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HISTORY^ OF PRINTING.
to hare half the profits, in consideration of his literarf aid. This was a most fortunate design. The new edition began to appear in June, 1829; and such was its adaptation to the public con- venience, and the eagerness of all ranks of people to contribute in a way convenient to themselves towards the reconstruction of the author's for- tunes, that the sale soon reached an average of twenty-three thousand copies.
The profits of the various publications, but especially his share of the profits of the new edition of his novels, enabled him, towards the end of the year 1830, to pay a dividend of three shillings in the pound, which, but for accumula- tion of interest, would have reduced his debts to nearly one-half. Of £64,000 which had now been paid, all except six or seven thousand had been produced by his own literary labours ; a tact which fixes the revenue of his intellect for the last four or five years at nearly £10,000 a- year. Besides this sum, sir Walter had also paid up the premium of the policy upon his life, which, as already mentioned, secured apott obit interest of £22,000 to his creditors. On this occasion, it was suggested by one of these gentle- men, (sir James Gibson Ciaig,) and immraiately assented to, that they should present to sir Wal- ter personally, the library, manuscripts, curiosities and plate, which had once been his own, as an acknowledgement of the sense they entertained of his honourable conduct. In November, 1830, he retired from his office of principal clerk of session, with the superannuation allowance usually given after twenty-three years' service.
It happened very unfortunately, that the severe task which be imposed upon himself, for the pur-
• The original mannscripts of most of the pnbliiihed writings of sir Walter Scott are still In existence, though unfortonately not in one place, or as the property of one person. The interest which he excited by the pablicatlon of his first poem, the Lay of the Ltut Mhutrel, caused Mr. Ballantyne, the printer, to preserve what is called the pmt-copp of those which followed. They thns became the propoty of Mr. Constable, who bound them ap, pre- fixed explanatory notices to them, and kept them with great care till bis deatli, since which time they have become ue property of others. A few of the novels, some of them imperfect, were brought to the hammer, in London, about a-year, or rather more, before the death of their dis- tinguished author, and brought the aggregate sum of ^SI7. A consideiable nnmlwof them have since then become the property of sir Walter's last Edinburgh pub- Usber.Mr. Cadell, who has been able to Increase their num- ber by the addition of a few of which he individually acted as publisher, and which were presented to him by the author. Of sir Walter's poetical works, Mr. Cadell possesses eight volumes. Another portion of the collection consists of five volumes of original letters, written by sir Walter Scott between 17gOand ISSl, but chiefly from 1831 down- wards, the earliest beittg addressed to the late Mr. R. Mil- ler, bookseller, in reference to the advertisement of his first poetiral publication, and the last fkom Naples, in the April before his death, respecting some of his very latest compositions. In addition to these twenty-seven volumes, the same cabinet contains an interleaved set of the whole aeries of the Wawrley Hovetg, In tiilrty-two volames, con- taining the new prefaces and annotations by the author, being Vbtpreu-copy of the recent popular edition of those extraordinary fictions. In opening the volumes which contain the poems and novels, the first features of pecu- liarity which strike the eye are the singular rareness of blottlngs and interlineations. It was never the practice of air Walter Scott to transcribe for revision even his most elaborate compositions, and Uiere is accordingly every reason to believe that these arc the first and last copies of th« respective works to which they refer.
pose of discharging bis obligations, came at a period of life when he was least able to accom- plish it. His retirement from official duty might have been expected to relieve, in some measure, the pains of intense mental application. It wu now too late, however, to redeem the health that had 'fled. His physicians recommended a resi- dence in Italy as a means of delaying the ap- proaches of illness. By the kind offices of captain Basil Hall, liberty was obtained for him to sail in bis majesty's ship the Barham, whidi was then fitting out for Malta. He sailed from PortsmouUi, October 27, 1831, and on December 27th, landed at Naples, where he was received by the king and his court with a feelise approaching to homage. In April, he proceeded to Rome, where he was received in the sam« manner. Feeling that his strength was rapidlr decaying, he determined on returning with all possible speed to his native country, in older that his bones might not be laid (to use the language of his own favourite minstrelsy) — " far from the Tweed." He hastened home as rapidly as possible, and on his arrival in Lon- don was attended by sir Henry Halford and Dr. Holland. He left London July 7, and arrived at Abbotsford on the llth. The intense love ot home and of country, which had urged his return from the continent, here seemed to dispel for a moment the clouds of the mental atmosphere ; but he soon arrived at that melan- choly state when the friends and relations can form no more affectionate wish than that deatk may step in to claim his own, which melanchoW event at length took place on Sept. 21, 1832, and on the 26th the illustrious deceased was buried in an aisle in Dryburgh abbey, which had been given to him by the late earl of Bnchan.* Sit Walter Scott was in stature above six feet, bot having been lame from an early period of life in the right leg, he sunk a little on that side in walking. Oi his features it is needless to speak, as they are familiar to every person. It is by far the greatest glory of sir Walter Scott, that he shone equally as a good and virtuous man, as he did in his capacity of the first fictitioos writer of the age; and it may with great tratb be repeated in Uie lines of a modern poet:
The vision & the voice are o'er, their influence waned away, Like music o'er a summer lake at the golden dose of day : The vision and the voice are o'er I but when wUi be Anpit •Om buried genius of Bomance— the imperishable Scott )f
1832, Oct. 3. Died, Adam Williamson, a
worthy and well known journeyman printer in the city of Edinburgh, aged seventy-two yeais; where he bad worked dunng the greater portion of his long life, and gained the approbation of
• In July, 1836, the Abbotsford dub was established and so called in honour of the late sir Walter Scott, bait It b limited to fifty members. Its object Is "the printing of miscellaneous pieces, lUnstrative of History, Litertiore, and AntiquiHct." B. D. D. TnmbuU, esq. has the honoar of iieing the founder of this tribute to the memory of the Shakspeare of prose.
^ Dryiurgh Abbtg i a poem on the death of Sir Walttr Scott. By Charles Swain. Svo. 1831.
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