Note 107 — Chapter III

The discussion of popular superstitions given in the introduction to the Minstrelsy and in the Essay on Fairies, which is prefixed to the ballad of Young Tamlane, suggests comparison with the Letters on Demonology and Witchcraft which Scott wrote in the year before he died. He collected a remarkable library in regard to superstition, and thought at various times of making a book on the subject, but the project was pushed aside for other matters until 1831. The Letters which he wrote then are full of pleasant anecdote and judicious comment, and though they lack the vigor of his earlier work they have remained fairly popular. An edition of Kirk's Secret Commonwealth of Elves and Fairies, published in 1815, has been attributed to Scott. (See below, the Bibliography of books edited by Scott.) Reviews of his which have not been mentioned in this chapter, but which naturally connect themselves with the subjects here discussed, are the following: The Culloden Papers—an account of the Highland clans, largely narrative (Quarterly, January, 1816); Ritson's Annals of the Caledonians, Picts and Scots—an article of more than forty pages, discussing the early history of Scotland and the historians who have written upon it (Quarterly, July, 1829); Tytler's History of Scotland—an article similar to that on Ritson's book (Quarterly, November, 1829); Pitcairn's Ancient Criminal Trials—a long article, which begins with an extended digression on booksellers and collectors and on the Roxburghe and Bannatyne clubs (Quarterly, February, 1831); Sibbald's Chronicle of Scottish Poetry—merely a series of notes on special points (Edinburgh Review, October, 1803); Southey's Chronicle of the Cid (Quarterly, February, 1809). For the Encyclopædia Britannica Scott wrote an essay on Chivalry, as well as the one on Romance to which reference has been made.