Waverley

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Waverley, the first of the novels of Sir W. Scott, published 1814.

Edward Waverley, a romantic young man, has been brought up in part by his father, a Hanoverian in politics, in part by his uncle Sir Everard Waverley, a rich landowner of Jacobite leanings. Obtaining a commission in the army in 1745, he joins his regiment in Scotland, and there, while on leave, visits his uncle's friend, the baron of Bradwardine, a kind-hearted but pedantic old Jacobite, and attracts the favourable notice of the gentle Rose, his daughter. Impelled by curiosity, he visits Donald Bean Lean, a Highland freebooter, in his lair, and Fergus Mac-Ivor Vich Ian Vohr of Glennaquoich, a young Highland chieftain, active in the Jacobite interest. He falls in love with Fergus's sister Flora. These visits, injudicious in an officer of the British army at a time of acute political tension, compromise Edward with his colonel. He moreover falls a victim to Jacobite intrigues, finds himself accused of fomenting mutiny in his regiment, and is finally cashiered and arrested. Rescued by the action of the devoted Rose, and under the influence of a sense of unjust treatment, Flora's enthusiasm, and a gratifying reception by Prince Charles Edward, he joins the Jacobite forces. At the battle of Prestonpans he has the good fortune to save from death Colonel Talbot, a distinguished English officer and friend of his family, and the latter, after the final defeat and dispersal of the Pretender's Army, secures Edward's pardon and the rehabilitation of the baron. Meanwhile Edward has been decisively rejected by the spirited Flora, and has turned his affections to Rose, to whom in due course he is married. Fergus is convicted of high treason and bravely meets his end, and Flora retires to a convent.

Among the minor characters may be mentioned Davie Gellatley, the ‘innocent’, the mouthpiece of some of Scott's most beautiful lyrics; and Colonel Gardiner, Edward Waverley's commanding officer (see Doddridge).

Waverley (district) Surrey. Wauerleia 1147. Probably ‘woodland clearing by the marshy ground’. A revival of an old local name, otherwise preserved in Waverley Abbey (near Farnham). OE wæfre + lēah.