 Section 1 of Waverly, V. 1. Publishers' Note It has long been the ambition of the present publishers to offer to the public an ideal edition of the writings of Sir Walter Scott, the great poet and novelist of whom William Hazlitt said, his works are almost like a new edition of human nature. Securing the belief not only that his writings have achieved a permanent place in the literature of the world, but that succeeding generations will prize them still more highly, we have, after the most careful planning and study, undertaken the publication of this edition of the Waverly novels and the complete poetical writings. It is evident that the ideal edition of a great classic must be distinguished in typography, must present the best available text, and must be illustrated in such a way as, at once, to be beautiful in itself, and to add to the reader's pleasure and his understanding of the book. As to the typography and text, little need be said here, the format of the edition has been most carefully studied and represents the use of the best resources of the Riverside press. The text has been carefully edited in the light of Scott's own revisions. All of his own latest notes have been included, glossaries have been added, and full descriptive notes to the illustrations have been prepared, which will, we hope, add greatly to the reader's interest and instruction in the reading of the novels and poems. Of the illustrations, which make the special feature of this edition, something more may be said. In the case of an author like Sir Walter Scott, the ideal edition requires that the beauty and romantic scenery amid which he lived and of which he wrote shall be adequately presented to the reader. No other author ever used more charming backgrounds or employed them to better advantage. To see Scotland and to visit in person all the scenes of the novels and poems would enable the reader fully to understand these backgrounds and thereby add materially to his appreciation of the author. Before beginning the preparation of this edition, the head of the department having it in charge made a visit in person to the scenes of the novels and poems determined to explore all the localities referred to by the author, so far as they could be identified. The field proved even more productive than had been at first supposed, and photographs were obtained in sufficient quantity to illustrate all the volumes. These pictures represent the scenes very much as Scott saw them. The natural scenery—mountains, woods, lakes, rivers, seashore, and the like—is nearly the same as in his day. The ruins of ancient castles and abbeys were found to correspond very closely with his descriptions, though in many instances he had in imagination rebuilt these ruins and filled them with the children of his fancy. The scenes of the stories extend into nearly every county in Scotland and through a large part of England and Wales. All of these were thoroughly investigated, and photographs were made of everything of interest. One of the novels has to do with France and Belgium, one with Switzerland, one with the Holy Land, one with Constantinople, and one with India. For all of these lands, which Scott did not visit in person, and therefore did not describe with the same attention to detail as in the case of his own country, interesting pictures of characteristic scenery were secured. By this method the publishers have hoped to bring before the reader a series of photographs which will not only please the eye and give a satisfactory artistic effect to the volumes, but also increase the reader's knowledge of the country described and add a new charm to the delightful work of the author. In addition to the photographs, old engravings and paintings have been reproduced for the illustration of novels having to do with old buildings, streets, etc., which have long since disappeared. For this material a careful search was made in the British Museum, the Advocates Library, and City Museum, Edinburgh, the Library at Abbotsford, the Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris, and other collections. It has been thought, too, that the ideal edition of Scott's works would not be complete without an adequate portrayal of his more memorable characters. This has been accomplished in a series of frontispieces specially painted for this edition by twenty of the most distinguished illustrators of England. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. It has been the occasional occupation of the author of Waverly for several years past to revise and correct the voluminous series of novels which pass under that name in order to make the work of the author at the time. For a long period, however, it seemed likely that the improved and illustrated edition, which he meditated, would be a posthumous publication. But in the course of the events which occasioned the disclosure of the author's name, having, in a great measure, restored to him a sort of parental control over these works, he is naturally induced to give them to the press in a corrected and, he hopes, an improved form, while life and health permit the task of revising and illustrating them. Such being his purpose, it is necessary to say a few words on the plan of the proposed edition. In stating it to be revised and corrected, it is not to be inferred that any attempt is made to alter the tenor of the stories, the character of the actors, or the spirit of the dialogue. There is no doubt ample room for amundation in all these points, but where the tree falls it must lie. Any attempt to obviate criticism, however just by altering a work already in the hands of the public, is generally unsuccessful. In the most improbable fiction the reader still desires some air of vrais semblance and does not relish that the incidents of a tale familiar to him should be altered to suit the taste of critics or the caprice of the author himself. This process of feeling is so natural that it may be observed even in children who cannot endure that a nursery story should be repeated to them differently from the manner in which it was first told. But without altering in the slightest degree either the story or the mode of telling it, the author has taken this opportunity to correct errors of the press and slips of the pen. That such should exist cannot be wondered at when it is considered that the publishers found it their interest to hurry through the press a succession of the early editions of the various novels and that the author had not the usual opportunity of revision. It is hoped that the present edition will be found free from errors of that accidental kind. The author has also ventured to make some emendations of a different character, which without being such apparent deviations from the original stories as to disturb the reader's old associations, will he thinks add something to the spirit of the dialogue, narrative, or description. These consist in occasional pruning where the language is redundant, compression where the style is loose, infusion of vigor where it is languid, the exchange of less forceful for more appropriate epithets, slight alterations in short like the last touches of an artist which contribute to heighten and finish the picture, though an inexperienced eye can hardly detect in what they consist. The general preface to the new edition and the introductory notices to each separate work will contain an account of such circumstances, attending the first publication of the novels and tales as may appear interesting in themselves or proper to be communicated to the public. The author also proposes to publish on this occasion the various legends, family traditions, or obscure historical facts which have formed the groundwork of these novels and to give some account of the places where the scenes are laid when these are altogether or in part real, as well as a statement of particular incidents founded on fact, together with a more copious glossary and notes explanatory of the ancient customs and popular superstitions referred to in the romances. Upon the whole it is hoped that the waverly novels in their new dress will not be found to have lost any part of their attractions and consequence of receiving illustrations by the author and undergoing his careful revision. Abbotsford, January 1829, End of Section 2, Recording by Mike Harris. Section 3 of Waverly, Volume 1. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Recording by Stephen Carney. Waverly, or Tis Sixty Years Since, Volume 1 by Sir Walter Scott. Section 3. General Preface to the Waverly novels. And must I ravelled out my weaved-up follies? Richard II. Act IV. Having undertaken to give an introductory account of the compositions which are here offered to the public with notes and illustrations, the author, under whose name they are now for the first time collected, feels that he has the delicate task of speaking more of himself and his personal concerns that may perhaps be either graceful or prudent. In this particular he runs the risk of presenting himself to the public in the relation that the dumb wife in the jest book held to her husband, when, having spent half of his fortune to obtain the cure of her imperfection, he was willing to have bestowed the other half to restore her to her former condition. But this is a risk inseparable from the task which the author has undertaken, and he can only promise to be as little of an egotist as the situation will permit. It is perhaps an indifferent sign of a disposition to keep his word that, having introduced himself in the third person singular, he proceeds in the second paragraph to make use of the first. But it appears to him that the seeming modesty connected with the former mode of writing is overbalanced by the inconvenience of stiffness and affectation, which attends it during a narrative of some length, and which may be observed less or more in every work in which the third person is used, from the commentaries of Caesar to the autobiography of Alexander the Corrector. I must refer to a very early period of my life, where I to point out my first achievements as a tail-teller, but I believe some of my old school fellows can still bear witness that I had a distinguished character for that talent, at a time when the applause of my companions was my recompense for the disgraces and punishments which the future romance writer encouraged for being idle himself and keeping others idle during hours that should have been employed on our tasks. The chief enjoyment of my holidays was to escape with a chosen friend, who had the same taste with myself, alternately to recite to each other such wild adventures as we were able to devise. We told each in turn interminable tales of night air entry and battles and enchantments, which were continued from one day to another as opportunity offered without our ever thinking of bringing them to a conclusion. As we observed a strict secrecy on the subject of this intercourse, it acquired all the character of a concealed pleasure, and we used to select for the scenes of our indulgence long walks through the solitary and romantic environs of author's seat, Salisbury crags, Braid hills, and similar places in the vicinity of Edinburgh, and the recollection of those holidays still forms an oasis in the pilgrimage which I have to look back upon. I have only to add that my friend still lives, a prosperous gentleman, but too much occupied with graver business to thank me for indicating him more plainly as a confidant of my childish mystery. When boyhood advancing into youth required more serious studies and graver cares, a long illness threw me back on the kingdom of fiction, as if it were by a species of fatality. My indisposition arose, in part at least, from my having broken a blood vessel, that motion and speech were, for a long time, pronounced positively dangerous. For several weeks I was confined strictly to my bed, during which time I was not allowed to speak above a whisper, to eat more than a spoonful or two of boiled rice, or to have more covering than one thin counter-pane. When the reader is informed