In 1801, Hogg and Laidlaw helped Scott with materials for the "Border Minstrelsy". After two unsuccessful attempts at farming, in Peeblesshire and Midlothian, Laidlaw in 1817 became steward to Sir Walter Scott at Abbotsford. In 1819, when Scott was recovering from an illness, Laidlaw and Ballantyne wrote to his dictation most of "The Bride of Lammermoor", and subsequently "A Legend of Montrose", and nearly all "Ivanhoe". "St. Ronan's Well" may have been due to Laidlaw's suggestion that Scott should devote a novel to "Melrose in July 1823", according to John Gibson Lockhart.