MMOIRS AND CORRESPONDENCE OF MRS. | fore us is of a different character; and ears. GRANT OF LAGGAN.* From Tait's Magazine. chiefly, or alone, interesting from what it tells of the farther personal history of the writer of the works of which we have spokALTHOUGH Mrs. Grant of Laggan lived to en, and of a few distinguished literary perextreme old age, and has been dead for a few sons, and other notabilities with whom she came into contact, during her long resiyears, her name, we are persuaded, must still be familiar and welcome to Scottish dence in Edinburgh. There are in it no Nor can she be altogether forgotten loyal and pious clansmen, rich in manners, and in ancestral, homely wisdom, though in England, where her early letters made a lively impression; and certainly not in the poor in science and learning; no primitive United States of America. At all events, Dutch and English settlers living, on the her fresh, healthful, and delightful works banks of the Hudson and the Mohawk, the must be remembered, as they represent some- rural life in all its joys and ease, if not what thing which many of us would not willingly is now called elegance, or cottage-orné relet go; and that because they paint a condi- finement. Nearly the whole interest of the tion of society, a primitive state of manners, new series of letters devolves, therefore, which become the more fascinating in the upon the author; the anecdotes she relates retrospect, the farther that luxury and pseu- of distinguished literary characters; and her do-refinement bears us away from the home- opinions on the various topics which she inly, but pure and heartfelt social enjoyments cidentally touches in the course of a private which they promoted. Distance may, no correspondence of above thirty years, and doubt, interpose its magic veil, softening asperities and external rudenesses; but the substantial plenty, the leisure, and freedom of mind of these bygone times, with their simplicity and ease of manners,-all, in brief, that is comprehended in Wordsworth's emphatic consisting of four hundred selected letters. The great blemish of this correspondence, is that attributable, more or less, to the greater part of all female correspondence that is not between the most intimate and confidential friends-namely, a candied complexion- -a honeyed exuberance-a reflected egotism; and that, having often very little to say, far too much is sometimes made of that little merely to fill the sheet. Very many letters of the entire series are either congratulatory, complimentary, or of condolence. "Plain living and high thinking,"— were solid and enduring social blessings. Nor is it wonderful, that, from the barren heights which every class of society, above There is a consequent want of the the lowest, has attained, if not in physical comfort, yet in external accommodation, ease and spontaneous impulse of the early many a longing, lingering look should be letters; for it is somehow felt that much is cast back upon the rude and simple times said, not to give utterance to the affectionate which are vividly and picturesquely reflected feelings and recollections of an overflowing in Mrs. Grant's pages. Her "Letters from and warm heart, but to perform a duty, and the Mountains" are the genuine picture of perhaps to make a figure as a letter-writer. a life spent in seclusion in the very heart of And though letters of duty and ceremony the Highlands; and a life, how full of ener- must, we suppose, be written, they excite litgy, affection, and healthful enjoyment! Im- tle sympathy in those who do not share in agination and taste may, in her instance, the feeling or obligation which draws them have imparted a glow to the local coloring; but some measure of these faculties were no mean constituents in the happiness of the common life lived and described-part of her chartered possessions, but also, to some extent, possessed by every Highlander. Mrs. Grant's representation of domestic and social manners in the State of New York, in her own childhood and girlhood, or before the revolutionary war, are equally faithful and delightful as her delineations of the peaceful life of the Highland glens.—The book be * Author of "Letters from the Mountains," "Memoirs of an American Lady," &c. &c. Edited by her son, J. P. Grant, Esq. 3 vols. with Portrait. Longmans. JUNE, 1844. 11 forth. On the other hand, the entire series does infinite credit to the writer's talents, good sound common sense, and admirable tact. Without losing her own identity, and without forfeiting our respect, or condescending to flatter in any glaring way, she adapts herself with exquisite felicity to the varying tastes and circumstances of her correspondents. -The best of the series, or those letters that we like the best, are the few addressed to her eldest son in India, and to her daughters; and those in which she fully commands our sympathies, while we see her struggling to form the virtues and raise the fortunes of her numerous family; or heart-stricken with the successive bereavements with which it pleas ed Heaven to afflict her in an unusual de- had not the extensive grant of land which her gree. The Letters now published extend father obtained been, after the revolution, over a period of about thirty-five years; and included in the new State of Vermont, and in that time, Mrs. Grant had lost six daugh- confiscated as the property of a British