Sir Walter Scott

Captured in a Border raid, handsome William Scott is offered a choice: the gallows or marriage to Meikle-mouthed Meg, reputedly the ugliest woman in four counties. Six generations later, their descendant Sir Walter Scott would make that family legend live in verse.

Richard Holt Hutton’s biography begins in the rough-and-ready world of the Scottish Border clans, then follows Scott into a family shaped by sharply different inheritances. From his grandfather comes a taste for bold, risky ventures; from his orderly father, conscientious industry; from his tender, keenly observant mother, vivid memories of Scotland’s past. In Scott, Hutton finds these impulses joined: the romance of old loyalties held in check by a strong sense of duty. What would this mix of blood, memory, and discipline make of the boy who grew up among Scotland’s stories?

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