Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1871-08-15

oEsrExnrAE OF sIR WALTER
xoor,r.

no Ye0ar.7ed az among the remarkaole DAYS
in the calendar. On The 18th OF August
the great G rsiean and the great novelist
were born Napoleon Bonaparte in 1859;
Waller Scott in It'll. With the former
is immortaIly associated the name of Ma
rengs of Wagram, of Austerlitz, of Wa
terloo and of France. With the latter
ilworth, Ivsnhoe, Heart of Midlothian,
areenshrined the names of Waverly, Ken
Marmion, Rokeby, and Scotland.
The former was military giant
"whose game was empires, and whose stakes
were thrones;
Whose table eartl-whose dice were human
bones"
The one deluged Europe with blood,
and made playthings of nations, while
the writings of the other, who walked
the paths of peace, are read and admired
wherever land has q language or htera'
ture has lover. This is the one hun
dredth birthday of the great novelist.
One hundred years have rolled into the
past, dropping their mighty events into
history, and leaving impressions lasting
and ineffacesble as the eternal hills. His
name and fame, instead of becoming dim
with and mildews of time, have depend
and wIdened with the gathering years. His
fertile mind peoples the world with ina
ges of his own creation. The beings
whom the genius of Scott has given to
us are fresh and young in their immortal
beauty as when they first leaped from his
fertile brain.
81 was born, ;" says Scott, in his admir-
able autobiography, con the 18th of Au-
gust, III, in house belonging 10 my
father, at the head of the College Wind,
Edinburgh. was an uncommonly heal
thy child, but had nearly died in cOnse-
quence of my first nurse having con
SUMPTION circumstance which she
chose TO conceal, though to do so was
murder to both herself and to me. She
went privately to consult DR.. Black, the
celebrated professor of chemistry, who
put my father on his guard. The wO-
man was dismissed, and 1 was consigned
to healthy peasant, who is still alive
(lSOS) to boast of her Laddie being what
she calls grand gentleman. l
showed every sign of health and
strength until l was about eighteen
months old. One night, 1 have often
been told, | showed great reluctance 10
be caught and put to bed, and after be-
ing chased about the room, was appTe-
hended and consigned to my dcrmitory
with some difficulty. 1t was the last time
Twas to show such personal agility. In
the morning was discovered to be af-
fected with fever which often accompa-
MES the cutting of large teeth. 1t held
me three days. On the fourth, when they
went 10 battle me as usual, they discovered
that had lost the power of my right leg.
My grandfather, an excellent anatomist
as well as physician, the late worthy Al
exsnder Wood, and many others of the
most respectable of the faculty, were con-
suited. There appeared to beno dislocation
orsprsin. But he never recovered from this
lsmeness, and the fact that it forced upon
him sedentary life, may possibly have
had much to do in causing him to devote
himself to literary pursuits. He was one
of twelve children. His father was what
was termed in Scotland writer to sight.
The emoluments enabled him to support
himself and family comfortably, though
his meager income prevented anything
like luxury. He taught his children les
cons of frugslity and industry, and never
even in his most prosperous days was Sir
Walter an idler. 1t is said that literary
toll was an enjoyment to him, and when
old sge came on, bringing poverty in It's
train, what had before been a pleasure
became necessity, and he labOred ike q
very galley slave until he died, literally
with the harness on. Immediately after
his lameness developed itself, young Scott
was sent to Sandy Knowe, small fam
belonging to his grandfather, and here he
spent the most of his childhood's days.
Among the old remedies prescribed for
his leg was one which made permanent
impression upon his infant mind. As Of
ten as sheep was killed he was stripped
naked and rolled up in the skin, IWarm
and bloody, just as it came from the ami,
NAL. 'In this Tartar-like hsbilimentn
he say, 81 well remember lying upon the
floor of the little parlor of the farm
house, while my grandfather, venerable
old man with white hair, used every ex-
citement to make me try and crawl"
Here it was that he became, as it were,
impregnated with the legendary lore
which he subsequently, used to such ad-
vantage in his poetry ard prose.
His grandmother first, and af-
terwsrd his aunt, narrated and
read to him scores of stories, real and f1cs
titious, such as have been floating
OCOblaul blAuC
We may imagine how eagerly the child
listened, and We know how closely his
memory chung to these tales and traditions
of heroic race which he was destined to |
immortalize with his pen. From this |
source il was that he drew the material of |
what we consider his finest romance-the |
'sBride of Lammermoor. The main in !
cident of that strange tragedy were known |
10 Thousands, but it was left for Scott 10 |
clothe them in glorious garments and |
Band them forth to live forevermOre in
love drama whose wild melancholy can
not be cbscured even by the fiimsy trick
cries of The operatic stage.
His disabled limb naturally made him
a child of solitary habits, and as soon as
he mastered the mysteries Of reading he
plunged into books with an ayidity which
never abated while he lived. Bunyan's
''Pflgrim's Progress" Pope's translation