SCOTT, 1771-1832

Biographical Outline.-Walter Scott, born in Edinburgh, August 15, 1771, the ninth of twelve children, six of whom died in infancy; father a solicitor, descended from "a great riding, sporting, fighting clan"; mother, daughter of a physician, and better educated than most Scotch women of her day; she gave to her son much of the information and inspiration for his romances; during Scott's second year a teething fever results in making him lame for life; for the sake of his health, he is sent out of the city to reside with his grandfather at the farm of Sandy-Knowe, southeast of Edinburgh; he spends the sunny days with the shepherds among the sheep; shows an early fondness for manly sports and heroic literature; at six reads poems aloud to his mother, and is pronounced "a most astounding genius"; his childhood at Sandy-Knowe is pictured in the third canto of "Marmion"; as a child he manifests remarkable spirit, gentleness, and self-command; at school "he glanced like a meteor from one end of the class to the other," and "received more praise for his interpretation of the spirit of his authors than for his knowledge of their language"; out of school he extemporizes innumerable stories for his comrades, and becomes a daring leader in all athletic sports and ventures; masters Latin fairly, but refuses to study Greek; studies first at the High School at Edinburgh and then at a school in Kelso, where the master becomes a friend and an inspiration; from boyhood, Scott is a worshipper of the past" and an intense conservative; he enters the University of Edinburgh in 1783, remains three years, and obtains, in addition to his Latin, some knowledge of French and German;

displays a phenomenal memory, great power of physical endurance, and great fondness for romance; begins to study law, first as an apprentice to his father and afterward at the University; is admitted to the bar in 1796; in 1787 he suffers from a hemorrhage, and, during the absolute silence imposed as an essential of recovery, begins "his study of the scenic side of history"; reads voraciously in the line of military exploit, romance, and mediæval legend; learns Italian and Spanish, and reads Cervantes, whose novels, he says, "first inspired me to excel in fiction"; he tramps about the country so much in search of natural beauty and historic associations that his father pronounces him "better fitted for a peddler than a lawyer"; often walks thirty miles a day, though still very ame, and has many adventures and some carousals; he studies the law carefully, however, and succeeds respectably, though he is a poor debater; practises law more or less for fourteen years, never earning over £230 a year; he serves as Clerk of Session for several years without a salary; in 1790 he falls violently in love with the daughter of Sir John Belcher, but the lady marries another in 1796; Scott's success as a lawyer is marred by his "dabblings in poetry " and by his reputation for "wild and unprofessional adventurousness"; he visits London and becomes widely known for his ballads of love, etc.; in 1797 he marries Miss Charpentier (Carpenter), daughter of a French Royalist of Lyons" a bird of paradise mating with an eagle"; his first serious literary attempt is a translation of Burger's "Lenore," made in 1795 and published in 1796; in 1798 he publishes a translation of Goethe's "Goetz von Berlichingen," and in 1799 the ballads " Glenfinlas," "The Eve of St. John," and "The Grey Brother"; in January, 1802, publishes the first two volumes of "Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border" (including several ballads from his own pen); the first edition (eight hundred copies) is sold within one year, and Scott becomes famous; he publishes the third vol

ume of the "Minstrelsy" in 1803; in 1805 publishes "The Lay of the Last Minstrel" (begun in 1802), of which 44,000 copies were sold regularly during the following twenty-five years, bringing Scott 769; he publishes," Marmion " (largely composed in the saddle) in 1808, and receives one thousand guineas for the copyright before publication; during 1808 he also edits elaborate editions of Dryden and Swift, adding critical notes and a biography to each; from 1798 to 1804 he resides at Lasswade, six miles from Edinburgh; he then removes to Ashestiel, in Selkirkshire, a few miles up the Tweed from Abbotsford, where he resides till 1812; while at Ashestiel he writes and publishes "The Lay of the Last Minstrel," "The Lady of the Lake" (for which he receives £2,000 at its publication), "The Bridal of Triermain," a part of Rokeby," and a vast amount of other material; in 1799 he is made Sheriff of Selkirkshire, with a salary of £300 a year, an office that he holds till shortly before his death; he becomes an officer in the Edinburgh volunteer cavalry, and gives much attention to military affairs; in 1812, having come into the salary of the Clerkship of Session, Scott buys "a mountain farm" of one hundred acres, five miles down the Tweed from Ashestiel, paying £4,000, half of which he borrows from his brother on the security of a poem ("Rokeby ") not then written; he takes to Abbotsford much of the material forming the present "armory" there, and resides at Abbotsford till his death, repeatedly enlarging the estate by buying up adjacent lands until his estate reaches 1,000 acres, and costs, for the land alone, £29.000; he surrounds himself at Abbotsford with numerous pet dogs and other animals, devotes much time to tree-planting, and entertains there many noted people; in 1802 he sends £500 to James Ballantyne, a former school-fellow at Kelso, who had printed Scott's first work, and induces him to remove to Edinburgh; in 1805 Scott becomes a silent partner with Ballantyne in the printing business, and in 1809 the admission of John, brother

