SIR WALTER SCOTT 709 numerable visitors of every rank and degree. His mornings until 11 o'clock were devoted to composition, and the rest of the day to the superintendence of the works of improve- ment on his grounds, or the entertainment of his guests and family. In spite of his lameness he was an indefatigable walker and rider. His winters were passed at his house in Edinburgh. His literary fame, greatly en- hanced by the steadily growing belief that he was identical with the author of " Waver- ley," seems never to have disturbed his equa- nimity ; and the baronetcy conferred upon him by George IV. in 1820 was probably re- ceived with more satisfaction than the praises of the public. In January, 1826, Constable and co. of Edinburgh, his publishers, were obliged, in consequence of a commercial crisis, to suspend payment, and Scott was found to have incurred liabilities to their creditors to the amount of 72,000. In his eagerness. to enlarge and embellish Abbotsf ord, and to main- tain his style of living, he had been in the habit of receiving from Constable and co. large sums in anticipation of works in pro- gress or which he proposed to write, and was thus led, on the principle of mutual accommo- dation, to give the firm counter acceptances or to indorse their bills. This disaster was almost immediately followed by the failure of the printing house of James Ballantyne and co., which had printed Scott's works since 1802, and of which, it was now discovered, he had been a secret partner since 1805. The affairs of the two firms had become badly involved with each other ; and Scott was found to be liable, as partner of Ballantyne and co., for the total amount of the debts of the firm, which somewhat exceeded 100,000. As about half of the 72,000 due to the creditors of Constable and co. was included in the debts of Ballan- tyne and co., his actual liabilities on account of both firms amounted to a little less than 150,000. He refused the composition which .his creditors offered him, and, having procured an extension of time, at the age of 55 set about the task of reimbursing them by his literary la- bors. He surrendered his town house and most of his available assets, but still clung to Ab- botsford, although obliged to live there in hum- bler style. In 1826 appeared " Woodstock," a novel written during the crisis of his financial troubles, and in 1827 "Chronicles of the Can- ongate, First Series," and the "Life of Napo- leon Bonaparte," the latter of which produced for his creditors 18,000. At a dinner giv- en for the benefit of the Edinburgh theatri- cal fund on Feb. 23, 1827, he finally threw off the mantle of disguise, which he observed to a friend had become somewhat tattered, and declared himself to be the sole author of the " Waverley novels," a fact long before estab- lished to the public satisfaction. His remain- ing works are the " Chronicles of the Can- ongate, Second Series" (1828); "Tales of a Grandfather," first, second, and third series (1827-'9), devoted to Scottish history; "Anne of Geierstein " (1829) ; " The Doom of Devoir- goil" and " The Auchindrane Tragedy " (1830); a " History of Scotland" (2 vols., 1829-'30), in Lardner's " Cabinet Cyclopaedia ;" " Letters on Demonology and Witchcraft " (1830), published in Murray's " Family Library ;" another series of "Tales of a Grandfather" (1880), on French history; and a fourth series of "Tales of my Landlord" (1831), containing "Count Robert of Paris" and "Castle Dangerous." He also furnished the notes and prefaces for a cheap uniform series of the Waverley novels, com- menced in 1829 by Robert Cadell, who had purchased half of the copyright ; and the prof- its of the new edition aided very considerably the liquidation of his debts. In his later works he began to give evidence of mental exhaus- tion, and his bodily health declined under the influence of incessant mental application and confinement. In the winter of 1830-'31 symp- toms of gradual paralysis, a disease hereditary in his family, began to be manifested. Absti- nence from literary labor was enjoined upon him, and in October, 1831, he sailed for Italy in a ship furnished by the admiralty. Honors seldom paid to literary men awaited him at Naples, Rome, and elsewhere. Feeling that his strength was rapidly failing, he requested to be conveyed at once to his native country, that he might die within sight and sound of the Tweed. The journey was accomplished too rapidly for his strength, and on his arri- val in London in June, 1832, he had become insensible to the presence of his friends and relatives. He reached Abbotsf ord on July 11, seeming to revive a little in the presence of familiar scenes and faces, but soon after re- lapsed into insensibility, in which condition, after occasional intervals of consciousness, death finally overtook him. He was buried in an aisle in Dryburgh abbey, which had belonged to one of his ancestors, and his memory is per- petuated by a noble Gothic tabernacle erected in Edinburgh in 1844-'6. He had paid at the time of his death upward of 100,000 of his debts, and soon afterward, chiefly through the liberal advances of Cadell, who received in return Scott's share of the profits accruing from copyright property in the Waverley nov- els, the claims of all his creditors were fully satisfied. His two sons and two daughters survived him, but have since died, leaving no male issue. His eldest daughter was married to John Gibson Lockhart, and their daughter was married to James Robert Hope, who by act of parliament assumed the name of Hope- Scott. She died in 1858, and her only survi- ving child, Mary Monica, born in 1852, is the last lineal descendant of Walter Scott and the present owner of Abbotsford. The centenary of Scott's birth was celebrated in the princi- pal towns- of Scotland in 1871. Scott was tall and vigorous, and in walking betrayed his lameness only by a slight sinking of the right limb. His head was long and cylindrical, his
