Sunny Memories Of Foreign Lands, Volume 1Stowe, Harriet Beecher
History
Sunny Memories Of Foreign Lands, Volume 1
Stowe, Harriet Beecher
Europe -- Description and travel
We went into his library; a magnificent room, on which, I suppose, the
poet's fancy had expended itself more than any other. The roof is of
carved oak, after models from Roslin Castle. Here, in a niche, is a
marble bust of Scott, as we understood a present from Chantrey to the
poet; it was one of the best and most animated representations of him I
ever saw, and very much superior to the one under the monument in
Edinburgh. On expressing my idea to this effect, I found I had struck
upon a favorite notion of the good woman who showed us the
establishment; she seemed to be an ancient servant of the house, and
appeared to entertain a regard for the old laird scarcely less than
idolatry. One reason why this statue is superior is, that it represents
his noble forehead, which the Edinburgh one suffers to be concealed by
falling hair: to cover _such_ a forehead seems scarcely less than a
libel.
The whole air of this room is fanciful and picturesque in the extreme.
The walls are entirely filled with the bookcases, there being about
twenty thousand volumes. A small room opens from the library, which was
Scott's own private study. His writing table stood in the centre, with
his inkstand on it, and before it a large, plain, black leather arm
chair.
In a glass case, I think in this room, was exhibited the suit of clothes
he last wore; a blue coat with large metal buttons, plaid trousers, and
broad-brimmed hat. Around the sides of this room there was a gallery of
light tracery work; a flight of stairs led up to it, and in one corner
of it was a door which the woman said led to the poet's bed room. One
seemed to see in all this arrangement how snug, and cozy, and
comfortable the poet had thus ensconced himself, to give himself up to
his beloved labors and his poetic dreams. But there was a cold and
desolate air of order and adjustment about it which reminds one of the
precise and chilling arrangements of a room from which has just been
carried out a corpse; all is silent and deserted.
The house is at present the property of Scott's only surviving daughter,
whose husband has assumed the name of Scott. We could not learn from our
informant whether any of the family was in the house. We saw only the
rooms which are shown to visitors, and a coldness, like that of death,
seemed to strike to my heart from their chilly solitude.
As we went out of the house we passed another company of tourists coming
in, to whom we heard our guide commencing the same recitation, "this
is," and "this is," &c., just as she had done to us. One thing about the
house and grounds had disappointed me; there was not one view from a
single window I saw that was worth any thing, in point of beauty; why a
poet, with an eye for the beautiful, could have located a house in such
an indifferent spot, on an estate where so many beautiful sites were at
his command, I could not imagine.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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