nABITS OF SIB WALTER SCOTT. 



113 



the Speculative, with the singular 

 appearance of the secretary, who 

 sat gravely at the bottom of the 

 table in a huge woollen night-cap ; 

 ;uid, when the president took the 

 chair, pleaded a bad toothache as 

 his apology for coming into that 

 worshipful assembly in such a 'por- 

 tentous machine.' He read that 

 night an essay on ballads, which so 

 much interested the new member 

 that he requested to be introduced to 

 him. Mr. Jeffrey called on him next 

 evening, and found him ' in a small 

 den on the sunk floor of his father's 

 house in George's Square, surround- 

 ed with 'dingy books,' from which 

 they adjourned to atavern and sup- 

 ped together. Such was the com- 

 mencement of an acquaintance, 

 which by degrees ripened into 

 friendship, between the two most 

 distinguished men of letters whom 

 Edinburgh produced in their time. 

 I may add here the description 

 of that early den, with which 

 I am favoured by a lady of Scott's 

 family. ' Walter had soon begun 

 to collect out-of-the-way things of 

 all sorts. He had more books than 

 shelves; a small painted cabinet, 

 with Scotch and Roman coins in it, 

 &c. A claymore and Lochaber axe, 

 given him by old Ivernahyle, mount- 



uard on a little print of Prince 

 Charlie; and 'Brough ton's saucer' 



I looked up against the wall be- 

 low it.' Such was the germ of the 

 magnificent library and museum of 

 Alihotsford; and such were the 

 'new realms' in which he, on tak- 

 ing possession, had arranged his 

 little paraphernalia about him, 

 'with all the f eeliugs of novelty ;UK I 

 liberty.' Since those days the habits 

 of life in Edinburgh, as elsewhere, 

 .have undergone many changes ; and 

 the 'convenient parlour,' in which 

 Scott first showed Jeffrey his col- 

 lections of minstrelsy, is no\v, in 

 all probability, thought hardly 

 guud enough for a menial's sleeping 

 room." 



HABITS OF SIR WALTER, SCOTT. 



There was no feature more con- 

 spicuous in the life of the great 

 enchanter than the economical di- 

 vision of his time, and the entire 

 occupancy of it to the best account. 

 Mr. Lockhart furnishes this descrip- 

 tion, by James Skene, ofRubislow, 

 who was very intimate with Scott. 



He rose by five o'clock, lit his 

 own fire, when the season required 

 one, and shaved and dressed with 

 great deliberation; for he was a 

 very martinet as to all but the 

 mere coxcombries of the toilet, not 

 abhorring effeminate dandyism it- 

 self so cordially as the slightest ap- 

 proach to personal slovenliness, or 

 even those "bed-gown and slipper 

 tricks," as he called them, in which 

 literary men are so apt to indulge. 

 Arrayed in his shooting-jacket, or 

 whatever dress he meant to use till 

 dinner time, he was seated at his 

 desk by six o'clock, all his papers 

 arranged before him in the most ac- 

 curate order, and his books of refer- 

 ence marshalled around him on the 

 floor, while at least one favourite 

 dog lay watching his eye just be- 

 yond the line of circumvallation. 

 Thus, by the time the family as- 

 sembled for breakfast, between nine 

 and ten, he had done enough, in his 

 own language, " to break the neck of 

 the day's work" After breakfast a 

 couple of hours more were given to 

 his solitary tasks, and by noon he 

 was, as he used to say, his "own 

 man." When the weather was bad, 

 he would labour incessantly all the 

 morning ; but the general rule was 

 to be out and on horseback by one 

 o'clock at the latest ; while, if any 

 more distant excursion had been pro- 

 posed over night, he was ready to 

 start on it by ten ; his occasional rainy 

 days of uniutermitted study form- 

 ing, as he said, a fund in his favour, 

 out of which he was entitled to draw 

 for accommodation, whenever the 

 sun shone with special brightness. 



