Jupiter Carlyle

The Reverend Alexander Carlyle was born on January 26, 1772.  Known as Jupiter, from his striking profile, Carlyle rose to a very high position in the Church of Scotland.  From his autobiography comes the following, concerning Sir Walter Scott:

‘Sir Walter Scott has left a colloquial sketch of him, which, though of the briefest, is broad and colossal as a scrap from the pencil of Michael Angelo. He is discoursing of the countenances of poets; some that represented the divinity of genius, and others that signally failed in that respect. " Well," said he, " the grandest demigod I ever saw was Dr Carlyle, minister of Musselburgh, commonly called Jupiter Carlyle, from having sat more than once for the king of gods and men to Gavin Hamilton ; and a shrewd clever old carle was he, no doubt, but no more a poet than his precentor."…’

Francis Jeffrey

Francis Jeffrey was the first official editor of the Edinburgh Review, which began in 1802.  Basically concurrent with Sir Walter Scott, Jeffrey was born in 1773, and died on January 26, 1850.  Jeffrey knew Scott from the Speculative Society, which they were both members of.  But knowing Scott didn't prevent Scott from canceling his subscription to the Review after Jeffrey wrote an article critical of the British military effort in Spain.

The April 1805 Review contained a criticism of Scott's "The Lay of the Last Minstrel", beginning:

'We consider this poem as an attempt to transfer the refinements of modern poetry to the matter and the manner of the ancient metrical romance. The author, enamoured of the lofty visions of chivalry, and partial to the strains in which they were formerly embodied, seems to have employed all the resources of his genius in endeavouring to recall them to the favour and admiration of the public; and in adapting to the taste of modern readers a species of poetry which was once the delight of the courtly, but has long ceased to gladden any other eyes than those of the scholar and the antiquary. This is a romance, therefore, composed by a minstrel of the present day; or such a romance as we may suppose would have been written in modern times, if that style of composition had continued to be cultivated, and partaken consequently of the improvements which every branch of literature has received since the time of its desertion....'

James Skene

January 26 (1831).—I have Skene and Mr. M'Culloch of Ardwell, to the relief of my spirits and the diminishing of my time. Mr. Laidlaw joined us at dinner.


Bitter cold.

Walter Scott and James Skene had been friends for about 35 years when this journal entry was made.  It was toward the end of Walter's life.  According to Lockhart, Scott sought out Skene through a mutual friend, to help in his acquisition of German subjects. Skene had lived several years of his youth in Saxony.

One of Skene's contributions to Scott's work was material for Quentin Durward, which he acquired during a trip to France in 1822.  This material included notes and drawings of various landscapes, buildings, etc.