The poetical works of Sir Walter Scott, with memoir of the author.

MEMOIR OF THE AUTHOR. XXV
tiquary and the First Series of the Tales of My
Landlord. Rob Roy appeared in 1817; the
Second Series of the Tales in 1818; and in 1819
the Third Series and Ivanhoe. Two "romances
a year now seemed to be expected as the due
of the public. The year 1820 gave them the
Monastery and the Abbot: 1821, Kenilworth
and the Pirate; the Fortunes of Nigel, coming
out alone in 1822, was followed in 1823 by no
fewer than three works of fiction, Peveril of
the Peak, Quentin Durward, and St. Ronan's
Well; and the comparatively scanty number of
novels in 1824 and 1825, which produced respectively only Redgauntlet and the Tales of the
Crusaders, is accounted for by the fact that the
author was engaged in preparing a large historical
work.
It is impossible even to touch on the many
interesting details which Scott's personal history
presents during these brilliant years; but it is
indispensable to say, that his dream of territorial
acquisition was realized with a splendour which, a
few years before, he himself could not have hoped
for. The first step was taken in 1811, by the
purchase of a small farm of a hundred acres onthe banks of the Tweed, which received the name
of Abbotsford, and in a few years grew, by new
purchases, into a large estate. The modest dwelling first planned on this little manor, with its
two spare bed-rooms and its plain appurtenances,