Old Friends [41]
was a true legend or not, the reader may decide for himself.
Concerning another ballad in the "Minstrelsy"--"Auld Maitland"-- Professor Child has expressed a suspicion which most readers feel. What Scott told Ellis about it (Autumn, 1802) was, that he got it in the Forest, "copied down from the recitation of an old shepherd by a country farmer." Who was the farmer? Will Laidlaw had employed James Hogg, as shepherd. Hogg's mother chanted "Auld Maitland." Hogg first met Scott in the summer of 1801. The shepherd had already seen the first volume of the "Minstrelsy." Did he, thereupon, write "Auld Maitland," teach his mother it, and induce Laidlaw to take it down from her recitation? The old lady said she got it from Andrew Moir, who had it "frae auld Baby Mettlin, who was said to have been another nor a gude ane." But we have Hogg's own statement that "aiblins ma gran'-mither was an unco leear," and this quality may have been hereditary. On the other side, Hogg could hardly have held his tongue about the forgery, if forgery it was, when he wrote his "Domestic Manners and Private Life of Sir Walter Scott" (1834). The whole investigation is a little depressing, and makes one very shy of unauthenticated ballads.
Footnotes:
{1} Who knows what may happen? I may die before he sees the light; so I will add among my friends SKALAGRIM LAMB'S-TAIL.
{2} Can Mrs. Gamp mean "dial"?
{3} 1887.
{4} In his familiar correspondence, it will be observed, Herodotus does not trouble himself to maintain the dignity of history.
{5} Mr. Flinders Petrie has just discovered and sent to Mr. Holly, of Trinity, Cambridge, the well-known traveller, a wall-painting of a beautiful woman, excavated by the Egypt Exploration Society, from the ruined site of the Temple of Aphrodite in Naucratis. Mr. Holly, in an affecting letter to the ACADEMY, states that he recognises in this picture "an admirable though somewhat archaic portrait of SHE." There can thus be little or no doubt that SHE was Rhodopis, and therefore several hundred years older than she said. But few will blame her for being anxious not to claim her full age.
This unexpected revelation appears to throw light on some fascinating peculiarities in the behaviour of SHE.
{6} The great intimacy between Mrs. Proudie and Mrs. Quiverful, indicated by Mrs. Proudie's use of the Bishop's Christian name--and that abbreviated--has amazed the discoverer and editor of her correspondence.
{7} This signature of Mrs. Proudie's is so unusual an assumption of the episcopal style, that it might well cast a doubt on the authenticity of her letter. But experts pronounce it genuine. "Barnum," of course, is "Baronum Castrum," the rather odd Roman name of Barchester.
{8} It has been seen that Mrs. Quiverful did not obey this injunction.
{9} This man was well known to Sir Walter Scott, who speaks of his curious habits in an unpublished manuscript.
{10} Mr. Forth, we are sure, is quite wrong, and none of the scholars he quotes has said anything of the kind.
{11} "He" clearly means, not Addison, but Professor Forth, the lady's husband.
{12} It was not Asiatics, but Aztecs; not Pittites, but Hittites! Woman cares little for these studies!--A.L.
{13} The editor has no doubt that some one was--Miss Watson. Cf. 'Belinda.'
{14} Owing to the sudden decease of the Dean in well-known and melancholy circumstances, this letter was not delivered.
{15} Alas, not wisely! But any careful reader of "The Silence of Dean Maitland" will see that the Baby was an anachronism.--ED.
{16} This appears to have been a favourite remark of Mr. Skimpole's. It will be noticed that, quite without intending it, Mr. Skimpole was the founder of our New Cyrenaic School.
{17} Mr. Skimpole's recollections of classical ritual are a little mixed hereabouts. He refers to Mr. Honeyman's projected union with the widow of Mr. Bromley, the famous hatter.
{18} Colonel Newcome, indeed.
{19} Non, Monsieur, je ne cite ni "Woodsworth" ni "le vieux Williams."
