Walter Scott

EARLY LIFE 

Walter Scott was born on August 15, 1771 in a third-floor flat on College Wynd in the Old Town of Edinburgh, a narrow alleyway leading from the Cowgate to the gates of the University of Edinburgh (Old College).

Raeburn's portrait of Sir Walter Scott in 1822

He was the ninth child of Walter Scott, a Writer to the Signet (solicitor), and Anne Rutherford.

Five of Walter's siblings died in infancy, and a sixth died when he was five months of age.

The young Walter Scott survived a childhood bout of polio that would leave him lame in his right leg for the rest of his life.

To cure his lameness Walter was sent in 1773 to live in the rural Scottish Borders at his paternal grandparents' farm at Sandyknowe, where he developed into a high spirited child.

During his time at Sandyknowe, Walter was taught to read by his aunt Jenny, and learned from her the speech patterns and many of the tales and legends that characterized much of his work.

As a child he read voraciously, and during the cold winter months his grandma entertained him with ballads and stories of the Scottish border country.

When he was 6-years-old, Walter was given a small Shetland pony on which he galloped over the countryside.

At the age of 8, Walter returned to his family in Edinburgh and in October 1779 he began at the Royal High School of Edinburgh (in High School Yards). He was a popular schoolboy but wasn’t considered a brilliant student due to his poor grasp of Greek.

After finishing school, Walter was sent to stay for six months with his aunt Jenny in Kelso, attending the local grammar school where he met James and John Ballantyne, who later became his business partners and printed his books.

Walter began studying classics at the University of Edinburgh in November 1783, at the age of 12, a year or so younger than most of his fellow students.

While at the university, Scott met the blind poet Thomas Blacklock, who lent him books and introduced him to James Macpherson's Ossian cycle of poems, which he learned by heart. James Macpherson's Ossian poems were claimed at the time to be translations dating back to the Dark Ages, but were later discredited when this was found to be untrue.

CAREER

In March 1786, Scott began an apprenticeship in his father's law office to become a Writer to the Signet.

When it was decided that Walter would become a lawyer, he returned to the university at the age of 17 to study law, first taking classes in Moral Philosophy and Universal History in 1789–90. At the age of 20 Scott passed his exams.

After completing his studies in law, he became a lawyer in Edinburgh. Scott spent his happiest days as a young lawyer riding in remote districts of the border country, talking to locals and writing down their old ballads.

As a result of his lameness Scott was unable to join the military during the invasion scare of the 1790s. To compensate he organised his own cavalry troop, the Edinburgh Light Dragoons Dragons. Scott was their enthusiastic quartermaster.

In 1796, Scott's friend James Ballantyne founded a printing press in Kelso, in the Scottish Borders. Through Ballantyne, Scott was able to publish his first works, including Glenfinlas and The Eve of St. John, and his poetry then began to bring him to public attention.

At 28, Scott was appointed sheriff-deputy of Selkirkshire. This post, added to his earnings as a lawyer, gave him a comfortable living. He continued to collect ballads, and in 1802 he published the first two volumes of Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border.

copy of Scott's Minstrelsy in the National Museum of Scotland. Kim Traynor 

By the early 1800s Scott had a comfortable living from his earnings at the law, his salary as Sheriff-Deputy, his wife's income, some revenue from his writing, and his share of his father's rather meagre estate.

In 1805, The Lay of the Last Minstrel captured wide public imagination, and Scott's career as a writer was established in spectacular fashion.

In 1809 Scott persuaded James Ballantyne and his brother to move to Edinburgh and to establish their printing press there. He became a partner in their business.

When his printing press business became embroiled in pecuniary difficulties, Scott set out, in 1814, to write a cash-cow. The result was Waverley.

Published anonymously Waverley was a huge success and gave Scott by far the biggest literary income of the day.

There followed a large set of novels in next five years, each the same general vein. Mindful of his reputation as a poet, Scott maintained the anonymous habit he had begun with Waverley, always publishing the novels under the name "Author of Waverley" or attributed as "Tales of..." with no author. Even when it was clear that there would be no harm in coming out into the open Scott maintained the facade, apparently out of a sense of fun. During this time the nickname "The Wizard of the North" was popularly applied to the mysterious best-selling writer.

