OR,

'TIS SIXTY
SIXTY YEARS SINCE.

CHAPTER I.

INTRODUCTORY.

Square, and a hero from the Barouche Club or the Four-in-Hand, with a set of subordinate characters from the elegantes of Queen Ann Street East, or the THE title of this work has not been chosen without dashing heroes of the Bow Street Office? I could the grave and solid deliberation, which matters of proceed in proving the importance of a title-page, and importance demand from the prudent. Even its displaying at the same time my own intimate knowfirst, or general denomination, was the result of no ledge of the particular ingredients necessary to the common research or selection, although, according to composition of romances and novels of various dethe example of my predecessors, I had only to seize scriptions: but it is enough, and I scorn to tyrannize upon the most sounding and euphonic surname that longer over the impatience of my reader, who is English history or topography affords, and elect it at doubtless already anxious to know the choice made once as the title of my work, and the name of my by an author, so profoundly versed in the different hero. But, alas! what could my readers have expect- branches of his art.

ed from the chivalrous epithets of Howard, Mor-| By fixing, then, the date of my story Sixty Years daunt, Mortimer, or Stanley, or from the softer and before this present 1st of November, 1805, I would more sentimental sounds of Belmour, Belville, Bel- have my readers understand, that they will meet in field, and Belgrave, but pages of inanity, similar to the following pages neither a romance of chivalry, those which have been so christened for half a cen- nor a tale of modern manners; that my hero will tury past? I must modestly admit I am too diffident neither have iron on his shoulders, as of yore, nor on of my own merit to place it in unnecessary opposi- the heels of his boots, as is the present fashion of tion to preconceived associations; I have, therefore, Bond Street; and that my damsels will neither be like a maiden knight with his white shield, assumed clothed "in purple and in pall," like the Lady Alice for my hero, WAVERLEY, an uncontaminated name, of an old ballad, nor reduced to the primitive nakedbearing with its sound little of good or evil, except-ness of a modern fashionable at a rout. From this ing what the reader shall hereafter be pleased to af- my choice of an era the understanding critic may fix to it. But my second or supplemental title was farther presage, that the object of my tale is more a a matter of much more difficult election, since that, description of men than manners. A tale of manshort as it is, may be held as pledging the author to ners, to be interesting, must either refer to antiquity some special mode of laying his scene, drawing his so great as to have become venerable, or it must bear characters, and managing his adventures. Had I, a vivid reflection of those scenes which are passing for example, announced in my frontispiece, "Waver- daily before our eyes, and are interesting from their ley, a Tale of other Days," must not every novel-novelty. Thus the coat-of-mail of our ancestors, and reader have anticipated a castle scarce less than that the triple-furred pelisse of our modern beaux, may, of Udolpho, of which the eastern wing had long been though for very different reasons, be equally fit for uninhabited, and the keys either lost, or consigned to the array of a fictitious character; but who, meaning the care of some aged butler or housekeeper, whose the costume of his hero to be impressive, would wiltrembling steps, about the middle of the second vo- lingly attire him in the court dress of George the Selume, were doomed to guide the hero, or heroine, to cond's reign, with its no collar, large sleeves, and low the ruinous precincts? Would not the owl have pocket-holes? The same may be urged, with equal shrieked and the cricket cried in my very title-page? truth, of the Gothic hall, which, with its darkened and could it have been possible for me, with a mode- and tinted windows, its elevated and gloomy roof, rate attention to decorum, to introduce any scene and massive oaken table garnished with boars-head more lively than might be produced by the jocularity and rosemary, pheasants and peacocks, cranes and of a clownish but faithful valet, or the garrulous nar- cygnets, has an excellent effect in fictitious descriprative of the heroine's fille-de-chambre, when re- tion. Much may also be gained by a lively display hearsing the stories of blood and horror which she of a modern fete, such as we have daily recorded in had heard in the servants' hall? Again, had my ti- that part of a newspaper entitled the Mirror of Fatle borne, "Waverley, a Romance from the German," shion, if we contrast these, or either of them, with the what head so obtuse as not to image forth a proffi- splendid formality of an entertainment given Sixty gate abbot, an oppressive duke, a secret and mysteri- Years since; and thus it will be readily seen how eus association of Rosycrucians and Illuminati, with much the painter of antique or of fashionable manners all their properties of black cowls, caverns, daggers, gains over him who delineates those of the last geneelectrical machines, trap-doors, and dark-lanterns? ration.

