compared with the dramas of Shakspeare, as presenting an endless variety of original characters, scenes, historical situations, and adventures. They walhyfeed as a novelist, to preserve his mask, desirous to obviate all personal discussions respecting his own productions, and aware also of the interest and curiosity which his secrecy would impart to his subsequent productions. In February 1815-seven months after Waverley' -Scott published his second novel, Guy Mannering. It was the work of six weeks about Christmas, and marks of haste are visible in the construction of the plot and development of incidents. Yet what length of time or patience in revision could have added to the charm or hilarity of such portraits as that of Dandy Dinmont, or the shrewd and witty Counsellor Pleydell the finished, desperate, seadevotion of that gentlest of pedants, poor Dominie beaten villany of Hatteraick-the simple uncouth Sampson-or the wild savage virtues and crazed superstition of the gipsy-dweller in Derncleugh? The astrological agency and predictions so marvellously fulfilled are undoubtedly excrescences on the story, though suited to a winter's tale in Scotland. Mannering himself, seem also allied to the Minerva The love scenes and female characters, and even Press family, but the Scotch characters are all adyouthful feeling and spirit in the description of the mirably filled up. There is also a captivating wanderings and dangers of Bertram, and the events, improbable as they appear, which restore him to his patrimony; while the gradual decay and death of the old Laird of Ellangowan-carried out to the green as his castle and effects are in the hands of the auctioneer-are inexpressibly touching and natural. The interest of the tale is sustained throughout with dramatic skill and effect. are marked by the same universal and genial sympathies, allied to every form of humanity, and free from all selfish egotism or moral obliquity. In painting historical personages or events, these two great masters evinced a kindred taste, and not dissimilar powers. The highest intellectual traits and imagination of Shakspeare were, it is true, not approached by Scott: the dramatist looked inwardly upon man and nature with a more profound and searching philosophy. He could effect more with his five acts than Scott with his three volumes. The novelist only pictured to the eye what his great prototype stamped on the heart and feelings. Yet both were great moral teachers, without seeming to teach. They were brothers in character and in genius, and they poured out their imaginative treasures with a calm easy strength and conscious mastery, of which the world has seen no other examples. So early as 1805, before his great poems were produced, Scott had entered on the composition of Waverley, the first of his illustrious progeny of tales. He wrote about seven chapters, evidently taking Fielding, in his grave descriptive and ironical vein, for his model; but, getting dissatisfied with his attempt, he threw it aside. Eight years afterwards he met accidentally with the fragment, and determined to finish the story.* In the interval between In May 1816 came forth The Antiquary, less rothe commencement of the novel in 1805 and its mantic and bustling in incidents than either of its resumption in 1813, Scott had acquired greater predecessors, but infinitely richer in character, diafreedom and self-reliance as an author. In Mar-logue, and humour. In this work Scott displayed mion and The Lady of the Lake he had struck out a path for himself, and the latter portion of 'Waverley' partook of the new spirit and enthusiasm. A large part of its materials resembles those employed in the Lady of the Lake'-Highland feudalism, military bravery and devotion, and the most easy and exquisite description of natural scenery He added also a fine vein of humour, chaste yet ripened, and peculiarly his own, and a power of uniting history with fiction, that subsequently became one of the great sources of his strength. His portrait of Charles Edward, the noble old Baron of Bradwardine, the simple faithful clansman Evan Dhu, and the poor fool Davie Gellatley, with his fragments of song and scattered gleams of fancy and sensibility, were new triumphs of the author. The poetry had projected shadows and outlines of the Highland chief, the gaiety and splendour of the court, and the agitation of the camp and battle-field; but the humorous contrasts, homely observation, and pathos, displayed in Waverley,' disclosed far deeper observation and more original powers. The work was published in July 1814. Scott did not prefix his name to it, afraid that he might compromise his poetical reputation by a doubtful experiment in a new style (particularly by his copious use of Scottish terms and expressions); but the unmingled applause with which the tale was received was, he says, like having the property of a hidden treasure, not less gratifying than if all the world knew it was his own.' Henceforward Scott resolved, * He had put the chapters aside, as he tells us, in a writingdesk wherein he used to keep