offiters, in the early bloom, or full maturity of cer. A residence of some years in Glasgow, graceful or beautiful womanhood; all of at this time, must have added much to her them distinguished by talents and virtues. stores of knowledge, and was a period of She had also lost her eldest son. These great mental activity and general improvewere heavy trials, and fruitful, if painful, ment; though her vivacious and energetic themes for a mother's letters to those who mind had received its tone and impulse in had known and loved the endeared and America. Of her Glasgow residence she reamiable beings she lamented. lates The literary gossip of the Modern Athens in its palmy days, or during the thirty years which Mrs. Grant resided in its circles, might promise to be an attractive feature in her correspondence; but we question if it will be so felt. The more remarkable of the persons of whom she speaks, have either forestalled her themselves, or she has been anticipated by their communicative friends. Mrs. Grant is, besides, a cautious writer, never personal, never satirical; and, moreover, her literary history is often inaccurate. It is superfluous to point out what was erroneous at the time, and is now of no consequence whatever. In short, Mrs. Grant must, for a good while, if not always, in her literary intimacies, have belonged to the dowager division of Edinburgh society, and could not have been in secrets-not, perhaps, much worth knowing. The Memoir and Letters, which are modestly and unobtrusively edited by Mrs. Grant's son, the only survivor of a large family, who all, save himself, predeceased their mother, open with a brief sketch of her early life, from her own pen. It brings her personal history down to the opening of her "Letters from the Mountains ;" and this new series terminates it, with a short account of her latter years, by the editor. Her father and mother were both Highlanders. No drop of Sassenach blood flowed in the veins of Anne Macvicar, though she chanced to be born in Glasgow. Her father, after her birth, entered the army; and her childhood, up to the age of fourteen, was passed in America, at a Dutch settlement below Albany, in the manner she has so fascinatingly described in the "Memoirs of an American Lady." She may be said to have been, so far as schools and direct instruction are concerned, literally self-educated. Her mother taught her to read; and her intimacy and domestication with the "American Lady," her residence in the rustic court of Madame Schuyler, must have been of incalculable advantage to her. At the age of fifteen she returned to Scotland with her father and mother; and, as she was an only child, should have been an heiress, summers, With one family of the name of Pagan, to whose son we were known in America, I formed an affectionate intimacy. At their countryhouse, on the banks of the river Cart, near Glasgow, I spent part of three which I look back upon as a valuable part of mental, perhaps I should rather say moral, education. Minds so pure, piety so mild, so cheerful and influential; manners so simple and artless, without the slightest tincture of hardness or vulgarity; such primitive ways of thinking, so much of the best genuine Scottish character, I have never met with, nor could ever have supposed to exist, had I not witnessed. Here were the reliques of the old Covenanters all around curious traits of Scottish history and manners, us; and here I enriched my memory with many by frequenting the cottages of the peasantry, and perusing what I could find on their smoky book-shelves. Here was education for the heart and mind, well adapted for the future lot which Providence assigned to me. With these friends, then a numerous family, I kept up an intimate connexion, which neither time nor absence interrupted. It is to the daughters of this family, Mrs. Brown of Glasgow, and Mrs. Smith of Jordan Hill, that many of the "Letters from the Mountains" are addressed. Many of those in the new series are to the same stanch friends. Mrs. Grant's father obtained the appointment of barrack-master at Fort Augustus; and, still an untaught, unaccomplished, but a very clever, largely-informed, and enthusiastic girl, she was transferred to the heart of the mountains. Upon her solid, self-earned Lowland and American acquirements and stores of various knowledge, Highland romance and poesy were now lavishly superinduced by her residence at Fort Augustus-then, though a kind of garrison, a much more solitary spot than it is now-and her subsequent residence in Laggan. In 1779, she married the minister of that parish, and became, in every sense, a true Highland matron; proving not only how much virtue and happiness, but how many beautiful talents, how much of refining imagination and brightening fancy, are compatible with the lowliest duties of a wife and mother, and parish-helper; and with circumstances which To JOHN HATSELL, Esq., House of Commons London. many of her future correspondents must have their mental education, but who needed the regarded as very narrow, indeed, if not miser- care and protection of a mother, on their inable poverty. In 1801, she lost her excel- troduction into life, and the affection and solent husband; and was left with a family of ciety of sisters. For many years, her house eight children, and not altogether free from was the home of a succession of young ladies debt. But she had firm