SCOTT 



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SCOTT 



was called upon to tell him stories. It was 

 fortunate that he could find enjoyment in this 

 way, for an illness when he was less than two 

 years old left him lame and delicate and unable 

 to play like other boys. He was sent to his 

 grandfather's farm to regain his strength, and 

 spent days listening to the stories his aunt read 

 to him or lying in the fields, watched over by 

 his grandfather's old shepherd. For a boy with 

 an intense interest in all he saw about him, it 

 was very hard to lie still and look at things 

 from a distance, and gradually he began to 

 drag himself about. 



Strength came back to him, and by the time 

 he was eight years old he was, except for his 

 lameness, as robust as any of his fellows. Then 

 he was sent to school, but he was behind other 

 boys of his age, and consequently lost interest. 



SIR WALTER SCOTT 



By their vigor, their freshness, their rapid 

 action, and their breezy, out-of-door atmosphere, 

 Scott's novels attracted thousands of readers who 

 else had known nothing of the delights of litera- 

 ture. He is, therefore, the greatest known factor 

 in establishing and in popularizing that romantic 

 element in prose and poetry which has been for a 

 hundred years the chief characteristic of our lit- 

 erature; LONG. 



His record, therefore, was not always satisfac- 

 tory, though his teachers admitted that he was 

 unusually quick in comprehension. Like little 

 Charles Dickens, however, he was in great de- 

 mand among his schoolmates as a story-teller. 

 He took a large part, too, in the sports of the 

 school, and the little sketch which he wrote 

 years later of his boyhood days tells of exciting 

 mock battles which the schoolboys had with 

 the boys of the town. Through it all he kept 

 his fondness for romantic tales and poems, and 



before he was ten years old began making a 

 collection of books on such subjects. The find- 

 ing of Percy's Reliques oj Ancient English 

 Poetry was an epoch in his life and exercised a 

 distinct influence on his literary activity. 



The Practice of Law. Two years at the Uni- 

 versity of Edinburgh added nothing to his 

 reputation as a student, though when his in- 

 terest was once aroused no work was too hard 

 for him. Thus he mastered French, Italian and 

 German, that he might read the romantic 

 literature in those tongues. His father had 

 determined that the son was to follow the 

 legal profession, and though he had no great 

 liking for it, he applied himself with diligence 

 to the work in his father's office and later en- 

 tered law classes at the University of Edin- 

 burgh. In 1792 he was called to the bar. Dur- 

 ing his days of apprenticeship he took trips 

 about the country, finding especial delight in 

 old battle fields, ruins and other places with 

 historical association. The fact that Scott thus 

 steeped himself in the literature of romance 

 and acquainted himself thoroughly with the 

 historic backgrounds of happenings in his own 

 country accounts in part for the wonderful 

 speed with which he later produced his great 

 works. 



Scott's law practice, while never large, was 

 promising enough to warrant him in marrying 

 Charlotte Charpentier, in 1797, and the young 

 couple divided their time between Edinburgh 

 and the suburb of Lass wade. An appointment 

 as sheriff of Selkirkshire in 1799 and as a clerk 

 of the Court of Sessions some years later as- 

 sured him an income, so that he was able to 

 give up the law and devote himself to litera- 

 ture. 



Beginning of Literary Career. The first work 

 which appeared under his name was a transla- 

 tion, in 1796, from the German of Burger's 

 Lcnore and The Wild Huntsman, followed three 

 years later by an English version of Goethe's 

 Gotz von Berlichingen. Meanwhile, he had 

 tried his hand at poetry, and produced the fine 

 ballads of Glenfinlas, the Eve of Saint John 

 and Grey Brother. For years he had been col- 

 lecting Scottish border poetry, and the results 

 of his work were published in 1802 and 1803 

 as Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border, which 

 won him wide and favorable notice. In 1805 

 appeared his first original work of note the 

 long poem called The Lay of the Last Minstrel. 

 Its popularity was immediate and great, and 

 Scott might almost have said, like Byron, that 

 he "woke one morning and found himself fa- 



