Something to Write Home About: Surprising Stories in Abbotsford Guest Books
Thursday 8th October 2015
Summary of the Talk
Professor McCracken-Flesher’s lecture focused on Abbotsford, the home of Sir Walter Scott, and its role as a site of cultural memory, literary pilgrimage, and scholarly inquiry. Using the visitor books from 1833 to 1935, she explored how Abbotsford became a living extension of Scott’s literary imagination and a place where space, time, and identity were condensed.
She contrasted Scott’s hospitality with Thomas Carlyle’s disdain for the ‘touristification’ of Abbotsford, pointing out how visitors from all walks of life—famous writers, dignitaries, curious travellers—sought to inscribe themselves into Scott’s world.
McCracken-Flesher argued that Scott’s literary project was about “folding the wilderness into place”—bringing Scotland’s history, geography, and mythology into domestic and textual order. Yet, the chaos of nature and human unpredictability always loomed. Abbotsford was both controlled and uncontrollable, a theatrical stage and a site of lived experience.
She also discussed how visitors like Melville, Dickens, Queen Victoria, and even Mark Twain (under his real name Samuel Clemens) signed the guest books. Unexpected names (like Admiral Farragut and the Chicago lumber merchant H.W. Hoyt) hint at far-reaching networks. These signatures sometimes opened out into vast stories—political, personal, and even tragic.
In conclusion, Abbotsford is not just a preserved home, but a dynamic cultural artefact. Each signature in the guest books offers a lens into how Scott’s legacy resonated across continents and generations.
Noteworthy Highlights and Observations
- Scott’s Generosity vs. Carlyle’s Criticism: Scott’s welcoming nature brought a diverse array of guests to Abbotsford, which Carlyle mocked as “infested with tourists.” This tension between celebrity and authenticity still resonates.
- Miniature World, Expansive Meaning: Abbotsford is framed as a ‘jewel box’ that condenses history, identity, and place into a curated yet resonant experience—echoing Susan Stewart’s theory of miniaturisation.
- Visitor Book as Archive of Memory: The guest books are an untapped scholarly resource, revealing waves of cultural visitors and sometimes entire lives unfolding beyond the margins of a single signature.
- Surprising Visitors:
- Mark Twain signed under his real name and was previously unnoticed in the books.
- Queen Victoria hesitated to sign but eventually did.
- Admiral Farragut and H.W. Hoyt connect Abbotsford to American Civil War narratives and labour history.
- “Colonel Flapdoodle” playfully underscores how even jokers saw value in leaving their mark.
- Domestic Performance: Scott’s household frequently became a space for informal performances and readings. His daughters, especially Anne, were expected to entertain, which sometimes became burdensome.
- Landscape as Stage: The carefully curated “serpentine walks” symbolise Scott’s effort to shape nature without completely controlling it—echoing Enlightenment ideals mingled with Romantic wildness.
- Scott and Place-Making: Compared with Austen, Scott had a single, mythologised “home” in Abbotsford. It became a pilgrimage site far earlier than Chawton or Bath did for Austen.
Download the [Powerpoint]
Introduction by Alasdair Hutton:
Our speaker this evening is Professor Caroline McCracken-Flesher, Professor of English at the University of Wyoming in Laramie. She took her MA at Edinburgh, and her writing on Scottish literature is widely published. Her books include Possible Scotlands: Walter Scott and the Story of Tomorrow and The Doctor Dissected: A Cultural Autopsy of the Burke and Hare Murders.
I first met Caroline when she came to Abbotsford and Bowhill last year with the Clan Scott Society. She has just received the Clan Scott Society’s highest award, the Order of the Stag. The award recognises her outstanding scholarship in Scottish literature, particularly that of Sir Walter Scott. She regards Scott as a flexible and generous thinker, whose genuine voice appears in his letters and journals.
She will also be giving a talk at the Scottish Parliament on Scottish literature on the topic of “The Humanities in a Posthuman Future.” I’ve no doubt Scott will be central there, too. Tonight, ladies and gentlemen, we are very fortunate to have her with us.
Professor Caroline McCracken-Flesher is Professor of English at the University of Wyoming in Laramie. She took her MA at Edinburgh and her writing on Scottish literature is published widely. Her books include Possible Scotlands: Walter Scott and the Story of Tomorrow and The Doctor Dissected: A Cultural Autopsy of the Burke and Hare Murders. She has just received the Clan Scott Society’s highest award, the Order of the Stag. The award recognizes her “outstanding scholarship and study of Scottish literature, particularly that of Sir Walter Scott.”
Synopsis:
Caroline McCracken-Flesher discusses the many contemporary and later visitors to Scott’s home. What did his house mean to these visitors, and why? And what do the Abbotsford visitor books, maintained by Scott’s descendants, tell us about our own trends and needs as tourists?
