[Illustration: Halbert Glendinning Invoking The White Lady]

[Illustration: WAVERLEY NOVELS ABBOTSFORD EDITION]

THE WAVERLY NOVELS
by
SIR WALTER SCOTT.

Complete
In Twelve Volumes

Printed
from the latest English Editions
Embracing
The Author's Last Corrections, Prefaces, and Notes.


THE MONASTERY.


INTRODUCTION--(1830.)

It would be difficult to assign any good reason why the author of
Ivanhoe, after using, in that work, all the art he possessed to remove
the personages, action, and manners of the tale, to a distance from
his own country, should choose for the scene of his next attempt the
celebrated ruins of Melrose, in the immediate neighbourhood of his own
residence. But the reason, or caprice, which dictated his change of
system, has entirely escaped his recollection, nor is it worth while
to attempt recalling what must be a matter of very little consequence.