that I was at this time a growing youth with a spirit's appetite and impatience of fifteen, and suffered, of course, greatly under this severe regimen, which the repeated return of my disorder rendered indispensable, he will not be surprised that I was abandoned to my own discretion, so far as reading my almost soul amused was concerned, and still less so that I abused the indulgence with left my time so much at my own disposal. There was at this time a circulating library in Edinburgh founded, I believe, by the celebrated Alan Ramsey, which, besides containing a most respectable collection of books of every description was, as might have been expected, peculiarly rich in works of fiction. It exhibited specimens of every kind, from the romances of Chilvery, and the ponderous folius of Cyrus and Cassandra, down to the most approved works of later times. I was plunged into this great ocean of reading without compass or pilot hand, unless when someone had the charity to play at chess with me, I was allowed to do nothing save read from morning to night. I was in kindness and pity, which was perhaps erroneous, however natural, permitted to select my subjects of study at my own pleasure, upon the same principle that the humours of children are indulged to keep them out of mischief, as my taste and appetite are gratified in nothing else. I indemnified myself by becoming a glutton of books. Accordingly I believe I read almost all the romances, old plays, and epic poetry in that formidable collection, and no doubt was unconsciously amassing materials for the task in which it has been my lot to be so much employed. At the same time I did not in all respects abuse the license permitted me, familiar acquaintance with the specious miracles of fiction brought with it some degree of satiety, and I began by degrees to seek in histories, memoirs, voyages and travels, and the like, events nearly as wonderful as those which were the work of imagination, with the additional advantage that they were at least in a great measure true. The lapse of nearly two years during which I was left to the exercise of my own free will was followed by a temporary residence in the country, where I was again very lonely, but for the amusement which I derived from a good though old-fashioned library. The vague and wild use which I made of this advantage I cannot describe better than by referring my reader to the desultery studies of Waverly in a similar situation, the passages concerning whose course of reading were imitated from recollections of my own. It must be understood that the resemblance extends no farther. Time as it glided on brought the blessings of confirmed health and personal strength to a degree which had never been expected or hoped for. The severe studies necessary to render me fit for my profession occupied the greater part of my time, and the society of my friends and companions who were about to enter life along with me filled up with the usual amusements of young men. I was in a situation which rendered serious labour indispensable for neither possessing on the one hand any of those peculiar advantages which are supposed to favour a hasty advance in the profession of the law, nor being, on the other hand, exposed to unusual obstacles to interrupt my progress. I might reasonably expect to succeed according to the greater or less degree of trouble which I should take to qualify myself as a pleader. It makes no part of the present story to detail how the success of a few ballads had the effect of changing all the purpose and tenor of my life, and of converting a painstaking lawyer of some years' standing into a follower of literature. It is enough to say that I had assumed a latter character for several years before I seriously thought of attempting a work of imagination in prose. Although one or two of my poetical attempts did not differ from orances otherwise than by being written in verse. But yet I may observe that about this time, now alas, thirty years since, I had nourished the ambitious desire of composing a tale of chivalry which was to be in the style of the Castle of Otranto, with plenty of border characters and supernatural incident. Having found unexpectedly a chapter of this intended work among some old papers, I have subjoined it to this introductory essay, thinking some readers may account as curious the first attempts at romantic composition by an author who has since written so much in that department. And those who complain, not unreasonably, of the profusion of the tales which have followed waverly, may bless their stars at the narrow escape they have made by the commencement of the inundation which had so nearly taken place in the first year of the century, being postponed for fifteen years later. This particular subject was never resumed, but I did not abandon the idea of fictitious composition in prose, though I determined to give another turn to the style of the work. My early recollections of the Highland scenery and customs made so favorable an impression in a poem called The Lady of the Lake that I was induced to think of attempting something of the same kind in prose. I had been a good deal in the Highlands, at a time when they were much less accessible and much less visited than they have been of late years, and was acquainted with many of the old warriors of 1745 who were, like most veterans, easily induced to fight their battles over again for the benefit of a willing listener like myself. It naturally occurred to me that the ancient traditions and high spirit of a people who, living in a civilized age and country, retained so strong a tincture of manners belonging to an early period of society must afford a subject favorable for romance if it should not prove a curious tale marred in the telling. It was with some idea of this kind that about the year 1805 I threw together about one third part of the first volume of Waverly. It was advertised to be published by the late Mr. John Ballantine, bookseller in Edinburgh, under the name of Waverly, or Tis Fifty Years Since, a title afterwards altered to Tis Sixty Years Since, that the actual date of publication might be made to correspond with the period in which the scene was laid. Having proceeded as far, I think as the seventh chapter, I showed my work to a critical friend whose opinion was unfavorable, and having then some poetical reputation, I was unwilling to risk the loss a bit by attempting a new style of composition. I therefore threw aside the work I had commenced without either reluctance or remonstrance. I ought to add that, though my ingenious friend's sentence was afterwards reversed on an appeal to the public, it cannot be considered as any imputation on his good taste. For the specimen subjected to his criticism did not extend beyond the departure of the hero for Scotland, and consequently had not entered upon the depart of the story which was finally found most interesting. Be that as it may, this portion of the manuscript was laid aside in the drawers of an old writing desk, which, on my first coming to reside at Abbotsford in 1811, was placed in a lumber garret and entirely forgotten. Thus, though I sometimes, among other literary avocations, turned my thoughts to the continuation of the romance which I had commenced, yet as I could not find what I had already written, after searching such repositories as were within my reach, and was too indolent to attempt to write it anew from memory, I as often laid aside all thoughts of that nature. Hused circumstances in particular recalled my recollection of the mislaid manuscript. The first was the extended and well-merited fame of Miss Edgeworth, whose Irish characters have gone so far to make the English familiar with the character of their gay and kind-hearted neighbors of Ireland that she may be truly said to have done more towards completing the union than perhaps all the legislative enactments by which it has been followed up, without being so presumptuous as to hope to emulate the rich humor, pathetic tenderness, and admirable tact which pervade the works of my accomplished friend, I felt that something might be attempted for my own country of the same kind with that which Miss Edgeworth so fortunately achieved for Ireland, something which might introduce her natives to those of the sister kingdom in a more favorable light than they had been placed here there too, and tend to procure sympathy for their virtues and indulgence for their foibles. I thought also that much of what I wanted in talent might be made up by the intimate acquaintance with the subject which I could lay claim to possess, as having travelled through most parts of Scotland, both Highland and Lowland, having been familiar with the elder as well as more modern race, and having had from my infancy free and unrestrained communication with all ranks of my countrymen, from the Scottish peer to the Scottish ploughman. Such ideas often occurred to me, and constituted an ambitious branch of my theory, however far short I may have fallen of it in practice. But it was not only the triumphs of Miss Edgeworth which worked in me emulation, and disturbed my indulance. I chanced actually to engage in a work which formed a sort of essay piece, and gave me hope that I might in time become free of the craft of romance writing, and be esteemed a tolerable workman. In the year 1807-1808, I undertook at the request of John Murray Asquire of Albemarle Street to arrange for publication some posthumous productions of the late Mr. Joseph Strutt, distinguished as an artist and an antiquary, amongst which was an unfurnished romance, entitled Queen Who Hall. The scene of the tale was laid in the reign of Henry VI, and the work was written to illustrate the manners, customs, and language of the people of England during that period. The extensive acquaintance which Mr. Strutt had acquired with such subjects in compiling his laborious Horda Angel Sinan, his regal and ecclesiastical antiquities, and his essay on the supports and pastimes of the people of England had rendered him familiar with all the antiquarian lore necessary for the purpose of composing the projected romance. And although the manuscript bore the marks of hurry and incoherence natural to the first rough draft of the author, it evinced, in my opinion, considerable powers of imagination. As the work was unfinished, I deemed it my duty, as editor, to supply such a hasty and inartificial conclusion as could be shaped out from the story of which Mr. Strutt had laid the foundation. This concluding chapter is also added to the present introduction for the reason already mentioned regarding the preceding fragment. It was a step in my advance towards romantic composition, and to preserve the traces of these is in a great measure the object of this essay. Queen Who Hall was not, however, very successful. I thought I was aware of the reason, and supposed that by rendering his language too ancient and displaying his antiquarian knowledge too liberally, the ingenious author had raised up an obstacle to his own success. Every work designed for mere amusement must be expressed in language easily comprehended, and when, as is sometimes the case in Queen Who Hall, the author addresses himself exclusively to the antiquary, he must be content to be dismissed by the general reader with the criticism of Mungo in the padlock on the moriterian music. What signifies me here, if me no understand? I conceived it possible to avoid this error, and by rendering a similar work more light and obvious to general comprehension to escape the rock on which my predecessor was shipwrecked. But I was, on the other hand, so far discouraged by the indifferent reception of Mr. Strut's romance as to become satisfied that the manners of the middle ages did not possess the interest which I had conceived, and was led to form the opinion that a romance founded on a highland story and more modern events would have a better chance of popularity than a tale of chivalry. My thoughts therefore returned more than once to the tale which I had actually commenced, and accident at