comfortable as in any part of the island; while revelations of their
shrewd intelligence and unsuspected wit, in the stories of Barrie and
Crockett, show what a century of Calvinistic theology--as the chief
mental stimulant--has done in developing blossoms from that
thistle-like stock.

Scott had now all the fame and worldly prosperity which any literary man
could attain to,--for his authorship of the novels, although
unacknowledged, was more and more generally believed, and after 1821 not
denied. He lived above the atmosphere of envy, honored by all classes of
people, surrounded with admiring friends and visitors. He had an income
of at least £10,000 a year. Wherever he journeyed he was treated with
the greatest distinction. In London he was cordially received as a
distinguished guest in any circle he chose. The highest nobles paid
homage to him. The King made him a baronet,--the first purely literary
man in England to receive that honor. He now became ambitious to
increase his lands; and the hundred acres of farm at Abbotsford were
enlarged by new purchases, picturesquely planted with trees and
shrubberies, while "the cottage grew to a mansion, and the mansion to a
castle," with its twelve hundred surrounding acres, cultivated and made
beautiful.

Scott's correspondence with famous people was immense, besides his other
labors as farmer, lawyer, and author. Few persons of rank or fame
visited Edinburgh without paying their respects to its most eminent
citizen. His country house was invaded by tourists. He was on terms of
intimacy with some of the proudest nobles of Scotland. His various works
were the daily food not only of his countrymen, but of all educated
Europe. "Station, power, wealth, beauty, and genius strove with each
other in every demonstration of respect and worship."