llor, and Jeffrey and Cockburn in their present stations! I
am afraid that the spirit of reform goes at present beyond the limits to
which even the Government will go--and but for the large stock of good
sense and feeling which I think yet pervades the country, I should
tremble for the future."

[441] _Merry Wives_, Act I. Sc. 1.

[442] _Stulko_ or _Stulk_ (? _Stocaire_, in Irish), a word formerly in
common use among the Irish, signifying an idle, lazy, good-for-nothing
fellow.

[443] Mary Campbell, Lady Ruthven, for whom the picture was painted, was
not only the friend of Scott, but she held relations more or less close
with nearly every one famous in Art and Literature during the greater
part of the nineteenth century. No mean artist herself, and though,
perhaps, not a clever letter-writer, she had among her correspondents
some of the most brilliant men of her day. She survived all her early
friends, but had the gift of being attractive to the young, and for
three generations was the delight of their children and grandchildren.
Those who were privileged to share in the refined hospitality of Winton,
never forgot either the picturesque old house (the supposed Ravenswood
Castle of the _Bride of Lammermoor_), or its venerable mistress as she
sat of an evening in her unique drawing-room, the walls of which were
adorned with pictures of Grecian temple and landscape, her own handiwork
in days long gone by when she was styled by her friends Queen of Athens.
Her conversation, after she was ninety, was fresh and vigorous; and,
despite blindness and imperfect hearing, she kept herself well
acquainted with the affairs of the day. The last great speech in
Parliament, or the newest _bon mot_, were equally acceptable and equally
relished. Her sense of humour and fun made her, at times, forget her own
sufferings, and her splendid memory enabled her to while away many a
sleepless hour by repeating long passages from the Bible or Milton. The
former she had so much in her heart that it was scarcely possible to
believe she was not reading from the Book. Above all was her truly
divine gift of charity, the practical application of which, in her
every-day life, was only bounded by her means.

It was said of her by one who knew her well--

"She lived to a great age, dispensing kindness and benevolence to the
last, and cheered in the sore infirmities of her later years by the love
of friends of all ranks, and all parties of all ages.