Women’s Writing in the British Isles from the Beginnings to the Present
Sir Walter Scott
-
Standard Name: Scott, Sir Walter
Birth Name: Walter Scott
Titled: Sir Walter Scott
Nickname: The Great Unknown
Used Form: author of Kenilworth
The remarkable career of Walter Scott
began with a period as a Romantic poet (the leading Romantic poet in terms of popularity) before he went on to achieve even greater popularity as a novelist, particularly for his historical fiction and Scottish national tales. His well-earned fame in both these genres of fiction has tended to create the impression that he originated them, whereas in fact women novelists had preceded him in each.
Holford seems to have cared about making influential friends, and succeeded in doing so although she lived in the provinces. She established a correspondence with Sir Walter Scott
, and although their relationship got off...
Bowles and her circle likened the young woman who enjoyed dancing and singing to Walter Scott
's Flora McIvor.
Friends, Associates
Lady Eleanor Butler
Among their many visitors (apart from the local gentry, with whom they duly established links), close friends included Anna Seward
, Henrietta Maria Bowdler
(who wrote mock-flirtatiously of LEB
as her veillard [sic] or old...
Friends, Associates
Alison Cockburn
She wrote that some of my most steady friends thro' Life were my childhood companions, girls she had been at school with.
Cockburn, Alison. Letters and Memoirs. Editor Craig-Brown, Thomas, David Douglas.
2
Besides Ramsay (whom, too, she had known since her girlhood), Burns
Benger, Elizabeth Ogilvy. Memoirs of the late Mrs. Elizabeth Hamilton. Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme and Brown.
1: 152-4
Smith, Elizabeth. Fragments, In Prose and Verse. Editor Bowdler, Henrietta Maria, Richard Cruttwell.
151
In Edinburgh in 1803...
Friends, Associates
Mary Boyle
MB
noted in her reminiscences that she had been on terms of close and tender friendship with many great men.
Boyle, Mary. Mary Boyle. Her Book. Editor Boyle, Sir Courtenay Edmund, E. P. Dutton; John Murray.
xxiii
Her correspondence with some of them has since been published. She called G. P. R. James
Friends, Associates
Anna Seward
In her last years AS
availed herself of the services of a Miss Fern
as a (presumably paid) companion.
Ashmun, Margaret. The Singing Swan. Yale University Press; H. Milford, Oxford University Press.
244-6
She had struck up an acquaintance with the young Walter Scott
(who sent some of...
Friends, Associates
Mary Bryan
MB
approached Sir Walter Scott
on 10 June 1818, seeking the furtherance of her literary career. The extant correspondence spans nine years. His side does not survive, and there is no evidence that they ever...
Friends, Associates
Maria Edgeworth
ME
formed warm friendships with Scott
and his son-in-law J. G. Lockhart
.
Butler, Marilyn. Maria Edgeworth: A Literary Biography. Clarendon.
418-20
Friends, Associates
Susan Ferrier
SF
and her father
made a visit, which was her first, to Walter Scott
at Ashistiel (his estate near Selkirk), when he was an eminent poet but not yet a novelist. They had stormy...
Friends, Associates
Lucy Aikin
LA
, dining with Walter Scott
, was pleased that though she herself went unnoticed, Scott devoted considerable attention to her aunt Barbauld
.
Aikin, Lucy. Memoirs, Miscellanies and Letters. Editor Le Breton, Philip Hemery, Longman, Green, Longman, Roberts, and Green.
98-9
Friends, Associates
Dorothea Primrose Campbell
DPC
corresponded with Walter Scott
, who offered moral and some material support.
Scott, Sir Walter. “Papers of Sir Walter Scott”. MSS 3278. 102, 3888.20, 3890. 89, 208, 261, National Library of Scotland.
