Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 51.djvu/56

 early ‘Essays of Elia.’ A long letter from Scott to the publishers of the magazine on Hazlitt's contributions is printed in Mr. W. C. Hazlitt's ‘Four Generations of a Literary Family’ (i. 135–8).

In May 1820 the editor, in an article on ‘Newspapers and the Magazines,’ sharply attacked the criticisms of ‘Z.’ that had appeared in ‘Blackwood's Magazine,’ and he followed up the attack by more elaborate articles in later numbers (i.e. in November 1820, pp. 509–21, ‘Blackwood's Magazine;’ December 1820, pp. 666–85, ‘The Mohock Magazine;’ January 1821, pp. 76–7, ‘The Mohocks’). Lockhart, the chief object of Scott's assault, was provoked into communicating with Scott with the intention of extracting from him an apology or a hostile meeting. Some fruitless negotiations followed, and the matter went off for the time with Lockhart's statement that he considered Scott ‘a liar and a scoundrel.’ But embittered statements continued to emanate from both parties and their friends, and a communication from Jonathan Henry Christie, an eminent conveyancer and an intimate friend of Lockhart, led to a duel between Christie and Scott. They met by moonlight at nine o'clock at Chalk Farm, near London, on 16 Feb. 1821, James Traill acting as Christie's second, and Peter George Patmore [q. v.] assisting Scott. Christie did not fire on the first occasion; but the second time he fired in self-defence, and the ball struck Scott ‘just above the hip on the right side, and, passing through the intestines, lodged in the left side.’ It seemed for some time that the wounded man would live; but he died, on 27 Feb. 1821, in his rooms in York Street, Covent Garden, and was buried in the vaults of the church of St. Martin's-in-the-Fields, London. At the inquest a verdict of wilful murder was brought in by the jury. Christie and Traill were tried at the Old Bailey on 13 April 1821, and were found not guilty. Patmore did not appear at the trial. Christie survived till 15 April 1876, aged 84.

Byron wrote: ‘Scott died like a brave man, and he lived an able one. A man of very considerable talents and of great acquirements, he had made his way as a literary character with high success and in a few years.’ The testimony of Horace Smith ran: ‘He was invariably pleasing. In manner, appearance, deportment, mind, he was a perfect gentleman. He abounded in solid information, which he communicated with an easy, lucid, and unpremeditated eloquence.’

Scott married Caroline, daughter of the printseller, Paul Colnaghi [q. v.] She was a beauty and a woman of superior talents. Their eldest boy, Paul Scott, died at Paris on 8 Nov. 1816, aged eight years and a half, as his parents were travelling to Italy. He was buried at Père-Lachaise, where a pillar with an inscription was erected to his memory, and Scott wrote a pathetic poem on his loss, entitled ‘The House of Mourning,’ which was published in 1817. Two infant children survived at the time of his death, and the family was left penniless. A subscription was raised for their benefit, and Sir James Mackintosh, Chantrey, Horace Smith, and John Murray were on the committee (London Mag. April 1821, p. 359). Murray wrote to Byron, asking if he would give 10l. The response was a contribution of 30l. as from ‘N. N.’

Besides the works mentioned, Scott was author of: 1. ‘Picturesque Views of Paris and its Environs. Drawings by Frederick Nash. Letterpress by John Scott and M. P. B. de la Brossiére,’ 1820–23; English and French; and 2. ‘Sketches of Manners, Scenery in the French Provinces, Switzerland, and Italy,’ 1821 (posthumous).

[Gent. Mag. 1821, i. 271–2, 369–70; New Monthly Mag. 1847, lxxxi. 415–18, by Horace Smith; Byron's Second Letter on Bowles, Works, vi. 394–5; Patmore's My Friends and Acquaintance, ii. 283–7; Knight's Life of Wordsworth, ii. 261–72, iii. 234; Sharp's Joseph Severn, pp. 74, 88, 98; Sir W. Scott's Letters, ii. 109–16; Lamb's Letters, ed. Ainger, i. 279, ii. 200; Moore's Byron, ii. 207, iii. 81, v. 143; Smiles's J. Murray, i. 389, 420; Wainewright's Works, ed. Hazlitt; Blackwood's Mag. xix. preface, pp. xvi–xviii; Lang's Life of Lockhart, i. 250–282; Drakard's Stamford, p. 431; information from Mr. J. M. Bulloch.]  SCOTT, JOHN (1774–1827), engraver, was born on 12 March 1774 at Newcastle-on-Tyne, where his father, John Scott, worked in a brewery. At the age of twelve he was apprenticed to a tallow-chandler, but devoted all his spare time to the study of drawing and engraving, and at the expiration of his articles came to London, where his fellow-townsman, Robert Pollard [q. v.], gave him two years' instruction, at the same time paying him for his work. On leaving Pollard he obtained employment from Wheble, the proprietor of the ‘Sporting Magazine,’ and for many years the portraits of racehorses published in that periodical were executed by him. The next work upon which Scott was engaged was W. B. Daniel's well-known ‘British Rural Sports,’ 1801, many of the plates in which were both designed and engraved by him. He became