130 Years
Events
The Annual Dinner of the Club is held in May each year. Among other meetings there is a Joint Lecture with the University of Edinburgh English Department.
Forthcoming Programme
Thursday 28th November 2024, 7:00pm:
”The Real Mackay: Scott’s favourite comedian”
a talk by Helen Graham
Tickets £20 each
(including wine and canapés)
Details on how to attend the meetings are sent to Club members mid-January and mid-July.
Try Before You Buy: If you are not a member and would like to attend one of our regular lectures* in Edinburgh as our guest please phone the Treasurer to obtain a ticket. We are happy for you to come along to one meeting for free to see if you like the Club before officially joining. (*excludes the Annual Dinner and external trips).
Past Talks and Papers
2024
Helen Graham - The Real Mackay: Walter Scott’s Favourite Comedian > [video]
Paul Barnaby- ”Thou with pencil, I with pen”: James Skene’s Artistic Collaboration with Sir Walter Scott > [video]
David McClay - Sir Walter Scott in the Galleries (a tour of the National Galleries of Scotland)
Prof. Gerry Carruthers - The Edinburgh and Borders of Sir Walter Scott and Muriel Spark > [video]
Penny Fielding, Ian Chisholm, David Purdie, Angus Stewart and James Wolffe - Colloquium on Redgauntlet > [video] >> [transcript]
Eric Milligan- Sir Walter Scott, the greatest of them all > [video]
Greg Moodie - Reimagining Scott > [video]
Emma Stead - Sir Walter Scott, Stage Manager: George IV’s Visit to Edinburgh > [video]
2023
David McClay - A Private Tour of the Speculative Society > [photos] (coming soon)
David McClay- Scott and the Speculative Society >[video]
Dr Valentina Bold - Dark Restless Borderers: Walter Scott and James Hogg > [video] >> [transcript]
Dr Anna Pilz - Scott and the Northern Lights > [video] >> [powerpoint]
J. H. Alexander and Dr Lesley Graham - A Colloquium on Quentin Durward > [video] >> [transcript]
Hilary Clydesdale- Walter Scott and Secret History > [video]
Lady Joyce Caplan - The Dark Heart of Midlothian: Justice, Truth and the Law
Prof. Gillian Black and Sir Crispin Agnew - The Enigma of Sir Walter Scott’s “moor” supporter—a symbol of slavery? > [video]
2022
Dr Iain Gordon Brown - The Greek Blockhead: Sir Walter Scott, Greek, Greece and the Greeks > [video]
Dr. Susan Oliver - Walter Scott and the Greening of Scotland > [video] >> [text]
Alasdair Hutton and Les Danses Antiques - Joint Dinner with The New Club to Celebrate George IV’s Visit > [video] >> [photos]
Dr. Lucy Wood - Visit to the Palace of Holyroodhouse > text >> [photos]
Prof. Alison Lumsden and Prof. Catherine Jones - Colloquium on Peveril of the Peak > [video]
Ian Chisholm - Scott as a Historian > [video] >> [transcript]
Dr Alena Shmakova - Dance in Sir Walter Scott’s Works and Times > [video]
The Very Revd Prof Sir Iain Torrance - Some Religious Questions in The Monastery (1820) > [video] >> [text]
2021
Prof. Aonghus Mackechnie - Building a New Past, Bequeathing a Future: Walter Scott and the Baronial > [video]
Dr David Stewart - "The Sinuosities of the Ground": Sir Walter Scott, Borders, Fiction, and Landscape > [video]
Prof. Murdo Macdonald - Macpherson, Burns and Scott: Driving Visual Art > [video]
J.H. Alexander and
Lee A. Simpson - A Colloquium on Kenilworth >
[video]
Dr Iain Gordon Brown - Frolics in the Face of Europe: Sir Walter Scott, Continental Travel and the Tradition of the Grand Tour >
[video]
Paul Wedgwood - a Scott-themed menu + a Toast to Sir Walter > [video] >> [toast text]
Ray Perman - The Financial Ruin of Sir Walter Scott... and How He Got Out of It > [video] >> [transcript]
Anne McClary - Scott’s Relationship with Traditional Song >
[video] >>
[photos]
2020
Lillian Elliott - The Waverley Phenomenon and Material Imagination > [video] >> [blog]
