PANEL 82    Walter Scott

Scott was a phenomenon – a figure who helped form many perceptions of modern Scotland. Born in Edinburgh in 1771, he was educated to follow his father into the law but Scott’s lameness, perhaps caused by a bout of polio, sent him to recuperate in the Borders with relatives. These visits influenced the ‘wee sick laddie’ very much. At his grandparents’ farm near Kelso, he listened to his aunt recite the Border ballads and they fired his imagination. As a young man, he began to make written copies of the ballads, what had been mainly an oral tradition. In 1802 and 1803, Scott had published The Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border and the three volumes were very successful. But, in 1805, this collection was spectacularly overshadowed by Scott’s own composition, The Lay of the Last Minstrel. This long narrative poem, set in the Borders, became a huge best-seller and it established the author as a figure of real renown. He brought out two more long poems, Marmion and The Lady of the Lake. With his novel Waverley and a string of subsequent successes, Scott became a worldwide name, the first author to be feted during his own lifetime. His novels also turned Scotland into a destination for tourists, especially when the railways came after the 1860s. And his fame had all sorts of other effects. When Scott organised the state visit of George IV to Scotland, he wrapped it in tartan, making the whole thing a Highland affair. This, in turn, caused the Borders textile mills to clack and rattle as demand for tartan boomed. Tragically, a series of unhappy business deals impoverished Scott and he killed himself with overwork to pay back his debts.

 

Panel stitched by:

Catherine Guiat

Eileen Henderson

Annette Hunter

Stitched in:

Edinburgh