Sir Walter was born on the 15th August, 1771, in a house belonging to his father, at the head of the College Wynd, Edinburgh. The house was pulled down to make room for the northern front of the New College; and the wise people of Edinburgh then built, for I don't know how many thousand pounds, a small vulgar Gothic steeple on the ground, and called it the "Scott Monument." There seems, however, to have been more reason than usual for the destruction of the College Wynd, for Scott was the first survivor of seven children born in it to his father, and appears to have been saved only by the removal to the house in George's Square, [43] which his father always afterwards occupied; and by being also sent soon afterwards into the open country. He was of purest Border race--seventh in descent from Wat of Harden and the Flower of Yarrow. Here are his six ancestors, from the sixteenth century, in order:-- 1. Walter Scott (Auld Wat) of Harden. 2. Sir William Scott of Harden. 3. Walter Scott of Raeburn. 4. Walter Scott, Tutor of Raeburn. 5. Robert Scott of Sandy-Knowe. 6. Walter Scott, citizen of Edinburgh. I will note briefly what is important respecting each of these. I. Wat of Harden. Harden means 'the ravine of hares.' It is a glen down which a little brook flows to join the river Borthwick, itself a tributary of the Teviot, six miles west of Hawick, and just opposite Branxholm. So long as Sir Walter retained his vigorous habits, he made a yearly pilgrimage to it, with whatever friend happened to be his guest at the time. [44] Wat's wife, Mary, the Flower of Yarrow, is said to have chiefly owed her celebrity to the love of an English captive,--a beautiful child whom she had rescued from the tender mercies [45] of Wat's moss-troopers, on their return from a Cumberland foray. The youth grew up under her protection, and is believed to have written both the words and music of many of the best songs of the Border. [46] This story is evidently the germ of that of the 'Lay of the last Minstrel,' only the captivity is there of a Scottish boy to the English. The lines describing Wat of Harden are in the 4th canto,-- "Marauding chief; his sole delight The moonlight raid, the morning fight. Not even the Flower of Yarrow's charms, In youth, might tame his rage for arms; And still in age he spurned at rest, And still his brows the helmet pressed, Albeit the blanchèd locks below Were white as Dinlay's spotless snow." [47] With these, read also the answer of the lady of Branksome, 23rd and 24th stanzas,-- "'Say to your lords of high emprize, Who war on women and on boys,-- For the young heir of Branksome's line, God be his aid; and God be mine: Through me no friend shall meet his doom; Here, while I live, no foe finds room.'