f
fiction, amounted to a passion; and as his memory was singularly
tenacious, he accumulated a great extent and variety of miscellaneous
information.

On the completion of his attendance at the High School, he was sent to
reside with some relations at Kelso; and in this interesting locality
his growing attachment to the national minstrelsy and legendary lore
received a fresh impulse. On his return to Edinburgh he entered the
University, in which he matriculated as a student of Latin and Greek, in
October 1793. His progress was not more marked than it had been at the
High School, insomuch that Mr Dalziel, the professor of Greek, was
induced to give public expression as to his hopeless incapacity. The
professor fortunately survived to make ample compensation for the
rashness of his prediction.

The juvenile inclinations of the future poet were entirely directed to a
military life; but his continued lameness interposed an insuperable
difficulty, and was a source of deep mortification. He was at length
induced to adopt a profession suitable to his physical capabilities,
entering into indentures with his father in his fourteenth year. To his
confinement at the desk, sufficiently irksome to a youth of his
aspirations, he was chiefly reconciled by the consideration that his
fees as a clerk enabled him to purchase books.

Rapid growth in a constitution which continued delicate till he had
attained his fifteenth year, led to his bursting a blood-vessel in the
second year of his apprenticeship. While precluded from active duty,
being closely confined to bed, and not allowed to exert himself by
speaking, he was still allowed to read; a privilege which accelerated
his acquaintance with general literature. To complete his recovery, he
was recommended exercise on horseback; and in obeying the instructions
of his physician, he gratified his own peculiar tastes by making himself
generally familiar with localities and scenes famous in Scottish story.
On the restoration of his health, he at length became seriously engaged
in the study of law for several continuous years, and, after the
requisite examinations, was admitted as an advocate, on the 10th of July
1792, when on the point of attaining his twenty-first year.

In his twelfth year, Scott had composed some verses for his preceptor
and early friend Dr Adam, which afforded promise of his future
excellence. But he seems not to have extensively indulged, in early
life, in the compo