The poetical works of Sir Walter Scott, with memoir of the author.

vi MEMOIR OF THE AUTHOR.
uneventful tenor of his childhood and youth
seemed little calculated to awaken in his mind
a love of the imaginative or romantic.
Before he had completed his second year, delicacy of constitution, and lameness, which proved
permanent, assailed him, and soon afterwards
caused his removal to the country. There, at his
grandfather's farm-house of Sandyknowe, situated
beneath the crags of a ruined baronial tower, and
overlooking a district famous in border-history,
the poet passed his childhood till about his eighth
year, with scarcely any interruption but a year at
Bath. At this early age was evinced his warm
sympathy with the beauty and grandeur of nature;
and the ballads and legends, recited to him amid
the scenes in which their events were laid, cooperated in after-days with family and national
pride to decide the bent of the border-minstrel's
fancy.
His health being partially confirmed, he was
recalled home; and from the end of 1778 till
1783 his education was conducted in the High
School of Edinburgh, with the assistance of a
tutor resident in his father's house. Prior to this
change, he had shown a decided inclination towards literary pursuits; but now, introduced with
imperfect preparation into a large and thoroughly
trained' class, consisting of boisterous boys, his
childish zeal for learning seems to have been
quenched by ambition of another kind. His