Statements concerning Sir Walter Scott. 265 



talked of the tragedy with the brother who took the bride 

 to church. This lady's name seems to have been accidentally 

 omitted in the notes to the "Bride of Lammermoor"; but in 

 those to " Peveril of the Peak," where another curious 

 experience of hers is utilised, it is mentioned that she was 

 the person. The family seem to have made no secret 

 whatever of the story. Of course the brother was not 

 bound to say how far he considered his parents to blame ; 

 but what he did tell Miss Swinton was that he had never 

 ceased to reproach himself for not speaking, at the time, of 

 the deadly cold of his sister's hand, as she rode behind him 

 with her arm round his waist. It seems to have struck 

 him at the time, but his head was so full of the important 

 part he was playing in the procession, and of his new 

 clothes, that it did not make much impression on him. 



Of course we know that the parents would not have 

 broken off or delayed their daughter's marriage for any 

 notion of their boy's, but all these circumstances are very 

 natural and probable. It is probably a fact that it was 

 his whinger which the bride had secreted. If he was then 

 fourteen, he must have been born about 1655. 



In Mr Andrew Lang's edition of "The Secret Common- 

 wealth" — by the Eev. Eobert Kirke — he quotes a letter 

 from a Psychical Researcher of the 17th century, in which 

 he relates that the Duke of Lauderdale had told him of a 

 remarkable occurrence in the family of Lord Stair; and 

 Lord Stair himself coming in, was called upon to tell the 

 story, which he did with a very grave face, though 

 unfortunately, the writer says, he could not trust his memory 

 to give the particulars. The line taken seems to have been 

 to regard it as a case of supernatural "possession," though 

 the bride seems to have known well enough what she 

 meant; though it would have been wiser to have given the 

 bridegroom the strong hint she did on the other side of 

 the ceremony which bound them both. She never could 

 have married her lover in any circumstances, for one odd 

 peculiarity of the case was that the lover was uncle of 

 the husband. 



Of course if Miss Belshes had been a young woman of 

 a different type, she would at any rate not have married 

 the somewhat ill-used Sir William Forbes ; and it seems 

 n 



