THE END.
Edinburgh:
Printed by W. & R. Chambers.
FOOTNOTES
[1] This print, glazed in a black frame, was presented by Sir Adam Ferguson to my brother Robert, and it is now in my possession.—W. C.
[2] [For a number of years after the decease of Sir Walter, there were many small floating anecdotes and memorabilia of his habits, and the happy way in which he would make some pleasantry out of very ordinary occurrences. Two or three instances occur to recollection.—One day, when walking along Princes Street, Edinburgh, my brother, who accompanied him, made the remark that he was evidently well known, for many persons looked back at him on passing. ‘Oh, ay, ay,’ replied Scott jocosely; ‘more know Tom Fool than Tom Fool knows!’—The late Mr Thomas Tegg, publisher, Cheapside, having, on the occasion of visiting Scotland, ventured with a friend to call on Sir Walter at Abbotsford, was somewhat doubtful of his reception, for he had published a small book in doggerel verse, designed to bring Scott’s muse into ridicule. He was speedily relieved of his apprehensions. ‘I am sorry to say,’ said Tegg apologetically, ‘that I happen to be the publisher of Jokeby, a Burlesque on Rokeby.’ ‘Glad to see you, Mr Tegg,’ replied Sir Walter; ‘the more jokes the better!’—Mrs John Ballantyne, in her reminiscences of Scott, states that, besides his story-telling manner, he had another quite distinct, in which he was accustomed to utter any snatch of poetry, such as a verse of a Border ballad, or a simple but touching popular rhyme. ‘I can never forget,’ she says, ‘the awe-striking solemnity with which he pronounced an elegiac stanza inscribed on a tombstone in Melrose Abbey:
“Earth walketh on the earth
Glistering like gold;
Earth goeth to the earth
Sooner than it wold.
Earth buildeth on the earth