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See also:FERRIER, SUSAN EDMONSTONE (1782–1854) , Scottish novelist, See also:born in See also:Edinburgh on the 7th of See also:September 1782, was the daughter of See also:- JAMES
- JAMES (Gr. 'IlrKw,l3or, the Heb. Ya`akob or Jacob)
- JAMES (JAMES FRANCIS EDWARD STUART) (1688-1766)
- JAMES, 2ND EARL OF DOUGLAS AND MAR(c. 1358–1388)
- JAMES, DAVID (1839-1893)
- JAMES, EPISTLE OF
- JAMES, GEORGE PAYNE RAINSFOP
- JAMES, HENRY (1843— )
- JAMES, JOHN ANGELL (1785-1859)
- JAMES, THOMAS (c. 1573–1629)
- JAMES, WILLIAM (1842–1910)
- JAMES, WILLIAM (d. 1827)
James Ferrier, for some years See also:factor to the See also:duke of See also:Argyll, and at one See also:- TIME (0. Eng. Lima, cf. Icel. timi, Swed. timme, hour, Dan. time; from the root also seen in " tide," properly the time of between the flow and ebb of the sea, cf. O. Eng. getidan, to happen, " even-tide," &c.; it is not directly related to Lat. tempus)
- TIME, MEASUREMENT OF
- TIME, STANDARD
time one of the clerks of the See also:court of session with See also:Sir See also:Walter See also:Scott. Her See also:mother was a See also:Miss See also:Coutts, the beautiful daughter of a See also:Forfarshire See also:farmer. James See also:Frederick Ferrier, noticed above, was Susan Ferrier's See also:nephew.
Miss Ferrier's first novel, See also:Marriage, was begun in See also:concert with a friend, Miss Clavering, a niece of the duke of Argyll; but this See also:lady only wrote a few pages, and Marriage, completed by Miss Ferrier as See also:early as 181o, appeared in 1818. It was followed in 1824 by The See also:Inheritance, a better constructed and more mature See also:work; and the last and perhaps best of her novels, Destiny, dedicated to Sir Walter Scott (who himself undertook to strike the bargain with the publisher Cadell), appeared in 1831. All these novels were published anonymously; but, with their See also:clever See also:portraiture of contemporary Scottish See also:life and See also:manners, and even recognizable caricatures of some social celebrities of the See also:day, they could not fail to become popular See also:north of the See also:Tweed. " Lady MacLaughlan " represents Mrs See also:Seymour Darner in See also:dress and Lady Frederick See also:- CAMPBELL, ALEXANDER (1788–1866)
- CAMPBELL, BEATRICE STELLA (Mrs PATRICK CAMPBELL) (1865– )
- CAMPBELL, GEORGE (1719–1796)
- CAMPBELL, JOHN
- CAMPBELL, JOHN (1708-1775)
- CAMPBELL, JOHN CAMPBELL, BARON (1779-1861)
- CAMPBELL, JOHN FRANCIS
- CAMPBELL, LEWIS (1830-1908)
- CAMPBELL, REGINALD JOHN (1867— )
- CAMPBELL, THOMAS (1777—1844)
Campbell, whose See also:husband, See also:Lord Ferrier, was executed in 176o, in manners. See also:Mary, Lady See also:Clark, well known in Edinburgh, figured as " Mrs See also:Fox " and the three'See also:maiden aunts were the Misses Edmonstone. Many were the conjectures as to the authorship of the novels. In the Noctes Ambrosianae (See also:November 1826), James See also:Hogg is made to mention The Inheritance, and adds, " which I aye thought was written by Sir Walter, as weel's Marriage, till it spunked out that it was written by a leddy." Scott himself gave Miss Ferrier a very high See also:place indeed among the novelists of the day. In his See also:diary (See also:March 27, 1826), criticizing a new work which he had been See also:reading, he says, " The See also:women do this better, See also:Edgeworth, Ferrier, See also:Austen, have all given portraits of real society far See also:superior to anything See also:man, vain man, has produced of the like nature." Another friendly recognition of Miss Ferrier is to be found at the conclusion of his Tales of my Landlord, where Scott calls her his " See also:sister See also:shadow," the still See also:anonymous author of " the very lively work entitled Marriage." Lively, indeed, all Miss Ferrier's See also:works are,—written in clear, brisk See also:English, and
with an inexhaustible fund of See also:humour. It is true her books portray the eccentricities, the follies, and foibles of the society in which she lived, caricaturing with terrible exactness its See also:hypocrisy, boastfulness, greed, affectation, and undue subservience to public See also:opinion. Yet Miss Ferrier wrote less to reform than to amuse. In this she is less like Miss Edgeworth than Miss Austen. Miss Edgeworth was more of a moralist; her wit is not so involuntary, her caricatures not always so See also:good-natured. But Miss Austen and Miss Ferrier were genuine humorists, and with Miss Ferrier especially a keen sense of the ludicrous was always dominant. Her humorous characters are always her best. It was no doubt because she See also:felt this that in the last See also:year of her life she regretted not having devoted her talents more exclusively to the service of See also:religion. But if she was not a moralist, neither was she a cynic; and her wit, even where it is most See also:caustic, is never uncharitable.
Miss Ferrier's mother died in 1797, and from that date she kept See also:house for her See also:father until his See also:death in 1829. She lived quietly at Morningside House and in Edinburgh for more than twenty years after the publication of her last work. The pleasantest picture that we have of her is in See also:Lockhart's description of her visit to Scott in May 1831. She was asked there to help to amuse the dying See also:master of See also:Abbotsford, who, when he was not See also:writing See also:Count See also:Robert of See also:Paris, would talk as brilliantly as ever. Only sometimes, before he had reached the point in a narrative, " it would seem as if some See also:internal See also:spring had given way." He would pause, and gaze blankly and anxiously See also:round him. " I noticed," says Lockhart, " the delicacy of Miss Ferrier on such occasions. Her sight was See also:bad, and she took care not to use her glasses when he was speaking; and she affected to be also troubled with deafness, and would say, ` Well, I am getting as dull as a See also:post; I have not heard a word since you said so-andso,'—being sure to mention a circumstance behind that at which he had really halted. He then took up the See also:- THREAD (0. Eng. praed, literally, that which is twisted, prawan, to twist, to throw, cf. " throwster," a silk-winder, Ger. drehen, to twist, turn, Du. draad, Ger. Draht, thread, wire)
thread with his habitual smile of courtesy—as if forgetting his See also:case entirely in the See also:consideration of the lady's infirmity."
Miss Ferrier died on the 5th of November 1854, at her See also:brother's house in Edinburgh. She See also:left among her papers a See also:short unpublished See also:article, entitled " Recollections of Visits to Ashestiel and Abbotsford." This is her own very interesting See also:account of her See also:long friendship with Sir Walter Scott, from the date of her first visit to him and Lady Scott at Ashestiel, where she went with her father in the autumn of 1811, to her last sad visit to Abbotsford in 1831. It contains some See also:impromptu verses written by Scott in her See also:album at Ashestiel.
Miss Ferrier's letters to her sister, which contained much interesting See also:biographical See also:matter,'were destroyed at her particular See also:request, but a See also:volume of her See also:correspondence with a memoir by her See also:grand-nephew, See also:John Ferrier, was published in 1898.
End of Article: FERRIER, SUSAN EDMONSTONE (1782–1854)
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