When the printed volumes of _Waverley_ were put into Constable’s hands, he did not for a moment doubt its authorship, but at once offered £700 for the copyright: this, we must remember, for a work to be published anonymously, at a time when Miss Edgeworth, the most popular novelist of her day, had never realized a like sum. The offer was, however, declined, and ultimately an arrangement was come to by which author and publisher were to share the profits. _Waverley_ took two or three months to win public favour, and then a perfect _furore_ set in. Sloop-load after sloop-load was sent off to the London market, and on the rumoured loss of one of these vessels, half London was in despair. The interest, too, excited by public curiosity as to the author’s name, was carefully fostered, and in a short time 12,000 copies were disposed of. Scott employed part of his literary gain in purchasing 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 proprietor, 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 produced a series of novels, of which it will suffice to state the names and dates. To _Waverley_ succeeded, in 1815, _Guy Mannering_; in 1816, _The Antiquary_, and the first series of the _Tales of My Landlord_, containing _The Black Dwarf_ and _Old Mortality_; in 1818, _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_. _Ivanhoe_ was to have been issued as a separate 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 veritable production of the author of _Waverley_. 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 _Hallidan Hill_, a dramatic poem, for the copyright of which Constable gave £1000, in 1822; _Peveril of the Peak_, _Quentin Durward_, and _St. Ronan’s Well_, in 1823; _Red Gauntlet_, in 1824; and _Woodstock_, in 1825.