Early Planning at Abbotsford, 1811–12: Walter Scott, William Stark and the Cottage that Never Was

Abstract

The significance of Sir Walter Scott's Abbotsford as an important nineteenth-century manor house in the Scottish ‘Baronial’ style is rarely contested. The complexity of the property's development, however, has left open important questions about its history. In the main, previous studies of Abbotsford have shown a slow evolution from the original farmhouse on the estate through several stages until the main structure as it existed in Scott's lifetime was completed in 1825. What has now become more clearly visible, however, is the fact that for at least the first year after the purchase of the property in June 1811 Scott was aiming to build his residence on fresh ground immediately adjacent to the Tweed, according to plans commissioned from the eminent Glasgow architect William Stark. Using a range of archival material from the period – some newly discovered – this paper traces Scott's plan to build his ‘cottage’ by the Tweed, from the inception of the scheme in the summer of 1811 until its effectual abandonment after 1812.