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"Fie, fie, on silly coward man, That he should be the slave o't." Then it makes one "wofully dogged and snappish," as Dr. Rutty, the Quaker, says in his Gurnal. Sent Lockhart four pages on Sheridan's plays; not very good, I think, but the demand came sudden. Must go to W k! yet am vexed by that humour of contradiction which makes me incline to do anything else in preference.
Sat and smoked and grumbled with Lockhart. April 16. We dined at Dr. Young's; saw Captain Parry, a handsome and pleasant man. In the evening at Mr. Cunliffe's, where I met sundry old friends grown older. April 17. Made up my "Gurnal," which had fallen something behind. In this phantasmagorial place the objects of the day come and depart like shadows. Made calls. Went to Murray's, where I met a Mr.
They are lucky to be able to assemble so many real friends, whose good wishes, I am sure, will follow them in their new undertaking. December 2. Rather a blank day for the Gurnal. Correcting proofs in the morning. Court from half-past ten till two; poor dear Colin Mackenzie, one of the wisest, kindest, and best men of his time, in the country, I fear with very indifferent health.
Riddles which time has read schemes which he has destroyed or brought to maturity memorials of friendships and enmities which are now alike faded. Thus does the ring of Saturn consume itself. To-day annihilates yesterday, as the old tyrant swallowed his children, and the snake its tail. But I must say to my Gurnal as poor Byron did to Moore, "Damn it, Tom, don't be poetical." Memorandum.
Now in all this I may be thought a little harsh on my friend, but it is between my Gurnal and me, and, moreover, I would cry heartily if anything were to ail my little cousin, though she be addicted to rule the Cerulean atmosphere. Then I suspect the cares of this as well as other empires overbalance its pleasures. There must be difficulty in being always in the right humour to hold a court.
When the firm through mismanagement and speculation, in which Scott had no part, went down in ruin, Scott found to his surprise that he owed a vast sum. In his "Gurnal" of September 5, 1827, he wrote: "The debts for which I am legally responsible, though no party to this contraction, amount to £30,000."
Mention has been made above of a certain Diary which is our main authority, and, indeed, makes other authorities merely illustrative for a great part of the few and evil last years of Sir Walter's life. It was begun before the calamities, and just after the return from Ireland, being pleasantly christened 'Gurnal, after a slight early phonetic indulgence of his daughter Sophia's.
To quote from this journal is, perhaps, the best method of giving a first-hand impression of the real man. He is his own revealer. Scott called the big book in which he from time to time records for several years his thoughts his "Gurnal," because his daughter Sophia had once spelled the word in that way. This book could be closed with a lock and key.
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