[417] Mr. Skene tells us that when No. 39 Castle Street was “displenished” in 1826, Scott sent him the full-length portrait of himself by Raeburn, now at Abbotsford, saying that he did not hesitate to claim his protection for the picture, which was threatened to be paraded under the hammer of the auctioneer, and he felt that his interposition to turn aside that buffet might admit of being justified.  “As a piece of successful art, many might fancy the acquisition, but for the sake of the original he knew no refuge where it was likely to find a truer welcome.  The picture accordingly remained many years in my possession, but when his health had begun to break, and the plan of his going abroad was proposed, I thought it would be proper to return the picture, for which purpose I had a most successful copy made of it, an absolute facsimile, for when the two were placed beside each, other it was almost impossible to determine which was the original and which the copy.”—­Reminiscences.  Thus forestalling the wish expressed in the affecting letter now given, which belongs to this day.  See ante, vol. i. p. 136 n.

“MY DEAR SKENE,—­I have had no very pleasant news to send you, as I know it will give Mrs. Skene and you pain to know that I am suffering under a hundred little ailments which have greatly encroached upon the custom of the season which I used to take.  On this I could say much, but it is better to leave alone what must be said with painful feeling, and you would be vexed with reading.

“One thing I will put to rights with all others respecting my little personal affairs.  I am putting [in order] this house with what it contains, and as Walter will probably be anxious to have a memorial of my better days, I intend to beg you and my dear Mrs. Skene ... to have it [the picture] copied by such an artist as you should approve of, to supply the blank which must then be made on your hospitable walls with the shadow of a shade.  If the opportunity should occur of copying the picture to your mind, I will be happy to have the copy as soon as possible.  You must not think that I am nervous or foolishly apprehensive that I take these precautions.  They are necessary and right, and if one puts off too long, we sometimes are unfit for the task when we desire to take it up....

“When the weather becomes milder, I hope Mrs. Skene and you, and some of the children, will come out to brighten the chain of friendship with your truly faithful,

WALTER SCOTT.

“ABBOTSFORD, 16 January 1831.”

[418] Sir W. alludes to Mrs. Piozzi’s Tale of The Three Warnings.—­J.G.L.

[419] Macbeth, Act I. Sc. 3.

[420] Eccles. xii. 3.

[421] Crabbe’s Borough, Letter xiii.—­J.G.L.

[422] See Pirate.

[423] The deer-hound Bran which was presented by Macpherson of Cluny; Nimrod was Glengarry’s gift.—­See letter to Miss Edgeworth, printed in Life, vol. ix. p. 345.