Sir Walter Scott was a poet, novelist, critic and man of letters, who is recognized as the master of the historical novel. 'St. Ronan's Well' is a novel published in 1823. This is the only one of Scott's novels with a nineteenth-century setting. Saint Ronan's Well is a spa at Innerleithen, a town near Peebles in southern Scotland. The novel concerns the rivalry of two men: Valentine Bulmer, the Earl of Etherington, and his half-brother Francis Tyrrel. Both wish to marry Miss Clara Mowbray, who i