Edinburgh was an illustrated edition of a great deal of Scotch history,
and Scott left no part of the old town unvisited. He spent so much
time exploring the country within reach that his father protested
that he was becoming a strolling peddler. "Show me an old castle or a
battlefield," he wrote, "and I was at home at once, filled it with its
combatants in their proper costume, and overwhelmed my hearers by the
enthusiasm of my description." So he came to know not only the spirit
but the "form and presence" of feudalism and the ideals and code of
manners of chivalry.
[Illustration: SIR WALTER SCOTT
From the painting by J. P. Knight]
[Illustration: ABBOTSFORD
A near view]
His education went a step farther when he saw the Highlands for the
first time in 1787. The traditions of 1715 and 1745, when the Highland
chiefs had engaged in brave but futile attempts to restore the exiled
Stuarts to the throne which those ill-starred Kings had forfeited by
their inability to understand the English people, were still fresh on
the Border. Men who had taken part in the rising of 1745 were still
living, and Scott was fortunate enough to be the guest of one of them.
He was to write the stories of wild Scotland as no historian had or
could write them, and on this memorable visit he was to hear the tales
of stirring and romantic deeds from one who had played a part in them,
and he was to see with the eyes of youth the landscape on which they
had been enacted. It was a happy hour in which the boy who was to
write "Waverley" and "Rob Roy" heard from a veteran the stories of
battle, of dashing foray, of daring deeds and hairbreadth escapes. "To
know men who had known Rob Roy, to hear the story of the two risings
which had shaken Scotland like an earthquake, to be a guest in remote
and lonely castles, to be guided through wild defiles and over vast
mountain ranges by kilted clansmen whose speech was only Gaelic and
whose claymores were still at the service of their chiefs--this was the
real education of the writer who was to be the scribe of his country,
the truest of her historians."
This first-hand education in romantic history was supplemented by the
eager reading of military exploits, of medieval romance and legend, of
the songs of the Border, of Ariosto and Cervantes. The author of "Don
Quixote," he said later, "first inspired him with the ambition to excel
in fiction." He was also fortunate in the possession of a memory which
held tenaciously everything that contributed to his future work and let
unrelated things slip through its meshes.
[Illustration: THE LIBRARY, ABBOTSFORD]
He studied law and practised at the bar in a desultory way for
fourteen years. He was appointed "Sheriff of the Court" of Ettrick,
a position to which a comfortable salary was attached, and for five
years he acted, without salary, as a Clerk of Sessions in the court in
Edinburgh. He was recognized as an able man, and he was interested in
the historical aspects of Scotch law, in its "quips and quiddities,"
and his knowledge of its processes was shown in his novels; but he was
an impatient and uninterested practitioner, and long before he formally
gave up the profession he was writing poetry. While poetry and law have
often been on good terms they have never been happy partners.
[Illustration: THE STUDY, ABBOTSFORD
This room is lined with Scott's favorite books and works of reference.
The bedroom that he used opens directly into the study.]
[Illustration: SIR WALTER SCOTT
From the painting by C. R. Leslie, R. A.]