LOCKHART'S LIFE OF SIR WALTER SCOTT.

As we shall have a good deal to say respecting this work when it is completed, we for the present content ourselves with doing little more than extracting a few remarkable passages from the Fifth Volume, which has just appeared.

This volume embraces the period from the middle of 1820 to the beginning of 1825 ; the most active, brilliant, and happy time of Scores life. It was, to all appearance, too, the most prosper. ous ; and, though his prosperity was hollow and treacherous, his cup of pleasure was not embittered by a knowledge of his posi- tion, or a dread of the precipice on the brink of which be stood. During this period all the best and most amiable parts of his character were most fully developed,—his domestic affections, his kindly feelings, his sweetness of temper, his active and unwearied benevolence. During this period, indeed, the system of pecu- niary transactions, which involved him in so fearful a ruin, was going on with accelerated rapidity ; but it was going on smoothly, and had little effect on his state of mind, or the circumstances of his life. Few traces of it, therefore, appear in the volume before us ; which is occupied with sketches of his domestic habits, his intercourse with distinguished personages, the publication of his different works. and, above all, his delightful correspondence. There is a leelle bookmaking in the volume,—as, for instance, in the insertion of Sir WALTER'S long newspaper account of the coronatim of Gaonms the Fourth, taken from the Edinburgh Weekly Journal ; the tedious details of the King's visit to Edin- burgh; and the long extracts from Mr. ADOLPHUS'S book on Sir WAL1ER Score's writings. But, on the whole, the volume con- tains much that is pleasing and interesting.

The only great failing in Scores character which is promi• nantly brought out in this volume, is his political bigotry. Mr. LOCKHART gives an account of the memorable affair of the Beacon newspaper, which involved Score in much discredit, and led to a very melancholy catastrophe. Mr. LOCKHART'S account of this matter is such as might be expected from his own political spirit. He finds no fault with the scheme for establishing a newspaper whose object was the most violent Tory partisanship : his censure is directed against the blunders which rendered the scheme abortive. "The Beacon," he says, "originated in the alarm with which the Edinburgh Tories contemplated the progress of Radical doctrines during the agitation of the Queen's business in 18.20, and the want of any adequate counteraction on the part of the 'Ministerial newspapers in the North. James Ballantyne had on that occasion swerved from his banner, and by so doing given not a little offence to Scott. He approved, therefore, of the project of a new weekly journal, to be conducted by some shadier hand; and when it was pn posed to raise the requisite ca pital fie. ;ha speculation by private subset Olen, expressed his willingness to contribute whatever sum should be named by other gentlemen of his standing." Mr. LOCKHART here treats JAMES B ALL ANTYNE with an injustice of which too many instances have occurred in this work. No part of Mr. BALLANTYNE'S conduct does hint higher honour than the manly firmness with which, Tory as he was, he refused to permit his journal to be prostituted to the menu objects of a faction : and with which, notwithstanding his habitual respect and deference for SCOTT, ho not only withstood his remonstrances and frowns, but even saw him transfer his favour and support to a newspaper established in express opposition to BALLANTYNE'S own. From any impartial biographer such conduct would have drawn a willing tribute of admiration. But BALLANTYNE " swerved from his banner ;" and it was necessary for the party to have a newspaper conducted " by a steadier hand !" Why, it was the very steadiness of BALLANTYNK'S hand that rendered him obnoxious to the displeasure of the Edinburgh Tories, and to that of one of the most violent among them—Sir WALTER Scan.

JOHN ISALLANTTNE'S DEATHBED.

On the 4th of June, Scutt, being then on one of his short sessional visits to Abbotsford, received the painful intelligence that his friend John Ballantyne's maladies had begun to assume an aspect of serious and even immediate danger. The elder brother wade the commuuicatiuu in these terms- " TO S114 WALTEB SCOTT, HART., OF ABBOTSIOB,D, MELBOSS.

" Edinburgh, Suuday,3d Juue 1831. " Dear Sir—I have this morning had a most heart-breakiug letter front poor John, from which the following is an extract. You will judge how it has affected me, who, with all his peculiarities of temper, love him very much. He say.— " ' A spitting of blood has commenced, and you may guess the situation into which I am plunged. We are all accustomed to consider death as certainly in- evitable; but his obvious approach is assuredly the most detestable and abhor- rent feeling to which human nature can be subject.'

