210 FURTHER NOTES CONCERNING SIR WALTER SCOTT 



Erskine, did you ever see a whim-wham fastened to a goosey's 

 bido?" meaning bridle. The editor explains a whim-wham 

 to mean a little windmill of coloured rags, such as may be seen 

 for sale any day in the streets of Edinburgh, or London either. 

 But it does not appear whether either he or Mr Erskine 

 understood what the question meant. "A whim-wham for a 

 goose's bridle " is, or was the established rejoinder of 

 an exasperated needlewoman, when teased to tell what she 

 was making; implying that when a laridle was put on that 

 particular goose, the rosettes to decorate it would be ready ; and 

 it is evident the gifted infant had made himself a nuisance at 

 home, before coming to bestow his tediousaess on the Erskines. 



He was a great annoyance to Mrs Erskine (who was a noted 

 hypochondriac however) she used to call him " That silly 

 tiresome boy;" and certainly neither she nor her son, who is 

 writing, had any idea that he was living with his grandparents 

 in Eoxburghshire. 



Even his understanding a whim-wham in the sense he did, 

 shows his town experiences, for at the present day, within 

 five miles of Smailholm Tower, a whim-wham means a dish 

 of whipped eggs — the idea to be expressed in both cases 

 being that of the utmost lightness. The rosettes for the bridle 

 have the continental suggestion of many old Scotch fashions. 



I do not suppose Sir Walter, when he wrote what Lockhart 

 calls the Ashiestiel fragment, but which is an autobiography 

 of his youth, up to his becoming a member of the Scotch Bar, 

 intended to imply that he had never seen his parents during 

 three or four years of his childhood, though, as far as appears 

 from it, this might have been the case. 



He was probably between two and three when he was first 

 sent to Sandyknowe ; he was a year and a half old, according to 

 his own belief, when he was seized with what was probably a 

 form of teething convulsions, with the result that one leg was 

 permanently affected ; and all remedies that could be thought of 

 were tried before he was sent to the country with a view to 

 strengthening his general health. At seven years old he says 

 he came back to his father's house to begin his regular education, 

 having been the last year in Bath, under the care of his aunt, 

 Miss Scott ; but this leaves at least three years to be accounted 

 for ; and the probability is that in the months when he could not 

 be much in the open air, he was in Edinburgh with his parents. 