fishing-tackle. The desk-a substantial old mahogany cabinet-and part of the fishingtackle are now in the possession of Scott's friend, Mr William Laidlaw, at Contin, in Ross-shire. his thorough knowledge of the middle and lower ranks of Scottish life. He confined his story chiefly to a small fishing town and one or two country mansions. His hero is a testy old Whig laird and bachelor, and his dramatis person are little better than this retired humorist-the family old barber-and a few other humble landward and of a poor fisherman-a blue-gown mendicant-an burrows town' characters. The sentimental Lord Glenallan, and the pompous Sir Arthur Wardour, with Lovel the unknown, and the fiery Hector M'Intyre (the latter a genuine Celtic portrait), are necessary to the plot and action of the piece, but they constitute only a small degree of the reader's pleasure or the author's fame. These rest on the inimitable delineation of Oldbuck, that model of black-letter and Roman-camp antiquaries, whose oddities and conversation are rich and racy as any of the old crusted port that John of the Girnel might have held in his monastic cellars-on the restless, garrulous, kind-hearted gaberlunzie, Edie Ochiltree, who delighted to daunder down the burnsides and green shaws-on the cottage of the Mucklebackets, and the death and burial of Steenie—and which is described with such vivid reality and apon that scene of storm and tempest by the sea-side, palling magnificence. The amount of curious reading, knowledge of local history and antiquities, power of description, and breadth of humour in the Antiquary,' render it one of the most perfect of the excelled Scott in the novel (he is unapproached in author's novels. If Cervantes and Fielding really romance), it must be admitted that the Antiquary' ranks only second to Don Quixote and Tom Jones. In none of his works has Scott shown greater power in developing the nicer shades of feeling and character, or greater felicity of phrase and illustration. A healthy moral tone also pervades the whole-a clear and bracing atmosphere of real life; and what more striking lesson in practical benevolence was ever inculcated than those words of the rough old fisherman, ejaculated while he was mending his boat after returning from his son's funeral-What would you have me do, unless I wanted to see four children starve because one is drowned? It's weel wi' you gentles, that can sit in the house wi' handkerchers at your een, when ye lose a freend, but the like of us maun to our wark again, if our hearts were beating as hard as my hammer.' In December of the same year Scott was ready with two other novels, The Black Dwarf, and Old Mortality. These formed the first series of Tales of My Landlord, and were represented, by a somewhat forced and clumsy prologue, as the composition of a certain Mr Peter Pattieson, assistant-teacher at Gandercleuch, and published after his death by his pedagogue superior, Jedediah Cleishbotham. The new disguise (to heighten which a different publisher had been selected for the tales) was as unavailing as it was superfluous. The universal voice assigned the works to the author of 'Waverley,' and the second of the collection, Old Mortality,' was pronounced to be the greatest of his performances. It was another foray into the regions of history which was rewarded with the most brilliant spoil. Happy as he had been in depicting the era of the Forty-five, he shone still more in the gloomy and troublous times of the Covenanters. To reproduce a departed age,' says Mr Lockhart, with such minute and life-like accuracy as this tale exhibits, demanded a far more energetic sympathy of imagination than had been called for in any effort of his serious verse. It is indeed most curiously instructive for any student of art to compare the Roundheads of Rokeby with the Blue-bonnets of Old Mortality. For the rest, the story is framed with a deeper skill than any of the preceding novels; the canvass is a broader one; the characters are contrasted and projected with a power and felicity which neither he nor any other master ever surpassed; and notwithstanding all that has been urged against him as a disparager of the Covenanters, it is to me very doubtful whether the inspiration of chivalry ever prompted him to nobler emotions than he has lavished on the reanimation of their stern and solemn enthusiasm. This work has always appeared to me the Marmion of his novels." He never surpassed it either for force or variety of character, or in the interest and magnificence of the train of events described. The contrasts are also managed with consummate art. In the early scenes Morton (the best of all his young heroes) serves as a foil to the fanatical and gloomy Burley, and the change effected in the character and feelings of the youth by the changing current of events, is traced with perfect skill and knowledge of human nature. The two classes of actors-the brave and dissolute cavaliers, and the resolute oppressed Covenantersare not only drawn in their strong distinguishing features in bold relief, but are separated from