HI 



SCOTT 



biuioem conducted by London connections of Con- 

 table's house, in tin- wildest way, by 'bank ac- 

 commodation ' anil hills, eternally renewal, James 

 Ballantyne's own time was much occupied in the 

 correction of Scott's proof-sheets rather than in 

 attention to the details of his commerce. The 

 value of his criticisms hits been overestimated ; 

 hi- remarks on tin- proof-sheeta of ltrtlii<inittl<t 

 are inept, and it cannot be Raid that he waa a 

 careful mauler-printer. Constable's own visionary 

 character added to the complexities, and at last 

 the crash came. Kvcry one wan in fault, every one 

 waa intoxicate.! liy sin-cess. There is no more 

 reason to doubt tin- uprightness of James Ballan- 

 tyne than of Sir Walter, who finally paid hU debts 

 with his life. Admirers of Lockhart regret liistone 

 towards the Ballantynes. To him it is clear they 

 h;nl ever been di-tatcful. He was as fastidious 

 a Scott was almost over-tolerant, and the mere 

 presence of the brothers must have been odious to 

 him. But both had, with all their social defects 

 and commercial demerits, a touching affection for 

 Sir Walter. 



We have antici|>ated the financial tragedy of 

 Scott's life, or rather we have sketched its nistory 

 from the moment when it began. Scott's pros- 

 perity never had a sound commercial basis. He 

 was never really free from anxiety about money. 

 How his sagacity and uprightness endured these 

 bonds is a psychological mystery. In 1804 Scott, 

 as sheriff of Selkirkshire, removed from Lasswade 

 to Ashestiel, a small house beautifully situated on 

 A wooded ' brae ' above the Tweed, about four miles 

 from the influx of the Kit rick. Had he lieen 

 able to purchase Ashes tiel, Ahbotaford might never 

 have risen from the swamps of ' Clarty Hole.' 

 Early in 1805 the Lay was published, and met a 

 deserved success. Scott now hii-icd himself \\itli 



articles in the Edinburgh Ittritw, with his edition | 

 of Dryilen, and with the commencement of MVmr- 

 t'-i/. The early chapters did not please a friend, 

 probably Erskine, and it was not completed till 

 ISI3 14. In 1806 Scott was appointed! Clerk of 

 Session, and withdrew from the bar. He dis- 

 charged the duties for some years without the , 

 emoluments, which went to his predecessor in the 

 office. In 18OI5 MurmioH was lipgun. The plot is 

 partly based on perfectly fictitious documents, 

 foi-toil on Scott by Mr Surtees of Mainsforth. He 

 never discovered the fraud. Marmimi ainicared 

 early in 1808. A review, a most quibbling and 

 unfair review, of it was written by Jeffrey for the j 

 Ediitkwryk. This attack, and the w 'higgery of the I 

 KiliniinriiH, caused Scott to break off his connection 

 with that serial, and to busy himself in starting 

 the (jii'trtfrlii. Jeffrey did iiot injure Munition, 

 and its |N>puhirity oiitdid even that of the /.<</ 

 Scott, who feared to take another 'scourging crop" 

 of verse off the soil, now occupied himself with 

 editing Dryden, Swift, and other classics. He 

 quarrelled with Constable ithe publisher of the 

 Kilinhurgh), or rather with his partner. Mr Hunter, 

 in. I in January I80! he tells Soiithey that ' Balhin- 

 tvnes brother' (John) 'is netting up here as a 

 iHHikxeller, chiefly for publishing.' Ballantyne 

 wan to \i in alliance with Mr Murray, but this 

 arrangement. did not lost, and the publishing busi- 

 ness only alile<l to financial complications. In 

 IMOih" /./././"/' II" /."/' witt finished, and over 

 en mn. -I i-w-n >...!! s former triumph- \ Highland 

 P<H-III had long been in his mind, alternating with 

 thn scheme of a Highland romance in prose. Scott 

 w vjtit.-d the wi-t.-rn iles, and schemed out 

 I'hf .\ninrlrti HI:,,, afterwards called Tht l.onl nf 

 Ike /tlft. He also reconsidered ll r ivr//, but 

 eem" to have made no progress with it. In 1811 

 he received at last the salary of hit clerkship, and 

 into a legacy of 5000. Now, too, he Nrnght 



his first farm, and began to turn the cottage on it 

 into a mansion. The year 1811 saw him busy with 

 Hoifby, which proved a comparative failure. 

