itself (except perhaps its frivolity) which prevents its finding an
acknowledged father, leaves it to the candour of the public to choose
among the many circumstances peculiar to different situations in life
such as may induce him to suppress his name on the present occasion. He
may be a writer new to publication, and unwilling to avow a character to
which he is unaccustomed; or he may be a hackneyed author, who is ashamed
of too frequent appearance, and employs this mystery, as the heroine of
the old comedy used her mask, to attract the attention of those to whom
her face had become too familiar. He may be a man of a grave profession,
to whom the reputation of being a novel-writer might be prejudicial; or
he may be a man of fashion, to whom writing of any kind might appear
pedantic. He may be too young to assume the character of an author, or so
old as to make it advisable to lay it aside.

The Author of Waverley has heard it objected to this novel, that, in the
character of Callum Beg and in the account given by the Baron of
Bradwardine of the petty trespasses of the Highlanders upon trifling
articles of property, he has borne hard, and unjustly so, upon their
national character. Nothing could be farther from his wish or intention.
The character of Callum Beg is that of a spirit naturally turned to
daring evil, and determined, by the circumstances of his situation, to a
particular species of mischief. Those who have perused the curious
Letters from the Highlands, published about 1726, will find instances of
such atrocious characters which fell under the writer's own observation,
though it would be most unjust to consider such villains as
representatives of the Highlanders of that period, any more than the
murderers of Marr and Williamson can be supposed to represent the English
of the present day. As for the plunder supposed to have been picked up by
some of the insurgents in 1745, it must be remembered that, although the
way of that unfortunate little army was neither marked by devastation nor
bloodshed, but, on the contrary, was orderly and quiet in a most
wonderful degree, yet no army marches through a country in a hostile
manner without committing some depredations; and several, to the extent
and of the nature jocularly imputed to them by the Baron, were really
laid to the charge of the Highland insurgents; for which many traditions,
and particularly one respecting the Knight of the Mirror, may be quoted
as good e