life acted merely upon its own capricious important subject, was also a sealed book motives, and might have enabled me to at this period of my life, but I gradually adopt old Beattie of Mickladale's answer assembled much of what was striking and when complimented by a certain reverend picturesque in historical narrative; and divine on the strength of the same faculty, when in riper years I attended more to 'No, sir,' answered the old borderer, I the deduction of general principles, I was have no command of my memory. It furnished with a powerful host of exonly retains what hits my fancy, and amples in illustration of them. I was, in probably, sir, if you were to preach to me short, like an ignorant gamester who kept for two hours, I would not be able when up a good hand until he knew how to play you finished to remember a word you had it. I left the High School, therefore, with been saying.' My memory was precisely a great quantity of general information, of the same kind, it seldom failed to pre- ill arranged indeed, and collected without serve most tenaciously a favourite passage system, yet deeply impressed upon my of poetry, a play-house ditty, or above all mind, readily assorted by my power of a border-raid ballad; but names, dates, connexion and memory, and gilded, if I and the other technicalities of history may be permitted to say so, by a vivid and escaped me in a most melancholy degree. active imagination." The philosophy of history, a much more With such an early store of knowledge, hastily gathered, and with an appetite for fresh acquirements indiscriminating as it was indefatigable, Scott left the High School of Edinburgh for the country; but the progress of his opening genius, and the account of the works which fed his young imagination, must be given in his own interesting language. 66 Among the valuable acquisitions I made about this time was an acquaintance with Tasso's Jerusalem Delivered, through the flat medium of Mr. Hoole's translation; but, above all, I then first became acquainted with Bishop Percy's Reliques of Ancient Poetry. As I had been from infancy devoted to legendary lore of this nature, and only reluctantly withdrew my attention from the scarcity of materials and the rudeness of those which I possessed, it may be imagined, but cannot be described, with what delight I saw pieces of the same kind which had amused my childhood, and still continued in secret the Delilahs of my imagination, considered as the subject of sober research, grave commentary, and apt illustration, by an editor who showed his poetical genius was capable of emulating the best qualities of what his pious labours preserved. I remember well the spot where I read these volumes for the first time. It was beneath a huge platanus tree, in the ruins of what had been intended for an oldfashioned arbour in the garden I have mentioned. The summer-day sped onward so fast, that, notwithstanding the sharp appetite of thirteen, I forgot the hour of dinner, was sought for with anxiety, and was still found [found still] entranced in my intellectual banquet. To read and to remember was in this instance the same thing, and henceforth I overwhelmed my schoolfellows and all who would hearken to me with tragical recitations from the ballads of Bishop Percy. The first time, too, I could scrape a few shillings together, which was not a com mon occurrence with me, I bought unto myself a copy of these beloved volumes, nor do I believe I ever read a book half so frequently or with half the enthusiasm. About this period, also, I became acquainted with the works of Richardson and those of Mackenzie (whom in later years I became entitled to call my friend), with Fielding, Smollett, and some others of our best novelists. To this period also I can trace distinctly the awakening of that delightful feeling for the beauties of natural objects which has never since de. serted me. The neighbourhood of Kelso, the most beautiful, if not the most romantic, village of Scotland, is eminently calculated to awaken such ideas. It presents objects not only grand in themselves but venerable from their associations. The meeting of the superb rivers the Tweed and the Teviot, both revered in song, the ruins of an ancient abbey,the more distant vestiges of Roxburgh Castle, the modern mansion of Fleurs, which is so situated as to combine the ideas of ancient baronial grandeur with those of modern taste,-are in themselves objects of the first class; yet are so mixed, united, and melted among a thousand other beauties of a less prominent description, that they harmonize into one general picture, and please rather by unison than by concord. The romantic feelings which I have described as predominating in my mind, naturally rested upon and associated themselves with those grand features of the landscape around me; and the historical incidents or traditional legends connected with many of them, gave to my admiration a sort of intense impression of reverence, which at times made my heart feel too big for my bosom. From this time the love of natural beauty, more especially when combined with ancient ruins, or remains of our fathers' piety and splendour, became with me an insatiable passion, which, if circumstances had permitted, I would willingly have gratified by travelling