ntly handsome; tall, much above the
usual standard, it was cast in the very mould of a young Hercules; the
head set on with singular grace, the throat and chest after the truest
model of the antique, the hands delicately finished; the whole outline
that of extraordinary vigor, without as yet a touch of clumsiness.
When he had acquired a little facility of manner, his conversation
must have been such as could have dispensed with any exterior
advantages, and certainly brought swift forgiveness for the one
unkindness of nature. I have heard him, in talking of this part of his
life, say, with an arch simplicity of look and tone which those who
were familiar with him can fill in for themselves--"It was a proud
night with me when I first found that a pretty young woman could think
it worth her while to sit and talk with me, hour after hour, in a
corner of the ballroom, while all the world were capering in our
view."

[Footnote 76: The late Countess-Duchess of
Sutherland.--(1848.)]

I believe, however, that the "pretty young woman" here specially
alluded to had occupied his attention long before he ever appeared in
the Edinburgh Assembly Rooms, or any of his friends took note of him
as "setting up for a squire of dames." I have been told that their
acquaintance began in the Greyfriars' Churchyard, where rain beginning
to fall one Sunday as the congregation were dispersing, Scott happened
to offer his umbrella, and the tender being accepted, so escorted her
to her residence, which proved to be at no great distance from his
own.[77] To return from church together had, it seems, grown into
something like a custom, before they met in society, Mrs. Scott being
of the party. It then appeared that she and the lady's mother had been
companions in their youth, though, both living secludedly, they
{p.146} had scarcely seen each other for many years; and the two
matrons now renewed their former intercourse. But no acquaintance
appears to have existed between the fathers of the young people, until
things had advanced in appearance farther than met the approbation of
the good Clerk to the Signet.

[Footnote 77: In one of his latest articles for the
_Quarterly Review_, Scott observes, "There have been
instances of love tales being favorably received in England,
when told under an umbrella, and in the middle of a
shower."--_Miscellaneous Prose Works_, vol. xviii.]

Being aw