Statements concerning Sir Walter Scott. 261 



authority, with reference to the Wishart pedigree. I think 

 the one in question is entitled a history of Angus and 

 Mearns, though it is too incomplete for that to be altogether 

 a correct description. 



The mother, of course, was known as Lady Jane Stuart 

 when she renewed acquaintance with Sir Walter, after the 

 death of his wife, and long after the death of her daughter 

 as Lady Forbes. He did not even then much like renewing 

 these old sorrows, in addition to all the distresses of his 

 later life. He says in his journal that the story would no 

 doubt be told some day, but very little seems to have been 

 known about it by other people. The late Mrs George 

 Dundas — whose mother, Mrs Mackenzie of Portmore, was a 

 sister of Sir William Forbes — told Lady Hussell, probably 

 during a visit she paid at Ashiesteel, that, till the life of 

 Sir Walter Scott was published, the ladies of the Forbes 

 family had never known what was the matter with Lady 

 Forbes, who had then been dead more than twenty-five 

 years ; though, as she is not named in any way in the 

 original life, they must have had some knowledge otherwise 

 that it was she who was referred to. The book, of course, 

 showed that the attachment, or engagement, had been very 

 much more serious than almost anyone was aware of. 



The verses given by Lockhart in the earlier Life express 

 extreme unhappiness, whether they were written by Lady 

 Forbes before or after her marriage, or by some one else. 



The late Lord Benholme, Mr Hercules Robertson Scott, 

 when on a visit at Yair, some time before his death, related 

 that he had stayed at Abbotsford as a young man, and that 

 Sir Walter Scott received him with '* I'm very glad to see 

 you here, Mr Scott ; your father took me in at a time when 

 I was very glad of his hospitality ! " 



Though nothing more was apparently said, he knew what 

 this referred to ; that when the marriage of Miss Belshes 

 to Sir William Forbes was announced, or known to be 

 settled. Sir Walter had rushed down to Forfarshire, and 

 gone to the Robertson Scotts, I suppose, at Brotherton — an 

 elder brother of Lord Benholme's being a friend and con- 

 temporary of his at the Scotch bar. The son cannot have 

 been at home, but he sent in his name to Mr Robertson 

 Scott, and told him that he was a friend of his son's, and. 



