ate of the loan, tacked on its front. The
old bindings had obviously been retouched and regilt in the most
approved manner; the new, when the books were of any mark, were rich,
but never gaudy--a large proportion of blue morocco--all stamped with
his _device_ of the portcullis, and its motto, _clausus tutus
ero_--being an anagram of his name in Latin. Every case and shelf was
accurately lettered, and the works arranged systematically; history
and biography on one side--poetry and the drama on another--law books
and dictionaries behind his own chair. The only table was a massive
piece of furniture which he had had constructed on the model of one at
Rokeby, with a desk and all its appurtenances on either side, that an
amanuensis might work opposite to him when he chose; and with small
tiers of drawers, reaching all round to the floor. The top displayed a
goodly array of session papers, and on the desk below were, besides
the MS. at which he was working, sundry parcels of letters, proof
sheets, and so forth, all neatly done up with red tape. His own
writing apparatus was a very handsome old box, richly carved, lined
with crimson velvet, and containing ink-bottles, taper-stand, etc., in
silver--the whole in such order that it might have come from the
silversmith's {p.241} window half an hour before. Besides his own
huge elbow-chair, there were but two others in the room, and one of
these seemed, from its position, to be reserved exclusively for the
amanuensis. I observed, during the first evening I spent with him in
this _sanctum_, that while he talked, his hands were hardly ever
idle--sometimes he folded letter-covers--sometimes he twisted paper
into matches, performing both tasks with great mechanical expertness
and nicety; and when there was no loose paper fit to be so dealt with,
he snapped his fingers, and the noble Maida aroused himself from his
lair on the hearth-rug, and laid his head across his master's knees,
to be caressed and fondled. The room had no space for pictures except
one, an original portrait of Claverhouse, which hung over the
chimney-piece, with a Highland target on either side, and broadswords
and dirks (each having its own story), disposed star-fashion round
them. A few green tin-boxes, such as solicitors keep title-deeds in,
were piled over each other on one side of the window; and on the top
of these lay a fox's tail, mounted on an antique silver handle,
wherewith, as often as he had occasion to ta