1794/97. ROBERT BURNS PATRON, WALTER SCOTT OF WAUCHOPE.

1794/97. ROBERT BURNS PATRON, WALTER SCOTT OF WAUCHOPE.

1794, 1797 and 1835.

A small batch of three very rare Scott of Wauchope documents.
Walter Scott of Wauchope, Jedburgh, Roxburghshire, husband of the authoress, Mrs Elizabeth Scott
was a patron of the great Scottish poet Robert Burns.
Andrew Mercer of Scotsbank, one of the enclosed signatories, was a friend of Sir Walter Scott.

Selkirkshire Turnpike Road documents.
Badly aged. fragile, with very weak file folds and tears.
But a very fine rare, orginal and unique set of documents. With the link to Robert Burns etc.
And the clear signature of Walter Scott.

The documents images have been split horizontally to fit the scanner.
The actual documents are completly intact.

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In 1787 Robert Burns wrote an Epistle To Mrs. Scott of Wauchope-House.

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From the book Border Memories.

Old Walter Scott of Wauchope and his wife, Miss Rutherfurd of Fernielie,
were friends and patrons of the great poet Burns, who visited them at Wauchope.

And whom he graphically describes in his journals thus, in 1787:-
"Mr. Scott exactly the figure and face commonly given to Sancho Panza: very shrewd in his farming matters, and not infrequently stumbles on what may be called a strong rather than a good thing.
Mrs Scott, all the sense, taste, intrepidity of face and bold critical decision, which usually distinguish female authors."

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Scott, Mrs Elizabeth. nee Rutherford (1729-1789).

A niece of Mrs Alison Cockburn, she married Walter Scott of Wauchope House, near Jedburgh, Roxburghshire, where Burns visited them during his Border tour.
Mrs Scott had sent the poet a long verse epistle, offering him 'a marled plaid', in token of her admiration of his work. Burns replied with his lively verse epistle, 'I mind it weel in early date'.
Burns noted in his Border Journal that Mrs Scott had all the sense, taste, intrepidity of face, and bold, critical decision, which usually distinguish female Authors'.

Her relations published her collected Poems in 1801, under the title of Alonza and Cora. Most of the poems are in the vapid Augustan manner of minor eighteenth-century versifiers.
Three are in Scots, one of them the address to Burns. They are by far the most spirited pieces in the book.