which I was educated, and in which I had sufficiently advantageous
prospects for a person of limited ambition. * * I may remark that,
although the assertion has been made, it is a mistake to suppose that
my situation in life or place in society were materially altered by
such success as I attained in literary attempts. My birth, without
giving the least pretension to distinction, was that of a gentleman,
and connected me with several respectable families and accomplished
persons. My education had been a good one, although I was deprived of
its full benefit by indifferent health, just at the period when I
ought to have been most sedulous in improving it." He then describes
his circumstances as easy, with a moderate degree of business for his
standing, and "the friendship of more than one person of
consideration, efficiently disposed to aid his views in life." In
short, he describes himself as "beyond all apprehension of want." He
then notices the low ebb of poetry in Britain for the previous ten
years; the fashionable but slender poetical reputation of Hayley, then
in the wane; "the Bard of Memory slumbered on his laurels, and he of
Hope had scarce begun to attract his share of public attention;"
Cowper was dead, and had not left an extensive popularity; "Burns,
whose genius our southern neighbours could hardly yet comprehend, had
long confined himself to song-writing; and the realms of Parnassus
seemed to lie open to the first bold invader." The gradual
introduction of German literature into this country during such a
dearth of native talent, now led Sir Walter to the study of the German
language. He also became acquainted with Mr. G. Lewis, author of _The
Monk_, who had already published some successful imitations of the
German ballad school. "Out of this acquaintance," says Sir Walter,
"consequences arose, which altered almost all the Scottish
ballad-maker's future prospects of life. In early youth I had been an
eager student of ballad poetry, and the tree is still in my