Announcing the Author of the Waverley Novels

‘April 11 [1829]--Meadowbank breakfasted with us, and then went on to Edinburgh, pressed by bad news of his family. His wife (daughter of my early patron, President Blair) is very ill; indeed I fear fatally so. I am sorry to think it is so. When the King was here she was the finest woman I saw at Holyrood…’

Alexander Macanochie of Meadowbank and Walter Scott crossed paths many times, including the instance recorded in Scott’s journal on April 11, 1829.  According to the website of The University of Glasgow, where he served as Dean of Faculties between 1845 and 1847, Lord Meadowbank announced in an 1827 speech that Sir Walter Scott was the author of the Waverley novels. 

Battle of Basque Roads

The Battle of Basque Roads took place this day, April 11, in the year 1809.  Basque Roads is a bay on the west coast of France where the British and French were facing off during the Napoleonic Wars.  The British under Admiral James Gambier and Captain Thomas Cochrane won this affair.  A precurser to the battle involved a number of French ships that Gambier chased into the Basque Roads, after they escaped from Brest.  This event was reported in The Edinburgh Annual Register (ed. Walter Scott) dated March 9, 1809.  It was Captain Cochrane that successfully led the attack on the ships once in Basque Roads.

'ESCAPE OF A SQUADRON FROM BREST, INTO BASQUE ROADS.—Intelligence has been received at the Admiralty, of a squadron of the enemy's ships having lately eluded the vigilance of our blockading force, and got out of Brest. The force which thus escaped is understood to have consisted of eight sail. Their object is said to have been to surprise our small squadron off Rochefort, and then to proceed to the West Indies. The enemy has along his coast signal stations, or telegraphs, by which intelligence is quickly communicated from north to south; and it is believed that they had been informed in this manner that our small squadron off Rochefort was in the habit of lying at anchor with its sails down. Accordingly, when our fleet was blown off Brest, they slipped out, and ran directly for Rochefort. Meanwhile the Naiad, our look-out frigate off Rochefort, descrying the enemy, made the signal to Admiral Stopford, who instantly shifted his station into another part of the bay. The enemy, as soon as they arrived off Rochefort, ran for the position in which their telegraph had taught them to expect our squadron; and not finding it there, conceived it had quitted its station. They then put into Basque Roads, between Rochefort and Rochelle. The promptitude with which our naval affairs are administered soon reinforced Admiral Stopford with three more sail of the line ; and these heroes, who came with eight sail of the line to attack four, did not venture out with eleven sail of the line, because Admiral Stopford was before Rochefort with seven. Lord Gambier had dispatched Admiral Duckworth after the enemy. His lordship is arrived at Plymouth.




Enemy's force in Basque Roads ---


One 3-decker, ten 2-deckers, one 50 gun ship, and four frigates.


At Sable D'Olonne—Three frigates.


British force with Admiral Stopford—Three sail of the line, four frigates, and one brig.


With Captain Beresford, and nearly in sight of Admiral Stopford— Four sail of the line and one frigate.


It is expected that an attempt will be made to destroy these ships in Basque Roads. All the line of battle ships in the Downs were ordered on Monday to sail with all possible expedition to Plymouth ; and an order was received at Plymouth on Saturday, for all the line of battle skips there to put to sea immediately. The Black Joke lugger, Parthian, and Weazle schooner, sailed lately from Plymouth, to warn all the vessels they might meet with of the sailing of the above squadron from, Brest. They may now return quietly into port.'

Darien Scheme

On April 11, 1700, the Scottish settlement of Darien was abandoned.  The Darien Company began as the first large-scale Scottish joint-stock company.  Its formation was encouraged by the passage of the Act, William and Mary 1693, which included a chapter (34) "for the encouraging of foreign trade".  This act effectively promised William's protection for such endeavors.  Darien was the brainchild of financier William Paterson.

Paterson attempted, and failed, to obtain funding for his proposed trading colony on the Isthmus of Darien (Panama) in England and Holland.  Eventually, he turned to his native Scotland, where the project found substantial interest.  Scotland was a poor country at this time.  According to bank historian Andrew Kerr, Scotland's total currency did not exceed L800,000.  The Darien Company, after initial success in Scotland, reached a subscribed funding of approximately L400,000, half of which was paid up.  This was clearly an enormous investment for a Scottish enterprise.

The first ships bound for Darien left on July 26, 1698; a flotilla of 5 well armed vessels.  Two further expeditions were to follow.  Far from protection, the colonists found that rival English colonies in the West Indies and Americas were forbidden to sell food to the Darien group.  Darien was attacked by a much larger Spanish force, and finally the colonists were forced to leave Panama.

Several Scottish writers have commented on this catastrophe, including Tobias Smollett: "The clamor in Scotland increased against the ministry, who had disowned their company, and in a great measure defeated their design, from which they had promised themselves such heaps of treasure.... At Madeira they took in a supply of wine, and then returned to Crab Island, in the neighborhood of. St. Thomas, lying between Santa Cruz and Porto Rico. Their design was to take possession of this little island; but when they entered the road, they saw a large tent pitched upon the strand, and the Danish colors flying. Finding themselves anticipated in this quarter, they directed their course to the coast of Darien. . . . "


Regarding Darien, Walter Scott commented that "Nothing could be heard throughout Scotland but the language of grief and of resentment. Indemnification, redress, revenge, were demanded by every mouth, and each hand seemed ready to vouch for the justice of the claim. For many years no such universal feeling had occupied the Scottish people."