the Court of Session, when my late valued friend happened to be on a visit here for some days, that we one day rode down to dine at Abbotsford. We met there a small, but very agreeable party. One circumstance which I particularly remember was that your brother then for the first time made the acquaintance of Sir Adam Ferguson, who met him very cordially, and spoke to him of happy days, which at an early period of his life he had spent at Woodhouselee, when your brother was but a child. He enjoyed much Sir Adam's songs and entertaining anecdotes, especially those of his adventures in the Spanish war; and one song I remember particularly caught his fancy. It was an old Jacobite one, Charlie is my darling,'-then little known, but which soon became very popular from its being a favourite at Abbotsford.

"While we were riding home at night,—(I remember well the place: it was just after we had forded the Tweed at Bordside,)—your brother told me that in the course of that evening, Sir Walter Scott had taken him aside, and suggested to him the scheme of writing a History of Scotland. Sir Walter stated that some years before, the booksellers had urged him to undertake such a work, and that he had at one time seriously contemplated it. The subject was very congenial to his tastes; and he thought that by interspersing the narrative with romantic anecdotes illustrative of the manners of his countrymen, he could render such a work popular. But he soon found, while engaged in preparing his materials, that something more was wanted than a popular romance; that a right history of Scotland was yet to be written; but that there were ample materials for it in the national records, in collections of documents, both private and public, and in Scottish authors whose works had become rare, or were seldom perused. The research, however, which would be required for bringing to light, arranging

and digesting these materials, he soon saw would be far more than he had it in his power to give to the subject; and it would be a work of tedious and patient labour, which must be pursued, not in Scotland only, but amongst the national collections of records in London, and wherever else such documents may have been preserved. But such a labour, his official duties and other avocations would not allow him to bestow upon it. He had therefore ended in a resolution to confine his undertaking to a collection of his torical anecdotes, for the amusement of the rising generation; calculated to impress upon their memories the worthy deeds of Scottish heroes, and inspire them with sentiments of nationality. He also mentioned that the article on the Culloden Papers, published in the January number of the Quarterly Review for 1816, which I have always considered as one of the most attractive as well as characteristic of all his writings, had been originally conceived in the form of a portion of an introductory Essay to the contemplated historical work, which was now likely to go no further.

"He then proposed to your brother to enter on the undertaking; and remarked to him that he knew his tastes and favourite pursuits lay so strongly in the line of history, and the history of his native country must have such peculiar interest for him, that the labour could not fail to be congenial to him that though the requisite researches would consume a great deal of time and thought, he had the advantage of youth on his side, and might live to complete the work, which, if executed under a deep sense of the importance of historical truth, would confer a lasting benefit on his country: and he ended with offering all the aid in his power for obtaining access to the repositories of information, as well as advice in pursuing the necessary investigations.

"I asked my friend if the suggestion pleased him? He replied, that the undertaking appeared very formidable; that

I knew he had always been fond of historical pursuits; and though he confessed he had frequently cherished an ambition for becoming an historical author, yet it had never entered into his mind to attempt a history of his own country, as he knew too well the difficulties which he would have to encounter, especially those of attaining accuracy, and realising his own conception of what a history of Scotland ought to be; but that the suggestion coming from such a quarter, as well as the offered assistance, was not to be disregarded. You may be sure that I encouraged him to the best of my power; for though I knew how much it was likely to withdraw his attention from his professional avocations, yet I also knew how much more congenial a pursuit it would prove, and how much more he was likely to attain to excellence, and establish his reputation in this channel. It was therefore with much satisfaction that I soon afterwards learned from him that he had entered seriously on the undertaking."

