INTRODUCTION 



and stable-boys. He seems to have had none of 

 that parental conceit in his work that renders a 

 writer fastidious about paper, type, and other 

 bibliographic millinery, reflecting in that respect the 

 indifference he always showed in his own costume ; 

 for although he was extremely critical about the 

 dress of others, and was an acknowledged arbiter 

 of how a man should be turned out for hunting, 

 he himself never wore in the field anything more 

 elaborate than a black coat and hunting boots. 



It is not too late to attempt an edition of 

 Whyte-Melville's writings more worthy of their 

 quality than those which have gone before. 

 These novels may not rank high as "human 

 documents " — which seems to be the term applied 

 to stories of the failure of energy and common- 

 sense to steer a character through ordinary 

 temptation and the results of puzzle-headedness ; 

 they may be deficient in variety of characters 

 represented, the same types recurring under 

 different names in successive combinations ; the 

 problems presented for solution may fade into 

 insignificance before some of those with which 

 certain more recent writers entertain their readers. 

 But as long as chivalry in man and tenderness 

 in maid have any hold upon English readers — 

 as long as people take delight in descriptions of 

 honest love-making, adventure and field sports, 

 or find amusement in gentle satire of well-to-do 



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