Encyclopaedia Britannica, founded in 1768 in Edinburgh, completes its first, threevolume edition.1773 Walter contracts polio, and his right leg is left permanently lame. Hoping to improve his health, his parents send him to live for several years with his grandparents at Sandy Knowe in the Border region. Walter’s gregarious grandmother Barbara entertains him with tales of EnglishScottish border wars, many featuring legendary figures from the family. His doting Aunt Jenny, another caretaker , introduces him to literature and inspires in him a lifelong love of storytelling. Walter’s health improves, but he must use a cane to walk.1775 The American Revolution begins.1776 The American Declaration of Independence is written. Adam Smith publishes The Wealth of Nations.1778 Walter returns home to a new family house in Edinburgh’s George Square.1779 The family enrolls Walter in the High School in Edinburgh . A keen student undaunted by his physical disability , he is well liked by his classmates. He becomes abibliophile, devouring the works of Shakespeare, Edmund Spenser, Ludovico Ariosto, Henry Fielding, and Tobias Smollett.1783 Walter spends another recuperative year with his Aunt Jenny in Kelso. While studying to enter university, Scott is thrilled to discover Reliques of Ancient English Poetry, a book of traditional ballads collected by Bishop Thomas Percy; the compendium will influence Scott’s collection The Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border (1802-1803). At age twelve, he enrolls in Edinburgh University to study the classics.1784 Walter’s poor health requires him to recuperate in Kelso for a year, after which he resumes his studies.1786 Scott takes a position in his father’s firm; as a young apprentice , he travels to the Highlands on company business and is captivated by the area’s landscape and lore. Back in Edinburgh, he frequents literary salons and reads the works of French and Italian authors. Robert Burns, whom Scott meets briefly, publishes Poems, Chiefly in the Scottish Dialect.1788 George III suffers his second bout of mental illness.1789 Scott foregoes the profession of writer to the signet in favor of studying for the bar at Edinburgh University, where he also forms a poetry society. The French Revolution begins. William Blake’s Songs of Innocence is published.1790 Edmund Burke writes Reflections on the Revolution in France. Scott falls passionately in love with Williamina Belches, the daughter of an aristocrat and advocate, Sir John Belches; her higher social position makes marriage unlikely.1791 Thomas Paine publishes The Rights of Man.1792 After passing his exams, Scott is admitted to the bar as an advocate and begins working in the provinces; he will draw heavily on this work for his 1824 novel Redgauntlet. He begins collecting love ballads that he will compile in later works. The works of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe and Gottfried August Burger spark Scott’s interest in German poems and literature.1793 King Louis XVI is executed in France; the Reign of Terror begins.1796 Scott is crushed to discover that Williamina Belches is engaged to another, much wealthier man.1797 While on a visit to the Lake District, Scott meets Frenchborn Margaret Charlotte Charpentier. After a few weeks, Scott and Charlotte become engaged; they marry on December 24. His first publications, translations of Burger’s The Chase and William and Helen, appear anonymously. He publishes a translation of Goethe’s play Götz von Berlichingen that is not well received.1798 Charlotte and Scott rent a house on Castle Street in Edinburgh . Based on the quality of his Burger translations, Scott is asked to contribute to an anthology of poetry, Tales of Terror, that will be published in 1800. William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge publish Lyrical Ballads.1799 The first of the Scotts’ five children, a daughter, is born. Scott secures a steady living when he becomes sheriffdeputy of Selkirkshire, a position he will hold throughout his life.1801 The anthology Tales of Wonder, which contains Scott’s “Glenfinlas” and “The Eve of Saint John,” is published. The Scott family moves to 39 Castle Street in Edinburgh.1802-The Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border, a collection of poems1803 based on traditional ballads, is published in three volumes.1804 The Scott family moves to a country house in Ashestiel; the poet Wordsworth