CHAPTER XXIV. The Poem of Rokeby begun - Correspondence 1811-1812. Or the £4000 which Scott paid for the original farm of Abbotsford, he borrowed one half from his eldest brother, Major John Scott; the other moiety was raised by the Ballantynes, and advanced on the security of the as yet unwritten, though long meditated, poem of Rokeby. He immediately, I believe by Terry's counsel, requested Mr Stark of Edinburgh, an architect of whose talents he always spoke warmly, 4 to give him a design for an ornamental cottage in the style of the old English vicarage-house. But before this could be done, Mr Stark died; and Scott's letters will show how, in the sequel, his building plans, checked for a season by this occurrence, gradually expanded,—until twelve years afterwards the site was occupied not by a cottage but a castle. His first notions are sketched as follows, in a letter addressed to Mr Morritt very shortly after the purchase: "We stay at Ashestiel this season, but migrate the next to our new settlements. I have fixed only two points respecting my intended cottage -one is, that it shall be in my garden, or rather kailyard the other, that the little drawing-room shall open into a little conservatory, in which conservatory there shall be a fountain. These are articles of taste which I have long since determined upon; but I hope before a stone of my paradise is begun, we shall meet and collogue upon it." Three months later (December 20th, 1811), he opens the design of his new poem in another letter to the lord of Rokeby, whose household, it appears, had just been disturbed by the unexpected accouchement of a fair visitant. The allusion to the Quarterly Review, towards the close, refers to an humorous article on Sir John Sinclair's pamphlets about the Bullion Question-a joint production of Mr Ellis and Mr Canning. 66 "To J. B. S. Morritt, Esq. My Dear Morritt, "I received your kind letter a week or two ago. The little interlude of the bantling at Rokeby reminds me of a lady whose mother happened to produce her upon very short notice, between the hands of a game at whist, and who, from a joke of the celebrated David Hume, who was one of the players, lived long distinguished by the name of The Parenthesis. My wife had once nearly made a similar blunder in very awkward circumstances. We were invited to dine at Melville Castle (to which we were then near neighbours), with the Chief Baron and his lady, its temporary inhabitants, when behold, the Obadiah whom I despatched two hours before dinner from our cottage to summon the Dr Slop of Edinburgh, halting at Melville Lodge to rest his wearied horse, make apologies, and so forth, encountered the Melville Castle Obadiah sallying on the identical errand, for the identical man of skill, who, like an active knight-errant, relieved the two distressed dames within three hours of each other. A blessed duet they would have made if they * The late Right Honourable Robert Dundas, Chief Baron of he Scotch Court of Exchequer. VOL. III. A a had put off their crying bout, as it is called, till they could do it in concert. "And now, I have a grand project to tell you of. Nothing less than a fourth romance, in verse; the theme, during the English civil wars of Charles I., and the scene, your own domain of Rokeby. I want to build my cottage a little better than my limited finances will permit out of my ordinary income; and although it is very true that an author should not hazard his reputation, yet, as Bob Acres says, I really think Reputation should take some care of the gentleman in return. Now, I have all your scenery deeply imprinted in my memory, and moreover, be it known to you, I intend to refresh its traces this ensuing summer, and to go as far as the borders of Lancashire, and the caves of Yorkshire, and so perhaps on to Derbyshire. I have sketched a story which pleases me, and I am only anxious to keep my theme quiet, for its being piddled upon by some of your Ready-to-catch literati, as John Bunyan calls them, would be a serious misfortune to me. I am not without hope of seducing you to be my guide a little way on my tour. Is there not some book (sense or nonsense, I care not) on the beauties of Teesdale I mean a descriptive work? If you can point it out or lend it me, you will do me a great favour, and no less if you can tell me any traditions of the period. By which party was Barnard Castle occupied? It strikes me that it should be held for the Parliament. Pray, help me in this, by truth, or fiction, or tradition, — I care not which, if it be picturesque. What the deuce is the name of that wild glen, where we had such a clamber on horseback up a stone staircase?. Cat's Cradle, or Cat's Castle, I think it was. I wish also to have the true edition of the traditionary tragedy of your old house at Mortham, and the ghost thereunto appertaining, and you will do me yeoman's service in compiling the relics of so valuable a legend. Item - Do you know anything of a striking ancient castle belonging, I think, to the Duke of Leeds, called Coningsburgh ?* Grose notices it, but in a very flimsy manner. once flew past it on the mail-coach, when its round tower and flying buttresses had a most romantic effect in the morning dawn. I "The Quarterly is beyond my praise, and as much beyond me as I was beyond that of my poor old nurse who died the other day. Sir John Sinclair has gotten the golden fleece at last. Dogberry would not desire a richer reward for having been written down an ass. £6000 a-year!† Good faith, * See note, Ivanhoe, Waverley Novels, vol. xvii. pp. 335-339. + Shortly after the appearance of the article alluded to, Sir John Sinclair was appointed cashier of Excise for Scotland. "It should be added," says his biographer, "that the emoluments of |