In the notes to later novels we shall see some of his "great denials."
The reception of "Waverley" was enthusiastic. Large editions were sold in
Edinburgh, and when Scott returned from his cruise in the northern
islands he found society ringing with his unacknowledged triumph. Byron,
especially, proclaimed his pleasure in "Waverley." It may be curious to
recall some of the published reviews of the moment. Probably no author
ever lived so indifferent to published criticism as Scott. Miss
Edgeworth, in one of her letters, reminds him how they had both agreed
that writers who cared for the dignity and serenity of their characters
should abstain from "that authors' bane-stuff." "As to the herd of
critics," Scott wrote to Miss Seward, after publishing "The Lay," "many
of those gentlemen appear to me to be a set of tinkers, who, unable to
make pots and pans, set up for menders of them." It is probable,
therefore, that he was quite unconcerned about the few remarks which Mr.
Gifford, in the "Quarterly Review" (vol. xl., 1814), interspersed among a
multitude of extracts, in a notice of "Waverley" manufactured with
scissors and paste. The "Quarterly" recognized "a Scotch Castle
Rackrent," but in "a much higher strain.
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