2017
Our President in 2017/8 was:
Professor Alison Lumsden
She proposed the Toast to Sir Walter at our 109th Annual Dinner on 3rd May 2018 in The New Club, Edinburgh.
(Rescheduled from the 1st March 2018 due to exceptionally heavy snow)
Summary of the Speech:
Professor Alison Lumsden paid tribute to the late Paul Henderson Scott and Peter C. Miller, two pivotal figures in the Edinburgh Sir Walter Scott Club. It then unfolded into a deeply personal, academic, and global reflection on Scott’s influence.
Lumsden traced her journey from being a child in Lossiemouth with no early exposure to Scott, through her eventual academic conversion during PhD research, to becoming one of the foremost Scott scholars and editors today. Her reflections included insights into Scott’s literary craft, global influence (including a notable experience in Western Australia), and Abbotsford’s symbolic and intellectual legacy.
Notable & Interesting Points
- Scott's Popular Culture Legacy:
- Scott collected thousands of chapbooks (popular printed ballads), demonstrating an enduring interest in oral and popular traditions. A new exhibition on this will open at Abbotsford.
- Scott and Ramsay MacDonald:
- Lumsden revealed a personal family connection: her mother worked for Ishbel MacDonald, Ramsay MacDonald's daughter, and she grew up seeing Scott's portrait in the MacDonald family home. Ramsay MacDonald, Labour’s first PM, read Scott to his children at bedtime.
- Editing Insights:
- Lumsden gave examples of how manuscript comparison has revealed Scott’s nuance and craft—such as correcting “citizens” to “artisans” in The Heart of Midlothian, restoring Scott’s economic commentary.
- Scott’s Poetic Reappraisal:
- Lumsden argued that Scott’s poetry, long considered secondary to his fiction, deserves renewed attention for its formal complexity and narrative power. The new critical edition of Marmion (2024) is part of this effort.
- Abbotsford as a Metaphor:
- The house symbolises Scott’s interplay of memory, imagination, and national identity—a theme embraced both in its design and in its preservation.
Alison Lumsden holds a Chair in English Literature at the University of Aberdeen in Scotland. She works on all aspects of Scottish writing but specialises in Walter Scott. She has published many articles on Scott’s work including a 2010 monograph Walter Scott and the Limits of Language. She is the General Editor of a new critical edition of Walter Scott’s Poetry and Director of the Walter Scott Research Centre at Aberdeen. She edited or co-edited
The Pirate, The Heart of Mid-Lothian, Woodstock
and Peveril of the Peak for the Edinburgh Edition of the Waverley Novels and also edited Reliquiae Trotcosienses. She is Honorary Librarian at Abbotsford House, Walter Scott’s home in the Scottish Borders, and President of the Association for Scottish Literary Studies. She was for many years a judge for the Saltire Society Book of the Year Award, the main literary prize in Scotland, and for three years (2014 – 16) chaired the judging panel for the Saltire Society Research Book of the Year Award.
Subsidiary Toasts
- A toast to the City of Edinburgh by Peter Garside, highlighting Scott's deep ties to the city.
- A reply by Deputy Lord Provost Cllr Joan Griffiths, celebrating Edinburgh's literary heritage and the Writer's Museum’s focus on Scott.
- A toast to the Royal Scottish Forestry Society, reflecting Scott's commitment to tree planting and landscape cultivation, followed by a response from forester Christopher Ogilvie.
- A poetic and witty vote of thanks from Alistair Hudson OBE, rounding off the evening on a celebratory and humorous note.
You may also like:
2020: Prof. Alison Lumsden and Prof. Catherine Jones - Colloquium on Peveril of the Peak > [video]
2011: Dr. Alison Lumsden - Retuning the Harp of the North: Editing Scott's Poetry [bulletin]
2010: Dr Alison Lumsden and Dr. Nicola Watson - Colloquium on The Lady of The Lake [bulletin]
2002: Dr. Alison Lumsden - Textual Messaging: The Making of Meaning in the Waverley Novels [bulletin]
