SIR
WALTER
SCOTT
FAMOUS SCOTS SERIES
The following Volumes are now ready—
THOMAS CARLYLE. By Hector C. Macpherson.
ALLAN RAMSAY. By Oliphant Smeaton.
HUGH MILLER. By W. Keith Leask.
JOHN KNOX. By A. Taylor Innes.
ROBERT BURNS. By Gabriel Setoun.
THE BALLADISTS. By John Geddie.
RICHARD CAMERON. By Professor Herkless.
SIR JAMES Y. SIMPSON. By Eve Blantyre Simpson.
THOMAS CHALMERS. By Professor W. Garden Blaikie.
JAMES BOSWELL. By W. Keith Leask.
TOBIAS SMOLLETT. By Oliphant Smeaton.
FLETCHER OF SALTOUN. By G. W. T. Omond.
THE BLACKWOOD GROUP. By Sir George Douglas.
NORMAN MACLEOD. By John Wellwood.
SIR WALTER SCOTT. By Professor Saintsbury.
SIR
WALTER
SCOTT
BY
:GEORGE
SAINTSBURY
FAMOUS
SCOTS:
SERIES
PUBLISHED BY
OLIPHANT ANDERSON
& FERRIER · EDINBURGH
AND LONDON
The designs and ornaments of this volume are by Mr. JosephBrown, and the printing from the press of Morrison & GibbLimited, Edinburgh.
June 1897.
PREFACE
To the very probable remark that 'Another little book about Scott is notwanted,' I can at least reply that apparently it is, inasmuch as thepublishers proposed this volume to me, not I to them. And I believethat, as a matter of fact, no 'little book about Scott' has appearedsince the Journal was completed, since the new and importantinstalment of Letters appeared (in both cases with invaluableeditorial apparatus by Mr. David Douglas), and especially since Mr.Lang's Lockhart was published. It is true that no one of these, norany other book that is likely to appear, has altered, or is likely toalter, much in a sane estimate of Sir Walter. His own matchlesscharacter and the genius of his first biographer combined to set beforethe world early an idea, of which it is safe to say that nothing thatshould lower it need be feared, and hardly anything to heighten it canbe reasonably hoped. But as fresh items of illustrative detail are madepublic, there can be no harm in endeavouring to incorporate somethin