George Gilbert Scott

“ Presently some one took the chair opposite Clifford. It was Uncle George; and Uncle George gave him a slight wink of a lashless eye.
“While we’re on the subject, son,” the old man began, “I might remark that I put a bee in little Nina’s bonnet.”
“Just what have you got me here for?” demanded Clifford.
“It’s always worth while, son, to watch Loveman improve each midnight hour. See how he smiles and talks—and yet, God, how he’s working! But you’re here, son, because of Father Morton; and also, perhaps, to see if Nina’s bee buzzes. How about splitting fifty-fifty on a ham sandwich?” ”

“ THE CENTENARY GARLAND Being Pictorial Illustrations of the Novels of Sir Walter Scott,
in Their Order of Publication. By George Cruikshank, and Other Artists of Eminence. With Descriptions, Memoir, Etc. Edinburgh:
William P. Nimmo.
1871.
Who comes, alone, with soul of fire, And in his hand the Border lyre? He sweeps the strings, and in his strain Old times and manners live again; 'Tis Scott! great Master of his art, He fires, subdues, or storms the heart! Rapt by the magic of his rhymes, I seem to live in feudal times; I hear the swelling bugle's call, And see the warder on the wall ”

“ With Uncle George he reëntered the waiting taxi-cab and hurried toward Le Minuit. On Broadway he met two of Lieutenant Jimmie Kelly’s plain-clothes men who were willingly impressed into his service.
At the blazing entrance to Le Minuit Uncle George halted. “I guess I’ll not go up with you, son,” he said. “I’ll do more good if I don’t openly mess in police affairs. But I’ll hang about.”
Clifford nodded. With the two plain-clothes men he mounted the wide bright stairway that led to the Midnight Café. ”

“ The lady entered into his agitation with tact, and on her departure, he told his mother that he liked their visitor, because "she was a virtuoso, like himself." To her amused inquiry as to what a virtuoso might be, he replied: "Don't ye know? why, 'tis one who wishes to and will know everything."
As a boy at school in Edinburgh and in Kelso, and afterwards as a student at the University and apprentice in his father's law office, Scott took his own way to become a "virtuoso" ”

“ Ali overshot the arrow of his eldest brother; but that of the youngest brother (Ahmed) could nowhere be found. So the award was given to Ahmed.—Arabian Nights (“Ahmed and Pari-Banou”) .
Novel (Father of the English) . Henry Fielding is so called by Sir W. Scott (1707-1754) .
Noven ́siles (4 syl.) , the nine Sabine gods, viz.: Herculês, Romulus, Esculapius, Bacchus, Ænēas, Vesta, Santa, Fortuna and Fidês or Faith. (See Nine Gods of the Etruscans.)
Novit (Mr. Nichil) , the lawyer of the old laird of Dumbiedikes.—Sir W. Scott, Heart of Midlothian (time, George II.) . ”

“ Still, at the works of how many novelists except Scott should we grumble, if we had the admirable descriptions of Glendearg, the scenes in the Abbey, the night-ride of poor Father Philip, the escape from the Castle of Avenel, the passage of the interview of Halbert with Murray and Morton? Even the episode of Sir Piercie Shafton, though it is most indisputably true that Scott has not by any means truly represented Euphuism, is good and amusing in itself; while there are those who boldly like the White Lady personally. ”

“ Bothwell's lord, Douglas. See note to II, xiii, 141.
591. How Roderick brooked his minstrelsy. "Brooked" is not used in its strong sense of "endured," but in the weaker one of "received"; we should say colloquially "how he took it." [Pg 264]
[Pg 265] APPENDIX
(Adapted, and enlarged, from the Manual for the Study of English Classics, by George L. Marsh)
HELPS TO STUDY Life of Scott
What prominent traits of Scott's character can be traced to his ancestors (pp. 9, 10) ?
How did he regard the members of his clan, especially the chief (pp. 19, 20) ? ”

“ We maun get another subsidy frae the Commons, and that will make ae compting of it. Awa wi' it, Maxwell—awa wi' it, and let it be set where Steenie and Babie Charles shall see it as they return from Richmond.—And now that we are secret, my good auld friend Geordie, I do truly opine, that speaking of Solomon and ourselves, the haill wisdom in the country left Scotland, when we took our travels to the Southland here.”
George Heriot was courtier enough to say, that “the wise naturally follow the wisest, as stags follow their leader.” ”

