He began by translating songs from other languages, then by editing and publishing old ballads and songs belonging to his own country, what is called minstrelsy, the songs of wandering poets. His first book, _Minstrelsy of the Border_, was published very early in the nineteenth century. He married, in 1797, Miss Charpentier, the daughter of a refugee from the French Revolution. They lived in a cottage at Lasswade, six miles from Edinburgh. Later, their home was at Ashestiel, also in the country, an old house on the south bank of the Tweed. His own first writing, a poetical story, _The Lay of the Last Minstrel_, was published in 1805. He held during his life various law offices under the Crown, beginning as Sheriff Depute, then Sheriff, and later a Clerk of the Court of Session. Although he wrote many books he made a point of keeping other employment, so writing might be, as he said, not a bad crutch, but {31} a good staff. But by 1805, it was plain that literature was to be his main occupation. Scott had a singularly affectionate nature, which in itself is almost sufficient to make a happy life. With his first fee as a lawyer, he bought a silver taper stand for his mother's desk. Lockhart writes of him, "No man cared less about popular admiration and applause; but for the least chill on the affection of any near and dear to him he had the sensitiveness of a maiden." We find as we learn to know people that powers of affection and love for those who belong to them are marks of the finest natures. Scott was considerate of the feelings of everyone, and he was greatly loved. He made much money by his writings, first by his romantic verse which took the world by storm, and later by the long series of great novels, which were published at first anonymously, and only acknowledged by Scott as his own with reluctance years after he began publishing them. With his love for beautiful scenery, for Scotland, and for everything belonging to dignified and delightful ways of living, it was natural that Scott, from the result of his labours, should buy an estate and build on it a castle called Abbotsford. Here he lived with his family, dealing bountifully and kindly with many dependents and followers. He had tender care for all his neighbours, gentle and simple, as the old phrase runs. Scott valued what he had because it gave him the power to be good to other people. "Sir Walter speaks to every man as if they were blood relations" was the description given of his manner by one of the men who worked {32} on his estate to an inquirer. Tom Purdie, a personal attendant, had been a salmon poacher, and was one of Scott's great friends.