All this, as the reader may perceive, was preparatory to an advice a request.
It was nothing less than that Mr. Tytler himself should be the historian of
Scotland. Here Sir Walter did not fail to urge upon his young friend such
motives as might incite him to the attempt. It was one that would be most
congenial to his previous studies and pursuits. It would concentrate upon one
great aim those efforts which he had expended upon a variety of subjects. It
would gratify his patriotic feelings as a Scot, as well as his predilections for
historical writing. The work itself would indeed be long and laborious;
but then he had the advantage of youth on his side, so that he might live to
complete it; and if it were written under a deep conviction of the importance of historical truth, what a permanent benefit it would prove to his
country! Finally, Sir Walter finished his persuasions, in his own kind, characteristic manner, by offering to Mr. Tytler all the assistance in his power, not only in obtaining admission to all the repositories in which the materials were contained, but his best advice in pursuing the necessary investigations.
This was a memorable conversation in the life of Mr. Tytler: it was the turning-point of his literary career, the bias by which his whole after-course was directed. Deeply and anxiously he mused upon it, on his evening ride homeward to the mansion of Yair, where at that time he was sojourning; and it was after he had forded the Tweed at Bordside that he gave vent to his imprisoned feelings, by rehearsing to his friend who accompanied him, the whole tenor of the dialogue. On being asked how he liked the suggestion, he replied, that the undertaking had a very formidable appearance and that though he had always been attached to historical pursuits, and was ambitious of becoming a historian, he had never conceived the idea of writing the history of his own country, from the peculiar difficulties that lay in the way of such an attempt, and in making it what be thought a History of Scotland ought to be ; now, however, he felt otherwise, and would lay the suggestion to heart, not only on account of the quarter from which it had come, but the assistance that had been so kindly promised. The resolution on which he finally settled he must have arrived at promptly, and followed up with almost immediate action, by which he stood committed to a lifetime of work in a new sphere of occupation, and to whatever, in the shape of success or failure, it might chance to bring him. The devotedness of a hero who saves his country, or of a legislator who regenerates it, may be matched by the devotedness of him who records their deeds. The historian who evolves the full truth of a Marathon or Bannockburn fight from the remote obscurity in which it is clouded, may have had as hard and heroic a task as he who has achieved it.
It was in the summer of 1828 that the first volume of Tytler's "History of Scotland" issued from the press. As it was only the first instalment of a large promise, the public received it as such; and while its merits were felt, the language of criticism was cautious and measured, although both commendation and hopeful encouragement were by no means withheld. The rest of the work followed at intervals; and as each successive volume appeared, the general
in 1827. The precise year of this interview between Sir Walter and Mr. Tytler has been unfortunately forgot; but as the indefatigable author of "Waverley," was not accustomed to dally with a purpose he had once formed, the conversation probably occurred in the summer of the previous year.
