About the year 1805 Scott had written a third part of a novel, which was advertised by John Ballantyne, under the title of Waverley, but he was unwilling to risk the loss of his poetical reputation by attempting a new style of composition. He, therefore, threw aside the work, and stumbling upon it in 1811, when his poetical reputation was beginning to wane, and soon after he had threatened, half in fun and half in earnest, “If I fail now I will write prose for life,” he at once completed the story. The current rumour of the new novel having been rejected by several London publishers, is entirely untrue. The work was printed by the Ballantynes, and through the whole series the greatest secrecy as to the author’s name was preserved. James Ballantyne himself transcribed the “copy,” and copied Scott’s corrections on to a duplicate proof sheet; nor was there a single instance of treachery throughout the whole time of the secret.
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.
The vast amount of business arising from these publications, produced in Constable’s mind a conviction that he was a wealthy and prosperous man. Though never possessed of much free capital, he saw around him every day such proofs of an enlarging amount of stock, that nothing less than the demonstration of figures—a demonstration he cordially hated—could have given him greater assurance of his affluent condition. Like Scott, he, too, was intoxicated with success. He had a magnificent way of transacting all business, and living rather like a princely father of letters, than a tradesman aiming at making them subservient to his use, he was led into an expenditure beyond his means.
Another error lay in his yielding to Scott’s desire for money, and the means of raising money by pre-payment for literary work yet to be accomplished. Of Scott’s profits on his works, Lockhart makes the following statements: “Before Sir Walter went to London, in November, 1821, he concluded another negotiation of importance with the house of Constable and Co. They agreed to give, for the remaining copyright of the four novels published between December, 1819, and January, 1821—to wit Ivanhoe, The Monastery, The Abbot, and Kenilworth—the sum of five thousand guineas. The stipulation about not revealing the author’s name under a penalty of £2000, was repeated. By these four novels, the fruits of scarcely more than a twelve months’ labour, he had already cleared at least £10,000 before this bargain was completed.... I cannot pretend to guess what the actual state of Scott’s pecuniary affairs was at the time when John Ballantyne’s death relieved them from one great source of complication and difficulty.... He must (in his improvements at Abbotsford) have reckoned on clearing £30,000, at least, in the course of two years, by the novels written within the period, and the publishers, as we have seen, were willing to give him £6000, within the space of two years, for works of a less serious sort, likely to be despatched at leisure hours, without at all interfering with the main manufacture. But, alas! even this was not all.... Before The Fortunes of Nigel issued from the press, Scott had exchanged instruments, and received his bookseller’s bills for no less than “four works of fiction,” not one of them otherwise described in the deeds of agreement. And within two years all this anticipation had been wiped off by Peveril of the Peak, Quentin Durward, St. Ronan’s Well, and Red Gauntlet; and the new castle was at that time complete, and overflowing with all its splendour; but by that time the end was also approaching!”
To return for a moment to Constable’s life as apart from the author of Waverley; he had, as we have seen, entertained in early years strong literary aspirations, and he repeatedly expressed a touching regret at the nonfulfilment of his hopes. The only literary efforts that have been distinctly traced to his pen consist of an edition of Lamont’s Diary, in 1810; a compilation of the poetry contained in the Waverley Novels, and the composition of a small volume which appeared in 1822, under the title of Memoirs of George Heriot, jeweller to King James, containing an account of the hospital founded by him at Edinburgh. In 1816 he lost his wife, and in 1818 he married Miss Charlotte Neale, who survived him. In the early part of 1822 his health suffered so severely that he was obliged to sojourn in the south for a while. In 1823, though professedly a Whig in politics, he was included by the liberal policy of the Government in a list of new magistrates for the city of Edinburgh; and in the same year he moved from the warehouse, which he had occupied for twenty years in the High Street, to an elegant mansion in the New Town, adjacent to the Register House, which had become his own through his second wife.
Constable had at this time all the personal and outward appearance of a successful man. He was stout and portly in body, and rather defiant and imperious in his manner. Among the trade he was known as the “Czar of Muscovy;” of the London potentates, John Murray had earned the sobriquet of the “Emperor of the West,” and Longman and his string of partners as the “Divan.” Constable had christened John Ballantyne the “Dey of Algiers,” but, as John complained, had subsequently deposed him. The “Czar,” however, was too fond of these nicknames. Longman was one day dining with him: “What fine swans you have on your pond there,” quoth the Londoner. “Swans,” cried Constable, “they are only geese, man! There are just five of them, if you please to observe, and their names are Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown.” This skit cost “the Crafty” a good bargain.