Record Number: 16563

---

Reading Experience:

Evidence:

'I remember, when a little boy, getting my first introduction to the novels of Walter Scott - then the "Great Unknown". One of my sisters, when an infant, was sent to the country to be nursed; and I used to accompany Peg Nielson, our servant, to see the child on Saturday afternoons... Peg was a capital story-teller and many a time did she entertain us with "auld warld" tales of brownies, fairies, ghosts and witches, often making our flesh creep. But she could also be amusing and cheerful in the adventures she narrated. While on the way to Clerkington Mains, I asked her to tell me a story. "Yes she would: it was a story of a gypsy woman and a little boy who was carried away in a ship by the smugglers." And then she began, and told me, in a manner that seemed most graphic, the wonderful adventures of Harry Bertram and Meg Merrilies, as related in the well-known novel of "Guy Mannering". Many years after I read the book and found that she had omitted nothing of the story: her memory was so good and her power of narration so excellent.'

Century:

1800-1849

Date:

unknown

Country:

unknown

Time

n/a

Place:

n/a

Type of Experience
(Reader):
 

silent aloud unknown
solitary in company unknown
single serial unknown

Type of Experience
(Listener):
 

solitary in company unknown
single serial unknown

---

Reader / Listener / Reading Group:

Reader:

Samuel Smiles

Age:

Unknown

Gender:

Male

Date of Birth:

23 Dec 1812

Socio-Economic Group:

Clerk / tradesman / artisan / smallholder

Occupation:

son of paper maker, later writer

Religion:

Presbyterian

Country of Origin:

Scotland

Country of Experience:

unknown

Listeners present if any:
e.g family, servants, friends

n/a

Additional Comments:

n/a

---

Text Being Read:

Author:

Walter Scott

Title:

Guy Mannering

Genre:

Fiction

Form of Text:

Print: Book

Publication Details

n/a

Provenance

unknown

---

Source Information:

Record ID:

16563

Source:

Print

Author:

Samuel Smiles

Editor:

Thomas Mackay

Title:

The autobiography of Samuel Smiles

Place of Publication:

London

Date of Publication:

1997

Vol:

n/a

Page:

20

Additional Comments:

n/a

Citation:

Samuel Smiles, Thomas Mackay (ed.), The autobiography of Samuel Smiles (London, 1997), p. 20, http://can-red-lec.library.dal.ca/Arts/RED/record_details.php?id=16563, accessed: 18 April 2024

---

Additional Comments:

None