SCOTT'S PATRIOTISM.
[TO THE EDITOR OF THE "Sexcr•Torun] Srn,—Scott's patriotic feeling (see Spectator, July 3rd, p. 3) was not confined to his own breast, as the following reply made to him by a widowed lady whose son was in the Yeomanry will prove. You will remember how the false alarm of 1805 called out the Volunteers of the Border counties, and how Scott himself rode up from Gilsland, a hundred miles in twenty-four hours, to be with his regiment. On this occasion the lady referred to sent her son's charger and equipments to the muster that he might come down from Edinburgh and take his place in the ranks. Scott complimented her on her action, and she finely replied : "Sir, none can know better than yourself that my son is the only prop by which, since his father's death, our family is supported. But I would rather see him dead on that hearth than hear that he had been a horse's length behind his companions in the defence of his Sing and country."—I am, Sir, Stc.,
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