THE Lady of the Lake A POEM IN SIX CANTOS BY Sir Walter Scott, Bart. VIGNETTE EDITION. WITH ONE HUNDRED All the volumes in the series in which the "Lady of the Lake" is fublished, are illustrated by original drawings, made by well-known artists; but the publishers believe that the illustrations in this volume are worthy of more than ordinary at tention. Mr. Joseph M. Gleeson was commissioned to visit Scotland, and there he made the one hundred sketches which have been reproduced for the illustrations of this book. Mr. Gleeson's work covered a period of several months, and he executed it in a most accurate and care ful manner. His sketches of scenery, costumes and weapons, are the result of personal observation or thorough study. INTRODUCTION ΤΟ THE LADY OF THE LAKE. AFTER the success of " Marmion," I felt inclined to exclaim with Ulysses in the "Odyssey " Οὗτος μὲν δὴ ἄεθλος αάατος ἐκτετέλεσται Νῦν αὐτε σκοπὸν ἄλλον. ODYS. X 5, 6. "One venturous game my hand has won to-dayAnother, gallants, yet remains to play." 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 and polit |