Lockhart’s Vantage Point

Why This Place Matters

This location relates to one of the most frequently repeated anecdotes about the composition of Waverley, the novel that launched Sir Walter Scott’s career as a writer of historical fiction. In his biography Memoirs of the Life of Sir Walter Scott, John Gibson Lockhart recalled how friends once noticed Scott writing with extraordinary speed, describing the movement of “that infernal hand.”

The story has become part of the mythology surrounding the creation of Waverley. Although Lockhart did not specify the exact location from which the scene was observed, the geography of the New Town suggests that the observers were positioned behind the Castle Street houses, looking across the garden plots toward the rear windows of Scott’s residence.

Historical Context

Scott lived at 39 Castle Street from 1802 until 1826. During this period he composed many of the works that established his literary reputation, including the first of the Waverley novels.

The New Town houses along Castle Street were constructed with long rear gardens extending westwards toward George Street. Behind these gardens stood the rear elevations of the George Street properties, which contained service courts and secondary buildings. This urban arrangement created clear sightlines between the rear windows of the two terraces.

The layout survives today, allowing the spatial relationships described in Lockhart’s anecdote to be understood within the modern city.

Scott Here

Lockhart’s account describes Scott writing rapidly at his desk while visible through a window. The biographer’s memorable phrase—referring to Scott’s “infernal hand”—captured the extraordinary speed with which Scott composed his fiction.

Scott’s study at 39 Castle Street overlooked the rear garden rather than the street. From upper floors at the back of neighbouring buildings on George Street it would have been possible to see into the rear windows of the house. While the precise vantage point cannot be identified with certainty, the geometry of the surrounding buildings suggests that observers could have watched Scott writing from the back of the George Street properties immediately east of Castle Street.

The Bigger Theme

This episode illustrates how the act of writing itself became part of Scott’s public legend. The anecdote transforms the private labour of authorship into a scene observed by friends and later retold by his biographer.

Such stories played an important role in the construction of Scott’s reputation. They helped present him not merely as a novelist but as a figure whose personal habits and working methods attracted fascination among contemporaries and later readers.

Literary Connections

Waverley, published anonymously in 1814, marked Scott’s first venture into prose fiction and quickly achieved remarkable success. The novel inaugurated the series later known as the Waverley Novels, which dominated historical fiction throughout the nineteenth century and influenced writers across Europe.

Lockhart’s anecdote connects the physical environment of Edinburgh’s New Town with the moment in which this influential literary form emerged.

What to Notice On Site

Although the precise viewing location cannot be identified, the surviving urban layout behind Castle Street allows visitors to understand how the anecdote might have arisen. The long garden plots behind the Castle Street houses still separate the two terraces, much as they did in Scott’s lifetime.

From the surrounding streets it is possible to visualise the relationship between the rear windows of 39 Castle Street and the buildings on George Street that face them across the gardens.

Questions to Consider

How reliable are anecdotes recorded years after the events they describe?

What role do such stories play in shaping the public memory of literary figures?

How does the surviving urban landscape of Edinburgh help illuminate episodes from Scott’s life?

Further Reading

Lockhart, J. G. - Memoirs of the Life of Sir Walter Scott.
Millgate, Jane. - Walter Scott: The Making of the Novelist.

Walter Scott - Waverley; or, ’Tis Sixty Years Since. 

Did You Know

Waverley was published anonymously in 1814. Scott did not publicly acknowledge his authorship of the novel until 1827, when he formally revealed himself as the “Author of Waverley.”