"_I must home to work while it is called day; for the night cometh when
no man can work. I put that text, many a year ago, on my dial-stone; but
it often preached in vain_."--SCOTT'S _Life_, x. 88.]



"_I shall have a peep at Bothwell Castle if it is only for
half-an-hour. It is a place of many recollections to me, for I
cannot but think how changed I am from the same Walter Scott who
was so passionately ambitious of fame when I wrote the song of
Young Lochinvar at Bothwell; and if I could recall the same
feelings, where was I to find an audience so kind and patient, and
whose applause was at the same time so well worth having, as Lady
Dalkeith and Lady Douglas? When one thinks of these things, there
is no silencing one's regret but by Corporal Nym's philosophy_:
Things must be as they may. _One generation goeth and another
cometh_."--To LORD MONTAGU, _June 28th,_ 1825.




PREFACE.


On the death of Sir Walter Scott in 1832, his entire literary remains
were placed at the disposal of his son-in-law, Mr. John Gibson Lockhart.
Among these remains were two volumes of a Journal which had been kept by
Sir Walter from 1825 to 1832. Mr. Lockhart made large use of this
Journal in his admirable life of his father-in-law. Writing, however, so