 excite an interest
for the traditions and manners of Old England, similar to that which has been
obtained in behalf of those of our poorer and less celebrated neighbours. The
Kendal green, though its date is more ancient, ought surely to be as dear to our
feelings, as the variegated tartans of the north. The name of Robin Hood, if
duly conjured with, should raise a spirit as soon as that of Rob Roy; and the
patriots of England deserve no less their renown in our modern circles, than the
Bruces and Wallaces of Caledonia. If the scenery of the south be less romantic
and sublime than that of the northern mountains, it must be allowed to possess
in the same proportion superior softness and beauty; and upon the whole, we feel
ourselves entitled to exclaim with the patriotic Syrian - »Are not Pharpar and
Abana, rivers of Damascus, better than all the rivers of Israel?«
    Your objections to such an attempt, my dear Doctor, were, you may remember,
twofold. You insisted upon the advantages which the Scotsman possessed, from the
very recent existence of that state of society in which his scene was to be
laid. Many now alive, you remarked, well remembered persons who had not only
seen the celebrated Roy M'Gregor, but had feasted, and even fought with him. All
those minute circumstances belonging to private life and domestic character, all
that gives verisimilitude to a narrative, and individuality to the persons
introduced, is still known and remembered in Scotland; whereas in England,
civilisation has been so long complete, that our ideas of our ancestors are only
to be gleaned from musty records and chronicles, the authors of which seem
perversely to have conspired to suppress in their narratives all interesting
details, in order to find room for flowers of monkish eloquence, or trite
reflections upon morals. To match an English and a Scottish author in the rival
task of embodying and reviving the traditions of their respective countries,
would be, you alleged, in the highest degree unequal and unjust. The Scottish
magician, you said, was, like Lucan's witch, at liberty to walk over the recent
field of battle, and to select for the subject of resuscitation by his
sorceries, a body whose limbs had recently quivered with existence, and whose
throat had but just uttered the last note of agony. Such a subject even the
powerful Erichtho was compelled to select, as alone capable of being reanimated
even by her potent magic -
 
- gelidas leto scrutata medullas,
Pulmonis rigidi stantes sine vulnere fibras
Invenit, et vocem defuncto in corpore quoerit.
 
The English author,