Dr Daniel Cook - Scott's Wandering Tales > [audio] >> [transcript]
Alasdair Hutton - Laying a Wreath at Dryburgh Abbey > [video] >> [photos]
Dr. Lucy Wood - Scenes from the Waverley Novels, a video tour of sites in the Old and New Towns of Edinburgh > [video] >> [blog]
Kirsty Archer-Thompson - A Colloquium on Ivanhoe > [video] >> [blog]
Prof. David W. Purdie - A Colloquium on Ivanhoe > [video]
Dr. Margaret Connolly - A Very Curious Collection: The Abbotsford Book of Deeds > [video]
2019
Kathy Crawford Hay - Scotland’s Hidden Treasure: The remarkable story of the oldest Royal Regalia in Britain > [video] >> [regalia]
Professor John W. Cairns - Adam Smith, Henry Dundas, and the Legal Education of Walter Scott: The Background to the Novels? > [video]
Donald Smith - Scott: Our Convivial Host > [video]
Professor Peter Garside and Eileen Dunlop - A Colloquium on The Bride of Lammermoor > [transcript]
Dr. Thomas Richardson - Scott and John Gibson Lockhart > [video] >> [transcript]
Dairmid Gunn - Sir Walter Scott's Impressions of Russia > [video]
Gillian Hughes - Scott’s Writing for the Edinburgh Stage > [video] >> [transcript]
Deirdre Shepherd - The Life of Marguerite Charlotte Charpentier: Disorderly Outsider? > [video]
Bridget Falconer-Salkeld - Reminiscences of Sir Walter Scott by Agnes Cunningham > [blog]
2018
Prof. Angela Esterhammer - Scott and the World in 1824 > [transcript]
David Bruce - What Sir Walter Scott did for Hollywood > [video]
Dr. Stuart Allan - David Stewart of Garth, Scott’s “Highlander of the Old Stamp" > [video]
Prof. David Purdie - A Colloquium on The Heart of Midlothian > [video]
Professor Peter Garside - Scott's Shorter Verse: Versatility in an Edinburgh and European Poet > [video] >> [transcript] >>> [notes]
Eileen Dunlop - Scott in the Primary School: Past and Future > [transcript]
James Hepburne Scott - A Tale of Two Homes Abbotsford and Mertoun, and Two Families > [video]
Kirsty Archer-Thompson - An Exclusive ‘Behind The Scenes’ Tour of Abbotsford House > [photos]
2017
Dr. Ralph McLean - John Porteous in The Heart of Midlothian: the intersection of history and fiction > [video] >> [powerpoint]
Prof. Anthony Mandal - Cupid’s decorous lanthorn at 200 > [video] >> [transcript]
Josi S. Kilpack - Writing the Love Story of Sir Walter Scott > [video]
Prof. David Hewitt and Prof. Peter Garside - Colloquium on Rob Roy > [video] >> [transcript]
Prof. Jeremy J. Smith - Sir Walter Scott in Dictionaries: Invention and Artistry > [video] >> [transcript]
Iain Wilson - In The Tracks of Mortality > [video]
The Sorries - The Story of Scott's Songs: from ‘The Queen’s Marie’ to ‘Bonnie Dundee > [video]
Dr. Ewan Morris - Sir Walter Scott and place names in Australia and New Zealand > [video] >> [transcript]
2016
Dr. Tom Mole - Scott in Stone: The Scott Monument in the Victorian Pantheon > [video]
Professor Nigel Leask - Scott's Antiquary and the Ossian Controversy > [video]
Alasdair Hutton - Ceremony At The Grave of Sir Walter Scott > [blog]
Professor Alan Riach - Scott, World Literature and the Prospect of Scotland > [video]
Prof. Murray Pittock - Citizen of the World or Native Heath: Rob Roy as a test case for Scott's view of the Enlightenment > [video]
Bridget Falconer-Salkeld - Wattie Takes The Waters > [blog]
Dr. Susan Oliver - Trees, Rivers, and Stories: Walter Scott and the Land > [video]
Lara Haggerty - Sir Walter Scott and Scotland’s First Lending Library > [video] >> [transcript]
Professor Peter Garside - Edinburgh Locations and the Production of the Waverley Novels >[blog]
2015
Prof. Gerard Carruthers - Burns & Scott: Builders of the Scottish Nation > [video]
Jenni Calder - Reading Waverley > [video]
The Hon. Lord Woolman - Sir Walter’s Trip to the Battlefield of Waterloo > [video]
