iv The idea of making SIR WALTER SCOTT himself the annotator on the books of his Library, recommended itself the more readily to the compiler, as it seemed to him to form something like a substitute for the projected but abandoned Reliquiae Trottcosienses. (See Mr. Lockhart's MEMOIRS, Vol. vii. p. 218.) The references introduced with that view include the notices of every kind, whether reviewals, incidental criticisms and opinions, anecdotes, extracts, &c., which are to be found scattered throughout the voluminous series of his collected WORKS, as well as in the MEMOIRS OF HIS LIFE. Of his own notes the compiler has been sparing, from a desire not to swell the size of the Volume unnecessarily. All the volumes in which SIR WALTER had written manuscript notes have been carefully particularized. But of these notes very few have been extracted, as most of them possessing any literary or personal interest were found to be either already appropriated, (in substance at least) by himself, or inserted, verbatim, in the interesting pages of his biographer. In conclusion, the compiler hopes to receive that indulgence for whatever errors he may have committed, which those best acquainted with the nature of such undertakings are always the readiest to bestow. J. G. COCHRANE. EDINBURGH, 24th November, 1838. |