Unappalled by the
loss, Scott refused all offers of release from his creditors, and began
to pay the debt by means of his pen, determined to preserve Abbotsford
to his children's children. At a dinner given in 1827, he threw off all
disguise, and acknowledged the authorship of the Waverly novels.
His great exertions brought on paralysis. A visit to Italy failed to
improve his condition, and he returned to die on the banks of the Tweed,
and to be laid at rest in Dreyburg Abbey. He had paid one hundred
thousand pounds of the debt, and the publishers of his works had
sufficient confidence in their sale to advance the remaining fifty
thousand pounds, the estate thus being left free of encumbrance.
Of his four children, two sons and two daughters, none left male issue.
A grandchild, the wife of Robert Hope, was permitted by Parliament to
assume the name of Scott, and her son Walter, at the age of twenty-one,
was knighted by Queen Victoria.
Edinburgh has erected to his memory a most graceful monument, and
Westminster Abbey a memorial. Visitors, under certain limitations, are
permitted to visit the mansion, to see the enchanted library, and the
famous study, to stray about the grounds where the famous writer spent
the happiest, as well as the saddest, years of his life.
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