SIR WALTER SCOTT

Star (Christchurch), Issue 11828, 13 October 1916, Page 5

SIR WALTER SCOTT

« —<— AND NATIONAL DEFENCE. It deserves to be remembered tEat Sir Walter Scott, the 145 th anniversary of whose birth was celebrated recently, wan an enthusiastic cavalry Volunteer. From the author of Marinion," this was, of course, what wo shcAdd have expected; for the description of the Battle of Flodden contained in that poem is done with an insight and a vividness probably unequalled by any poet .since Horner. " Marmiou" was largely composed in the open air and in the saddle. At the timo of its writing Napoleon's invasion of Britain was daily expected, and Scott engaged in military training with boundless energy. •' In the intervals of drilling," says his biographer, "ho used to delight in walking his powerful black steed np and down by himself upon the l'ortobello sands within the beating of the surge, and now and then he would piunge in his spurs and go off as if at the charge, with the spray dashing about Lim. As they returned to town ho often placed himself beside a friend and repeated the versrfi ho had been composing during the pauses of their exercises.''' At the alarm of ISOo along the Borders, Scott was in Cumberland, and his horso carried him 100 miles to the rendezvous in twenty-four hours. Ho was delighted to see tho enthusiasm and rapidity with which the yeomen of Ettrick Forest poured down from tho glens. "I myself," ho said, ''want nothing but a pipo and a moustache to convert mo into a. capital hussar." Tho reason why tho authorship of tho ''Wavorley Novels" was so long concealed has often been debated. Midit it not havo been because Sir V.'alte-r felt ashamed of v.-riting novels when the military exigencies of the country demanded his active participation in national defence P His life-long lameness was, of course, qui to sufficient causes for his '"exemption,'' but to a liiitn of Scott's sensitive temperament literary anonymity may well havo afforded au additional satisfaction.