OR, 'TIS SIXTY YEARS SINCE. IN THREE VOLUMES. Under which King, Bezonian? speak, or die! Henry IV. Part II. FIFTH EDITION. VOL. I. EDINBURGH: Printed by James Ballantyne and Co. FOR ARCHIBALD CONSTABLE AND CO. EDINBURGH; AND LONDON. 1815. PREFACE TO THE THIRD EDITION. To this slight attempt at a sketch of ancient Scottish manners, the public have been more attentive than the Author durst have hoped or expected. He has heard, with a mixture of satisfaction and humility, his work ascribed to more than one respectable name. Considerations, which seem weighty in his particular situation, prevent his vi releasing these gentlemen from suspicion by placing his own name in the title-page; so that, for the present at least, it must remain uncertain, whether WAVERLEY be the work of a poet or a critic, a lawyer or a clergyman, or whether the writer, to use Mrs Heidleberg's phrase, be "like Cerberus-three gentlemen at once." The Author, as he is unconscious of any thing in the work itself (except perhaps its frivolity) which prevents its finding an acknowledged father, leaves it to the candour of the public to chuse among the many circumstances peculiar to different situations in life, such as may induce him to suppress his |