over half the globe." It appears that of Greek Scott knew, and cared to know, nothing; and to cover his retreat with the appearance at least of a reasonable determination, he surprised and offended his master with an essay proving the superiority of Ariosto over Homer. The Latin classics he also eschewed, as they were thought too much akin to the Greek; but the language of Rome he endeavoured to preserve in his memory, by an occasional perusal of Matthew Paris and Buchanan. Professor Dalzell prophesied that dunce he was, and dunce he was to remain: a prediction as accurately verified as most others made about the future fruit of genius, ere the blossom has begun to set. The following confession, accompanied as it is with the very best and most salutary advice, does credit to the manliness and candour of the author's character: "In other studies I was more fortunate. I made some progress in Ethics under Professor John Bruce; and was selected as one of his students whose progress he approved, to read an essay before Principal Robertson. I was further instructed in Moral Philosophy at the class of Mr. Dugald Stuart, whose striking and impressive eloquence riveted the attention even of the most volatile student. To sum up my academical studies, I attended the class of History, then taught by the present Lord Woodhouselee; and, as far as I can remember, no others, excepting those of the Civil and Municipal Law. So that if my learning be flimsy and inaccurate, the reader must have some compas sion even for an idle workman who had so narrow a foundation to build upon. If, however, it should ever fall to the lot of youth to peruse these pages, let sub a reader remember that it is with the de pest regret that I recollect in my manhood the opportunities of learning which I neglected in my youth; that through every part of my literary career, I have felt pinched and hampered by my own ignorance, and that I would at this moment give half the reputation I have had the good fortune to acquire, if, by doing so, I could rest the remaining part upon a sound foundation of learning and science." We trace Scott's early path still winding deeper into the land of romantic poetry and legendary fable. Tressan's romances, the Bibliothèque Bleue and Bibliothèque de Romans, became familiar to him; and he was intimate with the works of Dante, Boiardo, Pulci, and others of the eminent Italian poets; he fastens, to use his own language, “like a tiger" on every collection of old songs and romances, which chance strewed in his way. Vertot's "Knights of Malta," a book which as it hovered between history and romance, was exceedingly dear to him; and as he had again a love of the study of history as connected with military events, Orme's excellent "History of Indostan" was highly esteemed by him. Scott also delighted in travelling. It was a propensity, he says, which he sometimes indulged so unduly as to alarm and vex his parents. Wood, water, wilderness itself had an inexpressible charm for him, and he had a dreamy way of going much further than he intended, so that unconsciously his return was protracted, and his parents had sometimes cause for uneasiness. His father told him that he thought he was born to be a strolling pedlar, and even under that conceit, Scott did not dislike the vagrant liberty it seemed to presume. "The principal object (he says) in ing romantic scenery, or what afforded these excursions was the pleasure of see- me at least equal pleasure, the places which had been distinguished by remarkable historical events. The delight with which I regarded the former, of course had general approbation; but I often found it difficult to preserve sympathy with the interest I felt in the latter. Yet to me the wandering over Bannockburn was the source of more exquisite pleasure than gazing upon the celebrated landscape from the battlements of Stirling Castle. I do not by any means infer that I was dead to the feelings of picturesque scenery, on the contrary, few delighted more in its general effects; but I was unable, with the eye of a painter, to dissect the various parts of the scenes, -to comprehend how the one bore upon the other, to estimate the effect which various features of the view had in producing its leading and general effect. I have never indeed been capable of doing this with precision or nicety, though my latter studies have led me to amend and arrange my original ideas on the subject. Even the humble ambition which I long cherished of making sketches of these places which interested me, from a defect of eye or hand, was totally ineffectual. After long study and many efforts, I was unable to apply the effects of perspective or of shade to the scene before me, and was obliged to relinquish in despair an art which I was most anxious to practise; but show me an old castle or a field of battle, and I was at home at once, filled it with combatants in their proper costume, and overwhelmed my hearers by the enthusiasm of my description. In crossing Marston-Moor, near St. Andrew's, the spirit moved me to give a picture of the assassination of the Archbishop of St. Andrew's to some fellow travellers, with whom I was accidentally associated, and one of them, though well acquainted with the story, protested my narrative had frightened away