The Domestic Manners and Private Life of Sir Walter ScottJ. Reid, 1834 - 136 pages |
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Abbotsford Adam Ferguson admiration afterwards Allan Cunningham Altrive amusement anecdotes appeared auld ballad Bard began believe better Blackwood booksellers Buccleuch Burns called Calton Hill character Crosslee dinner Duke Edinburgh edition Ettrick Forest Ettrick Shepherd eyes farm favourite feeling genius gentleman Guy Mannering hand head heard heart hills Hogg Hogg's honour humour illustrious imagination James Ballantyne James Hogg Johnie Ballantyne kind knew lady Laidlaw laugh literary Lockhart Lord Lord Byron mair manuscript merit mind Minstrelsy misfortunes never night obliged Old Mortality once opinion paper poem poet poetical poetry prose publication published Queen's Wake review of Marmion Scotland Scottish sheep Sir Walter Scott songs St Mary's Loch story success sure tale talent thing thought Three Perils tion told took volume walk whole William Laidlaw word write ye hae ye ken
Popular passages
Page 12 - Whether my manner of writing it out was new, I know not, but it was not without singularity. Having very little spare time from my flock, which was unruly enough, I folded and stitched a few sheets of paper, which I carried in my pocket. I had no inkhorn ; but, in place of it...
Page 68 - ... and recited it every word from beginning to end. It being a very long ballad, consisting of eighty-eight stanzas, I testified my astonishment.
Page 106 - Ocould the bard I loved so long, Reprove my fond aspiring song ! Or could his tongue of candour say, That I should throw my harp away ! Just when her notes began with skill, To sound beneath the southern hill, And twine around my bosom's core, How could we part for evermore ! 'Twas kindness all, I cannot blame, For bootless is the minstrel name ; But sure, a bard might well have known Another's feelings by his own...
Page 76 - He never was denied to any living, neither lady nor gentleman, poor nor rich, and he never seemed discomposed when intruded on, but always goodhumoured and kind. Many a time have I been sorry for him, for I have remained in his study, in Castle-street, in hopes to get a quiet word of him, and witnessed the admission of ten intruders, foreby myself.
Page 71 - Blest be his generous heart for aye! He told me where the relic lay; Pointed my way with ready will, Afar on Ettrick's wildest hill; Watched my first notes with curious eye. And wondered at my minstrelsy: He little weened a parent's tongue Such strains had o'er my cradle sung.
Page 67 - Elibank ; but when we came to kindle our light, behold our peat was gone out. This was a terrible disappointment, but to think of giving up our sport was out of the question, so we had no other shift save to send Rob Fletcher all the way through the darkness, the distance of two miles, for...
Page 61 - They were made for singing an' no for reading; but ye hae broken the charm now, an' they'll never be sung mair. An' the worst thing of a', they're nouther right spell'd nor right setten down.
Page 61 - Scott," said Laidlaw. Scott answered with a hearty laugh, and the quotation of a stanza from Wordsworth, on which my mother gave him a hearty rap on the knee with her open hand, and said, " Ye'll find, however, that it is a' true that I'm tellin
Page 12 - But, then, the writing of them ! —that was a job ! I had no method of learning to write, save by following the Italian alphabet; and though I always stripped myself of coat and vest when I began to pen a song, yet my wrist took a cramp, so that I could rarely make above four or six lines at a sittingj Whether my manner of writing it out was new, I know not, but it was not without singularity.
Page 132 - He then walked very ill indeed, for the weak limb had become almost completely useless ; but he leaned on my shoulder all the way, and did me the honour of saying that he never leaned on a firmer or a surer. " We talked of many things, past, present, and to come, but both his memory and onward calculation appeared to me then to be considerably decayed. I cannot tell what it was, but there was something in his manner that distressed me. He often changed the subject very abruptly, and never laughed....