* * * * *


APPENDIX TO INTRODUCTION.

[Mr. Train was requested by Sir Walter Scott to give him in writing the
story as nearly as possible in the shape in which he had told it; but
the following narrative, which he drew up accordingly, did not reach
Abbotsford until July 1832]

In the old Stock of Fife, there was not perhaps an individual whose
exertions were followed by consequences of such a remarkable nature as
those of Davie Duff, popularly called "The Thane of Fife," who, from a
very humble parentage, rose to fill one of the chairs of the magistracy of
his native burgh. By industry and economy in early life, he obtained the
means of erecting, solely on his own account, one of those ingenious
manufactories for which Fifeshire is justly celebrated. From the day on
which the industrious artisan first took his seat at the Council Board,
he attended so much to the interests of the little privileged community,
that civic honours were conferred on him as rapidly as the Set of the
Royalty [Footnote: The Constitution of the Borough.] could legally
admit.

To have the right of walking to church on holy-days, preceded by a
phalanx of halberdiers, in habiliments fashioned as in former times,
seems, in the eyes of many a guild brother, to be a very enviable pitch
of worldly grandeur. Few persons were ever more proud of civic honours
than the Thane of Fife, but he knew well how to turn his political
influence to the best account. The council, court, and other business of