Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume XIV.djvu/734

 708 SIR WALTER SCOTT Walter Scott, a writer to the signet, allied to the Scotts of Harden, an offshoot from the house .of Buccleuch. His mother was Anne, daughter of John Rutherford, a medical pro- fessor in the university of Edinburgh. Being delicate, he was sent at three years of age to reside on his paternal grandfather's farm of Sandyknowe, in Roxburghshire. In 1779 he returned to Edinburgh greatly improved in health, with the exception of a lameness which appeared in his second year and never left him. Soon after he entered the high school of Edin- burgh, whence, in October, 1783, he was trans- ferred to the university. He was apprenticed in May, 1786, to legal business in the office of his father, and was called to the Scottish bar in July, 1792. His earliest publications were metrical versions of Burger's " Leonora " and " Wild Huntsman " (4to, 1796). Subsequently he composed the ballads " Glenfinlas," "The Eve of St. John," and " The Grey Brother," Sublighed in 1799 in Lewis's "Tales of Won- er." About the same time he produced a translation of Goethe's Gdtz von Berliehingen. He had meanwhile (December, 1797) married Charlotte Margaret Carpenter, a young lady of French extraction, and was in the enjoyment of a comfortable income. In 1799 he was ap- pointed sheriff depute of Selkirkshire. In 1802 appeared the first two volumes of his " Min- strelsy of the Scottish Border," a collection of ancient ballads, in 1803 the third volume, and in 1804 his annotated edition of the ancient poem of " Sir Tristrem." These works were preliminary to " The Lay of the Last Minstrel," of which the first draught had been written in the autumn of 1802, and which on its appear- ance in 1805 met with an enthusiastic recep- tion. Scott's appointment in 1806 to one of the principal clerkships in the Scottish court of session, with a salary of 800 (subsequently increased to 1,300), enabled him to devote himself entirely to literature. He produced a collection of " Ballads and Lyrical Pieces " (1806), and edited a complete edition of the works of Dryden, with a life of the poet (1808). In 1808 appeared "Marmion, a Tale of Flod- den Field," followed in 1810 by "The Lady of the Lake." His succeeding poems, " The Vision of Don Roderick" (1811), "Rokeby" (1812), a tale of the English civil wars, " The Bridal of Triermain" (anonymous, 1813), "The Lord of the Isles" (1814), " The Field of Waterloo " (1815), and " Harold the Dauntless" (1817), are far inferior, though having occa- sional passages of great beauty. In the sum- mer of 1814 some mislaid sheets of a novel de- signed to illustrate highland scenery and cus- toms in the era of 1745, which had been com- menced in 1805, but laid aside, fell in his way. The second and third volumes were written in three weeks, and in July of the same year the work was published anonymous- ly under the title of " Waverley, or 'tis Sixty Years Since." The publication marked an era in the history of English fiction. He had been in the habit of passing his summers at Ashes- tiel on the Tweed, near Selkirk, an estate be- longing to a kinsman, and in 1811 he pur- chased a small farm on that river, within a few miles of Melrose, to which he gave the name of Abbotsford, and which by successive purchases, often made at exorbitant prices, gradually expanded into a large domain. The modest dwelling first erected upon it grew in the course of a few years into a large Gothic castellated mansion ; and it was the owner's chief occupation, in the intervals of literary labor or of hospitable duties, to add to the embellishments of both house and grounds. He now produced his novels in rapid succession ; and perhaps one reason for maintaining his incognito was his unwillingness to impair his standing as a landed proprietor by allowing it to be known that he was an author writing for fortune. To " Waverley " succeeded in 1815 "Guy Mannering," and in 1816 "The Antiquary," both " by the author of Waver- ley." His next tales, " The Black Dwarf " and "Old Mortality" (1816), constituted the first series of the " Tales of my Landlord," while "Rob Roy" (1817) was "by the author of Waverley." In 1818 appeared " The Heart of Mid-Lothian," and in 1819 "The Bride of Lammermoor " and " A Legend of Montrose," forming additional series of " Tales of my Landlord." " Ivanhoe " (1819), which was to have appeared under a new incognito, was, in consequence of the publication of a novel in London pretending to be a fourth series of " Tales of my Landlord," announced as " by the author of Waverley." " The Monastery " and " The Abbot " appeared in 1820," Kenilworth " and "The Pirate" in 1821, "The Fortunes of Nigel " in 1822, " Peveril of the Peak," " Quen- tin Durward," and "St. Ronan's Well" in 1823, "Redgauntlet" in 1824, and "Tales of the Crusaders," comprising " The Betrothed " and "The Talisman," in 1825, all "by the author of Waverley." Down to the end of 1825 he was engaged in a variety of miscella- neous enterprises besides those specified. In 1809 he edited the " State Papers and Letters of Sir Ralph Sadlier," in 1809-'12 "Lord Som- ers's Collection of Tracts" (18 vols. 4to), and in 1814 the works of Swift in 19 volumes, with a life of the author. An excursion to the continent after the battle of Waterloo fur- nished the materials for "Paul's Letters to his Kinsfolk." lie was also an occasional con- tributor to the "Edinburgh" and "Quarter- ly " reviews and other periodicals, including the " Edinburgh Annual Register," the histori- cal department of which he conducted in 1814 -'15. To these must be added his dramatic sketches, "Halidon Hill" (1822) and "Mac- dufFs Cross," and the articles on " Chivalry," " Romance," and the " Drama," for the " En- cyclopaedia Britannica." With the increase of his prosperity he kept state at Abbotsford like a wealthy country gentleman, and from March to December it was the resort of in-