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OLD MORTALITY.

BY

SIR WALTER SCOTT, BART.

COMPLETE

WITH NOTES AND GLOSSARY

By D. H. M.

BOSTON, U.S.A.:

PUBLISHED BY GINN & COMPANY.

1891.

KD 57810

HARVARD
UNIVERSITY
LIBRARY

NOV 7 1957

54*129

Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1890, by GINN & COMPANY,

in the office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington.

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

TYPOGRAPHY BY J. S. CUSHING & Co., BOSTON, U.S.A.

PRESSWORK BY GINN & Co., BOSTON, U.S.A.

INTRODUCTION.*

THE

HE remarkable person, called by the title of Old Mortality, was well known in Scotland about the end of the last century. His real name was Robert Paterson. He was a native, it is said, of the parish of Closeburn, in Dumfries-shire, and probably a mason by trade, at least educated to the use of the chisel.

Whether family dissension, or the deep and enthusiastic feeling of supposed duty, drove him to leave his dwelling, and adopt the singular mode of life in which he wandered through Scotland, is not known. It could not be poverty, however, which prompted his journeys, for he never accepted anything beyond the hospitality which was willingly rendered him; and when that was not proffered, he always had money enough to provide for his own humble wants. His personal appearance and favorite, or rather sole, occupation are accurately described in the preliminary chapter of the following work.

It is about thirty years since, or more, that the author met this singular person in the churchyard of Dunottar, when spending a day or two with the late Mr. Walker, the minister of that parish, for the purpose of a close examination of the ruins of the Castle of Dunottar, and other subjects of antiquarian research in that neighborhood. Old Mortality chanced to be at the same place, on the usual business of his pilgrimage.

It was in 1685, when the Earl of Argyle was threatening a descent upon Scotland in aid of the Duke of Monmouth, who was preparing to invade the West of England and lay claim to the crown, that the Privy Council of Scotland

* From Scott's Introduction to "Old Mortality," and Lockhart's "Life of Scott." iii

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