Or if I had rather chosen to call my work a Senti- Considering the disadvantages inseparable from mental Tale," would it not have been a sufficient this part of my subject, I must be understood to presage of a heroine with a profusion of auburn hair, have resolved to avoid them as much as possible, by and a harp, the soft solace of her solitary hours, throwing the force of my narrative upon the characwhich she fortunately finds always the means of ters and passions of the actors; those passions transporting from castle to cottage, although she her- common to men in all stages of society, and which self be sometimes obliged to jump out of a two-pair- have alike agitated the human heart, whether it of-stairs window, and is more than once bewildered throbbed under the steel corslet of the fifteenth cenon her journey, alone and on foot, without any guide tury, the brocaded coat of the eighteenth, or the blue bat a blowzy peasant girl, whose jargon she hardly frock and white dimity waistcoat of the present day.* can understand? Or, again, if my Waverley had been Upon these passions it is no doubt true that the state entitled "A Tale of the Times," wouldst thou not,

gentle reader, have demanded from me a dashing Alas! that attire, respectable and gentlemanlike in 1805, or sketch of the fashionable world, a few anecdotes of thereabouts, is now as antiquated as the Author of Waverley private scandal thinly veiled, and if lusciously paint-will please to fill up the costume with an embroidered waiscoat has himself become since that period! The reader of fashion ed, so much the better? a heroine from Grosvenor of purple velvet or silk, and a coat of whatever colour he pleases.

of manners and laws casts a necessary colouring: speedy marriage was a report which regularly amused but the bearings, to use the language of heraldry, re- the neighbourhood once a year. His younger brother main the same, though the tincture may be not only saw no practicable road to independence save that of different, but opposed in strong contradistinction. relying upon his own exertions, and adopting a poliThe wrath of our ancestors, for example, was co- tical creed more consonant both to reason and his loured gules; it broke forth in acts of open and san- own interest than the hereditary faith of Sir Everard guinary violence against the objects of its fury. Our in High-church and in the house of Stewart. He malignant feelings, which must seek gratification therefore read his recantation at the beginning of his through more indirect channels, and undermine the career, and entered life as an avowed Whig, and friend obstacles which they cannot openly bear down, may of the Hanover succession. be rather said to be tinctured sable. But the deep- The ministry of George the First's time were pruruling impulse is the same in both cases; and the dently anxious to diminish the phalanx of opposition. proud peer, who can now only ruin his neighbour ac- The Tory nobility, depending for their reflected lustre cording to law, by protracted suits, is the genuine de- upon the sunshine of a court, had for some time been scendant of the baron, who wrapped the castle of his gradually reconciling themselves to the new dynasty. competitor in flames, and knocked him on the head But the wealthy country gentlemen of England, a as he endeavoured to escape from the conflagration. rank which retained, with much of ancient manners It is from the great book of Nature, the same through and primitive integrity, a great proportion of obstia thousand editions, whether of black-letter or wire-nate and unyielding prejudice, stood aloof in haughty wove and hot-pressed, that I have venturously essay- and sullen opposition, and cast many a look of mined to read a chapter to the public. Some favourable gled regret and hope to Bois le Duc, Avignon, and opportunities of contrast have been afforded me, by Italy. The accession of the near relation of one of the state of society in the northern part of the island those steady and inflexible opponents was considered at the period of my history, and may serve at once to as a means of bringing over more converts, and there vary and to illustrate the moral lessons, which I would fore Richard Waverley met with a share of ministerial willingly consider as the most important part of my favour, more than proportioned to his talents or his plan; although I am sensible how short these will political importance. It was, however, discovered fall of their aim, if I shall be found unable to mix that he had respectable talents for public business, them with amusement, a task not quite so easy in and the first admittance to the minister's levee being this critical generation as it was Sixty Years negotiated, his success became rapid. Sir Everard since."

