Details
SCOTT, Sir WALTER. Autograph letter signed ("W Scott") to Matthew Weld [Narlslinger?], Ashestiel, 24 October 1811. 4 pages, 4to, gilt edges, with envelope (worn) addressed by Scott and with his wax seal impression.
A lengthy epistle in which Scott (for the first third of the letter) discusses research for his edition of The Works of Jonathan Swift...With Notes and a Life of the Author (Edinburgh, 1814-1824); he then writes of moving in at Abbotsford the following year, and refers to a book by his recipient: "...It is much more agreeable to be speedily called upon by the voice of the public for a new edition than to run the risque of lying long on the counters of the Booksellers..."
In the last page Scott writes: "...I am glad you saw the [home?] of poor [Robert] Burns. The simple inscription you observed was the composition of his wife the once lovely Jean. It is a disgrace to our country that something more worthy of his fame is not erected over his grave. But although frequently proposed it has uniformly fallen to the ground for want of subscriptions or from some disagreement about the nature of the monument to be erected. Indeed we are not famous for doing any thing to preserve the memory of our bards. I have been these twenty years member of a club for erecting a monument...upon Ednam hill to the memory of Thompson [James Thomson] but alas we have never to this day been able to collect above a very few hundred pounds, totally inadequate to mounting any thing respectable..."
A lengthy epistle in which Scott (for the first third of the letter) discusses research for his edition of The Works of Jonathan Swift...With Notes and a Life of the Author (Edinburgh, 1814-1824); he then writes of moving in at Abbotsford the following year, and refers to a book by his recipient: "...It is much more agreeable to be speedily called upon by the voice of the public for a new edition than to run the risque of lying long on the counters of the Booksellers..."
In the last page Scott writes: "...I am glad you saw the [home?] of poor [Robert] Burns. The simple inscription you observed was the composition of his wife the once lovely Jean. It is a disgrace to our country that something more worthy of his fame is not erected over his grave. But although frequently proposed it has uniformly fallen to the ground for want of subscriptions or from some disagreement about the nature of the monument to be erected. Indeed we are not famous for doing any thing to preserve the memory of our bards. I have been these twenty years member of a club for erecting a monument...upon Ednam hill to the memory of Thompson [James Thomson] but alas we have never to this day been able to collect above a very few hundred pounds, totally inadequate to mounting any thing respectable..."