1832.] THE SCOTTISH BORDER. 213 CHAPTER IX. (1832-1835.) Tytler removes his family to Torquay-The journey-His literary diligenceLife of Raleigh-Scottish Worthies-and History of Scotland-Prosecutes his studies at Bute--and in London-Letters to his wife-Death of Mrs. Tytler. TYTLER'S practice, on undertaking such a journey as this, was to furnish himself with a little memorandum-book, which served the combined purposes of journal, sketchbook, (he was not much of a draughtsman,) and accountbook, throughout the expedition. Not unfrequently, extracts from rare historical volumes or MSS. are, in this way, interspersed with the most irrelevant and ephemeral notices. imaginable. The beginning of his Journal to Leamington is characteristic. "We left Melville Street at 4 o'clock on a lovely day; and the drive to Fushie Bridge and by Gala water was enchanting. I rose early and cast a line in Gala water, but the trouts would not look at the fly. I caught a minnow, and had a nibble, and was very happy." In the evening, he wrote:-" Nothing could be more delightful than our journey today. The weather was highly favourable, a grey morning, which, as the sun got up higher, expanded into a golden harvest day. The country thro' which we travelled by Gala Water, Tweed side, Yair, Hawick, Branksome, Gilnochie, has ever been to me perhaps the most interesting part of all Scotland. It is pastoral, and patriarchal in its simplicity; full of the sweetest natural beauties; prodigally stored with historical and poetical associations. The very words, Yarrow braes,'' Gala Water,' Branksome,''Tweed,'' Philiphaugh,' 'Melrose,'-how many interesting and romantic recollections do they not call up! It is a country which, to a Scotsman, breathes the very soul of legendary poetry. The charming old ballad of the Flowers of the Forest,' came fresh upon me. The bloody field of Flodden, the bra' foresters that never came back to their desolate homes; the gallant bowmen of Selkirk, lying stiff and stark around their king; the voice of lamentation 'in ilka green loanin,'—all rose like a magic picture, as we threaded the road round the Yair, and climbed the hill towards Selkirk. Awakening from these dreams to the romantic realities of the scenery, certainly nothing could be imagined more beautiful than the country, as it lay in its green expanse before us, with the silver Tweed winding thro' it, and glittering in the sun. It was hay-making time, and the fragrance was full of health and delight. We saw innumerable groups of lads and lasses, all busily employed, cutting or spreading the meadow hay; whilst the children were sporting amidst the hay-cocks. The fields are ripening to harvest, some cut down already; and on many of the burn sides, linens were laid out to bleach; an incident full of much beauty in Nature, tho' a painter with his hands tied up in the fetters of harmonious colouring, would shudder to attempt its introduction. "The stage from Mosspaul to Langholm, and from Langholm to Longton, contains, as is well known, some of the most beautiful scenery in Scotland. We travelled it in the evening, when the landscape was gilded by the setting sun,a stream of hazy and glowing light on hill and river, tower and tree. The spirit of the season was breathing from everything; and we inhaled it in love and gratitude to Him who hath made all very good.""-Tytler was in fact traversing that very scenery with which Sir Walter Scott has made the whole civilized world familiar; which the great novelist had 1832.] OF THE SCOTTISH BORDER. 215 himself surveyed for the last time about a month before; and in the midst of which he lay even now a-dying. Tytler must have been aware of the state of his friend, and felt the contrast between the living beauty of the landscape and the gloom which already hung over Abbotsford; for he has written opposite to the extract from his journal last quoted, ""T was sad to think that he who sung The verses, which seem to have come unwillingly, are scored through and through; but the fragment needs no interpreter, and shows of what he was thinking as he wound his way across the Scottish Border, and at last rested at Kendal. On the 16th August, the little party reached Leamington,visiting Warwick Castle with immense satisfaction, the next day. He described to me, many years after, the delight with which he had there surveyed the portrait of Gondomar. In pursuance of the plan announced in his letter to his sister, Tytler repaired to the metropolis early in the ensuing. week; but it was some days before he effected, through Lord Melbourne's kindness, an entrance into the State Paper Office, and sat