[8] Sir Walter possessed a practical as well as theoretical knowledge of Landscape Gardening, as may be seen in a valuable paper contributed by him to No. 47, of the _Quarterly Review_. The details of this paper were, however, disputed by some writers on the subject. [9] Communicated to No. 199, of _The Athenaeum_. The mansion was built from designs by Atkinson. Sir Walter may, however, be termed the amateur architect of the pile, and this may somewhat explain its irregularities. We have been told that the earliest design of Abbotsford was furnished by the late Mr. Terry, the comedian, who was an intimate friend of Sir Walter, and originally an architect by profession. His widow, one of the Nasmyths, has painted a clever View of Abbotsford, from the opposite bank of the Tweed; which is engraved in No. 427, of _The Mirror_. [10] Picture of Scotland, by Chambers. [Illustration: (_Armoury_.)] It would occupy a whole sheet to describe the _interior_ of the mansion; so that we select only two apartments, as graphic memorials of the lamented owner. First, is the _Armoury_, (from a coloured lithograph, published by Ackermann)--an arched apartment, with a richly-blazoned window, and the walls filled all over with smaller pieces of armour and weapons, such as swords, firelocks, spears, arrows, darts, daggers, &c. These relics will be found enumerated in a description of Abbotsford, in _the Anniversary_, quoted in vol. xv. of the _Mirror_. The second of the _interiors_ is the poet's _Study_--a room about twenty-five feet square by twenty feet high, containing of what is properly called furniture, nothing but a small writing-table and an antique arm-chair. On either side of the fire-place various pieces of armour are hung on the wall; but, there are no books, save the contents of a light gallery, which runs round three sides of the room, and is reached by a hanging stair of carved oak in one corner. There are only two portraits--an original of the beautiful and melancholy head of Claverhouse, and a small full-length of Rob Roy. Various little antique cabinets stand about the room; and in one corner is a collection of really useful weapons--those of the forest craft, to wit--axes and bills, &c. Over the fire-place, too, are some Highland claymores clustered round a target. There is only one window, pierced in a very thick wall, so that the place is rather sombre. [Illustration: (_Study_.)] ROKEBY, AND MINOR POEMS.