each other by individual traits and peculiarities, the result of native or acquired habits. The intermingling of domestic scenes and low rustic humour with the stormy events of the warlike struggle, gives vast additional effect to the sterner passages of the tale, and to the prominence of its principal actors. How admirably, for example, is the reader prepared, by contrast, to appreciate that terrible encounter with Burley in his rocky fastness, by the previous description of the blind and aged widow, intrusted with the secret of his retreat, and who dwelt alone, like the widow of Zarephath,' in her poor and solitary cottage! The dejection and anxiety of Morton on his return from Holland are no less strikingly contrasted with the scene of rural peace and comfort which he witnesses on the banks of the Clyde, where Cuddie Headrigg's cottage sends up its thin blue smoke among the trees, showing that the evening meal was in the act of being made ready,' and his little daughter fetches water in a pitcher from the fountain at the root of an old oaktree! The humanity of Scott is exquisitely illustrated by the circumstance of the pathetic verses, wrapping a lock of hair, which are found on the slain body of Bothwell-as to show that in the darkest and most dissolute characters some portion of our higher nature still lingers to attest its divine origin. In the same sympathetic and relenting spirit, Dirk Hatteraick, in 'Guy Mannering,' is redeemed from utter sordidness and villany by his one virtue of integrity to his employers. I was always faithful to my ship-owners-always accounted for cargo to the last stiver.' The image of God is never wholly blotted out of the human mind. The year 1818 witnessed two other coinages from the Waverley mint, Rob Roy and The Heart of MidLothian, the latter forming a second series of the Tales of My Landlord. The first of these works revived the public enthusiasm, excited by the 'Lady of the Lake' and 'Waverley,' with respect to Highland scenery and manners. The sketches in the novel are bold and striking-hit off with the careless freedom of a master, and possessing perhaps more witchery of romantic interest than elaborate and finished pictures. The character of Bailie Nicol Jarvie was one of the author's happiest conceptions, and the idea of carrying him to the wild rugged mountains, among outlaws and desperadoes-at the same time that he retained a keen relish of the comforts of the Saltmarket of Glasgow, and a due sense of his dignity as a magistrate-completed the ludicrous effect of the picture. None of Scott's novels was more popular than Rob Roy,' yet, as a story, it is the most ill-concocted and defective of the whole series. Its success was owing to its characters alone. Among these, however, cannot be reckoned its nominal hero, Osbaldiston, who, like Waverley, is merely a walking gentleman. Scott's heroes, as agents in the piece, are generally inferior to his heroines. The Heart of Mid-Lothian' is as essentially national in spirit, language, and actors, as 'Rob Roy,' but it is the nationality of the Lowlands. No other author but Scott (Galt, his best imitator in this department, would have failed) could have dwelt so long and with such circumstantial minuteness on the daily life and occurrences of a family like that of Davie Deans, the cowfeeder, without disgusting his high-bred readers with what must have seemed vulgar and uninteresting. Like Burns, he made 'rustic life and poverty' Grow beautiful beneath his touch. Duchesses, in their halls and saloons, traced with interest and delight the pages that recorded the pious firmness and humble heroism of Jeanie Deans, and the sufferings and disgrace of her unfortunate sister; and who shall say that in thus uniting different ranks in one bond of fellow-feeling, and exhibiting to the high and wealthy the virtues that often dwell with the lowly and obscure, Scott was not fulfilling one of the loftiest and most sacred missions upon earth? A story of still more sustained and overwhelming pathos is The Bride of Lammermoor, published in 1819 in conjunction with The Legend of Montrose, and both forming a third series of Tales of My Landlord. The Bride is one of the most finished of Scott's tales, presenting a unity and entireness of plot and action, as if the whole were bound together by that dreadful destiny which hangs over the principal actors, and impels them irresistibly to destruction. In this tale,' says Macaulay, 'above other modern productions, we see embodied the dark spirit of fatalism-that spirit which breathes in the writings of the Greek tragedians when they traced the persecuting vengeance of Destiny against the houses of Laius and of Atreus. Their mantle was for a while worn unconsciously by him who showed to us Macbeth: and here again, in the deepening gloom of this tragic tale, we feel the oppressive influence of this invisible power. From the time we hear the prophetic rhymes, the spell has begun its work, and the clouds of misfortune blacken round us; and the fated course moves solemnly onward, irresistible and unerring as the progress