Sept. 21.
One hundred years ago to-day saw the passing of Sir Walter Scott, the Scottish poet and novelist, who during his comparatively short life of sixty-one years was to leave such a mark on English literature. It is not necessary in touching on this centenary to do much in the nature of reference to the antecedents of this romantic figure; but, to quote his own words:
"My birth was neither distinguished nor sordid. According to the prejudices of my country it was esteemed gentle, as I was connected, though remotely, with ancient families both by my father's and mother's side. My father's grandfather was Walter Scott, well known by the name of Beardie. He was the second son of Walter Scott, first laird of Raeburn, who was third son of Sir William Scott, and the grandson of Walter Scott, commonly called in tradition Auld Watt of Harden. I am therefore lineally descended from that ancient chieftain, whose name I have made to ring in many a ditty, and from his fair dame the Flower of Yarrow—no bad gen-oology for a Border minstrel."
It would be an_ interesting speculation to consider how far his descent, combined with his uncertain health during his youth, influenced more particularly his poems; for nature seemed to endow him, as compensation for his physical shortcomings, not only with a great passion for research and study, but with an astonishingly good memory. The story is told, that as a lad of fifteen, when he attended a party given to lionise Burns, he was able to quote the source of a couplet at the foot of a portrait which had puzzled everyone else present. The lad who learned French for the purpose of reading old romances, and then devoted himself to Italian in order to study Dante and Ariosto in the original, spent much of his early life acquiring information which placed him eventually in the forefront of writers of his time, and, indeed, of all time.
Combined with all this preparatory work, the ultimate aim of which he always seemed to have realised, he studied hard for the law, at the same time searching for ballads of the countryside, to the great disgust of his old father, who told him on one occasion, very bitterly, that he seemed fit for nothing but a "gangrel scrape-gut." His aim was to adopt a_ profession which would give him sufficient leisure to engage in his literary pursuits, and when, in 1812, he obtained the reversion of the office of Clerk of Session, he was equipped not only with a competent livelihood but with abundance of opportunities for the study of men and manners. He had, however, by that time already established himself as a poet, for in January, 1805, the "Lay of the Last Minstrel" had been published and achieved a wide popularity. It is not necessary to consider all his poems in detail nor to dwell at any length on the financial embarrassments which subsequently befell him. But in 1805 he had commenced: the first few chapters
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.