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 sUppers, 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, 1833. 



