The Scottish writer and editor, John Gibson Lockhart, published his first full attempt at a biography of his late father-in-law in 1837. This is Volume 5 of a new reprint of that seven Volume edition. It begins and ends at Abbotsford, from a time for entertainment and country pursuits in the autumn of 1820 to its 'slendour' at Christmas 1824 and the new year that followed - the latter events as told in the journal of one of the guests Captain Basil Hall. Accounts of the death of John Ballantyne, and of Byron; the Coronation of George IV and his visit to Scotland; the publication of 'Mr Adolphus's Letters on the Authorship of Waverley', as well as insights into the Blair-Adam Club, the Royal Society of Literature and the Bannatyne Club; these all feature feature in Lockhart's portrayal of society life in Scotland and England and Scott's place within it.