SIR WALTER SCOTT 133 on the public mind, that the post-horse duty rose to an extraordinary degree in Scotland, from the eagerness of travellers to visit the localities described in the poem. He was now at the zenith of his fame. The sale of his next poem, " Rokeby," showed that his popularity had declined, and when this was followed by the comparative failure of the " Lord of the Isles," he resolved to abandon the field of poetry, and seek for fame in another form of composition. Ten years before this period he had commenced the novel of " Waverley," and thrown the manuscript aside ; having accidentally discovered the unfinished romance amid the old lumber of a garret, he completed it for the press in 1814, and published ft anonymously. Its appearance created a greater sensation and marks a more distinct epoch in literary history than that of his poetry. It was the great object of his ambition to become a land-owner and to hold a high rank, not among the literary characters, but the country gentlemen of Scotland, and this was one of the causes of his being anxious to keep the authorship of his novels a profound secret. The same ambition stimulated him to exertion. He produced in rapid succession "Guy Mannering," "The Antiquary," "Rob Roy," and the "Tales of my Landlord" in three series, and at the same time published several pieces in his own name to increase the mystification of the public. But his incognito was soon detected ; long before he avowed his romances, the world generally had found out his secret ; indeed, when he was created a baronet in 1820, it was universally understood that this honor was conferred on him as author of the Waverley Novels. It is not necessary to enumerate all the fictions that emanated from the brill- iant imagination of the Northern Enchanter ; the list would be too long, but we must not omit to notice the energy with which he labored. Even illness, that would have broken the spirits of most men, as it prostrated the physical energies of Scott, opposed no impediment to the progress of his compositions. When he could not write he could dictate ; and in this way, amid the agonies of a rack- ing disease, he composed "The Bride of Lammermoor," "The Legend of Mont- rose," and a great part of the most fascinating of his works, " Ivanhoe." Never, certainly, did mind exhibit so decisive a triumph over physical suffering. " Be assured," he remarked to Mr. Gillies, " that if pain could have prevented my ap- plication to literary work, not a page of 4 Ivanhoe ' would have been written. Now, if I had given way to mere feelings and ceased to work, it is a question whether the disorder would not have taken deeper root and become incurable." The crowds of visitors that flocked to his baronial mansion at Abbotsford, from all quarters, greatly added to the expenses which the hospitable owner had to meet ; but the unbounded popularity of his novels appeared to him and to his publishers a never-failing source of funds ; and the Messrs. Constable accepted his drafts, to the amount of many thousand pounds, in favor of works which were not only unwritten, but even unimagined. Unfortunately, Scott, in return, could not refuse to indorse the drafts of his publishers, and thus an amount of liabilities was incurred which would appear quite inexplicable, if experience had not shown that the dangerous facilities of accommodation bills lead men on to an extent
