The life of Sir Walter Scott, abridged from Lockhart's Life of Scott

Front matter

Qass.

Book.

Sir Walltr Scot

Prefatory Note

It will be observed that the greater part of this book has been taken in one form or other from Lockhart's Life of Sir Walter Scott, in ten volumes. No introduction to Scott would be worth much in which that course was not followed. Indeed, excepting Sir Walter's own writings, there is hardly any other great source of information about him; and that is so full, that hardly anything needful to illustrate the subject of Scott's life remains untouched. As regards the only matters of controversy, — Scott's relations to the Ballantynes, I have taken care to check Mr. Lockliart's statements by reading those of the representatives of the Ballantyne brothers ; but with this exception, Sir Walter's own works and Lockhart's life of him are the great authorities concerning his character and his story.

Many years ago Mr. Gladstone, in expressing to the late Mr. Hope Scott the great delight which the perusal of Lockhart's life of xiv PREFATORY NOTE

Sir Walter had given him, wrote, * I may be wrong, but I am vaguely under the impression that it has never had a really wide circulation. If so, it is the saddest pity, and I should greatly like (without any censure on its present length) to see published an abbreviation of it/ Mr. Gladstone did not then know that as long ago as 1848 Mr. Lockhart did himself prepare such an abbreviation, in which the original eighty-four chapters were compressed into eighteen, — though the abbreviation contained additions as well as compressions. But even this abridgment is itself a bulky volume of 800 pages, containing, I should think, considerably more than a third of the reading in the original ten volumes, and is not, therefore, very likely to be preferred to the completer work. In some respects I hope that this introduction may supply, better than that bulky abbreviation, what Mr. Gladstone probably meant to suggest, — some slight miniature taken from the great picture with care enough to tempt on those who look on it to the study of the fuller life, as well as of that image of Sir Walter which is impressed by his own hand upon his works.

Contents

TAGF.

An Appreciation — John Hay . . . . v Biography of Sir Walter Scott — Sir Leslie

Stephens ....... 1

CHAPTER I Ancestry, Parentage, and Childhood . . 55

CHAPTER H Youth — Choice of a Profession ... 79

CHAPTER HI Love and Marriage ..... 96

CHAPTER IV ^ Earliest Poetry and Border Minstrelsy . 105

CHAPTER V

Scott's Maturer Poems . . . . .117

CHAPTER VI

Companions and Friends ♦. . . . .140

CHAPTER VII First Country Homes . . . , .153 xvi CONTENTS

CHAPTER VIII Removal to Abbotsford, and Life There . . 162

CHAPTER IX Scott's Partnerships with the Ballantynes . 174

CHAPTER X

The Waverivey Novels . . . . .189

CHAPTER XI Morality and Religion ..... 229

CHAPTER XII Distractions and Amusements at Abbotsford . 237

CHAPTER XIII Scott and George IV. ..... 246

CHAPTER XIV

Scott as a Politician ..... 254

CHAPTER XV Scott in Adversity ...... 267

CHAPTER XVI The Last Year 287

CHAPTER XVII The End of the Struggle . . . .301

Biography of Sir Walter Scott

'IR WALTER SCOTT, (1771-1832), author of the Waverley Novels, son of Walter Scott by his wife Anne Rutherford, was born on 15 August, 1771, in a house in the College Wynd at Edinburgh, since demolished. The True History of several honourable Families of the Right Honourable name of Scott (I688), by Walter Scott of Satchells, was a favourite of the later Walter from his earliest years. He learnt from it the history of many of the heroes of his writings. Among them were John Scott of Harden, called ' the Lamiter,' a younger son of a duke of Buccleuch in the fourteenth century; and John's son, William the ' Boltfoot,' a famous border knight. A later Scott called ' Auld Wat,' the Harden of the Lay of the Last Minstrel, married ISIary Scott, the ' Flower of Yarrow,' in 1567, and was the hero of many legends. His son, William Scott of Harden, was made prisoner by Gideon Murray of Elibank, and preferred a marriage with Murray's ugliest daughter to the gallows. William's third son, Walter, laird of Raeburn, became a Quaker, and suffered persecutions described in a note to the Heart of Midlothian. Raeburn's second son, also Walter, became a Jacobite, and was known as ' Beardie,' because he gave up shaving in token of mourning for the Stuarts. He died in 1729-

