 are taken from the
narrative of intelligent eye-witnesses, and corrected from the History of the
Rebellion by the late venerable author of Douglas. The Lowland Scottish
gentlemen, and the subordinate characters, are not given as individual
portraits, but are drawn from the general habits of the period (of which I have
witnessed some remnants in my younger days), and partly gathered from tradition.
    It has been my object to describe these persons, not by a caricatured and
exaggerated use of the national dialect, but by their habits, manners, and
feelings; so as in some distant degree to emulate the admirable Irish portraits
drawn by Miss Edgeworth, so different from the »Teagues« and »dear joys« who so
long, with the most perfect family resemblance to each other, occupied the drama
and the novel.
    I feel no confidence, however, in the manner in which I have executed my
purpose. Indeed, so little was I satisfied with my production, that I laid it
aside in an unfinished state, and only found it again by mere accident among
other waste papers in an old cabinet, the drawers of which I was rummaging in
order to accommodate a friend with some fishing-tackle, after it had been
mislaid for several years. Two works upon similar subjects, by female authors,
whose genius is highly creditable to their country, have appeared in the
interval; I mean Mrs. Hamilton's Glenburnie, and the late account of Highland
Superstitions. But the first is confined to the rural habits of Scotland, of
which it has given a picture with striking and impressive fidelity; and the
traditional records of the respectable and ingenious Mrs. Grant of Laggan, are
of a nature distinct from the fictitious narrative which I have here attempted.
    I would willingly persuade myself that the preceding work will not be found
altogether uninteresting. To elder persons it will recall scenes and characters
familiar to their youth; and to the rising generation the tale may present some
idea of the manners of their forefathers.
    Yet I heartily wish that the task of tracing the evanescent manners of his
own country had employed the pen of the only man in Scotland who could have done
it justice - of him so eminently distinguished in elegant literature - and whose
sketches of Colonel Caustic and Umphraville are perfectly blended with the finer
traits of national character. I should in that case have had more pleasure as a
reader than I shall ever feel in the pride of a successful author, should these
sheets confer upon me that envied distinction. And as I have inverted the usual
arrangement, placing these remarks at the end of the work to
