PREFACE. xix 



hooks some half-score salmon would reckon it but 

 sorry amusement to dabble in a pond. To a Galway 

 rider, the Epping hunt would be a bore, and he would 

 probably treat it with the same contumely that one of 

 this redoubted body did hare-hunting, by riding to the 

 hounds in morocco slippers, and carrying an open 

 umbrella to protect him from the sun. 



As I have casually named " an honoured name," I 

 lament that it was not his fortune to have visited those 

 interesting scenes, where I have been so long a useless 

 wanderer. The wild features and wilder associations 

 of that romantic and untouched country would have 

 offered him a fresh field whereon to exercise his magic 

 pencil and many a tale and legend still orally handed 

 down, but which, in a few years, must of necessity be 

 forgotten, would have gained immortality from the 

 touch of " the mighty master." But alas ! the creations 

 of his splendid imagination will no more delight an 

 enchanted world. The wand is broken, the spell is 

 over, the lamp of life is nearly exhausted and even 

 now Scotland may be mourning for the mightiest of 

 her gifted sons. 



As a votive offering, this Volume is inscribed to 

 that matchless genius, by an humble but enthusiastic 

 admirer of SIR WALTER SCOTT. 



SYDENHAM, 



SEPTEMBER 12, 1832. 