length threw the lost sheets in my way. I haven't won some fishing tackle for the use of a guest when it occurred to me to search the old writing desk already mentioned in which I used to keep articles of that nature. I got access to it with some difficulty, and in looking for lines and flies, the long lost manuscript presented itself. I immediately set to work to complete it according to my original purpose, and here I must frankly confess that the mode in which I conducted the story scarcely deserved the success which the romance afterwards attained. The tale of Waverly was put together with so little care that I cannot boast of having sketched any distinct plan of the work. The whole adventures of Waverly in his movements up and down the country with the highland Keteran bean lean are managed without much skill. It suited best however the road I wanted to travel and permitted me to introduce some descriptions of scenery and manners to which reality gave an interest which the powers of the author might have otherwise failed to attain for them. And though I have been in other instances a sinner in this sort, I do not recollect any of these novels in which I have transgressed so widely as in the first of the series. Among other unfounded reports it has been said that the copyright of Waverly was during the book's progress through the press offered for sale to various booksellers in London at a very inconsiderable price. This was not the case. Nisiyu's Constable and Kadel, who published the work, were the only persons acquainted with the contents of the publication, and they offered a large sum for it while in the course of printing which however was declined, the author not choosing to part with the copyright. The origin of the story of Waverly and the particular facts on which it is founded are given in the separate introduction prefixed to that romance in this edition and require no notice in this place. Waverly was published in 1814 and as the title page was without the name of the other the work was left to win its way in the world without any of the usual recommendations. Its progress was for some time slow but after the first two or three months its popularity had increased in a degree which must have satisfied the expectations of the author had these been far more sanguine than he ever entertained. Great anxiety was expressed to learn the name of the author but on this no authentic information could be attained. My original motive for publishing the work anonymously was the consciousness that it was an experiment on the public taste which might very probably fail and therefore there was no occasion to take on myself the personal risk of discomforture. For this purpose considerable precautions were used to preserve secrecy. My old friend and school fellow Mr. James Ballantine who printed these novels had the exclusive task of corresponding with the author who thus had not only the advantage of his professional talents but also of his critical abilities. The original manuscript or as it is technically called copy was transcribed under Mr. Ballantine's eye by confidential persons nor was there an instance of treachery during the many years in which these precautions were resorted to although various individuals were employed at different times. Double proof sheets were regularly printed off one of us forwarded to the author by Mr. Ballantine and the alterations which it received were by his own hand copied upon the other proof sheet for the use of the printers so that even the corrected proofs of the author were never seen in the printing office and thus the curiosity of such eager inquiries as made the most minute investigation was entirely at fault. But although the cause of concealing the author's name in the first instance when the reception of Waverly was doubtful was natural enough it is more difficult it may be thought to account for the same desire for secrecy during the subsequent editions to the amount of betwixt eleven and twelve thousand copies which followed each other close and approved the success of the work. I am sorry I can give little satisfaction to queries on the subject. I have already stated elsewhere that I can render little better reason for choosing to remain anonymous than by saying with Shylock that such was my humor. It will be observed that I had not the usual stimulus for desiring personal reputation the desire namely to float amidst the conversation of men of literary fame whether merited or undeserved I had already as much as might have contented a mind more ambitious than mine and in entering into this new contest for reputation I might be said rather to endanger what I had than to have any considerable chance of acquiring more. I was affected too by none of those motives which at an earlier period of life would doubtless have operated upon me my friendships were formed my place in society fixed my life had attained its middle course my condition in society was higher perhaps than I deserved certainly as high as I wished and there was scarce any degree of literary success which could have greatly altered or improved my personal condition I was not therefore touched by the spur of ambition usually stimulating on such occasions and yet I ought to stand excavated from the charge of ungracious or unbecoming indifference to public applause I did not the less feel gratitude for the public favor although I did not proclaim it as the lover who wears his mistress's favor in his bosom is as proud though not so vain of possessing it as another who displays a token of grace upon his bonnet far from such an ungracious state of mind I have seldom felt more satisfaction than when returning from a pleasure voyage I found waverly in the zenith of popularity and public curiosity in full cry after the name of the author the knowledge that I had the public approbation was like having the property of a hidden treasure not less gratifying to the owner than if all the world knew that it was his own another advantage was connected with a secrecy which I observed I could appear or retreat from the stage at pleasure without attracting any personal notice or attention other than what might be founded on suspicion only in my own person also as a successful author in another department of literature I might have been charged with two frequent intrusions on the public patients but the author of waverly was in this respect as impassable to the critic as the ghost of Hamlet to the partisan of Marcellus perhaps the curiosity of the public irritated by the existence of a secret and kept afloat by the discussions which took place on the subject from time to time went a good way to maintain an unabated interest in these frequent publications there was a mystery concerning the author which each new novel was expected to assist in unraveling although it might in other respects rank lower than its predecessors I may perhaps be thought guilty of affectation should I allege as one reason of my silence a secret dislike to enter on personal discussions concerning my own literary labors it is in every case a dangerous intercourse for an author to be dwelling continually among those who make his writings a frequent and familiar subject of conversation but who must necessarily be partial judges of works composed in their own society the habits of self-importance which are thus acquired by authors are highly injurious to a well-regulated mind for the cup of flattery if it does not like that of Circe reduce men to the level of beast is sure if eerily drained to bring the best and the ableist down to that of fools this risk was in some degree prevented by the mask which I wore and my own stores of self-conceit were left to their natural course without being enhanced by the partiality of friends or adulation of flatterers if I am asked further reasons for the conduct I have observed I can only resort to the explanation supplied by a critic as friendly as he is intelligent namely that the mental organization of the novelist must be characterized to speak craniologically by an extraordinary development of the passion for dilatessancy I the rather suspect some natural disposition of this kind for from the instant I perceive the extreme curiosity manifested on the subject I felt a secret satisfaction in baffling it for which when its unimportance is considered I do not well know how to account my desire to remain concealed in the character of the author of these novels subjected me occasionally to awkward embarrassments as it sometimes happened that those who were sufficiently intimate with me would put the question in direct terms in this case only one of three courses could be followed either I must have surrendered my secret or have returned an equivocating answer or finally must have stoutly and boldly denied the fact the first was a sacrifice which I can see if no one had a right to force from me since I alone was concerned in the matter the alternative of rendering a doubtful answer must have left me open to the degrading suspicion that I was not unwilling to assume the merit if there was any which I dared not absolutely claim to are those who might think more justly of me must have received such an equivocal answer as an indirect avowal I therefore considered myself entitled like an accused person put on trial to refuse giving my own evidence to my own conviction and flatly to deny all that could not be proved against me at the same time I usually qualified my denial by stating that had I been the author of these works I would have felt myself quite entitled to protect my secret by refusing my own evidence when it was asked for to accomplish a discovery of what I desired to conceal the real truth is that I never expected or hoped to disguise my connection with these novels from anyone who lived on terms of intimacy with me the number of coincidences which necessarily existed between narratives recounted modes of expression and opinions broached in these tales and such as were used by their author in the intercourse of private life must have been far too great to permit any of my familiar acquaintances to doubt the identity betwixt their friend and the author of Waverly and I believe they were all morally convinced of it but while I was myself silent their belief could not weigh much more with the world than that of others their opinions and reasoning were liable to be taxed with partiality or confronted with opposing arguments and opinions and the question was not so much whether I should be generally acknowledged to be the author in spite of my own denial as whether even my own avowal of the works if such should be made would be sufficient to put me in undisputed possession of that character I have been often asked concerning supposed cases in which I was said to have been placed on the verge of discovery but as I maintain my point with the composure of a lawyer of 30 years standing I never recollect being in pain or confusion on the subject and captain medwin's conversations of lord Byron the reporter states himself to have asked my noble and highly gifted friend if he was certain about these novels being sir Walter scott's to which lord Byron replied scott as much as owned himself the author of Waverly to me and Murray's shop I was talking to him about that novel and lamented that its author had not carried back the story nearer to the time of the revolution scott entirely off his guard replied I I might have done so but there he stopped it was in vain to attempt to correct himself he looked confused and relieved his embarrassments by a precipitated retreat I have no recollection whatever of the scene taking place and I should have thought that it was more likely to have laughed than to appear confused for I certainly never hoped to impose upon lord Byron in a case of the kind and from the manner in which he uniformly expressed himself I knew his opinion was entirely formed and that any disclamations of mine would only have savored of affectation I do not mean to insinuate that the incident did not happen but only that it hardly could have occurred exactly under