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Tweed, from the main window in the Library, from 

 which commanding point I could watch the circling 

 eddies, (the river was swollen by the rain of the pre- 

 vious night) and hear the murmur of the silvery stream. 

 The closing scene of Scott's life, so tenderly recalled by 

 his biographer and friend, John Gibson Lockhart, I 

 mostly fancied I could see it. " About half past one 

 p. m., on the 21st September, (1832,) Sir Walter 

 breathed his last, in the presence of all his children. It 

 was a beautiful day, so warm that every window was. 

 wide open, and so perfectly still, that the sound, of all 

 others most delicious to his ear, the gentle ripple of the 

 Tweed over its pebbles, was distinctly audible as we 

 knelt around his bed, and his eldest son kissed and 

 closed his eyes. " 



I must proceed — The external walls of Abbotsford 

 are adorned with many old carved stones which have 

 figured at one time in very different situations. On one 

 above the visitors entrance can be traced the inscrip- 

 tion, "' Ye Sutors of Selkirk, " and the whole building 

 may be called a compound of the Gothic with the cas- 

 tellated, and will ever be admired as a realisation of the 

 poet's thought rather than a structure of so much stone 

 and lime. To enable strangers to see the interior with- 

 out disturbing the privacy of the family, the late Mr. 

 Hope Scott built more rooms towards the west, and 

 arranged that visitors should enter by the old Hall ; so. 

 that the Study, Library, Drawing-Eoom, Armoury and; 

 Entrance Hall, are now given up at certain seasons of 

 the year for the gratification of the thousands of stran- 

 gers who come from all parts of the earth to visit this 

 shrine. 



The rumour circulated by the press, that Abbotsford. 

 had recently passed from the possession of its present 

 owner, Mr. Maxwell Scott, to that of Baron Albert 

 Grant, of Lombard street, London, is incorrect. I have 

 as my authority the Baron's own word. The Entrance 

 Hall was the first part of the house which was shewn 