" This is truly doleful. There is something in it more absolutely bitter to

my heart than what 1 have otherwise suffered. I look back to my mother's peaceful zest, and to my infant's blessedness—if life be riot the extinguishable worthless spark which 1 cannot think it : but here, cut off in the very middle of life, with good means and strong powers of enjoying it, and nothing but re- luctance and repining at the close-1 say the truth when 1 say that 1 would joyfully part with my right arui to avert the approaching result. Patton this, dear Sir ; my heart and soul are heavy within me. " With the deepest loped sod gratitude, J. 11."

I accompanied Sir Walter when one of their last interviews took place; and John's deathbed was a thing not to be forgotten. We eat by him for per- haps an hour ; and I think halt that space was occupied with his predictions of a speedy cud, and details of bia last a ill, %hick he had just been executing, and which hay on his coverlid ; the other half being given, five minutes or so at a time, to questions and remarks, which intimated that the hope of life was still flickering bethre him—nay, that his interest in all its concerns remained eager, The proof sheets of a volume of his 1.1'neLlit's Library lay also by his pillow: and he passed from them to his will, and then back to them, as by jerks and starts the unwonted veil of gloom closed upon his imagination, or was withdrawn again. Ile had, as he said, left his great friend and patron 20001. towards the completion of the new library at Abbotsford ; and the spirit of the auctioneer virtuoso flashed up as lie begun to describe what would, he thought, be the best sty le and arrangement of the book-shelves. Ile was interrupted by an agony of asthma, which left him with hardly any signs of life; and ultimately he did expire in a fit of the same kind. Scott was visibly and profoundly shaken by this scene and its sequel. As we stood together a few days afterwards, white they were smoothing the turf over John's remains in the Canongate church. yard, the heavens, which had been dark and slaty, cleared up suddenly, and the midsummer sun shone forth in his strength. Scott, ever aw Ike to the " skiey influences," cast his eye along the overhanging line of the Calton Hill, with its gleaming walls and towers, then turning to the grave again, "I feel," he whispered in my ear, " I feel as if there would be less sunshine for me from this day forth." As we walked homewards, Scott told me, among other favourable traits of his friend, one little story, which I must not omit. He remarked one day to a poor student of divinity attending his auction, that lie looked as if he were in bad health. The young man assented, with a sigh. " Come," said Ballantyne, " I think I ken the secret of a sort of draft that would relieve you; particularly," be added, handing him a check for five pounds or ten pounds, " particularly, my dear, if taken upon an empty stomach." John died in his elder brother's house, in St. John Street ; a circumstance which it gives one pleasure to recant', as it confirms the impression of their affectionate feelings towards each other at this time, which the reader must have derived front James's letter to Scott last quoted. Their confidence and cordiality had undergone considerable interruption in the latter part of John's life but the close was in all respects fraternal. • • • • in communicating John's death to the Cornet, Sir Walter say's, " I have had a very great loss in pour John Ballantyne, who is gone, after a long illness. He

persisted to the very last in endeavouring to take exercise, in which he was often imprudent, and was up and dressed the very morning before his death. hr his will the grateful creature has left me a legacy of 2,000/., life-rented,

however, by his wife ; and the rest of his little fortune goes betwixt his two brothers. I shall miss him very much, both in business and as an easy and lively cumpaidon, who was eternally active and obliging in whatever I had to do.'

I am sorry to take leave of John Idillantyne with the remark, that his last will was a document of the same class with too many of his states and calendars. Sofas from having 2,000/. to bequeath to Sir Walter, he died, as he had lived, ignorant of the situation of his affairs, and deep in debt.

3101:LNECL R53IF.:31131tANCES.

