Memoirs of the Life of Sir Walter Scott, Bart..

Front Cover
Robert Cadell, Edinburgh. John Murray and Whittaker and Company, London., 1837
 

Selected pages

Other editions - View all

Common terms and phrases

Popular passages

Page 237 - The naked hulk alongside came, And the twain were casting dice; "The game is done! I've won! I've won!
Page 350 - MINE be a cot beside the hill, A bee-hive's hum shall soothe my ear ; A willowy brook, that turns a mill, With many a fall, shall linger near. The swallow, oft, beneath my thatch Shall twitter from her clay-built nest ; Oft shall the pilgrim lift the latch, And share my meal, a welcome guest.
Page 83 - The sun upon the Weirdlaw Hill, In Ettrick's vale, is sinking sweet ; The westland wind is hush and still — The lake lies sleeping at my feet. Yet not the landscape to mine eye Bears those bright hues that once it bore ; • Though evening, with her richest dye, Flames o'er the hills of Ettrick's shore. " With listless look along the plain I see Tweed's silver current glide, i And coldly mark the holy fane Of Melrose rise in ruin'd pride.
Page 336 - If I have been able to do anything in the way of painting the past times, it is very much from the studies with which she presented me. She connected a long period of time with the present generation, for she remembered, and had often spoken with, a person who perfectly recollected the battle of Dunbar and Oliver Cromwell's subsequent entry into Edinburgh.
Page 282 - Like a tragedy queen he has dizen'd her out, Or rather like tragedy giving a rout. His fools have their follies so lost in a crowd Of virtues and feelings, that folly grows proud: And coxcombs, alike in their failings alone, Adopting his portraits, are pleased with their own.
Page 165 - A something of imposing and mysterious " — to lament the obscurity in which his illustrious but too modest correspondent still chose to conceal himself from the plaudits of the world— to thank the company for the manner in which the nominis umbra had been received — and to assure them that the Author of Waverley would, when informed of the circumstance, feel highly delighted — " the proudest hour of his life,
Page 92 - I gazed about me for a time with mute surprise, I may almost say, with disappointment. I beheld a mere succession of grey waving hills, line beyond line, as far as my eye could reach, monotonous in their aspect, and so destitute of trees, that one could almost see a stout fly walking along their profile ; and the far-famed Tweed appeared a naked stream, flowing between bare hills, without a tree or a thicket on its banks...
Page 38 - Cruikshanks, and such chroniclers, he, who was every inch a soldier and a gentleman, still passed among the Scottish vulgar for a ruffian desperado, who rode a goblin horse, was proof against shot, and in league with the Devil.
Page 175 - Had this very story been conducted by a common hand, Effie would have attracted all our concern and sympathy, Jeanie only cold approbation. Whereas Jeanie, without youth, beauty, genius, warm passions, or any other novel perfection, is here our object from beginning to end.
Page 88 - Scott had reached the gate he called out in a hearty tone, welcoming me to Abbotsford, and asking news of Campbell. Arrived at the door of the chaise, he grasped me warmly by the hand: " Come, drive down, drive down to the house," said he, " ye're just in time for breakfast, and afterwards ye shall see all the wonders of the Abbey.

Bibliographic information