Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 51.djvu/91

 ularity. An essay upon ballads which he read upon the night of Jeffrey's admission led to an acquaintance between the two, and Jeffrey found him already collecting the nucleus of a museum of curiosities.

By this time he had also become qualified for ladies' society. He had grown to be tall and strong; his figure was both powerful and graceful; his chest and arms were those of a Hercules. Though his features were not handsome, their expression was singularly varied and pleasing; his eye was bright and his complexion brilliant. It was a proud day, he said, when he found that a pretty young woman would sit out and talk to him for hours in a ballroom, where his lameness prevented him from dancing. This pretty young lady was probably Williamina, daughter of Sir John and Lady Jane Belsches, afterwards Stuart, of Fettercairn, near Montrose, born October 1776. She ultimately married, on 19 Jan. 1797, Sir William Forbes, bart., of Pitsligo, was mother of James David Forbes [q. v.], and died 5 Dec. 1810. Scott appears to have felt for her the strongest passion of his life. Scott's father, says Lockhart, thought it right to give notice to the lady's father of the attachment. This interference, however, produced no effect upon the relations between the young people. Scott, he adds, hoped for success for ‘several long years.’ Whatever the true story of the failure, there can be no doubt that Scott was profoundly moved, and the memory of the lady inspired him when describing Matilda in ‘Rokeby’ (Letters, ii. 18), and probably other heroines. He refers to the passion more than once in his last journal, and he had affecting interviews with her mother in 1827 (Journal, 1890, i. 86, 96, 404, ii. 55, 62, 321). According to Lockhart, Scott's friends thought that this secret attachment had helped to keep him free from youthful errors, and had nerved him to diligence during his legal studies. As, however, she was only sixteen when he was called to the bar, Lockhart's language seems to imply rather too early a date for the beginning of the affair (see James Mill for an account of the Stuart family; James Mill was for a time Miss Stuart's tutor).

Scott, on joining the bar, received some employment from his father and a few others, but had plenty of leisure to become famous as a story-teller among his comrades. Among his dearest friends of this and later times was William Erskine (afterwards Lord Kinneder) [q. v.] At the end of 1792 he made his first excursion to Liddesdale, with Robert Shortreed, the sheriff-substitute of Roxburghshire. He repeated these ‘raids’ for seven successive years, exploring every corner of the country, collecting ballads and occasionally an old border war-horn, and enjoying the rough hospitalities of the Dandie Dinmonts. A Willie Elliot of Millburnholme is said to have been the original of this great creation, though a Jamie Davidson, who kept mustard-and-pepper terriers, passed by the name afterwards; and Lockhart thinks that the portrait was filled up from Scott's friend, William Laidlaw [q. v.] Scott was everywhere welcome, overflowing with fun, and always a gentleman, even when ‘fou,’ which, however, was a rare occurrence. Other rambles took him to Perthshire, Stirlingshire, and Forfarshire. He became familiar with the scenery of Loch Katrine. At Craighall in Perthshire he found one original of the Tully-Veolan of ‘Waverley,’ and at Meigle in Forfarshire he met Robert Paterson [q. v.], the real ‘Old Mortality.’ In 1796 he visited Montrose, and tried to collect stories of witches and fairies from his old tutor, Mitchell. The neighbourhood of the Stuarts at Fettercairn was probably a stronger inducement, but his suit was now finally rejected. His friends were alarmed at the possible consequences to his romantic temper, but he appears to have regained his self-command during a solitary ramble in the highlands.

Another line of study was now attracting his attention. In 1788 a paper read by Henry Mackenzie to the Royal Society of Edinburgh had roused an interest in German literature. Scott and some of his friends formed a class about 1792 to study German, engaging as teacher Dr. Willich (afterwards a translator of Kant), and gained a knowledge of the language, which was then a ‘new discovery.’ Scott disdained the grammar, but forced his way to reading by his knowledge of Anglo-Saxon and Scottish dialects. William Erskine shared his zeal, and restrained his taste for the extravagances of the German dramatists. He became Scott's most trusted literary adviser. Three or four years later James Skene of Rubislaw [q. v.] returned from Germany with a thorough knowledge of the language and a good collection of books. Their literary sympathies led to the formation of another of Scott's warmest friendships.

The French revolution affected Scott chiefly by way of repulsion and by stimulating his patriotism. In 1794 some Irish students of the opposite persuasion made a riot in the theatre. Scott joined with such effect as to break the heads of three democrats, and was bound over to keep the peace. He was keenly interested in the raising of