4, without the author's name, and its
great success with the public was assured from the first. None of
Scott's intimate friends ever had, or could have, the slightest doubt as
to its parentage, and when Mr. Jeffrey reviewed the book, doing justice
to its substantial merits, he was at no pains to conceal his conviction
of the authorship. With the single exception of the "Quarterly," the
critics hailed it as a work of original creative genius, one of the
masterpieces of prose fiction.

From a voyage to the Hebrides with the Commissioners of the Northern
Lighthouses, Scott returned in vigour to his desk at Abbotsford, where
he worked at "The Lord of the Isles" and "Guy Mannering." The poem
appeared in January and the novel in February, 1815. "The Lord of the
Isles" never reached the same popularity as the earlier poems had
enjoyed, but "Guy Mannering" was pronounced by acclamation to be fully
worthy of the honours of "Waverley." In March, Scott went to London with
his wife and daughter, met Byron almost daily in Murray's house, and was
presented to the Prince Regent, who was enchanted with Scott, as Scott
with him. A visit to Paris in July of the same year is commemorated in
"Paul's Letters to His Kinsfolk." Scott's reputation had as yet made
little way among the French, but the Duke of Wellington, then in Paris,
treated him with kindness and confidence, and a few eminent Frenchmen
vied with the enthusiastic Germans in their attentions to him.

"The Antiquary" came out early in 1816, and was its author's favourite
among all his novels. The "Tales of my Landlord," published by Murray
and Blackwood, appeared in December, and though anonymous was at once
recognized as Scott's. The four volumes included the "Black Dwarf" and
"Old Mortality." A month later followed a poem, "Harold the Dauntless."
The title of "Rob Roy" was suggested by Constable; and the novel was
published on the last day of 1817.

During this year the existing house of Abbotsford had been building, and
Scott had added to his estate the lands of Toftfield, at a price of
L10,000. He was then thought to be consolidating a large fortune, for
the annual profits of his novels alone had, for several years, been not
less than the cost of Toftfield.

Having been asked by the Ballantynes to contribute to the historical
department of the "Annual Register," I often had occasion now to visit
Scott in his house in Castle Street, where I usually found him working
in hi