CHAPTER II.

WAVERLEY-HONOUR.-A RETROSPECT.

learned from the public News-Letter, first, that Richard Waverley, Esquire, was returned for the ministerial borough of Barterfaith; next, that Richard Waverley, Esquire, had taken a distinguished part in the debate upon the Excise bill in the support of government; and, lastly, that Richard Waverley, Esquire, had been honoured with a seat at one of those boards, where the pleasure of serving the country is combined with other important gratifications, which, to render them the more acceptable occur regularly once a quarter.

IT is, then, sixty years since Edward Waverley, the hero of the following pages, took leave of his family, to join the regiment of dragoons in which he had lately obtained a commission. It was a melancholy day at Waverley-Honour when the young officer parted with Sir Everard, the affectionate old uncle to Although these events followed each other so closewhose title and estate he was presumptive heir. ly that the sagacity of the editor of a modern newsA difference in political opinions had early separa- paper would have presaged the two last even while ted the Baronet from his younger brother Richard he announced the first, yet they came upon Sir EveWaverley, the father of our hero. Sir Everard had rard gradually, and drop by drop, as it were, distilled inherited from his sires the whole train of Tory or through the cool and procrastinating alembic of DyHigh-church predilections and prejudices, which had er's Weekly Letter. For it may be observed in passdistinguished the house of Waverley since the Great ing that instead of those mail-coaches, by means of Civil War. Richard, on the contrary, who was ten which every mechanic at his six-penny club may years younger, beheld himself born to the fortune of nightly learn from twenty contradictory channels the a second brother, and anticipated neither dignity nor yesterday's news of the capital, a weekly post entertainment in sustaining the character of Will brought, in those days, to Waverley-Honour, a WeekWimble. He saw early, that, to succeed in the race ly Intelligencer, which, after it had gratified Sir Eveof life, it was necessary he should carry as little rard's curiosity, his sister's, and that of his aged butweight as possible. Painters talk of the difficulty of ler, was regularly transferred from the Hall to the expressing the existence of compound passions in the Rectory, from the Rectory to Squire Stubb's at the same features at the same moment: it would be no Grange, from the Squire to the Baronet's steward at less difficult for the moralist to analyze the mixed his neat white house on the heath, from the steward motives which unite to form the impulse of our ac- to the bailiff, and from him through a huge circle of tions. Richard Waverley read and satisfied himself honest dames and gaffers, by whose hard and horny from history and sound argument, that, in the words hands it was generally worn to pieces in about a of the old song, month after its arrival.

Passive obedience was a jest,

And pshaw! was non-resistance;

This slow succession of intelligence was of some advantage to Richard Waverley in the case before us; for, had the sum total of his enormities reached the yet reason would have probably been unable to com-ears of Sir Everard at once, there can be no doubt bat and remove hereditary prejudice, could Richard that the new commissioner would have had little have anticipated that his elder brother, Sir Everard, reason to pique himself on the success of his politics. taking to heart an early disappointment, would have The Baronet, although the mildest of human beings, remained a bachelor at seventy-two. The prospect was not without sensitive points in his character; of succession, however remote, might in that case his brother's conduct had wounded these deeply; the have led him to endure dragging through the greater Waverley estate was fettered by no entail, (for it had part of his life as "Master Richard at the Hall, the never entered into the head of any of its former posbaronet's brother," in the hope that ere its conclusion sessors, that one of their progeny could be guilty of he should be distinguished as Sir Richard Waverley, of Waverley-Honour, successor to a princely estate, Where the Chevalier Saint George, or, as he was termed, and to extended political connexions as head of the the Old Pretender, held his exiled court, as his situation com county interest in the shire where it lay. But this pelled him to shift his place of residence. was a consummation of things not to be expected at Richard's outset, when Sir Everard was in the prime of life, and certain to be an acceptable suitor in almost any family, whether wealth or beauty should be the object of his pursuit, and when, indeed, his

