vestigator of popular antiquities might still supply. The late acute and valuable antiquary, Mr. Ritson, showed me several memoranda towards such a task which are probably now dispersed or lost. See, however, his "Remarks on Shakspeare", 1783, p.38.
'Since the first edition of "Marmion" appeared, this subject has received much elucidation from the learned and extensive labours of Mr. Douce; and the Chester Mysteries (edited by J. H. Mark; land, Esq.) have been printed in a style of great elegance and accuracy (in 1818) by Bensley and Sons, London, for the Roxburghe Club.1830.'—Scott.
1. 93. The proverb 'Blood is warmer than water ' is also common in the form 'Blood is thicker than water.'
1. 96. 'Mr. Scott of Harden, my kind and affectionate friend, and distant relation, has the original of a poetical invitation, addressed from his grandfather to my relative, from which a few lines in the text are imitated. They are dated, as the epistle in the text, from Mertoun -house, the seat of the Harden family:—
"With amber beard, and flaxen hair, And reverend apostolic air, Free of anxiety and care, Come hither, Christmas-day, and dine; We'll mix sobriety with wine, And easy mirth with thoughts divine. We Christians think it holiday, On it no sin to feast or play; Others, in spite, may fast and pray. No superstition in the use Our ancestors made of a goose; Why may not we, as well as they, Be innocently blithe that day, On goose or pie, on wine orale, And scorn enthusiastic zeal?— Pray come, and welcome, or plague rott. Your friend and landlord, Walter Scott.
Mr. Walter Scott, Lessuden.
The venerable old gentleman, to whom the lines are addressed was the younger brother of William Scott of Raeburn. Being the cadet of a cadet of the Harden family, he had very little to lose; yet he contrived to lose the small property he had, by engaging in the civil wars and intrigues of the house of Stuart. His veneration
