variety of subjects; and reached its climax in a series of twenty-nine historical romances, picturing vividly most of the important periods in English and Scottish history from the First Crusade (end of the twelfth century) to the last effort of the Scotch to restore the Stuarts Early Life. His life before he became a man of letters was not particularly eventful. He was born in Edinburgh, and was, as he himself put it, of gentle, though not of dis SIR WALTER. tinguished, birth. An illness when he was eighteen months old left him so weak that he was sent to his grandfather's farm to recuperate. When he had improved enough to be moved, he returned to his parents in Edinburgh and entered the high school, from which he proceeded in 1785 to the University of Edinburgh. Though never accused of being a dunce, he made no mark as a student, chiefly because he was more interested in studies of his own choice than in those imposed upon him. Marriage. Scott followed his father into the profession of law, which did not interest him, but at which he worked assiduously for five or six years. During this period he wooed and lost Miss Margaret Belches; then finding his heart "handsomely pieced " in a year or so, wooed and won another Margaret, Miss Carpenter, daughter of a French royalist who died early in the Revolution. The union appears to have been an ideally happy one, in striking contrast to those of his friends Coleridge, Byron, and Shelley. To Abbotsford. In 1799 Scott was appointed Sheriff of Selkirkshire, of which the duties were light, leaving him much leisure for writing. Five years later he took up his residence at Ashestiel on the Tweed; and eight years after that, he moved to Abbotsford, the large estate, also on the Tweed, with which his name is inseparably connected. Poems. Scott's literary career was begun while he was still practising law, with translations. Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border, a collection of ballads obtained by him chiefly from unlettered peasants, appeared a few years later. The year after his removal to Ashestiel, however, marks the beginning of his popular success, with The Lay of the Last Minstrel. This he followed with Marmion, a tale of Flodden Field; and The Lady of the Lake, a romantic story of the time of King James V, the scenes of which are laid on and around beautiful Loch Katrine. These compositions deserve distinction especially as the first of his "fine examples of romantic story, freely embroidered upon a framework of genuine history." As such, they are the direct ancestors of his romantic novels, and therefore of the greatest value in the development of English story. 1 1 Herford, The Age of Wordsworth, page 112. 66 Waverley." Shortly after he settled at Abbotsford, or to be exact for this is a red-letter date in English literature in February, 1814, while rummaging in search of fishing tackle, he came across an unfinished prose romance. This manuscript, begun and laid aside some years before, he now took up and finished; and in July it appeared anonymously with the title Waverley; or, 'Tis Sixty Years Since. The identity of the author was soon guessed; and his fame, which had been under a partial eclipse since Byron's Childe Harold appeared, immediately surpassed its former brightness. It is scarcely too much to say that it has not been dimmed since. Ascendency of Byron. -It is characteristic of Scott's penetration and generosity that he himself recognized and freely acknowledged Byron's superiority as poet, and deliberately sought another field. After the publication of his second novel, Guy Mannering, his publisher, Ballantyne, calling on him found on Scott's table a copy of Byron's The Giaour, with this inscription by the author: To the Monarch of Parnassus from one of his subjects. Though Scott appreciated the kindliness of these words, he knew them to be in LOCH KATRINE AND "ELLEN'S ISLE." 276 ENGLISH LITERATURE accurate, and said to Ballantyne: "James, Byron hits the mark where I don't even pretend to fledge my arrow." In his new field no such concession has yet been needed. Being created a baronet in any fashion Made Baronet. would doubtless have given Scott great satisfaction; but the fashion in which he was thus honored was especially pleasing to him. George IV conferred the honor entirely FACSIMILE OF LETTER OF SCOTT TO BISHOP PERCY ABOUT BALLADS. (New York Public Library.) on his own initiative; and in doing so said to Scott: "I shall reflect with pleasure on Sir Walter Scott's having been the first creation of my reign." So far Fortune had only smiled on Sir Fortune Frowns. Walter. She was soon to bend upon him a frown, the darkness of which was to overshadow the remainder of his life. He had for many years been a silent partner in his publishing firm; and when it failed, in 1826, Scott found himself involved to the extent of more than £100,000. In his diary he The En soon bega weeks wit of writing such feve paralytic October h vine-clad hope was Scott sai Let us to there in near by. Popula was brok ill at a mention working |