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
him one morning at breakfast by his worthy
friend, Mr Train, of Castle Douglas, in Galloway,
whose kind assistance he has so often had
occasion to acknowledge in the course of these
prefaces; and that the military friend who is
alluded to as having furnished him with some
information as to Eastern matters, was Colonel
James Ferguson of Huntly Burn, one of the
sons of the venerable historian and philosopher
of that name---which name he took the liberty
of concealing under its Gaelic form of MacErries.
W. S.
Abbotsford,
_Sept_. 1831.
APPENDIX
TO
INTRODUCTION.
[Mr Train was requested by Sir Walter Scott to
give him in writing the story as nearly as possible
in the shape in which he had told it; but the
following narrative, which he drew up accordingly,
did not reach Abbotsford until July 1832.]
In the old Stock of Fife, there was not perhaps
an individual whose exertions were followed by
consequences of such a remarkable nature as those
of Davie Duff, popularly called ``The Thane of
Fife,'' who, from a very humble parentage, rose to
fill one of the chairs of the magistracy of his native
burgh.
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