the circumstances narrated without my recollecting something positive on the subject in another part of the same volume lord Byron is reported to have expressed a supposition that the cause of my not avowing myself the author of Waverly may have been some surmise that the reigning family would have been displeased with the work I can only say it is the last apprehension I should have entertained as indeed the inscription to these volumes sufficiently proves the sufferers of that melancholy period have during the last and present reign been honored both with a sympathy and protection of the reigning family whose magnanimity can well pardon aside from others and bestow one themselves to the memory of brave opponents who did nothing and hate but all in honor while those who were in habitual intercourse with the real author had little hesitation in assigning the literary property to him others and those critics of no mean rank employed themselves in investigating with persevering patients any characteristic features which might seem to betray the origin of these novels amongst these one gentleman equally remarkable for the kind and liberal tone of his criticism the acuteness of his reasoning and the very gentleman like manner in which he conducted his inquiries displayed not only powers of accurate investigation but a temper of mind deserving to be employed on a subject of much greater importance and I have no doubt made converts to his opinion of almost all who thought the point worthy of consideration of those letters and other attempts of the same kind the author could not complain though his incognito was endangered he had challenged the public to a game at the bullpeep and if he was discovered in his hiding hole he must submit to the shame of detection various reports were circulated in various ways some found it on an inaccurate rehearsal of what may have been partly real some on circumstances having no concern whatever with the subject and others on the invention of some unfortunate persons who might perhaps imagine that the readiest mode of forcing the author to disclose himself was to assign some dishonorable and discreditable cause for his silence it may be easily supposed that this sort of inquisition was treated with contempt by the person whom it principally regarded as among all the rumors that were current there was only one and that as unfounded as the others which had nevertheless some alliance to probability and indeed might have proved in some degree true I alluded to a report which ascribed a great part or the whole of these novels to the late Thomas Scott Esquire of the 70th regiment then stationed in Canada those who remember that gentleman will readily grant that with general talent at least equal to those of his elder brother he added a power of social humor and a deep insight into human character which rendered him a universally delightful member of society and that the habit of composition alone was wanting to render him equally successful as a writer the author of Waverly was so persuaded of the truth of this that he warmly pressed his brother to make such an experiment and willingly undertook all the trouble of correcting and superintending the press Mr. Thomas Scott seemed at very first well disposed to embrace the proposal and had even fixed on a subject and a hero the latter was a person well known to both of us in our boyish years from having displayed some strong traits of character Mr. T. Scott had determined to represent his youthful acquaintance as emigrating to America and encountering the dangers and hardships of the new world with the same dauntless spirit which he had displayed when a boy in his native country Mr. Scott would probably have been highly successful being familiarly acquainted with the manners of the native Indians of the old French settlers in Canada and of the brules or woodsmen and having the power of observing with accuracy what i have no doubt he could have sketched with force and expression in short the author believes his brother would have made himself distinguished in that striking field in which since that period Mr. Cooper has achieved so many triumphs but Mr. T. Scott was already affected by bad health which wholly unfitted him for literary labor even if he could have reconciled his patience to the task he never i believe wrote a single line of the projected work and i only have the melancholy pleasure of preserving in the appendix the simple anecdote on which he proposed to found it to this i may add i can easily conceive that there may have been circumstances which gave a color to the general report of my brother being interested in these works and in particular that it might derive strength from my having occasion to remit to him and consequence of certain family transactions some considerable sums of money about that period to which it is to be added that if any person chance to evinced particular curiosity on such a subject my brother was likely enough to divert himself with practicing on their credulity it may be mentioned that while the paternity of these novels was from time to time warmly disputed in britain the foreign booksellers expressed no hesitation on the matter but affixed my name to the whole of the novels and to some besides to which i had no claim the volumes therefore to which the present pages from a preface are entirely the composition of the author by whom they are now acknowledged with the exception always of avowed quotations and such unpremeditated and involuntary plagiarisms as can scarce be guarded against by anyone who has read and written a great deal the original manuscripts are all in existence an entirely written horrisco reference in the author's own hand accepting during the years 1818 and 1819 when being affected with severe illness he was obliged to employ the assistance of a friendly amenuances the number of persons to whom the secret was necessarily entrusted or communicated by chance amounted i should think to 20 at least to whom i am greatly obliged for the fidelity with which they observed their trust until the derangement of the affairs of my publishers messiers constable and company and the exposure of their account books which was a necessary consequence rendered secrecy no longer possible the particulars attending the avowal have been laid before the public in the introduction to the chronicles of the canon gate the preliminary advertisement has given a sketch of the purpose of this edition i have some reason to fear that the notes which accompany the tales as now published may be thought too miscellaneous and too egotistical it may be some apology for this that the publication was intended to be posthumous and still more that old men may be permitted to speak long because they cannot in the course of nature have long time to speak in preparing the present edition i have done all that i can do to explain the nature of my materials and the use i have made of them nor is it probable that i shall again revise or even read these tales i was therefore desirous rather to exceed in the portion of new and explanatory matter which is added to this edition then that the reader should have reason to complain that the information communicated was of a general and merely nominal character it remains to be tried whether the public like a child to whom a watch is shown will after having been satiated with looking at the outside acquires some new interest in the object when it is opened and the internal machinery displayed to them that the waverly and its successors have had their day a favorite popularity must be admitted with sincere gratitude and the other has studied with the prudence of a beauty whose reign has been rather long to supply by the assistance of art the charms which novelty no longer affords the publishers have endeavored to gratify the honorable partiality of the public for the encouragement of british art by illustrating this edition with designs by the most eminent living artists to my distinguished countryman david wilkie to edwin land seer who has exercised his talent so much on scottish subjects and scenery to messiers leslie and newton my thanks are due from a friend as well as an author nor am i less obliged to messiers cooper kid and other artists of distinction to whom i am less personally known for the ready zeal with which they have devoted their talents to the same purpose farther explanation respecting the addition is a business of the publishers not of the author and here therefore the latter has accomplished his task of introduction and explanation if like a spoiled child he has sometimes abused or trifled with the indulgence of the public he feels himself entitled to full belief when he exculpates himself from the charge of having been at any time insensible of their kindness abitsford first january 1829 end of section three section four waverly volume one this is a liver vox recording all liver vox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit lebervox.org recorded by david houston waverly for 60 years since volume one by sir walter scott section four under which king the zonian speak or die henry the fourth part two introduction the plan of this edition leads me to in certain place some account of the incidents on which the novel of waverly's founded they've been already given to the public by my late lamented friend william urxine esquire afterwards lord caniter when reviewing the tales of my landlord for the quarterly review in 1817 the particulars were derived by the critic from the author's information afterwards they were published in the preface to the chronicles of the canon game they are now inserted in their proper place the mutual protection afforded by waverly and talbot to each other upon which the whole plot depends is founded upon one of those anecdotes which soften the features even a civil war and as it is equally honorable to the memory of both parties we have no hesitation to give their names at length when the highlighters on the morning of the battle of preston 1745 made their memorable attack on sergeant copes army a battery of four field pieces was stormed and carried by the camons and the stewards of vaping the late alexander steward of infernile was one of the foremost in the charge and observing an officer of the king's forces who scorning to join the fight of all around remained with his sword in his hand as if determined to the very last to defend the post assigned to him the highland gentleman commanded him to surrender and received or reply a thrust which he caught in his target the officer was now defenseless and the battle acts of gigantic highlander the middle of infernile's mail was uplifted to dash his brains out when mr. stewart with difficulty prevailed on him to yield he took charge of his enemy's property protected his person and finally obtained him liberty on his parole the officer proved to be colonel whiteford an airsure gentleman of high character and influence and warmly attached to the house of Hanover yet such was the confidence existing between these two honorable men though of different political principles that while the civil war was raging and straggling officers from the highland army were executed without mercy infernile hesitated not to pay his late captain the visit as he returned to the highlands to raise fresh recruits on which occasion he spent a day or two in airsure among colonel whiteford's wig friends as pleasantly and as good humordly as if all had been at peace around him after the battle of culladin had ruined the hopes of Charles edward and dispersed his prescribed adherence it was colonel whiteford's turn to strain every neuro to obtain mr. stewart's pardon he went to the lord justice clerk to the lord advocate and to all the officers of the state and each application was answered by the production of a list in which infernile as good the old gentleman was want to express it appeared marked with the sign of the beast as a subject unfit for favor or pardon at length colonel whiteford applied to the duke of cumberland in person from him also he received a