 of Richard, and was graced with
farther marks of the royal favour. He might have risen still higher, but for the
premature death of the heroic Coeur-de-Lion, before the Castle of Chaluz, near
Limoges. With the life of a generous, but rash and romantic monarch, perished
all the projects which his ambition and his generosity had formed; to whom may
be applied, with a slight alteration, the lines composed by Dr. Johnson for
Charles of Sweden -
 
His fate was destined to a foreign strand,
A petty fortress and an »humble« hand;
He left the name at which the world grew pale,
To point a moral, or adorn a TALE.
 

                                     Notes

1 This motto alludes to the Author returning to the stage repeatedly after
having taken leave.
 
2 This very curious poem, long a desideratum in Scottish literature, and given
up as irrecoverably lost, was lately brought to light by the researches of Dr.
Irving of the Advocates' Library, and has been reprinted by Mr. David Laing,
Edinburgh.
 
3 See vol. ii. p. 167.
 
4 See Guy Mannering, p. 433.
 
5 Like the Hermit, the Shepherd makes havoc amongst the King's game; but by
means of a sling, not of a bow; like the Hermit too, he has his peculiar phrases
of compotation, the sign and countersign being Passelodion and Berafriend. One
can scarce conceive what humour our ancestors found in this species of
gibberish; but
»I warrant it proved an excuse for the glass.«
 
6 The Author had revised this posthumous work of Mr. Strutt. See General Preface
to the present edition, vol. i. p. 10.
 
7 This anticipation proved but too true, as my learned correspondent did not
receive my letter until a twelvemonth after it was written. I mention this
circumstance, that a gentleman attached to the cause of learning who now holds
the principal control of the post-office, may consider whether by some
mitigation of the present enormous rates, some favour might not be shown to the
correspondents of the principal Literary and Antiquarian Societies. I
understand, indeed, that this experiment was once tried, but that the mail coach
having broke down under the weight of packages addressed to members of the
Society of Antiquaries, it was relinquished as a hazardous experiment. Surely,
however, it would be possible to build these vehicles in a form more
substantial, stronger in the perch, and broader in the wheels, so as to support
the weight of Antiquarian learning; when, if they should be found to travel more
slowly,
