The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and
Instruction, No. 571, by Various

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Title: The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction, No. 571
Volume 20, No. 571--Supplementary Number

Author: Various

Release Date: April 15, 2004 [EBook #12054]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

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THE MIRROR OF LITERATURE, AMUSEMENT, AND INSTRUCTION.

Vol. 20 No. 571.] SUPPLEMENTARY NUMBER. [PRICE 2d.

* * * * *

NOTICES OF THE LIFE AND WRITINGS OF THE LATE SIR WALTER SCOTT, BART.

With Five Engravings:

1. ABBOTSFORD, (_from the Garden_.)
2. THE ARMOURY.
3. THE POET'S STUDY.
4. PORTRAIT--(_from the last painting_.)
5. DRYBURGH ABBEY.

[Illustration: ABBOTSFORD, (FROM THE GARDEN, see page 247.)]

Sir Walter Scott was the third son of Walter Scott, Esq., Writer to
the Signet, in Edinburgh, and Anne, daughter of Dr. John Rutherford,
Professor of Medicine in the University of the above city. His
ancestry numbers several distinguished persons; though the well-earned
fame of Sir Walter Scott readers his pedigree comparatively
uninteresting; inasmuch as it illustrates the saw of an olden poet,
that

Learning is an addition beyond
Nobility of birth: honour of blood,
Without the ornament of knowledge, is
A glorious ignorance.

SHIRLEY.

Sir Walter was born at Edinburgh, on the 15th of August, 1771--or, on
the birthday of Napoleon Buonaparte. His father was a man of
prosperous fortune and good report; and for many years was "an elder
in the parish church of Old Grey Friars, while Dr. Robertson, the
historian, acted as one of the ministers. The other clergyman was Dr.
John Erskine, of whom Sir Walter has given an animated picture in his
novel of _Guy Mannering_."[1] Mrs. Scott is described as a
well-educated gentlewoman, possessing considerable natural talents;
though she did not enjoy the acquaintance of Allan Ramsay, Blacklock,
Beattie, and Burns, as has been stated by some biographers. S