4. FORM IN SCOTT'S NOVELS: THE HERO AS INSTRUMENT

Abstract

Scott did not believe in changing history merely to suit his fictional convenience, though he was willing to alter specific historical details to reveal with greater clarity fundamental historical patterns. He be­ lieved in telling the truth about history. He was often cavalier in his attitude toward novels, especially those produced by his contempora­ ries, Jane Austen excepted. But he was serious indeed about history and the duties of historians. Despite the low opinion he often ex­ pressed of the novel as a genre, we have every reason to think that he agreed with his friend Gifford's opinion, expressed in the anonymous review (which Scott coauthored) of Tales of My Landlord, Series One, that the successful historical novelist "takes his seat on the bench of the historians of his time and country. " 1 Scott's sense o f history was based upon his sense o f place. In an au­ tobiographical sketch composed in r 808 , he describes how a sense of place grew on him as a youth : "The love of natural beauty, more es­ pecially when combined with ancient ruins, or remains of our fathers' piety or splendour, became with me an insatiable passion ."2 This in­ tense feeling for the historical associations of specific locales never left