In 1814 he declines to read the _Edinburgh's_
criticism of Wordsworth, because "the subject is to me so very
uninteresting." In the same year he writes:--
"I think very highly of _Waverley_, and was inclined to suspect, in
reading it, that it was written by Miss Scott of Ancrum."
In 1818 he wrote about _The Heart of Midlothian_:--
"I think it excellent--quite as good as any of his novels, excepting
that in which Claverhouse is introduced, and of which I forget the
name.... He repeats his characters, but it seems they will bear
repetition. Who can read the novel without laughing and crying twenty
times?"
In 1820:--
"Have you read _Ivanhoe_? It is the least dull, and the most easily
read through, of all Scott's novels; but there are many more
powerful."
Later in the same year:--
"I have just read _The Abbot_; it is far above common novels, but of
very inferior execution to his others, and hardly worth reading. He
has exhausted the subject of Scotland, and worn out the few characters
that the early periods of Scotch history could supply him with. Meg
Merrilies appears afresh in every novel."
In 1821:--
"_The Pirate_ is certainly one of the least fortunate of Sir Walter's
productions. It seems now that he cannot write without Meg Merrilies
and Dominie Sampson.
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