interests of many authors less fortunate than himself.

With the desire of placing his financial position on a more substantial
basis, Scott had solicited the office of Clerk of Session; and after
some difficulties, during which he visited London and was received by
the Princess of Wales, he was installed in that position on March 8,
1806, and continued to discharge its duties with exemplary regularity
for twenty-five years.

The progress of "Marmion" was further interrupted by Scott's appointment
as secretary to a Commission for the improvement of Scottish
Jurisprudence, but the poems appeared at last in February, 1808. It
received only very qualified praise from Jeffrey, but I think it may be
considered on the whole Scott's greatest poem, and its popularity was
from the very first extraordinary.

In April of the same year William Miller of Albemarle Street published
Scott's great edition of Dryden, with a biography, in eighteen volumes;
and the editor's industry and critical judgement were the subject of a
laudatory article by Hallam in the "Edinburgh Review."

Scott was now engaged in a vast multiplicity of business. He was
preparing an edition of Swift for Constable, establishing his own
partner as a publisher in Edinburgh under the title of "John Ballantyne
and Co., Booksellers," and was projecting a new periodical of sound
constitutional principles, to be known as the "Quarterly Review,"
published by Murray in London and by Ballantyne in Edinburgh. In
connection with the latter enterprise Scott and Mrs. Scott went up to
London for two months in the Spring of 1809, and enjoyed the society of
Coleridge, Canning, Croker, and Ellis. The first "Quarterly" appeared
while he was in London, and contained three articles from his pen. At
this time also he prevailed on Henry Siddons, the nephew of Kemble, to
undertake the lease and management of the Edinburgh Theatre; and
purchasing a share himself, became an acting trustee, and for many years
took a lively concern in the Edinburgh company.

Early in May, 1810, "The Lady of the Lake" came out, like her two elder
sisters, in all the majesty of quarto, at the price of two guineas, the
author receiving two thousand guineas for the copyright. The whole
country rang with the praises of the poet, and crowds set off to view
the scenery of Loch Katrine. The critics were in full harmony with one
another and with the popular voice.

_The Waverley Novels_

On returning, in