Engraving by Isaac Moseley Danforth after the 1824 portrait by Charles Robert Leslie, courtesy The Walter Scott Digital Archive, Edinburgh University Library.
Walter Scott was born on August 15th, 1771, the ninth child and third son of Walter Scott and his wife Anne. His father was a stern and conscientious lawyer who thought literature a trivial subject and advocated steady professional dedication as the means of progress. He was his own best example, having already moved from a farming community to the city and married above his station, and was resolutely rising in the world. Though he would later move with his family to Edinburgh's elegant New Town development, at the time of his latest son's birth the family was residing in the close tenement courtyard known as ‘College Wynd'.
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Citation: Uglow, Nathan. "Sir Walter Scott". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 27 March 2002 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=5094, accessed 14 December 2024.]