Yet, if we may trust the memory of one of his friends, Scott foresaw the literary success of two of his greatest contemporaries.

R.P.Gillies said in his _Recollections_: "I remember well how correct Scott's impressions were of such beginners in the literary world as had not then acquired any fixed character.

Of Lord Byron he had from the first a favourable impression....

Of Wordsworth he always spoke favourably, insisting that he was a true poet, but predicting that it would be long ere his works obtained the praise which they merited from the public."[483] Scott explicitly prided himself on two of his prophecies: that Washington Irving would make a name for himself, and that Sir Arthur Wellesley would become known as an extraordinary man.
Though Scott's critical work is comparatively little known, and though it presents no solidly organized front by which the public may be impressed, the opinions of so notable a writer have always had a certain weight.

Mr.Churton Collins thinks Scott's judgment on Dunbar has led modern editors to indulge in very exaggerated statements concerning the merit of that poet.[484] A heavier charge has been laid at Scott's door on the score of his edition of the _Memoirs of Captain Carleton_.