by a secret
partnership, that association with the Ballantynes which resulted so
unfortunately for him 20 years later. _Marmion_ was _pub._ in 1808: it
was even more popular than the _Lay_, and raised his reputation
proportionately. The same year saw the publication of his elaborate ed.
of Dryden with a Life, and was also marked by a rupture with Jeffrey,
with whom he had been associated as a contributor to the _Edinburgh
Review_, and by the establishment of the new firm of J. Ballantyne and
Co., of which the first important publication was _The Lady of the Lake_,
which appeared in 1810, _The Vision of Don Roderick_ following in 1811.
In 1812 S. purchased land on the Tweed near Melrose, and built his famous
house, Abbotsford, the adornment of which became one of the chief
pleasures of his life, and which he made the scene of a noble and kindly
hospitality. In the same year he _pub._ _Rokeby_, and in 1813 _The Bridal
of Triermain_, while 1814 saw _The Life and Works of Swift_ in 19 vols.,
and was made illustrious by the appearance of _Waverley_, the two coming
out in the same week, the latter, of course, like its successors,
anonymously. The next year, _The Lord of the Isles_, _Guy Mannering_, and
_The Field of Waterloo_ appeared, and the next again, 1816, _Paul's
Letters to his Kinsfolk_, _The Antiquary_, _The Black Dwarf_, and _Old
Mortality_, while 1817 saw _Harold the Dauntless_ and _Rob Roy_. The
enormous strain which S. had been undergoing as official, man of letters,
and man of business, began at length to tell upon him, and in this same
year, 1817, he had the first of a series of severe seizures of cramp in
the stomach, to which, however, his indomitable spirit refused to yield,
and several of his next works, _The Heart of Midlothian_ (1818), by many
considered his masterpiece, _The Bride of Lammermoor_, _The Legend of
Montrose_, and _Ivanhoe_, all of 1819, were dictated to amanuenses, while
he was too ill to hold a pen. In 1820 _The Monastery_, in which the
public began to detect a falling off in the powers of the still generally
unknown author, appeared. The immediately following _Abbot_, however,
showed a recovery. _Kenilworth_ and _The Pirate_ followed in 1821, _The
Fortunes of Nigel_ in 1822; _Peveril of the Peak_, _Quentin Durward_, and
_St. Ronan's Well_ in 1823; _Redgauntlet_ in 1824, and _Tales of the
Crusaders_ (_The Betrothed_ and _The Talisman_) in 1825. By this time S.
had long reached a pinnacle of fa