A History of English Romanticism in the Nineteenth Century | Page 4

picture of towers and chapels and oriels and vaulted halls",
having met there a reception which, as he modestly acknowledges,
"was more than such a truant to the classic page as myself was entitled
to expect at the source of classic learning." Finally, in his last illness,
when sent to Rome to recover from the effects of a paralytic stroke, his
ruling passion was strong in death. He examined with eagerness the
remains of the mediaeval city, but appeared quite indifferent to that
older Rome which speaks to the classical student. It will be
remembered that just the contrary of this was true of Addison, when he
was in Italy a century before.[6] Scott was at no pains to deny or to
justify the one-sidedness of his culture. But when Erskine remonstrated
with him for rambling on
"through brake and maze With harpers rude, of barbarous days,"
and urged him to compose a regular epic on classical lines, he
good-naturedly but resolutely put aside the advice.
"Nay, Erskine, nay--On the wild hill Let the wild heath-bell[7] flourish
still . . . . Though wild as cloud, as stream, as gale, Flow forth, flow
unrestrained, my tale!" [8]
Scott's letters to Erskine, Ellis, Leyden, Ritson, Miss Seward, and other
literary correspondents are filled with discussions of antiquarian
questions and the results of his favourite reading in old books and
manuscripts. He communicates his conclusions on the subject of
"Arthur and Merlin" or on the authorship of the old metrical romance
of "Sir Tristram." [9] He has been copying manuscripts in the
Advocates' Library at Edinburgh. In 1791 he read papers before the
Speculative Society on "The Origin of the Feudal System," "The
Authenticity of Ossian's Poems," "The Origin of the Scandinavian

Mythology." Lockhart describes two note-books in Scott's hand-writing,
with the date 1792, containing memoranda of ancient court records
about Walter Scott and his wife, Dame Janet Beaton, the "Ladye" of
Branksome in the "Lay"; extracts from "Guerin de Montglave"; copies
of "Vegtam's Kvitha" and the "Death-Song of Regner Lodbrog," with
Gray's English versions; Cnut's verses on passing Ely Cathedral; the
ancient English "Cuckoo Song," and other rubbish of the kind.[10]
When in 1803 he began to contribute articles to the Edinburgh Review,
his chosen topics were such as "Amadis of Gaul," Ellis' "Specimens of
Ancient English Poetry," Godwin's "Chaucer," Sibbald's "Chronicle of
Scottish Poetry," Evans' "Old Ballads," Todd's "Spenser," "The Life
and Works of Chatterton," Southey's translation of "The Cid," etc.
Scott's preparation for the work which he had to do was more than
adequate. His reading along chosen lines was probably more extensive
and minute than any man's of his generation. The introductions and
notes to his poems and novels are even overburdened with learning.
But this, though important, was but the lesser part of his advantage.
"The old-maidenly genius of antiquarianism" could produce a Strutt[11]
or even perhaps a Warton; but it needed the touch of the creative
imagination to turn the dead material of knowledge into works of art
that have delighted millions of readers for a hundred years in all
civilised lands and tongues.
The key to Scott's romanticism is his intense local feeling.[12] That
attachment to place which, in most men, is a sort of animal instinct,
was with him a passion. To set the imagination at work some emotional
stimulus is required. The angry pride of Byron, Shelley's revolt against
authority, Keats' almost painfully acute sensitiveness to beauty,
supplied the nervous irritation which was wanting in Scott's slower,
stronger, and heavier temperament. The needed impetus came to him
from his love of country. Byron and Shelley were torn up by the roots
and flung abroad, but Scott had struck his roots deep into native soil.
His absorption in the past and reverence for everything that was old, his
conservative prejudices and aristocratic ambitions, all had their source
in this feeling. Scott's Toryism was of a different spring from
Wordsworth's and Coleridge's. It was not a reaction from disappointed

radicalism; nor was it the result of reasoned conviction. It was inborn
and was nursed into a sentimental Jacobitism by ancestral traditions
and by an early prepossession in favour of the Stuarts--a Scottish
dynasty--reinforced by encounters with men in the Highlands who had
been out in the '45. It did not interfere with a practical loyalty to the
reigning house and with what seems like a somewhat exaggerated
deference to George IV. Personally the most modest of men, he was
proud to trace his descent from "auld Wat of Harden" [13] and to claim
kinship with the bold Buccleuch. He used to make annual pilgrimages
to Harden Tower, "the incunabula of his race"; and "in the earlier part
of his life," says Lockhart, "he had nearly availed himself of his
kinsman's permission to fit up the dilapidated peel