[1] Abbotsford, with the accent on the 'ford,' A modern pronunciation accentuates the first syllable. This is wrong. Scott himself said AbbotsfÒrd.
[2] Turn-Again, where Ker of Cessford was slain and the victorious party turned from the pursuit. Skirmish Hill, Charge Law, and Cock-a-Pistol are other landmarks of the fight. The Waverley Hydropathic is said to mark the immediate scene of the struggle.
[3] Lockhart and others have fallen (not unnaturally perhaps) into the error of supposing that 'Clarty Hole' was the real designation. Cartleyhole, however, was a very old name. Some wag possibly nicknamed the place 'the Clarty Hole,' which seems to have stuck to it.
[4] Charles Carpenter, in the Indian Civil Service at Salem, Madras.
[5] George Bullock and Edward Blore, London architects and furnishers. Atkinson was the artist who arranged the interior of Abbotsford.
[6] The 'Huntlee Bankis' lie between Melrose and Newtown, on the eastern slope of the Eildons, on the left side of the highway as it bends round to the west, going towards, and within about two miles of, Melrose. The spot is indicated by the famous Eildon Tree Stone.
[7] The place belonged in 1566 to Andrew Ker, one of the murderers of Rizzio. In 1574 Ker married the widow of John Knox, the Reformer. Nicol Milne was proprietor in Scott's day.
[8] See, however, facsimile of Allan's 'Gala Day at Abbotsford'—a sepia sketch—in Scott Centenary Exhibition Catalogue.
[9] In the possession of Captain Dennistoun of Golfhill. The picture has been frequently on exhibition, and frequently engraved.
[10] See 'Memoir of Mrs. Hemans' and her beautiful poem on 'The Funeral-Day of Sir Walter Scott.'
[11] See 'Memoir and Correspondence of Susan Ferrier,' edited by J. A. Doyle, for account of her visits to Ashestiel and Abbotsford.
[12] 'Domestic Manners and Private Life of Sir Walter Scott,' first published 1834; reprinted 1882.
[13] Of other Abbotsford visitors, mention may be made of Skene of Rubislaw, a friend of long standing; Sir David Brewster, who lived at Allerly, on the Gattonside bank of the Tweed; William Scrope, author of 'Days and Nights of Salmon Fishing on the Tweed,' who leased the Pavilion, 'and lived on terms of affectionate intimacy with Scott'; G. P. R. James, the novelist, who rented Maxpoffle, near Bowden; Thomas Hamilton, Lockhart's tenant at Chiefswood; Lord Cockburn, a frequent guest; J. M. W. Turner, R.A., and a host of artists who found their way at all seasons to Abbotsford. Of celebrated visitors after Scott's day, there were Queen Victoria in 1867; George Eliot in 1845; Charles Dickens, John Ruskin, Edward FitzGerald, William Howitt, Oliver Wendell Holmes, R. L. Stevenson, with men and women of note from every land.
[14] Dickens, however, had a somewhat similar experience, though not, of course, to the like extent.
[16] A reissue of the Poetry, with biographical prefaces, and a uniform reprint of the Novels, each introduced by an account of the hints on which it had been founded, and illustrated throughout by historical and antiquarian annotations.
[17] Scott resided for a month in the Casa Bernini. In 1882 the Earl of Haddington unveiled a marble tablet in commemoration of the visit, when the venerable Duc de Salmonetta, with whom Sir Walter travelled in Italy, was present and took part in the proceedings.
[18] As all the world knows, Scott stood indebted in 1826, on the Ballantyne-Constable crash, for no less a sum than £120,000, and a further £10,000 raised on Abbotsford with the view of averting the disaster. He determined to give every man his own. 'If my life is spared, nobody shall lose a penny by me,' he said, 'and this right hand shall work it all off.' Between 1826 and 1832 the debt was diminished by £66,000, an average of £11,000 a year. Against the remaining £54,000, a sum of £22,000 was received for his life insurance, and a generous advance from Cadell enabled his executors to settle in full with the Ballantyne creditors. By 1847 the loan was reduced to one-half, and the mortgage on the lands to £8,500. On May 11, 1847, Lockhart writes to Croker: 'I have finally settled all our Sir Walter's affairs. There remained debt secured on the lands, £8,500; to Cadell, £16,000; and sundries, £1,000. I have taken the £1,000 on myself, and Cadell obliterates the £24,500 on condition of getting the whole remaining copyright of Scott's works, and also of the Life.' At the time of the failure Scott surrendered his Collection at Abbotsford to his creditors; but so pleased were they with his fair and honourable response to their claims that they requested him to accept the furniture, plate, paintings, library, and museum, as a mark of sympathy and appreciation of his conduct. He valued his Collection at £10,000, and left it in his will to his eldest son, burdened to the extent of £5,000, for division among his younger children. In order to effect this, the second Sir Walter would have been obliged to disperse the Collection but for a subscription raised among a number of Scott's admirers to purchase the Abbotsford Collection and hold it in trust for the public and the family. This trust is vested in the Dean and Council of the Faculty of Advocates, who are empowered to leave the Collection in the charge and keeping of Scott's representatives at Abbotsford, or, should occasion arise, to remove it to some other building. The copyrights purchased by Cadell in 1847 were sold in 1851 by private bargain for £27,000 to Messrs. Adam and Charles Black, the publishers of the present volume. Messrs. Black's editions of Scott's works may, therefore, be trusted to contain the exact text as left in the 'Magnum Opus,' the MSS. of which are still in their possession.