positive refusal he then limited his request for the present to a protection for stewart's house wife children and property this was also refused by the duke on which colonel whiteford taking his commission from his bosom laid it on the table before his royal highness with much emotion and asked permission to retire from the service of the sovereign who did not know how to spare a vanquished enemy the duke was struck and even affected he bade the colonel take up his commission and granted the protection he required it was issued just in time to save the house corn and cattle at infernile from the troops who were engaged in laying waste what it was the fashion to call the country of the enemy a small encampment of soldiers was formed on the infernile's property which they spared while plundering the country around and searching in every direction for the leaders of the insurrection and for stewart in particular he was much nearer them than they suspected for hidden in a cave like the baron of bradwardine he lay for many days so near the english sentinels that he could hear their muster role called his food was brought to him by one of his daughters a child of eight years old who mrs stewart was under the necessity of entrusting with this commission for her own motions and those of her all her elder inmates were closely watched with ingenuity beyond her years the child used to stray about among the soldiers who were rather kind to her and thus seized the moment when she was unobserved and steel into the thicket when she deposited whatever small store of provisions she had in charge at some marked spot where her father might find it infernile supported life for several weeks by means of these precious supplies and as he had been wounded in the battle of culloden the hardships which he endured were aggravated by great bodily pain after the soldiers had removed their quarters he had another remarkable escape as he now ventured to his own house at night and left it in the morning he was a spy during the dawn by a party of the enemy who fired at and pursued him the fugitive being fortunate enough to escape their search they returned to the house and charged the family with harboring one of the prescribed traitors an old woman had presence of mind enough to maintain that the man they had seen was the shepherd why did he not stop when we called to him said the soldier he is his death poor man has a Pete stack answered the ready witty domestic let him be sent for directly the real shepherd accordingly was brought from the hill and as there was time to tutor him by the way he was as deaf when he had made his appearance as was necessary to sustain his character infernile was afterwards pardoned under the act of indemnity the author knew him well and has often heard these circumstances from his own mouth he was a noble specimen of the old highlander far descended gallant courteous and brave even to chivalry he had been out I believe in 1715 and 45 was an active partaker in all the stirring scenes which passed in the highlands betwixt these memorable eras and I have heard was remarkable among other exploits for having fought a duel with the broadsword with the celebrated rob Roy McGregor at the clacken of bowwitter infernile chance to be an Edinburgh when paul jones came into the first of four and though then an old man I saw him in arms and heard him exalt to use his own words in the prospect of drawing his claymore once more before he died in fact on that memorable occasion when the capital of scotland was menaced by three trifling sloops or bricks scarce fit to a shaft of fishing village he was the only man who seemed to propose a plan of resistance he offered to the magistrates if broadswords and dirks could be obtained to find as many highlanders among the lower classes as will cut off any boats crew who might be sent into town full of narrow and winding passages in which they were like to disperse in quest of plunder I know not if his plan was attended to I rather think it seemed too hazardous to the constitutive authorities who might not even at that time desire to see arms and highland hands a steady and powerful west winds settled the matter by sweeping paul jones and his vessels out of the fur if there is something degrading in this recollection it is not unpleasant to compare it with those of the last war when Edinburgh besides regular forces and militia furnished a volunteer brigade of cavalry infantry and artillery to the amount of six thousand men and upwards which was in readiness to meet and repel the force of a far more formidable description than was commanded by the adventurous american time and circumstances changed the character of nations and the fate of cities and it is some pride through scotchman to reflect that the independent and manly character of a country willing to entrust its own protection to the arms of its children after having been obscured for half a century has during the course of his own lifetime recovered its lustre other illustrations of Waverly will be found in the notes of the foot of the pages to which they belong those which appear too long to be placed are given at the end of the chapters to which they separately relate footnote in this edition at the end of separate volumes end of section four section five of Waverly volume one this is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org recorded by David Houston Waverly or to 60 years since volume one by Sir Walter Scott section five preface to the third edition to this slight attempt at a sketch of ancient Scottish manners the public had been more favorable than the author Durst have hoped or expected he has heard with a mixture of satisfaction and humility his work ascribed to more than one respectable name considerations which seem weighty in his particular situation prevent his releasing this gentleman from suspicion by placing his own name in the title page so that for the present at least it must remain uncertain whether Waverly be the work of a poet or critic a lawyer or clergyman or whether the writer to use Miss Malaprop's phrase be like Cerberus three gentlemen at once the author as he is unconscious of anything in the work itself except perhaps it's revolute which perhaps his finding acknowledged father leaves it to the candor of the public to choose among the many circumstances peculiar to different situations in life such as may induce him to suppress his name on the present occasion he may be a writer new to publication and a willing to eval character to which he is unaccustomed or he may be a hackneyed author who is ashamed of too frequent appearance and employs this mastery as a heroine of the old comedy used her mask to attract the attention of those to whom her face had become too familiar he may be a man of a grave profession to whom the reputation of being the novel writer might be prejudicial or he may be a man of fashion to whom writing of any kind might appear pedantic he may be too young to assume the character of an author or so old as to make it advisable to lay it aside the author of Waverly has heard it objected to this novel that in the character of Callum Begg and in the account given by the Baron of Bradwardine of the petty trespasses of the Highlanders upon trifling articles of property he has borne hard and unjustly so upon the national character nothing could be farther from his wish or intention the character of Callum Begg is out of his spirit naturally turned to daring evil and determined by the circumstances of his situation to a particular species of mischief those who have perused the curious letters from the Highlands published about 1726 will find instances of such trocious character which fell under the writer's own observation though it would be most unjust to consider such villains as representatives of the Highlanders of that period any more than the murderers of Marr and Williamson can be supposed to represent the English of the present day as for the plunder supposed to have been picked up by some of the insurgents in 1745 it must be remembered that although the way of that unfortunate little army was neither marked by devastation nor bloodshed but on the contrary was orderly and quiet in a most wonderful degree yet no army marches through a country in a hostile manner without committing some depredations and several to the extent and of the nature jocularly imputed to them by the baron were really laid to the charge of the Highland insurgents for which many traditions and particularly one respecting the Knight of the Mirror may be quoted as good evidence footnote a homely metrical narrative of the events of the period which contains some striking particulars and is still a great favorite with the lower classes gives a very correct statement of the behavior of the mountaineers respecting the same military license and as the verses are little known and contain some good sense we venture to insert them and footnote the authors address to all in general now gentle readers i have let you can my very thoughts from heart and pen to his needless for to contend or yet control for there is not a word my ought I can mend so ye must all for on both sides some were not good I saw them murdering in cold blood not the gentleman but wild and rude the baser sort who to the wounded had no mood but murdering sport even both the Preston and Falkirk that fatal night you're at Groomirk piercing the wounded with their dirt caused many cry such pity shown from savage and Turk as peace to die a woe be to such hot zeal to smite the wounded on the field it's just they got such grotes and kale who do the same it only teaches cruelty's real to them again I've seen the men called Highland rogues with lowland men make shangs of brogues soup kale and Bruce and fling the cogs out at the door take cocks hens sheep and dogs and pay not for I saw Highlander to his right roll with a string of puddings hung on a pole with door his shoulder skipped like a full caused Maggie Bann lap over the middle and made in whole an affy ran when check for this they'd often tell you indeed her name sells a tumor belly you know get wanting Bartmer sell me her cell will have it go tell King Shorji and Shorty's willy will have a meat I saw the soldiers at Linton Brigg because the man was not a wig of meat and drink leave not a skig within this door they'll burn this very half and wig thumped him sore and know the Highlands they were so rude I just leave them neither clothes nor food then burnt their houses to conclude tis tit for tat how can her name sell air be good to think on that and after all oh shame and grief to use some worse than murdering thief they're very gentleman and chief unhumanly like popish tortures I believe such cruelty even what was act on open stage at Carlyle in the hottest rage when mercy was clapped in a cage at pity dead such cruelty approved by every age I shook my head so many a curse so few to pray and some allowed haza did cry they cursed the rebel scots that day and as they've been not brought up for slaughter as that way too many rot therefore alas dear countrymen I'll never do the like again to thirst for vengeance never been your gun nor pa but with the englishian borough and len let anger fa they're both symboling not worth a louse as our king's the best about the house tis I good to be sober and deuce to live in peace for many I see for being lower cruise gets broken face and section five section six of waverly volume one this is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org this recording is by Mark Smith of Simpsonville South Carolina Waverly or tis 60 years since volume one by Sir Walter Scott section six chapter one introductory the title of this work has not been chosen without the grave and solid deliberation which matters of importance demand from the prudent even its first or general denomination was the result of no common research or selection although according to the example of my predecessors I had only deceased upon the most sounding and euphonic surname that English history or topography affords and elected at once