SIR WALTER SCOTT

(1771-1832).

PORTRAITS OF SCOTT.

OF Scott's numerous portraits, the three best and most celebrated were taken in the years 1820 and 1824.

The Lawrence Portrait.-One of Scott's first visitors (after his arrival in London, March, 1820) was Sir Thomas Lawrence, who informed him that the king had resolved to adorn the great gallery, then in progress at Windsor Castle, with portraits by his hand of his majesty's most distinguished contemporaries: all the reigning monarchs of Europe, and their chief ministers and generals, had already sat for this purpose. On the same walls the king desired to see exhibited those of his own subjects who had attained the highest honors of literature and science, and it was his pleasure that this series should commence with Walter Scott. The portrait was of course begun immediately, and the head was finished before Scott left town. Sir Thomas has caught and fixed with admirable skill one of the loftiest expressions of Scott's countenance at the proudest period of his life. To the perfect truth of the representation, every one who ever surprised him in the act of composition at his desk will bear witness. The expression, however, was one with which many who had seen the man often were not familiar; and it was extremely unfortunate that Sir Thomas filled in the figure from a separate sketch after he had quitted London. . . . Lawrence told me, several years afterwards, that in his opinion the two greatest men he had painted were the Duke of Wellington and Sir

Walter Scott. "And it was odd," said he, "that they both chose usually the same hour for sitting-seven in the morning. They were both as patient sitters as I ever had. Scott, however, was, in my case at least, a very dif ficult subject."-LOCKHART.

The Chantrey Bust.-This marble bust, done by Sir Francis Chantrey in 1820, now at Abbotsford, seems to command the most favorable criticism of all Scott's likenesses. A duplicate of it was executed for the Duke of Wellington in 1827, and in 1828 the sculptor offered the bust to Sir Walter as a gift, provided he would sit to him for another. Accordingly, in the same year another likeness was sculptured, which was soon placed in the gallery of Sir Robert Peel, at Drayton Manor.

The Leslie Portrait.-In 1824 a half-length portrait was painted by C. R. Leslie, R.A., at Abbotsford, for Mr. George Ticknor, of Boston. America is fortunate in being the possessor of this portrait, as its excellence in execution and its close resemblance to the great novelist has been attested.

PERSONAL APPEARANCE.

When I last wrote I was about to be introduced to Sir Walter Scott. He quite answered all my expectations of him, and you may suppose they were very high. His manners are those of an amiable and unaffected man and a polished gentleman, and his conversation is something higher, for it is often quite as amusing and interesting as his novels, and without any apparent attempt at display. It flows from him in the most easy and natural manner. As I take it for granted that the most insignificant particulars relating to such a man will be interesting to you, I will give you a description of his personal appearance, and even his dress. He is tall and well-formed, excepting one of his ankles and foot (I think the right), which is crippled and makes him walk very lamely. He is neither fat nor thin. His face is perfectly Scotch, and though some people think it heavy, it struck me as a very agreeable one. He never could have been handsome. His forehead is

very high, his nose short, his upper lip long, and the lower part of his face rather fleshy. His complexion is fresh and clear, his eyes very blue, shrewd, and penetrating. I should say the predominant expression of his face is that of strong sense. His hair, which has always been very light (as well as his eyebrows and eyelashes), is now of a silvery whiteness, which makes him look somewhat older than he really is (I believe forty-six is his age). He was dressed in a brown frock, blue trousers, and had on a black cravat.... I would have sent you a sketch of Scott, but after several attempts I find I cannot catch his face from recollection. All the portraits I have seen are somewhat like him, but none of them very strongly so.-C. R. LESLIE: Letter to Miss Leslie, June 28, 1820.

He was not quite forty-eight years old, tall and striking in his figure-full six feet in height, I think-stout and well-made. From the malconformation of one of his feet. he stooped a little—at least that seemed to me the reason why he was somewhat prematurely bent; and his features bore the marks of coming age, which, like his gray hairs, had, I was told, much increased during the two preceding years. His countenance, as everybody knows, was dull when at rest, and even in common conversation; I think it expressed only much good-nature and a remarkable. willingness to listen. But his smile was uncommonly sweet and winning; and when he repeated poetry, which he loved to do, there was a transfiguration of his features which seemed to change their expression entirely. His deep, bluish-gray eyes, or rather the white portions of them, blushed and became pink with his emotion-an effect I have noticed in only a few other instances, and those in persons who possessed much sensibility.-GEORGE TICKNOR.

