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 in Lockhart's portrayal of society life in Scotland and England and Scott's place within it. Published simultaneously wıth this reprint is a volume bringing together the 1838 publication Refutation of the Mistatements and Calumnies contained in Mr Lockhart's Life of Sir Walter Scott, Bart respecting The Messrs Ballantyne, Lockhart's response to 'The Ballantyne-Humbug' and the Ballantyne Trust's subsequent retort.