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Events


The Annual Dinner of the Club is held in May each year at which the President delivers a toast to the memory of Sir Walter. Among other meetings there is a Joint Lecture with the University of Edinburgh English Dept where we award our [Scottish Literary Studies Medal].


>> Videos and transcripts of previous events linked below. <<


Forthcoming Programme 

Details on how to attend the meetings are sent to Club members mid-January and mid-July.


Thursday 14th March, 7.00 pm: ‘Sir Walter Scott, Stage Manager: George IV’s Visit to Edinburgh.’ a talk by Emma Stead. Tickets £20 each (including wine and canapés) > [video]


Thursday 11th April, 7:00 pm: ‘Reimagining Scott’ by Greg Moodie. Tickets £20 each (including wine and canapés)


Thursday 9th May, 6.30 pm: 114th Annual DinnerProf. Penny Fielding our President will give the Toast to Sir Walter. Tickets £80 each (including wine) or £60 (without wine).


Thursday 6th June, 7:00 pm: ‘Sir Walter Scott, the greatest of them all.’ By Eric Milligan. Tickets £20 each (incl. wine & canapés)



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 or email: treasurer (at) walterscottclub.org.uk  (*excludes the Annual Dinner and external trips). We are happy for you to come along to one meeting for free to see if you like the Club before officially joining.

Past Talks and Papers

All previous Club lectures and articles since 1894

(excluding Annual Dinners and Summer Excursions)


2024


Emma Stead - Sir Walter Scott, Stage Manager: George IV’s Visit to Edinburgh > [video]

2023 


David McClay - Scott and the Speculative Society > [video]


Dr Valentina Bold - Dark Restless Borderers: Walter Scott and James Hogg > [video]


Dr Anna Pilz - Scott and the Northern Lights > [video] >> [powerpoint]


J. H. Alexander and Dr Lesley Graham - A Colloquium on Quentin Durward >  [video]


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]


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]


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] >> [text]


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. Puride - 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]


Prof. 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]


Professor Peter Garside - The Scott Family Graves > [blog]

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]


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]

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]

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