Old Mortality | Page 8

that, if Claverhouse had been a man of the ordinary mould, he
would never have reckoned so many enthusiastic friends in future ages.
But Beauty, which makes Helen immortal, had put its seal on Bonny
Dundee. With that face "which limners might have loved to paint, and
ladies to look upon," he still conquers hearts from his dark corner
above the private staircase in Sir Walter's deserted study. He was brave,
he was loyal when all the world forsook his master; in that reckless age
of revelry he looks on with the austere and noble contempt which he
wears in Hell among the tippling shades of Cavaliers. He died in the
arms of victory, but he lives among
The chiefs of ancient names Who swore to fight and die beneath the
banner of King James, And he fell in Killiecrankie Pass, the glory of
the Grahames.
Sentiment in romance, not in history, may be excused for pardoning the
rest.
Critics of the time, as Lady Louisa Stuart reminds Sir Walter, did not
believe the book was his, because it lacked his "tedious descriptions."
The descriptions, as of the waterfall where Burley had his den, are
indeed far from "tedious." There is a tendency in Scott to exalt into
mountains "his own grey hills," the /bosses verdatres/ as Prosper
Merimee called them, of the Border. But the horrors of such linns as
that down which Hab Dab and Davie Dinn "dang the deil" are not
exaggerated.
"Old Mortality" was the last novel written by Scott before the malady
which tormented his stoicism in 1817-1820. Every reader has his own
favourite, but few will place this glorious tale lower than second in the
list of his incomparable romances.
ANDREW LANG.

INTRODUCTION TO THE TALES OF MY LANDLORD.
As I may, without vanity, presume that the name and official
description prefixed to this Proem will secure it, from the sedate and
reflecting part of mankind, to whom only I would be understood to
address myself, such attention as is due to the sedulous instructor of
youth, and the careful performer of my Sabbath duties, I will forbear to

hold up a candle to the daylight, or to point out to the judicious those
recommendations of my labours which they must necessarily anticipate
from the perusal of the title-page. Nevertheless, I am not unaware, that,
as Envy always dogs Merit at the heels, there may be those who will
whisper, that albeit my learning and good principles cannot (lauded be
the heavens) be denied by any one, yet that my situation at
Gandercleugh hath been more favourable to my acquisitions in learning
than to the enlargement of my views of the ways and works of the
present generation. To the which objection, if, peradventure, any such
shall be started, my answer shall be threefold:
First, Gandercleugh is, as it were, the central part--the navel (/si fas sit
dicere/) of this our native realm of Scotland; so that men, from every
corner thereof, when travelling on their concernments of business,
either towards our metropolis of law, by which I mean Edinburgh, or
towards our metropolis and mart of gain, whereby I insinuate Glasgow,
are frequently led to make Gandercleugh their abiding stage and place
of rest for the night. And it must be acknowledged by the most
sceptical, that I, who have sat in the leathern armchair, on the left-hand
side of the fire, in the common room of the Wallace Inn, winter and
summer, for every evening in my life, during forty years bypast, (the
Christian Sabbaths only excepted,) must have seen more of the
manners and customs of various tribes and people, than if I had sought
them out by my own painful travel and bodily labour. Even so doth the
tollman at the well-frequented turnpike on the Wellbrae-head, sitting at
his ease in his own dwelling, gather more receipt of custom, than if,
moving forth upon the road, he were to require a contribution from
each person whom he chanced to meet in his journey, when, according
to the vulgar adage, he might possibly be greeted with more kicks than
halfpence.
But, secondly, supposing it again urged, that Ithacus, the most wise of
the Greeks, acquired his renown, as the Roman poet hath assured us, by
visiting states and men, I reply to the Zoilus who shall adhere to this
objection, that, /de facto/, I have seen states and men also; for I have
visited the famous cities of Edinburgh and Glasgow, the former twice,
and the latter three times, in the course of my earthly pilgrimage. And,
moreover, I had the honour to sit in the General Assembly (meaning, as
an auditor, in the galleries thereof,) and have heard as much goodly

speaking on the law of patronage, as, with the fructification