[17] A portrait of Sir Walter was painted by Knight for the
late Mr. Terry, in the year 1825:  it is described in the
Literary Gazette as, “particularly excellent,” and was
unfortunately destroyed a short time since by a fire at
the house of Mr. Harding, Finchley, in whose possession
it was.  This portrait, it is feared, has not been
engraved.—­See Literary Gazette, No. 819.

[Illustration:  (Sir Walter Scott.—­Sketched by Mr. W.H.  Brooke, from the engraving by Horsburgh.)]

UNPUBLISHED WORKS.

Report states that there are in the library of Abbotsford, unfinished manuscripts and letters, which will compose ten volumes of correspondence of Sir Walter with nearly all the distinguished literary characters of his time.  These will, of course, be given to his creditors, as directed by his will.  His son-in-law, Mr. Lockhart, has likewise a great number of letters from Sir Walter; and Mrs. Terry possesses the baronet’s correspondence with the late Mr. Terry, who was one of Sir Walter’s intimate friends.  This lady has likewise in her possession a tragedy written by Sir Walter for her eldest son, Walter Scott Terry, and intended by the author as a legacy for Walter’s first appearance on the stage.

With such materials, and the poet’s autobiographical sketches prefixed to his works, a competent biographer will, doubtless, be found among Sir Walter’s personal acquaintance.  Mr. Allan Cunningham’s “Account” is, perhaps, the most characteristic that has yet appeared:  it is full of truth, nature, kindly feeling, and tinged throughout with a delightfully poetic enthusiasm.  Mr. Ballantyne, the intelligent printer of nearly the whole of Sir Walter’s works, and whom the Poet much respected for his taste and good sense, has promised a memoir of the deceased.  Public expectation, however, points more decidedly to Mr. Lockhart; although the Ettrick Shepherd will, doubtless, pay his announced tribute to the talents and virtues of his illustrious contemporary.  In his Reminiscences of Former Days, prefixed to the first volume of the Altrive Tales, published a few months since, is the following striking passage:—­“There are not above five people in the world who, I think, know Sir Walter better, or understand his character better than I do; and if I outlive him, which is likely, as I am five months and ten days younger, I shall draw a mental portrait of him, the likeness of which to the original shall not be disputed."[18]

[18] Hogg is indebted to Sir Walter for many valuable
suggestions of subjects for his ballads, &c.  There is
touching gratitude in the following lines by the
Shepherd, in his dedication of the Mountain Bard to
Scott: 

Bless’d be his generous heart for aye;
He told me where the relic lay;
Pointed my way with ready will,
Afar on Ettrick’s wildest hill;
Watch’d my first notes with curious eye,
And wonder’d at my minstrelsy: 
He little ween’d a parent’s tongue
Such strains had o’er my cradle sung.