Summary
Tory MP author and adventurer Rory Stewart champions the life of Sir Walter Scott. Presenter Matthew Parris is joined by Scott's biographer Stuart Kelly. Scott arguably invented the idea of Scottishness and marketed it to the world. But now he is virtually unread and he stands accused of saddling Scotland with tartan tat and Highland kitsch. Rory Stewart argues that Scott's version of Scottish identity represents a valid alternative to today's Scottish nationalism. Producer: Jolyon Jenkins
From 2012.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | You're about to listen to a BBC podcast and I'd like to tell you a bit about the |
| 0:03.8 | podcast I work on. I'm Dan Clark and I commissioned factual podcasts at the BBC. |
| 0:08.6 | It's a massive area but I'd sum it up as stories to help us make sense of the forces shaping the world. |
| 0:15.0 | What podcasting does is give us the space and the time to take brilliant BBC journalism |
| 0:20.0 | and tell amazing compelling stories that really get behind the headlines. |
| 0:23.7 | And what I get really excited about is when we find a way of drawing you into a subject |
| 0:28.3 | you might not even have thought you were interested in. |
| 0:30.2 | Whether it's investigations, science, tech, politics, culture, true crime, the environment, |
| 0:36.2 | you can always discover more with lives podcast from BBC Radio 4. |
| 0:46.0 | For more information and details of other podcasts, just visit BBC.co. UK slash radio 4. The year is 1822. For the first time in nearly two centuries a reigning |
| 0:58.6 | British monarch is visiting Scotland. It's George the 4th, only two years on the throne, obese and stinking of Cherry Brandy. |
| 1:07.0 | The Royal Yott is tugged by steamboat into the port of Leith near Edinburgh. |
| 1:12.0 | Thousands turn out to see him. The Royal Jamboree lasts a fortnight. There |
| 1:15.8 | are processions. Dinners, gatherings of the clans. He kisses hundreds of women. |
| 1:20.5 | All gentlemen have been ordered to wear kilts even though Loylanders would |
| 1:24.8 | never normally wear Highland dress. And who was the man choreographing the event? The subject |
| 1:30.9 | of this week's programme, Sir Walter Scott, the man who some would argue invented Scottishness. |
| 1:38.0 | My guest this week is himself a Scott. |
| 1:41.0 | Rory Stewart MP, not a Highlander though, but a man of the borders. He represents |
| 1:46.2 | an English constituency, Penrith and the borders. Rory, English people have an idea of the |
| 1:52.0 | Highlands and of Edinburgh and of Glasgow, |
| 1:54.8 | but the Scottish borders are a little bit hazy to a lot of us. |
... |
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