Did you know...

 that Sir Walter Scott, known to the world as one of the world's greatest novelists, was a lawyer, a Clerk of Session (a position which he resigned only two years before his death), and, as Sheriff of Selkirkshire, administered justice for almost 30 years?

 that, as a business partner of the Ballantyne brothers' printing firm, Sir Walter Scott incurred almost insurmountable debts when the business failed, but gave his word to redeem them; which he did by his self-imposed task of writing until his health was broken?

 that Scott's great, great, great, great granddaughter, Miss Maxwell-Scott lives in and administers Sir Walter's majestic mansion-house, Abbotsford, today?

 that Sir Walter Scott was as avid a souvenir-collector in his day as the modern American tourist? On one occasion at a social affair at Dalkeith, be appropriated a glass from which King George IV had drunk, slipped it into his tail-coat pocket for safe-keeping, then sat down, smashing it to bits!

 that 1971 marks the 200th Anniversary of the Birth of Sir Walter Scott, who made old Scotland live again in the pages of his thrilling books?

 that the statue of Sir Walter Scott in Glasgow stands upon a pillar with his plaid over the wrong shoulder and a lightning-rod sticking out of the back of his neck?