his night's sleep. I mention this to show the distinction between a sense of the pictu resque in action and in scenery.” If I have since been able in poetry to trace with some success the principles of the latter, it has always been with reference to its general and leading features, or under some alliance with moral feeling, and even this proficiency has cost me study." In music, Scott says, it was still worse; the defects of his voice and ear soon drove his teacher to despair, and it was only by long practice that he acquired the power of selecting or distinguishing melodies. About 1788, he says, he began to feel and take his ground in society: a ready wit, a good deal of enthusiasm, and a perception that soon ripened into tact and observation of character, rendered him an acceptable companion to many young men whose acquisitions in philosophy and science were infinitely superior to anything he could boast. The quantity of ponderous and miscellaneous knowledge which he really possessed on many subjects, was not easily condensed, or brought to bear upon the object he wished particularly to become master of. Yet there occurred opportunities when this "odd lumber of his brain," especially that which was connected with the recondite parts of history, did him "yeoman's service." My memory of events was like one of the large old-fashioned stone cannons of the Turks, very difficult to load well and discharge, but making powerful effect when by good chance any object came within range of its shot." Such were the natural propensities, the inherent genius, and the early acquirements of the future master of romantic fiction. says, that his consciousness of existence dated from Sandy-Knowe. He battle and every rivulet its song. Mertown, the principal seat of the Harden family, with its noble groves; nearly in front of it, across the Tweed, Lessaden, the comparatively small but still venerable and stately abode of the Lairds of Raeburn; and the hoary abbey of Dryburgh, surrounded with yew trees as ancient as itself, seem to lie almost below the feet of the spectator. Opposite him rise the purple peaks of Eildon, the traditional C scene of Thomas the Rhymer's interview with the Queen of Faerie; behind are the blasted peel, which the son of Ercildoun himself inhabited,-the broom of the Cowdenknows, the pastoral valley of the Leader, and the bleak wilderness of Lammermoor. To the eastward the desolate grandeur of Hume Castle breaks the horizon as the eye travels towards the range of the Cheviot. A few miles westward, Melrose, like some tall rock with lichens grey, appears clasped amid the windings of the Tweed; and the distance presents the serrated mountains of the Gala, the Ettrick, and the Yarrow, all famous in song. Such were the objects that had painted the earliest* images on the eye of the last and greatest of the Border Minstrels." Mr. Lockhart, as appears to us, very candidly thus sums up the measure of Scott's acquirements in literature, when he was setting out on active life, and commencing the profession for which he was intended. "He had no pretensions to the name of an extensive, far less of an accurate Latin scholar; but he could read, I believe, any Latin author of any age, so as to catch without difficulty his meaning; and though his favourite Latin poet, as well as historian in later days, was Buchanan, he had preserved, or subsequently acquired, a strong relish for some others of more ancient date; I may mention in particular, Lucan and Claudian. Of Greek, he does not exaggerate in saying that he had forgotten even the alphabet, for he was puzzled with the words άσιδος and ποιητης, which he had occasion to introduce from some authority on his table into his introduction to Popular Poetry, written in April 1830, and happening to be in the house with him at the time, he sent for me to insert them for him in his MS. Mr. Irving has informed us of the early period at which he enjoyed Tasso and Ariosto. I presume he had, at least as soon as this, enabled himself to read Gil Blas in the original; and in all probability we may refer to the same time of his life, or one not much later, his acquisition of as much Spanish as served for the Guerras Civiles de Granada, Lazarillo de Tormes, and, above all, Don Quixote. He read all these languages in after-life with about the same facility. I never but once heard him attempt to speak any of them, and that was when some of the courtiers of Charles the Tenth came to Abbotsford, soon after that unfortunate prince took up his residence for the second time at Holyrood House. Finding that one or two of these gentlemen could speak no English at all, he made some efforts to amuse them in their own language after the champagne had been passing briskly round the table, and I was amused next morning with the expression of one of the party, who, alluding to the sort of reading in which he seemed to have chiefly occupied himself, said, Mon Dieu! comme il estropeait, entre deux vins, le Français du bon Sire de Joinville.' Of all these tongues, as of German somewhat later, he acquired as much as was needful for his own purpose, of which a critical study of any foreign language made at no time any part. In them he sought for incidents, and he found images; but for the treasures of diction, he