Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 51.djvu/90

 Stewart, and attended a few lectures on law and history. Finding that his fellows were before him in Greek, he forswore the language and gave up the Latin classics as well. He remained ignorant of even the Greek alphabet, though in later years he was fond of some Latin poetry. He was, however, eagerly pursuing his favourite studies. With John Irving (afterwards a writer to the signet) he used to ramble over Arthur's Seat, each composing romantic legends for the other's amusement. He learnt Italian enough to read Tasso and Ariosto in the original, acquired some Spanish, and read French, though he never became a good linguist. A severe illness, caused by the ‘bursting of a blood-vessel in the lower bowels,’ interrupted his serious studies; and he solaced himself, with Irving, in reading romantic literature. His recovery was completed at Rosebank, where his uncle Robert had recently settled, and which became a second home to him. He studied fortification on Uncle Toby's method, and read Vertot's ‘Knights of Malta’ and Orme's ‘Hindostan.’ Gradually he recovered, became tall and muscular, and delighted in rides and, in spite of lameness, walks of twenty or thirty miles a day. His rambles made him familiar with many places of historical interest, and he tried, without success, to acquire the art of landscape-painting. His failure in music was even more decided.

He did not resume his attendance at college in 1785, and on 15 May 1786 he was apprenticed to his father as writer to the signet. Soon after this he had his only sight of Burns. As an apprentice Scott acquired regular business habits. He made a little pocket-money by copying legal documents, and says that he once wrote 120 folio pages at a sitting. His handwriting, as Lockhart observes, shows the marks of his steady practice as a clerk. He began to file his letters regularly, and was inured to the methodical industry to be afterwards conspicuously displayed in literature. The drudgery, however, was distasteful at the time. In 1788 he began to attend civil-law classes, which then formed part of the education of both branches of the legal profession. He here made the acquaintance of young men intended for the bar, and aspired to become an advocate himself. His father kindly approved of the change, but offered to take him into partnership. Both, however, preferred that the younger son, Thomas, should take this position; and Walter accordingly attended the course of study necessary for an advocate, along with his particular chum, William Clerk. They ‘coached’ each other industriously, and were impressed by the lectures of David Hume, the historian's nephew. Both were called to the bar on 11 July 1792, Scott having defended a thesis ‘on the disposal of the dead bodies of criminals,’ which was a ‘very pretty piece of latinity,’ and was dedicated to Lord Braxfield [see ].

Scott was already a charming companion and was a member of various clubs; the ‘Teviotdale Club,’ to which Ballantyne belonged; ‘The Club’ (of Edinburgh), where he met William Clerk and other young advocates, and was known as ‘Colonel Grogg;’ and the ‘Literary Society,’ where discussions were held in which, although Scott was not distinguished as an orator, he aired his antiquarian knowledge, and gained the nickname ‘Duns Scotus.’ Scott's companions were given to the conviviality of the period; and, though strictly temperate in later life, he occasionally put the strength of his head to severe tests at this time. When the hero of ‘Rob Roy’ is persuaded that he had sung a song during a carouse, he is repeating the author's experience. It seems, too, that such frolics occasionally led to breaches of the peace, when Scott was complimented as being the ‘first to begin a row and the last to end it.’ He fell, however, into no discreditable excesses, and was reading widely and storing his mind, by long rambles in the country, with antiquarian knowledge. As an apprentice he had to accompany an expedition for the execution of a writ, which first took him into the Loch Katrine region. He made acquaintance with a client of his father's, Alexander Stewart of Invernahyle, who had been out in 1715 and 1745, and had met Rob Roy in a duel. Scott visited him in the highlands, and listened eagerly to his stories. At a rather later period he visited the Cheviots, and made a careful study of Flodden Field.

The ‘Literary Society’ encouraged him to take a higher place among his friends. He had ‘already dabbled,’ says Lockhart, ‘in Anglo-Saxon and the Norse sagas.’ In 1789 he read before the society an essay intended to show that the feudal system was the natural product of certain social conditions, instead of being the invention of a particular period. In the winter of 1790–91 he attracted the attention of Dugald Stewart, whose class he was again attending, by an essay ‘on the Manners and Customs of the Northern Nations.’ On 4 Jan. 1791 he was elected a member of the Speculative Society. He took great interest in its proceedings, was soon chosen librarian and secretary, and kept the minutes with businesslike reg-