Chambers's cyclopaedia of English literature : a history critical and biographical of authors in the English tongue from the earliest times till the present day, with specimens of their writing . hose youth theold Border de-predations werematter of recenttradition, usedto tell me manya tale of Wat ofHarden, WightWillie of Aik-wood, JamieTelfer of the fair Dodhead, and other heroes—merry men all of thepersuasion and calling of Robin Hood and LittleJohn. Scott in his later life, when the youngergeneration was writing new romances, looked oncomfortably at their historical studies and theirindustr
Chambers's cyclopaedia of English literature : a history critical and biographical of authors in the English tongue from the earliest times till the present day, with specimens of their writing . hose youth theold Border de-predations werematter of recenttradition, usedto tell me manya tale of Wat ofHarden, WightWillie of Aik-wood, JamieTelfer of the fair Dodhead, and other heroes—merry men all of thepersuasion and calling of Robin Hood and LittleJohn. Scott in his later life, when the youngergeneration was writing new romances, looked oncomfortably at their historical studies and theirindustry after local colour. He himself had takenin his knowledge in a different way, beginning atSandyknowe. As he told Miss Seward, he had aregiment of horse exercising through his head eversince he was five years old. Whatever may be dueto his ancestry for this bent of mind, at any rate itwas helped in the most natural and old-fashionedway by his upbringing. He learned the historyof his country as histor> was learned by Homer,not out of books, to begin with. The Bride ofLammermoor^ for example, is a story that came toScotts knowledge by oral tradition, like the storiesof the heroic SIR WALTER a sketch taken in the Court of Session by John Sheriff about 1825. His lameness as he grew older ceased to inter-fere with his activity and enjoyment. At theHigh School of Edinburgh, to which he went in1778, he was not prevented from taking part inthe common amusements ; he climbed the kittlenine steps of the Castle Rock, like Darsie Latimer,and shared in the battles of the Crosscausewayand the Potterrow. The episode of Greenbreeksgave him an example of what is meant by chi\alry ;the story, as he tells it, is as good as Richard and Saladin. From the High Schoolhe went to theCollege of Edin-burgh. By thistime books hadcome to be moreimportant ; hetook sides withthe Modernsagainst the An-cients in thatold controversy,and learned Ita-lian for himself,but no Greekfrom his pr
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1900, booksubjectenglish, bookyear1901
