to her leaving Scotland, in 1784, Joanna Baillie did not
return to her native kingdom, unless on occasional visits. On the
marriage of her brother to a sister of the Lord Chief-Justice Denman, in
1791, she passed some years at Colchester; but she subsequently fixed
her permanent habitation at Hampstead. Her mother died in 1806. At
Hampstead, in the companionship of her only sister, whose virtues she
has celebrated in one of her poems, and amidst the society of many of
the more distinguished literary characters of the metropolis, she
continued to enjoy a large amount of comfort and happiness. Her
pecuniary means were sufficiently abundant, and rendered her entirely
independent of the profits of her writings. Among her literary friends,
one of the most valued was Sir Walter Scott, who, being introduced to
her personal acquaintance on his visit to London in 1806, maintained
with her an affectionate and lasting intimacy. The letters addressed to
her are amongst the most interesting of his correspondence in his Memoir
by his son-in-law. He evinced his estimation of her genius by frequently
complimenting her in his works. In his "Epistle to William Erskine,"
which forms the introduction to the third canto of "Marmion," he thus
generously eulogises his gifted friend:--

"Or, if to touch such chord be thine,
Restore the ancient tragic line,
And emulate the notes that wrung
From the wild harp, which silent hung
By silver Avon's holy shore,
Till twice a hundred years roll'd o'er;
When she, the bold Enchantress, came,
With fearless hand and heart on flame!
From the pale willow snatch'd the treasure,
And swept it with a kindred measure,
Till Avon's swans, while rung the grove
With Montfort's hate and Basil's love,
Awakening at the inspired strain,
Deem'd their own Shakspeare lived again."

To Joanna, Scott inscribed his fragmental drama of "Macduff's Cross,"
which was included in a Miscellany published by her in 1823.

Though a penury of incident, and a defectiveness of skill in sustaining
an increasing interest to the close, will probably prevent any of her
numerous plays from being renewed on the stage, Joanna Baillie is well
entitled to the place assigned her as one of the first of modern
dramatists. In all her plays there are passages and scenes surpassed by
no contemporaneous dramatic writer. Her works are a magazine of eloquent
thoughts and glowing descriptions. S