Alma record. (Alma, Mich.) 1878-1928, 1885-07-03
SCOTS characteristics.

The third volume of Mr.. Mason's
Personal Traits of British Authors"
gives a great deal of space TO Sir Wal
ter Scott. Perhaps the most convinc~
ing testimony to the habitual geniality
and generosity of the attitude of Scott
towards his fellow-beings is supplied
by K. X. Hayden, who had an eve like
a gimlet for the defects of other peo-
pie. Whatever you praise to Scott"
Hayden tells Miss Milford, in letter,
"he joins heartily with yourself. and
directs your attention to some addi-
tional beauty" Edward Cheney, also
testities that Scott was totally free
from the morbid egotism of some men
of genius, and viewed his own success
with sort of surprise" To the same
effect wrote Washington Irving: Il /.
never met with an author so completely
void of all the petulance, egotism, and
peculiarities of the craft. James
Hogg knew several unsuccessful
authors who for years depended upon
SCOTS bounty for their daily bread"
What picture this is of the mighty
wizard of the north, protecting and
supporting. instead of chilling and de-
riding, the stumbling and starving
witness to this rare and princely kind
of magnanimity mo being" afiirms
William Erskine, ''was ever more en- 4
tirely free than Scott from even the
slightest feelings of envy, jealousy. or
cenSoriousncsss in regard to brother
authors"
Mr. Mason quotes from Lockhart an
account of the circumstance that first
led Scott to equip his chapters with
notices of his own fabrication. He
had happened, il seems, to ask John
Ballantyne TO hunt for a particular
passage in Beaumont and Fletcher. In
spite of patient research, the lines could>
not be discovered. Hang it, John"
cried Scott, Il believe that | could
make motto sooner than you would
find one" He did so then, and often :
afterward, labelling such pretended
quotations, as it is well known, ''old
play" or "old ballad" Some other
facts chronicled by Lockhart, and pro-
duced by Mr. Mason, indicate that
SCOTS powers of memory were every
whit as marvellous as those of Macau-
lay. Like Campbell Scott was notice.
ably insensible to music. j. &. Young
records that "a young lady in the
house sang divinely, but her singing
gave him no pleasure. He was much
too honest to affect TO be what he was
not; thus he admitted that he had "a
reasonable good ear for JIG. but con-
fessed that solos and sonatas gave him
the spleen Yet he liked to hear hik
daughter play "Charlie is My Darling;"
but this was manifestly from the as
ISOLATION of ideas. Another unexpected
trait is brought out by G. X. Leslie,
namely, that while Scott talked of
scenery. as he wrote of it, like a paint
er. yet for pictures as works of art he
had little or no taste, nor did he pre-
tend to any. There was not one pic
ture of sterling merit on his walls. 1t
is hard TO reconcile this lack of dis
elimination with the extraordinary de-
velopment of the pictorial faculty with
which Scott has been credited by so
high an authority as Ruskin.
IL was in 1919, when he was torty-
eight years old, and five years after
the publication of "Waverly," that
Scott first employed amanuenses. The
greater part of "Ivanhoe." of the LIE
gend of Montrose," and "The Bride Of 4.
Lammermoor, was dictated while the
""NhcA 'No WIN
ing upon his bed. When his health
was firmly re-established. he returned
and adhered to the old plan of penning
everything with his own hand. 1t Is
well known that Scott was very rap
id writer; far too rapid, George Eliot
thought, to give his great powers of
expression full play. Appropos of his
studious and prolonged attempt tn
preserve anonymity of the Waverly
novels, Mr.. Mason quotes from Bar
hams diary most striking piece of
evidence that we do not remember to
have seen. IL seems that Murray, the
publisher, taxed Scott with being the
author of "Old Mortality" whereupon ,
Scott mot only denied having written
1t, but added: In order TO convince
you that am not the author, will
review the book for you in the Quar-
terly'-which he actually did. and
Murray still has the manuscript in his
handwriting" =