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 which they refer, I will venture on a second violation of form, by closing the whole with a Dedication:—­

These volumes being respectfully inscribed to our Scottish Addison,

Henry MACKENZIE,

By an unknown admirer of his genius.

*****

NOTES

NOTE 1.—­THE BRADSHAIGH LEGEND

There is a family legend to this purpose, belonging to the knightly family of Bradshaigh, the proprietors of Haighhall, in Lancashire, where, I have been told, the event is recorded on a painted glass window.  The German ballad of the ‘Noble Moringer’ turns upon a similar topic.  But undoubtedly many such incidents may have taken place, where, the distance being great, and the intercourse infrequent, false reports concerning the fate of the absent Crusaders must have been commonly circulated, and sometimes perhaps rather hastily credited at home.

NOTE 2.—­TITUS LIVIUS

The attachment to this classic was, it is said, actually displayed, in the manner mentioned in the text, by an unfortunate Jacobite in that unhappy period.  He escaped from the jail in which he was confined for a hasty trial and certain condemnation, and was retaken as he hovered around the place in which he had been imprisoned, for which he could give no better reason than the hope of recovering his favourite Titus Livius.  I am sorry to add, that the simplicity of such a character was found to form no apology for his guilt as a rebel, and that he was condemned and executed.