It was certainly a name
the full meaning of which he himself deserved. His house in Edinburgh
was sold, and he had to go into a certain Mrs. Brown's lodgings, when
he was discharging his duties as Clerk of Session. His wife was dead.
His estate was conveyed to trustees for the benefit of his creditors
till such time as he should pay off Ballantyne and Co's. debt, which
of course in his lifetime he never did. Yet between January, 1826, and
January, 1828, he earned for his creditors very nearly 40,000_l._
_Woodstock_ sold for 8228_l._, "a matchless sale," as Sir Walter
remarked, "for less than three months' work." The first two editions
of _The Life of Napoleon Bonaparte_, on which Mr. Lockhart says that
Scott had spent the unremitting labour of about two years--labour
involving a far greater strain on eyes and brain than his imaginative
work ever caused him--sold for 18,000_l._ Had Sir Walter's health
lasted, he would have redeemed his obligations on behalf of Ballantyne
and Co. within eight or nine years at most from the time of his
failure.
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