**

The Tales of a Grandfather' were published in 1827; and certainly it was neither in the July of 1826 nor of 1825 that Mr. Tytler was a guest at Abbotsford: for Sir Walter Scott spent the summer of 1825 in Ireland. Tytler, in July of the same year, visited the English lakes, in company with Mr. James Hog and Mr. Coventry. The three friends. travelled on foot, with their knapsacks on their back,-delighted with one another, and with the exquisite scenery of Westmoreland. In 1826, Tytler was very differently occupied, as will be seen by and by. So alas! was Sir Walter Scott, for it was the year of his commercial difficulties. In short, it must have been in 1823 that the visit to which Mr. Pringle alludes, took place. Writing in that year to Lord Montagu, Sir Walter Scott made the following observations:-"We are still but very indifferently provided with

* To James Tytler, Esq. The letter is dated, Yair 19th Aug. 1854,

N

Scotch histories of a general description. Lord Hailes' Annals are the foundation-stone, and an excellent book, though drily written. Pinkerton, in two very unreadable quartos, which yet abound in information, takes up the thread where Hailes drops it. And then you have Robertson, down to the Union of the crowns. But I would beware of taskwork, which Pinkerton at least must always be, and would every now and then look at the pages of old Pitscottie, where events are told with so much naïveté, and even humour, and such individuality as it were, that it places the actors and scenes before the reader. The whole history of James V. and Queen Mary may be read to great advantage in the elegant Latin of Lesly, Bishop of Ross, and collated with the account which his opponent, Buchanan, in language still more classical, gives of the same eventful reigns. Laing is but a bad guide through the seventeenth century: yet I hardly know where a combined account of these events is to be had, so far as Scotland is concerned."* This is enough to show that the subject of a History of Scotland was before Sir Walter's mind, in a very definite shape, in 1823 and a few pencil memoranda in a note-book of my friend prove that he was on a visit of some days to the author of Waverley, at the close of the same year. The circumstantial detail which Mr. Pringle has so graphically recalled, I have no wish to disturb; but it may be suggested that having been stimulated to enter upon the great undertaking of a History of his native country at a casual summer visit to Abbotsford, Mr. Tytler returned thither to mature his plan, and to invoke further counsel and assistance, later in the same year. A vast undertaking seldom begins to grow at the very instant of its conception. I am inclined to believe that Mr. Tytler did not begin to make collections towards his great work until some time

Lockhart's Life of Scott, vol. v. pp. 273-4.

1823.] COUNTRY. NOTES OF SIR WALTER'S CONVERSATION. 179 after, and that the first moments he can have given to his History were some of the intervals of business which the years 1824-5 supplied; while it is pretty clear that he did not enter on his task in good earnest till the summer of 1826,-in other words, until he had completed his life of Wickliff.

The pencil memoranda above alluded to, and which evidently relate to conversations held with Sir Walter, are just of that suggestive kind which it is impossible to read without interest and a kindled fancy; while their tantalizing brevity and incompleteness renders them almost unfit for publication. And yet, because everything which relates to the author of Waverley is valuable, and because I discern, here and there, in what follows, traces of just such a conversation as I have already supposed to have passed between the veteran romance writer and the young aspirant after historical renown, I will venture to transcribe what I find, and to crave the reader's indulgence if it shall be pronounced unintelligible, after all:—

"W. S.-Monday. 1. Scotland not comparatively a poor country, till exhausted by Bruce and Balliol wars. 2. W. S. hunting on Newark hill, carrying over W. and then S. across the Strick. 3. Hunting all day for the well of the Castle.. .. 5. Attend to the traits marking the intercourse of the two countries. 6. Look into the Welsh historians. 7. Tenure of the porter's house at Selkirk, wax taper. 8. Anecdote of Bruce and the spider. 9. Of Crabbe the poet, and the two Highlanders at breakfast..... 12. Lady Scott and the rats at Ashiestiel. Saw Philiphaugh, Carterhaugh, Newark, the scene of Tamlane, and spot where the Regent Murray was killed. 13. Secretary Murray drinking tea. Mr. Scott breaking the cup. Sticks to learn with in the office. The hand to guard the head. 14. Mungo Park's cottage. 15. Sandy Park called Powderloupat. Anecdote of his