of the sun, and soon to end in a night of horror. We remember no other tale in which not doubt, but certainty, forms the groundwork of our interest.' If Shakspeare was unconscious of the classic fatalism he depicted with such unrivalled power, Scott was probably as ignorant of any such premeditation and design. Both followed the received traditions of their country, and the novelist, we know, composed his work in intervals of such acute suffering, allayed only by the most violent remedies, that on his recovery, after the novel had been printed, he recollected nothing but the mere outline of his story, with which he had been familiar from his youth. He had entirely forgot what he dictated from his sickbed. The main incident, however, was of a nature likely to make a strong impression on his mind, and to this we must impute the grand simplicity and seeming completeness of art in the management of the fable. The character of the old butler, Caleb Balderston, has been condemned as a ridiculous and incongruous exaggeration. We are not sure that it does not materially heighten the effect of the tragic portion of the tale, by that force of contrast which we have mentioned as one of Scott's highest attributes as a novelist. There is, however, too much of the butler, and some of his inventions are mere tricks of farce. As Shakspeare descended to quibbles and conceits, Scott loved to harp upon certain phrases-as in Dominie Sampson, Bailie Nicol Jarvie, and the dowager lady of Tullietudlem -and to make his lower characters indulge in practical jokes, like those of old Caleb and Edie Ochiltree. The proverbs of Sancho, in Don Quixote, may be thought to come under the same class of inferior resources, to be shunned rather than copied by the novelist who aims at truth and originality; but Sancho's sayings are too rich and apposite to be felt as mere surplusage. The Legend of Montrose' is a brief imperfect historical novel, yet contains one of the author's most lively and amusing characters, worthy of being ranked with Bailie Jarvie; namely, the redoubted Ritt-master, Dugald Dalgetty. The union of the soldado with the pedantic student of Mareschal college is a conception as original as the Uncle Toby of Sterne. tation of chivalry in all its pomp and picturesqueness, the realisation of our boyish dreams about Coeur-de-lion, Robin Hood, and Sherwood Forest, with its grassy glades, and sylvan sports, and impenetrable foliage. We were presented with a series of the most splendid pictures, the canvass crowded with life and action-with the dark shades of cruelty, vice, and treason, and the brightness of heroic courage, dauntless fortitude, and uncorrupted faith and purity. The thrilling interest of the story is another of the merits of Ivanhoe'-the incidents all help on the narrative, as well as illustrate ancient manners. In the hall of Cedric, at the tournament or siege, we never cease to watch over the fate of Rowena and the Disinherited Knight; and the steps of the gentle Rebecca-the meek yet high-souled Jewess-are traced with still deeper and holier feeling. The whole is a grand picturesque pageant, yet full of a gentle nobleness and proud simplicity. The next works of Scott were of a tamer cast, though his foot was on Scottish ground. The Monastery and Abbot, both published in 1820, are defective in plot, and the first disfigured by absurd supernatural machinery. The character of Queen Mary in the Abbot' is, however, a correct and beautiful historical portrait, and the scenery in the neighbourhood of the Tweed-haunted glens and woods-is described with the author's accustomed felicity. A counterpart to Queen Mary, still more highly finished, was soon afforded in the delineation of her great rival, Elizabeth, in the romance of Kenilworth, This work appeared in January 1821, and was ranked next to 'Ivanhoe.' There was a profusion of rich picturesque scenes and objects, dramatic situations, and a well-arranged, involved, yet interesting plot. None of the plots in the Waverley novels are without blemish. None,' as Mr Macaulay remarks, have that completeness which constitutes one of the chief merits of Fielding's Tom Jones: there is always either an improbability, or a forced expedient, or an incongruous incident, or an unpleasant break, or too much intricacy, or a hurried conclusion; they are usually languid in the commencement, and abrupt in the close; too slowly opened, and too hastily summed up.' The spirit and fidelity of the delineations, the variety of scenes, and the interest of particular passages bearing upon the principal characters, blind the reader to these defects, at least on a first perusal. This was eminently the case with Kenilworth; nor did this romance, amidst all its courtly gaieties, ambition, and splendour, fail to touch the heart: the fate of Amy Robsart has perhaps drawn as many tears as the story of Rebecca. The close of the same year witnessed another romantic, though less powerful tale-The Pirate. In this work Scott painted the wild sea scenery of Shetland, and gave a beautiful copy of primitive manners in the