Abbotsford House With Music Near Galashiels On History Visit To The Borders Of Scotland

Tour Scotland 4K travel video, with Scottish music, of Abbotsford House by Galashiels near Melrose on ancestry, genealogy, family history visit and trip to Roxburghshire, Scottish Borders, Britain, United Kingdom. Abbotsford is the house built and lived in by Sir Walter Scott, the 19th century novelist, and author of timeless classics such as Waverley, Rob Roy, Ivanhoe and The Lady of the Lake. The garden is compact, fragrant, colourful and detailed. It is contained within high walls, with the facades of the house setting a scene which could be straight out of one of Scott’s historical romance. Walter Scott was born on 15 August 1771, in a third floor apartment on College Wynd in the Old Town, Edinburgh, a narrow alleyway leading from the Cowgate to the gates of the University of Edinburgh. He was the ninth child, six having died in infancy, of Walter Scott, born 1729, died 1799, a member of a cadet branch of the Clan Scott and a Writer to the Signet, by his wife Anne Rutherford, a sister of Daniel Rutherford and a descendant of both the Clan Swinton and the Haliburton family, the descent from which granted Walter's family the hereditary right of burial in Dryburgh Abbey. Walter was thus a cousin of the property developer James Burton, died 1837, born Haliburton, and of his son the architect Decimus Burton. Walter subsequently became a member of the Clarence Club, of which the Burtons were also members. A childhood bout of polio in 1773 left Scott lame, a condition that would much affect his life and writing. To improve his lameness he was sent in 1773 to live in the rural Scottish Borders, at his paternal grandparents' farm at Sandyknowe, by the ruin of Smailholm Tower. In 1778, Scott returned to Edinburgh for private education to prepare him for school and joined his family in their new house, one of the first to be built in George Square. In October 1779, he began at the Royal High School in Edinburgh, in High School Yards. He was by then well able to walk and explore the city and the surrounding countryside. Scott began studying classics at the University of Edinburgh in November 1783, at the age of 12, a year or so younger than most fellow students. After completing his studies, Scott took up law in Edinburgh. He made his first visit as a lawyer's clerk to the Scottish Highlands, directing an eviction. He eventually became a Scottish historical novelist, poet, playwright and historian. Many of his works remain classics of European and Scottish literature, notably the novels Ivanhoe, Rob Roy, Waverley, Old Mortality, The Heart of Mid-Lothian and The Bride of Lammermoor, and the narrative poems The Lady of the Lake and Marmion. He had a major impact on European and American literature. He died at Abbotsford on 21 September 1832. He was 61 years of age. Of interest to folks with ancestry, genealogy or Scottish Family Roots in Scotland who may wish to visit one day. Find things to see and do in Scotland where you are always welcome All photographs are copyright of Sandy Stevenson, Tour Scotland, and may not be used without permission.

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