' Beardie ' and his son Robert are described in the introductory Epistles to Marmion. Robert quarrelled with his father, became a Whig, and set up as a farmer at Sandy Knowe. He was a keen sportsman and a ' general referee in all matters of dispute in the neighbourhood.' In 1728 he married Barbara, daughter of Thomas Haliburton of New Mains, by whom he had a numerous family. One of them, Thomas, died on 27 January, 1823, in his nineteenth year. Another, Robert, was in the navy, and, after retiring, settled at Rosebank, near Kelso. Walter Scott, the eldest son of Robert of Sandy Knowe, born 1729, was the first of the family to adopt a town life. He acquired a fair practice as writer to the signet. His son says {Autobiographical Fragment) that he delighted in the antiquarian part of his profession, but had too much simplicity to make money, and often rather lost than profited by his zeal for his clients. He was a strict Calvinist; his favourite study was church history; and he was rather formal in manners and staunch to old Scottish prejudices. He is the original of the elder Fairford in Redgauntlet. In April, 1758, he married Anne, eldest daughter of John Rutherford, professor of medicine in the university of Edinburgh. Her mother was a daughter of Sir John Swinton, a descendant of many famous warriors, and through her her son traced a descent from Sir William Alexander, Earl of Stirling, the friend of Ben Jonson. Mrs. Scott was short, and ' by no means comely.' She was well educated for the time, though with old-fashioned stiffness; was fond of poetry, and was of light and happy temper of mind. Though devout, she was less austere than her husband.

Her son Walter had no likeness, it is said, to her or to his father, but strongly resembled his great-grandfather, ' Beardie,' and especially his grandfather Robert.

Walter Scott, the writer to the signet, had a family of twelve, the first six of whom died in infancy. The survivors were Robert, who served in the navy under Rodney, wrote verses, and was afterwards in the East India Company's service. John, the second, became a major in the army, retired, and died in 1816. The only daughter, Anne, suffered through life from an early accident, and died in 1801. Thomas, who showed much talent, entered his father's profession, failed in speculations, was made paymaster of the 70th regiment in 1811, accompanied it to Canada in 1813, and died there in April, 1823. Daniel, the youngest, who was bred to trade, ruined himself by dissipation, and emigrated to Jamaica. There he showed want of spirit in a disturbance, and returned a dishonoured man, to die soon afterwards (1806). His brother Walter refused to see him, and afterwards felt bitter regret for the harshness.

Walter Scott, the fourth surviving child, was a very healthy infant, but at the age of eighteen months had a fever when teething and lost the use of his right leg. (On this illness see a medical note by Dr. Creighton to the article on Scott in the Encyclopcedia Britannica, 9th ed.) After various remedies had failed he was sent to Sandy Knowe, where his grandfather was living with his second son, Thomas. Scott's earliest recollections were of his lying on the floor in this house, wrapped in the skin of a sheep just killed, and being enticed by his grandfather to crawl. Sheepskins and other remedies failed to cure the mischief, which resulted in a permanent deformity; but he recovered his general health, became a sturdy child, caught from his elders a ' personal antipathy ' to Washington, and imbibed Jacobite prejudices, due partly to the fall of some of his relations at Culloden. He learnt from his grandmother many songs and legends of the old moss-troopers and his border ancestry. In his fourth year he was sent with his aunt, ]Miss Janet Scott, to try the waters at Bath. He was taken to London shows on his way; and at Bath was petted by John Home, the author of Douglas, and by his uncle. Captain Robert Scott. He learnt a little reading at a dame school, and saw As You Like It at the theatre. He returned after a year to Edinburgh and Sandy Knowc, where he learnt to ride. JNIrs. (Alison) Cockburn describes him in a letter of December, 1777, as the * most extraordinary genius of a boy ' she ever saw. In his eighth year he was sent for sea-bathing to Prestonpans, where a veteran named Dalgetty told him stories of the German wars, and where he first made acquaintance with George Constable, the original of Jonathan Oldbuck.

