rose,

-

Swinton, of Inverleith-Place, Esq., - John Richardson, Esq., of Fludyer Street, John Murray, Esq., of Albemarle Street, Robert Bruce, Esq., Sheriff of Argyle, Robert Fergusson, Esq., M. D., G. P. R. James, Esq., - William Laidlaw, Esq., -Robert Cadell, Esq., John Elliot Shortreed, Esq., Allan Cunningham, Esq., -Claud Russell, Esq., James Clarkson, Esq., of Melthe late James Ballantyne, Esq., — Joseph Train, Adolphus Ross, Esq., M. D., William Allan, Esq., R. A., Charles Dumergue, Esq.,- Stephen Nicholson Barber, Esq.,- James Slade, Esq.,- Mrs. Joanna Baillie, Mrs. George Ellis, - Mrs. Thomas Scott, Mrs. Charles Carpenter, Miss Russell of Ashestiel, — Mrs. Sarah Nicholson, -Mrs. Duncan, Mertoun-Manse, the Right Hon. the Lady Polwarth, and her sons, Henry, Master of Polwarth, the Hon. and Rev. William, and the Hon. Francis Scott.

Esq.,

I beg leave to acknowledge with equal thankfulness the courtesy of the Rev. Dr. Harwood, Thomas White, Esq., Mrs. Thomson, and the Rev. Richard Garnett, all of Lichfield, and the Rev. Thomas Henry White, of Glasgow, in forwarding to me Sir Walter Scott's early letters to Miss Seward: that of the Lord Seaford, in entrusting me with those addressed to his late cousin, George Ellis, Esq. and the kind readiness with which whatever papers in their possession could be serviceable to my undertaking were supplied by the Duke and Duchess of Buccleuch, and the Lord Montagu; - the Duchess-Countess of Sutherland, and the Lord Francis Egerton; the Lord Viscount Sidmouth, the Lord Bishop of Llandaff, the Right Hon. Sir Robert Peel, Bart., - the Lady Louisa Stuart, -the Hon. Mrs. Warrender, and the Hon. Catharine Arden, Lady Davy, Miss Edgeworth, Mrs. Maclean Clephane, of Torloisk, Mrs. Hughes, of Uffington, — Mrs. Terry now (Richardson), Mrs. Bartley, — Sir

George Mackenzie of Coul, Bart., - the late Sir Francis Freeling, Bart., - Captain Sir Hugh Pigott, R. N., - the late Sir William Gell, Sir Cuthbert Sharp,

the Very Rev. Principal Baird, the Rev. William Steven, of Rotterdam, the late Rev. James Mitchell, of Wooler, Robert William Hay, Esq., lately Under Secretary of State for the Colonial Department, — John Borthwick, of Crookstone, Esq., John Cay, Esq., Sheriff of Linlithgow,Captain Basil Hall, R. N., Thomas Crofton Croker, Esq., - Edward Cheney, Esq., Alexander Young, Esq., of Harburn, — A. J. Valpy, Esq.,- James Maidment, Esq., Advocate, the late Donald Gregory, Esq., Robert Johnston, Esq., of Edinburgh,1 — J. J. Masquerier, Esq., of Brighton, - Owen Rees, Esq., of Paternoster Row,2- William Miller, Esq., formerly of Albemarle Street, David Laing, Esq., of Edinburgh, -and John Smith the Youngest, Esq., of Glasgow. J. G. LOCKHART.

1 Bailie Johnston died 4th April, 1838, in his 73d year.

2 Mr. Rees retired from the house of Longman and Co. at Midsummer, 1837, and died 5th September following, in his 67th year.

то

JOHN BACON SAWREY MORRITT

OF ROKEBY PARK, Esq.

THESE MEMOIRS OF HIS FRIEND

ARE RESPECTFULLY AND AFFECTIONATELY

INSCRIBED

BY

THE AUTHOR

MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE

OF

SIR WALTER SCOTT

CHAPTER I

MEMOIR OF THE EARLY LIFE OF SIR WALTER SCOTT, WRITTEN BY HIMSELF

ASHESTIEL, April 26, 1808.

THE present age has discovered a desire, or rather a rage, for literary anecdote and private history, that may be well permitted to alarm one who has engaged in a certain degree the attention of the public. That I have had more than my own share of popularity, my contemporaries will be as ready to admit as I am to confess that its measure has exceeded not only my hopes, but my merits, and even wishes. I may be therefore permitted, without an extraordinary degree of vanity, to take the precaution of recording a few leading circumstances (they do not merit the name of events) of a very quiet and uniform life that, should my literary reputation survive my temporal existence, the public may know from good authority all that they are entitled to know of an individual who has contributed to their amusement.

From the lives of some poets a most important moral lesson may doubtless be derived, and few sermons can be read with so much profit as the Memoirs of Burns, of Chatterton, or of Savage. Were I conscious of any