THE JOURNAL OF
SIR WALTER SCOTT
FROM THE ORIGINAL MANUSCRIPT
AT ABBOTSFORD
VOLUME I.
VOLUME II.
BURT FRANKLIN
NEW YORK
PREFACE.
On the death of Sir Walter Scott in 1832, his entire literary remains were placed at the disposal of his son-in-law, Mr. John Gibson Lockhart. Among these remains were two volumes of a Journal which had been kept by Sir Walter from 1825 to 1832. Mr. Lockhart made large use of this Journal in his admirable life of his father-in-law. Writing, however, so short a time after Scott's death, he could not use it so freely as he might have wished, and, according to his own statement, it was "by regard for the feelings of living persons" that he both omitted and altered; and indeed he printed no chapter of the Diary in full.
There is no longer any reason why the Journal should not be published in its entirety, and by the permission of the Hon. Mrs. Maxwell-Scott it now appears exactly as Scott left it—but for the correction of obvious slips of the pen and the omission of some details chiefly of family and domestic interest.
The original Journal consists of two small 4to volumes, 9 inches by 8, bound in vellum and furnished with strong locks. The manuscript is closely written on both sides, and towards the end shows painful evidence of the physical prostration of the writer. The Journal abruptly closes towards the middle of the second volume with the following entry—probably the last words ever penned by Scott—
In the annotations, it seemed most satisfactory to follow as closely as possible the method adopted by Mr. Lockhart. In the case of those parts of the Journal that have been already published, almost all Mr. Lockhart's notes have been reproduced, and these are distinguished by his initials. Extracts from the Life, from James Skene of Rubislaw's unpublished Reminiscences, and from unpublished letters of Scott himself and his contemporaries, have been freely used wherever they seemed to illustrate particular passages in the Journal.
With regard to Scott's quotations a certain difficulty presented itself. In his Journal he evidently quoted from memory, and he not unfrequently makes considerable variations from the originals. Occasionally, indeed, it would seem that he deliberately made free with the exact words of his author, to adapt them more pertinently to his own mood or the impulse of the moment. In any case it seemed best to let Scott's quotations appear as he wrote them. His reading lay in such curious and unfrequented quarters that to verify all the sources is a nearly impossible task. It is to be remembered, also, that he himself held very free notions on the subject of quotation.
I have to thank the Hon. Mrs.
Finally, I have to express my obligation to many other friends, who never failed cordially to respond to any call I made upon them.
D.D.
EDINBURGH, 22 DRUMMOND PLACE,
October 1, 1890.
ILLUSTRATIONS.
VOL. I.
PORTRAIT, painted by JOHN GRAHAM GILBERT, R.S.A., for the Royal Society, Edinburgh. Copied by permission of the Council of the Society, Frontispiece
VIGNETTE on Title-page
"The Dial-Stone" in the Garden, from drawing made at Abbotsford by GEORGE REID, R.S.A.
"WORK WHILE IT IS DAY."
ΝΥΞ ΓΑΡ ΕΡΧΕΤΑΙ
"I must home to 'work while it is called day; for the night cometh when no man can work.' I put that text, many a year ago, on my dial-stone; but it often preached in vain."—SCOTT'S Life, x. 88.
MAP OF ABBOTSFORD, from the Ordnance Survey, 1858, to face p. 414.
VOL. II.
PORTRAIT, painted by SIR FRANCIS GRANT, P.R.A., for the Baroness Ruthven, and now in the National Portrait Gallery of Scotland. Copied by permission of the Hon. The Board of Manufactures, Frontispiece
VIGNETTE on Title-page
"The Dial-Stone" in the Garden, from drawing made at Abbotsford by George Reid, R.S.A.
"THE NIGHT COMETH."
ΝΥΞ ΓΑΡ ΕΡΧΕΤΑΙ.
"I must home to work while it is called day; for the night cometh when no man can work. I put that text, many years ago, on my dial-stone; but it often preached in vain."—Scott's Life, x. 88.
CONTENTS.
VOLUME I.
- 1825
- November
- December
- 1826
- January
- February
- March
- April
- May
- June
- July
- August
- 1827
- January
- February
- March
- April
- May
- June
VOLUME II.
- July
- August
- September
- October
- November
- December
- 1828
- January
- February
- March
- April
- May
- June
- July
- 1829
- January
- February
- March
- April
- May
- June
- July
- 1830
- May
- June
- July
- September
- December
- 1831
- January
- February
- March
- April
- May
- October
- November
- December
APPENDICES
- I.
- II.
- III.
- IV.
- V.
- VI.