His identity as the author of the novels was widely rumored, and in 1815 Scott was given the honor of dining with George, Prince Regent, who wanted to meet "the author of Waverley".

Scott officially disclosed his identity in 1827 at a public dinner at Edinburgh.

Scott was given the title of baronet by the Prince Regent and in March 1820 he received the baronetcy in London, becoming Sir Walter Scott, 1st Baronet.

Walter Scott stage managed the visit of George IV to Scotland in 1822 decking the royal occasion out with Highland trappings to create an event which revived the tartan tradition. The spectacular pageantry Scott concocted to portray George as a rather tubby reincarnation of Bonnie Prince Charlie made tartans and kilts fashionable and turned them into symbols of national identity.

Alexander Carse - 'The Landing of George IVth at Leith'

Scott was responsible, through a series of pseudonymous letters published in the Edinburgh Weekly News in 1826, for retaining the right of Scottish banks to issue their own banknotes, which is reflected to this day by his continued appearance on the front of all notes issued by the Bank of Scotland.

In 1826, as a result of a depression hitting Scotland, Scott's publishing/printing went bankrupt. He refused all offers of help following his bankruptcy. "No this right hand shall work it all off."

Scott wrote frantically for the rest of his life to pay back his debts of £116,000. It was a struggle because by this time his style had become old hat against trend-setters like Lord Byron, Samuel Coleridge and William Wordsworth with their new style of verse romance.

Scott paid back £45,000 in two years. as time passed his wife, son and grandson died and he had several strokes but by 1832 after five novels, a nine volume Life of Napoleon and a History of Scotland, he'd paid off half his debts.

Though not in the clear by his death, Scott's novels continued to sell, and he made good his debts from beyond the grave.

WORKS 

Walter Scott first made his name as a poet before writing 28 Historical novels in which he woved fictional characters and events around historic events.

He started writing at 6.00am in the morning writing very rapidly.

In 1805, he published The Lay of the Last Minstrel, an epic poem with certain similarities to Coleridge's Christabel. (Some critics say he plagiarized its metrics). Despite this the work made Scott famous, and established his career as a writer in spectacular fashion.

Scott's popular romance The Lady of the Lake, was printed in 1810. The work was set in the Trossachs, an area of wooded glens and braes with quiet lochs, lying to the east of Ben Lomond and it drew throngs of tourists to the Trossacks area.

Title page to the eighth edition, 1810

Portions of the German translation of The Lady In The Lake were set to music by Franz Schubert. One of these songs, "Ellens dritter Gesang", is popularly labelled as "Schubert's Ave Maria".

The Lady In The Lake was quickly made into unauthorized romantic melodramas. In November 1810, Scott wrote to a friend that his romance was being made into a play by Martin and Reynolds in London and by a Mr. Siddons in Edinburgh.

Verses from The Lady of the Lake, including "Hail to the Chief who in triumph advances!" were set to music around 1812 by the songwriter James Sanderson. This evolved into "Hail to the Chief," the official Presidential Anthem of the United States.

In the third canto of The Lady of the Lake, a burnt cross is used to summon Clan Alpine to rise against King James. This method of rallying supporters and publicizing their attacks was adapted by the second Ku Klux Klan in 1915 after the film, The Birth of a Nation. The Ku Klux Klan used cross burning for dramatic terror as a racist tactic.

Having, began as a collector of Border Ballads and as a narrative poet, Scott turned to fiction when his poetry was eclipsed by Byron, whose new style of verse romance was the flavor of the month.
Waverly, Scott's first novel, was a tale of the last Jacobite rebellion in the United Kingdom, the "Forty-Five".

Scott was inspired to write his first novel Waverley by the ruins of Waverley Abbey. He first started work on the story after editing his 1802-03 Minstrels of the Scottish Border, however he mislaid the manuscript and put it off. By 1814, the poetry of Lord Byron had began to overshadow Scott's, so he resurrected it.

Published on July 7, 1814, Waverley was an instant hit in Britain, America and Europe.