person and household of the old Udaller, Magnus Troil, and his fair daughters Minna and Brenda. The latter are flowers too delicate for such a cold and stormy clime, but they are creations of great loveliness, and are exquisitely discriminated in their individual characters. The novel altogether opened a new * Rebecca was considered by Scott himself, as well as by the public, to be his finest female character, Mr Laidlaw, to whom part of the novel was dictated, speaks of the strong interest which Sir Walter evinced in filling up his outline. I shall make something of my Jewess,' said he one day in a tone of unusual exultation. You will indeed,' replied his friend; The historical romance of Ivanhoe appeared in 1820. It is the most brilliant of all his pure romances, indeed the most splendid in any literature. The scene being laid in England, and in the England of Richard I., the author had to draw largely on his fancy and invention, and was debarred those attractive auxiliaries of every-day life, speech, and manners, which had lent such a charm to his Scottish novels. Here we had the remoteness of antiquity, the old Saxon halls and feasts, the resusci-filled with tears. and I cannot help saying that you are doing an immense good, Sir Walter, by such sweet and noble tales, for the young people now will never bear to look at the vile trash of novels that used to be in the circulating libraries.' Sir Walter's eyes world to the general reader, and was welcomed with all the zest of novelty. Another genuine English historical romance made its appearance in May 1822. The Fortunes of Nigel afforded a complete panorama of the times of James I., executed with wonderful vigour and truth. The fulness and variety of the details show how closely Scott had studied the annals of this period, particularly all relating to the city and the court of London. His account of Alsatia surpasses even the scenes of Ben Jonson, and the dramatic contemporaries of Ben, descriptive of similar objects; and none of his historical likenesses are more faithful, more justly drawn, or more richly coloured, than his portrait of the poor, and proud, and pedantic King James. Scott's political predilections certainly did not in this case betray him into any undue reverence for sovereignty. In 1823 no less than three separate works of fiction were issued-Peveril of the Peak, Quentin Durward, and St Ronan's Well. The first was a volume longer than any of its predecessors, and was more than proportionally heavy in style, though evincing in parts undiminished strength and talent. Quentin Durward' was a bold and successful inroad on French history. The delineations of Louis XI. and Charles the Bold may stand comparison with any in the whole range of fiction or history for force and discrimination. They seemed literally called up to a new existence, to play their part in another drama of life, as natural and spirit-stirring as any in which they had been actors. The French nation exulted in this new proof of the genius of Scott, and led the way in enthusiastic admiration of the work. St Ronan's Well' is altogether a secondary performance of the author, though it furnishes one of his best low comic characters, Meg Dods of the Cleikum Inn. Redgauntlet (1824) must be held to belong to the same class as 'St Ronan's Well,' in spite of much vigorous writing, humorous as well as pathetic (for the career of Peter Peebles supplies both), and notwithstanding that it embodies a great deal of Scott's own personal history and experiences. The Tales of the Crusaders, published in 1825, comprised two short stories, The Betrothed and The Talisman, the second a highly animated and splendid Eastern romance. Shortly after this period came the calamitous wreck of Scott's fortunes-the shivering of his household gods-amidst declining health and the rapid advances of age. His novel of Woodstock (1826) was hastily completed, but is not unworthy of his fame. The secret of the paternity of the novels was now divulged-how could it ever have been doubted?and there was some satisfaction in having the acknowledgment from his own lips, and under his own hand, ere death had broken the wand of the magician. The Life of Napoleon, in nine volumes, was the great work of 1827; but at the commencement of the following year Scott published The Chronicles of the Canongate, first series, containing the Two Drovers, the Highland Widow, and the Surgeon's Daughter. The second of these short tales is the most valuable, and is pregnant with strong pathetic interest and Celtic imagination. The preliminary introductions to the stories are all finely executed, and constitute some of the most pleasing of the author's minor contributions to the elucidation of past manners and society. A number of literary tasks now engaged the attention of Scott, the most important of which were his Tales of a Grandfather, a History of Scotland for Lardner's Cyclopædia, Letters on Demonology, and new introductions and notes to the collected edition of the novels. A second series of the Chronicles of the Canongate' appeared in 1828, with