reasonably prosperous and happy one. Possessed of some private means, he had never known the res angusta domi, which is almost proverbially the lot of those, who, as he did, forsake the liberal-handed Themis for that occupation which, as Sir Walter Scott said, might serve as a stick, but should never be relied on as a crutch. Literature was to Lockhart not unremunerative, and his editorship produced him a regular and liberal income. He also, as a reward for his long and efficient cooperation with the Conservative party, in very trying times, enjoyed the office of auditor of the Duchy of Lancaster, the emoluments of which amounted to some £400 per annum, and to which he had been appointed in 1843 by his personal friend, Lord Granville Somerset, the Chancellor of the Duchy.
In the interests of bibliography I must note a comparatively unknown and privately printed volume:—Ballads: Songs of the Edinburgh Yeomanry Squadron from 1820 to 1823. Edinburgh, small 8vo, 1825.
These pieces were written by J. G. Lockhart and P. F. Tytler, as is known to literary amateurs in the northern capital; but a few copies only being printed for the amusement of private friends, it is not to be wondered at that the slender volume has escaped the biographers of the respective authors.
Again I read:—
"In the year 1844, Mr. Gibson Lockhart was commanded to write 'An account of the Royal Chapel in the Savoy.' His short pamphlet was printed at the cost of Her most Gracious Majesty the Queen, and was destined only for private circulation."[1]
More than a passing word should be said of Lockhart as a poet. His sympathy for the chivalrous character of the Spanish nation, and its patriotic resistance to the encroaching power of the first Napoleon, led him early to the study of its language and literature, of which he never ceased to be a passionate admirer. His spirited translations from the ancient Spanish minstrelsy, preserved in the different Cancioneros and Romanceros of the sixteenth century, were among his earliest contributions to Blackwood. These were first published in substantive form, in 1823, 4to; and have since passed through many editions. Many fine scattered pieces of Lockhart occur to the mind,—such as "Captain Paton's Lament," "Napoleon" and others; and I cannot refrain from citing as a specimen the following exquisitely pathetic fragment, for the publication of which in the Scotsman newspaper (1863), the public is indebted to his old and esteemed friend the Honourable Mrs. Norton:—
"When youthful hope has fled,
Of loving take thy leave;
Be constant to the dead—
The dead cannot deceive.
"Sweet modest flowers of spring,
How fleet your balmy day!
And man's brief year can bring
No secondary May—
"No earthly burst again
Of gladness out of gloom
Fond hope and vision vain,
Ungrateful to the tomb.
- ↑ Memorials of the Savoy: the Palace, the Hospital, the Chapel. By the Rev. W. T. Loftie, B.A.; F.S.A. London. Macmillan, 1878, post 8vo.
