imagined this," said Scott, "was _the Shakespeare of the Wabsters_,--

'Things out of hope are compass'd oft with vent'ring.'"[68]

[Footnote 68: Shakespeare's Poems--_Venus and Adonis_.]

The following note indicates the next stages of his progress:--

TO HIS GRACE THE DUKE OF BUCCLEUCH, DRUMLANRIG CASTLE.

SANQUHAR, 2 o'clock, July 30,[69] 1817.

From Ross, where the clouds on Benlomond are sleeping--
From Greenock, where Clyde to the Ocean is sweeping--
From Largs, where the Scotch gave the Northmen a drilling--
From Ardrossan, whose harbor cost many a shilling--
From Old Cumnock, where beds are as hard as a plank, sir--
From a chop and green pease, and a chicken in Sanquhar,
This eve, please the Fates, at Drumlanrig we anchor.

W. S.

[Footnote 69: [A misprint of some earlier date, possibly
the _16th_. See the more detailed account of Scott's
movements at this time, to be found in _Familiar
Letters_, vol. i. pp. 432-436.]]

The Poet and Captain Ferguson remained a week at Drumlanrig, and
thence repaired together to Abbotsford. By this time, the foundations
of that part of the existing house, which extends from the hall
westwards to the original courtyard, had been laid; and Scott now
found a new source of constant occupation in watching the proceedings
of his masons. He had, moreover, no lack of employment further
a-field,--for he was now negotiating with another neighboring
landowner for the purchase of an addition, of more consequence than
any he had hitherto {p.175} made, to his estate. In the course of the
autumn he concluded this matter, and became, for the price of L10,000,
proprietor of the lands of _Toftfield_,[70] on which there had
recently been erected a substantial mansion-house, fitted, in all
points, for the accommodation of a genteel family. This circumstance
offered a temptation which much quickened Scott's zeal for completing
his arrangement. The venerable Professor Ferguson had died a year
before; Captain Adam Ferguson was at home on half-pay; and Scott now
saw the means of securing for himself, henceforth, the immediate
neighborhood of the companion of his youth, and his amiable sisters.
Ferguson, who had written, from the lines of Torres Vedras, his hopes
of finding, when the war should be over, some sheltering cottage upon
t