Identifier: backgroundsoflit01mabi (find matches)
Title: Backgrounds of literature
Year: 1903 (1900s)
Authors: Mabie, Hamilton Wright, 1846-1916
Subjects: Literary landmarks Authors
Publisher: New York : Outlook Co.
Contributing Library: The Library of Congress
Digitizing Sponsor: The Library of Congress

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and heroes of kindred spirit— merrymen all, of the persuasion and calling of RobinHood and Little John. A very pretty pictureof Scott at this earliest period remains in therecord of an acquaintance of the grandparents: Old Mrs. Scott sitting, with her spinning-wheel, at one side of the* fire, in a clean, cleanparlor; the grandfather, a good deal failed, inhis elbow-chair opposite; and the little boy lyingon the carpet at the old mans feet, listening tothe Bible, or whatever good book Miss Jenniewas reading to them. Miss Jennie was one ofthose invaluable aunts whose happy fortune itis to read fairy stories to children and to be al-ways touched with the glow of romance whichstreams from their fascinating pages. In his fourth year the boy was taken to Bathin pursuit of strength. He had gained greatlyin general vigor, and his life was probably savedby the prompt and thorough measures taken byhis father. He had lived largely in the openair, and those fine days when he was carried out 274
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THE LAND OF SCOTT and laid on the rocks by the old shepherd whilethe sheep browsed around them had invigoratedhis body while they nourished his imagination.He now became a sturdy child, with a slight limp,but able to share to the full the pleasures ofexercise and of sport. In London he saw theTower and Westminster Abbey, but the chiefincident of this first journey and residence inEngland was a night at the theater, where hesaw As You Like It. Years afterward hewrote that the witchery of the whole scene wasstill alive in his mind; and he remembered beingso much scandalized at the quarrel between Or-lando and his brother in the first scene that hecried out, Ant they brothers? Later he re-called with pleasure the Parade in Bath, withthe winding Avon, the lowing of cattle on theopposite hills, and the splendors of a certainshop in the town. He was afflicted at this timeby a superstitious fear of statuary, and wascured of this failing by familiarity with a statueof Neptune which stood besi

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