as the title of my work and the name of my hero but alas what could my readers have expected from the chivalrous epithets of Howard Mordant Mortimer or Stanley or from the softer and more sentimental sounds of Belmore Belleville Bellefield and Belgrave but pages of inannity similar to those which have been so christened for half a century past I most modestly admit I am too diffident of my own merit to place it in unnecessary opposition to preconceived associations I have therefore like a maiden knight with his white shield assume for my hero Waverly an uncontaminated name bearing with its sound little of good or evil accepting what the reader shall hereafter be pleased to affix to it but my second or supplemental title was a matter of much more difficult election since that short as it is may be held as pledging the author to some special mode of laying his scene drawing his characters and managing his adventures had I for example announced in my frontispiece Waverly a tale of other days must not every novel reader have anticipated a castle scarce less than that of Udolfo of which the eastern wing had long been uninhabited and the keys either lost or consigned to the caro some aged butler or housekeeper whose trembling steps about the middle of the second volume were doomed to guide the hero or heroin to the ruinous precincts would not the owl have shrieked and the cricket cried in my very title page and could it have been possible for me with a moderate attention to decorum to introduce any scene more lively than might be produced by the jocularity of a clownish but faithful valet or the garrulous narrative of the heroine's fear de chambre when rehearsing the stories of blood and horror which she had heard in the servants hall again have my title born Waverly a romance from the German what heads so obtuse as not to image forth a profligate Abbott and oppressive Duke a secret and mysterious association of rose accrucians and Illuminati with all their properties of black cows caverns daggers electrical machines trap doors and dark lanterns or if I had rather chosen to call my work a sentimental tale would it have not been a sufficient presage of a heroine with a profusion of Auburn hair and a harp the soft solace of her solitary hours which she fortunately finds always the means of transporting from castle to cottage although she herself be sometimes obliged to jump out of a two pair of stairs window and is more than once bewildered on her journey alone and on foot without any guy but a blowsy peasant girl whose jargon she hardly can understand or again if my Waverly have been entitled a tale of the times what's thou not gentle reader have demanded from me a dashing sketch of the fashionable world a few anecdotes of private scandal thinly veiled and if lusciously painted so much the better a heroine from gross funer square and a hero from the barouche club or the foreign hand with a set of subordinate characters from the elegance of queen and street east or the dashing heroes of the bow street office I could proceed improving the importance of a title page and displaying at the same time my own intimate knowledge of the particular ingredients necessary to the composition of romances and novels of various descriptions but it is enough and I scorned to tyrannize longer over the impatience of my reader who is doubtless already anxious to know the choice made by an author so profoundly versed in the different branches of his art by fixing then the date of my story sixty years before this present first November eighteen ought five I would have my readers understand that they will meet in the following pages neither a romance of chivalry nor a tale of modern manners that my hero will neither have iron on his shoulders as of your nor on the heels of his boots as is the present fashion of bond street and that my damsels will neither be clothed in purple and in paul like the lady Alice of an old ballad nor reduced to the primitive nakedness of a modern fashionable at a route from this my choice of an era the understanding critic may farther presage that the object of my tail is more description of men than manners a tale of manners to be interesting must either refer to antiquity so great as to have become venerable or it must bear a vivid reflection of those scenes which are passing daily before our eyes and are interesting from their novelty thus the coat of mail of our ancestors and the triple furred police of our modern bow may though for very different reasons be equally fit for the array of a fictitious character but who meaning the costume of his hero to be impressive would willingly attire him in the court dress of george the second's reign with its no color large sleeves and low pocket holes the same may be urged with equal truth of the gothic hall which with its darkened and tinted windows its elevated and gloomy roof and massive oaken table garnished with boar's head and rosemary pheasants and peacocks cranes and signets has an excellent effect in fictitious description much may also be gained by a lively display of a modern fet such as we have daily recorded in that part of a newspaper entitled the mirror of fashion if we contrast these or either of them with the splendid formality of an entertainment given sixty years since and thus it will be readily seen how much the painter of antique or of fashionable manners gains over him who delineates those of the last generation considering the disadvantages inseparable from this part of my subject I must be understood to have resolved to avoid them as much as possible by throwing the force of my narrative upon the characters and passions of the actors those passions common to men in all stages of society and which have alike agitated the human heart whether it throbbed under the steel courselet of the fifteenth century the brocaded coat of the eighteenth or the blue frock and white dimity waistcoat of the present day footnote alas that attire respectable and gentlemen like in eighteen ought five or thereabouts is now as advocated as the author of Waverly has himself become since that period the reader of fashion will please to fill up the costume with an embroidered waistcoat of purple velvet or silk and a coat of whatever color he pleases and a footnote upon these passions it is no doubt true that the state of manners and laws cast a necessary coloring but the bearings to use the language of heraldry remain the same though the tincture may not be only different but opposed in strong contrary distinction the wrath of our ancestors for example was colored ghouls it broke forth an axe of open and sanguinary violence against the objects of its fury our malignant feelings which must seek gratification through more indirect channels and undermine the obstacles which they cannot openly bear down maybe rather said to be tinctured sable but the deep ruling impulse is the same in both cases and the proud peer who can now only ruin his neighbor according to law by protracted suits is the genuine descendant of the Baron who wrapped the castle of his competitor in flames and knocked him on the head as he endeavored to escape from the conflagration it is from the great book of nature the same through a thousand editions whether of black letter or wire wove and hot pressed that I eventually essayed to read a chapter to the public some favorable opportunities of contrast have been afforded me by the state of society and the northern part of the island at the period of my history and may serve it wants to vary and to illustrate the moral lessons which I would willingly consider as the most important part of my plan although I am sensible how short these will fall of their aim if I shall be found unable to mix them with amusement a task not quite so easy in this critical generation as it was sixty years since end of section six section seven of Waverly volume one this is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org this recording is by Mark Smith of Simpsonville South Carolina Waverly or to 60 years since volume one by Sir Walter Scott section seven chapter two Waverly honor a retrospect it is then sixty years since Edward Waverly the hero of the following pages took leave of his family to join the regiment of Dragoons in which he had lately obtained a commission it was a melancholy day at Waverly honor when the young officer parted with Sir Everard the affectionate old uncle to whose title and estate he was presumptive heir a difference in political opinions had early separated the baronet from his younger brother Richard Waverly the father of our hero Sir Everard had inherited from his sires the whole train of Tory or high church pre-delections and prejudices which had distinguished the house of Waverly since the great civil war Richard on the contrary who was ten years younger beheld himself born to the fortune of a second brother and anticipated neither dignity nor entertainment in sustaining the character of Will Wimble he saw early that to succeed in the race of life it was necessary he should carry as little weight as possible painters talk of the difficulty of expressing the existence of compound passions in the same features at the same moment it would be no less difficult for the moralist to analyze the mixed motives which unite to form the impulse of our actions Richard Waverly read and satisfied himself from history and sound argument that in the words of the old song passive obedience was a jest and bishaw was non-resistance yet reason would have probably been unable to combat and remove hereditary prejudice could Richard have anticipated that his elder brother Sir Everard taking to heart an early disappointment would have remained a bachelor at 72 the prospect of succession however remote might in that case have led him to endure dragging through the greater part of his life as master Richard at the Hall the Baronette's brother in the hope that air its conclusion he should be distinguished as Sir Richard Waverly of Waverly honor successor to a princely estate and to extended political connections as head of the county interest in the Shire where it lay but this was a consummation of things not to be anticipated at Richard's outset when Sir Everard was in the prime of life and certain to be an acceptable suitor in almost any family whether wealth or beauty should be the object of his pursuit and when indeed his speedy marriage was a report which regularly amused the neighborhood once a year his younger brother saw no practicable road to independence save that of relying upon his own exertions and adopting a political creed more consonant both to reason and his own interest than the hereditary faith of Sir Everard in high church and in the house of Stuart he therefore read his recantation at the beginning of his career and entered life as an avowed wig and friend of the Hanover succession the ministry of George the first's time were prudently anxious to diminish the phalanx of opposition the Tory nobility depending for their reflected luster upon the sunshine of a court had for some time been gradually reconciling themselves to a new dynasty but the wealthy country gentleman of England a rank which retained with much of ancient manners in primitive integrity a great proportion of obstinate and unyielding prejudice stood aloof and haughty and sullen opposition and cast many a look of mingled regret and hope to Bois-le-Doux Avignon and Italy footnote where the chevalier Saint George or as he was termed the old pretender held his exiled court as his situation compelled him to shift his place of residence and a footnote the accession of the near relation of one of those steady and inflexible opponents was considered as a means of bringing over more converts and therefore Richard Waverly met with a share of ministerial favor more than proportion to his talents or his political importance it was however discovered that he had respectable talents for public business and the first admittance to the minister's levy being negotiated his success became rapid Sir Everard learned from the public newsletter first that