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lating blow which came near to break down the very roof-tree of his noble mansion, I need not here speak-they are well known. The law construed him a partner, and honor bound him to payment. One hundred and twenty thousand pounds sterling, namely, more than half a million of dollars, seemed to him a lighter weight to bear, than the disgrace of insolvency. Three years after he had entered on this course of lofty daring, it was my good fortune to spend with my family some days an invited guest at Abbotsford; and setting aside all reverence of genius, on no one of its proud monuments could I look with such veneration, as on its noble master, then approaching to his sixtieth birth-day, with some few infirmities of body, but none of mind or spirit, gallantly bearing up under this load of debt, and paying it off year by year with the fabled profusion of some eastern sage, whose magic wand gave him access to hidden treasures. It was a high and ennobling picture, yet not without its strain of melancholy. To see one whose years demanded, and whose toils so well deserved repose, whom genius had crowned with unenvied laurels, whom nations contended to reverence and kings to honor; to see such an one tasking his strength in an herculean labor, that through his imprudence no poor man should suffer, and no rich man complain; and no man, whether rich or poor, touch with a blot the fair escutcheon of his fame this was a sight as full of moral worth as it was of intellectual greatness, and could hardly be viewed then, as it can hardly be contemplated now, without tears. There was in it that proud disdain of wealth, that lofty integrity of purpose, and that jealous sense of honor, which showed from what inner fount he had drawn those living traits of nobleness which so charm us in his novels.

Remuneration from the sale of his works in this country he had received none, and I felt humbled as an American, from the knowledge of it, as I ventured to suggest to him the manner in which his future copyright might be guarded

from the treachery of the press, and the inadequacy of the law. He listened to me, methought, with the spirit of some belted knight; regarded the plan as a subterfuge, unworthy, and most probably inoperative, and concluded, with putting it upon the score of natural justice, reciprocal right, and becoming courtesy between nations using a common language. On this occasion alone, was there a touch in his manner of the ancient Bruce, which seemed as if when chafed it could easily have taken the tone and bearing of that haughty baron.

"Proud was his tone, but calm; his eye

Had that compelling dignity;

His mien, that bearing haught and high,
Which common spirits fear."

Such, however, was far from his usual manner, which wast all kindness, gentleness and courtesy. But I have already elsewhere given this picture.*

Where Scott has dwelt is classic ground. His earlier residence was at Ashiesteel, about six miles above Abbotsford, where the Ettrick forest borders upon the Tweed, and gave the scene of several of his romances. It is more picturesque than his later residence, but less strongly associated with a name which now gives an interest above beauty. Abbotsford was the spot of an early choice.

"Here have I thought [said he] 'twere sweet to dwell

And rear again the chaplain's cell,

And deem each hour to musing given

A step upon the road to heaven."

In 1811 he became the purchaser of it. There was then, he

*This alludes to a letter addressed by the author, to the editor of the New-York American, November 19, 1832, on the news of Sir Walter's death.

told me, not a tree between the road and the river; but “time and I against any two," was ever his cheerful motto. And so it proved. In 1830, when I stopped at the outer gate, it was a forest of wood, out of which arose the turrets of his “dreamlike mansion," like one of his own magic creations. To me, indeed, it was a magic scene; it was like the dark power of "gramarye;" for on the right arose the Eildon hills with their triple rent, and at their foot among the ruins of holy Melrose slept that wizard priest, to whose words of power "by art that none may name," that rent was attributed. Beyond the house, and partially seen, rolled the Tweed with its dark waters; and beyond was Newark's birchen hill and riven tower, and all the associations of the minstrel's lay. If such was the influence of the scene, what was that of the mansion? ""Twere long to tell," and not here the place. Within that noble mansion then all was joyous, now alas! is its light quenched, and Abbotsford can be henceforth to the traveller but the scene of reverential musings; "sic transit." And of that dreamlike mansion, how like a dream is now the recollection. Its stately towers and storied halls, seem to me but like some splendid vision of the night, when thoughts and forms not of mortal mould, fill the heart with feelings to which waking life is a stranger. "To meet and part, is mortals lot," such were Sir Walter Scott's farewell words to me. Alas! but too prophetic. One is gone, then my companion; and he now is gone, then my honored host. Such is life, a watch in the night for its duration, a dream for its substance, and shadows for its actors; with nothing real in it, save the duties of life and the consolations of religion.

Such gentlemen, was one whom it requires an abler pen than mine rightly to delineate but he is gone! milder skies were tried in vain; even soft Parthenope with its genial breezes failed to revive him, than whom it never received a

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more honored guest, for in the language of one who wrote as a poet, while he felt as a friend.*

"The might

Of the whole world's good wishes with him goes.
Blessings and prayers in nobler retinue

Than sceptered kings or laurel'd conqueror knows,
Follow this wondrous Potentate."

He traveled in serenity, yet without hope; and it is pleasing to think that that serenity was founded on its only firm basis, christian faith. It is his own language-that "the sincere and earnest approach of the christian to the throne of the Almighty, teaches the best lesson of patience under affliction ;" and doubtless he proved it, for to a friend at Rome, from whose lips the words have been received, he addressed in calmness and solemnity this parting acknowledgment of his faith. "We have none of us any thing to depend upon but the merits of our Lord Jesus Christ." He lived but to revisit his native shores, and pressed to reach then with a zeal and resolution which bore up his enfeebled body under all the fatigues of travel. To reach England was not enough, Scotland was his home. "My own Tweed," was his constant speech; there he longed to close his eyes, where nature loves to close them, surrounded by the scenes on which the heart at that moment most fondly dwells, the flowers of his childhood and the sports of his youth, amid the friends of his manhood and the children fo his love. He was borne to the grave by his own sorrowing household; he was laid in it by the hands of his own children; and his dying head was supported by one whom affection had made a son, kindred talent a choice companion, and to whom the world won

*

Wordsworth, who was among the last visitors at Abbotsford previous to Sir Walter's journey.

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looks with confidence for a faithful portraiture of one whom he knew so well and loved so much.

And in conclusion, let me ask, what tribute shall we, my fellow-citizens, pay to him to whose genius we owe so much? Monument we can erect none; his works are his monument, all else will crumble; but may we not by some national act of justice in reference to those works,* redeem a debt which in honor we long have owed, but which in sorrow alone we now can pay, and make the name and claims of Scott, the foundation of a wiser and more liberal policy towards the literature of our common language? It is due to England by reciprocity; it is due to ourselves by an enlightened selfinterest; and to crown all, it was the suggestion of one who was himself the soul of honor, and whose memory we now seek to embalm.

That the author may not himself be charged with a tardy acknowledgment of a rightful claim, he would state, that this proposition, with the grounds of it, were immediately, upon his return in January 1831, laid before the departments of the government, to which he considered the subject belonged ; and also communicated to the chairman of the committee of congress, on the subject of patent rights; but their report had already been made, and it was deemed unadvisable to attempt at so late a period so important an alteration in its principle. Col. Coll. Dec. 8, 1832.

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