One of Sir Walter Scott's most celebrated novels,Rob Roy is set in the north of England and Scotland in the years before, during and after the first lacobite rising of 1715. Rob Roy is a swashbuckling chieftain of the Clan MacGregor who is forced to become an outlaw for his alleged espousal of the lacobite cause.
He achieves great fame by his kindness to and sympathy for the poor and oppressed and he is sought out by Francis Osbaldstone and his spirited sweetheart Diana Vernon in their struggle with their malign kinsman, Rashleigh. Rob Roy is a truly heroic tale set against the turmoil surrounding the Hanovarian succession.
Sir Walter Scott"s novel Rob R0y(1817) is set in the north of England and Scotland in the early eighteenth century just prior to the first Jacobite rising of 1715. The story follows the adventures of Francis Osbaldistone, the son of a rich London merchant. Francis is banished from his father"s house for refusing to follow in his foot-steps and sent to Osbaldistone Hall in the north of England - the seat of his hard-drinking, fox-hunting uncle, Sir Hildebrand Osbaldistone. Here Francis meets his uncle"s six oafish sons of whom the most malign is the youngest - Rashleigh. A low plotter by nature, he has designs on Francis"s substantial inheritance and on his cousin, the fair Diana Vernon, who is favourably impressed by Francis. Prompted by the plucky Diana, Francis embarks on a dangerous mission, accompanied by Bailie Nicol Jarvie of Glasgow, to enlist the support of Rob Roy in his Highland fastness. By chance,they witness a clash between the clansmen and Royalist‘Redcoats" and Rob Roy"s subsequent daring escape. The scene is thus set for the final attempt by Francis, Rob Roy and the spirited Diana to unmask Rashleigh"s villainy, embezzlement, treachery and betrayal.
