Walter Scott's storytelling and the Scottish Borders

Walter Scott made his home in the Scottish Borders- but did you know it was the setting for several of his poetical and literary works? 

Melrose Abbey 

Is the scene of Scott’s first narrative poem The Lay of the Last Minstrel. Famous lines of the poem include the suggestion that ‘If thou wouldst view fair Melrose aright, / Go visit it by the pale moonlight’- after which visitors would seek to experience the abbey by moonl;ight. The Abbey sexton took advantage of this, offering nighttime ‘tours’ to eh abbey- and if the moon did not shine, he solves this by allegedly attaching a lantern or candle to the end of the pole to create the effect! This was not the only time Scott would write about Melrose- in the novel The Monastery, Kennaquhair Abbey (‘Kennaquhair’ is Lowland Scots meaning ‘know not where’) is based on Melrose Abbey.

Photo credit:South of Scotland Destination Alliance | Duncan Ireland

Smailholm Tower 

Is the setting for an early Scott ballad, ‘The Eve of St John’, which involved a dramatic love triangle and a knightly visitor from beyond the grave. Scott also spent time as a young child at Sandyknowe Farm, home of his paternal grandparents, which sits a short distance from Smailholm Tower. Scott credited Sandyknowe as being where he dated his first ‘consciousness of existence’- it was a huge source of inspiration for him.

The Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border 

Scott’s published anthology of ballads, collected and published when he was just a young man. Through ballad anthologies were by this time rather popular, ballads were, in the past, more sung and said than published and read, and so Scott’s research to ‘collect’ ballads was a lot more proactive than simply looking up in books! Instead, Scott would ‘ride out’ across the countryside of Liddesdale and Roxburghshire, seeking out and listening to folk who knew the ballads of old- whilst they sang, chanted or recited the ballads, Scott wrote down what he heard. The ballads often related to the Border raids of families like Scott’s own in the centuries before- but went on to include ballad imitations and compositions by modern poets, including Scott himself.

Saint Ronan’s Well 

The spa town of Saint Ronan’s Well, near Innerleithen, is named after Scott’s novel of the same name.

Traquair House 

Is famously supposed to be the inspiration for a house, Tully Veolan, home of the Baron Bradwardine, in Scott’s first novel, Waverley. Of especial interest is Scott’s description of the approach to the house, where the gates might sound familiar to those who know Traquair well:

Photo credit: Traquair House

About a bowshot from the end of the village appeared the inclosures proudly denominated the Parks of Tully-Veolan, being certain square fields, surrounded and divided by stone walls five feet in height. In the centre of the exterior barrier was the upper gate of the avenue, opening under an archway, battlemented on the top, and adorned with two large weather-beaten mutilated masses of upright stone, which, if the tradition of the hamlet could be trusted, had once represented, at least had been once designed to represent, two rampant Bears, the supporters of the family of Bradwardine. This avenue was straight and of moderate length, running between a double row of very ancient horse-chestnuts, planted alternately with sycamores, which rose to such huge height, and nourished so luxuriantly, that their boughs completely over-arched the broad road beneath. Beyond these venerable ranks, and running parallel to them, were two high walls, of apparently the like antiquity, overgrown with ivy, honeysuckle, and other climbing plants. The avenue seemed very little trodden, and chiefly by foot-passengers; so that being very broad, and enjoying a constant shade, it was clothed with grass of a deep and rich verdure, excepting where a foot-path, worn by occasional passengers, tracked with a natural sweep the way from the upper to the lower gate. This nether portal, like the former, opened in front of a wall ornamented with some rude sculpture, with battlements on the top, over which were seen, half-hidden by the trees of the avenue, the high steep roofs and narrow gables of the mansion, with lines indented into steps, and corners decorated with small turrets. One of the folding leaves of the lower gate was open, and as the sun shone full into the court behind, a long line of brilliancy was flung upon the aperture up the dark and gloomy avenue. It was one of those effects which a painter loves to represent, and mingled well with the struggling light which found its way between the boughs of the shady arch that vaulted the broad green alley.