WAVERLEY; OK, 'TIS SIXTY YEARS SINCE. IN THREE VOLUMES. Under which King, Bezonian? speak, or die! VOL. I. has been described as the forerunner of the Waverley novels. The accounts which have come down to us of the breezy, wholesome domestic life at Ashestiel, lead us to regard these as the very happiest years in the career of Walter Scott. He pushed on with the publication of his successive poems; The Lady of the Lake followed in 1810, and The Vision of Don Roderick in 1811. The first of these was successful beyond all precedent, but there was already a financial cloud on Scott's horizon; Ballantyne was doing very badly with other of his speculations, and if Scott was making money, he was losing it too. Nevertheless, so excellent seemed his prospects in other quarters, that in 1811 he was emboldened the lease of Ashestiel having run out to buy the estate of Abbotsford on the Tweed. It must be recollected, before charging him with rashness, that from 1812 his professional income was £1600 a year, besides what he might earn by literature. At this moment, however, Byron sprang upon the world, and it became evident that he would form a most serious rival to Scott as a popular poet. Moreover, Scott's ventures in 1813, Rokeby and The Bridal of Triermain, were coldly received by the public. The publishing business with Ballantyne was wound up, with help from the Duke of Buccleuch, and Constable was much mixed up with starting again what is still a puzzling business. Scott was now offered the appointment of Poet Laureate; he declined it, but suggested Southey, to whom it was then given. Scott, however, had now completed his first novel, Waverley, and in July 1814, with every circumstance of secrecy, this book was published. Scott was "not sure that it would be considered quite decorous for a Clerk of Session to write novels;" he was also, no doubt, anxious to see whether he could whistle the public to him by his mere charm and fashion of delivery. The result was extremely gratifying; the success of Waverley was instant and enormous. Scott's life now became one of unceasing activity, book following book with rapid regularity. In 1815 he published the last of his important narrative poems, The novel of Guy Mannering. The series of Tales of my It is impossible, and quite needless, to register here the names of all the deathless succession of Scott's novels, a series unbroken up to 1829. In 1817 Scott had the first warning that his health could not support for ever the violent strain which he was always putting upon it. He was created a baronet early in 1820, the first creation of George IV.'s reign. Sir Walter came up to London for this purpose, and stayed to sit for his picture to Lawrence, and for his bust to Chantrey. Two years later the king came to Scotland, and was welcomed by Scott, who innocently loved a pageant, "in the Garb of old Gaul," and with a loyalty which knew no bounds. He founded the Ballantyne Club in 1823, but in the winter of this year the illness of which he died began to make itself felt; this was almost coincident with the completion of Abbotsford. By this time, however, Scott's unfortunate and secret connection with Constable and with the Ballantyne firm EDINBURGH: Printed by James Ballantyne and Co. FOR ARCHIBALD CONSTABLE AND CO. EDINBURGH; AND 1814. Title-page of First Edition of "Waverley Lord of the Isles, and the had become a distinct cloud upon his horizon, and this grew and darkened. The ruin of these enterprises became certain at the close of 1825, and the bankruptcy of Sir Walter Scott was the result. It was presently settled that he should be left in undisturbed possession of Abbotsford, but should part with all his other property, live within his official salary, and pay his debt by continuing his literary labours with his best diligence. With noble courage he began to write at once, and pursued his work in spite of the further shock of his wife's death in May 1826. By June 1827 he had diminished his debt by £28,000, and would soon have cleared himself from all his encumbrances had moderate health been spared him. But he worked far too hard, and he was checked in 1828 by a threatening of apoplexy. His work was not received with so much public favour as he had been accustomed to, and he was a good deal discouraged. But more of his debts were paid; he was passionately eager to be free; through the last year of his labour he was "a writing automaton." His latest romance was Anne of Geierstein, 1829, but he went on writing history. In 1830 a paralytic seizure warned him to desist, but in vain; not until October 1831 would he consent to rest. He was taken to Malta and to Naples, but his health steadily declined. His family were barely able, in July, to bring him back alive to Abbotsford, where, on the 21st of September 1832, he died, within "the sound of all others most delicious to his ear, the gentle ripple of the Tweed over its pebbles." He was buried five days later in the Abbey of Dryburgh. Sir Walter Scott From the Bust by Chantrey |