down to transcribe Sir Walter Raleigh's "At a very early hour on the morning of Wednesday the 11th, we again placed him in his carriage, and he lay in the same torpid state during the first two stages on the road to Tweedside. But as we descended the vale of the Gala, he began to gaze about him, and by degrees it was obvious that he was recognising the features of that familiar landscape. Presently, he murmured a name or two-"Gala Water, surely-Buckholm-Torwoodlee." As we rounded the hill at Ladhope, and the outline of the Eildons burst on him, he became greatly excited; and when, turning himself on the couch, his eye caught at length his own towers at the distance of a mile, he sprang up with a cry of delight."-Lockhart's Life of Scott, vol. vii. p. 385. Sir Walter Scott expired on the 21st September, 1832. Journal. 66 In every corner,” he says, "I saw around me bales of old manuscripts; and longed to look at them; but my order embraces only one paper, and I must be content. Perhaps through the politeness of the clerk, I may obtain a glance at some other papers." It was altogether an author's visit to the metropolis. Murray, finding it necessary to bring to a close his Family Library,' for which Tytler had already written two volumes ('Lives of illustrious Scotchmen,') with liberty to write two more, requested that he would restrict himself to a single additional volume. The publisher was further strenuous for the appearance of that concluding volume in November. To both his requests, Tytler acceded. His second volume had left the life of King James I. incomplete; and the conclusion of that life, as well as four short additional memoirs, he was determined to achieve, if possible, in the course of the next two months. The only real difficulty in his way was the want of books of reference. Leamington could not supply them and his Rachel was in too feeble a state of health to make her residence in London feasible. For the moment, my friend returned to Leamington, and devoted three weeks to the prosecution of this task: after which, in compliance with Dr. Jephson's advice, who recommended for Mrs. Tytler a winter's sojourn at Torquay, on a golden autumn evening, (September 26th,) he set off with his little family for Stratford on Avon. "The bust of Shakspeare," (he writes in his journal,) "is particularly worthy of notice; and I am persuaded that, rude and somewhat stiff as is the sculpture, the likeness is a more faithful one than if a far higher artist had been employed. The forehead is noble; the delicate outline of the eye-brows, the nose, and the nostril, are all striking, and indicative of genius. The upper lip is long almost to a defect; and the cheeks, mouth, and chin, are fleshy, good-humoured, and somewhat like a jolly friar. Most of the prints which 1832.1 OXFORD. 217 I recollect, exaggerated the forehead: making it somewhat higher than in the bust: whereas it is remarkable not so much for its height, as for its fulness and beautiful delicacy of outline. Yet it is high too; though not like a towering sugar-loaf as some prints make it." * Tytler was obliged to make a hurried journey through Oxford. "We however staid an hour; and Rachel and I got a peep at the Bodleian Library. A noble place, certainly! It was but a passing glance; yet delight was mingled with regret; and if it pleases GOD to spare me, we shall I trust return again. The quiet, ancient, monastic look of the place,—the grey tranquillity thrown over all,— the noble stores of books and manuscripts,—and the great men looking down from the walls,-all seem to make this place the very retirement which a student might desire, or rather dream of. And yet, after all, it might rather produce indolent enjoyment of what has been done, than energy to do something oneself!"† Leaving Oxford, the travellers made their way across the bare downs of Berkshire; inspected Chaucer's Castle, (Donnington, near Newbury,) and the palace of William of Wykeham at Bishop's Waltham, and reached Southsea on the 29th September. Mrs. Tytler's sister, Eleanor, whose health was so delicate as to render it necessary that she should immediately make trial of the climate of Madeira, (she died there on the 9th January following!) was already at Portsmouth, intending to set sail by the first opportunity. At the end of a month she took her voyage, accompanied by her husband, her sister Charlotte, and three of her children: after which, (27th Oct.) Tytler and his wife set off for Torquay, taking Salisbury in their route, not only in order to visit the cathedral, (so full of historical reminiscences!) *From his Journal-27th Sept. From the same. |