[70]: This was a ridiculously exaggerated report of that period of alarm.
[71]: [Lady Louisa's letter was written January 16, 1820, and can be found in Familiar Letters, vol. ii. p. 71. In it she says:—
"Everybody in this house has been reading an odd new kind of a book called Ivanhoe, and nobody, as far as I have observed, has willingly laid it down again till finished. By this, I conclude that its success will be fully equal to that of its predecessors, notwithstanding it has quite abandoned their ground and ploughed up a field hitherto untouched. The interest of it, indeed, is most powerful; few things in prose or verse seize upon one's mind so strongly, or are read with such breathless eagerness, as the storming of the castle, related by Rebecca, and her trial at Templestowe. Few characters ever were so forcibly painted as hers: the Jew, too, the Templar, the courtly knight De Bracy, the wavering, inconstant wickedness of John, are all worthy of Shakespeare. I must not omit paying my tribute to Cedric, that worthy forefather of the genuine English country gentleman.... And according to what has been alleged against the author in some other instances, the hero and the heroine are the people one cares least about. But provided one does but care enough about somebody, it is all one to me; and I think the cavil is like that against Milton for making the Devil his hero.">[
[72]: Lines on the Death of Mr. Robert Levett.
[73]: Three of these MS. pages were a fair day's work in the author's estimation—equal to fifteen or sixteen of the original impression.
[74]: See Ivanhoe, end of chap. xliv.
[75]: [It is said that the character of Rebecca was suggested to Scott by Washington Irving's description of Rebecca Gratz of Philadelphia, a lady belonging to a Jewish family of high position in that city, with whom Irving was intimate. Miss Gratz had been a friend of his betrothed, Matilda Hoffman, and in her youth had loved devotedly a man in every way worthy of her, but the difference of religion made their union impossible. During a conversation with Scott, Irving spoke with much feeling of Rebecca Gratz, of her extraordinary beauty, of her adherence to her faith under most trying circumstances, of her nobility, distinction, and loveliness of character, and her untiring zeal in works of charity, greatly interesting his host, as the guest recalled when Ivanhoe appeared.
Rebecca Gratz died in 1869 in her eighty-ninth year. A sketch of her, with a portrait after a miniature by Malbone, was published in the Century Magazine for September, 1882.]
[76]: The weekly Darnick carrier.
[77]: Dr. Scott of Darnlee.—See ante, vol. v. p. 277. This very amiable, modest, and intelligent friend of Sir Walter Scott's died in 1837.