RECOLLECTIONS OF SIR WALTER SCOTT. 313 



much symmetry, which, added to handsome features and a profusion 

 of ringlets of the most beautiful jet-black I ever saw clustering- about 

 her neck, made her what the late James Hogg somewhere calls her, 

 " a bewitching creature.'' She was remarkably kind and affable in her 

 manners. She seemed particularly anxious, as did indeed Miss 

 Scott also, that I should enjoy myself. She had much of the man- 

 ners of the French, and it would have been easy to discover from her 

 accent, though I had not before been aware of the circumstance, 

 that she belonged to that nation. After a half hour's conversation 

 with Lady .Scott and her daughter. Sir Walter proposed that we 

 should inspect the different apartments of his splendid mansion. The 

 armoury, the library, and the study were to me, as I doubt not they 

 were to most other visitors, the principal objects of attraction. The 

 armoury it were impossible to describe. The study has been described 

 ahundred times over. The library was a spacious room. The num- 

 ber of books in it has been variously estimated from 20,000 to 30,000 

 volumes. It is unnecessary to say Sir Walter never purchased all 

 these ; the greater part of them were presentation copies, either 

 from personal friends, or from authors naturally anxious their works 

 should meet with his approbation. Of course he had not time to read 

 a tithe of those thus sent him. He was often too waited on by young 

 authors anxious to learn his opinion of their matmscript before com- 

 mitting it to the press. His kindness and condescension on such oc- 

 casions exceeded all praise. To the serious interruption, ofttimes of 

 his own literary labours, he would wade through the manuscript 

 works of such persons, and £jive them such advice, in the most friendly 

 spirit, as he thought the circumstances called for. At the very mo- 

 ment he was busy pointing out to me a number of literary works, 

 with several paintings, which were his chief favourites, the servant 

 knocked at the door, and, on being desired to "come in," intimated 

 that a person, of the name of Buchan, from the north of Scotland, was 

 anxious to see him for a few minutes. Sir Walter desired the servant 

 to show the individual into a certain room, and to say that he would 

 be with him presently. Sir Walter then begged my pardon for a 

 few minutes. He returned in about fifteen minutes. He mentioned 

 to me that he had been just looking over an immense collection of 

 the traditional unpublished ballads of the north of Scotland, collected, 

 he said, after ten years' hard unremitting labour, by a humble 

 printer, of the name of Buchan, residing in Peterhead. Sir Walter 

 spoke in terms of warm encomium* of the enthusiasm of Mr. Buchan 

 in collecting so many of the traditionary ballads of the olden time 

 amid so many difficulties, not the least of which arose from his limited 

 pecuniary means. He desired Mr. B. to call again on a day he men- 



• The writer of these Recollections of Sir Walter, met, by the purest accident, 

 with Mr. Buchan, since the interview in question. He then saw the collection of ballads 

 of which Sir Walter spoke so favourably ; and really they will constitute an enduring 

 memorial of the admirable taste, as well as singular industry of an individual collecting 

 them under such unfavourable circumstances. The ballads were published in 1828, in 

 two volumes, at one guinea ; but, I am sorry to say, the sale never paid the expenses. 

 Sir Walter engaged to write a lengthened notice of the work in the Quartely Review ; 

 hut his promise was never fulfilled. Most probably, amid the iiuilliplicity of hi.i 

 other avocations, the subject slipped out of his recollection. 



