LIFE OF SIR WALTER SCOTT, BARONET; WITH CRITICAL NOTICES OF HIS WRITINGS. BY GEORGE ALLAN, Esq. EDINBURGH: 57, SOUTH BRIDGE STREET. 1834. PREFACE. CONSIDERABLE delay, arising from various causes which it is needless here to explain in detail, has occurred in the completion of the following Memoir. To one of these, however, it is necessary shortly to advert: namely, the circumstance of the gentleman to whom the task was originally intrusted* having found it indispensable, (from the attention requisite to other important avocations) suddenly to relinquish it, after proceeding a considerable way with a success which called forth the warm approbation of contemporaneous criticism. Such a casualty was much to be deprecated, but it was unavoidable. In what manner the individual to whose lot fell the completion of the Memoir, has discharged his share of the task, it is for the public now to judge. His literary brethren, however, will be able to appreciate the disadvantages of his situation,-not the least of which was following in the wake of his talented predecessor. For the disappointment occasioned, by this and other causes of delay, the Publisher has to express his regret: otherwise, the postponement has tended essentially to the value of the biography. From the strenuous efforts made, from what William Weir, Esq., Advocate, now Editor of the Glasgow Argus. |