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allowance usually given after twenty-three years'
service. Earl Grey offered to make up the allow-
ance to the full salary; but, from motives of delicacy,
Sir Walter firmly declined to accept of such a favour
from one to whom he was opposed in politics.
His health, from his sixteenth year, had been very
good, except during the years 1818 and 1819, when
he suffered under an illness of such severity as to
turn his hair quite gray, and send him out again to
the world apparently ten years older than before.
It may be mentioned, however, that this illness,
though accompanied by very severe pain, did not
materially interrupt or retard his intellectual labours.
He was only reduced to the necessity of employing
an amanuensis, to whom he dictated from his bed.
The humorous character, Dugald Dalgetty, in the
third series of the Tales of my Landlord, and the
splendid scene of the siege of Torquilstonjn Ivanhoe,
were created under these circumstances. Mr. William
Laidlaw, his factor, who at one time performed the
task of amanuensis, has described how he would
sometimes be stopped in the midst of some of the
most amusing or most elevated scenes by an attack
of pain—which being past, he would recommence in
the same tone at the point where he had left off, and
so on for day after day till the novel was finished.
It happened very unfortunately that the severe
task which he imposed upon himself for the purpose
of discharging his obligations, came at a period of
life when he was least able to accomplish it. It
will hardly be believed that, even when so far occu-
pied with his official duties in town, he seldom per-
mitted a day to pass over his head without writing
as much as to fill a sheet of print, or sixteen pages;
and this, whether it was of a historical nature, with
of course the duty of consulting documents, or of
fictitious matter spun from the loom of his fancy.
Although this labour was alleviated in the country
by considerable exercise, it nevertheless must have
pressed severely upon the powers of a man nearly
sixty by years, and fully seventy by constitution. The
reader may judge how strong must have been that
principle of integrity which could command such a
degree of exertion and self-denial, not so much to
pay debts contracted by himself, as to discharge
obligations in which he was involved by others. He
can only be likened, indeed, to the generous elephant,
which, being set to a task above its powers, per-
formed it at the expense of life, and then fell dead
at the feet of its master.
His retirement from official duty might have been
expected to relieve in some measure the pains of
intense mental application. It was now too late,
however, to redeem the health that had fled. Dur-
ing the succeeding winter symptoms of gradual par-
alysis, a disease hereditary in his family, began to be
manifested. His contracted limb became gradually
weaker and more painful, and his tongue less readily
obeyed the impulse of the will. In March, 1831,
he attended a meeting of the freeholders of the county
of Roxburgh, to aid in the expression of disapproba-
tion with which a majority of those gentlemen de-
signed to visit the contemplated reform bills. Sir
Walter was, as already hinted, a zealous Tory,
though more from sentiment perhaps than opinion,
and he regarded those regenerating measures as only
the commencement of the ruin of his country.
Having avowed this conviction in very warm lan-
guage, a few of the individuals present by courtesy
expressed their dissent in the usual vulgar manner;
whereupon he turned, with anger flashing in his eye
—with him a most unwonted passion—and said, that
he cared no more for such expressions of disapproval
than he did for the hissing of geese or the braying
of asses. He was evidently, however, much chag-
rined at the reception his opinions had met with,
and in returning home was observed to shed tears.
During the summer of 1831 the symptoms of his
disorder became gradually more violent; and to add
to the distress of those around him, his temper,
formerly so benevolent, so imperturbable, became
peevish and testy, insomuch that his most familiar
relatives could hardly venture, on some occasions,
to address him. At this period, in writing to a
literary acquaintance, he thus expressed himself:—
"Although it is said in the newspapers, I am
actually far from well, and instead of being exer-
cising (sic) on a brother novelist, Chateaubriand,
my influence to decide him to raise an insurrection
in France, which is the very probable employment
allotted to me by some of the papers, I am keeping
my head as cool as I can, and speaking with some
difficulty.
" I have owed you a letter longer than I intended,
but write with pain, and in general use the hand of
a friend. I sign with my initials, as enough to ex-
press the poor half of me that is left. But I am still
much yours,                                           "W. S."
Since the early part of the year he had, in a great
measure, abandoned the pen for the purposes of
authorship. This, however, he did with some diffi-
culty, and it is to be feared that he resumed it more
frequently than he ought to have done. "Dr.
Abercromby," says he, in a letter dated March 7,
"threatens me with death if I write so much; and
die, I suppose, I must, if I give it up suddenly.
I must assist Lockhart a little, for you are aware of
our connection, and he has always showed me the
duties of a son; but, except that, and my own neces-
sary work at the edition of the Waverley Novels, as
they call them, I can hardly pretend to put pen to
paper; for after all this same dying is a ceremony
one would put off as long as possible."
In the autumn his physicians recommended a
residence in Italy as a means of delaying the ap-
proaches of his illness. To this scheme he felt the
strongest repugnance, as he feared he should die on
a foreign soil, far from the mountain-land which was
so endeared to himself, and which he had done so
much to endear to others; but by the intervention of
some friends, whose advice he had been accustomed
to respect from his earliest years, he was prevailed
upon to comply. By the kind offices of Captain
Basil Hall, liberty was obtained for him to sail in
his majesty's ship the Barham, which was then fit-
ting out for Malta.
He sailed in this vessel from Portsmouth on the
27th of October, and on the 27th of December
landed at Naples, where he was received by the king
and his court with a feeling approaching to homage.
In April he proceeded to Rome, and was there
received in the same manner. He inspected the
remains of Roman grandeur with some show of
interest, but was observed to mark with a keener
feeling, and more minute care, the relics of the more
barbarous middle ages; a circumstance, in our opin-
ion, to have been predicated from the whole strain
of his writings. He paid visits to Tivoli, Albani,
and Frescati. If anything could have been effectual
in re-illuming that lamp which was now beginning
to pale its mighty lustre, it might have been expected
that this would have been the ground on which the
miracle was to take place. But he was himself con-
scious, even amidst the flatteries of his friends, that
all hopes of this kind were at an end. Feeling that
his strength was rapidly decaying, he determined
upon returning with all possible speed to his native
country, in order that his bones might not be laid