The Antiquary

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Title: The Antiquary, Complete
Author: Sir Walter Scott
Release Date: December 2004 [EBook #7005] [Yes, we are more than
one year ahead of schedule] [This file was first posted on February 21,

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Edition: 10
Language: English
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THE ANTIQUARY
BY SIR WALTER SCOTT, BART.
I knew Anselmo. He was shrewd and prudent, Wisdom and cunning
had their shares of him; But he was shrewish as a wayward child, And
pleased again by toys which childhood please; As---book of fables,
graced with print of wood, Or else the jingling of a rusty medal, Or the
rare melody of some old ditty, That first was sung to please King
Pepin's cradle

INTRODUCTION
The present work completes a series of fictitious narratives, intended to
illustrate the manners of Scotland at three different periods. Waverley
embraced the age of our fathers, Guy Mannering that of our own youth,
and the Antiquary refers to the last ten years of the eighteenth century. I
have, in the two last narratives especially, sought my principal
personages in the class of society who are the last to feel the influence
of that general polish which assimilates to each other the manners of
different nations. Among the same class I have placed some of the
scenes in which I have endeavoured to illustrate the operation of the
higher and more violent passions; both because the lower orders are
less restrained by the habit of suppressing their feelings, and because I
agree, with my friend Wordsworth, that they seldom fail to express
them in the strongest and most powerful language. This is, I think,

peculiarly the case with the peasantry of my own country, a class with
whom I have long been familiar. The antique force and simplicity of
their language, often tinctured with the Oriental eloquence of Scripture,
in the mouths of those of an elevated understanding, give pathos to
their grief, and dignity to their resentment.
I have been more solicitous to describe manners minutely than to
arrange in any case an artificial and combined narrative, and have but
to regret that I felt myself unable to unite these two requisites of a good
Novel.
The knavery of the adept in the following sheets may appear forced and
improbable; but we have had very late instances of the force of
superstitious credulity to a much greater extent, and the reader may be
assured, that this part of the narrative is founded on a fact of actual
occurrence.
I have now only to express my gratitude to the Public for the
distinguished reception which, they have given to works, that have little
more than some truth of colouring to recommend them, and to take my
respectful leave, as one who is not likely again to solicit their favour.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
To the above advertisement, which was prefixed to the first edition of
the Antiquary, it is necessary in the present edition to add a few words,
transferred from the Introduction to the Chronicles of the Canongate,
respecting the character of Jonathan Oldbuck.
"I may here state generally, that although I have deemed historical
personages free subjects of delineation, I have never on any occasion
violated the respect due to private life. It was indeed impossible that
traits proper to persons, both living and dead, with whom I have had
intercourse in society, should not have risen to my pen in such works as
Waverley, and those which, followed it. But I have always studied to
generalise the portraits, so that they should still seem, on the whole, the