Chronicles of the Canongate, 1st SeriesScott, Walter
General
Chronicles of the Canongate, 1st Series
Scott, Walter
Scotland -- Social life and customs -- Fiction; Scots -- Foreign countries -- Fiction
However, I hope your reporter has been more accurate in other instances
than in mine. I have corrected one passage, in which I am made to speak
with great impropriety and petulance, respecting the opinions of those
who do not approve of dramatic entertainments. I have restored what I
said, which was meant to be respectful, as every objection founded in
conscience is, in my opinion, entitled to be so treated. Other errors
I left as I found them, it being of little consequence whether I spoke
sense or nonsense in what was merely intended for the purpose of the
hour.
I am, sir,
Your obedient servant,
EDINBURGH, MONDAY. WALTER SCOTT.
*****
The Theatrical Fund Dinner, which took place on Friday, in the Assembly
Rooms, was conducted with admirable spirit. The Chairman, Sir WALTER
SCOTT, among his other great qualifications, is well fitted to enliven
such an entertainment. His manners are extremely easy, and his style of
speaking simple and natural, yet full of vivacity and point; and he has
the art, if it be art, of relaxing into a certain homeliness of manner,
without losing one particle of his dignity. He thus takes off some of
that solemn formality which belongs to such meetings, and, by his easy,
and graceful familiarity, imparts to them somewhat of the pleasing
character of a private entertainment. Near Sir W. Scott sat the Earl
of Fife, Lord Meadowbank, Sir John Hope of Pinkie, Bart., Admiral Adam,
Baron Clerk Rattray, Gilbert Innes, Esq., James Walker, Esq., Robert
Dundas, Esq., Alexander Smith, Esq., etc.
The cloth being removed, “Non nobis, Domine,” was sung by Messrs.
Thorne, Swift, Collier, and Hartley, after which the following toasts
were given from the chair:--
“The King”--all the honours.
“The Duke of Clarence and the Royal Family.”
The CHAIRMAN, in proposing the next toast, which he wished to be drunk
in solemn silence, said it was to the memory of a regretted-prince, whom
we had lately lost. Every individual would at once conjecture to whom he
alluded. He had no intention to dwell on his military merits. They had
been told in the senate; they had been repeated in the cottage; and
whenever a soldier was the theme, his name was never far distant. But it
was chiefly in connection with the business of this meeting, which
his late Royal Highness had condescended in a particular manner to
patronize, that they were called on to drink his health. To that charity
he had often sacrificed his time, and had given up the little leisure
which he had from important business. He was always ready to attend on
every occasion of this kind, and it was in that view that he proposed to
drink to the memory of his late Royal Highness the Duke of York.--Drunk
in solemn silence.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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