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THE MEN OF THE MOSS-HAGS
_BEING A HISTORY OF ADVENTURE TAKEN FROM THE PAPERS OF WILLIAM GORDON OFEARLSTOUN IN GALLOWAY AND TOLD OVER AGAIN BY_
S. R. CROCKETT
New YorkMACMILLAN AND CO.AND LONDON1895_All rights reserved_
COPYRIGHT, 1895,BY MACMILLAN AND CO.
Norwood PressJ. S. Cushing & Co--Berwick & SmithNorwood Mass. U.S.A.
_To ANDREW LANG Poet, Romancer, Scholar, and Friend of the goodly fellowship of the White Rose I, born of the Hill-Folk dedicate this attempt at a true history of some who fought bravely beneath the Banner of Blue_
_PREFATORY NOTE._
_I desire to express grateful thanks to my researchers, Mr. JamesNicholson of Kirkcudbright, who examined on my behalf all the localrecords bearing upon the period and upon the persons treated of in thisbook; and to the Reverend John Anderson of the Edinburgh UniversityLibrary, who brought to light from among the Earlstoun Papers and fromthe long-lost records of the United Societies, many of the materialswhich I have used in the writing of this story._
_I owe also much gratitude to the Library Committee of the University ofEdinburgh, for permission to use the letters which are printed in thetext, and for their larger permission to publish at some future time,for purposes more strictly historical, a selection from both the sets ofmanuscripts named above._
_Most of all, I am indebted to my friend, Mr. John McMillan of Glenheadin Galloway, who has not only given me in this, as in former works, thebenefit of his unrivalled local knowledge, but has travelled with memany a weary foot over those moors and moss-hags, where the wanderers ofanother time had their abiding places. Let him accept this word ofthanks. He is not likely to forget our stay together in the wilds ofCove Macaterick. Nor I our journey home._