In 1778 he returned to his father's house in George's Square, Edinburgh, and after a little preparation was sent, in October, 1778, to the high school. A sturdy Presbyterian, James Mitchell, also acted as private tutor to him and his brother. Scott had many ' amicable disputes ' with the tutor about cavaliers and roundheads, and acquired some knowledge of the church history of Scotland. Mitchell testifies to his sweetness and intelligence. He did not, however, distinguish himself at school, where he was for three years under Luke Fraser, and afterwards under Alexander Adam, the rector. He was an ' incorrigibly idle imp/ though ' never a dunce.' He was better at the ' yards ' (or playground) than in the class, and famous, in spite of his infirmity; for climbing the ' kittle nine stanes ' on the castle rock and taking part in pugilistic ' bickers ' with the town boys. Under Adams, however, he became a fair Latinist, and won praise for poetical versions of Horace and Virgil. His mother encouraged him to read Shakespeare, and his father allowed the children to act plays occasionally after lessons. His rapid growth having weakened him, he was sent for a half-year to his aunt at Kelso, where he attended school and made the acquaintance of James Ballantyne. Ballantyne reports that he was already an incomparable story-teller. An acquaintance with Thomas Blacklock, the blind poet, had led to his reading Ossian and especially the Faerie Queen, of which he could repeat ' marvellous ' quantities. He also read Hoole's Tasso, and was, above all, fascinated by Percy's Reliques. He was already beginning to collect ballads. He says that he had bound up ' several volumes ' of them before he was ten (Lockhart, ch. iv.), and a collection at Abbotsford dates from 1783. To the Kelso time he also refers his first love of romantic scenery.

In November, 1783, Scott began to attend classes at the college. He admired Dugald Stewart, and attended a few lectures on law and history. Finding that his fellows were before him in Greek, he forswore the language and gave up the Latin classics as well. He remained e LIFE OF

ignorant of even the Greek alphabet, though in later years he was fond of some Latin poetry. He was, however, eagerly pursuing his favourite studies. With John Irving (afterwards a writer to the signet) he used to ramble over Arthur's Seat, each composing romantic legends for the other's amusement. He learnt Italian enough to read Tasso and Ariosto in the original, acquired some Spanish, and read French, though he never became a good linguist. A severe illness, caused by the ' bursting of a blood-vessel in the lower bowels,' interrupted his serious studies; and he solaced himself, with Irving, in reading romantic literature. His recovery was completed at Rosebank, where his uncle Robert had recently settled, and which became a second home to him. He studied fortification on Uncle Toby's method, and read Vertot's Knights of Malta and Orme's Hindostan. Gradually he recovered, became tall and muscular, and delighted in rides, and, in spite of lameness, walks of twenty or thirty miles a day. His rambles made him familiar with many places of historical interest, and he tried, without success, to acquire the art of landscape painting. His failure in music was even more decided. — He did not resume his attendance at college in 1785, and on 15 May, 1786, he was apprenticed to his father as writer to the signet. Soon after this he had his only sight of Burns. As an apprentice Scott acquired regular business habits. He made a little pocket-money by copying legal documents, and says that he once wrote 120 folio pages at a sitting. His handwriting, as Lockhart observes, shows the marks of his steady practice as a clerk. He began to file his letters regularly, and was inured to the methodical industry to be afterwards conspicuously displayed in literature. The drudgery, however, was distasteful at the time. In 1788 he began to attend civil-law classes, which then formed part of the education of both branches of the legal profession. He here made the acquaintance of young men intended for the bar, and aspired to become an advocate himself. His father kindly approved of the change, but oflPered to take him into partnership. Both, however, preferred that the younger son Thomas should take this position; and Walter accordingly attended the course of study necessary for an advocate, along with his particular chum, William Clerk. They * coached ' each other industriously, and were impressed by the lectures of David Hume, the historian's nephew. Both were called to the bar on 11 July, 1792, Scott having defended a thesis ' on the disposal of the dead bodies of criminals,' which was a * very pretty piece of Latinity,' and was dedicated to Lord Braxfield.

Scott was already a charming companion and was a member of various clubs ; the ' Teviotdale Club,' to which Ballantyne belonged; 'The Club' (of Edinburgh), where he met William Clerk and other young advocates, and was known as ' Colonel Grogg ' ; and the ' Literary Society,' where discussions were held in which, although Scott was not distinguished as an orator, he aired his antiquarian knowledge, and gained the nickname ' Duns Scotus.' Scott's companions were given to the conviviality of the period; and, though strictly temperate in later life, he occasionally put the strength of his head to severe tests at this time. When the hero of Rob Roy is persuaded that he had sung a song during a carouse, he is repeating the author's experience. It seems, too, that such frolics occasionally led to breaches of the peace, when Scott was complimented as being the ' first to begin a row and the last to end it.' He fell, however, into no discreditable excesses, and was reading widely and storing his mind, by long rambles in the country, with antiquarian knowledge. As an apprentice he had to accompany an expedition for the execution of a writ, which first took him into the Loch Katrine region. He made acquaintance with a client of his father's, Alexander Stewart of Invernahyle, who had been out in 1715 and 1745, and had met Rob Roy in a duel. Scott visited him in the highlands, and listened eagerly to his stories. At a rather later period he visited the Cheviots, and made a careful study of Flodden Field.

