doctor to see an Enchanted Mirror, capable of revealing strange and distant affairs. It showed its powers by revealing to the two ladies a clandestine marriage of Sir Philip, · an event afterwards proved to have occurred. The story is founded upon a tradition of Edinburgh respecting Lady Eleanor Campbell, who, at an early age, was married "to James, Viscount Primrose, a man of the worst temper and most dissolute manners." He even intensified his faithlessness by attempting to murder her. Their house, the original of Forester's, is "in a short alley leading between the Lawnmarket and the Earthen Mound, and called Lady Stair's Close. . . . It is a substantial old mansion, presenting, in a sculptured stone over the doorway, a small coat-armorial, with the initials W. G. and G. S., the date 1622, and the legend, Fear the Lord, and depart from Evill." Sir Philip afterwards appeared in disguise at an Edinburgh assembly, and was detected by his injured wife. After a brief but striking scene he escaped. It was supposed that he desired to ascertain if he could again live with, or near, one whom he had so injured, but he found that he could not; accordingly he returned, it was supposed, to the Continent. And thus closed the tale of the Mysterious Mirror.

Another story of the proposed second series is entitled "The Tapestried Chamber," and is, except the next named, the briefest and slightest of all Scott's prose tales. It simply relates how General Browne visited Lord Woodville, and slept in a certain haunted room that had the name of the tale itself. In this apartment he experienced a visitation from a ghostly "Lady in the Sacque," and learned as much of her as the reader can now find in the account Sir Walter has left of her. It is enough to remark here, that she was not the most fascinating companion conceivable for the time when she chose to make her appearance, and that she had an ugly history, all her own, to exhibit.

The third and last of these tales is entitled "The Laird's Jock." It simply narrates, on a few pages, how John Armstrong, Laird of Mangerton, an old warrior, called "the Laird's Jock," witnessed in Liddesdale a sort of “champion match" between his son and an English contestant, in which the former was vanquished. The actual scene of this match is said to have been Kessop Mill.

Scott's last attempts to compose prose romance were at Naples early in 1832. There, although he was very ill, he persisted in spending several hours every morning, preparing "a new novel,

'The Siege of Malta,' and during his stay he nearly finished both this and a shorter tale, entitled 'Bizarro.'” Neither of these have been published. Failing health and faculties were already depriving his glorious genius of its powers, and a friendly veil was drawn over these final efforts. Perhaps his last idea respecting a new composition, in which, however, he made no executive progress, was one respecting Roman life, drawn from very ample materials placed at his service by their owner, -the Duke of Corchiano, whom he met at the Duchess Torlonia's palace. These materials abounded in historical curiosities respecting many of the great Roman families during centuries past.

XLIX.

DRAMAS AND BALLADS.

THE HE Dramas written by Sir Walter Scott have been already mentioned in paragraphs scattered along these pages. Some additional notice of them, collectively, appears desirable, though it may be only brief.

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Many of his friends believed him capable of producing dramatic works of high character. Robert Southey, when Poet Laureate, wrote him: "I am verily persuaded that in this course you might run as brilliant a career as you have already done in narrative, both in prose and rhyme." Jeffrey's remark respecting "Ivanhoe " has been already quoted, that it contains matter enough for six good Tragedies." Whatever may be thought of Scott's ability to draw these six from that source, or another, he himself appears neither to have fancied dramatic composition nor to have felt himself fitted for it. In 1818, he wrote his friend Terry, the comedian : "Avowedly I will never write for the stage. ... I feel severely the want of knowledge of theatrical business and effect." Two years after, he wrote Allan Cunningham some practical notions respecting dramatic art that indicate supply of the want mentioned. Between the two dates, however, he wrote strongly to Southey, in reply to the opinion of that eminent judge already quoted: "I shall not fine

and renew a lease of popularity upon the theatre. To write for low, ill-informed, and conceited actors, whom you must please, for your success is necessarily at their mercy, I cannot away with. . . . Besides. . . I do not think the character of the audience in London is such that one could have the least pleasure in pleasing them.” Describing such an auditory more severely than he was accustomed, he added, “I would far rather write verses for mine honest friend Punch and his audience." Almost his first original work was, however, a drama. The German studies in which he was engaged at the period of its composition explain its creation. It is, indeed, little more than a literary exercise. It was executed in 1799, during his twenty-eighth year, but was not published until sent "to one of the literary almanacks (the Keepsake of 1829)." It is entitled "THE HOUSE OF ASPEN." Its character is influenced by that of the drama, “Goetz von Berlichingen," that he translated during the same year from the original, by Goethe, and has been alluded to in the chapter on "Anne of Geierstein" for the subject of its chief interest, the operations of the Secret Tribunal of the Vehm Gericht. The scenes are "The Castle of Ebersdorf in Bavaria, the ruins of Griefenhaus, and the adjacent country." It must be confessed that greater associations than those of this drama are attached to the name "Ebersdorf," (a village on the Danube below Vienna), since it became a scene of the tremendous conflicts between Austria and the First Napoleon, in 1809. The word "Aspen " suggests a change of the name of a village celebrated in a similar manner, that of Aspern. Griefenhaus may be considered Greifenstein (Griffinstone), a picturesque, ruined castle perched on a high sandstone rock, a few miles above Vienna, upon the same river. There is an imposing Donjon-keep, the view from which is striking, embracing as it does "the forest-clad banks of the Danube, and its feudal castles at intervals overlooking it." Thus, in pleasant places around the distant and brilliant capital of the Imperial and Royal dominions, are suggestions of the early growing power of the Wizard of the North.

