Mrs.Radcliffe has a title to be considered the first poetess of romantic fiction." When "Guy Mannering" appeared, Wordsworth sneered at it as a work of the Radcliffe school.

The slight difference produced by the introduction of humour could scarcely be visible to Wordsworth.

But Scott would not have been hurt by his judgment.

He had the literary courage to recognize merit even when obscured by extravagance, and to applaud that in which people of culture could find neither excellence nor charm.

Like Thackeray, he had been thrilled by Vivaidi in the Inquisition, and he was not the man to hide his gratitude because his author was now out of fashion.
Thus we see that Scott, when he began "Waverley" in 1805, brought to his labour no hard-and-fast theory of the art of fiction, but a kindly readiness to be pleased, and to find good in everything.