Waverley is often regarded as the first historical novel in the western tradition and the work made it respectable to use a historic background to tell a story and changed the way we look at history.

Scott's story about tartened, kilted Scots did a brilliant PR job for his nation. Up to then, the English had thought of the Scottish people as a nation of bloodthirsty savages but Waverley transformed them into brave warriors and stimulated interest in the previously un-imagined beauties of the Scottish countryside.

Sir Walter Scott, novelist and poet - painted by Sir William Allan

The Heart of Midlothian was originally published in four volumes on July 25, 1818, under the title of Tales of My Landlord, 2nd series, and the author was given as "Jedediah Cleishbotham, Schoolmaster and Parish-clerk of Gandercleugh". (Scott was still choosing to write under a pseudonym.)

Much of the dialogue of The Heart of Midlothian is in Lowland Scots, and some editions carry a glossary.

Heart of Midlothian F.C. (founded in 1874) took its name from the Heart of Midlothian jail, which was demolished in 1817 but was kept fresh in the mind by Scott's The Heart of Midlothian novel.

The Bride of Lammermoor is an historical book by Sir Walter Scott, published in 1819. The novel is set in the Lammermuir Hills of south-east Scotland, and tells of a tragic love affair between young Lucy Ashton and her family's enemy Edgar Ravenswood.

Scott was possibly thinking about an own unhappy love affair with Wilamina Belscheand when writing The Bride of Lammermoor and as result it is his own most passionate novel.

In 1820 Walter Scott published Ivanhoe, which is set in the Middle Ages during the reign of King Richard I of England. It marked a move away from Scott's focus on the local history of Scotland.

Title page of Walter Scott's Ivanhoe, 1st edition.

Scott took the name Ivanhoe from the village Ivinghoe in Buckinghamshire.

Scott introduced the word "freelance" to describe unattached for hire when he wrote in Ivanhoe "I offered Richard the services of my freelances."

'Ivanhoe by Sir Walter Scott' is an anagram of 'Novel by a Scottish writer.'

Ivanhoe sold its first edition within a fortnight.

In southern USA, jousting modeled on that described in Ivanhoe became a popular entertainment.

Tony Blair described Ivanhoe as "One of the great love stories of English literature". It is the book the former British prime minister would take to a desert island.

Anne of Geierstein is a novel published in 1829. It is set in Central Europe, mainly in Switzerland, shortly after the Yorkist victory at the Battle of Tewkesbury (1471) and covers the period of Swiss involvement in the Burgundian Wars.

The German Secret Society described in Anne of Gelerstein was the prototype for the Ku-Klux-Klan.

Scott's novels were expensive. His three volumes of Kenliworth cost 10s 6d a volume, (a huge amount in those days).

Scott was the first British novelist to become a noted public figure.

Mark Twain was not a fan. He said that Scott's revival of "sham chivalries of a brainless and worthless long-vanished society…did measureless harm; more real and lasting harm, perhaps, than any other individual that ever wrote."

Scott's novels stimulated interest in the previously unimagined beauties of the Scottish countryside and introduced to the rest of the world the Scottish style of bagpipe and kilts.

APPEARANCE AND CHARACTER 

Walter Scott was tall and broad shouldered. He wore breeches and a shooting jacket when writing.

Even at the peak of his fame, Sir Walter Scott never lost the common touch. It was said of him that he spoke to every man he met as if he were a blood relative.

He could be witty..."Here lies that peerless paper peer, Lord Peter." Sometimes, though he resorted to bad jokes: " Please return my book. I find that though many of my friends are poor arithmeticians, they are nearly all good bookkeepers."

RELATIONSHIPS 

Scott was jilted in his early twenties by Wiliamina Belsches, the beautiful daughter of a bayonet. Her family rejected him for a more "suitable man". As a result Scott had a breakdown.

In 1797 Scott met a beautiful French woman Charlotte Margaret Carpenter while vacationing in the Lake District. After three weeks of courtship, Scott proposed and they were married later in the year on Christmas Eve in St Mary's Church, Carlisle.

