This particular subject was never resumed, but I did not abandon the idea
of fictitious composition in prose, though I determined to give another
turn to the style of the work.
My early recollections of the Highland scenery and customs made so
favourable an impression in the poem called the Lady of the Lake, that I
was induced to think of attempting something of the same kind in prose. I
had been a good deal in the Highlands at a time when they were much less
accessible and much less visited than they have been of late years, and
was acquainted with many of the old warriors of 1745, who were, like most
veterans, easily induced to fight their battles over again for the
benefit of a willing listener like myself. It naturally occurred to me
that the ancient traditions and high spirit of a people who, living in a
civilised age and country, retained so strong a tincture of manners
belonging to an early period of society, must afford a subject favourable
for romance, if it should not prove a curious tale marred in the telling.
It was with some idea of this kind that, about the year 1805, I threw
together about one-third part of the first volume of Waverley.
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