Scott used to say that in poetry Byron "bet" him; and no doubt that in which chiefly as a poet he "bet" him, was in the variety, the richness, the lustre of his effects.

A certain ruggedness and bareness was of the essence of Scott's idealism and romance.

It was so in relation to scenery.

He told Washington Irving that he loved the very nakedness of the Border country.

"It has something," he said, "bold and stern and solitary about it.