Scott obstinately determined to keep the authorship a secret, and answered one of John Ballantyne's expostulations on the subject of "the secret" thus (see “ Life,” vol. iv. p. 179): "No, John, I will not own the book, "I won't, you Piccaroon. "When next I try St. Grubby's brook, "As if before them they had got "The worn-out wriggler, WALTER SCOTT." The sale of forty thousand copies was attained by 1829, and, says Lockhart, well might Constable regret that he had not ventured to make up his offer of £700 to £1000 for the whole copyright of “Waverley," at which sum the author had been willing to trade. Fortunately for the latter, he netted several thousands instead of one by the over-caution of the publisher. The author confesses that the tale "was put together with so little care that "he cannot boast of having sketched any distinct plan of the work." It relates to the insurrection in the Stuart interest led by Charles Edward in 1745. The novel was dedicated by a "postscript which should have been a "preface" to the "Scottish Addison, Henry Mackenzie, by an unknown ad"mirer of his genius." This was the celebrated Mackenzie (1745-1831), the author of "A Man of Feeling," that writer's most successful work. The precautions taken to preserve the anonymity of Sir Walter are very curious. The original manuscript was transcribed under the publisher's eye by confidential persons, so that the author's handwriting never passed into the printing-room, and to that end double proof-sheets were regularly printed off, and the alterations made by the author were copied by Mr. Ballantyne, the publisher, by his own hand, upon the second proof-sheet, for the use of the printers, who in that way did not see the author's handwriting. Scott's only reason for so long keeping up the secret was "by saying "with Shylock that such was my humour." The secret was well maintained, although known, says Sir W. Scott, "to not less than twenty 'persons." 66 The particulars concerning the original secret and its avowal are contained in the "General Preface" to " Waverley” (Nov. i. pp. xx.−xl.) and the “In"troduction to the Chronicles of the Canongate'" (Nov. xli. pp. iii.-lxxiii.). "People" (writes James T. Fields) "who died prior to the 7th of July, "1814, were unfortunate in one respect if no other, for on that day was pub"lished the first of the Waverley' romances. A world without Scott's 66 "novels in it must have been rather a lean place to live in surely, and we can never quite estimate the dulness and vacuity of a globe which existed before "that immortal story-teller was born into it." Sir Walter was forty-three years of age when he published "Waverley." WILD HUNTSMAN, THE: TRANSLATION FROM BÜRGER. Po. vi. 307 Wilde Jäger' of This is “a translation, or, rather, an imitation of the "the German Poet Bürger." (See "Lenore.") It was originally published in 1796, and was then entitled "The Chace." WITCHCRAFT, DEMONOLOGY AND, LETTERS ON. (1830.) See Demonology. WOMEN; OR, POUR ET CONTRE. BY MATURIN, REV. CHARLES ROB WOODSTOCK; OR, THE CAVALIER. 2 vols. (1826) Nov. xxxix. and xl. The romance is laid at the royal lodge of Woodstock and its vicinity in the time of the Commonwealth after the battle of Woodstock, "A Tale of "the Year Sixteen Hundred and Fifty One." Much interesting information as to Woodstock is to be found in Hone's "Every-Day Book," quoted largely from a tract entitled "The Genuine History of the Good Devil of "Woodstock, famous in the world, in the year 1649, and never accounted for "or at all understood to this time." The novel is filled with historical personages,-e.g., Joshua Bletson, one of the commissioners for the sequestration of Woodstock; the Duke of Buckingham, Charles II., Lord Clarendon, Oliver Cromwell, Colonel Desborough, General Harrison, and Sir Henry Lee, the ranger of Woodstock. Sir W. Scott was writing this novel when his failure occurred. He determined to meet his losses bravely, and wrote a chapter a day whilst his bankruptcy was being arranged, and completed it on the sixty-ninth day after his ruin was announced. In vol. xxxix. are given copies of two original pamphlets which contain a full account of the phenomena at Woodstock in 1649,-namely, the Woodstock Scuffle (pp. xxiii.-xxxv.) and the Just Devil of Woodstock (pp. xxxvi.lxiv.). They were written in ridicule of the contractors or Parliament commissioners who went to sell the late king's lands, etc., at Woodstock. YORK, FREDERICK, DUKE OF (1763-1827), MEMOIR OF. (1827) Pr. iv. 400. This was published in the Edinburgh Weekly Journal of January 10, 1827. The Duke of York was the second son of George III. He was commanderin-chief of the British forces for many years, and introduced many valuable reforms into the service. It relates with great care the consequences of the duke's liaison with Mrs. Clarke, his retirement from the high office of commander-in-chief in 1809, and his recall to that eminent position in 1811 which he occupied with distinction till the time of his death. |