only one tale, but that conceived and executed with great spirit, and in his best artistical style-The Fair Maid of Perth. Another romance was ready by May 1829, and was entitled Anne of Geierstein. It was less energetic than the formermore like an attempt to revive old forms and images than as evincing the power to create new ones; yet there are in its pages, as Mr Lockhart justly observes, 'occasional outbreaks of the old poetic spirit, more than sufficient to remove the work to an immeasurable distance from any of its order produced in this country in our own age. Indeed, the various play of fancy in the combination of persons and events, and the airy liveliness of both imagery and diction, may well justify us in applying to the author what he beautifully says of his King RenéA mirthful man he was; the snows of age Fell, but they did not chill him. Gaiety, Even in life's closing, touched his teeming brain With such wild visions as the setting sun Raises in front of some hoar glacier, Painting the bleak ice with a thousand hues.' The gaiety of Scott was the natural concomitant of kindly and gentle affections, a sound judgment, and uninterrupted industry. The minds of poets, it is said, never grow old, and Scott was hopeful to the last. Disease, however, was fast undermining his strength. His last work of fiction, published in 1831, was a fourth series of 'Tales of my Landlord,' containing Count Robert of Paris and Castle Dangerous. They were written after repeated shocks of paralysis and apoplexy, and are mere shadows of his former greatness. And with this effort closed the noble mind that had so long swayed the sceptre of romance. The public received the imperfect volumes with tenderness and indulgence, as the farewell offering of the greatest of their contemporariesthe last feeble gleams of a light soon to be extinguished 6 A wandering witch-note of the distant spell; JOHN GALT. JOHN GALT, author of The Annals of the Parish, and other novels which are valuable as reflecting back the peculiarities of Scottish life and manners sixty years since,' was a native of Irvine, in Ayrshire. He was born on the 2d of May 1779. His father commanded a West India vessel, and when the embryo novelist was in his eleventh year, the family went to live permanently at Greenock. Here Galt resided fourteen or fifteen years, displaying no marked proficiency at school, but evincing a predilection for poetry, music, and mechanics. He was placed in the custom-house at Greenock, and continued at the desk till about the year 1804, when, without any fixed pursuit, he went to London to push his fortune.' He had written a sort of epic poem on the battle of Largs, and this he committed to the press; but, conscious of its imperfections, he did not prefix his name to the work, and he almost immediately suppressed its sale. He then formed an unfortunate commercial connexion, which lasted three years, on the termination of which he entered himself of Lincoln's Inn, with the view of being in due time called to the bar. Happening to visit Oxford in company with some friends, he conceived, while standing with them in the quadrangle of Christ-church, the design of writing a life of Cardinal Wolsey. He set about the task with ardour; but his health failing, he went abroad. At Gibraltar he met with Lord Byron and Mr Hobhouse, then embarked on their tour for Greece, and the three sailed in the same packet. Galt resided some time results.'* We next find Mr Galt engaged in the in Sicily, then repaired to Malta, and afterwards formation and establishment of the Canada Comproceeded to Greece, where he again met with pany, which involved him in a long labyrinth of Byron, and also had an interview with Ali Pacha. troubles, vexation, and embarrassment. While the After rambling for some time among the classic preliminary controversy was pending between the scenes of Greece, he proceeded to Constantinople, commissioners of this company, the Canada clergy, thence to Nicomedia, and northwards to Kirpe, on and the colonial office, previous to his departure for the shores of the Black Sea. Some commercial the scene of his new operations Galt composed his speculations, as to the practicability of landing Bri- novel, The Last of the Lairds, also descriptive of tish goods in defiance of the Berlin and Milan de- Scottish life. He set out for America in 1826, his crees, prompted these unusual wanderings. At one mission being limited to inquiry, for accomplishing time, when detained by quarantine, Galt wrote or which eight months were allowed. His duties, sketched out six dramas, which were afterwards however, were increased, and his stay prolonged, by published in a volume, constituting, according to the numerous offers to purchase lots of land, and for Sir Walter Scott, 'the worst tragedies ever seen.' determining on the system of management to be On his return he published his Voyages and Travels, pursued by the company. A million of capital had and Letters from the Levant, which were well received. been intrusted to his management. On the 23d of He next repaired to Gibraltar, to