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The account of the year's work which preceded "Guy Ma
On November 7 of this laborious year, 1814, Scott was writing to Mr. Joseph Train, thanking him for a parcel of legendary lore, including the Galloway tale of the wandering astrologer and a budget of gypsy traditions. Falling in the rich soil of Scott's imagination, the tale of the astrologer yielded a name and an opening to "Guy Ma
In these circumstances, far from inspiring, was "Guy Ma
Another possible source of the plot - a more romantic origin, certainly - is suggested by Mr. Robert Chambers in "Illustrations of the Author of 'Waverley.'" A Maxwell of Glenormiston, "a religious and bigoted recluse," sent his only son and heir to a Jesuit College in Flanders, left his estate in his brother's management, and died. The wicked uncle alleged that the heir was also dead. The child, ignorant of his birth, grew up, ran away from the Jesuits at the age of sixteen, enlisted in the French army, fought at Fontenoy, got his colours, and, later, landed in the Moray Firth as a French officer in 1745. He went through the campaign, was in hiding in Lochaber after Drumossie, and in making for a Galloway port, was seized, and imprisoned in Dumfries. Here an old woman of his father's household recognized him by "a mark which she remembered on his body." His cause was taken up by friends; but the usurping uncle died, and Sir Robert Maxwell recovered his estates without a lawsuit. This anecdote is quoted from the "New Monthly Magazine," June, 1819. There is nothing to prove that Scott was acquainted with this adventure. Scott's own experience, as usual, supplied him with hints for his characters. The phrase of Dominie Sampson's father, "Please God, my bairn may live to wag his pow in a pulpit," was uttered in his own hearing. There was a Bluegown, or Bedesman, like Edie Ochiltree, who had a son at Edinburgh College. Scott was kind to the son, the Bluegown asked him to di