'St. Ronan's Well' is not so much my favourite as certain of its predecessors,' Lady Louisa Stuart wrote to Scott on March 26, 1824. 'Yet still I see the author's hand in it, et c'est tout dire. Meg Dods, the meeting', 'and the last scene between Clara and her brother, are marked with the true stamp, not to be matched or mistaken. Is the Siege of Ptolemais really on the anvil?' she goes on, speaking of the projected Crusading Tales, and obviously anxious to part company with 'St. Ronan's Well.