Roddy Martine - Sir Walter Scott and his publisher James Cadell > [video]
Dairmid Gunn - Sir Walter Scott: Perceptions of the Highlands and Highlanders > [video] >> [transcript]
Caroline McCracken-Flesher - Something to Write Home About: Surprising Stories in Abbotsford Guest Books > [video] >> [powerpoint]
2014
Lt Cdr Dairmid Gunn - Russia and Scottland: Russia’s debt to Sir Walter > [transcript]
Margaret Bennett and Lori Watson - Beyond the Border: Sir Walter Scott’s Minstrelsy in Story and Song > [video1] > [video2]
Professor Claire Lamont and Professor Peter Garside - A Colloquium on Waverley > [transcript]
Sir Hew Strachan - Kaiser Wilhelm II 1914 – Napoleon Bonaparte 1814 > [video1] > [video2]
Paul H. Scott - The Letters to Malachi Malagrowther
2013
Lucy Macrae and Kaye McAlpine - Reiving and Bereaving: Walter Scott and the rich ballad tradition of the Scottish Borders
Lt Cdr Dairmid Gunn - Scott and Malta: A Mediterranean Adventure > [transcript]
Fiona Robertson - Scott in 2013: New Scholarship, Old Connections, and the Case of Rokeby > [transcript]
Professor David Purdie - An IVANHOE for the 21st Century
Richard and Caroline Wiseman - 39 North Castle Street: A Private Viewing
Dr. Matthew Withey - A Private Tour of Sir Walter’s newly restored home
Alasdair Hutton - Marmion, A Tale of Flodden Field: A Marketing Triumph > [transcript]
Lindsay Levy - Abbotsford Library Catalogue 1838 and 2013
Dr. Sigrid Rieuwerts - Editing Scott’s Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border
2011/12 - Read these articles here: [bulletin]
Prof. David Purdie - Scott and the Pharos: The Lighthouse Tour of 1814 Revisited
Sandra McNeil - Abbotsford: an Exciting Future
Dr Gillian Hughes - Sir Walter Scott and James Hogg: A City and Country Friendship
Dr Susan Rennie - Besoms, Keelies, and Merry Men: Scott’s contributions to Jamieson’s Dictionary
William Payne and Lee A. Simpson - A Colloquium on The Antiquary
Joanna Cooke and Matthew Withey - Out and In: The Decant and Recant of Sir Walter Scott’s Collection at Abbotsford
Professor Christopher Harvie - Scott, The Brothers Grimm and the Lost Union
J. H. Alexander - Editing Scott’s Last Edition
Allan Massie - Scott and Byron: The Generosity of Friendship
Professor Claire Lamont - Story-telling in the Introductions to the Magnum Edition of the Waverley Novels
Dr. Penny Fielding - To The Lighthouses: Scott and the Stevensons in Orkney and Shetland
Lt. Cdr. Dairmid Gunn - Scott, Newman and Abbotsford
Professor Kathryn Sutherland and Professor David Hewitt - Colloquium on Redgauntlet
Dr. Gillian Hughes - Scott and James Hogg: A City and Country Friendship
Dr. Alison Lumsden - Retuning the Harp of the North: Editing Scott's Poetry
Dr. Michael Buck - William Stark, and the Cottage that Never Was: Early Planning at Abbotsford, 1811-12
Prof. Peter Garside - Illustrating Scott's Fiction
2010 - Read these articles here: [bulletin]
Kath Hardie - Sir Walter Scott and Thomas Moore
Dr. Paul Barnaby - A Mighty Treasure: The Corson Collection
Dr Alison Lumsden and Dr. Nicola Watson - Colloquium on The Lady of The Lake
John M. Milne - Bricks Without Straw
Dr. R. A. Silvester - Presidential Perspectives
Stuart Kelly - Scott-Land: The Author Who Invented A Nation
Dr. Robert Irvine - Scott, India, and the Muslim Gentleman
2009 - Read these articles here: [bulletin]
Brian Gill and Paul H. Scott - Colloquium on The Heart of Midlothian
Scott Moffat - An Evening With Scott
Stuart Kelly - Scott and Satire
Professor David Purdie - Scott's use of Classical Quotation
Jacquie Wright - Abbotsford: Past, Present and Future
Ronald Silvester - Scott as Poet, Critic and Historian
Lindsay Levy - Walter Scott – bibliophile or bibliomaniac?
