of the "Lady" may very well have induced him in 1810 to reconsider his
Highland prose romance. In 1808, as appears from an undated letter to
Surtees of Mainsforth (Abbotsford Manuscripts), he was contemplating a
poem on "that wandering knight so fair," Charles Edward, and on the
adventures of his flight, on Lochiel, Flora Macdonald, the Kennedys, and
the rest. Earlier still, on June 9, 1806, Scott wrote to Lady Abercorn
that he had "a great work in contemplation, a Highland romance of love,
magic, and war." "The Lady of the Lake" took the place of that poem in
his "century of inventions," and, stimulated by the popularity of his
Highland romance in verse, he disinterred the last seven chapters of
"Waverley" from their five years of repose. Very probably, as he himself
hints, the exercise of fitting a conclusion to Strutt's "Queenloo Hall"
may have helped to bring his fancy back to his own half-forgotten story
of "Waverley." In 1811 Scott went to Abbotsford, and there, as he tells
us, he lost sight of his "Waverley" fragment. Often looked for, it was
never found, till the accident of a search for fishing-tackle led him to
discover it in the drawer of an old bureau in a lumber-garret. This
cabinet afterwards came into the possession of Mr. William Laidlaw,
Scott's friend and amanuensis, and it is still, the Editor understands,
in the hands of Miss Laidlaw. The fishing-tackle, Miss Laidlaw tells the
Editor (mainly red hackles, tied on hair, not gut), still occupies the
drawer, except a few flies which were given, as relics, to the late Mr.
Thomas Tod Stoddart. In 1813, then, volume i. of "Waverley" was finished.
Then Scott undertook some articles for Constable, and laid the novel
aside. The printing, at last, must have been very speedy. Dining in
Edinburgh, in June, 1814, Lockhart saw "the hand of Walter Scott" busy at
its task. "Page after page is finished, and thrown on the heap of
manuscripts, and still it goes on unwearied." The book was published on
July 7, the press hardly keeping up with the activity of the author.
Scott had written "two volumes in three summer weeks" and the printers
had not shown less activity, while binders and stitchers must have worked
extra tides.

"Waverley" was published without the Author's name. Scott's reasons for
being anonymous have been stated by himself. "It was his humour,"--that
is the best of the reasons and the secret gave him a great deal of
amusement. The Ballantynes, of course,