VOLUME I, - I890 - PREFACE - ON the death of Sir Walter Scott in 1832, his entire literary remains were placed at the disposal of his son-in-law, Mr. John Gibson Lockhart. Among tbese remains were two volumes of a Journal which had been kept by Sir IValter from 1825 to 1832. Mr. Lockhart made large use of this Journal in his ad- mirable life of his father-in-law. Writing, however, so short a time after Scott7s death, he could not use it so freely as he might have wished, and, according to his own statement, it was by regard for the feelings of living persons that he both omitted and altered and indeed he printed no chapter of the Diary in full. There is no longer any reason why the Journal should not be published in its entirety, and by the permission of the Hon. Mrs. Maxwell-Scott it now appears exactly as Scott left it–but for the correc- tion of obvious slips of the pen and the omission of some details chiefly of family and domestic interest. The original Journal consists of two small 4to . volumes, 9 inches by 8, bound in vellum and furnished with strong locks. The manuscript is closely written on both sides, and towards the end shows painful evidence of the physical prostration of the writer. The Journal abruptly closes towards the middle of the second volume with the following entry-probably the last words ever penned by Scott- In the annotations, it seemed most satisfactory to follow as closely as possible the method adopted by Mr. Lockhart. In the case of those parts of the Journal that have been already published, almost all Mr. Lockharts notes have been reproduced, and these are distinguished by his initials. Extracts from the Life, from James Skene of Rubislaws un- publishedReminiscences, and from unpublished letters of Scott himself and his contemporaries, have been freely used wherever they seemed to illustrate par- ticular passages in the Jourrd. With regard to Scotts quotations a certain diculty presented itself. In his Journal he evidently quoted from memory, and he not unfrequently makes con- siderable variations from the originals. Occasionally, indeed, it would seem that he deliberately made free with the exact words of his author, to adapt them more pertinently to his own mood or the impulse of the moment. Tn any case it seemed best to let Scotts quotations appear as he wrote them. His reading lay in such curious and unfrequented quarters that to verify all the sources is a nearly impossible task. It is to be remembered, also, that he himself held very free notions on the sub- ject of quotation. I have to thank the Hon. Mrs. Maxwell-Scott for permitting me to retain for the last three years the precious volumes in which the Journal is contained, and for granting me access to the correspondence of Sir Walter preserved at Abbotsford, and I have likewise to acknowledge the courtesy of His Grace the Duke, of Buccleuch for allowing me the use of the Scott letters at Ddkeith. To Mr. W. F. Skene, Historiographer Royal for Scotland, my thanks are warmly rendered for intrusting me with his precious heirloom, the volume which contains Sir Walters letters to his father, and the Reminiscences that accompany them-one of many kind offices towards me during the last thirty years in our relations as author and publishcr. l LI also obliged to Mr. Archibald Consttblc for pcrlnitt, irrg me to use tht interesting Mcrnorndum by .Jarrice Bnllsntyric. Finally, I have toexpress my obligation to many other friends, who never failed cordially to respond to any call I made upon t.hcm. EDINRUROII, 22 lnuaraou Fr, nt.t.. October 1, 1890. 1. U. LLLUSTKATIONS. PORTRAIT. prunted by JOHN GIURAM GILBEKT, R.S.A., for thr Royal Society, Etlilburgh. Copied by permission of the Council of the Society, . ……