Alasdair Hutton and Professor David Hewitt - Coloquium on Rob Roy
2008 - Read these articles here: [bulletin]
Stephen Woolman - Remembering Scott's Birthday
Ronald Stevenson - Premiere of Scott Musical Settings by Sophia Scott (Reviewed by Bridget Falcolner-Salkeld)
Jenni Calder - Scott, Wilderness and North America
Professor Peter Garside - Annotating Waverley
Lt. Cdr. Dairmid Gunn - Jeanie Deans and the Captain's Daughter
2007 - Read these articles here: [bulletin]
Professor Ian Campbell - Remembering Scott's Birthday
Bridget Falcolner-Salkeld - Shakespeare at Traquair's - The Lay of the Last Minstrel
Stephen Woolman - Scott and the Edinburgh Reviewers
Graham Tulloch - Scott and Australia
Judy Steel - Rediscovering Scott for a New Generation
Professor Murray Pittock - The Reception of Scott in Europe
Dr. Bill Bell - The Real Age of Scott
Martin Philip - James Robertson and Walter Scott
2006 - Read these articles here: [bulletin]
James Robertson – Scott and the Ettrick Shepherd
James Holloway – Walter Scott and His Artists
Owen Dudley Edwards – Scott and Ireland
Alex Cameron – In the Footsteps of Scott
Professor Caroline McCracken-Flesher – You Can’t Go Home Again
Professor David Purdie – A Tale of Three Knights
2005 - Read these articles here: [bulletin]
Andrew D. Hook – Scott and America
Sir Eric Anderson – Living With Scott
Professor David Hewitt – Scott Revolutionised: What We Have Learned from Editing the Waverley Novels
Susan Hamilton and John Cameron - Local Heroes and Romantic Heroines: A Recital of works by F.Schubert, F.G.Scott, R.Stevenson, L.Strickland, L.Beethoven, G.Donizetti, and J.Haydn > [programme]
Bridget Falconer-Salkeld – Scott and Scotland’s Parliament
2004 - Read these articles here: [bulletin]
Dr. Iain Gordon Brown – Sir Walter Scott: A Life in Manuscripts
Bridget Falconer-Salkeld – A Brahah Pen
Dr. Margaret Bennett and Sandy Stanage – Beyond The Border: Sir Walter Scott’s Minstrelsy
R. A. Silverster – The Wizard of the North: Confounding the Detractors
A.M.G. Kinnear - Young Walter Scott and Old Dr. Hutton
Robert Burns – Scott in Schools
Andrew Stevenson – Scott-related Works in the Philadelphia Museum of Art
2003 - Read these articles here: [bulletin]
Allan Massie - Why We Should Read Scott Today
Professor David Purdie – The Younger Scott and the Later Enlightenment
Paul H.Scott – Walter Scott’s Cruise with the Lighthouse Commissioners
Richard Hill – Turner’s Illustrations to the Work of Sir Walter Scott
2002/3 - Read these articles here: [bulletin]
Lt. Cdr. Dairmid Gunn – The Pirate
Dr. Alison Lumsden - Textual Messaging: The Making of Meaning in the Waverley Novels
Anne Lorne Gillies and Rhona Mackay - The Lady of the Lake > [programme]
2001/2 - Read these articles here: [bulletin]
Richard D. Jackson – Introducing Guy Mannering and The Astrologers
Rod Paterson - Evening of Music at Abbotsford
Dr. Iain Brown - Collecting Scott for Scotland 1850-2000
1999/2000 - Read these articles here: [bulletin]
Arnold Kemp – Sir Walter Scott and Politics
Richard D. Jackson – Scott and St. John’s
Jane Sellars – Sir Walter Scott and the Brontes
1998/9 - Read these articles here: [bulletin]
Douglas Gifford – Inventing New Scotlands: The Achievements of Sir Walter Scott
Lt. Cdr. Dairmid Gunn – Sir Walter Scott and His Influence on the Russian Psyche
Richard D. Jackson – Boorjoy’s Bonnie Braes
1997/8 - Read these articles here: [bulletin]
Professor Ian Campbell – Scott’s Treatment of the Past
