It was published in eighteen volumes in 1808, the year in which _Marmion_ also appeared.
When the poet was reproached by one of his friends for not working more steadily at his vocation, he replied, "The public, with many other properties of spoiled children, has all their eagerness after novelty, and were I to dedicate my time entirely to poetry they would soon tire of me.

I must therefore, I fear, continue to edit a little."[5] His interest in scholarly pursuits appears even in his first attempt at writing prose fiction, since Joseph Strutt's unfinished romance, _Queenhoo Hall_, for which Scott wrote a conclusion, is of consequence only on account of the antiquarian learning which it exhibits.
Having become seriously alarmed over the political influence of the _Edinburgh Review_, Scott was active in forwarding plans for starting a strong rival periodical in London, and 1809 saw the establishment of the _Quarterly Review_.

By that time he had done a considerable amount of work in practically every kind except the novel, and he was recognized as a most efficient assistant and adviser in any such enterprise as the promoters of the _Quarterly_ were undertaking.

Moreover, his own writings were prominent among the books which supplied material for the reviewer.

He worked hard for the first volume.