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2011

Our President in 2011/2 was:

Emeritus Professor Claire Lamont

She proposed the Toast to Sir Walter at our 103rd Annual Dinner on Thursday 2nd March 2012 in The New Club, Edinburgh

Read the text of her address here in the [bulletin] > [transcript]

Summary of the Speech:

Her speech blended personal reflections, literary insights, and Scott’s enduring legacy.


  1. Personal Connection to Scott
  2. Lamont first encountered Scott’s works through her father, who was deeply moved by Scott’s poetry, particularly Marmion.
  3. Her mother appreciated Scott as a "good man," a view echoed in early speeches at the dinner.
  4. As a child, she struggled with Ivanhoe but later had an emotional experience reading The Bride of Lammermoor.
  5. Scott's Publishing Legacy
  6. She discussed the Magnum Opus edition (1829–1833), which made Scott's works more accessible and contained his final revisions and autobiographical insights.
  7. The Waverley Novels were once household staples, but later generations mainly encountered them in second-hand bookshops or, more recently, digital formats like Kindle.
  8. Challenges in Teaching Scott
  9. Lamont noted how students often found Scott difficult, particularly when compared to Jane Austen.
  10. In her university course, Jane Austen and Walter Scott, she paired the two authors to show their differences—Austen’s focus on domestic life versus Scott’s grand historical themes.
  11. She encouraged students to skip Scott’s slow openings and start with the action to help them engage.
  12. Scott’s Influence on Scottish Identity
  13. She highlighted Scott’s deep understanding of history, shaped by the Scottish Enlightenment.
  14. She linked Waverley (1814) to the 2014 Scottish independence referendum, suggesting Scott’s portrayal of political struggles still resonates today.
  15. She concluded with a passage from The Lay of the Last Minstrel, emphasizing Scott’s message of loving one's country while living in peace with neighbours.
  16. The "Immortal Memory" Tradition
  17. She explored the origins of the phrase "Immortal Memory", often associated with Robert Burns, but argued Scott equally deserves the title.
  18. Scott’s ability to create a communal experience through storytelling aligns with the spirit of the phrase.


Interesting Insights & Notable Moments:

  • Lamont humorously recalled how Dame Jean Maxwell-Scott praised her mother for correctly pronouncing "Lamont" amid creeping mispronunciations in Melrose.
  • She mentioned that Scott now has a Twitter account, a nod to his evolving presence in modern culture.
  • She reflected on Scott’s hospitality at Abbotsford, linking it to the communal spirit of literature.


Conclusion

Professor Lamont’s toast was a rich, reflective, and engaging tribute to Scott’s legacy. She skilfully balanced personal anecdotes, scholarly analysis, and cultural commentary, making a compelling case for Scott’s continued relevance in both literature and Scottish national identity.

Read the text of her address here in the [bulletin] > [transcript]

Claire Lamont is Emeritus Professor of English Romantic Literature at Newcastle University. She has specialized in English and Scottish literature of the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, especially Johnson and Boswell, Burns, Austen, Clare, Wordsworth and Scott. She is a General Editor of the Edinburgh Edition of the Waverley Novels, has edited Chronicles of the Canongate for the series, and is advisory editor for the titles which have appeared in paperback from Penguin.


She comes from both sides of the Anglo-Scottish Border. Her Scots father, born in Falkirk, graduated from Edinburgh University where he sat under the distinguished Scott scholar, H. J. C. Grierson. Her English mother was the daughter of Sir Edward Appleton, Principal of Edinburgh University (1949-65) and confirmed her Scots adoption by spending her last years in Melrose. Claire was educated at Esdaile, the Ministers' Daughters' College in Edinburgh, and went on to read English at the University. After acting as a research assistant to the late Professor A. N. Jeffares at Leeds University she went as a graduate to St Hilda's College Oxford, where she worked on the literary papers of the Fraser Tytler family from Invernesshire. After that archival start she worked in antiquarian bookselling in London for a year before being awarded a Junior Research Fellowship at Somerville College, Oxford, where, under the guidance of the late Miss Mary Lascelles she embarked on an edition of Waverley which was awarded the Rose Mary Crawshay prize by the British Academy on its publication by the Clarendon Press in 1981. She was appointed to Newcastle University in 1971 and has ensured the teaching of Scott there ever since. 

You may also like: 

Professor Claire Lamont: [The Bride of Lammermoor] (Chapter 3) - Introducing the heroine


Claire Lamont has also given 3 lectures to the Club


2014: Professor Claire Lamont and Professor Peter Garside - A Colloquium on Waverley [transcript]


2011: Professor Claire Lamont - Story-telling in the Introductions to the Magnum Edition of the Waverley Novels [bulletin]


1991: Professor Claire Lamont – Waverley and Jacobite Mythology [bulletin] > [audio]

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