A rumor attributed it to Scott, who
was always masquerading; at least, it was said, he might have revised it,
and should have the credit of its exquisite style. This led to a
sprightly correspondence between Lady Littleton, the daughter of Earl
Spencer, one of the most accomplished and lovely women of England, and
Benjamin Rush, Minister to the Court of St. James, in the course of which
Mr. Rush suggested the propriety of giving out under his official seal
that Irving was the author of "Waverley." "Geoffrey Crayon is the most
fashionable fellow of the day," wrote the painter Leslie. Lord Byron, in
a letter to Murray, underscored his admiration of the author, and
subsequently said to an American, "His Crayon,--I know it by heart; at
least, there is not a passage that I cannot refer to immediately."
And afterwards he wrote to Moore, "His writings are my delight." There
seemed to be, as some one wrote, "a kind of conspiracy to hoist him over
the heads of his contemporaries." Perhaps the most satisfactory evidence
of his popularity was his publisher's enthusiasm. The publisher is an
infallible contemporary barometer.
It is worthy of note that an American should have captivated public
attention at the moment when Scott and Byron were the idols of the
English-reading world.
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