J.H. Alexander – The Key, The Bonnie Bridegroom and An Ower True Tale
1995/6 - Read these articles here: [bulletin]
Fraser Elgin - Exegi Monumentum Aere Pernnius
Niger Tranter – A Novelist’s View of Scott
A.G.Stevenson – Alexander Smith: The Scott Forger
Derek Mills - Scott on Salmon
1993/4 - Read these articles here: [bulletin]
Professor David Daiches – Character and History in Scott’s Novels
Professor Ian Campbell – A Centenary of Scott
Professor Jane Millgate - Scott and the Victorians
Basil Skinner – Scott and the Open Road (read by Lydia Skinner)
A.G. Stevenson – Walter Scott at the Bar
A.G. Stevenson – The Ettrick Shepherd in Court
Alan Massie - Pre-publication reading of The Ragged Lion
Prof. Duncan Macmillan - Scottish Art in the Age of Scott
Prof. John Sutherland - Scott's Lives
Tom Fleming - A performance of Wandering Willie Tale
1991/2 - Read these articles here: [bulletin]
Alex Cameron - Illustrated Talk on the Border County
Lt. Cdr. Dairmid Gunn – The Influence of Sir Walter Scott’s writings upon the works of Puskin and other Russian writers
Professor Claire Lamont – Waverley and Jacobite Mythology > [audio]
Chen Zhao-Lin – Sir Walter Scott’s Influence on Chinese Literature
Lt. Cdr. Dairmid Gunn – Neil Gunn and Walter Scott: Attitudes to Scotland
Professor Peter Garside – Scott and the Borderlands of Romance
1990 - Read these articles here: [bulletin]
John McQueen – On Editing Rob Roy
Professor David Daiches – The Poetry of Sir Walter Scott
Jenni Calder – Scott and Stevenson: Story and History
1989 - Sir Eric Anderson – Scott: The Author as Actor. In light of the death of Dr. J.C. Corson the title of this talk was changed to The Building of Abbotsford.
1988 - Margaret Bennett and Martyn Bennett – Scott's Border Songs
1986 - Dr. Iain Gordon Brown - A private viewing of the Interleaved Set of the Waverley Novels (the so-called ‘Magnum Opus’) and the Pforzheimer Scott Manuscripts repatriated from the United States
1932 - Centenary Celebrations > [bulletin]
- A Service in St. Giles on the Day of the Centenary (21st September)
- A Ceremony at Dryburgh Abbey
- An Exhibition of Portraits and Manuscripts in the National Gallery Novels in the Usher Hall
- A Pageant by School Children in Waverley Market
- The Publication of a Commemorative Volume edited by Prof. H.J.C. Grierson
1932 - Hugh Walpole - Scott and the Centenary > [bulletin]
1930 - Unknown - Walter Scott's Heroic Struggle (with Insolvency) > [bulletin]
1929 - Unknown - Walter Scott's visit to London > [bulletin]
1927 - Mr. Walter T. Watson - The unveiling of a Tablet in Sciennes Hill House to commemerate the meeting of Scott and Burns > [bulletin]
1926 - Various - The Meeting-place of Sir Walter Scott and Robert Burns > [bulletin]
1901 - Madam Annie Grey - Song Recital
1900 - Rev. W. Stephen, Kelty, Blair Adam - Sir Walter Scott and the Blair Adam Antiquarian Club > [bulletin]
1898 - William Wallace - Scott's Spiritual and Ethical Influence.
1897 - Mr George G. Napier - Homes and Haunts of Sir Walter Scott
1896 - Sir Herbert Maxwell, Bart. M.P. - The Border Wars Between England and Scotland
1895 - Rev John Watson (Ian Maclaren) - The Typical Scott in the Waverley Novels
Newspaper Cuttings
Newspaper clipping of articles from all the mayor Scottish Newspapers on stories about Sir Walter Scott or The Edinburgh Sir Walter Scott Club.
1927-1933 View them here: [1927 Newspaper Cuttings]
1933-1949 View them here: [1933 Newspaper Cuttings]
