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This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1859 Excerpt: ...towards his great work until some time Lockhart's Life of Scott, vol. v. pp. 273-4. 1823. COUNTRY. NOTES OF SIR WALTER'S CONVERSATION. 179 after, and that the first moments he can have given to his History were some of the intervals of business which the years 1824-5 supplied; while it is pretty clear that he did not enter on his task in good earnest till the summer of 1826, --in other words, until he had completed his life of Wickliff. The pencil memoranda above alluded to, and which evidently relate to conversations held with Sir Walter, are just of that suggestive kind which it is impossible to read without interest and a kindled fancy; while their tantalizing brevity and incompleteness renders them almost unfit for publication. And.yet, because everything which relates to the author of Waverley is valuable, and because I discern, here and there, in what follows, traces of just such a conversation as I have already supposed to have passed between the veteran romance writer and the young aspirant after historical renown, I will venture to transcribe what I find, and to crave the reader's indulgence if it shall be pronounced unintelligible, after all: --v "W. S.--Monday. 1. Scotland not comparatively a poor country, till exhausted by Bruce and Balliol wars. 2. W. S. hunting on Newark hill, carrying over W. and then S. across the Strick. 3. Hunting all day for the well of the Castle.... 5. Attend to the traits marking the intercourse of the two countries. 6. Look into the Welsh historians. 7. Tenure of the porter's house at Selkirk, wax taper. 8. Anecdote of Bruce and the spider. 9. Of Crabbe the poet, and the two Highlanders at breakfast 12. Lady Scott and the rats at Ashiestiel. Saw Philiphaugh, Carterhaugh, Newark, the scene of Tamlane, and spot where...