Talk:Walter Scott

The Antiquary

Talk to me about the formatting here. You've put the quotes from ch. 15 of The Antiquary into (one particular) strict, formal Wikiquote style: I'd put them in context with a note about this bit of the novel. My strong feeling is that the page loses immensely by not having these extra notes; I feel that, not only are (brief) notes not absolutely contrary to house style, but that style exists to serve the publication, not rule it (and I speak as a professional editor). Consistency is a good thing, but not to the point where it undermines the purpose of the page.

I'm stating this very strongly, but obviously you also have an opinion here! Talk to me... JackyR 20:53, 9 March 2006 (UTC)

• It's not that I'm against offering explanatory text surrounding a quote, but I'd be apt to try to reign in the formatting of it a bit from your original. I would think we could accomodate both our wishes by compromising. Can we try to adhere to conventional WQ formatting, yet still retain your introductory text? ~ UDScott 21:02, 9 March 2006 (UTC)
  • I'll have a go. Posted that on the article talk page in case anyone follows and reverts one or other of the changes, but I guess it's not high-risk! :-) JackyR 21:19, 9 March 2006 (UTC)

OK, how's that? It's lost the Blockquote, which I now realise is not a WQ thing. But it retains the theme heading, context, and unity of the quote. Whether it's better to cite the source as the intro or at the foot, I don't know (only left both in cos I can't decide). You get to chose whether this goes within the Antiquary section (tho it should be at the foot thereof, if so), or in its own section...

Generally, WQ doesn't seem to have resolved the Source/Theme conflict any better than the last sentence here. I don't know how it can, to be honest, without an enormous database in which individual quotes are the files. JackyR 21:55, 9 March 2006 (UTC)

• • I think this will work, with a couple of minor tweaks: I would put this as a subsection to the Antiquary section, then remove the words "of Scott's novel The Antiquary (1816)". Then I would also change the last line: make it "** Vol. I, Ch. 15" What do you think? ~ UDScott 22:01, 9 March 2006 (UTC)

:::Jolly good! And better still because this is similar to the way I'd done it at Robert Graves. :-) JackyR 23:45, 9 March 2006 (UTC)

On the postal service

Chapter 15 of Scott's novel The Antiquary (1816) opens at a small Scottish post office, " Mrs. Mailsetter's shop, —a source more famous for the circulation of news than for their accuracy."

• ...We beg leave to transport the reader to the back-parlour of the post-master's house at Fairport, where his wife, he himself being absent, was employed in assorting for delivery the letters which had come by the Edinburgh post. This is very often in country towns the period of the day when gossips find it particularly agreeable to call on the man or woman of letters, in order, from the outside of the epistles, and, if they are not belied, occasionally from the inside also, to amuse themselves with gleaning information, or forming conjectures about the correspondence and affairs of their neighbours. Two females of this description were, at the time we mention, assisting, or impeding, Mrs. Mailsetter in her official duty.

An express has arrived at the office, and which must now rise to the challenge of delivering it.

• "I'm no gaun to let naebody see the letter," sobbed the boy, "till I gie't to Mr. Lovel, for I am a faithfu' servant o' the office—if it werena for the powny."
  "Very right, my little man," said Ochiltree, turning the reluctant pony's head towards Monkbarns; "but we'll guide him atween us." ...
  [They met Lovel on the way,] and Davie, who insisted upon a literal execution of his commission by going on to Monkbarns, was with difficulty prevailed upon to surrender the packet to its proper owner, although he met him a mile nearer than the place he had been directed to. "But my minnie said, I maun be sure to get twenty shillings and five shillings for the postage, and ten shillings and sixpence for the express—there's the paper."
  "Let me see—let me see," said Oldbuck, putting on his spectacles, and examining the crumpled copy of regulations to which Davie appealed. "Express, per man and horse, one day, not to exceed ten shillings and sixpence. One day? why, it's not an hour—Man and horse? why, 'tis a monkey on a starved cat!"

—The Antiquary, Volume I, Chapter XV (1816)

"Think things through - then follow through”

“I can give you a six-word formula for success: "Think things through - then follow through”. I've seen this attributed to Sir Walter Scott [1] and also to World War I flying ace Edward Rickenbacker. Can anyone pin this down to either one? 80.195.233.60 06:36, 20 September 2007 (UTC)

Fat, fair and forty

"Fat, fair and forty" is the title of a famous caricature printed as early as 1786 by W.S.Fores. --78.54.168.158 10:38, 6 April 2008 (UTC)

Verses

Walter Scott is the father of the historical novel and here we have mostly verses? Something looks off here. --Nemo 23:44, 31 December 2014 (UTC)