romise that his association with this firm
would bring considerable profit.

With a good income thus assured, Scott was able within the following
four years to produce besides minor works, two other great poems,
_Marmion, a Tale of Flodden Field_, and _The Lady of the Lake_. These
rank with the most stirring and richly colored narrative poems in our
language. So vivid, indeed, are the pictures of Scottish scenery found
in _The Lady of the Lake_, that, according to a writer who was living
when it was published, "The whole country rang with the praises of the
poet--crowds set off to view the scenery of Loch Katrine, till then
comparatively unknown; and as the book came out just before the season
for excursions, every house and inn in that neighborhood was crammed
with a constant succession of visitors."

This lively and pleasing story, with its graceful verse form, has become
such a favorite for children's reading, that it seems very amusing to be
told of the answer given by one of Scott's little daughters to a family
friend who had asked her how she liked the poem: "Oh, I have not read
it; papa says there's nothing so bad for young people as reading bad
poetry." The biographer Lockhart recounts also a little incident in
which young Walter Scott, returning from school with the marks of battle
showing plainly on his face, was asked why he had been fighting, and
replied, looking down in shame, that he had been called a _lassie_.
Never having heard of even the title of his father's poem, the boy had
fiercely resented being named, by some of his playmates, _The Lady of
the Lake_.

In order to fulfil his duties as sheriff, Scott had in 1804 leased the
estate of Ashestiel, and in this wild and beautiful stretch of country
on the Tweed River had spent his summers. When his lease expired in
1811, he bought a farm of one hundred acres extending along the same
river, and in the following year removed with his family to the cottage
on this new property. This was the simple beginning of the magnificent
Abbotsford home. Year after year changes were made, and land was added
to the estate until by the close of 1824 a great castle had been
erected. The building and furnishing of this mansion were of the keenest
interest to its owner, an interest that was expressed probably with most
delight in the two wonderful armories containing weapons borne by many
heroes of history, and in the library with its carved oak ceiling, its
bookcases fi