288 Statements concerning Sir Walter Scott. 



" I will not deny that I felt somewhat uncomfortable, and half 

 inclined to think this apparition was a warning of evil to come, or 

 indication, however obscure, of misfortune that had already occurred. 

 So strong was this impression that I almost feared to ask for Mrs 

 Scott when I arrived at Ashestiel ; but, as Dr Johnson said on a 

 similar occasion, ' nothing ever came of it.' My family were all as 

 usual ; but I did not soon forget the circumstances, because neither 

 the state of the atmosphere nor outline of the scenery allowed 

 of explanation, by reference, to any of those natural phenomena 

 producing apparitions, which, however remarkable, are familiar not 

 only to James Hogg as a poet, but to almost every shepherd in a 

 mountainous district." 



As to Sir Walter's anxiety about his wife, it may be 

 added that the ailments which hai'rassed Lady Scott all the 

 latter part of her life began about this time. With the 

 resources, or rather the adjuncts, which medicine has acquired 

 since, she might probably have been restored to health ; but, 

 as it was, there seems to have been nothing to be done 

 but the administration of di'ugs, which, though perhaps 

 necessary, destroyed her nerves, and no doubt injured her 

 health generally. 



With reference to what is said above of Sir Walter's not 

 knowing the scenery of East Lothian and Berwickshire, it 

 seems almost incredible ; but it is certain that when he 

 wrote " Marmion," at the age of thirty-six, he had never seen 

 Tantallon Castle, about twenty-five miles from Edinburgh. 

 Mr Guthrie Wright, who suggested and described Tantallon 

 to hiui, said that though he introduced it into the poem, 

 he had no reason to suppose that he had gone to see it 

 for himself. 



In the same way Lockhart's expression, that Ashiesteel 

 was inferior in dignity of association to Lasswade, may be 

 taken, I think, as evidence that Sir Walter never knew, or 

 never realised, that Caddonlee, in sight from his dressing- 

 room window at Ashiesteel, had preceded the Boroughmuir 

 of Edinburgh as the gathering-place of the Scotch army. 

 Marmion was conducted to Edinburgh by an impossible 

 route, partly, it is probable, to show the muster before 

 Flodden in the latter locality, within some miles of Lasswade. 

 Alexander II. is the "Scottish monarch" who was buried 

 in Melrose Abbey, whether the marble tombstone marks his 

 resting-place or not. He died in the Western Isles; and 



