. -- Scott's Apprenticeship to his
Father. --Excursions to the Highlands, etc. -- Debating
Societies. -- Early Correspondence, etc. -- Williamina
Stuart.

1786-1790.

In the Minute-books of the Society of Writers to the Signet appears
the following entry: "Edinburgh, 15th May, 1786. Compeared Walter
Scott, and presented an indenture, dated 31st March last, entered into
between him and Walter Scott, his son, for five years from the date
thereof, under a mutual penalty of L40 sterling."

An inauspicious step this might at first sight appear in the early
history of one so strongly predisposed for pursuits wide as the
antipodes asunder from the dry technicalities of conveyancing; but he
himself, I believe, was never heard, in his mature age, to express any
regret that it should have been taken; and I am convinced for my part
that it was a fortunate one. It prevented him, indeed, from passing
with the usual regularity through a long course of Scotch metaphysics;
but I extremely doubt whether any discipline could ever have led him
to derive either pleasure or profit from studies of that order. His
apprenticeship left him time enough, as we shall find, for continuing
his application to the stores of poetry and romance, and those old
chroniclers, who to the end were his darling historians. Indeed, if he
had wanted any new stimulus, the necessity of devoting certain hours
of every day to a routine of drudgery, however it might have operated
on a spirit more prone to earth, must have tended {p.117} to quicken
his appetite for "the sweet bread eaten in secret." But the duties
which he had now to fulfil were, in various ways, directly and
positively beneficial to the development both of his genius and his
character. It was in the discharge of his functions as a Writer's
Apprentice that he first penetrated into the Highlands, and formed
those friendships among the surviving heroes of 1745, which laid the
foundation for one great class of his works. Even the less attractive
parts of his new vocation were calculated to give him a more complete
insight into the smaller workings of poor human nature than can ever
perhaps be gathered from the experience of the legal profession in its
higher walk;--the etiquette of the bar in Scotland, as in England,
being averse to personal intercourse between the advocate and his
client. But finally, and I will say chiefly, it was to this prosaic
discipline that he owed those habits