five survived early youth.

The subject of this biography was born on August 15, 1771, in a house at
the head of the College Wynd. He was a healthy child, but when eighteen
months old was affected with a fever which left a permanent lameness in
the right leg. With a view to curing this weakness he was sent to live
with his paternal grandfather, at the farm house of Sandy-Knowe near
Dryburgh Abbey, in the extreme south of Berwickshire.

Here, in the country air, he became a sturdy boy, and his mind was
stored with the old Broder tales and songs. In his fourth year he was
taken to London by sea, and thence to Bath, where he remained about a
year for the sake of the waters, became acquainted with the venerable
John Home, author of "Douglas," and was introduced by his uncle, Capt.
Robert Scott, to the delights of the theatre and "As You Like It."

From his eighth year Scott lived at his father's house in George Square,
Edinburgh. His lameness and solitary habits had made him a good reader,
and he used to read aloud to his mother, Pope's translation of Homer and
Allan Ramsay's "Evergreen;" his mother had the happiest of tempers and a
good love of poetry. In the same year he was sent to the High School,
Edinburgh, under the celebrated Dr. Adam, who made him sensible of the
beauties of the Latin poets.

After his school years, the lad, who had become delicate from rapid
growth, spent half a year with an aunt, Miss Janet Scott, at Kelso. He
had now awaked to the poetry of Shakespeare and of Spenser, and had
acquired an ample and indiscriminate appetite for reading of all kinds.
To this time at Kelso he also traced his earliest feeling for the
beauties of natural objects. The love of Nature, especially when
combined with ancient ruins, or remains of our forefathers' piety or
splendour, became his insatiable passion.

He was then sent to classes in the Faculty of Arts in Edinburgh
University; and in 1785 was articled to his father and entered upon the
wilderness of law. Though he disliked the drudgery of the office, he
loved his father and was ambitious, and the allowance which he received
afforded the pleasures of the circulating library and the theatre. His
reading had now extended to the great writers in French, Spanish and
Italian literature. Distant excursions on foot or on horseback formed
his favorite amusement, undertaken for the pleasure of seeing romantic
scenery and places distinguished by historic events.

In 17