6 and Gladstone, to the latter of whom he dedicated his edition of Lockhart's Abridgment of the Life.’* Several passages in Morley's Gladstone' show how strong and genuine was the bond between them. 'Hope especially had influence over me more than, I think, any other person at any period of my life. My affection for him during those latter years before his change was, I may almost say, intense; there was hardly anything, I think, which he could have asked me to do, and which I would not have done.' When Hope Scott joined the Roman Church, Gladstone, the day after, made a codicil to his will, striking him out as executor. Friendship did not die, however, but only lived as it lives between those who inhabit separate worlds.' A man of great wealth,† Mr. Hope Scott never spared his means when the interests of religion In 1868 Gladstone urged Mr. Hope Scott to produce an abridged version of Lockhart, ignorant, apparently, of Lockhart's own Abridgment. And in 1871 Hope Scott asks leave to dedicate a reprint of it to Gladstone as 'one among those who think that Scott still deserves to be remembered, not as an author only, but as a noble and vigorous man.' In addition to Abbotsford, Mr. Hope Scott owned the estate of Dorlin, on Loch Shiel; the Villa Madona, Hyères, South France; and property in County Mayo. were in question. As an example of his Christian zeal and affection for Romanism, it may be stated that he built the Church of Our Lady and St. Andrew at Galashiels at a cost of £10,000, also the Chapel at Selkirk, the Church on Loch Shiel, and the Church of the Immaculate Conception at Kelso. He helped churches and schools and convents all over the country. Following his death in 1873 (Newman preaching his funeral sermon), Abbotsford went to Mary Monica* (named from a favourite saint). So we are thankful that there is still a Scott-one of Sir Walter's blood-his greatgranddaughter, Lady of Abbotsford.' * Mrs. Maxwell Scott has taken a deep interest in all the affairs of Abbotsford. Literary in her leanings, quite a number of volumes have come from her pen: "The Making of Abbotsford, and Incidents in Scottish History'; 'Abbotsford and its Treasures'; 'The Tragedy of Fotheringay'; 'Life of Henry Schomberg Kerr, Sailor and Jesuit`; ‘Joan of Arc,' and many articles besides, with the Prefaces to the 'Melrose' edition of the Novels. CHAPTER IX THE TREASURES OF ABBOTSFORD 6 TOWARDS the close of his life, at the suggestion of Cadell (to keep him from more serious tasks), Scott commenced the writing of a descriptive catalogue of the most curious articles in his library and museum-his 'gabions' he called them. This, which he entitled Reliquiæ Trottcosianæ-or the Gabions of the late Jonathan Oldbuck, Esq.,'thus assuming to himself some claim to be the original of the inimitable Laird of Monkbarnswas, unfortunately, never finished. The MS. is at Abbotsford, and has been partly printed in Harper's Magazine for April, 1889. As the writing shows, it is first in Scott's own hand, sadly cramped and shaky; then Laidlaw takes up the pen, but the work was soon abandoned for Count Robert,' the romance that was simmering in his brain. It is a thousand pities that Scott preferred 'Count Robert' to the gabions history. His mind, impaired by repeated shocks of paralysis, was quite unfitted for 167 |