Memoirs of the Life of Sir Walter Scott Volume I Part 17

[Footnote 131: _Remarks on Popular Poetry._ 1830.]

On the 12th of December Scott had the curiosity to witness the trial of one James Mackean, a shoemaker, for the murder of Buchanan, a carrier, employed to convey money weekly from the Glasgow bank to a manufacturing establishment at Lanark. Mackean invited the carrier to spend the evening in his house; conducted family wors.h.i.+p in a style of much seeming fervor; and then, while his friend was occupied, came behind him, and almost severed his head from his body by one stroke of a razor. I have heard Scott describe the sanctimonious air which the murderer maintained during his trial--preserving throughout the aspect of a devout person, who believed himself to have been hurried into his acc.u.mulation of crime by an uncontrollable exertion of diabolical influence; and on his copy of the "Life of James Mackean, executed 25th January, 1797," I find the following marginal note:--

"I went to see this wretched man when under sentence of death, along with my friend, Mr. William Clerk, advocate. His great anxiety was to convince us that his diabolical murder was committed from a sudden impulse of revengeful and violent pa.s.sion, not from deliberate design of plunder. But the contrary was manifest from the accurate preparation of the deadly instrument--a razor strongly lashed to an iron bolt--and also from the evidence on the trial, from which it seems he had invited his victim to drink tea with him on the day he perpetrated the murder, and that this was a reiterated invitation.

Mackean was a good-looking elderly man, having a thin face and clear gray eye; such a man as may be ordinarily seen beside a collection-plate at a seceding meeting-house, a post which the said Mackean had occupied in his day. All Mackean's account of the murder is {p.238} apocryphal. Buchanan was a powerful man, and Mackean slender. It appeared that the latter had engaged Buchanan in writing, then suddenly clapped one hand on his eyes, and struck the fatal blow with the other. The throat of the deceased was cut through his handkerchief to the back bone of the neck, against which the razor was hacked in several places."

In his pursuit of his German studies, Scott acquired, about this time, a very important a.s.sistant in Mr. Skene of Rubislaw, in Aberdeens.h.i.+re--a gentleman considerably his junior,[132] who had just returned to Scotland from a residence of several years in Saxony, where he had obtained a thorough knowledge of the language, and acc.u.mulated a better collection of German books than any to which Scott had, as yet, found access. Shortly after Mr. Skene's arrival in Edinburgh, Scott requested to be introduced to him by a mutual friend, Mr. Edmonstone of Newton; and their fondness for the same literature, with Scott's eagerness to profit by his new acquaintance's superior attainment in it, thus opened an intercourse which general similarity of tastes, and I venture to add, in many of the most important features of character, soon ripened into the familiarity of a tender friends.h.i.+p--"An intimacy," Mr. Skene says, in a paper before me, "of which I shall ever think with so much pride--a friends.h.i.+p so pure and cordial as to have been able to withstand all the vicissitudes of nearly forty years, without ever having sustained even a casual chill from unkind thought or word." Mr. Skene adds, "During the whole progress of his varied life, to that eminent station which he could not but feel he at length held in the estimation, not of his countrymen alone, but of the whole world, I never could perceive the slightest shade of variance from that simplicity of character with which he impressed me on the first hour of our meeting."[133]

[Footnote 132: [James Skene, son of George Skene of Rubislaw, was born in 1775.]]

[Footnote 133: [Beside the memoranda placed by Mr. Skene in Lockhart's hands and used by him in various portions of the _Life_, the friend's unpublished _Reminiscences_, from which Mr. Douglas has fortunately been enabled to draw largely in annotating the _Journal_, contains recollections of peculiar interest.]]

Among {p.239} the common tastes which served to knit these friends together was their love of horsemans.h.i.+p, in which, as in all other manly exercises, Skene highly excelled; and the fears of a French Invasion becoming every day more serious, their thoughts were turned with corresponding zeal to the project of organising a force of mounted volunteers in Scotland. "The London Light Horse had set the example," says Mr. Skene; "but in truth it was to Scott's ardor that this force in the North owed its origin. Unable, by reason of his lameness, to serve amongst his friends on foot, he had nothing for it but to rouse the spirit of the moss-trooper, with which he readily inspired all who possessed the means of subst.i.tuting the sabre for the musket."