Richard Waverly Esquire was returned for the ministerial borough of Barter Faith next that Richard Waverly Esquire had taken a distinguished part in the debate upon the excise bill in the support of government and lastly that Richard Waverly Esquire had been honored with a seat at one of those boards where the pleasure of serving the country is combined with other important gratifications which to render them the more acceptable occur regularly once a quarter although these events followed each other so closely that the sagacity of the editor of a modern newspaper would have presaged the two last even while he announced the first yet they came upon Sir Everard gradually and drop by drop as it were distilled through the cool and procrastinating olympic of Dyer's weekly letter footnote long the oracle of the country gentleman of the high Tory party the ancient newsletter was written in manuscript and copied by clerks who addressed the copies to the subscribers the politician by whom they were compiled picked up his intelligence at coffee houses and often pleaded for an additional gratuity in consideration of the extra expense attached to frequenting such places of fashionable resort and a footnote for it may be observed in passing that instead of those male coaches by means of which every mechanic at his six penny club may nightly learn from twenty contradictory channels the yesterday's news of the capital a weekly post brought in those days to Waverly honor a weekly intelligence sir which after it a gratified sir everards curiosity his sisters and that of his age at butler was regularly transferred from the hall to the rectory from the rectory to squire stubs at the Grange from the squire to the baronette's steward at his neat white house on the heath from the steward to the bailiff and from him through a huge circle of honest dames and gaffers by whose hard and horny hands it was generally warned to pieces in about a month after its arrival this slow succession of intelligence was of some advantage to Richard Waverly in the case before us for had the sum total of his enormities reached the ears of Sir Everard at once there can be no doubt that the new commissioner would have had little reason to peak himself on the success of his politics the baronette although the mildest of human beings was not without sensitive points in his character his brother's conduct had wounded these deeply the Waverly estate was fettered by no entail for it had never entered into the head of any of its former possessors that one of their progeny could be guilty of the atrocities laid by Dyer's letter to the door of Richard and if it had the marriage of the proprietor might have been fatal to a collateral air these various ideas floated through the brain of Sir Everard without however producing any determined conclusion he examined the tree of his genealogy which emblazoned with many an emblematic mark of honor and heroic achievement hung upon the well varnished Wayne Scott of his hall the nearest descendants of Sir Hildebrand Waverly failing those of his eldest son Wilfred of whom Sir Everard and his brother were the only representatives were as this honored register informed him and indeed as he himself well knew the Waverlies of Highly Park come hunts with whom the main branch or rather stock of the house had renounced all connections since the great lawsuit in 1670 this degenerate scion had committed a father offense against the head and source of their gentility by the intermarriage of their representative with Judith Aris of Oliver Bradshaw of Highly Park whose arms the same with those of Bradshaw the regicide they had quartered with the ancient coat of Waverly these offenses however had vanished from Sir Everard's recollection in the heat of his resentment and had lawyer clipp purse for whom his groom was dispatched express arrive but an hour earlier he might have had the benefit of drawing a new settlement of the lordship and manner of Waverly honor with all its dependencies but an hour of cool reflection is a great matter when employed in weighing the comparative evil of two measures to neither of which we are internally partial lawyer clipp purse found his patron involved in a deep study which he was too respectful to disturb otherwise than by producing his paper and leather in case as prepared to minute his honor's commands even this slight maneuver was embarrassing to Sir Everard who felt it as a reproach to his indecision. He looked at the attorney with some desire to issue his fiat when the sun emerging from behind a cloud poured it once its checkered light through the stained window of the gloomy cabinet in which they were seated. The baronet's eye as he raised it to the splendor fell right upon the central scutian impressed with the same device which his ancestor was said to have borne in the field of Hastings. Three ermans passant, argent, in a field azure, with its appropriate motto, sans tache, may our name rather perish, exclaim Sir Everard, than that ancient and loyal symbol should be blended with the dishonored insignia of a traitorous roundhead. All this was the effect of the glimpse of a sunbeam just sufficient to light lawyer clipp purse to mend his pen. The pen was mended in vain. The attorney was dismissed with directions to hold himself in readiness on the first summons. The apparition of lawyer clipp purse at the hall occasion much speculation in that portion of the world to which Waverly honor formed the center. But the more judicious politicians of this microcosm augured yet worse consequences to Richard Waverly from a movement which shortly followed his apostasy. This was no less than an excursion of the baronet in his coach and six, with four attendants and rich liveries, to make a visit of some duration to a noble peer on the confines of the Shire, of untainted descent, steady Tory principles, and the happy father of six unmarried and accomplished daughters. Sir Everard's reception in this family was, as it may be easily conceived, sufficiently favorable. But of the six young ladies, his taste, unfortunately, determined him in favor of Lady Emily, the youngest, who received his attentions with an embarrassment which showed at once that she durst not decline them, and that they afforded her anything but pleasure. Sir Everard could not but perceive something uncommon in the restrained emotions which the young lady testified at the advances he hazarded, but assured by the prudent countess that they were the natural effects of a retired education, the sacrifice might have been completed, as doubtless has happened in many similar instances, had it not been for the courage of an elder sister, who revealed to the wealthy suitor that Lady Emily's affections were fixed upon a young soldier of fortune, a near relation of her own. Sir Everard manifested great emotion on receiving this intelligence, which was confirmed to him in a private interview by the young lady herself, although under the most dreadful apprehensions of her father's indignation. Honor and generosity were hereditary attributes of the House of Waverly. With a grace and delicacy worthy the hero of a romance, Sir Everard withdrew his claim to the hand of Lady Emily. He had even, before leaving Blanville Castle, the address to extort from her father a consent to her union with the object of her choice. What arguments he used on this point cannot exactly be known, for Sir Everard was never supposed strong in the powers of persuasion, but the young officer, immediately after this transaction, rose in the army with a rapidity far surpassing the usual pace of unpatronized professional merit, although, to outward appearance, that was all he had to depend upon. The shock which Sir Everard encountered upon this occasion, although diminished by the consciousness of having acted virtuously and generously, had its effect upon his future life. His resolution of marriage had been adopted in a fit of indignation. The labor of courtship did not quite suit the dignified indolence of his habits. He had but just escaped the risk of marrying a woman who could never love him, and his pride could not be greatly flattered by the termination of his amour, even if his heart had not suffered. The result of the whole matter was his return to waverly honour without any transfer of his affections, notwithstanding the size and languishments of the fair tell-tale, who had revealed, in mere sisterly affection, the secret of Lady Emily's attachment, and in despite of the nods, winks, and innuendos of the officious lady-mother, and the grave eulogiums which the earl pronounced successively on the prudence and good sense, and admirable dispositions of his first, second, third, fourth, and fifth daughters. The memory of his unsuccessful amour was with Sir Everard, as with many more of his temper, at once shy, proud, sensitive, and indolent, a beacon against exposing himself to similar mortification, pain, and fruitless exertion for the time to come. He continued to live at waverly honour in the style of an old English gentleman, of an ancient descent and opulent fortune. His sister, Miss Rachel Waverly, presided at his table, and they became, by degrees, an old bachelor and an ancient maiden-lady, the gentleness and kindness of the votaries of celibacy. The vehemence of Sir Everard's resentment against his brother was, but short-lived. Yet his dislike to the wig and the placement, though unable to stimulate him to resume any active measures prejudicial to Richard's interest, in the succession to the family estate, continued to maintain the coldness between them. Richard knew enough of the world, and of his brother's temper, to believe that by any ill-considered or precipitate advances on his part, he might turn passive dislike into a more active principle. It was an accident, therefore, which at length occasioned a renewal of their intercourse. Richard had married a young woman of rank, by whose family interest and private fortune he hoped to advance his career. In her right he became possessor of a manner of some value, at the distance of a few miles from Waverly honour. Little Edward, the hero of our tale, then in his fifth year, was their only child. It chanced that the infant with his maid had strayed one morning to a miles distance from the avenue of Brerar Wood Lodge, his father's seat. Their attention was attracted by a carriage drawn by six stately long-tailed black horses, and with as much carving and gilding as would have done honour to my Lord Mayors. It was waiting for the owner, who was at a little distance inspecting the progress of a half-built farmhouse. I know not whether the boy's nurse had been a Welsh or a Scotch woman, or in what manner he associated a shield emblazoned with three ermans with the idea of personal property. But he no sooner beheld this family emblem than he stoutly determined on vindicating his right to the splendid vehicle on which it was displayed. The baronet arrived while the boy's maid was in vain, endeavouring to make him desist from his determination to appropriate the gilded coach and six. The Roncantra was at a happy moment for Edward, as his uncle had been just eyeing wistfully with something of a feeling like Envy, the chubby boys of the stout yeoman whose mansion was building by his direction. In the round-faced rosy cherub before him, bearing his eye and his name, and vindicating a hereditary title to his family, affection and patronage, by means of a tie which Sir Everard held as sacred as either garter or blue mantel, Providence seemed to have granted to him the very object best calculated to fill up the void in his hopes and affections. Sir Everard returned to Waverly Hall upon a lead horse, which was kept in readiness for him, while the child and his attendant were sent home in the carriage to Brerarwood Lodge, with such a message as opened to Richard Waverly a door of reconciliation with his elder brother. Their intercourse, however, though thus renewed, continued to be rather formal and civil than partaking of brotherly cordiality, yet it was sufficient to the wishes