knew it from the first; so did Mr.
Morritt, Lady Louisa Stuart, and Lord and Lady Montague, and others were
gradually admitted. In an undated letter, probably of November, 1816,
Scott says to the Marchioness of Abercorn, a most intimate friend: "I
cannot even conjecture whom you mean by Mr. Mackenzie as author of 'The
Antiquary.' I should think my excellent old friend Mr. Harry Mackenzie
[author of the 'Man of Feeling,' etc.] was too much advanced in years and
plugged in business to amuse himself by writing novels; and besides, the
style in no degree resembles his." (Lady Abercorn meant 'Young Harry
Mackenzie,' not the patriarch.) "I am told one of the English reviews
gives these works by name and upon alleged authority to George Forbes,
Sir William's brother; so they take them off my hands, I don't care who
they turn to, for I am really tired of an imputation which I am under the
necessity of confuting at every corner. Tom will soon be home from
Canada, as the death of my elder brother has left him a little money. He
may answer for himself, but I hardly suspect him, unless much changed, to
be Possessed of the perseverance necessary to write nine volumes." Scott
elsewhere rather encouraged the notion that his brother Thomas was the
author, and tried to make him exert himself and enter the field as a
rival. Gossip also assigned the "Scotch novels" to Jeffrey, to Mrs.
Thomas Scott, aided by her husband and Sir Walter, to a Dr. Greenfield, a
clergyman, and to many others. Sir Walter humorously suggested George
Cranstoun as the real offender. After the secret was publicly confessed,
Lady Louisa Stuart reminded Scott of all the amusement it had given them.
"Old Mortality" had been pronounced "too good" for Scott, and free from
his "wearisome descriptions of scenery." Clever people had detected
several separate hands in "Old Mortality," as in the Iliad. All this was
diverting. Moreover, Scott was in some degree protected from the bores
who pester a successful author. He could deny the facts very stoutly,
though always, as he insists, With the reservation implied in alleging
that, if he had been the author, he would still have declined to confess.
In the notes to later novels we shall see some of his "great denials."

The reception of "Waverley" was enthusiastic. Large editions were sold in
Edinburgh, and when Scott returned from his cruise in the northern
islands he found society ringing with his unacknowledged triumph. Byron,