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

NOTI ICE.
THE composition of' "The Lord of the Isles,"
as we now have it in the Author's MS., seems to
have been begun at Abbotsford, in the Autumn of'
1814, and it ended at Edinburgh, the 16th of' December. Some part of Canto I. had probably
been committed to writing in a rougher form earlier
in the year. The original Quarto appeared on the
2d of January, 1815.
It may be mentioned, that those parts of this
poem which were written at Abbotsford, were comnposed almost all in the presence of Sir Walter
Scott's family, and many in that of casual visitors
also: the original cottage which he then occupied not affording him any means of retirement.
Neither conversation nor music seemed to disturb
him.
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