of both parties. Sir Everard obtained, in the frequent society of his little nephew, something on which his hereditary pride might have found the anticipated pleasure of a continuation of his lineage, and where his kind and gentle affections could at the same time fully exercise themselves. For Richard Waverly, he beheld in the growing attachment between the uncle and nephew the means of securing his sons, if not his own, succession to the hereditary estate, which he felt would be rather endangered than promoted by any attempt on his own part, towards a closer intimacy with a man of Sir Everard's habits and opinions. Thus, by a sort of tacit compromise, little Edward was permitted to pass the greater part of the year at the Hall, and appeared to stand in the same intimate relation to both families, although their mutual intercourse was otherwise limited to formal messages and more formal visits. The education of the youth was regulated alternately by the taste and opinions of his uncle and of his father. But more of this in a subsequent chapter. of Section 7 Section 8 of Waverly, Volume 1 This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Recording by David Alexander. Waverly, or to his 60 years since. Volume 1 by Sir Walter Scott. Section 8 Chapter 3 Education The education of our hero, Edward Waverly, was of a nature somewhat desultery. In infancy his health suffered, or was supposed to suffer, which is quite the same thing, by the air of London. As soon therefore as official duties, attendance on Parliament, or the prosecution of any of his plans of interest or ambition called his father to town, which was his usual residence for eight months in the year, Edward was transferred to Waverly Honour, and experienced a total change of instructors and of lessons, as well as of residence. This might have been remedied had his father placed him under the superintendence of a permanent tutor. But he considered that one of his choosing would probably have been unacceptable at Waverly Honour, and that such a selection, as Sir Everard might have made, were the matter left to him, would have burdened him with a disagreeable inmate, if not a political spy, in his family. He therefore prevailed upon his private secretary, a young man of taste and accomplishments, to bestow an hour or two on Edward's education, while at Brer Wood Lodge, and left his uncle answerable for his improvement in literature, while an inmate at the Hall. This was in some degree respectably provided for. Sir Everard's chaplain, an oxonian who had lost his fellowship for declining to take the oaths at the accession of George I, was not only an excellent classical scholar, but reasonably skilled in science, and master of most modern languages. He was, however, old and indulgent, and the recurring interregnum during which Edward was entirely freed from his discipline occasioned such a relaxation of authority that the youth was permitted, in a great measure, to learn as he pleased what he pleased, and when he pleased. This slackness of rule might have been ruinous to a boy of slow understanding, who, feeling labour in the acquisition of knowledge, would have altogether neglected it, save for the command of a taskmaster, and it might have proved equally dangerous to a youth whose animal spirits were more powerful than his imagination or his feelings, and whom the irresistible influence of Alma would have engaged in field sports from morning till night. But the character of Edward Waverly was remote from either of these. His powers of apprehension were so uncommonly quick as almost to resemble intuition, and the chief care of his preceptor was to prevent him, as a sportsman would phrase it, from overrunning his game, that is, from acquiring his knowledge in a slight, flimsy, and inadequate manner. And here the instructor had to combat another propensity too often united with brilliancy of fancy and vivacity of talent. That indolence, namely of disposition, which can only be stirred by some strong motive of gratification, and which renounces study as soon as curiosity is gratified, the pleasure of conquering the first difficulty is exhausted, and the novelty of pursuit at an end. Edward would throw himself with spirit upon any classical author of which his preceptor proposed the perusal, making himself master of the styles so far as to understand the story, and, if that pleased or interested him, he finished the volume. But it was in vain to attempt fixing his attention on critical distinctions of philology upon the difference of idiom, the beauty of felicitous expression, or the artificial combinations of syntax. I can read and understand a Latin author, said young Edward, with the self-confidence and rash reasoning of fifteen. And Scaliger eventily could not do much more. Alas, while he was thus permitted to read only for the gratification of his amusement, he foresaw not that he was losing forever the opportunity of acquiring habits of firm and assiduous application, of gaining the art of controlling, directing, and concentrating the powers of his mind for earnest investigation, an art far more essential than even that intimate acquaintance with classical learning, which is the primary object of study. I am aware that I may be here reminded of the necessity of rendering instruction agreeable to youth, and of Tasso's infusion of honey into the medicine prepared for a child. But an age in which children are taught the driest doctrines by the insinuating method of instructive games has little reason to dread the consequences of study being rendered too serious or severe. The history of England is now reduced to a game at cards, the problems of mathematics to puzzles and riddles, and the doctrine's arithmetic may, we are assured, be sufficiently acquired by spending a few hours a week at a new and complicated edition of the Royal Game of the Goose. There once but one step further, and the creed and ten commandments may be taught in the same manner, without the necessity of the grave face, deliberate tone of recital, and devout attention hitherto exacted from the well-governed childhood of this realm. It may, in the meantime, be subject of serious consideration whether those who are accustomed only to acquire instruction through the medium of amusement may not be brought to reject that which approaches under the aspect of study, whether those who learn history by the cards may not be led to prefer the means to the end, and whether were we to teach religion in the way of sport, our pupils may not thereby be gradually induced to make sport of their religion. To our young hero who was permitted to seek his instruction, only according to the bent of his own mind, and who, of consequence, only sought it so long as it afforded him amusement, the indulgence of his tutors was attended with evil consequences, which long continued to influence his character, happiness, and utility. Edward's power of imagination and love of literature, although the former was vivid and the latter ardent, were so far from affording a remedy to this peculiar evil that they rather inflamed and increased its violence. The library at Waverly Honor, a large gothic room with double arches and a gallery, contained such a miscellaneous and extensive collection of volumes as had been assembled together during the course of two hundred years by a family which had always been wealthy and inclined, of course, as a mark of splendor to furnish their shelves with the current literature of the day without much scrutiny or nicety of discrimination. Throughout this ample realm Edward was permitted to roam at large. His tutor had his own studies, and church politics and controversial divinity, together with a love of learned ease, though they did not withdraw his attention at stated times from the progress of his patron's presumptive heir, induced him readily to grasp at any apology for not extending a strict and regulated survey towards his general studies. Sir Everard had never been himself a student, and like his sister, Miss Rachel Waverly, he held the common doctrine that idleness is incompatible with reading of any kind, and that the mere tracing the alphabetical characters with the eye is, in itself, a useful and meritorious task without scrupulously considering what ideas or doctrines they may happen to convey. With a desire of amusement, therefore, which better discipline might soon have converted into a thirst for knowledge, young Waverly drove through the sea of books like a vessel without a pilot or a rudder. Nothing perhaps increases by indulgence more than a desultery habit of reading, especially under such opportunities of gratifying it. I believe one reason why such numerous instances of erudition occur among the lower ranks is that with the same powers of mind the poor student is limited to a narrow circle for indulging his passion for books, and must necessarily make himself master of the few he possesses ere he can acquire more. Edward, on the contrary, like the epicure who only deigned to take a single morsel from the sunny side of a peach, read no volume a moment after it ceased to excite his curiosity or interest, and it necessarily happened that the habit of seeking only this sort of gratification rendered it daily more difficult of attainment, till the passion for reading, like other strong appetites, produced by indulgence a sort of satiety. ere he attained this indifference, however, he had read and stored in a memory of uncommon tenacity much curious though ill-arranged and miscellaneous information. In English literature he was master of Shakespeare and Milton, of our earlier dramatic authors, of many picturesque and interesting passages from our old historical chronicles, and was particularly well acquainted with Spencer, Drayton, and other poets who have exercised themselves on romantic fiction, of all themes the most fascinating to a youthful imagination, before the passions have roused themselves and demand poetry of a more sentimental description. In this respect his acquaintance with Italian opened him yet a wider range. He had perused the numerous romantic poems, which from the days of Pulci have been a favorite exercise of the wits of Italy, and had sought gratification in the numerous collections of novella, which were brought forth by the genius of that elegant though luxurious nation, in emulation of the Decameron. In classical literature Waverly had made the usual progress and read the usual authors, and the French had afforded him an almost exhaustless collection of memoirs, scarcely more faithful than romances, and of romances so well written as hardly to be distinguished from memoirs. The splendid pages of Wassart, with his heart-stirring and eye-dazzling descriptions of war and of tournaments were among his chief favorites. And from those of Branton and Délénu, he had learned to compare the wild and loose, yet superstitious, character of the nobles of the league, with the stern, rigid, and sometimes turbulent disposition of the Hugino Party. The Spanish had contributed to a stock of chivalrous and romantic lore. The earlier literature of the northern nations did not escape the study of one who had read rather to awaken the imagination than to benefit the understanding. And yet, knowing much that is known but to few, Edward Waverly might justly be considered as ignorant, since he knew little of what adds dignity to man, and qualifies him to support and adorn an elevated situation in society. The occasional attention of his parents might indeed have been of service to prevent the dissipation of mind incidental to such a desultory course of reading. But his mother died in the seventh year after the reconciliation between the brothers, and Richard Waverly himself, who, after this event, resided more constantly in London, was too much interested in his own plans of wealth and ambition to notice more respecting Edward than that he was of a very bookish turn and probably destined to be a bishop. If he could have discovered and analyzed his son's waking dreams, he would have formed a very different conclusion.