On Scott's death in 1S32, the task of writing his biography naturally devolved on his son-in-law Lockhart. The task was accomplished iu 1837-39, when the voluminous Life of Scott' was given complete to the world. Those portions of the work which related to the fall of Scott's pecuniary fortunes, provoked seine Controversy at the time; but the work as a Whole has now taken its place as one of the most interesting and admirable biographies in the language. It has been said by those who knew Lockhart, that such was his practical sagacity that, had his illustrious father-in-law had the benefit of his actual assistance In the management of his affairs, the catastrophe which ruined Scott towards the close of his life could certainly never have happened.
In 1843 Lockhart Was appointed by Sir Robert Peel to the offico of auditor of the Duchy of Cornwall, with a salary of 600/. a year ; and as in addition to this and his large literary income, he had inherited some family property, he was in very easy circumstances. Ills last years however were embittered by a series of bereavements. His eldest son, the 'Hugh Littlejohn' of the ' Tales of a Graodfathcr,' had died in early life; his wife died in 1837; his second and only surviving son died at a later period; and there remained only one daughter. This lady, who was also (by the death of her eldest brother childless in India, that of the younger brother unmarried, and that of her sister) the sole remaining descendant of Sir Walter Scott, married in 1847 James Robert Hope, Esq., barrister-at-law, and is now proprietress of Abbots
ford. Along with her husband she embraced the Roman Catholic faith. She usually lives at Abbotsford, and has one child, a daughter, born in 1852. Lockhart, broken in health and spirit, lived to see his own pedigree and that of Scott centered in this child—his granddaughter and Scott's great-granddaughter. Gradually becoming more shattered, he resigned tho editorship of the 'Review,' and went to Rome in 1853; but he returned in the spring of 1354 and retired to Scotland. He died at Abbotsford, November 25,1854, in the sixty-first year of his age. To the last he retained something of the handsome aristocratic anco and bearing which had distinguished him in earlier life. His manners, always reserved, had become chillingly 80 before his death; but those who knew him intimately maintain that, beneath his morose and iron demeanour, his scornful smile and his withering sarcasm, there lay a host of qualities which commanded the thorough respect and affection of those whom he did admit to his friendship, or who were related to him by blood or affinity.