(_a_) p. 17. Norna's soothsaying. The passage quoted by Scott from theSaga of Eric the Red may be read in its context in "Vinland the Good,"edited by Mr. Reeves, and published by the Clarendon Press. Eric was thediscoverer of Greenland, and father of Leif the Lucky, who found Vinland(New England, or Nova Scotia?) about the year 1002. Leif has a statue inBoston, Massachusetts.
(_b_) p. 35. Islands "supposed to be haunted." In De Quincey'sautobiographical essay his sailor brother, Pink, describes the terrorsof those isles. One of them, the noise of a Midnight Axe, is also foundin Ceylon, in Mexico, and elsewhere. The Editor may be permitted torefer to the legends collected in his "Custom and Myth."
(_c_) p. 47. Cleveland's song. Lockhart says that Scott, in his lateryears, heard this song sung, and said, "'Capital words! Whose are they?Byron's, I suppose, but I don't remember them.' He was astonished when Itold him that they were his own in 'The Pirate.' He seemed pleased atthe moment, but said next minute, 'You have distressed me--if memorygoes all is up with me, for that was always my strong point.'" This wasin 1828. Mrs. Arkwright was the daughter of Stephen Kemble. She set"Hohenlinden."
(_d_) p. 86. "Auld Robin Gray." In the Abbotsford MSS. is a longcorrespondence between Lady Ann Lindsay and Scott. She had known him asa child. There was a project of editing all her poems, but perhaps herown modesty, perhaps the quality of the work, caused this to be dropped,and Scott only edited the ballad, with a letter of the lady's. Thissmall quarto sells for some L5 when it comes into the market. It has afrontispiece by Charles Kirkpatrick Sharpe, and is apparently the onlybook of Scott's which is valued as a rarity by bibliomaniacs.
(_e_) p. 255. "John was a Jacobite." In the library of a country house inthe south of England is a copy of Dryden's Miscellany Poems, with alaudatory autograph envoy to Judge Jeffreys, a sufficientlythoroughgoing King's man.