282 Statements concerning Sir Walter Scott. 



much not being able to acquire the large ornamental knocker 

 on the principal door, because, he said, Montrose's hand hod 

 heen on it. Montrose undoubtedly did halt at Traquair after 

 the battle of Philiphaugh ; but the date on the knocker is 

 part of the design, and stands out large as 1705, just sixty 

 years later than that event. 



This extraordinary power of seeing things as he wished 

 them, even in what may be called his own especial line, is 

 not without a bearing on his business affairs. When people 

 talk of his misfortunes, they are probably not generally 

 aware that, whatever he was earning, he was buying land, 

 and building, and constantly entertaining, all at the same 

 time; anyone of which has often ruined a man of fortune, 

 which he was not. 



With regard to the Yarrow Standing-stones, it appears 

 likely that the clearance of the cairns had taken place some 

 time before he came into Selkirkshire. The stone with a 

 large rude inscription, now placed upright between the two 

 standing- stones, was only found in ploughing the ground ; 

 and if Leyden examined it before he went to India in 1803, 

 the moor must have assumed its present agricultural aspect 

 before the Scotts came to Ashiesteel. That Sir Walter knew 

 the Yarrow valley previously is both probable and certain ; 

 on one of his visits at Ashiesteel, he had with him a sketch 

 of Newark Tower and some other views, done by himself. 

 He was anxious to acquire the power of drawing, having 

 had two different masters, but never made much progress. 

 He relates, humorously, how an engraving of Hermitage 

 Castle was made from a sketch of his. 



His failing to buy Broadmeadows on the Yarrow, as has 

 always been said in the country, was the turning-point of 

 his history ; there were no small proprietors at hand willing 

 to be bought out at fancy prices, while the estate itself was 

 very much larger than the original Abbotsford. 



But more than this; it was the money received for the 

 property he had inherited at Kelso — which was not sufficient 

 for the purchase — which was invested in the Ballantj'ne firm 

 in Edinburgh, of which the great evil seems to have been 

 the facilities it afforded for raising money. 



It should be added that neither Sir Walter's relegating 

 these post-Kom^u Standing-stones to a much later period, 



