The brilliant overture of _Waverley_ as such, with its entirely novel combination of the historical and the "national" elements upon the still more novel background of Highland scenery; the equally vivid and vigorous narrative and the more interesting personages of _Old Mortality_ and _Rob Roy_; the domestic tragedy, with the historical element for little more than a framework, of the _Heart of Midlothian_ and the _Bride of Lammermoor_; the little masterpiece of _A Legend of Montrose_; the fresh departure, with purely English subject, of _Ivanhoe_ and its triumphant sequels in _Kenilworth, Quentin Durward_, and others; the striking utilisation of literary assistance in the _Fortunes of Nigel_; and the wonderful blending of autobiographic, historical, and romantic interest in _Redgauntlet_:--one cannot dwell on these and other things.

The magic continued even in _Woodstock_--written as this was almost between the blows of the executioner's crow-bar on the wheel, in the tightening of the windlasses at the rack--it is not absent, whatever people may say, in _Anne of Geierstein_, nor even quite lacking in the better parts of _Count Robert of Paris_.

But we must not expatiate on its effects; we must only give a little attention to the means by which they are achieved.
Another of the common errors about Scott is to represent--perhaps really to regard--him as a hit-or-miss and hand-to-mouth _improvisatore_, who bundled out his creations anyhow, and did not himself know how he created them.

The fallacy is worse than a fallacy: for it is down-right false witness.

We have numerous passages in and out of the novels--the chief of them being the remarkable conversation with Captain Clutterbuck in the Introduction to the _Fortunes of Nigel_ and the reflections in the _Diary_ on _Sir John Chiverton_ and _Brambletye House_--showing that Scott knew perfectly well the construction and the stringing of his fiddle, as well as the trick of applying his rosin.