MISCELLANEOUS ANECDOTES. 



35 



taries describe tlic astonishment 

 with which they were equally af- 

 fected when Scott began this expe- 

 riment. The affectionate Laidlaw 

 beseeching him to stop dictating, 

 when his audible suffering filled 

 every pause, " Nay, Willie," he an- 

 swered, " only see that the doors 

 are fast. I would fain keep all the 

 cry as well as all the wool to our- 

 selves ; but as to giving over work, 

 that can only be when I am in 

 woollen." John Ballantyne told 

 me, that after the first day, he 

 always took care to have a dozen 

 of pens made before he seated him- 

 self opposite to the sofa on which 



Scott lay, and that though he often 

 turned himself on his pillow with 

 a groan of torment, he usually con- 

 tinued the sentence in the same 

 breath. But when dialogue of 

 peculiar animation was in progress, 

 spirit seemed to triumph altogether 

 over matter he arose from his 

 couch and walked up and down 

 the room, raising and lowering his 

 voice, and as it were acting the 

 parts. It was in this fashion that 

 Scott produced the far greater por- 

 tion of The Bride of Lammermoor 

 the whole of the Legend of Mon- 

 trose and almost the whole of 

 Ivanhoe. (Scott's Life, p. 397.) 



MISCELLANEOUS ANECDOTES. 



THOMAS MOORE HIS SINGING. 



Thomas Moore sung his songs 

 into popularity. We have this 

 entry in his diary : 



" Dined with the Fieldings : 

 sung in the evening to him, her, 

 Montgomery, and the governess 

 all four weeping. This is the true 

 tribute to my singing." Similar 

 entries are common in his diary, 

 in which all who shed tears at his 

 singing invariably found a place. 



" No one believes how much 1 

 am sometimes affected in singing, 

 partly from being touched myself, 

 and partly from an anxiety to 

 touch others." 



JAMES GRAHAME HIS SINGING. 



Thomas Campbell preserved the 

 following reminiscence of the devo- 

 tional feeling of James Grahame, 

 author of The Sabbath, with whom 

 he was on a familiar footing when 

 both were young men residing in 

 Edinburgh : 



" One of the most endearing cir- 

 cumstances which I remember of 

 Grahame was his singing. I shall 

 never forget one summer evening 

 that we agreed to sit up all night, 

 and go together to Arthur's Seat to 

 see the sun rise. We sat, accord- 



ingly, all night in his delightful 

 parlour, the seat of so many happy 

 remembrances ! We then went and 

 saw a beautiful sunrise. I returned 

 home with him, for I was living in 

 his house at the time. He was un- 

 reserved in all his devoutest feel- 

 ings before me; and from the beauty 

 of the morning scenery, and the re- 

 cent death of his sister, our conver- 

 sation took a serious turn on the 

 proofs of Infinite Benevolence in the 

 creation,and the goodness of God. As 

 I retired to my own bed I overheard 

 his devotions not his prayer, but 

 a hymn which he sung, and with a 

 power and inspiration beyond him- 

 self, and beyond anything else. At , 

 that time he was a strong-voiced, . 

 and commanding-looking man. The 

 remembrance of his large expressive 

 features when he climbed the hill, 

 and of his organ-like voice in prais- 

 ing God, is yet fresh, and ever pleas- 

 ing, in my mind." 



BUTLER'S HUDIBRAS. 

 Iludibras was not a hasty effu- 

 sion ; it was not produced by a sud- 

 den tumult of imagination, or a short 

 paroxysm of violent labour. To 

 accumulate such a mass of senti- 

 ments at the call of accidental desire, 



