New Introduction to THE SURGEON'S DAUGHTER, by SIR WALTER ib. ib. Groundwork of THE FAIR MAID OF PERTH. HISTORICAL NOTICES AND ANECDOTES. THE ANCIENT SCOTS. To enable the reader, on whatever side of the Tweed he may reside, to appreciate more sensibly many of the characters, incidents, and scenes, original and select, introduced into the following pages, from many popular and well authenticated sources, it is presumed that some brief historical notices, by way of prelude, of the state of society among the ancient Scots, at peculiar periods of their history, may not be unacceptable. Among civilized people, hospitality has always been held in the highest estimation. It was, indeed, believed, that the Gods sometimes vouchsafed to visit this terrestrial speck in the creation, in the disguise of distressed travellers, to observe the. actions of man. The apprehension, therefore, of despising some deity instead of a traveller, induced people to receive strangers with respect, and thence the rights of hospitality were most sacredly and inviolably maintained. According to Macpherson, no nation in the world carried their hospitality to a greater extent than the ancient Scots. It was ever deemed infamous for many ages, in a man of condition, to have the door of his house shut at all, lest, as the bards express it, "the stranger should come and behold his contracted soul." Some of the * * Vide Ossian, Vol. II. p. 9. Edit. 1796. |