[77] See Nice Valour, by John Fletcher; Beaumont and Fletcher’s Works.

[78] From Charles Dibdin’s song, The Racehorse.

[79] Sir Samuel Shepherd.

[80] The Right Hon. Charles Hope, who held the office of Lord President of the Court of Session for thirty years; he died in 1851 aged eighty-nine.

[81] Afterwards Sir James Yorke Scarlett, G.C.B.

[82] Sir James Scarlett, first Lord Abinger.

[83] The Dedication of Constable’s Miscellany was penned by Sir Walter—­“To His Majesty King George IV., the most generous Patron even of the most humble attempts towards the advantage of his subjects, this Miscellany, designed to extend useful knowledge and elegant literature, by placing works of standard merit within the attainment of every class of readers, is most humbly inscribed by His Majesty’s dutiful and devoted subject—­Archibald Constable.”—­J.G.L.

[84] Probably a slip of the pen for “weeks,” as Mathews was in London in March (1822), and we know that he dined with Scott in Castle Street on the 10th of February. Memoirs, vol. iii. p. 262.  Mr. Lockhart says, “within a week,” and at p. 33 vol. vii. gives an account of a dinner party.  Writing so many years after the event he may have mistaken the date.  James Boswell died in London 24th February 1822; his brother, Sir Alexander, was at the funeral, and did not return to Edinburgh till Saturday 23d March.  James Stuart of Dunearn challenged him on Monday; they fought on Tuesday, and Boswell died on the following day, March 27.  Mr. Lockhart says that “several circumstances of Sir Alexander’s death are exactly reproduced in the duel scene in St. Ronan’s Well.”

[85] In a letter to Skene written late in 1821, Scott, in expressing his regret at not being able to meet Boswell, adds, “I hope J. Boz comes to make some stay, but I shall scarce forgive him for not coming at the fine season.”  The brothers Boswell had been Mr. Skene’s schoolfellows and intimate friends; and he had lived much with them both in England and Scotland.

Mr. Skene says, in a note to Letter 28, that “they were men of remarkable talents, and James of great learning, both evincing a dash of their father’s eccentricity, but joined to greater talent.  Sir Walter took great pleasure in their society, but James being resident in London, the opportunity of enjoying his company had of late been rare.  Upon the present occasion he had dined with me in the greatest health and spirits the evening before his departure for London, and in a week we had accounts of his having been seized by a sudden illness which carried him off.  In a few weeks more his brother, Sir Alexander, was killed in a duel occasioned by a foolish political lampoon which he had written, and in a thoughtless manner suffered to find its way to a newspaper.”—­Reminiscences.

[86] See Life, vol. v. p. 87.