In 1811, Sir Walter Scott (at that time just plain Walter Scott because he hadn't been baroneted yet) found that he had far more money than he knew what to do with (he wasn't as brainy as he looked). Well he thought he had. He had written a few poems, had them published, and wasn't short of a few bob. He bought a property known as Cartley Hall, on the bank of the River Tweed near Melrose (which wasn't as posh then as it is now) and renamed it Abbotsford, as the locals had insisted on calling it Clarty Hole.