FOOTNOTES
[1] “I remember it was a thing of daily occurrence, that after he had made himself master of his own lesson, I, alas! being still sadly to seek in mine, he used to whisper to me, ‘Come, slink over beside me, Jamie, and I’ll tell you a story.’”—James Ballantyne’s “Memorandum.”
[2] Afterwards published in 1801, and coldly received.
[3] Lockhart’s “Life of Scott,” ii. 42, 43.
[4] The Count was a native of Russian Poland, and was in early life patronised by a Polish lady, with whom he visited various countries of Europe. He resided for some time in Paris, but quitting it shortly before the Revolution came over to this country. He exhibited himself at fairs, and was a favourite with the public, to whom he recommended himself not only by his diminutive stature, but by his intelligence and genial disposition. He eventually realised enough to enable him to spend the last thirty years of his life in comfort. The Count’s height was exactly 35½ inches, and his person was a model of symmetry. His remains were interred in Durham Cathedral, near those of his intimate friend, Stephen Kemble.
[5] This and the view of Kelso market-place in 1797, at [page 3], are also given through the courtesy of the present proprietor of the Mail.
[6] Endorsed by Professor Saintsbury (“Sir Walter Scott,” Famous Scots Series): “The earliest form of the ‘Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border’ is a very pretty book: it deservedly established the fame of Ballantyne as a printer.”
[7] “A History of Accounting and Accountants” (T. C. and E. C. Jack, 1904).
[8] The following note gives the residents in the little street in James Ballantyne’s time:—
No. 1, the old street guardian.
No. 2, Mr. Ewart and two sons, officials in the Chancery Office.
No. 3, Dr. Brunton, Professor of Hebrew and Oriental Languages, Edinburgh University, and Mrs. Brunton, authoress of some religious novels, which had considerable popularity in their day.
No. 4, Mr. Phillips, Commissioner of Customs.
No. 5, Mr. Alexander Cowan, the well-known papermaker.
No. 6, Mr. Andrew Bogle, Secretary Royal Bank of Scotland.
No. 7, Mrs. McLeod, widow of McLeod of St. Kilda, with a large family of daughters and one son, who rose to the rank of General in the Indian Army.
No. 8, The Countess of Hyndford.
No. 9, Miss Suttie, an old lady from East Lothian.
No. 10, Mr. James Ballantyne.
No. 13, Mr. Speid, W.S., laird of Ardovie, Forfarshire.
No. 14, Mr. Andrew Ramsay, Advocate; and, later on, Mr. Alexander Ballantyne.
No. 15, Mr. Trotter, the laird of Morton Hall.
—Derived from Mr. Charles Cowan’s “Reminiscences” (1878).
[9] “The Book-Fancier” (1886), p. 80.
[10] Lockhart’s “Life of Scott,” iii. 120, 121.
[11] Lockhart’s “Life of Scott,” v. 218.
[12] “James Ballantyne has taken his brother Sandy into the house, I mean the firm.”—“Scott’s Journal,” Feb. 21, 1829.
[13] See also James Ballantyne’s suggestions as to the “Field of Waterloo,” given on [p. 67]; and a fuller treatment of this topic in [Chapter IX].
[14] Lockhart’s “Life of Scott,” ii. 201, 202.
[15] “My father never could forgive Scott his concealment of the Ballantyne partnership.”—Ruskin, “Fors Clavigera,” Letter liv.
[16] “Constable and his Literary Correspondents,” i. 376.
[17] “The book was among the most unfortunate that James Ballantyne printed, and his brother published, in deference to the personal feelings of their partner.”—Lockhart’s “Life,” iii. 298. See further on this point, Chapter V., p. 46.
[18] “The conclusion of the matter was that the Ballantyne publishing company found a haven in the capacious bosom of Constable, who believed in the Star of Scott, advanced some £4000, and took off the sinking ship the useless burden of the valueless books.”—A. Lang.
[19] “He was a prince of booksellers.... He knew, I think, more of the business of a bookseller in planning and executing popular works than any man of his time.”—Scott’s “Journal,” July 23, 1827.
[20] Willison was his own press-reader. He was rigid in his ideas of punctuation, and gave much trouble to the Reviewers by his finical particularity in this respect. A story is told of his having on one occasion sent Jeffrey a second proof (technically revise) of a portion of one of his criticisms, with a note on the margin, that “there appeared to be something unintelligible in this passage.” Jeffrey returned the proof unaltered, with a note to the effect that “Mr. Jeffrey can see nothing unintelligible in this passage, unless in the number of commas, which Mr. Willison seems to keep in a pepper-box beside him, for the purpose of dusting the proof with.”
[21] A complete set of the Sale Room in good condition is very rare.
[22] Charles Cowan’s “Reminiscences.”
[23] Lockhart’s “Life of Scott,” vi. 67.
[24] “Perhaps the very best specimens of Scott’s powers in this direction are the prefaces which he contributed much later and gratuitously to John Ballantyne’s ‘Novelists’ Library’—things which hardly yield to Johnson’s ‘Lives’ as examples of the combined arts of criticism and biography.”—Saintsbury’s “Sir Walter Scott” (Famous Scots Series).
[25] Lockhart’s “Life of Scott,” vi. 328, 329.
[26] “Literary Lives” (Hodder & Stoughton).
[27] “To dethrone the Scot’s one-pound note, the Palladium of the ancient kingdom.”—A. Lang.
