y
distinguished through childhood; though, being lame, he got much comfort
from books. He took the usual amount of Latin, but obstinately rebelled
at the Greek, and even in his college days would have none of it. He was
distinguished there by the name of "The Greek Blockhead," and even his
excellent professor was betrayed into saying that "dunce he was and
dunce he would remain,"--"an opinion," says Scott, "which my excellent
and learned friend lived to revoke over a bottle of Burgundy after I had
achieved some literary distinction." He read everything he could lay
hands on, in English, all through his youth, and his reading seems to
have been entirely undirected. He tells about discovering "some odd
volumes of Shakspeare," and adds: "Nor can I forget the rapture with
which I sat up in my shirt reading them by the light of a fire in my
mother's apartment, until the bustle of the family rising from supper
warned me it was time to creep back to my bed, where I was supposed to
have been safely deposited since nine o'clock." He soon after became
enamoured of Ossian and Spenser, whom he thought he could have read
forever.

His first acquaintance with the Highlands he was to immortalize was made
in his fifteenth year. The same year he became apprenticed to the law in
his father's office. The Highland visits were repeated nearly every year
thereafter, and from the first afforded him the greatest delight. Of
this first visit he says: "Since that hour the recollection of that
inimitable landscape has possessed the strangest influence over my mind
and retained its place as a memorable thing, while much that was
influential on my own fortunes has fled from my recollections."

His appearance at this time was very engaging. He had outgrown his early
sallowness and had a fresh, brilliant complexion. His eyes were clear,
open, and well set, with a changeful expression; his teeth were dazzling
white, and his smile delightful. In very early youth he formed a strong
attachment for a young lady very highly connected, and of position far
above his own, and of great personal attractions. Their acquaintance
began in the Grey Friars Churchyard, where, rain beginning to fall one
Sunday as the congregation were dispersing, Scott happened to offer his
umbrella, and, the offer being accepted, he escorted her to her
residence. The acquaintance proved pleasant to both, and they met
frequently, until it became an understood thing that he should esc