Year: 1868

to fewer objections than any other. 4Seiea-
tic American


SIR WALTER SCoTT's FIRST LOVE


For some time after he had begun to as
sociate exclusively with the members Of the
Club and the Speculative Society, Scott con
tinue.' to be careless, not to say sloyenly, in
his attire, as he used to be when sehoolboy
and writer's apprentice. All at once his
habits changed in this respect and he be-
came well-dressed young mana squire,
as his companions pronounced him, Of
DANES He had fallen in love with a young
lady whom be encountered at the church
door, and conveyed to her own home, shell
tered from the rain by his own umbrella.


His family and hers were not on any
terms Of intimacy Mr. Scott happened, in
deed, to be her fathers solicitor; but the
man of business did not pretend probably
did not desire, to be reckoned 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 CON
sidered himself bound to put the lady S faith
er on his guard The warning was well
received and made light Of, and the acquain-
tance went On, more especially as young
Scott made his way, as he soon afterwards
did, into the set of which the young lady's
brother was a member.


Hence it came to pass 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 ro-
nance, received him frankly and kindly as
often as he came This sort Of intimacy was
kept up for years-throughout the whole
interval, indeed, between 1892 and 1908;
and Scott, regarding It as he regarded all
things else, through the medium Of his own
Imagination, fattered himself that his pas
sions were reciprocated 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 lovers
described in his novels


He told his secret to many of his friends,
and among others to Miss Cranstom, after
wards Countess of Purgstal, but to the OBJ
ject of his devotion he said nothing It is
worthy of remark, however, that neither the
passion itselfnor the secesy in which it was
nourished, excited the slightest untoward
influence over his character. As first love
is apt to do with such as him, it deepened
in him the poetic temperament; but it
made him neither less industrious nor less
manly. Thus far the tide of fortune may
be said to have rolled with a steady current
in Scots favor. He was in fair practice at
the bar, considering his age and standing.


The advocates had appointed him one Of
the Librarians. He was rapidly establishing
good name as man Of genius and great
research He was about to experience his
first sorrow, and it was a bitter one. En-
couraged in part by the success of his trans
lation, in part by the partial assurance Of a
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 rejected. She had
no heart to give Another had it in his
keeping, and he was one of Walter dearest
friends 1t would be ungenerous, if it were
possible, to depict his feelings on that occa-
sion.


This much, however, we are bound to say:
that he over-mastered them with power Of
will that is marvellous; aud carrying in his
soul grief which never died, he never al
lowed it-no, not for a day-to stand between
him and the manly exercise of his faculties.
He Quilted the house, made his way in the
Perthshire, and threw himself with appar-
emily increased zeal, into the researches
which were to him at once business and re-
creation; while strange to say, only one short
poem by his hand survives to tell that such
an incident ever befcI him. There is, how
ever, no doubt that there are traces Of her
in the heroines of the lay" ''Rockeby, "
and Red gauntlet London Quarterly
ID