Seventeenth Century: In the seventeenth century, the old feudal relations involving service and protection, though passing away, still survived to some extent in Scotland, especially in the northern Highlands region.

Modern Day: Feudal tenure was legally abolished in Scotland in 1748, and by the nineteenth century, when Scott was writing, it was only a memory. Today it is hardly even that; the notion of landlord-tenant relations involving military service or any other sort of relationship beyond rent payment is hard even to grasp.

Seventeenth Century: Scotland in this century still had a lawless, violent aspect; violent persecutions took place, as did fighting between clans. The central government was not always able to assert its control.

Modern Day: In some ways, the situation in old Scotland resembles the American frontier of the nineteenth century, a region where the rule of law did not always extend and...