merable friends, amongst whom was Miss Berry, also in a wheel-chair. "Where did you get your chair, Mrs. Opie ? I quite envy it," exclaimed Miss Berry. "Shall we have a chair race ?" was the response. But the end of her brisk, happy, suceessful, and most amiable life was fast approaching. From that time her infirmities increased and her health diminished, till it was with gratitude not less than sorrow that the dear friends who watched by her side saw her breathe her last-murmuring "all is peace," "all is mercy." Amelia Opie died at midnight, at her residence, "The Castle Meadow House," Norwich, on the 2nd of December, 1853. She was taken from the chamber in which she expired, and placed lying in her coffin in a lower apartment, there to await removal to her grave, surrounded by the silent watchful portraits of many of her most celebrated and dearest friends. Lafayette, Cooper, David, Madame de Staël, John Joseph Gurney, Stanley Bishop of Norwich, the Bishop of Durham, Sedgwick, Whewell, Mrs. Siddons. Amongst those likenesses were the portraits of some who were still in their dreary possession of worldly dignity, and some who, like the inmate of that dark coffin, had disappeared from the fretful ways of men. As a writer Mrs. Opie is pathetic and tender, subduing our feelings in spite of her carelessness, her clumsiness, and occasional silliness. She was by far the superior of her contemporary Madame d'Arblay; but in this day when Mrs. Norton, Miss Yonge, Miss Mulock, and Miss Sewell are alive, and actively using their pens, it cannot be advanced that she has not been immeasurably surpassed. CHAPTER IV, VERSIT SCUOLA DI FILOLIA MODERNA VN WALTER SCOTT. In the brief attempt at autobiography which the author of "Waverley" gave the world, and which is generally known as the Ashestiel Fragment, he says, with much good humour and good taste, "Every Scottishman has a pedigree. It is a national prerogative as unalienable as his pride and his poverty. My birth was neither distinguished nor sordid." In point of descent Scott had some right to boast, if, indeed, the accident of lineage can give such right, for he was descended from more than one distinguished house, having in his veins the blood of the Rutherfords and the Swintons of Swinton, and his own male ancestors, of the family of Harden, branched off from the great Buccleuchs, in the middle of the fourteenth century. But Sir Walter's immediate ancestors were sufficiently humble, his father being only a respectable attorney in Edinburgh, and his grandfather being a farmer and cattle-jobber, who began life with the small capital of £30, which he borrowed from an old shepherd named Hogg. Lockhart, though well acquainted with the particulars of Scott's family, states with amusing pomposity that none of Scott's progenitors "had ever sunk below the situation and character of a gentleman." Now, we see no reason why a man may not be a true gentleman, and wear the livery of a running footman, as many a "gentle" did in the feudal times; but we must contend that if the term "situation of a gentleman" means anything, it cannot be applied to the position of an agricultural dealer commencing trade with a borrowed capital of £30. Walter Scott was born on the 15th August, 1771, in Edinburgh, in his father's house, at the head of the College Wynd. Mr. Scott (the father) had no less than twelve children, but of them the six eldest died in infancy, and of them all, none but Sir Walter and his favourite brother, Thomas Scott, left issue. Walter's childhood was passed in sickness. When only eighteen months old, he was attacked with a fever, which deprived him of power over his right leg. For the sake of his health, the delicate child was sent out of Edinburgh to enjoy the pure air of Sandy-Knowe, the residence of his paternal grandfather, who had done well in trade on that £30; and after a prolonged residence there, he was taken by an aunt to Bath, where he resided for about a year. While at Sandy-Knowe, at this early period of sickness, he was subjected to a medical treatment which Larrey, in Napoleon's campaigns, found very useful in certain cases of suspended animation. As often as a sheep was killed for the use of the family, the little urchin was stripped, and was wrapped up in the warm skin, just as it had been taken from the animal. Like most sickly children, he was very precocious, learning with rapidity and thinking much, and at six years of age he astonished those who conversed with him with his searching remarks, and his queer store of information. It is the usual fate of such children to sink into death, but little Walter was destined to be a sturdy boy, and as hearty and athletic a young man as his family had ever produced. Neither at the High School, nor at the University of his ancient city, where he was educated, did he impress his academical superiors as being possessed of great talents. He was a high-spirited, courageous boy, always ready for mischief, always forward in a row, and popular with his schoolfellows, but a lazy scholar. At the University he was On the 31st of March, 1786, Walter Scott was apprenticed to his father, to learn the business of a writer to the signet. The old man intended his son for the bar, but wished him first to learn the habits and minutiae of legal business in the humbler walk of the profession. Walter in after life never lamented this step, for the accurate acquaintance he so gained of legal practice was a valuable possession to him. He was an industrious and painstaking articled clerk, and spurred by the prospect of getting threepence a page for pocket-money, he accomplished many a good feat at copying. On one occasion he wrote out one hun dred and twenty pages, without stopping for refreshment or rest, and pocketed the reward of his toil, thirty shillings, with much satisfaction. During the course of his apprenticeship he attended his lectures at the University, and, a twelvemonth or more after its close, having passed the requisite examinations, he was advanced to the gown duties and dignity of barrister on the 11th of June, 1792. A fine hearty specimen of a lad the youngster was in his student days and early manhood. With the exception of the lameness of that unfortunate leg which had suffered in childhood, he was comely and well-grown; had an honest, generous expression of face, that is far more precious than beauty; and had a frank gallant bearing, which made him. handsomer in the eyes of women than many a man with better figure and features. Before he fell in love he was careless of his personal appearance, and wore corduroy inexpressibles, of so shabby and antiquated an aspect, that his friends cried fie upon him. But Walter answered they were good enough to drink in, and off went he and his noisy mates to "a house," where the whiskey and company were alike good. Without a doubt, he was at this time rather too much addicted to tavern revels. But he pulled up ere he materially hurt his constitution; and, though he never became an ascetic, he lived to say frequently and with impressive earnestness-"Depend upon it, of all vices drinking is the most incompatible with greatness." In his manner of taking all his amusements there was discernible that extravagant power of enjoyment, which is a desirable feature in youth. The frolic which attended his trips into the provinces, his long pedestrian excursions, the frantic delight he displayed on getting possession of some old border relic-a ballad or a horn-the boldness with which he mounted and subdued the most break-neck horses, all evidenced the energy of his constitution, His grave, |