“The Lay of the Last Minstrel” was published in the first week of 1805, and its success at once decided that literature should form the main business of Scott’s life.  Its design arose originally from the suggestion of the lovely Countess of Dalkeith, who had heard a wild, rude legend of Border diablerie, and sportively asked him to make it the subject of a ballad.  He cast about for a new variety of diction and rhyme, and having happened to hear a recitation of Coleridge’s unpublished “Christabel” determined to adopt a similar cadence.  The division into cantos was suggested by one of his friends, after the example of Spenser’s “Faery Queen.”  The creation of the framework, the conception of the ancient harper, came last of all.  Thus did “The Lay of the Last Minstrel” grow out of the “Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border.”  The publishers were Longman of London, and Constable of Edinburgh, and the author’s share of profits came to L769.

It was at this time that Scott took over a third share in Ballantyne’s business, a commercial tie which bound him for twenty years.  Its influence on his literary work and his fortunes was productive of much good and not a little evil.  Meanwhile, he entered with the zest of an active partner into many publishing schemes, and exerted himself in the interests of many authors less fortunate than himself.

With the desire of placing his financial position on a more substantial basis, Scott had solicited the office of Clerk of Session; and after some difficulties, during which he visited London and was received by the Princess of Wales, he was installed in that position on March 8, 1806, and continued to discharge its duties with exemplary regularity for twenty-five years.

The progress of “Marmion” was further interrupted by Scott’s appointment as secretary to a Commission for the improvement of Scottish Jurisprudence, but the poems appeared at last in February, 1808.  It received only very qualified praise from Jeffrey, but I think it may be considered on the whole Scott’s greatest poem, and its popularity was from the very first extraordinary.

In April of the same year William Miller of Albemarle Street published Scott’s great edition of Dryden, with a biography, in eighteen volumes; and the editor’s industry and critical judgement were the subject of a laudatory article by Hallam in the “Edinburgh Review.”

Scott was now engaged in a vast multiplicity of business.  He was preparing an edition of Swift for Constable, establishing his own partner as a publisher in Edinburgh under the title of “John Ballantyne and Co., Booksellers,” and was projecting a new periodical of sound constitutional principles, to be known as the “Quarterly Review,” published by Murray in London and by Ballantyne in Edinburgh.  In connection with the latter enterprise Scott and Mrs. Scott went up to London for two months in the Spring of 1809, and enjoyed the society of Coleridge, Canning, Croker, and Ellis.  The first “Quarterly” appeared while he was in London, and contained three articles from his pen.  At this time also he prevailed on Henry Siddons, the nephew of Kemble, to undertake the lease and management of the Edinburgh Theatre; and purchasing a share himself, became an acting trustee, and for many years took a lively concern in the Edinburgh company.