William Bell Scott was born in Edinburgh on 12 September 1811, into a family in which art was both a livelihood and an atmosphere. He was the eldest surviving son of Robert Scott, an engraver of considerable skill and a man of strong intellectual interests, and Ross Bell Scott. The household was not wealthy, but it was rich in artistic ambition, professional discipline, books, conversation, and the practical awarenes…
“The more knowing the aspirant is, the more imitative he is, and the less he depends on original powers, invention, and knowledge of life.”
Neighbourhood:
Pre-Raphaelite Poets, Scottish Poets, Victorian Poets
Emotional landscape: Longing, Wonder, Spirituality
John Scott of Amwell, born on 9 January 1730 and dead on 12 December 1783, occupied a distinctive if now comparatively quiet place in eighteenth-century English letters. He was a poet, critic, landscape gardener, social commentator, practical administrator, and committed Quaker whose life joined literary aspiration to civic usefulness. In his own day he was known not simply as John Scott but as “Scott of Amwell,” a n…
Neighbourhood:
Devotional Poets, Georgian Poets, Nature Poets, Social Justice Poets
Emotional landscape: Tenderness, Joy, Peace
