Scott began it immediately after completing Quentin Durward in early May 1823, and by the end of the month more than half of the first volume had been written.

It is likely that he then slowed composition to avoid exhausting the market, and the volume was apparently not completed until late August or early September.

It seems likely that this second hold-up was occasioned by Scott's long resistance to the demand by James Ballantyne that the reference in the text to Clara's intercourse with Tyrell should be deleted: he eventually gave in, though signs of the original intention persist in the first edition.

Saint Ronan’s Wells, named after Scott's novel, is a spa at Innerleithen, a town near Peebles in southern Scotland.

A mineral spring had in the meantime been discovered at Saint Ronan’s, and he was invited by the fashionable visitors to dine with them at the Fox Hotel, where he quarrelled with an English baronet named Sir Bingo Binks.

On his way back to the Cleikum, he met Clara Mowbray, to whom he had been secretly engaged during his former visit; he had been prevented from marrying her by the treachery of Bulmer, who had now succeeded to the earldom, and was expected at the spa.

Tyrrel was visited by Captain MacTurk, and accepted a challenge from the baronet, but failed to keep his appointment, and was posted as an adventurer by the committee of management.

He showed great interest in the affairs of the Mowbray family, and, having taken up his quarters at the Cleikum, made friends with Rev Mr Cargill, who had been disappointed in love, and startled him with a rumour that Clara was about to be married.

Soon after the earl's arrival, it was reported that he had been shot in the arm by a footpad; and, while his wound was healing, he spent his time gambling with John Mowbray, the young laird of St Ronan's, who had borrowed his sister Clara's money to try to improve his luck.

Having allowed him to win a considerable sum, his lordship made proposals for Clara's hand, explaining that his grand-uncle had disinherited his only son, and devised his estate to him, on condition that he chose as a wife a lady of the name of Mowbray.

The next morning, as John Mowbray was endeavouring to induce Clara to consent to the marriage, he received an anonymous communication that the earl was an impostor; and, in an interview with him, she rejected his suit with loathing and scorn.

His lordship then wrote to Jekyl, telling him the circumstances under which, when he was only sixteen, he had arranged with Mr Cargill for a secret marriage between her and Tyrrel; but, learning subsequently the contents of his uncle's will, had incurred their lifelong hatred by impersonating his brother at the ceremony.

Tyrrel, who after the duel had gone to a nearby village to recover from his wound, reappeared just in time to rescue Mr Touchwood from drowning; and, at an interview with Jekyl, who undertook to clear his character, offered to forgo his claim to the earldom, of which he had proof, if his brother would leave Clara alone.

The earl sneered at the proposal, and, as he was forming fresh schemes for attaining his end, he discovered that Hannah Irwin, Clara's former companion, was dying at St Ronan's, and anxious to confess her share in the secret marriage.

Solmes, the earl's valet, was instructed to carry her off, while his master got the brother into his power by ruining him at play, and then promised to cancel the debt if Clara consented to acknowledge him as her husband within four-and-twenty hours.

Mowbray believed he had prevailed with his sister, when Mr Touchwood unexpectedly arrived, and announced himself as Scrogie, the disinherited son, who by bribing Solmes, and in other ways, had learnt everyone's secrets, and was ready with his fortune to arrange all their difficulties.

However, Clara had escaped from her room during the night, and, after appearing at the manse to forgive her cousin, who had been confided to Mr Cargill's care, had made her way to the Cleikum, where, in a seeming trance, she had a final interview with Tyrrel, and died soon afterwards from congestion of the brain.

Mowbray, meanwhile, in his search for her, encountered the earl and his companions engaged in a shooting match, and killed him in a duel arranged on the spot by Captain MacTurk, with whom he fled to the Continent to escape imprisonment.

Mr Touchwood had consequently to seek some other outlet for his wealth, and the Etherington estates were never claimed by the rightful heir, who determined to pass the remainder of his life in a Moravian mission.

1 An old-world landlady: Meg Dods maintains an inn [the Cleikum] in the declined Aulton of Saint Ronan's with a limited set of regular patrons.

2 The guest: Francis Tyrrel, who had spent time at Saint Ronan's in his youth, returns and is updated by Meg about the fashionable new development at the neighbouring Well.

Conversation at dinner centres on the whimsical Clara Mowbray's absence from the table and on Tyrrel's sketching, Francis rejecting Lady Penelope's suggested patronage.

13 Disappointment: With Binks, Winterblossom, and Quackleben, MacTurk makes arrangements for the duel, but Tyrrel fails to turn up and they produce a statement calling for his ostracism.

6 (19) A letter: Writing to his friend Captain Jekyl, Etherington tells how when approaching the Well he had encountered his cousin [i.e. half-brother] Tyrrel on his way to the duel with Binks.

9 (22) Expostulation: Clara tells her brother she has given Lady Penelope the shawl he bought for her, which had originally been destined for her ladyship until Mowbray intervened to secure it.

Tyrrel presents as a counter-proposal that he leave Etherington in undisturbed possession of the disputed estate provided he agrees to have no further communication with Clara.

12 (38) The catastrophe: Touchwood has arranged for the dying Hannah to be brought to the manse by Solmes, where she confesses to Cargill her role in Clara's ruin and the secret marriage ceremony when Etherington had impersonated Tyrrel.

[6] Scott's move to his own time was generally considered a mistake, resulting in a set of heavy caricatures of vulgar, commonplace characters.

Meg Dods and Touchwood attracted general praise, and in a number of reviews the major scene between Mowbray and his sister was singled out for commendation.

This article incorporates text from the revised 1898 edition of Henry Grey's A Key to the Waverley Novels (1880), now in the public domain.