Walter Scott

The Pirate (Bibliolife Reproduction Series) Walter Scott

The Pirate was chiefly written at Abbotsford ;but Scott was, in the year 1821, suffering the penalty of his fame, so that his own house was too often a tourists resort, where he could not be sure of privacy. He had occasionally to repair, therefore, to the cottage where Lockhart and his daughter, Sophia, were then residing Chiefswood. When sore beset at home, says his son-in-law, he would escape early in the day, and reach the cottage on his mare before its inmates were astir. Then the clatter of Sybil Grey shoofs, the yelping of Mustard and Spice, and his own joyous shout oireveil Ueunder our windows, were the signal that he had burst his toils, and meant for that day to take his ease in his inn. On descending, he was to be found seated with all his dogs and ours about him, under a spreading ash that overshadowed half the bank between the cottage and the brook, pointing the edge of his woodmans axe for himself, and listening to Tom Purdie slecture touching the plantation that most needed thinning. After breakfast, he would take possession of a dressing-room upstairs, and write a chapter of The Pirate ;and then, having made up and despatched his packet for Mr. Ballantyne, away to join Purdie wherever the foresters were at work and sometimes to labour among them as strenuously as John Swanston himself until it was time either to rejoin his own party at A bbotsford, or the quiet circle of the cottage. The same period brings into The Pirate record the figure of him who was Scotts most intimate friend, William Erskine. During several weeks of that delightful summer, writes Lockhart, he and two of his daughters were guests at A bbotsford. Scott had probably made a point of having his friend with him at this particular time, because he was desirous of having the benefit of his advice and corrections from day to day as he advanced in the composition of The Pirate w
(Typographical errors above are due to OCR software and don't occur in the book.)