Buchanan County bulletin. [volume] (Independence, Iowa) 1869-1891, 1872-02-16
Sir Wa1ten Scott.

Cly CHICl lAiulH5 AHu AulA VI uC-
lightful remcniscence, anecdote, and
sad and humorous portraiture, is
the article by Moncure D. Conway
in the February number Of Har-
per's Magazine entitled ''The Scott
Centenary at Edinburg." We ap-
pend few extracts:
A few years ago l strolled along
the sea-shore at St. Andrews with
Robert Chambers, and heard him
speak Of the days when he sat be-
side Walter Scot in this very room.
l seemed to look into the great
mans eyes and hear his happy
voice, as l looked into the eyes and
heard the voice of one who learned
from Scott what untiring industry
joined to talent could accomplish
And it was with peculiar interest
that l read in Chambers journal
two years ago these words: II know
no brighter picture in the history
Of genius than this of Sir Walter
Scott sitting down to his morning
task dressed in green velvet shoot
ing.jacket Of a Scotch laird, with
his books and papers around him
on the desk and on the floor, his
favoritc hound eying him from the
rug, a couple of spaniels gam
boiling with his children in the
garden, and the songs Of
the birds pouring in through his
halfopen window. Scott knew
nothing Of those feelings of irrita-
ton that make composition a tor
ment to so many men. His study
was always open to his children no
less than to his greyhound. He
never considered their tattle as any
disturbance; they went and came
as pleased their fancy He was al
ways ready to answer their ques-
tions; and when they, unconscious
of how he was engaged, cntrcatcd
him to lay down his pen and tell
them 4 story, he would take them
on his knee, repeat ballad or le-
gend, kiss them, and set them down
again to their marbles or nine-p pins,
and resume his labor as if refresh
ed by the interruption"
Even when we remember that he
had, by advice of his physician,
ceased from
By stealing few hours from the night"
| o,,l @1,o% - ., l.o%%o.
daylight from five to nine in the
morning than lamp-light from elcv-
EN- to three at night, after Byron's
fashion, it must remain a marvel
how he could manage to accomplish
SO much in a house pcrpetually full
of visitors, and n neighborhood
where his every step was waylaid
by lion-hunters. Anne Scott states
that there were, on one occasion,
thirteen ladies'. maids in the house;
and Lockhart mentions sixteen un-
invited parties coming in one day.
Cadell, one of Constable's part
ners, expressed to Scott his wonder
that he could write at all. "Iknow,"
he said, "that you contrive to get n
few hours in your own room, and
that may do for the mere pen-work;
but when is it that you think?''
"Oh," said Scott, 81 lie simmering
over things for an hour or so before
l get up; and there's the time l am
dressing to overhaul my half-sleep-
ing, half-waking proet de chapitre; }.
and when l get the paper before
me it commonly runs off pretty easi-
ly. Besides, l often take doze in
the plantations; and while Tom
marks out dixie or drain rs have
directed, ones fancy may be run
ming its ain rigs in some other
world"
Scott dealt with the most COM
monplacc supcrnaturalism, and has
not even given us a good collection
of the most significant and distinct
i've myths around him, aud this
plainly because his Imagination
was mastered by things which, had
he possessed philosophical intel
lcct, it would have mastered. In
reading "Thc Monastery" one can
not help feeling that though the
author had copied the mouldings OF
Mclrose roof, and the figures on its
walls, to adorn the panclings of Alb
botsford, he had never got any
nearer to them; and the mighty
shades of the past which each rep.
resented passed by him unrccogniz
ed. He could not see the mystic
eye beneath the mask. In a gene.
ration when the clear-hcaded Napo.
leon believed in astrological dcsti
ny, and when Byron priced an anu
let taken from the Celtic barrow
enough to steal it, one must not
bear too severely upon the supersti
tions even of educated men; but, al