of £5,000, for division among his younger children. In order to effect this, the second Sir Walter would have been obliged to disperse the Collection but for a subscription raised among a number of Scott's admirers to purchase the Abbotsford Collection and hold it in trust for the public and the family. This trust is vested in the Dean and Council of the Faculty of Advocates, who are empowered to leave the Collection in the charge and keeping of Scott's representatives at Abbotsford, or, should occasion arise, to remove it to some other building. The copyrights purchased by Cadell in 1847 were sold in 1851 by private bargain for £27,000 to Messrs. Adam and Charles Black, the publishers of the present volume. Messrs. Black's editions of Scott's works may, therefore, be trusted to contain the exact text as left in the 'Magnum Opus,' the MSS. of which are still in their possession. [19] Scott was an intense favourite with the Darnickers, who playfully dubbed him 'Duke of Darnick.' [20] Mr. Lang's 'Life of Lockhart' gives the date as _July_ 14; the month is probably a printer's error, however. At Dryburgh the date is _June_ 14; but the Cambusnethan Records read _June_ 12. [21] There is no foundation for the fanciful etymology of the name Lockhart, _quasi_ Lock-heart (purely _post facto_). There were Locards in Scotland long before 1330. [22] Yet we find Lockhart, at the Jedburgh circuit of 1823, 'pleading,' so Scott says, 'for a clansman of mine (Rob Scott), who, having sustained an affront from two men on the road home from Earlston Fair, nobly waylaid and murdered them both, single-handed.' Lockhart lost his case, and his client was hanged. [23] Carlyle, curiously, had a fondness for the same verses, and was frequently quoting them. [24] 'Peter's Letters to his Kinsfolk'--the name was, of course, borrowed from Scott's 'Paul's Letters' (see vol. ii. for Abbotsford)--is seldom read nowadays, and there has been no new edition for years. Still, it is a faithful, if pungent, picture of the period, and, notwithstanding a certain ill odour, really contains far more good than evil. There was no first edition, the first actual publication being called the second edition. Why, would be difficult to say. [25] Some of Lockhart's own best work was done at Chiefswood--_e.g._, 'Valerius,' a romance of the times of Trajan; 'Adam Blair'--a Scottish 'Scarlet Letter'; and several of his Spanish Ballads. [26] It may be noted here that while Lockhart 'regarded his son-in-law's conversion to Romanism as a grief and a humiliation, nevertheless, the nobleness of his nature, and the deep regard he always felt for his virtues, prevailed without an effort.'--_Life of Hope Scott._