Mr. Constable is
godfather to my son, who will be at home, and I am anxious to introduce
him to Mr. C., who may not be long in town.
Mr. Constable and his friend accordingly dined with Murray, and that the
meeting was very pleasant may be inferred from Mr. Constable's letter of
a few days later, in which he wrote to Murray, "It made my heart glad to
be once more happy together as we were the other evening." The rest of
Mr. Constable's letter referred to Hume's Philosophical Writings, which
were tendered to Murray, but which he declined to publish.
Constable died two years later, John Ballantyne, Scott's partner, a few
years earlier; and Scott entered in his diary, "It is written that
nothing shall flourish under my shadow."
CHAPTER XXVI
SIR WALTER'S LAST YEARS
Owing to the intimate relations which were now established between
Murray and Lockhart, the correspondence is full of references to Sir
Walter Scott and to the last phases of his illustrious career.
Lockhart had often occasion to be at Abbotsford to see Sir Walter Scott,
who was then carrying on, single-handed, that terrible struggle with
adversity, which has never been equalled in the annals of literature.
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