to ''Tis Sixty Years since,' that the actual date of publication might
be made to correspond with the period in which the scene was laid.
Having proceeded as far, I think, as the seventh chapter, I showed my
work to a critical friend, whose opinion was unfavourable, and having
some poetical reputation, I was unwilling to risk the loss of it by
attempting a new style of composition. I therefore threw aside the
work I had commenced, without either reluctance or remonstrance. This
portion of the manuscript was laid aside in the drawers of an old
writing desk, which, on my first coming to reside at Abbotsford in
1811, was placed in a lumber garret, and entirely forgotten. Thus,
though I sometimes, among other literary avocations, turned my
thoughts to the continuation of the romance which I had commenced,
yet, as I could not find what I had already written, after searching
such repositories as were within my reach, and was too indolent to
attempt to write it anew from memory. I as often laid aside all
thoughts of that nature."

The success of Miss Edgeworth's delineations of Irish life, and the
author's completion of Mr. Strutt's romance of _Queen Hoo Hall_, in
1808, again drew his attention to _Waverley_. Accident threw the lost
sheets in his way, while searching an old writing-desk for some
fishing-tackle for a friend. The long-lost manuscript presented
itself, and "he immediately set to work to complete it, according to
his original purpose." Among other unfounded reports, it has been
said, that the copyright was, during the book's progress through the
press, offered for sale to various booksellers in London at a very
inconsiderable price. This was not the case. Messrs. Constable and
Cadell, who published the work, were the only persons acquainted with
the contents of the publication, and they offered a large sum for it,
while in the course of printing, which, however, was declined, the