Western Reserve chronicle. [volume] (Warren, Ohio) 1855-1921, 1868-05-13
Sir walter scott,s First Love.

For some time after he had begun
to associate exclusively with the mem
bers of the Club and the Speculative
Society, Scott continued to be as care
less, not to say slovenly, in his attire.
as he used to be when schoolboy and
a writer's apprentice. All at once his
habits changed in this respect, and he
became a well-dressed young mana
squire, as his companions pronounced
him, of danes. He had fallen in love
with a young lady whom he encounter
ed at the church door, and conveyed
to her own home. sheltered from the
rain by his umbrella. His family and
hers were not on any terms of intims-
cy. Mr.. Scott happened, indeed, to be
her fathers solicitor; but the man of
business did not pretend, probably, did
not desire, to be Teckoned among the
familiars of his client. Indeed, so
honorably sensitive on that head was
the writer, that he no sooner observed
how matters were tending with. the
young people, than he considered him.
self bound to put the lady's father on
his guard. The warning was we'll re-
ceived and made light of, and the
acquaintance went on, more especially
as young Scott made his way, as he
soon afterward did, into the set OF
which the young lady's brother was q
member. Hence it came to pass that
he met the young lady frequently, not
in Edinburgh only, but in her own and
other country houses, and that she,
being addicted to poetry and romance,
received him frankly and kindly as
often as he came.
This sort of intimacy was kept up
for years, throughout the whole inter
val, indeed, between 1892 and 1876
and Scott regarding it as he regarded
all things else, through the medium OF
his own Imagination, hattered himself
that his passions were Ieciprocated.
No word escaped him, however, to the
lady herself, either in conversation or
writing, indicative of the state Of his
own feelings. He resembled in this
respect the most bashful of the bashful
lovers described in his novels. He told
his secret to many of his friends, and
among others to Miss Cranstoun, after.
ward Countess of Purgstall, but to the
object of his devotion he said nothing
1t is worthy of remark, however, that
neither the passion itself, nor the
secrecy in which it was nourished, ex-
ercised the slightest untoward inhu-
ence over his character. As first love
is apt to do with such as he, it deepen
ed in him the poetic temperament ;
but it made him neither less indVstri-
Gus nor less manly.
Thus far the tide of fortune may be
said to have rolled with a steady cur
rent in Scott's favor. He was in fair
practice at the bar, considering his age
and standing. The advocates had ap'
pointed him one of their librarians
He was rapidly establishing good
name as man Of genius and great re-
search. He was about to experience
his first great sorrow, and it was bit
ter one. Encouraged in part by the
success of his translation, in part by
the partial assurances of his friend,
Miss Cranstoun, he made up his mind
to tell his tale of love; and finding
himself under the same roof with the
object of his affections, he besought
her to give him her heart, and was re-
jected. She had no heart to give,
Another had it in his keeping, and he
was one of Walters dearest friends. II
would be ungenerous. if it were posi-
BILE, to depict his feelings on that occa-
SION. This much, however, we are
bound to. say: that he overmastered
them with a power of will which is
marvellous; and carrying in his soul a
grief which never died, he never allow.
ed it-no, not even for day-to stand
between him and the manly exercise
of his faculties. He quilted the house
made his way into Perthshire, and
threw himself, with apparently In
creased zeal, into the researches which
were to him at once business and
recreation, while, strange to say, only
one short poem by his hand survives to
tell that such an incident ever befel
him. There Is, however, no doubt that
there are traces of her in the heroines
Of the Lay" "Rokeby," and "Rsd
gauntlet"