Rob Roy by Sir Walter Scott
"Rob Roy" is a historical novel by Sir Walter Scott, published in 1817, that intertwines themes of adventure, loyalty, and the complexities of Scottish identity during the Jacobite uprisings. The story follows Frank Osbaldistone, who is sent by his father to his uncle's estate in England. Disappointment with Frank's progress in the family business leads him into a series of tumultuous events involving Rob Roy MacGregor, a legendary Scottish outlaw. As Frank navigates familial conflicts and romantic entanglements, he becomes embroiled in a web of betrayal and political intrigue, particularly involving his cousin Rashleigh, who seeks to undermine both Frank and the Osbaldistone family.
Rob Roy himself is portrayed as a charismatic figure embodying the spirit of the Scottish Highlands, often appearing as a protector and guide for Frank. The narrative unfolds against the backdrop of a Scotland divided by political allegiances, with characters representing varying perspectives on loyalty, justice, and survival. The story ultimately culminates in themes of inheritance and reconciliation, as Frank's journey leads him to confront both personal and familial legacies. This novel serves not only as a thrilling tale of adventure but also as a reflection on the cultural tensions of early 18th-century Scotland.
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Rob Roy by Sir Walter Scott
First published: 1817
Type of work: Novel
Type of plot: Historical
Time of plot: 1715
Locale: Northumberland, England; Glasgow, Scotland
Principal characters
William Osbaldistone , a man employed by the firm of Osbaldistone and TreshamFrank Osbaldistone , his sonSir Hildebrand Osbaldistone , Frank’s uncleRashleigh Osbaldistone , his sonSir Frederick Vernon , a JacobiteDiana Vernon , his daughterRob Roy (MacGregor Campbell) , a Scottish outlaw
The Story:
Frank Osbaldistone is recalled from France, where his father had sent him to learn the family’s mercantile business. Disappointed in his son’s progress, the father angrily orders the young man to Osbaldistone Hall, home of his uncle, Sir Hildebrand Osbaldistone, in northern England. His father gives him fifty guineas for expenses and instructions to learn who among Sir Hildebrand’s sons will accept a position in the trading house of Osbaldistone and Tresham.
On the road, Frank falls in with a traveler named Morris, who is carrying a large sum of money in a portmanteau strapped to his saddle. That evening, they stop at the Black Bear Inn in the town of Darlington, where they are joined at dinner by a Scotsman named Mr. Campbell, who is really Rob Roy, the Scottish outlaw. The next morning, Campbell and Morris leave together. At a secluded spot along the road, the men are halted and a highwayman robs Morris of his saddlebag. Meanwhile, Frank rides toward Osbaldistone Hall. As he nears the rambling old mansion, he sees that a fox hunt is in progress and meets Diana Vernon, Sir Hildebrand’s niece. The outspoken Diana tells Frank that all of his cousins are mixtures in varying proportions of sot, gamekeeper, bully, horse jockey, and fool. Rashleigh, she says, is the most dangerous of the lot, for he maintains a private tyranny over everyone with whom he comes in contact. It is Rashleigh, however, who is prevailed upon to accept Frank’s vacant position at Osbaldistone and Tresham.
Frank and his cousins dislike one another. One night, while drinking with the family, Frank becomes enraged at Rashleigh’s speech and actions and strikes him. Rashleigh never forgets the blow, although to all intents and purposes he and Frank declare themselves friends after their anger has cooled.
Shortly after Frank’s arrival at Osbaldistone Hall, he is accused of highway robbery. He goes at once to Squire Inglewood’s court to defend himself and to confront his accuser, who turns out to be Morris. Rob Roy, however, appears at the squire’s court of justice and forces Morris to confess that Frank is not the man who robbed him.
When Rashleigh departs to go into business with Frank’s father, Frank becomes Diana’s tutor. Their association develops into deep affection on both sides, a mutual attraction marred only by the fact that Diana is a Catholic and Frank a Presbyterian.
One day, Frank receives a letter from his father’s partner, Mr. Tresham. The letter informs him that his father has gone to the Continent on business, leaving Rashleigh in charge; Rashleigh, however, has gone to Scotland, where he is reportedly involved in a scheme to embezzle funds from Osbaldistone and Tresham.
Frank, accompanied by Andrew Fairservice, Sir Hildebrand’s gardener, sets off for Glasgow in an attempt to frustrate Rashleigh’s plans. Arriving in the city on Sunday, they go to church. As Frank stands listening to the preacher, a voice behind him whispers that he is in danger and that he should not look back at his informant. The mysterious messenger asks Frank to meet him on the bridge at midnight. Frank keeps the tryst and follows the man to the Tolbooth prison. There he finds his father’s chief clerk, Mr. Owen, who has been arrested and thrown into prison at the instigation of MacVittie and MacFin, Glasgow traders who do business with his father. Frank learns that Campbell is his mysterious informant and guide, and, for the first time, he realizes that Campbell and Rob Roy are one and the same.
Shortly thereafter, Frank sees Morris, MacVittie, and Rashleigh talking together. He follows them, and, when Morris and MacVittie depart, Frank confronts Rashleigh and demands an explanation of his behavior. As their argument grows more heated, swords are drawn, but the duel is broken up by Rob Roy, who cries shame at them because they are men of the same blood. Rob Roy considers both men his friends. Frank also learns that his father’s funds were mixed up with a Jacobite uprising in which Sir Hildebrand was one of the plotters. He suspects that Rashleigh robbed Morris based on information supplied by Rob Roy.
