John Scott

“ This resolution he intimated with a yawn, resistless as that of the Goddess in the Dunciad, which was responsively echoed by his giant sons, as they dispersed in quest of the pastimes to which their minds severally inclined them—Percie to discuss a pot of March beer with the steward in the buttery,—Thorncliff to cut a pair of cudgels, and fix them in their wicker hilts,—John to dress May-flies,—Dickon to play at pitch and toss by himself, his right hand against his left,—and Wilfred to bite his thumbs and hum himself into a slumber which should last till dinner-time, if possible. ”

“ SCOTT, afterwards Scott-Waring, JOHN (1747–1819) , agent of Warren Hastings, born at Shrewsbury in 1747, was the grandson of John Scott, whose third wife was Dorothy, daughter of Adam Waring of the Hayes, Shropshire. His father was Jonathan Scott of Shrewsbury (d. August 1778) , who married Mary, second daughter of Humphrey Sandford of the Isle of Rossall, Shropshire. The second son, Richard, rose to the rank of lieutenant-colonel, and served with distinction under Sir Eyre Coote against Hyder Ali Khan and under the Marquis of Cornwallis in the war against Sippoo Saltaun. ”

“ BIRTHPLACE OF THE EARL OF ELDON.
Little need be said, by way of explanation, for the addition of the present subject to our collection of the birthplaces of eminent men. It is something to know that John Scott was born at Newcastle-upon-Tyne, in the principal dwelling represented in the above Engraving, in the year 1751; that he received the rudiments of his education at the free grammar-school of the town; that he grew up "a man of safe discretion;" ”

“ His father, whose name also was William, began life as an apprentice to a fitter, in which service he obtained the freedom of Newcastle, becoming a member of the gild of Hoastmen (coal-fitters) ; later in life he became a principal in the business, and attained a respectable position as a merchant in Newcastle, accumulating property worth nearly £20,000.
John Scott was educated at the grammar school of his native town. ”

“ He was a thriving rather than a prosperous lawyer; that is to say, he earned his living.
But Scott was too much absorbed in literary studies and in writing ballads, to give to his numerous friends the hope of a distinguished legal career. No man can serve two masters. "His heart" was "in the Highlands a-chasing the deer," or ransacking distant villages for antiquarian lore, or collecting ancient Scottish minstrelsy, or visiting moss-covered and ivy-clad ruins, famous before John Knox swept monasteries and nunneries away as cages of unclean birds ”

“ John Ballantyne had ventured a “Novelists’ Library,” heavy books in double columns, and Scott contributed charming introductory essays, but in the summer of 1821 he lost this favourite henchman, and remarked that the sun would never shine so brightly again for himself. John clearly was no man of business, his possessions were a minus quantity, though he believed himself to have some property, and bequeathed a visionary £2,000 to Scott. ”

“ It is a melancholy fact, and perhaps, after all, his own favourite saying fits it best—that often the wisest of men keep, as it were, the average stock of folly only in reserve, to be all expended on some one flagrant absurdity. One can at least understand Scott's affection for John Ballantyne, when one thinks of such an incident as this, related by Scott himself: 'A poor divinity student was attending his sale one day, and Johnnie remarked to him that he looked as if he were in bad health. ”

“ Old dost thou wax, and wars grow sharp; Thou now hast glee-maiden and harp! Get thee an ape, and trudge the land, The leader of a juggler band.' VII. 'No, comrade;—no such fortune mine. After the fight these sought our line, That aged harper and the girl, And, having audience of the Earl, Mar bade I should purvey them steed, And bring them hitherward with speed. Forbear your mirth and rude alarm, For none shall do them shame or harm.— 'Hear ye his boast?' cried John of Brent, Ever to strife and jangling bent ”

“ Nevertheless, I will obey your pleasure.”
“Look to him close, men-at-arms,” said Prince John, “his heart is sinking; I am jealous lest he attempt to escape the trial.—And do you, good fellows, shoot boldly round; a buck and a butt of wine are ready for your refreshment in yonder tent, when the prize is won.”
A target was placed at the upper end of the southern avenue which led to the lists. The contending archers took their station in turn, at the bottom of the southern access, the distance between that station and the mark allowing full distance for what was called a shot at rovers. ”

“ Incensed against his uncle and displeased with his father, he longed, not unnaturally, for the society of Sir John Ramorny, on whom he had been so long accustomed to throw himself for amusement, and, though he would have resented the imputation as an insult, for guidance and direction. He therefore sent him a summons to attend him, providing his health permitted; and directed him to come by water to a little pavilion in the High Constable's garden, which, like that of Sir John's own lodgings, ran down to the Tay. ”

“ Most of them attained the high distinction to which their talents well entitled them to aspire, and several of them achieved high literary fame. Jeffrey, Cockburn, and Brougham were at the centre of this group, which also for a time included Leyden, Sydney Smith, Thomas Campbell, Francis Horner, and John Allen. Scott, as we know, was on terms of warm intimacy with some of these, but he was not one of their society, though he used to say he seemed never to enjoy an evening so much as when spent among his Whig friends. ”

“ Scott was generous towards rising talent, and his townsman, Samuel Lee [q. v.] , the orientalist, owed much to his instruction. He died on 11 Feb. 1829 at his residence in St. John's Row, Shrewsbury, and was buried near his parents in the bishop's chancel of old St. Chad's Church in the same city. He married his cousin Anne, daughter of Daniel Austin, M.A., rector of Berrington, Shropshire, who survived him. ”

“ Scott ought to have been content with Ashestiel; or, since every man wishes to own his home, he should have been satisfied with the comfortable cottage which he built at Abbotsford, and the modest improvements that his love for trees and shrubs enabled him to make. But his aspirations led him into serious difficulties. With all his sagacity and good sense, Scott never seemed to know when he was well off. It was a fatal mistake both for his fame and happiness to attempt to compete with those who are called great in England and Scotland,--that is, peers and vast landed proprietors. ”