↑ Long the oracle of the country gentlemen of the high Tory party. The ancient News Letter was written in manuscript and copied by clerks, who addressed the copies to the subscribers. The politician by whom they were compiled picked up his intelligence at Coffee houses, and often pleaded for an additional gratuity, in consideration of the extra expense attached to frequenting such places of fashionable resort.

the atrocities laid by Dyer's Letter to the door of many similar instances, had it not been for the couRichard,) and if it had, the marriage of the proprietor rage of an elder sister, who revealed to the wealthy might have been fatal to a collateral heir. These va- suitor that Lady Emily's affections were fixed upon rious ideas floated through the brain of Sir Everard, without, however, producing any determined conclusion.

a young soldier of fortune, a near relation of her own. Sír Everard manifested great emotion on receiving this intelligence, which was confirmed to him, in a He examined the tree of his genealogy, which, em- private interview, by the young lady herself, although blazoned with many an emblematic mark of honour under the most dreadful apprehensions of her father's and heroic achievement, hung upon the well-varnish-indignation.

ed wainscot of his hall. The nearest descendants of Honour and generosity were hereditary attributes Sir Hildebrand Waverley, failing those of his eldest of the house of Waverley. With a grace and delicason Wilfred, of whom Sir Everard and his brother cy worthy the hero of a romance, Sir Everard withwere the only representatives, were, as this honoured drew his claim to the hand of Lady Emily. He had register informed him, (and, indeed, as he himself even, before leaving Blandeville Castle, the address well knew,) the Waverleys of Highley Park, com. to extort from her father a consent to her union with Hants; with whom the main branch, or rather stock, the object of her choice. What arguments he used on of the house had renounced all connexion, since the this point cannot exactly be known, for Sir Everard great law-suit in 1670. was never supposed strong in the powers of persuaThis degenerate scion had committed a farther of- sion; but the young officer, iminediately after this fence against the head and source of their gentility, transaction, rose in the army with a rapidity far surby the intermarriage of their representative with Ju- passing the usual pace of unpatronised professional dith, heiress of Oliver Bradshawe, of Highley Park, merit, although, to outward appearance, that was all whose arms, the same with those of Bradshawe the he had to depend upon. regicide, they had quartered with the ancient coat of The shock which Sir Everard encountered upon Waverley. These offences, however, had vanished this occasion, although diminished by the consciousfrom Sir Everard's recollection in the heat of his re-ness of having acted virtuously and generously, had sentment; and had Lawyer Clippurse, for whom his its effect upon his future life. His resolution of margroom was dispatched express, arrived but an hour riage had been adopted in a fit of indignation; the aearlier, he might have had the benefit of drawing a bour of courtship did not quite suit the dignified indonew settlement of the lordship and manor of Waver-lence of his habits; he had but just escaped the risk ley-Honour, with all its dependencies. But an hour of marrying a woman who could never love him, and of cool reflection is a great matter, when employed in his pride could not be greatly flattered by the termiweighing the comparative evil of two measures, to nation of his amour, even if his heart had not sufferneither of which we are internally partial. Lawyer ed. The result of the whole matter was his return to Clippurse found his patron involved in a deep study, Waverley-Honour without any transfer of his afwhich he was too respectful to disturb, otherwise fections, notwithstanding the sighs and languishthan by producing his paper and leathern ink-case, as ments of the fair tell-tale, who had revealed, in mere prepared to minute his honour's commands. Even sisterly affection, the secret of Lady Emily's attachthis slight manœuvre was embarrassing to Sir Eve-ment, and in despite of the nods, winks, and inuenrard, who felt it as a reproach to his indecision. He does of the officious lady mother, and the grave culolooked at the attorney with some desire to issue his giums which the Earl pronounced successively on the fiat, when the sun, emerging from behind a cloud, prudence, and good sense, and admirable dispositions, poured at once its chequered light through the stain-of his first, second, third, fourth, and fifth daughters. ed window of the gloomy cabinet in which they were The memory of his unsuccessful amour was with Sir seated. The Baronet's eye, as he raised it to the Everard, as with many more of his temper, at once splendour, fell right upon the central scutcheon, im- shy, proud, sensitive, and indolent, a beacon against pressed with the same device which his ancestor was exposing himself to similar mortification, pain, and said to have borne in the field of Hastings; three fruitless exertion, for the time to come. He continuermines passant, argent, in a field azure, with its ap-ed to live at Waverley-Honour in the style of an old propriate motto, sans tache. May our name rather English gentleman, of an ancient descent and opuperish," exclaimed Sir Everard, "than that ancient lent fortune. His sister, Miss Rachel Waverley, preand loyal symbol should be blended with the disho-sided at his table; and they became, by degrees, an noured insignia of a traitorous Roundhead!" old bachelor and an ancient maiden lady, the gentlest