Scott's next dramatic productions, chronologically, were entitled "Mac Duff's Cross" and "Halidon Hill;" the former appearing, in 1823, in Joanna Baillie's "Collection of Poetical Miscellanies," and the latter in June, 1822. Neither are extraordinary works. Lockhart informs us that "Scott threw off these things currente calamo; he never gave himself time to consider beforehand what could be made

of their materials, nor bestowed a moment on correcting them after he had covered the allotted quantity of paper with blank verse; and neither when they were new, nor even after, did he seem to attach the slightest importance to them." "MAC DUFF'S CROSS" is a very brief work, showing but four persons. Its scene is "the summit of a rocky pass near to Newburgh, about two miles from the ancient Abbey of Lindores, in Fife," a height "which commands the county of Fife to the southward, and to the north the windings of the magnificent Tay and fertile country of Angus-shire." The "Cross and Law of Clan Mac Duff" rendered the former a refuge to any person related to the clan "within the ninth degree, who, having committed homicide in sudden quarrel, should reach this place, prove his descent from the Thane of Fife, and pay a certain penalty." On this legend, the action of the drama was founded. The pedestal of the cross, it is said, yet remains, about a mile from the Tay, at the place described. It may be easily found by those who visit the scenery of the "Fair Maid of Perth."

"HALIDON HILL; a Dramatic Sketch from Scottish History," is perhaps the best of these dramas, and is one of the longest. It contains fine passages. The story on which its action is founded, Scott said, "was to me a nursery tale, often told by Mrs. Margaret Swinton, sister of my maternal grandmother; a fine old lady of high blood, and of as high a mind, who was lineally descended from one of the actors." The drama was indeed written currente calamo, having been produced "in the course of two rainy mornings." It was found too long for a more private use for which it was originally undertaken, and was published in June, 1822, by Messrs. Constable, who purchased it, also "without seeing the MSS.,... for £1.000. . . the sum that had appeared almost irrationally munificent, when offered in 1807 for the embryo 'Marmion.'" And the firm was pleased "with this wild bargain." Thus much for the "market value" of an "established reputation!"

The scene of this drama is the "eminence of Halidon," mentioned (page 344) as easily accessible during the passage "from Scotland to England." It is approached by a gradual ascent from the river Whitadder or the Tweed, and is a considerable height that commands a view over much of the country around Berwick. The battle for which it is celebrated was fought, in 1333, between English forces and a Scottish army commanded by the Regent Douglas, and resulted in the severe defeat of the latter.

"THE DOOM OF DEVORGOIL" had its origin in 1817, when, after a serious illness, Scott "beguiled the intervals of his suffering by planning a dramatic piece on a story supplied to him by one of Train's communications" (page 161), a piece "which he desired to present to" his friend Terry, the actor, on behalf of a son christened Walter Scott Terry. During the next year the author made some progress in this piece; but it was not published until 1830, when it appeared in an octavo volume with his last drama, "Auchindrane." The scenes of "Devorgoil" are laid in Galloway, but are not definitely localized. The plot is founded on a family tradition of considerable age, and is amply and well illustrated in the drama.

"AUCHINDRANE, or the Ayrshire Tragedy," is a work apparently suggested to Scott by perusal of a case relating to one Mure, of Auchindrane, in 1611, reported in Pitcairn's "Ancient Criminal Trials," a portion of which he was reviewing in 1830. He "was so much interested with these documents, that he resolved to found a dramatic sketch on their terrible story; and the result," says Lockhart, "was a composition far superior to any of his previous attempts of that nature. Indeed, there are several passages," in this work, "which may bear comparison with any thing but Shakspeare." The opening scene is "A rocky Bay on the Coast of Carrick, in Ayrshire, not far from the Point of Turnberry," near which the entire action is represented. During an excursion from Glasgow to Ayr and "The Land of Burns" (pages 118 and 187), this locality may be easily reached, south of Ayr. It will, also, then be possible to ascertain why topographical works are remarkably reticent regarding Auchindrane Castle mentioned in the drama. The same region is also rendered interesting by associations with the landing of Bruce, told so spiritedly in the Fifth Canto of "The Lord of the Isles" (pages 117, 118). Turnberry Point bears the slight ruin of a castle of the same name, connected with the event. Near it are Culzean Castle, the stately seat of the Marquis of Ailsa, Crossraguel Abbey, yet beautiful in decay; Shanter farm, where lived famous Tam; and Maybole, containing an imposing Baronial relic partly ruined.

SCOTT'S BALLADS, and other short poems, seem like flowers scattered by his lavish genius through the pleasant places of Britain, where they grow with a perennial bloom, and the perfume of de