260 Statements concerning Sir Walter Scott. 



The circumstance of his falling on the floor was probably 

 unconsciously, and not unnaturally, supplied by Lockhart 

 himself, from an imperfect recollection of what his sister had 

 told him. The bleeding is probably only too true. 



It may be remarked that while "women" of different 

 schools are, more than anything else, the prevailing topic 

 of the lighter sort of literature at present, this performance 

 of Anne Scott's suggests what difi'erent varieties are possible. 

 The delicate creature variety has been almost forgotten ; but 

 one can hardly say it would be an improvement on the 

 ruder types now in vogue. 



Anne Scott can at no time have been a good companion 

 for a somewhat intractable invalid. An instance of her want 

 of tact was remembered by Mr Henderson of Innerleithen, 

 who was at Abbotsford at the time. It was probably not 

 long before the Italian journey that Sir Walter, whose 

 lameness was increased by every successive illness, one 

 day fell on the marble pavement of the hall, when going 

 out to his pony. 



When he came in, he found a strip of carpet had been 

 stretched across the hall ; and he was so furious at this 

 outward and visible sign of decadence that, as it was not 

 removed quickly enough for him, he tore it up with his 

 own stick. 



No excuse, however — unless perhaps that he belonged to 

 a period which rather despised scientific accuracy — can be 

 found for Lockhart's altering a letter (he does not say from 

 whom) so as to make the writer, with reference to Sir 

 Walter's early engagement, or whatever it exactly was, call 

 the lady Miss Stuart ; which she not only was not, but 

 never could have been called, as her father did not assume 

 that name till after her marriage, and, I rather think, not 

 till after her rather early death. Even a stronger measure, 

 however, is his asserting, on his own authority, that her 

 christian name was Margaret, when she was Wilhelmina 

 Wishart Belshes, the only child of Sir John Wishart Belshes 

 and his wife, Lady Jane Leslie, of the Rothes family, whose 

 early acquaintance with Sir Walter's mother seems in some 

 degree to have led to the affair. 



The fullest account I have seen of the family is in one 

 of Jervise's local histories, which, I imagine, are always good 