All this was the effect of the glimpse of a sunbeam, and kindest of the votaries of celibacy. just sufficient to light Lawyer Clippurse to mend his The vehemence of Sir Everard's resentment against pen. The pen was mended in vain. The attorney his brother was but short-lived; yet his dislike to the was dismissed, with directions to hold himself in Whig and the placeman, though unable to stimulate readiness on the first summons. him to resume any active measures prejudicial to The apparition of Lawyer Clippurse at the Hall oc- Richard's interest, in the succession to the family escasioned much speculation in that portion of the world tate, continued to maintain the coldness between to which Waverley-Honour formed the centre: but them. Richard knew enough of the world, and of the more judicious politicians of this microcosm au- his brother's temper, to believe that by any ill-consigured yet worse consequences to Richard Waverley dered or precipitate advances on his part, he might from a movement which shortly followed his aposta- turn passive dislike into a more active principle. It cy. This was no less than an excursion of the Baro-was accident, therefore, which at length occasioned a net in his coach-and-six, with four attendants in renewal of their intercourse. Richard had married a rich liveries, to make a visit of some duration to a young woman of rank, by whose family interest and noble peer on the confines of the shire, of untainted private fortune he hoped to advance his career. In descent, steady Tory principles, and the happy father her right, he became possessed of a manor of some of six un married and accomplished daughters. value, at the distance of a few miles from Waverley

Sir Everard's reception in this family was, as it Honour.

may be easily conceived, sufficiently favourable; but Little Edward, the hero of our tale, then in his fifth of the six young ladies, his taste unfortunately deter-year, was their only child. It chanced that the inmined him in favour of Lady Emily, the youngest, fant with its maid had strayed one morning to a who received his attentions with an embarrassment, mile's distance from the avenue of Brere-wood Lodge, which showed, at once, that she durst not decline his father's seat. Their attention was attracted by a them, and that they afforded her any thing but plea- carriage drawn by six stately long-tailed black horses, and with as much carving and gilding as would have Sir Everard could not but perceive something un-done honour to my lord mayor's. It was waiting for common in the restrained emotions which the young the owner, who was at a little distance inspecting the lady testified at the advances he hazarded; but, as- progress of a half-built farm-house. I know not sured by the prudent Countess that they were the na- whether the boy's nurse had been a Welsh or a tural effects of a retired education, the sacrifice might Scotch woman, or in what manner he associated a ave been completed, as doubtless has happened in shield emblazoned with three ermines with the idea

sure.

of personal property, but he no sooner beheld this cipline, occasioned such a relaxation of authority, that family emblem, than he stoutly determined on vindi- the youth was permitted, in a great measure, to learn cating his right to the splendid vehicle on which it as he pleased, what he pleased, and when he pleased. was displayed. The Baronet arrived while the boy's This slackness of rule might have been ruinous to a maid was in vain endeavouring to make him desist boy of slow understanding, who, feeling labour in the from his determination to appropriate the gilded coach acquisition of knowledge, would have altogether and six. The rencontre was at a happy moment for neglected it, save for the command of a task-master; Edward, as his uncle had been just eyeing wistfully, and it might have proved equally dangerous to a with something of a feeling like envy, the chubby youth whose animal spirits were more powerful than boys of the stout yeoman whose mansion was build- his imagination or his feelings, and whom the irreing by his direction. In the round-faced rosy cherub sistible influence of Alma would have engaged in fieldbefore him, bearing his eye and his name, and vindi- sports from morning till night. But the character of cating a hereditary title to his family, affection, and Edward Waverley was remote from either of these. patronage, by means of a tie which Sir Everard held His powers of apprehension were so uncommonly as sacred as either Garter or Blue-mantle, Providence quick, as almost to resemble intuition, and the chief seemed to have granted to him the very object best care of his preceptor was to prevent him, as a sportscalculated to fill up the void in his hopes and affec-man would phrase it, from overrunning his game, tions. Sir Everard returned to Waverley-Hall upon that is, from acquiring his knowledge in a slight, a led horse, which was kept in readiness for him, flimsy, and inadequate manner. And here the inwhile the child and his attendant were sent home in structor had to combat another propensity too often the carriage to Brere-wood Lodge, with such a mes-united with brilliancy of fancy and vivacity of talent, sage as opened to Richard Waverley a door of recon--that indolence, namely, of disposition, which can ciliation with his elder brother. only be stirred by some strong motive of gratification,

