Scott's early love of reading is described to have been of
enthusiastic character, and to have been fostered by an accident at
this period of his life. He had just given over the amusements of
boyhood, and began to prepare himself for the serious business of
life, or the study of the law, when, to use his own words, "a long
illness threw him back on the kingdom of fiction, as it were by a
species of fatality." His autobiography of this period is extremely
interesting:--"My indisposition arose in part at least, from my having
broken a blood-vessel; and motion and speech were for a long time
pronounced positively dangerous. For several weeks I was confined
strictly to my bed, during which time I was not allowed to speak above
a whisper, to eat more than a spoonful or two of boiled rice, or to
have more covering than one thin counterpane. When the reader is
informed that I was at this time a growing youth, with the spirits,
appetite, and impatience of fifteen, and suffered, of course, greatly
under this severe regimen, which the repeated return of my disorder
rendered indispensable, he will not be surprised that I was abandoned
to my own discretion, so far as reading (my almost sole amusement) was
concerned, and still less so, that I abused the indulgence which left
my time so much at my own disposal.
"There was at this time a circulating library at Edinburgh, founded, I
believe, by the celebrated Allan Ramsay, which, besides containing a
most respectable collection of books of every description, was, as
might have been expected, peculiarly rich in works of fiction. I was
plunged into this great ocean of reading without compass or pilot; and
unless when some one had the charity to play at chess with me, I was
allowed to do nothing save read, from morning to night. As my taste
and appetite were gratified in nothing else, I indemnified myself by
becoming a glutton of books. Accordingly, I believe, I read almost all
the old romances, old plays, and epic poetry, in that formidable
collection, and no doubt was unconsciously amassing materials for the
task in which it has been my lot to be so much employed.
"At the same time, I did not in all respects abuse the license
permitted me. Familiar acquaintance with the specious miracles of
fiction brought with it some degree of satiety, and I began by degrees
to seek in histories, memoirs, voyages and travels, and the like,
events nearly as wonderful as those which were the works of the
imagination, with the additional advantage that they were, at least,
in a great measure true. The lapse of nearly two years, during which I
was left to the service of my own free will, was followed by a
temporary residence in the country, where I was again very lonely, but
for the amusement which I derived from a good, though old-fashioned,
library. The vague and wild use which I made of this advantage I
cannot describe better than by referring my reader to the desultory
studies of Waverley in a similar situation; the passages concerning
whose reading were imitated from recollections of my own."[5]
[5] General Preface, &c.