dual portraits, but are drawn from the general habits of the
period, of which I have witnessed some remnants in my younger days, and
partly gathered from tradition.

It has been my object to describe these persons, not by a caricatured and
exaggerated use of the national dialect, but by their habits, manners,
and feelings, so as in some distant degree to emulate the admirable Irish
portraits drawn by Miss Edgeworth, so different from the 'Teagues' and
'dear joys' who so long, with the most perfect family resemblance to each
other, occupied the drama and the novel.

I feel no confidence, however, in the manner in which I have executed my
purpose. Indeed, so little was I satisfied with my production, that I
laid it aside in an unfinished state, and only found it again by mere
accident among other waste papers in an old cabinet, the drawers of which
I was rummaging in order to accommodate a friend with some
fishing-tackle, after it had been mislaid for several years.

Two works upon similar subjects, by female authors whose genius is highly
creditable to their country, have appeared in the interval; I mean Mrs.
Hamilton's 'Glenburnie' and the late account of 'Highland Superstitions.'
But the first is confined to the rural habits of Scotland, of which it
has given a picture with striking and impressive fidelity; and the
traditional records of the respectable and ingenious Mrs. Grant of Laggan
are of a nature distinct from the fictitious narrative which I have here
attempted.

I would willingly persuade myself that the preceding work will not be
found altogether uninteresting. To elder persons it will recall scenes
and characters familiar to their youth; and to the rising generation the
tale may present some idea of the manners of their forefathers.

Yet I heartily wish that the task of tracing the evanescent manners of
his own country had employed the pen of the only man in Scotland who
could have done it justice--of him so eminently distinguished in elegant
literature, and whose sketches of Colonel Caustic and Umphraville are
perfectly blended with the finer traits of national character. I should
in that case have had more pleasure as a reader than I shall ever feel in
the pride of a successful author, should these sheets confer upon me that
envied distinction. And, as I have inverted the usual arrangement,
placing these remarks at the end of the work to which they refer, I will
venture on a second violation of form, b