Voyages. Ships' Names. Consignments With their Managing Owners, Commanders, Principal Officers, Surgeons, Pursers, Time of coming afloat, Sailing, &c. Jos. Dudman F. Orlebar Eg. Maxwell J. L. Watson 1200 Rich. Borradaile T. Borradaile W. R. Best Wm. Allen Rich. Rawes Andre Thomson John Milroy Wm. Winton 20No to Jan 19 Dec 8 Feb. 1821. 3 Jan Feb. 2 Mar 24 April 21st December, 1820. LONDON Published for the Proprietors of the European Magazine) by the Executors of the late JaAsperne 32 Cornbill Jan21. Sir Walter Scott Bar Engraved by J.Thomson from an original Picture. EUROPEAN MAGAZINE, AND LONDON REVIEW, FOR DECEMBER, 1820. MEMOIR OF SIR WALTER SCOTT, BART. P. R. S. E. &c. &c. &c. [WITH A PORTRAIT, ENGRAVOD BY J. THOMSON, FROM AN ORIGINAL PAINTING.] ELEV Loved Caledonia! whose blue mountains' shade Land of a race so conqueror can enslave! Thy mail-class chieftains of a former age Yet live, yet wreathe on deal bless Ossian's page; LEVATED by the common consent of popular encomium, the distinguished Bard, whose Portrait embellishes our present Number, has been raised to an equality with any, and to an height superior to most, of his contemporaries in that proud temple, where Fame is the deity, and the whole world are worshippers. To few, very few indeed, is it given to attain the celebrity and success which has so constantly awaited him; and though our poan of homage to his talents may appear to have been tardy, though our attempt to bind the amaranth around his brow may have been anticipated; our offering is still warm with sincerity, and the laurel chaplet which we would offer is yet bright in all the brilliance of it's original splendour, and green in all the freshness of it's primæval fame. SIR WALTER SCOTT, Baronet, is the eldest surviving son of a gentleman of both the same names, who was an eminent advocate, or writer to the signet, at Edinburgh, where the subject of this sketch was born, August 15, 1771. His mother, Mrs. Elizabeth Scott, was the daughter of David Rutherford, Esq. also a writer to the signet, from whom she received a handsome fortune. Mrs. Scott was a THOMSON. lady, who in addition to her other distinguished accomplishments, possessed a very considerable taste for poetry, as appeared in some of her productions, which were deemed worthy of publication after her death in 1789; and from which taste and ability is the parent we are, perhaps, in great part indebted for the cultivation of a similar, but more distinguished, talent in the son. Walter, from the tenderness of his constitution, and the circumstance of his lameness, was in a great measure brought up at home, under the immediate care and instruction of his excellent mother, to whom he was much attached through life, and whose loss he deeply and sincerely lamented; though of his early pursuits at this period little is known, except that he evinced considerable taste and genius in drawing landscapes from nature. At a proper age he was sent to the High School of Edinburgh, then under the direction of Dr. Alexander Adam, a man of more compass of learning than correctness of judgment, who ei deavoured to introduce a new grammar into his seminary in the place of Ruddiman's, but subsequently had the mortification to find it rejected by the heads of the University. In this school, we are told, young Scott passed through the different forms without exhibiting any of those extraordinary powers of genius, which are, however, seldom remembered till the person to whom they are ascribed has become eminent by the maturity of his talents, or an object of distinction from their successful cultivation. It has indeed been said, that he was considered in his boyhood as rather heavy than studious, but that the late Dr. Hugh Blair had discernment enough to predict his future fame, when the master of the school lamented his dullness; and if this be correct, it certainly affords another instance of the fallacy of human opinion in pronouncing judgment upon the real capacity of the youthful understanding. Barrow, the greatest scholar of his age, was discarded as a blockhead by successive teachers; and his pupil, the illustri ous Newton, was declared to be fit for nothing but to drive the team, till some friend succeeded in getting him transplanted to College. Having completed his classical studies at the High School, with as much reputation we suppose as others of his standing, Walter Scott was removed to the University of Edinburgh, where he also passed the classes in a similar manner. His continuance there, however, could not have been long; for after serving the prescribed terms in the office of a writer to the signet, he was admitted an advocate of the Scotch bar when he had not quite attained the age of twenty-one. From this period until 1798 be continued studiously devoted to the profession, when at the last mentioned date he entered into the matrimo. nial state with Miss Carpenter, by whom he now has four children. At the close of the year following he received the appointment of sheriff depute of the county of Selkirk; and in March, 1806, was named one of the principal clerks of session in Scotland. There was a peculiarity in this last preferment worthy indeed of some notice, which was, that his warrant, though drawu, had not passed the seals, when the death of Mr. Pitt produced an entire change in the ministry; and the appointment of Mr. Scott having been effected through the friendship of Lord Melville, who was then actually under impeachment, it was naturally considered lost. Circumstances certainly appeared very ominous against the confirmation of the grant; but to the honour of the new Cabinet, no objection arose; and thus, as a witty friend remarked. this appointment was the last Lay of the Ministry." Thus released from the drudgery of professional labour by the acquisition of two lucrative situations, and the pos session of a handsome estate through the death of his father and uncle, Mr. Scoit was enabled to court the Muses at his pleasure, and to indulge in all the va riety of his literary pursuits without interruption. His first publications, however, were translations from the German, at a time when the wildest productions of that country were fashionably popular in England, owing to the recent appearance of that terrific tale, the Leenora of Bürger. sions, and some of them highly ornaThe same year, when different vermented, of that tale came out, Mr. Scott produced two German ballads in an English dress, entitled, “The Chace,” and William and Helen." These little pieces, however, were not originally intended for the press, being nothing more than exercises in the way of amusement, till a friend to whom they were shewn prevailed upon him to allow their publication, and at the same time contributed the preface. Three years elapsed before Mr. Scott again ventured to appear in print, when he produced another translation from the German, of " Goetz of Berlinchingen," a tragedy by Goethe; and shortly afterwards the late Mathew Gregory Lewis enriched his "Tales of Wonder" with two ballads communicated to him by our author, entitled, John," and " The Eve of St. Glenfinlas" In 1802, came out his first great work, "The Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border," which immediately arrested general attention; and though the pieces of which it is composed are very unequal, the master mind and soaring genius of the poet shone conspicuously throughout. His next publication was, a new edition of "Sir Tristrem, a metrical Romance of the Thirteenth Century, by Thomas of Ercildoun," printed in 1884. Still, however, Mr. Scott may be said to have been hitherto only rising in fame; though he soon gained sufficient to have intoxicated an ordinary mind in the applause bestowed upon his 64 Lay of the Last Minstrel," which appeared in 1805. The following year |