Synopses & Reviews
SURGEONS DAUGHTER CASTLE DANGEROUS AND GLOSSARY BY SIR WALTEIC SCOTT, -- INTRODUCTION. - THE tale of the Surgeons Daughter formed part of the second series of Clironicles of the Canongate, published in 1827. The Author has nothing to say now in reference to this little Novel, but that the principal incident on which it turns, was narrated to 11irr1 one morning at breakfast by his, orthy friend, Mr. Train, of Castle Douglas, in Galloway, whose liind assistance he has so often had occasion to acknowledge in tile course of these prefaces and that the military friend who is alludecl to as having furnished him with some information as to Eastcrn lpatters, was Colonel Ja nes Ferguson of Eluntly Burn, one of the sons of the venerable historian and pl ilosopl eofr that name- v ich name he took the liberty of concealing under its Gael cfo rm ol . if zcE-yics. ABBOTSFORD, Sept. 1831. APPENDIX TO INTRODUCTION, itfr. Traifz was rcqzrestcd by Sir Wnlter Scott to giwe him in writing the story as ncnr y as ossible i7r the sltcrjr i7z which Itc had foM it blrt the fo lowz, c za rntizle zc, l hiclt I L d re w I according, did not read2 Abbotsford until J L rS3a. I IN the old Stock of Flf, there was not perhaps an individual v l oesxee rtions were foilowcd by consequences of such a remarknble nature as those of Uxi ie Duff, popularly called The Thane of Fife, who, from a very hun blcp ar ntager, o se to fill oce of the chairs of the magistracjr of his natlve burgh. I3y industry and economy in early l fe, h e obtained the means of electing, solely on his own account, one of those ingenious manufactories for which TO Fifeshire is justly celebrated. From the day on which the industrious artisan first tookhis seat at the Council Board, he attended so much to the interests of the little privileged community, that civic honours were conferred on him as rapidly as the Set of the Royalty could legally admit. To have the right of walking to church on holyday, preceded by a phalanx of halberdiers, in habiliments fashioned as in foriner times, seems, in the eyes of many a guild brother, to be a very enviable pitch of worldly grandeur. Few persons were ever more proud of civic honours than the Thane of Fife, but he 1 new well how to turn his political influerlce to the best account. The council, court, and other business of the burgh, occupied much of his time, which caused hiin to intrust the management of his inanufactory to a near relation whose name was D, a young man of dissolute habits but the Thane, seeingat last, that by continuing that extravagant person in that charge, his affairs n. ould, in all probability, fall into a state of bankruptcy, applied to the meniber of Parliament for that district to obtain a situation for his relation in the civil dgpartinent of the state. The knight, whom it is here unnecessary to name, 1 nowing l owe ffectually the Thane ruled the little burgh, applied in the proper quarter, and actually obtained an appointment for DM M in the civil service of the East India Company. A respectable surgean, whose residence was in a neighbouring village, had a beautiful daughter named Emma, who had long been courted by D. Immediately before his departure to India, as a mark of mutual affection, they exchanged miniatures, taken by an eminent artist in Fife, and each set in a locket, for the purpose of having the object of affection always in view...