The year 1811 is remarkable for two things in Scott’s life.  In this year he seems to have realized that, notwithstanding the success of his poems, he had not yet “found himself”; that he was not a poetic genius, like Burns; that in his first three poems he had practically exhausted his material, though he still continued to write verse; and that, if he was to keep his popularity, he must find some other work.  The fact that, only a year later, Byron suddenly became the popular favorite, shows how correctly Scott had judged himself and the reading public, which was even more fickle than usual in this emotional age.  In that same year, 1811, Scott bought the estate of Abbotsford, on the Tweed, with which place his name is forever associated.  Here he began to spend large sums, and to dispense the generous hospitality of a Scotch laird, of which he had been dreaming for years.  In 1820 he was made a baronet; and his new title of Sir Walter came nearer to turning his honest head than had all his literary success.  His business partnership was kept secret, and during all the years when the Waverley novels were the most popular books in the world, their authorship remained unknown; for Scott deemed it beneath the dignity of his title to earn money by business or literature, and sought to give the impression that the enormous sums spent at Abbotsford in improving the estate and in entertaining lavishly were part of the dignity of the position and came from ancestral sources.

It was the success of Byron’s Childe Harold, and the comparative failure of Scott’s later poems, Rokeby, The Bridal of Triermain, and The Lord of the Isles, which led our author into the new field, where he was to be without a rival.  Rummaging through a cabinet one day in search of some fishing tackle, Scott found the manuscript of a story which he had begun and laid aside nine years before.  He read this old story eagerly, as if it had been another’s work; finished it within three weeks, and published it without signing his name.  The success of this first novel, Waverley (1814), was immediate and unexpected.  Its great sales and the general chorus of praise for its unknown author were without precedent; and when Guy Mannering, The Antiquary, Black Dwarf, Old Mortality, Rob Roy, and The Heart of Midlothian appeared within the next four years, England’s delight and wonder knew no bounds.  Not only at home, but also on the Continent, large numbers of these fresh and fascinating stories were sold as fast as they could be printed.

During the seventeen years which followed the appearance of Waverley, Scott wrote on an average nearly two novels per year, creating an unusual number of characters and illustrating many periods of Scotch, English, and French history, from the time of the Crusades to the fall of the Stuarts.  In addition to these historical novels, he wrote Tales of a Grandfather, Demonology and Witchcraft, biographies