to James Ballantyne, results in the firm of John Ballantyne & Co., booksellers and publishers; in 1812-14 the concern is saved from bankruptcy only by the receipts from "Waverley" (begun in 1805 and published in 1814); "Waverley" is published anonymously, and meets with astounding success, over 60,000 copies being sold up to 1825; during 1811-14 Scott corresponds with Byron, Southey, and his friend Sir Humphry Davy; publishes "Rokeby" in 1812 and the "Bridal of Triermain" in 1813; 10,000 copies of "Rokeby are sold within three months after publication; Scott declines the offer of the laureateship in 1813; visits the Shetland Isles in 1814; in January, 1815, publishes "The Lord of the Isles," and in February, "Guy Mannering," in two volumes; he receives £2,000 for "Guy Mannering," of which 2,000 copies were sold the day after its publication and 50,000 up to 1838, in Great Britain alone; he publishes, also, "Paul's Letters to His Kinsfolk" early in 1815; visits London in March, 1815, remaining two months, and meeting Byron and the Prince Regent, who gives a dinner in Scott's honor; visits Brussels and the field of Waterloo soon after the battle, in August, 1815, and returns to Abbotsford in September, after spending some time in Paris; publishes his poem "The Field of Waterloo" in October, 1815, and "The Antiquary" in May, 1816; 6,000 copies of the latter were sold within six days after publication; in December, 1816, still preserving his incognito, Scott publishes, through Murray, the first series of "Tales of My Grandfather," containing "The Black Dwarf" and "Old Mortality"; 4,000 copies were sold within six weeks; in January, 1817, he publishes "Harold the Dauntless," begun several years before, and makes a fruitless effort to secure an appointment as Baron of the Exchequer ; he is severely ill during the winter of 1817, and later in that year entertains, at Abbotsford, Lady Byron and Washington Irving; in December he completes and publishes "Rob Roy," of which 40,000 copies were sold in Great Britain up to

1838; publishes "The Heart of Midlothian" in June, 1818; at this time the annual profits on his novels were about £10,ooo; for several years prior to 1818 Scott edits the "Edinburgh Annual Register," a history of the world for each preceding year, making an annual volume of about four hundred pages; while in Edinburgh he lives in Castle Street; declares in 1818 that his annual expenditure for postage alone reaches £150; in November, 1818, he accepts the offer of a baronetcy; in December, 1818, sells all his existing copyrights to Constable & Co. for £12,000, they agreeing not to reveal the author's name under a forfeit of £2,000; Scott suffers a return of his stomach malady in the spring of 1819, and dictates The Bride of Lammermoor," ," "The Legend of Montrose" (both published in 1819), and the greater part of "Ivanhoe" while suffering intense physical pain; he entertains Prince Leopold of Saxe-Cobourg and Miss Edgeworth in the summer of 1819, and publishes "Ivanhoe" during the following autumn; it is received "with clamorous delight"; during the winter of 1819-20 he publishes the essays entitled "The Visionary," giving his views on certain popular doctrines and delusions"; entertains Prince Gustavus Vasa at Edinburgh in the winter of 1820, and publishes "The Monastery" in the following March; proceeds to London to receive his baronetcy, and, at the request of George IV., sits for his portrait, to be hung in the royal gallery at Windsor; sits also for the bust that now best represents him; becomes "Sir Walter Scott" March 30, 1820, King George conferring the honor in person; in May, 1820, Scott receives tenders of the degree of D.C.L. from both Oxford and Cambridge; in September, 1820, he publishes "The Abbot," a continuation of "The Monastery," but the novel is not a success; in November is elected president of the Royal Society of Edinburgh ; publishes Kenilworth" in January, 1821, and begins to edit Ballantyne's "Novelist's Library"; in November, 1821, sells to Constable the copyrights of "Ivanhoe," "The Mon

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