Their intercourse, however, though thus renewed, and which renounces study as soon as curiosity is continued to be rather formal and civil, than parta- gratified, the pleasure of conquering the first difficulking of brotherly cordiality; yet it was sufficient to ties exhausted, and the novelty of pursuit at an end. the wishes of both parties. Sir Everard obtained, in Edward would throw himself with spirit upon any the frequent society of his little nephew, something classical author of which his preceptor proposed the on which his hereditary pride might found the antici- perusal, make himself master of the style so far as to pated pleasure of a continuation of his lineage, and understand the story, and, if that pleased or interestwhere his kind and gentle affections could at the same ed him, he finished the volume. But it was in vain time fully exercise themselves. For Richard Waver- to attempt fixing his attention on critical distinctions ley, he beheld in the growing attachment between the of philology, upon the difference of idiom, the beauty uncle and nephew the means of securing his son's, if of felicitous expression, or the artificial combinations not his own, succession to the hereditary estate, of syntax. "I can read and understand a Latin auwhich he felt would be rather endangered than pro- thor," said young Edward, with the self-confidence moted by any attempt on his own part towards a and rash reasoning of fifteen, "and Scaliger or Bentcloser intimacy with a man of Sir Everard's habits ley could not do much more." Alas! while he was and opinions. thus permitted to read only for the gratification of his Thus, by a sort of tacit compromise, little Edward amusement, he foresaw not that he was losing for was permitted to pass the greater part of the year at ever the opportunity of acquiring habits of firm and the Hall, and appeared to stand in the same intimate assiduous application, of gaining the art of controlling, relation to both families, although their mutual inter-directing, and concentrating the powers of his mind course was otherwise limited to formal messages, and for earnest investigation, an art far more essential more formal visits. The education of the youth was than even that intimate acquaintance with classical regulated alternately by the taste and opinions of his learning which is the primary object of study. uncle and of his father. But more of this in a subsequent chapter.

CHAPTER III.

EDUCATION.

I am aware I may be here reminded of the necessity of rendering instruction agreeable to youth, and of Tasso's infusion of honey into the medicine prepared for a child; but an age in which children are taught the driest doctrines by the insinuating method of instructive games, has little reason to dread the consequences of study being rendered too serious or severe. THE education of our hero, Edward Waverley, was The history of England is now reduced to a game at of a nature somewhat desultory. In infancy, his cards, the problems of mathematics to puzzles and health suffered, or was supposed to suffer, (which is riddles, and the doctrines of arithmetic may, we are quite the same thing,) by the air of London. As soon, assured, be sufficiently acquired, by spending a few therefore, as official duties, attendance on Parliament, hours a week at a new and complicated edition of the or the prosecution of any of his plans of interest or Royal Game of the Goose. There wants but one ambition, called his father to town, which was his step further, and the Creed and Ten Commandments usual residence for eight months in the year, Edward may be taught in the same manner, without the newas transferred to Waverley-Honour, and experienced cessity of the grave face, deliberate tone of recital, and a total change of instructors and of lessons, as well as devout attention, hitherto exacted from the well-goof residence. This might have been remedied, had verned childhood of this realm. It may, in the meanhis father placed him under the superintendence of a time, be subject of serious consideration, whether permanent tutor. But he considered that one of his those who are accustomed only to acquire instruction choosing would probably have been unacceptable at through the medium of amusement, may not be Waverley-Honour, and that such a selection as Sir brought to reject that which approaches under the Everard might have made, were the matter left to aspect of study; whether those who learn history by him, would have burdened him with a disagreeable the cards, may not be led to prefer the means to the inmate, if not a political spy, in his family. He, end; and whether, were we to teach religion in the therefore, prevailed upon his private secretary, a young way of sport, our pupils may not thereby be gradualman of taste and accomplishments, to bestow an hour ly induced to make sport of their religion. To our or two on Edward's education while at Brere-wood young hero, who was permitted to seek his instrucLodge, and left his uncle answerable for his improve-tion only according to the bent of his own mind, and ment in literature while an inmate at the Hall. who, of consequence, only sought it so long as it af