“ Johnson, in introducing the subject, had guarded himself against such reflections. “These diminutive observations,” he said, “seem to take away something{48} from the dignity of writing. But it must be remembered that the true state of every nation is the state of common life.” [271] This indifference to pure air no doubt spread death far and wide. In Sir Walter Scott’s family we see an instance of the unwholesomeness of the Old Town. His six elder brothers and sisters, who were all born in the College Wynd, died young. ”

“ The years at Lasswade were marked by one of the most momentous decisions of Scott's life. He had reached the parting of the ways; one leading to the practice of the law; the other—and the more alluring one—to literature as a profession. Had his father been alive, it is probable that a high sense of duty and loyalty would have determined him to continue in the law, for the old gentleman had set his heart upon that, and Scott would have submitted to almost any irksome requirement rather than wound the feelings of his parent. ”

“ Ah! Once more she was in her own wide, gracious bed—of a different caste, of an entirely different race, from the second maid's paving-stone pallet, from that folding, punitive contrivance from whose output of anguish Mrs. Gilbert managed to extract a profit. Also she was in sweet, ingratiating linen—the first fresh personal linen that had touched her in nine days.
It was all as though she were enfolded deep in the embrace of a not too fervent benediction.
About her were the large, dignified spaces of her bedroom, and beyond were the yet greater spaces of her sitting-room ”

“ He was then, and had for many years been, minister of a Presbyterian chapel at Wooler, in Northumberland, to which situation he had retired on losing his benefice at Montrose, in consequence of the Sabbatarian scruples alluded to in Scott's Autobiography.
"In 1782," says Mr. Mitchell, "I became a tutor in Mr. Walter Scott's family. He was a Writer to the Signet in George's (p. 092) Square, Edinburgh. Mr. Scott was a fine-looking man, then a little past the meridian of life, of dignified, yet agreeable manners. His business was extensive. ”

“ From this time till the close of 1825—a space of eight years—prosperity reigned unchecked over the life of Scott. His novels of The Heart of Mid-Lothian, The Bride of Lammermoor, The Legend of Montrose, Ivanhoe, The Monastery, The Abbot, The Pirate, Kenilworth, The Fortunes of Nigel, Peveril of the Peak, Quentin Durward, St Ronan’s Well, Redgauntlet, and the Tales of the Crusaders, streamed from his pen with a rapidity as wonderful as their general merits were great. The public read with delight, and Scott was happy to pipe to a dance which led to such solid results for his own benefit. ”

“ Scott, no doubt, was sometimes mistaken in the proper course to pursue, but he was always right from his point of view, and his point of view was bitter hostility to English misrule. Whatever he did he did with all the resistless energy of a man still in his forties. He was of distinguished ancestry. His great-great-grandfather, Sir John Scott, baronet, of Ancrum, Scotland, had been a stalwart Whig before the revolution of 1688, and his grandfather, John Scott, coming to New York in 1702, had commanded Fort Hunter, a stronghold on the Mohawk. ”

“ So by the tendencies of his mind, by the gravity of his character, by the guides of wisdom, dignity, courage and taste—Mr. Scott planted on high ground and sustained for nearly half a century standards of journalism which must for all time be a pattern for the worthy and rebuke to the vicious. *** For myself whose fortune it was to live long in association with this rare man, to share in many of the influences and in a sense to inherit the inspirations of his life, there seems now a mighty void in the immediate world in which he lived. ”

“ The present picture, a cabinet-sized bust, is somewhat amateurish in its execution, but still full of character and individuality; the features of the shrewd, wrinkled face, its definitely curved nose, sharply-cut mouth, thin compressed lips, and dark, brilliantly blue eyes beneath the bushy white eyebrows, combine into what is doubtless a faithful rendering of that friend of whom Scott wrote in his Diary, in 1825, “I have known him intimately since our college days; and to my thinking I never met a man of greater powers or more complete information on all desirable subjects.” ”

