Walter Scott

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Sir Walter Scott, 1st Baronet (15 August 1771 – 19 September 1832) was a Scottish historical novelist, poet, playwright, and historian.

Many of his books are classics of both English-language literature and Scottish literature.

Ivanhoe, Rob Roy, Old Mortality, The Lady of the Lake, Waverley, The Heart of Midlothian, and The Bride of Lammermoor are among the famous titles. Although primarily known for his literary accomplishments and his political service, Scott was a writer, judge, and judiciary consultant by trade, and he and his colleagues mixed his writing and editing work with his regular duties as Clerk of Session and Sheriff-Depute of Selkirkshire. Scott, a prominent member of Edinburgh's Tory Society, served as President of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland (1820–1829) for a long time, as well as a figure of European literary Romanticism.

Early life

Walter Scott was born in a third-story apartment on College Wynd in Edinburgh's Old Town, Edinburgh, a narrow alleyway leading from the Cowgate to the University of Edinburgh's gates (Old College). Walter Scott (1729–1799), a descendant of Walter Scott (1729–1799), was the ninth child (six having died in infancy) of the Clan Scott and a Writer to the Signet by his wife Anne Rutherford, a cousin of Daniel Rutherford and a descendant of the Haliburton family (descent from whom Walter Scott's family was granted the right of burial in Dryburgh Abbey. Walter was introduced to the Haliburtons by Charles Burton, the cousin of London property developer James Burton (d. 1837), who was born with the surname 'Haliburton' and the same's son, Decimus Burton. Walter became a member of the Clarence Club, of which the Burtons were also members.

Scott lame was born in 1773, a condition that would greatly influence his life and writing.

He was sent in 1773 to live in the rural Scottish Borders, at his paternal grandparents' farm in Sandyknowe, after the demolition of Smailholm Tower, the previous family home. He was taught to read by his aunt Jenny Scott and learned from her the speech patterns and several of the tales and legends that later characterized much of his work. He returned to Edinburgh in January 1775, and his aunt Jenny and his uncle Jenny received spa treatment at Bath in Somerset, Southern England, where they lived at 6 South Parade. He returned to Sandyknowe in the winter of 1776 with another attempt at a water cure at Prestonpans.

In 1778, Scott returned to Edinburgh for private education to prepare him for school and joined his family in their new home, one of the first to be constructed in George Square. He began at the Royal High School in Edinburgh in October 1779 (in High School Yards). He was able to walk and explore the city and the surrounding countryside by then. His reading included chivalric romances, poems, history, and travel books. He was given private tuition by James Mitchell in arithmetic and writing, and he learned about the Church of Scotland from him, with a special emphasis on the Covenanters. His parents, who felt he had outgrown his strength, sent him to Kelso, Scotland's border, where he encountered James Ballantyne and his brother John, who later became his business partners and printers.

Scott had a pronounced limp as a result of his early polio infection. In 1820, he was described as "tall, well balanced (except for one ankle and foot, which made him walk lamely), neither fat nor thin, with forehead quite high, nose short, upper lip long, and face rather fleshy, with hair now silvery white." Despite being a tenacious walker, he found greater freedom on horseback.

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Literary career, marriage and family

Scott was inspired by Edinburgh's enthusiasm for modern German literature in the 1790s. Scott said he was "was German-mad" during the 1827 period. He produced English versions of two poems by Gottfried August Bürger, Der wilde Jäger, and Lenore, as The Chase and Helen. Scott referred to the German interest in national identity, folk history, and medieval literature, which was connected to his own growing enthusiasm for traditional balladry. Thomas Percy's Reliques of Ancient English Poetry was my first book since childhood. He would look into manuscript collections and on "raids" of ballads from oral performance during the 1790s. He produced a two-volume Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border in 1802, with 48 traditional ballads and two imitators apiece by Leyden and himself. For the first time, there were 48 traditionals, and 26 were published. The following year, an extended edition appeared in three volumes. Scott converted several of the ballads' versions into more coherent texts, a habit he later condemned. The Minstrelsy was the first and most important of a series of editorial ventures over the next two decades, including the medieval romance Sir Tristrem (which Scott attributed to Thomas the Rhymer) in 1804, John Dryden (18 vols, 1814), and Jonathan Swift's (18 vols, 1814).

Charlotte Charpentier (Anglicized to "Carpenter"), a daughter of Jean Charpentier of Lyon, France, and a ward of Lord Downshire, an Anglican, met in Cumberland, an Anglican, on a trip to the English Lake District with old college friends. Scott proposed and married in St Mary's Church, Carlisle, 1797, which now stands in the nave of Carlisle Cathedral, after three weeks of courtship. They then migrated to South Castle Street, Edinburgh's George Street, after renting a house. Sophia, their eldest child, was born in 1799 and married John Gibson Lockhart later. Four of their five children survived Scott. Sir Walter Scott, his eldest son (1801-1879), inherited his father's estates and possessions: on February 3, 1825, his wife Jane Jobson, only daughter of William Jobson of Lochore (died 1823), heiress of Lochore (died 1863), niece of Lady Margaret Ferguson. In 1799, Scott was made Sheriff-Depute of Selkirk, and he was based at the courthouse in Selkirk, the Royal Burgh of Selkirk. Scott made a decent living off his start as a lawyer, his compensation as Sheriff-Depute, his wife's inheritance, some income from his writing, and his share of his father's modest estate.

Since the younger Walter was born in 1801, the Scotts built 39 North Castle Street, which remained his Edinburgh base until 1826, when the trustees took it back to him after his financial loss. Scott spent summers in a cottage in Lasswade, where he entertained visitors, including literary celebrities. He had no idea what it was like when he first started his career as an author. There were no residency requirements for his role as Sheriff-Depute, and he began working at a local inn during the circuit. He stopped using the Lasswade cottage in 1804 and leased Ashestiel's huge house, 6 miles (9.7 km) from Selkirk, which was built on the south bank of the River Tweed and featuring an ancient tower house.

The first edition of Minstrelsy was produced by Scott's colleague James Ballantyne at Kelso. In 1798 James had published Goethe's Erlkönig in his newspaper The Kelso Mail, and in 1799 it was included with a privately printed anthology, Apology for Tales of Terror. Scott suggested that Ballantyne establish a business in Edinburgh and gave him a loan to make the change in 1802. They became partners in the printing industry in 1805, and until the firm's financial crisis in 1826, Scott's books were routinely printed.

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