a touch of clumsiness.


_The Poet's Education_


I do not know when his first attachment began; its object was Margaret,
daughter of Sir John and Lady Jane Stuart Belcher, of Invermay. But
after Scott had for several years nourished the dream of union with this
lady, his hopes terminated in her being married to the late Sir William
Forbes, of Pitsligo, a gentleman of the highest character, who lived to
act the part of a generous friend to his rival throughout the distresses
of 1826 and 1827.

After being admitted an advocate, Scott undertook many excursions to
various parts of Scotland, gaining that intimate knowledge of the
country, and its people and traditions, which appears in his poems and
novels. Thus, he visited Northumberland, and made a close inspection of
the battle-field of Flodden, and on another journey studied the Saxon
cathedral of Hexam. During seven successive years he made raids, as he
called them, into the wild and inaccessible district of Liddesdale,
picking up the ancient "riding ballads" preserved among the descendants
of the moss-troopers. To these rambles he owed much of the materials of
his "Minstrelsy of the Border," and here he came to know Willie Elliot,
the original of Dandie Dinmont. Another expedition, into Galloway,
carried him into the scenery of Guy Mannering. Stirlingshire, Perthshire
and Forfarshire became familiar ground to him, and the scenery of Loch
Katrine especially was associated with many a merry expedition. His
first appearance as counsel in a criminal court was at the Jedburgh
assizes, where he helped a veteran poacher and sheep-stealer to escape