was content to dig on British soil. He had all he wanted in the old wells of English undefiled,' and the still living though fast shrinking waters of that sister idiom, which had not always, as he flattered himself, deserved the name of a dialect. As may be said, I believe, of every really great man, Scott was self-educated in every branch of knowledge which he ever turned to account in the works of his genius; and he has himself told us that his real studies were those lonely and desultory ones, of which he has given a copy in the first chapter of Waverley, where the hero is represented as 'driving through a sea of books like a vessel without pilot or rudder;' that is to say, obeying nothing but the strong breath of native inclination. He had read, and stored in a memory of uncommon tenacity, much curious, though ill-arranged information. In English literature he was master of Shakspere and Milton, of our earlier dramatic authors, of many picturesque and interesting passages from our old historical chroniclers, and was particularly well acquainted with Spenser, Drayton, and other poets who had exercised themselves on romantic fiction; 'of all things the most fascinating to a youthful imagination, before the passions have roused themselves and demand poetry of a more sentimental description.' I need not repeat his enumeration of other favourites,-Pulci, the * Two others of Scott's earliest poems, written in 1782 and 1783, preserved by his mother and tutor, Dr. Adam, are given in vol. i. p. 95-6. They bear stronger marks of Pope's Homer than Percy's Reliques.-Rev. Decameron, Froissart, Brantome, Delanoue, and the chivalrous and romantic lore of Spain. I have quoted a passage so well known, only for the sake of the striking circumstance by which it marks the very early date of these multifarious studies."'* But not even the fascination of his favourite authors detained Scott from the living forms of Nature, from the active exercises of the field, and long summer excursions to every spot consecrated by the memory of historic fame. Sometimes he would be seen climbing the Cheviot hills, or copying Roman inscriptions among the old farm-houses in Northumberland; sometimes making a raid in Liddlesdale, exploring every rivulet to its source, and every ruined peel from foundation to battlement. "For outdoors amusement," he says, "I have constructed a seat in a large tree which spreads its branches horizontally over the Tweed. This is a favourite situation of mine for reading, especially on a day like this, when the west wind rocks the branches on which I am perched, and the river rolls its waves below me of a turbid blood-colour. I have moreover cut an embrasure, through which I can fire upon the gulls, herons, and cormorants, as they fly screaming past my nest." To these rambles among the fastnesses of the descendants of the moss-troopers, and of those who had followed the banner of the Douglases, Scott owed much of the materials of his Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border, and not less of his intimate acquaintance with the living manners of those unsophisticated regions, which constitutes the chief charm of one of the most charming of his prose works. But how soon he had any definite object before him in his researches, seems very doubtful. "He was makin' himsell a' the time," said Mr. Shortreed," but he did na ken, may be, what he was about, till years had passed. At first he thought o' little, I dare say, but the queerness and the fun." Mr. Lockhart found a note-book of Scott's for the year 1792, containing a variety of scraps and hints which may help to fill up our notice of his private studies during that year. He appears to have used them indiscriminately. Now an extract from an author he happened to be reading; now a memorandum of something that had struck him in conversation; a fragment of an essay; transcripts of various poems; remarks on various cases in the old records of the justiciary court: in short, a most miscellaneous collection, in which there is whatever might have been looked for, with perhaps the single exception of original verse. One of the books opens with Veg-tams Koitha, or the Descent of Odin; with the Latin of Thomas Bartholine, and Gray's version; with some account of the death of Baldor, both as narrated in the Edda and as given by the Northern historians-Auctore Gualtero Scott. The Norse original and the two versions there transcribed, and the historical account appended, extend to seven closely written quarto pages. Next comes a page, headed Pecuniary Distress of Charles the First, and containing a transcript of a receipt for some plate lent to the King in 1643. He then copies the " Owen of Carron" of Langhorne ; the verses of Canute on passing Ely; the lines to a Cuckoo, given by * At this period of his life, Scott was much enamoured of the poems of Langhorne and Mickle. The Elegy of Cumnor Hall, after having dwelt on his memory for forty years, suggested the subject of one of his romances; and his recollection of some lines of Langhorne was recorded with a look and word of civility from Burns. Wordsworth says, when he first saw Scott, that he attached much less importance to his literary labours or reputation, than to his bodily sports, exercises, and social amusements. |