The office of sheriff-depute of Selkirkshire was at this time vacant, and Scott had the support of the Duke of Buccleuch in an application for the office. Scott's volunteering had also brought him into close connection with Robert Dundas, eldest son of Lord Melville, then the great distributor of Scottish patronage. Melville's nephews were also interested, and on 16 Dec. 1799 Scott was appointed sheriff-depute. It brought him 300l. a year for light work and a closer connection with his favourite district. Scott now set about his ballad collection energetically. On 22 April 1800 he wrote to Ballantyne, whom he proposed to entrust with the printing, and suggested, at the same time, that Ballantyne would find a good opening for a printing establishment in Edinburgh. Scott's ballad-hunting brought him many new acquaintances, who, as usual, became warm friends. Among them were Richard Heber [q. v.], the great book-collector, and, through Heber, George Ellis [q. v.], then preparing his ‘Specimens of Early English Romances.’ They kept up an intimate correspondence until Ellis's death. Scott managed also to form a friendly alliance with the touchy antiquary, Joseph Ritson [q. v.] He took up John Leyden [q. v.], whose enthusiastic co-operation he repaid by many good services. He made the acquaintance of William Laidlaw, ever afterwards an attached friend; and, through Laidlaw, of James Hogg (1770–1835) [q. v.], to whom also he was a steady patron. The first two volumes of the ‘Border Minstrelsy,’ printed by Ballantyne, were published early in 1802 by Cadell & Davies, and welcomed by many critics of the time, including Miss Seward. Scott received 78l. 10s. for a half-share of the profits, and then sold the copyright to the Longmans for 500l. This price apparently included a third volume, which appeared in 1803. Other editions followed when Scott had become famous. The collection included various introductory essays, and showed, as Lockhart remarks, that his mind was already stored with most of the incidents and images afterwards turned to account. The ‘Minstrelsy’ had been intended to include the romance of ‘Sir Tristram,’ which he and Leyden had persuaded themselves to be the work of Thomas of Ercildoune [q. v.] A small edition of this was published separately by Constable in May 1804.
The ‘Minstrelsy’ included some imitations of the ancient ballad by Scott, Leyden, and others. ‘Glenfinlas,’ written for Lewis in 1799, was, he says, his ‘first serious attempt in verse.’ Another poem, intended for the ‘Minstrelsy,’ led to more important results (Letters, i. 22). The Countess of Dalkeith (afterwards Duchess of Buccleuch) suggested to him as a fit subject for a ballad the legend of Gilpin Horner. Soon afterwards (Sir) John Stoddart [q. v.], on a visit to Scotland, repeated to him the then unpublished ‘Christabel.’ Scott thought the metre adapted to such an ‘extravaganza’ as he intended. A verse or two from ‘Christabel’ was actually introduced in Scott's poems; and Coleridge seems afterwards to have been a little annoyed by the popularity due in part to this appropriation and denied to the more poetical original. Scott in his preface of 1830 fully acknowledges the debt, and in his novels makes frequent references to Coleridge's poems. The framework of the ‘Last Minstrel’ was introduced on a hint from W. Erskine or George Cranstoun [q. v.], to whom he had read some stanzas; and its form was suggested by the neighbourhood of Newark Castle to Bowhill, where he had met the Countess of Dalkeith. He read the beginning to Ellis early in 1803. The ‘Lay of the Last Minstrel’ was published at the beginning of 1805 by the Longmans and Constable on half profits. The Longmans bought the copyright on a second edition for 500l., Scott thus receiving 769l. 6s. on the whole. It succeeded at once so brilliantly as to determine Scott's future career.
Scott's literary occupations had naturally told against his success at the bar. His professional income had increased slowly, and in 1802–3 amounted to 228l. 18s. In 1804 his father's business had dwindled in the hands of his brother Thomas, and his own prospects suffered. In 1804 the lord lieutenant of Selkirkshire complained that Scott's military zeal had interfered with the discharge of his duties as sheriff, and that he was legally bound to reside four months in the year within his own jurisdiction. Scott had, upon his marriage, taken a cottage at Lasswade, six miles from Edinburgh, where he spent his summers. He now had to look out for a house in a more appropriate situation, and took a lease of Ashestiel on the Tweed, near Selkirk. On 10 June 1804 his uncle, Robert Scott, died, leaving him the house at Rosebank. He sold this for 5,000l., and, with the sheriff-depute-ship and his wife's settlement, had now about 1,000l. a year independently of his practice (Lockhart, ch. xiii.). Ashestiel was in a rustic district, seven miles from the nearest town, and in the midst of the Buccleuch estates. He had plenty of sporting and a small sheep farm. He thought of making Hogg his bailiff, but took a fancy to Thomas Purdie, who had been charged with poaching, and had touched Scott's heart by his
