The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction, No. 571 by Various
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Various >> The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction, No. 571
THE MIRROR OF LITERATURE, AMUSEMENT, AND INSTRUCTION.
Vol. 20 No. 571.] SUPPLEMENTARY NUMBER. [PRICE 2d.
* * * * *
NOTICES OF THE LIFE AND WRITINGS OF THE LATE SIR WALTER SCOTT, BART.
With Five Engravings:
1. ABBOTSFORD, (_from the Garden_.)
2. THE ARMOURY.
3. THE POET'S STUDY.
4. PORTRAIT--(_from the last painting_.)
5. DRYBURGH ABBEY.
[Illustration: ABBOTSFORD, (FROM THE GARDEN, see page 247.)]
Sir Walter Scott was the third son of Walter Scott, Esq., Writer to
the Signet, in Edinburgh, and Anne, daughter of Dr. John Rutherford,
Professor of Medicine in the University of the above city. His
ancestry numbers several distinguished persons; though the well-earned
fame of Sir Walter Scott readers his pedigree comparatively
uninteresting; inasmuch as it illustrates the saw of an olden poet,
that
Learning is an addition beyond
Nobility of birth: honour of blood,
Without the ornament of knowledge, is
A glorious ignorance.
SHIRLEY.
Sir Walter was born at Edinburgh, on the 15th of August, 1771--or, on
the birthday of Napoleon Buonaparte. His father was a man of
prosperous fortune and good report; and for many years was "an elder
in the parish church of Old Grey Friars, while Dr. Robertson, the
historian, acted as one of the ministers. The other clergyman was Dr.
John Erskine, of whom Sir Walter has given an animated picture in his
novel of _Guy Mannering_."[1] Mrs. Scott is described as a
well-educated gentlewoman, possessing considerable natural talents;
though she did not enjoy the acquaintance of Allan Ramsay, Blacklock,
Beattie, and Burns, as has been stated by some biographers. She,
however, advantageously mixed in literary society, and from her
superintendence of the early education of her eldest son, Walter,
there is reason to infer that such advantages may have influenced his
habits and taste. He was the third of a family, consisting of six sons
and one daughter. The cleverest of the sons is stated by Sir Walter to
have been Daniel, a sailor, who died young. Thomas, the next brother
to Sir Walter, was a man of considerable talent, and before the avowal
of the authorship of the Waverley Novels, report ascribed to him a
great part or the whole of them. Sir Walter observes--"Those who
remember that gentleman (of the 70th regiment, then stationed in
Canada) will readily grant, that, with general talent at least equal
to those of his elder brother, he added a power of social humour, and
a deep insight into human character, which rendered him an universally
delightful member of society, and that the habit of composition alone
was wanting to render him equally successful as a writer. The Author
of Waverley was so persuaded of the truth of this, that he warmly
pressed his brother to make such an experiment, and willingly
undertook all the trouble of correcting and superintending the press."
Ill health, however, unfitted Mr. Scott for the task, though "the
author believes his brother would have made himself distinguished in
that striking field, in which, since that period, Mr. Cooper has
achieved so many triumphs."[2]
[1] Chamber's Life of Sir Walter Scott.
[2] General Preface to the Waverley Novels, 41 vols.
The house in which Sir Walter Scott was born no longer exists. It was
situated at the head of the College Wynd, at its entrance into North
College-street. It was thus described by Sir Walter in 1825:--"It
consisted of two flats above Mr. Keith's, and belonged to my father,
Mr. Walter Scott, Writer to the Signet. There I had the chance to be
born, 15th of August, 1771. My father, soon after my birth, removed to
George's Square, and let the house in the College Wynd, first to Mr.
Dundas, of Philipstoun, and afterwards to Mr. William Keith, father of
Sir Alexander Keith. It was purchased by the public, together with Mr.
Keith's (the inferior floors), and pulled down to make way for the new
College."
CHILDHOOD.
Mr. Cunningham relates some interesting particulars of this period.
