PREFACE.
From the historical and descriptive nature of the following tale, the Author intended that certain passages should be illustrated with notes, containing the local traditions and authorities from which it has been derived; but on second thoughts he has preferred confining these explanations to the preface.
History will have rendered familiar to the reader the names of many who bear a prominent part in the career of Walter Fenton; but there are other characters of minor importance, who, though less known to fame than Dundee and Dunbarton, were beings who really lived and breathed, and acted a part in the great drama of those days. Among these, we may particularise Douglas, of Finland, and Annie Laurie.
This lady was one of the four daughters of Sir Robert Laurie, the first Baronet of Maxwelton, and it was to her that Finland inscribed those well-known verses, and that little air which now bear her name, and are so wonderfully plaintive and chaste for the time; but it is painful to record that, notwithstanding all the ardour and devotion of her lover, the fair Annie was wedded as described in the romance. Her father, Sir Robert, was created a baronet in 1685.
The Old Halberdier and Hugh Blair (mentioned so frequently) are also real characters. The former distinguished himself at the battle of Sedgemoor, and by a Royal Order, dated 26th February, 1686, received "forty pounds for his good service in firing the great guns against the rebells" who were opposed to Sir James Halkett's Royal Scots. The tavern of Hugh Blair was long celebrated in Edinburgh. His name will be found in Blackadder's Memoirs, and frequently among the Decisions of Lord Fountainhall, in disputes concerning various runlets of Frontiniac, &c.
Lord Mersington was exactly the personage he is described in the following pages—an unprincipled sot. From Cruickshank's History it appears that his lady was banished the liberties of Edinburgh in 1674, for being engaged in the female assembly which insulted Archbishop Sharpe.
Of Thomas Butler, an unfortunate Irish gentleman connected with the ducal house of Ormond, who bears a prominent part in Volume III., an account will be found in the London Papers of 1720, in which year he was executed at Tyburn as a highwayman.
The song mentioned so frequently, and the burden of which is Lillibulero bullen a la! was a favorite whig ditty, and the chorus was formed by the pass-words used during the Irish massacre of 1641.
The principal locality of the story is the Wrightshouse or Castle of Bruntisfield, which stood near the Burghmuir of Edinburgh, and was unwisely removed in 1800, to make way for that hideous erection—the hospital of Gillespie. As described in the romance, it was a magnificent chateau in the old Scoto-French style of architecture, and was completely encrusted with legends, devices, armorial bearings, and quaint bassi relievi.
It was of great antiquity, and over the central door were the arms of Britain, with the initials J. VI. M. B. F. E. H. R.