PREFACE

On the death of Sir Walter Scott, in 1832, his entire literary remains were placed at the disposal of his son-in-law, Mr. John Gibson Lockhart. Among these remains were two volumes of a Journal which had been kept by Sir Walter from 1825 to 1832. Mr. Lockhart made large use of this Journal in his admirable life of his fatherin-law. Writing, however, so short a time after Scott's death, he could not use it so freely as he might have wished, and, according to his own statement, it was "by regard for the feelings of living persons" that he both omitted and altered; and, indeed, he printed no chapter of the Diary in full.

There is no longer any reason why the Journal should not be published in its entirety, and by the permission of the Hon. Mrs. Maxwell-Scott it now appears exactly as Scott left it but for the correction of obvious slips of the pen, and the omission of some details chiefly of family and domestic interest.

The original Journal consists of two small 4to volumes, 9 inches by 8, bound in vellum, and furnished with strong locks. The manuscript is closely written on both sides, and towards the end shows painful evidence of the physical prostration of the writer. The Journal abruptly closes, towards the middle of the second volume, with the following entry-probably the last words ever penned by Scott:

by one of the old Pontiffs but which I forget, and so paraded the streets by moonlight to discover if possible some appearance of the learned Sir William Gell or the pretty Mistress Ashley.

At length we found our old servant who guided us to the lodgings taken by Sir William Gell where all was comfortable a good fire included which our fatigue and the chilliness of the night required. We dispersed as soon as we had taken some food and wine and water.

We slept reasonably, but on the next morning