Waverley

Sixty years before the novel’s narration in 1805, the protagonist of Waverley, a young Englishman named Edward Waverley, leaves the home of his uncle Sir Everard to join the military.

Sir Everard is a conservative Tory, but his younger brother, Edward’s father Richard, is a Whig with opposite political views. While many Tories believe in the Stuart succession that would make James VII the King of England and Scotland, the Whigs are for the Hanoverian dynasty and King George II, who currently rule over Great Britain. After the news of Richard’s appointment to the Hanoverian government, Everard—an heirless bachelor—decides to bring up Richard’s son Edward as a proper Tory heir to the Waverley family. Edward, Everard, and his sister Rachel live at the family home of Waverley-Honour while Edward’s parents live nearby with hopes that their son will later claim the family estate and title as his own.

Edward is a curious child and his upbringing allows him to educate himself in a wide variety of areas without cultivating a serious understanding of any one subject, or any applicable skills. Edward has a strong imagination which his tutors allow him to indulge, and he becomes a great reader—but only of the books he is amused by. His mother dies a few years after he goes to live at Waverley-Honour, and both Richard and Everard become less attentive to his studies as the years pass.

Though he cares little for the noble line of his family, Edward enjoys hearing stories from Everard and Rachel about the noble heroics his ancestors undertook. Edward daydreams of these stories and the kings, queens, and knights that once roamed Waverley-Honour.

Edward’s mind is subsumed by daydreams and he falls in love with a beautiful young woman named Cecilia Stubbs. Rachel notices Edward’s infatuation and suggests to Sir Everard that Edward should see the world rather than remain at Waverley. They propose to their brother Richard that Edward should travel to Europe with his tutor Mr. Pembroke. However, Richard secures a commission for Edward to join the military and informs Everard that Edward is to become Captain Waverley and join “Gardiner’s regiment of dragoons [...] in their quarters at Dundee in Scotland, in the course of a month” (130).

Everard is disappointed by this as the English military has recently been trying to suppress the Jacobite risings he supports, but he and Rachel must reconcile themselves to the fact that nothing can be done for Edward. Edward’s feelings about this are mixed, but he stops thinking of Cecilia as he becomes focused on his military duty. The narrator apologizes for the tedious political detail of the last five chapters, promising readers that the narrative will get more entertaining if they are patient.

Sir Everard entreats his nephew to avoid unnecessary danger and remember he is the last Waverley as he sees him off on his trip to Scotland. Everard also gives Edward a letter for his friend Cosmo Comyne Bradwardine of Tully-Veolan, a Jacobite baron with land in Perthshire, the country where Edward’s regiment is stationed. Everard and Mr. Pembroke’s goodbyes to Edward highlight their various prejudices against the Whigs and the Scottish respectively.

Edward meets his regiment and Colonel Gardiner in Dundee and begins his military training, which he is quickly bored by. Several months in, he asks for a few weeks’ leave to visit his uncle’s friend Bradwardine in Lowland Perthshire.

Edward notices the great differences between the poor village of Tully-Veolan in Scotland and the picturesque villages of England. He reaches Bradwardine’s mansion, which the narrator describes in great detail, and notes how it has many sculptures and carvings of bears, the family’s emblem.

Edward enters the mansion’s beautiful garden where he meets a “fool” named Davie Gellatley, who directs him to Bradwardine’s butler, Alexander Saunderson.

Bradwardine’s butler introduces Edward to Miss Rose Bradwardine, the beautiful 17-year-old daughter of the Baron. Bradwardine comes to greet Edward in the garden and is exceedingly happy to meet him despite his position in the military. Bradwardine invites Edward to dinner and tells him of his other guests who will arrive shortly.

At dinner, Edward sees that Bradwardine is a good man, though a bit self-important. After dinner the guests get extremely drunk and, to Edward’s horror, they go out to a pub and continue to drink. At this juncture, Edward realizes that the men are all staunch Jacobites, and Bradwardine attempts to defend Edward from the beliefs of his guests. Bradwardine and one of his guests, the Laird of Balmawhapple, are only prevented from dueling by the landlady kicking them out of her house.

Edward reflects on receiving a personal insult the night before and contemplates the necessity of dueling Balmawhapple before he sees him with Bradwardine in the garden. Bradwardine apologizes for Balmawhapple’s actions the night before, and everyone is quickly reconciled to one another. At Bradwardine’s entreaty, Edward agrees to stay a few more days. He learns more about Davie Gellatley, who is frequently referred to as “simple” and “innocent” due to his undisclosed disability

Edward and Bradwardine go hunting together and tour Tully-Veolan, and though they have opposing political opinions, the two men become good friends. Edward learns of Bradwardine’s military heroics from his friend Mr. Rubrick, and the three men visit Rose in her apartments where she demonstrates her accomplishments.

Edward learns that Bradwardine had dueled Balmawhapple before he apologized to Edward, something the Englishman is shocked and somewhat offended by despite Bradwardine’s assurance that it was not out of the ordinary. Edward enjoys reading and discussing literature with Rose. Rose begins to fall for him despite the Baron’s belief that Rose is above any base passions like romantic love. Edward writes to his commanding officer to ask for an extension of his leave, and his commanding officer agrees but warns him against the family and people of Tully-Veolan.

Edward finds the house in a tumult one morning and learns that a party of “Caterans”—whom Rose describes as “robbers from the neighbouring Highlands” (207), and who had previously blackmailed Bradwardine—have taken the cattle of Tully-Veolan. Bradwardine, Edward, Rose, and the Baron’s friend Ballie Macwheeble argue about what to do, but they are unable to figure out how to get their cattle back. Edward asks Rose about a man who Rose mentioned works with the thieves, Fergus Mac-Ivor Vich Ian Vohr of Glennaquoich. She says he is a chief of a powerful Highland clan who was once friends with her father before Bradwardine learned that Ballie had been paying blackmail to him. Rose also mentions she was once good friends with Fergus’s sister, Flora, another of the most beautiful and eligible women in the area. Rose tells him a story about an attack Tully-Veolan faced from the Highlanders when she was a child, and Edward is reminded of the daydreams of battle and heroics he had at Waverley-Honour.