The Journal of Sir Walter Scott Part 58

_January_ 16.--Again returned early, and found my way home with some difficulty. The weather--a black frost powdered with snow, my fingers suffering much and my knee very stiff. When I came home, I set to work, but not to the _Chronicles_. I found a less hara.s.sing occupation in correcting a volume or two of _Napoleon_ in a rough way. My indolence, if I can call it so, is of a capricious kind. It never makes me absolutely idle, but very often inclines me--as it were from mere contradiction's sake--to exchange the task of the day for something which I am not obliged to do at the moment, or perhaps not at all.

_January_ 17.--My knee so swelled and the weather so cold that I stayed from Court. I nibbled for an hour or two at _Napoleon_, then took handsomely to my gear, and wrote with great ease and fluency six pages of the _Chronicles_. If they are but tolerable I shall be satisfied. In fact, such as they are, they must do, for I shall get warm as I work, as has happened on former occasions. The fact is, I scarce know what is to succeed or not; but this is the consequence of writing too much and too often. I must get some breathing s.p.a.ce. But how is that to be managed?

There is the rub.

_January_ 18-19.--Remained still at home, and wrought hard. The fountain trickles free enough, but G.o.d knows whether the waters will be worth drinking. However, I have finished a good deal of hard work,--that's the humour of it.

_January_ 20.--Wrought hard in the forenoon. At dinner we had Helen Erskine,--whom circ.u.mstances lead to go to India in search of the domestic affection which she cannot find here,--Mrs. George Swinton, and two young strangers: one, a son of my old friend Dr. Stoddart of the _Times_, a well-mannered and intelligent youth, the other that unnatural character, a tame Irishman, resembling a formal Englishman.

_January_ 21.--This morning I sent J.B. as far as page forty-three, being fully two-thirds of the volume. The rest I will drive on, trusting that, contrary to the liberated posthorse in John Gilpin, the lumber of the wheels rattling behind me may put spirit in the poor brute who has to drag it.

Mr. and Mrs. Moscheles were here at breakfast. She is a very pretty little Jewess; he one of the greatest performers on the pianoforte of the day,--certainly most surprising and, what I rather did not expect, pleasing.

I have this day the melancholy news of Glengarry's death, and was greatly shocked. The eccentric parts of his character, the pretensions which he supported with violence and a.s.sumption of rank and authority, were obvious subjects of censure and ridicule, which in some points were not undeserved. He played the part of a chieftain too nigh the life to be popular among an altered race, with whom he thought, felt, and acted, I may say in right and wrong, as a chieftain of a hundred years since would have done, while his conduct was viewed entirely by modern eyes, and tried by modern rules.[117]

_January_ 22.--I am, I find, in serious danger of losing the habit of my Journal; and, having carried it on so long, that would be pity. But I am now, on the 1st February, fis.h.i.+ng for the lost recollections of the days since the 21st January. Luckily there is not very much to remember or forget, and perhaps the best way would be to skip and go on.

_January_ 23.--Being a Teind day, I had a good opportunity of work. I should have said I had given breakfast on the 21st to Mr. and Mrs.

Moscheles; she a beautiful young creature, "and one that adores me," as Sir Toby says,[118]--that is, in my poetical capacity;--in fact, a frank and amiable young person. I liked Mr. Moscheles' playing better than I could have expected, considering my own bad ear. But perhaps I flatter myself, and think I understood it better than I did. Perhaps I have not done myself justice, and know more of music than I thought I did. But it seems to me that his variations have a more decided style of originality than those I have commonly heard, which have all the signs of a _da capo rota_.

Dined at Sir Archibald Campbell's,[119] and drank rather more wine than usual in a sober way. To be sure, it was excellent, and some old acquaintances proved a good excuse for the gla.s.s.

_January_ 24.--I took a perverse fit to-day, and went off to write notes, et cetera, on _Guy Mannering_. This was perverse enough; but it was a composition between humour and duty; and as such, let it pa.s.s.

_January_ 25.--I went on working, sometimes at my legitimate labours, sometimes at my jobs of Notes, but still working faithfully, in good spirits, and contented.

Huntly Gordon has disposed of the two sermons[120] to the bookseller Colburn for 250--well sold, I think--and is to go forth immediately.

The man is a puffing quack; but though I would rather the thing had not gone there, and far rather that it had gone nowhere, yet, hang it! if it makes the poor lad easy, what needs I fret about it? After all, there would be little gain in doing a kind thing, if you did not suffer pain or inconvenience upon the score.