On the 14th February, 1797, these friends and many more met and drew up an offer to serve as a body of volunteer cavalry in Scotland; which offer being transmitted through the Duke of Buccleuch, Lord-Lieutenant of Mid-Lothian, was accepted by Government. The organization of the corps proceeded rapidly; they extended their offer to serve in any part of the island in case of invasion; and this also being accepted, the whole arrangement was shortly completed; when Charles Maitland of Rankeillor was elected Major-Commandant; (Sir) William Rae of St.

Catharine's Captain; James Gordon of Craig, and George Robinson of Clermiston, Lieutenants; (Sir) William Forbes of Pitsligo, and James Skene of Rubislaw, Cornets; Walter Scott, Paymaster, Quartermaster, and Secretary; John Adams, Adjutant. But the treble duties thus devolved on Scott were found to interfere too severely with his other avocations, and Colin Mackenzie of Portmore relieved him soon afterwards from those of paymaster.

"The {p.240} part of quartermaster," says Mr. Skene, "was purposely selected for him, that he might be spared the rough usage of the ranks; but, notwithstanding his infirmity, he had a remarkably firm seat on horseback, and in all situations a fearless one: no fatigue ever seemed too much for him, and his zeal and animation served to sustain the enthusiasm of the whole corps, while his ready 'mot a rire' kept up, in all, a degree of good-humor and relish for the service, without which the toil and privations of long _daily_ drills would not easily have been submitted to by such a body of gentlemen.

At every interval of exercise, the order, _sit at ease_, was the signal for the quartermaster to lead the squadron to merriment; every eye was intuitively turned on 'Earl Walter,' as he was familiarly called by his a.s.sociates of that date, and his ready joke seldom failed to raise the ready laugh. He took his full share in all the labors and duties of the corps, had the highest pride in its progress and proficiency, and was such a trooper himself as only a very powerful frame of body and the warmest zeal in the cause could have enabled any one to be. But his habitual good-humor was the great charm, and at the daily mess (for we all dined together when in quarters) that reigned supreme."

_Earl Walter's_ first charger, by the way, was a tall and powerful animal, named Lenore. These daily drills appear to have been persisted in during the spring and summer of 1797; the corps spending moreover some weeks in quarters at Musselburgh. The majority of the troop having professional duties to attend to, the ordinary hour for drill was five in the morning; and when we reflect, that after some hours of hard work in this way, Scott had to produce himself regularly in the Parliament House with gown and wig, for the s.p.a.ce of four or five hours at least, while his chamber practice, though still humble, was on the increase--and that he had found a plentiful source of new social engagements in his troop {p.241} connections--it certainly could have excited no surprise had his literary studies been found suffering total intermission during this busy period. That such was not the case, however, his correspondence and note-books afford ample evidence.

He had no turn, at this time of his life, for early rising; so that the regular attendance at the morning drills was of itself a strong evidence of his military zeal; but he must have, in spite of them, and of all other circ.u.mstances, persisted in what was the usual custom of all his earlier life, namely, the devotion of the best hours of the night to solitary study. In general, both as a young man, and in more advanced age, his const.i.tution required a good allowance of sleep, and he, on principle, indulged in it, saying, "He was but half a man if he had not full seven hours of utter unconsciousness;" but his whole mind and temperament were, at this period, in a state of most fervent exaltation, and spirit triumphed over matter. His translation of Steinberg's Otho of Wittelsbach is marked "1796-7;" from which, I conclude, it was finished in the latter year. The volume containing that of Meier's Wolfred of Dromberg, a drama of Chivalry, is dated 1797; and, I think, the reader will presently see cause to suspect, that though not alluded to in his imperfect note-book, these tasks must have been accomplished in the very season of the daily drills.

