The Journal of Sir Walter Scott, 1825-32: From the Original Manuscript at Abbotsford

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Douglas & Foulis, 1927 - 943 pages

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Page 155 - That young lady had a talent for describing the involvements and feelings and characters of ordinary life which is to me the most wonderful I ever met with.
Page 916 - Sir Walter breathed his last, in the presence of all his children. It was a beautiful day — so warm, that every window was wide open — and so perfectly still, that the sound of all others most delicious to his ear, the gentle ripple of the Tweed over its pebbles, was distinctly audible as we knelt around the bed, and his eldest son kissed and closed his eyes.
Page 275 - One advantage, I think, I still have over all of them. They may do their fooling with better grace; but I, like Sir Andrew Aguecheek, do it more natural. They have to read old books, and consult antiquarian collections, to get their knowledge; I write because I have long since read such works, and possess, thanks to a strong memory, the information which they have to seek for.
Page 912 - Need you ask ? There is but one." I chose the 14th chapter of St. John's Gospel ; he listened with mild devotion, and said when I had done — " Well, this is a great comfort — I have followed you distinctly, and I feel as if I were yet to be myself again.
Page 89 - I have planted — sate the last time in the halls I have built. But death would have taken them from me if misfortune had spared them. My poor people whom I loved so well! There is just another die to turn up against me in this run of ill-luck...
Page 477 - November 7th. Began to settle myself this morning after the hurry of mind and even of body which I have lately undergone. I went to make a visit and fairly softened myself, like an old fool, with recalling old stories till I was fit for nothing but shedding tears and repeating verses for the whole night. This is sad work. The very grave gives up its dead, and time rolls back thirty years to add to my perplexities.
Page 82 - James Ballantyne this morning good honest fellow with a visage as black as the crook. He hopes no salvation has indeed taken measures to stop. It is hard after having fought such a battle.
Page 213 - I am sensible, that if there be anything- good about my poetry or prose either, it is a hurried frankness of composition, which pleases soldiers, sailors, and young people of bold and active disposition. I have been no signer in shades — no writer of ' Songs and sonnets and rustical roundelays, Framed on fancies, and whistled on reeds.
Page 912 - Mr Laidlaw was waiting at the porch, and assisted us in lifting him into the dining-room, where his bed had been prepared. He sat bewildered for a few moments, and then resting his eye on Laidlaw, said — " Ha ! Willie Laidlaw ! O man, how often have I thought of you...
Page 37 - To make boys learn to read, and then place no good books within their reach, is to give men an appetite, and leave nothing in the pantry save unwholesome and poisonous food, which, depend upon it, they will eat rather than starve.

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