_January_ 26.--Being Sat.u.r.day, attended Mr. Moscheles' concert, and was amused; the more so that I had Mrs. M. herself to flirt a little with.

To have so much beauty as she really possesses, and to be accomplished and well-read, she is an unaffected and pleasant person. Mr. Moscheles gives lessons at two guineas by the hour, and he has actually found scholars in this poor country. One of them at least (Mrs. John Murray) may derive advantage from his instructions; for I observe his mode of fingering is very peculiar, as he seems to me to employ the fingers of the same hand in playing the melody and managing the ba.s.s at the same time, which is surely most uncommon.

I presided at the Celtic Society's dinner to-day, and proposed Glengarry's memory, which, although there had been a rough dispute with the Celts and the poor Chief, was very well received. I like to see men think and bear themselves like men. There were fewer in the tartan than usual--which was wrong.

_January_ 27.--Wrought manfully at the _Chronicles_ all this day and have nothing to jot down; only I forgot that I lost my lawsuit some day last week or the week before. The fellow therefore gets his money, plack and bawbee, but it's always a troublesome claim settled,[121] and there can be no other of the same kind, as every other creditor has accepted the composition of _7s._ in the , which my exertions have enabled me to pay them. About 20,000 of the fund had been created by my own exertions since the bankruptcy took place, and I had a letter from Donald Horne, by commission of the creditors, to express their sense of my exertions in their behalf. All this is consolatory.

_January_ 28.--I am in the sc.r.a.pe of sitting for my picture, and had to repair for two hours to-day to Mr. Colvin Smith--Lord Gillies's nephew.

The Chief Baron[122] had the kindness to sit with me great part of the time, as the Chief Commissioner had done on a late occasion. The picture is for the Chief Commissioner, and the Chief Baron desires a copy. I trust it will he a good one. At home in the evening, and wrote. I am well on before the press, notwithstanding late hours, la.s.situde, and laziness. I have read Cooper's _Prairie_--better, I think, than his _Red Rover_, in which you never get foot on sh.o.r.e, and to understand entirely the incidents of the story it requires too much knowledge of nautical language. It's very clever, though.[123]

_January_ 29.--This day at the Court, and wrote letters at home, besides making a visit or two--rare things with me. I have an invitation from Messrs Saunders and Otley, booksellers, offering me from 1500 to 2000 annually to conduct a journal; but I am their humble servant. I am too indolent to stand to that sort of work, and I must preserve the undisturbed use of my leisure, and possess my soul in quiet. A large income is not my object; I must clear my debts; and that is to be done by writing things of which I can retain the property. Made my excuses accordingly.

_January_ 30.--After Court hours I had a visit from Mr. Charles Heath, the engraver, accompanied by a son of Reynolds the dramatist. His object was to engage me to take charge as editor of a yearly publication called _The Keepsake,_ of which the plates are beyond comparison beautiful, but the letter-press indifferent enough. He proposed 800 a year if I would become editor, and 400 if I would contribute from seventy to one hundred pages. I declined both, but told him I might give him some trifling thing or other, and asked the young men to breakfast the next day. Worked away in the evening and completed, "in a way and in a manner," the notes on _Guy Mannering_. The first volume of the _Chronicles_ is now in Ballantyne's hands, all but a leaf or two. Am I satisfied with my exertions? So so. Will the public be pleased with them? Umph! I doubt the bubble will burst. While it is current, however, it is clear I should stand by it. Each novel of three volumes brings 4000, and I remain proprietor of the mine when the first ore is cropped out. This promises a good harvest, from what we have experienced. Now, to become a stipendiary editor of a New-Year's Gift-Book is not to be thought of, nor could I agree to work for any quant.i.ty of supply to such a publication. Even the pecuniary view is not flattering, though these gentlemen meant it should be so. But one hundred of their close-printed pages, for which they offer 400, is not nearly equal to one volume of a novel, for which I get 1300, and have the reversion of the copyright.

No, I may give them a trifle for nothing, or sell them an article for a round price, but no permanent engagement will I make. Being the Martyrdom, there was no Court. I wrought away with what appet.i.te I could.

_January_ 31.--I received the young gentlemen to breakfast and expressed my resolution, which seemed to disappoint them, as perhaps they expected I should have been glad of such an offer. However, I have since thought there are these rejected parts of the _Chronicles_, which Cadell and Ballantyne criticised so severely, which might well enough make up a trifle of this kind, and settle the few accounts which, will I nill I, have crept in this New Year. So I have kept the treaty open. If I give them 100 pages I should expect 500.

