“Scott was a great poet - one of the greatest - but not in verse. In verse he is ever and at all times a minstrel, and nothing more. He is the modern representative of that most perennially popular of characters, the bard who weaves into living song the exploits and the adventures of heroes.” HeroesBardWalter ScottMinstrelMinstrelsy Author:Mrs. Oliphant
“Jeanie Deans, to our thinking, is the cream and perfection of Scott's work. She is tenfold more, because in all ordinary circumstances she would be much less interesting to us than a score of beautiful Rowenas, than even Flora or Rebecca. She is a piece of actual fact, real as the gentle landscape in which she is first enclosed, true to her kine that browse upon the slope - and yet she is the highest ideal that Scott has ever attained. A creature absolutely pure, absolutely truthful, yet of a tenderness, a forbearance, and long-suffering beyond the power of man, willing to die rather than lie.” PurityTruthfulnessCattleForbearanceWalter ScottHeart Of MidlothianJeanie Deans Author:Mrs. Oliphant
“What can there be that is splendid in my life? - a farmer's son, with perhaps the chance of a country church as my highest hope - after all kinds od signings, and confessions, and calls, and presbyteries. It would be splendid indeed to be plucked by a country presbytery that didn't know six words of Greek, or objected to by a congregation of ploughmen.” MinistersGreekScotlandCongregationChurch Of ScotlandPresbyterianismColin CampbellPresbyteries Book:A Son of the Soil Source: A Son of the Soil
“I think not that it is in any manner needful for me to write down any history of the Kirk's trials here. Truly, it is an old story in our country of Scotland; and if there should be folk of another land reading this, doubtless they may learn concerning the matter, from many books and histories the reading of which, I doubt not, will be to the edification, to such as, by reason of belonging to another nation, or by reason of neglect in their upbringing, may want a sufficiency of knowledge to distinguish between the old and steadfast Kirk herself, and them that do sometimes iniquitously bear her name.” ScotlandChurch Of ScotlandThe Disruption Book:Passages in the Life of Mrs. Margaret Maitland of Sunnyside Source: Passages in the Life of Mrs. Margaret Maitland of Sunnyside