The ' Literary Society ' encouraged him to take a higher place among his friends. He had * already dabbled,' says Lockhart, ' in Anglo-Saxon and the Norse sagas.* In 1789 he read before the society an essay intended to show that the feudal system was the natural product of certain social conditions, instead of being the invention of a particular period. In the winter of 1790-91 he attracted the attention of Dugald Stewart, whose class he was again attending, by an essay * on the Manners and Customs of the Northern Nations.' On 4 January, 1791 J he was elected a member of the Speculative Society. He took great interest in its proceedings, was soon chosen librarian and secretary, and kept the minutes with businesslike regularity. An essay upon ballads which he read upon the night of Jeffrey's admission kd to an acquaintance between the two, and Jeffrey found him already collecting the nucleus of a museum of curiosities. By this time he had also become qualified for ladies' society. He had grown to be tall and strong; his figure was both powerful and graceful; his chest and arms were those of a Hercules. Though his features were not handsome, their expression was singularly varied and pleasing; his eye was bright and his complection brilliant. It was a proud day, he said, when he found that a pretty young woman would sit out and talk to him for hours in a ballroom, where his lameness prevented him from dancing. This pretty young lady was probably Williamina, daughter of Sir John and Lady Jane Belsches, afterwards Stuart, of Fettercairn, near Montrose, born October, 1776. She ultimately married on 19 January, 1797, Sir William Forbes, bart., of Pitsligo, was mother of James David Forbes, and died 5 December, 1810. Scott appears to have felt for her the strongest passion of his life. Scott's father, says Lockhart, thought it right to give notice to the lady's father of the attachment. This interference, however, produced no effect upon the relations between the young people. Scott, he adds, hoped for success for * several long years.' Whatever the true story of the failure, there can be no doubt that Scott was profoundly moved, and the memory of the lady inspired him when describing Matilda in Rohehy {Letters, ii. 18), and probably other heroines. He refers to the passion more than once in his last journal, and he had affecting interviews with her mother in 1827 {Journal, 1890, i. 86, 96, 404, ii. 55, 62, 321). According to Lockhart, Scott's friends thought that the secret attachment had helped to keep him free from youthful errors, and had nerved him to diligence during his legal studies. As, however, she was only sixteen when he was called to the bar, Lockhart's language seems to imply rather too early a date for the beginning of the affair (see Bain's James Mill for an account of the Stuart family; James Mill was for a time Miss Stuart's tutor).

Scott, on joining the bar, received some employment from his father and a few others, but had plenty of leisure to become famous as a story-teller among his comrades. Among his dearest friends of this and later time was William Erskine (afterwards Lord Kinneder). At the end of 1792 he made his fh-st excursion to Liddesdale, with Robert Shortreed, the sheriff-substitute of Roxburghshire. He repeated these ' raids ' for seven successive years, exploring every corner of the country, collecting ballads and occasionally an old border warhorn, and enjoying the rough hospitalities of the Dandie Dinmonts. A Willie Elliot of Millburnholme is said to have been the original of this great creation, though a Jamie Davidson, who kept mustard-and-pepper terriers, passed by the name afterwards; and Lockhart thinks that the portrait was filled up from Scott's friend, William Laidlaw. Scott was everywhere welcome, overflowing with fun, and always a gentleman, even when * fou,' which, however, was a rare occurrence. Other rambles took him to Perthshire, Stirlingshire, and Forfarshire. He became familar with the scenery of Loch Katrine. At Craighall in Perthshire he found one original of the Tully-Veolan of Waverley, and at Meigle in

Forfarshire he met Robert Paterson, the real Old Mortality. In 1796 he visited Montrose, and tried to collect stories of witches and fairies from his old tutor, Mitchell. The neighbourhood of the Stuarts at Fettercairn was probably a stronger inducement, but his suit was now finally rejected. His friends were alarmed at the possible consequences to his romantic temper, but he appears to have regained his self-command during a solitary ramble in the highlands.