 CAi/rfr Harold had appeared ; popularity had 

 selected Lord Byron for it* new idol. For a 

 wonder, Scott did not rate CVW< ll<tr<il<l much 

 alio\e its merits. Inn he entered into a friendly 

 correspondence with Byron. He had never Keen 

 much galled by English Bardt an<l S<;,trh I;- 

 In I813(after/to<t6yand l\\e Bridal of Triernxnn 

 he declined the laureateship in favour of Soiithey. 

 In 1814 he finished his /.// of Sirift, and published 

 Wuptrlty, writing the last two volumes in tin. . 

 weeks. Waverley took the world by stonn, and 

 Scott, who did not acknowledge the authorship, 

 might well suppose he had found the purse of 

 Fortunatus. 'I he cold reception of Tht, Lord of the 

 Ixlix iliil not discourage him, and in January 1815, 

 by way of a holiday, he began Guy Mannering, 

 'the work of six weeks at Christmas time.' It 

 was published by Messrs Longman, but, with 

 rare exceptions, ( "onstable, with whom Scott had 

 been reconciled, published tin- rest of his Wavcrley 

 cycle. From this jHiint space does not serve to re- 

 tell the oft-told tale of Scott's amazing fertility. 

 In 1817 a violent illness showed him that even liis 

 strength was mortal, but no malady clouds /.'// 

 Hoy or The Heart of Miillvthittn. In'lHllt a return 

 of his complaint endangered his life, and in 

 paroxysms of agony he dictated 'flu- Jirii/r nf 

 I.ninmermoor, which, when printed, he read as the 

 work of a stranger. He did not remember a line 

 of it. His health was in part re-established ; he 

 opened a new vein of gold in Ivanhoe, but failed to 

 please his readers with The Monastery, 



If it is na weel bobbit 



We'll bob it again, 



he said. Novels poured from his pen, society 

 Hocked to Abbotsiord, he seemed to Miss Edge- 

 worth 'the idlest man alive.' Yet he never neg- 

 lected his official duties ; he toiled like a woodsman 

 in his plantation-, and he entertained all comers. 

 As he said of Bvron, 'his foot was ever in the 

 arena, his shield hung always in the lists.' He 

 managed the king's reception in r'.tlinhurgh, he 

 heard cases at Selkirk, he took part in raising 

 volunteer corps, he conducted an enormous and 

 distracting correspondence, he cared for the poor 

 with a wise beneficence, he hod a great share in 

 starting the Edinburgh Academy, lie presided at 

 the councils of the new gas company, he began the 

 I. iff nf JliiniifHtrtf, and still the novels Houi-d on. 

 In 18-25 he commeii<M-d his ./.<;<//, and for all that 

 followed the immortal pages of that sad and splen- 

 did record must be consulted. Il'<w.s7</i7.- was in 

 hand when the commercial crash came. Scott bore 

 it like a stoic. From that hour all the energy not 

 needed for public duties went into literature. He 

 sometimes toiled for fourteen hours a day, led on 

 by the hope of paying every penny of his debt-. 

 lli~ labour cleared them, though not in his lifetime. 

 I'.i-fore his wearied eyes and worn brain the mirage 

 of his complete success used to float at interval-, 

 and who could grudge him these dreams through 

 t In- ivory gate ! It is needless to repeat the tale of 

 his last days, his desolation when his publisher, Mr 

 Cadell, disapproved of ('mint 1,'nlnrt nf Paris, the 

 iiisnll- In-aped on him by the Jedhurgh radical mob, 

 his last voyage, his continued work at The Siege of 

 Mil/In, his return home, his death. Few out of all 

 who have read Lockhart or the Journal can have 

 studied these chapters with tearless eyes. It is 

 said that on the last morning of his life con-cious- 

 nem returned. He asked his nurse to help him to 

 the window ; he gave one last look on Tweed and 

 said. 'To-night I shall know all.' That night he 

 was ' Heaven's latest, not least welcome guest,' 

 September 21, 1832. 



