Sir Walter Scott's Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border. Edited by
T. F. Henderson. 4 vols. (W. Blackwood and Sons. 42s. net.) —This is much more than a reprint of Sir Walter Scott's work. The editor, after describing the genesis of the book, and showing how important a part it had in the development of Scott's literary genius, proceeds to set forth Scott's method of dealing with his material. His enthusiasm had been first kindled by the study of Bishop Percy's " Reliques of Ancient Poetry," and he followed the Bishop's system pretty closely. In the "Reliques" there was much that certainly was not ancient; the editor used a freedom in handling them which would be little less than shocking to the literary conscience of to-day. Scott was not so unscrupulous—if the word is not too harsh—as his predecessor, but he embellished, altered, and added in a way that now seems very strange. His theory on this matter was lax, and 'his practice," as his editor puts it, "was even laxer." The facts with regard to the various ballads are now given in detail. We are enabled to see, at least approximately, what is genuinely ancient, what is due to the taste of later adapters. The printing in parallel of the really ancient and the modern embellishment would be highly interesting. In the "Battle of Otterbourne " the death of Douglas is specially indebted to revising hands, first of Hogg and then of Scott. We would gladly give more space to our notice of this very valuable work, but as a matter of fact it would require the ample borders of a quarterly to do justice to it.
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