Ballantyne, the printer, who looked on
his connection with them as the most fortunate event in his life. The
great bookseller, Longman, repaired to Scotland soon after this, and
purchased the copyright of the "Minstrelsy," including the third volume;
and not long afterwards James Ballantyne set up as a printer in
Edinburgh, assisted by a liberal loan from Scott.

_Scott's Chief Poems_

The "Edinburgh Review" was begun in 1802, and Scott soon became a
contributor of critical articles for his friend Mr. Jeffrey, the elder.
His chief work was now on "Sir Tristram," a romance ascribed to Thomas
of Ercildoune; but "The Lay of the Last Minstrel" was making progress in
1803, when Scott made the acquaintance of Wordsworth and his sister,
under circumstances described by Dorothy Wordsworth in her Journal. In
the following May, he took a lease of the house of Ashestiel, with an
adjoining farm, on the southern bank of the Tweed, a few miles from
Selkirk; and in the same month "Sir Tristram" was published by Constable
of Edinburgh. Captain Robert Scott, his uncle, died in June, leaving him
the house of Rosebank near Kelso, which Scott sold for L5000.

"The Lay of the Last Minstrel" was published in the first week of 1805,
and its success at once decided that literature should form the main
business of Scott's life. Its design arose originally from the
suggestion of the lovely Countess of Dalkeith, who had heard a wild,
rude legend of Border _diablerie_, and sportively asked him to make it
the subject of a ballad. He cast about for a new variety of diction and
rhyme, and having happened to hear a recitation of Coleridge's
unpublished "Christabel" determined to adopt a similar cadence. The
division into cantos was suggested by one of his friends, after the
example of Spenser's "Faery Queen." The creation of the framework, the
conception of the ancient harper, came last of all. Thus did "The Lay of
the Last Minstrel" grow out of the "Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border."
The publishers were Longman of London, and Constable of Edinburgh, and
the author's share of profits came to L769.

It was at this time that Scott took over a third share in Ballantyne's
business, a commercial tie which bound him for twenty years. Its
influence on his literary work and his fortunes was productive of much
good and not a little evil. Meanwhile, he entered with the zest of an
active partner into many publishing schemes, and exerted himself in the