A Descriptive Account of the Portraits, Busts, Published Writings, and Manuscripts, of Sir Walter Scott, Bart., Collected and Exhibited at Edinburgh on Occasion of the Scott Centenary in 1871

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W. Paterson, 1874 - 206 pages

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Page 139 - From seventeen years till now almost fourscore Here lived I, but now live here no more. At seventeen years many their fortunes seek, But at fourscore it is too late a week: Yet fortune cannot recompense me better Than to die well and not my master's debtor.
Page 146 - THE BORDER ANTIQUITIES OF ENGLAND AND SCOTLAND; COMPRISING SPECIMENS OF ARCHITECTURE AND SCULPTURE, AND OTHER VESTIGES OF FORMER AGES, '^ . " ACCOMPANIED BY DESCRIPTIONS. TOGETHER WITH . ,. \^-' ILLUSTRATIONS OF REMARKABLE INCIDENTS IN BORDER HISTORY AND TRADITION, AND ORIGINAL POETRY.
Page 155 - I preferred a little chat, and asked his opinion of Milton and other books he was reading, which he gave me wonderfully. One of his observations was, ' How strange it is that Adam, just new come into the world, should know every thing — that must be the poet's fancy,
Page 148 - MILITARY MEMOIRS OF THE GREAT CIVIL WAR, being the Military Memoirs of John Gwynne ; and an Account of the Earl of Glencairn's Expedition as General of His Majesty's Forces in the Highlands of Scotland, in the years 1653 and 1654.
Page 155 - He has the most extraordinary genius of a boy I ever saw. He was reading a poem to his mother when I went in. I made him read on : it was the description of a shipwreck. His passion rose with the storm. He lifted his eyes and hands. ' There's the mast gone !' says he ; ' crash it goes ! — they will all perish ! ' After his agitation, he turns to me, ' That is too melancholy,' says he j 'I had better read you something more amusing.
Page 45 - Went to sit to Sir TL to finish the picture for his Majesty, which every one says is a very fine one. I think so myself ; and wonder how Sir Thomas has made so much out of an old weather-beaten block. But I believe the hard features of old Dons like myself are more within the compass of the artist's skill than the lovely face and delicate complexion of females.
Page 45 - The marble bust produced from these sittings was moulded ; and about forty-five casts were disposed of among the poet's most ardent admirers. This was all I had to do with plaster casts. The Bust was pirated by Italians ; and England and Scotland, and even the Colonies, were supplied with unpermitted and bad casts to the extent of thousands — in spite of the terror of an act of Parliament.
Page 18 - His first wife, of whom my mother is the sole surviving child, was a daughter of Sir John Swinton of Swinton, a family which produced many distinguished warriors during the middle ages, and which, for antiquity and honourable alliances, may rank with any in Britain.
Page 45 - ... ask him to sit to me for his bust, the only time I ever recollect having asked a similar favour from any one. He agreed, and I stipulated that he should breakfast with me always before his sittings, and never come alone, nor bring more than three friends at once, and that they should all be good talkers. That he fulfilled the latter condition you may guess, when I tell you that on one occasion he came with Mr. Croker, Mr. Heber, and the late Lord Lyttelton.
Page 130 - Spencer. i [THE CHASE, and WILLIAM AND HELEN. Two Ballads from the German of Gottfried Augustus Burger.

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