The author, therefore, had his days of grace allowed him, and time, if
he pleased, to comfort himself with the burden of the old Scots song,

"If it isna weel bobbit.
We'll bob it again."

ABBOTSFORD,
_1st November_, 1830.


* * * * *


INTRODUCTORY EPISTLE

FROM CAPTAIN CLUTTERBUCK, LATE OF HIS MAJESTY'S ---- REGIMENT OF
INFANTRY, TO THE AUTHOR OF WAVERLEY.

Sir,

Although I do not pretend to the pleasure of your personal
acquaintance, like many whom I believe to be equally strangers to you,
I am nevertheless interested in your publications, and desire their
continuance;-not that I pretend to much taste in fictitious
composition, or that I am apt to be interested in your grave scenes,
or amused by those which are meant to be lively. I will not disguise
from you, that I have yawned over the last interview of MacIvor and
his sister, and fell fairly asleep while the schoolmaster was reading
the humours of Dandie Dinmont. You see, sir, that I scorn to solicit
your favour in a way to which you are no stranger. If the papers I