“ George Scott was the son of a small landowner in Roxburghshire. He was born at Dingleton, near Melrose, in 1777; and after attending the parish-schools of Melrose and Galashiels, became a student in the University of Edinburgh. On completing a curriculum of classical study, he was in his twenty-second year appointed parochial schoolmaster of Livingstone, West Lothian; and in six years afterwards was preferred to the parish-school of Lilliesleaf, in his native county. He was an accomplished scholar, and had the honour of educating many individuals who afterwards attained distinction. ”

“ It is by far the greatest glory of Sir Walter Scott, that he shone equally as a good and virtuous man, as he did in his capacity of the first fictitious writer of the age.105 His behaviour through life was marked by undeviating integrity and purity, insomuch that no scandalous whisper was ever yet circulated against him. The traditionary recollection of his early life is burdened with no stain of any sort. His character as a husband and father is altogether irreproachable. Indeed, in no single relation of life does it appear that he ever incurred the least blame. ”

“ I left the Scotts this morning with deep regret. Mr. Scott has not been well during this last visit I have paid them, and I was much shocked to hear that he is threatened with disease of the heart, sudden death at any moment. His wife and her sisters are excellently kind to me; she has but two faults, an excessive humility and an excessive conscientiousness; they wouldn't be bad for virtues, would they?
Mr. Scott's intercourse is delightful to me; his mind is deep and high, logical and practical, humorous and tender, and he is as nearly good as a man can be. ”

“ Station, power, wealth, beauty, and genius, strove with each other in every demonstration of respect and worship, and—a few political fanatics and envious poetasters apart—wherever he appeared in town or country, whoever had Scotch blood in him, "gentle or simple," felt it move more rapidly through his veins when he was in the presence of Scott.' But in the midst of this blaze of glory, and while he was dreaming dreams of fortune and family pride, what was it that struck the most keen-eyed of critics when he first saw his hero? ”

“ The Lord of Gilsland measured the Scot with incredulous eyes, and replied, “Thou art no leech, I think, Sir Scot; I had as soon thought of your bringing the King of England wealth.”
Sir Kenneth, though displeased with the manner of the baron's reply, answered calmly, “Health to Richard is glory and wealth to Christendom.—But my time presses; I pray you, may I see the King?”
“Surely not, fair sir,” said the baron, “until your errand be told more distinctly. The sick chambers of princes open not to all who inquire, like a northern hostelry.” ”

“ And to similar effect in his Memorials he testifies that scarcely even in his novels was Scott more striking or delightful than in society; where his halting limb, the bur in the throat, the heavy cheeks, the high Goldsmith-forehead, the unkempt locks, and general plainness of appearance, with the Scotch accent and stories and sayings, all graced by gaiety, simplicity, and kindness, made a combination most worthy of being enjoyed. ”

“ I have never been thrown in with a more unselfish lot of men—each one doing his utmost fair and square in the most cheery manner possible.
As late as October 15 he writes further: 'No one yet knows who will be on the Summit party: it is to depend on condition, and fitness when we get there.' It is told of Scott, while still in New Zealand, that being pressed on the point, he playfully said, 'Well, I should like to have Bill to hold my hand when we get to the Pole'; but the Diary shows how the actual choice was made on the march. ”

“ However, in those days character and honesty were still appreciated by men who did not imitate them. Mr. Scott rose to eminence in his profession, and enjoyed at one time an extensive practice. Somewhat formal in manner and a rigid Calvinist in religion, he had many little peculiarities of the rural rather than the city Scot. Thus, though very abstemious in his habits, he was fond of sociability and grew very merry over his sober glass of wine. Moderate in politics, he had a natural leaning to constitutional principles, and was jealous of modern encroachments on the royal prerogative. ”

“ He cordially admitted his obligations to Constable's sagacity and help, while he begged John Ballantyne to treat him ‘as a man, and not as a milch-cow’ (Lockhart, ch. xxvi. p. 246) . Scott, however, was sanguine by nature, and had sufficiently good prospects. His income, he says (24 Aug. 1813) , was over 2,000l. a year, and he was owner of Abbotsford and the house in Castle Street. He was clear that no one could ultimately be a loser by him. ”