[28] “Meadowbank taxed me with the novels, and to end that farce at once I pleaded guilty, so that splore is ended.”—Scott’s “Journal,” Feb. 24, 1827.
[29] Smiles’ “Life of John Murray,” i. 457, 461.
[30] Many manuscripts of modern authors are execrable, and little care is taken to make what is written plain and intelligible, resulting in “errors of the press,” though, owing to the vigilance of the press reader, comparatively few of these meet the eye of the public. In the preparation of their “copy” lawyers of high repute will leave technical and foreign terms in a truncated or misspelt way; divines frequently show an aversion to both punctuation marks and capitals, the omission of which would bring scorn and contempt upon the compositor and the reader. Many instances of faulty manuscripts could be cited. A few will suffice. A learned professor in a northern university wrote in such a shocking spidery hand that the men were paid a third more for putting it in type; a divine, long since gone over to the majority, wrote his sermons on any scrap of paper he got hold of—old bills, torn envelopes, &c.—and thus caused an infinity of labour in arranging these oddments in a readable way. If any particular bit got transposed from its proper place, it did not appear to matter very much; it was as well there as anywhere else. Similar to this was a famous writer, well known at Paul’s Work, who, prior to his morning prowl among old bookshops, would fill his pockets with scraps of paper—envelopes and such-like—on which he noted the particulars of his daily finds; and these were afterwards sent to the printer to be arranged for a book. Another reverend writer, whose works were many and sold well, would take a quarto sheet of paper to write on—beginning with a narrow centre column for the first draft of his subject; to this would be added afterthoughts by branching lines to the centre column, till the whole sheet was full—like a rushing river gathering in fresh supplies from meandering rivulets on either side of its course. But this topic is a wide and curious one, and instances might be given where an author was unable to read his own “copy,” and had to see a proof of what could be set in type before he was able to remedy an unreadable passage or supply an obscure or missing word.
[31] By permission of the Curators of the Library there is here given a facsimile of a page of “Waverley.”
[32] The following note is from C. G. Leland’s translation of Heine’s “Pictures of Travel” (i. 258): “Of all great writers, Byron is just the one whose writings excite in me the least passion, while Scott, on the contrary, in his every book gladdens, tranquillises, and strengthens my heart. Even his imitators please me, as in such instances as Willibald Alexis, Bronikowski, and Cooper, the first of whom, in the ironic ‘Walladmor,’ approaches nearest his pattern, setting before our souls a poetic originality well worthy of Scott.”
[33] Hutton’s “Life of Scott.”
[34] An old name for hand-pressmen, as “cuddie” was for the compositor: both now gone out of use.
[35] Lockhart’s “Life of Scott,” v. 344, 345.
[36] It may be interesting to reproduce here the statement of accounts, &c., of the paper at the time of the sale:
| Receipts | |
| Sale of Newspapers | £2390 |
| Advertisements | 1055 |
| Total | £3445 |
| Expenditure | |
| Annual cost of stamps and paper | £1425 |
| Printing | 570 |
| Advertisement duty | 360 |
| Clerks’ salaries, office rent, &c. | 250 |
| Allowance for bad debts | 230 |
| Profits | 610 |
| Total | £3445 |
—Edinburgh Newspapers, Past and Present (1891).
[37] Andrew’s “British Journalism,” &c.
[38] See also a letter of Scott to Ellis (Lockhart’s “Life,” iii. 145):—“An Edinburgh Annual Register, to be conducted under the auspices of James Ballantyne, who is himself no despicable composer.”
[39] “The Greville Memoirs,” i. 251.
[40] Tait’s Magazine (1839), pp. 657, 658, 668.
[41] “Leaves from My Autobiography.” By Rev. Charles Rogers, LL.D.
[42] Miss Martineau’s “Biographical Sketches,” pp. 347, 348.
[43] “No man was better fit to arbitrate in this difficult dispute than Chambers was.”—Claudius Clear, in the British Weekly, January 1907.
[44] Fraser’s Magazine, 1835.
[45] See [footnote, pp. 47-48].
[46] Letter of James Ballantyne in “Constable and his Literary Correspondents,” iii. 5.
[47] Lockhart’s “Life of Scott,” ii. 125.
[48] “Constable and his Literary Correspondents,” ii. 197.
[49] Journal, Aug. 29, 1826.
[50] In connection with this a curious fraud may be noted here. At the sale of Dr. Laing’s library there was disposed of a number of odd lots of pamphlets and papers, and amongst these a quantity of undamaged sheets of the Ballads and Poems of Dunbar. Whoever bought these was determined to make a profit out of them, for an Edinburgh “book-hunter” discovered one day in a second-hand bookseller’s shop a nicely bound gilt-top quarto volume, bearing the title “Ancient Poetry of Scotland. Edinburgh, 1508,” and having the device of Andro Myllar on it. Facing the title was “Imprinted Glasgow, 1800. Limited to 50 copies, 10 on thick paper, 1 on vellum.” The book looked tempting, and was bought; but, to the bibliophile’s disappointment, it proved most fragmentary, as it contained only a limited portion of the sheets of the Ballantyne reprint several times repeated, irrespective of consecutiveness, throughout the book, and many of the pages bore traces of the accident which befell the original work.
[51] “Constable and his Literary Correspondents,” iii. 305, 310.