AL ALL HIS INTRODUCTIONS AND NOTES, VARIOUS READINGS EDINBURGH: ADAM AND CHARLES BLACK. MDCCCLXVII. K 978111 INTRODUCTION TO THE LADY OF THE LAKE. AFTER the success of" Marmion," I felt inclined to exclaim with Ulysses in the "Odyssey"— Οὗτος μέν δὴ ἄεθλος ἀάατος ἐκτετέλεσται. Odys. x. 1. 5. "One venturous game my hand has won to-day- The ancient manners, the habits and customs of the aboriginal race by whom the Highlands of Scotland were inhabited, had always appeared to me peculiarly adapted to poetry. The change in their manners, too, had taken place almost within my own time, or at least I had learned many particulars concerning the ancient state of the Highlands from the old men of the last generation. I had always thought the old Scottish Gael highly adapted for poetical composition. The feuds, |