 suppress his name on the present occasion. He may be a writer
new to publication, and unwilling to avow a character to which he is
unaccustomed; or he may be a hackneyed author who is ashamed of too frequent
appearance, and employs this mystery, as the heroine of the old comedy used her
mask to attract the attention of those to whom her face had become too familiar.
He may be a man of a grave profession, to whom the reputation of being a
novel-writer might be prejudicial; or he may be a man of fashion, to whom
writing of any kind might appear pedantic. He may be too young to assume the
character of an author, or so old as to make it advisable to lay it aside.
    The Author of Waverley has heard it objected to this novel that in the
character of Callum Beg, and in the account given by the Baron of Bradwardine of
the petty trespasses of the Highlanders upon trifling articles of property, he
has borne hard, and unjustly so, upon their national character. Nothing could be
farther from his wish or intention. The character of Callum Beg is that of a
spirit naturally turned to daring evil, and determined, by the circumstances of
his situation, to a particular species of mischief. Those who have perused the
curious Letters from the Highlands, published about 1726, will find instances of
such atrocious characters which fell under the writer's own observation, though
it would be most unjust to consider such villains as representatives of the
Highlanders of that period, any more than the murderers of Marr and Williamson
can be supposed to represent the English of the present day. As for the plunder
supposed to have been picked up by some of the insurgents in 1745, it must be
remembered that, although the way of that unfortunate little army was neither
marked by devastation nor bloodshed, but, on the contrary, was orderly and quiet
in a most wonderful degree, yet no army marches through a country in a hostile
manner without committing some depredations; and several to the extent and of
the nature jocularly imputed to them by the Baron, were really laid to the
charge of the Highland insurgents; for which many traditions, and particularly
one respecting the Knight of the Mirror, may be quoted as good evidence.1
 

                             General Preface, 1829.

 -- And must I ravel out
 My weaved-up follies?
                                                             Richard II. Act IV.
 
Having undertaken to give an Introductory Account of the compositions which are
here offered to the public, with Notes and Illustrations, the Author, under
whose name they are now for the first time collected, feels
