his Majesty said, had reported that there had been some coolness between you; but he added, that it was utterly false, and that he was, in every respect, highly pleased and gratified, and, he said, grateful for the devoted attention you had paid him; and he celebrated very warmly the success that had attended all your arrangements. Peel has sung your praises to the same tune; and I have been flattered to find that both the King and Peel thought me so much your friend, that they, as it were, reported to me the merit of "my friend Scott." Yours ever, J. W. CROKER. If Sir Walter lost something in not seeing more of Dean Cannon-who, among other social merits, sang the Ballads of Robin Hood with delightful skill and effect - there was a great deal better cause for regret in the unpropitious time selected for Mr. Crabbe's visit to Scotland. In the glittering and tumultuous assemblages of that season, the elder bard was (to use one of his friend's favorite similitudes) very like a cow in a fremd loaning; and though Scott could never have been seen in colors more likely to excite admiration, Crabbe had hardly any opportunity of observing him in the every-day lovableness of his converse. Sir Walter's enthusiastic excitement about the kilts and the processions seemed at first utterly incomprehensible to him; but by degrees he caught not a little of the spirit of the time, and even indited a set of stanzas, which have perhaps no other merit than that of reflecting it. He also perceived and appreciated Scott's dexterous management of prejudices and pretensions. He exclaims, in his Journal,-"What a keen discriminating man is my friend!" But I shall ever regret that Crabbe did not see him at Abbotsford among his books, his trees, and his own good simple peasants. They had, I believe, but one quiet walk together, and it was to the ruins of St. Anthony's Chapel and Muschat's Cairn, which the deep impression made on Crabbe by The Heart of Mid-Lothian had given him 1822 CRABBE'S VISIT 61 an earnest wish to see. I accompanied them; and the hour so spent, in the course of which the fine old man gave us some most touching anecdotes of his early struggles, was a truly delightful contrast to the bustle and worry of miscellaneous society which consumed so many of his few hours in Scotland. Scott's family were more fortunate than himself in this respect. They had from infancy been taught to reverence Crabbe's genius, and they now saw enough of him to make them think of him ever afterwards with tender affection.1 1 [In the Rev. George Crabbe's Life of his father will be found an interesting letter from Lockhart, written in 1833, giving his recollections of the poet's visit to Edinburgh, including a few details not touched upon here.] HOUSE. LETTERS TO JOANNA BAILLIE, TERRY, LORD MONTAGU, ETC. COMPLETION AND PUBLICATION OF PEVERIL OF THE PEAK 1822-1823 THOUGH Mr. Crabbe found it necessary to leave Scotland without seeing Abbotsford, this was not the case with many less celebrated friends from the south, who had flocked to Edinburgh at the time of the Royal Festival. Sir Walter's house was, in his own phrase, "like a cried fair," during several weeks after the King's departure; and as his masons were then in the highest activity upon the addition to the building, the bustle and tumult within doors and without was really perplexing. We shall find him confessing that the excitement of the Edinburgh scenes had thrown him into a fever, and that he never needed repose more. He certainly never had less of it. Nor was an unusual influx of English pilgrims the only legacy of "the glorious days" of August. A considerable number of persons who had borne a part in the ceremonies of the King's reception fancied that their exertions had entitled them to some substantial mark of royal approbation; and post after post brought longwinded despatches from these clamorous enthusiasts, to him who, of all Scotchmen, was supposed to enjoy, as to matters of this description, the readiest access to the fountain of honor. To how many of these applications 1822 MONS MEG 63 he accorded more than a civil answer, I cannot tell; but I find that the Duke of York was too good a Jacobite not to grant favorable consideration to his request, that one or two poor half-pay officers who had distinguished themselves in the van of the Celts, might be, as opportunity offered, replaced in Highland regiments, and so reinvested with the untheatrical "Garb of old Gaul." Sir Walter had also a petition of his own. This related to a certain gigantic piece of ordnance, celebrated in the history of the Scottish Jameses under the title of Mons Meg, and not forgotten in Drummond's Macaronics Sicuti Mons Megga crackasset, which had been removed from Edinburgh Castle to the Tower of London, after the campaign of 1745. When Scott next saw the King, after he had displayed his person on the chief bastion of the old fortress, he lamented the absence of Mons Meg on that occasion in language which his Majesty could not resist. There ensued a correspondence with the official guardians of Megamong others, with the Duke of Wellington, then Master-General of the Ordnance, and though circumstances deferred her restoration, it was never lost sight of, and took place finally when the Duke was Prime Minister, which I presume smoothed petty obstacles, in 1829. But the serious petition was one in which Sir Walter expressed feelings in which I believe every class of his fellow-countrymen were disposed to concur with him very cordially and certainly none more so than the generous King himself. The object which the poet had at heart was the restoration of the Scottish Peerages forfeited in consequence of the insurrections of 1715 and 1745; and the honorable families, in whose favor this liberal measure was soon afterwards adopted, appear to have vied with each other in the expression of their gratefulness for his exertions on their behalf. The fol ÆT. 51 lowing paper seems to be his sketch of the grounds on which the representatives of the forfeited Peers ought to approach the Ministry; and the view of their case thus suggested, was, it will be allowed, dexterously selected, and persuasively enforced. HINTS RESPECTING AN APPLICATION FOR A REVERSAL OF THE ATTAINDERS IN 1715 AND 1745. September, 1822. A good many years ago, Mr. Erskine of Mar, and other representatives of those noble persons who were attainted for their accession to the Rebellions of 1715 and 1745, drew up a humble petition to the King, praying that his Majesty, taking into his royal consideration the long time which had since elapsed, and the services and loyalty of the posterity of the attainted Peers, would be graciously pleased to recommend to Parliament an Act for reversing all attainders passed against those who were engaged in 1715 and 1745, so as to place their descendants in the same situation, as to rank, which they would have held had such attainders never taken place. This petition, it is believed, was proposed about the time that an Act was passed for restoring the forfeited estates, still in possession of the Crown; and it was imagined that this gracious act afforded a better opportunity for requesting a reversal of the attainders than had hitherto occurred, especially as it was supposed that the late Lord Melville, the great adviser of the one measure, was equally friendly to the other. The petition in question, however, it is believed, never was presented to the King - it having been understood that the Chancellor, Lord Thurlow, was hostile to it, and that, therefore, it would be more prudent not to press it then. It is thought by some, that looking to his Majesty's late paternal and most gracious visit to his ancient kingdom of Scotland, in which he seemed anxious to revive and encourage all the proud recollections of its former renown, and to cherish all associations connected with the events of the olden times, as by the display of the Regalia, by the most distinguished attention to the Royal Archers, and by other similar observances, a fit time has now arrived for most humbly soliciting the royal attention to the state of those individuals, who, |
