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Notes on William Scott, Stonemason, Schoolmaster, and 

 Author. By T. Craig-Brown, F.8.A., Selkirk. 



Collectors of local books who happen to possess "Border 

 Exploits" and "Beauties of the Border" by " W. Scott," 

 can hardly fail to have had their curiosity excited as to 

 who this W. Scott really was. The first edition of the 

 "Exploits," printed and published at Hawick in 1812, was 

 followed by a second printed in 1832 at Carlisle, where also 

 the "Beauties" had been published in 1821, To issue 

 works upon the Border under the name of " W. Scott" at 

 a time when the Last Minstrel's poems had earned world- 

 wide renown was, to say the least of it, disingenuous, if 

 not something like a trick. The author's name was William ; 

 and if he had wished people not to fall into an easy mistake, 

 it would have been a simple thing for him to have 

 given his Christian name in full. It is impossible to avoid 

 suspecting him of hoping to reap a certain advantage by 

 printing it "W.," which also stands for Walter. The real 

 " Walter Scott, Esq., Abbotsford," with his usual magnanimity 

 and kindliness, heads a goodly muster of 53 Scotts in the list 

 of subscribers to the "Exploits;" but it is not without 

 significance that the great name is not in the later list appended 

 to the " Beauties." The preface to the latter being dated 

 from Burnmouth, I asked Mr Scott, Erkinholme, Langholm, 

 if he could throw any light on the identity of the author ; 

 and to him I am indebted for the information that W. Scott 

 was originally a builder or stonemason ; that, trade turning 

 slack, he took to teaching and became schoolmaster at Under 

 Burnmouth, Castleton parish ; and that the family tombstone in 

 Castleton churchyard records his death "at Thirlestone Cottage, 

 parish of Ettrick, 6th October 1842, aged 79 years." As 

 this seemed to point to some connection, ancestral or otherwise, 

 with the Forest, enquiries were next made in the parish where 

 he died. With his well-known interest in everything that 

 concerns his own ward of the Forest, Lord Napier and Ettrick 

 investigated the matter, and soon discovered all that was to 

 be known about the latter end of " W. Scott." " He was," 

 says his lordship, " towards the end of his life chiefly employed 

 as a maker of grave-stones. He supplied the kirkyards of 

 Ettrick and Yarrow, and drove the stones from Langholm, by 



