Sir Walter Scott's Friends

Sir Walter Scotts Friends Sir Walter Scotts Friends BY FLORENCE M A cCUNN j AUTHOR OF LIFE OF JOHN KNOX, LIFE OF MARY STUART New York John Lane Company MCMX DEAR MR DOUGLAS, As Editor of 4 The Journal and of 1 The Letters, your name is inseparably linked with that of Sir Walter Scott. Your conversation first suggested the subject of the present volume, your generosity supplied much of the material used, your unfailing interest and sympathy quickened the pleasure of writing it. To no one may it be so fitly dedicated as to you, by Your grateful and affectionate friend, F. A. MACCUNN. PREFACE. A FEW words seem necessary to explain certain obvious omissions in this account of Sir Walter Scotts Friends. It was from no failure to recognise her position both in literature and in Scotts regard that I have devoted no chapter to Maria Edgeworth, but simply because, having read Miss Lawlesss recently published biography of Miss Edgeworth, I felt that I could neither add to the contents nor rival the charm of that admirable monograph. A similar reason has excluded Scotts kind, bustling friend, Mrs Hughes of Uffington. The volume of her Journal and Correspondence with Scott is still fresh in the memories of most readers. A contrary reason has, to my regret, caused the omission of one of the dearest of Scotts friends, Lady Abercorn. In the various biographies of the period with which my work has made me familiar, allusions are few and shadowy to Lord and Lady Abercorn, nor, in this case, has it been my good fortune to have access to any unpublished papers or to private information. Of Lock hart it did not seem necessary to write separately, not only because a full and detailed biography is of recentpublication, but because implicitly Lockharts spirit and Lockharts judgment are present in every paragraph that deals with Scott and Scotts intimates. viii Preface. The gravest omission is that, in a book dealing with Sir Walters Friends, no place has been found for a chapter on The Dogs. I can only regretfully plead that my pen is wholly inadequate for a subject which only Dr John Brown could have treated duly. To the making of this book have gone more help and kindness than I can sufficiently acknowledge. My thanks are due to Mr David Douglas, editor of 1 The Letters and of The Journal of Sir Walter Scott, who allowed me at every point to draw upon his minute and sympathetic knowledge of all that relates to Scott, and who placed his well-equipped library at my service to Miss Hope of Luffness, who has been practically my collaborator in the chapters relating to her kinsfolk, the Dukes of Buccleuch, Lady Douglas of Douglas, and Lady Louisa Stuart, generously giving me access to letters and journals hitherto unpublished, and, from family tradition, supplying such intimate touches as may be found in those chapters to the Honourable James Home, for much acute criticism and excellent suggestion to the Earl of Home, for permission to use certain MS. volumes of verse written in the eighteenth century at Dalkeith Palace and at Bothwell Castle also for per mission to reproduce his replica of the portrait of Lady Frances Scott and her brothers, by Sir Joshua Reynolds to Colonel Home Drummond, the possessor of the original picture, for endorsing that permission to the Duke of Buccleuch, for permission to reproduce the print from the water-colour by Heaphy, of Harriet, Duchess of Buccleuch to MrsGodfrey Clark, of Tol-y-garn, for permission to quote from her book, Gleanings from an Old Portfolio to Lord Ranfurly, for leave to reproduce the miniature of Lady Louisa Stuart by Mrs Mee to Miss Hunter Baillie of Long Calderwood, for Preface. ix permission to use the unpublished correspondence between her grand-aunt, Miss Joanna Baillie, and Miss Mary Berry to Miss Carruthers, Montreal, Canada, for permission to use some unpublished letters of her grandfather, William Laidlaw to Mr John Richard son, I. C. S., for permission to quote from the MS...