Walter Michael and Margaret Anne Hope-Scott both died in infancy. The
only direct descendant, therefore, of Sir Walter Scott, is now Mary
Monica Hope-Scott who was born on the 2nd October, 1852, the
grandchild of Mrs. Lockhart, and the great-grandchild of the founder
of Abbotsford.
There is something of irony in such a result of the Herculean labours
of Scott to found and endow a new branch of the clan of Scott. When
fifteen years after his death the estate was at length freed from
debt, all his own children and the eldest of his grandchildren were
dead; and now forty-six years have elapsed, and there only remains one
girl of his descendants to borrow his name and live in the halls of
which he was so proud. And yet this, and this only, was wanting to
give something of the grandeur of tragedy to the end of Scott's great
enterprise. He valued his works little compared with the house and
lands which they were to be the means of gaining for his descendants;
yet every end for which he struggled so gallantly is all but lost,
while his works have gained more of added lustre from the losing
battle which he fought so long, than they could ever have gained from
his success.
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