ABSTRACT
The influential Edinburgh publisher and writer Robert Chambers wrote his Life of Sir Walter Scott soon after Scott's death, and it was issued cheaply to attract a wide readership. The better-quality publication, edited by William Chambers, appeared in 1871 to mark the first centenary of Scott’s birth. The 1871 version is more than a timely upmarket reprint, however, for Chambers extended the work by adding the 'Abbotsford Notanda; or Sir Walter Scott and his Factor' by Robert Carruthers, from which the extracts in the entry following this are taken. Chambers tried to persuade Scott in March 1831 to write an article about him for the Quarterly Review on the grounds that he was being overlooked by the major periodicals. Scott, ill and overworked, declined. The extract from Chambers selected here comprises the sections ‘Personal Appearance’ and ‘Character’ from the closing stages of his biography.