Before Sir Walter was two years old, his nurse let him fall out of her
arms, so as to injure his right foot, and render him lame for life:
"This accident did not otherwise affect his health; he was, as I have
been informed by a lady who chanced to live near him, a remarkably
active and dauntless boy, full of all manner of fun, and ready for all
manner of mischief. He calls himself, in one of his introductions to
_Marmion_--
A self-willed imp; a grondame's child;
and I have heard it averred, that the circumstance of his lame foot
prompted him to take the lead among all the stirring boys in the
street where he lived, or the school which he attended: he desired,
perhaps, to show them, that there was a spirit which could triumph
over all impediments."[3] If this statement be correct, it is a
somewhat remarkable coincidence with the circumstance of Lord Byron's
lameness; though, happily, the influence of the accident on the
temperament of Scott is not traceable beyond his early years.
[3] Life of Sir Walter Scott; in the Athenaeum, No. 258.
Sir Walter was subsequently removed from Edinburgh, for the
improvement of his health, to the farm-house of Sandyknowe, then
inhabited by his paternal grandfather, and situated in the loveliest
part of the Vale of Tweed. In the neighbourhood, upon a considerable
eminence, stands Smailholm Tower, a Border fort which the future poet
enshrined in his admirable ballad, _The Eve of St. John_. The romantic
influence of the scenery of the whole district is told with much
vigour and sweetness in the introduction to the third canto of
_Marmion_.
EDUCATION.
Little is known of the schooldom of Scott, that denotes anything like
precocious talent. It is, however better ascertained that his early
rambles amidst the Tweed scenery retarded his educational pursuits. He
received the rudiments of knowledge under the home tuition of his
mother; next attended an ordinary school at Edinburgh, and was then
placed at the High School, his name first appearing in the school
register in the year 1779. His masters, Mr. Luke Fraser, and Dr. Adam,
were erudite and pains-taking teachers; but, to borrow a phrase from
Montaigne, they could neither lodge it with him, nor make him espouse
it, and Chambers illustratively relates, "apparently, neither the care
of the master, nor the inborn genius of the pupil, availed much in
this case; for it is said that the twenty-fifth place was no uncommon
situation in the class for the future Author of the Waverley Novels."
Perhaps the only anecdote of any early indication of talent that can
be relied on is that related by Mr. Cunningham, of Burns:--"The poet,
while at Professor Ferguson's one day, was struck by some lines
attached to a print of a Soldier dying in the snow, and inquired who
was the author: none of the old or the learned spoke, when the future
author of _Marmion_ answered, 'They are by Langhorne.' Burns, fixing
his large, bright eyes on the boy, and, striding up to him, said, it
is no common course of reading which has taught you this--'this lad,'
said he to the company, will be heard of yet."
At school, Sir Walter represents himself to have excelled in what may
be termed the _art_, or, as Swift calls it, the "knack," of narrating
a story, which, by the way, is as companionable an acquirement at
school as elsewhere. His account is as follows:--"I must refer to a
very early period of my life, were I to point out my first
achievements as a tale-teller--but I believe some of my old
school-fellows can still bear witness that I had a distinguished
character for that talent, at a time when the applause of my
companions was my recompense for the disgraces and punishments which
the future romance writer incurred for being idle himself, and keeping
others idle, during hours that should have been employed on our tasks.
The chief enjoyment of my holydays was to escape with a chosen friend,
who had the same taste with myself, and alternately to recite to each
other such wild adventures as we were able to devise. We told, each in
turn, interminable tales of knight-errantry and battles and
enchantments, which were continued from one day to another as
opportunity offered, without our ever thinking of bringing them to a
conclusion. As we observed a strict secresy on the subject of this
intercourse, it acquired all the character of a concealed pleasure;
and we used to select for the scenes of our indulgence, long walks
through the solitary and romantic environs of Arthur's Seat, Salisbury
Crags, Braid Hills, and similar places in the vicinity of Edinburgh,
and the recollection of those holydays still forms an _oasis_ in the
pilgrimage which I have to look back upon."[4]
[4] General Preface, p. ii.
This excellence in tale-telling drew Scott's attention from graver
studies; but it was an indication of genius which may be regarded as
the corner-stone of his future fame. This reminds us of Steele's idea,
that "a story-teller is born as well as a poet." Scott, about this
time, received some instructions in music, which was then considered a
branch of ordinary education in Scotland; but the future poet, to use
a familiar expression, wanted "an ear." Throughout life he, however,
was highly susceptible of the delights of music, though his own
execution was confined to a single song, with which he attempted to
enliven the social board, but, it is stated, with such unmusical
oddity as to content his hearers with a single specimen of his vocal
talent. His early rambles around the "hills and holms of the border,"
is said to have kindled in Scott the love of painting landscapes, not
strictly in accordance with the rules of art, though certainly from
nature herself. Such attempts in art, by the way, are by no means
uncommon in the early lives of men of genius; and, they are to be
regarded, in many instances as their earliest appreciation of the
beauties of nature.
