Waverley | Page 6

having
been familiar with the elder as well as more modern race, and having
had from my infancy free and unrestrained communication with all
ranks of my countrymen, from the Scottish peer to the Scottish
plough-man. Such ideas often occurred to me, and constituted an
ambitious branch of my theory, however far short I may have fallen of

it in practice.
But it was not only the triumphs of Miss Edgeworth which worked in
me emulation, and disturbed my indolence. I chanced actually to
engage in a work which formed a sort of essay piece, and gave me hope
that I might in time become free of the craft of romance-writing, and be
esteemed a tolerable workman.
In the year 1807-08 I undertook, at the request of John Murray, Esq., of
Albemarle Street, to arrange for publication some posthumous
productions of the late Mr. Joseph Strutt, distinguished as an artist and
an antiquary, amongst which was an unfinished romance, entitled
Queenhoo Hall. The scene of the tale was laid in the reign of Henry VI,
and the work was written to illustrate the manners, customs, and
language of the people of England during that period. The extensive
acquaintance which Mr. Strutt had acquired with such subjects in
compiling his laborious Horda Angel-Cynnan, his Regal and
Ecclesiastical Antiquities, and his Essay on the Sports and Pastimes of
the People of England had rendered him familiar with all the
antiquarian lore necessary for the purpose of composing the projected
romance; and although the manuscript bore the marks of hurry and
incoherence natural to the first rough draught of the author, it evinced
(in my opinion) considerable powers of imagination.
As the work was unfinished, I deemed it my duty, as editor, to supply
such a hasty and inartificial conclusion as could be shaped out from the
story, of which Mr. Strutt had laid the foundation. This concluding
chapter [Footnote: See Appendix No. II.] is also added to the present
Introduction, for the reason already mentioned regarding the preceding
fragment. It was a step in my advance towards romantic composition;
and to preserve the traces of these is in a great measure the object of
this Essay.
Queenhoo Hall was not, however, very successful. I thought I was
aware of the reason, and supposed that, by rendering his language too
ancient, and displaying his antiquarian knowledge too liberally, the
ingenious author had raised up an obstacle to his own success. Every
work designed for mere amusement must be expressed in language

easily comprehended; and when, as is sometimes the case in
QUEENHOO HALL, the author addresses himself exclusively to the
antiquary, he must be content to be dismissed by the general reader
with the criticism of Mungo, in the PADLOCK, on the Mauritanian
music, 'What signifies me hear, if me no understand?'
I conceived it possible to avoid this error; and, by rendering a similar
work more light and obvious to general comprehension, to escape the
rock on which my predecessor was shipwrecked.
But I was, on the other hand, so far discouraged by the indifferent
reception of Mr. Strutt's romance as to become satisfied that the
manners of the middle ages did not possess the interest which I had
conceived; and was led to form the opinion that a romance founded on
a Highland story and more modern events would have a better chance
of popularity than a tale of chivalry.
My thoughts, therefore, returned more than once to the tale which I had
actually commenced, and accident at length threw the lost sheets in my
way.
I happened to want some fishing-tackle for the use of a guest, when it
occurred to me to search the old writing-desk already mentioned, in
which I used to keep articles of that nature.
I got access to it with some difficulty; and, in looking for lines and flies,
the long-lost manuscript presented itself.
I immediately set to work to complete it according to my original
purpose.
And here I must frankly confess that the mode in which I conducted the
story scarcely deserved the success which the romance afterwards
attained.
The tale of WAVERLEY was put together with so little care that I
cannot boast of having sketched any distinct plan of the work. The
whole adventures of Waverley, in his movements up and down the

country with the Highland cateran Bean Lean, are managed without
much skill. It suited best, however, the road I wanted to travel, and
permitted me to introduce some descriptions of scenery and manners,
to which the reality gave an interest which the powers of the Author
might have otherwise failed to attain for them. And though I have been
in other instances a sinner in this sort, I do not recollect any of these
novels in which I have transgressed so