Editing Walter Scott (section)

==Financial problems and death==
In 1825, a UK-wide [[panic of 1825|banking crisis]] resulted in the collapse of the Ballantyne printing business, of which Scott was the only partner with a financial interest. Its debts of £130,000 ({{Inflation|UK|130000|1825|r=-5|fmt=eq|cursign=£}}) caused his very public ruin.<ref name="McKinstry2002">{{Cite journal |last1=McKinstry |first1=Sam |last2=Fletcher |first2=Marie |title=The Personal Account Books of Sir Walter Scott |journal=The Accounting Historians Journal |year=2002 |jstor=40698269 |volume=29 |issue=2 |pages=59–89|doi=10.2308/0148-4184.29.2.59}}</ref> Rather than declare himself bankrupt or accept any financial support from his many supporters and admirers (including the King himself), he placed his house and income in a trust belonging to his creditors and set out to write his way out of debt. To add to his burdens, his wife Charlotte died in 1826.
[[File:0030274d.jpg|thumb|Walter Scott's Tomb at Dryburgh Abbey]]
Despite these events or because of them, Scott kept up his prodigious output. Between 1826 and 1832 he produced six novels, two short stories and two plays, eleven works or volumes of non-fiction, and a journal, along with several unfinished works. The non-fiction included the ''Life of Napoleon Buonaparte'' in 1827, two volumes of the ''History of Scotland'' in 1829 and 1830, and four instalments of the series entitled ''Tales of a Grandfather – Being Stories Taken From Scottish History'', written one per year over the period 1828–1831, among several others. Finally, Scott had recently been inspired by the diaries of [[Samuel Pepys]] and [[Lord Byron]], and he began keeping a journal over the period, which was published in 1890 as ''[[The Journal of Sir Walter Scott]]''.

[[File:Walter Scott grave Dryburgh Abbey 20140527.jpg|thumb|Sir Walter Scott's grave at [[Dryburgh Abbey]] – the largest tomb is that of Sir Walter and Lady Scott. The engraved slab covers the grave of their son, Lt Col Sir Walter Scott. On the right is their son-in-law and biographer, [[John Gibson Lockhart]].]]
By then Scott's health was failing, and on 29 October 1831, in a vain search for improvement, he set off on a voyage to Malta and Naples on board [[HMS Barham (1811)|''HMS Barham'']], a frigate put at his disposal by the Admiralty. He was welcomed and celebrated wherever he went. On his journey home he boarded the steamboat [[De Rijn (1825)|''Prins Frederik'']] going from Cologne to Rotterdam. While on board he had a final stroke near [[Emmerich am Rhein|Emmerich]]. After local treatment, a steamboat took him to the steamship [[SS De Batavier (1827)|''Batavier'']], which left for England on 12 June. By pure coincidence, [[Mary Martha Sherwood]] was also on board. She would later write about this encounter.{{sfn|Sherwood|1857|p=531}} After he was landed in England, Scott was transported back to die at Abbotsford on 21 September 1832.<ref>''London Medical and Surgical Journal'', January 1833</ref> He was 61.

Scott was buried in [[Dryburgh Abbey]], where his wife had earlier been interred. Lady Scott had been buried as an Episcopalian; at Scott's own funeral, three ministers of the Church of Scotland officiated at Abbotsford and the service at Dryburgh was conducted by an Episcopal clergyman.<ref>Sefton, Henry R. (1983) "Scott as Churchman", ''Scott and his Influence''. Aberdeen. pp. 234–42 (241). {{ISBN|9780950262932}}</ref>

Although Scott died owing money, his novels continued to sell, and the debts encumbering his estate were discharged shortly after his death.<ref name="McKinstry2002" />