Working autograph of ‘Rob Roy’ by Sir Walter Scott, with some associated papers., 1817.

Item

Identifier: MS.50702

Staff Only

Scope and Contents

Complete working manuscript of 'Rob Roy'.

Associated content.

Letter, circa 1817, of Sir Walter Scott to James Ballantyne on the completion of 'Rob Roy'. Folio i.

Fragment of a sales catalogue, 4th quarter of 19th century. Folio ii.

Card from Honresfield, Littleborough, marked 'Scott original manuscript of 'Rob Roy''. Folio iii.

Newspaper clipping from 'The Times', 19 March 1901, on the effect of 'Rob Roy' on James Russell Lowell. Folio iv.

Newspaper clipping on the purchase of 'Marmion', and a clipping on Scott's style of writing in 'The Fortunes of Nigel'. Folio v.

Handwritten note, circa 1848, on the sale and purchase of 'Rob Roy' up to 1848. Folio vi.

Manuscript of 'Rob Roy', 1817. Folios 1-301.

Each of the three volumes of the manuscript of ‘Rob Roy’ was foliated separately by Scott, but all were bound together in sequence in a single volume. Scott’s foliation is as follows.

Volume 1. 103 folios, numbered 1-102 (13 used twice) Volume 2. 92 folios, numbered 1-103 (40-49 omitted by Scott) Volume 3. 95 folios, numbered 1-95.

Dates

Creation: 1817.

Creator

Scott, Walter, Sir, 1st Baronet of Abbotsford (poet and novelist) (1771-1832) (Creator, Person)
Ballantyne, James (printer) (Recipient, Person)

Conditions Governing Access

Access restricted. Please contact the division of Archives & Manuscript Collections to arrange access (manuscripts@nls.uk). A digital surrogate is available.

Conditions Governing Use

Normal reproduction conditions apply, subject to any copyright restrictions.

Extent

iv + 301 Leaves

Language of Materials

English

Additional Description

Arrangement

vi + 301 folios.

Custodial History

The manuscript was sold at auction in 1831 as part of the collection of manuscripts Scott gave to the publisher Archibald Constable in 1823. In 1847 the publisher Robert Cadell purchased the volume and presented it to John Gibson Lockhart. In 1894 it was sold by Scott's great-grandaughter, Monica Maxwell-Scott, to William Law. The manuscript remained in the Law family's possession until 2022 when, on the sale of the Honresfield House library, it was purchased by the Friends of the National Libraries and was donated to the National Library of Scotland as part of the distributed collection, the Blavatnik Honresfield Library.

Immediate Source of Acquisition

Presented, 2022, by the Friends of the National Libraries, London.

Existence and Location of Copies

A digital surrogate is available to view here.

General

Blavatnik Honresfield Library. After the acquisition in 2021 of the Honresfield library the collection was distributed between various institutions. Collectively the holdings across those institutions are now known as the Blavatnik Honresfield Library in recognition of the generosity of Sir Leonard Blavatnik in supporting the acquisition.