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Sir Walter Scott (1771-1832)
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He continued his legal career, at the same time making his name as a collector and editor of ballads ("Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border", 3 vols 1802-1803) and a poet ("Lay of the Last Minstrel", 1805, etc.); he was a lifelong friend and collaborator of James Hogg ('The Ettrick Shepherd') and of Professor John Wilson ('Christopher North'). He became a partner in James Ballantyne's printing business in 1809 and purchased Abbotsford on the Tweed in 1812. His first novels ("Waverley", 1814, etc.) were published anonymously, but he had to use the security of his copyrights, as well as the publication of the later novels, to meet the debts incurred as a result of the failure in 1826 of Constable and Ballantyne, his publisher as well as his business partner. He masterminded the visit to Edinburgh in 1822 of King George IV, and did much to create the historically romantic image of Scotland enjoyed by the Victorians and later generations. He is also remembered for his support for the retention of low-denomination banknotes. In 1804 Scott presented his alma mater with a copy of
"Sir Tristrem: a metrical romance of the thirteenth century by
Thomas of Erclidoune, called the Rhymer" (1804) which he himself
had copied and edited from the Auchinleck manuscript. 170 years later
the University was to purchase from Dr James Corson, former Deputy Librarian
of the University Library, the
Corson Walter Scott Collection, which includes other copies, editions
and reviews of one of Scott's earliest published works. |
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