Sir Walter Scott

Financial Ruin.

Towards the close of 1825, after r r years of brilliant and prosperous labour, encouraged by constant tributes of admiration, homage and affection such as no other literary potentate has ever enjoyed, realizing his dreams of baronial splen dour and hospitality on a scale suited to his large literary revenues, Scott suddenly discovered that the foundations of his fortune were unsubstantial. He had imagined himself clear of all embar rassments in 1818, when all the unsaleable stock of John Ballan tyne and Co. was bargained off to Constable for Waverley copy rights, and the publishing concern was wound up. Apparently he never informed himself accurately of the new relations of mutual accommodation on which the printing firm then entered with the great but rashly speculative publisher, and drew liberally for his own expenditure against the undeniable profits of his novels with out asking any questions, trusting blindly in the solvency of his commercial henchmen. Unfortunately, "lifted off their feet" by the wonderful triumphs of their chief, they thought themselves exempted like himself from the troublesome duty of inspecting ledgers and balancing accounts, till the crash came. From a diary which Scott began a few days before the first rumours of financial difficulty reached him we know how he bore from day to day the rapidly unfolded prospect of unsuspected liabilities. "Thank God," was his first reflection, "I have enough to pay more than 20S. in the pound, taking matters at the worst." But a few weeks revealed the unpleasant truth that, owing to the way in which Ballantyne and Co. were mixed up with Constable and Co., and Constable with Hurst and Robinson, the failure of the London house threw upon him personal responsibility for £130,000.

How Scott's pride rebelled against the dishonour of bankruptcy, how he toiled for the rest of his life to clear off this enormous debt, declining all offers of assistance and asking no consideration from his creditors except time, and how nearly he succeeded, is one of the most familiar chapters in literary history, and would be one of the saddest were it not for the heroism of the enter prise. His wife died soon after the struggle began, and he suffered other painful bereavements ; but, though sick at heart, he toiled on indomitably, and, writing for honour, exceeded even his hap piest days in industrious speed. If he could have maintained the rate of the first three years, during which he completed Woodstock (1826); Chronicles of the Canongate (1827), which included three tales—"The Highland Widow," "The Two Drovers" and "The Surgeon's Daughter"; The Fair Maid of Perth (1828, in the second series of Chronicles of the Canongate) ; Anne of Geierstein (1829) ; the Life of Napoleon (9 vols., 1827) ; part of his History of Scotland (2 vols., 1829-30, for Lardner's Cabinet Cyclopaedia); the Scottish series of Tales of a Grandfather (four series, 1828 29-30--31), besides several magazine articles, some of them among the most brilliant of his miscellaneous writings, and prefaces and notes to a collected edition of his novels—if he could have con tinued at this rate he might soon have freed himself from all his encumbrances. The result of his exertions from Jan. 1826 to Jan. 1828 was nearly £40,000 for his creditors. But the terrific labour proved too much even for his endurance. Ugly symptoms began to alarm his family in 1829, and in Feb. 183o he had his first stroke of paralysis. Still he was undaunted, and not all the per suasions of friends and physicians could induce him to take rest. "During 1830," Lockhart says, "he covered almost as many sheets with his ms. as in 1829," the new introductions to a collected edi tion of his poetry and the Letters on Demonology and Witchcraft being amongst the labours of the year. He had a slight touch of

apoplexy in November and a distinct stroke of paralysis in the following April ; but, in spite of these warnings and of other bodily ailments, he had two more novels, Count Robert of Paris and Castle Dangerous (constituting the fourth series of Tales of My Landlord), ready for the press by the autumn of 1831. He would not yield to the solicitations of his friends and consent to try rest and a change of scene, till fortunately, as his mental powers failed, he became possessed of the idea that all his debts were at last paid and that he was once more a free man. In this belief he hap pily remained till his death. When it was known that his physi cians recommended a sea voyage for his health, a Government vessel was put at his disposal, and he cruised about in the Medi terranean and visited places of interest for the greater part of a year before his death. But, when he felt that the end was near, he insisted on being carried across Europe that he might die on his beloved Tweedside at Abbotsford, where he expired on Sept. 21, 1832. He was buried at Dryburgh Abbey.

Scott's wife had died in 1826. His eldest son, Walter, succeeded to the baronetcy which had been conferred on his father in 2820, and the title became extinct on his death in 1847 ; the elder daugh ter Charlotte Sophia (d. 1837) was the wife of his biographer, J. G. Lockhart (q.v.) ; and their daughter Charlotte (d. 1858) married J. R. Hope-Scott, and was the mother of Mary Monica, wife of the Hon. J. C. Maxwell, who in 1874 took the additional name of Scott on his marriage with the heiress of Abbotsford. Mrs. Maxwell-Scott inherited some of the family lit erary talent, and among other books wrote two volumes about Abbotsford (1893 and 1897).

BIBLIOGRAPHY.

The Miscellaneous Prose Works of Sir Walter Scott (6 vols., 1827) were subsequently printed in 3o vols. (1834-71) and in 3 vols. (1841-47). The collected editions of the novels and tales are very numerous. Among them are that known as the "author's favour ite edition" (48 vols., 1829-33), for which Scott wrote new prefaces and notes, and the "Border" edition (48 vols., 1892-94), with intro ductory essays and notes by A. Lang. His Poetical Works were printed in 12 vols. (1820) ; they were edited by J. G. Lockhart (12 vols., 1833 34) ; by F. T. Palgrave for the "Globe" edition (1866) ; by W. Minto (2 vols., 1888) ; by J. Logie Robertson (Oxford complete edition, 1904). Many of the novels have been adapted for the stage, the most famous of these dramatizations being the libretto of Donizetti's Lucia di Lammermoor and the Ivanhoe of Sir Arthur Sullivan and J. R. Sturgis. His Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border (3 vols., 18o2–o3) was edited (4 vols., 1902) by T. F. Henderson.

The standard life by his son-in-law, J. G. Lockhart, Memoirs of the Life of Sir Walter Scott (7 vols., 1837-38), was supplemented by the publication (2 vols., 189o) of Scott's Journal, covering the years from 1825 to 1832, and of his Familiar Letters (2 vols., 1894), both edited by David Douglas. See also James Hogg, The Domestic Manners and Private Life of Sir Walter Scott (1834), and R. P. Gillies, Recollections of Sir Walter Scott (1837). Shorter lives are by R. H. Hutton ("Eng lish Men of Letters," 1878) ; G. E. B. Saintsbury ("Famous Scots" Series, 1897) ; Andrew Lang ("Literary Lives," 1906) ; G. le Grys Nor gate (1906), and J. Buchan (1925). For the Ballantyne controversy see also The Ballantyne Press and its Founders (1909). See also W. Brewer, Shakespeare's influence on Sir Walter Scott (1925) ; A. Caplan, The Bibliography of Sir Walter Scott (1928) ; W. S. Crockett, The Religion of Sir Walter Scott (1929).