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."