PREFACE.

My chief object in the composition of this work, has been scarcely so much to write a history, in the accepted sense of the word, as to give a picture of that extraordinary and memorable warlike pageant, which passed through our country in 1745, and the recollection of which still excites so many feelings of a powerfully agitating nature in the bosoms of my countrymen. I have been induced to forego what is called the philosophy of history, by a conviction in my own mind, that the merit of the subject does not lie in any political questions which it involves, but purely in its externally romantic character. It has also appeared to me, that of all the numerous publications, authentic and otherwise, professing to commemorate the story, we have no one which aims at giving full effect to what is alone truly interesting in it,—

while most of them run riot in religious and political cant, and in still more loathsome adulation of the triumphant party. It has also been pressed upon my notice, that there is in reality no work upon the subject at all suitable to the spirit of modern literature, or which is sufficiently copious in its details, to satisfy the present generation, now so entirely removed by distance of time from that of the ear and eye-witnesses. To gratify the increased, and increasing curiosity of the public, regarding this transaction of their ancestors-to strain from the subject all the morbid slang with which it has been hitherto incorporated-and to compile a lively current narrative, doing as much justice as might be, to the gallant enterprise and outward wonders of the story-seemed to me objects which, with a proper degree of industry, and a spirit prepared to sympathise with the feelings of the actors, might lead to the production of an agreeable book; and I accordingly adopted them.

Real life has often been said to produce situations and incidents, even more extravagant than the fictions of imagination. The Scottish campaign of 1745 is generally acknowledged to be as strange, and full of

interesting adventure, as any fiction ever penned. From this, I conceived, that if my narrative could be written in a style and spirit approaching to that of an epic poem, or rather perhaps to that of a modern historical romance, and yet at the same time preserve all the truth of history, something might be produced comprehending the merits of both-that is to say, uniting the solid information of an historical narrative with the amusement and extensive popularity of a novel. For the accomplishment of this purpose, I set myself, in the first place, to collect every characteristic trait, and, as far as possible, every interesting piece of information, which had been consigned to print, or which were accessible to me in manuscript. In the second place, I followed most of the tracks of the Highland army, and visited, in particular, all their fields of action; inquiring anxiously into the local traditions, and adopting whatever was presented to me in a credible shape, as generally countenanced by more authentic documents; sometimes having even the good fortune to converse with eye-witnesses. In the third place, I obtained much information and anecdote from those remnants of