I was late at the Court and had little time to write any till after dinner, and then was not in the vein; so commentated.

FOOTNOTES:

[109] To whom Scott addressed the fifth canto of _Marmion_.

[110] See letter to R. Cadell, _Life_, vol. ix. p. 209.

[111] "The first _Tales of a Grandfather_ [as has already been said]

appeared early in December, and their reception was more rapturous than that of any one of his works since _Ivanhoe_. He had solved for the first time the problem of narrating history, so as at once to excite and gratify the curiosity of youth, and please and instruct the wisest of mature minds. The popularity of the book has grown with every year that has since elapsed; it is equally prized in the library, the boudoir, the schoolroom, and the nursery; it is adopted as the happiest of manuals, not only in Scotland, but wherever the English tongue is spoken; nay, it is to be seen in the hands of old and young all over the civilised world, and has, I have little doubt, extended the knowledge of Scottish history in quarters where little or no interest had ever before been awakened as to any other parts of that subject except those immediately connected with Mary Stuart and the Chevalier."--_Life_, vol. ix. pp.

186-7.

[112] It may be remarked at this point how the value of these works has been sustained by the public demand during the term of legal copyright and since that date. That of _Waverley_ expired in 1856, and the others at forty-two years from the date of publication.

On December 19, 1827, the copyright of the Novels from _Waverley_ to _Quentin Durward_ was acquired, as mentioned in the text, for 8400 as a joint purchase. Five years later, viz., in 1832, Mr. Cadell purchased from Sir Walter's representatives, for about 40,000, the author's share in stock and entire copyrights!

Nineteen years afterwards, viz., on the 26th March 1851 (after Mr.

Cadell's death), the stock and copyrights were exposed for sale by auction in London, regarding which a Trade Journal of the date says--

"Mr. Hodgson offered for sale the whole of the copyrights of Sir Walter Scott's works, including stereotypes, steels, woodcuts, etc., to a very large meeting of the publishers of this country. After one or two of our leading firms had retired from the contest, the lot was bought in for, we believe, 15,500. This sum did not include the stock on hand, valued at 10,000. However, the fact is that the Trustees have virtually refused 25,000 for the stock, copyrights, etc., of Scott's works."

Messrs. A. & C. Black in 1851 purchased the property at nearly the same price, viz.:--Copyright, 17,000; stock, 10,000--in all, 27,000. Mr.

Francis Black, who has kindly given me information regarding the sale of these works, tells me that of the volumes of one of the cheaper issues about three millions have been sold since 1851. This, of course, is independent of other publishers' editions in Great Britain, the Continent, and America.

[113] In _Henry IV._, Act v. Sc. 3.

[114] In an interesting letter to Scott from Fenimore Cooper, dated Sept. 12th, 1827, he tells him "that the French abuse you a little, but as they began to do this, to my certain knowledge, five months before the book was published, you have no great reason to regard their criticism.

It would be impossible to write the truth on such a subject and please this nation. One frothy gentleman denounced you in my presence as having a low, vulgar style, very much such an one as characterised the pen of Shakespeare!"

[115] A proverb having its rise from an exclamation made by Mr. David d.i.c.k, a Covenanter, on witnessing the execution of some of Montrose's followers.--Wishart's _Montrose_, quoting from Guthrie's _Memoirs_, p.

182.

[116] Scott's biographer records his admiration for the manner in which all his dependants met the reverse of their master's fortunes. The butler, instead of being the easy chief of a large establishment, was now doing half the work of the house at probably half his former wages.

Old Peter, who had been for five-and-twenty years a dignified coachman, was now ploughman in ordinary; only putting his horses to the carriage on high and rare occasions; and so on with all that remained of the ancient train, and all seemed happier.

[117] _Ante_, vol. i. p. 120.

[118] _Twelfth Night_, Act II. Sc. 3.

[119] Sir Archibald Campbell of Succoth. He lived at 1 Park Place.

[120] The circ.u.mstances under which these sermons were written are fully detailed in the _Life_, vol. ix. pp. 193, 206. They were issued in a thin octavo vol. under the t.i.tle _Religious Discourses,_ by a Layman, with a short Preface signed W.S. There were more editions than one published during 1828.

[121] _Ante_, p. 65.

[122] Sir Samuel Shepherd.

[123] Mr. Cooper did not relax his efforts to secure Scott an interest in his works reprinted in America, but he was not successful, and he writes to Scott in the autumn of 1827: "This, sir, is a pitiful account of a project from which I expected something more just to you and creditable to my country."

FEBRUARY.