ggesting inquiries as to
ancient local history and legend, which could nowhere else have been
pursued with equal advantage.

In the same year, a rhymed translation of Burger's "Lenore," from his
pen, was shown by him to Miss Cranstoun, afterwards Countess of
Purgstall, who was delighted and astonished at it. "Upon my word," she
wrote in a letter to a friend, "Walter Scott is going to turn out a
poet--something of a cross I think between Burns and Gray." This lady
had the ballad elegantly printed in April, 1796, and Scott thus made his
first appearance as an author. In October, this translation, together
with that of the "Wild Huntsman," also from Burger, was published
anonymously in a thin quarto by Manners and Miller, of Edinburgh. The
little volume found warm favour: its free, masculine and lively style
revealing the hand of a poet.

_Marriage_

In July, 1797, Scott set out on a tour to the English lakes, accompanied
by his brother John and Adam Fergusson, visiting Tweeddale, Carlisle,
Penrith, Ullswater and Windermere, and at length fixing their
headquarters at Gilsland, a peaceful and sequestered little watering
place.

He was riding one day with Fergusson when they met, some miles away from
home, a young lady on horseback, whose appearance instantly struck both
of them so much, that they kept her in view until they had satisfied
themselves that she was staying in Gilsland. The same evening there was
a ball, at which Scott was introduced to Charlotte Margaret Carpenter.

Without the features of a regular beauty, she was rich in personal
attractions; a fairy-like form; a clear olive complexion; large, deep
eyes of Italian brown; a profusion of silken tresses, raven-black; her
address mingling the reserve of a pretty young Englishwoman with a
certain natural archness and gaiety that suited well her French accent.
A lovelier vision, as all who remember her youth have assured me, could
hardly be imagined, and from that hour the fate of the poet was fixed.

She was the daughter of Jean Charpentier, of Lyons, a devoted royalist,
who died in the beginning of the Revolution; Madame Charpentier had died
soon after bringing her children to London; and the Marquis of Downshire
had become their guardian. Miss Charpentier was now making a summer
excursion under the care of the lady who had superintended her
education.

In an affectionate and dutiful letter Scott acquainted his mother with
his purpose of marriage, an