ABSTRACT
In 1805 Walter Scott revealed his true self by the publication of the “Lay of the Last Minstrel.” The subject, from the principle of which he rarely afterwards deviated, was, for the period, singularly happy. It recalled scenes and times and characters so near as almost to linger in the memories of the old, and yet so remote that their revival, under poetical embellishment, imparted the double pleasure of invention and of history. The society of Edinburgh's brilliancy was owing to a variety of peculiar circumstances which only operated during this period. The principal of these were—the survivance of several of the eminent men of the preceding age, and of curious old habits which the modern flood bad not yet obliterated. The opening of the year 1826 will be sad to those who remember the thunderbolt which then fell on Edinburgh in the utterly unexpected bankruptcy of Scott, implying the ruin of Constable the bookseller, and of Ballantyne the printer.
