262 Statements concerning Sir Walter Scott. 



that he wanted him to take him in for some days, which 

 he did. It is quite imaginable that a young man of the 

 present day might do the same thing in similar circum- 

 stances ; but, before railways, this sort of matter-of-course 

 hospitality was no doubt much commoner than it could be 

 now. The son being his friend, the Eobertson Scotts 

 probably knew very well about the Belshes affair, especially 

 as being neighbours of the family, at some distance. 



Sir Walter stayed a week at Brotherton, and not only 

 made his way to Sir John Belshes' at Fettercairn, but 

 succeeded in seeing his daughter. 



He was refused by her in person, and after this left 

 Brotherton, saying that he would be married before her. Lord 

 Benholme was under the impression that he had gone straight 

 to Gilsland, and there met the lady he married ; but that 

 was not till the year after. Lord Benholme had not the 

 slightest idea that Miss Belshes's refusal was not voluntary ; 

 but, of course, he knew the importance of Mrs Dundas's 

 testimony. 



The conclusion of the affair is somewhat like the farce 

 after the tragedy ; but is it possible to doubt that Wilhel- 

 mina Belshes is Lucy Ashton ? the interview with her, the 

 scene at the signing of the contract ? or that the story 

 has been told by Sir Walter himself, though in a half 

 unconscious way ? One of the curious points about it is 

 that he dictated the Bride of Lammermoor — though it is one 

 of the best constructed, as to plot, of his novels — in a state 

 of half delirium, and did not remember afterwards what he 

 had dictated. This did not apply to the other novels written 

 during the same illness. He says, somewhere, that when 

 he was dictating "the nonsense of Dugald Dalgetty," he 

 ceased to feel the pain of the cramp which was twisting 

 his muscles like ropes. 



(It is interesting to know how he appreciated the Major 

 himself.) Lockhart, in the latter Life, gives James Ballan- 

 tyne's curious memorandum about the Bride of Lammermoor. 

 When printed, it came to Sir Walter as something new : 

 being asked how it struck him, he said it seemed " monstrous 

 gross and grotesque," but the worst of it made him laugh, 

 and he was reassured by knowing that his friend had been 

 the publisher and would not have let anything very absurd pass. 



