Itil 



SCOTT. 



nuuitic situation on the banks of tlio Tweed; and 

 here ninny of his poetical works were written. But 

 with the increase of his resources grew the desire 

 to possess landed property of his own, where he 

 might indulge his taste for building, planting, and 

 gardening. Commencing with moderation, he pur- 

 chased a small farm of about 100 acres, lying on the 

 south bank of the Tweed, three miles above Mel- 

 rose, and in the very centre of that romantic and le- 

 gi'ndary country which his first great poem has made 

 familiar to every reader. This spot, then called 

 Cartly Hole, had a northern exposure^ and at that 

 time a somewhat bleak and uninviting aspect ; the 

 only habitable house upon it was a small and incon- 

 venient farm-house. Such was the nucleus of the 

 mansion and estate of Abbotsford. By degrees, as 

 his resourses increased, he added farm after farm to 

 his domain, and reared his chateau, turret after tur- 

 ret, till he had completed what a French tourist not 

 unaptly terms "a romance in stone and lime;" 

 clothing meanwhile the hills behind, and embower- 

 ing the lawns before, with flourishing woods of his 

 own planting. 



The desire of becoming an extensive landed pro- 

 prietor was a passion which glowed more warmly 

 in his bosom than any appetite which he ever enter- 

 tained for literary fame. Thus it was a matter of 

 astonishment to many, that, while totally insensi- 

 ble to flattery on the score of his works, and per- 

 fectly destitute of all the airs of a professed or 

 practised author, he could not so well conceal his 

 pride in the possession of a small patch of territory. 

 It was now the principal spring of his actions to add 

 as much as possible to the little realm of Abbots- 

 ford, m order that he might take his place not 

 among the great literary names which posterity is 

 to revere, but among the country gentlemen of 

 Roxburghshire. Under the influence of this pas- 

 sion, Scott produced a rapid succession of novels, 

 of which it will be sufficient here to state the names 

 and dates. To Waverley succeeded, in 1815, Guy 

 Mannering; in 1816, the Antiquary, and the First 

 Series of the Tales of my Landlord, containing the 

 Black Dwarf and Old Mortality ; in 1818, Rob 

 Roy, and the Second Series of the Tales of my 

 Landlord, containing the Heart of Mid-Lothian ; 

 and in 1819, the third Series of the Tales of my 

 Landlord, containing the Bride of Lammermoor 

 and a Legend of Montrose. It is to be observed 

 that the series, called " Tales of my Landlord," 

 were professedly by a different author from him of 

 Waverley, an expedient which the real author had 

 thought conducive to the maintenance of the pub- 

 lic interest. Having now drawn upon public curi- 

 osity to the extent of twelve volumes in each of 

 his two incognitos, he seems to have thought it ne- 

 cessary to adopt a third, and accordingly he in- 

 tended Ivanhoe, which appeared in the begin- 

 ning of 1820, to come forth as the first work of a 

 new candidate for public favour. From this design 

 he was diverted by a circumstance of trivial impor- 

 tance, the publication of a novel at London, pre- 

 tending to be a fourth series of the Tales of my 

 Landlord. It was therefore judged necessary that 

 Ivanhoe should appear as a veritable production of 

 the author of Waverley. To it succeeded, in the 

 course of the same year, the Monastery and the 

 Abbott. In the beginning of the year 1821, ap- 

 peared Kenilworth: making twelve volumes, if not 

 written, at least published in as many months. In 

 18a2 he produced the Pirate and the Fortunes of 

 Nigel ; in 1823, Peveril of the Peak (four volumes) 



I and Qiicntin Durward ; in 1824, St Ronan's Well 

 :md Ki'dgamiilrt ; in 1825, Tales of the Crusaders 

 (four volumes) ; in 1826, Woodstock ; in 18'27, 

 Chronicles of the Canongate, first series (two vo- 

 lumes) ; in 1828, Chronicles of the Canongai 

 cond series ; in 1829, Anne of Geierstein ; and in 

 1831, a fourth series of Tales of my Landlord, in 

 four volumes, containing two tales, respectively 

 entitled Count Robert of Paris, and Castle Danger- 

 ous. The whole of these novels, except where 

 otherwise specified, consisted of three volumes, 

 and, with those formerly enumerated, make up the 

 amount of his fictitious prose compositions to the 

 enormous sum of seventy four volumes. 



Throughout the whole of his career, both as a 

 poet and novelist, Sir Walter was in the habit of 

 turning aside occasionally to less important avoca- 

 tions of a literary character. He was a contributor 

 to the Edinburgh Review during the first few years 

 of its existence. To the Quarterly Review, he was 

 a considerable contributor, especially for the last 

 five or six years of his life, during which the work 

 was conducted by his son-in-law, Mr Lockhart. To 

 the Supplement of the sixth edition of the Ency- 

 clopaedia Britannica, he contributed the articles 

 Chivalry, Romance, and the Drama. In 1818, he 

 wrote one or two small prose articles for a periodi- 

 cal, after the manner of the Spectator, which was 

 started by his friend Mr John Ballantyne, under the 

 title of " The Saleroom," and was soon after drop- 

 ped for want of encouragement. In 1814, he edited 

 the Works of Swift, in nineteen volumes, with a 

 life of the author. In the same year, he gave 

 an elaborate introductory essay to a work, entitled 

 " Border Antiquities," (two volumes, quarto,) 

 which consisted of engravings of the principal an- 

 tique objects on both sides of the Border, accom- 

 panied by descriptive letter-press. In 1815, he 

 made a tour of France and Belgium, visiting the 

 field of Waterloo. The result was a lively travel- 

 ler's volume,under the title of "Paul's Letters to his 

 Kinsfolk," and a poem, styled " The Field of Wa- 

 terloo." In the same year he joined with Mr Ro- 

 bert Jamieson and Mr Henry Weber, in composing 

 a quarto on Icelandic Antiquities. In 1819, he 

 published " An Account of the Regalia of Scot- 

 land," and undertook to furnish the letter-press to 

 a second collection of engravings, under the title of 

 "Provincial Antiquities and Picturesque Scenery 

 of Scotland," one of the most elegant books which 

 has ever been published respecting the native 

 country of the editor. In 1822, he published 

 " Trivial Poems and Triolets, by P. Carey, with a 

 Preface ;" and in 1822, appeared his dramatic poem 

 of " Halidon Hill." In the succeeding year he 

 contributed a smaller dramatic poem, under the title 

 of" Macduffs Cross," to a collection of Miss Joanna 

 Baillie. The sum of his remaining poetical works 

 may here be made up, by adding " The Doom of 

 Devorgoil," arid " The Auchindrane Tragedy," 

 which appeared in one volume in 1830. 



The great success of the earlier novels of Sir 

 Walter Scott had encouraged his publishers, Messrs 

 Archibald Constable and Company, to give large 

 sums for those works; and, previous to 1824, it 

 was understood that the author liad spent from 

 fifty to a hundred thousand pounds, thus acquired, 

 upon his house and estate of Abbotsford. During 

 the months which his official duties permitted him 

 to spend in the country that is, the whole of the 

 more genial part of the year, from March till Nov- 

 ember, excepting the months of May and June he 



