living people, all contribute to the delightful variety of the scene. Sir Mungo Malagrowther, as some thought, was suggested by Charles Kirkpatrick Sharpe, but it is very improbable that Scott had that old and false friend. in his mind, and he himself speaks of another model. Scott did not deal in such treacherous liberties, and, except for a bitter tongue, it is not easy to see what in Sir Mungo resembles the singular old antiquary. Sydney Smith says that "the story is execrable." Allowing for the necessity of winding it up somehow and dealing out poetical justice, it is not easy to find fault with the story. The ghost in George Heriot's house, the mysterious white lady, excites a great deal of curiosity, and keeps the attention alive at the most difficult moment. The explanation of her mystery may not be very satisfactory or plausible, but her existence. has served its turn. We are more curious still on a point where curiosity can never be satisfied. How would Scott have handled such a novel character, for him, as the Fair Venetian in the "Private Letters ? The scenes in Alsatia are a distinct gain to literature, a pearl rescued from the unread mass of Shadwell. The whole romance has vivacity; it bustles on, and, if the dénouement lacks repose and the explanation plausibility, Scott disliked dénouements and explanations as much as any highly cultivated novelist of the new school. For the weakness of the public mind he gave them these things, as Shakspeare did in his romantic comedies. Critics might pick the obvious holes, but he was not writing for critics; too busy in providing food for them to have time for considering whether they would swallow or reject it. "I cannot form a plot" his people took their own ways, and had to be brought into the conventional group at the close by a wrench. In "Nigel" the wrench is certainly rather sudden and violent. : Sydney Smith, in a brief critical letter to Constable, places "Nigel "not in the highest rank, but considers it far better than "The Pirate," which he underrated. He rejoiced in the absence, for the first time, he said, of Meg Merrilies. "James is quite excellent wherever he appears. I do not dislike Alsatia. The miser's daughter is very good, so is the murder. The gentlemanlike, light, witty conversation always (as in all his novels) very bad. On the whole, the novel will do, it keeps up the reputation of the author." Smith writes as if there were many such authors, as if Scott were one in a herd. Constable probably fumed a good deal over these cavalier epistles from "Foston, York." The two chief Reviews were not very benevolent. The "Edinburgh Review" said: "Nigel' certainly presents us with a very brilliant, and we believe a very faithful, sketch of the manners and habits of the time, but we cannot say that it either embodies them in a very interesting story, or supplies us with any rich variety of particular characters. Except King James himself and Richie Moniplies, there is but little individuality in the persons represented." The underplot is "of a more extravagant and less happy structure.” The character of the hero "is more than usually a failure." In the scene with Heriot in the Tower "he reminds us more of Joseph Surface and his French milliner than of the high-minded son of a stern puritanical Baron of Scotland." But "prodigious strength of writing distinguishes the part of Mrs. Martha Trapbois," though the reviewer had just before denied merit to any character save the King and Richie Moniplies. He now admits that the Templar and Jin Vin are "excellent sketches." Sir Mungo Malagrowther wearies. this unhappy critic. "The details are interesting, and little fated to be remembered "an unlucky prophecy. The "Quarterly Review" detected mannerism in the use of a law-suit as basis of the plot, in the "buffeting" of the passive hero, in the risk of execution which he runs, and in the killing of the "active hero " usually known as the villain. The dinner at George Heriot's does not satisfy the "Time-test"; the characters meet at noon, in April, yet Nigel needs a linkboy to guide him home after the meal. "Indolence or timidity" prevents Scott from describing Burbage in "Richard III." when Dalgarno takes Nigel to the play. The reviewer does not like Alsatia, his noble nature is unacquainted with such scenes. Captain Colepepper is "trite and uninteresting." "The narrative" (which the "Edinburgh Review" called "simple") "is perplexed and unintelligible beyond the author's wont." The machinery of the mortgage is wrongly used. "The question never could have arisen." Surely Scott knew Scots law, we may reply. Nigel is "less interesting than even his most insipid predecessors. We doubt whether such a being as Lord Dalgarno ever existed." Margaret repeats the part of Mysie Happer. The King, Moniplies, and Sir Mungo "are portraits of the highest merit." The novel is "among the last to which we shall recur. 99 September 1893. ANDREW LANG. INTRODUCTION TO THE FORTUNES OF NIGEL. But why should lordlings all our praise engross? POPE. HAVING, in the tale of the Heart of Mid-Lothian, succeeded in some degree in awakening an interest in behalf of one devoid of those accomplishments which belong to a heroine almost by right, I was next tempted to choose a hero upon the same unpromising plan; and as worth of character, goodness of heart, and rectitude of principle, were necessary to one who laid no claim to high birth, romantic sensibility, or any of the usual accomplishments of those who strut through the pages of this sort of composition, I made free with the name of a person who has left the most magnificent proofs of his benevolence and charity that the capital of Scotland has to display. To the Scottish reader little more need be said than that the man alluded to is George Heriot. But for those south of the. Tweed, it may be necessary to add, that the person so named was a wealthy citizen of Edinburgh, and the King's goldsmith, who followed James to the English capital, and was so successful in his profession, as to die, in 1624, extremely wealthy for that period. He had no children; and after making a full provision for such relations as might have claims. upon him, he left the residue of his fortune to establish an hospital, in which the sons of Edinburgh freemen are gratuitously brought up and educated for the station to which their talents may recommend them, and are finally enabled to enter life under respectable auspices. The Hospital in which this charity is maintained is a noble quadrangle of the Gothic order, and as ornamental to the city as a building, as the manner in which the youths are provided for and educated, renders it useful to the community as an institution. To the honour of those who have the management, (the Magistrates and Clergy of Edinburgh,) the funds of the Hospital have increased so much under their care, that it now supports and educates one hundred and thirty youths annually, many of whom have done honour to their country in different situations. The founder of such a charity as this may be reasonably supposed to have walked through life with a steady pace, and an observant eye, neglecting no opportunity of assisting those who were not possessed of the experience necessary for their own guidance. In supposing his efforts directed to the benefit of a young nobleman, misguided by the aristocratic haughtiness of his own time, and the prevailing tone of selfish luxury which seems more peculiar to ours, as well as the seductions of pleasure which are predominant in all, some amusement, or even some advantage, might, I thought, be derived from the manner in which I might bring the exertions of this civic Mentor to bear in his pupil's behalf. I am, I own, no great believer in the moral utility to be derived from fictitious compositions; yet, if in any case a word spoken in season may be of advantage to a young person, it must surely be when it calls upon him to attend to the voice of principle and |