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Summary of the Speech:

Dr. Mavor opens with humour and humility, reflecting on Scott’s own advice for chairing a dinner and gently parodying both Scott’s words and his own role. He positions Scott as a figure of humanity, intellect, and enduring relevance, sharply contrasting Scott's imaginative richness with the critical discouragement he received—then and now—for not being more "modern."

He challenges critics who try to reshape writers rather than understand them, invoking the metaphor of the beetle-watcher—an observer who respects the subject rather than instructs it. He defends Scott's so-called "escapism" as sincere, enthusiastic storytelling, drawing parallels with Shakespeare, Cervantes, and Balzac, who also wrote for public enjoyment.

Mavor laments the loss of literary enthusiasm and condemns contemporary writers’ self-consciousness, blaming critics and cultural self-doubt. He celebrates Scott's unique ability to transform places with narrative imagination—making Scottish locations shimmer with mythic resonance.

Although Mavor admits he isn’t a natural literary reciter, he expresses profound gratitude for Scott’s impact. He reflects on Scott’s absorption of experience and disciplined creativity, likening him to a gasogene-maker who stores energy and releases it in ordered artistic bursts.

He ultimately frames Scott’s greatness not through popularity but through the deep, enduring admiration of fellow great minds. Mavor reads passages from Carlyle and Cockburn to illustrate Scott’s robustness, humility, humour, and spiritual presence.



The toast closes with a call to defend individuality and freedom in an age of conformity and to remember Scott not just with reverence, but with personal fondness.

Noteworthy Highlights and Insights

• Scott’s advice on speech-making: From his 1827 Theatrical Fund Dinner, Scott advises avoiding long speeches, pushing the bottle, and speaking briefly—“Skeoch doch na skiel” (cut a tale with a drink).
• Sharp critique of literary critics: Mavor ridicules critics who discourage imaginative writing in favour of drab realism, comparing them unfavourably to beetle-watchers, who observe rather than dictate.
• Defence of ‘escapism’: He sees writing for joy and imagination as noble, not inferior to so-called realist or political literature.
• Lament on literary culture: He bemoans a modern Scottish literary culture marked by self-doubt, lack of enthusiasm, and fearful conformity.
• Praise for Scott’s creative process: Scott is described as a disciplined yet passionate artist who absorbed life and transmuted it into enduring stories, much like a painter (Quentin Pringle) who sporadically but brilliantly created.
• Vivid literary language: Includes Scots dialect and a celebration of language's rootedness in place. Scott’s linguistic richness and cultural specificity are highlighted as accessible and valuable.
• Touching personal admissions: Mavor admits he isn’t a wide reader, that he doesn’t respond to Scott in the conventional way—but nonetheless reveres him for how he transformed the physical and mental landscapes of Scotland.
• Carlyle’s reluctant but sincere praise: Despite not fitting Carlyle’s template of greatness, Scott earns his reverent admiration—a testament to Scott’s quiet power.
• Final image: Cockburn’s memory of Scott is invoked as a living presence—his voice, manner, and spirit vividly recalled, making the evening feel like Scott himself is in the room.

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Notes from the Annual Report:

In the last Report of the proceedings of the Club, published in 1939, there were already hints that the uneasy peace was drawing to its close. Crisis was in the air. But few foresaw the long years of endurance which were to follow, and none that the Dinner of the Club in 1938 was to be the last for ten years. Lord Ponsonby was duly elected President; but the Dinner at which he should have taken the Chair had to give way before the stern demands of war, and Lord Ponsonby’s death during the war years has deprived the Club of one who would have added distinction to the long line of public men who have presided over the Club proceedings.

During the war years the Club’s activities had necessarily to be suspended. But in November 1946 your Council met to consider ways and means of reviving the Annual Dinner and the Essay Competition among the Schools. During the war years five members of your Council died, Mr James Milligan was obliged to resign for health reasons and Mr R. K. Sanderson, the Hon. Secretary, found himself unable to take up his office again through pressure of other business. In these circumstances the Council co-opted other members to bring their numbers up to strength and appointed Mr Allan C. Frazer to be Hon. Secretary.

The difficulties in renewing the Club’s activities were considerable. Arrangements for holding the Annual Dinner at the North British Station Hotel in the Autumn of 1947 were almost complete when Ministry of Food regulations made an assembly such as the Club Dinner illegal.

Tentative arrangements were made for holding a buffet-supper. But no sooner were these made than the regulation was relaxed to allow traditional dinners such as that of the Scott Club to be held on procuring a special permit. A permit having been secured, it was found that the North British Station Hotel, which had for so long been the scene of Club Dinners, could not accommodate us—a tiresome but not unfamiliar pattern in post-war years.

Nevertheless your Council was undeterred. And on Wednesday, 24th March 1948, the Fortieth Annual Dinner was held in the Music Hall.

Subsidiary Toasts*

The toasts of "The King" and "The Royal Family" were duly honoured.

Thereafter Mr J. L. Clyde, K.C., proposed the toast of "The Imperial Forces," to which Lieut.-General Sir Philip Christison replied. "The City of Edinburgh" was proposed by Lord Blades and replied to by Bailie Bruce Turnbull on behalf of the Lord Provost.*

The health of the Chairman was proposed by Sir Alexander Gray.

The Croupiers were Mr F. G. Sutherland, Mr W. H. Parker, Mr W. Watt, Mr D. A. Foulis, and Mr J. Boyd Jamieson.

Music was provided during the evening by Mr Herrick Bunney, pianist, and Mr Nicol Easton, Baritone.

*It is regretted that it has proved impracticable to reproduce the speeches other than that of the Chairman.