pays a visit. Napoleon is crowned emperor of the French.1805 The long narrative poem The Lay of the Last Minstrel is published to overwhelming popularity. Scott edits the works of Dryden, with a biography as preface.1806 Scott is made principal clerk to the Court of Session in Edinburgh. Ballads and Lyrical Pieces is published.1808 The poetic romance Marmion, another successful work, is published.1809 Scott helps found the Tory Quarterly Review. He and his old friend James Ballantyne form a printing company. Encyclopaedia Britannica publishes Scott’s essays “Chivalry,” “Romance,” and “Drama” as part of the fourth edition (1801-1809).1810The Lady of the Lake is published to phenomenal book sales.1811 The Scott family buys Clarty Hole Farm with plans to build a castle called Abbotsford. George III is declared insane , and the morally suspect Prince of Wales becomes regent.1812 Napoleon withdraws from Moscow.1813 Scott declines the position of poet laureate. The printing company he formed with Ballantyne collapses and is purchased by Constable and Company. Facing extreme financial duress, Scott is aided by his friend the Duke of Buccleuch. Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice is published.1814 Napoleon abdicates, and the French monarchy is reinstated. The novel Waverley, published anonymously, is another great success. Scott continues to publish all his novels anonymously under various noms de plume, including “Jedediah Cleishbotham.”1815Guy Mannering; or, The Astrologer and The Lord of the Isles are published. Scott visits the Waterloo battlefield.1816Paul’s Letters to his Kinsfolk, The Antiquary, and Tales of My Landlord (first series, including The Black Dwarf and Old Mortality) are published.1817Rob Roy is published. William Hazlitt’s Characters in Shakespeare’s Plays is published.1818 Scott receives a baronetcy. Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein is published. The Heart of Midlothian (the second Tales of My Landlord novel) is published.1819 The third Tales of My Landlord series, comprising The Bride of Lammermoor and A Legend of Montrose, is published. Ivanhoe is published under the pseudonym Laurence Templeton and sells a remarkable 10,000 copies in two weeks; it is the first of Scott’s novels to take place outside Scotland. In Manchester, England, people who gather to protest economic conditions are attacked by soldiers in the Peterloo Massacre. Scott’s mother dies. George Gordon, Lord Byron’s Don Juan is published. John Keats’s “Ode to a Nightingale” is published.1820The Monastery and The Abbot are published. George III dies and is succeeded by George IV. Scott is elected president of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, and Oxford and Cambridge Universities award him honorary doctorates.Ivanhoe continues to be a huge success. Percy Bysshe Shelley’s Prometheus Unbound is published.1821The Pirate is published.1822Kenilworth and The Fortunes of Nigel are published. As Edinburgh’s most celebrated resident, Scott welcomes King George IV when he visits the city.1823Quentin Durward, Peveril of the Peak, and St. Ronan’s Well are published.1824Redgauntlet is published.1825Tales of the Crusaders, including The Betrothed and The Talisman , is published. Around this time, Scott begins his Journal.1826 As a major depression grips the country, Scott faces financial ruin when the companies of his publisher and printer collapse. Scott works for the rest of his life to pay off the debt incurred by the disaster. His wife, Charlotte, dies. Woodstock is published.1827Life of Napoleon Buonaparte and Chronicles of the Cannongate are published. Scott finally admits to the authorship of the Waverley novels.1828The Fair Maid of Perth is published. Scott begins compiling materials for an annotated edition of the Waverley novels.1829Anne of Geierstein is published. The first volumes of the annotated “Magnum Opus” edition of the novels appear. Scott suffers several hemorrhages as his health steadily worsens.1830 George IV dies and is succeeded by William IV. In France, the July Revolution leads to the deposition of Charles X and the accession of Louis-Philippe I.1831 Scott has a paralytic stroke. He travels to the Mediterranean to convalesce.1832 The fourth Tales of My Landlord series, comprising Count Robert of Paris and Castle Dangerous, is published. Scott dies at Abbotsford on September 21. He is buried beside his wife at Dryburgh Abbey.