Lockhart. And though it does not belong to
his first years at Abbotsford, I cannot do better than include it here
as conveying probably better than anything I could elsewhere find, the
charm of that ideal life which lured Scott on from one project to
another in that scheme of castle-building, in relation to which he
confused so dangerously the world of dreams with the harder world of
wages, capital, interest, and rent.
"I remember saying to William Allan one morning, as the
whole party mustered before the porch after breakfast, 'A
faithful sketch of what you at this moment see would be more
interesting a hundred years hence than the grandest
so-called historical picture that you will ever exhibit in
Somerset House;' and my friend agreed with me so cordially
that I often wondered afterwards he had not attempted to
realize the suggestion. The subject ought, however, to have
been treated conjointly by him (or Wilkie) and Edwin
Landseer.
"It was a clear, bright September morning, with a sharpness
in the air that doubled the animating influence of the
sunshine, and all was in readiness for a grand coursing
match on Newark Hill.
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