This was in some degree respectably provided for. forded him amusement, the indulgence of his tutors Sir Everard's chaplain, an Oxonian, who had lost his was attended with evil consequences, which long fellowship for declining to take the oaths at the ac- continued to influence his character, happiness, and cession of George I., was not only an excellent clas-utility.

sical scholar, but reasonably skilled in science, and Edward's power of imagination and love of literamaster of most modern languages. He was, how-ture, although the former was vivid, and the latter arever, old and indulgent, and the recurring interregnum, dent, were so far from affording a remedy to this peduring which Edward was entirely freed from his dis-culiar evil, that they rather inflamed and increased its

violence. The library at Waverley-Honour, a large | since he knew little of what adds dignity to man, and Gothic room, with double arches and a gallery, con- qualifies him to support and adorn an elevated situatained such a miscellaneous and extensive collection tion in society.

CHAPTER IV.

CASTLE-BUILDING.

of volumes as had been assembled together, during The occasional attention of his parents might inthe course of two hundred years, by a family which deed have been of service, to prevent the dissipation had been always wealthy, and inclined, of course, as of mind incidental to such a desultory course of reada mark of splendour, to furnish their shelves with the ing. But his mother died in the seventh year after current literature of the day, without much scrutiny, the reconciliation between the brothers, and Richard or nicety of discrimination. Throughout this ample Waverley himself, who, after this event, resided more realm Edward was permitted to roam at large. His constantly in London, was too much interested in his tutor had his own studies; and church politics and own plans of wealth and ambition, to notice more controversial divinity, together with a love of learned respecting Edward, than that he was of a very bookish ease, though they did not withdraw his attention at turn, and probably destined to be a bishop. If he could stated times from the progress of his patron's pre- have discovered and analyzed his son's waking dreams, sumptive heir, induced him readily to grasp at any he would have formed a very different conclusion. apology for not extending a strict and regulated survey towards his general studies. Sir Everard had never been himself a student, and, like his sister, Miss Rachel Waverley, held the common doctrine, that idleness is incompatible with reading of any kind, | and that the mere tracing the alphabetical characters I HAVE already hinted, that the dainty, squeamish, with the eyes, is in itself a useful and meritorious task, and fastidious taste acquired by a surfeit of idle readwithout scrupulously considering what ideas or doc-ing, had not only rendered our hero unfit for serious trines they may happen to convey. With a desire of and sober study, but had even disgusted him in some amusement, therefore, which better discipline might degree with that in which he had hitherto indulged. soon have converted into a thirst for knowledge, He was in his sixteenth year, when his habits of young Waverley drove through the sea of books, like abstraction and love of solitude became so much a vessel without a pilot or a rudder. Nothing perhaps marked, as to excite Sir Everard's affectionate apincreases by indulgence more than a desultory habit prehension. He tried to counterbalance these proof reading, especially under such opportunities of gra- pensities, by engaging his nephew in field-sports, tifying it. I believe one reason why such numerous which had been the chief pleasure of his own youthinstances of erudition occur among the lower ranks ful days. But although Edward eagerly carried the is that, with the same powers of mind, the poor stu- gun for one season, yet when practice had given him dent is limited to a narrow circle for indulging his some dexterity, the pastime ceased to afford him passion for books, and must necessarily make him- amusement. self master of the few he possesses ere he can acquire In the succeeding spring, the perusal of old Isaac more. Edward, on the contrary, like the epicure who Walton's fascinating volume determined Edward to only deigned to take a single morsel from the sunny become " a brother of the angle." But of all diverside of a peach, read no volume a moment after it sions which ingenuity ever devised for the relief of ceased