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"Rookwood" was commenced, but many and serious pauses occurred in the completion of the story; nor was it until May, 1834, that it was published; but the power with which the design was worked out, the success with which it was accomplished, was instantaneously recognised. The Edinburgh Review described the novel achievement:─"What Mr. Ainsworth has ventured to do, and successfully, was to revive the almost exploded interest afforded by the supernatural; and to preserve this, too, not in connexion with days long gone by, but side by side with the sober realities of 1737, with the convivialities of Yorkshire squires and country attorneys, with the humours of justices of the peace and the feats of Dick Turpin the highwayman." The same writer describes, also, the influences of all this upon the reader. "Strange as it may seem, the author has contrived to present the terrors of burial vaults and the blood-stained mysteries of family crime side by side with the most familiar scenes of the every-day life of the eighteenth century without exciting the slightest feeling of the ludicrous, nay more, with a character of earnestness and solemnity with which, à priori, we should have hardly thought such subjects could have been invested."

But the truth is, as the critic seems to have felt, that the reader is never allowed to pause for an instant to think at all. The famous picture of the Ride to York, now as well known as the name of Turpin himself, is but an image of the reader's course as he leaps the abrupt gaps and turns the picturesque corners of this singular tale. He goes through it, hurried yet noting everything, and with breathless interest; and it is not until after a pause at the close that he bethinks him of the songs and ballads whose lively or solemn chimes struck his ear as he passed rapidly; when he is sure to turn back to read them leisurely over one by one, enjoying the true spirit of the old minstrelsy with which they are embued, and wishing for a whole volume of such tuneful rarities.

The effect of this publication was to place Mr. Ainsworth in the first rank of writers of romantic fiction. The first edition was speedily sold off, a second followed. In 1836, Mr. Macrone issued a beautiful volume with designs by Cruikshank; in the following year, by an assignment of copyright, on the part of the author, it was included among the "Standard Novels" of Bentley. Yet though, by this publisher's own shewing, he had sold of this edition above 2200 copies up to the close of 1841, we suspect the author never received one farthing for the work─a fact which, for the sake of all modern authors, we hope is at least as marvellous, romantic, and unparalleled, as any incident of the tale itself. Half-farthings are now being coined, but "Rookwood" never produced its author that sum; we hear that he is to have 200l. when the sale of this edition (several having preceded it) shall reach 5000!

"Crichton" was the next work meditated; and as soon as projected, Mr. Macrone offered 350l. for the manuscript. It appeared in the spring of 1837, and a rapid sale betokened the now established reputation of the writer. This historical romance afforded, in some respects, indications of a higher aim and more elaborate finish than the happiest pictures of the preceding work. Extensive and curious reading─a minute acquaintance with the modes, usages, intrigue, and philosophy of the time─a capacity at once to analyze and combine─an eye for grand effects as well as the smallest details─were everywhere recognised. Many rare qualities united in the composition of this work.