Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 6.djvu/367

 9* s. vi. OCT. ao, i9oo.] NOTES AND QUERIES. 301 LONDON. SATURDAY, OCTOBER to. 1900. CONTENTS.-No. 147. NOTES :—A Contemporary of Scott, 301 — English and Roman Land Measures, 303—Early Political Club—Date of the Crucifixion—" Like one o'clock," 305—" Gymnastics " —Long Myml, Shropshire—Jonson Misquoted—" Skilly" —Folk-Medicine, 306 — " Verify references "—Ladysmith —Plural Voting, 307. QUERIES :—Ancient Scotch Custom—' Lincoln Marriage Licences'—Lincolnshire Pedigrees — " Spick and span," 307—"Save the face of " — " Hattuck " — Nell Gwyn or Gwynn — Medieval Badge — Count Pecchio — Thirkell Family—Religion Defined, 308—Mediseval Tithe Barns- Octopus on Pottery—Gipsies of Spain—Shorts of Windsor and Bloomsbury—Bump Parliament—* To Margaret W—' —B.D.—The Black Hood-George Gilbert—Arms Wanted, 309—The AbM le Loutre, 310. REPLIES :—" Quarter " of Corn — Long Administration, 310—Ely Place, Holbom—" Viva"—Thackeray In 'Punch' — " Shotrfree," 311 — Place-name Oxford—Woore—Cross near Wycoller Hall — Ferocious Doolys — Verbs out of Proper Names, 312—Barly Mention of a Lift—Walton- • Complete Angler'—Corpse on Shipboard, 313—Parody on 'Mistletoe Bough' — "Chink" — Long and Young Family — Adelphi Drama and Guest, 3U —Penance of Married Priest—"The mains more"—"The Bay Horse," 316 — St. James's Shell — Shakespeare and Cicero, 316— Catalogue of Knrllest English Book Auction —Anne of Austria—Nursery Stories—Eruption at Krakatoa—Authors Wanted, 318. NOTES ON BOOKS :—'The Oxford English Dictionary'— M. de Uaulde's 'Women of the Renaissance' — • Two- Version Edition of the Bible '—' Folk-Lore '—Hornbooks. Notices to Correspondents. goto. A CONTEMPORARY ON SCOTT. IN the 'Memoir and Correspondence of Mrs. Grant of Laggan' (Longmans, 1845) there are numerous allusions to Scott, all appreciative, discriminating, and thoroughly loyal, while evincing a sound estimate of the literary eminence occupied by the writer's friend. Mrs. Grant haa no doubt whatever as to Scott's greatness, nor did she ever waver in the slightest degree from her early conviction that he wrote the "Waverley Novels." She stood up_ sturdily for her opinion on the latter point for the thirteen years during which the author chose to leave the_ matter in doubt. ' Waverley' appeared in 1814, and it was on the occasion of a famous dinner in January, 1827, that Sir Walter Scott admitted that he was the "Wizard of the North," regarding whose identity there had been so much speculation and so great diversity of opinion. In view of these things it is very interesting to follow Mrs. Grant through two or three years of her correspondence. Writing, e.y., to Mrs. Hook on 3 July, 1814, when ' Waverley' was absolutely new, and I he question of its origin was being keenly discussed on all sides, she makes the following pointed and striking remarks on the subject:— " I hope you have read, or will read, ' Waverley.' I am satisfied from internal evidence that Walter Scott, and no other, is the author of that true and chaste delineation of Scottish manners, such as they existed at the time he assigns for his drama." In a letter to Miss Fanshawe, written on 13 December of the same year, she discredits, without the least hesitation, the attribution of the novel to " Boswell, the son of Johnson's biographer," readily admitting at the same time that he " is unquestionably a man of genius." Then she proceeds :— " I still continue fixed in the opinion that it is Walter Scott's. I know his style of speaking, thinking, and observing so well, that, were he him- self to swear as hard as Lord Cochrane that he did not write it, I would not believe him. The Arch- Critic [Jeffrey] and I had a discussion on it when the book first came out; he perfectly agreed in opinion with me, going on surer ground if possible than internal evidence, though of that he felt the full weight. He says he knows every man in Scot- land capable of producing a work demonstrative at once of learning and genius, and knows only one mind equal to this work, and his impress is on every page." Writing on 5 January, 1816, Mrs. Grant expresses the opinion that " ' Guy Manner- ing' is absolute perfection as a narrative," and adds, in a charming outburst of feeling, "I cannot trust myself to talk of that charmer Dandie Dinmont, or I should never have done." Here the authorship of the work is not even alluded to, the writer, no doubt, taking it for granted. The delightful way in which she assumes, in a letter of 7 January, 1817, that Scott must be the writer of 'Tales of my Landlord,' and draws the veil from his convenient author " Anon.," must be shown by a citation. After discussing the attitude of the Covenanters, and the treat- ment accorded them in ' Old Mortality,' Mrs. Grant writes as follows :— " There is certainly a most astonishing power of dramatic effect in these ' Tales.' Shakespeare never drew low characters more naturally, or gave finer features of elegance and dignity to his heroes. Did you observe a motto to one of the chapters, marked Anonymous, that, I suspect, is written by the author himself?— Fill, fill the clarion, sound the fife, To all the sensual world proclaim,— One crowded hour of glorious life Is worth an age without a name 1 How nobly spirited and expressive! I am just now deep in Wodrow's ' History of the Church'; and In that record, preserved by a zealous Covenanter, find quite enough to credit the details which the fertile fancy of Walter Scott has em- bellished, not at all oeyond the limits of pro- bability.'5 On 27 July, 1818, Mrs. Grant speaks of a