Another line of study was now attracting his attention. In 1788 a paper read by Henry Mackenzie to the Royal Society of Edinburgh had roused an interest in German literature. Scott and some of his friends formed a class about 1792 to study German, engaging as teacher Dr. Willich (afterwards a translator of Kant), and gained a knowledge of the languge, which was then a ' new discovery.' Scott disdained the grammar, but forced his way to reading by his knowledge of Anglo-Saxon and Scottish dialects. William Erskine shared his zeal, and restrained his taste for the extravagances of the German dramatists. He became Scott's most trusted literary adviser. Three or four years later James Skene of Rubislaw returned from Germany with a thorough knowledge of the language and a good collection of books. Their literary sympathies led to the formation of another of Scott's warmest friendships.

The French revolution affected Scott chiefly by way of repulsion and by stimulating his patriotism. In 1794 some Irish students of the opposite persuasion made a riot in the theatre. Scott joined with such effect as to break the heads of three democrats, and was bound over to keep the peace. He was keenly interested in the raising of a volunteer regiment in Edinburgh, from which he was excluded by his lameness. He joined, however, in a scheme for raising a body of volunteer cavalry. It was not organized till February, 1797, when Scott was made quartermaster, ' that he might be spared the rough usage of the ranks.' He attended drills at five in the morning before visiting the Parliament house, dined with the mess, and became a most popular member of the corps. His military enthusiasm, which excited some amusement among his legal friends, was lasting. When, in 1805, there was a false alarm of an invasion, he rode a hundred miles in one day, from Cumberland to Dalkeith, an incident turned to account in the Antiquary (Lockhart, ch. xiv.)

Scott's income at the bar had risen from 24Z. in his first year to 144Z. in 1797. Lockhart gives some specimens of his arguments, which apparently did not rise above the average. In the autumn of 1797 he was persuaded by a friend to visit the English lakes, and thence they went to the little watering-place of Gilsland, near the ' waste of Cumberland ' described in Guy Mannering. Here he saw a beautiful girl riding, and, finding that she was also at Gilsland, obtained an introduction, and immediately fell in love with her. She was Charlotte Mary Carpenter, daughter of a French refugee, Jean Charpentier. Upon his death, early in the revolution, his wife, with her children, had gone to England. They found a friend in the Marquis of Downshire, on whose property Charpentier held a mortgage. The son obtained a place in the East India Company's service, and changed his name to Carpenter. The daughter is said bj' Lockhart to have been very attractive in appearance, though not of regular beauty, with dark brown eyes, masses of black hair, and a fairy-like figure. She spoke with a slight French accent. Scott, at any rate, was soon ' raving' about her. She was just of age. Lord Downshire approved. Her brother had settled an annuity of 500^. upon her; and, though this was partly dependent upon his circumstances, Scott thought that the income, with his own professional earnings, would be sufficient. They were therefore married at St. Mary's Church, Carlisle, on 24 December, 1797.

The Scotts settled at a lodging in George Street, Edinburgh; then at 10 Castle Street; and in 1802 at 39 Castle Street, a house which Scott bought, and where he lived till 1826. The bride's lively tastes were apparently not quite suited to the habits of Scott's parents; but she was warmly welcomed by his friends at the bar and among the volunteers. They were both fond of the theatre, and heartily enjoyed the simple social amusements of the time. Scott's father was failing before the marriage, and died in April, 1799.

