Abbotsford International Airshow
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Abbotsford is a historic country house in the Scottish Borders, near Galashiels, on the south bank of the River Tweed. Now open to the public, it was built as the residence of historical novelist and poet Sir Walter Scott between 1817 and 1825. It is a Category A Listed Building and the estate is listed in the Inventory of Gardens and Designed Landscapes in Scotland.
The estate and its neo-Medieval features nod towards Scott's desire for a historical feel, but the writer ensured that the house would provide all the comforts of modern living. As a result, Scott used the space as a proving-ground for new technologies. The house was outfitted with early gas lighting and pneumatic bells connecting residents with servants elsewhere in the house.
Scott had only enjoyed his residence one year when (1825) he met with that reverse of fortune which involved the estate in debt. In 1830, the library and museum were presented to him as a free gift by the creditors. The property was wholly disencumbered in 1847 by Robert Cadell, the publisher, who cancelled the bond upon it in exchange for the family's share in the copyright of Sir Walter's works.
Scott's only son Walter did not live to enjoy the property, having died on his way from India in 1847. Among subsequent possessors were Scott's grandson Walter Scott Lockhart (later Walter Lockhart Scott, 1826–1853), his younger sister Charlotte Harriet Jane Hope-Scott (née Lockhart) 1828–1858, J. R. Hope Scott, QC, and his daughter (Scott's great-granddaughter), the Hon. Mrs Maxwell Scott.
The house was opened to the public in 1833 but continued to be occupied by Scott's descendants until 2004. The last of his direct descendants to hold the Lairdship of Abbotsford was his great-great-great-granddaughter Dame Jean Maxwell-Scott (8 June 1923 – 5 May 2004). She inherited it from her elder sister Patricia Maxwell-Scott in 1998. The sisters turned the house into one of Scotland's premier tourist attractions, after they had to rely on paying visitors to afford the upkeep of the house. It had electricity installed only in 1962.
The Cascade and Coastal Mountains offer unsurpassed natural beauty in the Pacific Northwest especially in the evening hours when the mountains and hills are tucked in for the night with a soft blanket of haze. All that's missing is a lullaby.
Walking the trails of Willband Creek Park this morning and I heard a call I knew but I could not place it until I saw a little flash of yellow and then I saw several around there and on the Matsqui Trail later, the Common Yellowthroat.
I was checking out the birding sites in Abbotsford and I made my way to Willband Creek Park where there were many Common Yellowthroat working the tall grasses.
Abbotsford is the house built and lived in by Sir Walter Scott, the 19th century novelist, and author of timeless classics such as Waverley, Rob Roy, Ivanhoe and The Lady of the Lake. In 1811 Sir Walter bought the property which was to become Abbotsford, set in the heart of the Scottish Borders, on the banks of the River Tweed. The building of Abbotsford took six years, and was completed in 1824. William Atkinson was the chosen architect, and George Bulloch gave his advice on the furnishings, while local craftsmen carried out the work. The house was opened to the public in 1833, five months after Sir Walter's death, and has been enjoyed by visitors ever since.
THEY SELDOM COME TO THIS LAKE AND I DON'T KNOW WHY...TOO DEEP MAYBE, OR TOO BUSY. THEY WILL BE ON THEIR WAY NORTH AS THE LAKES AND RIVERS OPEN UP FROM THEIR WINTER ICE.
ABBOTSFORD, the home of SIR WALTER SCOTT, Melrose, Scotland
Walter Scott was the foremost literary figure of his day. Born in 1771, and outliving by the time of his death in 1832 all the great romanticists except Coleridge and Wordsworth, he was incomparably better known than any of them.