XXX.

SIR WALTER SCOTT AND HIS FRIENDS

AT ABBOTSFORD, BY FAED. (No. 78.)

THE above is an outline sketch of the original Painting in the possession of Alexander Dennistoun, Esq., by Thomas Faed, R.A., which was exhibited as No. 78. The object of this sketch was to serve as a Key to the persons represented in an imaginary assemblage at Abbotsford, when the engraving, by the Artist's brother, Mr. James Faed (No. 230), was published by James Keith, January 2, 1854.

It is proper to mention that the original picture was painted by Mr. Faed in 1849, upon a commission for Mr. Keith, an Edinburgh NO. XXX.]

Publisher, with the view of having it engraved. The engraving proved a very lucrative speculation, from the mode in which the keen and enterprising publisher was enabled to push its sale in the United States as well as in this country: he thought, therefore, that by obtaining a second and smaller painting, and having a distinguished American introduced in some conspicuous position, to be engraved anew, this introduction of a great Yankee" would insure a still greater success on the other side of the Atlantic. Before this could be accomplished, the publisher died.

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The second and smaller Painting was, however, completed, and acquired by the late Mr. Joseph Gillott of Birmingham, at the sale of whose extraordinary collection of paintings at London, April 19, 1872, Mr. Faed's picture fetched the very large sum of 910 guineas. On applying to the Artist, in regard to the difference between this Painting and the one exhibited as No. 78, Mr. Faed, in a note to Mr. James Drummond, R.S.A., says :

"This picture of Sir Walter and his Literary Friends, sold last Friday at Gillott's Sale, was not Mr. Dennistoun's, but a smaller one, some 1 foot 5 inches by 2 feet-in fact, the size of the engraving from Mr. D.'s; and was painted in 1856, and then, or rather when commenced, intended for publication to suit the American market,—I mean by publication, to be engraved. You may remember (no; I don't suppose you do anything of the kind), but I will tell you, that in the large work there was no great Yankee, so in the second venture Washington Irving was introduced, and that introduction made me make others that, to a great extent, changed the whole left of the work-from a picturesque point of view, totally changed it. I have nothing more to say on the matter, except that poor Keith died before the original intention was carried out."

Washington Irving, as Author of Abbotsford, or Recollections of a Friendly Visit to Sir Walter Scott, in 1816, published in Irving's Miscellanies in 1835, was well entitled to be represented in such a group. For picturesque effect, in consequence of the alteration in grouping the figures, the composition on the left-hand side, as Mr. Faed says, required to be altered; and while Lord Byron and Washington Irving were introduced, the actual number of figures was lessened by the omission of Nos. 12, 14, 15, 16, and 17, who were reckoned, it might be, as persons chiefly of local celebrity.

Third Division.

MANUSCRIPTS AND EARLY EDITIONS OF SCOTT'S

WRITINGS.

I-ORIGINAL MANUSCRIPTS, WITH FACSIMILES.

II.—POETICAL AND PROSE WORKS, IN CHRONOLOGICal Order.

III.—BOOKS EDITED BY SIR WALTER SCOTT.

IV.-ORIGINAL LETTERS AND MISCELLANEOUS PAPERS IN CONNEXION WITH SIR WALTER SCOTT.

N

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ORIGINAL MANUSCRIPTS.

THE circumstances under which the earlier Waverley Novels were published, contributed to the care that was bestowed in preserving the Original Manuscripts. These Volumes, written by the Author currente calamo, having subsequently been widely dispersed at public Sales or by private arrangements, it was of course not possible to obtain the entire Series for the Loan Exhibition. In the present Catalogue, however, it may be well that this division should not be restricted to such MSS. as were actually exhibited by giving a correct notice of these Sales from the printed Catalogues, it will assist in tracing the subsequent fate of the respective Manuscripts.

The public acknowledgment by Sir Walter Scott of the authorship of the Waverley Novels took place on the 23d of February 1827. This was on occasion of his presiding at a Theatrical Fund dinner in the Assembly Rooms, Edinburgh; and a better opportunity could scarcely have happened for making a public avowal than to such a large assemblage. As one of the survivors of those who had the happiness to be present, the writer of this notice cannot forget the enthusiastic excitement with which his clear, explicit, and unhesitating avowal as the sole Author was received.

Four years previously, Sir Walter had presented the Manuscripts of the Novels to his friend the publisher, Mr. Constable, under the seal of secrecy. Indeed, so decided was he to conceal the authorship during his life, that the instrument, dated in December 1818, conveying to Messrs. Constable and Company the existing copyrights, contained a clause by which they bound themselves never to divulge the name of the Author of Waverley during his life, under a penalty of £2000. The same clause was repeated in a subsequent deed in 1821.