Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 6.djvu/368

 302 NOTES AND QUERIES. [9* s. VL o«. 20,1900. perusal of " this bewitching ' Heart of Mid- lothian'" as equivalent to "an interview with Walter the Wonderful." Scott's serious illness in the spring of 1819 filled this sincere admirer with mingled sensations of "fear and pain," and she pays this tender and beautiful tribute to him in writing to a friend on 7 May :— " A life so spotless, a heart so kind, a temper so unclouded, and a mind before which fame and fortune have vainly spread their enchantments, would, if removed from among us, make a blank in the objecU of our national pride and pleasure not to be supplied." In a letter to Mrs. Smith, of Jordanhill, dated 8 January, 1822, Mrs. Grant defends the propriety of the closing sentence in ' The Pirate,' offering whole-hearted homage to the genius that she has no hesitation in associating with those of Shakespeare, Bacon, and Locke. The following, written on 9 July, 1822, to Mrs. Gorman, is an admirable illustration of the same bright, fearless, and unyielding spirit of loyal devotion :— " I am glad you are so pleased with the ' Fortunes of Nigel,' which I consider as a wonderful effort of genius ever new and inexhaustible. Who but the Knight of Abbotsford could lead you through Alsatia, and the other scenes of vice and folly, without awaking a blush on the cheek of genuine delicacy ? Yet I had a letter from a friend in the South, who had not then seen the book, in which she informs me that in England it is accounted a failure. Honest John Bull has not seen such a failure on his side of Tweed since Shakspeare's time." The reference to the author's ' Lives of the British Novelists' in a letter of 15 May, 1823, to Mrs. Wills, of Dublin, is similarly enthusiastic. The work is described as being " by the indefatigable and incomparable Sir Walter Scott." The admiration is not modi- fied even when the new departure in 'St. Ronan's Well' proves disappointing to many. Mrs. Grant feels that perhaps some of the previous works surpassed this in the essential qualities of novel-writing, but here, too, there is a display of true greatness. She approves of the experiment the author has made, and asserts that if he is not equal to himself at his best in what is " an obvious intentional satire," he still stands head and shoulders above the mob. She holds to her old maxim that " King's caff [chaff] is better than ither folk's corn." Then, if she must admit that the story does not hang very well together, she reflects that this sometimes happens with Shakespeare, and so refers her correspondent to the goods the gods fail not to provide and leaves the subject. In a letter to Mrs. Hook of 23 June, 1824, she proclaims the merits and the authorship of 'Red- gauntlet' with absolute, unhesitating con- fidence :— "This leads me to ' Redgauntlet,' where Walter is himself again. Who says that his forte is low characters? I do not meet in books, and very rarely in life, such gentlemen aa his, with senti- ments so just, so manly, and so happily expressed. Witness the feeling without weakness or painted sentimentality, the dignity without strut or false elevation, the graceful ease and unbending spirit displayed in the painful interview betwixt the infatuated Chevalier and his adherents." In reference to the collapse of Constable in 1826, involving the Ballantynes, and with them "our Scottish Shakspeare," as Mrs. Grant calls Scott when writing to Mrs. Wills at the time, the fervent admiration finds fitting expression. The writer's grief, she says, was not of the kind experienced by Rochefoucauld over the troubles of his friends: " it was keen, deep, and by no means tran- sient : every time I hear any allusion to him I grieve anew." Towards the close of the letter she adds : " One of the chief mortifica- tions arising from all this is, that his works, seized by his creditors, must be owned as his. Adieu to the transparent veil!" To the public admission of authorship there seems to be no allusion in Mrs. Grant's letters. It had not, of course, been a surprise to her, but it would havebeenquite natural had she referred to it with satisfaction, as showing that she had all along been justified in the position she had taken up. Writing on 16 January, 1827, to a friend in the United States, she refers to Scott's misfortunes, and describes himself in his adversity as " placid, cheerful, and un- altered." This is what she says of him to Mrs. Hook on 28 November, 1832, thinking of him after his death and in connexion with Innerleithen, where she had spent an autumn holiday:— " Much has been said of Sir Walter Scott's genius, and of the virtues of his spotless life; but you must have known him personally to appreciate the charm of his simplicity of manners, his ever good-humour, and that sound sense and genuine truth,—that un- ostentatious, yet ever-waking benevolence. Then, in his conversation, he never dazzled but always delighted you; it was always original, yet the sense of it was for the time lost in the easy quiet- ness of his manner, consistent, at the same time, with perfect good breeding. He seemed always more disposed to please than to shine; you met him with the impression that you ought to look up to him, but, ere you were aware, you found your- self on even ground with him, and wondered after- wards to find you had been go perfectly at your ease." As giving the evidence, the estimate, and the enthusiastic expression of adherence on the part of an accomplished and capable con-