Page:Biographical and critical miscellanies (IA biographicalcrit00presrich).pdf/236

 friends, and of the beautiful scenery, the creation, as it were, of his own hands, seemed to impart a gleam of melancholy satisfaction, which soon, however, sank into insensibility. To his present situation might well be applied the exquisite verses which he indited on another melancholy occasion:

Yet not the landscape to mine eye Bears those bright hues that once it bore; Though Evening, with her richest dye, Flames o'er the hills of Ettrick's shore.

With listless look along the plain I see Tweed's silver current glide, Ami coldly mark the holy fane Of Melrose rise in ruined pride.

The quiet lake, the balmy air, The hill, the stream, the tower, the tree, Are they still such as once they were, Or is the dreary change in me?"

Providence, in its mercy, did not suffer the shattered frame long to outlive the glorious spirit which had informed it. He breathed his last on the 21st of September, 1832. His remains were deposited, as he had always desired, in the hoary abbey of Dryburgh, and the pilgrim from many a distant clime shall repair to the consecrated spot so long as the reverence for exalted genius and worth shall survive in the human heart.

This sketch, brief as we could make it, of the literary history of Sir Walter Scott, has extended so far as to leave but little space for—what Lockhart's volumes afford ample materials for—his personal character. Take it for all and all, it is not too much to say that this character is probably the most