Rebecca Gray (Just ask yourself:
what would Scott do?, August 17) raised the question of how Sir Walter Scott would vote in the referendum if he were still alive. There is no doubt he was in favour of Scottish independence. This is evident from the journal he wrote.
The most recent edition of it was published by Canongate. I quote from its early pages about an episode in which the London government proposed to intervene in Scottish affairs. "I set about Malachi Malagrowther's letter on the late disposition to change everything in Scotland to an English model … They do treat us very provokingly."
I edited an edition of the Malachi papers in 1981. I said that "it was no exaggeration to describe them as the first manifesto of modern Scottish Nationalism".
Gray asked several distinguished academics how they think Scott would vote. Professor David Purdie said: "He was a Tory all his days. He would have voted NO." Andrew Marr agrees. But this ignores the clear expression to the contrary in Scott's journal.
Paul Henderson Scott
Edinburgh
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