I do not understand or care about fine music, but there is something in his violin which goes to the very heart.”
Alexander was an amiable and modest man, never connected with Scott in any business matters, but always his favourite in private. During some temporary financial difficulty of Scott in 1826, he was able to lend him £500. He was the father of Mr. John Ballantyne, R.S.A., a well-known artist in London, who died in May 1897, and of the late Mr. R. M. Ballantyne, celebrated for his tales of travel and adventure, published by Messrs. James Nisbet & Co., which are still popular with young people.
CHAPTER IV
SCOTT’S POETICAL ROMANCES
For many years after its institution the Ballantyne Press was in continuous action, and the number of volumes that issued from it can hardly be reckoned. Besides work for publishing houses in London and Edinburgh, all Scott’s writings were first printed there, and the printing-house was constantly occupied in pouring forth edition after edition of his works. “Sir Tristrem” was published in May 1804 by Constable, who expected so little popularity for it that the edition consisted of 150 copies only, which were sold at the high price of two guineas. In due time, however, the work had its share in the celebrity attached to the name of its editor, and it was through the printing of this poem that the intimate connection of Constable and the Ballantyne Press began.
“The Lay of the Last Minstrel” was published in January 1805. It was a splendid quarto volume, with “meadows of margin,” and was greeted with unbounded applause, both for its intrinsic merits and for its beautiful printing.
It may be doubted if, in the history of British poetry, any other work ever equalled the demand for the “Lay.” In 1825 the poem had reached its fourteenth edition, upwards of 33,000 copies having been circulated; and before 1830 11,000 copies more were printed and disposed of. Scott entrusted the revision of the manuscript of the poem to his two friends—William Erskine and James Ballantyne. Regarding the latter at this time, Lockhart observes—and in the light of his strictures after the financial crash the passage may well be deemed worthy of note: “The printer was himself a man of considerable literary talents: his own style had the incurable faults of pomposity and affectation, but his eye for more venial errors in the writings of others was quick, and though his personal address was apt to give a stranger the impression of insincerity, he was in reality an honest man, and conveyed his mind on such matters with equal candour and delicacy during the whole of Scott’s brilliant career. In the vast majority of instances he found his friend acquiesce at once in the propriety of his suggestions; nay, there certainly were cases, though rare, in which his advice to alter things of much more consequence than a word or a rhyme was frankly tendered, and on deliberation adopted by Scott.[13] Mr. Erskine was the referee whenever the poet hesitated about taking the hints of the zealous typographer, and his refined taste and gentle manners rendered his critical alliance highly valuable.”[14]
Shortly after the publication of the “Lay,” Ballantyne found his capital inadequate to meet the business which was flowing to his press. He accordingly applied to his great patron for assistance, and Scott assented, on condition of his becoming partner with Ballantyne, and having a third share in the profits. This arrangement was kept strictly private.[15] Attracted by Ballantyne’s superior taste and beauty of workmanship, Scott made it a point from the first, that whatever he wrote or edited should be printed at the Ballantyne Press; and his personal connection with it stimulated his inventive genius, directly and indirectly, to add to the rapidly growing printing-house.
In April 1805 Scott wrote to Ballantyne: “I have imagined a very superb work. What think you of a complete edition of British poets, ancient and modern?” This work he proposed to edit for thirty guineas a volume. The publishers did not quite respond to his views in the matter, as the booksellers refused to admit into the series certain poets whom the editor was insisting upon, and the scheme was abandoned. But it is interesting to know that, if not so complete in all respects as Scott would have desired, a Library Edition of the British Poets, begun in 1853, was issued from Paul’s Work in forty-eight demy octavo volumes, in every respect worthy of its reputation. This series was edited by the Rev. George Gilfillan, and published by James Nichol in Edinburgh.