ing summer and autumn in his
cottage at Lasswade. This summer produced his first serious attempt in
verse, "Glenfinlas," which was followed by the noble ballads, "Eve of
St. John," "The Grey Brother" and "Fire-King"; and it was in the course
of this autumn that he first visited Bothwell Castle, the seat of
Archibald, Lord Douglas, whose wife, and her companion, Lady Louisa
Stuart, were among his dearest friends through life.

During a visit to Kelso, before returning to Edinburgh for the winter,
Scott renewed an acquaintance with a classfellow of his boyhood, Mr.
James Ballantyne, who was now printer and editor of a weekly paper in
his native town. Scott showed him some of his poems, expressed his
wonder that his old friend did not try to get some bookseller's printing
and suggested a collection of old Border ballads. Ballantyne printed for
him a few specimens to show to the booksellers; and thus began an
experiment which changed the fortunes of both Scott and Ballantyne.

Soon after the commencement of the Winter Session, the office of
Sheriff-depute of Selkirkshire became vacant, and the Duke of Buccleuch
used his influence with Mr. Henry Dundas, afterwards Viscount Melville,
to procure it for Scott. The appointment to the Sheriff ship was made on
December 16, 1799. It brought him an annual salary of L300; the duties
of the office were far from heavy; the small pastoral territory was
largely the property of the Duke of Buccleuch; and Scott turned with
redoubled zeal to his project of editing the ballads, many of which
belong to this district. In this design he found able assistants in
Richard Heber and John Leyden. During the years 1800 and 1801, the
"Minstrelsy" formed his chief occupation.

The duties of the Sheriffship took him frequently to Ettrick Forest, and
on such occasions he took up his lodging at the little inn at
Clovenford, a favourite fishing station on the road from Edinburgh to
Selkirk. Here he was within a few miles of the values of Yarrow and
Ettrick. On one of his excursions here, penetrating beyond St Mary's
Lake, he found hospitality at the farmhouse of William Laidlaw, through
whom he came to know James Hogg, a brother poet hardly conscious of his
powers.

The first and second volumes of the "Minstrelsy" appeared in January,
1802, from the house of Cadell and Davies in the Strand, and formed
Scott's first introduction as an original writer to the English public.
Their reception greatly elated