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In 1773, the young Walter contracted [[polio]], which left him with a limp. In hopes of curing this, his parents sent him to live at the home of his paternal grandfather, Robert Scott, in the rural Scottish Borders, where he was taught to read and learned many of the folktales that he would later employ in his literary career. The stay in the countryside restored his powers of mobility somewhat, and after being returned to Edinburgh, he began his formal education at the city's Royal High School in 1779. He remained there until 1783, when he was sent back to the Borders countryside for his health and attended Kelso Grammar School for several months. Although his marks in these institutions were not especially high, he had already developed a passionate interest in history and literature, and frequently explored the city and the surrounding area.
In 1773, the young Walter contracted [[polio]], which left him with a limp. In hopes of curing this, his parents sent him to live at the home of his paternal grandfather, Robert Scott, in the rural Scottish Borders, where he was taught to read and learned many of the folktales that he would later employ in his literary career. The stay in the countryside restored his powers of mobility somewhat, and after being returned to Edinburgh, he began his formal education at the city's Royal High School in 1779. He remained there until 1783, when he was sent back to the Borders countryside for his health and attended Kelso Grammar School for several months. Although his marks in these institutions were not especially high, he had already developed a passionate interest in history and literature, and frequently explored the city and the surrounding area.
==Legal Career==
With the intention of following in his father's footsteps as a lawyer, Scott began attending the University of Edinburgh in late 1783 and continued until 1786, resuming his studies in 1789. In between these two periods, he undertook an apprenticeship in his father's law office, and later studied under the Scottish jurist Alexander Fraser Tytler. Scott passed his bar examinations in 1792 and took up a legal practice in Edinburgh, joining the Faculty of Advocates, a Scottish legal association, the same year.
Though Scott's law practice was not especially prominent or lucrative, it allowed him enough of an income to maintain his occasional travels through Scotland and northern England (during which time he continued his collection of folklore, ballads, and other historical materials), and to play a respectable role in Edinburgh society. In 1797, in response to fears of a French invasion, he joined the Royal Edinburgh Volunteer Light Dragoons, and was named its quartermaster and secretary. Later that year, he married Charlotte Charpentier, the daughter of a refugee from the [[French Revolution]], whom he had met on a trip to England's Lake District. The couple had five children, four of whom survived to adulthood.
In 1799, Scott was appointed as a Sheriff-Depute for the county of Selkirk, and a few years later was also made clerk of the Court of Session. The salary from the position of Sheriff-Depute (which generally did not require its holder to be at court full-time) gave Scott the freedom he needed to pursue a more intensive writing career.
==References==
==References==