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it being decided that erery bookseller must em- ploy Ballantyne to print any thing that Scott wrote. What such conduct in common trade would be called, we do not stop to inquire ; but will quote Mr. Lockhart's* observations on the transaction. " It is an old saying, that wherever there is a secret, there must be something wrong ; and dearly did Scott nay the penalty for &e mystery in which he baa chosen to involve this transaction. It was his rule, from the beginning, that whatever he wrote or edited must be printed at that press ; and had he catered for it only as author and sole editor, all had been well ; but had the booksellers known his direct pecuniary interest in keeping up and extending the occu- pation of those types, they would nave taken mto account his lively imagination and sanguine temperament, as well as his taste and judgment, and considered, far more deliberately than they too often did, his multifarious recommendations of new literary schemes, coupled though these were with some dim understanding that, if the Ballantyne press were employed, his own literary skill would be at his friend's disposal for the general superintendence of the undertaking. On the other hand, Scott's suggestions were in many cases, perhaps in the majority of them, conveyed through Ballantyne, whose habitual deference to his opinion induced him to advocate them with enthusiastic zeal ; and the printer, who had thus pledged his personal authority for the merits of the proposed scheme, must have felt himself committed to the bookseller, and could hardly refuse with decency to take a cer- tain share of the pecuniary risk, by allowing the time and method of his own payment to be regu- lated according to the employer's convenience. Hence, by degrees, was woven a web of entan- glement from which neither Ballantyne nor his adviser had any means of escape, except only in that indomitable spirit, the mainspring of perso- nal industry altogether tinpandlded, to which, thus set in motion, the world owes its most gigantic monument of literary genius.f
In 1808, Mr. Scott published his second poem of magrnitude, Marmion, which displayed his metrical genius to greater perfection than the Lay of the Last Mitulrel, and greatly increased his reputation. In 1809, he became a contribu- tor to the Edinburgh Annual Register, started by Mr. Southey. The Lady of the Lake, in which his poetical genius seems to have reached the acme of its powers, was published in 1810. After the publication of some other poems up to 1814, he seems to have concluded that poetry was no longer a line in which he ought to exer- cise his talents. Although the novel of Waverley had been commenced in 1805, it did not make
• John Gibson lAcUiart, editor of the Quarterlii Bmiew, nuoiied Mln Sopliia Scott, April S9, ISSO.
t For a fall acconnt of the partnerahip with James Bal- lantyne and their literair projects, see vol. ii. pp. S7.4S of I^ickhart's U/e of Sir Walter Scott. At a refntatioD of the statemeota made bjr Mr. John OilMon Loclchart, read Jl^utation of the Utitatementi and Cahmmia contained in Mr. Loekharfe Life of Sir Walter ScoU, Bart, reelect- ing the Meter: BaUantfne. Bj the Tmsteca and Son of tlM late Mr. James Ballantjrne. isss.
its appearance till 1814, without the name of the author, and was left to win its way in tho world without tiny of the usual recommendations. Its progress was for some time slow ; but after the first two or three months, its popularity had increased in a degree which must have satisfied the expectations of the author, had these been far more sanguine than he ever entertained. Great anxiety was expressed to learn the name of the author, but on this point no authentio in- fonqation could be obtained. It was read and admired universally throughont Oreat Britain, so that in a very short time 12,000 copies were disposed of He employed a part of his literary gains in purchasing a farm within three miles of Melrose, which he gradually enlarged, as his emoluments permitt^, till it eventuaJly became a Gothic castellated mansion of considerable size. The desire of becoming an extensive land proprietor, was a passion which glowed more warmly in his bosom than any appetite which he ever entertained for literary tame. The whole cast uf his mind, from the very beginning, was essentially aristocratic ; and it is probable that he looked with more reverence upon an old title to a Kood estate, than upon the most en- nobled title-page in the whole catalogue of co- temporary gniius. It was unquestionably owing to this principle that he kept the Waverliy secret with such pertinacious closeness, being unwilling to be considered as an author writing for fortune, which he must have thought degrading to the baronet of Abbotsford. It was now the principal spring of his actions to add as much as possible to the little realm of Abbotsford, in order that he might take his place — not among the great literary names which posterity is to revere ; but among the country gentlemen of Roxburghshire.* Under the influence of this passion, for such it must be considered, he produced a rapid succes- sion of novels, which were as eagerly purchased.
Among the eminent persons to whom he had been recommended by his genius, and its pro- ductions, George IV. was one who was pleased, in March, 1820, to create him a baronet of the United Kingdom, being the first to whom he extended that honour after his accession to the crown; and in August, 1822, when his majesty visited Scotland, sir Waiter found the duty imposed upon him, as in some measure the most prominent man in the coimtry.
Sir Walter Scott had now apparently attained a degree of human greatness, such as rarely falls to the lot of literary men; and he was generally considered as having, by prudence, fairly negatived the evils to which the whole class are almost proverbially subject. It was now to appear, that, though he had exceeded his brethren in many points of wisdom, and really earned an unusually large sum of money, he had not altogether secured himself against calamity. It is difficult to arrive at exact information
- Lest these speculations may a|n>ear somewhat para-
doxical, Mr. Robert Chambers says that they were po- noanced, by the late Mr. James Ballantyne, in wrlttng, to be " admirably true."— Smiiwaf Seofaaes, voL It. p. ang.
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