436 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[Dec. 1. 1855. 



It is with awkwardness and reluctance that I 

 have said so much ; as I am unused to writing for 

 the press, or, indeed, coming before the public in 

 any shape ; but I feel that a sense of duty calls rae 

 to protect the dignity of Scott's memory as far as 

 in my humble power lies. Fbancis BaI/LANttnb. 



Liverpool. 



Under ordinary circumstances Mr. W. J. Fitz- 

 Patrick might be left to brood over his mare's 

 nest. But when I find him asking, indignantly, 

 " Who is it that imagines the respect entertained 

 for Sir Walter Scott's memory would be im- 

 paired?" and adding seriously, "No one en- 

 tertains a profounder veneration for the name of 

 that great and good man than I do ; and if he re- 

 ceived assistance in his Herculean and generous 

 labour, it is no disgrace," I feel inclined to offer 

 him either horn of a dilemma. 



Not only did Scott avow at the Theatrical 

 Fund Dinner, Feb. 23, 1827 (see Appendix to 

 Introduction to Tales of the Canongate, vol. xll. 

 p. li. ; Waoerley Novels, edit. 1829—1834; or 

 Lockhart's Life, vol. vii. p. 19.), that " he was the 

 total and undivided author," — not only did he 

 twice repeat this avowal (in the afore-mentioned 

 Introduction, p. xil, and p. xxviii.), but in his 

 general preface to the Novels (vol. i. pp. xxxli — 

 xxxvi.) he particularly " alludes to a report 

 which ascribed a great part, or the whole, of these 

 novels to the late Thomas Scott, Esq., of the 

 70th Regt., then stationed in Canada." 



As then Sir Walter Scott either was " the total 

 and undivided author," "the sole and unaided 

 author " (p. xil.), " the sole and unassisted author 

 of all the novels " (p. xxviii ), or was one of the 

 most ungenerous, most unbrotherly, and most 

 mendacious of men, it seems to follow that either 

 Mb. Fitz-Patrick upholds a standard of literary 

 morality which is profoundly low, or that he is 

 entitled to an eminently high niche in Castle 

 Ignorance. 



I have heretofore, in my few Notes or Queries, 

 veiled my name under the anagram " Charles 

 Thiriold." For obvious reasons I now fling it off, 

 and subscribe myself Richard Shilleto. 



Cambridge. 



[We have inserted what, we fear, many of our readers 

 may think more than enough, although not all the com- 

 munications which have reached us on the question started 

 by Mr. Fitz-Patrick. But in justice to Sir Walter 

 Scott, whom we believe to have been incapable of utter- 

 ing a falsehood, we quote from his general Preface to the 

 novels his own distinct contradiction of the report, " which 

 ascribed a great part, or the whole of these Novels to the 

 late Thomas Scott, Esq." 



" Among all the rumours that have been current, there 

 was only one, and that as unfounded as the others, which 

 had nevertheless some alliance to probability, and indeed 

 might have proved in some degree true. 



" I allude to a report which ascribed a great part, or 

 No. 318.] 



the whole, of these novels to the late Thomas Scott, Esq., 

 of the 70 th Regiment, then stationed in Canada. Those 

 who remember that gentleman will readih' grant that, 

 with general talents at least equal to those of his elder 

 brother, he added a power of social humour, and a deep 

 insight into human character, which rendered him ail 

 universally delightful member of society, and that the 

 habit of composition alone was wanting to render him 

 equally successful as a writer. The author of Waverley 

 was so persuaded of the truth of this, that he warmly 

 pressed his brother to make such an experiment, and 

 willingly undertook all the trouble of correcting and 

 superintending the press. Mr. Thomas Scott seemed at 

 first very well disposed to embrace the proposal, and had 

 even fixed on a subject and a hero. The latter was a 

 person well known to both of us in our boyish years, from 

 having displayed some strong traits of character. Mr. 

 Thomas Scott had determined to represent his youthful 

 acquaintance as emigrating to America, and encountering 

 the dangers and hardships of the New World, with the 

 same dauntless spirit which he had displayed when a boy 

 in his native country. 



"Mr. Scott would probably have been highly successful, 

 being familiarly acquainted with the manners of the 

 native Indians, of the old French settlers in Canada, and 

 of the Bruits or woodsmen ; and having the power of ob- 

 serving with accuracy what I have no doubt he would 

 have sketched with force and expression. In short, the 

 author believes h's brother would have made himself 

 distinguished in that striking field in which, since that 

 period, Mr. Cooper has achieved so many triumphs. 



" But Mr. T. Scott was already affected by bad health, 

 which wholly unfitted him for literary labour, even if he 

 could have reconciled his patience to the task. He never, 

 I believe, wrote a single line of the projected work; and 

 I only have the melancholy pleasure of preserving in the 

 appendix the simple anecdote on which he proposed to 

 found it." „ „ ,._ 



Ed. "K&Q."] 



PHOTOGRAPHIC CORRESPONDENCE. 



Photographic Society's Reports on Fading of Photo- 

 graphs. — The importance of this inquiry will, we are 

 sure, justify us in reproducing, in a complete form, the 



First Report of the Committee appointed to take into con- 

 sideration the Question of the Fading of Positive Photo- 

 graphic Pictures upon Paper. 



The Committee, in this Report, propose to confine 

 themselves to a statement of the evidence which they 

 have collected as to the permanence of photographs up to 

 the time of their appointment, adding some facts in con- 

 nexion with the causes of fading, which are of practical 

 value, reserving for a future occasion the scientific part of 

 the investigation. 



Evidence of Permanence. — The Committee have un- 

 questionable evidence of the existence of photographs 

 which have remained unaltered for more than ten years, 

 prepared by salting plain paper with a chloride, after- 

 wards making it sensitive with either nitrate or ammomo- 

 nitrate of silver, fixing with a freshly-made solution of 

 hyposulphite of soda, and washing in water;— also of 

 positives produced by Mr. Talbot's negative process. 

 They have not been able to obtain evidence of photo- 

 graphs having been prepared at all upon albuminized 

 paper, or coloured with a salt of gold or fixed with " old 

 hypo," so long ago as ten years. They have, however, 

 ample evidence of the existence of unaltered photographs 

 so prepared five, six, and seven years ago. They have 



