[108] This plantation now covers the remains of an old Roman road from the Great Camp on the Eildon Hills to the ford below Scott’s house.—­J.G.L.

[109] The residence for several years of Mr. and Mrs. Lockhart.

[110] When settling his estate on his eldest son, Sir Walter had retained the power of burdening it with L10,000 for behoof of his younger children; he now raised the sum for the assistance of the struggling firms.—­J.G.L.  See Dec. 14, 1825.

[111] William Scrope, author of Days of Deer Stalking, roy. 8vo, 1839; and Days and Nights of Salmon Fishing, roy. 8vo, 1843; died in his 81st year in 1852.  Mr. Lockhart says of this enthusiastic sportsman that at this time “he had a lease of Lord Somerville’s pavilion opposite Melrose, and lived on terms of affectionate intimacy with Sir Walter Scott.”

[112] Mr. George Ticknor of Boston.  He saw much of Scott and his family in the spring of 1819 in Edinburgh and at Abbotsford; and was again in Scotland in 1838.  Both visits are well described in his journals, published in Boston in 1876.

Mrs. Lockhart was of opinion that Leslie’s portrait of her father was the best extant, “and nothing equals it except Chantrey’s bust.”—­Ticknor’s Life, vol. i. p. 107.

Leslie himself thought Chantrey’s was the best of all the portraits.  “The gentle turn of the head, inclined a little forward and down, and the lurking humour in the eye and about the mouth, are Scott’s own.”—­Autobiographical Recollections of Leslie, edited by Taylor, vol. i. p. 118.

[113] ... sedet, eternumque sedebit Infelix Theseus ...  VIRGIL.—­J.G.L.

[114] In a letter of this date to his sister-in-law, Mrs. Thomas Scott, Sir Walter says:—­“Poor aunt Curle died like a Roman, or rather like one of the Sandy-Knowe bairns, the most stoical race I ever knew.  She turned every one out of the room, and drew her last breath alone.  So did my uncle, Captain Robert Scott, and several others of that family.”—­J.G.L.

[115] See letter addressed by C.J.  Mathews to his mother, in which he says, “I took particular notice of everything in the room (Sir Walter’s sanctum), and if he had left me there, should certainly have read all his notes.” Memoirs, edited by Dickens, 2 vols., London, 1879, vol. i. p. 284.

[116] Merchant’s Tale, lines 9706-8, slightly altered.

[117] 2 King Henry IV., Act iv.  Sc. 2.—­J.G.L.

[118] “I had long been in the habit of passing the Christmas with Sir Walter in the country, when he had great pleasure in assembling what he called ‘a fireside party,’ where he was always disposed to indulge in the free and unrestrained outpouring of his cheerful and convivial disposition.  Upon one of these occasions the Comedian Mathews and his son were at Abbotsford, and most entertaining they were, giving us a full display of all their varied powers in scenic representations, narrations, songs,