A SIR WALTER SCOTT LETTER.

Otago Witness, Issue 2985, 31 May 1911, Page 84

A SIR WALTER SCOTT LETTER.

WITH A COPY OF THE “ LORD OF THE ISLES.” When Sir Walter Scott visited Skye in the lighthouse yacht, it had become well known to visitors from the south. lie saw but little of it, though of that little he made excellent use in the Lord o the Isles." Having sailed round the .North of Scotland, the yacht, after visitHarris, arrived in Dunvegan Loch on the 23rd of August, 1814. Scott saw the lions, as Johnson had done, made a mistake, equal to Oldbuck’s, over the famous cup, and slept in the Fairy Room where he felt duly eerie. The yacht sailed ao-ain on the 25th, following the coast of Skve southwards to Loch Scavaig, where "the famous visit to Gcruisk was paid, and to the loch Scott did due justice in his diary and poem. The same day the yacht reached Loch Slap in; a landing was made at the Spar Cave, not then shorn of its finest beauty; and here Scott s descriptive powers were taxed to the full. From thence sail was made for the island of Eigg. From the visit to Dunvegan sprang up a friendship with the family of MacLeod, witnessed to by a number of charming letters, and presentation copies of the "Secret Commonwealth” and the "Lord oi the Isles.” With the latter the poet sent a poet’s letter, which is worth quoting. Dear Madam,—l have been postponing from day to day requesting your kind acceptance of my thanks for the beauti- „ fui purse of your workmanship with ' which I was some time since honoured. The hospitality of Dunvegan will long live in my recollection, and I am not a little flattered by a token which infers that my visit was not forgotten by the Lady of the castle. I venture to send (what has long delayed this letter) a copy of a poem which owes its best passages to MacLeod’s kindness and taste in directing me to visit the extraordinary scenery between his country and Strathaird, which rivals in grandeur and desolate sublimity anything that the Highlands can produce. The volume should have reached you in a quarto shape, but while I sought an opportunity of sending it, behold the quartos disappeared, and I was obliged to wait for the second impression, of which I now send a copy. I shall be proud and barmy if it serves to amuse a leisure hour at Dunvegan. It has had one good consequence to the author, that it has served to replenish the purse with which the Lad'* MacLeod presented him. Yet he has so much the spirit of the old Bard, that he values the purse more than the contents. Should MacLeod and you ever come to Edinburgh, I will scarce forgive you unless you let such a hermit as I am know of your living in the neighbourhood of liis recess, and I would have particular pleasure in endeavouring to show you anything that might interest you. I do not despair of (what would give me the most sincere pleasure) again being a guest at Dunvegan. My eldest girl sings ‘‘Cathail gu la” —excuse Saxon spelling,—and 1 hope to send you in a few weeks a very curious treatise on the second sight, published (not for sale) from a manuscript in 1691 which fell into my hands. Hector Macdonald has promised me the means to send it. I beg my respectful compliments to Miss MacLeod, my kindest remembrances to the chieftain, and my best wishes to the little tartan chief and nursery.—Believe me, with much respect, Dear Madam (for I will not sajr

Mrs MacLeod, and Lady MaoLiod is out of fashion), Your honoured and obliged and truly grateful, Walter Scoit. Edinburgh, 3rd March, 1610. Probably no more characteristic or genial letter of Scott's exists. He never visited the castle again, but his friendship with the MacLeods is borne witness to by many letters at Dunvegan, preserved with pious care.—From "The Misty Isle of Skye," by J. A. MacCulloch.