ballads; suppose you print off a dozen copies or so of as many as will make a pamphlet, sufficient to let my Edinburgh acquaintances judge of your skill for themselves." Ballantyne assented; and I believe exactly twelve copies of William and Ellen, The Fire-King, The Chase, and a few more of those pieces, were thrown off accordingly, with the title (alluding to the long delay of Lewis's collection) of "Apology for Tales of Terror-1799." This first specimen of a press, afterwards so celebrated, pleased Scott; and he said to Ballantyne-"I have been for years collecting old Border ballads, and I think I could, with little trouble, put together such a selection from them as might make a neat little volume, to sell for four or five shillings. I will talk to some of the booksellers about it when I get to Edinburgh, and if the thing goes on, you shall be the printer." Ballantyne highly relished the proposal; and the result of this little experiment changed wholly the course of his worldly fortunes, as well as of his friend's.

Shortly after the commencement of the Winter Session, the office of Sheriff-depute of Selkirkshire became vacant by the death of an early ally of Scott's, Andrew Plummer of Middlestead, a scholar and antiquary, who had entered with zeal into his ballad researches, and whose name occurs accordingly more

than once in the notes to the Border Minstrelsy. Perhaps the community of their tastes may have had some part in suggesting to the Duke of Buccleuch, that Scott might fitly succeed Mr Plummer in the magistrature. Be that as it might, his Grace's influence was used with the late Lord Melville, who, in those days, had the general control of the Crown patronage in Scotland, and his Lordship was prepared to look favourably on Scott's pretensions to some office of this description. Though neither the Duke nor this able Minister were at all addicted to literature, they had both seen Scott frequently under their own roofs, and been pleased with his manners and conversation; and he had by this time come to be on terms of affectionate intimacy with some of the younger members of either family. The Earl of Dalkeith (afterwards Duke Charles of Buccleuch), and his brother Lord Montagu, had been participating, with kindred ardour, in the military patriotism of the period, and had been thrown into Scott's society under circumstances well qualified to ripen acquaintance into confidence. The Honourable Robert Dundas, eldest son of the statesman whose title he has inherited, had been one of Scott's companions in the High School; and he, too, had been of late a lively partaker in the business of the yeomanry cavalry; and, last not least, Scott always remem

bered with gratitude the strong intercession on this occasion of Lord Melville's nephews, Robert Dundas of Arniston, then Lord Advocate, and afterwards Chief Baron of the Exchequer in Scotland, and the Right Honourable William Dundas, then Secretary to the Board of Control, and now Lord Clerk Register.

His appointment to the Sheriffship bears date 16th December, 1799. It secured him an annual salary of £300; an addition to his resources which at once relieved his mind from whatever degree of anxiety he might have felt in considering the prospect of an increasing family, along with the ever precarious chances of a profession, in the daily drudgery of which it is impossible to suppose that he ever could have found much pleasure.* * The duties of the office were far from heavy; the district, small, peaceful, and pastoral, was in great part the property of the Duke of Buccleuch; and he turned with redoubled zeal to his project of editing the ballads, many of the best of which belonged to this very

"My profession and I came to stand nearly upon the footing which honest Slender consoled himself on having established with Mistress Anne Page: There was no great love between us at the beginning, and it pleased heaven to decrease it on farther acquaintance."" - Introduction to the Lay of the Last Minstrel, 1830.

district of his favourite Border - those "tales," which, as the Dedication of the Minstrelsy expresses it, had" in elder times celebrated the prowess and cheered the halls" of his noble patron's ancestors.

CHAPTER X.

The Border Minstrelsy in Preparation-Richard Heber-John Leyden William LaidlawJames Hogg - Correspondence with George Ellis - Publication of the Two First Volumes

of the Border Minstrelsy.

1800-1802.

JAMES BALLANTYNE, in his Memorandum, after mentioning his ready acceptance of Scott's proposal to print the Minstrelsy, adds "I do not believe, that even at this time, he seriously contemplated giving himself much to literature." I confess, however, that a letter of his, addressed to Ballantyne in the spring of 1800, inclines me to question the accuracy of this impression. After alluding to an intention which he had entertained, in consequence of the delay of Lewis's collection, to publish an edition of the ballads contained in his own little volume, entitled "Apology for Tales of Terror,"