Marmion.

The first of Scott’s song stories was called The Lay of the Last Minstrel.  In it he pictures an old minstrel, the last of all his race, wandering neglected and despised about the countryside.  But at Newark Castle, the seat of the Duchess of Buccleuch, he receives kindly entertainment.

    “When kindness had his wants supplied,
    And the old man was gratified,
    Began to rise his minstrel pride: 
    And he began to talk anon,
    Of good Earl Francis, dead and gone,
    And of Earl Walter, rest him, God! 
    A braver ne’er to battle rode;
    And how full many a tale he knew,
    Of the old warriors of Buccleuch;
    And, would the noble Duchess deign
    To listen to an old man’s strain,
    Though stiff his hand, his voice though weak,
    He though even yet, the sooth to speak,

    That, if she loved the harp to hear,
    He could make music to her ear.”

This humble boon was granted.  The minstrel was led to the room of state where sat the noble-hearted Duchess with her ladies, and there began his lay.  You must read The Lay itself to learn about William of Deloraine, the Goblin Page, the Lady Margaret, and Lord Canstoun, and all the rest.  The meter in which Scott wrote was taken from Coleridge’s Christabel.  For, though it was not yet published, it had long been in manuscript, and Scott had heard part of it repeated by a friend.

The Lay of the Last Minstrel was a success.  From henceforth Scott was an author.  But he had no need to write for money, as money came to him in other ways.  So none of the struggles of a rising author fell to his lot.  His career was simply a triumphant march.  And good-natured, courteous, happy-hearted Scott took his triumphs joyously.

Other poems followed The Lay, the best being Marmion and The Lady of the Lake.  Scott’s son-in-law says, “The Lay is, I should say, generally considered as the most natural and original, Marmion as the most powerful and splendid, The Lady of the Lake as the most interesting, romantic, picturesque, and graceful of his great poems.”  Fame and money poured in upon Scott, and not upon him only, but upon Scotland.  For the new poet had sung the beauties of the rugged country so well that hundreds of English flocked to see it for themselves.  Scotland became the fashion, and has remained so ever since.

In 1799 Scott had been appointed Sheriff-deputy of Selkirkshire, and as this obliged him to live part of the year at least in the district, he rented a house not far from Selkirk.  But now that he saw himself becoming wealthy, he bought an estate in his beloved Border country and began to build the house of Abbotsford.  To this house he and his family removed in May 1812.  Here, amid the noise of carpenters and masons, with only one room fit to sit in, and that shared by chattering children, he went on with his work.  To a friend he writes, “As for the house and the poem, there are twelve masons hammering at the one, and one poor noddle at the other—­so they are both in progress.”