Meeting Hook

Author Theodore Hook, who we’ve written on previously, passed on August 24, 1841.  Scott met Hook on at least one occasion, which he recorded in his journal:

 April 21 [1828].—Dining is the principal act of the day in London. We took ours at Kensington with Croker. There were Theodore Hook and other witty men...

Scott valued Hook's abilities, as is attested to in a letter to Daniel Terry, written in March 1825.  The letter concerns his publishing efforts '...I need not add that Theodore Hook's assistance will be
impayable. On the whole, my apprehension is for want of money in the outset. Should you either start with marked success, or have friends sufficient to carry on at some disadvantage for a season or two, I should have little fear; but great attention and regularity will be necessary. You are no great accountant yourself, any more than I am,—but I trust Mr Yates is. All rests with prudence and management. Murray is making a fortune for his sister and family on the very bargain which Siddons, poor fellow, could not have sustained for two years longer...'

Drumlanrig

August 24 (1826).—This morning lunched at Parkgate under a very heavy shower, and then pushed on to Drumlanrig, where I was pleased to see the old Castle, and old servants solicitous and anxious to be civil. What visions does not this magnificent old house bring back to me! The exterior is much improved since I first knew it. It was then in the state of dilapidation to which it had been abandoned by the celebrated old Q.,[324] and was indeed scarce wind and water tight. Then the whole wood had been felled, and the outraged castle stood in the midst of waste and desolation, excepting a few scattered old stumps, not judged worth the cutting. Now, the whole has been, ten or twelve years since, completely replanted, and the scattered seniors look as graceful as fathers surrounded by their children. The face of this immense estate has been scarcely less wonderfully changed. The scrambling tenants, who held a precarious tenure of lease under the Duke of Queensberry, at the risk (as actually took place) of losing their possession at his death, have given room to skilful and labouring men, working their farms regularly, and enjoying comfortable houses and their farms at a fair rent, which is enough to forbid idleness, but not enough to overpower industry.

From Walter Scott's Journal.  Drumlanrig was a Douglas stronghold, now in the hands of the Duke and Duchess of Buccleuch and Queensberry.  Building commenced around 1684.  Click on picture for link to source.

St. Bartholomew's Day

August 24th is associated with the apostle St. Bartholomew, who was flayed alive while on mission in Armenia. The feast of St. Bartholomew's day appears in several of Scott's novel's, including Kenilworth, Peveril of the Peak, and Quentin Durward. St. Bartholomew's symbol is the knife, in remembrance of Bartholomew's horrible death. It is an ill portent, when the day appears in Scott's stories.

There was also the St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre, which began on 8/24/1572. The initial violence occurred in Paris, where Catholic (Queen Mother) Catherine de Medici's daughter Marguerite was to be married to Huguenot Prince Henry of Navarre. Thousands of Huguenots were killed (est. 8k - 20k) in the on-going slaughter, which persisted into September of that year.