In 1783, Scott was placed at the University of Edinburgh, where his
studies were as irregular as at the High School: at the latter he is
said to have made his first attempt at versification in the
description of a thunderstorm in six lines, the recital of which
afforded his mother considerable pleasure and promise; and, on another
occasion, he is stated to have remarked, during a journey over a
sterile district of Scotland, in a day of drizzling rain, "It is only
nature weeping for the barrenness of her soil."
LOVE OF READING.
Scott's early love of reading is described to have been of
enthusiastic character, and to have been fostered by an accident at
this period of his life. He had just given over the amusements of
boyhood, and began to prepare himself for the serious business of
life, or the study of the law, when, to use his own words, "a long
illness threw him back on the kingdom of fiction, as it were by a
species of fatality." His autobiography of this period is extremely
interesting:--"My indisposition arose in part at least, from my having
broken a blood-vessel; and motion and speech were for a long time
pronounced positively dangerous. For several weeks I was confined
strictly to my bed, during which time I was not allowed to speak above
a whisper, to eat more than a spoonful or two of boiled rice, or to
have more covering than one thin counterpane. When the reader is
informed that I was at this time a growing youth, with the spirits,
appetite, and impatience of fifteen, and suffered, of course, greatly
under this severe regimen, which the repeated return of my disorder
rendered indispensable, he will not be surprised that I was abandoned
to my own discretion, so far as reading (my almost sole amusement) was
concerned, and still less so, that I abused the indulgence which left
my time so much at my own disposal.
"There was at this time a circulating library at Edinburgh, founded, I
believe, by the celebrated Allan Ramsay, which, besides containing a
most respectable collection of books of every description, was, as
might have been expected, peculiarly rich in works of fiction. I was
plunged into this great ocean of reading without compass or pilot; and
unless when some one had the charity to play at chess with me, I was
allowed to do nothing save read, from morning to night. As my taste
and appetite were gratified in nothing else, I indemnified myself by
becoming a glutton of books. Accordingly, I believe, I read almost all
the old romances, old plays, and epic poetry, in that formidable
collection, and no doubt was unconsciously amassing materials for the
task in which it has been my lot to be so much employed.
"At the same time, I did not in all respects abuse the license
permitted me. Familiar acquaintance with the specious miracles of
fiction brought with it some degree of satiety, and I began by degrees
to seek in histories, memoirs, voyages and travels, and the like,
events nearly as wonderful as those which were the works of the
imagination, with the additional advantage that they were, at least,
in a great measure true. The lapse of nearly two years, during which I
was left to the service of my own free will, was followed by a
temporary residence in the country, where I was again very lonely, but
for the amusement which I derived from a good, though old-fashioned,
library. The vague and wild use which I made of this advantage I
cannot describe better than by referring my reader to the desultory
studies of Waverley in a similar situation; the passages concerning
whose reading were imitated from recollections of my own."[5]
[5] General Preface, &c.
STUDIES IN THE LAW.
Upon the re-establishment of his health, Scott returned to Edinburgh,
and resumed his studies in the law, which had been interrupted by
illness. He states his progress to have been neither slow nor
unsatisfactory, though by others he is said to have been an indolent
student. He speaks of his "severe studies" occupying the greater part
of his time, and amidst their dulness he seems to have underrated the
incidents of his private life, which he afterwards related to the
world with some share of self-satisfaction.
He appears to have succeeded tolerably in his legal lucubrations; for,
in 1792, he was called to the bar as an advocate. He established
himself in good style in Edinburgh, but had little practice; though
the accounts of his progress are somewhat contradictory. That he
passed much of his time in acquiring other than professional knowledge
is more certain, though he rarely attempted composition. Mr. Chambers,
with all his diligence and advantages for research, (and they are very
meritorious and considerable,) "has not been able to detect any
fugitive pieces of Sir Walter's in any of the periodical publications
of the day, nor even any attempt to get one intruded (?) unless the
following notice in Dr. Anderson's _Bee_ for May 9, 1792, refers to
him:--'The Editor regrets that the verses of _W.S._ are _too defective
for publication_.'"
