The Rob Roy manuscript by Sir Walter Scott will be made available to the public for the first time in at least a century. Only a small group of academics were aware of the original text of the 1817 publication of the historical classic, which prevented it from being put up for sale.
However, starting in March, it will be on display in Edinburgh during the Treasures of the National Library of Scotland exhibition.
The Honresfield Library housed numerous literary treasures, including this one.
The private collection was started in the 19th century by William Law, the proprietor of a mill in Rochdale, but its contents had hitherto been kept secret from most people save a select few.
According to the National Library of Scotland, the collection had not been seen by the general public for at least a century and had been mostly inaccessible for the previous 80 years.
Works by authors such as Sir Walter Scott, Robert Burns, and Jane Austen were saved after a UK-wide coalition of organizations intervened. The items were scheduled to be sold off at auction by Sotheby’s, but concerns were raised that they would be returned to private hands or even lost to a foreign buyer.
The Rob Roy manuscript has a long history of acquisition and disposal, with the Scott family’s financial standing at any given moment frequently determining who owned it.
The National Library’s curator of manuscripts, Ralph McLean, said: “Many of Sir Walter Scott’s manuscripts were later sold at auction to help pay off debt when he and his business partners experienced financial difficulties following the crash of 1826.
Rob Roy was sold, but John Gibson Lockhart, Scott’s son-in-law, eventually bought him back and gave him back to the Scott family in the middle of the 19th century.
William Law was able to buy straight from the Scott family because of the personal friendship they had developed. As a result, when financial hardship struck the Scott family, he bought the manuscript and added it to his personal collection.
Sir Walter was writing under an assumed name when Rob Roy was released, with a for-its-time enormous initial run of 10,000 copies, but the book was marketed as “authored by the author of the Waverley novels.”
It is always in print
Rob Roy was a hit. It has never been out of print in the more than 200 years since it was first released, making it one of Sir Walter’s most well-liked books.
The book, which was initially released by Archibald Constable in Edinburgh, is set during the 1715 Jacobite uprising and is told through the eyes of the protagonist Frank Osbaldistone, who meets Scottish bandit and folk hero Rob Roy MacGregor while visiting Scotland.
McLean stated: “What’s intriguing is that Rob Roy himself doesn’t play a major role in the book; instead, he just shows up sometimes. The title was actually recommended by Scott’s publisher.
“Rob Roy MacGregor’s portrayal as a character in the novel, as well as later depictions of this person in various media, have definitely added to the myths surrounding this individual.”
In honor of its significant contributor, the Honresfield Library is now known as the Blavatnik Honresfield Library.
Celebrations for Sir Walter’s 250th birth anniversary began in 2021 with a light spectacular.
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