True lovers of " Sir Walter "—those we mean who
know him intimately through his poetry, his novels or his son-in- law, as friend, magician and hero—should not read Mr. Donald Carswell's Sir Walter : A Four-Part Study in Biography (Scott,. Hogg, Leekhart, Joanna Bailie) (John Murray, Iris.). It will give them only pain. But alas ! these true lovers are now few and there is a large young public who would like vaguely to be introduced to Scott without the trouble of study. They look upon his poetry as enslaved verse, his stories as sentimental history, his monumental biography as a huge plaster cast, representing some ideal statue buried in the dead hearts of their great grandparents. Such as these should all read the book ; they will feel that they have met Scott. It is true they will see his least ideal side, for they will know him us a man of business among men of business and of the world, pressed by financial temptations, sometimes yielding to them, autocratic, ill-advised, lavish, fond of show, devoted to hos- pitality, set upon success, but withal great and irresistibly lovable. The picture of Lockhart is by no means idealized. As here seen he is a mixture of Andrew Lang and Mr. John Knightly. " The Ettrick Shepherd " is more than a bit of a
ruffian. * * * *
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