Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
B6360, near Galashiels; 3km (2 miles) west of Melrose; just off the A6091.
&
01896/752-043.
www.
scottsabbotsford.co.uk. Admission £7 adults, £3.50 children, £18 families. MC, V. Mid-Mar-end of Oct,
Mon-Sat 9:30am-5pm, Mid-Mar-May, Oct Sun 11:00am-4pm, June-Sept Sun 9:30am-5pm. Nov to
mid-Mar group bookings only.
Little Sparta
Not highlighted by many guidebooks, this garden was
devised by one of Scotland's most intriguing artists in the 20th and 21st centuries,
the late Ian Hamilton Finlay, who died on March 27, 2006. It is a surprisingly lush
plot of land, given the harsh terrain of the Pentland Hills all around it. Dotted
throughout the garden are stone sculptures (many with Finlay's pithy sayings and
poems) created in collaboration with master stonemasons and other artists. Little
Sparta has been called the “only original garden” created in Great Britain since
World War II. During the Edinburgh Festival, minibus transport from Edinburgh is
usually provided.
Stonypath, near Dunsyre, off the A702; 32km (20 miles) southwest of Edinburgh.
&
01899/810-252.
www.littlesparta.co.uk. Admission £10. Mid-June-end of Sept Wed, Fri, and Sun 2:30-5pm.
Melrose Abbey
These lichen-covered ruins, among the most evocative in
Europe, are all that's left of an ecclesiastical community established by Cistercian
monks in the 12th century. The tall walls still standing today follow the lines of the
original abbey, but they were largely constructed in the 15th century. The Gothic
design moved Sir Walter Scott to write in the
Lay of the Last Minstrel,
“If thou would'st
view fair Melrose aright, go visit in the pale moonlight.” The author was also instru-
mental in ensuring that the decayed remains were preserved in the 19th century. You
12
SIR WALTER SCOTT: INVENTOR OF
historical
novels
It may be hard to imagine the fame that
Walter Scott, novelist and poet, enjoyed
as the best-selling author of his day. His
works are no longer so widely read, but
Scott (1771-1832) was thought to be a
master storyteller and he is now
regarded as one of the inventors of the
historical novel. Before his Waverley
series was published in 1814, no modern
English author had spun such tales from
actual events, examining the lives of
individuals who played roles—large and
small. He created lively characters and
realistic pictures of Scottish life in works
such as
The Heart of Midlothian.
Born on August 14, 1771 into a Borders
family that later settled in Edinburgh,
Scott was permanently lame due to
polio, which he contracted as a child. All
his life he was troubled by ill health and
later by ailing finances as well. He spent
his latter years writing to clear enormous
debts incurred when his publishing house
and printers collapsed in bankruptcy.
Scott made Scotland and its scenery
fashionable with the English, and he
played a key role in bringing Hanoverian
King George IV to Edinburgh in 1822. It
had been decades since a British mon-
arch had set foot in Scotland.
In 1831, heavily in debt and suffering
from the effects of several strokes,
Scott set out on a Mediterranean
cruise to recuperate. He returned the
following year to Abbotsford, where he
died on September 21, 1832. Scott is
buried at Dryburgh Abbey, sited in a
loop of the Tweed River.