lay scattered
around him, supplying his own indolence or poverty of invention, by the
incidents which had actually taken place in his country at no distant
period, by introducing real characters, and scarcely suppressing real
names. It was not above sixty or seventy years, you observed, since the
whole north of Scotland was under a state of government nearly as simple
and as patriarchal as those of our good allies the Mohawks and Iroquois.
Admitting that the author cannot himself be supposed to have witnessed
those times, he must have lived, you observed, among persons who had
acted and suffered in them; and even within these thirty years, such
an infinite change has taken place in the manners of Scotland, that
men look back upon the habits of society proper to their immediate
ancestors, as we do on those of the reign of Queen Anne, or even the
period of the Revolution. Having thus materials of every kind lying
strewed around him, there was little, you observed, to embarrass the
author, but the difficulty of choice. It was no wonder, therefore, that,
having begun to work a mine so plentiful, he should have derived from
his works fully more credit and profit than the facility of his labours
merited.

Admitting (as I could not deny) the general truth of these conclusions,
I cannot but think it strange that no attempt has been made to excite an
interest for the traditions and manners of Old England, similiar to
that which has been obtained in behalf of those of our poorer and
less celebrated neighbours. The Kendal green, though its date is more
ancient, ought surely to be as dear to our feelings, as the variegated
tartans of the north. The name of Robin Hood, if duly conjured with,
should raise a spirit as soon as that of Rob Roy; and the patriots of
England deserve no less their renown in our modern circles, than the
Bruces and Wallaces of Caledonia. If the scenery of the south be less
romantic and sublime than that of the northern mountains, it must be
allowed to possess in the same proportion superior softness and beauty;
and upon the whole, we feel ourselves entitled to exclaim with the
patriotic Syrian--"Are not Pharphar and Abana, rivers of Damascus,
better than all the rivers of Israel?"

Your objections to such an attempt, my dear Doctor, were, you may
remember, two-fold. You insisted upon the advantages which the Scotsman
possessed, from the very recent existence of that state of society
in which his scene was t