434 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[Dec. 1. 1855. 



I can judge, they are fairly entitled to a sprig or two. 

 Scott's intellect was like granite, massive and sparkling. 

 The world might throw their fool's cap at seeing through 

 it, and 1 perfectly agree with you that a literary secret or 

 two, after remaining many a year quiet in his granite 

 mind, petrified congenially, and could never after by pos- 

 sibility be extracted, no matter what insinuating engine 

 of importunity was brought to bear. Scott was a great 

 man, and, like every other great man, a strange man. 

 Through life he loved and fattened on mysiitication. It 

 •was a striking characteristic of Scott that love for 

 mystery. He never was candid about his productions or 

 their history, although he sometimes feigned, and ap- 

 peared to be so. . . . There is one point I want you 

 to clear up for us. I never heard the name of Thomas 

 Scott until you mentioned it. You say he was ' singu- 

 larly endowed with literary taste and talent.' He may 

 have been, but as well as I can remember, you do not 

 give your authority for this statement, as you do for the 

 others ; and in the present day of imposture and incre- 

 dulity, by Jove! nobody will believe anything without 

 irrefragable proof. Ever yours, &c." 



To whioh I replied : 



" My dear Sir. — Your question is, I am happy to say, 

 easily answered. If you look to Lockhart's Lift of Scolt, 

 chap, xviii., you will find a letter from Sir Walter to his 

 brother, furnishing ample evidence to prove that Thomas 

 Scott, now forgotten, was once a man of known ' literary 

 taste and talent.' In 1809 the Quarterly Review was first 

 established. Scott laboured to enrol an efficient literary 

 staff, and amongst others sought the aid of ' Thomas, who 

 on the breaking up of his alFairs in Edinburgh,' writes 

 Mr. Lockhart, ' had retired to the Isle of Man, and who 

 shortly afterwards obtained the office, in which he died, 

 of Paymaster to the 70th Regt. The poet had a high 

 opinion of his brother's literary talents, and thought that 

 his knowledge of our ancient dramatists, and vein of comic 

 narration, might render him a very useful recruit. 



" ' To Thomas Scott, Esq., Douglas, Isle of Matt. 



"'Dear Tom.— Owing to certain pressing business, I 

 have not yet had time to complete my collection of Shad- 

 well for you, though it is now nearly ready. I wish you 

 to have all the originals to collate with the edition in 8vo.* 

 liut I have a more pressing employment foj- your pen, and 

 to which I think it particularly suited, "iou are to be 

 informed, but under the seal of the strictest secrecy, that 

 a plot has been long hatching by the gentlemen who were 

 active in the Anti-Jacobin paper, to countermine the 

 Edinburgh Review, by establishing one which should dis- 

 play similar talent and independence, with a better strain 

 of politics. . . . Now, as 1 know no one who possesses 

 more power of humour, or perception of the ridiculous, 

 than yourself, I think your leisure hours might be most 

 pleasantly passed in this way. Novels, light poetry, 

 and quizzical books of all kinds, might be sent to you by 

 the packet; you glide back your Keviews in the same 

 •way, and touch, upon the publication of the number 

 (quarterly), ten guineas per printed sheet of sixteen pages. 

 Jf you are shy of communicating directly with Gilford f, 

 you may for some time at least send your communications 

 through me, and / will revise them. We want the matter 

 to be a profound secret till the first number is out, Jf 

 you agree to try your skill, I will send you a novel or two. 

 You must understand, as Gadshill tells the Chamberlain, 



* Thomas Scott had projected an edition of Sliadwell's 

 plaj-s, as much forgotten in 1809, as he himself has be- 

 come since. — VV. J. E. 



t 'f 'le i:ditor. 



iN^o, 318.] 



that you are to be leagued with 'Trojans that thou 

 dreamest not of, the which, for sport sake, are content to 

 do the profession some grace;' and thus far I assure you, 

 that if by paying attention to yoi;r style and subject, you 

 can distinguish yourself creditably, it may prove a means 

 of finding you powerful friends were anything opening 

 in your island. 



Yours affectionately, 



W. S." 



Thomas Scott survived eleven years after this 

 date. It is probable that "the style" of a man 

 of such promise matured richly during the in- 

 terim. 



I, of course, in my original reply, contented 

 myself •with much fewer extracts from Sir Walter 

 Scott's letter. 



From an italicised passage in the above, it 

 would appear that Sir Walter considered Thomas 

 disposed to shyness and reserve, in touching upon 

 the authorship of his literary productions. This 

 circumstance throws some light on the motives 

 which caused Thomas Scott to say so little, during 

 his lifetime, of the share which I presume he had 

 in the composition of the Waverleys. He is said 

 to have been a good-natured, single-hearted man, 

 totally devoid of vanity, and this circumstance 

 may also have led to the " few and far between " 

 avowals that his brother did not write the entire 

 of the Waverley Novels. Besides, we must not 

 forget that in the remarkable letter to Thomas 

 Scott, quoted from by me (Vol. xii., p. 343.), Sir 

 Walter begged of him to " keep a dead secret " 

 the proposal of writing an experimental novel, and 

 sending it to him for " cobbling " and " revision." 



I await with anxiety and impatience the pro- 

 mised rebutting case of Mr. Francis Ballan- 

 TYNE ; his fortnight will have soon expired. I 

 am happy to find F. C. H. corroborating (p. 386.) 

 by strong evidence, previously unknown to me, 

 my opinion. William John Fitz-Patrick. 



Booterstown, Dublin. 



Mr. Thomas Scott married Elizabeth MacCul- 

 loch of Ardwell, near Gatehouse of Fleet, in 

 Kirkcudbrightshire. This lady survived her hus- 

 band, and died within the last five or six years at 

 Canterbury. Her knowledge of the legendary 

 lore of her native province of Galloway is said, by 

 those who had the pleasure of her acquaintance, 

 to have been very great. It was generally thought 

 in her family that she had supplied many of the 

 anecdotes and traits of character which Sir Walter 

 Scott worked up in his Scotch novels. Much of 

 the scenery described in Guy Mannering appears 

 to have been sketched from localities in the im- 

 mediate vicinity of Mrs. Scott's birthplace, a re- 

 markable cavern, the cove of Kirkclaugh, for 

 example, being pointed out to tourists as Dirk 

 Hatteraick's cave. It is asserted (for the fact of 

 course I cannot vouch) that Sir Walter Scott 

 never was in that part of the country. If this be 