faith and high cour-of this description; and she appears to have age, and the talent of attracting and attach-had much satisfaction in the character and ing admirable friends, who again interested affection of these pupils, or inmates, whose other friends in her behalf and in that of her presence threw a brilliancy around her famfamily. Nor were her literary talents with-ily circle. But it is more than time that we out their influence. From almost childhood allowed Mrs. Grant to speak for herself. As she had scribbled verses; and now her pat- an example of her tact and self-respect, we rons and friends issued proposals for publish- select the following letter, addressed to Mr. ing a volume of her poetry. It proved the Hatsell, Clerk to the House of Commons. most successful attempt of the kind ever It was written while Mrs. Grant was in Lonmade, we believe, in Scotland; and was but don, sending her eldest son to India, having an earnest of the very remarkable kindness obtained a cadetship for him through the inwhich Mrs. Grant afterwards met with interest of the late Mr. Charles Grant, the East quarters where she could have no claim, save India Director :that conferred by her virtues and talents, and the condition of her family. Through Mr. George Chalmers, the author of "Čaledonia," she received, in one sum, three hundred pounds, the contribution of three princely London merchants, Messrs. Angerstein, Thomson, & Bonar. A number of ladies in Boston published her Letters by subscription; and transmitted her, at different times, considerable sums. Other generous individuals appear to have materially assisted her in her struggles; and her publishers, the house of Longman & Co., acted towards her with a liberality of which she was warmly sensible. They not only gave her the fair share of profits on her " Letters from the Mountains," to which she was entitled, but, as a free gift, a considerable part of their own profits. In her latter years she obtained considerable legacies from old pupils and a pension of a hundred a-year; and one of her patrons, Sir William Grant, Master of the Rolls, left her an annuity to the same amount. This, with her other funds, and an- way; far otherwise. I do not mention my adyour name, or derive any advantage in that nuity as the widow of a Scottish clergyman, dress, to prevent the possibility of having my with her moderate tastes, rendered her old motive mistaken. But, having come to town to age easy and independent.To return: send my eldest son to the East Indies, and consoon after the death of her husband, Mrs.clude some other matters relative to my family, Grant removed, with her large family, to happened to hear you spoken of as a worthy Stirling, in which she resided for some years. the time I met with you, the finest gentleman I and benevolent character; thinking you, too, at Her elder daughters, who had received many ever saw, I was very attentive to your conversamore advantages of education than their tion, and remarked that you had a taste for litemother, were now of an age to assist her in rature. These are the circumstances that have any plan of active usefulness; and she re-induced me thus to commit myself, by placing a ceived into her family some little boys, of a confidence in you that may lead you to think class that could afford to pay her handsome- oddly of me. I cannot help it. You will never ly, in order to prepare them for school. This see nor hear of me more: and if you do not atscheme was afterwards relinquished for one that ever I made it. tend to my simple request, forget, I beg of you, more suitable to her family circumstances; You see, by the subscribers' list, that my own and, settling in Edinburgh, she received a country-people are interested in me, and have select number of young ladies of good for-treated me with unexampled kindness; yet my tune, who had finished their school, if not circumstances rendering it difficult for me to ed I London, 2d May, 1805. deavor to recall to your memory a person of SIR,-The purpose of this address is to enwhom you had a very slight knowledge indeed, at Fort Augustus, thirty years ago, then a girl of seventeen, and in whose father's house you resided while there. Since that time I was hap pily and respectably married to a gentleman of that country, who was minister of an adjoining parish, and chaplain to the 90th regiment. He was a man of much humanity and generosity. We lived in an open and hospitable manner, and had twelve children, of whom eight remain. I hasten to the sad sequel. Three years ago, a sudden death deprived us of the best of husless family his character and example are a rich bands and fathers. To his young and helpinheritance. I do not fear that they will feel absolute want, nor were they left absolutely destitute. My friends, however, urged me to publish a volume of occasional verses, which I had wrote to please them or myself. This volume I have taken the liberty of sending you, not to solicit era of Pitt, she seems to have become a highglorious and immortal;" but, in the trying flying Tory, and in old age she was a Legiti mist or Carlist who had never been a Jacob ucate so large a family without encroaching on their little capital, I am now about to publish two small volumes, without my name, of juvenile correspondence, genuine and unaltered, under the title of "Letters from the Mountains." Now, I send you my poetical