The letters addressed to him in March, April, and June, by Kerr of Abbotrule, George Chalmers, and his uncle at Rosebank, indicate his unabated interest in the collection of coins and ballads; and I shall now make a few extracts from his private note-book, some of which will at all events amuse the survivors of the Edinburgh Light Horse;--

"_March 15, 1797._--Read Stanfield's trial, and the conviction appears very doubtful indeed. Surely no one could seriously believe, in 1688, that the body of the murdered {p.242} bleeds at the touch of the murderer, and I see little else that directly touches Philip Stanfield. He was a very bad character, however; and tradition says, that having insulted Welsh, the wild preacher, one day in his early life, the saint called from the pulpit that G.o.d had revealed to him that this blasphemous youth would die in the sight of as many as were then a.s.sembled. It was believed at the time that Lady Stanfield had a hand in the a.s.sa.s.sination, or was at least privy to her son's plans; but I see nothing inconsistent with the old gentleman's having committed suicide.[134] The ordeal of touching the corpse was observed in Germany. They call it _barrecht_.

"_March 27._--

'The friers of Fail Gat never owre hard eggs, or owre thin kale; For they made their eggs thin wi' b.u.t.ter, And their kale thick wi' bread.

And the friers of Fail they made gude kale On Fridays when they fasted; They never wanted gear enough As lang as their neighbours' lasted.'

"Fairy-rings.--_N. B._ Delrius says the same appearance occurs wherever the witches have held their Sabbath.

"For the ballad of 'Willie's lady,' compare Apuleius, lib. i. p.

33....

"_April 20._--The portmanteau to contain the following articles: 2 s.h.i.+rts; 1 black handkerchief; 1 nightcap, woollen; 1 pair pantaloons, blue; 1 flannel s.h.i.+rt with sleeves; 1 pair flannel drawers; 1 waistcoat; 1 pair worsted stockings or socks.

"In the slip, in cover of portmanteau, a case with shaving-things, combs, and a knife, fork, and spoon; a German pipe and tobacco-bag, flint, and steel; pipe-clay and {p.243} oil, with brush for laying it on; a shoe-brush; a pair of shoes or hussar-boots; a horse-picker, and other loose articles.

"Belt with the flap and portmanteau, currycomb, brush, and mane-comb, with sponge.

"Over the portmanteau, the blue overalls, and a spare jacket for stable; a small horse-sheet, to cover the horse's back with, and a spare girth or two.

"In the cartouche-box, screw-driver and picker for pistol, with three or four spare flints.

"The horse-sheet may be conveniently folded below the saddle, and will save the back in a long march or bad weather. Beside the holster, two forefeet shoes.[135]

"_May 22._--Apuleius, lib. ii.... Anthony-a-Wood.... Mr.

Jenkinson's name (now Lord Liverpool) being proposed as a difficult one to rhyme to, a lady present hit off this verse extempore.--_N. B._ Both father and son (Lord Hawkesbury) have a peculiarity of vision:--

'Happy Mr. Jenkinson, Happy Mr. Jenkinson, I'm sure to you Your lady's true, For you have got a winking son.'

"23.--Delrius....

"24--'I, John Bell of Brackenbrig, lies under this stane; Four {p.244} of my sons laid it on my wame.

I was man of my meat, and master of my wife, And lived in mine ain house without meikle strife.

Gif thou be'st a "better man in thy time than I was in mine, Tak this stane off my wame, and lay it upon thine.'

"25.--Meric Casaubon on Spirits....

"26.--'There saw we learned Maroe's golden tombe; The way he cut an English mile in length Thorow a rock of stone in one night's s.p.a.ce.'

"Christopher Marlowe's Tragicall History of Dr. Faustus--a very remarkable thing. Grand subject--end grand.... Copied Prophecy of Merlin from Mr. Clerk's MS.

"27.--Read Everybody's Business is n.o.body's Business, by Andrew Moreton. This was one of Defoe's many _aliases_--like his pen, in parts....

'To Cuthbert, Car, and Collingwood, to Shafto and to Hall; To every gallant generous heart that for King James did fall.'

"28.--... Anthony-a-Wood.... Plain Proof of the True Father and Mother of the Pretended Prince of Wales, by W. Fuller. This fellow was pilloried for a forgery some years later.... Began _Nathan der Weise_.

