Catalogue of the Library at Abbotsford (1838)

A Facsimile of the 1838 Catalogue of the Library of Sir Walter Scott. " A Catalogue of any eminent author's Library is likely to be prized by persons familiar with his writings. In the present case, undoubtedly, the nature and extent of the Collection throw light, in a remarkable manner, on the history of its founder. The reader has before him a faithful inventory of the materials with which the National Poet and Novelist had stored his mind before he began his public career; and also very striking indications, both of the zeal with which he watched the progress of literary enterprise down to the close of his life, and of the homage paid to his genius and celebrity by his contemporaries." To these pertinent and well-expressed remarks of Mr. Lockhart's, on the peculiar species of interest attached to the Abbgtsford Library, the person to whom the charge of preparing this Catalogue was entrusted, takes the liberty of adding a few words as to its execution. The Collection not being formed upon a general plan, embracing all departments of human knowledge, but mainly confined to the two great heads of History and Belles-Lettres, it seemed unnecessary to exhibit its contents in the rigid form of a Catalogue raisonne, drawn up on any of the approved systems of bibliographical classification. The arrangement originally made under Sir Walter Scott's eye, has, therefore, remained unaltered; and the time thereby saved has been employed, it is hoped to greater advantage, in enlarging and perfecting the Index, which it has been the object of the compiler to render as full and comprehensive as possible. The idea of making Sir Walter Scott himself the annotator on the books of his Library, recommended itself the more readily to the compiler, as it seemed to him to form something like a substitute for the projected but abandoned Reliquiae Trottcosienses. (See Mr. Lockhart's Memoirs, Vol. vii. p. 218.) The references introduced with that view include the notices of every kind, whether reviewals, incidental criticisms and opinions, anecdotes, extracts, &c., which are to be found scattered throughout the voluminous series of his collected Works, as well as in the Memoirs of his Life. Of his own notes the compiler has been sparing, from a desire not to swell the size of the Volume unnecessarily. All the volumes in which Sir Walter had written manuscript notes have been carefully particularized. But of these notes very few have been extracted, as most of them possessing any literary or personal interest were found to be either already appropriated, (in substance at least) by himself, or inserted, verbatim, in the interesting pages of his biographer. In conclusion, the compiler hopes to receive that indulgence for whatever errors he may have committed, which those best acquainted with the nature of such undertakings are always the readiest to bestow. - Introduction