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Sunday at home-" duly attending divine worship at the Kirk of Cleish (not Cleishbotham)” — gave Monday morning to another Antiquarian excursion, and returned to Edinburgh in time for the Courts of Tuesday. From 1816 to 1831 inclusive, Sir Walter was a constant attendant at these meetings. He visited in this way Castle Campbell, Magus Moor, Falkland, Dunfermline, St Andrews, and many other scenes of ancient celebrity; to one of those trips we must ascribe his dramatic sketch of Macduff's Cross-and to that of the dog-days of 1819, we owe the weightier obligation of The Abbot.

I expect an easy forgiveness for introducing from the liber rarissimus of Blair-Adam the page that belongs to that particular meeting — which, though less numerous than usual, is recorded as having been "most pleasing and delightful." "There were," writes the President, 66 only five of us; the Chief Baron, Sir Walter, Mr Clerk, Charles Adam, and myself. The weather was sultry, almost beyond bearing. We did not stir beyond the bounds of the pleasure-ground, indeed not far from the vicinity of the house; wandering from one shady place to another; lolling upon the grass, or sitting upon prostrate trees not yet carried away by the purchaser. Our conversation was constant, though tranquil; and what might be expected from Mr Clerk, who is a superior converser, and whose mind is stored with knowledge; and from Sir Walter Scott, who has let

powers are.

Our talk was

the public know what his of all sorts (except of beeves.) Besides a display of their historic knowledge, at once extensive and correct, they touched frequently on the pleasing reminiscences of their early days. Shepherd and I could not go back to those periods; but we could trace our own intimacy and constant friendship for more than forty years back, when in 1783 we began our professional pursuits on the Circuit. So that if Scott could describe, with inconceivable humour, their doings at Mr Murray's of Simprim, when emerging from boyhood; when he, and Murray, and Clerk, and Adam Fergusson, acted plays in the schoolroom (Simprim making the dominie bear his part)—when Fergusson was prompter, orchestra, and audience and as Scott said, representing the whole pit, kicked up an O. P. row by anticipation; and many other such recollections - Shepherd and I could tell of our Circuit fooleries, as old Fielding (the son of the great novelist) called them of the Circuit songs which Will Fielding made and sung, - and of the grave Sir William Grant (then a briefless barrister), ycleped by Fielding the Chevalier Grant, bearing his part in those fooleries, enjoying all our pranks with great zest, and who talked of them with delight to his dying day. When the conversation took a graver tone, and turned upon literary subjects, the ChiefBaron took a great share it; for notwithstanding his infirmity of deafness, he is a most pleasing and agree

able converser, and readily picks up what is passing; and having a classical mind and classical information, gives a pleasing, gentlemanly, and well-informed tone to general conversation.—Before I bring these recollections of our social and cheerful doings to a close, let me observe, that there was a characteristic feature attending them, which it would be injustice to the individuals who composed our parties not to mention. The whole set of us were addicted to take a full share of conversation, and to discuss every subject that occurred with sufficient keenness. The topics were multifarious, and the opinions of course various; but during the whole time of our intercourse, for so many years, four days at a time, and always together, except when we were asleep, there never was the least tendency on any occasion to any unruly debate, nor to anything that deviated from the pure delight of social intercourse.”

The Chief-Commissioner adds the following particulars in his appendix:- "Our return from BlairAdam (after the first meeting of the Club) was very early on a Tuesday morning, that we might reach the Courts by nine o'clock. An occurrence took place near the Hawes' Inn, which left little doubt upon my mind that Sir Walter Scott was the author of Waverley, of Guy Mannering, and of the Antiquary, his only novels then published. The morning was prodigiously fine, and the sea as smooth as glass. Sir Walter and I were standing on the beach, en

joying the prospect; the other gentlemen were not come from the boat. The porpoises were rising in great numbers, when Sir Walter said to me,

Look

at them, how they are showing themselves; what fine fellows they are! I have the greatest respect for them: I would as soon kill a man as a phoca.' I could not conceive that the same idea could occur to two men respecting this animal, and set down that it could only be Sir Walter Scott who made the phoca have the better of the battle with the Antiquary's nephew, Captain M'Intyre.*

"Soon after, another occurrence quite confirmed me as to the authorship of the novels. On that visit to Blair-Adam, in course of conversation, I mentioned an anecdote about Wilkie, the author of the Epigoniad, who was but a formal poet, but whose conversation was most amusing, and full of fancy. Having heard much of him in my family, where he had been very intimate, I went, when quite a lad, to St Andrews, where he was a Professor, for the purpose of visiting him. I had scarcely let him know who I was, when he said,

Mr William, were you
I said no. • Then, sir,

ever in this place before?'
you must go and look at Regulus' Tower,

-

no

doubt you will have something of an eye of an architect about you; walk up to it at an angle, advance and recede until you get to see it at its

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* The good Chief-Commissioner makes a little mistake here— a Phoca being, not a porpoise but, a Seal.

proper distance, and come back and tell me whether you ever saw anything so beautiful in building: till I saw that tower and studied it, I thought the beauty of architecture had consisted in curly-wurlies, but now I find it consists in symmetry and proportion.' In the following winter Rob Roy was published, and there I read, that the Cathedral of Glasgow was a respectable Gothic structure, without any curlywurlies?'

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"But what confirmed, and was certainly meant to disclose to me the author (and that in a very elegant manner), was the mention of the Kiery Craigs—a picturesque piece of scenery in the grounds of BlairAdamas being in the vicinity of Kelty Bridge, the howf of Auchtermuchty, the Kinross carrier.

"It was only an intimate friend of the family, in the habit of coming to Blair-Adam, who could know anything of the Kiery Craigs or its name; and both the scenery and the name had attractions for Sir Walter.

"At our first meeting after the publication of the 'Abbot,' when the party was assembled on the top of the rock, the Chief-Baron Shepherd, looking Sir Walter full in the face, and stamping his staff on the ground, said, Now, Sir Walter, I think we be upon the top of the Kiery Craggs.' Sir Walter preserved profound silence; but there was a conscious looking down, and a considerable elongation of his upper lip."

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