Although still courting professional success, Scott now began to incline to literature. He had apparently written and burnt a boyish poem on the Conquest of Granada about 1786 (Lockhart, p. 37), but afterwards confined himself to an occasional ' sonnet to his mistress's eyebrow.' In 1796 he heard of the version of Burger's Lenore by William Taylor of Norwich, one of the first students of German literature. He was stimidated to attempt a rival translation, which he began after suppel' and finished that night in a state of excitement which spoilt his sleep. He published this in October with a companion ballad. The Wild Huntsman; the publisher being one of his German class. The ballads were praised by Dugald Stewart^ George Chalmers, and others; and his rival, Taylor, sent him a friendly letter. He had, however, many other rivals ; and most of the edition went to the trunkmaker. In 1797 William Erskine showed the ballads to Matthew Gregory Lewis of the Monk, who was then collecting the miscellany called Tales of Wonder (1801). He begged for contributions from Scott, whom he met on a visit to Scotland. Scott, though amused by Lewis's foibles, was flattered by the attentions of a well-known author and edified by his criticisms. Lewis was also interested by Scott's version of Goethe's Goets von Berlichingen. He induced a publisher to give 25l. for it, with a promise of an equal sum for a second edition. It appeared in February, 1799, but failed to obtain republication. Another dramatic performance of the time was the House of Aspen, an adaptation from Der heilige Vehme of G. Wachter; it was offered to Kemble by Lewis, and, it is said, put in rehearsal. It was not performed, however, and remained unpublished. Meanwhile Scott had been writing ballads for Lewis, some of which he showed to his friend, James Ballantyne, who was then publishing a newspaper at Kelso. Ballantyne agreed to print twelve copies of these ballads, which, with a few poems by other authors, appeared as Apology for Tales of Terror in 1799- Scott had suggested that they would serve as advertisements of Ballantyne's press to his friends at Edinburgh. He was pleased with the result, and now began to think of publishing his collection of Border Ballads^ to be printed by Ballantyne.

The office of sheriiF-depute of Selkirkshire was at this time vacant, and Scott had the support of the Duke of Buccleuch in an application for the office. Scott's volunteering had also brought him into close connection with Robert Dundas, eldest son of Lord Melville, then the great distributor of Scottish patronage. Melville's nephews were also interested, and on l6 December, 1799j Scott was appointed sheriff-depute. It brought him 300Z. a year for light work and a closer connection, with his favourite district. Scott now set about his ballad collection energetically. On 22 April, 1800, he wrote to Ballantyne, whom he proposed to entrust with the printing, and suggested, at the same time, that Ballantyne would find a good opening for a printing establishment in Edinburgh. Scott's ballad-hunting brought him many new acquaintances, who, as usual, became warm friends. Among them were Richard Heber, the great book-collector, and, through Heber, George Ellis, then preparing his Specimens of Early English Romances. They kept up an intimate correspondence until Ellis's death. Scott managed also to form a friendly alliance with the touchy antiquary, Joseph Ritson. He took up John Leyden, whose enthusiastic co-operation he repaid by many good services. He made the acquaintance of William Laidlaw, ever afterwards an attached friend; and, through Laidlaw, of James Hogg (1770- 1835), to whom also he was a steady patron. The first two volumes of the Border Minstrelsy, printed by Ballantyne, were published early in 1802 by Cadell & Davies, and welcomed by many critics of the time, including Miss Seward. Scott received 78l. 10s. for a half -share of the profits, and then sold the copyright to the Longmans for 5001. This price apparently included a third volume, which appeared in 1803. Other editions followed when Scott had become famous. The collection included various introductory essays, and showed, as Lockhart remarked, that his mind was already stored with most of the incidents and images afterwards turned to account. The Minstrelsy had been intended to include the romance of Sir Tristram which he and Leyden had persuaded themselves to be the work of Thomas of Ercildoune. A small edition of this was published separately by Constable in May, 1804.

The Minstrelsy included some imitations of the ancient ballad by Scott, Leyden, and others. Glenfinlas, written for Lewis in 1799^ was, he says, his ' first serious attempt in verses.' Another poem, intended for the Minstrelsy, led to more important results {Letters, i, 22). The Countess of Dalkeith (afterwards Duchess of Buccleuch) suggested to him as a fit subject for a ballad the legend of Gilpin Horner. Soon afterwards (Sir) John Stoddart, on a visit to Scotland, repeated to him the then unpublished Christabel. Scott thought the metre adapted to such an ' extravaganza ' as he intended. A verse or two from Christabel was actually introduced in Scott's poems; and Coleridge seems afterwards to have been a little annoyed by the popularity due in part to this appropriation and denied to the more poetical original. Scott in his preface of 1830 fully acknowledges the debt, and in his novels makes frequent references to Coleridge's poems. The framework of the Last Minstrel was introduced on a hint from W. Erskine or George Cranstoun, to whom he had read some stanzas; and its form was suggested by the neighbourhood of Newark Castle to Bowhill, where he had met the Countess of Dalkeith. He read the beginning to Ellis early in 1803. The Lay of the Last Minstrel was published at the beginning of 1805 by the Longmans and Constable on half profits. The Longmans bought the copyright on a second edition for 500Z., Scott thus receiving iQQl. 6s. on the whole. It succeeded at once so brilliantly as to determine Scott's future career.