Lexington weekly intelligencer. (Lexington, Mo.) 1871-1887, 1873-06-11
Af,botsford.
The Ilistoiy OF the estate and !th

n VhC history OF Ine eSt1t0 ana tic
fmansion Of Abbotsford-thc great
Border Minstrci's t'romancc In stone
and Iime'-is deeply Interesting nntI
! Instructive. From early years Scott
/ had looked forward As tho Highest
a object Of ambition to tho position 0i
i aTwcedside laird, and when he was
Obliged to quit Ashiestici In 1911, he
lresoIvcti torcnlize his long cherished
dream. The place on which he fixed
llis views had long been ono Of pecu-
liar interest for him. On one occa-
Ision, when travelling In his boyhontl
i with his father from Selkirk TO Mel
rose, the old man desired tho car.
riagc TO halt at the foot Of ali clni-
lncnce. and said, "We tsuet go out
here, Waiter, and see thing quite in
1 your line. His father then conducted
him to uder stone on the edge of an
/ Iacclisity, about half q mile above tho
1 Tweed. Here the battle Of blelrose--
fought in 1925 between flr Earl Of
Angus, aided by the Homes aud
Kers, and Sir Walter Srott of Istic-
cleuch- was brought TO a close. The
death Of Ker Of Ccssforsl. ancestor of
Roxburghe, who WIS mortaliy
wounded by a retainer Of ibucefeucfi,
Terminated tho pursuit of the Scots
By the victors ai il,i< spot. h:ch in
consequence, has always burhc the
name OF TurnagaiM. This conflict
occupies q prominent place in ''I'he
Lay of the Last Minstrel Tie
property which Scott now resolved
TO purchase comprised the scene of
this, the last great Clan battle of the
Borders, aud had, along with the sur
rounding territory, bcloagcd of old
to the Abbey Of Melrosc, as the name
Abbotsford implies. 1t consisted of
a meadow or undulating ground be-
hind, all in a neglected state, un-
drained. the fences bad, and much Of
it uneGclosed and covered with the
native heath. Scott's original int en-
tion was to erect OH his new purchase
n modest cot with couple Of spare
bed rooms; but the plan expanded,
and the dimensions of the house in
creased till It grew to be the irregular
but picturesque mansion which has
attracted crowds of visitors from the
remotest corners of the civilized
world. The poets appetite for land
increased by what it fed OIL. The
property all about his original farm
was in the hands of cock-fdtrds, who
over-reached him much in the same
way as Johnnie Howie dealt with the
Antiquary. Though, like that willy
rustic, they had "hardly sense enough
to CO.. the cows, out o. their kali
yard" they were sharp enough to
understand that their poetical neigh
Dor could not, as Lockhart says, re-
sist any temptation that might pre-
sent itself in the shape iof acres; and
thus he proceeded buying up one
of uIiimproved land after another,
until, by 1916, Iris estate had grown
from $50 to nearly 1000 acres. One
of these purchases, named kaeside,
became the dwelling-place of his de-
voted friend, Willie Laidlaw, the au-
thor of the touching song of .'Lucy's
Fitting" Iii the following year
Scott made an addition gilmore con-
sequence than any llc had hitherto
made TO the estate by the purchase of
Toftfcld, at the price ofEl0,000. "A
substantial ~fnansion-housc had re-
recently been erected OH this proper !
tv, in which the friend of his youth !
Sir Adam Ferguson, took up his resi-
dcncc. But the name was changed !
by the laird to Huntly Burn-a dcsig- ,
nation taken from the mountain
brook which passes through its gar
denS-the Same famous in tradition as
the scenc of Thomas the Rhymer's in
tcrviews with the Queen of the Fai-
ries. The upper part of the Rhymer's
Glen through which this brook finds
its way from the Cauldshields Locli |
to Toftficl,l, had been included in q
previous purchase, along with Chiefs |
wood, the pretty cottage whore his |
fayorite daughter and her husband |
spent several happy years. Scott
was now master of all those haunts |
of "True Thomas" and of the whoel |
ground of the battle of Mclrosc from
Skirmish Field to Turnagain. Still
Sir Walters "yird-hupgcr" was un-
satisfied, aud he went ON buying aud
till the crash came.
1t was not until 1924 that Abbots-
ford was completed; and shortly af-
ter, at ball given to celebrate the
of his eldest son to the
''prctty heiress of Lochore," the
apartments were thrown open in all
their splcndor for the first and the
last time in the poets life. His BIZ
ographcr says hc never again saw the
whole range of apartments thrown
open for the reception of company,
except once-ou the day Of Sir Wal
ter ScOtt's funeral. The chief world
ly ambition OF the famous novels.
and poet was to be the founder of a
distinct branch OF the Border Clan,
whose progenitors had been cclebra-
ted by old Satchells for following the
banner of Ballenden in implicit obe-
dIence to their patriarchal chief. He
cared little Tor personal fame, but he
desired greatly to plant III the For
scene Of the exploits of his
lasting root, from wlIich
might spring many generations re-
joicipg in the name OF scott Of Alb
BY this idea, his biog-
rapher says, all the reverles, all the
all the plans and efforts
of tho great minstrel, were over
and controlled. His eff
forts to realize this grand object of
his ambition-to build "a nest" for
his defendants somewhere within the
priinevai territory Of the "lsough
the. direct cause of his
greatest misfOrtunes, and terminated
iu a sad and instructive failure. Even
before his untimely death he must
liava been aware that tho waking
dream" which he had cherished was
little likely to DO realized. His
youngest daughter Aunic followed
him 10 the grave in little more than u
year. His elder daughter, Sophia,
wife of John G. Lockhart, who of all
his family most closely fcseinbled
him i'll disposition aud intellect, de-
parto1 next in 1887. Ills youngest
sOH, Charles, fonnd \ grave at TelIe-
ran, IN Persia i'll 1S4l; aud Walter, the
heir Of his title and estate, died at the [
cape of Good Hope Oh his way home
from India III 1917. Mr.. Hope Scott's
Mary Monica, is thus the
only survivor in whose veins the
blood of the great novelist runs. 1t
Is by no means improbable tllat the Z
family, like the baronetcy, will soon
become extinct. But We cannoi p
ioubt that Abbotsford aud its inn
appurteuance will be pcrliia-
nehtly preserved as memorial Of ihe .
tastes und habits of the founder, ,
though more of his race should re-
main to be the guardian Of the monu- .
Mail.
Roscoe Conkling is now considered
the coming mau for the Supreme
Bench. Astonishment has long been
lead in the people Of this country, I,
and nothing that the President