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CHAPTER XXV

THE LAST JOURNEY

EFORE starting for the South, Scott received

at Abbotsford two distinguished visitors. The

one was a stranger, the other an old friend and brother poet. The stranger was Joseph Mallord William Turner, whose artistic gifts had been secured for the illustration of the poems. The great painter was introduced by the great writer, in company with Lockhart and Skene, to Smailholm Crags, the birthplace of the northern enchanter's genius, and to Dryburgh, soon to be his last resting-place. One of Turner's most brilliant. sketches commemorates a visit to the romantic Peel of Bemerside with its venerable trees and traditional motto ascribing eternal possession to one family. Unfortunately the Journal is silent as to Sir Walter's impressions of this young genius; nor does it record his feelings when he gathered together his neighbours to do honour to Burns's son at Abbotsford. And all it tells about the farewell visit of Wordsworth is that he tried to write in Miss Wordsworth's diary (a favour only accorded to her, as he said, for her father's sake) "and made an ill-favoured botch" of the verses.

But we know that the meeting between the old friends was of great import to both, and had touching incidents, such as that of the two sitting (with Anne Scott between them) listening while Lockhart read the passage from the life of Cervantes, which relates the raptures of a young student on discovering that he had been riding to Madrid in company with the creator of Don Quixote. This was led up to by Scott's comparison of himself with those two great pioneers of the novel, Fielding and Smollett, who had gone abroad in search of health and never returned. Fielding's Voyage to Lisbon, Sir Walter took with him to read. The fruit of this farewell visit of Wordsworth was not only Yarrow Revisited, but that noble sonnet in which the poet writes of the "Spirits of power" assembled on "Eildon's triple height" to complain "For kindred power departing from their sight," and of Tweed saddening his usually blithe strain at the approaching departure; then bids the mourners up their hearts, "for the might

lift

Of the whole world's good wishes with him goes";

and ends with the adjuration:

"Be true,

Ye winds of Ocean, and the Midland Sea,

Wafting your charge to swift Parthenope."

Naples was chosen as Scott's wintering-place, because his son Charles was an attaché to the British Legation. there. It was arranged that besides his daughter Anne, and the indispensable John Nicolson, his eldest son and his wife should also accompany him; these last to join

him in London. The day of departure from Abbotsford was the 23rd of September, almost exactly a year before Scott's eyes rested upon his beloved home for the last time. James Matthison of Hawick (still living in our day), son of the under-gardener, and grandson of Peter Matthison, Sir Walter's trusty coachman in his prosperous days and cheerful ploughman in bad times, used to tell how the servants gathered in a body on the stairhead to bid their master good-bye; and how Sir Walter, noticing the boy of nine among them, clapped him kindly on the head and popped a half-crown piece into his hand, telling him to be a good boy till he came back.* His son-in-law, who escorted him as far as London, says that Scott was as reluctant as ever to pass any object of interest, no matter how many times he had seen it before; and he also tells us how the celebrated silver ring (an angel holding the heart of Douglas) found in the ruins of Hermitage Castle, was left behind in an inn, but recovered, and sent as a keepsake to Morritt of Rokeby, Sir Walter's greatest friend outside Scotland. It is now once more at Abbotsford.

Scott found London in a state of great excitement about the Reform Bill. He saw the broken windows of the Duke of Newcastle and Lord Dudley, and heavy bodies of police stationed in all the squares

supporting each other regularly"; and the christening of the young Duke of Buccleuch, to which he had been

"Last Links with Scott," by Eve Blantyre Simpson, in Chambers's Journal, October, 1901.

invited, was put off by command of the King, who was to have been present. The Tory baronet's reflections upon his supposed Whig Majesty are not over-cordial. However, he had his own affairs to think about. A consultation of doctors was held about his state of health in the house near Regent's Park where he stayed. The conclave decided that there were symptoms of brain disease, but that if the patient would submit not only to a strict regimen but to absolute rest from work the evil day might yet be averted. Sir Walter promised obedience, but, as we shall see, did not long keep to his promise. Dr. Fergusson, in taking leave of him, noted that while his courtesy and self-command were prominent as ever, one of his cheeks was slightly palsied, his gait was very feeble, and his utterance so indistinct as to make his meaning with difficulty intelligible. His old friend Lady Louisa Stuart, Sir James Mackintosh, Lord Sidmouth, and the historians Milman and Stanhope (then Lord Mahon) were among those whom he met during his stay in London.

The Scott party reached Portsmouth on October the 23rd. In changing horses at Guildford, Sir Walter narrowly escaped being run over by a stage-coach, owing to his extreme reluctance to accept help. They had to stop at Portsmouth for nearly a week waiting for a favourable wind, steamers being still in their infancy. While his family were taken round by the friendly naval officers to see the sights, Scott himself was confined to his quarters, an old house called

“The Fountain," made of wood in imitation of a ship, except for an occasional hobble upon the rampart. However, Sir James Graham, the First Lord of the Admiralty, came down from London to see him, and both the naval and military commanders of the place made the utmost exertions both to do him honour and

ensure his comfort. At length, on the 29th, the party were put on board the Barham, "a beautiful ship-a 74 cut down to a 50, and well deserving all the commendations bestowed upon her"-by the Admiral's barge, and that night they set sail.

Scott suffered from sea-sickness for a few days, but after a time found himself at ease, and began to make long descriptive entries in his Journal, especially when off Gibraltar and Algiers, and to enjoy sustained conversations with the officers and Dr. Liddell, the physician. One day he went, supported on the shoulders of a seaman, to explore a submarine volcano, known as Graham's Island, which soon after disappeared, and wrote a long letter to Skene describing the adventure, with a block of lava and a sketch made by the captain's clerk. Two days later they landed in Malta, where, owing to the prevalence of cholera, they were kept in strict quarantine for ten days. The friends who came to see them in the splendid but uncomfortable fort of Don Manuel were not allowed to approach within a yard. Among those who attended Sir Walter's "daily leveé" here was John Hookham Frere, the brilliant wit and friend of Canning, and a great ballad-lover. When

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