He is said to have written it in
six weeks at Christmas time. The scope of this volume will not permit a
critical examination of the Waverley novels. The world knows them almost
by heart. In _The Antiquary_, which appeared in 1816, we have a rare
delineation of local manners, the creation of distinct characters, and a
humorous description of the sudden arming of volunteers in fear of
invasion by the French. _The Antiquary_ was a free portrait or sketch of
Mr. George Constable, filled in perhaps unconsciously from the author's
own life; for he, no less than his friend, delighted in collecting relics,
and in studying out the lines, praetoria, and general castrametation of the
Roman armies. Andrew Gemmels was the original of that Edie Ochiltree who
was bold enough to dispute the antiquary's more learned assertions.
In the same year, 1816, was published the first series of _The Tales of my
Landlord_, containing _The Black Dwarf_ and _Old Mortality_, both valuable
as contributions to Scottish history. The former is not of much literary
merit; and the author was so little pleased with it, that he brought it to
a hasty conclusion; the latter is an extremely animated sketch of the
sufferings of the Covenanters at the hands of Grahame of Claverhouse, with
a fairer picture of that redoubted commander than the Covenanters have
drawn.
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