Having thus given some account of the first idea, or rude sketch, of the story, which was soon departed from, the Author, in following out the plan of the present edition, has to mention the prototypes of the principal characters in Guy Mannering.

Some circumstances of local situation gave the Author in his youth an opportunity of seeing a little, and hearing a great deal, about that degraded class who are called gipsies; who are in most cases a mixed race between the ancient Egyptians who arrived in Europe about the beginning of the fifteenth century and vagrants of European descent.

The individual gipsy upon whom the character of Meg Merrilies was founded was well known about the middle of the last century by the name of Jean Gordon, an inhabitant of the village of Kirk Yetholm, in the Cheviot Hills, adjoining to the English Border.  The Author gave the public some account of this remarkable person in one of the early numbers of Blackwood’s Magazine, to the following purpose:—­

’My father remembered old Jean Gordon of Yetholm, who had great sway among her tribe.  She was quite a Meg Merrilies, and possessed the savage virtue of fidelity in the same perfection.  Having been often hospitably received at the farmhouse of Lochside, near Yetholm, she had carefully abstained from committing any depredations on the farmer’s property.  But her sons (nine in number) had not, it seems, the same delicacy, and stole a brood-sow from their kind entertainer.  Jean was mortified at this ungrateful conduct, and so much ashamed of it that she absented herself from Lochside for several years.

’It happened in course of time that, in consequence of some temporary pecuniary necessity, the goodman of Lochside was obliged to go to Newcastle to raise some money to pay his rent.  He succeeded in his purpose, but, returning through the mountains of Cheviot, he was benighted and lost his way.

’A light glimmering through the window of a large waste barn, which had survived the farm-house to which it had once belonged, guided him to a place of shelter; and when he knocked at the door it was opened by Jean Gordon.  Her very remarkable figure, for she was nearly six feet high, and her equally remarkable features and dress, rendered it impossible to mistake her for a moment, though he had not seen her for years; and to meet with such a character in so solitary a place, and probably at no great distance from her clan, was a grievous surprise to the poor man, whose rent (to lose which would have been ruin) was about his person.

’Jean set up a loud shout of joyful recognition—­

“Eh, sirs! the winsome gudeman of Lochside!  Light down, light down; for ye maunna gang farther the night, and a friend’s house sae near.”  The farmer was obliged to dismount and accept of the gipsy’s offer of supper and a bed.  There was plenty of meat in the barn, however it might be come by, and preparations were going on for a plentiful repast, which the farmer, to the great increase of his anxiety, observed was calculated for ten or twelve guests, of the same description, probably, with his landlady.