Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1878-10-25

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accordingly anticipated that if he could re
moved this button the boy would be throw
out, and so it proved. The button was Gu
of, and the next time the lad was questioned
his fingers being unable to find the button
and his eyes going in perplexed search afte
his fingers he stood coniounded, and Scot
mastered by strategy the place which h'
could not gain by mere industry. "Often il
after life, said Scott, in relating the manGu
vre to Rogers, ''has the sight of hin
smote me as | passed by him and Offer
have | resolved to make him some repara
ton, but it ended in good resolutions"
MEMORY AND AFFINITY.
Scott used to illustrate the capricious at
finity of his own memory for what suited it
and its complete rejection of what did not
| by old Beattie OF Meikedale's answer to q
Scotch divine who complimented him on the
strength OF his memory. NO sir, said the
old borderer, a have no command of my
memory. 1t only retains what hits my fan
cy and, probably sir, if You were to preacl
to me for two hours, l would not be able,
when You finished, to remember word you
had been saying.
HIS CALL TO THE BAR.
do not believe that any one of Scott S con.
temporaries had greater legal abilities than
he, though, as it happened, they were never
fairly tried. But he had both the pride and
impatience of genius. 1t fretted him to feel
that he was dependent on the good opinions
of solicitors, and that they. who were incapa-
bic of understanding his genius, thought the
less instead of the better of him as an advocate
for every indication which he gave of that
genius. Even on the day of his call to the
bar he gave expression to sort of humor-
ous foretaste of this impotence, saying to
William Clerk, who had been called with
him, as hc mimicked the air and tone of a
Highland lass waiting at the Cross OF Edin-
burg to the hired for the harvest, We've
stood here an hour by the Tron benny, and
dell ane has speered our price.
DISREGARD FOR sUPERsTrTIoS.
There was never. fancy, an organization
less susceptible of this order of fears and
superstitions than his own. When n friend
jokingly urged him, within q few months of
his death, not TO leave Rome on Friday, as
IT was a day of bad omen for a journey, lie
replied, laughingly, "Superstition is very
picturesque, and l make it at times stand
me in great stead, but | never allow it to in
terfere with interest or convenience Basil
Hall reports Scott having told him, on the
last evening of the year 1921. vixen they
were talking over this subject. that having
once arrived at country Inn. he was told
there was no bed for him. No place to
lie down at all = said he. No, said the peo-
pie of the house : none except Il room in
which there is a corpse lying Well, said
he, did the corpse die of any contagious dis
order = oh, no, not at all, said they. We'll,
then, continued he, let me have the other
bed. So, said Sir Walter. L laid me down,
and never had better nights sleep in my
life 81"
sCoTTs SENSES BLUNT.
Lockhart tells us that some of SCOTS SEN
ses were decidedly ''blunt", and one seems
to recognize this in the simplicity OF his
romantic effects. 1T is Il fact, - he says,
which some philosophers may think worth
setting down, that SCOTS organization, as to
more than one OF the senses, was the reverse
Of exquisite He had very little of what
musicians call an ear his smell was hardly
more delicate. 1 have seen him stare about.
quite unconcious of the cause, when his
whole company betrayed their uneasiness at
the approach of an overkopt haunch of veni
son /; and neither by the nose nor the palate
could he distinguish corked wine from
sound. He could never tell Madeira from
sherry nay, an Oriental friend having sent
him n butt of Steer0r, when he remembered
the circumstance some time afterward, and
called for a bottle to have Sir John Malcolm's
opinion of its quality. it turned out that his
butler, mistaking the label, had already
served up half the bin as scLerry. Port he
considered as physic; III truth, he
liked no wines except sparkling champagne
and claret but even as to the last he was no
cOfnoiSseT and sincerely preferred tnm-
bier of whiskey-toddy to the most precious
'hquil ruby that ever flowed in the cup of
"A prince.
A PUZZLED TALKER.
Scott tells a story of Clerk being once baf-
fed almost for the first timely stranger
in a stage-coach, who would not, or could
not, talk TO him on any subject, until at last
Clerk addressed TO him this stately remon-
STRANGE Il have talked to you, my friend, on
all the ordinary subjects literature farming.
merchandise, gaming, game-laws, horse
races, suit-at-laws, politics, swindling, bias
phemy. and philosophy-is there any one
subject that You will favor me by opening
upon? 'Sr, said the inscrutable stranger.
"can you say anything clever about "Ierd-
leather -
THE hTTEICK SHEPHERD AT SCOTT S HOUSE.
Another wild shepherd and wilder genius
among Scotts associates, not only in those
earlier days, but to the end. was that famous
Ettrick Shepherd, James Hogg who was al
ways quarrelling with his brother poet, as
far as Scott permitted it, and making it up
again when his better feeling returned. In
- o,- Piel.. oL Ii' wiz i4aiu' i.sh
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10 ini
SCOTT AT WORK.
Happening to pass through Edinburgh in
June, loli, dihed one day with the gentle
man IN question, tnow the Honorable William
Aenzies, one oi the supreme judges OF the Cape
OF uood hoPe') whose residence WAS then IN
ueofge street, Situated very near TO. and at
right angles "lth' North Castle street 1t was a
party oi very young persons most Of them,
like Mehzles and myself, destined for the bar
oil Scotland all gay and thoughtless, enjoy
ing the hfst hush OF manhood with little re-
melhbfahce oi the yesterday or care of the
morrow when my companions worthy
ihthtr ana Uncle after seeing two or three
bottles go round, lett tho juveniles to them
-, FL. - ',I;oL ~ n''' W ""IOu' n'u
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- -. ~ ,'au 'in tilreS WIN
nm .ti oniuinb9 ",ii ne poihVeu OUT 10 me
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