The accounts of the battle of
Preston and skirmish at Clifton are taken from the narrative of
intelligent eye-witnesses, and corrected from the 'History of the
Rebellion' by the late venerable author of 'Douglas.' The Lowland
Scottish gentlemen and the subordinate characters are not given as
individual portraits, but are drawn from the general habits of the
period, of which I have witnessed some remnants in my younger days, and
partly gathered from tradition.
It has been my object to describe these persons, not by a caricatured and
exaggerated use of the national dialect, but by their habits, manners,
and feelings, so as in some distant degree to emulate the admirable Irish
portraits drawn by Miss Edgeworth, so different from the 'Teagues' and
'dear joys' who so long, with the most perfect family resemblance to each
other, occupied the drama and the novel.
I feel no confidence, however, in the manner in which I have executed my
purpose. Indeed, so little was I satisfied with my production, that I
laid it aside in an unfinished state, and only found it again by mere
accident among other waste papers in an old cabinet, the drawers of which
I was rummaging in order to accommodate a friend with some
fishing-tackle, after it had been mislaid for several years.
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