"_June 29._--Read Introduction to a Compendium on Brief Examination, by W. S.--viz., William Stafford--though it was for a time given to no less a W. S. than William Shakespeare. A curious treatise--the Political Economy of the Elizabethan Day--worth reprinting....

"_July 1._--Read Discourse of Military Discipline, by Captain Barry--a very curious account of the famous Low Countries armies--full of military hints worth note.... _Anthony Wood_ again.

"3.--_Nathan der Weise._ ... _Delrius_....

"5.--Geutenberg's _Braut_ begun.

"6.--The Bride again. _Delrius._"

[Footnote 134: See particulars of Stanfield's case in Lord Fountainhall's _Chronological Notes of Scottish Affairs_, 1680-1701, edited by Sir Walter Scott. 4to, Edinburgh, 1822.

Pp. 233-236.]

[Footnote 135: Some of Scott's most intimate friends at the Bar, partly, no doubt, from entertaining political opinions of another caste, were by no means disposed to sympathize with the demonstrations of his military enthusiasm at this period. For example, one of these gentlemen thus writes to another in April, 1797: "By the way, Scott is become the merest trooper that ever was begotten by a drunken dragoon on his trull in a hayloft. Not an idea crosses his mind, or a word his lips, that has not an allusion to some d----d instrument or evolution of the Cavalry--'Draw your swords--by single files to the right of front--to the left wheel--charge!' After all, he knows little more about wheels and charges than I do about the wheels of Ezekiel, or the King of Pelew about charges of horning on six days' date. I saw them charge on Leith Walk a few days ago, and I can a.s.sure you it was by no means orderly proceeded. Clerk and I are continually obliged to open a six-pounder upon him in self-defence, but in spite of a temporary confusion, he soon rallies and returns to the attack."]

The note-book from which I have been copying is chiefly filled with extracts from Apuleius and Anthony-a-Wood--most of {p.245} them bearing, in some way, on the subject of popular superst.i.tions. It is a pity that many leaves have been torn out; for if unmutilated, the record would probably have enabled one to guess whether he had already planned his Essay on Fairies.

I have mentioned his business at the Bar as increasing at the same time. His _fee-book_ is now before me, and it shows that he made by his first year's practice 24 3s.; by the second, 57 15s.; by the third, 84 4s.; by the fourth, 90; and in his fifth year at the Bar--that is, from November, 1796 to July, 1797--144 10s.; of which 50 were fees from his father's chamber.

His friend, Charles Kerr of Abbotrule, had been residing a good deal about this time in c.u.mberland: indeed, he was so enraptured with the scenery of the lakes, as to take a house in Keswick with the intention of spending half of all future years there. His letters to Scott (March, April, 1797) abound in expressions of wonder that he should continue to devote so much of his vacations to the Highlands of Scotland, "with every crag and precipice of which," says he, "I should imagine you would be familiar by this time; nay, that the goats themselves might almost claim you for an acquaintance;" while another district lay so near him, at least as well qualified "to give a swell to the fancy."

After the rising of the Court of Session in July, Scott accordingly set out on a tour to the English lakes, accompanied by his brother John, and Adam Ferguson. Their first stage was Halyards in Tweeddale, then inhabited by his friend's father, the philosopher and historian; and they stayed there for a day or two, in the course of which Scott had his first and only interview with David Ritchie, the original of his Black Dwarf.[136] Proceeding southwards, the tourists visited Carlisle, Penrith,--the vale of the Eamont, including Mayburgh and Brougham Castle,--Ullswater and Windermere; and at length fixed {p.246} their headquarters at the then peaceful and sequestered little watering-place of Gilsland, making excursions from thence to the various scenes of romantic interest which are commemorated in The Bridal of Triermain, and otherwise leading very much the sort of life depicted among the loungers of St. Ronan's Well. Scott was, on his first arrival in Gilsland, not a little engaged with the beauty of one of the young ladies lodged under the same roof with him; and it was on occasion of a visit in her company to some part of the Roman Wall that he indited his lines--

"Take these flowers, which, purple waving, On the ruined rampart grew," etc.[137]