The Waverley novels, by Sir Walter Scott, complete in 12 vol., printed from the latest English ed., embracing the author's last corrections, prefaces & notes.

6'gWAkVERLEY NOVELS.
though possessing some resemblance to real individuals. Yet I must own
my attempts have not in this last particular been uniformly successful.
There are men whose characters are so peculiarly marked, that the delineation of some leading and principal feature, inevitably places the whole
person before you in his individuality. Thus, the character of Jonathan
Oldbuck, in the Antiquary, was partly founded on that of an old friend of
my youth, to whom I am indebted for introducing me to Shakspeare, and
other invaluable favours; but I thought I had so completely disguised the
likeness, that it could not be recognised by any one now alive. I was mistaken, however, and indeed had endangered what I desired should be considered as a secret; for I afterwards learned that a highly respectable
gentleman, one of the few surviving friends of my father, and an acute
critic, had said, upon the appearance of the work, that he was now convinced who was the author of it, as he recognised, in the Antiquary, traces
of the character of a very intimate friend of my father's family."
I have only farther to request the reader not to suppose that my late respected friend resembled Mr. Oldbuck, either in his pedigree, or the history
imputed to the ideal personage. There is not a single incident in the Novel
which is borrowed from his real circumstances, excepting the fact that he
resided in an old house near a flourishing seaport, and that the author
chanced to witness a scene betwixt him and the female proprietor of a
stage-coach, very similar to that which commences the history of the Antiquary. An excellent temper, with a slight degree of subacid humour;
learning, wit, and drollery, the more poignant that they were a little marked
by the peculiarities of an old bachelor; a soundness of thought, rendered
more forcible by an occasional quaintness of expression, were, the author
conceives, the only qualities in which the creature of his imagination resembled his benevolent and excellent old friend.
The prominent part performed by the Beggar in the following narrative,
induces the author to prefix a few remarks on that character, as it formerly
existed in Scotland, though it is now scarcely to be traced.
{Many of the old Scottish mendicants were by no means to be confounded
with the utterly degraded class of beings who now practise that wandering
trade. Such of them as were in the habit of travelling through a particular
district, were usually well received both in the farmer's ha', and in the
kitchens of the country gentlemen. Martin, author of the Reliquice Divi
Sancti Andrece, written in 1683, gives the following account of one class of
this order of men in the seventeenth century, in terms which would induce
an antiquary like Mr. Oldbuck to regret its extinction. He conceives them
to be descended from the ancient bards, and proceeds: —" They are called
by others, and by themselves, Jockies, who go about begging; and use still
to recite the Sloggorne (gathering-words or war-cries) of most ~o the true
ancient surnames of Scotland, from old experience and observation. Some
of them I have discoursed, and found to have reason and discretion, One
of them told me there were not now above twelve of them in the whole
isle; but he remembered when they abounded, so as at one time he was on3
of five that usually met at St. Andrews."
The race of Jockies (of the above description) has, I suppose, been long
extinct in Scotland; but the old remembered beggar, even in my own time,
like the Baccoch, or travelling cripple of Ireland, was expected to merit his
quarters by something beyond an exposition of his distresses. He was often
a talkative, facetious fellow, prompt at repartee, and not withheld from
exercising his powers that way by any respect of persons, his patched cloak
giving him the privilege of the ancient jester. To be a gude crack, that is,
to possess talents for conversation, was essential to the trade of a "puir
body" of the more esteemed class; and Burns, who delighted in the amusement their discourse afforded, seems to have looked forward with gloomy
firmness to the possibility of himself becoming one day or other a member