WHY CHRISTIE FOUGHT 281 he speaks of the coroner's inquest, and is glad to find that Mr. Scott's deposition, though it did not give Traill's "exact words," yet proved that Mr. Scott heard them, "though he was at a greater distance than his second."1 Meanwhile several of Lockhart's letters failed to reach Christie, so that they are not preserved. On March 19, Christie writes to Lockhart: he has heard of the verdict of the coroner's inquest, but is cheered by the evidence that Mr. Scott had not been left in ignorance of his firing in the air. "It was no fault of ours, if he did not take the course which one would think he ought to have taken." By his own statement Mr. Scott, being in his second's hands, acted on his second's advice. Christie (like Sir Walter in an unpublished letter) entreats Lockhart not to come to London for the trial. He reiterates his hope that Lockhart's distress will be assuaged by his assurances that Lockhart was not the cause of the quarrel. "I fought for no reason at all, except that I could not, without degrading myself, decline to comply with his demand. If his challenge had been in any way a natural consequence of anything that you had done, calculated to make him challenge me, or if I had fought for the sake of not compromising your honour, or not giving him an indirect advantage over you, then you might have had some uneasiness 1 Mr. Traill's "exact words," as recollected by himself and Mr. Christie, have already been given, in the account of the affair: they are also cited in a letter to Lockhart from Mr. Traill. in addition to what you would feel for what gave me uneasiness. But in fact nothing of the sort was the case." He then protests that even the kindnesses of Sir Walter distress him, because they seem to imply that Lockhart is a party concerned. On April 14, 1821, Christie announces the acquittal of Traill and himself, and the close of an unhappy affair which clouded many lives.1 1 Mr. Patmore did not then surrender himself, probably that his absence might weaken the evidence against the others. CHAPTER X CHIEFSWOOD, 1821-1824 Life at Chiefswood.-Border Scenes.-" Valerius."-Criticism of the book.-Its failure.-Letter to Christie.-Hogg, Rose, and wildducks.-Lockhart's love of children.-Hugh Littlejohn.-Boswell slain by Dunearn.-"Adam Blair."-Origin of the tale.— Criticism. “Adam Blair” and “Faublas !"— George IV. in Edinburgh.-Scott's energy.-Crabbe.-Crabbe on Lockhart.— Lockhart on Crabbe. - Abbotsford. Lockhart edits "Don Quixote."-Begins an edition of Shakespeare.-Melrose in July "Leal Tories." - "Reginald Dalton."- Letters from Christie. Christie on Hunt and Byron.-Report of Williams's death." Quentin Durward" unpopular. 1823. THE uneventful life of a man of letters is seldom, happily, interrupted by striking personal incidents. Whether in Edinburgh or at Chiefswood, Lockhart's literary industry must now have been mainly given to reading for, and writing, his Roman novel, "Valerius." These were the days of The Beacon, a Tory Edinburgh paper of violent character and of huddled-up, discreditable end. Concerning this journal, I find a correspondent, Sir Alexander Boswell, informing Sir Walter that it was "too much of a gentleman's paper!" Lockhart has given his account of Sir Walter's conduct, in what Scott himself calls "a blasted business;" Lockhart,1 for tunately, was not one of the " concerned with the journal. young hot-bloods' 39 The death of John Ballantyne occurred in June, and Lockhart has recorded how he himself attended the funeral, and was told by Scott, "I feel as if there would be less sunshine for me from this day forth." There were summer visits to Chiefswood, where "Sophia is getting stout and pretty, and is one of the wisest and most important little mammas that can be seen anywhere. Her bower is bigged in gude green wood, and we went last Saturday in a body to enjoy it, and to consult about furniture," Scott says to Miss Baillie.' Creepers from the old cottage at Abbotsford, were planted by Scott's own hands round the little porch at Chiefswood. Lockhart has described, in a familiar passage, the manner of life in that "bower," and Scott's occasional flight thither, on Sibyl Grey, with Mustard and Spice, the dandies, and "his own joyous shout of reveille under our windows." The cottage being so small, they often dined in the open air, on the lawn where the burn murmurs on its way from the Rhymer's Glen to pay its tiny tribute to "the great fisc and exchequer" of the Tweed. Among these memories it is that Lockhart, for one moment half forgetful of his cognisance, gives his heart its liberty, and speaks of "the chief ornament and delight at all 1 "Life,” vi. 426, 430. 2 June 11, 1821. "Life," vi. 337. these simple meetings,-she to whose love I owed my own place in them-Scott's eldest daughter, the one of all his children who, in countenance, mind, and manners, most resembled himself, and who, indeed, was as like him in all things as a gentle innocent woman can ever be to a great man deeply tried and skilled in the perplexities of active life -she, too, is no more (1837). But enough-and more than I had intended." "The Pirate" was being written, and Scott's dear friend, William Erskine, would read chapters of it aloud, under the great tree on the slope that climbs towards the Rhymer's Glen. Scott was even more than commonly busy; editing a quaint old angling book by one who thought poorly of our father Izaak as a sportsman,—and amusing himself with the "Private Letters" of the reign of James VI., afterwards abandoned for "Nigel." As for Lockhart's lighter labours, since the names of Wastle and Peter Morris were now abandoned, I renounce the ungrateful and practically impossible task of trying to follow him through the old numbers of Blackwood. In summer Mr. Christie's health was so bad that he expected, as he says, "soon to know the great secret," a quotation from a person then very notori ous. His native air restored him, and in September he accepted an invitation to Chiefswood. Traill also was expected. "We have room enough in a very humble sort," Lockhart wrote, "so I trust you |