“ He has in some measure, however, paid off his early debt of gratitude, in clothing it with poetic and romantic associations, by his tale of "The Eve of St. John." It is to be hoped that those who actually possess so interesting a monument of Scott's early days, will preserve it from further dilapidation.
Not far from Sandy Knowe, Scott pointed out another old border hold, standing on the summit of a hill, which had been a kind of enchanted castle to him in his boyhood. It was the tower of Bemerside, the baronial residence of the Haigs, or De Hagas, one of the oldest families of the border. ”

“ His schoolfellow, James Ballantyne, was now settled at Kelso in the management of a weekly newspaper. Merely to give employment to his friend’s types during the intervals of their ordinary use, Scott proposed to print a small collection of the old ballads which for some years he had been collecting on the Border. When the design was formed, he set about preparing the work, for which he soon obtained some assistance from Richard Heber and John Leyden—the former an Englishman of fortune, and an enthusiastic collector of books ”

“ SCOTT, JOHN, first Earl of Eldon (1751–1838) , lord chancellor, third son of William Scott of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, by his second wife, was born in Love Lane, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, on 4 June 1751. Heraldic conjecture has sought to connect his family with the noble house of Scott of Balwearie, Fifeshire [see Scott, Sir William, (d. 1532) ] ; but, beyond the name, there is nothing but vague tradition to indicate a Scottish origin. The pedigree cannot be authentically traced further back than William Scott's father, also William Scott, who is described as yeoman of Sandgate, Newcastle-upon-Tyne. ”

“ But when we remember the enthusiasm with which the novels of Scott were at first received, the great sums of money which were paid for them, and the honors he received from them, he may well claim a renown and a popularity such as no other literary man ever enjoyed. His eyes beheld the glory of a great name; his ears rang with the plaudits of idolaters; he had the consciousness of doing good work, universally acknowledged and gratefully remembered. Scarcely any other novelist ever created so much healthy pleasure combined with so much sound instruction. ”

“ And yet Scott's novels have ample and admirable excellencies. In his expansive and digressive fashion he can give his characters—especially the older and the more idiosyncratic among them—a surprising and convincing verisimilitude.
He can create a plot which, though not dramatically flawless, has movement and energy and stir. The sweetness and modesty of his disposition lends itself to his portrayal of the more gracious aspects of human life, especially as seen in the humours and oddities of very simple and naïve persons. ”

“ The variety of these devices, and the frequency of their recurrence, kept Sir John de Walton's anxiety so perpetually upon the stretch, that he at no time thought himself exactly out of the Black Douglas's reach, any more than the good Christian supposes himself out of reach of the wiles of the Devil; while every new temptation, instead of confirming his hope, seems to announce that the immediate retreat of the Evil One will be followed by some new attack yet more cunningly devised. ”

“ Francis Scott's grandson, John Ross, artist, b. in Baltimore, Md., 16 July, 1837, studied art in Munich and Paris for several years, after which he removed to Chicago, and then to Boston, where he exhibited about one hundred of his pictures, in- cluding " Marblehead Beach," "Ochre Point, Newport," " Morning Stroll," and a view of " The Golden Gate, San Francisco," for which he received a medal at the Centennial exhibition of 1876. His " Cloudy Morning, Mount Lafayette," was at the National academy, New York, in 1878. He has been successful in his works in black and white. ”

“ 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. ”

“ He seems to have become a member of what he (in the person of Paulus Pleydell) calls 'the suffering and Episcopal Church of Scotland—the shadow of a shade now' after his marriage had set him free from the customs of George Square. The Scott family pew in St. George's was No. 81, afterwards No. 85, and the article states that this fact is attested on a brass plate fixed on the pew, as well as by a written statement contained in a closed glass case hung inside the church porch. It was the incumbent of St. George's that officiated at the marriage of Sophia Scott to John Gibson Lockhart. ”

“ Scott first achieved success as a poet; but as his fame began to pale before the rising star of Byron, he wisely dropped verse and appeared as a writer of fiction, in which he was far more successful. Some critics consider "Ivanhoe" the greatest romance ever written. Many of his early novels are of almost equal merit. With "Woodstock" and "Anne of Geierstein," a decline in his powers is perceptible.
Scott may be considered the founder of the historical novel, and it is doubtful if he has ever been excelled. ”

“ Indeed, he was not only the central figure in English literature for a generation, but he was regarded as peculiarly original. Another style of novels may obtain more passing favor with modern readers, but Scott was justly famous; his works are to-day in every library, and form a delightful part of the education of every youth and maiden who cares to read at all; and he will as a novelist probably live after some who are now prime favorites will be utterly forgotten or ignored. ”

“ His income at this time amounted to about £1000 a year, which gave him a position among the squires of the neighborhood, complete independence, and leisure to cultivate his taste. His fortune was now made: with poetic fame besides, and powerful friends, he was a man every way to be envied.
"The Lay of the Last Minstrel" placed Scott among the three great poets of Scotland, for originality and beauty of rhyme. It is not marked by pathos or by philosophical reflections. It is a purely descriptive poem of great vivacity and vividness, easy to read, and true to nature. ”

“ Between his twelfth and fifteenth year, young Scott had a particularly favourite companion of his own age, John Irvine, the mutual attraction being a love of fictions of a chivalrous description, furnished by an eminent circulating library, which had been founded in Edinburgh by Allan Ramsay, and situated in the High Street, a short way above the Tron Church, and then belonged to Mr James Sibbald, a person of literary tastes, who edited the Edinburgh Magazine, and a26 collection of Scottish poetry. ”