Note 46 — Chapter III
Reading edition
"No one but Burns ever succeeded in patching up old Scottish songs with any good effect," Scott wrote in his Journal (Vol. II, p. 25). And in his review of Cromek's Reliques of Burns he said on the same subject of Scottish songs: "Few, whether serious or humorous, past through his hands without receiving some of those magic touches which, without greatly altering the song, restored its original spirit, or gave it more than it had ever possessed." (Quarterly, February, 1809.)