blishment of the Quarterly Review, and early ambition to elevate his social position by acquiring territorial possessions.

In 1805 he wrote the first chapters of a novel, but the opinion of a friend to whom the manuscript was submitted prevented its completion. In 1808 he published Marmion, in 1810 The Lady of the Lake, in 1811 The Vision of Don Roderick, in 1812 Rokeby, and in 1813 The Bridal of Triermain. His poetical career closed in 1815 with The Lord of the Isles and The Field of Waterloo; although he subsequently published anonymously Harold the Dauntless and his Dramatic Writings, which were unworthy of his reputation. His range as a poet was limited; it had been all explored; and the greatest of modern poets had in the mean time taken a place with the sacred few who are destined to live immortally in men's hearts. SCOTT was among the first to recognise BYRON's superiority. every field he would himself be first or nothing. He quitted the lyre for ever.

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Scorr had already published his admirable editions of SWIFT and DRYDEN; and from this period till 1825 his name was not before the public except in connection with Paul's Letters to his Kinsfolk, and a few articles in the Quarterly Review and the Encyclopædia Britannica. But in these ten years he laid the foundation of the highest reputation which the world of letters has furnished in the nineteenth century. The composition of the novel which had been commenced in 1805 was resumed, and finished with remarkable rapidity. The work appeared in the summer of 1814 under the title of Waverley, and its success was immediate and unparalleled. The series of novels to which this gave a distinguishing title followed each other in quick succession, and were translated into almost every written language. The Author of Waverley became a part of the existence of mankind, and the discovery of his name the great enigma of the age. Guy Mannering was published in 1815, The Antiquary, Old Mortality, and the Black Dwarf in 1816, Rob Roy and the Heart of Mid-Lothian in 1818, The Bride of Lammermoor and the Legend of Montrose in 1819, Ivanhoe, The Monastery, and The Abbot in 1820, Kenilworth in 1821, The Pirate and the Fortunes of Nigel in 1822, Quentin Durward and Peveril of the Peak in 1823, St. Ronan's Well and Redgauntlet in 1824, Tales of the

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Crusaders in 1825, Woodstock in 1826, First Series of Chronicles of the Canongate and Tales of a Grandfather in 1827, Second Series of Chronicles of the Canongate and of the Tales of a Grandfather in 1828, Anne of Geirstein and the Third Series of Tales of a Grandfather in 1829, and Count Robert of Paris and Castle Dangerous in 1831.

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In these years the estate of Abbotsford had been purchased and his palace erected. In 1820 he had been made a baronet, and from that time his house had been thronged by the most illustrious of his contemporaries. change, to ScoTT of all changes the most terrible, awaited him. In 1826 the houses of Ballantyne and Constable stopped payment, and he was involved in their ruin. Though the amount of his debts seemed too great for a hope to exist that they could ever be paid, he refused to be dealt with as a bankrupt. He pledged the exertions of his future life to the discharge of the claims of his creditors. In the two years ending with 1827 he realized from his writings the astonishing sum of forty thousand pounds, and soon after his death his executors completed the payment of all his liabilities. Among his latest works, contributing to this result, were The History of Scotland and The Life of Napoleon. The last of these had an immense sale, and brought a larger profit than any of his previous writings. Its popularity, however, was transient. It is a brilliant chronicle of events, but partial in its views, and executed with too little care and research to add to such a reputation as Walter Scott's.

In 1829 Scorr's health had materially declined, and in the following year his intellect began to fail under the weight of his cares and labours. In September, 1831, he sailed, in a ship of war furnished by the government, for Malta and Naples, in the hope that relaxation and a voyage at sea would induce his restoration. After a few months passed in Italy, his mind became a wreck, and his

friends made haste to reach home with him before his death. They arrived at Abbotsford on the eleventh of July, 1532; he lingered, with a few intervals of consciousness, until the twenty-first of September, and expired. His remains are buried in the romantic ruins of Dryburgh Abbey, which, like the tomb of SHAKSPEARE, has become a place of pilgrim. age for the world.

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