 convinced your
opinion of the difficulty of the task will reconcile you to the imperfect manner
of its execution.
    Of my materials I have but little to say: They may be chiefly found in the
singular Anglo-Norman MS. which Sir Arthur Wardour preserves with such jealous
care in the third drawer of his oaken cabinet, scarcely allowing any one to
touch it, and being himself not able to read one syllable of its contents. I
should never have got his consent, on my visit to Scotland, to read in those
precious pages for so many hours, had I not promised to designate it by some
emphatic mode of printing, as The Wardour Manuscript: giving it, thereby, an
individuality as important as the Bannatyne MS., the Auchinleck MS., and any
other monument of the patience of a Gothic scrivener. I have sent, for your
private consideration, a list of the contents of this curious piece, which I
shall perhaps subjoin, with your approbation, to the third volume of my Tale, in
case the printer's devil should continue impatient for copy, when the whole of
my narrative has been imposed.
    Adieu, my dear friend; I have said enough to explain, if not to vindicate,
the attempt which I have made, and which, in spite, of your doubts, and my own
incapacity, I am still willing to believe has not been altogether made in vain.
    I hope you are now well recovered from your spring fit of the gout, and
shall be happy if the advice of your learned physician should recommend a tour
to these parts. Several curiosities have been lately dug up near the wall, as
well as at the ancient station of Habitancum. Talking of the latter, I suppose
you have long since heard the news, that a sulky churlish boor has destroyed the
ancient statue, or rather bas-relief, popularly called Robin of Redesdale. It
seems Robin's fame attracted more visitants than was consistent with the growth
of the heather, upon a moor worth a shilling an acre. Reverend as you write
yourself, be revengeful for once, and pray with me that he may be visited with
such a fit of the stone, as if he had all the fragments of poor Robin in that
region of his viscera where the disease holds its seat. Tell this not in Gath,
lest the Scots rejoice that they have at length found a parallel instance among
their neighbours, to that barbarous deed which demolished Arthur's Oven. But
there is no end to lamentation, when we betake ourselves to such subjects. My
respectful compliments attend Miss Dryasdust
