Retired teacher slams plan to name street after Sir Walter Scott

Colin Stuart claims Scott “despised” working class Scots

A retired English teacher is campaigning against plans to name a new road after Scottish novelist Sir Walter Scott, branding the author “boring”.

Colin Stuart claims Scott “despised” ordinary working Scottish people and that to name a street in a former mining community after him is an “insult”.

Mr Stuart also claims that plans for Sir Walter Scott Wynd in the Fife community of Saline should be scrapped because the writer’s links to the area are “tenuous”.

Scott is credited with inventing the genre of the historical novel as well as being the subject of a giant, gothic memorial in Princes Street, Edinburgh.

But Mr Stuart is not impressed by Scott’s literary prowess or his position as a prominent member of the Tory establishment in Edinburgh in the early 19th Century.

In a letter of objection to Saline and Steelend Community Council, he wrote: “Set aside that he is the most tedious, boring, long-winded writer in Scottish history, he also despised the common people of Scotland, unless they were properly humble and knew their place.”

Mr Stuart, who is understood to have taught English at Queen Anne High School in the nearby town of Dunfermline, added: “This would be an insult to a very large proportion of the Saline and Steelend community.”

David Chisholm, chairman of the community council, said: “Not far from where these houses are due to be built, there is a place called Nether Kinnedar House, and Walter Scott did stay there.”

But Mr Chisholm acknowledged: “When I saw Mr Stuart I was really impressed by his knowledge of Walter Scott and his knowledge of political history. He knows his stuff. From what he told me it doesn’t seem entirely appropriate.”

Robert Irvine, senior lecturer in Edinburgh University’s English literature department, defended Scott.

He said: “Anyone who thinks of Scott as a kind of cartoon villain of Scottish culture clearly has not read the novels.

“They might be hard going at first but they are great stories and worth the effort.

“Yes Scott was a Tory who thought democracy was a terrible idea but his greatest novel, The Heart of Midlothian, was the first novel in English with a working-class family at its centre.”

Set aside that he is the most tedious, boring, long-winded writer in Scottish history, he also despised the common people of Scotland. COLIN STUART