Portrait of the Nation
SIR WALTER SCOTT
In the second of our features on the iconic paintings in the Scottish National Portrait
Gallery, Fiona MacGillivray focuses on Sir Walter Scott, the novelist and poet whose
powerful romantic prose changed the way we perceive Scotland.
nly a handful of writers are as closely history were keenly analysed and questioned by
O
associated with Scotland as Sir Walter his contemporaries. Old Mortality, the story of the
Scott. Although today’s public no longer Covenanters who rebelled against the established
devours historical novels and lyrical church and government in the seventeenth century,
ballads at quite the same rate as his nineteenth touched a raw nerve. His treatment of the Presbyterians
century contemporaries, Scott retains the status of was felt by many in Scotland, whose ancestors had
a classic author. Beyond his huge literary legacy Sir been harshly persecuted for their beliefs, to be unfair
Walter was responsible for another creation, which is and inaccurate.
so successful and so all pervasive, that it is today taken Scott had trained as a lawyer, but the success of
for granted. This is nothing less than Scotland’s sense of poems such as The Lay of the Last Minstrel (1805)
cultural identity, the often romantic vision Scott created Marmion (1808) and The Lady of the Lake (1810)
in writing about the land, its history, its peoples and encouraged him to focus on writing. He turned
its physical elements. His ideas continue to influence to prose, exploring the period of Scottish history
how Scots see themselves today and the way in which during the Stewart and Jacobite years in novels such
Scotland is perceived in the wider world. as Waverley (1814) and The Bride of Lammermuir
Through his fiction and poetry Scott changed (1819). The contemporary popularity of these works
the way the reading public saw the physical features is demonstrated by Jane Austen’s wry comment that
of Scotland. What had, hitherto, been seen as an ‘Walter Scott has no business to write novels. He has
undifferentiated, harsh and barren land, became, Fame and Profit enough as a Poet, and should not be
under his pen, a picturesque and peopled country, taking bread out of other people’s mouths’.
rich with the echoes of the past. The romantic image Later critics saw Scott as the inventor of the
of the Highlander – still a powerful myth today – historical novel and particularly acclaimed his use
owes much to the ideas and opinions of Scott. of the Scots language in the dialogue of his Lowland
Although the author was a committed believer characters. A phenomenally productive writer,
in the benefits of the Act of Union and the rule much of Scott’s considerable income was spent on
of the Hanovarian dynasty, he was drawn to the Abbotsford, the house and estate he built by the River
heroic values of the kinship-based clan, even if he Tweed near Galashiels. Scott lavished immense care
disapproved of its lawlessness and violence. He wrote on the exterior architecture and the internal fittings
several novels dealing with Highland themes and and fixtures of his home. His passion for the rural idyll
created many memorable characters who seemed, of Abbotsford was instrumental in his determination
to his readers, to represent the essential types of the not to declare himself bankrupt when, in 1826, his
Scottish character. publisher and printer were ruined. Scott spent the rest
One of Scott’s most influential contributions of his life writing furiously to clear his debts. Ill and
to nineteenth century notions of Scotland was his exhausted, he at least had the satisfaction of dying at
stage management of the visit of King George IV to his home, gazing out upon his beloved River Tweed.
Edinburgh in 1822, the first monarch to come to Sir Henry Raeburn’s celebrated portrait was
Scotland since 1651. The King’s trip and the elaborate painted in 1822 and captures the novelist at the
ceremonials surrounding the occasion, scripted, in zenith of his career.
the main by Scott, became a living enactment of a
In SCOTS Number 45 we focus on James Graham, 1st
newly-asserted national unity.
Marquis of Montrose.
Scott was not afraid of controversy and his
interpretations of key episodes in recent Scottish
63
SCOTS44.indd 63 28/3/09 4:59:33 PM
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92 |
Page 93 |
Page 94 |
Page 95 |
Page 96 |
Page 97 |
Page 98 |
Page 99 |
Page 100 |
Page 101 |
Page 102 |
Page 103 |
Page 104 |
Page 105 |
Page 106 |
Page 107 |
Page 108 |
Page 109 |
Page 110 |
Page 111 |
Page 112 |
Page 113 |
Page 114 |
Page 115 |
Page 116