114 



NOVELS AND NOVELISTS. 



It was another rule, that every j 

 letter he received should be an- 

 swered that same day. Nothing 

 else could have enabled him to keep 

 abreast with the flood of communi- 

 cation that in the sequel put his 

 good nature to the severest test ; 

 but already the demands on him 

 in this way also were numerous ; 

 and he included attention to them 

 among the necessary business, which 

 must be despatched before he had 

 a right to close his writing-box. 

 In turning over his enormous mass 

 of correspondence, I have almost 

 invariably found some indication 

 that, when a letter had remained 

 more than a day or two unanswered, 

 it had been so because he found oc- 

 casion for inquiry or deliberate con- 

 sideration. 



I ought not to omit that in those 

 days Scott was far too zealous a 

 dragoon not to take a principal 

 share in the stable duty. Before 

 beginning his desk-work in the 

 morning, he uniformly visited his 

 favourite steed, and neither Captain 

 nor Lieutenant,Taor the Lieutenant's 

 successor, Brown Adam, so called 

 after one of the heroes of the Min- 

 strelsy, liked to be fed except by 

 him. The latter charger was in- 

 deed altogether intractable in other 

 hands, though in his the most sub- 

 missive of faithful allies. The 

 moment he was bridle'd and sad- 

 dled, it was the custom to open the 

 stable door, as a signal that his 

 master expected him, when he im- 

 mediately trotted to the side of the 

 leaping-on-stone, of which Scott, 

 from his lameness, found it conve- 

 nient to make use, and stood there, 

 silent and motionless as a "rock, 

 until he was fairly in his seat, after 

 which he displayed his joy by 

 neighing triumphantly through a 

 brilliant succession of curvettings. 

 Brown Adam, never suffered him- 

 self to be backed but by his master. 

 He broke, I believe, one groom's 

 arm and another's leg, in the rash 



attempt to tamper with his dig- 

 nity. 



Camp was at. this time the con- 

 stant parlour dog. He Was very 

 handsome, very intelligent, and 

 naturally very fierce, but gentle as 

 a lamb among the children. As 

 for the more locomotive Douglas 

 and Percy, he kept one window of 

 his study open, whatever might be 

 the state of the weather, that they 

 might leap out and in as the fancy 

 moved them. He always talked to- 

 Camp as if he understood what was 

 said, and the animal certainly did 

 understand not a littie of it ; in 

 particular, it seemed as if he per- 

 fectly comprehended, on all occa- 

 sions, that his master considered 

 him as a sensible and steady friend, 

 and the greyhounds as volatile 

 young creatures, whose freaks must 

 be borne with. 



SCOTT'S REVERSES. 



Sir Walter Scott was engaged, at 

 the time of his misfortunes, in writ- 

 ing the Life of Bonaparte, taking 

 up his new novel of Woodstock at 

 intervals by way of relief. These- 

 tasks he continued, with steady 

 perseverance, in the midst of all his 

 distresses. Even on the day which 

 brought him assurance of the grand 

 catastrophe, he resumed in the after- 

 noon the task which had engaged 

 him in the morning. There was 

 more triumph over circumstances 

 here than might be supposed, for 

 he had lately begun to feel the first 

 touches of the infirmities of age 

 age to which ease, not hard work, 

 is naturally appropriate. His sleep 

 was now less sound than it had 

 been ; his eyesight was failing ; and, 

 above all, he felt that backwardness 

 of the intellectual power which is 

 inseparable from years. The will, 

 however, was green as ever, and 

 under the prompting of an honour- 

 able spirit, it did its work nobly. 

 Doggedly, doggedly did the ener- 

 getic old man rouse himself from 



