When he was eighteen months old, he contracted polio and spent much time during his early years convalescing at Sandyknowe, .the farm of his paternal grandfather, Robert Scott. Here he learned to love sports and outdoor activity despite his handicap, acquiring a devotion to the beauty of the Border country and a lifelong interest in the popular lore of the region as well as the traditional chapbook literature of the common people. He was only a mediocre student in school but already had an inquiring mind, a strong memory, and great physical and intellectual energy. In 1785 he was apprenticed to his father to train as a Writer to the Signet (a practitioner of Scottish law). He attended lectures at the University of Edinburgh, a center of the Scottish Enlightenment. The philosophical and cultural ideas he picked up there shaped his outlook for the rest of his life.
Although called to the bar in 1792 Scott was little interested in his profession and spent a good deal of time traveling around Scotland, especially in the Borders, collecting folk ballads.
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