274 



Ashestiel and Sir Walter Scott. 



wooded, and down this tumbles a little brawling rivulet 

 to join the Tweed. All around are the green hills, 

 silent, reposeful, looking from the level like a billowy 

 sea. The hill heights behind are those that separate 

 the Yarrow from Tweed, the former stream being 

 within an easy ride of Ashestiel a ride on which some 

 of the finest and most romantic mountain scenery is to 

 be seen. 



It was here that Scott wrote " Waverley " and 

 " Marmion ; " here that he corrected the proofs of the 

 "Lay of the Last Minstrel;" here that " Rokeby " 

 was begun, and "Dryden" arid "Swift," in his Edition 

 of the Poets were prepared ; and here too that he fully 

 learned the difference between " long sheep " and 

 "short sheep" on which distinction a fine joke is 

 founded, for on a native being asked what a "long 

 sheep" must measure in body beyond a " short sheep," 

 was told, " Weel, it's no' that ava', ye ken', it's a' i' the 

 oo'," the contrast really being between the length of the 

 wool in the Cheviot and the native breed. 



But Scott's life was never that of the literary recluse, 

 of the absorbed student or antiquary. The claims of 

 human nature were too strong. Lockhart tells us that 

 Camp his favourite dog then, and the predecessor of 

 the more famous Maida and the children had free 

 access to his study at all times ; that the " bairns " 

 would often intrude and interrupt him in the midst of a 

 sentence, and demand that he should tell them a story, 

 when he would invariably take them on his knees and 

 comply, always giving them more than they had asked; 

 and often, too, they would tempt him out to wander 

 with them in the garden or by the stream side, or even 

 further a-field, Camp bounding before or trotting dis- 

 creetly at their heels. 