FIRST LITERARY ATTEMPTS.
About this time Sir Walter employed his leisure in collecting the
ballad poetry of the Scottish Border. His inducement to this task was
subsequently described by him as follows:--
"A period," says Sir Walter, "when this particular taste for the
popular ballad was in the most extravagant degree of fashion, became
the occasion, unexpectedly indeed, of my deserting the profession to
which I was educated, and in which I had sufficiently advantageous
prospects for a person of limited ambition. * * I may remark that,
although the assertion has been made, it is a mistake to suppose that
my situation in life or place in society were materially altered by
such success as I attained in literary attempts. My birth, without
giving the least pretension to distinction, was that of a gentleman,
and connected me with several respectable families and accomplished
persons. My education had been a good one, although I was deprived of
its full benefit by indifferent health, just at the period when I
ought to have been most sedulous in improving it." He then describes
his circumstances as easy, with a moderate degree of business for his
standing, and "the friendship of more than one person of
consideration, efficiently disposed to aid his views in life." In
short, he describes himself as "beyond all apprehension of want." He
then notices the low ebb of poetry in Britain for the previous ten
years; the fashionable but slender poetical reputation of Hayley, then
in the wane; "the Bard of Memory slumbered on his laurels, and he of
Hope had scarce begun to attract his share of public attention;"
Cowper was dead, and had not left an extensive popularity; "Burns,
whose genius our southern neighbours could hardly yet comprehend, had
long confined himself to song-writing; and the realms of Parnassus
seemed to lie open to the first bold invader." The gradual
introduction of German literature into this country during such a
dearth of native talent, now led Sir Walter to the study of the German
language. He also became acquainted with Mr. G. Lewis, author of _The
Monk_, who had already published some successful imitations of the
German ballad school. "Out of this acquaintance," says Sir Walter,
"consequences arose, which altered almost all the Scottish
ballad-maker's future prospects of life. In early youth I had been an
eager student of ballad poetry, and the tree is still in my
recollection, beneath which I lay and first entered upon the
enchanting perusal of Percy's Reliques of Ancient Poetry. The taste of
another person had strongly encouraged my own researches into this
species of legendary lore; but I had never dreamed of an attempt to
imitate what gave me so much pleasure." He then speaks of some
successful metrical translations which he made at the High School; but
in original rhyme he was less fortunate. "In short," says Sir Walter,
"except the usual tribute to a mistress' eyebrow, which is the
language of passion rather than poetry, I had not for ten years
indulged the wish to couple so much as _love_ and _dove_, when finding
Lewis in possession of so much reputation, and, conceiving that, if I
fell behind him in poetical powers, I considerably exceeded him in
general information, I suddenly took it into my head to attempt the
style by which he had raised himself to fame." Sir Walter next hearing
a striking passage from Mr. W. Taylor's translation of Buerger's
_Leonore_, was induced to procure a copy of the original poem from
Germany, and "the book had only been a few hours in my possession,
when I found myself giving an animated account of the poem to a
friend, and rashly added a promise to furnish a copy in English ballad
verse. I well recollect that I began my task after supper, and
finished it about daybreak the next morning, (it consists of 66
stanzas,) by which time the ideas which the task had a tendency to
summon up, were rather of an uncomfortable character." This success
encouraged Sir Walter to publish his translation of _Leonore_ with
that of _Der Wilde Jager_ (the Wild Huntsman,) in a thin quarto; but,
other translations appearing at the same time, Sir Walter's adventure
proved a dead loss: "and a great part of the edition was condemned to
the service of the trunk-maker." This failure did not discourage Sir
Walter; for, early in 1799 he published _Goetz of Berlinchingen_, a
tragedy, from the German of Goethe. We thus see that Sir Walter did
not conceal his obligation to Lewis, for his aid in his translations;
but Lord Byron's assertion that Monk Lewis corrected Scott's verse,
and that he understood little then of the mechanical part of it--is
far from true, as a comparison of their productions warrants us to
conclude.
Sir Walter's first attempt at originality was in ballad poetry. He
says:--"The ballad called _Glenfinlas_ was, I think, the first
original poem which I ventured to compose. After _Glenfinlas_, I
undertook another ballad, called _The Eve of St. John_. The incidents,
except the hints alluded to in the notes, are entirely imaginary; but
the scene was that of my early childhood. Some idle persons had of
late years during the proprietor's absence, torn down the iron-grated
door of Smailholm Tower from its hinges, and thrown it down the rock."
