nce
came the rest of the plot,--the tale of the long-lost heir, and so on?
The true heir, "kept out of his own," and returning in disguise, has been
a favourite character ever since Homer sang of Odysseus, and probably
long before that. But it is just possible that Scott had a certain modern
instance in his mind. In turning over the old manuscript diary at
Branxholme Park (mentioned in a note to "Waverley"), the Editor lighted
on a singular tale, which, in the diarist's opinion, might have suggested
"Guy Mannering" to Sir Walter. The resemblance between the story of
Vanbeest Brown and the hero of the diarist was scanty; but in a long
letter of Scott's to Lady Abercorn (May 21, 1813), a the Editor finds Sir
Walter telling his correspondent the very narrative recorded in the
Branxholme Park diary. Singular things happen, Sir Walter says; and he
goes on to describe a case just heard in the court where he is sitting as
Clerk of Sessions. Briefly, the anecdote is this: A certain Mr.
Carruthers of Dormont had reason to suspect his wife's fidelity. While
proceedings for a divorce were pending, Mrs. Carruthers bore a daughter,
of whom her husband, of course, was legally the father. But he did not
believe in the relationship, and sent the infant girl to be brought up,
in ignorance of her origin and in seclusion, among the Cheviot Hills.
Here she somehow learned the facts of her own story. She married a Mr.
Routledge, the son of a yeoman, and "compounded" her rights (but not
those of her issue) for a small sung of ready money, paid by old Dormont.
She bears a boy; then she and her husband died in poverty. Their son was
sent by a friend to the East Indies, and was presented with a packet of
papers, which he left unopened at a lawyer's. The young man made a
fortune in India, returned to Scotland, and took a shooting in
Dumfriesshire, near bormont, his ancestral home. He lodged at a small inn
hard by, and the landlady, struck by his name, began to gossip with him
about his family history. He knew nothing of the facts which the landlady
disclosed, but, impressed by her story, sent for and examined his
neglected packet of papers. Then he sought legal opinion, and was
advised, by President Blair, that he had a claim worth presenting on the
estate of Dormont. "The first decision of the cause," writes Scott, "was
favourable." The true heir celebrated his legal victory by a
dinner-party, and his friends saluted him as "Dormont." Next mornin