TO
HECTOR MACNEILL, Esq.
dear sir,
Independently of all considerations of esteem or friendship, I know not to whom the Cottagers of Glenburnie could be with such propriety inscribed, as to the Author of the Skaith of Scotland.
To the genius displayed in that admired production of the Scottish Muse, this humbler composition of dull prose has indeed no pretensions; but if it shall be admitted, that the writers have been influenced by similar motives, I shall be satisfied with the share of approbation that must inevitably follow. Had I adhered to the plan on which those sketches were
