. Backgrounds of literature. s thefirst to tak the foord, the Flower of Yar-row, whose sweetness lives in song, it wasScotts great good fortune to open his eyes on aworld which preserved the records of the ageof which he was to be the chief recorder, tostore his memory and stimulate his imaginationin those sensitive years in which a man instinc-tively reaches after the things which belong tohis temperament and genius, and takes them tohimself without knowing that he is makingready for his work. The son of a Writer to the Signet, witha fondness for analyzing the abstruse feudaldoctrines connect
. Backgrounds of literature. s thefirst to tak the foord, the Flower of Yar-row, whose sweetness lives in song, it wasScotts great good fortune to open his eyes on aworld which preserved the records of the ageof which he was to be the chief recorder, tostore his memory and stimulate his imaginationin those sensitive years in which a man instinc-tively reaches after the things which belong tohis temperament and genius, and takes them tohimself without knowing that he is makingready for his work. The son of a Writer to the Signet, witha fondness for analyzing the abstruse feudaldoctrines connected with conveyancing, Scottwas born not far from the heart of the OldTown, in a house which stood at the headof College Wynd, then a fashionable Oliver Goldsmith had once lived in thedays of his study at the University, and throughthis street in Scotts infancy Boswell conductedDr. Johnson to the University. The house inwhich the senior Walter Scott lived was pulleddown to make room for the present University 268. THE LAND OF SCOTT building, which was begun in 1789 and com-pleted nearly half a century later. The death of six children in rapid successiongave ground for the suspicion that CollegeWynd was not a wholesome locality, and shortlyafter the birth of the future novelist the familyremoved to Georges Square, a more open sec-tion of the town, of which Lord Cockburnwrites: With its pleasant, trim-kept gardens,it has an air of antiquated grandeur about it,and retains not a few traces of its former dig-nity and seclusion. Here, in a neighborhoodcrowded with historical and literary associationsand memories, Walter Scott lived during hisboyhood and youth and well on into his earlymanhood. He could not walk the few squaresto his first school in Bristo Street, or, later, tothe high, narrow building in the High SchoolYards, or, still later, to the Towns College,as the University was called, without being as-sailed from every quarter by the memories ofgreat men or of tho
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