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Memoirs of the Life of Sir Walter Scott, Volume 1
Memoirs of the Life of Sir Walter Scott Volume 1 Author:John Gibson Lockhart Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER LVII MONS MEG. — JACOBITE PEERAGES. — INVITATION FROM THE GALASHIELS POET. — PROGRESS OF ABBOTSFORD HOUSE. — LETTERS TO JOANNA BAILLIE, TERRY, LORD MO... more »NTAGU, ETC. — COMPLETION AND PUBLICATION OF PEVERIL OF THE PEAK 1822-1823 Though Mr. Crabbe found it necessary to leave Scotland without seeing Abbotsford, this was not the case with many less celebrated friends from the south, who had flocked to Edinburgh at the time of the Royal Festival. Sir Walter's house was, in his own phrase, "like a cried fair," during several weeks after the King's departure; and as his masons were then in the highest activity upon the addition to the building, the bustle and tumult within doors and without was really perplexing. We shall find him confessing that the excitement of the Edinburgh scenes had thrown him into a fever, and that lie never needed repose more. He certainly never had less of it. Nor was an unusual influx of English pilgrims the only legacy of "the glorious days" of August. A considerable number of persons who had borne a part in the ceremonies of the King's reception fancied that their exertions had entitled them to some substantial mark of royal approbation; and post after post brought long- winded despatches from these clamorous enthusiasts, to him who, of all Scotchmen, was supposed to enjoy, as to matters of this description, the readiest access to the fountain of honor. To how many of these applicationshe accorded more than a civil answer, I cannot tell; but I find that the Duke of York was too good a Jacobite not to grant favorable consideration to his request, that one or two poor half-pay officers who had distinguished themselves in the van of the Celts, might be, as opportunity offered, replaced in Highland regiments, and so reinvested with the untheatrica...« less