Memoirs of the life of sir Walter Scott [by J.G. Lockhart].Robert Cadell/John Murray and Whittaker & Company, 1839 |
Other editions - View all
Common terms and phrases
Abbotsford Adam Fergusson affairs Anne beautiful believe Bonnie Dundee Byron Cadell called Castle character Chiefswood Constable Constable's Court Court of Session Coutts creditors dear delightful Diary Dined dinner doubt Dublin duty Edgeworth Edgeworthstown Edinburgh exertion eyes fancy fear feelings fellow fortune give good-humour habits happy heart honour hope hour humour Hurst Ireland Irish James Ballantyne January John John Ballantyne Killarney kind labour Lady Scott last night late letter literary lived Lockhart London look Lord Advocate Lord Melville Malachi Malachi Malagrowther melancholy mind Miss Moore morning never novel painful party perhaps person poet poor ruin scene Scotland Scottish seems Sir Walter Scott Skene society Sophia sort spirit suppose sure things thought tion to-day told Tom Purdie VIII walk Waverley Novels whole wife wish Woodstock write wrote yesterday young
Popular passages
Page 329 - My wits begin to turn. Come on, my boy : how dost, my boy ? art cold ? I am cold myself. Where is this straw, my fellow ? The art of our necessities is strange, That can make vile things precious. Come, your hovel. Poor fool and knave, I have one part in my heart That's sorry yet for thee.
Page 46 - There is a stone there, that whoever kisses, Oh ! he never misses to grow eloquent. 'Tis he may clamber to a lady's chamber, Or become a member of parliament : A clever spouter he'll sure turn out, or An out-and-outer, "to be let alone...
Page 204 - I have walked my last on the domains I have planted — sate the last time in the halls I have built. But death would have taken them from me if misfortune had spared them.
Page 28 - I have read books enough, and observed and conversed with enough of eminent and splendidly cultivated minds, too, in my time ; but, I assure you, I have heard higher sentiments from the lips of poor uneducated men and women, when exerting the spirit of severe yet gentle heroism under difficulties and afflictions, or speaking their simple thoughts as to circumstances in the lot of friends and neighbors, than I ever yet met with out of the pages of the Bible. We shall never learn to feel and respect...
Page 197 - Ballantvne this morning, good honest fellow, with a visage as black as the crook. He hopes no salvation ; has indeed taken measures to stop. It is hard, after having fought such a battle.
Page 167 - They are good certainly — excellent ; but then you must laugh, and that is always severe to me. When I do laugh in sincerity, the joke must be or seem unpremeditated. I could not help thinking, in the midst of the glee, what gloom had lately been over the minds of three of the company. What a strange scene if the surge of conversation could suddenly ebb like the tide, and show us the state of people's real minds ! No eyes the rocks discover Which lurk beneath the deep.
Page 208 - I went to the Court for the first time to-day, and, like the man with the large nose, thought every body was thinking of me and my mishaps. Many were, undoubtedly, and all rather regrettingly ; some obviously affected. It is singular to see the difference of men's manner whilst they strive to be kind or civil in their way of addressing me. Some smiled as they wished me good-day, as if to say...
Page 335 - Well, here I am in Arden. And I may say with Touchstone, " When I was at home I was in a better place...
Page 292 - I ever met with. The Big Bow-wow Strain I can do myself like any now going ; but the exquisite touch, which renders ordinary commonplace things and characters interesting, from the truth of the description and the sentiment, is denied to me.
Page 225 - This was the man, quaint, capricious, and playful, with all his immense genius. He wrote from impulse, never from effort; and therefore I have always reckoned Burns and Byron the most genuine poetical geniuses of my time, and half a century before me. We have, however, many men of high poetical talent, but none, I think, of that ever-gushing and perennial fountain of natural water.