COMMENTS.

The Greek Blockhead-[a college epithet].

The Great Unknown.

The Wizard of the North.

The Great Magician.

Scott is certainly the most wonderful writer of the day. His novels are a new literature in themselves, and his poetry as good as any, if not better, only on an erroneous system. -- LORD BYRON.

The Ariosto of the North.—Ibid.

Monarch of Parnassus.—Ibid.

In my humble opinion, Walter Scott's sense is a still more wonderful thing than his genius.-LORD COCKBURN.

Walter Scott is a great genius - he has not his equaland we need not wonder at the extraordinary effect he has produced on the reading world. He gives me much to think of, and I discover in him a wholly new art, with laws of its own.GOETHE.

Who is there that, looking back over a great portion of his life, does not find the genius of Scott administering to his pleasures, beguiling his cares, and soothing his lonely sorrows?— WASHINGTON IRVING.

He died a great man, and, what is more, a good man. He has left us a double treasure-the memory of himself and the possession of his works. Both of them will endure.-W. E. GLADSTONE.

No sounder piece of British manhood was put together in that eighteenth century of time. Alas! his fine Scotch face, with its shaggy honesty, sagacity, and goodness, when we saw it latterly on the Edinburgh streets, was all worn with care, the joy all fled from it-ploughed deep with labor and sorrow. We shall never forget it; we shall never see it again. Adieu, Sir Walter, pride of all Scotchmen; take our proud and last farewell.-THOMAS CARLYLE.

Sir Walter Scott is undoubtedly the most popular writer of the age-the "lord of the ascendant" for the time being. He is just half what the human intellect is capable of being. If you take the universe and divide it into two parts, he knows all that it has been; all that it is to be is nothing to him. . . . The old world is to him a crowded map; the new one a dull, hateful blank. He dotes on all well-authenticated superstitions; he shudders at the shadow of innovation. His retentiveness of memory, his accumulated weight of interested prejudice or romantic association have overlaid his other faculties. The cells of his memory are vast, various, full even to bursting with life and motion; his speculative

understanding is empty, flaccid, poor, and dead. . . . The land of pure reason is to his apprehension like Van Diemen's Land— barren, miserable, distant, a place of exile, the dreary abode of savages, convicts, and adventurers.-HAZLITT.

It is singular how success and the want of it operates on two extraordinary men--Walter Scott and Wordsworth. Scott enters a room, and sits at table with the coolness and self-possession of conscious fame; Wordsworth with a mortified elevation of head, as if fearful he was not estimated as he deserved. Scott is always cool and very amusing, . . . the companion of nature in all her feelings and freaks.-B. R. HAYDON.

He is the greatest of all war poets-his poetry might make a very coward fearless.-PROF. Wilson.

The radiant and immortal four in English Literature, whose now ideal forms rise through the centuries of its long history, each pre-eminent in a broad domain, are John Milton in religious poetry, William Shakespeare in the drama, Geoffrey Chaucer in the poetry of nature, and Walter Scott in all romance.—JAMES F. HUNNEWELL.

TOPICAL STUDY OF SCOTT'S LIFE.

Birth and Parentage.-Walter Scott, born in Edinburgh August 15, 1771, was descended from Scottish families celebrated in the annals of Border chivalry. His father was a Writer to the Signet, and attained a high rank in his profession. His mother was the daughter of Dr. Rutherford, medical professor in the University of Edinburgh, and an accomplished and highly-educated woman.

Education.-On account of delicate health and the lameness with which he was afflicted from his second year to his death, Scott resided in the country till his eighth year, and early acquired the habit and fondness for reading. In 1778 he was sent to the High School of Edinburgh, where he made satisfactory progress. A private tutor was also employed for him at home, respecting whom he says, “I repeated to him my French lessons, and studied with him my themes in the classics, but not classically. I also acquired, by disputing with him-for this he readily permitted-some knowledge of school divinity and church his