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"Septimius Felton" was the outgrowth of a project, formed by Hawthorneduring his residence in England, of writing a romance, the scene of whichshould be laid in that country; but this project was afterwardsabandoned, giving place to a new conception in which the visionary searchfor means to secure an earthly immortality was to form the principalinterest. The new conception took shape in the uncompleted "DolliverRomance." The two themes, of course, were distinct, but, by a curiousprocess of thought, one grew directly out of the other: the whole historyconstitutes, in fact, a chapter in what may be called the genealogy of aromance. There remained, after "Septimius Felton" had been published,certain manuscripts connected with the scheme of an English story. One ofthese manuscripts was written in the form of a journalized narrative; theauthor merely noting the date of what he wrote, as he went along. Theother was a more extended sketch, of much greater bulk, and without date,but probably produced several years later. It was not originally intendedby those who at the time had charge of Hawthorne's papers that either ofthese incomplete writings should be laid before the public; because theymanifestly had not been left by him in a form which he would haveconsidered as warranting such a course. But since the second and largermanuscript has been published under the title of "Dr. Grimshawe'sSecret," it has been thought best to issue the present sketch, so thatthe two documents may be examined together. Their appearance places inthe hands of readers the entire process of development leading to the"Septimius" and "The Dolliver Romance." They speak for themselves muchmore efficiently than any commentator can expect to do; and little,therefore, remains to be said beyond a few words of explanation in regardto the following pages.
The Note-Books show that the plan of an English romance, turning upon thefact that an emigrant to America had carried away a family secret whichshould give his descendant the power to ruin the family in the mothercountry, had occurred to Hawthorne as early as April, 1855. In August ofthe same year he visited Smithell's Hall, in Bolton le Moors, concerningwhich he had already heard its legend of "The Bloody Footstep," and fromthat time on, the idea of this footprint on the threshold-stone of theancestral mansion seems to have associated itself inextricably with thedreamy substance of his yet unshaped romance. Indeed, it leaves its markbroadly upon Sibyl Dacy's wild legend in "Septimius Felton," andreappears in the last paragraph of that story. But, so far as we can knowat this day, nothing definite was done until after his departure forItaly. It was then, while staying in Rome, that he began to put uponpaper that plot which had first occupied his thoughts three years before,in the scant leisure allowed him by his duties at the Liverpoolconsulate. Of leisure there was not a great deal at Rome, either; for, asthe "French and Italian Note-Books" show, sight-seeing and socialintercourse took up a good deal of his time, and the daily record in hisjournal likewise had to be kept up. But he set to work resolutely toembody, so far as he might,