed on the right. In the grounds a handsome seated statue of Scott +may be noticed. Further on, to the left, tree-ensconced, lie +Chiefswood and Huntlyburn on the Abbotsford estate. Then comes +Darnick, with its fine peel, now open to the public, and well worth a +visit. At the fork of the roads (that to the right leading by Melrose +Bridge to Gattonside and Galashiels) we turn leftwards, and are soon at +the visitors' entrance (a modest wicket-gate) to the great Scottish +Mecca. But nothing is to be seen yet. Mr. Hope Scott's plantations +and 'ingenious tourist arrangement' screen the pile with wonderful +completeness. And it is only when within a few paces of the building, +at a turn in the lane leading from the highway, that all at once one +emerges upon it. The public waiting-room is in the basement, whence +parties of ten or twelve are conducted through the house. + +In point of picturesqueness, Abbotsford is, of course, best seen from +the Tweed--the north bank--or the hillside. But we are then looking, +let us remember, at the _back_ of the edifice. Nearly all the +photographs present this view for the sake of the river. At first not +unfrequently there is a sense of disappointment, especially if one's +ideas have been founded on Turner's somewhat fanciful sketches. + +As this is not a guide-book, we shall not give here a minute catalogue +of the treasures to be seen at Abbotsford, referring the reader instead +to Mrs. Maxwell-Scott's excellent catalogue of the 'Armour and +Antiquities.' But we are sure that none who visit the place will come +away unsatisfied, or will fail to be moved by the personal relics of +the Great Wizard, such as his chair, his clothes and writing-desk, +which bring before us the man himself, for whose memory Abbotsford is +but a shrine. + +[Illustration: Plan of Abbotsford and grounds] + + + + +BILLING AND SONS, LTD., PRINTERS, GUILDFORD + + + + + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Abbotsford, by Anonymous + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 42289 *** |