Language Arts & Disciplines

Archibald Constable and His Literary Correspondents Volume 2

Name: Archibald Constable and His Literary Correspondents Volume 2
Author: Thomas Constable
ISBN: 9781235831317

by Thomas Constable

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Synopsis

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated.1873 Excerpt: ... CHAPTER V. David Constable. There is, I trust, no presumption in the belief that those of my readers whose patience has carried them through the preceding Chapters of this work may desire to leam something of the domestic circumstances of my father, to whom--if it be true that a man may be known by his friends--a high place in the social thermometer will readily be accorded. In 1808 he had already for several years resided with his family at Craigcrook, a picturesque old mansion nestling at the foot of the northern slope of Corstorphine Hill, about two miles west from Edinburgh. There are country-houses--I myself know more than one such--whose doors stand always open, whose very walls and windows seem, like the inmates, to have an everpresent sense of the duty and the joy of hospitality, inviting even to the passer-by, and irresistible to those who have once been privileged to enter. Such emphatically for fully seventy years Craigcrook has been, as those who knew the place during its occupation by Lord Jeffrey and his genial successor1 will readily attest. 1 John Hunter, Esq., LL.D., Auditor of the Court of Session. Dr. Hunter was a man of wide culture, correct literary taste, generous and genial nature, and most tender heart. Though much was done in later years, both for outward beauty and extended indoor comfort, the old house had great attractions even when my father lived there: it welcomed many a guest distinguished in the literature of this country, and there were few eminent foreign visitors to Edinburgh who did not bring an introduction to its most successful publisher. The ordinary inmates of Craigcrook at the time of which I write, were my parents, their six children, my father's honoured mother, and not unfrequently our dear old grandfather Willi...