{20} Mr.
Concerning another ballad in the "Minstrelsy"--"Auld Maitland"-- Professor Child has expressed a suspicion which most readers feel. What Scott told Ellis about it (Autumn, 1802) was, that he got it in the Forest, "copied down from the recitation of an old shepherd by a country farmer." Who was the farmer? Will Laidlaw had employed James Hogg, as shepherd. Hogg's mother chanted "Auld Maitland." Hogg first met Scott in the summer of 1801. The shepherd had already seen the first volume of the "Minstrelsy." Did he, thereupon, write "Auld Maitland," teach his mother it, and induce Laidlaw to take it down from her recitation? The old lady said she got it from Andrew Moir, who had it "frae auld Baby Mettlin, who was said to have been another nor a gude ane." But we have Hogg's own statement that "aiblins ma gran'-mither was an unco leear," and this quality may have been hereditary. On the other side, Hogg could hardly have held his tongue about the forgery, if forgery it was, when he wrote his "Domestic Manners and Private Life of Sir Walter Scott" (1834). The whole investigation is a little depressing, and makes one very shy of unauthenticated ballads.
Footnotes:
{1} Who knows what may happen? I may die before he sees the light; so I will add among my friends SKALAGRIM LAMB'S-TAIL.
{2} Can Mrs. Gamp mean "dial"?
{3} 1887.
{4} In his familiar correspondence, it will be observed, Herodotus does not trouble himself to maintain the dignity of history.
{5} Mr. Flinders Petrie has just discovered and sent to Mr. Holly, of Trinity, Cambridge, the well-known traveller, a wall-painting of a beautiful woman, excavated by the Egypt Exploration Society, from the ruined site of the Temple of Aphrodite in Naucratis. Mr. Holly, in an affecting letter to the ACADEMY, states that he recognises in this picture "an admirable though somewhat archaic portrait of SHE." There can thus be little or no doubt that SHE was Rhodopis, and therefore several hundred years older than she said. But few will blame her for being anxious not to claim her full age.
This unexpected revelation appears to throw light on some fascinating peculiarities in the behaviour of SHE.
{6} The great intimacy between Mrs. Proudie and Mrs. Quiverful, indicated by Mrs. Proudie's use of the Bishop's Christian name--and that abbreviated--has amazed the discoverer and editor of her correspondence.
{7} This signature of Mrs. Proudie's is so unusual an assumption of the episcopal style, that it might well cast a doubt on the authenticity of her letter. But experts pronounce it genuine. "Barnum," of course, is "Baronum Castrum," the rather odd Roman name of Barchester.
{8} It has been seen that Mrs. Quiverful did not obey this injunction.
{9} This man was well known to Sir Walter Scott, who speaks of his curious habits in an unpublished manuscript.
{10} Mr. Forth, we are sure, is quite wrong, and none of the scholars he quotes has said anything of the kind.
{11} "He" clearly means, not Addison, but Professor Forth, the lady's husband.
{12} It was not Asiatics, but Aztecs; not Pittites, but Hittites! Woman cares little for these studies!--A.L.
{13} The editor has no doubt that some one was--Miss Watson. Cf. 'Belinda.'
{14} Owing to the sudden decease of the Dean in well-known and melancholy circumstances, this letter was not delivered.
{15} Alas, not wisely! But any careful reader of "The Silence of Dean Maitland" will see that the Baby was an anachronism.--ED.
{16} This appears to have been a favourite remark of Mr. Skimpole's. It will be noticed that, quite without intending it, Mr. Skimpole was the founder of our New Cyrenaic School.
{17} Mr. Skimpole's recollections of classical ritual are a little mixed hereabouts. He refers to Mr. Honeyman's projected union with the widow of Mr. Bromley, the famous hatter.
{18} Colonel Newcome, indeed.
{19} Non, Monsieur, je ne cite ni "Woodsworth" ni "le vieux Williams."
{20} Mr.