Lockhart was Scott's son-in-law, who wrote the "Life of Scott" available online at Project Gutenberg. Chapter 1 of the Life is Scott's autobiography. Below I will cut 'n paste from it Scott's own very funny description of his musical (in)abilities. I haven't yet found out anything about Dr Clarke who he says set his words to music.

" My mother was anxious we should at least learn Psalmody; but the incurable defects of my voice and ear soon drove my teacher to despair.* It is only by long practice that I



*   The late Alexander Campbell, a warm-hearted man, and an * enthusiast in Scottish music, which he sang most beautifully, had * this ungrateful task imposed on him. He was a man of many * accomplishments, but dashed with a bizarrerie of temper which * made them useless to their proprietor. He wrote several books -- * as a Tour in Scotland, &c.; -- and he made an advantageous marriage, * but fell nevertheless into distressed circumstances, which I * had the pleasure of relieving, if I could not remove. His sense of * gratitude was very strong, and shewed itself oddly in one respect. * He would never allow that I had a bad ear; but contended, that * if I did not understand music, it was because I did not choose to * learn it. But when he attended us in George's Square, our neighbour, * Lady Cumming, sent to beg the boys might not be all flogged * precisely at the same hour, as, though she had no doubt the punishment * was deserved, the noise of the concord was really dreadful. * Robert was the only one of our family who could sing, though my * father was musical, and a performer on the violoncello at the gentlemen's * concerts. -- 1826.



have acquired the power of selecting or distinguishing melodies; and although now few things delight or affect me more than a simple tune sung with feeling yet I am sensible that even this pitch of musical taste has only been gained by attention and habit, and, as it were, by my feeling of the words being associated with the tune. I have therefore been usually unsuccessful in composing words to a tune, although my friend Dr Clarke, and other musical composers, have sometimes been able to make a happy union between their music and my poetry.