volume, first, in return for ite; and sent presents of ptarmigan to Holytwo books you gave me at Fort Augustus; and, rood to the Duchess of Angoulême, and next, that you may read it; and if you think as wrote pretty verses to the little Duke of kindly of it as many others have done, it will per- Bourdeaux. Nay, more, she obtained a new haps interest you in the writer, or, what is much light upon the subject of Antichrist, and disbetter, in a large family of orphans belonging to a covered him to be, not the Pope, as all Reworthy man. You will, in that case, use your formed Scotland had ever believed, but the influence, which I know is extensive, to make the intended publication known. I do not ex- French Encyclopedists. The Reform Bill pect you to recommend it, because that is use- appeared, to her, to threaten the end of the less, if it wants merit, and needless if it has. world, or the complete overthrow of religion Longman and Rees are my publishers; they and social order. But these notions were so have some volumes of the work herewith sent far harmless, that they excited no rancorous on hand: these, too, I wish you to make known. feeling towards those of her friends who enIt would gratify me, if you would send a note to Longman and Rees, desiring to have the "Let-tertained opposite opinions. They are, inters from the Mountains" sent you when they deed, by a younger generation, rather to be are published. If you are a man of delicacy laughed at than seriously animadverted on. and benevolence, you will do this, to show you We must now introduce a few of the illustritake my confidence in good part; if not, be at least a man of honor;-burn this letter, never mention it, and forget the ill-judged presumption of your obedient humble servant, ANNE GRANT. a more ous personages whom she describes to her friends, and who, indeed, form, with the exception of the few family letters, the best staple of her correspondence. In March 1810, nearly a lifetime since, she writes: Many months elapsed; but Mrs. Grant at last heard from this cautious gentleman, and both called on me, not by any means as a scribWalter Scott and the formidable Jeffrey have afterwards found in him an active and useful bling female, but on account of links formed by friend. He brought her book, and her per- mutual friends. You would think, by their apsonal history, under the notice of the Bishop pearance, that the body of each was formed to of London, the venerable Dr. Porteus, who lodge the soul of the other. Having met them criticised and corrected her Letters for both formerly, their appearance was not any second edition, keeping out some of the thing new to me; but Jeffrey looks the poet all trivial letters. It might be wished that some the visibly quick perceptions, keep one's attenover-the ardent eye, the nervous agitation, one had performed a similar friendly office tion constantly awake, in expectation of flashes for the present collection, which a near rela- of the peculiar intelligence of genius: nor is that tive can never be the best qualified to per- expectation entirely disappointed: for his converform. During her residence in London at sation is in a high degree fluent and animated. this time, Mrs. Grant acquired several useful Walter Scott, again, has not a gleam of poetic and pleasant friends; and fire visible in his countenance, which merely sugamong others Mrs. Hook, one of the daughters of the fortunate tions do not strike you as by any means so rapid gests the idea of plain good sense; his concep Scottish physician, Sir Walter Farquhar. or so brilliant as those of his critic; yet there is To this lady, the wife of Dr. James Hook, much amusement and variety in his good-huafterwards an archdeacon of the English mored, easy, and unaffected conversation. church, and the mother of Dr. Walter Hook Some months later, she remarks of Jefof Leeds, many of her most elaborate letters frey :were subsequently addressed. Her English friends were all High Church, and high his manifold literary offences, I think I shall be Do you know, notwithstanding my wrath for Tory and so was she, as she takes very forced to like the Arch-Critic himself. He is, great pains to assure them, often going out what, indeed, I knew before, the most affectionof her way to express contempt and dislike ate relation possible, and truly good-natured in for the politics of the Liberal party and of society, though so petulant on paper. The Edinburgh Review; and for a something and I have behaved to each other. For some I must tell you how the Arch-Critic, Mr. Jeffrey, an abstraction, about which nobody seems time past I met him at parties, and I thought he to have any definite idea-which Cobbett looked odd and avoided me. Something I knew was wont to call Scotch feelosophy, and Eng- there was, but was not in the least aware that lish High Churchmen, with their ladies, and it was a criticism, having been told formerly Mrs. Grant, "Scotch metaphysics." In her that he resolved to let me alone. I was, howyouth, Mrs. Grant must have been a true-ever, obliged to have, what I much dislike, a blue Presbyterian Whig, and admirer of the small party in summer, on account of some : strangers whose friends had strong claims on my attention. I boldly sent a note to the critic, saying, that if he had renounced me, he should at once tell me so, like a brave man as he was; if not, to come on Wednesday evening, and