The poetical works of Sir Walter Scott, with memoir of the author.

HALIDON HILL.

269

The subject is to be found in Scottish history;
but, not to overload so slight a publication with
antiquarian research, or quotations from obscure
chronicles, may be sufficiently illustrated by the
following passage from PINKERTON'S History of
Scotland, vol. i. p. 72.
" The Governor (anno 1402) dispatched a considerable force under Murdac, his eldest son; the
similar cases,) the author takes the present opportunity to intimate, that it shall be at the petil of those who make such an
experiment." Adverting to this passage, the New Edinburgh
Review (July, 1822) said,-" We, nevertheless, do not believe
that any thing more essentially dramatic, in so far as it goes,
more capable of stage effect, has appeared in England since
the days of her greatest genius; and giving Sir Walter, therefore, full credit for his coyness on the present occasion, we
ardently hope that he is but trying his strength in the most
arduous of all literary enterprises, and that, ere long, he will
demonstrate his right to the highest honours of the tragic
muse." The British Critic, for October 1822, says, on the
same head, "Though we may not accede to the author's
declaration, that it is ' in no particular calculated for the stage,'
we must not lead our readers to look for any thing amounting
to a regular drama. It would, we think, form an underplot,
of very great interest, in an historical play of customary
length; and although its incidents and personages are mixed
up, in these scenes, with an event of real history, there is
nothing in either to prevent their being interwoven in the
plot of any drama of which the action should lie in the confines of England and Scotland, at any of the very numerous
periods of Border warfare. The whole interest, indeed, of the
story, is engrossed by two characters, imagined, as it appears
to us, with great force and probability, and contrasted with
considerable skill and effect."]