They had five children, of whom four, Sophia, Walter, Anne and Charles survived by the time of Scott's death. Most were baptized by an Episcopalian clergyman, due to Charlotte's faith.

The couple remained happy until the death of Charlotte after three decades of marriage on May 25, 1826.

HOMES 

Walter Scott's family moved to 25 George Square in 1774.. George Square was the swankiest address in Edinburgh and Scott lived in George Square with his family until he got married in 1797.

The Scotts' family home in George Square, Edinburgh. By Stephencdickson

Scott and Charlotte started off their married life renting a house at 50 George Street, Edinburgh before moving in the autumn of 1798 to nearby South Castle Street.

After The Scott's third son was born in 1801, they moved to a spacious, three-story, gray-stone dwelling, built for Scott at 39 North Castle Street. This remained Scott's base in Edinburgh until 1826, when he could no longer afford two homes.

From 1798 Scott had spent the summers in a cottage at Lasswade, where he entertained guests including literary figures, and it was there that his career as an author began.

In 1804 he ended his use of the Lasswade cottage and leased the substantial house of Ashestiel, 6 miles (9.7 km) from Selkirk. It was sited on the south bank of the River Tweed, and had belonged to Scott's uncle William Russell, whose heir now dwelled in India. The building also incorporated an old tower house.

The lease at Ashestiel ran out in May 1811 and Scott bought a mountain farm situated in the Borders between Kelso and Melrose. He moved there with his wife and four children and named it Abbotsford. He wrote most of his novels there.

The success of Scott's earlier works enabled him to convert Abbotsford from a mere farmhouse to a Gothic baronial. He kept adding to the dwelling buying more and more land and covering the land with trees. In 1822 the original building was demolished to make way for what is now the main block of Abbotsford. By then it was 1400 acres which he liberally covered with trees. Once he'd converted the property into a country house, Scott kept the doors of Abbotsford open and entertained swarms of guests.

Abbotsford House. Wikipedia Commons

BELIEFS 

Sir Walter Scott had the religious certainty the majority of his day enjoyed. He wrote that he could look on death's approach without fear.

A prominent member of the Tory establishment in Edinburgh, Scott was an active member of the Highland Society and served a long term as President of the Royal Society of Edinburgh (1820–32).

Scott's father was a Freemason, being a member of Lodge St David, No.36 (Edinburgh), and Scott also became a Freemason in his father's Lodge in 1801.

HOBBIES AND INTERESTS 

Scott liked to collect old books and he had a collection of about 9,000 books in his Abbotsford library.

He had a fascination for historic weaponry and Scott's collection of armor at his Abbotsford home contained an interesting mixture.

In his younger days Scott travelled around the Scottish countryside on foot or horseback exploring battlefields and ruins of old castles and forts.

Sometimes Walter Scott walked 20 or more miles a day. He made friends with country people, and learned their stories and their folk ballads. This developed in him an appreciation of the struggles of the Scots.

PETS 

Scott had a black greyhound called Hamlet also a Greyhound called Percy and a Scottish deerhound called Maida.

There is a statue of him in Princes Street, Edinburgh with Maida (see below)

The novelist had a tomcat called Hinse who tormented Scott's dogs until a bloodhound called Nimrod killed him in 1826.

The Dandie Dinmont terrier takes its name from a fictional character called Dandie Dinmont in Scott’s novel Guy Mannering. Dinmont was based on a farmer called James Davidson who had some dogs on his farm. The novel was a great success and the Border terrier popularity spread throughout Britain adopting the Dandie Dinmont name.

LAST YEARS AND DEATH 

After five years of intense work after his bankruptcy, Scott's health was broken by overwork.

In 1831, Scott sailed as a guest of the British government to the Mediterranean in search of health but was soon homesick and he returned home.

Scott returned to Scotland in 1832 but caught typhus during an epidemic in his homeland that year. He died on September 21, 1832 at Abbotsford.

His last words were to his family "God bless you all, I feel myself again."

Sir Walter Scott was buried in St Mary's Aisle, in the North Wing of the ruin of Dryburgh Abbey.

Sir Walter Scott's grave at Dryburgh Abbey. Pasicles 

Source Compton's Encyclopedia