Editing Walter Scott (section)

==Early life==
Walter Scott was born on 15 August 1771, in a third-floor apartment on College Wynd in the [[Old Town, Edinburgh|Old Town]], Edinburgh, a narrow alleyway leading from the [[Cowgate]] to the gates of the old [[University of Edinburgh]].<ref name="homes">{{Cite web |last=Edinburgh University Library |title=Homes of Sir Walter Scott |url=http://www.walterscott.lib.ed.ac.uk/biography/homes.html |publisher=[[Edinburgh University Library]] |date=22 October 2004 |access-date=9 July 2013}}</ref> He was the ninth child (six having died in infancy) of Walter Scott (1729–1799), a member of a cadet branch of the [[Clan Scott]] and a [[Society of Writers to Her Majesty's Signet|Writer to the Signet]], and his wife Anne Rutherford, a sister of [[Daniel Rutherford]] and a descendant both of the [[Clan Swinton]] and of the [[William Hersey Otis Haliburton|Haliburton family]] (descent from which granted Walter's family the hereditary right of burial in [[Dryburgh Abbey]]).<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.walterscott.lib.ed.ac.uk/biography/origins.html |title=Family Background |website=Walter Scott |publisher=Edinburgh University Library |date=24 October 2003}}</ref>

Walter was, through the Haliburtons, a cousin of the [[James Burton (property developer)|London property developer James Burton]] (d. 1837), who was born with the surname 'Haliburton', and of the same's son the architect [[Decimus Burton]].<ref name="BSLS">{{Cite web |title=Who were the Burtons |url=http://www.burtonsstleonardssociety.co.uk/history_-_the_burtons.html |website=The Burtons' St Leonards Society |access-date=18 September 2017 |archive-date=8 September 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190908112908/http://www.burtonsstleonardssociety.co.uk/history_-_the_burtons.html |url-status=dead }}</ref> Walter became a member of the [[Clarence Club]], of which the Burtons were members.<ref name="Life and Letters p. 55">{{Cite book |last=Beattie |first=William |title=Life and Letters of Thomas Campbell, In Three Volumes, Volume II |year=1849 |publisher=Edward Moxon, Dover Street, London |page=55}}</ref><ref name="Athenaeum">{{Cite book |title=The Athenaeum, Volume 3, Issues 115–165 |year=1830 |publisher=J. Lection, London |page=170}}</ref>
[[File:Smailholm Tower 001.jpg|alt=|thumb|Scott's childhood at Sandyknowes, in the shadow of [[Smailholm Tower]], introduced him to the tales and folklore of the [[Scottish Borders]]]]
[[File:The Scott's family home in George Square, Edinburgh.jpg|thumb|The Scott family's home in [[George Square, Edinburgh|George Square]], Edinburgh, from about 1778]]
A childhood bout of [[polio]] in 1773 left Scott lame,<ref name="T E Cone">{{Cite journal |last=Cone |first=T E |title=Was Sir Walter Scott's Lameness Caused by Poliomyelitis? |journal=Pediatrics |date=1973 |volume=51 |issue=1 |page=33 |url=http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/51/1/35.abstract}}</ref> a condition that would greatly affect his life and writing.<ref name=Robertson>{{Cite web |last=Robertson |first=Fiona |title=Disfigurement and Disability: Walter Scott's Bodies |url=http://www.otranto.co.uk/index.php/publication/view/54#_ftn3 |work=Otranto.co.uk |access-date=9 May 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140512213344/http://www.otranto.co.uk/index.php/publication/view/54#_ftn3 |archive-date=12 May 2014 |url-status=dead}}</ref>

To improve his lameness he was sent in 1773 to live in the rural [[Scottish Borders]], at his paternal grandparents' farm at Sandyknowe, by the ruin of [[Smailholm Tower]], the earlier family home.<ref name="Sandy">{{Cite web |url=http://www.walterscott.lib.ed.ac.uk/biography/sandy.html |title=Sandyknowe and Early Childhood |website=Walter Scott |publisher=Edinburgh University Library |date=24 October 2003}}</ref> Here, he was taught to read by his aunt Jenny Scott and learned from her the speech patterns and many of the tales and legends that later marked much of his work. In January 1775, he returned to Edinburgh, and that summer with his aunt Jenny took spa treatment at [[Bath, Somerset|Bath]] in Somerset, southern England, where they lived at 6 [[South Parade, Bath|South Parade]].<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.imagesofengland.org.uk/Details/Default.aspx?id=443617 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120531061957/http://www.imagesofengland.org.uk/Details/Default.aspx?id=443617 |url-status=dead |archive-date=31 May 2012 |title=No 1 Nos 2 and 3 (Farrell's Hotel) Nos 4 to 8 (consec) (Pratt's Hotel) |work=Images of England |publisher=English Heritage |access-date=29 July 2009}}</ref> In the winter of 1776, he went back to Sandyknowe, with another attempt at a water cure at [[Prestonpans]] the following summer.<ref name="Sandy"/>

In 1778, Scott returned to Edinburgh for private education to prepare him for school and joined his family in their new house, one of the first to be built in [[George Square, Edinburgh|George Square]].<ref name="homes"/> In October 1779, he began at the [[Royal High School (Edinburgh)|Royal High School]] in Edinburgh (in High School Yards). He was by then well able to walk and explore the city and the surrounding countryside. His reading included chivalric romances, poems, history and travel books. He was given private tuition by James Mitchell in arithmetic and writing, and learned from him the history of the [[Church of Scotland]] with emphasis on the [[Covenanters]].

In 1783, his parents, believing he had outgrown his strength, sent him to stay for six months with his aunt Jenny at [[Kelso, Scottish Borders|Kelso]] in the Scottish Borders: there he attended [[Kelso High School (Scotland)|Kelso Grammar School]], where he met [[James Ballantyne]] and his brother [[John Ballantyne (publisher)|John]], who later became his business partners and printers.<ref name=uni>{{Cite web |url=http://www.walterscott.lib.ed.ac.uk/biography/education.html |title=School and University |publisher=Walterscott.lib.ed.ac.uk |date=24 October 2003 |access-date=29 November 2009}}</ref>

===Appearance===
As a result of his early polio infection, Scott had a pronounced limp. He was described in 1820 as "tall, well formed (except for one ankle and foot which made him walk lamely), neither fat nor thin, with forehead very high, nose short, upper lip long and face rather fleshy, complexion fresh and clear, eyes very blue, shrewd and penetrating, with hair now silvery white".<ref>C. R. Leslie, 1855. "Letter to Miss C Leslie dated 26 June 1820" in [https://archive.org/details/gri_33125007592757 ''Autobiographical recollections'']. ed. Tom Taylor, Ticknor & Fields, Boston.</ref> Although a determined walker, he experienced greater freedom of movement on horseback.{{citation needed|date=December 2022}}