In 1812 the poet-lawyer was rewarded with the salary of a place whose duties he had for some years performed without pay,—­that of Clerk of Sessions, worth L800 per annum.  Thus having now about L1500 as an income, independently of his earnings by the pen, Scott gave up his practice as an advocate, and devoted himself entirely to literature.  At the same time he bought a farm of somewhat more than a hundred acres on the banks of the beautiful Tweed, about five miles from Ashestiel, and leaving to its owners the pretty place in which he had for six years enjoyed life and work, he removed to the cottage at Abbotsford,—­for thus he named his new purchase, in memory of the abbots of Melrose, who formerly owned all the region, and the ruins of whose lovely abbey stood not far away.  Of the L4000 for this purchase half was borrowed from his brother, and the other half on the pledge of the profits of a poem that was projected but not written,—­“Rokeby.”

Scott ought to have been content with Ashestiel; or, since every man wishes to own his home, he should have been satisfied with the comfortable cottage which he built at Abbotsford, and the modest improvements that his love for trees and shrubs enabled him to make.  But his aspirations led him into serious difficulties.  With all his sagacity and good sense, Scott never seemed to know when he was well off.  It was a fatal mistake both for his fame and happiness to attempt to compete with those who are called great in England and Scotland,—­that is, peers and vast landed proprietors.  He was not alone in this error, for it has generally been the ambition of fortunate authors to acquire social as well as literary distinction,—­thus paying tribute to riches, and virtually abdicating their own true position, which is higher than any that rank or wealth can give.  It has too frequently been the misfortune of literary genius to bow down to vulgar idols; and the worldly sentiments which this idolatry involves are seen in almost every fashionable novel which has appeared for a hundred years.  In no country is this melancholy social slavery more usual than in England, with all its political freedom, although there are noble exceptions.  The only great flaw in Scott’s character was this homage to rank and wealth.

On the other hand, rank and wealth also paid homage to him as a man of genius; both Scotland and England received him into the most select circles, not only of their literary and political, but of their fashionable, life.

In 1811 Scott published “The Lord of the Isles,” and in 1813, “Rokeby,” neither of which was remarkable for either literary or commercial success, although both were well received.  In 1814 he edited a nineteen-volume edition of Dean Swift’s works, with a Life, and in the same year began—­almost by accident—­the real work of his own career, in “Waverley.”