The Lady of the Lake

With buoyant spirit Scott wrote The Lady of the Lake, originally published in 1810, and its extraordinary success justified his expectations. Scott, in speaking of this poem, says, "The ancient manners, the habits and customs, of the aboriginal race by whom the Highlands of Scotland were inhabited, had always appeared to me peculiarly adapted to poetry. The change in their manners, too, had taken place almost within my own time, or at least I had learned many particulars concerning the anci...