ell, or a little before,
and that the artist employed (like the {p.171} General, who
told his soldiers to fight bravely against the Pope, since
they were Venetians before they were Christians) had more
professional than religious zeal, and did not even,
according to the practice of the time, think it necessary to
sweep away Popery with the besom of destruction.[66] I am
here on a stolen visit of two days, and find my mansion
gradually enlarging. Thanks to Mr. Atkinson (who found out a
practical use for our romantic theory), it promises to make
a comfortable station for offering your Lordship and Lady
Montagu a pilgrim's meal, when you next visit Melrose Abbey,
and that without any risk of your valet (who I recollect is
a substantial person) sticking between the wall of the
parlor and the backs of the chairs placed round the table.
This literally befell Sir Harry Macdougal's fat butler, who
looked like a ship of the line in the loch at Bowhill,
altogether unlike his master, who could glide wherever a
weasel might make his way. Mr. Atkinson has indeed been more
attentive than I can express, when I consider how valuable
his time must be.[67] We are attempting no castellated
conundrums to rival those Lord Napier used to have executed
in sugar, when he was Commissioner, and no cottage neither,
but an irregular somewhat--like an old English hall, in
which your squire of L500 a year used to drink his ale in
days of yore.

[Footnote 65: Lady Montagu was the daughter of the late
Lord Douglas by his first marriage with Lady Lucy
Graham, daughter of the second Duke of Montrose.]

[Footnote 66: Lord Montagu's house at Ditton Park, near
Windsor, had recently been destroyed by fire--and the
ruins revealed some niches with antique candlesticks,
etc., belonging to a domestic chapel that had been
converted to other purposes from the time, I believe, of
Henry VIII.]

[Footnote 67: Mr. Atkinson, of St. John's Wood, was the
architect of Lord Montagu's new mansion at Ditton, as
well as the artist ultimately employed in arranging
Scott's interior at Abbotsford.]

I am making considerable plantations (that is, considering),