Walter Scott

A Few Hours with Scott Walter Scott

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1856 edition. Excerpt: ... "'tib mine to tell an onward tale, Hurrying, as best I can, along, The hearers and the hasty song;--Like traveller when approaching home, Who sees the shades of evening come, And must not now his course delay, Or choose the fair, but winding way; Nay, scarcely may his pace suspend, Where o'er his head the wildings bend, To bless the breeze that cools his brow, Or snatch a blossom from the bough." Bokeby, Canto vi. 40 introductory. The late Mr. Mathews, as I have been told, had a story in one of his Evening Miscellanies, in which a "Major Longbow" is supposed to give an account of a domestic calamity which befel him in the West Indies. In a sudden thunder-storm which came on, while he was sitting in an apartment with his wife, one dreadful flash struck the unhappy lady, and reduced her in an instant to a heap of ashes before his eyes. For some moments he was stunned at the sight of this dreadful catastrophe--but summoning all his fortitude to his aid, he rang the bell; and, pointing to the sad remains, said to the servant--" Sweep away Mrs. Longbow, and--bring in coffee." My heart reproves me, as I recite this profane tale, to think I should utter it in any, the remotest, connection with a Work of our honoured Bard. And yet--"Credite Pisones,"--a glimmering of resemblance strikes me, between this and the conclusion of "Rokeby; " wherein the Poet seems to hurry us away, with such startling abruptness, from the scarce-finished tragedy at Eglistone, to look out on the "gladsome" bridal party, on their way to that self-same spot, that we are almost fain to exclaim, with one of old,--Give me first a burying-place, that I may bury my dead out of my sight. The transitions of fiction, whether dramatic, or merely narrative, are often, no doubt,...