Memoirs of Sir Walter Scott, Volume 9A. and C. Black, 1882 |
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Abbotsford Adam Fergusson Adelphi Theatre admiration affairs afterwards Anne Anne of Geierstein Ballantyne Ballantyne's beautiful believe better breakfast Buonaparte Cadell called Canongate Castle character Clerk Colonel Grogg companion course creditors Croker dear death delighted Demonology Diary dined dinner doubt Duke of Wellington Edinburgh eyes favour fear feelings French gave genius George give Gourgaud Greenshields hand happy heart honour hope J. G. Lockhart John kind King labour Lady late literary Lockhart London look Lord mind morning Morritt Napoleon never novel November o'clock occasion October old friend pain party perhaps person pleasure poor received recollections Robert Roxburghshire says scene Scotland Scottish seems seen Sir Walter Scott spirits story suppose sure Terry thing Thomas thought tion told Tom Purdie usual volume walk Waverley Waverley Novels Whigs William Knighton writing young youth
Popular passages
Page 80 - Give me the daggers: the sleeping and the dead Are but as pictures; 'tis the eye of childhood That fears a painted devil. If he do bleed, I'll gild the faces of the grooms withal; For it must seem their guilt.
Page 189 - I see before me a long, tedious, and dark path, but it leads to stainless reputation. If I die in the harrows, as is very likely, I shall die with honour ; if I achieve my task, I shall have the thanks of all concerned, and the approbation of my own conscience.
Page 6 - When I convey an incident or so, I am at as much pains to avoid detection as if the offence could be indicted at the Old Bailey.
Page 214 - ... landscapes in the sea. It was very distressing yesterday, and brought to my mind the fancies of Bishop Berkeley about an ideal world. There was a vile sense of want of reality in all I did and said.
Page 249 - tis said, in days of yore ; But something ails it now — the place is curst. The principal part of the house has been destroyed, and only the kitchen remains standing. The garden has been dismantled, though a few laurels and flowering-shrubs, run wild, continue to mark the spot. The fatal pond is now only a green swamp, but so near the house that one cannot conceive how it was ever chosen as a place of temporary concealment for the murdered body. Indeed the whole history of the murder, and the scenes...
Page 214 - I was strangely haunted by what I would call the sense of pre-existence — viz. a con* ic Forty pages of print, or very nearly. fused idea that nothing that passed was said for the first time — that the same topics had been discussed, and the same persons had stated the same opinions on them.
Page 142 - Now, in this case, I shall have occasion for a sensible and resolute friend, and I naturally look for him in the companion of my youth, on whose firmness and sagacity I can with such perfect confidence rely.
Page 17 - Monsieur draw one of his grinders — then Charles II. would hardly have dared to sell such an old possession, as he did Dunkirk ; and after that the French had little chance till the Revolution. Even then, I think, we could have held a place that could be supplied from our own element the sea. Cui bono? None, I think, but to. plague the rogues — We dined at Cormont, and being stopped by Mr Canning having taken up all the post-horses, could only reach Montreuil that night. I...
Page 138 - It was when laying down his hook, and passing into this hall, through which the moon was beginning to shine, that the individual of whom I speak, saw right before him, and in a standing posture, the exact representation of his departed friend, whose recollection had been so strongly brought to his imagination. He stopped for a single moment, so as to notice the wonderful accuracy with which fancy had impressed upon the bodily eye the peculiarities of dress and posture of the illustrious poet.
Page 98 - I finished the review of John Home's works, which, after all, are poorer than I thought them. Good blank verse, and stately sentiment, but something lukewarmish, excepting Douglas, which is certainly a masterpiece. Even that does not stand the closet. Its merits are for the stage ; and it is certainly one of the best acting plays going.