rural
population in bonds of mutual love and confidence: the original
community of lineage was equally remembered on all sides; the landlord
could count for more than his rent on the tenant, who regarded him
rather as a father or an elder brother, than as one who owed his
superiority to mere wealth; and the farmer who, on fit occasions,
partook on equal terms of the chase and the hospitality of his
landlord, went back with content and satisfaction to the daily labors
of a vocation which he found no one disposed to consider as derogating
from his gentle blood. Such delusions, if delusions they were, held
the natural arrogance of riches in check, taught the poor man to
believe that in virtuous poverty he had nothing to blush for, and
spread over the whole being of the community the gracious spirit of a
primitive humanity.

Walter Scott, the eldest son of Robert of Sandy-Knowe, appears to have
been the first of the family that ever adopted a town life, or
anything claiming to be classed among the learned professions. His
branch of the law, however, could not in those days be advantageously
prosecuted without extensive connections in the country; his own were
too respectable not to be of much service to him in his calling, and
they were cultivated accordingly. His professional visits to
Roxburghshire and Ettrick Forest were, in his vigorous life, very
frequent; and though he was never supposed to have any tincture either
of romance or poetry in his composition, he retained to the last a
warm affection for his native district, with {p.066} a certain
reluctant flavor of the old feelings and prejudices of the Borderer. I
have little to add to Sir Walter's short and respectful notice of his
father, except that I have heard it confirmed by the testimony of many
less partial observers. According to every account, he was a most
just, honorable, conscientious man; only too high of spirit for some
parts of his business. "He passed from the cradle to the grave," says
a surviving relation, "without making an enemy or losing a friend. He
was a most affectionate parent, and if he discouraged, rather than
otherwise, his son's early devotion to the pursuits which led him to
the height of literary eminence, it was only because he did not
understand what such things meant, and considered it his duty to keep
his young man to that path in which good sense and industry might,
humanly speaking, be thought sure of success."

Sir Walter's moth