<P> Walter Scott was born on 15 August 1771 . He was the ninth child of Walter Scott, a Writer to the Signet (solicitor), and Anne Rutherford (sister of Daniel Rutherford). His father was a member of a cadet branch of the Scotts Clan, and his mother descended from the Haliburton family, the descent from whom granted Walter's family the hereditary right of burial in Dryburgh Abbey . Via the Haliburton family, Walter (b. 1771) was a cousin of the pre-eminent contemporaneous property developer James Burton, who was a Haliburton who had shortened his surname, and of his son, the architect Decimus Burton . Walter subsequently became a member of the Clarence Club, of which the Burtons were also members . </P> <P> Five of Walter's siblings died in infancy, and a sixth died when he was five months of age . Walter was born in a third - floor flat on College Wynd in the Old Town of Edinburgh, a narrow alleyway leading from the Cowgate to the gates of the University of Edinburgh (Old College). He survived a childhood bout of polio in 1773 that left him lame, a condition that was to have a significant effect on his life and writing . To cure his lameness he was sent in 1773 to live in the rural Scottish Borders at his paternal grandparents' farm at Sandyknowe, adjacent to the ruin of Smailholm Tower, the earlier family home . Here he was taught to read by his aunt Jenny, and learned from her the speech patterns and many of the tales and legends that characterised much of his work . In January 1775 he returned to Edinburgh, and that summer went with his aunt Jenny to take spa treatment at Bath in England, where they lived at 6 South Parade . In the winter of 1776 he went back to Sandyknowe, with another attempt at a water cure at Prestonpans during the following summer . </P> <P> In 1778, Scott returned to Edinburgh for private education to prepare him for school, and joined his family in their new house built as one of the first in George Square . In October 1779 he began at the Royal High School of Edinburgh (in High School Yards). He was now well able to walk and explore the city and the surrounding countryside . His reading included chivalric romances, poems, history and travel books . He was given private tuition by James Mitchell in arithmetic and writing, and learned from him the history of the Church of Scotland with emphasis on the Covenanters . After finishing school he was sent to stay for six months with his aunt Jenny in Kelso, attending the local grammar school where he met James and John Ballantyne, who later became his business partners and printed his books . </P> <P> Scott began studying classics at the University of Edinburgh in November 1783, at the age of 12, a year or so younger than most of his fellow students . In March 1786 he began an apprenticeship in his father's office to become a Writer to the Signet . While at the university Scott had become a friend of Adam Ferguson, the son of Professor Adam Ferguson who hosted literary salons . Scott met the blind poet Thomas Blacklock, who lent him books and introduced him to James Macpherson's Ossian cycle of poems . During the winter of 1786--87 the 15 - year - old Scott saw Robert Burns at one of these salons, for what was to be their only meeting . When Burns noticed a print illustrating the poem "The Justice of the Peace" and asked who had written the poem, only Scott knew that it was by John Langhorne, and was thanked by Burns . When it was decided that he would become a lawyer, he returned to the university to study law, first taking classes in Moral Philosophy and Universal History in 1789--90 . </P>

Who has been called the father of the english novel