When circumstances permitted, he usually spent one evening at least in the week at our little cottage ; and almost as frequently he did the like with the Fergusuns, to whose table he could bring chance visiters, when he pleased, with equal freedom as to his daughter's. Indeed it seemed to be much a matter of a chalice, any fine day when there hail been no alarming invasion of the Southrun, whether the three families (which, in fact, made but oue) should dine at Abbotsford, at Iluntly Burn, or at Chiefswuud ; and at none of them was the p irty considered quite complete unless it included also Mr. Laidlaws Death has laid a heavy hand upon that circle—as happy a circle, I believe, as ever met. Briglit eyes now closed in dust, gly voices forever silenced, seem to liauut we as I write. With three exceptions, they are all gone. Even since the last of these ViAL1111.:S WAS finished, she whom I may now sadly record as, next to Sir Walter himself, the chief ornament and delight of all those simple meetiegs—she to whose love I owed my own place in them—Scott's eldest daughter, ti:: 1,13; of all his children who in countenance, mind, and manners, most reselulded himself, raid who indeed was as like him in all things as a gentle innocent woman can ever be to a great man deeply tried and skilled in

the struggles and perplexitks of active life—she too, is no more. And in the very hour that saw her laid in her grave, the ouly other female sui vivor, her dearest friend 31ar,eiret Ferguson, breathed her last also. But enough, and more dew 1 intended; 1 must resume the story of Abbotsford.

THE ABBOTSFOILD HUNT.

The 2Sth of October, the birth-day of Sir Walter's eldest son, wee, I think, that usually beieeted for the Ahbotsford Hunt. This was a coursing field on

a large scale, including, with as many of the young gentry as pleased to attend,

all Scott's poisurial favourites tinning the yeomen and farmers of the surround- ing cuuntry. The Sheriff always took the field, but latterly devolved the um• eland upon his good friewl Mr. 'John Faber, the ex-laird of Tofttield ; and he could not have had a more skilful or a better-humoured lieutenant. The hunt took place either on the moors above the Cauld-Sheils Loch, or over some of the hills on the estate of Gala ; and we had commonly, ere we returned, hares enough to supply the wife of every farmer that attended with soup for a week following. 'fire whole then dined at Abbotsford ; the Sheriff in the chair, Adam Ferguson croupier, and Dominic Thomson, of course, chaplain. George, by the way, was himself an eager partaker in the preliminary sport ; and now he would favour us with a grace, in Burns's phrase, " as Wog as my aria," be- ginning with thanks to the Almighty, who had given man dominion over the tuwls of the air and the beasts of the field, and expatiating on this text with so luculent a commentary, that Scott, who had been tumbling with his spoon long before lie reached his Amen, could not help exclaiming as he sat down, " Well done, Mr. George, I think we've had every thing but the view hollow! " The company, whose Onset had been thus deterred, were seldom, I think, under thirty in number, and sometimes they exceeded forty. The feast was such as suited the occasion,—a baron of beef, roasted, at the foot of the table, a salted round at the head, while tureens of hare-soup, hotchpotch, and cockeyleekie ex- tended down the centre, and such light articles as geese, turkies, entire sucking pigs, a singed sheep's head, and the unfailing haggis, were set forth by way of sideolielles. 131nel:cock and muorfowl, bushels of snipe, black puddings, puddings, and pyramids of pancakes, formed the second course. Ale was the favourite beverage duriug dinner, but there was plenty of port and sherry for those whose stomachs they suited. '1'lle quaighe of Glenlivet were tilled brims ful, and tossed off as if they held water. The wine-decanters made a few rounds of the table, but the hints for hot punch and toddy soon became cite morons. Two or three bowls were introduced, and placed under the super- vision of experienced manufacturers—one of these being usually the Fatruk Shepherd ; and then the business of the evening commenced in good earnest. The faces shone and glowed like those at Camaelio's wedding ; the chairman told his richest stories of old rural life, Lowland or Highland ; Ferguson and humbler heroes fought their Peninsula battles o'er again; the stalwart Dandle blowouts lugged out their last winter's snow-storm, the parish scandal, per- hap, or the dexterous bargain of the Northumberland tryste ; and every man was knocked down for the sung that he sung best ur took most pleasure in sing- ing. Sheriff-substitute Shurtreed (a cheerful hearty little man, with a spark' ling eye and a most infectious laugh) gave us " Dick o' the Cow," or " Now Liddleedale has ridden a raid ;" a weatherbeaten, stiff-bearded veteran, Captain Ormistoun, as he was called, (though I doubt di his rank was recoguized at the fielols,) bail the primitive pastoral of " C,,wdenknowes in sweet per. ; Hogg produced "The Women folk," or "The Nye cones halve," 'ill' in spite of many grinding notes, contrived to make rays rybody delighted, and, with the fun or the pathos of his ballad ; the 31elrose Doctor sang in whited style some of Moore's masterpietes; a couple of retired sailors joined " !Muhl Admiral Duncan open the high sea ; " and the gallant croupier eirowned the last bowl with " Ale, good ale, thou art my dailies!" Imagine once smart Patisian savant, some dreamy pedant of Halle or Heidelbergs a brace of stray young Innis from Oxford or Cambridge, or perhaps their prim "'lege tutors, planted here and there amidst these rustic wassailers—this being their first vision of the author of Marston and Ivanhoe, and 1w appearing as hearti'v at home in the scene as if he had been a veritable Dandle himself; his fare radiant, his laugh gay as childhood, his chorus always ready. And so it proceeded, until some worthy who had fifteen or twenty miles to ride home, begot to insinuate that his wife and bairns would be getting sorely anxious alma the fords and the Rumples and I loddins were at last heard neighing at the gate, and it was voted that the hour had C011al. 101 ditch an (toms dr atirrup• Cup, to wit—a hamper all round of the manta :gated mountore der. How they all contrived to get home in safety, Heaven only knows ; but I never heard of sue serious accident except upon one occasion, when James Hogg made a bet at starting that I e would leap over his wall.eyed pony as she stood, and broke his nose in this experiment of " o'ervaulting ambition." One comely goodwife, far off among the hills, amused Sir Walter by telling him, the next time he passed her homestead after one of these jolly doings, what her husband's first words were when he slighted at his own door—" Ailie, my woman, I'm ready for my bed ; and oh, labs, (he gallantly added,) I wish I could sleep for a tow. wont, far there's only only ae thing in this warld worth living fur, and that's the Abbotsford Hunt !"

