Publisher to Her late Majesty Queen Victoria
PAISLEY; AND 26 PATERNOSTER SQUARE, LONDON
1901
TO
A. DEWAR WILLOCK
EDITOR OF THE
Glasgow Weekly Herald
WHO JUDICIOUSLY BLUE-PENCILLED THE FIRST ISSUE OF THESE ARTICLES AND ENCOURAGED THE WRITER TO GIVE THEM TO THE PUBLIC IN THIS MORE PERMANENT FORM
Preface.
This book was not written on a preconceived plan, drawn up from the beginning of the work. It “growed.” It had its inception in a commission to write for the Weekly Herald half-a-dozen biographical articles on famous pipers. The necessary investigation produced a mass of material too interesting to be left unused, and the half-dozen articles of the original commission became twenty-seven, with very little of the biographical in them. These, after being finally recast, revised, and in several cases re-written, are now in the form of a book flung at an unoffending public. If the volume interests any one—well. If not—well. There is nothing more to be said on that point.