text:  Now as it happened that the same boss of constructiveness which has endowed our language with such a world of creations from the pen of Scott betrayed him also into inventiveness _per_ force of brick and mortar--just as the same bent of genius which created the _Castle of Otranto_ created also that other colossus of lath and plaster _Strawberry Hill_--the author of the Scotch novels was fain to sacrifice to the evil genius of the times; and behold! as the assiduous slave of the circulating libraries he extinguished one of the greatest spirits of Great Britain