He was naturally called upon for help when the _Edinburgh Review_ was started a few weeks afterwards, especially as Jeffrey, who soon became the editor, had long been his friend.

The articles that he wrote during 1803 and 1804 were of a sort that most evidently connected itself with the work he had been doing: reviews, for example, of Southey's _Amadis de Gaul_, and of Ellis's _Early English Poetry_.

During 1805-6 the range of his reviewing became wider and he included some modern books, especially two or three which offered opportunity for good fun-making.

About 1806, however, his aversion to the political principles which dominated the _Edinburgh Review_ became so strong that he refused to continue as a contributor, and only once, years later, did he again write an article for that periodical.
In the same year, 1806, Scott supplied with editorial apparatus and issued anonymously _Original Memoirs Written during the Great Civil War_, the first of what proved to be a long list of publications having historical interest, sometimes reprints, sometimes original editions from old manuscripts, to which he contributed a greater or less amount of material in the shape of introductions and notes.

These were undertaken in a few cases for money, in others simply because they struck him as interesting and useful labors.