It makes no part of the present story to detail how the success of a few
ballads had the effect of changing all the purpose and tenor of my life,
and of converting a painstaking lawyer of some years' standing into a
follower of literature. It is enough to say, that I had assumed the
latter character for several years before I seriously thought of
attempting a work of imagination in prose, although one or two of my
poetical attempts did not differ from romances otherwise than by being
written in verse. But yet I may observe, that about this time (now, alas!
thirty years since) I had nourished the ambitious desire of composing a
tale of chivalry, which was to be in the style of the Castle of Otranto,
with plenty of Border characters and supernatural incident. Having found
unexpectedly a chapter of this intended work among some old papers, I
have subjoined it to this introductory essay, thinking some readers may
account as curious the first attempts at romantic composition by an
author who has since written so much in that department. [Footnote: See
Appendix No I.] And those who complain, not unreasonably, of the
profusion of the Tales which have followed Waverley, may bless their
stars at the narrow escape they have made, by the commencement of the
inundation, which had so nearly taken place in the first year of the
century, being postponed for fifteen years later.
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