A man who at the age of fifty-five resolves to pay off a bankruptcy
debt of six hundred thousand dollars must justly be regarded as a hero.
Not many men, weakened in health and used to all the comforts, would
attempt to do this--especially when the debt was incurred through no
fault of their own, and when the law does not force them to pay. Yet
that is what Sir Walter Scott--the “Wizard of the North”--did, and so
fiercely did he work at his writing--twelve, fourteen, and sixteen
hours a day--that at his death six years later every penny of that
colossal and heartbreaking debt had been paid.
The story of Abbotsford, the home of the great poet and novelist, of
which he dreamed for years, and which he planned and built himself, is
a drama, a tragedy itself. No sooner was the great house finished and
the dream of his life complete than the crash of tremendous ruin fell
on Scott.
It was on a bleak winter morning in 1826 that a friend called at
Abbotsford and found the novelist terribly agitated.
“My friend,” said Sir Walter to him, “give me your hand; mine is that
of a beggar.”
The publishing house with which he had been connected had failed,
and Scott took upon himself the terrible burden of satisfying its
creditors. It was an apparently hopeless task for a writer, and one in
such a frail state of health as Scott, to accomplish. But where others
would have yielded to Fate, he stood up to fight it, and though the
effort cost him his life he succeeded, and may truly be called the most
heroic literary figure in the world.
Walter Scott was born at Edinburgh on August 15, 1771. His father
wanted him to follow his own profession, that of a lawyer; but the boy
wished to write. He wrote poetry at first; but according to the story
turned to prose romance when he found that Lord Byron excelled him as a
poet. It was in 1814 that a novel--“Waverley”--by an anonymous author,
appeared. Its popularity swept like wild fire all over England. Book
after book, all of the same excellence, was published. The secret of
authorship was jealously kept by Scott--for what reason many guesses
have been made--but at last his name was definitely connected with this
great series--the “Waverley Novels.”
He prospered brilliantly for eleven years. And then came the crash of
ruin. Scott put his shoulder to the wheel. His wife died soon after the
struggle began; but, though sick at heart, he toiled on indomitably.
Success was his in the end; but the struggle killed him.
It was on the twenty-first of September, 1832, that Sir Walter Scott
died.
PREPARED BY THE EDITORIAL STAFF OF THE MENTOR ASSOCIATION
ILLUSTRATION FOR THE MENTOR, VOL. 1, No. 10, SERIAL No. 10
COPYRIGHT, 1913, BY THE MENTOR ASSOCIATION, INC.
[Illustration: STIRLING CASTLE, SCOTLAND]
_SCOTLAND_
_Stirling Castle_