works as Waverley, and those which
followed it. But I have always studied to generalise the portraits, so that they
should still seem, on the whole, the productions of fancy, though possessing
some resemblance to real individuals. Yet I must own my attempts have not in
this last particular been uniformly successful. There are men whose characters
are so peculiarly marked, that the delineation of some leading and principal
feature, inevitably places the whole person before you in his individuality.
Thus the character of Jonathan Oldbuck in the Antiquary, was partly founded on
that of an old friend of my youth, to whom I am indebted for introducing me to
Shakspeare, and other invaluable favours; but I thought I had so completely
disguised the likeness, that it could not be recognised by any one now alive. I
was mistaken, however, and indeed had endangered what I desired should be
considered as a secret; for I afterwards learned that a highly respectable
gentleman, one of the few surviving friends of my father, and an acute critic,
had said, upon the appearance of the work, that he was now convinced who was the
author of it, as he recognised, in the Antiquary, traces of the character of a
very intimate friend of my father's family.«
    I have only farther to request the reader not to suppose that my late
respected friend resembled Mr. Oldbuck, either in his pedigree, or the history
imputed to the ideal personage. There is not a single incident in the Novel
which is borrowed from his real circumstances, excepting the fact that he
resided in an old house near a flourishing seaport, and that the author chanced
to witness a scene betwixt him and the female proprietor of a stage-coach, very
similar to that which commences the history of the Antiquary. An excellent
temper, with a slight degree of subacid humour; learning, wit, and drollery, the
more poignant that they were a little marked by the peculiarities of an old
bachelor; a soundness of thought, rendered more forcible by an occasional
quaintness of expression, were, the author conceives, the only qualities in
which the creature of his imagination resembled his benevolent and excellent old
friend.
    The prominent part performed by the Beggar in the following narrative,
induces the author to prefix a few remarks on that character, as it formerly
existed in Scotland, though it is now scarcely to be traced.
    Many of the old Scottish mendicants were by no means to be confounded with
the utterly degraded class of beings who now practise that wandering trade. Such
of them as were in the habit of travelling through a particular