Evening star., 1928-12-03

) complished British naval officer: He wrote
Selection Sa I TIakef IS from S0 capt Has diary It
included in Lockharts Life OF Sir waiter
Scott"
A hundred and fifty years hence,
when Sir Walter ScottS works nave
become old classical authorities, 1t may
interest some fervent lover of his writ
, ings to know what this great genius
was about on Saturday, June 10, 1926,
five months after the total ruin OF his
! pecuniary fortune and 26 days after
the death of his wife.
+, In the days of his good luck Scott
used to live at No. 80 in North CaStle
street. in a house befltting a rich
baronet. But on reaching the door l
found the plate on it covered with rust
$50 soon is glory obScured), the VIM
dows shuttered up, dusty and comfort
less, and from the side of one projected
a board with this inscription, TO Sell.
The stairs were unwashed, and not a
footmark told of the ancient hospital
ity which reigned within. In all ma
tions with which I am acquainted the
fashionable world moves westward, in
imitation, perhaps, of the great tide OF
civilization: and, vice versa, those per-
sons who decline in fortune shape their
course eastward. Accordingly, by an
involuntary impulse, turned my head
that way, and inquiring at the clubs in
Prince street learned that he now re-
sided in st. David'S street, No. 6.
was rather glad to recognize my old
friend, the AbbotSford butler, who an
swered the door. The saying about
heroes and Wallets comes to ones recol-
lection on such occasions. And moth
ing, we may be sure, is more likely to
be satisfactory to man whose fortune
is reduced than the Stanch adherence
of a mere servant whose wages must
be altered for the worse.
At the top of the stair We saw a
small tray with single plate and
glasses for one solitary persons dinner.
Some few months ago Sir Walter was
surrounded by his family, and wher-
ever he moved his headquarters were
the focus of fashion. Travellers from
all nations crowded around and. like
the recorded honors of Lord Chatham,
"thickened over him." Lady and Miss
Scott were his constant companions;
the Lockharts were his neighbors, both
in town and in RoxburghShire; his
eldest son was his frequent guest, and
in short. what with his own family and
the clouds of tourists, who, like so
many hordeS Of CossackS, pressed upon
him, there was not perhaps out Of a
palace any man so attended, had
almost said overpowered-by company.
His wife is now dead, his son-in-law
and favorite daughter gone to London,
and his grandchild, fear, just stag
gering, poor little fellow, on the edge
of the grave, which perhaps Is the
securest refuge for him. his eldest son
is married and at a distance, and re-
port speaks of no probability of his
[aenAx.ISVan tn oil nrn G.
perSed, and the tourists, those "curioSoS
impertinentes, drive past Abbotsford
gate and curse their folly in having
delayed for a year too late their long
projected jaunt to the North.
Meanwhile, not to mince the matter,
the great man had, somehow or other,
managed to involve himself with print
ers, publishers, bankers, gasmakers,
woolstaplers and all the fraternity of
spectators, accommodation manu-
facturers, land jobbers and so on, till
at a season of distrust in money mat
ters the hour of reckoning came, like
a thief in the night, and as our friend,
like the unthrifty virgins, had no oil
in his lamp, all his affairs went to rack
and ruin and landed him, after the gale
was over, in the predicament OF Robin
son Crusoe, with little more than a
shirt to his Jack.
But, like that able navigator, he is
not cast away upon barren rock. The
tide has ebbed, indeed, and left him on
the beach, but the hull of his fortunes
is above water still, and it will go hard
indeed with him if he does not shape a
raft that shall bring to shore much OF
the cargo that an ordinary mind would
leave in despair, to be swept away by
the next change of the moon. The
distinction hpfWpaY man and the rest
Of the living creation certainly Is in
nothing more remarkable than in the
power which he possesses over them OF
turning to varied account the means
with which the world is stocked.
But it has always struck me that
there is a far greater distinction be-
tween man and man than between
many men and most other animals, and
1t is from a familiarity with the prac-
tical operation of this marvellous diff.
ference that I venture to predict that
our Crusoe will cultivate his own island
and build himself a bark in which, in
process of time, he will sail back tC
his friends and fortune in greater tri-
umph than if he had never been driven
among the breakers.
Sir Walter Scott, then, was sitting
at writing desk covered with papers
and on the top was pile of bOunC
volumes of THE Moniteur'-one which
he was leaning over as my brother anc
] entered, was open on a chair, anC
two others were lying on the floor. A:
he rose to recei us he closed the
volume, which he had been extracting
from. and came forward to shake
hands. He was, of course, in deey
mourning, with weepers and the othel
trappings of woe, but his countenance
though certainly a little woebegonish
was not cast into any very deep fur.
rows.
His tone and manner were as friendly
as heretofore, and when he saw tina
we had no intention of making an,
attempt at sympathy or moanification
but spoke to him as of old. he gradually
contracted the length of his counte
nance and allowed the corners of hi
mouth to curl almost imperceptibly
upward and a renewed luster came int
his eye, If not exactly indicative o
cheerfulness, at all events of well regu
lated patient, Christian resignation. j..
MY meaning will be misunderstood J