細節
SCOTT, Sir Walter (1771-1832). Three autograph letters signed to Messrs John and Thomas Smith, Edinburgh, 29 May and 16 November n.y. [1822] and Castle Street, n.d. ('Monday'), one letter including two small sketches in pencil, 4 pages, 4to, integral address leaves, seals and another letter.
Scott writes to his builders about the enlargement of Abbotsford House, apparently now nearing completion, 'I think all the chamber chimney pots and jambs may be finished in stone and wood excepting the principal bedroom and dressing room and our own family bedroom and dressing rooms which are to be marble'. He discusses in some detail a gazometer and apparatus house, providing sketches of the elevation, 'It will be necessary to throw the external shape into some architectural form. The round end to the South will not do....the flue being carried up on the south end of the barn may be so managed as to give some character to that clumsy building', also arranges to meet the Smiths there and expresses pleasure at unspecified measures taken about Melrose Abbey, finally thanking them for their 'handsome discount' and their great attention to 'various troublesome matters', and accepting their bill.
The letters, which are unpublished, reveal the extent of Scott's preoccupation with the embellishment of Abbotsford, a ten year task completed only in 1825. As he wrote elsewhere, '[it] has cost me a mint of money'. (4)
Scott writes to his builders about the enlargement of Abbotsford House, apparently now nearing completion, 'I think all the chamber chimney pots and jambs may be finished in stone and wood excepting the principal bedroom and dressing room and our own family bedroom and dressing rooms which are to be marble'. He discusses in some detail a gazometer and apparatus house, providing sketches of the elevation, 'It will be necessary to throw the external shape into some architectural form. The round end to the South will not do....the flue being carried up on the south end of the barn may be so managed as to give some character to that clumsy building', also arranges to meet the Smiths there and expresses pleasure at unspecified measures taken about Melrose Abbey, finally thanking them for their 'handsome discount' and their great attention to 'various troublesome matters', and accepting their bill.
The letters, which are unpublished, reveal the extent of Scott's preoccupation with the embellishment of Abbotsford, a ten year task completed only in 1825. As he wrote elsewhere, '[it] has cost me a mint of money'. (4)