One hundred years ago, on May 15, 1826, Sir Walter Scott's wife disd at Abbotsford. In the many accounts of this great man and his intimate family life we only get glimpses of the woman who shared his fortunes for 29 years. It is well known that she was not his first love: and the courtship seems to have been car-'a demureness on both ides which one would have thought erdly satisfying to a romantic young girl of 21. "I will give you 4 little hint," she writes "to him, rot to put so many musts' into year letters." Writing to his mother to announce his engagement, Scott "says:—"Without flying into raptures, I may safely assure you that her temper is sweet—her principles of religion very serious."
Describing Lady Scott's appearance as a bride, Lockhart says:—'She had a complexion of the clearest and lightest olive, eyes Inrge cand dazzling of the' finest Ttal'an brown, and a profusion of silken tresses black as the raven's wing." As an instance of her kind heart, James Hogg, the Ettrick Shepherd, relates how Lady Scott. was heard "groaning and weeping day" over the distress of a working tailor near Abbotsford, who was dying in straitened cit: cumstances. He adds that she "is cradled in his remembrance" as a sweet, kind, and affectionate crea ture; and, indeed, this seems to be the universal impression.
This girl of French extraction, with her olive complexion and raven hair, made an exemplary wife; while Sir Walter, as was to be ex: pected of a man' of his chivalrous nature, proved a tender and affectionate husband, Lady Scott wa: his unfavourable criticism of "Mar.
jon." She "used tr speak about. "Dat body Jeffrey," for it is a curious fact that the wife of a man who was, above and before every thing, a" Scotsman, should have foreign blood in her veins and speak our language with a slight but perceptible accent, The Human Touch One "human touch of their fa-muy life has come down to us. On his return from a visit to Francs Scott failed to notice the new chintzcovered furniture with which his wife had been at great pains to redecorate the tiny drawing room of the early cottage at Abbotsford. At last, in despair, Lady Scott drew attention to her efforts. Thereafter, throughout the vening, Scott's kind heart prompted hi to' make many references to provements "to console "1826 was Scott's disastrous sar. In January he was finally.
formed of his bankruptey, and now the second blow fell in May. Lady Scott's health had been giving anxiety for some time—dropsical asthma seems to (have been her complaint. On April 1, Sir Walter: wrote in his diary:—"Lady Scott able to rise til twelve or one;" and again on May 11, when he had to leave Abbotsford' alo to take up his Court duties Edinburgh:—"Charlotte was unal to take leave of me, being i sound sleep.
ound have seen plainly within the last two months that recovery was hopeless." This enforced absence seems to have tried him sorely. He writes:—!To part with the: companion of 29 years, when so very ill—that I did not, could not foresee, Tt withers. my heart to think of it." It was four days later, in his lonely lodgings North St, David Street, that Sir Walter learned that the end" had come. He hurried down to. Abbots-ford, and in the midst of the mourn-fah duties devolving upon him once more opens out his heart to his Journal. "For myself," he writes, "T'searce know how T fecl—some: times as firm as the Bass Rock— sometimes as weak as the water that breaks on it.. When I contrast what this place now is. with what it has been not lone since, T think my" heart will brew?" Later he refers to himself as "Lonely, aged an impoverished, an embarrassed Tu a few days the natural firm stone on his. mind reassert itself, and his strong. commonsense see the necessity of resuming the grim battle—writing "to Tift the Loan of debt—which he has et hit self, "A. walla with my sons; writes. at "Abbotsford a few days After the funeral, "did me deal of good....their society is the irreatest support the world can at-ford me." Let us leave him here, gallant Sir Walter, standing in hiv plantations—a stalwart son on either side—looking fearlessly into the fature, and. bracing. himscle ance more to fight the good fight.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.