It led up to the publication of two important volumes which contained material originally intended to form part of the _Minstrelsy_, but which outgrew that work.

These were the edition of the old metrical romance _Sir Tristrem_, which showed Scott as a scholar, and the _Lay of the Last Minstrel_, the first of Scott's own metrical romances.

So far his literary achievement was all of one kind, or of two or three kinds closely related.

In this first period of his literary life, perhaps even more than later, his editorial impulse, his scholarly activity, was closely connected with the inspiration for original writing.

The _Lay of the Last Minstrel_ was the climax of this series of enterprises.
With the publication of the _Minstrelsy_, Scott of course became known as a literary antiquary.