Frank and Andrew are arrested by an officer on their way to meet Rob Roy, and the officer who searches Frank discovers a note that Rob Roy had written to him. On the road, the company is attacked by Scotsmen under the direction of Helen, Rob Roy’s wife, who captures or kills all the soldiers. Helen, a bloodthirsty woman, orders that Morris, who has fallen into the hands of the Highlanders, be put to death. In the meantime, Rob Roy too is captured, but he makes his escape when one of his captors rides close to him and surreptitiously cuts his bonds. Rob Roy then throws himself from his horse into the river and swims to safety before his guards can overtake him.
With a Highland uprising threatening, Frank thinks he has seen Diana for the last time, but he meets her soon afterward riding through a wood in the company of her father, Sir Frederick Vernon, a political exile. Diana gives Frank a packet of papers that Rashleigh has been forced to give up; they are notes to the credit of Osbaldistone and Tresham. Frank’s father’s fortune is safe.
In the Jacobite revolt of 1715, Rashleigh becomes a turncoat and joins the forces of King George. At the beginning of the revolt, Sir Hildebrand had made his will, listing the order in which his sons are to inherit to his lands. Because Rashleigh has betrayed the Stuart cause, Sir Hildebrand substitutes Frank’s name for that of Rashleigh in the will. Sir Hildebrand is later captured by the royal forces and imprisoned at Newgate, where he dies. His four sons also die from various causes, and Frank inherits all the lands and properties that belonged to Sir Hildebrand. When Frank goes to Osbaldistone Hall to take over, Rashleigh shows up with a warrant for Diana and her father; but he is killed in a fight with Rob Roy. Frank becomes the lord of Osbaldistone Hall. At first, Frank’s father does not like the idea of his son’s marrying a Papist, but in the end he relents and gives his permission, and Frank and Diana are married.
Bibliography
Anderson, James. Sir Walter Scott and History. Edinburgh: Edina, 1981. Presents Scott as an innovator in the historical novel who possessed the ability to delve into the embers of the Jacobite and Scottish/English conflicts of the eighteenth century.
Beiderwell, Bruce John. Power and Punishment in Scott’s Novels. Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1992. Takes a Foucauldian approach in examining Scott’s representations of the shifting structures of state power and punishment. Argues that Rob Roy represents the uses and misuses of power as well as Scott’s ambivalence about paradigms of punishment and state discipline.
D’Arcy, Julian Meldon. Subversive Scott: The Waverley Novels and Scottish Nationalism. Reykjavík, Iceland: Vigdís Finnbogadóttir Institute of Foreign Languages, University of Iceland, 2005. Demonstrates how the novels contain dissonant elements, undetected manifestations of Scottish nationalism, and criticism of the United Kingdom and its imperial policy. Chapter 6 examines Rob Roy.
Ferris, Ina. The Achievement of Literary Authority: Gender, History, and the Waverley Novels. Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press, 1991. Revisionist history argues that the Waverley novels inscribed masculinist rhetoric and authority within the then female-dominated genre of the historical novel. Discusses how the feminine voice remained in Scott’s writings and illuminates the role of gender in Rob Roy, accounting for Diana as a strong character.
Irvine, Robert P. “Rob Roy and Two Versions of Modernity: As Political Economy and as Polite Discourse.” In Enlightenment and Romance: Gender and Agency in Smollett and Scott. New York: Peter Lang, 2000. Analyzes the fiction of Scott and Tobias Smollett within the context of the emergence of the social sciences and the dominance of novels written by women in the eighteenth century. Describes how the authors adapted the feminine romance and the domestic novel to assert control over the narrative structure of their novels.
Lincoln, Andrew. Walter Scott and Modernity. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2007. Examines Scott’s novels and poems and asserts that these were not works of nostalgia; instead, Scott used the past as a means of exploring modernist moral, political, and social issues. Includes discussion of Rob Roy.
Murray, W. H. Rob Roy MacGregor: His Life and Times. Glasgow: R. Drew, 1982. Excellent biography of the historical figure details his part in the confusing and constantly shifting loyalties and political currents that existed in Scotland in the early eighteenth century. Portrays MacGregor as a Scottish Robin Hood.
Robertson, Fiona. Legitimate Histories: Scott, Gothic, and the Authorities of Fiction. New York: Oxford University Press, 1994. Analyzes Scott’s Waverley novels within the context of eighteenth and nineteenth century gothic literature and examines the novels’ critical reception. Devotes a chapter to Rob Roy.
Shaw, Harry E., ed. Critical Essays on Sir Walter Scott: The Waverley Novels. New York: G. K. Hall, 1996. Collection of essays published between 1858 and 1996 about Scott’s series of novels includes journalist Walter Bagehot’s 1858 article about the Waverley novels as well as discussions of Scott’s rationalism, the subversion of the literary form in his fiction, and what his work meant to Victorian readers.
Sutherland, John. The Life of Walter Scott: A Critical Biography. New York: Blackwell, 1995. Authoritative biography on Scott provides insight into how his life and identity as a Scotsman helped influence his creation of such heroes as Rob Roy.