try, while his juvenile productions in
prose wore a stiff formality. On being called to the bar, he at first
carefully refrained, according to his own statement, from claiming the
honour of authorship, lest his brethren or the public should suppose
that his habits were unsuitable to a due attention to the duties of his
profession. He was relieved of dependence on professional employment by
espousing, in December 1797, Miss Carpenter, a young French gentlewoman,
possessed of a considerable annuity, whose acquaintance he had formed at
Gilsland, a watering-place in Cumberland. In 1800 he was appointed
Sheriff of Selkirkshire, with a salary of L300 a year. While he
continued in his father's office he had made himself familiar with the
French and Italian languages, and had read many of their more celebrated
authors, especially the writings of Tasso and Ariosto. Some years after
he came to the bar, he was induced to acquaint himself with the ballad
poetry of Germany, then in vogue, through the translations of Mr Lewis,
whose friendship he had recently acquired. In 1796 he made his first
adventure as an author by publishing translations of "Lenore," and "The
Wild Huntsman" of Buerger. The attempt proved unsuccessful; but,
undismayed, he again essayed his skill in translation by publishing, in
1799, an English version of Goethe's "Goetz of Berlichingen." His
success as an author was, however, destined to rest on original
performances, illustrative of the chivalry of his own land.

Towards the recovery and publication of the ancient ballads and songs of
the Scottish borders, which had only been preserved by the recitations
of the peasantry, Scott had early formed important intentions. The
independence of his circumstances now enabled him to execute his
long-cherished scheme. He made periodical excursions into Liddesdale, a
wild pastoral district on the Scottish border, anciently peopled by the
noted Elliots and Armstrongs, in quest of old ballads and traditions;
and the fruits of his research, along with much curious information,
partly communicated to him by intelligent correspondents, he gave to the
world, in 1802, in two volumes octavo, under the title of "Minstrelsy of
the Scottish Border." He added in the following year a third volume,
consisting of imitations of ancient ballads, composed by himself and
others. These volumes issued from the printing-press of his early friend
and school-fellow, Mr James Ballantyne of Kelso, w