...father's in 1777, strikingly puts this point at rest : — " I last night supped at Mr. Walter Scott's. He has the most extraordinary genius of a boy I ever saw. He was reading a poem to hie mother, when I went in. I made him read on ; it was the description of a shipwreck. His passion...

...and legible that interesting one from Mrs. Cockburn : ' I supped last night in Mr. Walter Scott's. He has the most extraordinary genius of a boy I ever saw ' — going on to describe little Walter (about six years old) reading a description of a shipwreck...