An unfortunate child...

This is the entrance to the gardens of George Square, almost directly opposite No 25 George Square where Sir Walter Scott lived in his early teens.

Scott's most famous biography is by his son-in-law, John Gibson Lockhart. The nice thing about this book is that the first chapter is by Scott himself - so it is a mixture of auto-biography and biography.

He wrote about this gateway into the Square....

"I had an only sister, Anne Scott, who seemed to be from her cradle the butt for mischance to shoot arrows at. Her childhood was marked by perilous escapes from the most extraordinary accidents. Among others, I remember an iron-railed door leading into the area in the centre of George Square being closed by the wind, while her fingers were between the hasp and staple. Her hand was thus locked in, and must have been smashed to pieces, had not the bones of her fingers been remarkably slight and thin. As it was, the hand was cruelly mangled. "

Anne was a year younger than Scott - she died in 1801.

By the way, I just discovered that Scott was responsible for the immortal lines:

Oh what a tangled web we weave,
When first we practise to deceive!