[Illustration: THE SCOTT COUNTRY]
Where—and what—is the “Scott Country”? Edinburgh—his birthplace, the
centre of his literary and legal activities, the scene of _The Heart of
Midlothian_ and of the _Chronicles of the Canongate_, his “own romantic
town”—might surely claim to enclose, if not the kernel, an essential
part of the interest that surrounds the fame and the name of Sir Walter.
Around it, between the Pentlands and Lammermoors and the sea, is
territory immortally associated with the life and the works of the
“Master of Romance”—Lasswade and Roslin, Borthwick and Crichton, “Goblin
Ha’” and Prestonpans,
“Auchendinny’s hazel glade
And haunted Woodhouselee”,
Linlithgow Palace on the western and “Wolfs Crag” on the eastern
boundary of Lothian. Fife, on the strength of its possessions of
Dunfermline, Falkland, St. Andrews, and other storied sites, might put
forward a title to be ranked as a province of the Scott Country. So
might Perthshire, by virtue of the “Fair City” and its “Fair Maid”, and
joint ownership, with Stirling and Dumbarton, of entrancing scenes on
Loch Katrine, Loch Ard, and Loch Lomond. Forfarshire also, wherein is
placed the best remembered of the passages in _The Antiquary_, and even
the distant Orkneys and Shetlands, have felt the touch of the Wizard’s
wand.
Nor, in the briefest survey of the lands of Scott Romance, can one
overlook the crumbling castles and the rugged shores once ruled by the
“Lord of the Isles”; or the banks of the Clyde and Douglas Water; or the
opposing shores of the Solway; or Redesdale and Teesdale, Gilsland and
Triermain. The Peak District, Sherwood Forest, and the Marches of Wales;
Kenilworth, and Woodstock, and even London streets themselves might
tender a case for inclusion; while, looking farther afield, one is
reminded that the genius of Walter Scott has cast its spell over the
Ardennes and Touraine, Switzerland, Constantinople, and the Palestine of
the Crusades.
These are, for the most part, merely excursions of a spirit whose
abiding home or favourite haunt was the Valley of the Tweed and its
encircling hills. Edinburgh itself, where there are so many rival
memories, does not recall the author of _Waverley_ so instantly and
intimately to our thoughts and affections as Abbotsford; and the triple
Eildon, rather than Arthur’s Seat, is the “high place” of the Scott
cult. If he brought a new glory to the Border Country, it was the Border
Country that “made him”, as a man still more than as a writer; and he is
the most typical, as he is the most honoured, of its many famous sons.