Saturday, May 8, 2021

Walter Scott: The Man Behind the Monument (online course)



During the early period of COVID-19 containment, many of us discovered a new way to explore interests by taking courses in the comfort of your own home. Something tells me this may be a positive legacy of COVID. Disease was nothing new to Sir Walter Scott, the writer and master of Abbotsford, who experienced loss of five siblings in infancy and a sixth died at the age of five month. Walter’s own challenges with health issues necessitated him being removed from his urban home to recuperate and live with relatives in the countryside when his bout of childhood polio left him lame. Having to deal with his health issues we now know allowed him to experience a part of Scotland unfamiliar to most children living in Edinburgh and triggered a lifelong interest in collecting, countryside exploration, storytelling and history. The molding of the man was clearly in his boyhood which led to his great legacy in historical novels, which continue to cultivate international interest in all things Scottish.

I am currently taking an online course through the University of Aberdeen and FutureLearn called Walter Scott: The Man Behind the Monument taught by Professor Ali Lumsden and Kirsty Archer-Thompson.

Ali is the director of the University of Aberdeen’s Walter Scott Research Centre and Honorary Librarian at Abbotsford while Kirsty is responsible for the collections, interiors and built heritage of Abbotsford.

The course literature indicates that it is a four-week short course and is delivered entirely online via FutureLearn. “You can study anywhere in the world and manage your study hours to suit you. You’ll learn with academics from the University of Aberdeen, the Walter Scott Research Centre, and experts at Abbotsford, Scott’s home in the Scottish Borders.

The course features a range of online resources, including: videos, articles, audio clips, novel extracts, discussions, and quizzes. You’ll spend around two hours per week on this course.”

They indicate that it was originally a free Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) produced by the University of Aberdeen and Abbotsford. “However, in response to the Covid-19 crisis and the increased demand for armchair learning opportunities, it has been decided to keep this popular course open and free for people to drop into until August. The course will be mentored once a week by tutors during this time, before the launch of a fully-mentored version to celebrate Scott’s birthday in August.

The course has specifically been designed for beginners and there is no prior knowledge of the subject required. It requires no more than two hours of work each week and will provide a comprehensive overview of Scott’s work and legacy, while challenging common misconceptions.”

I have read several biographies of Scott over the years and Abbotsford is a Mecca for me but I continue to learn new things about the character and mind of the great bard. Not only did he have a great mind for detail and a prolific writing ability but he had a direct connection to the land in his exploration as a countryside rambler and collector. Walking the trails he created in his woods at Abbotsford is a great way to commune with his love of the land.

Currently I am still taking the course and we are examining the early years that prepared Scott for the life of the writer. The course materials tell us that:

“He collected historical artefacts. He later read relevant historical documents in Register House, and had friends transcribe relevant manuscripts in the British Museum. Scott's greatness as scholar and writer comes from his imaginative ability to synthesize these different kinds of historical evidence to create narratives in which detail is used to reveal the way in which people in the past construed their world and invested it with meaning.”

The course covers the work and legacy of Walter Scott under topics like:

·         Scott as a collector

·         Relationship between Scott’s home at Abbotsford and storytelling

·         Connections between Scott’s work and landscape, history and nationhood

·         Curating Scott’s legacy

 The website address is

https://www.futurelearn.com/courses/walter-scott

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