Page:A history of booksellers, the old and the new.djvu/162

128 128 CONSTABLE, CADELL, AND BLACK. Scott employed part of his literary gain in pur- chasing a property within three miles of Melrose, and gradually enlarged the dwelling-house until it became a castellated mansion of considerable size. The desire of becoming an extensive landed pro- prietor, became with him a far stronger passion than any craving for literary fame. It was more his desire, according to James Ballantyne himself, to "add as much as possible to the little realm of Abbotsford, in order that he might take his place, not among the great literary names which posterity is to revere, but among the country gentlemen of Roxburghshire." Under the influence of this infatuation, Scott pro- duced a series of novels, of which it will suffice to state the names and dates. To Waverlcy succeeded, in 1815, Guy Manncring ; in 1816, The Antiquary, and the first series of the Talcs of My Landlord, containing The Black Divarf and Old Mortality ; in 1 8 1 8, Rob Roy and the second series of the Tales of My Landlord, containing the Heart of Mid Lothian ; and, in 1819, the third series, containing the Bride of Lammermoor and a Legend of Montrose. Ivan/toe was to have been issued as a sepa- rate work, by another anonymous author, so as to spur the interest of a public that might possibly be flagging ; but the publication of a novel in London, pretending to be a fourth series of the Tales of My Landlord, determined him to produce it as the veri- table production of the author of Wavcrley. This was followed in quick succession by The Monastery and The Abbot, in 1820; Kenilworth and The Pirate, in 1821 ; The Fortunes of Nigel and HallidanHill, a dra- matic poem, for the copyright of which Constable gave 1000, in 1822; Peveril of the Peak, Qnentin