Scottish Towns - Abbotsford -Sir Walter Scott

Scottish

Towns

Abbotsford & Sir Walter Scott

Born 1771 at College Wynd in Edinburgh, Walter Scott was the son of a solicitor (known in Scotland as a Writer to the Signet). As was expected in those times Walter, having completed his education at Edinburgh High School and Edinburgh University, he was duly apprenticed to his father and qualified aged 22 years.

Although born and educated in the capital, Walter's family had strong ancestral connections with the Border country and it was after a problem he developed with his right leg as a child that it was thought best he spend some time with his grandfather in Roxburghshire. His infant years spent at Sandy Knowe provided him with his first childhood memories, of which he made a memoir in his mid thirties.
It was his grandmother who would thrill the young Walter with tales of daring deeds performed down the centuries by his Scott ancestors. This perhaps is where his life long passion for historical detail began and was to give all his work that unique air of realism and authenticity.
Although he returned to the capital for his formal education and settled well enough, making friends and gaining for himself the reputation of a fine storyteller, his heart was now firmly in Border country.

It was perhaps a combination of his being apprenticed to his father and the legal training he received, together with his love of history that give him his eye for detail. All his writing had a wonderful realism about it and that clever combination of fact and fiction makes his work both distinctive and very enjoyable.

He travelled far and wide throughout Scotland and it was typical of him to take lodgings in the landscapes where he intended his next work to be set. He spent time living in the Trossachs area of Stirlingshire, riding through the countryside about Loch Katrine, his setting for "The Lady of the Lake" (the 'lake' being Loch Katrine).
During a tour of Perthshire and Angus in the Autumn of 1793 he had the good fortune to spend a night at historic Glamis Castle. He was quite overawed to be shown the very apartments within the castle where it is believed Scotland's King Duncan was murdered!

On Christmas Eve 1797 at St Mary's Church Carlisle he married Margaret Charlotte Charpentier of Lyon and two years later was awarded the much longed for appointment of sheriff-depute of Selkirkshire, which meant he was now travelling from Edinburgh to his much loved Borders country with even more purpose. He also entered into a partnership with James Ballantyne's printing business and was later became a partner in the booksellers John Ballantyne & Co. These two business ventures subsequently caused considerable financial concern and ultimately he suffered a serious deterioration in his health.

Eventaully it became clear that the official duties connected with his appointment of sheriff-depute meant he would have to find a home in that area for himself and his young family.
He purchased the relatively small farm of Cartley Hole, situated on the banks of the river Tweed, in 1811. He took up residence there the following year and the baronial mansion we now know as Abbotsford House was largely his own creation.