[19] Scott was an intense favourite with the Darnickers, who playfully dubbed him 'Duke of Darnick.'
[20] Mr. Lang's 'Life of Lockhart' gives the date as July 14; the month is probably a printer's error, however. At Dryburgh the date is June 14; but the Cambusnethan Records read June 12.
[21] There is no foundation for the fanciful etymology of the name Lockhart, quasi Lock-heart (purely post facto). There were Locards in Scotland long before 1330.
[22] Yet we find Lockhart, at the Jedburgh circuit of 1823, 'pleading,' so Scott says, 'for a clansman of mine (Rob Scott), who, having sustained an affront from two men on the road home from Earlston Fair, nobly waylaid and murdered them both, single-handed.' Lockhart lost his case, and his client was hanged.
[23] Carlyle, curiously, had a fondness for the same verses, and was frequently quoting them.
[24] 'Peter's Letters to his Kinsfolk'—the name was, of course, borrowed from Scott's 'Paul's Letters' (see vol. ii. for Abbotsford)—is seldom read nowadays, and there has been no new edition for years. Still, it is a faithful, if pungent, picture of the period, and, notwithstanding a certain ill odour, really contains far more good than evil. There was no first edition, the first actual publication being called the second edition. Why, would be difficult to say.
[25] Some of Lockhart's own best work was done at Chiefswood—e.g., 'Valerius,' a romance of the times of Trajan; 'Adam Blair'—a Scottish 'Scarlet Letter'; and several of his Spanish Ballads.
[26] It may be noted here that while Lockhart 'regarded his son-in-law's conversion to Romanism as a grief and a humiliation, nevertheless, the nobleness of his nature, and the deep regard he always felt for his virtues, prevailed without an effort.'—Life of Hope Scott.
[27] Miss Jobson appears to have been a young lady of great beauty. When George IV. came to Edinburgh, she was one of the maids of honour at Holyrood. She was Sir Adam Ferguson's niece, and it was he who practically arranged the match. Following her marriage, she and her husband lived for a time at Lochore (purchased in 1813 by her father, a prosperous Dundee merchant). Sir Walter Scott himself was often there. Reference is made in 'The Abbot' to Ballingry Kirk. After 1832 Lochore was let to tenants, and in 1867 was sold for £60,000 to the Lochore Coal Company, in whose hands it still remains.
[28] A friend who knew her writes: 'Lady Scott was exceedingly sensitive and reserved. She hardly ever mentioned her husband's name after his death. She was very kind-hearted, but rarely expressed her feelings. She was very fond of children. She lived a quiet and retired life, interesting herself much in politics, and could talk and argue well on the subject. She was clever and well read. She would never speak of Abbotsford.'
[29] 'I have the liveliest impression of that good, honest Scotch face and character, though never in contact with the young man but once.'—Thomas Carlyle.
[30] The entries in the 'Journal' show this strongly,—his resignation to God's will, and thankfulness for blessings.
[31] In 1868 Gladstone urged Mr. Hope Scott to produce an abridged version of Lockhart, ignorant, apparently, of Lockhart's own Abridgment. And in 1871 Hope Scott asks leave to dedicate a reprint of it to Gladstone as 'one among those who think that Scott still deserves to be remembered, not as an author only, but as a noble and vigorous man.'
[32] In addition to Abbotsford, Mr. Hope Scott owned the estate of Dorlin, on Loch Shiel; the Villa Madona, HyÈres, South France; and property in County Mayo.
[33] Mrs. Maxwell Scott has taken a deep interest in all the affairs of Abbotsford. Literary in her leanings, quite a number of volumes have come from her pen: 'The Making of Abbotsford, and Incidents in Scottish History'; 'Abbotsford and its Treasures'; 'The Tragedy of Fotheringay'; 'Life of Henry Schomberg Kerr, Sailor and Jesuit'; 'Joan of Arc,' and many articles besides, with the Prefaces to the 'Melrose' edition of the Novels.
[34] See the Abbotsford Library Catalogue, a handsome quarto, edited by John G. Cochrane for the Maitland and Bannatyne Clubs, 1838.
[35] The slogan of the Scotts of Buccleuch—'A Bellenden!' from Bellendean, near the head of the Borthwick Water, in Roxburghshire. The windows show the shields of eight families of the clan.
[36] Sandyknowe appears to be the correct designation of the tower. In most books on Scott it is generally referred to as Smailholm Tower. Smailholm, however, had another Keep of that name (now demolished) close to the village. Many old records and maps read Sandeknow, etc., and local usage confirms this. Scott himself liked to speak of Sandyknowe.