Sir Walter prevailed on the proprietor to repair the mischief, on
condition that the young poet should write a ballad, of which the
scene should lie at Smailholm Tower, and among the crags where it is
situated. The ballad, as well as _Glenfinlas_, was approved of, and
procured Sir Walter many marks of attention and kindness from Duke
John of Roxburgh, who gave him the unlimited use of the Roxburgh club
library.
MINSTRELSY OF THE SCOTTISH BORDER.
This work, although not original, may be said to be the superstructure
of Sir Walter Scott's fame. It consists, as we have already hinted, of
the ballad poetry of the Border district; but to obtain this
vernacular literature was not the work of mere compilation. The
editor's task was not performed in the closet, but in a sort of
literary pilgrimage through a land of song, story, and romance. The
farmers and peasantry from whose recitation the ballads were to be set
down, were a primitive race; and the country among which oral
traditions, anecdotes, and legends were to be collected for notes
illustrative of the ballads, was of the most romantic character. Sir
Walter found the most fertile field in the pastoral vale of
Liddesdale, whither he travelled in an old gig with Mr. Shortreed, an
intelligent observer of the manners of the people. In these
researches, Sir Walter evinced a most retentive memory: he is stated
to have used neither pencil nor pen, but to have made his own
memoranda by cutting notches on twigs, or small sticks.[6] The
_Minstrelsy_ was published in 1802, in two volumes; it was reprinted
in the following year with a third volume, of imitations, by Scott and
others, of the ancient ballad; but Sir Walter refers to the second
edition as rather a heavy concern.
[6] Many anecdotes are related in illustration of Sir Walter
Scott's excellent memory. The Ettrick Shepherd tells of
his attempting to sing his ballad of _Gilmanscleuch_,
which had never been printed or penned, but which the
Shepherd had sung once over to Sir Walter three years
previously. On the second attempt to sing it, says the
Shepherd, "in the eighth or ninth verse, I stuck in it,
and could not get on with another line; on which he (Sir
Walter) began it a second time, and recited it every word
from beginning to the end of the eighty-eighth stanza:"
and, on the Shepherd expressing his astonishment, Sir
Walter related that he had recited that ballad and one of
Southey's, but which ballads he had only heard once from
their respective authors, and he believed he had recited
them both without missing a word. Sir Walter also used to
relate that his friend, Mr. Thomas Campbell, called upon
him one evening to show him the manuscript of a poem he
had written--_The Pleasures of Hope_. Sir Walter happened
to have some fine old whisky in his house, and his friend
sat down and had a tumbler or two of punch. Mr. Campbell
left him, but Sir Walter thought he would dip into the
manuscript before going to bed. He opened it, read, and
read again--charmed with the classical grace, purity, and
stateliness of that finest of all our modern didactic
poems. Next morning Mr. Campbell again called, when to his
inexpressible surprise, his friend on returning the
manuscript to its owner, said he should guard well against
piracy, for that he himself could repeat the poem from
beginning to end! The poet dared him to the task, when Sir
Walter Scott began and actually repeated the whole,
consisting of more than two thousand lines, with the
omission of only a few couplets.--_Inverness Courier_.
MARRIAGE--SHERIFFDOM--LEAVES THE BAR.
Reverting to Sir Walter's domestic life, we should mention that in
1797, he married Miss Carpenter, a lady of Jersey, with an annuity of
400_l._; soon after which he established himself during the vacations,
in a delightful retreat at Lasswade, on the banks of the Esse, about
five miles to the south of Edinburgh. In 1799, he obtained the Crown
appointment of sheriff of Selkirkshire, with a salary of 300_l._ a
year; the duties of which office he is said to have performed with
kindness and justice. Mr. Cunningham relates that Sir Walter had a
high notion of the dignity which belonged to his post, and sternly
maintained it when any one seemed disposed to treat it with unbecoming
familiarity. On one occasion, it is said, when some foreign prince
passed through Selkirk, the populace, anxious to look on a live
prince, crowded round him so closely, that Scott, in vain attempted to
approach him; the poet's patience failed, and exclaiming "Room for
your sheriff! Room for your sheriff!" he pushed and elbowed the gapers
impatiently aside, and apologised to the prince for their
curiosity.[7]