Marmion

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Title: Marmion
Author: Sir Walter Scott
Release Date: February, 2004 [EBook #5077]
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one year ahead of schedule]
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0. START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK, MARMION
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This EBook of Marmion: A Tale of Flodden Field by Sir Walter Scott
was scanned, proofed and formatted by Sandra Laythorpe,
[email protected]
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MARMION:
A TALE OF FLODDEN FIELD
IN SIX CANTOS

BY
SIR WALTER SCOTT
EDITED
WITH
INTRODUCTION AND NOTES
BY THOMAS BAYNE
EDITOR'S PREFACE.
I. SCOTT AT ASHESTIEL.
Sir Walter Scott's love of the country induced him, after his marriage in
1797, to settle in a cottage at the pretty village of Lasswade, near
Edinburgh. Four years after leaving this district he took Mr. Morritt of
Rokeby to see the little dwelling, telling him that, though not worth
looking at, 'it was our first house when newly married, and many a
contrivance it had to make it
comfortable.' He then enumerated
various devices, by which he had secured for Mrs. Scott and himself
what seemed to both, at the time, additional convenience and elegance
in and about their home. His reminiscences culminated in an account of
an arch over the gate-way, which he had constructed by fastening
together the tops of two convenient willows and placing above them 'a
cross made of two sticks.' This is very beautiful and characteristic; and
there is much freshness and charm in the further picture of the young
cottagers rejoicing over the success of the arrangements. 'To be sure,'
Scott concluded, 'it is not much of a lion to show a stranger; but I
wanted to see it again myself, for I assure you after I constructed it,
Mamma (Mrs. Scott) and I both of us thought it so fine, we turned out
to see it by moonlight, and walked backwards from it to the
cottage-door in admiration of our own magnificence and its picturesque
effect.' It was his way to invest his circumstances with an interest over
and above what intrinsically belonged to them, and to prompt his
friends to a share in his delight.

When, in 1804, Scott was appointed Sheriff of Selkirkshire, a condition
attaching to his post was that he should reside during part of the year
within the bounds of his sheriffdom. He then removed from Lasswade,
and settled at Ashestiel on the Tweed, seven miles from Selkirk. This is
his own account of the new home:--
'We found a delightful retirement, by my becoming the tenant of my
intimate friend and cousin-german, Colonel Russell, in his mansion of
Ashestiel, which was unoccupied during his absence on military service
in India. The house was adequate to our accommodation, and the
exercise of a limited hospitality. The situation is uncommonly beautiful,
by the side of a fine river, whose streams are there very favourable for
angling, surrounded by the remains of natural woods, and by hills
abounding in game. In point of society, according to the heartfelt
phrase of Scripture, we dwelt "amongst our own people"; and as the
distance from the metropolis was only thirty miles, we were not out of
reach of our Edinburgh friends, in which city we spent the terms of the
summer and winter Sessions of the Court, that is, five or six months in
the year.'
The functions of the Sheriff of Selkirkshire admitted of
considerable
leisure, and Scott settled at Ashestiel full of literary projects, as well as
heartily prepared to meet his new responsibilities and to add to his
numerous and valuable
friendships. An enterprise that early engaged
his attention was a complete edition of the British poets, but the
deliberations on the subject came to nothing except in so far as they
helped towards the preparation of Campbell's 'Specimens of the British
Poets,' which appeared in 1819. Writing Scott regarding