Abstract
We celebrate Scott's 250th birthday in 2021, and February also marks the 200th anniversary of the birth of Scott's grandson John Hugh Lockhart. John Hugh was known in the family as "Johnnie" and gained worldwide fame as "Hugh Littlejohn" when Tales of a Grandfather series was published.
But what was Scott like as a grandfather? This paper will analyse his relationship with his grandsons, who were Scott's source of hope for a better future. Scott did his best to solve his complicated financial situation so that at least Abbotsford would remain in his family, he certainly planned that his descendants would live there for many generations.
The visitors at Abbotsford can see at least a few portraits of Johnnie and there are much more within the Abbotsford collections. It is quite unusual to find so many portraits of the same 19th-century child, but there was a reason for that, Johnnie was a sickly child and the family probably felt it was necessary to create the images of this fragile child while they still can.
On the other hand, there are only two known portraits of Walter Scott Lockhart, who was six when his grandfather died, and it was he who eventually became the laird of Abbotsford in 1847. This paper explores Scott's complex relationships with his grandsons and follows the tragic stories of each of them.