conduct a commer- April, St George's day, 1827, Mr Galt proceeded to cial business which it was proposed to establish found the town of Guelph, in the upper province of there, but the design was defeated by the success of Canada, which he did with due ceremony. The site the Duke of Wellington in the Peninsula. He ex- selected for the town having been pointed out, 'a plored France to see if an opening could be found large maple tree,' he says, was chosen; on which, there, but no prospect appeared, and returning to taking an axe from one of the woodmen, I struck England, he contributed some dramatic pieces to the first stroke. To me, at least, the moment was the New British Theatre. One of these, The Appeal, impressive; and the silence of the woods that echoed was brought out in the Edinburgh theatre in 1818, to the sound was as the sigh of the solemn genius and performed four nights, Sir Walter Scott having of the wilderness departing for ever.' The city soon written an epilogue for the play. He now devoted prospered: in three months upwards of 160 building himself for some time to literary pursuits, writing lots were engaged, and houses rising as fast as buildin the periodical works, and residing in Scotland. ing materials could be prepared. Before the end of Among his more elaborate compositions may be the year, however, the founder of the city was em mentioned a Life of Benjamin West, the artist, His- broiled in difficulties. Some secret enemies had torical Pictures, The Wandering Jew, and The Earth- misrepresented him-he was accused of lowering the quake, a novel in three volumes. He wrote for company's stock-his expenditure was complained Blackwood's Magazine, in 1820, The Ayrshire Le- of; and the company sent out an accountant to act gatees, a series of letters containing an amusing not only in that capacity, but as cashier. Matters Scottish narrative. His next work was 'The An- came to a crisis, and Mr Galt determined to return nals of the Parish' (1821), which instantly became to England. Ample testimony has been borne to popular. It is worthy of remark that the Annals the skill and energy with which he conducted the had been written some ten or twelve years before operations of this company; but his fortune and his the date of its publication, and anterior to the ap- prospects had fled. Thwarted and depressed, he was pearance of Waverley and Guy Mannering, and that resolved to battle with his fate, and he set himself it was rejected by the publishers of those works, down in England to build a new scheme of life, in with the assurance, that a novel or work of fiction which the secondary condition of authorship was entirely Scottish would not take with the public! made primary.' In six months he had six volumes Mr Galt went on with his usual ardour in the com- ready. His first work was another novel in three position of Scotch novels. He had now found where volumes, Lawrie Todd, which is equal to 'The Anhis strength lay, and Sir Andrew Wylie, The Entail, nals of the Parish' or 'The Entail.' It was well The Steam-Boat, and The Provost, were succes- received; and he soon after produced another, desively published-the two first with decided success. scriptive of the customs and manners of Scotland in These were followed at no long intervals by Ringan the reign of Queen Mary, and entitled Southcnnan. Gilhaize, a story of the Scottish Covenanters; by The subject was a favourite with him, but his mode The Spaewife, a tale of the times of James I. of Scot- of treating it was by no means happy; while the land; and Rothelan, a novel partly historical, founded public taste, accustomed to the historical novels of on the work by Barnes on the life and reign of Scott, was impatient of any secondary work in this Edward I. Mr Galt also published anonymously, in department. For a short time in the same year 1824, an interesting imaginative little tale, The Omen, (1830) Mr Galt conducted the Courier newspaper, which was reviewed by Sir Walter Scott in Black- but this new employment did not suit him. It rewood's Magazine. In fertility, Galt was only sur-quired more time, and incurred more responsibilities passed by Scott; and perhaps no other author could have written an equal number of works of fiction, varied in style and manner, within the same limited period. His genius was unequal, and he does not seem to have been able to discriminate between the good and the bad; but the vigour and copiousness of his mind were certainly remarkable. His friendly biographer, Dr Moir of Musselburgh, says justly, that the great drawback to Mr Galt's prosperity and happiness was the multitude of his resources, and from his being equally fitted for a student and man of the world. As the old proverb hath it, "the rolling stone gathers no fog;" so in the transition from one occupation and employment to another, he expended those powers which, if long concentrated on any particular object, must have produced great | wood's Standard Novels, of opinion than he was prepared for, and he gladly * Biographical Memoir prefixed to Galt's novels, in Black. |