these distinctions makes the whole world kin. We feel that, notwithstanding the extent of factitious distance, we are really near his characters. Lofty as they are, they are bone of our bone, --sweet flattery which the author teaches us to apply to ourselves! We claim kindred with his noblest heroes, and they admit us to their table, although, perhaps, "below the salt." Red Murdoch is the kinsman of his chief, and is pleased while he lives. But his death by no means fulfils the omen :

"Think ye because a wretched kern ye slew,
Homage to name to Roderic Dhu?"

Scott himself naively confesses this with feelings which few per-
sons, except his countrymen, distinctly understand.
"We are
not a little proud of being greeted as Laird and Lady of Abbots-
ford. We will give a grand gala when we take possession of it;
and as we are very clannish in this corner, all the Scotts in the
country, from the duke to the peasant, shall dance on the green
to the bagpipes, and drink whisky punch."

The difficulties of Scott's partnership had already begun. The Ballantynes were short of money, and Scott is pestered with shifts to raise the wind. Expresses are going to and fro between Edinburgh and the country wherever he may happen to be, as their bills become due, and the lack of funds becomes apparent. Yet he buys Abbotsford with money borrowed from his friends, and on the security of "Rokeby" still only in his brain. He afterwards, notwithstanding continued financial difficulties, makes further purchases by the mortgage of his future labours. The "Lord of the Isles" begins to loom in sight immediately after a six weeks' voyage made in the yacht of the lighthouse commissioners in the summer of 1814, from Leith to the Clyde, round the north of Scotland. This was the period when "Waverley," just published, was engrossing the public mind. "The Lord of the Isles " was published on the 18th January 1815, and next month "Guy Mannering" issued from the press. The ensuing summer Scott visited the continent, a few weeks after the battle of Waterloo. As he witnessed the scenes which were then in all minds, he wrote the series entitled, "Paul's Letters to his Kinsfolk." The poem of "The Field of Waterloo" was also written in these circumstances. The element of romance was wanting to the subject, to which the poet, therefore, fails to do justice. Its details were too visible.

Space does not permit us to follow our author through all the triumphs which succeded this, the manhood of his career. His lucubrations in verse were now nearly fulfilled. The fame which subsequently awaited him as a novelist has somewhat obscured

that which accompanied him in his progress as a poet. Having dwelt so long on the history of the works contained in the present volume, the remainder of his life must be less minutely followed. It was even now agitated with the cares which belong peculiarly to mer of business. In addition to the burden which his own creative efforts imposed, he had to supply prudential thought to the two commercial houses in which he was interested, those of his printer and of his publisher. As for the landed estate he was rapidly gathering around the original nucleus of the hundred acres, to which he gave the name of Abbotsford, its cares were his delight; and all the operations of improving land, planting woods, and gardening landscapes, came as relief to his buoyant spirit. The pecuniary elements of all these rested on his hopes, which were as unbounded as his labour was indefatigable. From the court to the cottage Walter Scott was now known and appreciated. The highest heads in Britain and in Europe stooped courteously, in common with the poorest of the reading population, in homage to his genius. His fame could scarcely rise higher, or extend wider than it did.

In 1817 "Harold the Dauntless" was published. Of this he says, "I begin to get too old and stupid, I think, for poetry; and will certainly never again adventure on a grand scale." He never did.

The rank of baronet was conferred on Scott by the Prince Regent in 1820. His acceptance of the compliment was facilitated by a provision made for his children by their mother's brother, who had died a short time previously in India. His family consisted of two sons and two daughters. The eldest, Charlotte Sophia, was married in the same year to Mr. Lockhart, afterwards his biographer. Walter, Anna, and Charles, were the others.

The Waverley novels now teemed year after year from the press. Abbotsford was rising by degrees into a magnificence that threatened to be palatial. Land was still accumulating around the original farm, and an outlay for its improvement con amore was going on. The visitors-not always distinguishedwho flocked to Abbotsford comprised a large portion of the peerage, every commoner who could claim any eminence, and multitudes whose only object was to approach Sir Walter's person. All this activity was partaken of by those with whom as printer and publisher Scott was connected. The run of good fortune which had attended these his henchmen had been now long continued and unbroken. The commercial crisis of 1825 arrived. The publishing house of Ballantyne had some years before discovered its inability to resist the speculative atmosphere in which our author lived, and had withdrawn from the field. Archibald Constable, surnamed the "Crafty," was at the head of the Biblio