Page:The Poetical Works of Sir Walter Scott, Bart.djvu/11



, the subject of this short Memoir, claimed descent from Scottish ancestors celebrated in the annals of Border chivalry. Of these illustrious progenitors so many notices are interspersed in his various works, that a detailed account of their lives and exploits is altogether unnecessary. The reader anxious for fuller information, will find what he requires in the great poet and novelist's own words, in the illustrative notes to his poems, &c. He has rescued from oblivion traditions concerning "Auld Watt," of Harden, and "Beardie," his own great-grandfather, whose devotion to the cause of the exiled Stuarts furnishes the explanation of the cognomen; nor have the claims of "Auld Watt's" fair dame, the "Flower of Yarrow," been forgotten by her renowned descendant.

The poet's father, Walter Scott, born in 1729, was the eldest of a numerous family. He received a good education, and became a writer to the Signet. The position he obtained in his profession was in all respects an honourable one; and in 1758 he married Anne Rutherford, daughter of Dr. Rutherford, professor of medicine in the University of Edinburgh. The union was blessed with a numerous progeny, of which only five survived the critical period of childhood. Walter, one of the youngest, was born in Edinburgh on the 15th of August, 1771. His health in his earlier years was delicate, and he was, moreover, afflicted with a lameness, which had the effect of turning his attention towards studies and literature; for his love of enterprise and adventure would doubtless have induced him—had