Poetry's unnat'ral; no man ever talked poetry
'cept a beadle on boxin'-day or Warren's blackin',
or Rowland's oil, or some o' them low fellows;
never let yourself down to talk poetry, my boy.
CHARLES DICKENS, Pickwick. Papers, chap. xxxiii

Sir Walter Scott, famous Scottish poet and novelist, was born in Edinburgh August 15, 1771. He attended the Edinburgh High School and College, and studied for the bar, to which he was called in 1792. He first appeared in print with a volume of verse in 1796. "The Lady of the Lake" appeared in 1810. His first novel, "Waverley," was issued anonymously in 1814, and the other stories of the series followed in succeeding years. In 1826 the failure of the house of Constable ruined him financially, and he spent the remainder of his life writing, trying to pay off the debt. He was married to Charlotte Mary Carpenter in 1797, and had four children. He died at Abbotsford September 21,1832.

REFERENCE: J. G. Lockhart, Memoirs of the Life of Sir Walter Scott; many other biographies.

Sunnyside Library. No. 4