to excite his curiosity or interest; and it ne- idleness, fishing is the worst qualified to amuse a man cessarily happened, that the habit of seeking only who is at once indolent and impatient; and our hero's this sort of gratification rendered it daily more diffi- rod was speedily flung aside. Society and example, calt of attainment, till the passion for reading, like which, more than any other motives, master and other strong appetites, produced by indulgence a sort sway the natural bent of our passions, might have of satiety. had their usual effect upon the youthful visionary. Ere he attained this indifference, however, he had But the neighbourhood was thinly inhabited, and the read, and stored in a memory of uncommon tenacity, home-bred young squires whom it afforded, were not much curious, though ill-arranged and miscellaneous of a class fit to form Edward's usual companions, far information. In English literature he was master of less to excite him to emulation in the practice of those Shakspeare and Milton, of our earlier dramatic authors, pastimes which composed the serious business of their of many picturesque and interesting passages from our lives. old historical chronicles, and was particularly well There were a few other youths of better education, acquainted with Spenser, Drayton, and other poets, and a more liberal character, but from their society who have exercised themselves on romantic fiction, also our hero was in some degree excluded. Sir Eve of all themes the most fascinating to a youthful ima- rard had, upon the death of Queen Anne, resigned his gination, before the passions have roused themselves, seat in Parliament, and, as his age increased, and the and demand poetry of a more sentimental description, number of his contemporaries diminished, had graduIn this respect his acquaintance with Italian opened ally withdrawn himself from society; so that when, him yet a wider range. He had perused the numer- upon any particular occasion, Edward mingled with gus romantic poems, which, from the days of Pulci, accomplished and well-educated young men of his have been a favourite exercise of the wits of Italy, own rank and expectations, he felt an inferiority in and had sought gratification in the numerous collec- their company, not so much from deficiency of infortions of novelle, which were brought forth by the ge-mation, as from the want of the skill to command nius of that elegant though luxurious nation, in emu- and to arrange that which he possessed. A deep and lation of the Decameron. In classical literature, increasing sensibility added to this dislike of society. Waverley had made the usual progress, and read the The idea of having committed the slightest solecism usual authors; and the French had afforded him an in politeness, whether real or imaginary, was agony almost exhaustless collection of memoirs, scarcely to him; for perhaps even guilt itself does not impose more faithful than romances, and of romances so upon some minds so keen a sense of shame and rewell written as hardly to be distinguished from me- morse, as a modest, sensitive, and inexperienced moirs. The splendid pages of Froissart, with his youth feels from the consciousness of having neglectheart-stirring and eye-dazzling descriptions of war ed etiquette, or excited ridicule. Where we are not at and of tournaments, were among his chief favourites; ease, we cannot be happy; and therefore it is not surand from those of Brantome and De la Noue he learn-prising, that Edward Waverley supposed that he dised to compare the wild and loose, yet superstitious liked and was unfitted for society, merely because he character of the nobles of the League, with the stern, had not yet acquired the habit of living in it with ease ngid, and sometimes turbulent disposition of the Hu- and comfort, and of reciprocally giving and receiving guenot party. The Spanish had contributed to his pleasure.

stock of chivalrous and romantic lore. The earlier The hours he spent with his uncle and aunt were literature of the northern nations did not escape the exhausted in listening to the oft-repeated tale of narstudy of one who read rather to awaken the imagina- rative old age. Yet even there his imagination, the tion than to benefit the understanding. And yet, predominant faculty of his mind, was frequently exknowing much that is known but to few, Edward cited. Family tradition and genealogical history, Waverley might justly be considered as ignorant, upon which much of Sir Everard's discourse turned