TUE KIRN.

It may well be supposed that the President of the Boldside Festival and the Abbotsford Hunt did not omit the good old custom of the Kira. Every Noss vender, before quitting the country fur Edinburgh, be gave a harvest-home, on the most approved model of former days, to all the peas:rimy on his estate, their friends and kindred, and as many poor neighbours beside as his barn could hold. litre old and young danced front sunset to sunrise ; John of Skye's bagpipe being relieved at nacre:do by the violin of some " Wandering Willie;" and the laird and all his family were present during the early part of the evening ; brand his wife to distribute the contents of the first tub of whisky-punch, and his voting people to take their due share in the endless reels and hornpipes of the earthen floor. As Mr. Martin has said of him as he appeared at Laird Nippey's kirn of earlier days, " to witness the cordiality of his reception might have unbent n mioanthiope." He had his private joke for every old wife or " gansie cede," his arch e piinient for the ear of every bonny lass, and his hand and his blessing for the head of every little Eppie Duidle from Abbots• town or Broomylees. " The notable paradox," he says in one of' the most charming of his essays, " that the residence of a pruprivfor upon his estate is of as little consequence es the bodily presence of a stockholder upon the Exchange, bao, we believe, ken renounced. At least, as in the ease of the Detchesof o f Suffolk's relation. slap to her own child, the vulgar continue to be of opinion that there is some difference in favour of the next hamlet and village, and even of the vicinage in pnetal, when the squire spends his rents at the inanor.bouse, instead of cutting a figure in France or Italy. A celebrated politician used to say he would wads ling!). bring in one bill to make po whieg felony, another to encourage the breed of foxes, and a third to revive tier decayed ainus:inents of cock. fighting and ber.hdring ; that he would make, in short, any saerifico to the humours and prejudices of the country gentlemen, in their most extravagant form, provided only he could prevail upon them to ' dwell in their own houses, be the patrons of their own tenantry, and the fathers of their own children.'"