meet some people whom I knew he did like. He answered, that, so far from renouncing, he had thought of me more than any body else for some days past; and if a little packet he was about to send me to-morrow, did not make me retract my invitation, he should gladly wait on me. 1 got, next day, the threatened packet, now before the public. Here follows the accompanying note, as far as I recollect it,-"When I review the works of my friends, if I can depend on their magnanimity as much as I think I can on yours, I let them know what I say of them before they are led out to execution. When I take up my reviewing pen, I consider myself as entering the temple of truth, and bound to say what I think." Mrs. Grant frequently expatiates upon the good nature, the simplicity of manners, and unpretending ways of Scott. One good anecdote of him is related. A young lady from England, very ambitious of distinction, and thinking the outrageous admiration of genius was nearly as good as the possession of it, was presented to Walter Scott, and had very nearly gone through the regular forms of swooning sensibility on the occasion. Being afterwards introduced to Mr. Henry Mackenzie, she bore it better, but kissed his hand with admiring veneration. It is worth telling for the sake of Mr. Scott's comment. He said, "Did you ever hear the like of that English lass, to faint at the sight of a cripple clerk of Session, and kiss the dry withered hand of an old taxgatherer!" Scott, as every body knows, was a Clerk the office of Comptroller of Taxes. of Session; and the Man of Feeling held Mrs. Grant professed herself satisfied. Seven years after this, we find her writing The parish of Laggan lies in the Duke of about a brilliant critique on Byron from Jef- Gordon's principality; and the Duchess had frey's pen, with which the Edinburgh co- taken a warm interest in Mrs. Grant and her teries were ringing, and giving him, though family, though she had never seen her preon a quite different score, praise, which we vious to her widowhood, and, indeed, only conceive very high praise indeed, when the reckless extravagance, folly, and paltry ambi-once or twice during her whole life. Of that great lady, who then made so brilliant a tion, which shortly afterwards plunged so figure in the highest circles of London, as many of his contemporaries into embarrass-not only the leader of fashion, but the friend ment, bankruptcy, and every sort of mean- of the minister of the day, Mrs. Grant apness and misery, are considered. Mrs. pears to have formed a true idea. While Grant tells that she dined at Mr. Jeffrey'sliving in Stirling she writes to Mr. Hatsell :I was sitting quietly at the fireside one night lately, when I was summoned, with my eldest daughter, to attend the Duchess of Gordon. We spent the evening with her at her inn; and very amusing and original she certainly is: extraordinary she is determined to be, wherever she is, and whatever she does. She speaks of you in very high terms, which, you know, always happens in the case of those whom the Duchess "delighteth to honor:" as the highest testimonial of your merit that she can give, she says you were one of the greatest favorites Mr. Pitt had; gium on that truly great man. and then she pronounced an eloquent euloHer Grace's present ruling passion is literature,—to be the arbitress of literary taste, and the patroness of ge A comparatively small and select party, where every one could see and hear each other, proved very pleasant. At this house I greatly admire the respectable, yet simple and moderate style of the furniture, entertainment, &c. This, in such persons, is the perfection of good sense: it would be as absurd for people, who, in the most literal sense of the phrase, live by their wits, to enter into rivalry of this kind with the great and wealthy, as it would be for these to try to excel Jeffrey in critical acumen, or Scott in poetry. In reference to the puerile and ribald attacks made on the "Arch-Critic" by the early contributors to Blackwood-by young men trying to write themselves into notice, and not very scrupulous about the means-nius, a distinction for which her want of early Mrs. Grant remarks: culture, and the flutter of a life devoted to very different pursuits, has rather disqualified her ; yet she has strong flashes of intellect, which are, however, immediately lost in the formless confusion of a mind ever hurried on by contending passions and contradictory objects, of which one can never be attained without the relinquishment of others. She reminds me, at present, of what has been said of the ladies of the old régime in France, who, when they could no longer lead up the dance of gaiety and fashion, set up for beaux esprits, and decided on the merits of The town is in an uproar about the Chaldee manuscript in Blackwood'e Magazine. Literary gossip here holds the place of the petty personalities in little country towns, and of the more important concerns of foreign commerce in greater ones. Formerly these were very harmless contests; but people have got such a taste for war and strong sensations, that what they cannot find they will make. Jeffrey is the Buonaparte of literature here; and I think this confederacy of petulant young men seem en-authors. couraged to attack him by the fate of his prototype. Having said all this ofher Grace, it is but fair to add, that in one point she never varies, which |