“I was much diverted with the account of Adam and Eve’s visit to Ditton, which,
with its surrounding moat, might make no bad emblem of Eden, but for the
absence of snakes and fiends. He is a very singular fellow; for, with all his
humour and knowledge of the world, he by nature is a remarkably shy and modest
man, and more afraid of the possibility of intrusion than would occur to any
one who only sees him in the full stream of society. His sister Margaret is extremely like him in the turn of
thought and of humour, and he has two others who are as great curiosities in
their way. The eldest is a complete old maid, with all the gravity and shyness
of the character, but not a grain of its bad humour or spleen; on the contrary,
she is one of the kindest and most motherly creatures in the world. The second,
Mary, was in her day a very pretty
girl; but her person became deformed, and she has the sharpness of features
with which that circumstance is sometimes attended. She rises very early in the
morning, and roams over all my wild land in the neighbourhood, wearing the most
complicated pile of handkerchiefs of different colours on her head, and a stick
double her own
| LETTER TO LORD MONTAGU. | 71 |
“I am sorry there should be occasion for caution in
the case of little Duke Walter, but it is
most lucky that the necessity is early and closely attended to. How many actual
valetudinarians have outlived all their robust contemporaries, and attained the
utmost verge of human life, without ever having enjoyed what is usually called
high health. This is taking the very worst view of the case, and supposing the
constitution habitually delicate. But how often has the strongest and best
confirmed health succeeded to a delicate childhood—and such, I trust, will be
the Duke’s case. I cannot help thinking that this temporary recess from
Eton may be made subservient to Walter’s improvement
in general literature, and particularly in historical knowledge. The habit of
reading useful, and, at the same time, entertaining books of history, is often
acquired during the retirement which delicate health in convalescence imposes
on us. I remember we touched on this point at Ditton; and I think again, that
though classical learning be the Shibboleth by which we
judge, generally speaking, of the proficiency of the youthful scholar, yet,
when this has been too exclusively and
| 72 | LIFE OF SIR WALTER SCOTT. |
“For this species of instruction I do not so much approve of tasks and set hours for serious reading, as of the plan of endeavouring to give a taste for history to the youths themselves, and suffering them to gratify it in their own way, and at their own time. For this reason I would not be very scrupulous what books they began with, or whether they began at the middle or end. The knowledge which we acquire of free will and by spontaneous exertion, is like food eaten with appetite—it digests well, and benefits the system ten times more than the double cramming of an alderman. If a boy’s attention can be drawn in conversation to any interesting point of history, and the book is pointed out to him where he will find the particulars conveyed in a lively manner, he reads the passage with so much pleasure that he very naturally recurs to the book at the first unoccupied moment to try if he cannot pick more amusement out of it; and when once a lad gets the spirit of information, he goes on himself with little trouble but that of selecting for him the best and most agreeable books. I think Walter has naturally some turn for history and historical anecdote, and would be disposed to read as much as could be wished in that most useful line of knowledge;—for in the eminent situation he is destined to by his birth, acquaintance with the history and institutions of his country, and her relative position with respect to others, is a sine qua non to his discharging its duties with propriety. All this is extremely like prosing, so I will harp on that string no longer.
| LETTER TO LORD MONTAGU. | 73 |
“Kind compliments to all at Ditton; you say nothing of your own rheumatism. I am here for the session, unless the wind should blow me south to see the coronation, and I think 800 miles rather a long journey to see a show.
