correct. There is also "Smokeby," a parody of the same poem, in an early number of the Ephemerides, a literary serial, published at Edinburgh, in 1813. Then we have Marmion Travestied. By Peter Pry, a Tale of Modern Times (1809, 8vo), touching on the notorious scandal of the Duke of York and Mary Anne Clarke; and the Lay of the Scottish Fiddle: a Poem in Five Cantos,— supposed to be written by W—— S——, Esq. (London, 1814, 8vo), which has been attributed to Washington Irving, but which I would rather ascribe to his brother-in-law, the celebrated American writer, James Kirke Paulding,[1] a classic on the other side of the Atlantic, though so little knovrn here. Lastly, there is a two volume novel entitled Walladmor (1825, 2 vols. 8vo), which professes to have been "Freely translated into German from the English of Sir Walter Scott, and now freely translated from the German into English." In verity, there is a good deal of " freedom " here. At the half-yearly literary Fair at Leipsic, translations from the most recent works of Europeon authors are a prominent commodity, and some obliging hack is always at hand to act as proxy for a lazy writer. Scott ceased to produce, so a novel was written for him to meet the demand. The hoax was successful, and the Germans at least were for a time duped by the forgery.[2]
Abbotsford, the pet creation of Sir Walter, and the home, as he fondly but vainly hoped, of a long progeny, has been termed a mediaeval romance in stone and cement. Like many other romances, it is characterized by those incongruities and anachronisms of style which Maginn has satirized in his humorous novel, Whitehall: or the Days of George the Fourth; but is certainly imposing and picturesque in its general effect. It was executed in a transitional period; and its architect, Blore, who died in September, 1879, after a retirement of thirty years from professional life, gained but a questionable reputation from his magnum opus. It is well described by Washington Irving, who visited Sir Walter in 1816, in his Abbotsford and Newstead Abbey (London, 1835), and by N. P. Willis, in his Pencillings by the Way, vol. iii. chap. xxx.
The bibliography of Scott would require a volume, and must not be attempted here. But there is one volume which, standing by itself in character, may fitly be recorded. This is the Descriptive Account of the Po7-traits, Busts, Published Writings, and Manuscripts of Sir Walter Scott, Bart. Collected and Exhibited at Edinburgh on occasion of the Scott Centenary in 1871. Prepared for publication by Sir William Stirling Maxwell, Bart., David Laing, LL.D., James Drummond, R. S.A. Illustrated with Thirty-two portraits, and numerous facsimiles of original Manuscripts by the author of Waverley. Edinburgh, William Paterson. MDCCCLXXIV., 4to.
As History repeats herself, so does Biography. I round off these necessarily desultory illustrations of the great writer by the citation of an extraordinary epigram, which, whether it is to be regarded as a record or a prophecy, certainly merits preservation. All that I know of it is that it is ascribed to "an old Greek poet who flourished after the time of Hesiod." It is as follows:—
- ↑ Paulding was, I believe, the author of a book entitled A Sketch of Old England by a New Englandman, in a Series of Letters to his Brother (New York, 1822, 2 vols. 12mo)—replete with errors, misconceptions and misstatements.
- ↑ London Magazine, vol. x. p. 353. It is not generally known that this "free" translation, with the bantering dedication prefixed, was the work of De Quincey.
